Saturday, March 26, 2016

Brussels attacks: Man charged with terrorist offences

11:15:00 AM By

Belgian prosecutors have charged a man with terrorist offences, in connection with Tuesday's attacks in Brussels that left 31 dead, including three bombers.
He was named as Faycal C and was arrested on Thursday.
At least half the victims died at the airport, the rest in an attack on the metro in suicide bombings claimed by so-called Islamic State (IS).
Zaventem - Brussels international airport - will not reopen before Tuesday, authorities have announced.
Meanwhile a demonstration against the attacks, planned for Sunday in central Brussels, has been cancelled after a request from the authorities. 
Organisers said people's security was a top priority.

Belgian prosecutors said that Faycal C had been detained outside the prosecutor's office in Brussels on Thursday. A search of his home had found no weapons.
Faycal C was charged with "participation in the activities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempted terrorist murders," a statement said.
It gave no further details and made no comment on Belgian media reports that he was the third man in an airport CCTV image that showed the two suicide bombers - Najim Laachraoui on the left, and Brahim el-Bakraoui. Belgian media say the third man is Faycal Cheffou, a freelance journalist.
The third man, wearing a hat and pale jacket, also had luggage packed with explosives. However he was said to have fled without detonating his device. It was detonated in a controlled explosion once the departures hall was cleared.
Brahim el-Bakraoui's brother Khalid carried out the Maelbeek metro attack. 

French 'plot'

Faycal C was among 12 people arrested on Thursday and Friday in police raids in Belgium, France and Germany.
Four days before the Brussels attacks, the key suspect in the 13 November Paris attacks which killed 130 people, Salah Abdeslam, was detained in a raid in Brussels. Police said he was initially co-operative.
But Belgian Justice Minister Koen Geens later confirmed in parliament that Abdeslam "no longer wants to talk since [Tuesday's] attacks" in Brussels.

Other arrests confirmed by prosecutors include:

  • A man named as Rabah N, who has been charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group. This followed the arrest on Friday in a Paris suburb of Reda Kriket, 34, who was alleged to be in the "advanced stage" of plotting an attack
  • A man named as Abubakar A had been placed under arrest and charged with participation in the activities of a terrorist group, prosecutors said
  • Another man who was detained after being shot in the legs at a Brussels tram stop on Friday was Abderamane A, whose detention has been extended

Security measures

Separately, Brussels airport authorities said the "investigative work related to the judicial inquiry into the airport terminal has been completed" but that passenger activity could not resume before Tuesday.
Airport engineers and technicians are getting access to the terminal for the first time since the attack.
They will assess the damage and stability of the building. The airport authorities will also put new security measures in place.
The check-in area suffered severe damage when two blasts seconds apart hit opposite ends of the departures hall.
In addition to the dead, 340 people were injured. One hundred and one remain in hospital, of whom 62 are in intensive care.
In his weekly address on Saturday, US President Barack Obama paid his respects to the victims and said attempts to stigmatise Muslim-Americans should be rejected.
Meanwhile, US singer Mariah Carey has cancelled a concert scheduled for Brussels on Sunday, citing security concerns.
In a separate development, Belgian prosecutors denied the murder of a security official at the Fleurus nuclear research centre was a terrorist act, the Belga news agency reported. 
Links between Paris and Brussels attacks graphic

