Wnd mar23 2015 mi

THE

FREE

WEEKLY NEWS DIGEST

Ciculated Weekly in Michigan

FLIGHT RETURNS TO D U L L E S A F T E R PASSENGER GETS VIOLENT A flight headed from Washington to Denver had to return to Dulles International Airport after a pilot told air traffic controllers a passenger had become violent, ran toward the cockpit and had to be restrained by other passengers.

Another passenger on the flight said the man who had to be restrained made references to jihad.

United Airlines spokesman Luke Punzenberger said in an emailed statement that Flight 1074 returned after takeoff Monday evening.

Local police met the aircraft at the gate and detained the passenger, he said. His statement did not provide further details about what happened on board the Boeing 737.

Airport spokeswoman Kimberly Gibbs said the passenger was taken to a local hospital for evaluation and has not been charged.

Recordings of communications between pilots and air traffic controlcontinued on page 3

ARIZONA SHERIFF ACKNOWLEDGES V I O L AT I N G F E D E R A L C O U R T O R D E R S

Volume 004 Issue 10

Established 2012

GUNMEN KILL AT LEAST 20 AT MUSEUM IN TUNISIAN CAPITAL

TUNIS, Tunisia (AP) -- Gunmen opened fire Wednesday at a major museum in Tunisia’s capital, killing at least 20 people, mostly foreigners, in one of the worst attacks in this struggling North African democracy that depends heavily on tourism.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Apple has restored service to its widely used iTunes and app stores after a rare breakdown Wednesday.

Last year, Apple’s revenue from its iTunes, mobile app store, iBook, Mac app stores and other services totaled $18.5 billion, or an average of $50 million per day. That’s still a small fraction of Apple’s total revenue of $200 billion during that period.

The outages also cut into the income of mobile app developers who keep most of the revenue from the programs sold in the app store. Last year alone, Apple distributed $10 billion to mobile app

continued on page 2

Egan, who died earlier this month, was bishop of the Diocese of Bridgeport from 1988 to 2000. He praised Wallin in a letter to the court.

“He was outstanding in the fulfillment of his assignments and in his concern for people in need,” Egan wrote. “Father Wallin was held in highest regard as a dedicated clergyman and an outstanding citizen as well.”

Apple apologized for the inconvenience, blaming the problem on an internal error that bogged down its computer servers.

Apple’s online book store and the app store for its Mac computers weren’t working either.

Speaking at the Louvre museum to call for international efforts to

Barrett wrote that Wallin’s numerous accomplishments include serving as pastor of St. Peter’s Parish in Danbury and the Cathedral Parish in Bridgeport, volunteering with a variety of community groups, helping found an AIDS ministry program, leading an inner city charity group, serving on the Danbury Cultural Commission and serving on the board of directors of Sacred Heart University.

Access came back in the late afternoon, Eastern time, according to status updates posted by Apple Inc. While they were locked out, exasperated Apple users vented in social media and online forums.

More than 75 billion apps have been downloaded from the store that Apple opened in 2008 for the iPhone and, later, the iPad. Many of those apps charge a fee, or generate revenue from purchases of other services while people are using the program.

Several other people were reported wounded in the attack, including three Poles and at least two Italians. The Italian Foreign Ministry said 100 other Italians had been taken to a secure location.

CONNECTICUT PRIEST WHO RAN METH RING PLEADS FOR LENIENCY

The outage vexed the iPhone and iPad maker for more than five hours, disrupting some of the world’s most widely used and profitable services and frustrating millions of music lovers and mobile device owners around the world.

About 800 million accounts with credit cards linked to them have been set up on Apple’s iTunes store since it opened in 2003 to sell digital music for the company’s iPods.

omy. He promised increased security in tourist zones and asked residents to be extra alert.

Men with assault rifles fired at tourists climbing from The United States, France, buses in front of the National the United Arab Emirates Bardo Museum in central and the United Nations deTunis near the country’s nounced the bloodshed. U.S. parliament, sending dozens Tourists and visitors from the Bardo museum are evacuated in Tunis, Wednesday, March 18, 2015 in Tunis, sprinting for safety. Two Tunisia. Gunmen opened fire at a leading museum in Tunisia’s capital, killing 19 people including 17 tour- Secretary of State John Kerry ists, the Tunisian Prime Minister said. A later raid by security forces left two gunmen and one security officer said Washington “condemns gunmen were killed, but dead but ended the standoff, Tunisian authorities said. in the strongest possible Prime Minister Habib Essid terms today’s deadly terrorist attack” and praised Tunisia’s “rapid said a manhunt was on for at two or three others. response” to resolve the hostage situation and restore calm.

The identity of the attackers wasn’t clear. Twitter accounts associated The attack was a strong blow to Tunisia’s efforts to revive its crucial with the extremist Islamic State group based in Syria and Iraq were tourism industry. described as overjoyed at the attack, urging Tunisians to “follow their brothers,” according to Rita Katz of SITE, a U.S.-based organiSome of the Italians at the museum were believed to have been paszation that monitors militant groups. sengers aboard the Costa Fascinosa, a cruise liner that had docked in Tunis while on a seven-day tour of the western Mediterranean. Ship About 50 people were wounded in the attack, which began after owner Costa Crociere confirmed that some of its 3,161 passengers noon local time, according to Tunisian state television. were visiting the capital and that a Bardo tour was on the itinerary, but said it couldn’t confirm how many passengers were in the museSecurity forces immediately flooded the area around the museum, um at the time. and Tunisia’s parliament building, where deputies were debating a new anti-terrorism law, was evacuated.

The Bardo, built in a 15th century palace, is the largest museum in Tunisia and houses one of the world’s largest collections of Roman Dozens of tourists scrambled from the museum holding hands or mosaics among its 8,000 works. The museum, 4 kilometers (2 1/2 linking arms as Tunisian security forces pointed their guns toward an miles) from the city center, has a new wing with contemporary archiadjacent building. At least one couple carried two children. tecture that was built as part of a 2009 renovation.

According to Essid, the dead include two gunmen, a Tunisian During the Roman Empire, Tunisia was called the province of Africa security officer and a Tunisian cleaning woman, while the rest were and was home to several large cities which are now popular ruins, tourists from Italy, Poland, Germany and Spain. The Spanish Foreign including the great amphitheater of El Djem, the ruins of Sbeitla and Ministry has confirmed one dead. in the north, Dougga, known by UNESCO as the “best preserved small town in North Africa.”

Tunisia has been struggled to keep extremist violence at bay since the overthrow of its dictator in 2011, and the attack was the worst on “It is not by chance that today’s terrorism affects a country that a tourist site since an al-Qaida car bomb killed 21 people - mostly represents hope for the Arab world. The hope for peace, the hope Germans - in 2002. for stability, the hope for democracy. This hope must live,” French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said in a statement minutes after the “Our nation is in danger,” Essid warned in an address on national crisis ended. television Wednesday evening after the siege ended.

“We will be merciless in the defense of our country,” he added, describing the attack as an unprecedented assault on Tunisia’s econ-

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio speaks at a news conference at Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office Headquarters in Phoenix. Arpaio, known for crackdowns on illegal immigration has acknowledged that he violated federal court orders in a racial profiling case. Lawyers for Maricopa County Sheriff Arpaio and top aide Jerry Sheridan said in papers filed late Tuesday, March 17, 2015 that their clients agree they have committed civil contempt of court.

March 23 thru March 30,2015

HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- A suspended Roman Catholic priest who authorities say dealt pounds of methamphetamine and bought a sex shop to possibly launder his drug money is asking a federal judge for leniency when he is sentenced next week.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin’s public defender filed a sentencing request in federal court in Hartford on Monday citing Wallin’s three decades of charitable service as well as more than 80 letters of support, including one from the late New York Cardinal Edward Egan.

Wallin, 63, dubbed “Monsignor Meth” in some media reports, pleaded guilty in 2013 to a methamphetamine conspiracy charge and agreed to a potential prison sentence of 10 to 11 years. Already imprisoned for the past two years, he is now asking for a sentence of no more than four years in prison followed by a year of home confinement, 500 hours of community service and drug treatment. Sentencing is scheduled for March 24.

“The record evidence demonstrates that Kevin Wallin is an extraordinary man whose remarkable character and acts have touched thousands of people,” Wallin’s public defender, Kelly Barrett, wrote in the sentencing request. “Kevin tragically became a methamphetamine addict. He fell from grace and did criminal wrong, but has confessed his crimes and has been working hard to atone for them.”

Federal prosecutors say Wallin committed serious crimes and most people convicted of conspiring to sell meth are sentenced to at least 10 years in prison.

Federal investigators said Wallin had associates in California send him methamphetamine beginning in late 2008 or early 2009. By 2011, Wallin’s partners were sending him one to three pounds of meth a month and Wallin was running the drug operation out of his apartment in Waterbury, investigators said.

Wallin also bought the “Land of Oz & Dorothy’s Place” adult video and sex toy shop in North Haven and apparently intended to launder drug proceeds that totaled in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, federal agents said in court documents.

Wallin’s two accomplices in California - Chad McCluskey of San Clemente and Kristen Laschober of Laguna Niguel - were both sentenced last year to five years in prison. Two men who helped Wallin sell drugs in Connecticut also were convicted. Kenneth Devries of Waterbury was sentenced to more than two years in prison and Michael Nelson of Manchester awaits sentencing.

Brian Wallace, a spokesman for the Diocese of Bridgeport, said Wallin is still a priest, but remains suspended from public ministry.

“We’re asking for prayers for him, understanding and recognizing that many people ... suffer from addiction and they lose control of their lives,” Wallace said. “It’s time for him to try to rebuild his life.”

2

The Weekly News Digest, Mar 23, thru Mar 30, 2015

PUBLISHER INFORMATION Published By

Digital Media Publishing For The Weekly News Digest

Design, Production & Layout Digital Media Pubishing Records Department Administrator

Yrma Perez

Local Sales & Marketing Office The Weeklt News Digest, LLC. 237 S.W. 13st Miami, Florida 33130 twndigest@gmail.com TheWeeklyNewsDigest™ is published

four times a month by “The Weekly News Digest LLC.” All rights are reserved throughout the world. Reproduction in whole or part is strictly prohibited. Editorial inquiries and manuscripts should be directed to the Editor. Manuscripts or other submissions must be accompanied by self addressed, stamped envelopes. “The Weekly News Digest”, assumes no responsibility for the return of unsolicited manuscripts, photographs, or artwork. All correspondence regarding business, editorial, production, and address changes should be sent to:

Local Sales & Marketing Office The Weekly News Digest, LLC. 237 S.W. 13st Miami, Florida 33130

______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

W H Y F E D W O N ’ T H AV E A B I G IMPACT ON YOUR LOANS SOON NEW YORK (AP) -- Nobody knows when exactly, but the day will eventually come when the Federal Reserve nudges its benchmark lending rate from next to zero to something slightly higher.

average, savings accounts pay an annual percentage yield of 0.09 percent, according to Bankrate. com. A one-year certificate of deposit pays a paltry 0.28 percent.

For every $1,000 saved, in other words, the bank will give you $2.80. Ka-ching!

When that happens, it will put upward pressure on borrowing rates throughout the economy - for credit cards, mortgages and student loans.

But that doesn’t mean the era of incredibly low interest rates will soon be over.

“Savings rates are nearly at zero and, unfortunately, I think depositors aren’t going to see much of a difference,” says Casey Bond, managing editor at GoBankingRates.

The Fed’s chair, Janet Yellen, has a sheet of uncut $100 bills is inspected during the printing process at the Bureau of taken pains to be cautious. On The Fed has signaled that it will Engraving and Printing Western Currency Facility in Fort Worth, Texas. Nobody knows Wednesday, the central bank gave raise rates slowly and carefully. when exactly, but the day will eventually come when the Federal Reserve nudges its more signals that it will move A series of hikes large enough to benchmark lending rate from next to zero to something slightly higher. But that doesn’t slowly toward its first interest-rate mean the era of incredibly low interest rates will be over. lift yields on savings accounts, increase in nearly a decade. By the however, could put the economic end of the year, Fed officials expect the benchmark rate will reach 0.625 recovery at risk by curbing lending and business spending. “Anything percent. that would give savers a real boost would be too disruptive,” Bond says.

It was a different world the last time the Fed began a series of hikes.

Rates were already much higher than today. In June 2004, the Fed lifted its benchmark rate from 1 percent to 1.25 percent. By the time the Fed was finished in 2006, the rate had reached 5.25 percent.

Nobody expects anything like that now. With the economy still growing slowly and inflation minuscule, rates will likely hover near historic lows.

The Fed doesn’t want to ratchet up the monthly payments on your credit card. It’s in no rush.

“You’re going to see rates remain low for quite some time,” says Patrick Maldari, senior fixed-income specialist at Aberdeen Asset Management.

HOUSING Many expect mortgage rates to creep higher this year. The average 30-year mortgage carries a rate of 3.7 percent, according to Freddie Mac. That’s close to a record low of 3.31 percent and compares with an average rate of 5.9 percent a decade ago.

Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com, thinks homeowners ought to lock in mortgage rates as long as they remain below 4 percent. If you haven’t refinanced already, in other words, consider it soon.

