N.H. police commissioner slurs Obama

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Residents of a small New Hampshire town are calling for the resignation of a police commissioner who acknowledges using a racial slur toward President Obama.
 
"I believe I did use the 'N' word in reference to the current occupant of the Whitehouse," Robert Copeland said in an e-mail to his fellow police commissioners after a resident complained. "For this, I do not apologize — he meets and exceeds my criteria for such."
 
Resident Jane O'Toole, who said she overheard Copeland using the slur at a restaurant in March, told the commission at a meeting this week: "Comments like these, especially coming from a public official, are not only inexcusable but also terribly, unfortunately, reflects poorly on our town."
 
About 100 residents attended the meeting to call for the resignation of Copeland, 82, who is white.
 
From the Associated Press:
 
"Copeland, who has declined to be interviewed, is one of three members of the police commission, which hires, fires and disciplines officers and sets their salaries. He ran unopposed for re-election and secured another three-year term on March 11.
 
"About 20 black people live in Wolfeboro, a town of 6,300 residents in the scenic Lakes Region, in the central part of New Hampshire, a state that's 94 percent white and 1 percent black. None of the town police department's 12 full-time officers is black or a member of another minority."

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Police: Woman kept in booby-trapped home as sex slave

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TWIN FALLS, Idaho — An Idaho man is accused of keeping a woman as a sex slave for 18 months in a home that was boarded up and booby trapped with electrical wire, authorities said.
 
Oscar Ayala-Arizmendi, 36, was charged with first-degree kidnapping, rape and possession of a controlled substance, according to the (Twin Falls, Idaho) Times-News. Bail was set Wednesday in Twin Falls County Magistrate Court at $1 million and likely will be moved to 5th District Court.
 
The 27-year-old woman escaped April 8 from a house in Buhl, a town of about 5,000 residents, and made a report April 26 after she was arrested on a drug charge and in jail, authorities say. The victim is not being identified because of the nature of the accusations.
 
She told police that Ayala-Arizmendi forced her to use methamphetamine, sometimes held a gun to her head, beat her with a 2-by-4, and often placed a rope around her neck to lead her around the house like a dog. The suspect moved her to two houses in the town and raped her multiple times.
 
She tried to escape several times, which resulted in additional beatings, and was able to get out successfully only with the help of her brother and three other people, Detective John Koning of the Twin Falls County Sheriff's Office said Thursday.
 
The suspect also threatened to "cut her up into small pieces and flush her down the toilet" if she attempted to leave the house, according to police documents. But at times, three or four, she told police that she was allowed to leave the house but would then return under the threat of harm or death.
 
Twin Falls County Prosecutor Grant Loebs said Thursday that following the woman's report, police worked for the next 2½ weeks to collect enough evidence to make the arrest.
 
Buhl, about 15 miles west of Twin Falls and 120 miles southeast of Boise, is better known for trout fishing than sex crimes. Officials reported two rapes to the FBI's National Incident-Based Reporting System in 2012, the most recent year available, and had not had any reported rapes in 2010 or 2011.
 
Authorities searched Ayala-Arizmendi's house Tuesday near U.S. 30 and reported finding chains and locks mounted to walls and floors, chains on exterior doors, a handgun, and an electrical wire system intended to shock anyone trying to escape.
 
Ben Andersen, Ayala-Arizmendi's public defender, did not immediately return a call Thursday from The Associated Press.
 
At night the victim reported that Ayala-Arizmendi would lock the two of them in a bedroom made secure with a metal gate fastened and locked to the inside of the door. She said she was forced to use a wastebasket as a toilet.
 
Detectives found a metal waste can with urine in it when they searched the house Tuesday, Koning said.
 
The house also had security cameras mounted around it with monitors in the bedroom, the detective said.
 
Ayala-Arizmendi's next court appearance is scheduled for May 23. U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials also are investigating Ayala-Arizmendi's legal status in this country.
 
