Toronto police say they have mayor drug video

Toronto police say they have mayor drug video 

Mayor Rob Ford walks past Halloween decorations on his way to talk to media at City Hall in Toronto on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013. Ford says he has no reason to step down despite police confirmation that they have seized a video that appears to show him smoking a crack pipe.

TORONTO (AP) -- Toronto police said Thursday they have obtained a video that appears to show Mayor Rob Ford smoking a crack pipe - a video that Ford had claimed didn't exist and has been at the core of a scandal that has embarrassed and gripped Canada for months.

Police Chief Bill Blair said the video, recovered after being deleted from a computer hard drive, did not provide grounds to press charges. Ford, a populist mayor who has repeatedly made headlines for his bizarre behavior, vowed not to resign.

Speaking outside the door his office, where visitors were free to check out the Halloween decorations, Ford said with a smile: "I have no reason to resign." He said he couldn't defend himself because the affair is part of a criminal investigation involving an associate, adding: "That's all I can say right now." Toronto police discovered the video while conducting a huge surveillance operation into a friend and sometimes driver suspected of providing Ford with drugs.

Ford faced allegations in May that he had been caught on video puffing from a glass crack pipe. Two reporters with the Toronto Star said they saw the video, but it has not been released publicly. Ford maintained he does not smoke crack and that the video does not exist.

The scandal has been the fodder of jokes on U.S. late night television and has cast Canada's largest city and financial capital in an unflattering light.

Ford was elected mayor three years ago on a wave of discontent simmering in the city's outlying suburbs. Since then he has survived an attempt to remove him from office on conflict-of-interest charges and has appeared in the news for his increasingly odd behavior. Through it all, the mayor has repeatedly refused to resign and pledged to run for re-election next year.

But the pressure ramped up on Thursday with all four major dailies in the city calling on Ford to resign.

Cheri DiNovo, a member of Ontario's parliament, tweeted: "Ford video nothing to celebrate Addiction is illness. Mayor please step down and get help?"

On Thursday, Blair said the video of the mayor "depicts images that are consistent with those previously reported in the press."

"As a citizen of Toronto I'm disappointed," Blair said. "This is a traumatic issue for citizens of this city and the reputation of this city."

Blair said the video will come out when Ford's associate and occasional driver, Alexander Lisi, goes to trial on drug charges. Lisi now also faces extortion charges for trying to retrieve the recording from an unidentified person. Blair did not say who owned the computer containing the video.

Blair said authorities believed the video is linked to a home in Toronto, referred to by a confidential informant as a "crack house" in court documents in Lisi's drug case.

The prosecutor in the Lisi case released documents Thursday showing they had rummaged through Ford's garbage in search of evidence of drug use. They show that they conducted a massive surveillance operation monitoring the mayor and Lisi following drug use allegations.

The documents show that friends and former staffers of Ford were concerned that Lisi was "fuelling" the Toronto mayor's alleged drug use.

The documents also detail evidence that led to Lisi's arrest on drug and extortion charges.

The police documents, ordered released by a judge, show Ford receiving packages from Lisi on several occasions.

"Lisi approached the driver's side of the Mayor's vehicle with a small white gift bag in hand; he then walked around to the passenger side and got on board," reads one document dated July 30, 2013. "After a few minutes Lisi exited the Escalade empty handed and walked back to his Range Rover."

Another dated July 28 says Lisi "constantly used counter surveillance techniques" when he met with Ford that day.

On August 13 documents say Lisi and Ford met and "made their way into a secluded area of the adjacent woods where they were obscured from surveillance efforts and stayed for approximately one hour."

Ford recently vouched for Lisi in a separate criminal case, praising his leadership skills and hard work in a letter filed with the court. The letter was part of a report prepared by a probation officer after Lisi was convicted of threatening to kill a woman.

Ford said previously that he was shocked when Lisi was arrested earlier this month, calling him a "good guy" and saying he doesn't abandon his friends.

The documents also say that Ford met Lisi through Payman Aboodowleh, a volunteer football coach at Don Bosco Catholic Secondary School, where Ford coached the team while also serving as mayor. He told police he was "mad at Lisi because he was fuelling the mayor's drug abuse," the document says.

Former Ford staffer Chris Fickel told police he didn't know where the mayor got marijuana from, but "has heard that `Sandro', Lisi's nickname, may be the person who provides the mayor with marijuana and possibly cocaine," the document alleges. However, Fickel added, he has never seen Lisi provide the mayor with drugs. The mayor would call Fickel and tell him to tell "Sandro" that "I need to see him," Fickel told police.

Ford's controversies range from the trivial to the serious: Walking face-first into a TV camera. Falling down during a photo op while pretending to play football. Being asked to leave an event for wounded war vets because he appeared intoxicated, according to the Toronto Star. Being forced to admit he was busted for marijuana possession in Florida in 1999, after repeated denials. Making rude gestures at Torontonians from his car.

Ford was fired earlier this year from his beloved volunteer job coaching football over disparaging remarks he made to a TV network about parents and their kids at the school.

Ford has long vilified the Toronto Star, accusing the paper of trying to take him down. Blair's revelations vindicated the paper's reporting.

"The mayor has said there wasn't a video," Toronto councilor Paula Fletcher Fletcher said. "He has said there is a conspiracy against him. With Chief's Blair's press conference I think that's put to rest."

Councilor Joe Mihevc said he continues to be shocked by the "depth and revelations that are coming out."

"The mayor has to come clean and do it as soon as possible," Mihevc said. "He needs to talk honestly about his use of illicit drugs."

Court blocks ruling on NY police stop-frisk policy

Court blocks ruling on NY police stop-frisk policy 

FILE - In this Aug. 13, 2013 file photo, police officers take a report from a woman who had her phone stolen in the Brownsville section of Brooklyn, New York. A federal appeals court on Thursday, Oct. 31, 2013, blocked a judge's order requiring changes to the New York Police Department's stop-and-frisk program and removed the judge from the case.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked a judge's ruling that found the New York Police Department's stop-and-frisk policy was discriminatory and took the unusual step of removing her from the case, saying interviews she gave during the trial called her impartiality into question.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan said the rulings by U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin will be stayed pending the outcome of an appeal by the city.

