http://www.aikenstandard.com/nation/ National News from The Aiken Standard en-us NationalNewsTheAikenStandardhttp://feedburner.google.com http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5167-AP-US-TropicalWeather-A-4thLd-Writethru-05-27-0642
SAVANNAH, Ga. -- A cluster of thunderstorms that stalled off the southeastern U.S. coast on Saturday is expected to make for a sloppy, rainy Memorial Day on beaches and in tourist towns from Florida to South Carolina.

Tropical storm warnings were in effect for the entire Georgia coastline as well as parts of Florida and South Carolina, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

Beryl was technically still considered a "subtropical storm," but the system is expected to bring winds and rain to the area regardless of its official classification.

Tropical storm conditions - meaning maximum sustained winds of 45 mph - could reach the coast as early as Saturday night. Three to six inches of rain are forecast for the area. Some coastal flooding is forecast, as the rain could cause high tides.

As of 8 p.m. Saturday, Beryl was still centered about 220 miles east-southeast of Charleston. It had become stronger, with maximum sustained winds of 50 mph. It was moving southwest at 6 mph, with its center expected to be near the coast by late Sunday.

Dangerous surf conditions are possible from northeast Florida to North Carolina over the holiday weekend, forecasters said.

The southeastern coast is popular with tourists who visit the beaches and wilderness areas.

"A three-day thunderstorm is what it's probably going to be," said Jay Wiggins, emergency management director for Glynn County, which is about 60 miles south of Savannah and includes Brunswick and St. Simons Island. "Unfortunately, it's going to ruin a lot of Memorial Day plans."

Wiggins said he expects some flooded roadways and scattered power outages, perhaps some minor flooding in waterfront homes, but otherwise little damage. However, he urged beachgoers to beware of dangerous rip currents.

On Tybee Island, home to Georgia's largest public beach east of Savannah, employees at Amy Gaster's home and condo rental business were making sure arriving guests were aware of the approaching storm. Gaster said her 180 rentals were sold out and nobody was canceling plans or asking to check out early.

"Mostly I think people are just curious," said Gaster, adding that guests were being urged to bring in patio furniture if the winds kick up and prepare to hunker down for movies and home cooking Monday. "We're just saying. 'Take advantage of today as your beach day and get it while you can."'

On Cumberland Island, a federally-protected wilderness area beloved by hikers and campers, superintendent Fred Boyles said he planned to wait until Sunday to decide if campers need to evacuate before the storm arrives. Boyles said he had about 100 campers planning to stay overnight Sunday, and the only way to leave Cumberland Island is by ferry.

While Georgia hasn't taken a direct hit from a major hurricane in 114 years, the last time a tropical storm made landfall here was in August 1988. Tropical Storm Chris hit near Savannah but did little damage as it pushed northward into South Carolina.

In South Carolina, Beaufort County Emergency Management deputy director David Zeoli said that at midday Saturday word went out to first-responders along the coast near the Georgia line to pay attention to the storm's progress. Officials haven't been ordered to work on an otherwise lovely day for the beach, but have been told to stay near a phone, Zeoli said. ]]> Sun, 27 May 2012 00:31:18 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5167-AP-US-TropicalWeather-A-4thLd-Writethru-05-27-0642 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a0717-BC-US-US-CIA-WarDead-3rdLd-Writethru-05-26-1142
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The CIA is remembering those lost in the hidden, often dangerous world of espionage, adding a new star to the intelligence agency's memorial wall and more than a dozen names to its hallowed Book of Honor.

The new star carved into the wall is for Jeffrey Patneau, a young officer killed in a car crash in Yemen in September 2008.

"Jeff proved that he had boundless talent, courage and innovativeness to offer to our country in its fight against terrorism," said CIA Director David Petraeus at a private ceremony at CIA headquarters this past week.

Petraeus' tribute was the first public identification of Patneau. The stars on the memorial wall at headquarters in Langley, Va., bear no names.

Yemen, the ancestral homeland of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden, was the site of the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 American sailors. Patneau was part of the fight against militants in the country in a tense year in which the U.S. Embassy in Sanaa was attacked.

With the addition of the star for Patneau, the wall now commemorates the lives of 103 Americans who died in service of the CIA, "never for acclaim, always for country," Petraeus said at the annual event attended by hundreds of employees and family members of those lost. The remembrance came just days ahead of Memorial Day, when the nation remembers its military veterans and those who died in war.

The addition of 15 names to the CIA's Book of Honor means family members can openly acknowledge where their loved ones worked when they died.

Leslianne Shedd was lost when hijackers forced down her plane over the Indian Ocean, killing more than 125 people.

"Everybody who was on the plane with her who survived said she was not at all scared," her sister, Corinne Collie, told The Associated Press on Saturday. "She was saying it's all going to be OK, holding the hand of the person sitting next to her."

Collie says the agency approached her family a year ago, saying it was now possible to acknowledge her death - likely meaning the cases she had worked on had been wrapped up, or staff she worked with had either retired or were no longer in harm's way. Collie said being able to share what her sister did has been a relief.

"To lose a sister and not be able to talk about the full picture of who she was has been hard," said Collie of Tacoma, Wash.

"The biggest relief is my parents ... get to acknowledge and brag about her, especially my dad," she said.

Like Shedd, most of those honored were killed in the clandestine war on terrorism, the list reading like a grim roll call of terrorist acts of the last three decades. Matthew Gannon was among the victims of the December 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland. Molly Hardy was killed in the August 1998 suicide bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi. She urged others to take cover as she was hit by the blast from an al-Qaida car bomb.

Jacqueline Van Landingham was killed in a terrorist attack in Pakistan in 1995. The CIA did not disclose how she died.

CIA officers face constant threat in Pakistan, hunting and hunted by the Taliban and al-Qaida. They often play a cat-and-mouse game with Pakistan's intelligence service, sometimes able to work with them and sometimes forced to work around them to gather intelligence on al-Qaida's militant diaspora. U.S. officials said it gets support from elements of the Pakistani government.

Five of those remembered were victims of the April 1983 suicide bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut that killed 63 people.

Among the CIA officers lost was Phyliss Nancy Faraci, "one of the last four Americans evacuated from the Mekong Delta when Saigon fell" during the Vietnam War, according to CIA spokesman Todd Ebitz. Faraci had volunteered to work in war-torn Beirut.

Deborah Hixon, a young officer fluent in French who volunteered for a temporary posting there, also died in the attack. Frank Johnston was a 25-year agency veteran who had accepted the assignment though he was close to retirement.

Paramilitary officer James Lewis, who had joined the CIA after his military career, and his wife, Monique Lewis, also were killed. Lewis was "only hours into her first day as an Agency officer when the bomber struck," Ebitz said. ]]> Sun, 27 May 2012 00:31:04 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a0717-BC-US-US-CIA-WarDead-3rdLd-Writethru-05-26-1142 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5118-AP-US-MissingNYCBoy-7thLd-Writethru-05-26-0731--4027900
NEW YORK -- When police dug up a Manhattan basement last month in a fruitless search for the remains of Etan Patz, a 6-year-old boy who disappeared in 1979, Lucy Suarez saw the news on TV and wished that the family of the missing child would finally get some peace.

"My sister and I prayed about it. We prayed and we said, 'Let justice be done,'" Suarez said. "Never did we think it was going to be done with our family."

On Friday, her older brother was charged with Etan's murder.

Police said Pedro Hernandez, a 51-year-old, churchgoing father described by some friends as quiet and timid, had given an emotional confession earlier in the week to luring the little boy away from his school bus stop with a promise of a soft drink, and then strangling him in the basement of a convenience store where he had been working as a stock clerk.

