No charges for Heisman hopeful Jameis Winston

No charges for Heisman hopeful Jameis Winston 

FILE - In this Nov. 30, 2013, file photo, Florida State quarterback Jameis Winston warms up before an NCAA college football game against Florida in Gainesville, Fla. The prosecutor overseeing the investigation of sexual assault allegations against Winston says it is completed. State Attorney Willie Meggs has scheduled a news conference at 2 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013, in his office to announce his findings.

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) -- Florida State quarterback and Heisman Trophy candidate Jameis Winston will not be charged with sexually assaulting a woman who accused him of raping her about a year ago, a prosecutor said Thursday.

State Attorney Willie Meggs made the announcement at a news conference, saying the woman's memory lapses of the events last December were problematic and there was not enough evidence to win a conviction. The woman told police she had been drinking at a bar with friends before the alleged assault took place at an off-campus apartment.

"It's not inconsistencies, it's lack of memory most of the time," Meggs said of the woman's allegations.

While the alleged assault happened last December, reports didn't surface in the public until November, as the redshirt freshman was well into a remarkable season with Florida State.

Winston, 19, has led the Seminoles to a No. 1 ranking and a shot at a national championship if they defeat Duke on Saturday in the ACC championship game. As for the Heisman, many voters were waiting to see whether he would be charged before the deadline for ballots Monday. The trophy for the nation's top player will be awarded Dec. 14.

Meanwhile, the woman's family was sharply critical of the Tallahassee Police Department, accusing the agency of delaying the investigation and discouraging her from going forward with the case because of the public attention it would receive.

"The victim has grave concerns that her experience, as it unfolded in the public eye and through social media, will discourage other victims of rape from coming forward and reporting," according to a statement from the accuser and her family.

The Associated Press does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.

The alleged assault was reported to police Dec. 7, 2012, but it wasn't until last month before the public had any idea Winston was the subject of a sexual assault investigation. And it wasn't until Thursday that specific details of the woman's accusations began to emerge.

She told police she and friends had five to six shots at a bar and her "memory is very broken from that point forward," according to a search warrant for cell phone records. She said she remembered being in a cab with a "non-descript" black man and going into an apartment, but she didn't remember where it was.

The warrant said she tried to fight the man off, and at some point, another man came into the room and told him to stop. But the two went into a bathroom "where he completed the act."

Her next memory was of the suspect dressing her, putting her on a scooter and dropping her off at a campus intersection.

The woman told police she initially didn't know who assaulted her. She identified Winston, who is black, about a month after the alleged assault.

Meggs' office took over the case last month and interviewed the accuser. They also took DNA from Winston and matched it to DNA on the woman's underwear. They also matched DNA on her shorts to her boyfriend at the time.

Winston's attorney, Timothy Jansen, said Winston had consensual sex with the accuser. Winston refused to be interviewed by police and has not talked about the case to the media.

The quarterback said in a statement he was relieved.

"It's been difficult to stay silent through this process, but I never lost faith in the truth and in who I am," Winston said.

The accuser's family has been sharply critical of the way Tallahassee police have handled the case. They said they pushed to have a DNA sample taken from Winston, only to be told by a police detective that it would alert Winston and make the case public. The family said Carroll was warned by police that Tallahassee is a "big football town, and the victim needs to think long and hard before proceeding against him because she will be raked over the coals and her life will be made miserable."

Tallahassee police have defended their handling of the case and said it was placed on inactive status in February after police were told the alleged victim did not wish to prosecute the case. The woman's attorney has denied that the woman wanted to drop the investigation.

The alleged victim was an FSU student, but she left school last month as media reports of the case surfaced. Meggs said when his office spoke with the woman last month, she wanted the case to move forward.

At a restaurant on campus, students high-fived one another and did the Seminole's chant and tomahawk chop when Meggs' said no charges would be filed.

"It's been a tough couple weeks," said Justin Savage, a 21-year-old senior sports management major from Fort Walton Beach. "I'm just so grateful. He's just so lovable a guy. You can see him on campus and he'll talk to you, it doesn't matter who you are."

 

Nelson Mandela, South Africa's peacemaker, dies

Nelson Mandela, South Africa's peacemaker, dies 
 

FILE - In this Dec. 7, 2005, file photo, former South African President Nelson Mandela, 87, is in a jovial mood at the Mandela Foundation in Johannesburg, where he met with the winner and runner-up of the local "Idols" competition. South Africa's president says, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2013, that Mandela has died. He was 95.

JOHANNESBURG (AP) -- Nelson Mandela was a master of forgiveness. South Africa's first black president spent nearly one-third of his life as a prisoner of apartheid, the system of white racist rule that he described as evil, yet he sought to win over its defeated guardians in a relatively peaceful transition of power that inspired the world.

As head of state, the ex-boxer, lawyer and inmate lunched with the prosecutor who argued successfully for his incarceration, sang the apartheid-era Afrikaans anthem at his inauguration and traveled hundreds of miles to have tea with the widow of Hendrik Verwoerd, the prime minister at the time he was sent to prison who was also the architect of white rule.

It was this generosity of spirit that made Mandela, who died on Thursday at the age of 95, a global symbol of sacrifice and reconciliation in a world often jarred by conflict and division.

Mandela's stature as a fighter against white racist rule and seeker of peace with his enemies was on a par with that of other men he admired: American civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr. and Indian independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi, both of whom were assassinated while actively engaged in their callings.

Mandela's death deprived the world of one of one of the great figures of modern history and set the stage for days of mourning and reflection about a colossus of the 20th century who projected astonishing grace, resolve and good humor.

Dressed in black, South African President Jacob Zuma made the announcement on television. He said Mandela died "peacefully" while with his family at around 8:50 p.m. on Thursday.

"We've lost our greatest son. Our nation has lost its greatest son. Our people have lost a father," Zuma said. 

"Although we knew that this day would come, nothing can diminish our sense of a profound and enduring loss."

At times, Mandela embraced his iconic status, appearing before a rapturous crowd in London's Wembley Stadium soon after his 1990 release from jail. Sometimes, he sought to downplay it, uneasy about the perils of being put on a pedestal. In an unpublished manuscript, written while in prison, Mandela acknowledged that leaders of the anti-apartheid movement dominated the spotlight but said they were "only part of the story," and every activist was "like a brick which makes up our organization."

He pondered the cost to his family of his dedication to the fight against the racist system of government that jailed him for 27 years and refused him permission to attend the funeral of his mother and of a son who was killed in a car crash. In court, he described himself as "the loneliest man" during his mid-1990s divorce from Winnie Mandela. As president, he could not forge lasting solutions to poverty, unemployment and other social ills that still plague today's South Africa, which has struggled to live up to its rosy depiction as the "Rainbow Nation."

