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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 25, 2012 6:16:04 GMT -5
ANAHEIM, CA — Riot police fired bean bag rounds and pepper balls into a crowd of protestors late Tuesday outside City Hall as councilmembers inside voted unanimously to ask the U.S. attorney's office to investigate recent officer-involved shootings, including one of an unarmed man. The back-to-back weekend shootings have sparked four days of protests. A crowd of protesters who were shut out of the council meeting because there was no more room grew violent, tossing rocks and bottles at police and ignoring warnings to disperse. Officers formed lines to try to contain the crowd as residents set fire to trash cans, loudly taunted police and swarmed a Starbucks, breaking windows. Police helicopters hovered from above as colorful fireworks from nearby Disneyland lit up the sky. At least two people were arrested, police Sgt. Bob Dunn said. At one point, police shut down a gas station when protesters were seen filling canisters with gas. www.cbsnews.com/8301-201_162-57479428/riot-police-protesters-clash-in-anaheim-for-4th-night-over-police-shootings/
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 25, 2012 6:15:26 GMT -5
AURORA, CO — The number of people seeking to buy guns in Colorado has soared since last week's mass shooting in the town of Aurora, say law officials. In the three days after the shooting, applications for the background checks needed to buy a gun legally were up 43% on the previous week. The shooting at a cinema showing the new Batman movie left 12 people dead and 58 injured - 20 remain in hospital. James Holmes, 24, is accused of throwing two canisters of gas into a busy midnight showing of the Batman film The Dark Knight Rises, before firing at random into the crowd. www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18980974
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 25, 2012 6:15:03 GMT -5
NASHVILLE — Gov. Bill Haslam urged a congressional committee Tuesday to pass legislation allowing Tennessee and other states to collect sales taxes on items residents buy from out-of-state online retailers and catalog companies. "This discussion isn't about raising taxes or adding new taxes. This is about states having the flexibility and authority to collect taxes that are already owed by their own in-state residents," he told members of the U.S. House Judiciary Committee. Haslam, who appeared on behalf of the National Governors Association, said Tennessee is not alone when it comes to losing out on substantial revenues that are owed but not collected by online retailers. Tennessee's revenue loss is about $400 million annually, money the state could use to cut taxes elsewhere as well as for needs such as infrastructure and higher education, he said. "Let me be clear," Haslam told committee members. "I am a Republican governor that does not believe in increasing taxes." www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/jul/25/haslam-urges-federal-fix-for-web-taxes/
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 24, 2012 5:47:19 GMT -5
CLEVELAND, TN -- A year later, the Rymer family is no closer to understanding how Misty Rymer died. A boating incident took her life last year, but the details of how it happened have never been released. Monday, authorities arrested the man who was driving the boat. Rymer's brother Shane hopes to get answers. "It's hard to be without her," Shane says. www.wrcbtv.com/story/19094653/only-on-3-family-of-cleveland-boat-crash-victim-speaks
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 24, 2012 5:46:32 GMT -5
CHATTANOOGA -- Chattanooga Mayor Ron Littlefield said he thinks the recent order handed down by federal authorities regarding Chattanooga's sewer system helps spur the need for a consolidation of water and sewer utilities. "It sets the stage," said Littlefield. The city was ordered last week by the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation to conduct an estimated $250 million in repairs to the city's sewer system. The city also was hit with $1.2 million in penalties after it made a deal with federal regulators to fix a sewer system that has dumped more than 354 million gallons of raw sewage into the Tennessee River since 2005. www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/jul/24/chattanooga-mayor-nows-time-to-consolidate-sewers/
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 24, 2012 5:45:46 GMT -5
INDIANAPOLIS, IN -- The epic fall from grace that Penn State and Joe Paterno have endured in the aftermath of the Jerry Sandusky scandal received devastating official sanction Monday when the NCAA, in a series of harsh and unprecedented penalties, fined the university $60 million, hamstrung its football program for the near future, and significantly diminished the late coach's place in history. In addition to the substantial financial penalty, Penn State will be banned from postseason bowl play for four years and stripped of 10 football scholarships per year for four years. More surprising, the Nittany Lions also must vacate all victories from 1998 through 2011, meaning Paterno, the school's head coach for 46 years before his dismissal in November, no longer ranks as major-college football's winningest coach. "Football will never again be placed ahead of educating, nurturing, and protecting young people," NCAA President Mark Emmert said at an Indianapolis news conference. www.philly.com/philly/news/20120724_Penn_State_hit_with_unprecedented_penalties_by_NCAA.html
