The ABC and NBC morning and evening newscasts on Sunday gave attention to President Obama's attack on the Republican presidential candidates for not scolding a couple of audience members who booed a gay solder asking a question at a recent debate. Monday's “Special Report with Bret Baier” on FNC noted that Obama has his own history of standing by without condemning inappropriate comments at public events. ABC correspondent David Kerley filed full reports devoted to the story on both “Good Morning America” and “World News Sunday,” while NBC's Mike Viqueira mentioned Obama's line of attack within other reports on “Sunday Today” and on the “NBC Nightly News.” CBS's “Sunday Morning” show did not mention the story, while a Nexis search finds no sign that Sunday's “CBS Evening News,” which was preempted in the D.C. area, made any mention either. On “Good Morning America,” co-host Dan Harris set up Kerley's report: Now, though, politics and an unusually combative President Obama last night. For the most part, Mr. Obama has tried to stay above the fray when it comes to the Republican presidential candidates. But overnight, he took a hard shot at the Republicans for failing to stand up for a gay soldier who was booed during a recent debate. Kerley recounted the boos from the audience: Who said the election is more than a year away? A full-throated attack against all the Republican candidates who are trying to become President, and this all had to do with, as you said, that debate last week, when a video appeared of an Army soldier who said he was gay. There were boos from the audience. And on “World News Sunday,” anchor David Muir introduced the piece: And we do move on to the presidential race this evening, and the sharpest attacks yet by President Obama against the Republicans who want his job. The President pointedly asking why none of them spoke out at that recent debate when a gay soldier asking a question was booed. After playing a clip of the soldier being booed, Kerley added: Not one of the candidates on the stage said anything about the booing, leaving them open to the combative chiding from the President at last night's Human Rights Campaign dinner. It was not until this report on “World News Sunday” that Kerley eventually noted that there were only a couple of audience members who booed at the Republican debate, and that the candidates may have had trouble hearing the booing from the stage: Some of the Republican candidates said after the debate, they didn't hear the boos. Others said they weren't given time to comment. During the “Fox All Stars” segment on Monday's “Special Report with Bret Baier,” panel member Stephen Hayes of the “Weekly Standard” argued that the audience members who booed were not representative of the general audience, and noted Obama's history of not jumping in to chide controversial comments at public events: But really, by all accounts, the people immediately after the debate in the vicinity said there were two people who booed at the event, and that they were, in fact, shouted down and shushed by everyone around them. He continued: So do you really want to get in a pattern where a presidential candidate has to respond to every every heckler in every crowd? This President didn't respond to some of the hateful rhetoric that we've seen from people either working for him or campaigning for him, Richard Trumka being a recent example. Host Baier soon added: Here is what Rush Limbaugh has said in the blogosphere and radio show today, is that then-Senator Obama didn't respond to Reverend Wright for 20 years in that church. That's what he said. Then he said he didn't respond to James Hoffa after he spoke intro-ing him at that event. Below are transcripts of the relevant portions of ABC's “Good Morning America,” ABC's “World News Sunday,” NBC's “Sunday Today,” the “NBC Nightly News,” from October 2, and the Monday, October 3, “Special Report with Bret Baier” on FNC, with criticial portions in bold : #From the Sunday, October 2, Good Morning America on ABC: DAN HARRIS, IN OPENING TEASER: Heating up: In some of his toughest words yet, the President comes out swinging at his Republican rivals, calling them out for not standing up for gay troops when one of them was booed at a recent debate. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: You wanna be Commander-in-Chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States. … DAN HARRIS: Now, though, politics and an unusually combative President Obama last night. For the most part, Mr. Obama has tried to stay above the fray when it comes to the Republican presidential candidates. But overnight, he took a hard shot at the Republicans for failing to stand up for a gay soldier who was booed during a recent debate . ABC's David Kerley is at the White House this morning. And, David, this was a fired up Mr. Obama. DAVID KERLEY: It certainly was, Dan. Who said the election is more than a year away? A full-throated attack against all the Republican candidates who are trying to become President, and this all had to do with, as you said, that debate last week, when a video appeared of an Army soldier who said he was gay. There were boos from the audience. Here's what President Obama had to say about that last night. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We don't believe in the kind of smallness that says it's okay for a stage full of political leaders, one of whom could end up being the President of the United States, being silent when an American soldier is booed. You wanna be Commander-in-Chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States even when it's not politically convenient. KERLEY: That speech was at the annual dinner of the Human Rights Campaign, and it sounded like a campaign speech, the President going through a litany of things he's done as far as rights and civil rights and at the end of it. As he talked about this soldier and other cases, it really did sound like a campaign. #From the October 2 World News Sunday on ABC: DAVID MUIR: And we do move on to the presidential race this evening, and the sharpest attacks yet by President Obama against the Republicans who want his job. The President pointedly asking why none of them spoke out at that recent debate when a gay soldier asking a question was booed. Here's ABC's David Kerley. DAVID KERLEY: The election may be a year away, but candidate Obama went after every Republican running for President. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: We don't believe in the kind of smallness that says it's okay for a stage full of political leaders, one of whom could end up being the President of the United States, being silent when an American soldier is booed. We don't believe in that. KERLEY: That American soldier appeared on videotape at the most recent Republican debate, an openly gay soldier, who was booed by some in the audience when he asked a question. STEPHEN HILL, U.S. ARMY: Do you intend to circumvent the progress that's been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military? KERLEY: Not one of the candidates on the stage said anything about the booing, leaving them open to the combative chiding from the President at last night's Human Rights Campaign dinner. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: You want to be Commander-in-Chief? You can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it's not politically convenient. KERLEY: Some of the Republican candidates said after the debate, they didn't hear the boos. Others said they weren't given time to comment. Today on ABC's “This Week,” candidate Herman Cain was asked directly if he now regrets not rebuking the boos during the debate. HERMAN CAIN, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I did not have that luxury because I was not in control. I was not moderated. CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST OF THIS WEEK: In retrospect, would you have done something, given the controversy it's touched up? CAIN: In retrospect, because of the controversy it has created and because of the different interpretations that it could have had, yes, that would have been appropriate. KERLEY: We reached out to the other Republican campaigns looking for reaction to the strong comments by the President. None of them responded directly to what the President had to say. #From the October 2 Sunday Today on NBC: LESTER HOLT, IN OPENING TEASER: And fighting words: President Obama lashes out at the Republican White House candidates for not standing up for gays serving in the military. What his tough talk means for the issue and the campaign today, Sunday, October 2, 2011. … MIKE VIQUEIRA: And, Jenna, last night the President and First Lady Michelle Obama were celebrating their 19th anniversary here locally across the river, out for dinner in Alexandria, Virginia. It came after the President gave another fiery speech to a core constituency, a large gay rights organization known as the Human Rights Campaign. Their annual gathering was here in Washington last night. The President took those Republican candidates to task for staying silent. You remember when a gay soldier serving overseas was booed by some members of the audience at the last debate. And the President stopped short again of backing gay marriage. You know, he's opposed to gay marriage. That has been his policy, though he says his views are evolving. #From the Sunday, October 2, NBC Nightly News : MIKE VIQUEIRA: And last night, President Obama gave an impassioned address to a major gay rights group. PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: Don't Ask, Don't Tell is history. VIQUEIRA: Mr. Obama was critical of GOP candidates after they failed to defend a gay soldier booed during a recent debate. OBAMA: You want to be Commander in Chief, you can start by standing up for the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States, even when it's not politically