The admission surprised investigators, who had been confounded by the disappearance for three decades and never considered Hernandez a suspect until this month. Just weeks ago, they had focused their attention on another man and even ripped up a basement he had once used as a workshop in the hope of finding clues.

Suarez said her family is reeling, too, despite having had concerns for years that her brother had once done something bad to a child.

Hernandez, now living in Maple Shade, N.J., was 18 when Etan vanished. When he moved to New Jersey not long after the disappearance, he said something to relatives about having hurt a child back in New York.

Suarez said her brother never spoke to her directly about what had happened, and the family's knowledge of the incident was vague.

"He didn't say, 'I killed somebody,"' she said. "My conclusion was that it was a hit and run, or he hit someone with a bike. Nothing like a murder."

Suarez said she was shocked to find out about his arrest early Thursday, but another of the suspect's sisters, Norma Hernandez, said at least some relatives had heard something far more horrifying about what he had done.

In the 1980s, she said, Pedro had confessed to a church prayer group that he had killed a boy. Norma Hernandez said she didn't have firsthand knowledge of this confession and didn't learn about it until later. If she had known, she said, she would have turned her brother in.

"Even if it is my own child, I will go to the police station and say, 'You'd better check them out,"' she said. "I'd consider the mother and her child and her wondering what happened to her child."

The people who heard him confess "should've said something even if it wasn't true," she said.

A defense lawyer told a judge Friday that Hernandez suffered from schizophrenia and bipolar disorder and had a history of hallucinations. Suarez said she knew her brother had been taking psychiatric medications but said she didn't think he had been debilitated by mental illness and wasn't aware that he had been hallucinating. She also said she had never thought him to be capable of murder.

"My brother was not a monster like that. I don't know him like that," she said. Suarez said she was still holding out hope that her brother's confession might be false, prompted by a delusion, fueled by the media attention to the case.

"If he did do it, God will have justice," she said. Suarez said she would continue to pray for Etan's parents, Stanley and Julie Patz. "I would like to have a chance to meet them and apologize to them, whether my brother is guilty, or not."

Well-wishers left flowers, candles and dolls Saturday outside the New York City building that once housed the bodega where police said Etan died.

Etan's parents, who still live two blocks from the spot where he vanished, had a note on their door Saturday saying they weren't commenting about the case.

------

Amy Fiscus in Philadelphia, Alex Brandon in Camden, N.J., and Larry Neumeister in New York contributed to this report.

]]> Sat, 26 May 2012 23:27:53 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5118-AP-US-MissingNYCBoy-7thLd-Writethru-05-26-0731--4027900 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5062-AP-US-SCI-PrivateSpace-2ndLd-Writethru-05-26-0743--4027702
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. SEmD Space station astronauts floated into the Dragon on Saturday, a day after its heralded arrival as the world's first commercial supply ship.

NASA astronaut Donald Pettit, the first one inside the docked capsule, said the Dragon looks like it carries about as much cargo as his pickup truck back home in Houston. It has the smell of a brand-new car, he added.

"I spent quite a bit of time poking around in here this morning, just looking at the engineering and the layout, and I'm very pleased," Pettit said from the brilliant white compartment.

To protect against possible debris, Pettit wore goggles, a mask and a caver's light as he slid open the hatch of the newest addition to the International Space Station. The complex sailed 250 miles above the Tasman Sea, just west of New Zealand, as he and his crewmates made their grand entrance. The atmosphere was clean; no dirt or other particles were floating around.

"This event isn't just a simple door opening between two spacecraft - it opens the door to a future in which U.S. industry can and will deliver huge benefits for U.S. space exploration," the Space Frontier Foundation, an advocacy group, said in a statement.

The California-based SpaceX - formally Space Exploration Technologies Corp. - is the first private company to send a vessel to the space station. It's run by Elon Musk, a billionaire who helped create PayPal and founded the electric car company Tesla Motors.

Now that the space shuttles are retired, NASA is handing over orbital delivery work to American business in order to focus on bigger and better objectives, such as getting astronauts to asteroids and Mars. The space agency hopes astronaut ferry trips will follow soon; SpaceX contends its Dragons could be carrying space station astronauts up and down within three or four years.

Flight controllers were ecstatic to be at the cusp of this new commercial era.

"It's great to see you guys inside Dragon. It looks great," Mission Control radioed.

The six space station residents have until the middle of next week to unload Dragon's groceries and refill the capsule with science experiments and equipment for return to Earth. Unlike all the other cargo ships that fly to the orbiting lab, the Dragon is designed for safe re-entry. It will be freed on Thursday and aim for a Pacific splashdown.

The Dragon contains 1,000 pounds of food, clothes, batteries and other provisions. It will bring back 1,400 pounds' worth of gear.

Until now, only major governments have launched cargo ships to the space station. Russia, Japan and Europe will keep providing supplies, and Russia will continue to sell rocket rides to U.S. astronauts until SpaceX or other companies are ready to take over. Several American enterprises are competing for the honor.

Pettit noted that the Dragon - 19 feet tall and 12 feet wide - is roomier than the Russian Soyuz spacecraft he rode up in.

"Flying up in a human-rated Dragon is not going to be an issue," he assured reporters during a news conference.

The unmanned bell-shaped capsule was launched Tuesday from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Pettit used the space station's robot arm Friday to snare the craft.

During Saturday's news conference, Pettit played down his role in the historic event. He noted that the completion of the Transcontinental Railroad, which opened up America's Western frontier, was commemorated by the pounding of a golden spike.

"This is kind of the equivalent of the golden spike," he said. "And one other interesting detail - nobody remembers who pounded that golden spike in. The important thing is to remember that the railroad was completed and was now open for use."

Success or failure of the new commercial space effort - the cornerstone of President Barack Obama's vision for NASA - does not hinge on a single mission but rather many missions over many years, Pettit stressed.

"Commercial spaceflight will blossom due to its own merits," he said.

---

Online:

SpaceX: http://www.spacex.com

NASA: http://www.nasa.gov/offices/c3po/home/

]]> Sat, 26 May 2012 23:27:49 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5062-AP-US-SCI-PrivateSpace-2ndLd-Writethru-05-26-0743--4027702 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a0683-BC-US-DebtPolitics-2ndLd-Writethru-05-26-1531--4027912
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Government spending and debt are emerging as a campaign tug-of-war, with Mitt Romney blaming President Barack Obama for a "prairie fire of debt" and Obama calling the charge a "cow pie of distortion." House Speaker John Boehner is talking about a debt ceiling that is still more than eight months away.

What gives? In a word, polling.

The American public is growing increasingly distressed about government spending and high budgets. The issue now ranks as high on the worry scale as lack of jobs. And it worked well for Republicans in 2010, who galvanized voters with ads and flyers that drew attention to government red ink and took back control of the U.S. House after four years of Democratic rule.

Republicans are looking for that magic again.

Romney has maintained a drumbeat of criticism over Obama's handling of federal spending and the national debt in recent weeks, forcing the president on the defensive on an issue where public opinion is stacked against him.

In Iowa earlier this month, Romney said a "prairie fire of debt" was sweeping across the nation, threatening the country's future. He accused Obama of inflating the debt that he had pledged to reduce and ballooning the federal budget deficit with the 2009 economic stimulus and 2010 health care bill after saying he would cut it sharply.

Obama, in campaign events in Colorado, California and Iowa this week, argued that federal spending had slowed to rates not seen in decades after he inherited a $1 trillion large debt and later pushed for $2 trillion in spending cuts. The president pointed to Romney's tax proposal, saying it would give millionaires tax cuts at the expense of the debt.

Obama called Romney's claims a "cow pie of distortion" and would saddle the debt with $5 trillion in new tax cuts, likening it to trying to put out "a prairie fire with some gasoline."