San Francisco mayor bans city workers from traveling to North Carolina

11:12:00 AM By

San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee said in a statement Friday he doesn’t want any city workers to travel to North Carolina unless necessary in wake of its legislation which blocks anti-discrimination for gay, lesbian and transgender people.
“We are standing united as San Franciscans to condemn North Carolina’s new discriminatory law that turns back the clock on protecting the rights of all Americans including lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender individuals,” Lee said in the statement.
“Effective immediately, I am directing City Departments under my authority to bar any publicly-funded City employee travel to the State of North Carolina that is not absolutely essential to public health and safety.”
North Carolina Gov. Pat McCrory signed a bill this week to void a Charlotte ordinance that would’ve provided protections against discrimination in public accommodations.
McCrory, who was the mayor of Charlotte for 14 years and had criticized the local ordinance, signed the legislation Wednesday night that he said was "passed by a bipartisan majority to stop this breach of basic privacy and etiquette."
Although 12 House Democrats joined all Republicans present in voting for the bill in the afternoon Wednesday, later all Senate Democrats in attendance walked off their chamber floor during the debate in protest. Remaining Senate Republicans gave the legislation unanimous approval.
"We choose not to participate in this farce," Senate Minority Leader Dan Blue of Raleigh said after he left the chamber.
The law also prevents other cities and counties from passing anti-discrimination rules and imposes a statewide standard that leaves out protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity, according to KTVU-TV.
Gay rights leaders and transgender people said the legislation demonizes the community and espouses bogus claims about increasing the risk of sexual assaults. They say the law will deny lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people essential protections needed to ensure they can get a hotel room, hail a taxi or dine at a restaurant without fear.
"McCrory's reckless decision to sign this appalling legislation into law is a direct attack on the rights, well-being and dignity of hundreds of thousands of LGBT North Carolinians and visitors to the state," Human Rights Campaign President Chad Griffin said in a statement. Civil liberties groups pledged to push for repeal and were weighing legal options
Charlotte Mayor Jennifer Roberts, who pressed to get the anti-discrimination ordinance approved, said she was appalled by the legislature's actions.
"The General Assembly is on the wrong side of progress. It is on the wrong side of history," Roberts said in a prepared statement. But McCrory said in a release "the basic expectation of privacy in the most personal of settings" was violated by "government overreach and intrusion" by Roberts and the city council.
Lee applauded Roberts in his statement Friday for taking “steps at the local level to protect gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people from discrimination. I also applaud Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed who is a champion for equality for all.”
Georgia is also embroiled in a religious liberty bill, which has passed the Georgia Legislature but Gov. Nathan Deal has yet to sign.
KTVU-TV reported that Facebook and Apple have expressed its displeasure with the North Carolina law.
The NBA has also mulled relocating its 2017 All-Star Game which was scheduled to be played in Charlotte. “[We] do not yet know what impact it will have on our ability to successfully host the 2017 All-Star Game in Charlotte,” the statement read. "The NBA is dedicated to creating an inclusive environment to all who attend our games and event," the association

5 things to watch in Saturday's Democratic contests

11:10:00 AM By


(CNN)The Democratic primary race heads west this weekend -- way, way out west. 
Democrats will hold presidential contests in Hawaii, Alaska and Washington state on Saturday, three states expected to be friendlier to Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders than former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. 
    But with Clinton leading Sanders by nearly 300 pledged delegates, and because none of the contests are winner-take-all, Sanders needs stunning wins in each state to give the Clinton campaign any real anxiety about the outcome of the race. 
    In the run-up to the votes, Sanders has left nothing to chance. His campaign has spent millions on ads in Washington, Alaska and Hawaii, including a powerful television spot featuring Hawaii Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, who resigned her position with the Democratic National Committee earlier this year to endorse Sanders. 
    Going into Saturday's contests, Sanders needs to net an estimated 75% of the remaining delegates, while Clinton only needs 35%. 
    Here's what to watch: 

    Good weekend for Sanders

    Don't be surprised if Sanders sweeps on Saturday. His campaign has received endorsements from influential players and his campaign has invested in a strong air and ground game in each state. 
    There are 142 total delegates at stake Saturday, 16 in Alaska, 24 in Hawaii and 101 in Washington. 
    All three will hold caucuses to choose delegates -- a method that has favored Sanders in the past -- instead of primaries. Alaska and Washington are also largely white and rural, demographics that typically have given Sanders a boost.
    If Sanders does as expected, the headlines declaring him a winner thrice over will surely provide a gust of wind for Sanders' campaign for fundraising purposes, even if it doesn't change the calculus of the race.

