Stephen Rakes smiles after greeting an acquaintance outside the liquor store he once owned in the South Boston neighborhood of Boston, June 6. Rakes was found in the woods of Lincoln, Mass., on Wednesday, July 17, a day after prosecutors removed him from their witness list. (Michael Dwyer/AP)
How did a potential Whitey Bulger witness die? Boston buzzing.
The mysterious and sudden death of a man who had waited decades to testify against James “Whitey” Bulger has set Boston buzzing with memories of Mr. Bulger’s heyday and questions over the circumstances of his death.
Stephen Rakes, who claimed he and his then-wife were forced at gunpoint to sell their liquor store to Bulger in 1984, was found in the woods of Lincoln, Mass., on Wednesday, a day after prosecutors removed him from their witness list.
An autopsy revealed no obvious signs of trauma, according to the Middlesex District Attorney’s Office. Authorities are awaiting the result of toxicology tests, which typically take several weeks to complete, to determine a cause of death.
The circumstances of the death are considered suspicious, an unidentified law enforcement official told New England Cable News, and authorities are considering whether he died elsewhere before being brought to Lincoln, The Boston Globe reports.
Family members denied that Mr. Rakes would take his own life after being removed from the prosecution’s witness list Tuesday.
“I can assure you my ex-husband did not commit suicide,” Rakes’s former wife, Julie Dammers, told the Globe.
“We have more questions than answers,” she said. “We are just in limbo right now. We’re all in complete shock.”
Rakes was a vocal critic of Bulger leading up to the trial and attended the trial every day through Tuesday, when he was last seen there. Though he was a potential witness, the judge had agreed to exempt alleged victims and their families from the usual sequestration order, which keeps all witnesses out of the courtroom before their testimony.
Rakes was eager to get on the witness stand, according to Tommy Donahue, son of alleged Bulger victim Michael Donahue. But prosecutors told the judge Tuesday who their remaining witnesses would be, and Rakes wasn't among them.
"He said he wanted to get up there and tell his side of the story," Mr. Donahue said Thursday.
It’s not yet clear why prosecutors decided not to have Rakes testify, but it’s probably due to the testimony of Kevin Weeks, a self-described former protégé of Bulger who gave a slightly different account of what happened with the liquor store. Prosecutors would be hesitant to bring another witness who could question the credibility of Mr. Weeks, legal analysts say.
Weeks denied that the gang forced Rakes to sell the store, saying Rakes had agreed to an offer from Bulger to buy the store for $100,000.
He said when they arrived at Rakes's house to close the deal, Rakes said his wife didn't want to sell the store and complained about the selling price.
"He was trying to shake us down," Weeks said from the witness stand.
Weeks said he pulled a gun out of his waistband and put it on a table, in front of Rakes's two young daughters, who were in the room. One of the girls was bouncing on Bulger's lap and reached for the gun, and Bulger told Weeks to put it away.
Bulger told Rakes that he couldn't back out of the sale, and they made the deal, according to the testimony.
Rakes was present for the testimony and later disputed the account, saying he was forced to sell the liquor store.
"Kevin continues to lie, as usual, because that's what he has to do," Rakes said that day. "My liquor store was never for sale – never, never, never."
For family members of Bulger’s alleged victims, the news of Rakes’s death was particularly disturbing.
“I hope he wasn’t murdered,” Steve Davis, the brother of a woman Bulger is accused of killing, told The New York Times. “It brings you back to the early ’80s,” he said, referring to the frequent murders by Bulger’s gang.
Bulger, the former leader of South Boston's mostly Irish-American Winter Hill Gang, spent 16 years on the run, becoming one of the FBI's Ten Most Wanted before authorities captured him and his girlfriend in California in 2011. He is charged with participating in 19 murders but maintains his innocence.
• Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev appears on the Rolling Stone magazine cover of the Aug. 1 issue. (Wenner Media/AP)
Rolling Stone cover: Are stores going too far in pulling the magazine? (+video)
At least six retailers with strong New England ties are vowing not to sell the Rolling Stone magazine with a glamorous image of the accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on the cover.
