Colorado Shooting: 71 Shot; 10 Bodies Remain In Theater
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said today that 71 people were shot and 12 have died in the attack early Friday morning at a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colo. Authorities are still identifying the dead, and 10 bodies remain in the theater.
Oates said James Eagen Holmes, 24, is the suspect. Police arrested Holmes by his car, which was parked outside the back entrance of the movie theater, within minutes of receiving the first 911 call. He did not put up a struggle. Holmes, who had just withdrawn from a neuroscience Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado Denver last month, was dressed in black and head-to-toe ballistic gear, including a helmet, vest, leggings and a groin protector. He was also wearing a gas mask. Oates wouldn't speculate on a motive.
"At this time we are confident he acted alone," Oates said.
Oates said Holmes had a speeding ticket in October 2011 but otherwise had no prior contact with police in Colorado. Police found a shotgun, an assault rifle and a handgun on Holmes and another handgun in his car, Oates said.
The police chief choked up when he said officers arrived on the scene a minute after the first 911 call, and that 200 officers eventually showed up, many of them personally driving victims to the hospital.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper also became emotional while discussing the mass shooting at the Friday afternoon press conference.
"There's not one of us who doesn't read or hear this story ... and think about it being your child in that movie theater," Hickenlooper said. "That reality makes the pain and grief too intense for words."
Hickenlooper called the shooter an "aberration of nature."
"It is an absolute horror," Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan said, thanking the first responders who tended to the victims. "We will always wish that no matter how much we did now that we had done more."
Oates said earlier today that Holmes' apartment is booby-trapped with a "sophisticated" maze of incendiary devices. "They're linked together with all kinds of wires," Oates said. It could take hours or days for authorities to disarm it. Five nearby buildings have been evacuated.
Holmes' family, who reside in San Diego, released a statement expressing their sorrow for the victims and asking for privacy. -By Liz Goodwin/Yahoo! News/Jul 20, 2012
Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said today that 71 people were shot and 12 have died in the attack early Friday morning at a midnight showing of "The Dark Knight Rises" in Aurora, Colo. Authorities are still identifying the dead, and 10 bodies remain in the theater.
Oates said James Eagen Holmes, 24, is the suspect. Police arrested Holmes by his car, which was parked outside the back entrance of the movie theater, within minutes of receiving the first 911 call. He did not put up a struggle. Holmes, who had just withdrawn from a neuroscience Ph.D. program at the University of Colorado Denver last month, was dressed in black and head-to-toe ballistic gear, including a helmet, vest, leggings and a groin protector. He was also wearing a gas mask. Oates wouldn't speculate on a motive.
"At this time we are confident he acted alone," Oates said.
Oates said Holmes had a speeding ticket in October 2011 but otherwise had no prior contact with police in Colorado. Police found a shotgun, an assault rifle and a handgun on Holmes and another handgun in his car, Oates said.
The police chief choked up when he said officers arrived on the scene a minute after the first 911 call, and that 200 officers eventually showed up, many of them personally driving victims to the hospital.
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper also became emotional while discussing the mass shooting at the Friday afternoon press conference.
"There's not one of us who doesn't read or hear this story ... and think about it being your child in that movie theater," Hickenlooper said. "That reality makes the pain and grief too intense for words."
Hickenlooper called the shooter an "aberration of nature."
"It is an absolute horror," Aurora Mayor Steve Hogan said, thanking the first responders who tended to the victims. "We will always wish that no matter how much we did now that we had done more."
Oates said earlier today that Holmes' apartment is booby-trapped with a "sophisticated" maze of incendiary devices. "They're linked together with all kinds of wires," Oates said. It could take hours or days for authorities to disarm it. Five nearby buildings have been evacuated.
Holmes' family, who reside in San Diego, released a statement expressing their sorrow for the victims and asking for privacy. -By Liz Goodwin/Yahoo! News/Jul 20, 2012
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Tampa Bay Strip Club Hires Sarah Palin Impersonator For GOP Convention
With the Republican convention around the corner a Tampa Bay strip club figured it would cater to the influx of conservatives by hiring a new batch of dancers including a Sarah Palin lookalike to headline. Of course.
Jezebel offers some of the details on the hire. The Palin impersonator is adult film star Lisa Ann who played Sarah Palin in several pornographic movies about Palin. In addition to the new hire, Tampa Bay strip clubs are upping capacity, setting up online chat rooms to that potential convention attendees can browse ahead of the convention and see the women they might want to watch dance in a month.