He secured near-mythical status in his country and beyond. Last year, the South African central bank released new banknotes showing his face, a robust, smiling image of a man who was meticulous about his appearance and routinely exercised while in prison. South Africa erected statues of him and named buildings and other places after him. He shared the 1993 Nobel Peace Prize with F. W. de Klerk, the country's last white president. He was the subject of books, films and songs and a magnet for celebrities.

In 2010, Mandela waved to the crowd at the Soccer City stadium at the closing ceremony of the World Cup, whose staging in South Africa allowed the country, and the continent, to shine internationally. It was the last public appearance for the former president and prisoner, who smiled broadly and was bundled up against the cold.

One of the most memorable of his gestures toward racial harmony was the day in 1995 when he strode onto the field before the Rugby World Cup final in Johannesburg, and then again after the game, when he congratulated the home team for its victory over a tough New Zealand team. Mandela was wearing South African colors and the overwhelmingly white crowd of 63,000 was on its feet, chanting "Nelson! Nelson! Nelson!"

It was typical of Mandela to march headlong into a bastion of white Afrikanerdom - in this case the temple of South African rugby - and make its followers feel they belonged in the new South Africa.

The moment was portrayed in "Invictus," Clint Eastwood's movie telling the story of South Africa's transformation through the prism of sport.

It was a moment half a century in the making. In the 1950s, Mandela sought universal rights through peaceful means but was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 for leading a campaign of sabotage against the government. The speech he gave during that trial outlined his vision and resolve.

"During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of the African people," Mandela said. "I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die."

He was confined to the harsh Robben Island prison near Cape Town for most of his time behind bars, then moved to jails on the mainland. It was forbidden to quote him or publish his photo, yet he and other jailed members of his banned African National Congress were able to smuggle out messages of guidance to the anti-apartheid movement, and in the final stages of his confinement, he negotiated secretly with the apartheid leaders who recognized change was inevitable.

Thousands died, or were tortured or imprisoned in the decades-long struggle against apartheid, which deprived the black majority of the vote, the right to choose where to live and travel, and other basic freedoms.

So when inmate No. 46664 went free after 27 years, walking hand-in-hand with his wife Winnie out of a prison on the South African mainland, people worldwide rejoiced. Mandela raised his right fist in triumph, and in his autobiography, "Long Walk to Freedom," he would write: "As I finally walked through those gates ... I felt - even at the age of seventy-one - that my life was beginning anew,"

Mandela's release, rivaled the fall of the Berlin Wall just a few months earlier as a symbol of humanity's yearning for freedom, and his graying hair, raspy voice and colorful shirts made him a globally known figure.

Life, however, imposed new challenges on Mandela.

South Africa's white rulers had portrayed him as the spearhead of a communist revolution and insisted that black majority rule would usher in bloody chaos. Thousands died in factional fighting in the runup to democratic elections in 1994, and Mandela accused the government of collusion in the bloodshed. But voting day, when long lines of voters waited patiently to cast ballots, passed peacefully, as did Mandela's inauguration as president

"Never, never and never again shall it be that this beautiful land will again experience the oppression of one by another and suffer the indignity of being the skunk of the world," the new president said. "Let freedom reign. The sun shall never set on so glorious a human achievement! God bless Africa! Thank you."

Mandela also stood hand on heart, saluted by white generals as he sang along to two anthems now one: the apartheid-era Afrikaans "Die Stem," ("The Voice") and the African "Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika" ("Lord Bless Africa").

Since apartheid ended, South Africa has held four parliamentary elections and elected three presidents, always peacefully, setting an example on a continent where democracy is still new and fragile. However, corruption scandals and other missteps under the ruling African National Congress, the liberation group once led by Mandela, have undercut some of the early promise.

President Jacob Zuma periodically observes that the South African white minority is far wealthier than the black majority, an imbalance that he regards as a vestige of the apartheid system that bestowed most economic benefits on whites.

When Mandela came to power, black South Africans anticipated quick fixes after being denied proper housing, schools and health care under apartheid. The new government, however, embraced free-market policies to keep white-dominated big business on its side and attract foreign investment. The policy averted the kind of economic deterioration that occurred in Zimbabwe after independence; South Africa, though, has one of the world's biggest gaps between rich and poor.

Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was born July 18, 1918, the son of a tribal chief in Transkei, a Xhosa homeland that later became one of the "Bantustans" set up as independent republics by the apartheid regime to cement the separation of whites and blacks.

Mandela's royal upbringing gave him a regal bearing that became his hallmark. Many South Africans of all races would later call him by his clan name, Madiba, as a token of affection and respect.

Growing up at a time when virtually all of Africa was under European colonial rule, Mandela attended Methodist schools before being admitted to the black University of Fort Hare in 1938. He was expelled two years later for his role in a student strike.

He moved to Johannesburg and worked as a policeman at a gold mine, boxed as an amateur heavyweight and studied law.

His first wife, nurse Evelyn Mase, bore him four children. A daughter died in infancy, a son was killed in a car crash in 1970 and another son died of AIDS in 2005. The couple divorced in 1957 and Evelyn died in 2004.

Mandela began his rise through the anti-apartheid movement in 1944, when he helped form the ANC Youth League.

He organized a campaign in 1952 to encourage defiance of laws that segregated schools, marriage, housing and job opportunities. The government retaliated by barring him from attending gatherings and leaving Johannesburg, the first of many "banning" orders he was to endure.

After a two-day nationwide strike was crushed by police, he and a small group of ANC colleagues decided on military action and Mandela pushed to form the movement's guerrilla wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe, or Spear of the Nation.

He was arrested in 1962 and sentenced to five years' hard labor for leaving the country illegally and inciting blacks to strike.

A year later, police uncovered the ANC's underground headquarters on a farm near Johannesburg and seized documents outlining plans for a guerrilla campaign. At a time when African colonies were one by one becoming independent states, Mandela and seven co-defendants were sentenced to life in prison.

The ANC's armed wing was later involved in a series of high-profile bombings that killed civilians, and many in the white minority viewed the imprisoned Mandela as a terrorist. The apartheid government, meanwhile, was denounced globally for its campaign of beatings, assassinations and other violent attacks on opponents.

Even in numbing confinement, Mandela sought to flourish.

"Incidentally, you may find that the cell is an ideal place to learn to know yourself, to search realistically and regularly the process of your own mind and feelings," he wrote in 1975 to Winnie Mandela, a prominent activist in her own right who was in a separate jail at that time.

