Sunday, September 13, 2009

ANNIE LE AND OUR JOBS PENSIONS AND BENEFITS HAVE GONE MISSING

Officials find items possibly related to missing Yale student

September 12, 2009 By MATTHEW CHAYES. AND ANDREW STRICKLER

Photo credit: AP Photo/Thomas Cain | A sign posted by two Yale graduate students hangs in front of 10 Amistad Street, while police patrol the entrance to the building in New Haven, Conn., Saturday, Sept 12, 2009. The laboratory at 10 Amistad Street is the last place Annie Le, a Yale graduate student was seen, since her disappearance on the morning of September 8th. (AP Photo/Thomas Cain)

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Yale student disappears before LI wedding

Authorities Saturday found items that they said could be evidence in the case of a Yale University graduate student who disappeared days before her wedding in Syosset.

The news followed reports by a local newspaper, citing police sources, that bloody clothes and other evidence of a crime scene were found in a ceiling at a Yale building where Annie Le, 24, was last seen on surveillance video Tuesday morning.

Kim Mertz, the FBI special agent in charge of the case, would not directly address those reports at a campus news conference, but confirmed that "items that potentially could be evidence have been seized" and would be tested. "None have yet been associated with Annie Le at this time," she said.

"We are not in the position today to conclude whether this is a missing person's case or whether criminality is involved," Mertz said.

"I will categorically say a body has not been found," she said.

Investigators scoured the university research building Saturday, with dozens of officials going in and out of the lab on Amistad Street and searching it with German shepherds.

A person attending a science conference on campus said the investigation appeared to be concentrated on the lower level - the floor that housed the lab where Le had scheduled a 10 a.m. slot to do some work Tuesday, school officials said. Her roommate reported her missing Tuesday night when she did not return to their apartment.

Police have said that Le's fiance, Jonathan Widawsky of Huntington, a graduate physics student at Columbia University, is not considered a suspect and is cooperating with police.

A representative for North Ritz Club in Syosset, where the couple was to be wed Sunday, said the wedding has been canceled.

connections

Le used her university ID card to enter the building about 10 a.m. She left her purse, cell phone, credit cards and cash in her office in another Yale building about three blocks away.

Investigators continued reviewing surveillance video, using image enhancement software to see if they had missed the 4-foot-11, 90-pound Le leaving the building. Yale officials said about 70 cameras are mounted outside the building and an adjacent parking structure.

Yale Vice President Linda Lorimer said "there is no reason to believe" Le's disappearance had anything to do with her wedding and implored reporters to respect the families' privacy.

A billboard over I-91 and missing-person posters around campus and at a nearby methadone clinic show pictures of Le, including one of her entering the building on the morning she went missing.

The doctoral student in pharmacology, originally from Placerville, Calif., "has not been seen or heard from by family, co-workers and friends," according to the poster.

Another sign across the street from the lab building Saturday said: "Annie, we hope you are okay!!" It was signed "Yale grad students."

Yale is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to Le's whereabouts. Anyone with information can call a 24-hour FBI hotline at 877-503-1950.

- With Alfonso A. Castillo and AP

Wednesday, September 2, 2009

WAY TO GO DIANE! SARAH SAYS, I WANNA RUN FOR OFFICE!

Diane Sawyer to replace Charles Gibson as anchor of the ABC Evening News

By Cristina Kinon
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Updated Wednesday, September 2nd 2009, 11:58 AM

Getty/AP

Diane Sawyer will take over anchoring the ABC Evening News from Charles Gibson, who has decided to retire.

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ABC's "World News" anchor Charlie Gibson is retiring and will be replaced by Diane Sawyer.

"It has not been an easy decision to make," Gibson said in an e-mail to staffers.

"This has been my professional home for almost 35 years. And I love this news department, and all who work in it, to the depths of my soul."

Gibson, 66, replaced former "World News" anchors Elizabeth Vargas and Bob Woodruff in 2006. He will step down at the end of the year.

Sawyer, 63, currently anchors "Good Morning America."

ABC News President David Westin said in a separate e-mail to staff Wednesday that after several weeks of discussion, Gibson convinced him the move is what he wants.

"I respect his decision, just as I respect the enormous contribution he has made to ABC News through the years," Westin said.

Gibson revealed that he had originally planned to step down two years ago, "but with Peter [Jennings'] illness, Bob [Woodruff's] injuries, and Elizabeth [Vargas'] pregnancy, the job at 'World News' came open in May of 2006."