Contributing: The Associated Press

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Some residents return home as fires still rage in California

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Some people are returning home to face a charred landscape Friday near the area of a string of dangerous wildfires in San Diego County.
 
County officials said residents of two neighborhoods in a suburb north of the city were allowed to return home as crews build containment lines around the fires with the hope that cooler temperatures will slow the spread.
 
A flare-up Thursday in the suburb of San Marcos forced new evacuation notices to more than 18,000 homes as flames raced through tinder-dry brush on hillsides. That fire was 10% contained Friday morning.
 
Nine fires have destroyed at least eight houses, an 18-unit condominium complex and two businesses since Tuesday. The hardest-hit areas were in San Marcos and Carlsbad, a suburb of 110,000 people that lifted evacuation orders late Thursday.Police are investigating the causes of the fires.
 
Two teens were arrested Thursday evening after police say they started at least two brush fires in San Diego's Escondido area, as a number of larger fires rage across the county.
 
Police arrested 19-year-old Isaiah Silva of Escondido and a 17-year-old juvenile on suspicion of attempted arson after a witness unsuccessfully tried to chase the teens, who were on bicycles, NBC San Diego reports.
 
Lt. Neal Griffin of Escondido police said investigators could not yet connect them to any of the larger fires currently burning across the county that have have driven tens of thousands from their homes and shut down schools and amusement parks.
 
A red flag warning, which means that critical fire weather conditions are either occurring now or will shortly, are in effect in Hanford, Oxnard and San Diego, according to the National Weather Service.
 
Flames have charred more than 15 square miles and caused more than $20 million in damage.
 
Firefighters found a badly burned body Thursday in a transient camp in Carlsbad — the first apparent fatality — and a Camp Pendleton Fire Department firefighter was treated for heat exhaustion while battling a blaze on the Marine base.
 
The fires are fed by brush and trees left brittle by prolonged drought. They are also being whipped by a Santa Ana wind system that reverses the normal flow of wind from the Pacific Ocean and creates tinderbox fire conditions.
 
A wildfire burned across the hills in San Marcos.
 
Tourists coming to San Diego face a somewhat surreal situation. "The view of the fires on the fly in was a little bit terrifying," said Sam Pfeifle, who lives in Maine.
 
"It's also unsettling to show up at your in-laws only to find that their bags are packed in anticipation of being evacuated," he said.
 
Pfeifle's family spent the day at the beach Thursday, which was packed because many schools were closed due to the fires. But "other than some haze from the smoke" everything appeared normal. "Hate to think of people having their homes burn down not far away," he said.
 
As of Thursday, for the first time this century, the entire state of California is in a severe drought – or worse. The three worst levels of drought are severe, extreme and exceptional: 100% of the state is now in one of those three categories: (23.31% severe, 51.92.% extreme and 24.77% exceptional.)
 
A flare-up Thursday prompted 18,400 new evacuation notices in and around San Marcos, a north San Diego, suburb. But with cooler temperatures forecast, there was an overwhelming sense that far more damage could have been inflicted on a region of more than 3 million people.
 
It could take months to find the causes of the blazes concentrated in the northern San Diego and its northern suburbs, from the coast to areas 10 to 15 miles inland.
 
San Diego County Sheriff Bill Gore said arson will be among the many possibilities that investigators will look at in trying to determine what caused nine fires to break out during a heat wave, including eight in one day.
 
Contributing: Beth Weise in San Francisco; Doyle Rice in McLean, Va.; Associated Press

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Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Iran ‘shares nuclear technology’ with N. Korea: Netanyahu

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Tokyo (AFP) – Iran is sharing nuclear technology with North Korea, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview published Wednesday, as Tehran and world powers hold talks aimed at ending a decade-old standoff.

Netanyahu, who is in Japan this week for talks with Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida, said Iran "would share whatever technology it acquired with North Korea," the Mainichi Shimbun reported in a front-page piece.