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 24, 2012 5:44:53 GMT -5
WASHINGTON, DC -- Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Monday said the Senate will be “much busier” in 2013 should the GOP take control of the upper chamber, criticizing what he said is the Democrats’ penchant for closing up shop at 6 p.m. In an interview with The Hill, McConnell detailed how he would run the Senate, vowing to pass a budget, repeal “Obama-Care” and reform entitlement programs. He thinks Senate lawmakers need to work harder, which means keeping longer hours and taking politically difficult votes. This might cause grumbling among his rank and file, but McConnell has warned them to buckle down for a heavy lift next year. “What has done significant damage to the institution is not doing the things that we’re supposed to do — passing a budget, for example,” he said. thehill.com/homenews/senate/239645-mcconnell-promises-busy-senate-under-gop
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 24, 2012 5:43:49 GMT -5
AURORA, COL -- The suspect in last week's deadly shooting rampage at a crowded Colorado movie theater boobytrapped his apartment with more than 30 homemade grenades and 10 gallons of gasoline, a law enforcement official who viewed video from inside the apartment told CNN Monday night. The sophisticated set up at the sparsely furnished Aurora home of James E. Holmes was meant to harm, or possibly kill, anyone who entered -- and tested the skills of bomb squad members charged with clearing it. "Imagine that fireball ... you would have an explosion that would knock down the wall of (nearby) apartments," the official said. "That flame would have consumed the entire third floor (of the apartment complex)." "By the time a fire truck would have arrived, they would have arrived to a building that would have been completely consumed in flames." www.cnn.com/2012/07/24/justice/colorado-theater-shooting/index.html
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 24, 2012 5:42:22 GMT -5
ATLANTA, GA -- The Georgia Supreme Court granted Warren Hill a stay of execution Monday, less than 2 hours before he was to die by lethal injection, officials said. The court unanimously granted the stay to determine whether a recent change to Georgia's lethal-injection protocol violates state law, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. Hill, 52, is on death row for bludgeoning to death a fellow inmate in 1991, when he was serving a life sentence for the 1985 death of 18-year-old girlfriend. Advocacy groups for the developmentally disabled have been trying to stop Hill's execution. Hill has an IQ of 70 and two judges have ruled Hill is probably not mentally disabled. www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2012/07/23/Court-issues-stay-in-Ga-execution/UPI-70371343092023/
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 23, 2012 6:37:39 GMT -5
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Actress Park Overall says she's always had an interest in politics so she's mounting a bid to be the Democrat who takes the longshot chance at unseating Republican U.S. Sen. Bob Corker. Overall starred in the popular television series "Empty Nest" in the late 1980s and early 1990s. She is 1 of 7 candidates on the Democratic ballot for the Aug. 2 primary. Corker is being challenged by four Republicans in the GOP primary. None of the nearly dozen challengers comes anywhere close to Corker's fundraising prowess. Only two - both Republicans - have raised more than $40,000, according to Federal Election Commission records. www.wrcbtv.com/story/19083715/corker-heads-into-primary-with-11m-raised
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 23, 2012 6:36:43 GMT -5
HAMILTON CO. – Both parties in a federal lawsuit over prayer at Hamilton County Commission meetings claim the First Amendment is on their side. In the six weeks since Brandon Jones and Tommy Coleman sued Hamilton County over the commission's regular Christian prayers during meetings, the county courthouse has drawn dozens of people expressing their thoughts and emotions through silent protest, prayer, public comment and, occasionally, verbal confrontation. Still, at its core, the dispute is a legal struggle between two parties over two clauses in the first 16 of 45 words in an amendment to the U.S. Constitution passed by Congress in 1789 and ratified by the states in 1791. www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/jul/23/both-sides-say-first-amendment-is-in/
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 23, 2012 6:36:15 GMT -5
INDIANAPOLIS – College sports' governing body was expected to deal a series of heavy blows to the Nittany Lions football program on Monday, less than two weeks after a devastating report accused coach Joe Paterno and other top university officials of concealing child sex abuse allegations against a retired assistant coach for years to avoid bad publicity. A news conference was scheduled for 9 a.m. in Indianapolis. A multi-year bowl ban, lost scholarships, recruiting limits, probation and a multimillion-dollar fine all seem likely for the program Paterno built into a national power under the slogan of "success with honor." And the NCAA, heavily criticized for its sometimes-ponderous pace in deciding penalties as scandals mounted at Ohio State, Auburn, USC and elsewhere, acted with unprecedented swiftness in arriving at what it called "corrective and punitive" sanctions for a team that is trying to start over with a new coach and a new outlook. The NCAA announced no details Sunday in serving notice that it would indeed weigh in on perhaps the worst scandal in American college sports history. President Mark Emmert cautioned last week that he had not ruled out the possibility of shutting down the football program altogether, saying he had "never seen anything as egregious" as the Jerry Sandusky child sex abuse scandal. www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/07/23/ncaa-expected-to-deal-series-heavy-blows-to-penn-state/#ixzz21RRrjg1O