"What happens is, the Republicans run up the tab, and then we're sitting there and they've left the restaurant," Obama said at a campaign event in Des Moines. "And then they point and (say), 'Why did you order all those steaks and martinis?"'

Obama's defensive crouch on debt and spending reflect a hard reality: Polls consistently show voters, including sought-after independents, placing more trust in Romney to handle the massive debt.

The nation's economy remains a focal point for voters but many remain concerned that years of heavy federal spending on guns and butter could leave the U.S. in a similar position as Greece and other European nations grappling with massive debt.

A Gallup/USA Today poll conducted May 10-13 found that overall, 82 percent of Americans called the "federal budget deficit and debt" extremely or very important, a level of interest comparable to unemployment. The same poll found Romney with a broad advantage on handling the budget deficit and debt, with 54 percent saying he would do a better job handling it compared with 39 percent who chose Obama.

The results mirrored an April Washington Post/ABC News poll, which found 51 percent of Americans sided with Romney on handling the federal budget deficit, compared with 38 percent for Obama. Among independents, 60 percent preferred Romney while 29 percent thought Obama would do a better job handling it.

The White House has tried to respond. Traveling to Colorado Springs, Colo., White House press secretary Jay Carney cited an analysis by MarketWatch that said spending under Obama had grown more slowly than any president since Dwight Eisenhower.

A few hours later, Obama picked up on the piece, telling donors in Denver that his work to pay down the federal debt in a "balanced and responsible" way was "starting to appear in places - real liberal outlets like The Wall Street Journal - since I've been president, federal spending has risen at the lowest pace in nearly 60 years." MarketWatch is published by Dow Jones & Co., which also publishes The Wall Street Journal.

Yet, Obama's budget stewardship is open to interpretation. The debt now stands at $15.7 trillion, compared to $10.6 trillion on his inauguration day. On a dollar basis, that's the biggest ever jump in the debt. How much the debt has grown can also be measures as a percentage of what he inherited. By that measure, the debt has increased by half during the three-and-a-half year Obama administration. During President Ronald Reagan's eight-year administration, the debt nearly tripled, from about $910 billion to more than $2.6 trillion.

Still, much of the increase during Obama's tenure has been a consequence of the recession. In a poor economy, government spending increases automatically because more Americans become eligible for food stamps, unemployment assistance and Medicaid. Also, a poor economy leads to unemployment which cuts into tax revenue. As a result, deficits are inevitable as more money goes out and less comes in.

To be sure, Obama pushed through a stimulus package that cost more than $800 billion and he and President George Bush both approved spending of the $700 billion bank bailout in 2008 and 2009. But those costs are not recurrent.

"It's important to understand the reason why the debt went up by so much," said Robert Bixby of the budget watchdog group The Concord Coalition. "We certainly do have a very serious long-term debt problem in the country. We have an underlying structural imbalance between what we are promising, mostly in entitlement benefits, and what we're willing to pay for in taxes. But in the short-term there are a lot of factors that are pushing the debt up that aren't related to fiscal policy."

Add to the mix Boehner, who has said when Congress is asked to raise the nation's borrowing cap after the election, he will insist on spending cuts to offset the increase. Democratic leaders call it an irresponsible course of action, noting that the gridlock over the debt ceiling last year caused a downgrading of the U.S. government's credit rating.

All of this is aimed at unaligned, independent voters.

In turning attention to debt, Republicans are tapping a winning issue they deployed in congressional races two years ago. In October of 2010, Republican pollster Wes Anderson said, congressional campaigns shifted "away from jobs and economy to government taking us over the cliff." The emphasis proved to be a success at the ballot box.

These days, the economy remains the preeminent issue in voters' minds, but Anderson says middle-of-the-road votes are the targets of the big government message.

"The middle is angry about where we are at and they really see two villains on this stage, this play has two antagonists. Both of them are big," said Anderson, who is working on congressional and statewide political campaigns in several states that are presidential battlegrounds. "One is big business, big Wall Street, big insurance, big oil, just big, abusing the middle class, abusing small businesses, abusing the taxpayer. The other is big government - big government wildly running up massive deficits and debt which abuse the taxpayer, the middle class and small business."

Independent voters, he said, "hold both of those central tenets to be true."

---

Associated Press Deputy Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta contributed to this report.

]]> Sat, 26 May 2012 23:27:42 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a0683-BC-US-DebtPolitics-2ndLd-Writethru-05-26-1531--4027912 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a0659-BC-US-Biden-WestPoint-3rdLd-Writethru-05-26-0962--4027818
WEST POINT, N.Y. -- Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that the United States can now focus on new global challenges after a long decade of war in an election-year commencement address to jubilant graduates of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

"Winding down these long wars has enabled us to replace and rebalance our foreign policy," Biden told the Army cadets and their families at the storied academy's football stadium.

Biden's speech echoed some of the themes of military success struck by President Barack Obama in his commencement address at the U.S. Air Force Academy last Wednesday. Biden, like Obama, said U.S. combat troops have returned home from Iraq, the conflict in Afghanistan is winding down and American commandos killed al-Qaida terrorist leader Osama bin Laden in May 2011.

"Those warriors sent a message to the world that if you harm America, we will follow you to the end of the earth," Biden said.

The academy speeches by Obama and Biden counter an assertion from Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney that the president has led from behind in world affairs. Biden said the United States will continue to take charge internationally and focus on Asia, particularly China, which he called "the most critical relationship to get right."

NATO allies this week affirmed that the war in Afghanistan will halt at the end of 2014. The final U.S. troops left Iraq at the end of last year.

The morning sun beating on the stadium was punishing, but the newly commissioned second lieutenants were ecstatic as they tossed their caps into the air. The new officers said they felt prepared to deal with the dangers of duty.

"I'm ready to sacrifice for those I love. I'm ready to go. Send me!" said 23-year-old TeJay Espe of Stanwood, Wash.

"I know this country has given me a lot, and I want to give back; I'm willing to give my life," said J.C. Van't Land, 22, of Hull, Iowa.

Biden told the 972 graduates of the class of 2012 that they deserve special praise because they decided to pursue military service fully aware that they could be fighting a war after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

"Your generation, the 9/11 generation, is more than worthy of the proud legacy that you will inherit today," Biden said.

]]> Sat, 26 May 2012 23:27:38 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a0659-BC-US-Biden-WestPoint-3rdLd-Writethru-05-26-0962--4027818 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5123-AP-US-FoodStampFraud-2ndLd-Writethru-05-24-0786
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Food stamp recipients are ripping off the government for millions of dollars by illegally selling their benefit cards for cash - sometimes even in the open, on eBay or Craigslist - and then asking the government for replacement cards.

The Agriculture Department wants to curb the practice by giving states more power to investigate people who repeatedly claim to lose their benefit cards.

It is proposing new rules Thursday that would allow states to demand formal explanations from people who seek replacement cards more than three times a year. Those who don't comply can be denied further cards.

"Up to this point, the state's hands have been tied unless they absolutely suspected fraudulent activity," said Kevin Concannon, the department's undersecretary for food, nutrition and consumer services.

Overall, food stamp fraud costs taxpayers about $750 million a year, or 1 percent of the $75 billion program that makes up the bulk of the department's total budget for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

Most fraud occurs when unscrupulous retailers allow customers to turn in their benefits cards for lesser amounts of cash. But USDA officials are also concerned about people selling or trading cards in the open market, including through websites.

Last year, the department sent letters urging eBay and Craigslist to notify customers that it's illegal to buy and sell food stamps. USDA officials followed up last month, saying they are still getting complaints that people are using the websites to illegally market food stamps.

