Body Found On Cobbs Creek Street

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Body Found On Cobbs Creek Street

November 30, 2014 5:50 PM

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 Body Found, Cobbs Creek, Philadelphia, Webster Street

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Authorities say a body was discovered on the road in the Cobbs Creek section of Philadelphia in what they are calling a “suspicious death.”

The body was discovered just before 7 a.m. on the 5100 block of Webster Street.

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

Police Comb Water In Search Of Missing West Chester University Student

Police Comb Water In Search Of Missing West Chester University Student

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) — An FBI task force is now joining Philadelphia Police in the search for the West Chester student who went missing during a night out in Manayunk Thanksgiving Eve.

The Philadelphia Police Marine Unit slowly combed the water of the Manayunk Canal Sunday, looking for 21-year-old Shane Montgomery, who went to Kildaire’s Irish Pub on Wednesday night with a cousin and some friends, but never returned home.

Authorities said he was escorted out of the bar by a bouncer shortly before closing time after stumbling on a bar stool, and he hasn’t been seen since.

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

Black Friday weekend slows down as allure fades

Black Friday weekend slows down as allure fades 

FILE - In this Nov. 28, 2014 file photo, Target shoppers Kelly Foley, left, Debbie Winslow, center, and Ann Rich use a smartphone to look at a competitor's prices while shopping shortly after midnight on Black Friday, in South Portland, Maine. The Black Friday shopping weekend may be losing its mojo. A survey of shoppers released Sunday, Nov. 30, 2014, by the National Retail Federation shows how early discounting, more online shopping and an improving economy have fewer people shopping on the weekend that kicks off the holiday shopping season.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Black Friday fatigue is setting in.

Early discounting, more online shopping and a mixed economy meant fewer people shopped over Thanksgiving weekend, the National Retail Federation said Sunday.

Overall, 133.7 million people shopped in stores and online over the four-day weekend, down 5.2 percent from last year, according to a survey of 4,631 people conducted by Prosper Insights & Analytics for the trade group.

Total spending for the weekend is expected to fall 11 percent to $50.9 billion from an estimated $57.4 billion last year, the trade group estimated.

Part of the reason is that Target, J.C. Penney, Macy's, Wal-Mart and other major retailers pushed fat discounts as early as Halloween. Some opened stores even earlier on Thanksgiving. All that stole some thunder from Black Friday and the rest of the weekend.

Still, the preliminary data makes retailers worried that shoppers remain frugal despite improving employment and falling gas prices.

Matt Shay, the trade group's CEO, said he thinks people benefiting from the recovery may not feel the need to fight crowds to get the deepest discount on a TV or toaster. And those who feel like the recession never ended may not have the money and will stretch out what they spend through Christmas.

And shoppers are still feeling the effects of high food prices and stagnant wages.

"While they're more optimistic, they're very cautious," Shay said. "If the deals are not right for them, they're not going to spend."

Bottom line: Expect more deep discounts, all season long.

"Every day will be Black Friday. Every minute will be Cyber Monday," he said.

That could be what it takes to get shoppers to open their wallets for the holiday shopping season, which accounts for about 20 percent of annual retail sales.

Besides economic factors, people are becoming more discerning when they shop. Armed with smartphones 

and price-comparison apps, they know what's a good deal - and what's not.

Kimani Brown, 39, of New York City, was among the Black Friday defectors. After four years of braving the crowds, the sales failed to lure him out this year.

"I consider myself a smart shopper. And it's not as alluring as it used to be," Brown said. "It's a marketing tool, and I don't want to be pulled into it."

He also said the frenzy pushed him to overspend, and he paid the price in January on his credit card statement.

Instead, he said he will look online Monday, the online shopping day often called Cyber Monday.

Some who went shopping on Thanksgiving felt they were doing it against their will. Cathyliz Lopez of New York City said she felt forced to shop on the holiday.

"It's ruining the spirit of Thanksgiving," the 20-year-old said Thursday. "But I was checking all the ads, and the best deals were today."

The National Retail Federation is still predicting a 4.1 percent increase in sales for the season. That would be the highest increase since the 4.8 percent gain in 2011.

Some stores and malls had reason to be optimistic.

Dan Jasper, a spokesman at Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota, said customer counts are up 5 to 6 percent for the four-day weekend. One plus: Shoppers were buying more for themselves, a sign of optimism.

"They felt confident in the economy," he said.

CEOs at Target and Toys R Us said they saw shoppers not just focusing on the doorbuster deals but throwing extra items in their carts.

Macy's CEO Terry Lundgren told The Associated Press on Friday that he's hoping lower gas prices will help spending.

"There's reason to believe that confidence should continue to grow. That should be good for discretionary spending," he said.

Some of those discretionary dollars are migrating online.

Target said Thanksgiving saw a 40 percent surge in online sales and was its biggest online sales day ever. 

And Wal-Mart reported Thanksgiving was its second-highest online day ever, topped only by Cyber Monday last year.

From Nov. 1 through Friday, $22.7 billion has been spent online, a 15 percent increase from last year, according to research firm comScore. On Thanksgiving, online sales surged 32 percent, while Black Friday online sales jumped 26 percent.

In stores, shoppers spent $9.1 billion on Black Friday, according to research firm ShopperTrak, down 7 percent from last year. That was partly due to a 24 percent surge in Thanksgiving sales, to $3.2 billion.

ShopperTrak estimated that in-store sales for the two days combined slipped half a percent to $12.29 billion.

Philadelphia Front Page News Phila. Eagles Cheerleader Eagles Crush Dallas, 33-10, And Look Scary Doing It

Philadelphia Front Page News Phila. Eagles Cheerleader Eagles Crush Dallas, 33-10, And Look Scary Doing It

Grand jury documents rife with inconsistencies

Grand jury documents rife with inconsistencies 

A protester is arrested outside of the St. Louis city hall Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2014, in St. Louis. Missouri's governor ordered hundreds more state militia into Ferguson on Tuesday, after a night of protests and rioting over a grand jury's decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson in the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, a case that has inflamed racial tensions in the U.S.

  

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) -- Some witnesses said Michael Brown had been shot in the back. Another said he was lying face-down when Officer Darren Wilson finished him off. Still others acknowledged changing their stories to fit published details about the autopsy, or admitted that they didn't see the shooting at all.

An Associated Press review of thousands of pages of grand jury documents reveals numerous examples of statements made during the shooting investigation that were inconsistent, fabricated or provably wrong. For one, the autopsies ultimately showed Brown wasn't struck by any bullets in his back.

Prosecutors exposed these inconsistencies before the jurors, which likely influenced their decision not to indict Wilson in Brown's death.