Home loans won’t hinge on the Fed’s next move, though. Mortgage rates are closely tied to long-term interest rates, specifically the 10-year Treasury note. These rates are tethered to the Fed’s benchmark yet have plenty of wiggle room.

The 10-year yield has actually been falling over the past year. The reason? The Treasury market is dominated by global players. So when Europe’s economy runs into trouble, for example, traders around the world look for safety in the Treasury market, buying U.S. government bonds and pushing yields down. Another factor: The Fed is keeping a lid on yields by sitting on trillions of dollars of Treasurys following a huge bond-buying program that ended last year.

Children Incorporated 4205 Dover Road Richmond, VA 23221-3267

www.childrenincorporated.

McBride advises that borrowers “grab those zero-interest balance transfers and introductory credit card rates. As the Fed moves away from zero interest rates later this year, credit card issuers will too. Chip away at your variable-rate debt now before interest rates start to climb.”

Credit card rates remain high - variable credit card rates average nearly 15.8 percent, according to Bankrate.com. But they could head higher if the fed funds rate goes up. That’s because credit card rates are based on the prime rate that banks charge their best customers, and the prime rate is based on the Fed funds rate.

INVESTMENTS To judge by the stock market’s daily swings, investors fear the Fed’s first rate increase. Speculation that the Fed is preparing to move usually knocks stocks down. But the market has actually performed well in the face of rising interest rates. A recent report from UBS looked at the Fed’s initial rate hikes going back to 1954. It showed that the Standard & Poor’s 500 index rallied an average of 7.6 percent in the next six months.

Many investors are confident that as long as the Fed moves gradually, the stock market should be fine. That’s what happened in the last round of Fed hikes, in 2004. The S&P 500 finished the year with a 9 percent gain.

ARIZONA SHERIFF developers, an average of about $27 million per day.

PASSENGER GETS VIOLENT

The global outage comes two day after the Cupertino, California, company unveiled its latest gadget, the Apple Watch.

continued from page 1

The pilot later explained that “we had a passenger becoming violent” and that he “ran toward the cockpit.”

After being asked by controllers, he reported that the incident was a “Level 2” disturbance, the second lowest level of severity on a four-level scale used by the industry. A Level 2 disturbance indicates physically abusive behavior but no life-threatening behavior.

Curtis Tellam of Superior, Colorado, said his wife, Donna, was on the flight and sent him a text describing the incident as “the scariest moment in my life” and saying “some crazy guy just tried to get into the cockpit.”

Curtis Tellam said in a phone interview Tuesday that he called his wife after the plane landed and said he could hear other passengers

www.redcross.org

Credit card rates could start to inch up once the Fed raises its benchmark federal funds rate - especially the low teaser rates credit card issuers use to entice people to sign up or shift credit card balances.

It’s been a tough time for people socking away money in savings. On

The pilot, in a calm voice, said he was “declaring an emergency due to a passenger disturbance. He’s restrained. We need to return to the airport,” according to the LiveATC.net recording.

worldwildlife.org

CREDIT CARDS

continued from page 1

SAVINGS

lers on the website LiveATC.net indicate pilots turned around after a passenger ran toward the cockpit and had to be restrained.

POTECTING SPEICIES

“I think people need to be focused on other things, like avoiding bank fees,” Bond says. “Fees can wipe out your earnings because savings rates are so low.”

Apple is hoping to attract even more traffic to its app store next month when the smart watch goes on sale.

The company’s stock slipped $2.27 to close at $122.24. The shares have repeatedly hit new highs this year.

telling the man to calm down.

He said his wife told him she noticed the man acting strangely before the flight, constantly moving his bag from one overhead bin to the next. Tellam’s wife told him that shortly after takeoff, the man ran forward in the cabin, through the first-class cabin where she was sitting and almost to the cockpit before three other passengers stopped and restrained him.

She told her husband the man shouted that there were other jihadists on the plane and that he would give the people who were holding him a lot of money if they would let him go.

“She’s tough. She flies a lot ... but she’s really shaken up,” Curtis Tellam said of his wife, who said the man was basically lying at her feet the entire time he was restrained.

SUBSCRIPTION REQUEST FORM The Weekly News Digest is happy to offer subscriptions to individuals and businesses that would like to receive a weekly publication. However, if you would like to have one of the newspapers sent to you on a weekly basis, please fill out the form below and return it with a money order for $24.95 per year to cover postage & handling. Outside Florida $52.95 Tax Incuded MAIL TO :

The Weekly News Digest 237 S.W. 13 St. Miami, Florida 33031

Name _____________________________

www.additions.generalcontractors1.com

Address ___________________________ City ____________________State____

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Weekly News Digest, Mar 23, thru Mar 30, 2015

3

G O P O F F E R S $ 3 . 8 T B U D G E T T H A T BOOSTS DEFENSE, CUTS ELSEWHERE broad goals for taxes and spending but requires follow-up legislation to actually implement the plan.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- House Republicans on Tuesday unveiled a $3.8 trillion budget plan for next year that effectively breaks tight budget limits on military spending while promising big cuts to social programs such as food stamps and Medicaid.

The measure is less detailed than in previous years about its cuts. For instance, more than $1 trillion in cuts over 10 years would come from so-called mandatory programs other than Medicare, Medicaid, and the Affordable Care Act, but doesn’t specify where, for the most part.

Such programs include federal pensions, food stamps, farm subsidies, and tax credits for the working poor.

The plan by Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price, R-Ga., would pad Pentagon and State Department accounts for overseas operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere by $36 billion above President Barack Obama’s $58 billion request. Such spending is not bound by the return of automatic cuts next year.

To meet their promise to balance the budget within a decade, Republicans propose cutting $5.5 trillion from a federal budget that’s on track to total $50 trillion over that period. They also would account for almost $1 trillion in higher tax revenue over a decade by assuming the expiration of popular tax breaks - known collectively in Washington-speak as tax “extenders” - such as for research and development.

In the immediate term, the measure would produce higher deficits as lawmakers would block a looming cut in Medicare fees to doctors and increase Pentagon spending.

In a statement, Price said the budget is the right solution as “our nation faces tremendous fiscal and economic challenges and, if nothing is done, a future of less opportunity and low expectations.”

Obama and Democrats sharply criticized the proposal.

“It’s not a budget that reflects the future. It’s not a budget that reflects growth,” the president told reporters at the White House.

Rep. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the top Democrat on the House

2 0

A T

M U S E U M

continued from page 1

preserve the heritage of Iraq and Syria against extremist destruction, French President Francois Hollande said he had called Tunisia’s president to offer support and solidarity.

“Each time a terrorist crime is committed, we are all concerned,” Hollande said.

Tunisia recently completed a rocky road to democracy after overthrowing its authoritarian president in 2011, seen by many as the start of the so-called Arab Spring. The country has been more stable than others in the region, but has struggled with violence by Islamic extremists who have sworn allegiance to both al-Qaida and the Islamic State group.

House Republicans have shown no appetite to try to pass most of their controversial cuts and are showing no indication that this year will be any different, even though Republicans have claimed the Senate and the budget process offers the prospect of a filibuster-proof bill that could deliver budget cuts to Obama’s desk.

House Budget Committee Chairman Rep. Tom Price, R-Ga., center, holds-up a synopsis of the House Republican budget proposal as he announces the plan on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 17, 2015. The plan includes a boost in defense spending but cuts in the Medicaid program for the poor, food stamps and health care subsidies.

Budget Committee, said the GOP budget will “mean the end of the current Medicare guarantee, and millions of seniors in nursing homes will be especially hurt by the irresponsible cuts to Medicaid.”

He said it also includes “windfall tax cuts to the top 1 percent.”

The sleight of hand on defense spending has already raised the ire of conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation and isn’t likely to win approval by the Senate. But it could clear the way with pro-Pentagon forces in the House GOP, which had made it clear they could not support a budget that promised less for the Pentagon than Obama’s request.

The overseas account, separate from the core defense budget, has covered the cost of two wars in Iraq and Afghanistan since the military campaign began in 2001. In recent years, the account has helped the Pentagon deal with cuts in projected defense spending.

At issue is an annual measure known as a budget resolution that sets

P E N N S T A T E F R AT S U S P E N D E D OVER FACEBOOK PAGE WITH NUDE PICS

A disproportionately large number of Tunisian recruits - some 3,000, according to government estimates - have joined Islamic State fighters in Syria and Iraq.

“Today’s attack did not come out of nowhere. In fact, it comes amid ongoing counterterrorism efforts elsewhere in the country,” he said about the attack. “Increasing pressure on terrorist activities ... may have squeezed the balloon, with terrorists seeking softer targets with more symbolic impact in the capital.”

The attack came the day after Tunisian security officials confirmed the death in neighboring Libya of Ahmed Rouissi, leading suspect in Tunisian terror attacks and in the killings of two opposition figures in Tunisia.

Rouissi had become a field commander for the Islamic State in Libya and died fighting near the town of Sirte, highlighting how Libya has increasingly become a sanctuary for Tunisian radicals.

Tunisia has repeatedly expressed concern over the security threat from Libya, where central government has broken down since the 2011 ouster of Moammar Gadhafi and is now run by competing militias.

The use of overseas military funds to skirt spending caps on the military, however, is a new feature. War spending is exempt from budget limits and the move would allow Republicans to use budget tricks to match Obama’s proposal to boost spending on overseas operations by $36 billion above current limits. That was a key demand of the party’s defense hawks.

Even though the Appropriations Committee will have $36 billion more in new spending authority, the GOP budget claims a $1 billion drop in the deficit, mostly because of slashing cuts in highway construction.

Senate Republicans, GOP aides say, are likely to reject the move to radically reshape Medicare and are more reluctant to use war funds to help out the Pentagon.

“It’s a gimmick,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John McCain, R-Ariz., said of padding war accounts.

Price is also replicating Ryan’s approach to cutting Medicaid and food stamps by proposing to transform them from federal programs into wholly state-run programs that receive lump sum funding from the government. That approach makes it easier to cut these programs without saying how many people would be dropped or how their benefits would be cut. But there’s little doubt that many elderly people whose Medicaid pays for nursing home care would be at risk, as would children above the poverty line who depend on the program.

The national leadership of Kappa Delta Rho suspended the chapter for the remainder of the semester pending a membership review. The leaders are “committed to hold our brothers accountable for their actions,” said Joseph Rosenberg, the executive director.

Overall, though, violence in Tunisia in recent years has been largely focused on security forces, not foreigners or tourist sites.

North Africa analyst Geoff Porter said an attack on a tourism site has long been expected as the militants come under pressure from increasingly effective Tunisian security forces.

Price’s plan, written in consultation with GOP leaders, borrows heavily from prior GOP budgets, including a controversial plan that would transform Medicare into a voucher-like program for seniors joining Medicare in 2024 or later. They would receive a subsidy to purchase health insurance on the private market.

the Kappa Delta Rho had been suspended and said the fraternity would eventually be summoned to the council for full review of its conduct.

The U.S. Embassy in Tunis was attacked in September 2012, seriously damaging the embassy grounds and an adjoining American school. Four of the assailants were killed.

In October 2013, a young man blew himself up on a beach in the coastal town of Sousse after being chased from a hotel, causing many to expect a new wave of attacks on tourism. None materialized until now.

The latest plan by Republicans controlling the House also reprises sharp proposed cuts to the Medicaid program for the poor, food stamps and health care subsidies under so-called Obamacare. But it retains Obama health care program cuts to Medicare providers. Medicaid alone would account for almost $1 trillion in cuts over a decade.

snoitseuq ekat ,eyaG naJ ,efiw-xe sih dna ,tfel ,eyaG anoN ,rethguad s’eyaG nivraM -gnis eht dedrawa yruj a retfa ,truoC tcirtsiD .S.U selegnA soL edistuo aidem eht morf -rahP dna ekcihT niboR sregnis gninimreted retfa noillim 4.7$ ylraen nerdlihc s’ re hcraM ,yadseuT ”,seniL derrulB“ etaerc ot cisum s’ rehtaf rieht deipoc smailliW ller .yenrotta reh yb degguh saw dna daer saw tcidrev eht sa tpew eyaG anoN .5102 ,01

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- A fraternity at Penn State University has been suspended as police investigate allegations that members used a private, invitation-only Facebook page to post photos of nude and partly nude women, some apparently asleep or passed out.

A former member of Kappa Delta Rho at the university’s flagship campus in State College tipped police off to the page, telling them in January that it had been used by members to share photos of “unsuspecting victims, drug sales and hazing,” according to a copy of a police warrant obtained Tuesday by The Associated Press.

The ex-member also provided authorities with printouts from the page.

Police said anyone who posted the photos could face arrest on charges that include invasion of privacy.

An investigation of the informant’s computer “yielded information on two victims whose images would rise to the level of criminal action,” State College police Lt. Keith Robb said Tuesday.

Facebook was contacted to disable the site and to obtain more information for the investigation, Robb said.

Some of the postings involved nude women in “sexual or embarrassing positions,” the warrant reads. “It appears from the photos provided that the individuals in the photos are not aware that the photos had been taken.”

Penn State’s Intrafraternity Council issued a statement confirming that

According to the ex-frat member who went to police, a second page dubbed “2.0” was started in about April 2014 after a woman depicted on the first Facebook page, called “Covert Business Transactions,” complained.