CVS, Walgreens, and Rite Aid promised not to sell the issue, as did Massachusetts-based grocery and convenience stores Stop & Shop, Roche Bros., and Tedeschi Food Shops, Fox News reports.
“As a company with deep roots in New England and a strong presence in Boston, we believe this is the right decision out of respect for the victims of the attack and their loved ones,” Rhode Island-based CVS pharmacy said in a statement.
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“Music and terrorism don’t mix!” Tedeschi Food Shops posted on its Facebook page Wednesday. The company wrote it “cannot support actions that serve to glorify the evil actions of anyone.”
The magazine’s use of a self-portrait of the 19-year-old with tousled hair in what many see as a rock-star pose for its cover drew a firestorm of criticism and concern after the magazine released a promotional image Tuesday.
Boston Mayor Thomas Menino blasted the decision, saying that the cover choice was “ill-conceived, at best" and that the magazine “rewards a terrorist with celebrity treatment.”
"The survivors of the Boston attacks deserve Rolling Stone cover stories, though I no longer feel that Rolling Stone deserves them,” Mayor Menino wrote to Rolling Stone publisher Jann Wenner, according to The Boston Globe.
Rolling Stone defended itself Wednesday, releasing a statement saying the story “falls within the traditions of journalism” and the magazine's “long-standing commitment to serious and thoughtful coverage of the most important political and cultural issues of our day.”
"The fact that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is young, and in the same age group as many of our readers, makes it all the more important for us to examine the complexities of this issue and gain a more complete understanding of how a tragedy like this happens," the statement said.
Most of the criticism is directed at the magazine’s cover image, rather than the five-page article written by contributing editor Janet Reitman, who spent two months interviewing people close to Mr. Tsarnaev.
While public opinion in New England has largely been against the magazine, some commentators criticized the retailers' decision to pull the issue.
“A long list of local stores have simply refused to carry the issue, as if none of us is strong enough to see it, or to decide for ourselves whether to buy it,” Boston Globe columnist Yvonne Abraham wrote Thursday.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has been hard to understand, Ms. Abraham argues, because he appears a more complicated mix of a normal youth and an alleged murderer than his older brother, Tamerlan.
“To see him as that skinny kid on the ground [after he was captured by law enforcement], or on the Rolling Stone cover, is to confront the possibility that good-looking kids who seem totally normal, good students who give off no sign of trouble at all, can become monsters, too," she wrote.
"If we are strong enough to survive these attacks, surely we’re strong enough to talk about how that is humanly possible.”
RECOMMENDED: Quiz: How much do you know about terrorism?
Ricky Otazu, of Lodi, N.J. walks past a giant screen outside the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center announcing the week's weather forecast, on Tuesday, in New York. (Mary Altaffer/AP)
Heat wave: Northeast faces a few more scorchers. Then, relief!
Blistering heat across most of the eastern United States is expected to last until the weekend, even as some states post record low temperatures.
New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C., are all expecting their hottest temperatures of the year so far, with temperatures hitting the upper 90s and low 100s, and temperatures are soaring in the Plains and Great Lake states.
Chicago recorded its hottest day of the year so far at 92 degrees on Tuesday, and cooling centers are open to the public in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, and Indiana.
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"In this case, it's the longevity of the heat wave that poses the biggest concern, rather than the magnitude of the temperatures, themselves," said Weather.com senior meteorologist Jon Erdman.
"Cooler air should arrive in the Upper Midwest beginning Friday. By this weekend, the Northeast will receive the cooler air with open arms. All this will come at the cost of severe thunderstorms, however," Mr. Erdman said.
More than 400 cooling centers are open in New York, which is experiencing the highest above-normal temperatures in the country.
"It's going to be very hot and humid this week. The weather can be dangerous, especially for those without air conditioning, the elderly, and those with chronic health conditions," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.
