Top Music Studios For Kids And Adults In Philly: Gilbert F. Lomax Jr. Online Interview by Van Stone, Editor/Publish Philadelphia Front Page News frontpagenews1@yahoo.com

Top Music Studios For Kids And Adults In Philly: Gilbert F. Lomax Jr. Online Interview by Van Stone, Editor/Publisher Philadelphia Front Page News frontpagenews1@yahoo.com

Gilbert F. Lomax Jr., Music Master Professional, Professional Deejay and Male Model.

As promised we caught up with Gilbert F. Lomax Jr. and his partner Doris J. Hall-James for a follow-up interview. Both Lomax Jr. and Hall-James are music professionals. In this interview the Philadelphia Front Page News-Magazine reflects Lomax Jr.’s growth as a person, writer, producer, and male model.

Talented guy Gil Lomax Jr. can rightfully claim the title of Philly’s music's lead music producer and deejay.  Lomax Jr. had no trouble winning the hearts of many fans with his co-release “Knocks Me Off My Feet,” catapulting him to become West Philadelphia’s top-go to music master professional artist. Here’s our interview of Lomax Jr.  He is known for well-produced beats and arrangements in music industry.

Philadelphia Front Page News Newspaper: So, tell everyone the address of the music studio location.

Gilbert F. Lomax Jr.: The Simply Music Studio is located at 251 South 60^th Street Philadelphia, PA 19139.

PFPN: Since you and Doris J. Hall-James are master music professionals, just what type of Deejay are you? And what’s the name of the group for your entertainment company?

Gil Lomax Jr.: I am a mobile Deejay in the community.  The name of my entertainment company is called Simply Old School in which we play old school music. My annual events include the Creek picnic, the Creek cabaret and the Bikers Annual old timers’ young timers reunion keeping the memory of Vicky Gadson and Spider alive. Hosted by Rickey Gadson.

PFPN: Who are included in the events? And how long have you been Deejaying?

Lomax Jr.: All events include young and older adults. I have been a DJ for five years doing block parties, church events in Philadelphia, surrounding areas and South Jersey.

PFPN: About how long have you participated in music engineering activity in a studio?  And which catalog of studio music is your specialty?

Gil: I have been engineering, writing, and producing, music for five years and have multiple songs in my music catalog.  My catalogs consist of R&B, Jazz, Gospel, Pop, Blues and Funk. I am a member of Broadcast Music Association (BMI) and own publishing company Glomax Music. And by the way, I own my own studio.  I am the President of the GreenRoom Audio Sound Studio (GRASS).  

PFPN: When did you notice something was lacking in the urban section of the city and what did you plan to do about it?  Did you organize anything specifically for youth, adults, or seniors and if so, what was the result?

Gil: For years I have noticed that in the 60^th street area – 60^th street corridor there were no services provided for inspiring and aspiring musicians young or old.  No visible recording studios in the West Philadelphia Area along 60^th street corridor.  Being a musician myself I recognized the need for music services to support local talent.

PFPN: What else do you want the readers to know about the Simply Music Studio, its mission and future?

Lomax Jr.: Although Simply Music is a non-profit organization the overhead cost for the operation of the business is met by donations and contributions and minimal fees to the customers. 

 

The site at 60^th street is still new but the demand for music service is so great that I can foresee in the near future students pursing continued education careers in the music industry…possibly with stronger support by our Simply Music Studio.  

IS leader says 'caliphate' well, mocks Saudi-led alliance

IS leader says 'caliphate' well, mocks Saudi-led alliance

BEIRUT (AP) -- The Islamic State group on Saturday released a new message purportedly from its reclusive leader, claiming that his self-styled "caliphate" is doing well despite an unprecedented alliance against it and criticizing the recently announced Saudi-led Islamic military coalition against terrorism.

In the 24-minute audio, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi said airstrikes by the international coalition only increase his group's determination and resolve. The message was al-Baghdadi's first since May, and comes amid battlefield setbacks that IS has recently faced.

Meanwhile, a U.S.-backed coalition of rebels in Syria - including Syrian Kurdish, Arab and Christian groups - captured a major dam on the Euphrates River from the Islamic State group as part of the coalition's march on IS-held areas in northern Syria.

The coalition, known as Syria Democratic Forces, announced earlier this week a new offensive aimed at cutting supply lines between IS strongholds in the country's north. The SDF said it seized the Tishrin Dam, which supplies much off northern Syria with electricity, on Saturday.

An SDF spokesman told AP earlier this week that his forces are also trying to cut the supply lines between the Islamic State's de-facto capital of Raqqa and the group's stronghold of Manbij in northern Syria.

The SDF, dominated by the main Kurdish militia in Syria known as YPG, or People's Protection Units, has become a main force in fighting IS.

The Islamic State group has come under pressure in Syria and Iraq, where it has declared its self-styled Islamic caliphate on territory that the militant group controls. It lost the town Sinjar in Iraq last month, and areas across the border in Syria at the same time. Iraqi government troops are also advancing in the Islamic State-held city of Ramadi, the provincial capital of the sprawling Anbar province, Iraq's Sunni heartland.

Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition and Russia in Syria have also destroyed Syrian oil facilities and killed several IS leaders in recent weeks.

"It is unprecedented in the history of our Ummah (Islamic nation) that all the world came against it in one battle, as it is happening today. It is the battle of all the disbelievers against all the Muslims," al-Baghdadi said.

He said the U.S.-led alliance does "not scare us... nor do they scatter our resolve because we are the victors in any event."

Al-Baghdad also taunted the United States for not putting boots on the ground. "They do not dare to come, because their hearts are full of fear from the mujahideen,"or holy warriors, he said.

"America and its allies dream of destroying the caliphate through their proxies and henchmen, and whenever 

an alliance of theirs fails or a tail is cut, they hasten to establish another, until they recently declared the Salouli (Saudi) alliance that was falsely called Islamic," al-Baghdadi added.