The judge had ruled in August the city violated the Constitution in how it carried out its program of stopping and questioning people. The city appealed her findings and her remedial orders, including a decision to assign a monitor to help the police department change its policy and the training program associated with it.

During arguments, lawyers in the case said the police department hasn't had to do anything except meet with a monitor since the judge's decision. But the city said police officers are afraid to stop and frisk people now and the number of stop-and-frisks has dropped dramatically.

The three-judge appeals panel, which heard arguments on the requested stay on Tuesday, noted that the case might be affected in a major way by next week's mayoral election.

Democratic candidate Bill de Blasio, who's leading in polls, has sharply criticized and promised to reform the NYPD's stop-and-frisk technique, saying it unfairly targets minorities. He said he was "extremely disappointed" in Thursday's decision.

"We have to end the overuse of stop and frisk - and any delay only means a continued and unnecessary rift between our police and the people they protect," he said in a statement.

The appeals court said the judge needed to be removed because she ran afoul of the code of conduct for U.S. judges in part by compromising the necessity for a judge to avoid the appearance of partiality. It noted she had given a series of media interviews and public statements responding to criticism of the court. In a footnote, it cited interviews with the New York Law Journal, The Associated Press and The New Yorker magazine.

In the AP interview, Scheindlin labeled as a "below-the-belt attack" on judicial independence reports that Mayor Michael Bloomberg had reviewed her record to show that most of her 15 written "search and seizure" rulings since she took the bench in 1994 had gone against law enforcement. She said it was "quite disgraceful" if the mayor's office was behind the study.

The 2nd Circuit said the cases challenging stop-and-frisk policies will be assigned to a different judge chosen randomly. It said the new presiding judge shall stay all proceedings pending further rulings by it.

After a 10-week civil trial that ended in the spring, Scheindlin ruled that police officers violated the civil rights of tens of thousands of people by wrongly targeting black and Hispanic men with the stop-and-frisk program. She appointed an outside monitor to oversee major changes, including reforms in policies, training and supervision, and she ordered a pilot program to test body-worn cameras.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which represented plaintiffs in the case, said it was dismayed that the appeals court delayed "the long-overdue process to remedy the NYPD's unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices" and was shocked that it "cast aspersions" on the judge's professional conduct and reassigned the case.

The city said it was pleased with the federal appeals court ruling. City lawyer Michael Cardozo said it allows for a fresh and independent look at the issue.

Stop-and-frisk, which has been criticized by civil rights advocates, has been around for decades, but recorded stops increased dramatically under Bloomberg's administration to an all-time high in 2011 of 684,330, mostly of black and Hispanic men. A lawsuit was filed in 2004 by four men, all minorities, and became a class action case.

About 5 million stops have been made in New York in the past decade, with frisks occurring about half the time. To make a stop, police must have reasonable suspicion that a crime is about to occur or has occurred, a standard lower than the probable cause needed to justify an arrest. Only about 10 percent of the stops result in arrests or summonses, and weapons are found about 2 percent of the time.

Supporters of changes to the NYPD's stop-and-frisk program say the changes will end unfair practices, will mold a more trusted police force and can affect how other police departments use the policy. Opponents say the changes will lower police morale but not crime.

The judge noted she wasn't putting an end to the stop-and-frisk practice, which is constitutional, but was reforming the way the NYPD implemented its stops.

 

Earth-size planet found with rocky core like ours

Earth-size planet found with rocky core like ours 

This artist's rendering provided by the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics on Wednesday, Oct. 30, 2013 shows the planet Kepler-78b, foreground, orbiting less than one million miles from its sun. Astrophysicists reported Wednesday in the journal Nature that the exoplanet appears to be made of rock and iron just like Earth.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) -- Scientists have found a planet way out in the cosmos that's close in size and content to Earth - an astronomical first.

But hold off on the travel plans. This rocky world is so close to its sun that it's at least 2,000 degrees hotter than here, almost certainly too hot for life.

Astrophysicists reported Wednesday in the journal Nature that the exoplanet Kepler-78b appears to be made of rock and iron just like Earth. They measured the planet's mass to determine its density and content. It's actually a little bigger than Earth and nearly double its mass, or weight.

Kepler-78b is located in the Cygnus constellation hundreds of light-years away. Incredibly, it orbits its sun every 8 1/2 hours, a mystery to astronomers who doubt it could have formed or moved that close to a star. They agree the planet will be sucked up by the sun in a few billion years, so its time remaining, astronomically speaking, is short.

More than 1,000 exoplanets - worlds outside our solar system - have been confirmed so far.

NASA's Kepler Space Telescope, used to discover Kepler-78b, has identified 3,500 more potential candidates. The telescope lost its precise pointing ability earlier this year, and NASA has given up trying to fix it.

Scientific teams in the United States and Switzerland used ground observatories to measure Kepler-78b

NY bus driver saves woman from jumping off bridge

NY bus driver saves woman from jumping off bridge 

In an Oct. 28, 2013, photo provided by the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority, NFTA bus driver Darnell Barton poses in front of a bus in Buffalo, N.Y. On Oct. 18, 2103, Barton’s decisive action stopped a woman from leaping from a roadway bridge to her death on to the highway below. Caught between the rules of his job and his training as a first responder, Barton stopped his bus, grabbed the woman and brought her back over the rail to safety.

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) -- A bus driver is being hailed as a hero for preventing a woman from jumping off a Buffalo highway overpass.

About 20 McKinley High School students had just stepped aboard Darnell Barton's Metro bus Oct. 18 when he spotted a woman who had climbed over a guardrail and stood leaning over the afternoon traffic zipping along the Scajaquada Expressway below.