Mandela turned down conditional offers of freedom during his decades in prison. In 1989, P.W. Botha, South Africa's hard-line president, was replaced by de Klerk, who recognized apartheid's end was near. Mandela continued, even in his last weeks in prison, to advocate nationalizing banks, mines and monopoly industries - a stance that frightened the white business community.

But talks were already underway, with Mandela being spirited out of prison to meet white government leaders. After his release, he took charge of the ANC, and was elected president in a landslide in South Africa's first all-race election.

Perceived successes during Mandela's tenure include the introduction of a constitution with robust protections for individual rights, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which he established with his fellow Nobelist, Archbishop Desmond Tutu. It allowed human rights offenders of all races to admit their crimes publicly in return for lenient treatment. Though not regarded as wholly successful, it proved to be a kind of national therapy that would become a model for other countries emerging from prolonged strife.

Despite his saintly image, Mandela was sometimes a harsh critic. When black journalists mildly criticized his government, he painted them as stooges of the whites who owned the media. Some whites with complaints were dismissed as pining for their old privileges.

In the buildup to the Iraq War, Mandela harshly rebuked President George W. Bush. "Why is the United States behaving so arrogantly?" he asked in a speech. "All that (Bush) wants is Iraqi oil." He suggested Bush and then British Prime Minister Tony Blair were racists, and claimed America, "which has committed unspeakable atrocities in the world," had no moral standing.

Until Bush repealed the order in 2008, Mandela could not visit the U.S. without the secretary of state certifying that he was not a terrorist.

To critics of his closeness to Fidel Castro and Moammar Gadhafi despite human rights violations in the countries they ruled, Mandela explained that he wouldn't forsake supporters of the anti-apartheid struggle.

To the disappointment of many South Africans, he increasingly left the governing to Deputy President Thabo Mbeki, who won the next presidential election and took over when Mandela's term ended in 1999.

"I must step down while there are one or two people who admire me," Mandela joked at the time. When he retired, he said he was going to stand on a street with a sign that said: "Unemployed, no job. New wife and large family to support."

His marriage to Winnie had fallen apart after his release and he married Graca Machel, the widowed, former first lady of neighboring Mozambique.

With apartheid vanquished, Mandela turned to peacemaking efforts in other parts of Africa and the world and eventually to fighting AIDS, publicly acknowledging that his own son, Makgatho, had died of the disease.

Mandela's final years were marked by frequent hospitalizations as he struggled with respiratory problems that had bothered him since he contracted tuberculosis in prison.

He stayed in his rural home in Qunu in Eastern Cape province, where Hillary Clinton, then U.S. secretary of state, visited him in 2012, but then moved full-time to his home in Johannesburg so he could be close to medical care in Pretoria, the capital.

His three surviving children are daughter Makaziwe by his first marriage, and daughters Zindzi and Zenani by his second.

Police: Threat to father used in phone scam

 
WEST WHITELAND TWP., Pa. - December 4, 2013 (WPVI) -- A pair of women have been victimized by a cruel hoax and the instrument of crime was a telephone.

"I said, 'Please, it's Christmastime and I need my brother and I'll do whatever I have to do,'" a victim named Jill said.
We are protecting Jill's identity because she is still getting threatening messages.

On Tuesday, she got a call from a man claiming her brother had been in an accident and was now being held hostage. She was given an address to send a MoneyGram worth $1,000 or her brother would be killed.
"I pleaded with him. I said, 'Please, don't kill my brother.' I said, 'he just became a father,'" Jill said.
While negotiating with the caller on her phone Jill was able to contact her mother by text on another phone.
Her mother checked and her brother was okay.
She told Jill to hang up on the caller.
"And I said, 'Mom, are you sure he's okay, because if something happens to my brother, I'll never forgive myself for the rest of my life. She said 'he's fine.' So I hung up the phone and this man called me back 23 times," Jill said.
Police believe it was the same man who called a woman in Exton on Monday claiming her father had been in an accident and was being held at gunpoint.
The man allegedly told the victim if she didn't send $900 to repair the damage, her father would be shot.
The caller knew personal details about the victim's father, police say, leading her to believe the call was genuine.
She was told to go to the local Walmart and send $900 to a woman in Puerto Rico via MoneyGram.
That victim wasn't able to contact her father so she did as instructed and went to the Walmart.
"She drove to the Walmart. Went to the MoneyGram. Sent money down to someone in Puerto Rico," Detective Scott Pezik of the West Whiteland Police Department said.
After the money was sent, another man then called the victim, saying he was the original caller's cousin and told her they had released her father.
The woman then called her father and soon realized it was all a hoax.
Police say the extortionist has a heavy Hispanic accent and in the two local cases identified himself as Robert.
It is a terrifying scam that has already been hitting hard in New England and Central Pennsylvania.
Police say it is an extremely cruel new form of extortion.
"I am absolutely terrified. I was trembling. It was hard to drive. It was hard to focus. I was crying at one point," Jill said.
Police here in West Whiteland and elsewhere are comparing notes hoping to zero in on the extortionist.
They believe he's going through a cell phone directory trying dozens of calls a day until he finds a likely victim.
If you have been contacted in this or a similar scam, you are asked to call West Whiteland Police at (610) 363-0200.

Stolen cobalt-60 found abandoned in Mexico

Stolen cobalt-60 found abandoned in Mexico 

This image released Wednesday Dec. 4, 2013 by the National Commission on Nuclear Safety and Safeguards of Mexico's Energy Secretary (CNSNS) shows a piece of machinery that is part of the cargo of a stolen truck hauling medical equipment with extremely dangerous radioactive material, in Tepojaco, Hidalgo state, north of Mexico City. The cargo truck was stolen from a gas station in central Mexico, and authorities have put out an alert in six central states and the capital to find it, Mexican and U.N. nuclear officials said Wednesday.

MEXICO CITY (AP) -- A missing shipment of radioactive cobalt-60 was found Wednesday near where the stolen truck transporting the material was abandoned in central Mexico, the country's nuclear safety director said.

The highly radioactive material had been removed from its container, officials said, and one predicted that anyone involved in opening the box could be in grave danger of dying within days.

The cobalt-60 was left in a rural area about a kilometer (a half a mile) from Hueypoxtla, an agricultural town of about 4,000 people, but it posed no threat or a need for an evacuation, said Juan Eibenschutz, director general of the National Commission of Nuclear Safety and Safeguards.

"Fortunately there are no people where the source of radioactivity is," Eibenschutz said.

Commission physicist Mardonio Jimenez said it was the first time cobalt-60 had been stolen and extracted from its container. The only threat was to whoever opened the box and later discarded the pellets of high-intensity radioactive material that was being transported to a waste site. It had been used in medical equipment for radiation therapy.