Bob McCulloch, the St. Louis County prosecutor, said the grand jury had to weigh testimony that conflicted with physical evidence and conflicting statements by witnesses as it decided whether Wilson should face charges.

"Many witnesses to the shooting of Michael Brown made statements inconsistent with other statements they made and also conflicting with the physical evidence. Some were completely refuted by the physical evidence," McCulloch said.

The decision Monday not to charge Wilson with any crime set off more violent protests in the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson and around the country, fueled by claims that the unarmed black 18-year-old was shot while peacefully surrendering to the white officer in the mostly African-American city.

What people thought were facts about the Aug. 9 shooting have become intertwined with what many see as abuses of power and racial inequality in America.

And media coverage of this aftermath made it into the grand jury proceedings. Before some witnesses testified, prosecutors showed jurors clips of the same people making statements on TV.

Their inconsistencies began almost immediately after the shooting, from people in the neighborhood, the friend walking with Brown during the encounter and even one woman who authorities suggested probably wasn't even at the scene at the time.

Jurors also were presented with dueling versions from Wilson and Dorian Johnson, who was walking with Brown during the Aug. 9 confrontation. Johnson painted Wilson as provoking the violence, while Wilson said Brown was the aggressor.

But Johnson also declared on TV, in a clip played for the grand jury, that Wilson fired at least one shot at his friend while Brown was running away: "It struck my friend in the back."

Johnson held to a variation of this description in his grand jury testimony, saying the shot caused Brown's body to "do like a jerking movement, not to where it looked like he got hit in his back, but I knew, it maybe could have grazed him, but he definitely made a jerking movement."

Other eyewitness accounts also were clearly wrong.

One woman, who said she was smoking a cigarette with a friend nearby, claimed she saw a second police officer in the passenger seat of Wilson's vehicle. When quizzed by a prosecutor, she elaborated: The officer was white, "middle age or young" and in uniform. She said she was positive there was a second officer - even though there was not.

Another woman testified that she saw Brown leaning through the officer's window "from his navel up," with his hand moving up and down, as if he were punching the officer. But when the same witness returned to testify again on another day, she said she suffers from mental disorder, has racist views and that she has trouble distinguishing the truth from things she had read online. Prosecutors suggested the woman had fabricated the entire incident, and wasn't even at the scene the day of the shooting.

Another witness had told the FBI after the shooting that he saw Wilson shoot Brown in the back, and then stand over his prone body to finish him off. But in his grand jury testimony, this witness, acknowledged that he had not seen that part of the shooting, and that what he told the FBI was "based on me being where I'm from and that can be the only assumption that I have."

The witness, who lives in the predominantly black neighborhood where Brown was killed, also acknowledged that he changed his story to fit details of the autopsy that he had learned about on TV.

"So it was after you learned that the things you said you saw couldn't have happened that way, then you changed your story about what you seen?" a prosecutor asserted.

"Yeah, to coincide with what really happened," the witness replied.

Another man, describing himself as a friend of Brown's, told a federal investigator that he heard the first gunshot, looked out his window and saw an officer with a gun drawn and Brown "on his knees with his hands in the air." He added: "I seen him shoot him in the head."

But when later pressed by the investigator, the friend said he hadn't seen the actual shooting because he was walking down the stairs at the time, and instead had heard details from someone in the apartment complex.

"What you are saying you saw isn't forensically possible based on the evidence," the investigator told the friend.

Shortly after that, the friend asked if he could leave.

"I ain't feeling comfortable," he said.

Grand jury doesn't indict Ferguson cop in shooting

Grand jury doesn't indict Ferguson cop in shooting

 

St. Louis County Prosecutor Robert McCulloch announces the grand jury's decision not to indict Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in the Aug. 9 shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year old, on Monday, Nov. 24, 2014, at the Buzz Westfall Justice Center in Clayton, Mo.

FERGUSON, Mo. (AP) -- A grand jury declined Monday to indict Darren Wilson in the death of Michael Brown, the unarmed, black 18-year-old whose fatal shooting by a white officer sparked weeks of sometimes-violent protests and exposed deep racial tension between many African-Americans and police.

Within minutes of the announcement by St. Louis County's top prosecutor, crowds began pouring into Ferguson streets to protest the decision. Some taunted police, shattered windows and vandalized cars. 

Several gunshots were also heard. Officers released smoke and pepper spray to disperse the gatherings.

Prosecuting Attorney Bob McCulloch said the jury of nine whites and three blacks met on 25 separate days and heard more than 70 hours of testimony from about 60 witnesses, including three medical examiners and other experts on blood, toxicology and firearms.

He stressed that jurors were "the only people who heard every witness ... and every piece of evidence." He said many witnesses presented conflicting statements that were inconsistent with the physical evidence.

"These grand jurors poured their hearts and soul into this process," he said.

As McCulloch was reading his statement, Michael Brown's mother, Lesley McSpadden, was sitting atop a vehicle listening to a broadcast of the announcement. When she heard the decision, she burst into tears and began screaming before being whisked away by supporters.

The crowd with her erupted in anger, converging on the barricade where police in riot gear were standing. They pushed down the barricade and began pelting police with objects, including a bullhorn. Officers stood their ground.

At least nine votes would have been required to indict Wilson. The grand jury met in secret, a standard practice for such proceedings.

Speaking for nearly 45 minutes, a defensive McCulloch repeatedly cited what he said were inconsistencies and erroneous accounts from witnesses. When asked by a reporter whether any of the accounts amount to perjury, he said, "I think they truly believe that's what they saw, but they didn't."

The prosecutor also was critical of the media, saying "the most significant challenge" for his office was a "24-hour news cycle and an insatiable appetite for something - for anything - to talk about."

Brown's family released a statement saying they were "profoundly disappointed" in the decision but asked that the public "channel your frustration in ways that will make a positive change. We need to work together to fix the system that allowed this to happen."

President Barack Obama appealed for calm and understanding, pleading with both residents and police to show restraint.

"We are a nation built on the rule of law, so we need to accept that this decision was the grand jury's to make," Obama said. He said it was understandable that some Americans would be "deeply disappointed - even angered," but echoed Brown's parents in calling for any protests to be peaceful.

The Justice Department is conducting a separate investigation into possible civil rights violations that could result in federal charges. The department also has launched a broad probe into the Ferguson Police Department, looking for patterns of discrimination.

The Aug. 9 shooting inflamed tensions in the predominantly black St. Louis suburb that is patrolled by an overwhelmingly white police force. As Brown's body lay for hours in the center of a residential street, an angry crowd of onlookers gathered. Rioting and looting occurred the following night, and police responded with armored vehicles and tear gas.

