Past aids Aurora response, but were warnings unheeded?

James Eagan Holmes, the suspected gunman in the deadly Aurora, Colo. movie theater shooting, makes his first court appearance. NBC's Brian Williams, Kate Snow and Mike Taibbi report with TODAY's Savannah Guthrie.

By Michael LeiterNBC News contributor

ANALYSIS

While lessons learned from previous mass shootings may have helped limit the carnage in the Aurora, Colo., theater shooting, it remains unclear whether there were warning signs that might have been missed.??

Although it is too soon after the tragedy to draw any hard conclusions (unlike the shooting that took but a few minutes, investigations of such events are meticulous, time consuming affairs), it seems likely that lessons learned from similar events might well have reduced the human toll, which currently stands at 12 dead and 58 injured.?

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It appears that first responders in Aurora arrived on the scene no more than a minute or two after calls began flooding 911.? That rapid response meant that the suspect was quickly detained, possibly preventing additional casualties. In addition, emergency medical care arrived shortly after, undoubtedly comforting and likely saving many of the wounded.? And in the coming days, counselors and other medical professionals will surely provide support to both the countless physical and emotional victims of the early morning shooting.

Each of these efficient and effective responses is born of past tragedies.? Through similar events close by (Columbine) and far away (the 2008 terrorist attack in Mumbai, India), first responders learned of the need for rapid intervention, securing a perimeter and waiting for specialized units.? Whether it is an active shooter scenario or a Mumbai-style terrorist attack, state, local?and federal authorities have modified their tactics and training to fit what has regrettably become a semi-regular occurrence.?

Hard questions remain
But early indications are that some other lessons of the past may be more elusive.? Much focus has of course been on the shooter, and indeed it is critical that his past behavior be closely examined for warning signs that might have been missed.? In some cases, terrorist or non-politically motivated shooters display outward signs of future violence ?either through antisocial behavior or obtaining weapons or their precursors ? potentially putting officials in a position to disrupt the attack before it happens. As last week?s report on the Fort Hood shooting noted, however, even when such warning signs are present, our ability to identify them properly and take action is mixed.?

Such is surely the case as well for non-terrorism-related violence, as criminologists have long struggled with accurately identifying future criminals.?

That can be a slippery slope. If concerns about ?false positives? are discounted, then we are more likely to intervene in the lives of those who show warning signs, but are merely eccentric, not dangerous.

As the nation agonizes over Friday's massacre in an Aurora, Colo., movie theater, family and friends are sharing stories and memories of the 12 people who lost their lives. NBC's Savannah Guthrie reports.

In short, although we might be able to improve our ability to spot the next mass shooter or serial killer before the crime is committed, attempting to do so raises numerous legal and ethical questions and likely won?t be easy or particularly effective.? It hasn?t worked in the past and it is unlikely to work in the near future.

One need not be a terrorism expert or criminologist to know that every society has faced criminals and mad men before.? Are there more terrorists or mass murderers today than in the past?? Perhaps.? But what is unquestionably true is that it has become increasingly easy for murderers of any stripe to kill more and more people in one fell swoop.

In some parts of the world, terrorists have had to be innovative to do so.? The 2005 al-Qaida-inspired terrorist attacks in London, for example, used improvised explosive devices composed in large part of concentrated hydrogen peroxide.? Creating these weapons wasn?t excessively difficult, but doing so required some care. More than a few trained terrorists have tried and failed in the past, both in the U.S. (Faizal Shahzad in Times Square in 2009) and the U.K. (the bombers of July 21, 2005).? Early reports also allege that Holmes engaged in such explosives plotting.?

In the U.S., however, counterterrorism officials and police have long since accepted that neither creativity nor immense skill is required for an individual to be an effective mass murderer. The ready availability (either legally or illegally) of semi-automatic weapons with high-capacity magazines makes such killing remarkably easy.? Moreover, given the endless supply of ?soft targets? in our open society, it is simply impossible to harden every theater, school and workplace.?