When he was asked to step in, Gibson said, "it was an honor to do so."

Of Gibson's replacement, Westin said: "Diane Sawyer is the right person to succeed Charlie and build on what he has accomplished.

"She has an outstanding and varied career in television journalism, beginning with her role as a State Department correspondent and continuing at '60 Minutes,' 'Primetime Live,' and most recently 'Good Morning America.'"

The move makes Sawyer only the second woman to solo anchor an evening newscast. Katie Couric has been at the "CBS Evening News" since Sept. 2006.

During his time at "World News," Gibson covered a wide range of stories, including the violence between Israel and Hezbollah in 2006, the Virgina Tech shooting in 2007 and the historic 2008 presidential election.

Friday, August 28, 2009

ted kennedy flag draped coffin

Boston mourns for Ted Kennedy

Edward Kennedy's body moved from family compound as Democrats plot next move in healthcare reform battle

Members of the US military honour guard carry a casket containing the body of Edward Kennedy outside of the Kennedy compound

Members of the US military honour guard carry Edward Kennedy's casket outside of the Kennedy compound. Photograph: Mike Segar/Reuters

Boston began three days of mourning for Ted Kennedy today after his body began the journey from the family compound in Cape Cod to the city that has been synonymous with the Kennedys for more than half a century.

Thousands are expected to pay tribute to Kennedy, whose closed casket will be placed in the John F Kennedy presidential library and museum. Across the country, flags were flown at half-staff at government buildings and military bases. At the home of the Boston Red Sox, Fenway Park, players lined up to pay homage last night as an air force bugler played the Last Post.

Kennedy, though he had been ill for a long time, only finalised the funeral details in the last week. He told friends he wanted a "good ending for myself".

Barack Obama is to deliver a eulogy at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica - commonly known as the Mission Church - in Boston on Saturday and will be joined by former US presidents including Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Kennedy's body will be flown from there to Arlington cemetery, where he is to be buried on the hillside overlooking Washington and close to his brothers John and Robert.

Family members gathered at the Kennedy compound today at Hyannis Port for a private mass before a motorcade left to carry his body the 70 miles to Boston, with mourners lining the route from early in the morning.

Kennedy's death had an immediate impact on the ferocious health debate that has engulfed the US. Kennedy championed Obama's healthcare reform plans and one of the leading lobbying groups opposing reform today temporarily suspended its advertising campaign. The Conservatives for Patients' Rights said it had taken the decision out of respect for the senator and his family.

Democrats who support reform hope that sympathy for Kennedy could help move opinion behind Obama's push to expand healthcare. Democratic senator Robert Byrd called for a more seemly, less hostile debate on healthcare and urged the reform bill to be named after Kennedy. He said: "Let us stop the shouting and name-calling and have a civilised debate on health care reform which I hope, when legislation has been signed into law, will bear his name for his commitment to insuring the health of every American."

But the respite from the debate is likely to be short-lived, and Democrats are already plotting how to take advantage of the emotion surrounding Kennedy to help get healthcare reform onto the statute books.

The Democrats are planning to change the law to allow a replacement for Kennedy in the Senate as fast as possible. The Massachusetts governor, Deval Patrick, a Democrat, told the Boston Globe: "I'd like the [Massachusetts] legislature to take up the bill quickly and get it to my desk and I will sign it."

A need to get back the Democrats' 60-seat majority in the 100-seat Senate has overridden any embarrassment at proposing to alter the law. The Democrats in Massachusetts changed the law in 2004, fearful that the then Republican governor would be able to appoint a successor to John Kerry in the Senate if he had won the presidency. But now the boot is on the other foot.

Under existing law, a special election would not be held until January, but a vote on the health reform bill has been tentatively scheduled for next month, and the Democrats anticipate needing every possible vote.

The Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, phoned Deval soon after Kennedy's death that the party needed every vote they could get.

in local one iatse and elsewhere women face unequal treatment

Despite progress, women still face unequal treatment

According to state and national officials, women in the U.S. still aren't equal.

By Erica Peterson

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August 25, 2009 · Wednesday is Women’s Equality Day, marking the 89th anniversary of the signing of the 19th Amendment to the Constitution which gave women the right to vote.

Three women who work on women’s issues in the state say women in the country, and in West Virginia, have made great progress, but still aren’t equal.