"The person or people who this took out are in very great risk of dying," Jimenez said, adding that the normal survival rate would be between one and three days.

He said there was no word so far of anyone reporting to area hospitals with radiation exposure. He said those who exposed themselves to the pellets could not contaminate others.

Federal police and military units on the scene put up a cordon of 500 meters (yards) around the site.

The cargo truck hauling the cobalt-60 was stolen from a gas station early Tuesday in the neighboring state of Hidalgo, about 40 kilometers (24 miles) from where the material was recovered, Jimenez said. Authorities had put out an alert in six central states and the capital looking for it.

The truck was taking the cobalt to a nuclear waste facility in the state of Mexico, which is adjacent to Mexico City.

The material was used in obsolete radiation therapy equipment that is being replaced throughout Mexico's public health system. It was coming from the general hospital in the northern border city of Tijuana, Eibenshutz said.

Before the container was found, he said the thieves most likely wanted the white 2007 Volkswagen cargo vehicle with a moveable platform and crane.

Eibenschutz said there was nothing to indicate the theft of the cobalt was intentional or in any way intended for an act of terrorism.

On average, a half dozen thefts of radioactive materials are reported in Mexico each year and none have proven to be aimed at the cargo itself, he said.

According to the complaint of this theft, a truck marked "Transportes Ortiz" left Tijuana on Nov. 28 and was headed to the storage facility when the driver stopped to rest at a gas station in Tepojaco, in Hidalgo state north of Mexico City.

The driver, Valentin Escamilla Ortiz, told authorities he was sleeping in the truck when two men with a gun approached about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday. They made him get out, tied his hands and feet and left him in a vacant lot nearby.

When he was able to free himself, he ran back to the gas station to get help.

Eibenschutz said the transport company did not follow proper procedures and should have had GPS and security with the truck.

"The driver also lacked common sense because he decided to park along a highway so he could sleep," Eibenschutz said.

The company couldn't immediately be located for comment. One Mexico City company called "Transportes Ortiz" said the truck was not theirs and they had nothing to do with the incident.

Eibenschutz had said early in the day that direct exposure to cobalt-60 could result in death within a few minutes, but Jimenez said the pellets involved were sealed.

The health risk depends on time of exposure and distance to the pellets, said Dr. Fred Mettler, a University of New Mexico's radiology professor and a U.S. representative to the U.N. on radiation safety.

"If you hold the source in your hand for five or six or eight minutes you are probably going to get enough radiation to your whole body that may well kill you," he said. "But if somebody is across the street, they are not going to enough to really make them sick."

Sixers Host Magic, Look To Snap Skid

Sixers Host Magic, Look To Snap Skid

The Sixers will be back in South Philadelphiatonight as they welcome the Orlando Magic to town.

That 3-0 start that turned a lot of heads now seems like a long time ago. Since then the Sixers have dropped 12 of 15 games, inlcuding their last four. But despite a 6-12 record, the Sixers are still in third place in what has so far proven to be a bad Atlantic Division. They are just a game behind first-place Toronto.

To put in perspective how bad the Atlantic, look at Orlando’s standing in the Southeast.

For full story go to :http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Firefighter Briefly Trapped In Burning Home

Firefighter Briefly Trapped In Burning Home
 
PHILADELPHIA (CBS)—A firefighter briefly became trapped on the third floor of a burning home in East Germantown.

Chopper 3 was over the scene on the 400 block of East Tulpehocken Street.
The firefighter was able to free himself and walk out of the home.

He was treated on the scene and was reportedly unharmed.

For full story go to:  http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/

Obama declares health care law is working

Obama declares health care law is working

President Barack Obama speaks about the new health care law, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. The President argued that his health law is preventing insurance discrimination against those with pre-existing conditions and is allowing young people to stay on their parents' coverage until age 26. On stage with the president are Americans the White House says have gained as a result of the Affordable Care Act.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Seeking to regroup from his health care law's disastrous rollout, President Barack Obama on Tuesday insisted that the sweeping overhaul is working and warned Republican critics that he would fight any efforts to strip away its protections.

"We're not repealing it as long as I'm president," Obama said during a health care event at the White House. 

"If I have to fight another three years to make sure this law works, then that's what I'll do."

Earlier Tuesday, the administration released a 50-state report saying that nearly 1.5 million people were found eligible for Medicaid during October. As website problems depressed sign-ups for subsidized private coverage, that safety-net program for low-income people saw a nearly 16 percent increase in states that have agreed to expand it, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

The White House is trying to cast the health care law in a positive light after the first two months of enrollment for the centerpiece insurance exchanges were marred with technical problems. With the majority of problems with the sign-up website resolved, by the accounting of administration officials, Obama and his team plan to spend much of December trying to remind Americans why the administration fought for the law in the first place.

"We believe that in America, nobody should have to worry about going broke because somebody in their family or they got sick," Obama said, flanked by people the White House says have benefited from the law.

Despite Obama's sunny presentation, officials are furiously working behind the scenes to rectify an unresolved issue with enrollment data that could become a significant headache after the first of the year. 

Insurers say much of the enrollment data they're receiving is practically useless, meaning some consumers might not be able to get access to benefits on Jan. 1, the date their coverage is scheduled to take effect.

The troubled rollout of the insurance exchanges has contributed to a drop in Obama's overall job approval rating, while also emboldening Republicans and putting Democratic lawmakers facing re-election on edge.

White House officials say that with the worst of the website problems behind them, the president will return to a familiar political argument: criticizing Republicans for opposing the "Obamacare" law without providing their own ideas for solving national health care woes.

"They sure haven't presented an alternative," Obama said. "You've got to tell us specifically what you'd do."

Despite the website troubles, the White House says it is buoyed by high online traffic. On Monday, officials said, the site received about 1 million visitors, though they would not detail how many of those had actually enrolled for insurance policies.

Medicaid sign-ups are proceeding on a separate track. While subsidized private coverage is available to middle class people in all 50 states, the expanded version of Medicaid currently is provided only in states that agreed to accept it. So far 25 states and Washington, D.C., have done so.

Tuesday's report showed that states that expanded their Medicaid programs saw a nearly 16 percent increase in applications during October. States that did not expand saw a smaller, 4-percent increase.

 

Union official says train engineer nodded

Union official says train engineer nodded 
 

YONKERS, N.Y. (AP) -- The engineer whose speeding commuter train ran off the rails along a curve, killing four people, nodded at the controls just before the wreck, and by the time he caught himself it was too late, a union official said Tuesday.