With cars and an occasional pedestrian continuing to pass by her, Barton wasn't sure at first that the woman was in distress.

He stopped his bus, opened the door and asked if she needed help, at that moment conflicted between the rules of his job, which required him to call his dispatcher, and his training as a former volunteer firefighter and member of the Buffalo Special Police, which told him that if he made contact, he shouldn't break it.

"It was an interesting situation, knowing what you know and knowing what you have to do," he said by phone Wednesday. "Dispatch picked up. I remember giving my location and saying, `Send the authorities, this young lady needs help' and then dashing the phone down."

The bus video system captures Barton, 37, leaving the bus and the 20-something woman looking back at him. Her gaze then returns to the traffic below.

"That's when I went and put my arms around her," said Barton, a father of two. "I felt like if she looked down at that traffic one more time it might be it."

With the woman in a bear hug, Barton asked if she wanted to come back over the rail. She hadn't spoken up to that point but said yes.

The video shows Barton tenderly helping her climb back over the guardrail and sit down. Then he sits next to her on the concrete. He asked her name and other questions to distract her, he said, learning she was a student.

"Then she said, `You smell good,'" he said.

A corrections officer and a female driver who'd been behind the bus came to help, speaking to the woman until police and an ambulance arrived.

"While I was holding her, listening to their questions, I just prayed," the bus driver said. "Whatever was on her mind, it had her. It really, really had her."

When the ambulance drove away, Barton got back on his bus - and received a standing ovation from the high school students and other passengers who'd been watching through the windows. He finished his route, wrote up a report and went home.

"Being the humble individual that Darnell is, he didn't write it in a way that was going to call attention to himself," said C. Douglas Hartmayer, spokesman for the Niagara Frontier Transportation Authority. "It was: I did it, got back on my bus and continued. That speaks volumes about his demeanor and character."

Barton wishes he could speak with the woman again to make sure she's OK.

"Things like this put what's important in perspective," he said. "You hug your kids a little tighter, kiss your wife a little bit longer. You're grateful.

"Things may not be perfect," he said, "but as we say, they're a little bit of all right."

 

Blackface costumes revive controversy at Halloween

Blackface costumes revive controversy at Halloween 

FILE - This Oct. 1, 2013 file photo shows actress Julianne Hough at the 20th Annual "FFANY Shoes on Sale" Gala presented by QVC and FFANY in New York. Hough apologized on Twitter amid criticism for darkening her skin for a costume as Crazy Eyes from "Orange is the New Black" at a Hollywood bash.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Is donning blackface to dress up as a favorite TV character ever OK for Halloween?

How about a bloody hoodie and blackface for a costume riff on the slain teen Trayvon Martin, or full-on minstrel at a splashy Africa-themed party for the fashion elite in Milan?

Each of those costumes made headlines this Halloween season. And the answer to each, African studies and culture experts said, is never.

"The painful history of minstrelsy is not that long ago for us to think that now, somehow, we can do it differently or do it better," said Yaba Blay, co-director of Africana Studies at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

Julianne Hough found that out the hard way. She apologized on Twitter over the weekend amid criticism for darkening her skin for a costume as Crazy Eyes from "Orange is the New Black" at a Hollywood bash.

Hough explained on Twitter: "I am a huge fan of the show Orange is the New black, actress Uzo Aduba, and the character she has created. It certainly was never my intention to be disrespectful or demeaning to anyone in any way. I realize my costume hurt and offended people and I truly apologize."

There's a fine line between mockery and tribute - and it's a line that blackface has the power to obliterate, said Marita Sturken, professor of media, culture and communication at New York University.

"It's never something very simple, and if you're going to don a costume and put on a black face there's no possibility of nuance there," she said. "It doesn't matter that it was a character from a TV show. That doesn't get her off the hook. If she's going to put some substance on her face, that constitutes blackface and this incredibly complicated history gets evoked."

Historically, blackface emerged in the mid-19th century, representing a combination of put-down, fear and morbid fascination with black culture, said Eric Lott, a visiting American studies professor at City University of New York's graduate center. Among the most prominent examples: Al Jolson and Eddie Cantor.

"It's constantly a form of entertainment that backs itself into all kinds of trouble, whether political trouble around slavery or a kind of mental trouble having to do with fantasizing about black people," said Lott, who wrote the 1993 book "Love & Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy & the American Working Class."

As for Hough, he said: "It's just a stupid thing to do. It's a racist thing to do. What blackface does is give the white people privilege of representing black people, of taking black images and treating them as a thing owned."

Kelsey Crowe, who teaches social work in San Francisco, has been following the fracas on Facebook. She sees more tribute to Crazy Eyes than hatred in Hough's costume. Other recent examples are far more troubling, she said.

"Trayvon Martin, that's awful," Crowe said of two Florida men whose photo circulated on social media ahead of Halloween on Thursday.

One was in blackface with a simulated bloody bullet hole at the chest and the other simulated a gun to the head of the faux 17-year-old while dressed as George Zimmerman, the neighborhood watch volunteer who fatally shot Trayvon in Florida and was acquitted in court.

She was also "not into" the minstrel costumes in Milan. But the look for Hough "didn't strike me as exploitative at all," she said.

"In other cases blackface is used to make fun of people. I really saw this as a way to embody a character that you like," said Crowe, who will be a cat for Halloween with her 3-year-old daughter.

"Everybody likes the character of Crazy Eyes," she added, "but I guess that could be said of Aunt Jemima, too."

Bad judgment on blackface for Halloween is nothing new to Blay.

"I've taught at predominantly white institutions for seven years," she said. "And every Halloween like clockwork there is a blackface incident, if not on our campus then on somebody's campus."

What if Hough, the "Rock of Ages" singer, dancer and actress, had eliminated blackface from the equation, keeping her simulation of the Bantu knotted hairstyle worn by the character, along with the orange prison jumpsuit she and her friends zipped on as a posse of female inmates from the Netflix series?