Asked if Pyongyang is receiving technologies linked to nuclear and missile development from Iran, Netanyahu said: "Yes, that's exactly the case."

North Korea's nuclear and ballistic missile programme is one of Japan's major security concerns.

Despite international isolation and extensive sanctions, North Korea appears to be readying to carry out a fourth nuclear test, observers have said, and regularly makes noises about the weaponisation of its technology.

While being at the leading edge of Pyongyang's isolation, resource-poor Japan has maintained friendly relations with oil-rich Iran through its years of ostracism, keeping up a diplomatic dialogue that many developed countries cut off decades ago.

Late Tuesday, during a meeting with Kishida, Netanyahu called both Iran and North Korea "rogue" states.

"We see a danger and a challenge posed by a rogue state arming itself with nuclear weapons. In your case it's North Korea," he said.

"We are faced with such a rogue state in the form of Iran and its quest to develop nuclear weapons," he said.

"Iran continues to deceive the world and advance its nuclear programme," he said, adding "Clearly the Ayatollahs cannot be trusted."

"And if the international community wants to avoid the spectre of nuclear terrorism, they must assure that Iran… not have the capability to develop nuclear weapons," he said.

Kishida however "stressed…the importance of support by the international community including Israel to the framework of talks" between Iran and five UN nuclear powers plus Germany, the foreign ministry said in a statement.

Abe also made a similar comment on Monday.

Tehran insists its nuclear programme is intended only to generate power for civilian purposes.

Iran and the five permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany are meeting in Vienna for a latest round of talks aimed at drafting the text of a comprehensive and potentially historic deal.

An accord would see Tehran's atomic programme drastically reduced, and sanctions lifted on its lifeblood oil exports in return

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Third body recovered in deadly hot-air balloon crash

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The University of Richmond grieved Sunday even as its graduation ceremony went on after two of the school's key athletic figures died in a hot-air balloon accident Friday.
 
The university confirmed that associate head women's basketball coach Ginny Doyle and Natalie Lewis, head of women's basketball operations, were killed when the balloon caught fire and crashed Friday night in Virginia's Caroline County.
 
Balloon pilot Daniel Kirk, a retired Army lieutenant colonel who served in the military for 37 years, also died. Kirk had more than 30 years of ballooning experience, according to his father.
 
Searchers found the remains of the last victim at 11 a.m. Sunday about 100 yards from where a second body was found Saturday.
 
The finding came just hours before the University of Richmond's 2014 graduation ceremony.
 
"As alumnae, classmates, and colleagues — and as invaluable and devoted mentors for our student-athletes — Ginny and Natalie have been beloved members of our community," President Edward Ayers said in a written statement. "Their leadership and friendship will endure in the lives of so many."
 
Doyle, 44, earned all-conference honors twice as a Richmond basketball player and held the NCAA women's record with 66 consecutive free throws until 2011. Before becoming associate coach at Richmond, she was an assistant college coach at Rhode Island and East Carolina.
 
"Words cannot begin to express our sorrow," said Keith Gill, director of athletics. "We are all stunned by the tragic news. Our thoughts and prayers go out to their loved ones."
 
A spokeswoman for Lewis' family, Julie Snyder, called Lewis "an amazing person and a strong person, an athlete engaged to be married."
 
Lewis, 24, swam for the University of Richmond and was a two-time team captain. After graduating in 2011, she was hired to direct the school's women's basketball operations, according to The Buffalo News. Lewis had been a star swimmer at Buffalo's Nardin Academy before being awarded an athletic scholarship at Richmond. Scott Vanderzell, her former coach with the Tonawanda Titans swimming program, said Lewis "was one of the elite swimmers to come out of western New York.
 
The incident happened after several hot-air balloons took off from Meadow Event Park, about 25 miles north of Richmond, as part of a preview of the Mid-Atlantic Balloon Festival on Saturday. Two balloons landed safely, but as Kirk's balloon attempted to land, it struck a power line and burst into flames.
 