    Delegate math is still on Clinton's side

    Clinton heads into the weekend with 1,229 pledged delegates to Sanders' 952, not counting the 428 superdelegates who have vowed to support her. (The "magic number" needed to clinch the nomination is 2,383.) 
    So even if Sanders posts strong numbers Saturday, he still faces an uphill battle to overcome Clinton's lead. All three states dole out delegates proportionately or by county, so even if Sanders wins a majority in each, Clinton will still nab pledged delegates along the way. And because of the relatively low populations in these states, there simply aren't enough delegates on the table this weekend to make a significant dent. 
    Looking at the line-up ahead, this could be Sanders' final big night. The next states on the calendar, particularly New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland, where a combined 531 delegates will be up for grabs, look good for Clinton.

    Washington state is the main battleground

    Nowhere on Saturday are expectations higher for Sanders than in Washington state. 
    Sanders has visited the state multiple times throughout his campaign, and the state's liberal urban centers have been especially welcoming of his message of ideological purity over Clinton's pragmatism. 
    In Seattle, which last year approved a measure to raise the city's minimum wage to $15 an hour over time, support for Sanders is especially strong. The city's largest newspaper, The Seattle Times, endorsed Sanders. He spent the week before the election touring the state, holding six rallies, including a major event at Seattle's Safeco Field the night before the caucuses. His campaign has invested $2.4 million in radio and television advertising in the state, according to Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver.
    Sanders is expected to win, but with more than 100 delegates at stake, it will be imperative for him to make that win count by scooping up as many delegates as possible. His results in Washington will help set the tone for the upcoming electoral bouts. 
    Clinton countered Sanders' Washington state offensive with her own visit to Puget Sound on Tuesday, and she dispatched her husband, former President Bill Clinton, to Spokane and Vancouver days before the caucuses.
    Turnout is anticipated to be high, another factor that aids Sanders. Some 35,000 people have already voted in Washington state using absentee ballots and about 200,000 are likely to participate. 

    Campaigns on the ground even if candidates aren't

    It's not easy to pop in and out of states like Hawaii and Alaska, and with the small number of delegates on the table, the campaigns have largely determined their time is better spent elsewhere. But that doesn't mean they aren't making plays in each using surrogates, ad buys and family visits. 
    In Alaska, Sanders' wife, Jane, visited Anchorage on Thursday and will remain through Saturday. Sanders' campaign has dropped at least $56,877 on radio and television spots in the state.
    Jane Sanders also visited Hawaii recently.
    Clinton's campaign, meanwhile, has invested in a phone-banking effort in rural parts of Alaska, emphasizing climate change and veteran issues and expressing her opposition to a controversial Alaska mine project, according to The Anchorage Daily News. Clinton called into Alaska radio last Tuesday morning and talked about working briefly in a salmon cannery in Alaska in 1969. 
    Both campaigns are spending money on ads in Hawaii, although Sanders is outspending Clinton $192,680 to $54,300. Sanders this week touted his endorsement from Gabbard, a popular Hawaii Democratic lawmaker. 

    How states will dole out delegates 

    Alaska (16): Delegates will be rewarded by state House districts and determined by a caucus system. Candidates must receive at least 15% of votes in a district to be granted any delegates. The caucuses begin at 10 a.m. local time. 
    Washington (101): Washington uses a mixed system to appoint delegates from the caucus results by congressional district. Registered voters who attend must publicly attest to being Democrats if they want to participate in the caucuses, which begin at 10 a.m. local time. 
    Hawaii (25): Hawaii Democrats also hold caucuses, but unlike Alaska and Washington, it is considered a presidential preference poll and conducted by secret ballot. Delegates are doled out proportionately. Voting begins at 1 p.m. local time. 

    Wednesday, March 23, 2016

    Poll: Majority of Republicans want the party to unite behind Trump

    2:41:00 PM By

    A majority of Republican and Republican-leaning voters believe the party should unite behind Donald Trump at a contested convention, according to a national Monmouth University poll released Wednesday.

    The New York billionaire won another 58 delegates Tuesday with a decisive victory in Arizona, putting him within 500 delegates of securing the GOP nomination outright. But should Trump fail to accrue the necessary 1,237 delegates, 54 percent of those polled said the party should back Trump for the nomination anyway. More than a third said the delegates should nominate another person, and 7 percent were unsure.