Both eBay and Craigslist have told the government they are actively reviewing their sites for illegal activity and would take down ads offering food stamp benefits for cash. The USDA also has warned Facebook and Twitter about the practice.

South Dakota, Oklahoma, Washington, D.C., Minnesota and Washington state have the highest percentage of recipients seeking four or more replacement cards over a year. But USDA officials said that doesn't necessarily indicate a high rate of fraud. All states are required by law to reissue lost or stolen cards to those who are eligible for benefits.

Wyoming, Idaho, New Hampshire, North Carolina and Alabama have the lowest percentage of households requesting four or more cards in a 12-month period.

In North Carolina, the state already issues warning letters to people who request four replacement cards in a year, letting them know that officials are monitoring them closely. Dean Simpson, chief of economic family services for the North Carolina Division of Social Services, said the new rules would give her state even more of a boost in curbing food stamp fraud.

"I think it would help with the trafficking and let individuals know they are being observed and watched," said Simpson, who oversees the state's distribution of food stamps.

More than 46 million people receive food stamps, nearly half of them children. The average monthly benefit is $132 per person.

Benefit cards work like debit cards, allowing users to swipe them for food purchases at some 231,000 stores around the country that are authorized to take part in the food stamp program. Once a card is reported lost or stolen, it can be disabled immediately. But the USDA does not require photo identification, since several members of a family, including children, may use the cards at different times.

Concannon stressed that the USDA wants to be sensitive to vulnerable people who may lose their cards for innocent reasons. While it may sound suspicious for someone to lose a card two or three times a year, food stamp recipients include many people who are homeless or have dementia or mental illness, he said.

"Our concern is that in many instances, it may point to a trafficking issue," he said.

Last year, about 850,000 people were investigated for possible food stamp fraud. About 2,000 stores were sanctioned for illegal conduct, and 1,200 stores were permanently removed from the food stamp program.

Large supermarkets are seldom involved in illegal activity, Concannon said. The vast majority of fraud is found in smaller shops and convenience stores.

The USDA is currently developing tougher sanctions and penalties for retailers engaging in food stamp fraud. It is also taking steps to make sure that people disqualified from the program for illegal activity are not able to use it again in other states. ]]> Sat, 26 May 2012 00:31:34 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5123-AP-US-FoodStampFraud-2ndLd-Writethru-05-24-0786 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5046-AP-US-Disabled-Swimming-2ndLd-Writethru-05-25-0905
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Obama administration is sidestepping an election-year confrontation with the hotel industry and other pool owners to give them more time to comply with access rules for the disabled.

The rules have been in the works since the early 1990s, but the Justice Department created an uproar among hotels, waterparks, health clubs and the like earlier this year when it said it will require many such facilities to install fixed lifts to comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act.

After initially setting a March 15 deadline - and telling the industry it wouldn't budge - the department has granted two extensions. After first saying it might grant a reprieve until September, Justice announced last week that pool owners won't have to comply with the new requirements until early next year, a move that gets the controversy safely past the election.

At issue is whether hotels and other facilities will have to install fixed lifts to assist disabled people getting in and out of their pools, a move that can require hiring a contractor and tearing up the pool deck at a cost of as much as $6,000. Many pool owners were hoping to comply with the rules by purchasing less costly portable lifts that could be wheeled out to poolside as needed. Hotel owners who already have lifts say few of their customers ever ask for them.

Advocates for the disabled are frustrated by the delay, saying it means another summer swim season without lifts at most pools. They accused the hotel industry of creating an 11th hour tempest to undo rules that have been in the making since the Clinton administration.

"It's a little disingenuous to say that came out of nowhere," said Heather Ansley, a lawyer with United Spinal Association.

But they're pleased that Justice isn't caving to demands that everybody be allowed to get by with portable lifts.

"They've been trying to duck it for 10 years, and the agency keeps putting it off, putting it off," said Rep. Jerold Nadler, D-N.Y. "Enough already."

Disabled people complain that in cities where lifts are already required, portable lifts are often stowed away and that not all employees know how to operate them. And they say that the hotel and motel industry has a long record of trying to evade access rules for the disabled, sometimes waiting to be sued before complying.

The issue gets even trickier. There's a longstanding exemption in the law that says existing facilities can avoid an ADA requirement if they determine compliance is not "readily achievable." That's pretty ambiguous, but as defined in the law it basically means you're eligible for the exemption if you determine that it's too difficult or expensive. Figuring out whether one qualifies for the exemption can be difficult.

The rules always had been going to require that newly constructed pools be required to have built-in lifts. But in January, Justice issued technical guidance that for the first time required fixed pool lifts at existing pools, said Minh Vu, a Washington lawyer representing the hotel industry. That took many pool owners by surprise, upending their plans.

The guidance created a new set of potential problems and concerns. Among them was that children might climb on the lifts - which would be built at the shallow end of the pool - and potentially hurt themselves by falling or diving off.

The January directive put hotel owners in a real bind. Over the horizon they saw themselves being hit with government penalties and private lawsuits for failing to comply with the rules. Some hotels announced they would have to close their pools. Community and municipal pools risked being out of compliance as well.

The uproar quickly made its way to Capitol Hill. Several members of Congress prepared legislation to roll back the fixed lift requirement. At the same time, hotels flooded the Justice Department with complaints about being unable to meet the deadline.

A week ago, Justice announced that pool owners now have until Jan. 31, 2013, to comply with the rules.

"We got such an overwhelming response indicating the widespread misunderstanding of the law and indicating that the pool lift manufacturers are having trouble meeting the demand, so we wanted to make sure people had enough time," Eve Hill, a senior attorney in the Justice Department's civil rights division, said.

On Thursday, Justice said pool owners who bought a portable lift before the original March 15 deadline two months ago would be considered in compliance as long as the lift is in place whenever the pool is open. And it made clear that portable lifts can be used if they're attached to the pool deck.

The department also hopes to clear up confusion among hotel operators about whether their circumstances qualify them to get by with a somewhat less expensive portable lift or win exemption from the requirement altogether.

Hotel industry lobbyists, meanwhile, succeeded in getting the House to block the Justice Department from implementing the new regulation requiring permanent pool lifts as part of a spending bill for next year. The idea could get a Senate vote next month. ]]> Sat, 26 May 2012 00:31:30 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5046-AP-US-Disabled-Swimming-2ndLd-Writethru-05-25-0905 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5208-AP-US-StudentLoans-3rdLd-Writethru-05-24-0770
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Senate rejected dueling Democratic and Republican plans on Thursday for averting a July 1 doubling of interest rates on federal college loans for 7.4 million students, pushing back efforts to resolve the election-season showdown until next month.

In mostly party-line roll calls, senators voted 62-34 against the GOP package and 51-43 for the Democratic version, with each falling short of the 60 votes needed for approval. Though both defeats were preordained, the twin votes gave lawmakers from each party a chance to show they favor easing students' financial burdens - and potential grist for campaign ads accusing the other side of opposing the effort.

The Senate planned to leave town later Thursday for a Memorial Day recess running through next week. Neither party wants to be accused of letting the interest rates grow at a time when voters are focused on coping in today's rough-edged economy, giving each side an incentive to eventually strike a compromise.

A 2007 law gradually reduced interest rates on subsidized Stafford loans for low- and middle-income undergraduates to 3.4 percent. To save money, it mandated that rates return to 6.8 percent for new loans as of July 1.

President Barack Obama has made preventing a rate increase a priority and has appeared at colleges and on television talk shows to promote it. Though some Republicans expressed early concerns that retaining the lower rate would fuel college tuition increases, likely GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney endorsed freezing the rate and most GOP lawmakers have done the same.

Ten conservative GOP senators opposed their own party's proposal, with some expressing concerns about budget costs and saying the loan market should set its own prices.