Protests continued for weeks - often peacefully, but sometimes turning violent, with demonstrators throwing rocks and Molotov cocktails and police firing smoke canisters, tear gas and rubber bullets. Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon to briefly summon the National Guard.

Outside the Ferguson Police Department on Monday night, St. Louis County police used a bullhorn to order a crowd to disperse, saying it had become an unlawful assembly. Protesters defied the orders and some chanted "murderer." Minutes later, four gunshots were heard down the street.

Hours before the decision was made public, Nixon urged people to remain peaceful as he appeared at a news conference with the state's public safety director and the leaders of St. Louis city and county.

"Our shared hope and expectation is that regardless of the decision, people on all sides show tolerance, mutual respect and restraint," Nixon said.

Some black leaders and Brown's parents questioned McCulloch's ability to be impartial. The prosecutor's father, mother, brother, uncle and cousin all worked for the St. Louis Police Department, and his father was killed while responding to a call involving a black suspect in 1964. McCulloch was 12 at the time, and the killing became a hallmark of his initial campaign for elected prosecutor.

Nixon declined to seek the removal of McCulloch in the Brown case, but he also called for McCulloch to 

vigorously prosecute Wilson, who had been on the Ferguson force for less than three years. Prior to that job, Wilson was an officer for nearly two years in Jennings, another St. Louis suburb.

McCulloch, a Democrat, has been in office since 1991 and was re-elected to another term earlier this month.

Among the cases that McCulloch's opponents cited as examples of pro-police bias was the 2000 shooting death of two men in a fast-food parking lot by two undercover drug officers in the town of Berkeley, which like Ferguson is a predominantly black suburb in what locals call North County.

A federal investigation determined that Earl Murray and Ronald Beasley were unarmed and that their car had not moved forward when the officers fired 21 shots. But that inquiry also determined that the shootings were justified since the officers feared for their lives.

McCulloch opted to not prosecute the two officers and characterized the victims as "bums" who "spread destruction in the community" by selling drugs.

 

 

TV Land pulls 'Cosby Show' from lineup

TV Land pulls 'Cosby Show' from lineup

FILE - In this Nov. 18, 2013 file photo, actor-comedian Bill Cosby poses for a portrait in New York. NBC announced Wednesday, Nov. 19, that it has canceled plans for a family comedy starring Bill Cosby.

 

NEW YORK (AP) -- NBC has scrapped a Bill Cosby comedy that was under development and TV Land will stop airing reruns of "The Cosby Show," moves that came a day after another woman came forward claiming that the once-beloved comic had sexually assaulted her.

NBC spokeswoman Rebecca Marks said Wednesday the Cosby sitcom "is no longer under development." 

A TV Land spokesperson said the shows will stop airing immediately for an indefinite time. "The Cosby Show" also was to have been part of a Thanksgiving sitcom marathon.

The NBC sitcom and "Cosby Show" reruns joined a Netflix Cosby standup comedy special, which was indefinitely postponed late Tuesday, as mounting evidence of Cosby's faltering career. They occurred a day after actress Janice Dickinson, in an interview with "Entertainment Tonight," became the third woman in recent weeks to allege she'd been assaulted by Cosby - charges strongly denied by the comedian's lawyer.

The developments, which involve allegations that were widely reported on a decade ago as well as new accusations, have gravely damaged the 77-year-old comedian's reputation as America's TV dad at a time when he was launching a comeback. A year ago a standup special - his first in 30 years - aired on Comedy Central and drew a hefty audience of 2 million viewers. His prospective new series was announced by NBC in January.

Cosby has never been charged in connection with any of the allegations; Former Pennsylvania prosecutor Bruce L. Castor Jr., who investigated a woman's claims that Cosby had sexually assaulted her in 2004, said Wednesday he decided not to prosecute because he felt there was not enough evidence to get a conviction.

"I wrote my opinion in such a way as I thought conveyed to the whole world that I thought he had done it, he had just gotten away with it because of a lack of evidence," the former Montgomery County district attorney said.

If Cosby hadn't been cooperative with the investigation, "I probably would have arrested him," he said.

Cosby has continued working as a stand-up comic, and has at least 35 performances scheduled throughout the U.S. and Canada through May 2015. None of the performances has been cancelled.

National Artists Corporation, which is promoting part of the tour, said it will not be canceling any shows.

The Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art has not changed its plans for an exhibition featuring Cosby's African-American art collection alongside African artworks. The show opened this month on the 

National Mall and is scheduled to remain on view through early 2016.

"The exhibition has been very well received. We've actually had record numbers through the door," spokesman Eddie Burke said, adding the museum has had no complaints.

Cosby was asked about the growing furor by an AP reporter when he was promoting the exhibit earlier this month.

When the AP interviewed Cosby, on Nov. 6, the story involved long-circulated accusations from several women and recent criticism from comedian Hannibal Buress. Cosby declined to comment, saying "We don't answer that."

The AP mentioned the allegations and Cosby's decision not to comment at the end of its story, which, like the interview, was primarily about his loan of more than 50 artworks to the Washington museum.

Since then, two women have come forward publicly to accuse him of sexual assault, Netflix, TV Land and NBC cut ties and an appearance on "The Late Show With David Letterman" was canceled. In recent days, as the allegations gained increasing attention, AP went back through the full video of the Nov. 6 interview and decided to publish Cosby's full reaction to questions about the claims.

The AP was among a handful of news organizations granted interviews with Cosby in connection with the art exhibition. After his initial refusal to comment - as the interview was winding down but with the camera still running and Cosby wearing a lapel microphone - the comedian asked the AP to not use the brief on-camera refusal to comment he had just made about the allegations. "And I would appreciate it if it was scuttled," he said.

The interview was on the record. The AP had made no agreement to avoid questions about the allegations or to withhold publishing any of his comments at any time.

The NBC project was in the very early stages, without a script or commitment to production. But it would have brought Cosby back to the network where he had reigned in the 1980s with the top-rated "The Cosby Show."

There's some precedent for a network burying a project because of stories involving a star's personal life. NBC shelved a two-hour TV movie, "Frogmen," starring O.J. Simpson in 1994 after the former football star was implicated in his wife's death.

Dickinson told "Entertainment Tonight" that Cosby had given her red wine and a pill when they were together in a Lake Tahoe, California, hotel room in 1982. When she woke up the next morning, "I wasn't wearing my pajamas and I remembered before I passed out I had been sexually assaulted by this man."

Cosby's lawyer, Martin Singer, said in a letter to the AP that Dickinson's charges were "false and outlandish" and were contradicted by Dickinson herself in a published autobiography. Cosby's spokesman, David Brokaw, did not return calls for comment.