“Most people believe that U.S. women have one of the highest standards of equality in the world and that’s simply not true,” said Christina Vogt, the president of West Virginia’s chapter of the National Organization for Women. “We lag behind so many other countries.”

Compared to other states, women in West Virginia are even worse off, she said. They’re less likely to get a four-year college degree and more likely to become pregnant as a teenager.

“I think they’re almost last on every economic indicator that you can imagine,” Vogt said.

Also, women are not paid equally compared to men, Tara Martinez-Toney said. She’s the interim director of the West Virginia Women’s Commission and works to raise awareness about women’s issues.

“I wouldn’t say it’s the worst place [to be a woman] but it’s certainly not the best,” she said.

“We have a lot of work to do. We have made some strides improving equal pay in the state. We’ve made strides in increasing women’s pay comparative to the male counterpart, but there’s still lots of work to be done in several other key areas.”

Delegate Bonnie Brown (D-Kanawha) has served in the Legislature off and on since 1983.

“I chair the women’s caucus and I oftentimes have people say ‘Why isn’t there a men’s caucus,’” she said. “And I say, ‘Oh there is. It’s called the Legislature.’”

In her time in office, she’s seen a huge shift in attitudes towards women. When she was first elected, she remembers discussing domestic violence with her colleagues.

“I remember distinctly talking to a male senator,” she said. “And he told me, ‘It’s nobody’s business if I beat my wife.’ And now that thinking, it’s not even there anymore.”

Women make up only 16 percent of the West Virginia Legislature – compared to about one-quarter of seats nationwide.

The 20 women in the West Virginia House and two in the Senate actually represent a slight decline from a peak in the 1990s.

“Women still aren’t equal, but we’re working on it,” Brown said.

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ragtime revival in dc

August 27, 2009, 2:12 pm

Casting Announced for ‘Ragtime’ Revival

By Dave Itzkoff

Joan Marcus Cast members of “Ragtime” at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

You can’t tell the story of intertwining American families without an enormous cast: the Broadway revival of “Ragtime” announced its ensemble on Thursday, consisting of some 40 performers who will be sharing stairwells and dressing rooms at the Neil Simon Theater come this fall. The cast features Quentin Earl Darrington as Coalhouse Walker, Jr. and Stephanie Umoh as Sarah, both making their Broadway debuts, as well as Ron Bohmer (“Phantom of the Opera”) as Father, Christiane Noll (“Urinetown”) as Mother and Robert Petkoff (“Spamalot”) as Tateh. Playing some of the musical’s historical figures are Jonathan Hammond (as Harry Houdini), Donna Migliaccio (Emma Goldman), Eric Jordan Young (Booker T. Washington) and, late of “Rock of Ages,” Savannah Wise (Evelyn Nesbit). The musical, which ran at the Kennedy Center in Washington in the spring, is directed and choreographed by Marcia Milgrom Dodge, and is adapted from the E. L. Doctorow novel with a book by Terrence McNally, music by Stephen Flaherty and lyrics by Lynn Ahrens. It is to begin previews on Oct. 23 and open on Nov. 15.

senator kennedy's wife holding steady

Edward M. Kennedy: 1932 - 2009

Liberal Champion Propelled Family's Political Legacy

The Senator's Wife, Holding Steady to the End

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Victoria Reggie Kennedy, with her husband's nephew Joseph Kennedy, greets well-wishers on Thursday. Friends credit her with stabilizing Ted Kennedy's life at a particularly low point. (By Melina Mara -- The Washington Post)

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Victoria Reggie Kennedy outside the JFK Presidential Library in Massachusetts. In supporting husband Ted Kennedy in his final months, "she was inspirational," a family friend says. (By Linda Davidson -- The Washington Post)

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By Lois Romano

Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, August 28, 2009

She walked behind her husband's coffin Thursday at the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library with the same single-minded purpose that friends say she has projected for the past year: unwaveringly forward-looking, no public tears, smiling warmly at friends and guarding her husband's surroundings until the end.

Victoria Reggie Kennedy has been known as the woman who rescued Ted Kennedy 18 years ago -- saved him from his drinking and womanizing, saved him from himself, saved his career. But from now on, she will be remembered as the widow who gracefully managed the last days of one the most revered -- and controversial -- political icons of the last four decades.