If the Saudi-led alliance was truly Islamic, then it would fight the Syrian army and its Russian "masters," as well as Shiites and Jews, al-Baghdadi said.

In mid-December, Saudi Arabia announced the new, 34-member alliance against terrorism, to be based in the kingdom's capital, Riyadh. But Shiite powerhouse Iran is not part of the new coalition; neither are Iraq and Syria, whose forces are battling to regain ground from the Islamic State group and whose governments are allied with Tehran.

In the audio, al-Baghdadi also warned nations taking part in the war against IS by saying: "We promise you, God permitting, that whoever participates in the war against the Islamic State will pay the price dearly."

He threatened Israel by saying, "we haven't forgotten you" and "we are getting closer to you" every day. To Israeli Jews, he said that they "will hide behind trees and stones" from the IS.

He also urged Muslims world over to join the IS fight, saying it is their Islamic duty to rise up everywhere.

The authenticity of the audio could not be independently confirmed but it was posted on IS-affiliated websites and Twitter as past IS messages. Also, it was produced by the al-Furqan Media Foundation, IS media arm.

Pope contrasts Jesus' birth, excess in Christmas Eve homily

Pope contrasts Jesus' birth, excess in Christmas Eve homily
 

Pope Francis kisses a statue of Baby Jesus as he celebrates the Christmas Eve Mass in St. Peter's Basilica at the Vatican, Thursday, Dec. 24, 2015.

  

VATICAN CITY (AP) -- In his Christmas Eve homily Thursday, Pope Francis noted the simplicity of Jesus' birth as he rebuked what he called societies' intoxication with consumerism, pleasure, abundance and wealth.

Christians around the world joyfully prepared to recall the birth of Jesus. But in his only public Christmas Mass, in the splendor of St. Peter's Basilica, the pope counter-weighted his joy with a lament for people's excesses and what he described as a "culture of indifference, which not infrequently turns ruthless."

Francis said Jesus "calls us to act soberly, in other words, in a way that is simple, balanced, consistent, capable of seeing and doing what is essential."

Referring to Jesus' birth in a Bethlehem stable, the pope said the child was "born into the poverty of this world; there was no room in the inn for him and his family."

Francis also sounded a cry to right injustices. "In a world which all too often is merciless to the sinner and lenient to the sin, we need to cultivate a strong sense of justice," he said.

Since being elected pope in 2013, Francis has tried to shape the church into one marked more by loving mercy than rigid judgment. He insists that the needs of the poor and others, including refugees and migrants, be paramount.

Youngsters from countries that Francis has visited as pontiff, including Sri Lanka, the Philippines, the United States and most recently, three African nations, left floral bouquets around a baby Jesus statue near the central altar after Francis unveiled and gently kissed the statue.

A child from Mexico, which the pope visits in February, was also among the bouquet bearers.

On Friday, tens of thousands of people are expected to crowd into St. Peter's Square to hear the traditional Christmas day speech, which in the past has been used to denounce wars, other violence and injustice across the globe.

Woman accused of Las Vegas Strip crash had improved her life

Woman accused of Las Vegas Strip crash had improved her life

Police and emergency crews respond to the scene of a car accident along Las Vegas Boulevard, Sunday, Dec. 20, 2015, in Las Vegas.

LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Not long ago, the woman accused of crashing her car into pedestrians on the Las Vegas Strip seemed to have turned her life around.

After a rough childhood that included a period of homelessness in high school, Lakeisha Nicole Holloway had become an award-winning high school graduate and caring mother.

The recent picture of success deepens the mystery of how the former Oregon woman wound up in a Las Vegas jail, suspected of killing one person and injuring nearly three dozen others.

Holloway, 24, was expected to be charged this week with murder and other counts after she plowed her Oldsmobile sedan down a sidewalk packed with tourists Sunday night while her 3-year-old daughter sat in the backseat, authorities said.

Police said video surveillance footage led them to believe Holloway deliberately swerved onto the sidewalk. They say she was homeless and out of money, sleeping in her car in parking garages. She might have been on her way to Texas to find the father of her daughter; the pair had split up some time ago.

After her arrest Sunday, Holloway "described a stressful period today where she was trying to rest/sleep inside her vehicle with her daughter but kept getting run off by security of the properties she stopped at," a police report said.

"She ended up on the Strip, 'a place she did not want to be,'" the report quoted her as saying. "She would not explain why she drove onto the sidewalk but remembered a body bouncing off her windshield, breaking it."

She parked at a casino a few blocks from the Strip, told a parking attendant that she had run down people and asked the valet to call 911, Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo said. Her daughter wasn't hurt.

Holloway was stoic when police arrived, showed no resistance and spoke coherently about what happened, the sheriff said.

Authorities declined to comment on a potential motive and said they were struggling to piece together her background. Holloway had changed her name in October to Paris Paradise Morton, according to Oregon court records.

Several years ago, Holloway, a graduate of an alternative high school, received an award for overcoming adversity from the nonprofit Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center, which helps at-risk youths with education and job training.

The center did not respond to messages seeking comment, but a statement on its blog said officials were "shocked and deeply saddened." It said Holloway participated in the center's work programs but had not been involved with the nonprofit for at least two years.

In 2012, she told The Skanner, a newspaper that covers Portland's African-American community, that she was homeless during her freshman year in high school.

Court records show she was charged in Oregon in 2011 with operating a vehicle without driving privileges and driving uninsured. She was convicted in March 2012.

Holloway's cousin, Lashay Hardaway, told The Oregonian newspaper that Holloway worked hard to provide for her daughter.

"She's just always thinking about her daughter or the next thing she needs to take care of," Hardaway said, adding that her cousin "makes good money."