William Rockefeller "basically nodded," said Anthony Bottalico, leader of the rail employees union, relating what he said the engineer told him.

"He had the equivalent of what we all have when we drive a car. That is, you sometimes have a momentary nod or whatever that might be. How long that lasts, I can't answer that."

Rockefeller's lawyer did not return calls. During a late-afternoon news conference, federal investigators said they were still talking to Rockefeller, and they would not comment on his level of alertness around the time of the Sunday morning wreck in the Bronx.

Separately, however, two law enforcement officials said the engineer told police at the scene that his mind was wandering before he realized the train was in trouble, and by then it was too late to do anything about it. One of the officials said Rockefeller described himself as being "in a daze" before the wreck.

The officials, who were briefed on the engineer's comments, weren't authorized to discuss the investigation publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Questions about Rockefeller's role mounted rapidly after investigators disclosed on Monday that the Metro-North Railroad train jumped the tracks after going into a curve at 82 mph, or nearly three times the 30 mph speed limit. In addition to the four people killed, dozens were hurt.

"He caught himself, but he caught himself too late. ... He powered down, he put the train in emergency, but that was six seconds prior to derailment," Bottalico said.

Rockefeller, who was operating the train from the front car, was treated at a hospital for minor injuries and released.

National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener repeated that it was too soon to say whether the accident was caused by human error. But he said investigators have found no problems so far with the brakes or signals.

Alcohol tests on the train's crew members were negative, and investigators were still awaiting the results of drug tests, the NTSB official said.

On the day of the crash, Rockefeller was on the second day of a five-day work week, reporting at 5:04 a.m. after a typical nine-hour shift the day before, according to Weener.

"There's every indication that he would have had time to get full restorative sleep," Weener said.

Bottalico said Rockefeller "never said anything about not getting enough sleep." But he said the engineer had switched just weeks earlier from the night shift to the day shift, "so he did have a change in his hours and his circadian rhythms with regard to sleep."

The New York Police Department is conducting its own investigation, with help from the Bronx district attorney's office, in the event the derailment becomes a criminal case.

Rockefeller himself, meanwhile, stayed out of sight. But his union and former co-workers spoke up in his defense.

"This is a man who is totally distraught by the loss of life, and he's having a tough time dealing with that," Bottalico said.

He added: "Once the NTSB is done with their investigation and Billy is finished with his interview, it will be quite evident that there was no criminal intent with the operation of his train."

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Tuesday the engineer could be faulted for the train's speed if nothing else.

"Certainly, we want to make sure that that operator is disciplined in an appropriate way. There's such a gross deviation from the norm," he said.

Steven Harrod, University of Dayton professor who studies transportation, said that trains typically do not have a speed or cruise control, but a power control, and once it is set, a train can pick up speed on its own because of the terrain.

"Thus, if the engineer loses attention, the train can gain speed without intervention," Harrod said. "The power control could have been set" as the train left a station, "and then forgotten by the engineer."

In case of an engineer becoming incapacitated, the train's front car was equipped with a "dead man's pedal" that must be depressed or else the train will automatically slow down.

Trains also can have alarms, sometimes called "alerters," that sound if the operators' controls haven't been moved within a certain timeframe. If an engineer doesn't respond, often by pressing a button, brakes automatically operate. But the Metro-North train that derailed didn't have such a system, according to Marjorie Anders, a spokeswoman for Metro-North's parent, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority.

Regardless, "neither of those two methodologies is truly a fail-safe approach," said Grady Cothen, a former Federal Railroad Administration safety official. Congress has ordered commuter and freight railroads to install technology called positive train control - which uses electronics to monitor trains' positions and speed and stop derailments and other problems - by the end of 2015.

Rockefeller, 46 and married with no children, has worked for the railroad for 15 years and has been an engineer for 10, according to Weener. Rockefeller lives in a well-kept house on a modest rural road in Germantown, N.Y., about 40 miles south of Albany.

He started as a custodian at Grand Central Terminal, then monitored the building's fire alarms and other systems, and ultimately became an engineer.

"He was a stellar employee. Unbelievable," said his former supervisor, Michael McLendon, who retired from the railroad about a year ago.

McLendon said he was stunned when he heard about the crash, shortly after opening his mail to find a Christmas card from Rockefeller and his wife.

"I said, `Well, I can't imagine Billy making a mistake,'" McLendon said. "Not intentionally, by any stretch of the imagination."

Rockefeller's work routine had recently changed. He had begun running that route on Nov. 17, two weeks before the wreck, Anders said.

Bottalico said Rockefeller was familiar with the route and qualified to run it.

Bruno Lizzul, an MTA machinist who met Rockefeller when they both worked at Grand Central around 2000, described the engineer as honest, hard-working and helpful - so much so that he took it upon himself to show up and help Lizzul renovate his home ahead of a baby's arrival.

"He went the extra yard. He just decided to extend himself to me," Lizzul said.

Lizzul said Rockefeller was very serious about his work: "He would not do anything to upset anybody or in any way cause harm."

Meanwhile, crews were rebuilding the damaged track. Officials expect 98 percent of service to be restored to the affected line Wednesday, Cuomo said.

 

NTSB: Train going too fast at curve before wreck

NTSB: Train going too fast at curve before wreck 

Cranes salvage the last car from from a train derailment in the Bronx section of New York, Monday, Dec. 2, 2013. Federal authorities began righting the cars Monday morning as they started an exhaustive investigation into what caused a Metro-North commuter train rounding a riverside curve to derail, killing four people and injuring more than 60 others. A second "event recorder" retrieved from the train may provide information on the speed of the train, how the brakes were applied, and the throttle setting, a member of the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday.

 

YONKERS, N.Y. (AP) -- A commuter train that derailed over the weekend, killing four passengers, was hurtling at 82 mph as it entered a 30 mph curve, a federal investigator said Monday. But whether the wreck was the result of human error or brake trouble was unclear, he said.

Asked why the train was going so fast, National Transportation Safety Board member Earl Weener said: "That's the question we need to answer."

He would not disclose what the engineer operating the train had told investigators. Weener said investigators were examining the engineer's cellphone - apparently to determine whether he was distracted.

Weener said the information on the locomotive's speed was preliminary and extracted from the Metro-North train's two data recorders, taken from the wreckage after the Sunday morning accident in the Bronx.

He said the throttle went to idle six seconds before the derailed train came to a complete stop - "very late in the game" for a train going that fast - and the brakes were fully engaged five seconds before the train stopped.

Asked whether the tragedy was the result of human error or faulty brakes, Weener said: "The answer is, at this point in time, we can't tell."

He said investigators are not aware of any problems with the brakes during the nine stops the train made before the derailment.