The informant said the woman was visiting the fraternity when a member accidentally left his Facebook page logged in, and she noticed a photograph of her topless that was posted to the group.

The investigation was first reported by television station WJAC in Johnstown.

Following that report, university spokeswoman Lisa Powers said both the university and the national fraternity began investigating because the photographs “are in direct violation of the standards and values of a recognized student organization and/or a fraternity at Penn State.”

Powers did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday morning.

According to the warrant, the fraternity’s page had 144 active members that included both students and alumni.

The photographs accompanying the warrant included images of fully nude and partly clothed women and a scene of a man appearing to grope a woman, her pants partly pulled down.

Police said the informant who visited the police station provided brief explanations about individual photos. One, he said, showed a woman vomiting in a member’s room. Another, he said, showed “the type of stuff that happens at KDR.” Two other images showed strippers hired by the fraternity for a party.

Some of the posts included with the warrant were images of cellphone text exchanges, including one from a woman apparently concerned about a casual sexual encounter the night before and whether birth control was used.

4

The Weekly News Digest, Mar 23, thru Mar 30, 2015

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

M I C H I G A N C R A S H S TAT I S T I C S MICHIGAN STATE POLICE CRIMINAL JUSTICE INFORMATION CENTER CRASH STATISTICS

Police: Alcohol A Factor In Rollover Crash On I-94 That Killed Warren Man

Authorities say a Warren man was killed in a rollover crash on I-94 in Macomb County that might have been fueled by alcohol.

70-Year-Old Man Charged In Fiery Crash That Killed Pregnant Woman

The Beverly Hills man is facing carless driving charges in connection with a fiery freeway crash that killed a 23-year-old pregnant woman and her unborn son.

Fundraisers To Be Held For Family Of Father, Son Killed In Crash

Support continues to pour in for the family of a New Hudson man and his 9-year-old son who were both killed last week in an early morning accident along Pontiac Trail.

3 Killed, 1 Injured In Ambulance Crash Near Hospital A vehicle apparently ran a red light while the oncoming ambulance had its emergency lights and siren activated.

3 Dead After Ambulance Collides With Car In West Michigan Police say 61-year-old Shirley Stokes apparently ran a stop sign and flashing red light late Monday when the ambulance and her car collided

58-Year-Old Bicyclist Dies After Being Hit By Vehicle

Authorities say the bike didn’t have any lights on it.

Bicyclist Fatally Struck By Vehicle Along 15 Mile Road

Authorities said the driver, who was going about 45 mph, likely didn’t see the bicyclist until it was too late.

Clinton Township Man Arraigned In Connection To Drunk Driving Fatal Accident

A Clinton Township man has been arraigned for the traffic-related death of the passenger in his car.

Sierra Sierra Sierra Sierra

“

Club Club Club Club

Sierra Sierra Sierra Sierra

Club Club Club Club

“

Improves the health and lives of people affected by poverty, disaster, and civil unrest.

Learn more

www.directrelief.org

John Muir (1838-1914) was America’s most famous and influential naturalist and conservationist, and founder of the Sierra Club. This website, known as the “John Muir Exhibit” features his life and contributions.

h t t p : / / w w w . s i e r r a c l u b . o r g /

POTECTING SPEICIES Learn more

www.worldwildlife.org

www.redcross.org

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Weekly News Digest, Mar 23, thru Mar 30, 2015

5

I N S I D E R S R E A P R E WA R D S O F C H R I S C H R I S T I E ’ S C A M D E N TA X B R E A K S CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) -- Under Gov. Chris Christie, New Jersey has provided more than $2 billion in state tax breaks since 2014, often to corporations with political connections and at least once to a developer who already owed millions in unpaid state loans, according to an Associated Press review of the financial incentives.

is receiving $260 million for relocating 160 nearby jobs and adding 235 more.

Cooper University Hospital will receive $40 million, mostly for returning 353 employees that it previously moved to the suburbs. The Philadelphia 76ers will receive $82 million for bringing 250 jobs across the Delaware River, just a few thousand feet from the Pennsylvania state line.

The incentives given to businesses that agreed to relocate or expand their operations in the state, provided by the state’s Economic Development Authority, are worth more than the total amount issued during the decade before Christie took office.

The low bar for incentive payouts is justified due to Camden’s dire circumstances, said Timothy Lizura, president of the Economic Development Authority.

A top economist at Rutgers University’s Center for Urban Policy Research, Nancy Mantell, said: “It always concerns me that you’re just moving people around, not creating anything particularly new to the regional economy. And this is not going to help the places the companies left.”

That aid has gone disproportionately to businesses in Camden, a city of 77,000 that ranks among the nation’s most impoverished. Development projects in the city received $630 million in future tax breaks last year. Because of those grants, Christie said in his State of the State address, Camden is “seeing a new tomorrow.”

As Christie considers a Republican presidential campaign, the prospect of a renaissance for heavily Democratic Camden would offer a useful counterpoint to New Jersey’s lackluster economic performance. But a closer look at the grants - they will amount to nearly four times Camden’s annual budget - indicates they may do less for the city than advertised and more for Christie’s political alliances.

Most of the jobs coming to Camden are filled by existing employees who currently work just a few miles away. One tax break exceeded the value of the company that received it. Another went to a developer who owes New Jersey millions of dollars in long-unpaid loans.

Nearly all the recipients boast notable political connections - either through an affiliation with a prominent southern New Jersey power broker, Democrat George Norcross, or through donations to Christie and the Republican Governors Association during his tenure overseeing it.

New Jersey’s Camden incentives raise questions about his administration’s

SECRET SERVICE D I R E C T O R S AY S H E ’ S WORKING ON AGENCY CULT URE

--The scale of New Jersey’s generosity has bolstered one profitable new industry: the resale of tax incentives by businesses that can’t use them.

New Jersey Senate President Stephen M. Sweeney, D-West Deptford, N.J., right, gestures as New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, left, talks with influential Democrat George E. Norcross III, at a groundbreaking ceremony in Camden, N.J., for the KIPP Cooper Norcross Academy school that Norcross’ family foundation will help fund. As Christie potentially prepares to run for president, he has been talking a lot about how he has worked with Democrats to help turn around Camden. Under Republican Gov. Chris Christie, New Jersey has paid more than $2 billion in state tax breaks since 2014, often to corporations with notable political connections and at least one developer who already owed millions of dollars in unpaid state loans, an Associated Press review found.

stewardship of New Jersey’s finances, and whether Christie’s claims of revitalizing Camden will resonate with Republican voters opposed to corporate welfare. Some members of the state legislature’s Democratic majority - it authorized the expansion of economic development tax credits in 2013 - are now pushing legislation to scrutinize the incentives more closely. And some conservatives worry that the giveaways buck the free market and could undermine New Jersey’s prospects for legitimate tax reform.

“Giving huge subsidies to companies moving from the suburbs of Camden to the city is just off-the-charts crazy territory,” said Michael Doherty, a Republican state senator. “If you’re a high-profile individual, you can get the EDA to make decisions to your benefit.”

Christie spokesman Kevin Roberts said in an email that critics of the tax breaks “offer no alternative plans for creating jobs, growing the economy or renewing our urban centers.”

At a town hall forum on Tuesday, Christie was asked what he’s done to attract businesses to the state. After mentioning “trying to keep taxes at a reasonable level” and about $2 billion in business tax cuts that have been phased in over the last five years, he spoke briefly about the benefits of tax incentives.

“We’ve also put together a program called GROW New Jersey, which is a tax incentive program for folks who either want to maintain jobs here or want to bring jobs in from another state,” he said. “We’ve had some good success from that as well.”

--Driving the 4 miles from Subaru’s current U.S. headquarters in Cherry Hill to its new home in nearby Camden takes eight minutes. Tax credits granted by the state of New Jersey will make that trip worth nearly $118 million for the company.

Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy listens while testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, March 17, 2015, before the House Appropriations Homeland Security Budget hearing.

Subaru’s short trip is not an exception: Most of New Jersey’s incentives for Camden have gone to projects shifting existing employees from nearby locations. Holtec International Inc., a manufacturer of nuclear reactor components,

Economic development incentives are transferrable under state law. When New Jersey awards tax breaks in excess of a company’s tax bill, the recipient can sell them to an unrelated corporation looking to pay less in taxes. The 76ers, for example, told the AP last year that the team expects to sell a portion of its $82 million in New Jersey incentives - the NBA franchise doesn’t make enough money to use them all.

In at least one case, the value of the tax credits outstripped the value of the business that received them. In November, a Maryland medical testing startup, DioGenix Inc., received a $7.9 million tax incentive to relocate to Camden. Two months later, DioGenix sold itself for between $8 million and $10.9 million to a buyer that announced it would resell the tax breaks for at least $6 million.

Lizura said he was unaware of DioGenix’s upcoming sale when it received its state tax credits but called the sale evidence of success. The incentives are awarded only when companies meet their job and investment obligations.

“If a capitalized company comes in and buys a startup company and they live up to the approval we had, how great is that?” he said.

Diogenix’s buyer, Amarantus Biosciences Holdings Inc. of San Francisco, has been unprofitable since its founding in 2008, has less than $2 million in assets and warned investors in November that there is substantial doubt about whether it can stay in business, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings. The company did not return phone calls from The Associated Press over several weeks.

--Many of the tax breaks involve projects connected to Norcross, the Democratic power broker, whose tacit support for Christie is widely viewed as vital to his 2009 victory over then-Gov. Jon Corzine.

Norcross is on the board of Holtec, the nuclear equipment manufacturer. He also sits on the board of Cooper Hospital, which both received a grant and is the indirect beneficiary of two more - one to build housing for its students and the other to DioGenix, which the state authority said moved to Camden to work with Cooper.

Some recipients also have business relationships with Norcross and his family.

Over the last three years, Cooper has paid more than $1 million to Norcross’s insurance brokerage and more than $2 million to a law firm partially owned by his brother Philip, though the hospital’s financial statements said those relationships predate George Norcross’s tenure on its board. Along with his firm’s work

continued on page 6

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Two senior agents accused of being involved in a drunken-driving crash at the White House earlier this month appeared to “nudge” a large construction barrier as they drove through a secure area, Secret Service Director Joseph Clancy told lawmakers Tuesday. He said he didn’t find out about the incident until days afterward.

Clancy, who was appointed by President Barack Obama earlier this year after a shakeup in the agency over security problems, told lawmakers that video of the March 4 incident shows the vehicle driving at a low rate of speed when it nudged the barrier.

The incident was initially described in press reports as an agent crashing a government vehicle into a security barrier while on-duty agents and officers investigated a suspicious item. But Clancy told members of a House Appropriations subcommittee that he has “seen nothing to indicate this incident as described occurred.”

Nonetheless, he said he was frustrated that he was not told about the incident for several days and only learned about it from an anonymous email.

“I should have been informed,” he told the House panel. And that delay, he said, suggests there is still a lot of work to be done to change the agency’s culture, including the use of alcohol.

Clancy acknowledged that some agents and officers have used alcohol to help deal with the job’s stresses, but insisted that it was a small group.

“Unfortunately we have an element, and I believe it is small element, that is causing this agency great distress,” Clancy said.

Lawmakers, including Rep. David Young, an Iowa Republican, pressed Clancy on why the agents involved in the latest incident have not been fired.

“I’m surprised that these two agents...haven’t stood up and said `I resign.’

What do you do with them?” Young asked.

Clancy said the investigation has been turned over to the Homeland Security Department’s inspector general. Until that probe is completed, the agents will remain reassigned to desk jobs outside the White House and can’t be fired, he said.

Clancy took over the agency on an interim basis late last year after a series of presidential security breaches, including an incident in which a Texas man armed with a knife was able to climb over a White House fence and make it deep into the executive mansion before being subdued.

The security breaches were the latest embarrassments for the agency in recent years. In 2012 the Secret Service became the subject of late-night comedians after more than a dozen agents were wrapped up in a prostitution scandal in Colombia. There have been several other incidents since then involved agents accused of drunken behavior while on presidential trips.

P R O T E C T I N G

S P E I C I E S

w w w . w o r l d w i l d l i f e . o r g

6

The Weekly News Digest, Mar 23, thru Mar 30, 2015

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

D U R S T H A D N E A R LY 1 5 0 G R A M S O F P O T W H E N A R R E S T E D

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Authorities found more than a quarter-pound of marijuana and a revolver in millionaire Robert Durst’s hotel room when he was arrested over the weekend, a prosecutor said Tuesday.

if the recording was tampered with in any way.

Durst appeared before a judge for a second straight day to face the drug and weapons charges. He also is charged with murder in a Los Angeles killing 15 years ago, and has been suspected - but never charged - in the disappearance of his first wife in New York.

In 2003, he was acquitted of murder in a dismemberment death in Texas.

“Any statement that the defendant makes that they want to use against him, they can use against him,” said Andrea Roth, a law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.

In a documentary that just wrapped up about Durst’s troubled life, he mumbled about how he “killed them all,” providing a dramatic kick to the end of the series. But a law enforcement official said his arrest on the murder charge was based on words he wrote.

Analysis linked a letter Durst wrote to his friend Susan Berman a year before her killing with one that pointed police to her body, and that was the key new evidence in the long-dormant investigation into the 2000 killing, the official not authorized to speak publicly told The Associated Press on the condition of anonymity because the investigation was ongoing.