The crash happened in front of the Paris and Planet Hollywood casino-hotels and across from the Bellagio's famed water fountains. The Miss Universe pageant was being held at Planet Hollywood at the time.

People jumped on the car and banged on its windows, but Holloway didn't stop driving on the sidewalk, Lombardo said. The car was fully on the walkway twice, including once when it traveled 200 feet, police said.

A drug recognition expert at the scene determined that she was under the influence of some sort of stimulant, Lombardo said.

Holloway was jailed without bail ahead of an initial court appearance Wednesday. Prosecutors plan to charge her with murder with a deadly weapon, hit-and-run and child abuse.

Clark County District Attorney Steve Wolfson said prosecutors were considering "a great number" of additional charges.

Holloway was under suicide watch, which raises questions about her mental state, said Scott Coffee, a deputy Clark County public defender appointed to represent her. Child welfare officials were caring for the woman's daughter, a county spokesman said.

Of at least 35 victims taken to hospitals, three were in critical condition with head injuries, officials said.

The crash killed Jessica Valenzuela, 32, of Buckeye, Arizona, who was visiting Las Vegas with her husband, the Clark County coroner said.

Other victims were from Oregon, Florida, Colorado, California, Washington, Mexico and Quebec. Five Canadian citizens, four Oregon college wrestlers and five Pennsylvania wrestlers and their coach in town for a tournament were among the injured.

Study: Some cardiac arrest victims ignore warning symptoms

Study: Some cardiac arrest victims ignore warning symptoms

File-This Jan. 4, 2008 file photo shows Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. Sudden cardiac arrest may not always be so sudden: New research shows a lot of people ignore potentially life-saving warning signs in the days and weeks before they collapse.

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sudden cardiac arrest may not always be so sudden: New research suggests a lot of people may ignore potentially life-saving warning signs hours, days, even a few weeks before they collapse.

Cardiac arrest claims about 350,000 U.S. lives a year. It's not a heart attack, but worse: The heart abruptly stops beating, its electrical activity knocked out of rhythm. CPR can buy critical time, but so few patients survive that it's been hard to tell if the longtime medical belief is correct that it's a strike with little or no advance warning.

An unusual study that has closely tracked sudden cardiac arrest in Portland, Oregon, for over a decade got around that roadblock, using interviews with witnesses, family and friends after patients collapse and tracking down their medical records.

About half of middle-aged patients for whom symptom information could be found had experienced warning signs, mostly chest pain or shortness of breath, in the month before suffering a cardiac arrest, researchers reported Monday. The research offers the possibility of one day preventing some cardiac arrests if doctors could figure out how to find and treat the people most at risk.

"By the time the 911 call is made, it's much too late for at least 90 percent of people," said Dr. Sumeet Chugh of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute in Los Angeles, who led the study reported in Annals of Internal Medicine. "There's this window of opportunity that we really didn't know existed."

Importantly, a fraction of patients considered their symptoms bad enough to call 911 before they collapsed, and they were most likely to survive.

That's a reminder to the public not to ignore possible signs of heart trouble in hopes they're just indigestion, said University of Pittsburgh emergency medicine specialist Dr. Clifton Callaway, who wasn't involved in Monday's study but praised it.

"Chest pain, shortness of breath - those are things you should come in the middle of the night to the emergency department and get checked out," said Callaway, who chairs the American Heart Association's emergency care committee. "We strongly recommend you don't try to ride it out at home."

Previous heart attacks, coronary heart disease, and certain inherited disorders that affect heartbeat all can increase the risk of sudden cardiac arrest. People known to be at high risk may receive an implanted defibrillator to shock the heart back into rhythm. But cardiac arrest is such a public health problem that the Institute of Medicine last summer urged a national campaign to teach CPR, so more bystanders know how to help.

Monday's data from the Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study examined records for nearly 1,100 people ages 35 to 65 who suffered a cardiac arrest between 2002 and 2012.

For about a quarter of patients, researchers could find no information about whether they experienced symptoms - making it impossible to say just how common warning signs really are.

But of the remaining 839 patients, half had evidence of at least one symptom in the previous month, the study found. For most, the symptoms began within 24 hours of their collapse, although some came a week before and a few up to a month. Chest pain was most common in men, while women were more likely to experience shortness of breath. Other symptoms included fainting and heart palpitations.

Chugh had no way to determine symptom severity. But only 19 percent of patients called 911 about symptoms, mostly people with already diagnosed heart disease or who were having recurrent symptoms. Their survival was 32 percent, compared with 6 percent for other patients. Partly that's because a fifth of those 911 callers had their cardiac arrest in the ambulance on the way to the hospital.

Stay tuned: The study is just the start of more research to better predict who is at highest risk for cardiac arrest, and determine how to target them without panicking people who'd do fine with general heart disease treatment, Chugh cautioned.

'Star Wars' blasts opening weekend record with $238 million

'Star Wars' blasts opening weekend record with $238 million
  

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- To say that the force is strong with this one is an understatement.

"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" brought in a galactic $238 million over the weekend, making it the biggest North American debut of all time according to studio estimates on Sunday.

The Walt Disney Co. earnings destroy the previous opening record set by Universal's "Jurassic World," which drew $208.8 million this summer.

Internationally, the film brought in $279 million, bringing its global gross to $517 million - second only to "Jurassic World's" global bow of $525 million. But the dinosaurs had the added benefit of China - "Star Wars" won't open there until Jan. 9.

This is just the latest in a laundry list of records set by J.J. Abrams' film, the seventh in the franchise, which had analysts anticipating a debut anywhere from $150 million to $300 million.

The "X-factor" was quality. While "The Force Awakens" drew enormous pre-sales, the film was kept under lockdown from the press and critics until mere days before it was released to the public. Reviews turned out to be stellar (95 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), as did early audience reaction, who gave the film an A CinemaScore.