In the Washington, D.C., metro area, where temperatures are expected to reach high 90s with heat indexes topping 100, emergency repairs on a major water main could leave more than 100,000 Maryland residents without water for as many as five days, according to the Washington Post.
Even while much of the country stockpiles water and seeks air conditioning, some other states have posted surprisingly low temperatures.
On Monday, Texas and Oklahoma recorded their all-time lowest temperatures for July 15. Parts of Alaska were warmer than Texas that day: Alaska’s eastern interior was in the low 80s, while Abeline, Texas, clocked in at a refreshing 68 degrees.
The cooler temperatures in Texas are due to clouds and rain, but there are flood concerns in western Texas and into New Mexico, according to the National Weather Service.
The West Coast experienced its own extremes in June, when a heat wave broiled residents in states from Arizona to Idaho and Washington and the temperature at Death Valley National Park tied the record for the hottest June day anywhere in the country at a stifling 128 degrees.
The hottest summer recorded in US history occurred during the Dust Bowl in 1936 with an average temperature of 73.83 degrees for the season. The past two summers came tortuously close to breaking the record: The summers of 2011 and 2012 tied for the second-hottest summer with an average temperature for the season only one-tenth of a degree cooler than the record.
Material from the Associated Press contributed to this report.
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A demonstrator sits at the intersection of Crenshaw Boulevard and Coliseum Street during a protest in Los Angeles on Sunday, the day after George Zimmerman was found not guilty of charges stemming from the fatal shooting of Trayvon Martin. The 17-year-old was shot and killed in February 2012 by Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer. (Ringo H.W. Chiu/AP)
Juror B37: 'Race did not play a role' in Zimmerman trial. Protesters disagree. (+video)
Despite popular perception, the trial of George Zimmerman for the fatal shooting of black teenager Trayvon Martin had nothing to do with race, according to the first juror to speak publicly since Mr. Zimmerman was acquitted of all charges on Saturday.
"I think all of us thought race did not play a role," the woman known only as Juror B37 said about the jury's deliberations, during an interview on CNN Monday. "We never had that discussion."
Instead, Juror B37 said the jury of six women spent hours poring over the law and the evidence from the trial before determining that Zimmerman did not meet the standards required for a second-degree murder or manslaughter conviction.
"There was a couple of them in there that wanted to find him guilty of something, and after hours and hours and hours of deliberating over the law, and reading it over and over and over again, we decided there's just no way, other place to go," she said.
Juror B37’s comments point to the degree to which the legal system succeeded in shutting racial considerations out of the courtroom, but have left many Americans wondering how race could be untangled from the case to begin with.
“There’s no justice for black people,” Maxine McCrey, told The New York Times while attending services at Abyssinian Baptist Church in New York. “Profiling and targeting our black men has not stopped.”
According to some analysts, the chasm between public perception and what happened in the courtroom is due in part to narrow laws that govern what is discussed in a courtroom.
“All that really mattered in that courtroom is whether Mr. Zimmerman reasonably believed that his life was in danger when he pulled the trigger. Critics of the verdict might not like the statutes that allowed for this outcome, but the proper response would not have been for the jury to ignore them and convict,” wrote Jason Riley in a Wall Street Journal column.
But other commentators have criticized the idea that race was too broad for the trial.
"The anger felt by so many African-Americans speaks to the simplest of truths: that race and law cannot be cleanly separated. We are tired of hearing that race is a conversation for another day," wrote Ekow Yankah in a New York Times column. "Without an honest jurisprudence that is brave enough to tackle the way race infuses our criminal law, Trayvon Martin’s voice will be silenced again."
Before the trial, Florida Judge Debra Nelson barred prosecutors from using the term “racial profiling” at the request of defense lawyers, who argued the term was inflammatory. They also asked that words such as "vigilante" or "wannabe cop" also be banned on the same grounds, but that request was denied.