Singer said the first Cosby heard of any assault allegation came in the "Entertainment Tonight" interview, and suggested Dickinson was "seeking publicity to bolster her fading career."

 

Probe of Ferguson police could spur broad change

Probe of Ferguson police could spur broad change 

FILE - In this Aug. 20, 2014 file-pool photo, Attorney General Eric Holder participates in closed door meeting with students at St. Louis Community College Florissant Valley in Ferguson, Mo. As local authorities in Missouri near the end of their investigation into the Ferguson shooting, a separate, ongoing federal civil rights review of the entire police department holds the greater potential to refashion the agency and spur long-lasting change, experts say. The Justice Department, which is investigating the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown along with a county grand jury, is more than two months into its probe of the Ferguson department’s practices. The civil rights inquiry, relying on data and interviews, is searching for any pattern of racial bias in how officers in the predominantly white department interact with the majority-black community.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- As local authorities in Missouri near the end of their investigation in the Ferguson shooting, a broader federal civil rights review could hold a greater potential to refashion the police department and bring long-lasting change.

While a St. Louis County grand jury investigates the Aug. 9 shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown, the Justice Department is investigating, too. More than two months into its probe of the Ferguson department's practices, the civil rights inquiry is focusing on use-of-force, stops and searches and possible patterns of discrimination in the ways that officers in the predominantly white department interact with the majority-black community.

Results are likely months away and may do little quickly to mollify the community. But whether or not officer Darren Wilson ends up facing state or federal criminal prosecution, the civil rights investigation will continue. 

In similar cases, broad federal investigations of police departments have dictated changes in how officers carry out the most fundamental of tasks, from searching suspects to making traffic stops.

"If the end goal of this is to ensure that no one's civil rights get violated, that everyone is treated decently and their constitutional rights are protected, the best thing that can come out of this is an overall look at the department," said David Weinstein, a former federal civil rights prosecutor in Miami.

Outgoing U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has made the overhaul of troubled police departments among his civil-rights priorities. In the past five years, the Justice Department has investigated some 20 police departments for problems that include treatment of the mentally ill, high numbers of officer-involved shootings and patterns of excessive force and racial bias. Police departments in Detroit, Seattle and New Orleans are among those that have committed to reforms.

A county grand jury is expected to announce any day whether it will indict Wilson, and federal authorities also are investigating the shooting for potential civil rights violations. Concerned about reactions if Wilson is not indicted, police are bracing for protests, and Missouri's governor has activated the state National Guard.

Separately, the Justice Department on Sept. 4 announced a broad investigation into the police force, with Holder pointing to a "deep mistrust" by residents and a lack of racial diversity among the Ferguson officers. 

More recently, he's described a need for "wholesale change" at the department.

A report last year by the Missouri attorney general's office found that Ferguson police stopped and arrested black drivers nearly twice as often as white motorists but were less likely to find contraband among the black drivers.

"From what we know, it seems likely that they're going to find some problems," said William Yeomans, an American University law fellow who spent more than two decades in the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division. He said the public too often becomes preoccupied with individual prosecutions without recognizing the importance of "bringing about long-term lasting change."

The civil rights investigations often, though not always, end with the Justice Department and a local police force entering into a court-enforceable agreement that mandates changes.

Recent examples include Albuquerque, New Mexico, where the police department resolved a federal investigation by agreeing to reforms that include new training and protocols for investigating officer shootings, and Portland, Oregon, where an agreement approved by a judge in August required changes in the way the police deal with the mentally ill.

Still, federal investigations into police departments can take years and it's not easy to measure their lasting results, especially since some of the agreements are relatively new.

Ursula Price, executive director of community relations for the New Orleans Independent Police Monitor, a civilian oversight agency, said the city police department is "not there yet" despite a sweeping reform plan approved last year that required changes in the use of force, crisis intervention, training, interrogations and stops, searches and arrests.

She said federal intervention alone isn't enough, noting that Justice Department lawyers don't go to every police-involved shooting, attend every disciplinary hearing or live permanently in the community. But she said it was a positive step that provides oversight and promotes comprehensive change.

Community advocates in New Orleans have years of experience responding to police-involved shootings, including a string of such cases in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina that brought renewed scrutiny to the department. Price said experience has taught her that changing a department's culture is as important as individual accountability.

"I can name 25 Michael Browns," she said. "We've been through this over and over again, so our perspective has deepened."

Despite criminal convictions arising from officer misconduct, "we were still having the same difficult and dysfunctional relationships with the police we've always had, so it started becoming clear that sending individuals to jail isn't the way to resolve this."

"The lesson we've learned here in New Orleans is, yes, we need to hold individuals accountable but we also need to address systemic issues."

AP IMPACT: 'Vaccine court' keeps claimants waiting

AP IMPACT: 'Vaccine court' keeps claimants waiting 

In this Friday, Oct. 24, 2014 photo, Jeffrey McCord, who suffered from violent and unexplained seizures as a baby, demonstrates his guitar at home in St. John, Virgin Islands. A neurologist drew a connection that a dozen other doctors missed: his convulsions began days after a routine vaccination. Jeffrey's mother Martha filed a claim with a congressional program that compensates children like Jeffrey, but it took 11 years for the first check to arrive.

  

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A system Congress established to speed help to Americans harmed by vaccines has instead heaped additional suffering on thousands of families, The Associated Press has found.

The premise was simple: quickly and generously pay for medical care in the rare cases when a shot to prevent a sickness such as flu or measles instead is the likely cause of serious health complications. But the system is not working as intended.

The AP read hundreds of decisions, conducted more than 100 interviews, and analyzed a database of more than 14,500 cases filed in a special vaccine court. That database was current as of January 2013; the government has refused to release an updated version since.

Among the findings:

-Private attorneys have been paid tens of millions of taxpayer dollars even as they clog the court with more cases than they can handle, some of which the court rejected as totally inadequate. The court offers a financial incentive to over-file - unlike typical civil court cases, attorneys are paid whether or not they win, as was the case with more than 5,000 losing claims that vaccines caused the developmental disability autism. Those who double-bill for their time or consistently submit questionable expenses are not disciplined.

-Prominent attorneys have enlisted expert witnesses whose own work has been widely discredited, including one who treated autism with a potent drug used to chemically castrate serial rapists. Another doctor cribbed his material from an anti-vaccine website. Some of the most prominent experts set up nonprofits questioning vaccine safety, further fueling public skepticism. Meanwhile, many doctors hired by the government to defend vaccine safety in court have ties to the pharmaceutical industry.