Rentrak's Senior Media Analyst Paul Dergarabedian said that's the key element that may push the film to the $2 billion mark by the end of its run. Many are already going back for a second helping.

"The enthusiasm has really turned into a cultural event," said Dave Hollis, Disney's executive vice president of theatrical distribution. "It's unbelievable."

"It feels historic. The marketing team has embarked on a two-plus year journey to create this event feel," Hollis added. "It's hard to think you could replicate this, but never say never."

Males overwhelmingly drove the astronomical earnings, comprising 58 percent of the audience.

"Many of the bigger films of the past few years have been driven by that often marginalized female audience," Dergarabedian said. "This proves that if you put the right film in the marketplace, the guys will show up in big numbers. You can still break records with one gender being the dominant one."

He predicted that over time, Daisy Ridley's protagonist may help even the gender breakdown. Hollis agreed, noting that the breakdown evened out across the weekend too. Friday audiences were 63 percent male, he said.

The film also drew mainly adults, who made up 71 percent of the audience. Teens accounted for only 9 percent, but those numbers may go up in the coming weeks as holiday vacations kick in.

IMAX, 3D and other premium large format screens further helped drive the massive earnings. Nearly half of moviegoers - 47 percent -chose to see the film on the generally pricier screens. IMAX screens alone accounted for $48 million of the global earnings.

But "Star Wars" didn't fly alone this weekend. A few other movies attempted to provide some counterprogramming and ended up with comparatively decent results.

Almost a galaxy away, Fox's animated "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip" came in second with $14.4 million.

According to exit polls, 70 percent of audiences were comprised of families. The film also played to a rather diverse audience of 22 percent Hispanics and 19 percent African-Americans.

 

"Starting on Monday, 73 percent of K through 12 is out of school. Why wouldn't we make our picture available?" said Chris Aronson, Fox's president of domestic distribution as to why they released their film "in the teeth of the hurricane."

"'Star Wars' is the phenomenon it is and will continue to be, but there is another segment of the audience out there," he added.

In third place, the Tina Fey and Amy Poehler comedy "Sisters" earned an estimated $13.4 million out of the gates. A whopping 79 percent of audiences were female for the R-rated comedy - a solid indicator that the counterprogramming against "Star Wars" was in fact a wise choice.

"A healthy box office needs something for everyone," said Nick Carpou, Universal's president of domestic distribution, who expects a solid performance for the comedy in the weeks to come.

Rounding out the top five were "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2," with $5.7 million and "Creed," with $5.1 million.

This is the biggest overall weekend in box office history with combined grosses north of $300 million, putting 2015 in range of becoming the first $11 billion year in history.

"We're on the verge of a record-breaking year," Dergarabedian said. "I think we're going to do it."

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to Rentrak. Where available, the latest international numbers for Friday through Sunday are also included. Final domestic figures will be released Monday.

1. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," $238 million ($279 million international).

2. "Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Road Chip," $14.4 million.

3. "Sisters," $13.4 million ($1.8 million international).

4. "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2," $5.7 million ($7.8 million international).

5. "Creed," $5.1 million.

6. "The Good Dinosaur," $4.2 million ($9.2 million international).

7. "Krampus," $3.8 million ($1.8 million international).

8. "In the Heart of the Sea," $3.5 million ($3.9 million international).

9. "Diwale," $1.9 million.

10. "Bajirao Mastani," $1.7 million.

---

Estimated ticket sales for Friday through Sunday at international theaters (excluding the U.S. and Canada), according to Rentrak:

1. "Star Wars: The Force Awakens," $279 million.

2. "Mojin: The Lost Legend," $85 million.

3. "Surprise - Journey to the West," $24 million.

4. "The Good Dinosaur," $9.2 million.

5. "The Himalayas," $8.5 million.

6. "The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2," $7.8 million.

7. "Spectre," $6.5 million.

8. "Bridge of Spies," $4.5 million.

9. "In the Heart of the Sea" and "The Tiger: An Old Hunter's Tale," 3.9 million.

10. "Krampus" and "Sisters," $1.8 million.

Security is focus at churches, mosques amid heightened fears

Security is focus at churches, mosques amid heightened fears
 

Members of the congregation arrive at the All Dulles Area Muslim Society (ADAMS) Center in Sterling, Va., Friday, Dec. 18, 2015. Religious congregations across the United States are concentrating on safety like never before following a season of violence, from the slaughter unleashed in June 2015 by a white shooter at a historically black church in Charleston, S.C., to the killings this month in San Bernardino, Calif

  

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) -- In Alabama, a Presbyterian church wanted to be able to hire its own police for protection. Mosque leaders around the country are meeting with law enforcement officials as an anti-Muslim furor fuels arson attacks and vandalism. And the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been holding specialized training for congregations for "all hazards, including active shooter incidents."

Religious congregations across the United States are concentrating on safety like never before following a season of violence, from the slaughter unleashed in June by a white shooter at a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina, to the killings this month in San Bernardino, California.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations said 2015 is shaping up as the worst year ever for U.S. mosques, amid the backlash to the Islamic-extremist attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, and the intensifying anti-Muslim rhetoric from Donald Trump and others seeking the GOP presidential nomination. Preliminary 2015 data collected by the civil rights organization found 71 reported cases of vandalism, harassment and threats, with 29 of those incidents occurring since the Nov. 13 assaults in France.

The Anti-Defamation League, which works to secure Jewish sites, has been organizing safety training around the country with other faith groups, including an Austin, Texas, event with local police and the African Methodist Episcopal Churches of Greater Austin that drew participants from 35 churches and three mosques. The Charleston church attacked in June, Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church, is part of the national African Methodist Episcopal denomination.

Christian churches have been refining their security plans ahead of receiving some of their largest crowds of the year for Christmas. On a FEMA webinar last Wednesday on protecting houses of worship, the chief security executive at The Potter's House, the Rev. T.D. Jakes' megachurch in Dallas, gave tips about behavior that should raise concern, such as a congregant arriving in a long coat in hot weather. If needed, church greeters could give a hug and feel for weapons, said the executive, Sean Smith.