Using a term such as "racial profiling" would “infect” a jury, defense attorney Mark O’Mara argued at the time, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Zimmerman and his defense team argued that race was not a factor in Trayvon’s death, but that Zimmerman acted in self-defense as the teenager attacked him.
“This became a focus for a civil rights event, which again is a wonderful event to have,” Mr. O’Mara said after the verdict. “But they decided that George Zimmerman would be the person who they were to blame and sort of use as the creation of a civil rights violation, none of which was borne out by the facts. The facts that night were not borne out that he acted in a racial way,” he said.
Assistant state attorney Bernie de la Rionda, lead prosecutor at the trial, continued his in-court tactic of referring to race subtly rather than overtly in a post-verdict interview with USA Today:
"This is an issue about whether you are going to allow a citizen to take the law into his own hands," Mr. de la Rionda told the newspaper. "I prosecuted this case because you had a man who decided to make assumptions – the assumptions turned out to be wrong and, as a result, a young man – a 17-year-old teenager – was killed."
US Army Pfc. Bradley Manning (c.) is escorted in handcuffs as he leaves the courthouse in Fort Meade, Md., in this 2012 file photo. (Jose Luis Magana/Reuters/File)
Bradley Manning case: lawyers battle over most serious charge
Defense and prosecution lawyers in a military courtroom Monday battled over whether the most serious charge against Army Pfc. Bradley Manning – aiding the enemy – should be dropped along with several lesser charges, because the government failed to provide sufficient proof.
Aiding the enemy is a crime that can result in the death penalty, but prosecutors have said they will seek life in prison if Private Manning is found guilty.
The 21 contested charges against Manning stem from his giving the WikiLeaks website 700,000 classified files, combat videos, and diplomatic cables while he was serving as a junior intelligence analyst in Iraq in 2009 and 2010. Manning pleaded guilty in February to reduced versions of some additional charges.
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At Monday’s court session at Fort Meade in Maryland, defense and prosecution lawyers began oral arguments on defense motions to acquit the 25-year-old soldier on the aiding-the-enemy charge and six lesser charges, the Associated Press reported.
To prove the aiding-the-enemy charge, prosecutors have to show that Manning knew the information he sent to WikiLeaks would be seen by Al Qaeda forces.
The defense seeks to portray Manning as an idealist, troubled by some of what he saw while in Iraq, and desiring to provoke public discussion. For example, CNN noted that the defense showed a video of a 2007 US Apache helicopter attack that killed 11 people in Baghdad, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver. Manning has said the video troubled him so much that he uploaded the images to WikiLeaks. He has acknowledged leaking documents but says his motive was to expose wrongdoing.
The defense team, which rested its case last week, also argues that some of the information Manning leaked was already publicly available. In its new motion, the defense contends that the prosecution has not presented incriminating evidence on the seven charges, and therefore Manning should be acquitted.
Meanwhile, prosecutors say Manning used military computers to download classified documents and caused them to be published on the Internet where they could be viewed by those seeking to kill US military personnel. Prosecutors say the information Manning leaked fell into the hands of Al Qaeda and its former leader, Osama bin Laden, and thus harmed national security.
During the trial, prosecutors offered evidence that Al Qaeda leaders reveled in the publication of the documents Manning stole and urged members to study the information before seeking ways to attack the US, the AP reported.
The result of the Manning trial could have some impact on a potential prosecution of former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, who leaked information about the NSA's intelligence-gathering activities within the US. Like Manning, Mr. Snowden has said he was troubled by what he saw and sought to expose it for the good of the country.
"Anybody looking at this [Manning] case is going to have to say, 'We have to throw the book at this guy, or where does it end?' " Eugene Fidell, a former military lawyer who now teaches at Yale Law School, told Reuters
Manning has opted for a trial before a judge instead of a jury-based court-martial. At Monday’s court session, Col. Denise Lind, the judge in the case, said she would rule Thursday on the defense’s aiding-the-enemy motion.