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 23, 2012 6:35:38 GMT -5
DAMASCUS – The Syrian regime acknowledged for the first time Monday that it possessed stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons and said it will only use them in case of a foreign attack and never internally against its own citizens . Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi said the stockpiles are secure, in an apparent response to widespread international concerns that they could fall into the hands of the disparate bands of rebel forces fighting the government. "No chemical or biological weapons will ever be used, and I repeat, will never be used, during the crisis in Syria no matter what the developments inside Syria," he said in conference broadcast on state TV. "All of these types of weapons are in storage and under security and the direct supervision of the Syrian armed forces and will never be used unless Syria is exposed to external aggression." abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory/arab-league-offers-assad-safe-exit-16834396#.UA0rfaMn2F0
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 23, 2012 6:35:18 GMT -5
KIRKUK – At least 89 people were killed in bomb and gun attacks in Iraq on Monday after 20 died in blasts the previous day in a coordinated surge of violence against mostly Shi'ite Muslim targets. The bloodshed coincided with an intensifying of the conflict in neighboring Syria. As well as the dozens of deaths at least 223 people were wounded in bomb attacks in Shi'ite areas of Baghdad, the Shi'ite town of Taji to the north, the mixed northern city of Kirkuk and elsewhere, hospital and police sources said, making it one of Iraq's bloodiest days in weeks. www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/23/us-iraq-bomb-idUSBRE86M06M20120723
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 23, 2012 6:34:52 GMT -5
AURORA, CO – The suspected gunman in a massacre at a Colorado movie theater heads to court Monday as investigators reveal he is refusing to cooperate. 24-year-old James Holmes, who is accused of killing 12 and injuring 58 in a shooting massacre at a packed theater of moviegoers watching the premiere of the latest Batman movie, will be moved to a courtroom for a 9:30 a.m. MDT hearing where the charges against him of suspicion of first degree murder will be read. Holmes has "lawyered up," and will not speak to investigators, Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said Sunday. "He's not talking to us," the chief said. Also Sunday, investigators searching Holmes' apartment found multiple Batman-related items. A law enforcement source confirms to Fox News investigators seized a Batman poster and a mask connected to the Batman movies from Holmes' apartment, though they did not say which character the mask was of. www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/23/investigators-find-batman-mask-poster-at-movie-theater-massacre-suspect/#ixzz21RRFEXzb
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 22, 2012 11:59:41 GMT -5
subscribe to the local/region rss feed home » local/regional » Scottie Mayfield lends $150,000 ... published Sunday, July 22nd, 2012 Scottie Mayfield lends $150,000 to his campaign share email print font size by Chris Carroll view bio » From left, Weston Wamp, Scottie Mayfield, Chuck Fleischmann From left, Weston Wamp, Scottie Mayfield, Chuck Fleischmann Republican Scottie Mayfield lent his congressional bid $150,000 earlier this month, and he'll be able to increase that amount if necessary, according to personal financial disclosures filed with the government. It was the first significant loan of this year's barnburner of a 3rd Congressional District race, and disclosures indicate the Athens, Tenn., dairy executive's campaign may have had to scale back without it. Disregarding the $150,000 he lent his campaign July 6, records show Mayfield would have been operating a week later with about $19,000 in campaign cash. That's about how much the Mayfield campaign spent on polling last quarter -- $22,000 -- and a paltry amount compared to the overall war chests for U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann and another well-financed Republican candidate, Weston Wamp. www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/jul/22/mayfield-lends-150000-to-his-campaign/
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 22, 2012 11:58:49 GMT -5