-Lawmakers designed vaccine court to favor payouts, but the government fights legitimate claims and fails its obligation to publicize the court, worried that if they concede a vaccine caused harm, the public will react by skipping shots. The court was created with relaxed standards of evidence and a burden of proof more easily met than civil lawsuits. Lawmakers expected some children would get help even though their injuries weren't truly caused by a vaccine. If government doctors had their way, though, 1,600 families would not have gotten more than $1.1 billion in cash and future medical care between the court's opening in 1988 and the end of 2012. The government said that while perception of vaccine safety is important, individual claims are evaluated on scientific evidence and legal standards.

-Cases are supposed to be resolved within 240 days, with options for another 150 days of extensions. Less than 7 percent of 7,876 claims not involving autism met the 240-day target. Add in autism claims, which were postponed so the court could hear all of them at once, and just 4.5 percent took fewer than 240 days. 

Most non-autism cases take at least two and a half years, with the average case length more than three years, not including cases unresolved at the end of 2012. Hundreds have surpassed the decade mark. 

Several people died before getting any money.

The vanquishing of polio, measles and other preventable diseases was the transcendent public health accomplishment of the 20th century. And yet, by the mid-1980s, those gains seemed fragile. Pharmaceutical companies were facing a barrage of lawsuits from parents who believed the diphtheria-tetanus-pertussis shot had disabled their kids. Their profits imperiled vaccine makers signaled they would leave the U.S. market.

In response, Congress gave a break both to pharmaceutical companies and to those who received a vaccine to prevent one illness, yet suffered another.

To protect the nation's supply, lawmakers shielded companies from jury verdicts, shifting liability for injuries to the U.S. government. That part worked: Vaccines are widely available, and profitable.

To help people harmed by shots, Congress created the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program. Government doctors and lawyers review claims. If they believe it is more likely than not that a vaccine - and not something else - caused the injury, they tap a $3.5 billion fund to pay for future care and lost wages. That fund is replenished by a 75-cent tax on each vaccine.

If the government concludes the vaccination was not likely the cause, it contests the claim in vaccine court, based several blocks from the White House.

Serious injuries are extremely uncommon. Though much is in dispute regarding vaccines and their side effects, the court remains obscure. But largely due to an influx of adult flu claims, the volume of new cases has increased, averaging more than 400 annually in recent years.

To be sure, many of those who received the $2.8 billion that the government says it has distributed would not have won a civil trial. But the system has not worked as Congress envisioned.

Many claims fall into a vast gray area: The science is clear on only nine of 144 vaccine-injury combinations that a shot could - or could not - cause the illness. Amid this fundamental uncertainty, the kind of litigation the court was created to avoid is routine.

Caught in the middle are families that need help.

"The system is not working," said Richard Topping, a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney who defended the government against vaccine injury claims but resigned after concluding his bosses had no desire to fix the major flaws he saw. "People who need help aren't getting it."

Europeans have prominent role in beheading video

Europeans have prominent role in beheading video 

Paris Prosecutor Francois Molins addresses the media in Paris, France, Monday, Nov. 17, 2014. A Paris prosecutor says that a French 22-year-old convert to radical Islam appears in a video showing a beheaded American aid worker and the deaths of Syrian soldiers. Molins identified the man as Maxime Hauchard, and said that he has been on the radar of French authorities since he left for Syria in 2013 under cover of humanitarian action.

PARIS (AP) -- The cold-eyed militants lined up behind their victims in the latest Islamic State video appear to come from outside the Middle East, including one from France and possibly two from Britain, as the extremist group tries to show a global reach.

The grisly video - clearly aimed at a Western audience - lingers as much on the faces of the camouflaged extremists as the men who are beheaded. The victims include American aid worker Peter Kassig and more than a dozen Syrian soldiers.

The images of the Islamic State militants, who are shown one by one in close-up, allowed authorities to identify one of them Monday as a 22-year-old Frenchman who converted to radical Islam.

Maxime Hauchard has been on the radar of French authorities since 2011 when he took two trips to Mauritania to attend a Quranic school, said Paris prosecutor Francois Molins. The prosecutor said investigators were trying to determine if another Frenchman also is in the video.

President Barack Obama confirmed Kassig's slaying after a U.S. review of the video.

The overwhelming majority of Islamic State fighters are from the Mideast, but the extremist group is trying to cement its claim on an Islamic empire straddling Iraq and Syria. Europe appears to be a fertile ground to find supporters, with officials saying thousands of young Europeans have headed off to jihad. More than 1,000 people in France alone are under surveillance for suspected plans to join the militants, officials said.

In the video released Sunday, some of the knife-wielding extremists standing behind their kneeling victims had distinctly Asian features. Another whose face was hooded had the familiar London accent of the jihadi who also appeared in beheading videos with American hostages James Foley and Steven Sotloff, and with British hostages David Haines and Alan Henning. There also were indications that a Welsh medical student may be the man standing next to Hauchard.

"It's quite transparent that IS is trying to exaggerate its base of support," said Charlie Winter, a researcher at the Quilliam Foundation in London. "They are trying to show that Muslims from all over the world are protecting their Syrian brethren and their Iraqi brethren."

European officials are trying just as furiously to counter that message.

"I call solemnly and seriously on all our citizens, and notably our young people who are the primary target of the terrorist propaganda, to open your eyes to the terrible reality of the actions of Daesh," said French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, using an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group. "These are criminals that are building a system of barbarity."

Hauchard gave an interview to France's BFM television in July, telling the network he had helped capture Mosul, the Iraqi city whose fall eventually prompted the United States to resume military operations in Iraq.

"We're waiting for death," Hauchard said at the time. "My objective is to be a martyr."

A man from Wales, Ahmed Muthana, said he thinks he saw his son, 20-year-old Nasser Muthana, in the latest video, and Winter, the British researcher, confirmed the likeness.

"It resembles him. I was shown a picture of the video. I cannot confirm it is him, but I think it might be," Ahmed Muthana told Britain's Press Association.

Kassig had gone to Syria on a humanitarian mission. His parents, Ed and Paula Kassig, said Monday that while their hearts have been shattered by his death, they believe his life is proof that "one person can make a difference."

"In 26 years, he has witnessed and experienced firsthand more of the harsh realities of life than most of us can imagine," Paula Kassig said in Indianapolis, Indiana, reading a brief statement. "But rather than letting the darkness overwhelm him, he has chosen to believe in the good - in himself and in others.

As for the French militant in the video, Molins said he had used aid work as a pretext.

"The humanitarian action was a facade. In fact, he wanted to fight and join Islamic State agents," Molins said.

With Kassig's death, the Islamic State group has killed five Westerners it was holding.

Unlike previous videos of slain Western hostages, the latest one did not show the decapitation of Kassig, the moments leading up to his death or threaten to kill any other Western hostages.