convenient. #From the Monday, October 3, Special Report with Bret Baier on FNC: BRET BAIER: I should say that is a soldier. He is not a Marine. He is wearing an Army t-shirt. But you heard boos there. Steve, what about the President mentioning this numerous times? STEPHEN HAYES, WEEKLY STANDARD: Well, I think it suggests that he is likely to focus on issues that don't have to do with the economy in this upcoming election because it's a lot easier. I think it's a cheap shot. I think that it would have been great if the President, the candidates on the stage that night would have said you shouldn't boo. But really, by all accounts, the people immediately after the debate in the vicinity said there were two people who booed at the event, and that they were, in fact, shouted down and shushed by everyone around them. So do you really want to get in a pattern where a presidential candidate has to respond to every every heckler in every crowd? This President didn't respond to some of the hateful rhetoric that we've seen from people either working for him or campaigning for him, Richard Trumka being a recent example. BAIER: Juan, you're shaking your head. What about that? JUAN WILLIAMS, FOX NEWS ANALYST: I think that's a rationalization by Steve. I think that is reprehensible. I don'' think you should be booing gay soldiers or any soldiers. HAYES: Wait. I didn't say that and I didn't suggest that. I said I would like to have seen them condemn that, the fact that even though it was only two people. But you really start a bad precedent if you think everybody should respond to boorish behavior of a couple of people. BAIER: Here is what Rush Limbaugh has said in the blogosphere and radio show today, is that then-Senator Obama didn't respond to Reverend Wright for 20 years in that church. That's what he said. Then he said he didn't respond to James Hoffa after he spoke intro-ing him at that event.
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Experts including 40 directors of public health say government’s health and social care bill will cause ‘irreparable harm’ More than 260 senior doctors and public health experts are calling on the House of Lords to throw out the government’s health and social care bill, saying it will do “irreparable harm to the NHS, to individual patients and to society as a whole”. The signatories include Professor Sir Michael Marmot, the author of several reports on the links between wealth and health that suggest children born into poverty are penalised for life. Marmot has until now not been openly critical of the coalition’s approach, and instead has offered encouragement for David Cameron and Andrew Lansley’s apparent enthusiasm for public health. But Marmot and others in senior positions have now concluded the bill will damage all aspects of the health service. “While we welcome the emphasis placed on establishing a closer working relationship between public health and local government, the proposed reforms as a whole will disrupt, fragment and weaken the country’s public health capabilities,” says the letter. “The government claims that the reforms have the backing of the health professions. They do not. Neither do they have the general support of the public.” The letter details the harms the experts believe the health reform bill will do. “It ushers in a significantly heightened degree of commercialisation and marketisation that will lead to the harmful fragmentation of patient care; aggravate risks to individual patient safety; erode medical ethics and trust within the healthcare system; widen health inequalities; waste much money on attempts to regulate and manage competition; and undermine the ability of the health system to respond effectively and efficiently to communicate disease outbreaks and other public health emergencies,” the letter says. In their judgment, the signatories say, the bill “will erode the NHS’s ethical and co-operative foundations” and “will not deliver efficiency, quality, fairness or choice”. The signatories include around 40 directors of public health from around the country who have taken the difficult decision to go public with their concerns. There are also two senior members of the Faculty of Public Health, one of whom, Dr John Middleton, is a vice-president. Other well-known names include Professor John Ashton, director of public health in Cumbria, and Professor Michel Coleman from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Dr David McCoy, consultant in public health medicine at the Inner North West London primary care trust, one of the organisers of the letter, said he was surprised at the number of people prepared to sign. “I think if we had continued to collect signatures, I’m quite sure we would have collected another 200 It is having a snowball effect,” he said. “I think the feeling is incredibly strong.” There was a lot of debate about whether we should call for outright rejection or amendments, but there is a feeling the whole