"It contacted power lines, caught on fire and crashed in a wooded area," said Peter Knudson, a spokesman for the National Transportation Safety Board.
 
An air-safety investigator with the National Transportation Safety Board said a preliminary report on the crash would be released in 10 days. Heidi Moats of the NTSB said investigators were seeking records on the balloon and the pilot.
 
Steve Hoffmann, who said he built the Eagle balloon that Kirk was piloting in Doswell and taught him to fly, called Kirk "one of the nicest guys in the world" and a consummate professional.
 
"He was not a hot dog, not a risk taker," Hoffmann said. "It's so unbelievable that everyone's in shock."
 
Hoffmann said he was shocked when he learned Kirk was the pilot of the balloon that crashed.
 
"He was very careful," Hoffmann said. "Something definitely went wrong. This is not the kind of flying Dan would do."
 
Saturday's festival was canceled.
 
Twenty balloonists from the Mid-Atlantic region had been set to participate in the weekend event, said Greg Hicks, a spokesman for Meadow Event Park.
 
"It's just a shocking situation for everyone," Hicks said.
 
Based on witness accounts, Kirk tried to regain control of the balloon and manage the fire. Witnesses recall hearing an explosion, and the fire continued to spread. The basket and the balloon then separated.
 
"As soon as we looked up, the thing blew up right there," witness Debra Ferguson told The Free Lance-Star of Fredericksburg, Va. "All I heard was, 'Oh my God, Oh my God,' and all you saw was the top of the balloon still flying, but all of the basket was gone. All of the flames just disappeared. … It was like a match — poof — and then it was gone."
 
Carrie Hager-Bradley said she saw the balloon in flames on her way home from the grocery store and heard people yelling, according to WWBT-TV.
 
"They were just screaming for anybody to help them," the station quoted her as saying. "'Help me, help me, sweet Jesus, help. I'm going to die. Oh my God, I'm going to die,'" Hager-Bradley said she heard one person screaming.
 
There have been hundreds of hot-air balloon accidents in the U.S. and overseas, according to records from the National Transportation Safety Board.
 
The majority aren't fatal. However, in February 2013, at least 19 people died after a hot-air balloon flying over Luxor, Egypt's city of pyramids, caught fire and plunged down into a sugar cane field.
 
"Ballooning is normally a very safe, routine activity," Glen Moyer, editor of Ballooning magazine, the in-house publication of the 2,200-member Balloon Federation of America, said after the Luxor crash. "It's an activity that thousands of people participate in all the time and do so safely."
 
Troy Bradley, former president of the Balloon Federation of America, said most serious balloon accidents — including fires, electrocution and baskets becoming severed — happen after hitting power lines. Most of the time it's due to pilot error, he said.
 
In the U.S., hot-air balloons — which use propane gas to heat the air that rises into the balloon and lifts it — are built to standards approved by the FAA, Moyer said. In order to get a license, pilots must demonstrate a proficiency in emergency skills as well as the ability to operate the balloon. They must go through a flight review every two years, he said.
 
Contributing: Robin Webb, Laura Petrecca, Donna Leinwand Leger and the Associated Press

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Drone demonstration shows off industry’s capabilities

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KENNEDY SPACE CENTER, Fla. — Buzzing like a mechanical insect, the black Hexcopter used its six whirring propellers to hover and zoom above a grassy field, providing emergency officials a set of airborne optical and infrared eyeballs.
 
"He's flying over this disaster site here to the west, taking a look. He's seeing a body lying on the ground, a bicycle and the potential for hazmat. So he's videotaping all that," explained Justin Dee, an operator with Prioria Robotics, the Gainesville, Fla., firm that developed the drone.
 
Mission accomplished, the 14-pound, 46-inch wide Hexcopter slowly settled onto the grass near Dee's tent, landing in autopilot mode after a successful exhibition flight.
 