Of course the hire, and the dancer, is not directly affiliated with the convention. And really, hiring a Palin lookalike to dance for a bunch of Republican delegates and operatives is nothing if not a savvy business decision.
But the reason it’s a savvy business decision is because of the extent that Republicans, including Palin herself, objectify the former vice presidential nominee. The Palin impostor hire only works if her subject is seen as something less than an autonomous person, which about sums up conservatives views on women to start.
Plus, there’s something just so true about the image of a bunch of old white guys shoving money in the thong of a topless dancer who looks exactly like one of the “leaders” of the women in the conservative movement. I mean, really. Could we find a more perfect metaphor? -By Jessica Pieklo/Care2/July 24, 2012
With the Republican convention around the corner a Tampa Bay strip club figured it would cater to the influx of conservatives by hiring a new batch of dancers including a Sarah Palin lookalike to headline. Of course.
Jezebel offers some of the details on the hire. The Palin impersonator is adult film star Lisa Ann who played Sarah Palin in several pornographic movies about Palin. In addition to the new hire, Tampa Bay strip clubs are upping capacity, setting up online chat rooms to that potential convention attendees can browse ahead of the convention and see the women they might want to watch dance in a month.
Of course the hire, and the dancer, is not directly affiliated with the convention. And really, hiring a Palin lookalike to dance for a bunch of Republican delegates and operatives is nothing if not a savvy business decision.
But the reason it’s a savvy business decision is because of the extent that Republicans, including Palin herself, objectify the former vice presidential nominee. The Palin impostor hire only works if her subject is seen as something less than an autonomous person, which about sums up conservatives views on women to start.
Plus, there’s something just so true about the image of a bunch of old white guys shoving money in the thong of a topless dancer who looks exactly like one of the “leaders” of the women in the conservative movement. I mean, really. Could we find a more perfect metaphor? -By Jessica Pieklo/Care2/July 24, 2012
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'What?' Confused 911 Caller Outs NYPD Spying In NJ
It's an audiotape the New York Police Department hoped you would never hear.
A building superintendent at an apartment complex just off the Rutgers University campus called the New Brunswick Police 911 line in June 2009. He said his staff had been conducting a routine inspection and came across something suspicious.
"What's suspicious?" the dispatcher asked.
"Suspicious in the sense that the apartment has about — has no furniture except two beds, has no clothing, has New York City Police Department radios."
"Really?" the dispatcher asked, her voice rising with surprise.
The caller, Salil Sheth, had stumbled upon one of the NYPD's biggest secrets: a safe house, a place where undercover officers working well outside the department's jurisdiction could lie low and coordinate surveillance. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the NYPD, with training and guidance from the CIA, has monitored the activities of Muslims in New York and far beyond. Detectives infiltrated mosques, eavesdropped in cafes and kept tabs on Muslim student groups, including at Rutgers.
The NYPD kept files on innocent sermons, recorded the names of political organizers in police documents and built databases of where Muslims lived and shopped, even where they were likely to gather to watch sports. Out-of-state operations, like the one in New Brunswick, were one aspect of this larger intelligence-gathering effort. The Associated Press previously described the discovery of the NYPD inside the New Jersey apartment, but police now have released the tape of the 911 call and other materials after a legal fight.
"There's computer hardware, software, you know, just laying around," the caller continued. "There's pictures of terrorists. There's pictures of our neighboring building that they have."
"In New Brunswick?" the dispatcher asked, sounding as confused as the caller.
The AP requested a copy of the 911 tape last year. Under pressure from the NYPD, the New Brunswick Police Department refused. After the AP sued, the city this week turned over the tape and emails that described the NYPD's efforts to keep the recording a secret.
The call sent New Brunswick police and the FBI rushing to the apartment complex. Officers and agents were surprised at what they found. None had been told that the NYPD was in town.
At the NYPD, the bungled operation was an embarrassment. It made the department look amateurish and forced it to ask the FBI to return the department's materials.
The emails highlight the sometimes convoluted arguments the NYPD has used to justify its out-of-state activities, which have been criticized by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and some members of Congress. The NYPD has infiltrated and photographed Muslim businesses and mosques in New Jersey, monitored the Internet postings of Muslim college students across the Northeast and traveled as far away as New Orleans to infiltrate and build files on liberal advocacy groups.
In February, NYPD's deputy commissioner for legal matters, Andrew Schaffer, told reporters that detectives can operate outside New York because they aren't conducting official police duties.