When I served as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center, whenever I was asked, ?What keeps you up at night?? I without fail focused on a lone wolf who would be difficult if not impossible to detect and armed to the teeth with deadly firearms.? And while some of my foreign police and security counterparts had similar fears, all were sympathetic to the vastly greater challenges we faced in the U.S., where such weapons are so easily accessible.?

Looking ahead
None of this provides an easy answer.? Would stricter control of assault weapons and high-capacity ammunition magazines in the U.S. reduce mass murders?? Perhaps, but the current inventory is so vast that we might only be closing the proverbial barn door. Would an armed moviegoer have been able to stop the Aurora shooter in his tracks?? Again, perhaps, although given his preparations and the mayhem it would surely have been difficult for even a highly trained individual to do much good.? Needless to say, addressing any of these issues is made even more difficult by the political swirl around gun control -- not to mention the very real limitations of our Constitution?s Second Amendment.?

That being said, we must be honest about the challenges we face. We will never identify and stop all of the crazed killers before they strike, whether they are motivated by al-Qaida or something even more mysterious within their heads. ?We can detect some through community-focused efforts, but there is no panacea or even anything close.? In addition, while we can reduce the carnage, no system of first responders will make us perfectly safe.?

While the truly committed killers will always find ways to kill, we regrettably live in a society where even the near-spontaneous, untrained individual can bring tragedy to the doorstep of entire communities.? Our freedom -- to live in a non-police state, to have a degree of privacy and most especially to bear arms -- has very real costs.? The destructiveness of certain firearms in the hands of some individuals increases those costs. We must all pay the price -- but none moreso than the victims in Aurora and elsewhere.?

Michael Leiter is a former director of the U.S. National Counterterrorism Center and NBC News consultant.

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Source: http://openchannel.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/23/12907511-lessons-learned-aid-aurora-response-but-were-warning-signs-unheeded?lite

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Updating Your Home | ERA Home & Family Real Estate Blog

After numerous years of living in your home, you will soon become bored of the same decorations and furnishings, or at least stop appreciating them. This in turn can create a dull environment to live in, which is the last thing you want in your home. By following these tips in how to spruce up your house, you can ensure that your home always looks vibrant and welcoming.

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The first thing to keep in mind as you begin creating that new look in your home is that you should always work towards a theme. In fact, this is one of the most important tips in how to spruce up your house, because without the right type of theme, you will find that your decorations can look very noisy to the eye.

The best way to begin sprucing up your home is by focusing on one room at a time, and as you finish that room, you can then gradually move onto the next room. By taking this approach, you will be able to focus on that theme, and you will also not feel overwhelmed in the process.

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Source: http://www.erahomeandfamily.com/blog/updating-your-home

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NCAA to punish Penn State; Paterno statue removed

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) ? Shortly after Penn State tore down its famed statue of coach Joe Paterno, the NCAA announced Sunday it would impose "corrective and punitive" sanctions against the university in the wake of a devastating report that asserted top university officials buried child sex abuse allegations against a retired assistant coach more than a decade ago.

The NCAA, acting with rare speed, said it will spell out the penalties on Monday. The governing body did not disclose further details.

If precedent holds from recent cases, Penn State will face a loss of scholarships and a multi-year ban from bowl games ? and with it, the financial windfall and showcase that comes with postseason play.

Yet NCAA President Mark Emmert cautioned last week that he hasn't ruled out the possibility of shutting down the Penn State football program altogether, saying he had "never seen anything as egregious" as the Jerry Sandusky sex abuse scandal.

A harsh penalty would have repercussions well beyond football, whose large profits ? more than $50 million, according to the U.S. Department of Education ? subsidize dozens of other sports programs at the school. The potential for a historic NCAA penalty also worries a region whose economy is built at least partially on the strength and popularity of the football program.

"It's going to kill our town," said Derek Leonard, 31, a university construction project coordinator who grew up in the area.

Emmert has seemingly put the Penn State matter on the fast track. Other cases that were strictly about violating the NCAA rulebook have dragged on for months and even years.