Sunday, 10 robotics teams showed off the capabilities of their unmanned aircraft during a series of demonstration flights at Exploration Park at Kennedy Space Center. Sponsored by Space Florida, the event kicked off the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International trade show, which continues through Thursday at the Orange County Convention Center.
 
The association predicts that the drone industry will create nearly 104,000 jobs nationwide by 2025, assuming that the Federal Aviation Administration integrates unmanned aircraft into the national airspace system. Projected economic impact is more than $82 billion from 2015-25.
 
"The past history of drones has been all military defense kind of stuff. Now, they're looking at getting into precision agriculture. Japan's been using the Yamaha helicopter to cropdust crops for years," said Joe Brannan, director of the association's Florida Peninsula chapter.
 
"They can find the diseased (orange) trees so the farmer can go cut those out and not affect the rest of his trees. You can use them to count manatees, gators, wildlife. You can use them for forest fire spotting. You can use them to find lost people," Brannan said.
 
"Then of course, you've got what shows up in the press about Amazon wanting to deliver packages with it. The commercial applications are out there, just waiting for an industry to get started. The biggest issue, of course, is getting the airspace," he said.
 
In March, a US Airways jet nearly collided with a camouflage-painted drone above Tallahassee (Fla.) Regional Airport.
 
"We've had that overseas in military applications many times," Brannan said of the incident. "The capability of putting one of these things up with a camera or an imager to look for stuff is invaluable. But then, you've got to be able to mix it in with other aircraft."
 
Sunday's drone demos utilized mannequins, gas grills that generated infrared signatures, and other props.
 
Northern Virginia OmniVersatile Solutions of Manassas, Va., showed off its camera-equipped N-Cognito airplane with a 75-inch wingspan and cruising speed of 30 mph. Packages of three aircraft and "ground station" electronics for a human operator range from $50,000 to $70,000, said Mark Gillespie, the company's CEO.
 
NV-OS is developing a system that will fly its aircraft using an Xbox 360 controller, Gillespie said.
 
Neale also reports for Florida Today.
 
Drone economic impact
 
States projected to gain the most jobs and revenue in the drone industry from 2015-2025:
 
1. California
 
2. Washington
 
3. Texas
 
4. Florida
 
5. Arizona
 
6. Connecticut
 
7. Kansas
 
8. Virginia
 
9. New York
 
10. Pennsylvania
 
Source: Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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US: National parks say no to personal drones

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ZION NATIONAL PARK, Utah — A growing number of national parks are taking steps to prohibit the use of drones on park property, a move that has some drone users concerned.
 
A recent incident here in which an unmanned aerial system was seen separating several young bighorn sheep from adults in the herd spurred park officials to make it clear their use is illegal.
 
"If the young can't find their way back to their parents they could actually die," said Aly Baltrus, chief of interpretation for Zion National Park in Utah.
 
Baltrus said that incident was only the most recent issue of the private use of drones. Rangers regularly report one to four drone sightings per week, she said.
 
Both Zion and Grand Canyon National Park have gone through the process of reviewing the use of unmanned aircraft in their respective parks and have officially banned their use, said Jeffrey Olson, spokesman for the National Park Service.
 
While there are not yet specific regulations regarding drones for all U.S. National Parks Service properties, use of drones at a park is considered a "new recreational use" and as such is not allowed under existing policy, Olson said, adding that the park service expects to issue guidance to all park superintendents in the near future.
 
Jim Bowers, an artist and drone pilot from Colfax, Calif., says he has used his unmanned aerial system to create videos of various national parks, including Yosemite, for his YouTube channel, Demunseed. He said the park regulations are unfair to artists.
 
"I'm creating artwork and trying to document the beauty and majesty of that nature for people around the world who might not ever get to see it," said Bowers. "They're obviously using this rule to keep us grounded."
 