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This frame grab from video shows the scene after an Asiana Airlines flight crashed while landing at San Francisco Airport on Saturday, July 6, in San Francisco. (KTVU/AP)
KTVU apologizes for airing racist pilot names, but Asiana says it will sue
Asiana Airlines will sue a California TV station for broadcasting incorrect and racially offensive names of the pilots of Asiana Flight 214, a spokesman for the airline confirmed Monday.
Asiana decided to sue KTVU of Oakland, Calif., to "strongly respond to its racially discriminatory report" that disparaged Asians, Asiana spokesman Lee Hyo-min said. The airline will probably file suit in US courts, she said, according to Bloomberg.
An anchor for KTVU read phony names of the Asiana pilots on air during a noon broadcast Friday. A graphic accompanied the report with the fake names, which were listed next to a picture of the burned-out plane that crash-landed at San Francisco International Airport on July 6, killing three.
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The report “seriously damaged” Asiana’s reputation, Ms. Lee said. Although the airline initially said it was considering possible legal action against both KTVU and the National Transportation Safety Board, Lee said Asiana decided not to sue the NTSB because it believes that the TV station report, not the US federal agency, damaged the airline’s reputation.
Both KTVU and the NTSB, which incorrectly confirmed the report, have issued apologies for the mistake.
The NTSB says a summer intern erroneously confirmed the report when KTVU called to verify.
“In response to an inquiry from a media outlet, a summer intern acted outside the scope of his authority when he erroneously confirmed the names of the flight crew on the aircraft,” the NTSB said in an apology Saturday.
The KTVU anchor apologized after a commercial break in the newscast Friday. In a formal apology, the TV station said it did not sound out the names before airing the report or adequately fact-check the report.
“We heard this person [the summer intern] verify the information without questioning who they were and then rushed the names on our noon newscast,” the station wrote.
Neither the station nor the NTSB commented on where the names originated, although the NTSB said it was not the intern who produced the fake names, CNN reports.
It is NTSB policy not to release or confirm to the media the names of crew members or people involved in transportation accidents. But the names of the two pilots at the controls during the crash have widely been reported as Lee Kang-kuk (or Lee Gang-guk) and Lee Jeong-min.
There were in all four pilots, who underwent questioning by a joint US and South Korean investigation team while in the US. They returned to South Korea on Saturday, and South Korean officials plan to conduct separate interviews with them, South Korea's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport said.
In the July 6 crash, a Boeing 777 clipped a sea wall on landing in San Francisco, lost its tail, and then skidded on the runway where it caught fire.
The NTSB has been criticized by a pilots union for releasing a voluminous amount of crucial information to the public, instead of disclosing findings over several months as it has in the past. Others have praised its transparency.
“The NTSB says its hand has been forced somewhat by the Internet age, where misinformation and conspiracy theories can spread widely and quickly when official information is not forthcoming. But pilots and some aviation experts have worried that the information is leading the public to jump to wrong conclusions, unnecessarily ramping up pressure on the South Korea-based airline and its pilots,” the Monitor reported Sunday.
• Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
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The tail of Asiana Flight 214, which crashed earlier this month, is seen as two men walk under a wing at San Francisco International Airport Friday. Investigators have said the plane came in too low and slow. (Jeff Chiu/AP)
Asiana pilot names: KTVU apologizes for racist prank, but lawsuit possible (+video)
Both the National Transportation Safety Board and KTVU-TV of Oakland, Calif., have apologized for a mistake that led the television station to broadcast incorrect – and racially insensitive – names of the pilots of Asiana Flight 214, which crashed at San Francisco airport July 6, killing three. But the airline is considering legal action against the two organizations, CNN reports.
KTVU on Friday reported what it thought were the names of the Asiana pilots, but the names were clearly fabrications intended as crude phonetic jokes. One of the pilot names reported by KTVU, for instance, was "Wi Tu Lo."
KTVU officials have said that they did not sound out the names before airing the report, nor did they carry out adequate fact-checking. While KTVU called the NTSB to confirm the names, it managed only to reach a summer intern, who falsely affirmed the veracity of the report, both KTVU and the NTSB say. It remains unclear how KTVU got the list of fake names or why the NTSB intern confirmed the names as true.