As Penn State awaited its fate, construction workers took down the larger-than-life monument to its Hall of Fame coach ? on the six-month anniversary of his death from lung cancer at age 85.

The Paterno family released a statement criticizing Penn State's decision to remove the statue, saying it was made in haste and before all the facts about Paterno's role in the Sandusky scandal were known.

"Tearing down the statue of Joe Paterno does not serve the victims of Jerry Sandusky's horrible crimes or help heal the Penn State community. We believe the only way to help the victims is to uncover the full truth," said the family, which has vowed its own investigation following the release of an investigative report by former FBI Director Louis Freeh that found that Paterno and three other top Penn State administrators concealed sex abuse claims against Sandusky.

"Despite (Freeh's) obviously flawed and one-sided presentation, the university believes it must acquiesce and accept that Joe Paterno has been given a fair and complete hearing," the statement said.

The bronze statue, weighing more than 900 pounds, was erected in 2001 in honor of Paterno's record-setting 324th Division I coaching victory and his "contributions to the university." Students chanted, "We are Penn State" as it came down Sunday morning.

Penn State President Rodney Erickson said he decided the sculpture had to go because it "has become a source of division and an obstacle to healing."

In Washington, the White House said President Barack Obama believed "it was the right decision."

But the vast majority of fans gathering outside Beaver Stadium to watch the statue's removal disagreed. At least one woman wept, others expressed anger at the decision, and nearly all said they continued to support their beloved "JoePa."

"I think it was an act of cowardice on the part of the university," said Mary Trometter, of Williamsport, who wore a shirt bearing Paterno's image. She said she felt betrayed by university officials who pledged greater transparency but then failed to announce its decision on the statute until workers arrived shortly after dawn to begin tearing it down.

In NCAA terms, the July 12 release of the Freeh report may have hastened the process for the slow-moving governing body for college sports.

Recent major scandals ? such as improper payments to the family of Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush while he was at Southern California, and players at Ohio State trading memorabilia for cash and tattoos ? have resulted in bowl bans and the loss of scholarships.

Current NCAA rules limit the so-called "death penalty" to colleges already on probation that commit another major violation. That was the case when Southern Methodist had its program suspended in the mid-1980s, the last time the punishment was imposed on a major college football program.

NCAA leaders have indicated in recent months they are willing to return to harsher penalties for the worst offenses.

"This is completely different than an impermissible benefits scandal like (what) happened at SMU, or anything else we've dealt with. This is as systemic a cultural problem as it is a football problem. There have been people that said this wasn't a football scandal," Emmert told PBS recently. "It was that but much more. And we'll have to figure out exactly what the right penalties are. I don't know that past precedent makes particularly good sense in this case because it's really an unprecedented problem."

Another question is whether Penn State ? and, by extension, Paterno, major college football's winningest coach ? will have to vacate any victories. Paterno won 409 games for the school in his 46 seasons as head coach. USC lost a national title when it went on probation and Ohio State vacated the 2010 season, including its victory in the Sugar Bowl over Arkansas.

ACC Commissioner John Swofford said he doesn't know what the penalties will be, though many in college sports have given some thought to what they should be.

"I think a lot of us in this profession wrestle with that, to a degree, because the Penn State situation is unprecedented. I don't know of anything to compare it to," he said Sunday. "So, it's uncharted waters. A tragedy from every angle."

Kayla Weaver, a Penn State senior and member of the dance team called the Lionettes, said an NCAA death penalty would not only force the football players to transfer, but it would also force program changes for cheerleaders, dancers and band members and would hurt season ticket holders.

"It could ruin everything that we've built here," said Weaver, 21, from Franklin Lakes, N.J.

On Twitter, Akeel Lynch, a running back recruit who played high school football in western New York, wrote: "I still bleed blue and white," while quarterback Matt McGloin wrote, "The hotter the fire, the stronger the steel."

Tight end Garry Gilliam tweeted, "No matter what happens, I'm staying at Penn State."