He called the regulations "gray areas" because they were written for full-size aircraft rather than drones or radio-controlled models.
 
Yet he also said he understands some of the concerns held by park officials and would not want to adversely affect the experience of others visiting the park or disturb wildlife. While there are some "bad apples" among drone pilots, Bowers said most of them are responsible and would not approach wildlife.
 
"There are good drones and there are bad drones," he said, adding that he is director of a group that uses drones to assist with search and rescue missions.
 
California's Yosemite National Park is the latest to make it clear drones are not allowed. On May 2, park officials issued an advisory to visitors that drones are prohibited within that park's boundaries.
 
Dana Soehn, spokeswoman for Great Smoky Mountains National Park on the border of Tennessee and North Carolina, said her park has the same interpretation of the rule Yosemite is using to ban drone flights in the park.
 
"We have to be very concerned about that visitor experience in some of these more crowded areas," she said.
 
In Zion, visitors have complained about feeling unsafe as drones buzzed through slot canyons and flew over their heads along the precipitous Angels Landing Trail, where hikers hold tight to chains while ascending a ridge with long drops on both sides. There are additional regulations concerning drone flights in Zion because 84% of the park is designated as wilderness.
 
The wilderness designation also affects Yellowstone National Park, which has many areas where mechanical use is prohibited, said park spokesman Al Nash. Nash said Yellowstone already has a regulation that prohibits the landing of any kind of aerial vehicle in the park without the park's permission, he said.
 
Nash added there have been requests to use unmanned aerial systems in conjunction with film permits in the park and those requests have been denied.
 
"There's ongoing discussion much broader than Yellowstone about the status of unmanned aerial systems," Nash said.
 
The National Park Service has used unmanned aircraft on a limited official basis for remote research projects in Hawaii's Haleakala National Park, Washington's Olympic National Park and California's Mojave National Preserve, Olson said. Unmanned aircraft also were used to monitor a fire in Yosemite last year.
 
While Bowers understands the various concerns held by park officials, he does not think outright bans are the way to go.
 
"I don't agree with them banning the flights completely, only because they're missing the great opportunity to document the area, the wildlife, the park itself, from a whole new perspective," he said.
 
Passey also reports for The (St. George, Utah) Spectrum

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Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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Activists protest university’s bid for Obama library

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A long-running battle in President Obama's old Chicago neighborhood is winding its way into the competition over the future Obama presidential library.
 
A group of young Chicago activists are arguing that the University of Chicago — a leading candidate to host the library and museum — should be ruled out unless it takes action to restore adult trauma care at its medical center.
 
The lack of an adult trauma center at the hospital has been a perennial source of tension between the elite university and the predominantly African-American community surrounding the campus since the university medical center shuttered its unit in 1988, citing financial pressures.
 
With universities in Chicago, Honolulu and New York preparing to submit their bids for the Obama library before next month's deadline, activists from a group known as the Trauma Center Coalition have begun a campaign to raise questions about the suitability of the University of Chicago to host the library.
 
The activists note that Obama made access to health care and stemming gun violence focal points of his presidency and argue that he shouldn't reward the university they charge has neglected the needs of a community that is at the epicenter of gun violence in the city that saw more than 400 murders last year.
 
"Mr. Obama has worked hard to try to raise awareness about gun violence and the issues facing young black males in places like the south side," said Victoria Crider, 18, an organizer with Fearless Leading by the Youth. "The University of Chicago has done nothing at all to provide resources to solve the epidemic of violence on the South Side."
 
Officials at Chicago State University, the University of Illinois-Chicago, Columbia University in New York and the University of Hawaii have also indicated that they will submit proposals for the library. But the University of Chicago has deep personal connections to the Obama family and is widely seen as the front-runner to win the library.
 
First lady Michelle Obama grew up on the city's South Side and was an executive at the University of Chicago Medical Center before moving to Washington in 2009 when her husband began his presidency. The president also spent several years as a constitutional law professor at the university. And the university's bid for the library is being assisted by Susan Sher, a former chief of staff to the first lady.
 