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The report was so offensive that Asiana might have weighed legal action regardless. "The reputation of the four pilots and of the company had been seriously damaged by this report," the airline said in a statement. "The company is reviewing taking legal action against both KTVU-TV and the NTSB."
Yet the controversy also comes amid an investigation that has already angered some in the aviation community. The NTSB, which is typically circumspect in its investigations, releasing information slowly and over months, has provided an unprecedented volume of crucial information to the public in the past week.
The NTSB says its hand has been forced somewhat by the Internet age, where misinformation and conspiracy theories can spread widely and quickly when official information is not forthcoming. But pilots and some aviation experts have worried that the information is leading the public to jump to wrong conclusions, unnecessarily ramping up pressure on the South Korea-based airline and its pilots.
“It is imperative that safety investigators refrain from prematurely releasing the information from on-board recording devices,” said the Air Line Pilots Association in a statement. “We have seen in the past that publicizing this data before all of it can be collected and analyzed leads to erroneous conclusions that can actually interfere with the investigative process.”
The Asiana pilots have already come in for scrutiny after the accident, in which a Boeing 777 clipped a sea wall on landing in San Francisco, lost its tail, and then spun across the runway where it caught fire.
The pilot at the controls during the landing had only 43 hours of experience on 777s, though he had more than 10,000 hours total flight experience, according to an earlier CNN report. While the pilot was legally qualified to fly the plane, he was trying to build up additional hours of 777 cockpit time to "gain comfort at the controls and experience flying the plane under certain conditions," former Department of Transportation Inspector General Mary Schiavo told CNN.
Though the NTSB does not release pilots' names during investigations, the pilot's real name has been reported as Lee Kang-kuk.
Asian-American groups said the prank was deeply troubling. "Words cannot adequately express the outrage we … feel over KTVU's on-air blunder that made a mockery of the Asiana Airlines tragedy," wrote Asian American Journalists Association President Paul Cheung and MediaWatch Chair Bobby Caina Calvan, according to the Los Angeles Times. "We are embarrassed for the anchor, who was as much a victim as KTVU's viewers and KTVU's hard-working staff."
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Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is resigning to assume the presidency of the University of California system of higher education. (Hyungwon Kang/Reuters/file)
Janet Napolitano steps down at DHS: Who will replace her? (+video)
Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is resigning to assume the presidency of the University of California system of higher education.
Secretary Napolitano, named to the job when President Obama first assumed office, has guided DHS through challenging times marked by debates over border security and immigration, airport security policies that critics say were too intrusive, and scrutiny of the federal response to natural disasters.
In a statement Friday, Mr. Obama praised Napolitano for “outstanding work on behalf of the American people over the last four years.”
“She’s worked around the clock to respond to natural disasters, from the Joplin tornado to Hurricane Sandy, helping Americans recover and rebuild,” he said. “Since day one, Janet has led my administration’s effort to secure our borders, deploying a historic number of resources, while also taking steps to make our immigration system fairer and more consistent with our values.”
Many Republicans in Congress disagree.
Sen. Jeff Sessions (R) of Alabama said in a statement that her tenure "was defined by a consistent disrespect for the rule of law."
Rep. Michael McCaul (R) of Texas, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, called her departure “a substantial addition to the growing list of unfilled key leadership positions within the Department.”
“The many agencies housed within DHS are only as effective as their leadership, and it is crucial that the Administration appoints someone who does not underestimate the threats against us, and who is committed to enforcing the law and creating a unified Department,” Representative McCaul said in a statement. “Ten years after the creation of the Department, it is critical that its mission isn’t undermined by politics or political correctness. The border is not secure, and the threat of terrorism is not diminishing.”
Sen. John McCain (R), from Napolitano's home state of Arizona, was gentler in his response.
"We have had our share of disagreements during her time as Secretary, but I have never doubted her integrity, work ethic or commitment to our nation's security," he said in a statement.