It identified the militants' location as Dabiq, a town in northern Syria that the Islamic State group uses as the title of its English-language propaganda magazine and where they believe an apocalyptic battle between Muslims and their enemies will occur.

The high-definition video also showed the beheadings of about a dozen men identified as Syrian military officers and pilots, all dressed in blue jumpsuits.

All of the militants wore brand new camouflage uniforms, except for the black-clad man who spoke with a British accent and warned that U.S. soldiers will meet a similar fate.

"We say to you, Obama: You claim to have withdrawn from Iraq four years ago," the militant said. "Here you are: You have not withdrawn. Rather, you hid some of your forces behind your proxies."

A U.S.-led coalition is targeting the Islamic State group in airstrikes in northern Syria, supporting Western-backed Syrian rebels, Kurdish fighters and the Iraqi military. The U.S. said 31 airstrikes had been carried out from Nov. 14-17 against Islamic State group targets.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the Islamic State group could grow worldwide if left unchecked. Already, he said, the IS has seized more land and resources "than al-Qaida ever had on its best day of its existence."

IS "leaders assume that the world will be too intimidated to oppose them," Kerry said. "But let us be clear: We are not intimidated."

Kassig served in the U.S. Army's 75th Ranger Regiment, a special operations unit, and was deployed to Iraq in 2007. After being medically discharged, he returned to the Middle East in 2012 and formed a relief group, Special Emergency Response and Assistance, to help Syrian refugees.

The Islamic State group still holds other captives, including British photojournalist John Cantlie, who has appeared in several videos delivering statements, likely under duress, and a 26-year-old American woman captured last year in Syria while working for aid groups. U.S. officials have asked that the woman not be identified for er safety.

The group's militants have beheaded or shot dead hundreds of captives, mostly Syrian and Iraqi soldiers, celebrating the mass killings in graphic videos.

The Islamic State group has declared a self-styled Islamic caliphate in areas under its control, which it governs according to its violent interpretation of Shariah law.

Bob Conga Fashion Images

US cities brace for protests off Ferguson decision

US cities brace for protests off Ferguson decision 

FILE - In this Feb. 11, 2014 file image from video provided by the City of Ferguson, Mo., officer Darren Wilson attends a city council meeting in Ferguson. Police identified Wilson, 28, as the police officer who shot 18-year-old Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014 in Ferguson. Police departments across the country are bracing for large demonstrations when a grand jury decides whether to indict Wilson.

 

BOSTON (AP) -- From Boston to Los Angeles, police departments are bracing for large demonstrations when a grand jury decides whether to indict a white police officer who killed an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Missouri.

The St. Louis County grand jury, which has been meeting since Aug. 20, is expected to decide this month whether Officer Darren Wilson is charged with a crime for killing 18-year-old Michael Brown after ordering him and a friend to stop walking in the street on Aug. 9.

The shooting has led to tension with police and a string of unruly protests there and brought worldwide attention to the formerly obscure St. Louis suburb, where more than half the population is black but few police officers are.

For some cities, a decision in the racially charged case will, inevitably, reignite long-simmering debates over local police relations with minority communities.

"It's definitely on our radar," said Lt. Michael McCarthy, police spokesman in Boston, where police leaders met privately Wednesday to discuss preparations. "Common sense tells you the timeline is getting close. We're just trying to prepare in case something does step off, so we are ready to go with it."

In Los Angeles, rocked by riots in 1992 after the acquittal of police officers in the videotaped beating of Rodney King, police officials say they've been in touch with their counterparts in Missouri, where Gov. Jay Nixon and St. Louis-area law enforcement held a news conference this week on their own preparations.

"Naturally, we always pay attention," said Cmdr. Andrew Smith, a police spokesman. "We saw what happened when there were protests over there and how oftentimes protests spill from one part of the country to another."

In Las Vegas, police joined pastors and other community leaders this week to call for restraint at a rally tentatively planned northwest of the casino strip when a decision comes.

Activists in Ferguson met Saturday to map out their protest plans. Meeting organizers encouraged group members to provide their names upon arrest as Darren Wilson or Michael Brown to make it more difficult for police to process them.

In a neighboring town, Berkeley, officials this week passed out fliers urging residents to be prepared for unrest just as they would a major storm - with plenty of food, water and medicine in case they're unable to leave home for several days.

In Boston, a group called Black Lives Matter, which has chapters in other major cities, is organizing a rally in front of the police district office in the Roxbury neighborhood the day after an indictment decision.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, police are expecting demonstrations after having dealt with a string of angry protests following a March police shooting of a homeless camper and more than 40 police shootings since 2010.

Philadelphia police spokesman Lt. John Stanford said he anticipated his city will see demonstrations, regardless of what the grand jury returns.

But big-city police departments stressed they're well-equipped to handle crowds. Many saw large but mostly peaceful demonstrations following the 2013 not-guilty verdict in the slaying of Florida teen Trayvon Martin by neighborhood watch coordinator George Zimmerman. In New York, hundreds of protesters marched from Union Square north to Times Square, where a sit-in caused gridlock.

The New York Police Department, the largest in the nation, is "trained to move swiftly and handle events as they come up," spokesman Stephen Davis said.

In Boston, McCarthy said the city's 2,200 sworn police officers have dealt with the range of public actions, from sports fans spontaneously streaming into the streets following championship victories to protest movements like Occupy.

"The good thing is that our relationships here with the community are much better than they are around the world," he said. "People look to us as a model. Boston is not Ferguson."

Trooper ambush suspect charged with terrorism

Trooper ambush suspect charged with terrorism 
 

FILE - In this Oct. 31, 2014, file photo, Eric Frein, charged with the murder of Pennsylvania State Trooper Cpl. Byron Dickson and critically wounding Trooper Alex Douglass, is taken to prison after a preliminary hearing in Pike County Courthouse in Milford, Pa. On Thursday, Nov. 13, 2014, authorities added terrorism charges againstFrein and they say he told them he wanted to "wake people up." State police say Eric Frein called slaying of Cpl. Bryon Dickson an "assassination" in an interview after his capture.

 BLOOMING GROVE, Pa. (AP) -- Authorities have added terrorism charges against a man accused of ambushing a Pennsylvania State Police barracks and killing a trooper, and they say he told them he wanted to "wake people up."

State police say Eric Frein called the Sept. 12 slaying of Cpl. Bryon Dickson an "assassination" in an interview after his capture.

Police filed the additional counts on Thursday. He was already charged with first-degree murder. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

In court papers, police say they found a letter addressed to "Mom and Dad" on a thumb drive belonging to Frein. They quote the letter as saying that only a revolution "can get us back the liberties we once had."