Both measures rejected Thursday would delay the interest rate increase for a year at a cost of $6 billion, but each side's bill was paid for in a way the other couldn't tolerate. Democrats proposed raising Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes on high-earning owners of some privately held companies and professional practices, while Republicans would abolish an Obama preventive health program.

That idea drew a White House veto threat when Republicans used it to pay for their House-passed bill in April.

"The Republican proposal is paid for by stripping Americans of lifesaving preventive health care," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada, adding, "It would be a shame" to do that.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky argued that the Democratic plan showed they wanted "a scapegoat more than a solution" because they knew Republicans would oppose its tax provision.

He also tried goading Obama, saying, "If the president's got time to run around to late-night comedy shows and college campuses talking about this issue, then he can pick up the phone and work out a solution."

After the votes, the two sides each tried taking the offensive.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said in a written statement that GOP senators "still have not proven that they're serious about resolving this problem" and accused them of protecting a tax loophole for the rich at the expense of higher costs for students.

"It's time to get this done so hardworking students get a fair shot at an affordable education," Carney said.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said his chamber already had approved a reasonable bill extending low interest rates for students and said the dispute could be settled quickly if Democrats would bargain.

"If the president and Senate Democratic leaders prefer a different approach, then the onus is on them to offer a solution that can pass both chambers," he said in a written statement.

The Education Department expects 7.4 million undergraduates to borrow subsidized Stafford loans next year averaging $4,226. Doubled interest rates would add around $1,000 in costs, which for the typical loan taking 12 years to repay would mean less than $10 monthly in added expense.

The Federal Reserve Bank of New York estimates that at least 37 million Americans owe $870 billion for outstanding student loans, a figure that is growing and that exceeds the money owed for credit cards or auto loans. Four in 10 people under age 40 owe money for a college loan, the bank says.

]]> Sat, 26 May 2012 00:31:26 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5208-AP-US-StudentLoans-3rdLd-Writethru-05-24-0770 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a1098-BC-US-MissingNYCBoy-20thLd-Writethru-05-25-1662
NEW YORK -- Thirty-three years to the day after 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished without a trace while walking to catch a school bus, a man accused of strangling him and dumping his body with the trash was arraigned on a murder charge on Friday in a locked hospital ward where he was being held as a suicide risk.

A lawyer for Pedro Hernandez, who was a teenage convenience store stock clerk at the time of the boy's disappearance, told the judge that his client is mentally ill and has a history of hallucinations.

Hernandez, now 51, appeared in court on Friday evening via video camera from a conference room at Bellevue Hospital, where he was admitted earlier in the day after making comments about wanting to kill himself.

The legal proceeding lasted only around 4 minutes. Hernandez didn't speak or enter a plea, but his court-appointed lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, told the judge that his client was bipolar and schizophrenic and has a "history of hallucinations, both visual and auditory."

A judge ordered Hernandez held without bail and authorized a psychological examination to see if he is fit to stand trial.

Hernandez was expressionless during the hearing. He wore an orange jumpsuit and handcuffs. A police officer stood behind him.

The prosecutor who appeared in court, Assistant District Attorney Armand Durastanti, said it was "33 years ago today that 6-year-old Etan Patz left his home on Prince Street to catch his school bus. He has not been seen or heard from since. It's been 33 years, and justice has not been done in this case."

Hernandez, a churchgoing father now living in Maple Shade, N.J., was arrested Thursday after making a surprise confession in a case that has bedeviled investigators and inspired dread in generations of New York City parents for three decades.

Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979, on his two-block walk to his bus stop in Manhattan. It was the first time his parents had let him walk the route by himself.

Next to the bus stop was a convenience store, where Hernandez, then 18, worked as a clerk. When police, acting on a tip, interviewed him this week, he said he lured Etan into the basement with a promise of a soda, choked him to death, then stuffed his body in a bag and left it with trash on the street a block away, police said.

Etan's remains were never found, even after a massive search and a media campaign that made parents afraid to let their children out of their sight and sparked a movement to publicize the cases of missing youngsters. Etan was one of the first missing children to be pictured on a milk carton.

Hernandez's confession put investigators in the unusual position of bringing the case to court before they had amassed any physical evidence or had time to fully corroborate his story or investigate his psychiatric condition.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said investigators were retracing garbage truck routes from the late 1970s and deciding whether to search landfills for the boy's remains, a daunting prospect.

Crime scene investigators also arrived Friday morning at the building in Manhattan's SoHo section that once held the bodega where Hernandez worked. Authorities were considering excavating the basement for evidence.

They were also looking into whether Hernandez has a history of mental illness or pedophilia.

Browne said letting Hernandez remain free until the investigation was complete was not an option: "There was no way we could release the man who had just confessed to killing Etan Patz."

Legal experts said that even though police have a confession in hand, they are likely to work hard to make certain Hernandez isn't delusional or simply making the story up.

"There's always a concern whether or not someone is falsely confessing," said former prosecutor Paul DerOhannesian.

As Fishbein arrived at the courthouse, he asked reporters to be respectful of some of Hernandez's relatives there, including his wife and daughter.

"It's a tough day. The family is very upset. Please give them some space," Fishbein said.

Etan's father, Stanley Patz, avoided journalists gathered outside the family's Manhattan apartment, the same one the family was living in when his son vanished.

Former SoHo resident Roberto Monticello, a filmmaker who was a teenager when Patz disappeared, said he remembered Hernandez as civil but reserved and "pent-up."

"You always got the sense that if you crossed him really bad, he would hurt you," Monticello said, although he added that he never saw him hit anyone.

Monticello said Hernandez was also one of the few teenagers in the neighborhood who didn't join in the all-out search for Etan, which consumed SoHo and the city for months. "He was always around, but he never helped. He never participated," Monticello said.

Hernandez, who moved to New Jersey shortly after Etan's disappearance, suffered a back injury that has kept him on disability for years, according to police.

The Rev. George Bowen Jr., pastor at Hernandez's church in Moorestown, N.J., said he attended services regularly.

"I would judge him to be shy and maybe timid. He never got involved in anything," Bowen said.

He said Hernandez's wife, Rosemary, and daughter, Becky, a college student, went to see him Thursday morning after he was taken into police custody.

"They were just crying their eyes out," Bowen said. "They were broken up. They were wrecked. It was horrible. They didn't know what they were going to do."

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Hernandez gave a detailed confession that led police to believe they had the right man. He also said Hernandez told a relative and others as far back as 1981 that he had "done something bad" and killed a child in New York.

------

Associated Press reporters Julie Walker in New York, Patrick Walters in Moorestown, N.J., and Michael Virtanen in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

]]> Sat, 26 May 2012 00:31:17 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a1098-BC-US-MissingNYCBoy-20thLd-Writethru-05-25-1662 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a1054-BC-US-MissingNYCBoy-16thLd-05-25-0824
NEW YORK -- Thirty-three years to the day after 6-year-old Etan Patz vanished without a trace while walking to catch a school bus, a man accused of strangling him and dumping his body with the trash was arraigned on a murder charge on Friday in a locked hospital ward where he was being held as a suicide risk.

A lawyer for Pedro Hernandez, who was a teenage convenience store stock clerk at the time of the boy's disappearance, told the judge that his client is mentally ill and has a history of hallucinations.

Hernandez, now 51, appeared in court on Friday evening via video camera from a conference room at Bellevue Hospital, where he was admitted earlier in the day after making comments about wanting to kill himself.

The legal proceeding lasted only around 4 minutes. Hernandez didn't speak or enter a plea, but his court-appointed lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, told the judge that his client was bipolar and schizophrenic and has a "history of hallucinations, both visual and auditory." A judge ordered Hernandez held without bail and authorized a psychological examination to see if he is fit to stand trial.

Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979, on his two-block walk to his bus stop in Manhattan. It was the first time his parents had let him walk the route by himself.

Next to the bus stop was a convenience store, where Hernandez, then 18, worked as a clerk. When police, acting on a tip, interviewed him this week, he said he lured Etan into the basement with a promise of a soda, choked him to death, then stuffed his body in a bag and left it with trash on the street a block away, police said.

Etan's remains were never found, even after a massive search and a media campaign that made parents afraid to let their children out of their sight and sparked a movement to publicize the cases of missing youngsters. Etan was one of the first missing children to be pictured on a milk carton.

Hernandez's confession put investigators in the unusual position of bringing the case to court before they had amassed any physical evidence or had time to fully corroborate his story or investigate his psychiatric condition.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said investigators were retracing garbage truck routes from the late 1970s and deciding whether to search landfills for the boy's remains, a daunting prospect.

Crime scene investigators also arrived Friday morning at the building in Manhattan's SoHo section that once held the bodega where Hernandez worked. Authorities were considering excavating the basement for evidence.

They were also looking into whether Hernandez has a history of mental illness or pedophilia.

Browne said letting Hernandez remain free until the investigation was complete was not an option: "There was no way we could release the man who had just confessed to killing Etan Patz."

Legal experts said that even though police have a confession in hand, they are likely to work hard to make certain Hernandez isn't delusional or simply making the story up.

"There's always a concern whether or not someone is falsely confessing," said former prosecutor Paul DerOhannesian.

As Fishbein arrived at the courthouse, he asked reporters to be respectful of some of Hernandez's relatives there, including his wife and daughter.

"It's a tough day. The family is very upset. Please give them some space," Fishbein said.

Etan's father, Stanley Patz, avoided journalists gathered outside the family's Manhattan apartment, the same one the family was living in when his son vanished.

Former SoHo resident Roberto Monticello, a filmmaker who was a teenager when Patz disappeared, said he remembered Hernandez as civil but reserved and "pent-up."

"You always got the sense that if you crossed him really bad, he would hurt you," Monticello said, although he added that he never saw him hit anyone.

Monticello said Hernandez was also one of the few teenagers in the neighborhood who didn't join in the all-out search for Etan, which consumed SoHo and the city for months. "He was always around, but he never helped. He never participated," Monticello said.

Hernandez, who moved to New Jersey shortly after Etan's disappearance, suffered a back injury that has kept him on disability for years, according to police.

The Rev. George Bowen Jr., pastor at Hernandez's church in Moorestown, N.J., said he attended services regularly.

"I would judge him to be shy and maybe timid. He never got involved in anything," Bowen said.

He said Hernandez's wife, Rosemary, and daughter, Becky, a college student, went to see him Thursday morning after he was taken into police custody.

"They were just crying their eyes out," Bowen said. "They were broken up. They were wrecked. It was horrible. They didn't know what they were going to do."

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Hernandez gave a detailed confession that led police to believe they had the right man. He also said Hernandez told a relative and others as far back as 1981 that he had "done something bad" and killed a child in New York.

------

Associated Press reporters Julie Walker in New York, Patrick Walters in Moorestown, N.J., and Michael Virtanen in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

]]> Sat, 26 May 2012 00:31:13 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a1054-BC-US-MissingNYCBoy-16thLd-05-25-0824 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/052812-double-jeopardy--4026798
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Supreme Court limited the Constitution's protection against double jeopardy in cases involving multiple charges and a deadlocked jury.

The 6-3 decision holds that a jury's unanimous but tentative vote to acquit a defendant on some charges does not count as a verdict.

It came in the case of an Arkansas man who in 2009 was tried for murder and manslaughter in the death of his girlfriend's 1-year-old baby. The jury voted unanimously against the murder charge, but the foreman said they were "hopelessly deadlocked" on whether he was guilty of manslaughter. The judge declared a mistrial.

Chief JusticeJohn G. Roberts, speaking for the court, said the constitutional bar against retrials did not prevent the man from being retried for murder. Only a "final decision" of the jury and a "formal verdict" triggers the double jeopardy protection. A jury foreman's report on the deliberations does not count as a verdict, he said.

The ruling means Alex Blueford can be retried for murder as well as manslaughter and negligent homicide in the death of the baby. Prosecutors said Blueford threw the child to the floor. He said the child fell in an accident.

Blueford argued in his appeal to the Supreme Court that the state's plan to retry him for murder violated his 5th Amendment protection against being "twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ... for the same offense." He agreed he could be tried again for manslaughter and negligent homicide.

Lawyers involved in the case doubted the ruling would have a broad impact. In most states, trial judges can poll jurors who are having trouble reaching a verdict and issue a partial verdict on those charges where they are unanimous. Once the jury and judge reach a verdict on some charges, a defendant could not be retried for those same offenses. ]]> Fri, 25 May 2012 23:53:09 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/052812-double-jeopardy--4026798 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5124-AP-US-TextMessageLawsui-5thLd-Writethru-05-25-0551--4025792
MORRISTOWN, N.J. (AP) -- A woman who texted her boyfriend while he was driving cannot be held liable for a car crash he caused while responding, seriously injuring a motorcycling couple, a judge ruled Friday in what is believed to be the first case of its kind in the country.

A lawyer for the injured couple argued that text messages from Shannon Colonna to Kyle Best played a role in the September 2009 wreck in Mine Hill. But Colonna's lawyer argued she had no control over when or how Best would read and respond to the message.

State Superior Court Judge David Rand sided with Colonna's lawyer, dismissing claims against the woman in a lawsuit filed by crash victims David and Linda Kubert, who are also suing Best. David Kubert had his left leg torn off above the knee, while his wife eventually had her left leg amputated.

Stephen Weinstein, the Kuberts' attorney, has argued that Colonna should have known Best was driving and texting her at the time. He argued that while Colonna was not physically present at the wreck, she was "electronically present," and he asked for a jury to decide Colonna's liability in the case.

But Colonna testified at a deposition she didn't know whether Best was driving at the time.

Best has pleaded guilty to distracted driving, admitting he was using his cellphone and acknowledging a series of text messages he exchanged with Colonna around the time of the accident; the content of the messages is unknown. Records show Best responded to a text from Colonna seconds before dialing 911.

Best was ordered to speak to 14 high schools about the dangers of texting and driving and had to pay about $775 in fines, but his driver's license was not suspended.

Lawyers for Best and Colonna declined to comment after the hearing, and neither couple was in court.

Weinstein said Friday the Kuberts are disappointed with the decision and an appeal will be filed, but the couple is hopeful the attention the case has drawn will lead to change.

"Even though the case against Shannon Colonna has been dismissed, they are gratified that if by bringing the case they have accomplished the goal of making people think before they text, whether while driving or while the recipient is driving," he said.

Rand said it's reasonable for text message senders to assume the recipients will behave responsibly, and he also noted drivers are bombarded with many forms of distraction, whether they be text messages, notifications from smartphones, GPS devices or signs along the road.

"Were I to extend this duty to this case, in my judgment, any form of distraction could potentially serve as the basis of a liability case," Rand said.

But Rand stressed his decision shouldn't be read as minimizing the need for attentiveness while driving, and he said Americans have become "almost addicted" to wireless communication.

"That is the reality of today's world," he said.

Weinstein hopes for proceedings to move forward within the next several months.

]]> Fri, 25 May 2012 21:34:33 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5124-AP-US-TextMessageLawsui-5thLd-Writethru-05-25-0551--4025792 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a1025-BC-US-MissingNYCBoy-13thLd-Writethru-05-25-1553--4026370
NEW YORK (AP) -- The man accused of murdering 6-year-old Etan Patz was hospitalized for fear he might attempt suicide Friday, the 33rd anniversary of the boy's disappearance, as investigators worked to corroborate his confession in one of New York City's most traumatic missing-child cases.