    Of those who said someone else should prevail at a contested convention, 33 percent favored Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, and 23 percent said they would like to see Ohio Gov. John Kasich win the nomination. Others receiving support were Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida (10 percent), retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson (5 percent), 2012 nominee Mitt Romney (4 percent), former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (3 percent) and House Speaker Paul Ryan (2 percent). Eighteen percent said they didn’t know.

    Trump has suggested his supporters would riot if he were to go into the convention just shy of the 1,237 mark and not leave as the nominee. He also predicted his voters would sit out the general election if another nominee were to emerge from the convention.
    But 43 percent of Trump supporters said that if someone else were nominated in that scenario, they would still vote for the GOP nominee in November, while 27 percent said they wouldn’t vote in the presidential election if Trump weren't the nominee. Just 7 percent would support the Democratic nominee, and 13 percent would back a third-party candidate.

    The real estate mogul maintains his months-long run atop national polls, garnering 41 percent support in the latest survey. Cruz follows at 29 percent, with Kasich at 18 percent. Four percent are still undecided.
    An overwhelming 95 percent of Republican and Republican-leaning voters have either seen or heard about the front-runner’s confrontations with protesters at his rallies. But voters are divided on who’s to blame — 44 percent place equal blame on Trump supporters and protesters, while 26 percent fault protesters and 23 percent put the onus on supporters.
    The Monmouth poll of 817 Republican and Republican-leaning voters was conducted via telephone March 17-20 and has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.4 percentage points.


    Experts see little chance of charges in Clinton email case

    2:39:00 PM By

    WASHINGTON (AP) — Asked earlier this month whether she’d be indicted over her use of a private email server as secretary of state, Hillary Clinton responded, “It’s not going to happen.”
    Though Republicans characterized her response as hubris, several legal experts interviewed by The Associated Press agreed with the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
    The relatively few laws that govern the handling of classified materials were generally written to cover spies, leakers and those who illegally retain such information, such as at home. Though the view is not unanimous, several lawyers who specialize in this area said it’s a stretch to apply existing statutes to a former cabinet secretary whose communication of sensitive materials was with aides — not a national enemy.
    During her tenure as the nation’s top diplomat between 2009 and 2013, Clinton’s work emails were routed through a private computer server located in the basement of her New York home. The State Department now concedes that a small percentage of those messages contained sensitive national security information, including some later determined to be top secret.
    Computer security experts say the arrangement could have left the messages vulnerable to hackers, including those working for foreign intelligence agencies. Clinton has called her decision to rely on the home server a “mistake,” but has also repeatedly asserted that none of the messages was marked as classified when she sent or received them.
    The FBI has for months been investigating whether the sensitive information that flowed through Clinton’s email server was mishandled. The inspector general at the State Department has also been reviewing the issue. Regardless of the outcomes, there’s no question the probes have created a major distraction as Clinton campaigns for her party’s nomination.
    One potentially relevant statute carrying up to a year in prison makes it a crime to knowingly remove classified information and retain it at an unauthorized location. Former CIA Director David Petraeus pleaded guilty to that misdemeanor offense last year after providing eight black binders of classified information to his biographer. He was sentenced to two years’ probation as part of a plea deal, and prosecutors made clear in that case that Petraeus knew he was turning over highly classified information.
    With Clinton, though, “I look at something which requires knowledge, and the first question I’ve got to ask is, ‘How do they prove knowledge?’” said Bill Jeffress, a Washington criminal defense lawyer.
    While knowledge that information is classified is a critical component, it can likely still be established even in the absence of classification markings on the emails in question, said Nathan Sales, a Syracuse University law professor who used to work at the departments of Justice and Homeland Security and who thinks that the investigation raises important legal issues.
    “Sometimes information is so obviously sensitive that you can infer knowledge from the content,” in which case the lack of markings may not matter for the purpose of establishing liability, Sales said.
    A separate law makes it a felony to handle national defense information with “gross negligence,” by causing it to be removed from its proper place of custody or to be lost, stolen or destroyed. But that statute is part of the Espionage Act, a law used against former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden that’s generally intended for people the government believes intended to harm U.S. national interests. Proving gross negligence requires showing an act was more than just a mistake.
    “One has to put this in perspective of what types of prosecutions have happened under the Espionage Act,” said Jon Michaels, a national security law professor at UCLA. “And the universe of prosecutions under the Espionage Act is quite small compared to the amount of information transferred through non-secure means.”
    Brad Moss, a Washington lawyer who deals regularly with security clearance matters, said the Justice Department could conceivably look to bring charges in the Clinton email case but prosecutors would have to decide if they “really want to take that gamble.” Inquiries into mishandling of classified information generally end with a security clearance revocation rather than a criminal charge, he said.
    But Ronald Sievert, a former federal prosecutor and University of Texas adjunct law professor, said an argument could be made that Clinton’s creation of a private email server amounted to gross negligence.
    “It’s a jury issue,” Sievert said.
    Each prosecution of classified information cases has turned on different facts, making it hard to reliably predict outcomes, and the disparate punishments have frustrated efforts to draw meaningful parallels.
    Petraeus got probation for knowingly mishandling classified information while a former State Department intelligence analyst, Stephen Kim, was sentenced in 2014 to more than a year in prison for disclosing classified materials to a reporter. Kim’s lawyer, Abbe Lowell, urged for Kim’s release in light of what he said was a “profound double standard.”
    The Clinton case indicates a “dysfunctional” system of overclassification, Lowell told the AP.
    “One of the perpetual problems with the investigation or prosecution of so-called leaks cases about classified information is that the law doesn’t recognize as a defense that the material should not have been classified in the first place,” he said.
    Regardless of the legal question, if Clinton secures the Democratic presidential nomination she’s certain to be dogged by the issue through the November election.
    “Ultimately, the real risk for the secretary might not be legal as much as it is political,” Sales said.