Durst, 71, was charged Monday in Los Angeles with first-degree murder in the shooting of Berman, the daughter of a prominent Las Vegas mobster. He could face the death penalty under special circumstances that allege he ambushed her and murdered a witness to a crime.

He waived extradition in New Orleans, but authorities there charged him late Monday with being a felon in possession of a gun because he had a revolver and carrying a weapons while possessing pot when he was arrested Saturday.

Assistant District Mark Burton said they found the pot and gun in his hotel room.

It was not clear how soon he would be returned to California.

Attorney Dick DeGuerin said he wants a hearing in Louisiana as soon as possible to contest the arrest.

“The warrant we believe is based on a television show and not on

C H A R G E S A G A I N S T

But legal experts said the audio and other parts of the interview could become key evidence.

Kerry Lawrence, a defense attorney in Westchester County, New York, said Durst’s lawyers will have to try to explain away his comments, perhaps dismissing them as a joke.

Robert Durst is escorted into Orleans Parish Prison after his arraignment in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court in New Orleans, Tuesday, March 17, 2015. Durst was rebooked on charges of being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm, and possession of a weapon with a controlled dangerous substance, a small amount of marijuana.

actual fact,” he said. “We want a hearing as quickly as possible so Mr. Durst can go to California and face trial as quickly as possible.”

The judge in New Orleans, Magistrate Harry Cantrell, scheduled another hearing for next Monday.

In the documentary “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst” that aired its finale Sunday on HBO, Durst was presented with the two letters. He blinked, burped oddly, pulled his ear and briefly put his head in his hands before denying he was the killer.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) -- Criminal charges against an accused rapist were dropped Tuesday due to concerns about the credibility of the victim as a witness, the prosecution said.

Milton Thomas, 58, a parolee charged last year with raping a 70-year-old widow, figured prominently in a recent Associated Press investigation of a national movement to use surveys to predict which prisoners or ex-inmates will commit future crimes. Thomas, who was quoted in the AP investigation saying he was innocent, was assessed three times with three different outcomes.

States are trying to reduce prison populations with these secretive assessments, which supporters said can help reduce prison crowding and save billions of dollars because it is far less expensive for governments to supervise convicts on parole than keep them behind bars.

In the rape case, the assessments were unrelated to the decision to drop the charges against Thomas, a parolee who has been in and out of Arkansas jails since 2008 for non-violent crimes, including check fraud.

The deputy prosecuting attorney in the 6th Judicial District, Tonia Acker, said the rape case against Thomas was based entirely on the statement of the victim.

The AP doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault, but Diana Miller, now 71, agreed to be identified by her middle and married names because she said it was important for her story to be told.

Acker said Miller stands by her account, but she would not share her phone records. Based on evidence prosecutors have now, “it did not comport with the allegations in the past.”

Thomas’ public defender, Lisa Thompson, said the contact between

Durst - still worth millions despite his estrangement from his family, whose New York real estate empire is worth about $4 billion has maintained his innocence in three killings in as many states.

When Durst approached the filmmakers and agreed to go on camera, against the advice of his lawyers, he had already weathered one murder case, winning an acquittal in a gory Galveston, Texas, dismemberment case by claiming he shot his neighbor in self-defense.

Then he stepped away from the tense interview and went to the bathroom, still wearing the live microphone that recorded what he said next.

He was still suspected in the killing of Berman, whose father was a Las Vegas mobster associated with Bugsy Siegel and Meyer Lansky, and the disappearance of his wife, Kathleen, who was declared dead long after she vanished in New York in 1982.

“There it is. You’re caught!” Durst whispered before the sound of running water is heard. “What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

Berman, 55, was shot once in the back of the head at her home near Beverly Hills shortly before New York investigators planned to question her about Kathleen Durst’s disappearance.

That moment didn’t just make for a captivating ending to the documentary on the eccentric life of an heir to a New York real estate fortune, it could also provide additional evidence for prosecutors.

The documentary showed filmmaker Andrew Jarecki confronting Durst with a copy of an anonymous letter that alerted Beverly Hills police to look for a “cadaver” at Berman’s address.

The official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said the bathroom recording was not presented to prosecutors before charges were filed because detectives were still trying to determine

Durst offered that whoever sent it was “taking a big risk. You’re sending a letter to police that only the killer could have written.”

D R O P P E D I N C A S E A C C U S E D R A P I S T

In this July 6, 2013, aerial file photo, the wreckage of Asiana Flight 214 lies on the ground after it crashed at the San Francisco International Airport in San Francisco. On Tuesday, March 3, 2015, more than 70 passengers aboard an Asiana Airlines flight that crashed in San Francisco two years ago have reached a settlement in their lawsuits against the airline.

“Prosecutors would argue it was a candid moment of self-reflection, and I assume will argue that he knew he was still being recorded, and this was either said in jest or he was being facetious or sarcastic or was being provocative,” Lawrence said. “I don’t think it’s quite the smoking gun.”

Miller and Thomas - including how long they talked to each other on the phone - was a factor.

Miller said Thomas raped her on a hot summer day last July. In letters to the AP, one of which the AP published, Thomas said he was innocent.

He said he and Miller had a previous sexual relationship, which Miller denied.

Thomas will remain incarcerated for at least another month because his parole was revoked for not paying supervision fees, the parole board said.

Then, in the final episode, Jarecki revealed another envelope, which Durst acknowledged mailing to Berman, that has similar writing in block letters and also misspelled the address as “Beverley.”

“I wrote this one but I did not write the cadaver one,” Durst said.

But when shown an enlargement of both copies, Durst couldn’t distinguish them.

T A X

B R E A K S

continued from page 5

for Cooper, Philip Norcross’s firm represented the Philadelphia 76ers for the negotiation of the team’s $82 million in tax credits.

Thomas kissed his wife Tuesday and told her he had to go back to jail until the parole board makes a decision about whether he should be released.

Dan Fee, a spokesman for Norcross, said in an email that there’s nothing wrong with his interest. “He’s been an active and regular cheerleader for companies to relocate to the city, so it’s not a surprise that he has relationships with many of their leaders - he’s been personally advocating for them to move to Camden.”

“This is crazy,” Thomas said.

Lizura said it’s the board, not Norcross, who decides what deals get made.

Since June 2013, Thomas was assessed three times to calculate the likelihood he might commit another crime when released on parole. All three assessments produced different results. When Thomas was up for parole in 2013 after serving time for theft, the Arkansas Parole Board assessed him as a high risk to re-offend.

“Each approval stands on its own merits,” said Lizura, the head of the Economic Development Authority. “The more cheerleaders, the better.”

He was released in November of that year, and the state’s community supervision agency assessed him again. This one determined Thomas was a low risk, Thomas said, and required the minimum amount of supervision and no rehabilitative programs. After Thomas was arrested on the rape charge last July, the parole board assessed him again and downgraded his risk from high to moderate.

The Arkansas Parole Board said the system worked, and the reason for lowering Thomas’ risk was varying accounts of Thomas’ age when he was first arrested.

--As money has flowed to development in Camden, some trickled back into politics. The lead investor in the 76ers, Joshua Harris, donated $50,000 to the Republican Governors Association during the time Christie ran it, and other part-owners of the team have given tens of thousands more to the group or to Christie’s campaigns. A political committee supported by employees of Lockheed Martin, another recipient of a Camden grant, pumped more than $100,000 into the governors’ group during Christie’s tenure.

No donations are as notable as those from Pennsylvania developer Israel Roizman. Last February, the state awarded incentives worth $13.4 million to Broadway Associates 2010 LLC, a real estate development company he controls. The project in question: refurbishing 175 low-income housing units that deteriorated under two decades of Roizman’s ownership.

Roizman received the tax breaks despite having failed to repay a state loan on the nearby Camden Townhouses development. A company he owns owes New Jersey’s Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency a total of $6.2 million in unpaid principal and interest on a loan that has been overdue by several years.

The agency does not consider the loan in default because it is still hoping to work out a repayment deal and does not believe it would gain much by foreclosing, spokeswoman Tammori Petty said.

Roizman is one of the region’s top political donors, giving as much as $100,000 each year and raising six-figure sums for national candidates. Though his contributions have overwhelmingly supported Democratic entities - Roizman was a campaign bundler for President Barack Obama - he cut a $10,000 check to the Christie-led governors association in late 2013, just before Christie became chairman and a few months before receiving his tax breaks. Last year, when Christie was at the helm, he gave the group the same amount.

The AP asked Roizman how he received additional money from New Jersey despite owing the state so much money.

“Why don’t you call the state and let them explain that to you?” Roizman said, then hung up.

New Jersey housing officials said that near the end of its multi-decade loan to the Roizman Camden development, the property ceased being profitable. Because Roizman did not personally guarantee the loans, the state has no recourse against the developer himself.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ The Weekly News Digest, Mar 23, thru Mar 30, 2015

7

A S I S R A E L V O T E S , N E TA N YA H U T A K E S S W I P E A T A R A B S

JERUSALEM (AP) -- With his political future in question, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday made a last-ditch appeal to hard-liners as the country went to the polls in a tight parliamentary election, saying that high Arab voter turnout was endangering his right-wing party’s dominance.

Israel, will vote the Zionist Union led by me.”

That call resonated with 51-year-old businessman Ofer Benishti, who voted at a polling station in Kfar Saba in central Israel. He said he was a lifelong Likud voter but was now casting his ballot for the Zionist Union.

Opinion polls had shown a close race heading into the vote, with Netanyahu’s opponents, led by Isaac Herzog of the centrist Zionist Union, in a slight lead. The last available poll was published Friday, when a significant number of voters were still undecided, meaning the race was still too close to call.

But amid signs that his six-year reign could be in jeopardy, Netanyahu has veered sharply to the right in the closing days of the campaign, making a series of statements aimed at shoring up his hard-line, nationalist base.

On Tuesday, he reiterated a pledge to prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state - backtracking from six years of his own policy and putting him at odds with the United States and other Western allies.

At midday, Netanyahu claimed high Arab voter turnout was putting his right-wing Likud Party’s rule “in danger,” according to a posting on his Facebook page. “Arab voters are going to the polls in droves.

Left-wing organizations are bringing them in buses,” he said.

He also called on supporters to vote for him to “narrow the gap” between Likud and the Zionist Union. “With your help, and with the help of God, we will build a nationalist government that will protect the state of Israel,” he said.

“I have had enough,” said Benishti. “Bibi tried and tried and tried, but it just hasn’t worked. It’s time to give someone else a chance. It can’t get worse than this,” he said, using Netanyahu’s nickname.

But Meshy Alon, 22, said she was sticking with the prime minister.

“He is not great, but he is better than anything else out there,” she said. “I can’t vote for the left ... It’s a Jewish country, not a Palestinian one.”

Ultra-Orthodox Jews line up to vote in Bnei Brak, Israel, Tuesday, March 17, 2015.

Israelis are voting in early parliament elections following a campaign focused on economic issues such as the high cost of living, rather than fears of a nuclear Iran or the Israeli-Arab conflict

leader, told The Associated Press in the northern city of Nazareth. “I say he is right, he should be scared, because he only has a few hours left as a prime minister.”

Shelly Yacimovich, a lawmaker with the Zionist Union, said on her Twitter feed that no Western leader would have uttered such a “racist” remark. “Imagine a warning that begins with `the rule is endangered. Black voters are heading in droves to the polls,’ “ she wrote.

Netanyahu’s comments toward Israeli Arab voters were remarkable because they targeted Israeli citizens, and they quickly attracted accusations of racism. Israel’s Arabs, who make up 20 percent of the population, have long complained of discrimination.

Wadea Awawdeh, a resident of the Arab town of Kfar Kana, said Netanyahu “cannot hide his racist feelings toward the Arabs” anymore. “Netanyahu is angry because he feels he is losing. It’s another indication he is losing in the elections and losing his patience,” Awawdeh said.

A new joint list of Arab parties, unifying four factions, has energized Arab voters and was pushing for a high turnout in the usually apathetic Arab sector.

Herzog - Netanyahu’s main challenger - has promised to revive peace efforts with the Palestinians, repair ties with the U.S. and reduce the growing gaps between rich and poor.

“I know that usually the prime minister in each country encourages the people to go vote. Then why is Benjamin Netanyahu getting scared when the people are voting,” Ayman Odeh, the Arab list’s

“Whoever wants to follow (Netanyahu’s) path of despair and disappointment will vote for him,” Herzog said after casting his vote.

“But whoever wants change, hope, and really a better future for

L A W M A K E R S W E I G H I N O N ‘ N E T N E U T R A L I T Y ’ (FCC) Chairman Tom Wheeler gestures near the end of a hearing for a vote on Net Neutrality at the FCC in Washington. Lawmakers will weigh in on the “net neutrality” debate on March 17, that has pitted Internet activists against big cable companies and prompted a record number of public comments filed to U.S. regulators.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A decision to impose tough new regulations on cable and wireless companies that provide Internet service to Americans wasn’t influenced by politics, a top U.S. regulator told House lawmakers on Tuesday.

Tom Wheeler, the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, was responding to criticism from congressional Republicans who say President Barack Obama unfairly inserted himself into the decision made by the independent regulator.