package of reforms is harmful and we need to express our position in the strongest terms. I think there was a feeling the forthcoming reading in the House of Lords is the last chance of minimising the harm and damage.” The public health community has not spoken out in this way before. “I think there has been an attempt to work with the reforms and work behind the scenes to optimise the proposed reforms,” said Dr McCoy. Dr Middleton said there was no great opposition to the planned move to place public health services such as smoking cessation within local authorities. “But the letter is a recognition from the public health community that the reforms proposed around the NHS are deeply damaging to the public health in themselves,” he said. There was concern that they would lead to inequalities in healthcare and less access for the poorest and most deprived to the services they need. “The experience of other countries that have ‘liberated’ their health systems has resulted in very poor health services for their communities. I’m thinking of Russia and China where a free market in health resulted in major falls in life expectancy and systems that had provided some safety net cover have failed,” he said. Commenting on the letter, published in the Daily Telegraph on the eve of health secretary Andrew Lansley’s address to the Tory party conference, shadow health secretary John Healey said: “David Cameron is in denial, both about the damage his plans are doing to the NHS and the strength of opposition to his health bill. “There is no mandate for the bill, either from the election or the coalition agreement. With the government having railroaded its plans through the Commons, heavy responsibility is now going to be shouldered by the Lords.” NHS Health policy Health Doctors Public services policy House of Lords Sarah Boseley guardian.co.uk
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LOS ANGELES — Melvin Gelfand left West Hollywood on a day trip to a casino and didn’t come home. Two weeks later, the family of the 88-year-old World War II veteran began to give up hope that they’d ever find him, whether dead or alive. No clues emerged from separate investigations by a Los Angeles police detective who was “terrific” and a private detective who was “equally good,” Gelfand’s son-in-law Will Matlack said Saturday. Then came a bizarre twist. The family of another missing man, 67-year-old David Lavau, found Lavau and his wrecked car at the bottom of a remote ravine 50 miles north of Los Angeles. He was alive, and on Saturday was undergoing surgery, expected to make a full recovery. But the car came to rest next to another, with a driver who was not so fortunate. The car was registered to Gelfand, and while investigators have not given the body an official identification, they told family members they were “99 percent sure” it was him, Matlack said. The news was bad, but the longshot coincidence gave them a degree of closure they would have been unlikely to get. Gelfand was 70 miles from where he’d been headed. Unlike Lavau, whose family used cellphone signals to know where to look for him, Gelfand’s phone was turned off. “If you speculate the odds, it would be astronomical,” Matlack said. Gelfand had left the house in his Toyota Camry, headed 10 miles away to Hawthorne where he would catch a shuttle to a San Diego-area casino. “He loved going to the casino and sit there at the slots all day,” said Matlack, who is married to Gelfand’s daughter Joan. “His wife was having a card party. It was a good excuse for him to get out and have some fun.” But instead of heading south to the park-and-ride, he apparently went north on Interstate 405 instead and didn’t turn around, merging with Interstate 5 and ending up on the remote mountain road. Gelfand got slightly lost on occasions, but nothing like this. “He never exhibited symptoms of dementia,” Matlack said. “He was a diabetic but he had taken his medication. I guess it’s possible for someone to slip into a full dementia episode, but that would be speculation.” Speculation was all the family had two days after he was found. The California Highway Patrol, which took over the investigation, has not been in touch, though coroner’s officials have. Messages left with local CHP officials by The Associated Press were not immediately returned. Gelfand, a World War II veteran who fought in Pacific battles including Iwo Jima, moved to California from New Jersey in 1959. He owned a liquor store with his brothers before a retirement spent hanging out with his large family, going to casinos and occasionally working as a movie extra. “He was the favorite uncle of everybody,” Matlack said. Meanwhile, the family of Lavau, who was having surgery on a dislocated shoulder at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital on Saturday, had far more answers but were still reeling at their luck in finding him six days after he disappeared. A sheriff’s detective helped them