As investigators mined the data recorders for information, workers righted the fallen cars along the curve, a bend so sharp that the speed limit during the approach drops from 70 mph to 30 mph.

It takes about a mile for a train going 70 mph to stop, according to Steve Ditmeyer, an adjunct professor of railway management at Michigan State University and a former official with the Federal Railroad Administration.

The wreck came two years before the federal government's deadline for Metro-North and other railroads to install automatic-slowdown technology designed to prevent catastrophic accidents caused by human error.

Metro-North's parent agency and other railroads have pressed the government to extend the deadline a few years because of the cost and complexity of the Positive Train Control technology, which uses GPS, wireless radio and computers to monitor locomotives' position and speed and stop trains from colliding, derailing or going the wrong way.

"Assuming the braking system was working normally, this crash would not have happened" if a PTC system had been in place, said Grayd Cothen, a former safety official with the Federal Railroad Administration.

He said the system would probably have alerted the engineer to the speed of the train and the approaching curve, and if the engineer had failed to brake manually, the PTC would have probably forced the train to stop.

"This incident, if anything, heightens the importance of additional safety measures, like that one," said Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, which is also served by Metro-North. "And speaking for myself, I'd be very loath to be more flexible or grant more time."

Margie Anders, a spokeswoman for Metro-North's parent, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, said that the agency began planning for a PTC system as soon as the law was put into effect.

"It's not a simple, off-the-shelf solution," she said.

The engineer, William Rockefeller, was injured and "is totally traumatized by everything that has happened," said Anthony Bottalico, executive director of the rail employees union. He said Rockefeller, 46, was cooperating fully with investigators.

"He's a sincere human being with an impeccable record that I know of. He's diligent and competent," Bottalico said. Rockefeller has been an engineer for about 11 years and a Metro-North employee for about 20, he said.

While the train's seven cars and locomotive were gradually returned to their tracks Monday, the 26,000 weekday riders on the railroad's affected Hudson Line faced a complicated commute.

Many used shuttle buses and cars to get to work. But no major delays were reported during the early rush hour.

On Sunday, the train was about half full, with about 150 people aboard, when it ran off the rails around 7:20 a.m. while rounding a bend where the Harlem and Hudson rivers meet. The lead car landed inches from the water. In addition to the four people killed, more than 60 were injured.

Many victims had been released from hospitals by Monday afternoon.

Seven were still in an intensive-care unit at St. Barnabas Hospital, some with spinal injuries, emergency department director Dr. David Listman said. And two patients were reported in critical condition at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital.

The injured included five police officers who were heading to work, according to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and a 14-year-old boy who was taking a weekend ride with his father on the same train the youngster usually takes to school.

The train's assistant conductor, Maria Herbert, suffered an eye injury and a broken collarbone, Bottalico said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo said on NBC's "Today" show that he thinks speed will turn out to be a factor in a crash he called "your worst nightmare."

The MTA identified the dead as Donna L. Smith, 54, of Newburgh; James G. Lovell, 58, of Cold Spring; James M. Ferrari, 59, of Montrose; and Ahn Kisook, 35, of Queens. Three of the dead were found outside the train; one was inside.

Lovell, an audio technician who had worked the "Today" show and other NBC programs, was traveling to Manhattan to work on the Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, longtime friend Janet Barton said. The tree-lighting ceremony is Wednesday night.

"He always had a smile on his face and was quick to share a friendly greeting," "Today" executive producer Don Nash said in a message to staffers.

The NTSB has been urging railroads for decades to install Positive Train Control technology. Congress in 2008 required dozens of railroads, including Metro-North, to do so by 2015.

The MTA awarded $428 million in contracts in September to develop the system for Metro-North and its sister Long Island Rail Road. But the MTA has asked for an extension on the deadline to 2018, saying it faces technological and other hurdles in installing such a system across more than 1,000 rail cars and 1,200 miles of track.

The derailment came amid a troubled year for Metro-North, and marked the first time in the railroad's 31-year history that a passenger was killed in an accident.

In May, a train derailed in Bridgeport, Conn., and was struck by a train coming in the opposite direction, injuring 73 passengers, two engineers and a conductor. In July, a freight train full of garbage derailed near the site of Sunday's wreck.

 

Holiday Season Phishing Scams and Malware Campaigns

As the winter holidays approach, US-CERT reminds users to stay aware of seasonal scams and cyber campaigns, which may include:

• electronic greeting cards that may contain malware
• requests for charitable contributions that may be phishing scams and may originate from illegitimate sources claiming to be charities
• screensavers or other forms of media that may contain malware
• credit card applications that may be phishing scams or identity theft attempts
• online shopping advertisements that may be phishing scams or identity theft attempts from bogus retailers
• shipping notifications that may be phishing scams or may contain malware

US-CERT encourages users and administrators to use caution when encountering these types of email messages and take the following preventative measures to protect themselves from phishing scams and malware campaigns:

• Refer to the Shopping Safely Online Cyber Security Tip for more information on online shopping safety.
• Do not follow unsolicited web links in email messages.
• Use caution when opening email attachments. Refer to the Using Caution with Email Attachments Cyber Security Tip for more information on safely handling email attachments.
• Maintain up-to-date antivirus software.
• Review the Federal Trade Commission's Charity Checklist.
• Verify charity authenticity through a trusted contact number. Trusted contact information can be found on the Better Business Bureau's National Charity Report Index.
• Refer to the Recognizing and Avoiding Email Scams (pdf) document for more information on avoiding email scams.
• Refer to the Avoiding Social Engineering and Phishing Attacks Cyber Security Tip for more information on social engineering attacks.
• Refer to the Holiday Traveling with Personal Internet-Enabled Devices Cyber Security Tip for more information on protecting personal mobile devices while traveling over the holidays.

BBB: Fake Debt Collectors Threatening Victims With Lawsuits And Arrests.

(BBB news release) Don’t give in to harassing calls from fake debt collectors who try to pressure you into paying money that you don’t owe. According to the Better Business Bureau, scammers are being more deceptive than ever, and this perennial scam is back in the news with a recent Federal Trade Commission settlement.
According to a news release from the BBB, here's how the scam works:

You’ve never been late on a loan or credit card payment, but you start receiving calls from debt collectors. The frequency increases, and you even get a voicemail message that resembles this:
“This is the Civil Investigations Unit. We are contacting you in regards to a complaint being filed against you, pursuant to claim and affidavit number D00D-2932, where you have been named a respondent in a court action and must appear… You or your attorney will have 24 to 48 hours to oppose this matter… Call 757-301-4745.”
The message sounds official, but you are being targeted by a debt collection scam. These scammers use fictitious names that imply they are affiliated with a law firm.
These scammers threaten that if you don’t pay, you could suffer serious consequences, such as being sued, being arrested at work, having your wages garnished, or forced to appear in court thousands of miles from home. They call you at home and work, and they often know information about you and your family.
Despite the threats, these “debt collectors” don’t have any power over you.  Don’t give in and pay money you don’t owe; it’s likely scammers will just be back for more. Below is advice on how to deal with these intimidating calls.