    American Teen Survives Attack in Brussels, His Third Brush With Terrorism

    2:38:00 PM By

    An American injured in the Brussels terror attacks has already been impacted previous terror attacks in Boston and Paris, his family said.
    Mason Wells, 19, was injured in the bombing at the Brussels airport along with two other American Mormon missionaries who had gone to help check in other missionaries who were traveling to the U.S.
    Wells suffered a ruptured Achilles tendon, shrapnel injures, as well as second- and third-degree burns on his face and hands after the bombing, his father Chad Wells told ABC News.
    The teen missionary had previously been impacted by other terror attacks in Paris and Boston.
    “This is his third terrorist attack," Chad Wells said, noting he was with his son just a block from the Boston Marathon bombing.
    "This is the third time that sadly in our society that we have a connection to a bomb blast," Wells told ABC News. "We live in a dangerous world and not everyone is kind and loving."

    Wells said that during the Boston Marathon bombing, he was with his son a block away from the finish line, where the bombing took place, waiting for Mason Wells' mother, who ran the marathon.
    "It had shaken their bodies and he had taken Mason to our hotel and said to stay there," Kymberly Wells told ABC News of her son and husband being near the Boston bombing. "Mason was very calm and composed."
    The family said Wells was in France during the Paris attacks last year that lead to a wide mobilization to find the terrorists and disrupt future attacks.
    "Mason has always assured us that he is safe and careful," Kymberly Wells said. "I told him first and foremost always be aware of your surroundings, please be very careful when you’re traveling be very observant to people around you."
    Chad Wells said they were able to speak to their son, who was in the hospital, and they're optimistic he will make a full recovery. They said the teenager was basically at "ground zero" of the blast.
    "He shared with us that he was extremely close to the blast where he was burned by it," Chad Wells said. "It’s a blessing from God he’s alive."
    Chad Wells said his son is a "strong kid" who was able to remain calm throughout the ordeal today.
    "I think the Boston experience helped him to stay calm," Chad Well said.
    He explained a Mormon official relayed to the Wells family that Mason, "despite being on the ground and bleeding was actually had a sense of humor and remained calm through the situation. That’s our Mason."
    The family said that their main concern is that Mason will be able to pursue his dream of joining the U.S. Naval Academy despite his injuries and that he has always wanted to serve his country in the military.
    "The way we get back on our feet after something like this happens is a true test of character," Chad Wells said. "He was blessed significantly by God. We see a blessing by this, not a terrible curse."