Following decades of dead-end leads and false hopes among investigators, Pedro Hernandez was arrested Thursday after telling police he strangled Etan in 1979. At the time, Hernandez was an 18-year-old stock boy at a convenience store where Etan waited for his school bus.

Hernandez, 51, of Maple Shade, N.J., was scheduled to be arraigned on murder charges Friday, a date now recognized as National Missing Children's Day because of the Etan Patz case.

Police said Hernandez was taken to a secure wing at Bellevue Hospital to get medication for a pre-existing health problem, and doctors ordered him admitted after he talked about wanting to kill himself. Police would not disclose his health problem.

A court spokesman said arrangements were being made to conduct the arraignment via video from his hospital room.

Etan disappeared on May 25, 1979, on his two-block walk to his bus stop in Manhattan in a case that made New York parents afraid to let their children out of their sight and helped give rise to the national movement to publicize and find missing and abducted youngsters. Etan was one of the first missing children to be pictured on a milk carton.

Hernandez, who emerged as a suspect just days ago, after police received a tip, told investigators that he lured the boy into the store with the promise of a soda, then led him to the basement, choked him and put the body in a bag with some trash about a block away, police said.

Authorities never found a body, and Hernandez's confession put investigators in the unusual position of bringing the case to court before they had amassed any physical evidence or had time to fully corroborate his story or investigate his psychiatric condition.

Police spokesman Paul Browne said investigators were retracing garbage truck routes from the late 1970s and deciding whether to search landfills for the boy's remains - a daunting prospect.

Crime-scene investigators also arrived Friday morning at the building in Manhattan's SoHo section that once held the bodega where Hernandez worked. Authorities were considering excavating the basement for evidence.

They were also looking into whether Hernandez has a history of mental illness or pedophilia.

Browne said letting Hernandez remain free until the investigation was complete was not an option: "There was no way we could release the man who had just confessed to killing Etan Patz."

Legal experts said that even though police have a confession in hand, they are likely to work hard to make certain Hernandez isn't delusional or simply making the story up.

"There's always a concern whether or not someone is falsely confessing," said former prosecutor Paul DerOhannesian.

Hernandez's court-appointed lawyer, Harvey Fishbein, had no comment as he arrived at the courthouse, saying he hadn't met with his client yet. He asked reporters to be respectful of some of Hernandez's relatives at the courthouse, including his wife and daughter.

"It's a tough day. The family is very upset. Please give them some space," Fishbein said.

Etan's father, Stanley Patz, avoided journalists gathered outside the family's Manhattan apartment, the same one the family was living in when his son vanished.

Former Soho resident Roberto Monticello, a filmmaker who was a teenager when Patz disappeared, said he remembered Hernandez as civil but reserved and "pent-up."

"You always got the sense that if you crossed him really bad, he would hurt you," Monticello said, although he added that he never saw him hit anyone.

Monticello said Hernandez was also one of the few teenagers in the neighborhood who didn't join in the all-out search for Etan, which consumed SoHo and the city for months. "He was always around, but he never helped. He never participated," Monticello said.

Hernandez, who moved to New Jersey shortly after Etan's disappearance, suffered a back injury that has kept him on disability for years, according to police.

The Rev. George Bowen Jr., pastor at Hernandez's church in Moorestown, N.J., said he attended services regularly. "I would judge him to be shy and maybe timid. He never got involved in anything," Bowen said.

He said Hernandez's wife, Rosemary, and daughter, Becky, a college student, came to see him Thursday morning after he was taken into police custody.

"They were just crying their eyes out," Bowen said. "They were broken up. They were wrecked. It was horrible. They didn't know what they were going to do."

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Hernandez gave a detailed confession that led police to believe they had the right man. He also said Hernandez told a relative and others as far back as 1981 that he had "done something bad" and killed a child in New York.

------

Associated Press reporters Julie Walker in New York, Patrick Walters in Moorestown, N.J., and Michael Virtanen in Albany, N.Y., contributed to this report.

]]> Fri, 25 May 2012 21:34:30 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a1025-BC-US-MissingNYCBoy-13thLd-Writethru-05-25-1553--4026370 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a0967-BC-US-SubmarineFire-3rdLd-Writethru-05-25-1129--4026102
KITTERY, Maine (AP) -- Those who have spent time on Navy submarines will tell you that few combustible materials are aboard. But don't tell that to the firefighters who rushed to the USS Miami when a blaze swept through the billion-dollar nuclear-powered submarine.

"It's like going into a chimney," said Portsmouth Naval Shipyard firefighter David Funk, who described insulation and wiring fueling a smoky fire that became hot enough for aluminum to burst into flames.

On Friday, two days after the blaze began, workers at the shipyard finished pumping fresh air into the fire-damaged sub, allowing Navy investigators to enter to begin the first damage assessment. It remains to be seen whether the submarine can be salvaged.

U.S. Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Jeanne Shaheen of New Hampshire, both members of the Armed Services Committee, visited the shipyard Friday and met with its commander. They thanked a small contingent of firefighters, including Funk, who battled the blaze as the sub's metal hull trapped the heat inside.

Three Navy investigative teams were dispatched to Portsmouth Naval Shipyard to help determine what caused the fire, the senators told reporters.

The blaze started early Wednesday night shortly after a shift change at the shipyard where the sub was being overhauled. A handful of shipyard workers were in the forward compartments where the fire began in a dry dock, Collins said.

The fire wasn't extinguished until the next morning. More than 100 firefighters responded from more than a dozen agencies as far away as Groton, Conn., and South Portland.

Eric Wertheim, a U.S. Naval Institute author, characterized the USS Miami fire as a financial disaster, with the potential loss of a submarine that cost $900 million to build, but not a true disaster like the losses of the USS Scorpion and Thresher, nuclear subs that sank during peacetime with a loss of their crews.

"It's important to put it into perspective," Wertheim said. "It could've been a lot worse."

The USS Miami fire damaged the torpedo room, crew quarters and command and control areas in the front of the submarine, but the nuclear propulsion components at the back of the sub weren't harmed.

One defense analyst suggested that the repairs would be so costly that the 22-year-old sub would be scrapped. If so, it would be the first U.S. sub lost, rather than retired, since the 1969 sinking of the USS Scorpion, the Navy said.

Vice Adm. Kevin M. McCoy, commander of the Naval Sea Systems Command, told U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe that he's hopeful that the ship can be repaired. He said that many vital components escaped damage because they had been removed for the 20-month overhaul and that salvage parts are available from previously decommissioned Los Angeles-class subs.

"He said, 'We've built submarines, so we can fix them as well,"' said Snowe, who also toured the shipyard Friday.

The intensity of the fire, the lack of lighting, the thick smoke and the metal hull that trapped heat all contributed to a difficult blaze for firefighters to extinguish.

Unlike a house fire, there was no way to vent the fire by knocking out windows or using axes to create an opening, and all the smoke billowed from a small number of hatches.

"It was pretty intense, a lot of heat, a lot of smoke," Funk said. "It's a steel-hulled vessel. It's basically like going into a chimney into a black void that's superheated and trying to find the seat of the fire and get it put out."

The blaze was so blistering hot that firefighters could only remain in place for minutes before being replaced by another firefighter, a leap-frogging technique that continued throughout the night until firefighters got the stubborn fire under control.

All told, the firefighters worked in 75 rotating shifts to battle the fire, using 3 million gallons of water, nearly filling some compartments, Snowe said.

Two members of Funk's fire department were hurt. One had a broken foot, and another had a back injury, he said.