Two current DHS agency heads who maintain particularly good relations with congressional oversight agencies are seen as possible contenders to succeed Napolitano, The Washington Post reports:
“W. Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency [FEMA], previously worked for two Republican governors in Florida as the state’s emergency management director. Fugate is well liked by the White House and has been credited by governors of both parties for revamping the once-troubled federal agency in the years since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
“John S. Pistole, head of the Transportation Security Administration and a former deputy director of the FBI, has built good relations with Congress despite objections over recent proposed changes to screening procedures at airports.”
Napolitano’s career includes several significant firsts: first woman to be reelected governor of Arizona, first woman to head DHS, and first woman to become president of the University of California in the system’s 145-year history.
Forbes ranks her as the world's eighth most powerful woman. In her position as head of DHS, Forbes points out, Napolitano has run the third-largest federal department, overseeing a budget of $48 billion, a staff of 240,000, and 22 agencies, including FEMA, US Customs and Border Protection, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the US Coast Guard, the Secret Service, and cybersecurity operations.
"Secretary Napolitano has advanced the work of her predecessors and made DHS into a stronger, more focused and more effective agency,” says David Schanzer, director of the Triangle Center on Terrorism and Homeland Security, which is based at Duke University and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“Her greatest achievements, in my view, have been tougher enforcement of the southern border and targeting internal immigration enforcement on illegal immigrants who pose the greatest threat, and away from innocent young people who were brought here by their parents,” said Professor Schanzer in a statement. “Secretary Napolitano, together with FEMA chief R. David Paulson, has led effective federal responses to large-scale natural disasters like super-storm Sandy.”
As head of the University of California – the top tier of the state’s system of public colleges and universities – Napolitano will oversee 10 campuses (including UC Berkeley and UCLA) with more than 220,000 students, more than 170,000 faculty and staff, and a budget of about $24 billion.
An apple and a pitcher of apple juice are posed together in Moreland Hills, Ohio, Sept. 15, 2011. (Amy Sancetta/AP/File)
Arsenic in apple juice: FDA proposes a lower limit, amid consumer concern
The US Food and Drug Administration responded to concerns from consumer groups Friday by limiting the amount of arsenic in apple juice to the same level currently permitted in drinking water.
"Overall the supply of apple juice is very safe and does not represent a threat to public health," FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg said. "We decided to put forward this proposed action level to give guidance to industry and to assure ongoing safety and quality."
The FDA faced pressure for more than a year from groups worried about the contaminant’s effects on children. In particular, reports by Dr. Mehmet Oz of the "Dr. Oz Show" and Consumer Reports raised concerns with parents that the levels of arsenic could lead to deadly diseases later in life.
The FDA has tested arsenic in apple juice for at least 20 years and has long said the levels are not dangerous to consumers, in particular the small children who favor the fruit juice (second only to orange juice in popularity, according to industry groups).
But the agency issued a tougher stance with its announcement Friday. Under the new regulation, apple juice containing more than 10 parts per billion could be removed from the market and companies could face legal action. FDA officials stressed that the vast majority of juices on the market are already below the threshold and say they are taking a very cautious approach.
An FDA analysis of dozens of apple juice samples last year found that 95 percent were below the new level.
Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, last year called for a limit as low as 3 parts per billion. While the FDA didn't go that far, the group still praised the agency for taking action.
"While we had proposed a lower limit, we think this is a perfectly good first step to bring apple juice in line with the current drinking water limits," said Urvashi Rangan, the group's director for consumer safety.
The FDA decision represents in entrance into some new territory: While the Environmental Protection Agency sets arsenic limits for drinking water, there have never been similar standards for most foods and beverages. The FDA is also considering new limits on arsenic in rice, which is thought to have higher levels than most foods because it is grown in water on the ground, optimal conditions for absorbing the contaminant.