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Associated Press writers Kevin Begos in Pittsburgh and Ron Todt in Philadelphia and AP Sports Writer Joedy McCreary contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/ncaa-punish-penn-state-paterno-statue-removed-183252820--spt.html

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Arts and Entertainment ? Blog Archive ? Everything You Ever ...

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Source: http://internetgratisargentina.com/everything-you-ever-wished-to-know-about-textbook-buyback/

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International AIDS Conference Returns to U.S. with Much Remaining Undone

News | Health

So much changed in a 22-year span since the conference was last held in the U.S. that its return effectively marks a new phase in the epidemic in terms of treatment, prevention, funding and death rates

By Maryn McKenna ?| July 21, 2012

Image: XIX International AIDS Conference

Showcasing more than fifty of the most provocative, original, and significant online essays from 2011, The Best Science Writing Online 2012 will change the way...

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Late Sunday afternoon, less than a mile from the White House, the U.S. will witness something that it has not seen in 22 years: the opening of an International AIDS Conference.

The meeting, which this year is expected to draw about 25,000 scientists, activists and celebrities, has been held abroad for two decades because in 1987 the U.S. Senate unanimously passed a measure preventing anyone with known HIV infection from entering the country. At the time, the gathering?launched in 1985, four years after the first recognition of cases in the U.S.?alternated every year between U.S. and foreign locations. The 1990 conference in San Francisco, the first held after the rule was finalized, was gravely disrupted by thousands of delegates who stayed away?so much so that Harvard University, set to be the next U.S. host, announced it would withdraw its sponsorship unless the ban was lifted. It was not. The 1992 conference moved instead to Amsterdam, and the annual meeting stayed away until President Barack Obama lifted the travel ban in late 2009.

So much changed in that 22-year span that the conference?s return effectively marks a truly new phase in the epidemic. The latest report from UNAIDS, the United Nations agency that monitors the global epidemic, backs up the sense that things are changing. The report, released Wednesday, found that among the 34.2 million people living with HIV, fewer are dying: There were 1.7 million deaths last year worldwide, compared to 1.8 million the year before and a peak of 2.3 million in 2005. At the same time, the report said, new infections are declining too, by almost 20 percent in the past 10 years.

Simultaneously, after many years of disappointments, research is returning hopeful results for both prevention and treatment. Three years ago, scientists reported the first promising findings in the search for an HIV vaccine, considered the key to global eradication. Two years ago, researchers published the first partially successful trials of both a microbicide and a drug cocktail that may prevent infection. Last year, a nine-country trial demonstrated that getting infected people into treatment very quickly can keep them from passing the disease along. And since 2007, scientists have been closely watching the "progress of the ?Berlin patient"?the only person, out of 60 million believed to have been infected in more than 30 years, who appears to have been cured of HIV.

The situation now is so different from 1990?when AIDS was a fast-moving, terrifying and invariably fatal disease, as captured in the new documentary How To Survive A Plague?that two HIV researchers writing in this week?s New England Journal of Medicine daringly titled their editorial: "The Beginning of the End of AIDS?"

For anyone who remembers HIV's apocalyptic arrival?I?m one of them, and lost many friends in the early days?the current moment feels as major a shift as 1996, when multi-drug cocktails came to market and people visibly on the verge of death recovered in ways that seemed miraculous. A friend quipped then that it was the first time in 15 years he could take his florist off speed-dial.

And yet: Major challenges remain, and in many ways the perception of AIDS as a chronic disease may make them harder to tackle.

Source: http://rss.sciam.com/click.phdo?i=5e17770195120f706b1dc30483ed50c7

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Air Force instructor gets 20 years over rape scandal

By NBC News wire services

Billy Calzada / AP

Air Force Staff Sgt. Luis Walker is shown Friday arriving for the fourth day of his trial at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas.

An Air Force instructor was sentenced to 20 years in prison Saturday after being convicted of rape and sexual assault in a sweeping sex scandal that rocked one of the nation's busiest military training centers, The Associated Press reported.