"They're not acting as police officers in other jurisdictions," Schaffer said.
In trying to keep the 911 tape under wraps, however, the NYPD made no mention of the fact that its officers were not acting as police. In fact, Lt. Cmdr. William McGroarty and Assistant Chief Thomas Galati argued that releasing the recording would jeopardize investigations and endanger the people and buildings.
Further, the apartment, No. 1076, was rented by an undercover NYPD officer using a fake name that he was still using, New Brunswick attorneys told the AP.
"Such identification will place the safety of any officers identified, as well as the undercover operatives with whom they work, at risk," Galati wrote in a letter to New Brunswick.
The city deleted that name from the copy of the tape that it released.
Reached by phone Tuesday, McGroarty declined to discuss the New Brunswick operation. But the recording offers a glimpse inside the safe house: a small apartment with two computers, dozens of black plastic boxes and no furniture or clothes except one suit.
"And pictures of our neighboring buildings?" the dispatcher asked.
"Yes, the Matrix building," Sheth replied, referring to a local developer. "There's pictures of terrorists. There's literature on the Muslim religion."
New York authorities have encouraged people like Sheth to call 911. In its "Eight Signs of Terrorism," people are encouraged to call the police if they see evidence of surveillance, information gathering, suspicious activities or anything that looks out of place.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended the police department's right to go anywhere in the country in search of terrorists without telling local police. And New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa has said he's seen no evidence that the NYPD's efforts violated his state's laws.
Muslim groups, however, have sued to shut down the NYPD programs. Civil rights lawyers have asked a federal judge to decide whether the spying violates federal rules that were set up to prevent a repeat of NYPD abuses of the 1950s, when police Red Squads spied on student groups and activists in search of communists. -By Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo-Associated Press/Yahoo News/Jul 25, 2012
Hear the 911 call on YouTube
Hepatitis Outbreak In NH Strikes Fear In 7 Other States
Hospitals in at least eight states want to know how many hundreds or thousands of their patients have come in contact with a lab technician accused of spreading hepatitis C.
The man, David Kwiatkowski, has the disease, which can pass through contact with contaminated blood, most often via shared needles. Authorities say the Michigan native injected himself with painkillers meant for patients when he worked at Exeter Hospital and left the syringes for reuse.
He was arrested this month in New Hampshire in connection with spreading the disease at Exeter Hospital and has been charged with obtaining controlled substances by fraud and tampering with a consumer product, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. He is suspected of stealing Fentanyl, a powerful anesthetic that is substantially more potent than morphine, the affidavit said.
Thirty Exeter patients have been diagnosed with the same strain of hepatitis C that Kwiatkowski has. Now, officials want to be sure that outbreak has not spread past New England.
Kwiatkowski, 33, worked as a traveling medical technician on a contract basis for hospitals in Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan and New York in the last five years, hospitals and health officials in those states confirmed. U.S. Attorney John P. Kacavas in New Hampshire said he also worked in Pennsylvania.
Authorities in those states want patients who may have come in contact with the man to be tested for the disease. Kwiatkowski told authorities he found out he had hepatitis C in May 2012, but further investigation revealed he tested positive for the disease in June 2010. –Big Health Report/July 25, 2012
It's an audiotape the New York Police Department hoped you would never hear.
A building superintendent at an apartment complex just off the Rutgers University campus called the New Brunswick Police 911 line in June 2009. He said his staff had been conducting a routine inspection and came across something suspicious.
"What's suspicious?" the dispatcher asked.
"Suspicious in the sense that the apartment has about — has no furniture except two beds, has no clothing, has New York City Police Department radios."
"Really?" the dispatcher asked, her voice rising with surprise.
The caller, Salil Sheth, had stumbled upon one of the NYPD's biggest secrets: a safe house, a place where undercover officers working well outside the department's jurisdiction could lie low and coordinate surveillance. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, the NYPD, with training and guidance from the CIA, has monitored the activities of Muslims in New York and far beyond. Detectives infiltrated mosques, eavesdropped in cafes and kept tabs on Muslim student groups, including at Rutgers.
The NYPD kept files on innocent sermons, recorded the names of political organizers in police documents and built databases of where Muslims lived and shopped, even where they were likely to gather to watch sports. Out-of-state operations, like the one in New Brunswick, were one aspect of this larger intelligence-gathering effort. The Associated Press previously described the discovery of the NYPD inside the New Jersey apartment, but police now have released the tape of the 911 call and other materials after a legal fight.