AURORA, CO — It was 12:39 a.m. Friday when the normal rhythms of Aurora went horrifyingly awry. The first inkling came in a dispatcher's message, spoken as if the events unfolding at the Century 16 theaters were somehow matter-of-fact. "They are saying someone is shooting in the auditorium." Police cars roared into the parking lot of the suburban Denver theater minutes later to find moviegoers splayed outside, sobbing and screaming for help, their arms and faces caked in blood. And inside, officers were soon to discover, was an even more gruesome scene. "I have seven down in Theater 9! Seven down!" an officer bellowed, according to dispatch recordings that capture the aftermath of one of the nation's deadliest mass shootings. www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-colorado-shooting-response-20120722,0,3250353.story
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 22, 2012 11:58:24 GMT -5
HOLLYWOOD, CA — In the aftermath of the Colorado shooting during a screening of The Dark Knight Rises, Hollywood studios banded together to withhold box-office reporting through the weekend, while Warner Bros frantically rushed to remove a movie trailer with now eerie relevance. While the weekend is usually Hollywood's time to peddle its flashy offerings and tout its millions in box office, the second day of release for The Dark Knight Rises was anything but business as usual following the Aurora, Colorado, shootings that killed 12 and wounded 58 at a Friday midnight showing of the new Batman film. "Words cannot express the horror that I feel," Christian Bale, who stars as the caped crusader in the film, said in a statement. "I cannot begin to truly understand the pain and grief of the victims and their loved ones, but my heart goes out to them." All of the major studios in Hollywood said Saturday they were joining Dark Knight Rises distributor Warner Bros in withholding their box-office numbers for the weekend. Sony, Fox, Disney, Paramount, Universal and Lionsgate followed Warner Bros' lead in forgoing the usual revenue report until Monday out of respect for the victims and their families. www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jul/22/hollywood-box-office-colorado-shooting
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 22, 2012 11:57:51 GMT -5
CLEVELAND, TN — Tasha Bates faces murder and methamphetamine charges after her two sons, 5-year-old Leland and 3-year-old River, died of hyperthermia -- severe overheating of the body -- in June. Bates has told officials that she left the children outside unattended on a Slip'n Slide water toy in the 101-degree heat, and when she found them 45 minutes later, they were unconscious. But Bradley County sheriff's investigators and a grand jury have stated otherwise. They say the boys' autopsies show they suffered fatal injuries in a searing hot car, and police said evidence showed that Bates had cooked and used meth. www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/jul/22/headlineraw/
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 22, 2012 11:57:11 GMT -5
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 21, 2012 8:20:25 GMT -5
NASHVILLE, TN — Record-setting temperatures and widespread drought are spelling disaster for the 2012 corn crop in Tennessee, and officials say there's little chance of enough rain the rest of the summer to even raise hopes for a rebound. Despite recent rains, Tennessee agriculture officials say farmers will lose about half of their corn yield this season — a crop typically valued at $280 million to $300 million a year. The loss will have an effect felt all the way to grocery store cash registers. "It's going to be a pretty significant loss for Tennessee farmers," state Department of Agriculture Director of Public Affairs Tom Womack said this week. www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/jul/21/farmers-hopes-wither-heat-drought-spell-disaster/
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 21, 2012 8:19:52 GMT -5
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 21, 2012 8:19:06 GMT -5
BOW, N.H. — President Obama and Republican rival Mitt Romney quickly halted the election-year mudslinging that has marked the race for the past month as both candidates called for compassion and somber prayer in the wake of the Colorado massacre. The Romney camp shifted gears at a campaign event slated for a lumber yard here as staffers took down negative signs about the Obama campaign, stopped the music and draped flags prominently around the site. “I stand before you today not as a man running for office, but as a father, a grandfather, a husband, an American,” said Romney, who reached out to his Democratic opponent as a show of unity following reports that a dozen people were fatally shot and 58 were injured at a Colorado movie theater. “Our hearts break with the sadness of this unspeakable tragedy. Ann and I join the president and the first lady in joining all Americans in offering our deepest condolences,” the former Bay State governor said. www.bostonherald.com/news/us_politics/view.bg?articleid=1061147391
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 21, 2012 8:18:07 GMT -5
HOLLYWOOD, CA —The deadly rampage in Colorado shattered a fundamental appeal of movie going: a chance to escape the humdrum for a world of fantasy. Now, theater owners and the Warner Bros. studio must figure out whether "The Dark Knight Rises" can still be an entertaining diversion, not a reminder of a tragic mass shooting. The shooting also raised the specter among moviegoers that they could become targets, leading theater owners and some police forces to step up security measures this weekend. "It's horrifying what happened in Colorado and it makes me scared about copycats here," said Katie Gerber, 34, who had tickets for a Friday afternoon screening at the ArcLight in Hollywood. "I'm not nervous to go see the movie now, but it'll be hard not to think about it during the gun-fighting scenes." "The Dark Knight Rises" was poised to become one of the summer's biggest box-office hits. The film took in $30.6 million at midnight screenings, the second-biggest midnight opening of all time, and box-office experts said the sequel could gross as much as $200 million in its first three days of release, a mark which only "The Avengers" has surpassed. www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/moviesnow/la-et-mn-0721-batman-theaters-20120721,0,208899.story