"Yes, leave the skin color alone. Leave the stereotypical performance of it and I would imagine to some degree that could be middle ground," Blay said. "People dress up as other people all the time. That's what happens at Halloween. But she didn't do that. And as far as Trayvon, no. Never."

 

Health policy cancellations: New blow for admin.

Health policy cancellations: New blow for admin. 

Marilyn Tavenner, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, pauses while testifying on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Oct. 29, 2013, before the House Ways and Means Committee hearing on the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Stressing that improvements are happening daily, the senior Obama official closest to the administration's malfunctioning health care website apologized Tuesday for problems that have kept Americans from successfully signing up for coverage.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Move over, website woes. Lawmakers confronted the Obama administration Tuesday with a difficult new health care problem - a wave of cancellation notices hitting small businesses and individuals who buy their own insurance.

At the same time, the federal official closest to the website apologized for its dysfunction in new sign-ups and asserted things are getting better by the day.

Medicare chief Marilyn Tavenner said it's not the administration but insurers who are responsible for cancellation letters now reaching many of the estimated 14 million people who buy individual policies. And, officials said, people who get cancellation notices will be able to find better replacement plans, in some cases for less.

The Associated Press, citing the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, reported in May that many carriers would opt to cancel policies this fall and issue new ones. Administratively that was seen as easier than changing existing plans to comply with the new law, which mandates coverage of more services and provides better financial protection against catastrophic illnesses.

While the administration had ample warning of the cancellations, they could become another public relations debacle for President Barack Obama's signature legislation. This problem goes to the credibility of one of the president's earliest promises about the health care overhaul: You can keep your plan if you like it.

In the spring, state insurance commissioners started giving insurers the option of canceling existing individual plans for 2014, since the coverage required under Obama's law is more robust. Some states directed insurers to issue cancellations. Large employer plans that cover most workers and their families are unlikely to be affected.

The cancellation notices are now reaching policyholders, and they've been complaining to their lawmakers - who were grilling Tavenner on Tuesday.

"Based on what little information the administration has disclosed, it turns out that more people have received cancellation notices for their health care plans this month than have enrolled in the (health care website)," said Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, R-Mich. He cited a news report of 146,000 cancellations in his state alone.

Up and down the dais, lawmakers chimed in with stories of constituents who had received similar notices. 

Republicans offered examples of people being asked to pay more.

Democrats countered by citing constituents who had been able to find lower-cost coverage than they have now. Ranking Democrat Sander Levin of Michigan said one of his constituents has been paying $800 a month for a BlueCrossBlueShield plan and managed to find comparable coverage for $77, after tax credits that lower the premiums.

Still, Levin added, "this has become a matter of legitimate discussion."

It could take months to sort out the balance of individual winners and losers. There's not a central source of statistics on how many people have gotten cancellations. Even the number of people who buy insurance individually is disputed.

It isn't the administration's fault, said Tavenner. "In fact the issuer has decided to change the plan; (they) didn't have to."

Obama's promise dates back to June 2009, when Congress was starting to grapple with overhauling the health care system to cover uninsured Americans.

"If you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period," the president said in remarks to the American Medical Association. "No one will take it away, no matter what."

Some immediately saw the promise as too broad to deliver on, given that health plans are constantly being changed by the employers that sponsor them or by insurers directly.

Nonetheless, Democrats in Congress devised a complicated scheme called "grandfathering" to try to make good on Obama's pledge. It shields plans from the law's requirements, provided the plans themselves change very little. Insurers say it has proven impractical.

The White House weighed in Tuesday, with spokesman Jay Carney saying the changes are part of a transition to better coverage. "The good news," he said, "is that for every one of these individuals who might have a plan that is almost by definition providing less than minimal benefits ... you are now being offered a variety of options, including options by the very insurer that covers you already, for new coverage."

Critics say that's like an airline forcibly upgrading you from economy to business class, and exposing you to a higher ticket price.

Proponents of the health care law offered evidence to support the administration's position that losing coverage could be advantageous. In California, Anne Gonzalez, a spokeswoman for the state's health care exchange, Covered California, said that about 900,000 people are expected to lose existing plans that do not provide the minimum level of coverage required under the health care law.

"They basically had plans that had gaping holes in the coverage. They would be surprised when they get to the emergency room or the doctor's office, some of them didn't have drug coverage or preventive care," Gonzalez said. About a third of those people will be eligible for subsidies, she said, if they come to the health exchange.

During the House hearing, Tavenner delivered the most direct mea culpa yet from the administration for the technical problems that have kept many Americans from signing up through HealthCare.gov.

"I want to apologize to you that the website has not worked as well as it should," she told the committee.

The first senior official to publicly answer questions from lawmakers, Tavenner was pressed not only on what went wrong with the website, but also whether lawmakers can trust recent promises that things will be running efficiently by the end of November.

She declined to provide enrollment numbers, repeating nearly 20 times they will not be available until mid-November. But she did try to lower expectations of a strong initial sign-up. "We expect the initial number to be small," Tavenner said.

An internal memo obtained by the AP showed that the administration expected nearly 500,000 uninsured people to sign up for coverage in October, the program's first month. Committee chairman Camp told Tavenner that by his math, the administration appears headed for less than a fourth of that.

Outside contractors testified last week that there wasn't sufficient time to test the complex online enrollment system, which froze the day it was launched, Oct. 1.

The website is supposed to be the online portal to coverage for people who don't have health plans on the job. Its audience is not only uninsured Americans but those who already purchase coverage individually.

Under the law, middle-class people can qualify for tax credits to make private health insurance more affordable, while low-income people will be steered to Medicaid in states agreeing to expand that safety net program.

 

Fed judge: Texas abortion limits unconstitutional

Fed judge: Texas abortion limits unconstitutional 

File - In this July 9, 2013 file photo, opponents and supporters of an abortion bill hold signs near a news conference outside the Texas Capitol, in Austin, Texas. New abortion restrictions passed by the Texas Legislature are unconstitutional and will not take effect as scheduled on Tuesday, a federal judge has ruled.