"There's computer hardware, software, you know, just laying around," the caller continued. "There's pictures of terrorists. There's pictures of our neighboring building that they have."
"In New Brunswick?" the dispatcher asked, sounding as confused as the caller.
The AP requested a copy of the 911 tape last year. Under pressure from the NYPD, the New Brunswick Police Department refused. After the AP sued, the city this week turned over the tape and emails that described the NYPD's efforts to keep the recording a secret.
The call sent New Brunswick police and the FBI rushing to the apartment complex. Officers and agents were surprised at what they found. None had been told that the NYPD was in town.
At the NYPD, the bungled operation was an embarrassment. It made the department look amateurish and forced it to ask the FBI to return the department's materials.
The emails highlight the sometimes convoluted arguments the NYPD has used to justify its out-of-state activities, which have been criticized by New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and some members of Congress. The NYPD has infiltrated and photographed Muslim businesses and mosques in New Jersey, monitored the Internet postings of Muslim college students across the Northeast and traveled as far away as New Orleans to infiltrate and build files on liberal advocacy groups.
In February, NYPD's deputy commissioner for legal matters, Andrew Schaffer, told reporters that detectives can operate outside New York because they aren't conducting official police duties.
"They're not acting as police officers in other jurisdictions," Schaffer said.
In trying to keep the 911 tape under wraps, however, the NYPD made no mention of the fact that its officers were not acting as police. In fact, Lt. Cmdr. William McGroarty and Assistant Chief Thomas Galati argued that releasing the recording would jeopardize investigations and endanger the people and buildings.
Further, the apartment, No. 1076, was rented by an undercover NYPD officer using a fake name that he was still using, New Brunswick attorneys told the AP.
"Such identification will place the safety of any officers identified, as well as the undercover operatives with whom they work, at risk," Galati wrote in a letter to New Brunswick.
The city deleted that name from the copy of the tape that it released.
Reached by phone Tuesday, McGroarty declined to discuss the New Brunswick operation. But the recording offers a glimpse inside the safe house: a small apartment with two computers, dozens of black plastic boxes and no furniture or clothes except one suit.
"And pictures of our neighboring buildings?" the dispatcher asked.
"Yes, the Matrix building," Sheth replied, referring to a local developer. "There's pictures of terrorists. There's literature on the Muslim religion."
New York authorities have encouraged people like Sheth to call 911. In its "Eight Signs of Terrorism," people are encouraged to call the police if they see evidence of surveillance, information gathering, suspicious activities or anything that looks out of place.
New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has defended the police department's right to go anywhere in the country in search of terrorists without telling local police. And New Jersey Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa has said he's seen no evidence that the NYPD's efforts violated his state's laws.
Muslim groups, however, have sued to shut down the NYPD programs. Civil rights lawyers have asked a federal judge to decide whether the spying violates federal rules that were set up to prevent a repeat of NYPD abuses of the 1950s, when police Red Squads spied on student groups and activists in search of communists. -By Adam Goldman and Matt Apuzzo-Associated Press/Yahoo News/Jul 25, 2012
Hear the 911 call on YouTube
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Hepatitis Outbreak In NH Strikes Fear In 7 Other States
Hospitals in at least eight states want to know how many hundreds or thousands of their patients have come in contact with a lab technician accused of spreading hepatitis C.
The man, David Kwiatkowski, has the disease, which can pass through contact with contaminated blood, most often via shared needles. Authorities say the Michigan native injected himself with painkillers meant for patients when he worked at Exeter Hospital and left the syringes for reuse.
He was arrested this month in New Hampshire in connection with spreading the disease at Exeter Hospital and has been charged with obtaining controlled substances by fraud and tampering with a consumer product, according to an affidavit filed in federal court. He is suspected of stealing Fentanyl, a powerful anesthetic that is substantially more potent than morphine, the affidavit said.
Thirty Exeter patients have been diagnosed with the same strain of hepatitis C that Kwiatkowski has. Now, officials want to be sure that outbreak has not spread past New England.
Kwiatkowski, 33, worked as a traveling medical technician on a contract basis for hospitals in Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Maryland, Michigan and New York in the last five years, hospitals and health officials in those states confirmed. U.S. Attorney John P. Kacavas in New Hampshire said he also worked in Pennsylvania.
Authorities in those states want patients who may have come in contact with the man to be tested for the disease. Kwiatkowski told authorities he found out he had hepatitis C in May 2012, but further investigation revealed he tested positive for the disease in June 2010. –Big Health Report/July 25, 2012
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