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 21, 2012 8:17:17 GMT -5
WASHINGTON — Unsurprisingly, the Aurora, Colo., mass shooting has reignited a debate over whether tougher gun laws are needed. But congressional legislation is a long shot, especially in an election year. Gun-control legislation is likely to be introduced again, as it was after other high-profile shootings, such as those at Columbine High School in 1999 and Virginia Tech in 2007. But even gun-control advocates acknowledge they face a tough climb. Many Democrats have shied away from the issue since 2000, when losing presidential candidate Al Gore’s advocacy of gun control is believed to have cost him support in rural states. When asked about prospects for gun-control legislation, Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., said Friday, “I don’t believe it has a chance in this environment.” But Feinstein, a leading gun-control advocate who sponsored the federal assault weapons ban that Congress let lapse in 2004, did add: “Americans really have to begin to show some outrage at this.” www.bendbulletin.com/article/20120721/NEWS0107/207210365/
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 20, 2012 7:00:22 GMT -5
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 20, 2012 6:59:13 GMT -5
HAMILTON COUNTY, TN -- With the first federal court hearing less than a week away in a lawsuit two men filed against Hamilton County over County Commission prayers, briefs on a motion for preliminary injunction now have been filed. In June, Brandon Jones and Tommy Coleman filed a complaint in the Eastern District of Tennessee alleging violations of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause. Later that month, the pair filed a motion asking the court to order the commission to halt its prayer practices until U.S. Judge Harry S. "Sandy" Mattice could rule on the case. On June 21, Mattice set a hearing on the motion for preliminary injunction for July 26. Read more at www.timesfreepress.com/news/2012/jul/20/briefs-filed-in-prayer-lawsuit-hamilton-county/
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 20, 2012 6:58:10 GMT -5
WASHINGTON -- The unusually hot dry weather that has gripped the nation will not let up its stranglehold over the next few months, federal weather forecasters said Thursday. And that means the heartland's "flash drought" will linger at least until around Halloween and even spread a bit farther north and east. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's outlook for August through October shows that nearly every state likely will have hotter than normal temperatures. Much of the Midwest is likely to be drier than normal, too. "It certainly is grim news for us in Illinois and other parts of the Midwest," said Illinois state climatologist Jim Angel. "I kind of have given up hope for short-term relief." Read more at www.galesburg.com/news/x2078601958/U-S-forecast-Hot-dry-weather-to-linger-into-fall
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 20, 2012 6:57:32 GMT -5
PHOENIX -- A group of Latinos is arguing in federal court that Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio's deputies carried out racial profiling as part of policy of discrimination. The civil lawsuit involving Arpaio — the self-proclaimed toughest sheriff in America — has put his anti-illegal immigration patrols on center stage. Tim Casey, who is defending Arpaio, said Thursday that the patrols were properly planned out and executed. He said they exceeded police standards. "Race and ethnicity had nothing to do with the traffic stops." Arpaio has said people pulled over were approached because deputies had probable cause to believe they had committed crimes and that officers only learned afterward that many were illegal immigrants. Read more at www.foxnews.com/us/2012/07/20/racial-profiling-trial-begins-for-ariz-sheriff/
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Post by CMF Newsman on Jul 20, 2012 6:55:33 GMT -5
AURORA, Colo. -- A gunman opened fire early Friday at a suburban Denver movie theater on the opening night of the latest Batman movie "The Dark Knight Rises," killing at least 14 people and injuring more than 50 others, authorities said. The gunman, who is in custody, stood at the front of the theater and fired into the crowd about 12:30 a.m. MDT at a theater at a multiplex theater in a mall in Aurora. "Witnesses tell us he released some sort of canister. They heard a hissing sound and some gas emerged and the gunman opened fire," Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates said at a news conference. Police, ambulances and emergency crews swarmed on the scene after frantic calls started flooding the 911 switchboard, officials said. Read more at www.9news.com/news/article/278707/339/1-in-custody-14-dead-in-Aurora-theater-shooting
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