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) -- A federal judge determined Monday that new Texas abortion restrictions place an unconstitutional burden on women seeking to end a pregnancy, a ruling that keeps open dozens of abortion clinics across the state while officials appeal.

The ruling by District Judge Lee Yeakel came one day before key parts of the law the Legislature approved in July were set to take effect. Lawyers for Planned Parenthood and other abortion providers argued in their lawsuit that a provision requiring abortion doctors to have admitting privileges at a hospital less than 30 miles away would have effectively shuttered about a third of the state's 38 clinics that perform abortions.

Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, whose office argued the law protects women and the life of the fetus, immediately filed an appeal with the conservative 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

"I have no doubt that this case is going all the way to the United States Supreme Court," Abbott said during stop in Brownsville, Texas, as part of his campaign to replace retiring Gov. Rick Perry.

Although several conservative states in recent months have approved broad abortion limits, the Texas ones were particularly divisive because of the number of clinics affected and the distance some women would have to travel to get an abortion.

Federal judges in Wisconsin, Kansas, Mississippi and Alabama also have found problems with state laws prohibiting doctors from conducting abortions if they don't have hospital admitting privileges.

All the other appeals - including the one from Mississippi, which like Texas is within the 5th Circuit - deal only with whether to lift a temporary injunction preventing the restriction from taking effect. The Texas appeal could be the first that directly addresses the question of whether the provision violates the Supreme Court's Roe v. Wade ruling that legalized abortion.

The admitting privileges provision "does not bear a rational relationship to the legitimate right of the state in preserving and promoting fetal life or a woman's health and, in any event, places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion," Yeakel wrote.

In another part of his ruling, Yeakel, who was appointed by President George W. Bush, partially blocked the provision requiring doctors to follow an 18-year-old U.S. Food and Drug Administration protocol. He found that the state could regulate how a doctor prescribes an abortion-inducing pill, but the law failed to allow for a doctor to adjust treatment in order to best protect the health of the woman taking it.

Abortion-rights supporters complained that requiring doctors to follow the FDA's original label for an abortion-inducing drug would deny women the benefit of recent advances in medical science.

Other portions of the law, known as House Bill 2, include a ban on abortions after 20 weeks and a requirement beginning in October 2014 that all abortions take place in a surgical facility. Neither of those sections was part of this lawsuit.

Amy Hagstrom Miller, president of Whole Woman's Health, said the judge did not go far enough.

"Nearly 40 percent of the women we serve at Whole Woman's Health choose medication abortion and now Texas is preventing these women from the advances in medical practice that other women across the United States will be able to access," she said.

The law requiring admitting privileges was the biggest obstacle facing abortion clinics in Texas, and the ruling gives them a temporary reprieve until new regulations go into effect next year.

Mississippi passed a similar law last year, which a federal judge also blocked pending a trial scheduled to begin in March. Mississippi's attorney general asked the 5th Circuit to lift the temporary injunction so the law could be enforced, but the judges have left it in place signaling they believe there is a legitimate constitutional question.

Unlike the Mississippi case, Yeakel's order is a final decision, setting the groundwork for the 5th Circuit to review the merits of the law, not just an injunction against it.

The proposed restrictions were among the toughest in the nation and gained notoriety when Democratic state Sen. Wendy Davis launched a nearly 13-hour filibuster against them in June. She is now the only Democrat in the race for Texas governor.

Davis said the ruling didn't surprise her.

"As a mother, I would rather see our tax dollars spent on improving our kid's schools than defending this law," she said in a statement.

During the trial, officials for one chain of abortion clinics testified that they've tried to obtain admitting privileges for their doctors at 32 hospitals, but so far only 15 accepted applications and none have announced a decision. Many hospitals with religious affiliations will not allow abortion doctors to work there, while others fear protests if they provide privileges. Many have requirements that doctors live within a certain radius of the facility, or perform a minimum number of surgeries a year that must be performed in a hospital.

Beth Shapiro, chairwoman of board of directors of Lubbock's Planned Parenthood Women's Health Center, said no hospital in Lubbock has granted privileges to the lone doctor from East Texas who flies in to do abortions when there are procedures scheduled. There is not incentive for hospitals to do so, she said.

"I don't see why local hospitals would give privileges to someone who's not going to admit patients," Shapiro said. "I don't see what the business and financial incentive would be."

 

Penn State: 26 people get $59.7M over Sandusky

Penn State: 26 people get $59.7M over Sandusky 

FILE - In this June 22, 2012 file photo, former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky arrives at the Centre County Courthouse in Bellefonte, Pa. Penn State said Monday, Oct. 28, 2013 that it is paying $59.7 million to 26 young men over claims of child sexual abuse at the hands of Sandusky. The university said it had concluded negotiations that have lasted about a year. The school said 23 deals are fully signed and three are agreements in principle. The school faces six other claims, and the university says it believes some do not have merit while others may produce settlements. Sandusky, 69, is serving a 30- to 60-year prison sentence at a state prison in southwestern Pennsylvania.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) -- Penn State said Monday it is paying $59.7 million to 26 young men over claims of child sexual abuse at the hands of former assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, a man once revered as a university icon who is now serving what is effectively a life prison sentence.

Nearly two years after the retired coach was first charged with child molestation, the school said 23 deals were fully signed and three were agreements in principle. It did not disclose the names of the recipients.

The school faces six other claims, and the university says it believes some of those do not have merit while others may produce settlements.

University president Rodney Erickson issued a statement calling the announcement a step forward for victims and the school.

"We cannot undo what has been done, but we can and must do everything possible to learn from this and ensure it never happens again at Penn State," said Erickson, who announced the day Sandusky was convicted in June 2012 that Penn State was determined to compensate his victims.

The settlements have been unfolding since mid-August, when attorneys for the accusers began to disclose them. Penn State has not been confirming them, waiting instead to announce deals at once.