determine a general area to look by tracing Lavau’s cellphone, but it was a large and remote mountain area with canyons and ravines that could barely be seen from the road. Once they had that information, they found him quickly, which was essential because he had been living on bugs, leaves and creek water and borrowing Gelfand’s glasses for nearly a week. “It seemed like forever, but it wasn’t, we’re talking hours,” Lavau’s son-in-law Jesse Hooker, one of the six in the family search party, said Saturday. Hooker said family members took matters into their own hands not because they had a big problem with the response of the Sheriff’s Department, but they didn’t have the patience for police procedure. “I don’t think they did a bad job,” said Hooker, husband of Lavau’s daughter Chardonnay Hooker. “I know that we weren’t willing to wait the time periods we were going to have to.” And Hooker had only praise for Diane Harris, the sheriff’s detective who gave the family direction. Hooker said “if she didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we did.” Sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Mike Parker said the department did everything it could on a missing persons case with no evidence of foul play, and called the rescue “remarkable.” “We admire this family for doing what they did,” Parker said. Gelfand’s family said they see some good that can come of his accident. They would first like to see state highway officials install a guard rail on the sharp curve where the men ran off the road, and hope the Lavau family will join them in the effort. “From my point of view, two cars go off the same spot within a week of each other, is Caltrans paying attention here?” Will Matlack said. “If there’s another thing I’d like to see come of this, it’s getting older people to turn on their cellphones when they leave home,” he said. “They don’t do it because they think no one’s going to call, but it’s not about people calling, it’s about being able to find them.” ___ Associated Press writers Christopher Weber, John Rogers, Shaya Tayefe Mohajer and Christina Hoag and contributed to this report.
Continue reading …LOS ANGELES — Melvin Gelfand left West Hollywood on a day trip to a casino and didn’t come home. Two weeks later, the family of the 88-year-old World War II veteran began to give up hope that they’d ever find him, whether dead or alive. No clues emerged from separate investigations by a Los Angeles police detective who was “terrific” and a private detective who was “equally good,” Gelfand’s son-in-law Will Matlack said Saturday. Then came a bizarre twist. The family of another missing man, 67-year-old David Lavau, found Lavau and his wrecked car at the bottom of a remote ravine 50 miles north of Los Angeles. He was alive, and on Saturday was undergoing surgery, expected to make a full recovery. But the car came to rest next to another, with a driver who was not so fortunate. The car was registered to Gelfand, and while investigators have not given the body an official identification, they told family members they were “99 percent sure” it was him, Matlack said. The news was bad, but the longshot coincidence gave them a degree of closure they would have been unlikely to get. Gelfand was 70 miles from where he’d been headed. Unlike Lavau, whose family used cellphone signals to know where to look for him, Gelfand’s phone was turned off. “If you speculate the odds, it would be astronomical,” Matlack said. Gelfand had left the house in his Toyota Camry, headed 10 miles away to Hawthorne where he would catch a shuttle to a San Diego-area casino. “He loved going to the casino and sit there at the slots all day,” said Matlack, who is married to Gelfand’s daughter Joan. “His wife was having a card party. It was a good excuse for him to get out and have some fun.” But instead of heading south to the park-and-ride, he apparently went north on Interstate 405 instead and didn’t turn around, merging with Interstate 5 and ending up on the remote mountain road. Gelfand got slightly lost on occasions, but nothing like this. “He never exhibited symptoms of dementia,” Matlack said. “He was a diabetic but he had taken his medication. I guess it’s possible for someone to slip into a full dementia episode, but that would be speculation.” Speculation was all the family had two days after he was found. The California Highway Patrol, which took over the investigation, has not been in touch, though coroner’s officials have. Messages left with local CHP officials by The Associated Press were not immediately returned. Gelfand, a World War II veteran who fought in Pacific battles including Iwo Jima, moved to California from New Jersey in 1959. He owned a liquor store with his brothers before a retirement spent hanging out with his large family, going to casinos and occasionally working as a movie extra. “He was the favorite uncle of everybody,” Matlack said. Meanwhile, the family of Lavau, who was having