"What she accomplished and enabled him to do in the last 15 months is more than most people do in a lifetime," says Boston friend Heather Campion. "He started and finished his memoir. Everyone who wanted to see Ted in the past few months was able to do so in a meaningful way. She juggled very aggressive cancer treatment to prolong his life, and she opened her house to the entire family -- and cooked the meals. She never lost a sense of hope."

Said another Kennedy friend on the condition of anonymity: "She was inspirational. She was vigilant in making sure that his remaining time was spent comfortably with friends and family in fellowship. She didn't want him isolated."

It was a remarkable scene Thursday, watching this relative newcomer to the Kennedy tribe in her simple black suit and pearls leading the pack of 85 family members, along with Kennedy's sister, Jean Smith, from the house in Hyannis Port, Mass., to the library. There has been much speculation about where Vicki Kennedy will find her place now that her husband is gone.

A lawyer, she has been mentioned as a possible successor to him in the Senate, but she has told friends that she is not interested. She has made her home at the Kennedy compound at Hyannis Port in recent years. But it is a house with a history and much sentiment attached to it, and not likely to be her permanent home. CNN has reported that her husband was interested in turning the property into a museum. She and Sen. Kennedy bought a fancy house in Washington's Kalorama neighborhood, where friends suspect she will return.

Intimates have downplayed recent reports that she had been in a push-pull with Joseph Kennedy III, Robert Kennedy's oldest son, over who had the final word on Teddy's care. She did. By all accounts, she was his soul mate, closest political adviser and, after he was diagnosed with a brain tumor last year, his primary caregiver. Long interested in medical advocacy, Vicki called doctors all over the country, anxious to try the newest cutting-edge treatments.

When it became clear in the spring that they were running out of options, Vicki helped her husband say goodbye to those closest to him, and together they planned the funeral. There was a steady stream of friends and family through the house every day, eating her meals and reminiscing and singing Irish songs with her husband. She brought his beloved sailboat to a dock close to the house so he could be brought on board in a wheelchair. She chose who would be allowed to see him so frail in his last days.

Vicki was a 37-year-old lawyer and divorced single mom when she re-met Ted at family party. Her Louisiana family had known him for years, and she briefly interned in his office as a young woman. Her father, Edmund, a retired judge, helped deliver his state for vice presidential candidate John F. Kennedy at the 1956 Democratic convention and remained close to the Kennedys.

Ted was at a low point in 1991 when Vicki came back into the picture. A particularly unflattering portrait of him as hard-drinking and juvenile was emerging at the sensational rape trial of his nephew, William Kennedy Smith. After years of public carousing, Ted's popularity in his own state was plummeting to the point where he was in danger of losing his seat to a Mormon businessman named Mitt Romney.

As Ted was preparing to testify at Smith's Florida trial in late 1991, he felt compelled to publicly take responsibility for his own behavior: "I recognize my own shortcomings," he said in an extraordinary speech at Harvard's Institute of Politics at the Kennedy School of Government. "I realize that I alone am responsible for them, and I am the one who must confront them."

Sitting unobtrusively in the audience was Vicki, whom he had been quietly dating for four months. The couple married in July 1992, went from their honeymoon straight to the Democratic convention, and have been inseparable ever since.

"The two shared a tremendous Catholic faith," says Campion. "I think that's what got her through this."

jaycee lee dugard abducte 18 years ago found/where were the police for th elast 18 years

Abducted girl turns up after 18 years

By Robert Salonga

CONTRA COSTA (CALIF.) TIMES

08/28/2009

CONCORD, Calif. — Eighteen years ago, 11-year-old Jaycee Lee Dugard was kidnapped as a child near her South Lake Tahoe, Calif., home. On Thursday, she was reunited with her family.

What happened since that day in 1991 and her recovery is fodder for a TV mystery show.

According to authorities, Dugard had been hidden in an Antioch, Calif., backyard compound, where she lived with two children fathered by her abductor, Phillip Craig Garrido, a registered sex offender. She resurfaced in Concord on Wednesday when she accompanied the man accused of kidnapping her to a parole interview.

For St. Louisans, Dugard's story was reminiscent of the Shawn Hornbeck case, the teen found two years ago after being missing for the previous four.

On Thursday, Pam Akers, the mother of Shawn Hornbeck, expressed delight on the news that another missing child had been found.

"I was just as surprised as the rest of the world," Akers said. "It had to be pure hell for them. I only had to go through four and a half years. I don't know how it would have been to go 18 years."