Harrisburg lawyer Ben Andreozzi, who helped negotiate several of the settlements, said his clients were satisfied.

"They felt that the university treated them fairly with the economic and noneconomic terms of the settlement," said Andreozzi, who also represents some others who have come forward recently. Those new claims have not been presented to the university, he said.

One client represented by St. Paul, Minn., attorney Jeff Anderson signed off on an agreement in the past week and the other is basically done, he said. Anderson counts his two clients as among the three that have been classified as agreements in principle, which Penn State said means final documentation is expected to be completed in the next few weeks.

Anderson said his clients were focused on Penn State's changes to prevent future abuse.

"I have to applaud them, because they said `not until we're satisfied that no one else will get hurt,'" Anderson said. "The settlement of their cases in no way heals, in no way lessens the wound that remains open and the scars that are deep."

Penn State has spent more than $50 million on other costs related to the Sandusky scandal, including lawyers' fees, public relations expenses, and adoption of new policies and procedures related to children and sexual abuse complaints.

It said Monday that liability insurance is expected to cover the payments and legal defense, and expenses not covered should be paid from interest paid on loans by Penn State to its self-supporting units.

Clifford Rieders, a Williamsport attorney who negotiated one of the settlements, said the average payout matched other cases involving child abuse in educational or religious settings.

Rieders said the cases raised the specter of embarrassing revelations if they went to trial, and a university would have to consider the effect on the victims, its overall reputation, its ability to pay and its wider objectives.

"There are many considerations whenever you resolve a high-profile case involving serious misconduct, and I'm sure all of those and more came into play here," Rieders said.

Sandusky, 69, has been pursuing appeals while he serves a 30- to 60-year sentence on 45 criminal counts.

He was convicted of abusing 10 boys, some of them at Penn State facilities. Eight young men testified against him, describing a range of abuse they said went from grooming and manipulation to fondling, oral sex and anal rape when they were boys.

The 32 claimants involved in negotiations with Penn State include most of the victims from the criminal trial and some who say they were abused by Sandusky many years ago. Negotiations were conducted in secret, so the full range of the allegations wasn't disclosed publicly.

Sandusky did not testify at his trial but has long asserted his innocence. He has acknowledged he showered with boys but insisted he never molested them.

The abuse scandal rocked Penn State, bringing down football coach Joe Paterno and leading college sports' governing body, the NCAA, to levy unprecedented sanctions against the university's football program.

Three former Penn State administrators await trial in Harrisburg on charges they engaged in a criminal cover-up of the Sandusky scandal. Former president Graham Spanier, retired vice president Gary Schultz and retired athletic director Tim Curley deny the allegations, and a trial date has not been scheduled.

 

Sharpton threatens store boycott over profile suit

Sharpton threatens store boycott over profile suit 

File- This July 26, 2013 file photo shows the Rev. Al Sharpton gestures as he takes part in a panel discussion during the National Urban League's annual conference in Philadelphia. Sharpton is threatening to boycott luxury retailer Barneys over allegations by shoppers that they were racially profiled there. Sharpton said Saturday Oct. 26, 2013, that black New Yorkers "are not going to live in a town where our money is considered suspect and everyone else's money is respected."

 

NEW YORK (AP) -- The Rev. Al Sharpton threatened Saturday to boycott luxury retailer Barneys if the department store doesn't respond adequately to allegations by black shoppers that they were racially profiled there.

"We've gone from stop and frisk to shop and frisk, and we are not going to take it," the black civil rights leader said. "We are not going to live in a town where our money is considered suspect and everyone else's money is respected."

Two black Barneys New York customers, Trayon Christian and Kayla Phillips, said this week they were detained by police after making expensive purchases.

Christian sued Barneys, saying he was accused of fraud after using his debit card to buy a $349 Ferragamo belt in April.

Barneys said Thursday that it had retained a civil rights expert to help review its procedures. The CEO of Barneys, Mark Lee, offered his "sincere regret and deepest apologies."

Kirsten John Foy, an official with Sharpton's National Action Network, said he would meet with Barneys officials on Tuesday to discuss the racial profiling allegations.

"The only theft that took place at Barneys was Barneys' stealing the dignity of these young people," said Foy, who joined Sharpton at his weekly rally at the organization's Harlem headquarters.

Sharpton said black New Yorkers should put shopping at Barneys "on hold" if the retailer's response is inadequate.

The profiling claims also incited criticism on Twitter and an online petition asking rapper Jay-Z, who's collaborating with the luxury retailer for a holiday collection, to disassociate from it.

Macy's was also hit with a lawsuit alleging racial profiling this week.

A black actor on the HBO drama series "Treme" said Friday he was stopped by police because of his race while shopping at Macy's flagship Manhattan store.

Robert Brown said in his lawsuit that he was detained by police June 8 after employees contacted authorities about possible credit card fraud.

Macy's didn't comment on the litigation but said in a statement it was investigating.

Some Sharpton supporters who attended Saturday's rally said they had been profiled in stores, too.

Shane Lee, 51, said he went to the high-end store Bergdorf Goodman to buy shirts last year and the sales staff would not assist him.

"Instead of helping me, they were staring at me," said Lee, who is black. "I felt so uncomfortable that I just left."

A Bergdorf Goodman official did not return a call seeking comment Saturday.

 

Mojave Desert gunman's life crumbled to bloody end

Mojave Desert gunman's life crumbled to bloody end 

This video image provided by KCBS-TV shows the site of s shooting Friday Oct. 25, 2013 ion Ridgecrest, Calif. A homicide suspect was killed by police on this Mojave Desert highway early Friday after a lengthy pursuit in which the man fired at vehicles and two hostages in his car trunk, authorities said.

RIDGECREST, Calif. (AP) -- Sergio Munoz was known around this small desert city to acquaintances as a personable dad, and to police for his long rap sheet.

In recent weeks, he began losing the moorings of a stable life - his job, then his family. Kicked out of the house, he had been staying at a friend's place, using and dealing heroin.