Frein is accused of opening fire outside the Blooming Grove barracks, killing Dickson and seriously wounding another trooper.

The quiet takedown of Frein last month ended weeks of tension and turmoil in the area, as authorities at times closed schools, canceled outdoor events and blockaded roads to pursue him. Residents grew weary of hearing helicopters overhead, and small businesses suffered mounting losses.

Police said they linked Frein to the troopers' ambush after a man walking his dog discovered his partly submerged SUV three days later in a swamp a few miles from the shooting scene. Inside, investigators found shell casings matching those found at the barracks as well as Frein's driver's license, camouflage face paint, two empty rifle cases and military gear.

Officials, saying Frein was armed and extremely dangerous, had urged residents to be alert and cautious. Using dogs, thermal imaging technology and other tools, law enforcement officials combed miles of forest as they hunted for Frein, whom they called an experienced survivalist at home in the woods.

They pursued countless tips and closed in on an area around Frein's parents' home in Canadensis after he used his cellphone to try contacting them and the signal was traced to a location about 3 miles away. At times police ordered nearby residents to stay inside or prevented them from returning home.

When Frein was arrested near an abandoned airline hangar, he was placed in the handcuffs of the trooper he's accused of killing. He was driven back to the state police barracks in the trooper's cruiser.

Police refused to tell Frein that his family had hired an attorney for him the night he was captured, his lawyer has said. Veteran criminal defense attorney James Swetz said he was prevented from seeing Frein the night he was arrested.

"I was told, `He's an adult and has not asked for a lawyer,'" Swetz recounted days ago.

Gas to average under $3 in 2015, government says

Gas to average under $3 in 2015, government says 

 

In this Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2014 photo, gas station prices are posted for passing motorists in Augusta, Ga. The Energy Department's Energy Information Administration predicts in its most recent short-term energy outlook, released Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2014, that drivers will pay $2.94 per gallon on average in 2015, 45 cents lower than this year.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The average price of gasoline will be below $3 a gallon in 2015, the government predicted Wednesday. If the sharply lower estimate holds true, U.S. consumers will save $61 billion on gas compared with this year.

In a monthly report, the Energy Department reduced its forecast for global oil prices next year by $18 a barrel to $83. Weakness in the global economy will crimp demand for oil, while production in places like the U.S. keeps rising.

The result: Drivers will pay $2.94 per gallon on average in 2015, 45 cents lower than this year. Based on expected gasoline consumption, that's a savings of $60.9 billion.

That may not seem like a lot in the context of a $17.5 trillion U.S. economy, but economists say it matters because it immediately gives consumers more money to spend on other things. Consumer spending accounts for 70 percent of the U.S. economy.

"It would be a reversal of the trend over the last few years where consumers can't stretch a dollar far enough," says Tim Quinlan, an economist at Wells Fargo.

Quinlan says the price of gasoline is one of the three big drivers of consumer confidence, along with stock prices and the unemployment rate. "Lately all three are moving in the right direction," he says.

The average gasoline price in the U.S. has fallen for 48 straight days and is at its lowest point since December of 2010, according to AAA. That was also the last full year when the average came in below $3 a gallon.

Drivers are now paying $2.92 per gallon on average, AAA says. Late fall is often when the price of gas hits its low for the year. The government is now saying that these prices aren't just a low point, but instead will be the norm next year.

Adam Sieminski, administrator of the Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department's statistical arm, attributed the lower pump prices to lower prices for crude oil and weak fuel demand. The EIA did hedge its bet on lower oil prices though, as it cautioned that OPEC could cut production in order to push prices higher.

The global price of crude has fallen by $35 a barrel, or 30 percent, since late June and closed at $80.38 Wednesday.

Oil production around the world has been strong in recent years. A boom in the U.S. has pushed domestic production up 70 percent since 2008. At the same time, demand for fuels is growing more slowly than expected in Asia and Europe because of weak economic growth.

The U.S. economy is faring relatively well, but more fuel-efficient cars and changing driving habits are keeping domestic gasoline demand low. The EIA expects demand to fall slightly next year despite the lower pump prices.

The EIA also slightly lowered its prediction for growth in U.S. oil production because lower prices will force some drillers to cut back. Production is expected to reach 9.4 million barrels a day in 2015, down from a previous estimate of 9.5 million barrels per day. Still, that would be an increase of 4 percent over this year and the highest domestic crude production since 1972.

 

America marks Veterans Day with parades, freebies

America marks Veterans Day with parades, freebies 

Al Willis, a Montford Point Marine, salutes during a ceremony on Veterans Day, Tuesday, Nov. 11, 2014, at the The All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors in Philadelphia. Americans marked Veterans Day on Tuesday with parades, speeches and military discounts, while in Europe the holiday known as Armistice Day held special meaning in the centennial year of the start of World War I.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Americans marked Veterans Day on Tuesday with parades, speeches and military discounts, while in Europe the holiday known as Armistice Day held special meaning in the centennial year of the start of World War I.

Thousands of veterans and their supporters marched up Fifth Avenue in New York, home to the nation's oldest Veterans Day parade.

At 11 a.m. - the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month - a solemn hush fell over Manhattan's Madison Square Park as veterans laid wreaths under the Eternal Light Monument to honor the fallen.

Former New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who was a Marine lieutenant, served as grand marshal.

"I learned everything I know about leadership from my military service," Kelly said.

The parade featured a float carrying rapper Ice-T, who is an Army veteran, plus six military dogs and their handlers, all of whom have served in the U.S. armed forces.

Maylee Borg, 40, of Staten Island, said she brought her two daughters to show them "that we should support our veterans, because they supported us."

Her 13-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn Borg, made a sign that read, "Land of the free, thanks to the brave."

Here is how the holiday was celebrated elsewhere around the country and overseas.

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ARMISTICE DAY

Europe marked Armistice Day with ceremonies and moments of silence as France opened an international memorial on a former battlefield. The events had special significance because this year is the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I. Tuesday was the 96th anniversary of the armistice that ended the war on Nov. 11, 1918.

French President Francois Hollande placed a wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier under Paris' Arc de Triomphe. Later, he inaugurated an international war memorial at Notre-Dame-de-Lorette, in northern France, in the presence of German, British and Belgian officials. The Ring of Memory carries the names of 600,000 soldiers from over 40 countries who died in the region during the war. Names are listed alphabetically without their nationalities.

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CELEBRITY CONCERT

Bruce Springsteen, Rihanna, Eminem and Metallica were among the headliners for a free concert on the National Mall to raise awareness for issues affecting veterans, In Washington, D.C.