University of Chicago spokesman Jeremy Manier suggested the activists' push to link the trauma center to the library bid was out of step with the broad enthusiasm on the South Side to win the library for Chicago.
 
"Efforts by a group of protesters to link the library to unrelated issues do not reflect the widespread support of the community," Manier said.
 
The university has also pushed back against suggestions by activists that it has turned a blind eye to the issue of violence in the neighborhoods surrounding the university and medical center. The medical center has sponsored a series of projects aimed at stemming gun violence and has collaborated with other groups to address links between gun violence and teen depression.
 
The university medical center, which faced demonstrations last year over the trauma care issue as it opened a new $700 million facility, has held the position that it can't afford to take on adult trauma care on its own.
 
"The University of Chicago contributes critical medical services that are available nowhere else on the South Side, including the area's only burn unit, a pediatric trauma center and a neonatal intensive-care unit," Manier said. "Shifting extensive resources to create an additional trauma center could reduce the medical center's ability to provide other life-saving services."
 
But activists dismiss the university's fiscal reasoning. The medical center's endowment stood at $782 million at the end of the last fiscal year.
 
"The university is not the type of institution that is so cash-strapped that they have to make a choice between scarce resources," said Emilio Comay del Junco, a University of Chicago Ph.D. student and Trauma Center Coalition activist. "They have the resources."
 
Chicago has six trauma centers within the city limits — all on the west and north sides of the city — providing trauma care to roughly 3 million people. But gun violence in Chicago occurs most frequently on the west and south sides of the city.
 
A 2013 study published in the American Journal of Public Health that looked at a decade's worth of data from the Chicago area found that those suffering gunshot wounds more than five miles from a trauma center were more likely to die from their injuries.
 
Crider, the youth organizer, says the 2010 shooting death of fellow activist Damian Turner, 18, illustrates the need for adult trauma care at the University of Chicago.
 
Turner was gravely wounded just blocks from the medical center. But the injuries were so severe, the Chicago Fire Department paramedics had to drive Turner about nine miles north to the Northwestern Memorial Hospital's adult trauma care center, where he died from his wounds.
 
Rep. Bobby Rush, a Democratic lawmaker who represents a large swath of the city's South Side in Washington, has called the area the "number one trauma desert" in the country and has pushed for more federal money for trauma care.
 
The issue is one that resonates deeply with the veteran lawmaker. Rush's son Huey Rich, 29, was shot just a few miles from the University of Chicago Medical Center in 1999. He was transported to the nearest trauma center, which ended up being a hospital several miles away in the south suburbs of the city, where he died four days later.
 
Rush told USA TODAY that "the U of C has the capabilities to bring" a trauma center to the South Side and "as a major hospital should respond to its community needs."
 
But the congressman, who successfully beat back a primary challenge from Obama in 2000, suggested in a written statement that he opposes mixing the campaign for adult trauma care with the university's bid to win the library.
 
The "effort to help bring jobs and economic activity to this area should be considered separately from the issue of trauma care as our community is also suffering from a dearth of economic activity," Rush said.

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Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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US: Secret Service units patrolled aide’s neighborhood

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Read Time:2 Minute, 25 Second
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Secret Service acknowledged Sunday that patrol units conducted "welfare'' checks at the home of an employee who feared for her safety in a neighborhood dispute, but the agency disputed reports that it had drawn investigative assets away from the White House.
 
Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said daily patrols were sent to the employee's home during the 2011 Fourth of July weekend while the president was at Camp David.
 
Donovan said the units were drawn from the agency's so-called "Prowler'' unit, which he said are not part of the White House's protective detail.
 
"A Washington field office vehicle, an investigative asset, was used to do these periodic checks,'' Donovan said. "Because there were no protective assets used during these checks, there was no impact on protective operations.''
 