"I call it the Holy Ghost pat-down," Smith said.

Congregations and other religious sites have long been targets of violence and vandalism, especially African-American churches going back at least to the civil rights movement. In 2007, a young man on a shooting spree killed two people at an evangelical ministry and two more at New Life Church in Colorado Springs, Colorado. In 2012, a white supremacist killed six people at a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin. And last year, a white supremacist killed three people at a Jewish Community Center and retirement home in suburban Kansas City.

After the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, Jewish groups led an effort that persuaded Congress to provide grants through the Department of Homeland Security to improve protection of congregations. Even so, a 2013 poll by the Barna Group for Brotherhood Mutual Insurance found nearly 60 percent of Protestant churches nationwide did not have a formal security plan for worship services.

Now anxieties over security are reaching a new level with national attention focused on mass shootings and terror threats, renewing debate about how far congregations should go to protect themselves given the religious imperative to be open to newcomers.

In Charlotte, North Carolina, St. Matthew Roman Catholic Church, which draws about 30,000 worshippers to its weekend Masses, this month alerted parishioners to beefed-up security, such as uniformed and plain-clothes police officers at services, and a ban on backpacks, baby strollers and diaper bags in worship areas.

"People feel that is almost like a weight lifted, in light of what is happening in the world today," said Antoinette Usher, the facilities and operations director at St. Matthew, which has held three security training sessions for staff, including active-shooter training. "They were feeling a little concerned about being a house of worship. You're facing forward. Someone could come in from behind."

Rod Pires, who runs a church security ministry in the Atlanta area, said he is getting more and more requests for help, including several calls daily from churches asking whether they should arm their members or develop a security plan. Several states allow concealed weapons in churches, including Arkansas, Illinois and North Dakota.

A bill the Alabama Legislature passed in August would have let Briarwood Presbyterian Church in metro Birmingham hire at least one police officer and perhaps more, giving them the same authority as city or county enforcement on properties that include the church and a large private school. Gov. Robert Bentley refused to sign the legislation, which died on his desk as some lawmakers and administration officials worried the bill could open the door to private police forces statewide.

"As soon as there's a mass shooting the phone just starts ringing off the hook, and everyone wants a quick solution," said Pires, CEO of Church Security 360 Degrees and former security chief at First Baptist Church of Atlanta. But guns in worship? Pires rejects the idea without a full security assessment and competent people trained to handle firearms.

Most recently, concern has been focused on mosques. Last Monday, the White House convened meetings of Muslim and Sikh leaders to discuss the uptick in hate crimes against their houses of worship and individual members of their faiths. Sikhs, who wear turbans, are often mistaken for Muslims.

The alarming cases of harassment include a November anti-Muslim rally with some armed demonstrators outside of an Irving, Texas, mosque, and an arson attack at the Islamic Society of Coachella Valley in California, about 75 miles from San Bernardino. Last weekend, two mosques in the Los Angeles suburb of Hawthorne were vandalized with paint and a fake grenade was left. And the Anti-Defamation League, which also tracks hate crimes, said three California houses run by the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement received hand-written letters saying Jews should get out of "our white country" and "take the Muslims with you."

At ADAMS in Sterling, Virginia, one of the largest Muslim congregations in the country, the security guards resigned, saying they felt they could no longer protect the mosque amid the anti-Muslim uproar, ADAMS board chairman Rizwan Jaka said. The guards have been replaced with a more experienced team and the center's leaders are trying to reassure Muslims worried about the risks of attending Friday prayers.

"Mosques are targets, so it's a natural fear they might have," Jaka said. "We're probably back to normal from a congregational attendance perspective since we got the upgraded security."

On the FEMA webinar, officials emphasized the need for heightened security for all houses of worship. Katherine Schweit, chief of the active-shooter section in the FBI's Office of Partner Engagement, explained how congregants could create confusion to distract shooters.

"You can fight by everyone throwing a Bible at them," Schweit said, "and I mean that in a very respectful way because I am a Bible-fearing person."

Exec who jacked up price of a lifesaving drug is arrested

Exec who jacked up price of a lifesaving drug is arrested
 

Martin Shkreli, the former hedge fund manager under fire for buying a pharmaceutical company and ratcheting up the price of a life-saving drug, is escorted by law enforcement agents in New York Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, after being taken into custody following a securities probe. A seven-count indictment unsealed in Brooklyn federal court Thursday charged Shkreli with conspiracy to commit securities fraud, conspiracy to commit wire fraud and securities fraud.

  

NEW YORK (AP) -- A boyish-looking entrepreneur who became the new face of corporate greed when he jacked up the price of a lifesaving drug fiftyfold was led away in handcuffs by the FBI on unrelated fraud charges Thursday in a scene that left more than a few Americans positively gleeful.

Martin Shkreli, a 32-year-old former hedge fund manager and relentless self-promoter who has called himself "the world's most eligible bachelor" on Twitter, was arrested in a gray hoodie and taken into federal court in Brooklyn, where he pleaded not guilty. He was released on $5 million bail.

If convicted, he could get up to 20 years in prison. He left court without speaking to reporters. His attorneys had no immediate comment.

Hours later, Shkreli tweeted: "Glad to be home. Thanks for the support."

Online, many people took delight in his arrest, calling him a greedy, arrogant "punk" who gave capitalism a bad name and got what was coming to him. Some cracked jokes about lawyers jacking up their hourly fees 5,000 percent to defend him in his hour of need.

Prosecutors said that between 2009 and 2014, Shkreli lost some of his hedge fund investors' money through bad trades, then looted Retrophin, a pharmaceutical company where he was CEO, for $11 million to pay back his disgruntled clients.