What to Do if You Receive a Harassing Call From a Debt Collector:
The best protection against debt collection scams is simply knowing your rights. Here’s a quick overview.
    Ask the debt collector to provide official “validation notice” of the debt. Debt collectors are required by law to provide the information in writing. The notice must include the amount of the debt, the name of the creditor and a statement of your rights under the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. If the self-proclaimed collector won’t provide the information, hang up.
    If you think that a caller may be a fake, ask for his name, company, street address, and telephone number.  Then, confirm that the collection agency is real.
    Do not provide or confirm any bank account, credit card or other personal information over the phone until you have verified the call.
    Check your credit report for by going to annualcreditreport.com or calling (877) 322-8228. This will help you determine if you have outstanding debts or if there has been suspicious activity under your name.
    If the scammer has a great deal of personal information about you, be safe and place a fraud alert on your credit report.
    File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission if the caller uses threats. The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act prohibits debt collections from being abusive, unfair or deceptive.

Officials: Speed a factor in Paul Walker crash.

LOS ANGELES - Details continue to emerge about the fiery car crash that killed "Fast & Furious" star Paul Walker and one other person. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department says speed was a factor in the one-car crash in the community of Valencia. Deputies found a red Porsche engulfed in flames when they arrived Saturday afternoon. Walker's publicist said Sunday the other person in the car was Roger Rodas, a friend of Walker's who owned a sport car dealership. Walker's publicist said the actor was the passenger, though the sheriff's department did not confirm that. The Porsche crashed into a light pole and tree and burst into flames. The downed light pole had a speed limit sign of 45 mph. Walker was in Valencia for a fundraiser benefiting victims of the recent typhoon in the Philippines. His "Fast & Furious" co-star Vin Diesel posted a photograph of him and Walker arm-in-arm on Instagram with the message: "Brother I will miss you very much. I am absolutely speechless." Walker rode the "Fast & Furious" franchise to stardom, starring in all but one of the six action blockbusters, beginning with the first film in 2001. The blond-haired, blue-eyed Los Angeles-native brought California surfer good-looks and an easy, warm charm to the popular street-racing series. The son of a fashion model and a sewer contractor, Walker grew up in a working class, Mormon household in Glendale, Calif. The oldest of five siblings, Walker's mother began taking him to auditions as a toddler. He was a child model beginning at the age of 2. Walker has said the early induction to show business wasn't to start him on a career path, but as a way to help provide for the family. After a string of TV roles as a child in the `80s, including small roles on "Who's the Boss" and "Charles in Charge," Walker made his feature film debut in the 1998 comedy "Meet the Deedles." Supporting roles in the films "Pleasantville," `'Varsity Blues" and "Flags of Our Fathers" followed. His performance in the 2000 thriller "The Skulls" caught the eye of producer Neal H. Moritz, who cast him in "The Fast and the Furious" as undercover police officer Brian O'Conner. Adapted from a Vibe magazine article about underground street races, the film became an unexpected hit. In the sequel, "2 Fast 2 Furious," Walker moved to center stage with Diesel temporarily dropping out. Walker, a self-described "gearhead," kept his character's sports car from the film. Walker starred in other films, including the crime thriller "Running Scared," the Antarctic adventure "Eight Below" and the heist film "Takers." Though his stardom didn't make as much of an impact outside the "Fast & Furious" series, Walker continually drew praise from his co-stars and directors as a kind-hearted and eager collaborator. "Your humble spirit was felt from the start," Ludacris, Walker's "Fast & Furious" co-star, said on Twitter. "Wherever you blessed your presence you always left a mark, we were like brothers." "Fast & Furious" proved unusually enduring. Released in May, "Fast & Furious 6" was the most lucrative of them all, grossing more than $788 million worldwide. The seventh installment began shooting in September, with a release planned for July. The film's production was on break with more shooting to be done. Walker stars in the upcoming Hurricane Katrina drama "Hours," which Lionsgate's Pantelion Films is to release Dec. 13. He also stars in "Brick Mansions," a remake of the French action film "District B13" in post-production that Relativity plans to release next year. "Paul was an incredibly talent artist, devoted philanthropist and friend," Relativity President Tucker Tooley said in a statement. He formed Reach Out Worldwide in 2010 to aid people struck by natural disasters. A friend of Walker's who attended the fundraiser Saturday, Bill Townsend, told AP Radio, "He was very happy. He was smiling at everybody, just tickled that all these people came out to support this charity. He was doing what he loved. He was surrounded by friends, surrounded by cars." Walker is survived by his 15-year-old daughter. Read more: http://www.myfoxdc.com/story/24103905/officials-speed-a-factor-in-paul-walker-crash#ixzz2mJUUg55O Follow us: @myfoxdc on Twitter | myfoxdc on Facebook

Death investigation at Arrowhead Stadium; three people in custody

Kansas City, Mo. -- Police say a man has died and three people are in custody after an altercation that happened in the parking lot of Arrowhead Stadium as the Kansas City Chiefs played the Denver Broncos.
Police spokesman Darin Snapp tells The Associated Press the death is being treated as a homicide but no arrests have been made. He says the man who died was found inside someone else's vehicle and a struggle ensued.
The man, who was in his 20s, was found unconscious on the pavement. Snapp says paramedics began administering first aid before he was transported to a hospital, where he died. His name has not been released.
Chiefs spokesman Ted Crews says the team is aware of the incident but cannot comment further because of the police investigation.

Man Gunned Down Over Headphones

The sounds of children playing on a Lebanon Avenue sidewalk Saturday afternoon didn't curb a shooter.

An armed man opened fire on Christian Massey, 21, in a nearby alley.

The armed man first demanded Massey's Dr. Dre Beats headphones. Massey did not comply and tried to run, witnesses say. The suspect shot five rounds, striking and killing Massey. The headphones lay near Massey's lifeless body. He had purchased them for about $300 on Black Friday.

"To me, he was my child," said Eula Hodge, his grandmother. "Why did they have to shoot him. They didn't get what they shot him for so he was shot for nothing."

His goal was to play basketball and buy a house for himself and his sisters. Philadelphia Police have no leads and are seeking the public's help with identifying a suspect.