The patrols were first disclosed by the Washington Post, which reported that the checks went on for about two months at the rural Maryland home of Lisa Chopey, then an aide to former Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan, and included more elaborate surveillance of the neighborhood. Chopey could not be reached for comment Sunday.
 
The Secret Service, however, maintains that the patrols lasted only four days during the holiday weekend and involved brief "drive-by'' checks on the employee's welfare.
 
"Prowler has no specific assignment or protective function during movements by any protectees,'' Donovan said, adding that the units are often directed to interview suspects and witnesses and assist other area law enforcement officers.
 
"Prowler is not part of any protective plan,'' he said.
 
The disclosures come following a series of incidents that have raised questions about the conduct of agents and the agency's leadership.
 
In March, three agents were sent back to the USA in advance of President Obama's trip to the Netherlands after a night of heavy drinking in which one of the agents passed out in a hotel hallway.
 
Two years ago, the agency was rocked by a prostitution and drinking scandal involving several agents in Cartagena, Colombia, while preparing for a presidential visit there.
 
Secret Service Director Julia Pierson, the first woman to serve as the agency's director when she was appointed in 2013, was chief of staff to Sullivan when the patrols were authorized. But an agency official said that neither Sullivan nor Pierson was involved in directing the welfare checks.
 
Nevertheless, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers, R-Mich., said Sunday that the new disclosures raise new questions about the agency's leadership.
 
"They are going to have some explaining to do,'' Rogers said on CBS' Face the Nation.
 

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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‘Game of Thrones’ episode recap: Tyrion Lannister on trial

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Read Time:2 Minute, 1 Second
In this episode of HBO's Game of Thrones, Tyrion Lannister is on trial for the murder of King Joffrey.
 
Witness after witness tell stories against Tyrion. Cersei's testimony is particularly brutal. Lord Varys also condemns him.
 
Jaime, meanwhile, begs for his father Tywin to allow Tyrion to live and Jaime will continue the Lannister lineage. Tywin accepts the plan for Jaime to take a wife at Casterly Rock. Tyrion would be sent to the Night's Watch.
 
All seems well until Shae (Tyrion's ex-lover) gives a particularly disheartening testimony. She lies boldly about a plan between Sansa and Tyrion to kill Joffrey. Her utter betrayal leads Tyrion to lose hope and snap.
 
"I did not do it. I did not kill Joffrey but I wish that I had. Watching your vicious bastard die gave me more relief than a thousand lying whores," he says.
 
"I wish I was the monster you think I am. I wish I had enough poison for the whole pack of you. I would gladly give my life to watch you all swallow it."
 
He tells his father he is not on trial for the death of Joffrey. He is on trial for being a dwarf. Seeing that he won't get justice in the courtroom, he requests a trial by combat. Woah!
 
Here are some other developments from the episode:
 
•Davos and Stannis sailed to Bravos in an effort to get money for soldiers from the Iron Bank. With the money attained, Davos uses it to pay for pirate Salladhor Saan.
 
•Danaerys assumed the duties of queen ruling over Meereen. There she is confronted with the son of a crucified master, who asks for the right to have his father properly buried. The son explains to Danaerys how her "justice" for the slaves caused her father pain. She accepts his request.
 
• When Yara Greyjoy and her crew attempt to rescue brother Theon, they find a completely different person. Theon refuses to leave with them, saying that he is Reek. After a fight breaks out with the sadistic Ramsay, Yara decides to leave. She says her brother is dead. For his good work, Ramsay gives Theon a warm bath and asks for a favor: Can Reek pretend to be Theon Greyjoy?

About Post Author

Anthony-Claret Ifeanyi Onwutalobi

Anthony-Claret is a software Engineer, entrepreneur and the founder of Codewit INC. Mr. Claret publishes and manages the content on Codewit Word News website and associated websites. He's a writer, IT Expert, great administrator, technology enthusiast, social media lover and all around digital guy.
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