Shkreli "engaged in multiple schemes to ensnare investors through a web of lies and deceit," U.S. Attorney Robert Capers said in a statement.

Shkreli was charged with securities fraud and conspiracy. A second defendant, lawyer Evan Greebel, of Scarsdale, New York, was charged with conspiracy and also pleaded not guilty.

A spokesman for Shkreli released a statement saying he denies the charges and "expects to be fully vindicated."

"It is no coincidence that these charges, the result of investigations which have been languishing for considerable time, have been filed at the same time of Shkreli's high-profile, controversial and yet unrelated activities," said spokesman Craig Stevens.

In September, Shkreli was widely vilified after a drug company he founded, Turing Pharmaceuticals, spent $55 million for the U.S. rights to sell a medicine called Daraprim and promptly raised the price from $13.50 to $750 per pill.

The 62-year-old drug is the only approved treatment for toxoplasmosis, a rare parasitic disease that mainly strikes pregnant women, cancer patients and AIDS patients.

The move sparked outrage on the presidential campaign trail and helped prompt a Capitol Hill hearing on drug prices. Headlines called the Brooklyn-born Shkreli such thing as "America's most hated man," the "drug industry's villain" and "biotech's bad boy" - and those were just some of the more printable names.

Hillary Clinton called it price-gouging and said the company's behavior was "outrageous." Donald Trump called Shkreli "a spoiled brat." Bernie Sanders returned a donation from Shkreli.

Prosecutors said the investigation that led to Shkreli's arrest dated back to last year, before the furor over the drug-price increase.

Shkreli defended the increase by saying that insurance and other programs would enable patients to get the drug and that the profits would help fund research into new treatments.

But he also made an unapologetic business-is-business argument for the price jump. In fact, he recently said 

he probably should have raised it more.

"No one wants to say it, no one's proud of it, but this is a capitalist society, a capitalist system and capitalist rules," he said in an interview at the Forbes Healthcare Summit this month. "And my investors expect me to maximize profits, not to minimize them or go half or go 70 percent but to go to 100 percent of the profit curve."

Amid the uproar, Shkreli said Turing would cut the price of Daraprim. Last month, however, Turing reneged. 

Instead, the company is reducing what it charges hospitals for Daraprim by as much as 50 percent.

While most patients' copayments will be $10 or less a month, insurance companies will be stuck with the bulk of the tab, potentially driving up future treatment and insurance costs.

On Thursday, Robert Weissman, president of the watchdog group Public Citizen, said Shkreli got "a deserved comeuppance."

"Al Capone was brought down for tax evasion, but he committed many worse crimes," Weissman said. "So if Shkreli's arrested for securities violations, it's a comparable justice."

Shkreli is known as a prolific user of Twitter and often livestreams his work day over the Internet, inviting people to chat with him at his desk. He refers to those who follow him online as his "fans."

Recently it emerged that he bought the only copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album titled "Once Upon a Time in Shaolin," which the hip-hop group sold on the condition that it not be released publicly. He said he paid $2 million.

The FBI's New York office said on Twitter that agents did not seize Shkreli's album. Said Capers, the chief federal prosecutor: "We're not aware of how he raised the funds to buy the Wu-Tang album."

Last month, Shkreli was named chairman and CEO of KaloBios Pharmaceuticals after buying a majority stake in the struggling cancer drug developer. After his arrest, its stock fell by more than half Thursday before trading in the company was suspended.

New Orleans considers removing Confederate monuments

New Orleans considers removing Confederate monuments

FILE -In this Sept. 2, 2015 photo, the Robert E. Lee Monument is seen in Lee Circle in New Orleans. On Thursday, Dec. 17, 2015, the City Council is set to vote on an ordinance to remove four monuments. A majority of council members and the mayor support the move, which would be one of the strongest gestures yet by American city to sever ties with Confederate history.

  

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- New Orleans is poised to make a sweeping break with its Confederate past as city leaders decide whether to remove prominent monuments from some of its busiest streets.

With support from Mayor Mitch Landrieu, a majority on the City Council appears ready to take down four monuments, including a towering statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee. Their ordinance has sparked passionate responses for and against these symbols, and both sides will get one more say at a special council meeting before Thursday's vote.

If approved, this would be one of the most sweeping gestures yet by an American city to sever ties with Confederate history.

"This has never happened before," said Charles Kelly Barrow, commander-in-chief of the Sons of Confederate Veterans. "I've never heard of a city trying to sweep (away) all Confederate monuments."

Geographers have identified at least 872 parks, natural features, schools, streets and other locations named for major Confederate leaders in 44 states, according to a mapping project. Barrow said more than a thousand statues and monuments and countless plaques also honor Confederate battles and heroes.

What's happening in New Orleans reflects a new effort to rethink all this history: Confederate iconography is being questioned across the nation, and in some places falling from public view.

"It is a grand scale of symbolic rewriting of the landscape," said Derek Alderman, a geographer at the University of Tennessee who is mapping Confederate symbolism nationwide. "It certainly represents a wholesale re-questioning of the legitimacy of remembering the Confederacy so publicly."

Barrow said he and others will sue if necessary to keep the monuments where they are.

"I'm going to do everything in my power to take on these people," Barrow said. "I'm not going to let this happen under my administration."

Landrieu first proposed taking down these monuments after police said a white supremacist killed nine parishioners inside the African-American Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, South Carolina in June. "Supremacy may be a part of our past, but it should not be part of our future," he declared.

Anti-Confederate sentiment has grown since then around the country, along with protests against police mistreatment, as embodied by the Black Lives Matter movement.

South Carolina and Alabama removed Confederate battle flags from their Capitol grounds after the shooting. 

The University of Mississippi took down the state flag because it includes the Confederate emblem. The University of Texas demoted its statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis to a history museum.