Unlike Hornbeck, who was hidden in plain sight, authorities say Dugard, now 29, was held prisoner in an elaborate backyard compound made up of sheds, tents and outbuildings — one soundproofed — that were undetectable, even to the parole agents charged with checking on Garrido.

"You could walk through the backyard … and never know there was another set of living circumstances," said El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar.

Dugard and her two daughters, ages 15 and 11, spent most of their lives there with little contact with the outside world.

A parole agent brought Garrido to his office Wednesday for questioning after University of California-Berkeley police spotted him the previous day with two young girls. Kollar said police grew suspicious when Garrido tried to enter campus to distribute literature and a background check turned up his status as a parolee.

Accompanying Garrido to the interview were his wife, Nancy Garrido, the two girls and another woman. During questioning, the parole agent called Concord police to help identify the girls and the unknown woman, whom he had never seen during previous visits to Garrido's home. Authorities soon learned that the woman was Dugard, and that Garrido had kidnapped her.

Garrido and his wife were booked into the El Dorado County Jail on Thursday afternoon on kidnapping and other charges.

Jaycee Dugard and her mother, Terry Probyn, were reunited Thursday morning in an undisclosed location. They made no statements.

Akers, who runs the Shawn Hornbeck Foundation, which aims to prevent child abduction and help families of missing children, said Dugard's appearance after so long a time proved that even if the chances are small, parents of missing children should remain hopeful.

Hornbeck parents react to found girl

Photos from the scene

Video from police station

For stepfather, Dugard's resurfacing lifts heartache, suspicion

Dugard kidnapping suspect has long criminal record

"She proved to everybody that miracles happen," Akers said. "They don't all come home alive, but some do."

And she had this advice for Dugard's parents: "Sit back. Listen. Don't ask the questions. I know they've got so many questions, but in time the answers will come."

Greg Jonsson of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.

For stepfather, Dugard's reappearance lifts cloud of suspicion.

models car covered in blood

Condition of Dead Model Jasmine Fiore's Car Suggests Bloody Fight

Police: Car Belonging to Model Found in Suitcase Was Covered With Blood

By MICHAEL S. JAMES and DEAN SCHABNER
Aug. 27, 2009

The interior of a white Mercedes-Benz that belonged to the brutally murdered ex-model Jasmine Fiore was found covered with blood, police said.

Husband of Slain Model Charged With Murder After 'Blow-Out Fight'

Ryan Alexander Jenkins, the reality TV contestant charged with murdering his wife, model Jasmine Fiore, was found dead Sunday in a Canadian motel.

(AP Photo)

"There was a significant portion of blood, that it would appear a violent struggle did occur in the vehicle," Buena Park, Calif., police Sgt. Roger Powell told the media today.

The blood was found on Fiore's passenger seat, backseat and rear windshield, Powell said, and there was evidence of attempts to wipe it away.

"The blood loss appears to be more significant in the backseat area, so it would appear that the injuries that we had originally seen Miss Fiore sustain are consistent with the blood loss that would have been in that vehicle," Powell said.

"There was some hair evidence taken from inside the vehicle on the floor," he added. "So there, obviously, some hair pulling did take place. That's still being processed. We don't know whether that's from the victim or the suspect."

In addition, the car found Wednesday in West Hollywood, Calif., had mud, weeds and twigs on the undercarriage, suggesting it went off road, police said.

Murdered Model's Volatile Relationships

How Forensics Revealed Model's Identity

Cops Know ID of Blonde Who Helped Jenkins

The body of Fiore, 28, was discovered stuffed in a suitcase in Buena Park, Calif., just south of Los Angeles, Aug. 15. Fiore had her fingertips cut off and her teeth pulled out, apparently to make it difficult to identify her.

Fiore subsequently was identified by the serial number on her breast implants.

Reality TV star Ryan Alexander Jenkins, 32, Fiore's husband and the prime suspect in her murder, was found hanged in a Canadian motel room Sunday following a massive manhunt.

The manager of the Thunderbird Motel in Hope, British Columbia, who said he found the body, said Jenkins hung himself from a coat rack.

Local police answered a call regarding a dead body found at the Thunderbird Hotel in the town, which is east of Vancouver, and after seeing the person, they called in investigators involved in the manhunt for Jenkins.

Jenkins, 32, was a Canadian citizen who police believe fled to his home country as he fell under suspicion for Fiore's murder.

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