    Blogger Gets Jail Term in Singapore for Posts Said to Incite Ethnic Hatred

    1:39:00 PM By

    HONG KONG — A Japanese-Australian woman was sentenced on Wednesday to a 10-month jail term in Singapore over blog posts that besmirched foreigners in the city-state.

    Ai Takagi, 23, pleaded guilty to four counts of sedition over the articles carried on a website, called The Real Singapore, that she ran with her Singaporean husband, Yang Kaiheng.
     

    The woman, Ai Takagi, 23, pleaded guilty to four counts of sedition over the articles, posted on a website, called The Real Singapore, that she ran with her Singaporean husband, Yang Kaiheng. The articles “were intended from the outset to provoke unwarranted hatred against foreigners in Singapore,” District Judge Salina Ishak said on Wednesday, according to a copy of the oral grounds for her decision.Ms. Takagi was a law student in Brisbane, Australia, while she edited the website. She was arrested last year while vacationing in Singapore. Mr. Yang also faces charges, and he is scheduled to go on trial next week. He has pleaded not guilty.
    Ms. Takagi, who is eight weeks pregnant, apologized in court. “I now know that the harmony which Singapore enjoys today requires careful and continuous efforts on the part of everyone, citizens and visitors alike, to maintain,” she said.
    Free-speech advocates have long criticized Singapore’s tight curbs on expression, but officials say laws prohibiting the incitement of ethnic hatred are important for maintaining harmony in the country’s diverse population.
    The blog was billed as a format for allowing Singaporeans to freely express their thoughts. Judge Ishak said that the comments posted in response to the articles showed they had “engendered vitriol and hatred.”
    One article accused a family of Filipinos of stirring unrest over a Hindu ceremony, which prosecutors said was a falsehood. Another falsely stated that a woman from China had encouraged her grandson to urinate in a bottle while on public transit, the court ruled.
    The articles got millions of page views. The blog took in more than $350,000 in advertising revenue from December 2013 to April 2015.

    New Kansas law lets campus religious groups restrict members

    12:47:00 AM By

    TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — Kansas' conservative Republican governor signed legislation Tuesday allowing faith-based groups at college campuses to restrict membership to like-minded people, likely putting the state on a collision course with civil liberties groups.
    The GOP-dominated Legislature approved the legislation earlier this month, even though the U.S. Supreme Court ruled nearly six years ago that universities can require membership in such groups to be open to all. Supporters have said the bill was a victory for the freedom to exercise religious beliefs, but opponents called it a veiled attempt to legalize discrimination.
    Kansas already has a religious objections law that prevents state or local governments from limiting people's freedom to express their religion, though that law doesn't touch on organizations at universities. With Gov. Sam Brownback's signature, Kansas becomes the second state after Oklahoma to have a college-specific law.
    "This is very good, narrow, targeted piece of legislation that will serve the betterment of our college campuses," Brownback said.
    The new law, which will take effect July 1, will prevent public colleges and universities from denying religious groups funds or campus resources for limiting their memberships.
    Critics argue that the bill is far broader than its supporters acknowledge and will in effect force minority students and their parents to support groups that would actively discriminate against them. They said the new law will sanction discrimination not only against gays and lesbians, but based on race, gender or disabilities.
    The American Civil Liberties Union of Kansas is considering a legal challenge "very seriously," said Micah Kubic, its executive director.
    "It's a step backward to a time when government was actively enabling discrimination against people based on who they are," Kubic said.
    The new law stems from a handful of on-campus incidents in Kansas and other states, including a lawsuit filed by a Christian group after Washburn University said the group couldn't require student members to recognize the Bible, not the Book of Mormon, as the word of God. The issue emerged after a Mormon student at the Topeka school was forbidden from leading the group's Bible study.
    Opponents of the new law have said it could risk the loss of federal grant money and the state would waste money defending it in court. Brownback said the legislation was "worked pretty extensively" and "pretty well balanced."
    The U.S. Supreme Court ruling originated from a California incident. The Christian Legal Society at the University of California-Hastings College of Law was refused recognition and funding after it required all members to sign a form saying they would abstain from premarital or same-sex sexual conduct. In a 5-4 decision, the high court backed the university's right to do so.
    The debate in Kansas follows an uproar last year over a religious objections law in Indiana, and to a lesser extent a measure in Arkansas. Critics in those cases said the laws would allow discrimination against gays and lesbians by allowing service providers, such as florists, to deny their services for same-sex weddings. Both states revised their laws, though they still allow certain religious objections.
    ___
    Associated Press reporter Melissa Hellmann contributed to this report.