In New Orleans, the mayor asked the council to take a closer look at monuments that have long been part of the city's landscape.

The most imposing has had a commanding position over St. Charles Avenue since 1884: A 16-foot-tall bronze statue of Lee stands atop a 60-foot-high Doric marble column, which itself rises over granite slabs on an earthen mound. Four sets of stone staircases, aligned with the major compass points, ascend the mound.

Above it all, the Virginian stands in his military uniform, with his arms folded and his gaze set firmly on the North - the embodiment of the "Cult of the Lost Cause" southerners invoked to justify continued white power after the Civil War.

Also up for removal is a bronze figure of the Confederate president that now stands at Canal Street and Jefferson Davis Parkway, and a more local hero, Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard, who straddles a prancing horse at the entrance to City Park. Gen. P.G.T. Beauregard was born in St. Bernard Parish, and commanded Confederate forces at the war's first battle.

The most controversial is an 1891 obelisk honoring the Crescent City White League. An inscription added in 1932 said the Yankees withdrew federal troops and "recognized white supremacy in the South" after the group challenged Louisiana's biracial government after the Civil War. In 1993, these words were covered by a granite slab with a new inscription, saying the obelisk honors "Americans on both sides" who died and that the conflict "should teach us lessons for the future."

The city has estimated it will cost $144,000 to remove the monuments, and says an anonymous donor will pay that cost.

The shootings in Charleston have made these lessons take on new relevance, Alderman said.

"There are a lot of people making a direct connection between a white supremacy group and the effect on African-Americans," said the geographer, who's been tracking many examples of "a questioning of the authority that the Confederacy has been given on the landscape."

Popular culture, Alderman said, is trying to establish how to rewrite "American and Southern public memory in a way that makes room for both perspectives on heritage, and at the same time is fair and just to African-American perspectives that historically have not been recognized."

The Memphis city council is trying something similar, voting in August to remove an equestrian statue of Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest, who also traded slaves and led the Ku Klux Klan. Memphis even wants to remove the graves of Forrest and his wife, who lay buried under the statue.

Tennessee's historic preservation agency is weighing approval - a process Louisiana could turn to as well.

Rather than removing this history, some advocate adding more monuments or markers, to promote a broader understanding of the past.

Clancy Dubos, a New Orleans columnist and chairman of a weekly newspaper, suggested turning Lee Circle into "Generals Circle" by adding a statue of Union Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, and making Jefferson Davis Parkway into "Presidents Avenue" by adding a statue of Abraham Lincoln.

"Historic places, including the Confederate memorials in contention, can be catalysts for a necessary and worthwhile civic discussion," said Stephanie Meeks, president and CEO of the National Trust for Historic Preservation, in a statement. "We believe we actually need more historic sites properly interpreted, to help us contextualize and come to terms with this difficult past."

NY, LA schools receive same email threat; LA cancels classes

NY, LA schools receive same email threat; LA cancels classes

A gate to Birmingham Community Charter High School is locked with a sign stating that school is closed, Tuesday, Dec. 15, 2015, in Van Nuys, Calif. All schools in the vast Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation's second largest, have been ordered closed due to an electronic threat Tuesday.

  

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- The nation's two biggest school systems - New York City and Los Angeles - received threats Tuesday of a large-scale jihadi attack with guns and bombs, and LA reacted by shutting down the entire district, while New York dismissed the warning as an amateurish hoax and held class as usual.

The shutdown was a rare example of a major U.S. city closing its entire school district because of fears of an attack. The decision also reflected lingering unease in the aftermath of the shooting that killed 14 people at an office holiday party two weeks ago in nearby San Bernardino.

In LA, the threat came in the form of an email to a school board member. Authorities in New York reported receiving the same "generic" email and decided there was no danger to schoolchildren. Mayor Bill de Blasio concluded the threat contained "nothing credible."

"It was so outlandish," he said.

New York Police Commissioner William Bratton agreed, quipping that it looked like the sender of the threat had watched a lot of the Showtime terrorism drama "Homeland."

The shutdown abruptly closed more than 900 public schools and 187 charter schools attended by 640,000 students across Los Angeles.

LA officials defended the move, with that city's police chief dismissing the criticism as "irresponsible."

"It is very easy in hindsight to criticize a decision based on results the decider could never have known," 

Police Chief Charlie Beck said at a news conference.

Southern California, he added, "has been through a lot in the recent weeks. Should we risk putting our children through the same?"

The threatening 360-word email sent to the New York City school superintendent warned that schools would be attacked with pressure cooker bombs, nerve agents and machine guns. It claimed the writer and "138 comrades" would carry out the attack.

Students "at every school in the New York City school district will be massacred, mercilessly. And there is nothing you can do to stop it," the message said.

A law enforcement official with access to the document provided the email to The Associated Press. The official was not authorized to disclose details of an ongoing investigation and spoke on condition of anonymity.

The anonymous writer claimed to be a student at a district high school who had been bullied. The person also claimed to be a jihadist but made errors that suggested the writer was really a prankster, including spelling the word "Allah" with a lowercase "a."

The threat made a pornographic reference to a body part that would be unlikely to come from a devout Muslim, and it contained no reference to the Quran.

The threats came in simultaneously to New York and LA school officials at about 1:20 a.m. EST Tuesday, or about 10:20 p.m. Monday in Los Angeles.

In LA, the school board member who received the threat immediately contacted school district police, Det. Rudy Perez said.

Across the country, a New York schools superintendent who received the threat was asleep and did not notice the email until 5:08 a.m. By 6:30 a.m., the message was sent to the NYPD.

An hour later, New York students began arriving at school, and by about 9:30 a.m. investigators ruled the threat a hoax.

The decision to close Los Angeles schools was announced around the same time, at 6:25 a.m. PST.

Los Angeles Superintendent Ramon Cortines said every campus would be searched before schools reopened.