“There were no secret instructions from the White House,” Wheeler told the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. “I did not, as CEO of an independent agency, feel obligated to follow the president’s recommendation.”

Wheeler said he did take note last fall after Obama called for Internet service to be regulated more heavily. Obama’s remarks put “wind in the sails” for proponents of the regulations. But for his purposes, Wheeler said he was most concerned about the “potential impact” on the financial health of industry. And after Obama called for the new restrictions, the market didn’t react negatively, Wheeler said.

“An interesting result of the president’s statement was the absence of a reaction from the capital markets,” Wheeler said.

Lawmakers are getting their chance this week to weigh in on the “net neutrality” debate that has pitted Internet activists against big cable companies and prompted a record number of public comments filed to U.S. regulators.

The issue requires lawmakers to walk a delicate political line: Many consumers want to keep the power of cable and wireless providers in check, and they oppose the idea of paid fast lanes on the Internet.

But service providers say the latest plan endorsed by the FCC will become a regulatory land mine that will discourage investment.

The House hearing on Tuesday was the first on the subject since the FCC voted last month to put the Internet in the same regulatory camp as the telephone, using the 1934 Communications Act. This means that whenever a company provides an Internet connection, it has to act in the public interest and not do anything considered

“unjust or unreasonable.”

The goal is to prevent Internet service providers like Comcast, Sprint and T-Mobile from blocking or slowing data that moves across its networks. The idea is known as “net neutrality” because it suggests providers should remain agnostic about web traffic instead of capitalizing on it by creating fast lanes and charging “tolls” to content providers like Netflix and Amazon.

The FCC’s 3-2 vote along partisan lines was cheered by consumer and Internet activists. They say the move is critical to protecting the Internet as Americans have always known it - an open architecture that allows anyone to offer web-based services without having to first get permission from service providers.

But cable and wireless companies have threatened to sue, saying that Depression-era regulation shouldn’t apply to the Internet.

Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, and Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, have sided with cable and wireless companies contending that using the 1934 Communications Act is too drastic and represents dangerous government overreach.

They proposed a bill that would enforce basic open Internet rules but strip the FCC of other authorities, including its ability to expand municipal broadband service. That’s a non-starter for Democrats and would likely get vetoed by President Barack Obama.

Israeli election officials said 45.4 percent of eligible voters had voted by late-afternoon, a rate similar to previous years. Election day is a public holiday in Israel; most people get off from work, beaches and restaurants fill up, and stores advertise election-day sales.

Facebook featured a special “I voted” button in Hebrew, as it has during elections in other countries, in an effort to get out the vote.

While exit poll results were expected after the end of voting at 10 p.m., the true results may not be known for weeks.

Israelis vote for parties, not individual candidates. No party has ever won a majority in the 120-member parliament, so after an election it can take weeks of negotiations to form a governing coalition.

Several smaller centrist and religious parties that have not pledged support for either Netanyahu or Herzog will likely tip the scales to determine who will become the next prime minister.

Netanyahu has governed for the past six years and has long been the most dominant personality in Israeli politics.

He has swung further to the right in the final stages of the campaign, complaining of an international conspiracy funded by wealthy foreigners to oust him, and warning of a “left-wing government supported by the Arabs.”

This election season has amplified the bitter divide between hard-liners and moderates in Israel.

Earlier this month, tens of thousands of Israelis rallied in a central square in Tel Aviv where a former head of Israel’s Mossad spy agency called for Netanyahu’s ouster. And on Sunday, tens of thousands of right-wing Israelis filled the same square to hear Netanyahu and nationalist politicians speak.

Netanyahu has appeared increasingly rattled, and after largely shunning the Israeli media for years, he gave a series of interviews to major Israeli television networks and small regional radio stations.

In a live phone interview on Israeli Channel 10 TV, Netanyahu ruled out a coalition with Herzog and said he would seek an alliance with the ultra-national Jewish Home party, which also opposes Palestinian statehood.

Netanyahu portrayed Herzog as someone who would easily and carelessly give up territory for a Palestinian state. The Palestinians want to establish a state in the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, lands Israel captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

“We have a different approach,” Netanyahu said. “They (the Zionist Union) want to withdraw. I don’t want to withdraw. If I put together the government, it will be a nationalist government.”

Netanyahu’s comments were a political gamble after he tried for years to assure a skeptical international community that he accepts the idea of Palestinian statehood and that he is ready to negotiate the terms of such a state. He has also portrayed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the main obstacle to a peace deal.

It’s unclear whether Democrats would bother trying to negotiate a bipartisan bill with their GOP counterparts so long as Obama is in office and the courts haven’t weighed in.

If Netanyahu is re-elected, it would be more difficult for him to argue that Israel is a partner in U.S.-led peace efforts. Washington views the establishment of a Palestinian state as a pillar of its Mideast policy - a position shared by other western allies.

Still, industry officials opposed to the plan say they are hopeful the FCC rules won’t stick. Jim Cicconi, a senior executive at AT&T, said that ultimately “we are confident the issue will be resolved by bipartisan action by Congress or a future FCC, or by the courts.”

Nabil Shaath, a senior Palestinian official, said Netanyahu had finally revealed his true intentions. “He never believed in the two-state solution,” he said. “What he said proved that all the time he was lying to the international community.”

h t t p : / / w w w . l i p t o n t o y o t a . c o m /

8

The Weekly News Digest, Mar 23, thru Mar 30, 2015

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I S R A E L I O P P O S I T I O N L E A D E R SEEKS TO LEAD NEW GOVERNMENT

JERUSALEM (AP) -- Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog is refusing to concede defeat in Israel’s closely fought parliamentary election.

party captured nine or 10 seats and would provide the needed margin to either side to control a majority.

Herzog told supporters early Wednesday that he will make “every effort” to cobble together the next coalition government.

Herzog could potentially try to build a coalition that would rely on support from a new Arab alliance that captured 12 to 13 seats. But Arab parties have never sat in an Israeli coalition before, complicating any potential deal.

Initial results showed Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and Herzog’s Zionist Union in a tight race. But the Likud appeared to be in a slightly better position to attract coalition partners.

Stav Shaffir, a leader of the Zionist Union, called the results a “clear vote of no confidence in Netanyahu.”

The decision will likely lie in the hands of Moshe Kahlon, leader of a new centrist party that could deliver the required support to secure a majority. Kahlon, whose platform focused on reducing Israel’s high cost of living, has refused to endorse one side of the other.

Herzog said he has spoken to potential coalition partners and is committed to forming a “real social reconciliation government.”

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to have fended off a strong challenge from the country’s opposition leader in parliamentary elections Tuesday, emerging from an acrimonious campaign in a slightly better position to form Israel’s next government.

But with the sides nearly evenly divided, a victory by Netanyahu’s Likud Party still was not guaranteed, and an upstart centrist party led by a former ally turned rival was poised to be the kingmaker. The country now heads into weeks of political jockeying as its leaders negotiate the terms of the next coalition.

The election was widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu, who has governed the country for the past six years, and recent opinion polls had given his rival, Isaac Herzog of the Zionist Union, a slight lead. As the results were announced on the nation’s three major TV stations, celebrations erupted at Likud’s campaign headquarters in Tel Aviv.

In a statement released on Twitter, Netanyahu said that “against all odds” Likud had won a “great victory.”

“This is a great victory. It’s almost a miracle,” Likud lawmaker Ofir Akunis told The Associated Press. “For months, everybody attacked the Likud. And today is a beautiful day for the Likud. It sends a message that the people of Israel will decide for themselves.”

Netanyahu’s return to power would likely spell trouble for Mideast peace efforts and could further escalate tensions with the United States.

Netanyahu, who already has a testy relationship with President Barack Obama, took a sharp turn to the right in the final days of the campaign, staking out a series of hard-line positions that will put him at odds with

She said the Zionist Union would wait for the official results before declaring victory or defeat, but claimed Netanyahu’s opponents “have a majority.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu casts his vote during Israel’s parliamentary elections in Jerusalem, Tuesday, March 17, 2015. Israelis are voting in early parliament elections following a campaign focused on economic issues such as the high cost of living, rather than fears of a nuclear Iran or the Israeli-Arab conflict.

the international community.

In a dramatic policy reversal, he said he now opposes the creation of a Palestinian state - a key policy goal of the White House and the international community. The Palestinians, fed up after years of deadlock with Netanyahu, are now likely to press ahead with their attempts to press war crimes charges against Israel in the International Criminal Court.

“We call upon the international community to support our efforts to join the international treaties and our effort in the ICC,” said Saeb Erekat, a top Palestinian official.

“What Netanyahu is doing and stating are war crimes and if the international community wants peace it should make Netanyahu accountable for his acts,” Erekat said. He said the Palestinian leadership will meet Thursday to discuss its next steps.

Official results from Tuesday’s election won’t be known for several days.

Two exit polls on Israeli TV showed the parties deadlocked with 27 seats each, and a third gave Likud a slight lead of 28-27. That breakdown could change as final results pour in.

Under Israel’s fragmented electoral system, either Netanyahu or Herzog will have to court potential partners to secure a 61-seat majority in the 120-seat parliament.

The results indicated that Netanyahu will have an easier time cobbling together a majority coalition with hard-line and religious allies.

But he will still need the support of Moshe Kahlon, whose new Kulanu

4 MORE AID WORKERS FLOWN BACK TO US FOR EBOLA MONITORING sick patient’s blood or bodily fluids.

The World Health Organization estimates the virus has killed more than 10,000 people, mostly in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. While deaths have slowed dramatically in recent months, the virus appears stubbornly entrenched in parts of Guinea and Sierra Leone.

Since last summer, several U.S. aid workers have gotten Ebola and have been flown back to the U.S. for care. A few other individuals have returned for monitoring; none got sick.

a child stands near a sign advising of a quarantined home in an effort to combat the spread of the Ebola virus in Port Loko, Sierra Leone. On Tuesday, March 17, 2015, health officials said four more medical aid workers have been flown from West Africa to the United States, for monitoring for Ebola. The latest arrivals bring to 16 the number of aid workers evacuated in the last week from Sierra Leone.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Four more American aid workers arrived back in the United States on Tuesday from West Africa to be monitored for Ebola, health officials said.

The latest arrivals bring to 15 the number of aid workers who have returned from Sierra Leone since Friday. None of them have been diagnosed with Ebola, but they will be isolated and monitored during the next three weeks for signs of the disease.

Officials have released few details, citing patient privacy.

But all are connected to - or had direct physical contact with - another American who came down with Ebola last week in Africa. The unidentified man is in critical condition at a National Institutes of Health hospital in Bethesda, Maryland.

The other aid workers are staying near the Maryland hospital or hospitals in Atlanta and Omaha with special isolation units - in case they become sick, according to officials with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The sick American works with Partners in Health, a Boston-based international aid organization that has been treating patients in Liberia and Sierra Leone since November. Organization officials did not respond to calls and emails from The Associated Press on Monday or Tuesday. In a statement Tuesday, co-founder Dr. Paul Farmer said the group is working with the CDC and others to investigate how the man was infected. The Ebola virus is spread through contact with a

US CHIDES NETANYAHU’S PARTY AFTER ISRAELI ELECTION WIN

The aid workers who have returned since Friday are by far the largest group. And more may be on their way later this week, CDC spokeswoman Kathy Harben said Tuesday.

The sick American worker was working at a government hospital in Port Loko in western Sierra Leone. But medical superintendent Dr. Peter George said the hospital hasn’t had any Ebola cases for quite some time. He said it’s likely the man also worked at a nearby Ebola treatment center, which George also manages. George said a Partners in Health colleague told him the American passed out while at the hospital.

President Barack Obama, accompanied by Sen. Marcy Kaptur, D-Ohio, left, and Rep. Marcia Fudge, right, and Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, arrives on Air Force One in Cleveland, Wednesday, March 18, 2015, to talk about the economy and the middle class.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration admonished Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s political party on Wednesday, accusing it of using anti-Arab rhetoric ahead of Israel’s election. A spokesman said President Barack Obama still believes in Palestinian statehood - even if Netanyahu no longer does.

In its first public response to Netanyahu’s triumph in the election, the spokesman said the White House was “deeply concerned” about divisive language emanating from Netanyahu’s Likud Party. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said the party had sought to marginalize Israel’s minority Arabs, an apparent reference to social media posts the Likud distributed that warned Israelis about the danger of high turnout by Arab voters.

“These are views the administration intends to convey directly to the Israelis,” Earnest said.

And while Earnest said Obama would be calling Netanyahu to congratulate him on his victory, he acknowledged the U.S. would have to re-evaluate the best way to bring about a two-state resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - a cornerstone of U.S. Mideast policy for years. In a veer to the right just before the election, Netanyahu reversed his former position and said he now opposes the creation of a separate Palestinian state.

“Based on those comments, the U.S. will evaluate our position going forward,” Earnest told reporters traveling aboard Air Force One on a flight to Cleveland for an event focused on U.S. manufacturing.

Secretary of State John Kerry spoke to Netanyahu shortly after the election to congratulate him, Earnest said, and Obama was to do the same in the days ahead. Downplaying any suggestion the president was delaying that call, Earnest pointed out that after previous Israeli elections, Obama had waited until the Israeli president had formally tasked the leading candidate with forming a new government. Israel’s largely ceremonial president is expected to take that step soon.