Life fully unraveled when Munoz, with two hostages in his trunk, led officers on a wild chase Friday after killing a woman and injuring his crash-pad friend. He shot the friend after he had refused to join what Munoz planned would be a final rampage against police and "snitches."

Munoz knew the authorities well enough that after the initial, pre-dawn slaying he called one patrol officer's cellphone and announced that he wanted to kill all police in town. Because he would be outgunned at the station he would instead "wreak havoc" elsewhere, Kern County Sheriff Donny Youngblood said at a news conference Friday.

Munoz kept his word, first firing at drivers in Ridgecrest, according to police, then taking shots at pursuing officers and passing motorists during a chase along 30 miles of highway that runs through the shrub-dotted desert about 150 miles north of Los Angeles. He ran traffic off the road, firing at least 10 times at passing vehicles with a shotgun and a handgun, though no one was hurt.

In the end, Munoz pulled over on U.S. 395, turned in his seat and began shooting into the trunk - which had popped open earlier in the pursuit to reveal a man and woman inside.

As many as seven officers opened fire and killed him. The hostages were flown to a hospital in critical condition, but were expected to survive. Their names have not been released and police have not said anything about their relationship to Munoz.

In the neighborhood where the first shooting happened, people said Munoz was an affable man who would stop to chat, revealing no signs of inner turmoil.

"He didn't show any anger," said Edgar Martinez, who would see Munoz at a nearby gym and said he cleaned his house several years ago.

Others described him as respectful and humble.

But recently, his life began to crumble.

First, he became unemployed. According to his Facebook page, Munoz worked at Searles Valley Minerals, a company that makes products such as borax and soda ash by extracting a salty mix from beneath a desert lake bed. It was not clear whether he lost his job at Searles, or another business, and officials at Searles were unreachable Saturday.

Last Sunday, Munoz, 39, was arrested again - police found ammunition and a syringe at the house where the slaying would happen five days later. Munoz is a felon with convictions dating back to 1994, when he was sentenced to more than two years in prison for receiving stolen property. In May, he was arrested for possessing ammunition as a felon, but the felony charge was dismissed.

After making bail on the latest arrest, Munoz returned to the house where he first started staying about two weeks ago.

A neighbor heard Munoz bemoaning his life, saying he was losing everything due to drugs.

"He was a cool guy," said the neighbor, Derrick Holland. "He was just losing his mind."

Munoz's estranged wife, Sandra Leiva, said that they separated because she finally had enough of his bad choices.

"Tough love and drugs, that's what brought him down," Leiva said.

On Saturday morning, Munoz's 15-year-old daughter, Viviana, reflected on her father's life in a Facebook post.

"Your such a great dad when you were not on drugs...I remember how you used always try and teach us how to dance all crazy with your chicken legs haha," she wrote. "You were a good father and person, you just made a sad choice."

She promised to watch over her two younger brothers, now that their dad was gone.

Ridgecrest is a city of about 27,000 people adjacent to the vast Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake. It sits near U.S. 395, which runs through the western Mojave, below the eastern flank of the Sierra Nevada.

"It's a small town, pretty much everybody knows everybody," said Ridgecrest police Sgt. Jed McLaughlin, who himself had arrested Munoz about 10 years ago.

The violence that ended with Munoz's roadside death began Friday around 5:30 a.m. when Munoz rolled up the driveway to the house where he had been staying with his friend, Thaddeus Meier, and Meier's longtime girlfriend.

"We're going to reduce all of the snitches in town," Munoz told Meier after rousing him with a knock on the front door, according to Meier's sister, Dawn, recounting what her brother said from the hospital.

When her brother declined, Munoz shot him at least twice, then shot and killed Meier's girlfriend. Her identity has not been released.

Dawn Meier said she saw Munoz using heroin and dealing the drug out of the house. She had been staying there with her brother until about a week ago, when her boyfriend insisted that she move out with her 7-month-old son due to all the drug-related foot traffic.

She said her brother called Munoz "a very, very good friend of mine" but that she is a good judge of character and thought him unpredictable, "just by the vibes I got."

 

Cardinals keep winning without former MVP Pujols

Cardinals keep winning without former MVP Pujols 

FILE - In this Oct. 30, 2011, file photo, former St. Louis Cardinals player Albert Pujols waves to fans at Busch Stadium during a parade in celebration of the Cardinals' 11th World Series victory in St. Louis. Pujols’ exit had no effect on the Cardinals, who have not missed the three-time NL MVP.

ST. LOUIS (AP) -- Tony La Russa was always protective of his players, so it comes as no surprise that the former St. Louis Cardinals manager swims against the current when it comes to Albert Pujols.

It's been two years since the three-time NL MVP played his last game in St. Louis, sprayed some champagne, boarded a parade vehicle, waved to adoring fans lining the streets and then left town.

The Cardinals have done plenty of celebrating without Pujols. It's probably the biggest reason his potent bat and larger-than-life presence have been largely forgotten in St. Louis.

But La Russa, who retired after the 2011 championship season and lives in California, said Pujols' accomplishments always come up whenever he's in town.

"He's talked about in heroic terms, he's honored," La Russa said in an interview with The Associated Press. "They don't have Albert, they don't have Big Mac, either, but that doesn't mean they don't recognize what they've done and meant to the city."

Pujols put up 11 Hall of Fame-worthy seasons to start his career, becoming part of a veteran core that included Jim Edmonds, Scott Rolen and Chris Carpenter and made St. Louis a perennial contender. He quickly blossomed into one of the majors' most dangerous hitters, clearing a .300 batting average, 30 homers and 100 RBIs in each of the first 10 seasons, and just missing that standard in his final season.

La Russa forecasts a big comeback next season for Pujols, whose two post-St. Louis seasons with the Angels have been the low points of his career. He was shut down this season in mid-August with a partially torn plantar fascia on the bottom of his left foot, an injury that had dogged him with the Cardinals.

"He's still as perfect as he's ever been," La Russa said.