Bratton called the closure in Los Angeles a "significant overreaction."

"We cannot allow ourselves to raise levels of fear," said Bratton, who once ran the LA Police Department.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said he would not second-guess the decisions made in Los Angeles or New York.

The sudden, complete closure disrupted the routines of many Los Angeles families.

Lupita Vela, who has a daughter in the third grade and a son who is a high school senior, called the threat "absolutely terrifying" in light of the San Bernardino attack.

"I know the kids are anxious," she said.

The LA schools commonly get threats, but Cortines called this one rare and said the San Bernardino attack influenced his decision to close the entire district.

The threat "was not to one school, two schools or three schools," he said at a news conference. "It was many schools, not specifically identified. ... That's the reason I took the action that I did."

The person who sent the threat used an "anonymizer," which uses a proxy server to mask the origin of Internet traffic, and the email was routed through a German IP address, according to a law enforcement official briefed on the investigation. The official, who was not authorized to discuss an ongoing investigation, spoke on condition of anonymity.

Vela said she worries about talking to her kids about the threat and terrorism in general. She's concerned about her daughter feeling secure in class.

"I don't want this to be in the back of her head," she said. "Who knows what it does psychologically to kids? 

Is this going to cause her some kind of trauma so that she's not going to feel safe at school?"

The closure came the same day classes were canceled at San Bernardino Valley College because of a bomb threat.

In schools, on streets and TV, children feel Muslim backlash

In schools, on streets and TV, children feel Muslim backlash

Sofia Yassini, 8, poses for a photo outsider a mosque in Richardson, Texas, Friday, Dec. 11, 2015. After seeing presidential candidate Donald Trump call on television for barring Muslims from entering the country, the 8-year-old started packing her favorite things and checking the locks on the doors because, in her mind, Donald Trump’s push to ban Muslims entering the country meant the Army would come and rip her family from their home. Trumps remarks in the wake of the Dec. 2 shooting attack in San Bernardino, Calif., have stoked similar fears in Muslim children across the U.S. Their young minds, parents say, are confused about who the screaming man on TV is, what he’s saying about their faith and why thousands of their fellow Americans are cheering him on.

A backlash against American Muslims is leaving a mark on some of the nation's youngest minds.

After seeing presidential candidate Donald Trump call on television for barring Muslims from entering the country, 8-year-old Sofia Yassini checked the locks on her family's home in Plano, Texas, imagining the Army would take them away. She raced to her room and stuffed a pair of Barbie dolls, a tub of peanut butter and a toothbrush into a bag. She insisted on bringing boots for the long boat ride she imagined was coming.

When her mother, Melissa, arrived home from her work as a human resources manager, Sofia ran into her arms and cried.

"I want people to understand the impact that their words have on these children," said Melissa Yassini, who described the experience in a Facebook post that had been shared more than 21,000 times as of Monday. 

"We often forget, we're waging war on one another with words, and we're adults. We can take it. The kids are suffering with this. They go to school every day and they're afraid to tell people they're Muslim. This has to stop."

Anti-Muslim sentiment was building in the days before 14 people were killed Dec. 2 in the massacre at a disability center in Southern California by a Muslim couple investigators say were inspired at least in part by the Islamic State group. Some governors had already said they wouldn't allow Syrians fleeing civil war into their states because of extremist fears. Experts say Trump's call Dec. 7 to keep all Muslims from entering the United States - a plan he said would apply only temporarily and to non-citizens - only fanned the flames.

Parents say their children hear disparaging remarks in their own communities, see hateful bumper stickers and T-shirts, and have had friends abandon them because of their faith.

Ahad Khan, 12, came home from school in rural Westminster, Maryland, in tears because his best friend called him a future terrorist who couldn't be trusted, according to Ahad's father, Raza Khan.

Khan, the chairman of the science department at Carroll Community College, shared Ahad's experience in an open letter to Trump on Facebook. As of Monday, it had been shared more than 4,300 times.

"He is the engine right now for that fearmongering," Khan said in an interview. "I don't think he realizes that his words matter. He doesn't realize the damaging effect his words can have on people, especially kids."

In the minds of children - many long on imagination and short on political understanding - phrases like "total and complete shutdown of Muslims" can be traumatic, experts say.

"Children expect that society will be nurturing and protective," said Mark DeAntonio, a child psychiatry professor at the University of California Los Angeles. "Statements implying detainment or exclusion for arbitrary reason like race ethnicity or religion create anxiety and trauma."

Some children have questioned their faith and place in American society.

Kafumba Kromah, of Minneapolis, said his 8-year-old daughter asked him: "Why we are Muslims? Why can't we be what everybody else is?" His daughter encouraged him to cancel a trip to his native Liberia for fear he would be barred from returning.

Mehnaz Mahmood, of Dallas, said her 7-year-old son urged her to switch to a black-and-white hijab - so she would look more like a nun - after they were subjected to anti-Muslim remarks outside his school this week.

Sam Madi, of New Orleans, watched coverage of Trump's remarks with his 11-year-old son. He said he feared anti-Muslim sentiment would set back progress in integrating Muslims into American society. Zane Madi plays soccer and spends most weekends with his mother helping the city's homeless.

"We're not prepared for this," said Madi, whose father fled Iraq in the 1970s. "We're not prepared to sit and educate our children why they're not any different from anybody else. I don't think any parent is prepared for that. I don't care what religion you believe or don't believe."

Parents needn't shoulder the burden themselves, said Patricia Greenfield, a psychology professor at UCLA. Teachers should talk about not generalizing Muslims and ask children to reinforce their friendships with Muslim students, she said in an email.

As Khan, the father in Maryland, tucked his son in last week, he left him with the words he recited when he became a U.S. citizen two decades ago: "One nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."

"I don't know why, I don't know how people forget that," Khan said later, fighting back tears. "We have to; otherwise we're dividing ourselves."