Earnest said he didn’t expect Netanyahu’s victory to have a negative impact on nuclear negotiations the U.S. and world powers are conducting with Iran, noting that the Israeli leader’s views on the issue are well known. Netanyahu railed against those talks earlier this month in a speech to Congress that was perceived as a rebuke to Obama.

Netanyahu drew criticism as Israelis were voting Tuesday after a midday post on his Facebook page contended high Arab voter turnout was endangering his Likud Party’s rule. “Arab voters are going to the polls in droves.

Left-wing organizations are bringing them in buses,” he said.

“At that time, nobody knew it was Ebola, so they assisted him,” he said.

Everyone who was working on the ward with the man is now being monitored, George said. He said that many of the foreigners working in Port Loko, including some of the Americans, live at the same tent camp. He did not know if the sick health worker was living there.

Dont Text and Drive

Improves the health and lives of people affected by poverty, disaster, and civil unrest.

www.directrelief.org

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Weekly News Digest, Mar 23, thru Mar 30, 2015

9

M E D I A T U R N S D E T E C T I V E W I T H ‘THE JINX,’ OTHER MURDER CASES adding “most of us believe we have an obligation to be transparent and honest.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Robert Durst was a rich man living free despite police efforts to link him to murder. Adnan Syed was a young man imprisoned for life for killing an ex-girlfriend.

With “The Jinx,” she said, Durst’s vague and rambling utterances - captured on a body microphone he kept on during a restroom visit required further scrutiny.

Media scrutiny changed their fortunes, pushing both back into the courts: Durst is facing trial on a murder charge, and Syed awaits an appeal of his conviction.

“Your obligation is to find out what the context is and not assume you know what the context is,” McBride said, suggesting Durst should have been given the chance to address what he meant.

Observers say it’s what journalists, or others taking on the role of investigative reporters, can and should do - but not simply, or heedlessly, to play faux detective.

Filmmaker Andrew Jarecki has said Durst knew he was being recorded and signed a contract giving the project free rein in using the material it gathered. Any evidence was shared with police well before the series aired, he said.

“We are holding law enforcement accountable,” said Kelly McBride, an expert on ethics for the Poynter Institute journalism think tank. “Our job is not to prove people innocent or guilty. But we very much are part of the checks and balances that ensure that democracy is working.”

Durst, heard dramatically muttering “killed them all” to himself in the finale of HBO’s six-part docuseries “The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst,” was charged Monday with first-degree murder in the 2000 shooting of his confidante, Susan Berman.

New York City real estate heir Robert Durst leaves a Houston courtroom. Durst was arrested in New Orleans on an extradition warrant to Los Angeles on Saturday, March 14, 2015.

Police had planned to question Berman as part of their renewed probe into the 1982 disappearance of Durst’s wife. In 2003, the multimillionaire real estate heir was acquitted of murder in the death of a Texas neighbor.

Southern California Gould School of Law professor and a former federal prosecutor.

Syed, who has maintained his innocence in the strangulation of Hae Min Lee in 1999, when both were teenagers, was granted a request for review by Maryland’s Court of Special Appeals after the popular National Public Radio podcast “Serial” dissected the evidence against him last year.

But the suggestion that media’s recent record puts law enforcement’s competence in doubt deserves scrutiny, she and others said.

News and entertainment programs spotlighting criminal cases aren’t new: “America’s Most Wanted” began hunting fugitives in 1988. But the HBO and radio projects, along with a number of TV series, are fullblown investigations.

CBS’ long-running crime-focused newsmagazine “48 Hours” has had an impact on a number of cases. The family of Ryan Ferguson, a Missouri man imprisoned in the killing of a newspaper sports editor, credited the attention of “48 Hours” for drawing attention to his case. He was released after a court determined police fabricated evidence against him.

“Sometimes people feel that nothing will happen to them if they talk to us,” said Susan Zirinsky, the show’s senior executive producer.

“Obviously that can be incorrect if it goes public. Any exposure can end up coming back to haunt them. We’ve had killers who think they can outsmart us and talk to us, and then the authorities get them.”

Criminals can be braggarts, said Rebecca Lonergan, a University of

“There’s a certain thrill in talking to media,” she said.

Filmmakers worked on “The Jinx” for seven years, according to HBO. The Orange County Cold Case Task Force, formed last year with 12 investigators, was handed some 800 unsolved murder cases dating back to 1961, said task force member Santa Ana police Sgt. Richard Gatto.

There are other notable differences.

“We have access to certain databases that (journalists) might not have access to,” Gatto said. “But as far as the law is concerned, there are certain things that reporters can do that we can’t do as agents of the government.”

Police must heed constitutional safeguards including the Sixth Amendment, which protects the right to counsel. If a suspect gives any indication that he may have killed someone, all law enforcement interviews must stop, Lonergan said.

Not so with news reporting, which sets its own ethical standards.

“As journalists, we don’t have legal restrictions on how we gather information. We have civil penalties when we do a bad job, but we can pretty much do whatever we want,” Poynter’s McBride said,

T E X A S ’ U N U S U A L G R A N D J U R Y S Y S T E M G E T S N E W S C R U T I N Y A Senate committee approved Whitmire’s bill last week. A similar version is being reviewed in the House.

Critics derisively describe the key-man system as “pick a pal” because grand jury commissioners often repeatedly nominate people they know for duty. They say commissioners tend to be white men who often recommend people with similar backgrounds and pro-law enforcement viewpoints. Most Texas counties use the key-man system, though some do use random selection.

Whitmire’s proposal follows public outcry over a series of high-profile grand jury decisions involving officer-involved incidents across the country. But the legislation is targeted specifically to complaints about Houston’s Harris County, where hundreds of shootings involving Houston police since 2004 have not resulted in the indictment of any officers.

Alfred Dewayne Brown, left, is seated next to defense attorney Robert Morrow, right.

Brown was convicted and sentenced to death for the 2003 killing of a Houston police officer, but grand jury testimony shows a police officer who was included on the panel may have persuaded one of Brown’s alibi witnesses to change her story. Brown’s appeal is ongoing. With support from judges, attorneys and a prominent district attorney, the Texas Legislature is considering a set of bills that would end the so-called key-man system, where prospective jurors are nominated, and allow only randomly selected jurors to consider whether prosecutors have sufficient evidence to seek charges.

HOUSTON (AP) -- Grand juries in Texas are chosen like no other place in the country.

Rather than picking from a pool of randomly selected residents to hear criminal cases, judge-appointed commissioners are allowed to nominate prospective jurors under a system the U.S. Supreme Court has called “susceptible of abuse.”

Now, more than four decades after federal courts stopped using a similar method, Texas is under pressure to make the shift amid criticism that its grand juries sometimes include biased members connected to the criminal justice system.

With support from judges, attorneys and a prominent district attorney, the Texas Legislature is considering a set of bills that would end the so-called key-man system and allow only randomly selected panels consider whether prosecutors have sufficient evidence to seek charges.

Supporters say the bills would help end the perception of an unfair grand jury process, while others warn a new system would make it more difficult to find grand jurors who have enough time to serve.

“If we are going to have a workable criminal justice system, people are going to have to have confidence in all components of it,” said state Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat who sponsored the legislation. “(People) have to believe they are getting a fair review by a grand jury.”

In another controversial case, a grand jury panel that included a police officer investigated the 2003 fatal shooting of a police officer in Houston. Defendant Alfred Brown was later convicted and sent to death row, but grand jury testimony shows the officer may have persuaded one of Brown’s alibi witnesses to change her story. Brown is appealing his conviction.

Durst’s longtime Houston lawyer, Chip Lewis, called Jarecki “duplicitous” for not making it clear to Durst that he would be giving footage to police.

Bob Steele, a Poynter fellow and recently retired DePauw University professor, said he was unfamiliar with details of the Durst case or “The Jinx” but had a strong caution for reporters in general.

“We cannot just go after these stories at full blast without paying attention to professionalism” and an individual’s constitutional rights, Steele said.

K E Y E V I D E N C E FILMMAKERS FOUND AGAINST ROBERT DURST LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Andrew Jarecki’s documentary about unsolved killings linked to millionaire Robert Durst uncovered evidence police didn’t have before - a previously unknown letter and Durst’s own comments, recorded during and after a tough interview for the film.

The letters: - An anonymous note mailed to Beverly Hills police after Susan Berman was shot to death in 2000, with her address and the word “cadaver” alerting them to the body. Durst says in the documentary that whoever sent it was “taking a big risk - you’re sending a letter to police that only the killer could have written.”

- A previously unknown letter that a Berman relative recovered and gave to the filmmakers. Jarecki shows it to Durst, who acknowledges having sent it to Berman. Like the “cadaver” note, it is written with similar block letters and her address is misspelled as “Beverley Hills.”

“I wrote this one but I did not write the cadaver one,” Durst insists. But moments later, he can’t tell the two apart.

The bathroom tape: - Durst ends the interview and announces that he’s going to the bathroom, where, still wearing his microphone, he is recorded talking out loud to himself. This audio recording, which the filmmakers say they discovered many months later and shared with police, is played with subtitles in the documentary’s final scene.

In it, Durst speaks in short bursts of whispers: “There it is. You’re caught! ... You’re right, of course, but you can’t imagine ... Arrest him! ... I don’t know what’s in the house ... Oh, I want this ... What a disaster ... He was right. I was wrong ... And the burping! I’m having difficulty with the question ... What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

NO CHARGES FOR MAN WHO CRASHED DRONE ON WHITE HOUSE LAWN

The Supreme Court expressed concern about the key-man system in 1977. California stopped using it in criminal cases about 15 years ago, but still permits it for civil grand juries.

“California figured this out a while ago,” said Robert Sanger, a criminal defense attorney who was involved in a lawsuit that helped spur the change. “I’m disappointed that it’s still going on.”

Michael McSpadden, a state district judge for 33 years in Harris County, said changing Texas’ criminal grand jury process would “be a disaster” because of the difficulty in finding randomly selected people who can make the time commitment. Grand juries in Harris County meet twice a week for three months.

Other states have taken steps to make the random system work.

Lake County, Illinois, provides childcare for jurors, while Arizona started a fund to pay jurors up to $300 a day for lost income. Others have expanded the databases used to compile jury pools.

Ryan Patrick, a district judge in Harris County who uses a method incorporating random selection and the key-man system, said a new approach might have problems but was worth considering.

“At the end of the day, the community at large is not served if the perception is the system does not have legitimacy,” he said.

This handout photo provided by the US Secret Service shows the drone that crashed onto the White House grounds in Washington, Monday, Jan. 26, 2015. An intelligence agency employee whose drone crashed on the White House lawn earlier this year won’t face criminal charges, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington announced Wednesday.

Shawn Usman, who works for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, was piloting

WASHINGTON (AP) -- An intelligence agency employee whose drone crashed on the White House lawn earlier this year won’t face criminal charges, the U.S. attorney’s office in Washington announced Wednesday.

Shawn Usman, who works for the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, was piloting the borrowed drone in downtown Washington early on Jan. 26 when he lost control of it. Prosecutors said that Usman, who had borrowed the drone from a friend, tried to regain control of the aircraft while it was flying westward and climbed to about 100 feet at about 3 a.m.

continued on page 11

10

The Weekly News Digest, Mar 23, thru Mar 30, 2015

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________

S U D D E N F A L L : I L L I N O I S R E P. A A R O N S C H O C K I S R E S I G N I N G

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Illinois Rep. Aaron Schock abruptly resigned Tuesday following a monthlong cascade of revelations about his business deals and lavish spending on everything from overseas travel to office decor in the style of “Downton Abbey.”

GOP state Sen. Darin LaHood, considered the front-runner to replace Schock in the heavily Republican district, told reporters he would announce his decision on Wednesday. LaHood is the son of Ray LaHood, who served in Congress and later as President Barack Obama’s transportation secretary.

“I do this with a heavy heart,” Schock said in a statement. He said he had given the people of his Peoria-area district his all since his election in 2008, “but the constant questions over the last six weeks have proven a great distraction that has made it too difficult for me to serve the people of the 18th District with the high standards that they deserve and which I have set for myself.”

Schock, an energetic real estate investor who catapulted from the Illinois Legislature to win a congressional seat at the age of 26, touted his status as the House’s first millennial lawmaker. He posed shirtless for Men’s Health magazine to promote fitness, and used Instagram the way older politicians rely on press releases, photo bombing his growing fan base from London to the Florida beach scene. He was an in-demand fundraising force and visited more than 40 congressional districts in the lead-up to November’s elections.

Schock, 33, a young, media-savvy Republican, had drawn attention for his physical fitness and fundraising prowess. But more recently he has come under scrutiny for extravagant spending, payments to donors for flights on private jets and improperly categorized expenses.

The questions raised have included Associated Press investigations of his real estate transactions, air travel and Instagram use. On Monday, the AP confirmed that the Office of Congressional Ethics had reached out to Schock’s associates as it apparently began an investigation.

In a statement, House Speaker John Boehner said: “With this decision, Rep. Schock has put the best interests of his constituents and the House first. I appreciate Aaron’s years of service, and I wish him well in the future.”