There are two Stan Musial statues outside Busch Stadium in tribute to the greatest player in franchise history and a Hall of Famer who was one of the best of all time.

Pujols used to be the modern-day Stan Musial.

Now, he's old news.

Catcher Yadier Molina's mentor was and remains Pujols, and he said Friday his close friend was "enjoying the vacation." He's hopeful Pujols will be back to full strength for next season.

But then he's ready move on to present tense.

"Why are you talking to me about that?" Molina said. "He's doing good, he's happy for us, he's a great teammate, he's a great person."

Pujols personified the Cardinals from a national standpoint and his absence was duly noted last fall when they went to the NL championship series. This year, his name has rarely come up.

On the field or in the sports bars.

The Cardinals are in the Series again because they have a well-rounded team, one perhaps they couldn't have constructed if Pujols and his $20 million-plus salary was still around.

"The first few months, they didn't want to lose him," La Russa said. "Now they understand, everyone understands. It's just the business and the Cardinals have proven to be very sharp."

The 33-year-old Pujols is due $212 million over the next eight years from the Angels, and the Cardinals have payroll flexibility. Carlos Beltran is around because Pujols is gone, and he has superior numbers the last two seasons.

Molina, Adam Wainwright and Allen Craig have multiyear extensions, decisions that were easier to make.

The Albert Pujols Foundation headquarters is still in St. Louis. So is his charity golf tournament, now helmed by former teammate Matt Holliday.

Pujols is a respected clubhouse presence in Anaheim, but his value on the field has plummeted. The Angels have next to nothing to show from the additions of Pujols and Josh Hamilton and are coming off their worst season in a decade.

The Cardinals led the National League with 97 wins and Craig, the new first baseman, had Pujols-like production in the clutch, leading the majors with a .454 average with runners in scoring position.

"From an organization standpoint we're in a good spot," general manager John Mozeliak said. "I think a lot of people are asking the what-ifs and there are no what-ifs for us at this point.

"It didn't work out and it was just deploying resources and trying to put a good team out there."

From thousands of miles away, Pujols helped. The compensatory first-round pick the Cardinals got from the Angels last year is rookie sensation Michael Wacha, who is 4-0 with a microscopic 1.00 ERA in the postseason after beating the Red Sox to even the Series at a game apiece.

"We've been fortunate," Mozeliak said. "A lot of young players have come up and produced and we're grateful for that."

 

Tenn. Guard recruiter held in superiors' shooting

Tenn. Guard recruiter held in superiors' shooting 

Police vehicles and an ambulance block a road near a Tennessee National Guard armory where two Guard members were shot on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2013, in Millington, Tenn. A member of the National Guard opened fire at the armory outside a U.S. Navy base in Tennessee, wounding two soldiers before being subdued and disarmed by others soldiers, officials said Thursday.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) -- A Tennessee National Guard recruiter was charged in federal court on Friday, accused of shooting three of his superiors at an armory after he was told he would be relieved of duty and dismissed from active service.

U.S. District Magistrate Judge Diane Vescovo told Amos Patton he is charged with committing assaults within the maritime and territorial jurisdiction of the United States and carrying a weapon during a federal crime of violence.

The 42-year-old sergeant first class was ordered to the armory north of Memphis Thursday, where he was told that he was being relieved of duty, reduced in rank and recommended for removal from active reserve, U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton III said at a Friday news conference.

Following the meeting, Patton was ordered to return government equipment that was in his vehicle outside the building, located in Millington, the complaint said. Patton had a "fanny pack" with him when he returned. When Patton tried to access the pack, one Guardsman yelled "gun," the complaint says. Patton then opened fire, hitting three Guardsmen, wrote FBI Special Agent Matthew Ross.

The complaint does not detail the nature of the misconduct. Patton, of the Memphis suburb of Cordova, had been in the Guard 14 years, Stanton said.

The complaint says Patton then ran from the building before another Guardsman caught up with him, subdued him and held him until Millington police arrived. The handgun was recovered at the scene.

Everything took "no more than just a minute or so," said FBI Special Agent Todd McCall.

Officials on Thursday identified two of the three victims as Tennessee National Guardsmen Maj. William J. Crawford and Sgt. Maj. Ricky R. McKenzie. Both were recruiters who were Patton's superiors. One was shot in the lower leg and the other in the foot.

On Friday, the Guard identified the third victim as Lt. Col. Hunter Belcher, also above Patton in the chain of command. He was grazed by a bullet just below the right knee. Another round went through a backpack Belcher was wearing, but did not injure him. All three men were treated and released.

In court on Friday, the judge scheduled a probable cause and detention hearing for Wednesday. Patton told the judge that he could not afford his own lawyer, and Vescovo granted his request to appoint a public defender.

Patton, who wore an orange jumpsuit and was shackled at the hands and feet, is being held without bond. If convicted, he could serve up to 20 years in prison on the assault charge and a minimum of 10 years on the firearms charge.

Patton's wife, Brenda, declined comment outside the courtroom Friday.

Maj. Gen. Max Haston, adjutant general of the Tennessee Guard, said the two wounded recruiters were veterans who had served overseas. Asked Thursday about the discipline the gunman had faced before the shooting, Haston would say only that there were "administrative policies and procedures that we were going through with him."

Haston said security protocols were followed closely and he was proud that the shooter was quickly subdued by other soldiers.

"It makes me proud, but it also scares me to death that something like this can happen," Haston said Thursday.

Millington Police Chief Rita Stanback said the shooter did not have the handgun in his possession by the time officers arrived.

The armory, which houses a recruitment office, sits across the street from Naval Support Activity Mid-South on land that used to be part of a larger military installation. Navy officials ordered a lockdown there during the tense minutes after the midafternoon shooting, lifting it after word came that the gunman was in custody.

The base is home to human resources operations and serves as headquarters to the Navy Personnel Command, Navy Recruiting Command, the Navy Manpower Analysis Center and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Finance Center.