Tuesday's first-of-its-kind Concert for Valor is expected to draw hundreds of thousands of fans to the Mall. The Veterans Day event was spearheaded by Starbucks president Howard Schultz.

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VETERAN BONUSES

State officials in Ohio used the holiday to remind Iraq war veterans that time is running out to claim bonuses of up to $1,500. Ohio voters in 2009 approved a $200 million bond issue to fund bonuses for veterans of the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan and Iraq war eras.

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VETERANS PERKS AND FREEBIES

Veterans Day is not only a time to honor those who have served in the military. For American businesses, it's also a time to back up that appreciation with a freebie.

Many national chains, as well as mom-and-pop retailers around the U.S., offered free goods and services to anyone who has served in the military, a trend that has been growing since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. They included IHOP pancakes, Starbucks coffee and even admission at select theaters to see the World War II film "Fury," starring Brad Pitt.

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MILITARY GAY PRIDE

Massachusetts marked Veterans Day with commemorations around the state including a parade in Boston in which gay and transgender veterans were taking part for the first time. A recently formed group called OutVets said it expected up to 30 people to march in Tuesday afternoon's downtown parade.

Gov. Deval Patrick and other top officials gathered earlier at the Statehouse to express "gratitude, pride and support" for service members from Massachusetts.

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CHRISTIE HONORS THE FALLEN

In New Jersey, Gov. Chris Christie attended an event at the Brig. Gen. William C. Doyle Veterans Memorial Cemetery in Wrightstown. The state-operated cemetery is the final resting place for more than 56,000 veterans and their family members.

Faculty and students in Monmouth University in West Long Branch were reading the names of troops killed 

during deployments to Afghanistan and Iraq since the September 2001 terrorist attacks.

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SERIOUS WORDS FROM A COMEDIAN

Comedian Bill Cosby urged hundreds in attendance at a Veterans Day ceremony in Philadelphia to "call out the name of someone who left their life for us" and remember those who died for their country.

Cosby told the crowd during a 20-minute address in front of the All Wars Memorial to Colored Soldiers and Sailors that "we don't forget about ours."

Police: Cracking Germantown Abduction Case “An Example Of How Things Should Work”

Police: Cracking Germantown Abduction Case “An Example Of How Things Should Work”

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) – Police officials spoke at a press conference Thursday afternoon, just one day after the woman who was abducted off of a Philadelphia street was found alive in Maryland.

Inspector Kelly of Northwest Detectives says of Detective Sloan, “He was always adamant that we were finding her. He was optimistic and driven by it.”

Detective Sloan had promised Carlesha’s mother that he would bring her daughter home safe, and sure enough, he delivered.

“I spoke to her sister yesterday and I said ‘why do you sound gloomy, why don’t you start cheering?’ She asked why and I told her ‘we found your sister and she’s safe, now put your mother on the phone.’”

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

Boehner warns Obama on immigration

Boehner warns Obama on immigration

WASHINGTON (AP) -- In a blunt post-election warning, House Speaker John Boehner cautioned President Barack Obama on Thursday against taking sweeping action on immigration without congressional approval, saying "when you play with matches you take the risk of burning yourself."

"And he's going to burn himself if he continues to go down this path," the Ohio Republican said at his first news conference after elections in which Republicans captured control of the Senate that meets in January and emerged with their largest majority in the House in at least 70 years.

Obama has said he intends to reduce deportations of immigrants who are working yet living illegally in the United States.

Boehner made his comments one day before he and the other congressional leaders head to the White House for a lunch meeting with Obama. Even before the new Congress convenes, the outgoing one is scheduled to meet next week to wrap up business left over from the past two years.

Sketching an early agenda for 2015, Boehner said the Congress that convenes in January hopes to pass legislation approving construction of the long-stalled Keystone XL pipeline planned to carry Canadian oil to the United States.

At the White House, spokesman Josh Ernest was equivocal about whether the president might sign a bill along those lines. "We'll consider any sort of proposals that are passed by Congress, including a rider like this, that ... does seem to pretty directly contradict the position that's been adopted by this administration," he said.

Boehner also mentioned bills to help create jobs and a measure to encourage businesses to hire veterans and several to attack the health care law piecemeal.

Boehner, just shy of his 65th birthday, won a 13th term from the voters in western Ohio on Tuesday. Despite widely publicized difficulties managing his fractious rank and file in the past four years, he is assured of a new term as speaker when Congress convenes in January.

This time, unlike the others, the man in charge of the Senate's agenda will be a Republican. Sen. Mitch McConnell, the incoming majority leader, is from Kentucky, a state that neighbors Ohio.

Even before confronting Democrats and the White House, the two are likely to face a steady stream of management challenges from within as they pursue a GOP agenda.

Among them are a strong presence of tea party-backed lawmakers in both houses, softer-edged, conservative swing-state senators who will be on the ballot in 2016, and a group of presidential hopefuls that includes Sens. Ted Cruz of Texas, Marco Rubio of Florida and Rand Paul from McConnell's own state of Kentucky.

Boehner defended most of the newcomers to the ranks of House Republicans after he was asked about one who has said Hillary Rodham Clinton is the "antichrist" and another who said family members of victims of the Sandy Hook elementary shootings should get over the experience.

"When you look at the vast majority of the new members that are coming in here, they're really solid members," he said.

Boehner's news conference followed McConnell's first post-election meeting with reporters by one day.

So far, neither man has made much of what is expected to be an all-out Republican assault on federal deficits.

The party has passed budgets through the House in recent years that eliminate deficits in a decade. The likely chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, Sen. Jeff Sessions of Alabama, said in a pre-election interview that was his timetable as well.

Achieving that goal without tax increases will require significant savings from benefit programs like food stamps, welfare and possibly Medicare and Social Security over the next decade.

At his news conference, Boehner also said Congress will vote to repeal the health care law that stands as Obama signature domestic accomplishment, but Boehner conceded the measure may not clear the Senate despite a new GOP majority. Democrats will have more than enough seats to block passage.

Instead, the speaker said the Republican-controlled Congress might seek piecemeal changes in the law, which he said repeatedly "is hurting our economy." He mentioned measures to repeal a medical device tax, abolish an advisory board that is charged with recommending cuts to Medicare in future years, and repealing a requirement for individuals to purchase coverage.

The first is a provision that many Democrats oppose and have indicated privately they would like to jettison. Abolition of the second would greatly undercut the legislation's claimed deficit savings in future years. Obama made it clear on Wednesday at a White House news conference he opposes ending the coverage requirement.

Despite Obama's remarks, Boehner said, "There are bipartisan majorities in the House and Senate to take some of these issues out of `Obamacare.' We need to put them on the president's desk and let him choose."