Funk, who left his post at the shipyard on Friday for the first time since the fire started, said he's thankful it wasn't worse.

"It's a miracle that nobody got hurt bad," he said. "Frankly, it's a miracle that nobody got killed."

------

Follow David Sharp on Twitter at http://twitter.com/David--Sharp--AP.

]]> Fri, 25 May 2012 21:34:27 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a0967-BC-US-SubmarineFire-3rdLd-Writethru-05-25-1129--4026102 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a0881-BC-US-Bison-NationalMam-1stLd-Writethru-05-25-1051--4025772
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) -- Western lawmakers want to elevate the Plains bison to a status similar to that of the iconic bald eagle with legislation to declare the burly beasts America's "national mammal."

Bison advocates launched a "vote bison" public relations campaign Friday to coincide with the bill.

The National Bison Legacy Act introduced in the Senate is backed by lawmakers from Wyoming, Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, New Mexico, North Dakota, South Dakota and Rhode Island.

The largely symbolic measure would provide no added protections for the estimated 20,000 wild bison in North America. And the bald eagle would still hold a somewhat loftier role as the national emblem, as declared by the Second Continental Congress in 1782.

But supporters said the bison legacy bill would afford overdue recognition to a species that has sweeping cultural and ecological significance. Bison - North America's largest land animal - already appear on two state flags and the official seal of the U.S. Department of Interior.

"The North American bison is an enduring symbol of America, its people and a way of life," said Wyoming Republican Sen. Mike Ezni, chief sponsor of the bill along with South Dakota Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson.

Tens of millions of bison, also known as buffalo, once roamed most of North America. They were heavily relied on by many American Indian tribes who harvested the animals for food and materials to make clothing and shelter.

Overhunting reduced the population to about 1,000 animals by the turn of the 20th century.

That's when conservationists, including President Theodore Roosevelt, intervened to save the species from extinction. Beyond today's wild herds in places like Yellowstone National Park, there are an estimated half-million bison, including animals in commercial herds, many of which have mixed cattle genetics.

Yet resistance to free-roaming bison lingers.

In Montana, livestock producers and property rights advocates have filed lawsuits to stop the spread of an animal that ranchers say can tear down fences, spread disease and compete with domestic cattle for grass.

This week in Boulder, Colo., city officials citing cost concerns and public opposition rebuffed a proposal from Ted Turner to donate a bison herd for viewing along U.S. Highway 36.

John Calvelli with the Wildlife Conservation Society, one of the "vote bison" campaign sponsors, said the effort is meant to transcend political concerns and instead mark the animal's place in American cultural history.

"This isn't about getting into the middle of these issues of bison and property rights," he said. "No matter what political stripe you come from, we can all agree on the important role that bison have played."

Other sponsors of the campaign are the Intertribal Buffalo Council, which includes 57 tribes, and the National Bison Association.

In recent years, federal and state agencies, wildlife advocates and Indian groups have revived efforts to put wild bison on more parts of the Western landscape.

That includes the transfer in March of about 60 Yellowstone bison to northeastern Montana's Fort Peck Reservation.

The Interior Department also has been considering bison for public lands, including Badlands National Park on South Dakota's Pine Ridge Indian Reservation and Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado.

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Online:

http://www.votebison.com

]]> Fri, 25 May 2012 21:34:23 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a0881-BC-US-Bison-NationalMam-1stLd-Writethru-05-25-1051--4025772 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5139-AP-US-Congress-Taxes-1stLd-Writethru-05-25-0379--4026097
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The House will vote this summer on continuing wide-ranging tax cuts first enacted under President George W. Bush, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor said Friday as the GOP sharpened its plans for confronting Democrats on one of the election's top issues.

In a memo to fellow Republican lawmakers, Cantor said the House would vote on extending those tax cuts before leaving Washington for its August recess. Without congressional action, tax rates on wages, dividends, capital gains and other earnings will rise and most Americans will face higher taxes.

In one of the defining partisan disputes of recent years, Republicans want to keep those tax cuts - first enacted in 2001 and 2003 - for all taxpayers. President Barack Obama and Democrats oppose renewing the tax cuts for the highest earning Americans, though they haven't agreed among themselves yet where the cutoff should be.

The House vote will be symbolic because Democrats running the Senate are sure to block a bill cutting taxes for the rich. Senate Democrats haven't decided yet whether to hold votes this summer or fall on extending the tax cuts, and whether the reductions should be renewed for people earning up to $250,000 or $1 million annually.

The two parties are expected to get more serious about working toward legislation that would actually become law after the elections, with the details dependent on who captures control of the White House, House and Senate.

The stakes will be high during that postelection period because at around the same time, lawmakers will also face the beginning of $1.2 trillion in automatic spending cuts, the expiration of the government's borrowing authority and the end of payroll tax cuts.

House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, had said his chamber would vote on continuing the tax cuts before this November's presidential and congressional elections. Friday's announcement by Cantor of Virginia showed that Republicans are intent on holding the showdown vote before the two parties' presidential nominating conventions in August and September.

]]> Fri, 25 May 2012 21:31:18 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/V5139-AP-US-Congress-Taxes-1stLd-Writethru-05-25-0379--4026097 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a0635-BC-US-Obit-ZeppelinII-05-25-0374--4025067
BETHALTO, Ill. (AP) -- He was known as George Blackburn for most of his life, but after his divorce last fall he wanted to start life over. So Blackburn changed his name to Led Zeppelin II.

Zeppelin's daughter, Mindy Baker, said he saw the iconic British rock band about 20 times in the 60s and 70s and had talked about changing his name for years before the divorce. Baker, of Seattle, said Zeppelin died of a heart attack on May 18, aged 64.

"Led Zeppelin II," released in 1969, was the band's first album to reach No. 1 in the U.S

The Chicago Tribune reported that Zeppelin, of Bethalto in southern Illinois, was born in Milwaukee in 1947 and raised in Chicago. He worked 32 years for TWA and retired in 1997.

]]> Fri, 25 May 2012 20:57:39 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/a0635-BC-US-Obit-ZeppelinII-05-25-0374--4025067 http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/052812-double-jeopardy--4026798
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The Supreme Court limited the Constitution's protection against double jeopardy in cases involving multiple charges and a deadlocked jury.

The 6-3 decision holds that a jury's unanimous but tentative vote to acquit a defendant on some charges does not count as a verdict.

It came in the case of an Arkansas man who in 2009 was tried for murder and manslaughter in the death of his girlfriend's 1-year-old baby. The jury voted unanimously against the murder charge, but the foreman said they were "hopelessly deadlocked" on whether he was guilty of manslaughter. The judge declared a mistrial.

Chief JusticeJohn G. Roberts, speaking for the court, said the constitutional bar against retrials did not prevent the man from being retried for murder. Only a "final decision" of the jury and a "formal verdict" triggers the double jeopardy protection. A jury foreman's report on the deliberations does not count as a verdict, he said.

The ruling means Alex Blueford can be retried for murder as well as manslaughter and negligent homicide in the death of the baby. Prosecutors said Blueford threw the child to the floor. He said the child fell in an accident.

Blueford argued in his appeal to the Supreme Court that the state's plan to retry him for murder violated his 5th Amendment protection against being "twice put in jeopardy of life or limb ... for the same offense." He agreed he could be tried again for manslaughter and negligent homicide.

Lawyers involved in the case doubted the ruling would have a broad impact. In most states, trial judges can poll jurors who are having trouble reaching a verdict and issue a partial verdict on those charges where they are unanimous. Once the jury and judge reach a verdict on some charges, a defendant could not be retried for those same offenses. ]]> Fri, 25 May 2012 23:53:09 GMT National News http://www.aikenstandard.com/story/052812-double-jeopardy--4026798