 

NYC train derailment kills 4, hurts more than 60

NYC train derailment kills 4, hurts more than 60 

First responders gather at the derailment of a Metro North passenger train in the Bronx borough of New York Sunday, Dec. 1, 2013 The Fire Department of New York says there are "multiple injuries" in the train derailment, and 130 firefighters are on the scene. Metropolitan Transportation Authority police say the train derailed near the Spuyten Duyvil station.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A New York City commuter train rounding a riverside curve derailed Sunday, killing four people and injuring more than 60 in a crash that threw passengers from the toppling cars and left a snaking chain of twisted wreckage just inches from the water.

Some of the roughly 150 passengers on the early morning Metro-North train from Poughkeepsie to Manhattan were jolted from sleep around 7:20 a.m. to screams and the frightening sensation of their compartment rolling over on a bend in the Bronx where the Hudson and Harlem rivers meet. When the motion stopped, four or five of the seven cars had lurched off the rails. It was the latest accident in a troubled year for the nation's second-biggest commuter railroad, which had never experienced a passenger death in an accident in its 31-year-history.

"Four people lost their lives today in the holiday season, right after Thanksgiving," Gov. Andrew Cuomo said at a news conference. Eleven of the injured were believed to be critically injured and another six seriously hurt, according to the Fire Department.

The train operator was among the injured, Cuomo said.

The governor said the track did not appear to be faulty, leaving speed as a possible culprit for the crash. But he noted that the National Transportation Safety Board would determine what happened. The Federal Railroad Administration was also sending 10 investigators to the scene.

Metropolitan Transportation Authority Chairman Thomas F. Prendergast said investigators would look at numerous factors, including the train, the track and signal system, the operators and speed.

The speed limit on the curve is 30 mph, compared with 70 mph in the area approaching it, MTA spokeswoman Marjorie Anders said. The train's data recorders should be able to tell how fast it was traveling, she said.

One passenger, Frank Tatulli, told WABC-TV that the train appeared to be going "a lot faster" than usual as it approached the sharp curve near the Spuyten Duyvil station, which takes its name from a Dutch word for a local waterway, sometimes translated as "Devil's whirlpool."

The train was about half full at the time of the crash, rail officials said, with some passengers likely heading to the city for holiday shopping.

Joel Zaritsky was dozing as he traveled to a dental convention.

"I woke up when the car started rolling several times. Then I saw the gravel coming at me, and I heard people screaming," he told The Associated Press, holding his bloody right hand. "There was smoke everywhere and debris. People were thrown to the other side of the train."

Nearby residents awoke to a building-shaking boom. Angel Gonzalez was in bed in his high-rise apartment overlooking the rail curve when he heard the roar.

"I thought it was a plane that crashed," he said.

Mike Gallo heard the same noise as he was walking his dog. He looked down at the tracks and "knew it was a tragedy right away. I saw injured people climbing out of the train."

Within minutes, dozens of emergency crews arrived and carried passengers away on stretchers, some wearing neck braces. Others, bloodied and scratched, held ice packs to their heads.

Firefighters shattered windows of the toppled train cars to reach passengers, and they used pneumatic jacks and air bags to make sure they uncovered any victims who might have been pinned by train seats or other objects.

Police divers searched the waters to make sure no one had been thrown in. Other emergency crews scoured the surrounding woods.

Federal investigators planned to turn the cars upright to be certain no one was trapped beneath.

Three men and one woman were killed, the MTA said. Three of the dead were found outside the train, and one was found inside, authorities said. The victims' names had not yet been released.

Edwin Valero was in an apartment building above the accident. At first, he said, he didn't notice that the train had flipped over.

"I didn't realize it had been turned over until I saw a firefighter walking on the window," he said.

To Cuomo, "it looked like a toy train set that was mangled by some super-powerful force," the governor said in a phone interview with CNN.

As deadly as the derailment was, the toll could have been far greater had it happened on a weekday, or had the lead car plunged into the water instead of coming to rest on its edge.

"On a workday, fully occupied, it would have been a tremendous disaster," New York City Fire Commissioner Salvatore Joseph Cassano told reporters at the scene.

For decades, the National Transportation Safety Board has been urging railroads to install technology that can stop derailing caused by excessive speed.

A rail-safety law passed by Congress in 2008 gave commuter and freight railroads until the end of 2015 to install the systems, known as positive train control. They use GPS, wireless radio and computers to monitor trains.

Aimed at preventing human error - the cause of about 40 percent of train accidents - they can also prevent trains from colliding, entering tracks undergoing maintenance or going the wrong way because of a switching mistake.

But the systems are expensive and complicated. Railroads and their allies in Congress are trying to push back the installation deadline another five to seven years.

Metro-North is in the process of installing the technology. It now has what's called an "automatic train control" signal system, which automatically applies the brakes if an engineer fails to respond to an alert that indicates the speed is excessive.

Such systems can slow trains in some circumstances, but not bring them to a halt, said Grady Cothen, a former Federal Railroad Administration safety official.

It's possible, but very unlikely, that the accident was caused by a brake failure, Cothen said.

Trains rely upon an air brake system that automatically stops the train if the brakes suddenly lose air pressure, he said. If the brakes were gradually failing, the train engineer should have had plenty of warning in time to stop the train, he said.

Amtrak Empire service was halted for hours between New York City and Albany but resumed Sunday afternoon, with some delays. Amtrak said its Northeast Corridor service between Boston and Washington was unaffected.

It was not clear when service would resume on the affected part of Metro-North's Hudson line, which carries about 18,000 people on an average weekday morning.

Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino said contingency plans were in the works for Monday morning rush hour, possibly using buses.

Sunday's accident was the second passenger train derailment in six months for Metro-North.

On May 17, an eastbound train derailed in Bridgeport, Conn., and was struck by a westbound train. The crash injured 73 passengers, two engineers and a conductor. Eleven days later, track foreman Robert Luden was struck and killed by a train in West Haven, Conn.

In July, a freight train full of garbage derailed on the same Metro-North line near the site of Sunday's wreckage.

"Safety is clearly a problem on this stretch of track," state Sen. Jeff Klein, who represents the nearby area, said Sunday.

Earlier this month, Metro-North's chief engineer, Robert Puciloski, told members of the NTSB investigating the May derailment and Luden's death that the railroad is "behind in several areas," including a five-year schedule of cyclical maintenance that had not been conducted in the area of the Bridgeport derailment since 2005.

The NTSB issued an urgent recommendation to Metro-North that it use "redundant protection," such as a procedure known as "shunting" in which crews attach a device to the rail in a work zone alerting the dispatcher to inform approaching trains to stop.