Schock did not inform any House leaders before making his decision, and the announcement took Republicans by surprise. Although the questions around his spending had begun to attract attention and raise concerns, he was not yet facing concerted public pressure from party members to step

Last June, he was brought into the House leadership and named a senior deputy whip.

Rep. Aaron Schock, R-Ill. speaks to reporters in Peoria, Ill. Schock announced Tuesday his resignation amid questions about spending.

down.

He is the second House Republican to give up his seat this year under unfavorable circumstances. Michael Grimm, who pleaded guilty on tax evasion charges, resigned his New York seat in early January.

Illinois Gov. Bruce Rauner will have five days from the March 31 effective date of Schock’s resignation to schedule a special election, which must be held within 120 days of the vacancy.

C A N Y O U R E A L LY S AV E M O N E Y B Y C U T T I N G T H E C O R D ?

Although Hulu offers many shows the next day, Fox and ABC shows are delayed a week online without a pay-TV password (or, for ABC only, an $8-a-month Plus subscription). Hulu gets some cable shows the next day, but you’ll more likely need iTunes or Amazon at $2 or $3 an episode.

But now you can watch many shows live on PlayStation Vue or Sling TV and pick up HBO separately. HBO’s app offers new episodes as they are available on TV. Showtime also is expected to offer a standalone service this year.

If you like to binge-watch entire seasons over a few weekends, online streaming is ideal. Netflix and Amazon have extensive catalogues.

Unless you’re drawn to their own original shows, you likely need just one - Netflix for $9 a month or Amazon Prime for $99 a year ($8.25 a month). a coaxial cable in Philadelphia. TV cord-cutting is for those who are willing to give up conveniences they now enjoy

NEW YORK (AP) -- There are more ways to watch television online than ever. Even HBO and ESPN - two channels often cited as reasons people keep expensive cable or satellite TV packages - will be available for streaming on their own. All these offerings make it possible to drop your pay-TV service without giving up favorite shows.

EQUIPMENT An Internet speed of at least 5 megabits per second is recommended, but you’ll need a faster connection for better video quality or for multiple streams in a household.

But no single streaming service offers everything. And you still need to pay for your Internet connection, typically at a higher price when unbundled from your TV service. Depending on how and what you watch, cutting the cord won’t necessarily save you money.

You’ll need a smart TV with the right apps included or a streaming device such as Roku, Apple TV, Xbox or PlayStation. Many services are offered on traditional computers, phones and tablets, too. The most restrictive is the new Sony service; you’ll need a PlayStation 3 or 4, even after Sony releases an iPad app.

Here are things to consider:

WHAT’S MISSING?

WHAT CHANNELS DO YOU WATCH?

You’ll need to pick and choose multiple services if you want to replicate your cable or satellite package. Even then there will be gaps. Most major cable channels are available through either PlayStation Vue or Sling TV, but you won’t get obscure ones - such as foreign channels.

Sony’s new PlayStation Vue service, launched Wednesday in New York, Chicago and Philadelphia, offers more than 50 broadcast and cable channels starting at $50 a month. Additional sports channels are available for a $10 or $20 more. HBO and ESPN aren’t included.

PlayStation Vue comes on the heels of Dish’s $20-a-month Sling TV service. Sling TV has fewer channels and no over-the-air networks, but it has ESPN and ESPN2. Other ESPN channels are available for $5 more.

The Wall Street Journal, meanwhile, reports that Apple is developing its own package of about 25 channels, including ABC, CBS and Fox, set to be available in the fall and potentially priced at $30 to $40 a month.

(Apple won’t comment.)

In a few weeks, HBO will debut a stand-alone service, HBO Now, on Apple TVs, iPhones and iPads for $15 a month. Cablevision also will offer HBO Now to its Internet-only customers, including those with Android, Windows and Mac devices, for an undisclosed price.

SPORTS Until recently, it’s been difficult to get live sports without a TV subscription. Major League Baseball’s Internet service blocks hometown teams and requires a pay-TV password for national games such as the World Series, for example.

Now, both Sling TV and PlayStation Vue offer basketball games through TBS and TNT. PlayStation also offers Golf Channel, CBS, Fox and NBC, as well as regional sports networks, including Comcast SportsNet for Chicago and Philadelphia teams and Yes for New York Yankees and Brooklyn Nets games (sorry, Mets and Knicks fans). You need Sling TV for ESPN. For both services, you’ll pay a combined $95 a month for the higher sports tiers.

LIVE OR BINGE-WATCH? If you like to watch network shows right away, you generally need an antenna to get over-the-air networks. CBS’s $6-a-month All-Access service offers live TV only in 14 markets. ABC, NBC and Fox offer free live streaming in some markets, but only linked to a pay-TV password.

But Schock’s fall was even swifter. Only weeks ago, a Washington Post report about his “Downton Abbey”-style office decor led to questions about his handling of expenses. The ornate redecoration, replete with 1920s-era touches, cost $40,000 and was charged to his office; faced with questions, Schock repaid the expense.

Since Schock doesn’t plan to formally resign until March 31, the Office of Congressional Ethics could still refer its findings before then to the Justice Department’s Office of Public Integrity or the Federal Election Commission. Once his resignation becomes final, congressional investigators would lose jurisdiction.

The office-redecoration expenses prompted an ethics complaint from a private Washington watchdog group and set off a flurry of reporting on Schock’s spending and reliance on political donors.

An AP examination of Schock’s frequent flights around his central Illinois district found that he spent more than $40,000 from his House expenses for travel on planes owned by a group of donors. AP also used metadata associated with Schock’s Instagram account to track his reliance on donor flights and his attendance at concerts and festivals where a Super PAC supporting his campaign spent more than $24,000 for tickets.

A separate AP story detailed how Schock has relied on several political donors for almost all of the Peoria-based real estate deals that have provided much of his personal wealth, estimated at about $1.4 million in 2013.

Even so, until last week, Schock thought he could weather the controversy and had turned to a team of communications strategists and lawyers to head off any more embarrassments.

But then The Chicago Sun-Times and Politico began questioning discrepancies between mileage reimbursements that Schock was paid and the number of miles on his SUV when he sold it. The gap suggested Schock was billing taxpayers and his campaign for miles that were never driven.

Schock and his advisers realized they had a situation that could not be called an error or misunderstanding, according to a Schock adviser who demanded anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. It proved to be the deciding factor pushing Schock to leave Congress. On Tuesday a spokesman said Schock had repaid all mileage expenses incurred since he joined Congress, “out of an abundance of caution.”

www.additions.generalcontractors1.com

Another shortcoming: Only PlayStation offers recording capabilities.

Storage is unlimited, but shows can be kept for no more than 28 days.

That said, all services offer many of the shows on-demand automatically, without any need to set up recording. Which shows are available and for how long will vary.

ARE YOU READY? Sony’s PlayStation comes closest to replicating the pay-TV bundle, but it’s also the most expensive. If you stay current on your TV shows and watch many channels, especially sports, going the online route won’t save you money. In fact, it might be more expensive because your cable provider will likely increase the price of Internet access when unbundled from TV. Prices vary greatly. Time Warner Cable, for instance, charges $58 for Internet once promotions end. Add $95 for all your sports channels online and $15 for HBO, and you’ll probably pay more than you already do. Add the cost of Netflix or Amazon to your calculations, too - but only if you don’t already subscribe.

If you really only watch a few channels, or you don’t care about watching shows late, cord cutting could be just right for you.

Children Incorporated 4205 Dover Road Richmond, VA 23221-3267

www.childrenincorporated.

h t t p : / / w w w . l i p t o n t o y o t a . c o m /

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The Weekly News Digest, Mar 23, thru Mar 30, 2015

11

C Y C L O N E F L AT T E N E D T H E L A N D S C A P E I N VA N U AT U ’ S O U T E R I S L A N D S PORT VILA, Vanuatu (AP) -- Relief workers saw a flattened landscape and widespread destruction in their first views of Vanuatu’s outer islands Tuesday after struggling for days to assess the areas of the South Pacific nation hardest hit by a fierce cyclone.

Collett van Rooyen said the aid workers deployed on the ground Wednesday would carry in emergency supplies to meet short-term needs on Tanna and Erromango and assess the needs further once they arrived.

Radio and telephone communications with the outer islands were just beginning to be restored, but remained incredibly patchy three days after Cyclone Pam hit. People were expressing their need for help any way they could: flashing mirrors or marking an “H” in white on the ground to signal planes that were surveying the outer islands.

Vanuatu has a population of 267,000 people. About 47,000 people live in the capital.

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said 3,300 people were sheltering in dozens of evacuation centers on the main island of Efate and in the provinces of Torba and Penama.

Australian military planes that conducted aerial assessments found significant damage, particularly on Tanna Island, where more than 80 percent of homes and other buildings appeared to be partially or completely destroyed, Foreign Minister Julie Bishop said.

“We understand that the reconnaissance imagery shows widespread devastation,” Bishop said. “Not only buildings flattened - palm plantations, trees. It’s quite a devastating sight.”

Teams of aid workers and government officials carrying medical and sanitation supplies, water, food and shelter equipment managed to land on Tanna and neighboring Erromango Island on Tuesday afternoon, said Colin Collett van Rooyen, Vanuatu director for aid group Oxfam. The two islands were directly in the path of the storm, which packed winds of 270 kilometers (168 miles) per hour when it hit early Saturday.

An aerial assessment showed extensive damage on Erromango, with communities ranging from 70 percent to 100 percent destroyed on the archipelago’s fourth-largest island. On other islands, Collett van Rooyen said plane crews saw people had made big, white “H” marks in multiple villages, and people on Tongoa island flashed mirrors to attract attention.

The destruction on Tanna was significantly worse than in the nation’s capital of Port Vila, where Pam destroyed or damaged 90 percent of the buildings, said Tom Perry, spokesman for CARE Australia.

“The airport was badly damaged, the hospital was badly damaged but still functioning ... there’s one doctor there at the moment,” he said. “It’s obviously a pretty trying situation.”

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported that 11 people were confirmed dead, including five on Tanna, lowering their earlier report of 24 casualties after realizing some of the victims had been counted more than once. Officials with the National Disaster Management Office said they had no accurate figures on how many were dead, and aid agencies reported varying numbers.

The confusion reflects the difficulty of handling a disaster that struck whole communities on remote islands with a near-total communications blackout.

“Vanuatu is a challenging place at the best of times, in the sense of getting

In the capital, residents had already begun the process of rebuilding their homes, and the sounds of laughter could be heard ringing out in the streets.

In this Monday, March 16, 2015 photo, clothes are seen laid out to dry as Adrian Banga surveys his destroyed house in Vanuatu’s capital Port Vila. Aid has begun arriving in the storm-hit nation’s capital following Cyclone Pam, but contact has still not been made with some of its more remote islands.

around and logistics,” Perry said. “So a situation like this is pretty testing.”

Poor weather and communications issues have hampered relief workers efforts to reach the outer islands for days. Most of the islands have no airports and those that do have only small landing strips that are tricky for large supply planes to navigate. On the main island of Efate, bridges were down outside Port Vila, impeding vehicle traffic.

“There are over 80 islands that make up Vanuatu and on a good, sunny day outside of cyclone season it’s difficult to get to many of them,” said Collett van Rooyen of Oxfam. “Until today, the weather has been particularly cloudy, so even the surveillance flights would have had some difficulty picking up good imagery.”

The relief teams on Tanna and Erromango were planning to meet with local disaster officials and conduct damage assessments, said Sebastian Rhodes Stampa, disaster coordinator for the U.N.’s humanitarian affairs office.

Some of the islands were just beginning to get their phone networks running again, and technical crews were en route to set up data and voice satellite communications. Officials hoped to restore communications to the islands within 48 hours, Stampa said.

Photos of the islands taken by crews on board Australian, New Zealand and New Caledonian military surveillance flights were being analyzed in the capital, Port Vila. The information will help officials dispatch aid to the worst-hit areas, Stampa said.

“Tanna has a problem with its water anyway; it’s dry outside the disaster season, so there’s a reasonable chance there’s a lack of water there,” Stampa said.

MAN GETS 6 TO 10 YEARS FOR CUFFING B O Y W I T H D E A D C H I C K E N Four other children - ages 7 to 14, all adopted by Larson - were removed from the home after Harper and Larson were arrested.

“There’s a real sense today, a real kind of `let’s get on with it,’” said Perry, of CARE Australia. “People are very positive; You don’t have people sitting around just kind of staring at the sky or anything.”

W H I T E H O U S E L AW N continued from page 9

Prosecutors said Usman knew the drone’s battery was nearing the end of its charge and decided to go bed, assuming that it would crash somewhere along the National Mall.

The drone was later found on the White House lawn, and a forensic analysis concluded that the operator had not been in control of it when it crashed. Usman told the Secret Service he was the aircraft’s operator after hearing news of the crash.

Federal prosecutors say the Federal Aviation Administration is now reviewing the case. The airspace over much of Washington, including the White House, is off limits to aircraft, including commercially available drones.

Usman’s lawyer, Jim Garland, said Usman has, and will continue, to cooperate with the government in its investigation.

“This entire incident, while unfortunate and understandably alarming, was totally inadvertent and completely unintentional,” Garland said in a statement. “Mr. Usman wishes to express his sincere apologies to all those affected - especially to the president and his family, as well as to those responsible for ensuring their safety.”