Arsenic is found in the environment as a naturally occurring mineral and as a result of contamination from industrial activity and pesticides that used to be allowed in agriculture. When ingested in very high doses over a short period of time, the chemical can increase the risk for certain cancers, say medical experts.
Government officials and consumer advocates agree that drinking small amounts of apple juice isn't harmful. The concern involves the effects of drinking large amounts of juice over long periods of time.
The FDA will take comments on the draft regulation for 60 days before making it binding.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.
Casey Sherman, nephew of homicide victim Mary Sullivan, faces reporters during a news conference at Boston police headquarters, Thursday, July 11, 2013. Investigators helped by advances in DNA technology finally have forensic evidence linking longtime suspect Albert DeSalvo to Ms. Sullivan, the last of the 1960s slayings attributed to the Boston Strangler. (Steven Senne/AP)
'Boston Strangler' case: Will new DNA evidence finally bring resolution? (+video)
For nearly two years back in the early 1960s, a man who came to be known as the “Boston Strangler” preyed on women, sexually assaulting and killing 11 of them – many in their homes.
The crimes were never successfully prosecuted, although Albert DeSalvo confessed to being the serial killer several years later. But Mr. DeSalvo later recanted his confession, and in 1973 he was stabbed to death at the state prison in Walpole, Mass., where he was serving a life sentence for armed robberies and sexual assault involving other victims.
Now, Massachusetts law enforcement authorities say they have enough physical evidence to link DeSalvo to the murder of 19-year-old Mary Sullivan – the last of the Boston Strangler’s victims – in her apartment in 1964.
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DNA from the scene of Ms. Sullivan's rape and murder has produced a "familial match" with DeSalvo, Suffolk County district attorney Daniel Conley said Thursday. The new physical evidence came from a water bottle discarded by a nephew of DeSalvo.
"There was no forensic evidence to link Albert DeSalvo to Mary Sullivan's murder until today," Mr. Conley said at a news conference. Conley said he expected investigators to find an exact match when the evidence is compared with DeSalvo’s DNA, which will be obtained when his body is exhumed.
Conley acknowledged widespread disagreement among law enforcement and researchers who have investigated the killings whether DeSalvo did in fact kill all the women, The Boston Globe reported Thursday.
“At this point in time, 50 years removed from those deaths and without the biological evidence that we have in the Sullivan case, that is a question that we cannot answer,’’ Conley said. “But these developments give us a glimmer of hope that there can be one day finality, if not accountability, for the families of the 10 other women murdered so cruelly in Boston, Cambridge, Lawrence, Lynn, and Salem.’’
Unsolved for decades, the case continued to fascinate the public even though the string of killings thought to be linked to the Boston Strangler seemed to have stopped. Dozens of books were written. Actor Tony Curtis played DeSalvo and Henry Fonda the lead detective in the 1968 Hollywood version.
Celebrity attorney F. Lee Bailey, who helped to obtain the confession from DeSalvo, said Thursday's announcement will probably help put to rest speculation over the Boston Strangler's identity.
Mr. Bailey had been representing another inmate who informed the attorney that DeSalvo, who was already in prison for the other crimes, knew details of the crimes. Bailey went to police with the information, and he said that DeSalvo demonstrated he knew details only the killer would know.
Bailey would later represent DeSalvo.
"It was a very challenging case," said Bailey, who lives in Yarmouth, Maine. "My thought was if we can get through the legal thicket and get this guy examined by a team of the best specialists in the country, we might learn something about serial killers so we could spot them before others get killed."
If this new evidence proves conclusive, one – and only one – of the Boston Strangler cases will have been solved. No DNA evidence is believed to exist for the other Boston Strangler slayings.
Still, resolution in the haunting serial-killer case may finally be in the offing, said Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley, according to The Boston Globe.
“We may have just solved one of the nation’s most notorious serial killings,’’ Ms. Coakley said.
Meanwhile, more-recent serial-killer cases – including the Long Island case involving 10 to 14 women killed over a period of 15 years – remain unsolved.
• This report includes material from the Associated Press.
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