A military jury at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio found Staff Sgt. Luis Walker guilty Friday night on all 28 charges he faced, including rape, aggravated sexual contact and multiple counts of aggravated sexual assault. A judge consolidated those charges Saturday into 20, but that didn't affect Walker's maximum sentence. He could have received life in prison

Walker is among 12 Lackland Air Force Base instructors investigated for sexual misconduct toward at least 31 female trainees, and he faced the most serious counts among the six instructors charged in a sex scandal that rocked one of the nation's busiest training bases.

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Walker submitted a written statement during the sentencing hearing, but he also spoke from a podium directly to the jury while his two sons, ages 7 and 4, looked on quietly.

"I ask for my family's sake, for my two boys right there," Walker said, wheeling around and sobbing. "I ask that I am allowed to have a future with them."

Walker tried to mention having taken a polygraph test, but the prosecution objected before he could divulge the results.

"I promise you," he said of any sentence, "I'll accept it humbly and with the commitment to move forward positively."

Walker showed no emotion Friday as the verdict by a seven-member military jury was read.

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Prosecutors say from October 2010 through January 2011, Walker sexually assaulted or had improper sexual or personal contact with at least 10 female recruits. Lackland is where all Air Force recruits go through basic training.

Several of Walker's alleged victims testified during his court-martial, including one who described how Walker lured her into an office and sexually assaulted her on a bed, ignoring her pleas to stop. The Associated Press does not usually identify sexual assault victims.

Five of the women testified Saturday at Walker's sentencing, saying they couldn't sleep or maintain relationships with men after the assaults. They said Walker's actions eroded their trust in authority and affected their performance at work.

"It's gotten to where I had anger issues even at work," said one, who had left the military. "If anyone makes even the slightest sexual reference, I go off. I have zero self-control."

The other four are still in the military. One said it affected her tour in Afghanistan because she felt uncomfortable being alone with men.

Related: Air Force sex scandal: Instructor convicted of rape

"It's made it extremely hard to interact with authority figures," she said. "During my tour in Afghanistan, I was a little bit more scared of everything. I can't work with certain individuals just since they remind me of Staff Sgt. Walker."

Another said her 15-year-old sister was interested in joining the Air Force, but she "absolutely" wouldn't allow it.

The women told jurors during the trial that Walker gained their trust to get them alone in his office or an empty dormitory, where he then forced them into kissing, touching or intercourse. The alleged sexual misconduct among instructors at the base apparently began in 2009, but the first woman didn't come forward until last year. The women who testified against Walker said they didn't tell anybody at first because they feared being booted from the Air Force.

But at least one said her career was destroyed nonetheless.

"I don't enjoy the military anymore," she said during Saturday's sentencing. "I don't want to be in it. I'm scared to open my door to anyone."

According to prosecutors, Walker had sexual intercourse with four of the 10 female recruits. He was also accused of making flirtatious or sexually suggestive comments, sending inappropriate text messages and sometimes groping his recruits.

Prosecutors also accused Walker of forcing five recruits to engage in sexual acts with him by threatening their military careers, and they said he intimidated two of the women into lying about his alleged misconduct.

The defense noted that none of the victims had any record of receiving treatment or medication for anxiety, even though two said Saturday that they had seen doctors and taken medication.

Herbert O'Connor, Walker's stepfather, said Walker grew up in a tough part of Brooklyn and had talked of joining the Air Force since he was 14.

"All of his dreams are shattered and our dreams because I was so proud of him and the career he made in the Air Force," O'Connor said.

Walker's wife of eight years, Yeimi Walker, also cried during her testimony. She said her sons didn't understand what was happening to their father and she didn't plan to tell them for as long as she could.

"He's all we have," she said, noting that Walker supports the family as well as her sister and grandparents with his Air Force salary. Speaking directly to the jury, she said "spare at least some of his time in the sentence. I don't want my boys to grow up without a father."

This article includes reporting by The Associated Press and Reuters.

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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/07/21/12876792-air-force-instructor-gets-20-years-prison-sentence-in-rape-sex-assault-scandal?lite

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The Search For Clues Into An Accused Killer (talking-points-memo)

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