The drone crash came at a difficult time for the Secret Service, an agency battling questions about its ability to protect the president in the wake of a series of security breaches last year. The incident has also sped up efforts by the Secret Service and researchers at the Homeland Security Department to find ways to keep drones out of secure areas.

About a month after Usman’s late-night flight, the agency announced plans to test drones over Washington in the coming weeks.

A U.S. official briefed on the plans told The Associated Press that the government will fly drones between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m., in order to devise a defense against unmanned aircraft, which can be difficult to detect. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to publicly discuss details of the classified effort.

Among the tests is the use of signal-jamming technology to interrupt control of remotely piloted aircraft, the official said.

N E I G H B O R S T A B B E D 3 Y O U N G BROTHERS TO DEATH WITH KNIFE Htoo was expected to appear in court Thursday. Police said they did not know whether he had an attorney.

MONROE, N.C. (AP) -- A North Carolina man pleaded guilty and was sentenced to six to 10 years in prison Wednesday for handcuffing an 11-year-old boy by his ankle to a porch with a dead chicken around his neck as punishment.

About 11 p.m. Tuesday, officers were called to a report of a person with a knife. They entered the home and found the injured and two of the dead children. A third child died at a hospital, police said.

Dorian Harper entered the guilty plea to three felonies - child abuse, assault with a deadly weapon and maiming without malice. His plea came a day after a jury was seated.

New Bern is a picturesque town of 30,000 on the water near the coast and is home to about 1,900 Burmese refugees.

“Anytime this happens in any community, any part of town, it’s surprising. You just don’t expect this type of crime to occur,” the chief said.

“Yes, sir,” Harper, 58, said when the trial judge asked if he was guilty.

He also apologized as he was sentenced.

“There hasn’t been a day when I haven’t been remorseful,” he said.

Prosecutors said they agreed to accept the guilty plea so the children in the home would not have to testify in a trial. The children had lived in a filthy home with animals and were hungry and had been beaten, prosecutors said.

Opening statements had been set for Wednesday in court in in Monroe, southeast of Charlotte.

Harper had rejected prosecutors’ plea deal Monday, saying he wanted the trial to go on. He and his girlfriend, 58-year-old Wanda Larson, were arrested after a sheriff’s deputy found the boy in November 2013.

“This is a very serious case, with very serious implications for Mr. Harper,” Judge Brad Long told the jury Tuesday.

Larson was the boy’s guardian and a Department of Social Services supervisor in Union County. Larson faces similar charges. She has pleaded not guilty.

Authorities said they think Harper tied the dead chicken around the boy’s neck as punishment for killing one of the chickens on the 5-acre farm where they lived.

The indictment against the couple said the boy had been subject to abuse that also included being chained to a piece of railroad track in his room.

Harper cut the boy’s face with a knife and used an electric wire to burn his face, according to the indictment. It also said the boy once broke his wrist trying to escape.

NEW BERN, N.C. (AP) -- A neighbor attacked a Burmese family with a knife, stabbing to death three young brothers who were ages 1, 5 and 12, a police chief said Wednesday.

The boys’ mother and older sister were also wounded in the attack Tuesday night, New Bern Police Chief Toussaint Summers Jr. said.

The suspect, identified as 18-year-old Eh Lar Doh Htoo, also a Burmese immigrant, was arrested and charged. He lived near the family and knew them, but the chief didn’t know any more about their relationship.

Authorities weren’t sure of a motive and a language barrier is affecting the investigation.

“The first officers who arrived on the scene observed the suspect with a knife,” the chief said. “They gave him commands and he complied with the commands.”

The wounded mother and her 14-year-old daughter were released from the hospital. Police did not release the victims’ names.

Susan Husson, executive director of the Interfaith Refugee Ministry in New Bern, said the victims’ family and the suspect’s family likely came through her office before settling in New Bern, but she didn’t know them personally. She said the first Burmese refugee came to New Bern around 1999.

“It’s just really hard right now,” she said. “It’s been really horrific.”

The stabbings happened on a street of about 10 homes that face a railroad track and several dilapidated commercial buildings.

A neighbor who lives about five houses away said he heard sirens late Tuesday night and decided to stay inside.

“We were scared. We just locked the door,” said 23-year-old Yyoch Rmah, who moved to the U.S. from Vietnam in 2006.

He said there were a lot of Burmese refugees in the neighborhood, and people from other countries.

“People keep to themselves,” he said.

New Bern draws tourists from around the region and is known for being the birthplace of Pepsi and the colonial capital of North Carolina.

12

The Weekly News Digest, Mar 23, thru Mar 30, 2015

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

S T A R V I N G S E A L I O N P U P S STRANDING ON CALIFORNIA BEACHES

LAGUNA BEACH, Calif. (AP) -- The starving sea lion pup was so tiny that it looked like a rock at the base of the seaside cliff until it struggled to raise its head as humans approached.

“fighters.”

The goal is to get the pups strong enough to swim free again - but the volunteers who nurse them back to health may never know if they make it in the wild.

It bleated weakly as volunteer Brennan Slavik eased it into a crate for transport to a rescue center, where it peered from a child’s playpen with woeful eyes made enormous by an emaciated frame.

Only a handful will be fitted with expensive tracking devices. The rest are tagged with a number and fall off the radar unless they are rescued again.

At almost a year, the pup weighed just 23 pounds - a third of what it should - and staff quietly took it to a private room, euthanized it and moved on.

It’s a scenario playing out daily in California this year as rescue centers struggle to keep up with hundreds of sick and starving sea lion pups washing up along the coast. More than 1,650 pups have been rescued since January from beaches, but also from inside public restrooms, behind buildings and along railroad tracks.

It’s not unusual to have some sea lions wash up each spring as the pups leave their mothers, but so far, the number of stranded babies is more than five times greater than in 2013, the worst season in recent memory.

“These animals are coming in really desperate. They’re at the end of life. They’re in a crisis ... and not all animals are going to make it,” said Keith A. Matassa, executive director at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center, which has taken in 285 pups this winter compared with 28 during the same period last year.

The situation is so bad that Sea World suspended its sea lion show so it can focus on rescue efforts. The theme park has treated 400 pups more than twice the number it would care for in a typical year - and constructed two temporary pools to house them.

Scientists aren’t sure what’s causing the crisis, but suspect that warmer waters from this winter’s mild El Nino weather pattern are impacting the sea lion birthing grounds along the Channel Islands off the Southern California coast.

The warm water is likely pushing prime sea lion foods - market squid, sardines and anchovies - further north, forcing the mothers to abandon their pups for up to eight days at a time in search of sustenance.

The pups, scientists believe, are weaning themselves early out of desperation and setting out on their own despite being underweight and ill-prepared to hunt.

Sea lions wouldn’t normally start showing up in large numbers until April or May but this year, rescue centers began to get calls in December, said Matassa.

“They’re leaving with a very low tank of gas and when they get over here, they’re showing up on the beach basically ... starving to death,” said Justin Viezbicke, a coordinator with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s California Stranding Network.

“The tricky part is we’re putting them back into the same environment that they just came from. And that’s going to be a challenge for them,” Viezbicke said.

In this Monday, March 9, 2015 photo released by Solar Impulse, a Swiss solar-powered plane lands in Muscat, Oman, after it took off from Abu Dhabi early Monday, marking the start of the first attempt to fly around the world without a drop of fuel. Solar Impulse founder Andre Borschberg was at the controls of the single-seater when it took off from the Al Bateen Executive Airport.

round-the-clock, back-breaking work for dozens of volunteers who’ve arrived from all over the U.S. to help.

2,000 SNOW GEESE DIE FROM ILLNESS IN IDAHO WILDLIFE AREAS

The center in one of Southern California’s premiere beach communities has rescued more than 213 pups since the beginning of the year and has treated ones that weighed as little as 14 pounds at eight months old.

Pups that should be gaining 20 to 40 pounds in a two-month period have put on just 2 pounds, Matassa said.

On a recent day, in the course of two hours, five suffering animals came into the Pacific Marine Mammal Center. One was brought in by a police officer, three more came in with an animal control team and the fifth was Slavik’s rescued pup that had been called in by a couple walking along beach.

Harried volunteers moved urgently along a narrow hallway between pens as they unloaded each one, wrapped it in a towel and performed a battery of tests. Most of the animals were so weak they barely resisted.

Crates holding animals awaiting assessment were crammed into every corner, including the laundry room, as those already housed in communal pens barked and bleated in a deafening racket as mealtime approached.

Each incoming pup has its temperature taken and is weighed, measured and given a blood sugar test before the team decides if they can save it.

Those that make the cut are tube-fed a gruel of pureed herring, Pedialyte, vitamins and milk three or four times a day after starting out with a simple broth of hydrating fluids and dextrose.

Those that graduate to whole fish are playfully called “feeders” and those that can once more compete for fish tossed into a pool are called

snow geese and Canada geese preparing to land on marsh at the Lower Klamath National Wildlife Refuge near Merrill, Ore. Wildlife officials say 2,000 migrating snow geese have died in eastern Idaho likely because of avian cholera. The Idaho Department of Fish and Game says staff and volunteers collected the dead birds over the last several days at the Mud Lake Wildlife Management Area near Terreton and the Market Lake Wildlife Management Area near Roberts.

MUD LAKE, Idaho (AP) -- Some 2,000 migrating snow geese have died recently in eastern Idaho, likely from a disease that comes on quickly and can kill birds in midflight, wildlife officials say.

The Idaho Department of Fish and Game says staff and volunteers collected the dead birds over the past several days at wildlife management areas near the towns of Terreton and Roberts.

The cause of death likely was avian cholera, which can cause convulsions and erratic flight, the agency said.

For rescue centers like the one in Laguna Beach, that translates into

Authorities said the geese, known for their distinctive white bodies and black wingtips, were migrating from the Southwest and Mexico to breeding grounds on Alaska’s north coast.

MAJOR SOLAR STORM HITS EARTH, M AY P U L L N O R T H E R N L I G H T S S O U T H

It’s unclear where they picked up the bacteria, said Steve Schmidt, a regional Fish and Game supervisor. “Outbreaks of avian cholera have occurred sporadically in the region over the past few decades,” he said in a news release.

But the most noticeable effect is usually considered a positive. The Aurora Borealis or northern lights that usually can be viewed only in the far north will dip south, so more people should be able to enjoy the colorful sky show. Forecasters were not sure just how far south it would be visible.

Forecasters said early Tuesday, before sunrise, auroras were already seen in the northern tier of the U.S., such as Washington state, North Dakota, South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A severe solar storm smacked Earth with a surprisingly big geomagnetic jolt Tuesday, potentially affecting power grids and GPS tracking while pushing the colorful northern lights farther south, federal forecasters said.

Space Weather branch chief Brent Gordon said if the storm effects continued through Tuesday evening, there was a “very strong possibility” that the northern lights could be seen as far south as the middle United States, even Tennessee and Oklahoma. That also means much of Russia and northern Europe, as far south as central Germany and Poland, had the potential for the sky show.

The sky has to be clear of clouds but the crescent moon will appear small enough it shouldn’t interfere with viewing of the aurora is in the sky, Gordon said.

Forecasters figured it would come late Tuesday night into Wednesday morning; instead, it arrived just before 10 a.m. EDT. They had forecast it to be a level 1.

“It’s significantly stronger than expected,” Berger said. Forecasters had predicted a glancing blow instead of dead-on hit. Another theory is that the combination of the two storms made it worse, but it’s too early to tell if that’s so, he said.

The storm seemed to be weakening slightly, but that may not continue, and it could last all day, officials said. It has the potential to disrupt power grids but only temporarily. It also could cause degradation of the global positioning system, so tracking maps and locators may not be as precise as normal.

Often these types of storms come with bursts of radiation that can affect satellite operations, but this one has not, Berger said.

Biologists at the Mud Lake Wildlife Management Area near Terreton said about 20 eagles also were in the area, though it’s unclear if they were exposed.

According to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center, avian cholera spreads so quickly in infected birds that some with no previous signs of illness can die while in flight and fall out of the sky.

Health experts say humans are not at a high risk of infection from the bacteria that causes avian cholera.

Schmidt estimated that up to 10,000 snow geese pass through eastern Idaho each March to rest at its wildlife areas. They spend a week or two and make short flights to feed on waste grain in nearby wheat fields before continuing north.

He said Tuesday he had no reports of deaths of other snow geese from similar areas in other states.

Schmidt said among the dead birds was a dead trumpeter swan, which he said likely also died of avian cholera.

So far no damage has been reported. Two blasts of magnetic plasma left the sun on Sunday, combined and arrived on Earth about 15 hours earlier and much stronger than expected, said Thomas Berger, director of the Space Weather Prediction Center in Boulder, Colorado.

This storm ranks a 4, called severe, on the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s 1-to-5 scale for geomagnetic effects. It is the strongest solar storm to blast Earth since the fall of 2013. It’s been nearly a decade since a level 5 storm, termed extreme, has hit Earth.

“The important thing is to quickly collect as many of the carcasses as possible, to prevent other birds from feeding on the infected birds,” Schmidt said.

Improves the health and lives of people affected by poverty, disaster, and civil unrest.

www.directrelief.org