    Tuesday, March 22, 2016

    Wal-Mart near Dallas evacuated after apparent murder-suicide

    11:34:00 PM By

    Authorities say two people have died in what they describe as a murder-suicide inside a Dallas-area Wal-Mart store.
    Kaufman County sheriff's Capt. Fred Klingelberger says preliminary findings are that a man walked into the store about 9:30 a.m. Tuesday and fatally shot a male employee of the Wal-Mart in the store's garden center.
    He says it's too early to know the relationship between the men or what prompted the shooting at the store in Kaufman, about 35 miles southeast of Dallas.
    Initial reports indicated there was an active shooter in the store but Klingelberger says those accounts were incorrect.
    He says the store was evacuated and no one was injured in the shooting.

    East Texas woman fatally shot when child picks up rifle

    11:33:00 PM By

    Authorities say an East Texas woman was fatally shot after an 8-year-old boy picked up a rifle and it accidentally discharged at a home.
    Anderson County Sheriff Greg Taylor says the boy picked up a rifle while in a room with the woman's husband, who was cleaning weapons Saturday. The bullet hit 23-year-old Carmen Danielle Morris in the head. She was in another room.
    The Elkhart woman died Sunday at a hospital.
    Taylor said the boy was a relative of Morris' husband but was not the couple's child.
    Taylor says it's believed the incident was a tragic accident.

    Veterans Benefits Administration chief suspended in relocation scam

    11:28:00 PM By

    The Department of Veterans Affairs is suspending the head of the Veterans Benefits Administration for allowing two lower-ranking officials to manipulate the agency's hiring system for their own gain.
    Deputy VA Secretary Sloan Gibson says acting VBA chief Danny Pummill will be suspended without pay for 15 days for his role in a relocation scam that has roiled the agency for months.
    Pummill failed to exercise proper oversight as Kimberly Graves and Diana Rubens forced lower-ranking managers to accept job transfers and then stepped into the vacant positions themselves, keeping their senior-level pay while reducing their responsibilities, Gibson said Tuesday.
    Pummill is one of VA's five highest-ranking officials and leads VBA's employees across 56 regional offices nationwide that provide compensation and pension benefits, life insurance, home loans and other services to millions of veterans.
    Under VA rules, Pummill can appeal his suspension to an independent arbiter.
    Pummill was the VBA's deputy chief when Rubens and Graves implemented the job relocations, which put both of them closer to their families. Pummill replaced former VBA chief Allison Hickey, who retired as allegations against Rubens and Graves were made public.
    Rubens earns $181,497 as director of the VBA's Philadelphia regional office, while Graves receives $173,949 as head of the St. Paul, Minnesota, benefits office.
    Graves and Rubens were reprimanded Tuesday and had their pay cut by 10 percent. The two women were reinstated to their positions last month after administrative judges overturned their demotions.
    The judges based their rulings, in part, on the fact that more senior officials such as Pummill had not been disciplined in the case. In a related action, the VA said it has reprimanded Beth McCoy, director of field operations for the VBA. Gibson said McCoy did not exercise proper judgment in taking over for Rubens as heads of field operations.
    Gibson said the disciplinary actions were in the best interests of veterans and taxpayers. "Ultimately, that is what these decisions are about: getting back to the work of serving America's veterans," he said.
    Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee, called the actions "a weak slap on the wrist."
    Accountability at the VA "is almost non-existent," Miller said. "One thing is clear: this dysfunctional status quo will never change until we eliminate arcane civil service rules that put the job security of VA bureaucrats ahead of the veterans they are charged with serving."