surgery on a dislocated shoulder at Henry Mayo Newhall Memorial Hospital on Saturday, had far more answers but were still reeling at their luck in finding him six days after he disappeared. A sheriff’s detective helped them determine a general area to look by tracing Lavau’s cellphone, but it was a large and remote mountain area with canyons and ravines that could barely be seen from the road. Once they had that information, they found him quickly, which was essential because he had been living on bugs, leaves and creek water and borrowing Gelfand’s glasses for nearly a week. “It seemed like forever, but it wasn’t, we’re talking hours,” Lavau’s son-in-law Jesse Hooker, one of the six in the family search party, said Saturday. Hooker said family members took matters into their own hands not because they had a big problem with the response of the Sheriff’s Department, but they didn’t have the patience for police procedure. “I don’t think they did a bad job,” said Hooker, husband of Lavau’s daughter Chardonnay Hooker. “I know that we weren’t willing to wait the time periods we were going to have to.” And Hooker had only praise for Diane Harris, the sheriff’s detective who gave the family direction. Hooker said “if she didn’t do that, we wouldn’t have been able to do what we did.” Sheriff’s spokesman Capt. Mike Parker said the department did everything it could on a missing persons case with no evidence of foul play, and called the rescue “remarkable.” “We admire this family for doing what they did,” Parker said. Gelfand’s family said they see some good that can come of his accident. They would first like to see state highway officials install a guard rail on the sharp curve where the men ran off the road, and hope the Lavau family will join them in the effort. “From my point of view, two cars go off the same spot within a week of each other, is Caltrans paying attention here?” Will Matlack said. “If there’s another thing I’d like to see come of this, it’s getting older people to turn on their cellphones when they leave home,” he said. “They don’t do it because they think no one’s going to call, but it’s not about people calling, it’s about being able to find them.” ___ Associated Press writers Christopher Weber, John Rogers, Shaya Tayefe Mohajer and Christina Hoag and contributed to this report.
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PERUGIA, Italy — Amanda Knox tearfully told an Italian appeals court Monday she did not kill her British roommate, pleading for the court to free her so she can return to the United States after four years behind bars. Moments later, the court began deliberations. Knox frequently paused for breath and fought back tears as she spoke in Italian to the eight members of the jury in a packed courtroom, but managed to maintain her composure during the 10-minute address. “I’ve lost a friend in the worst, most brutal, most inexplicable way possible,” she said of the 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher, a 21-year-old Briton who shared an apartment with Knox when they were both students in Perugia. “I’m paying with my life for things that I didn’t do.” Knox and co-defendant Raffaele Sollecito, Knox’s former boyfriend from Italy, were convicted in 2009 of sexually assaulting and murdering Kercher, who was stabbed to death in her bedroom. Knox was sentenced to 26 years in prison, Sollecito to 25. They both deny wrongdoing. “I never hurt anyone, never in my life,” Sollecito said Monday in his own speech to the jury. Presiding Judge Claudio Pratillo Hellmann said the jury would not emerge before 1800 GMT (2 p.m. EDT) at the earliest. Kercher’s mother, sister and a brother traveled to Perugia and were expected in to be in court for the verdict. They have expressed worry over the possibility of acquittal but told reporters as the jury deliberated that they hoped the jury would do the right thing. “As long as they decide today based purely on the information available to them and they don’t look into the media hype, I think justice will be found,” the victim’s sister, Stephanie Kercher, told reporters. She lamented that Meredith had been “most forgotten” in the media circus surrounding the case, with news photos more frequently showing Knox and Sollecito than “Mez” – the victim’s nickname. “It’s very difficult to keep her memory alive in all of this,” she said. The family’s lawyer said it wants the original verdicts upheld. “The lower court found the defendants guilty. The Kercher family’s interest is to have the verdict confirmed,” he said. The highly anticipated verdict will be broadcast live. Hundreds of reporters and camera crews filled the underground, frescoed courtroom before Knox’s address on Monday, while police outside cordoned off the entrance to the tribunal. The trial has captivated audiences worldwide: Knox, the 24-year-old American, and Sollecito, a soft-spoken Italian, were convicted of murdering a fellow student in what the lower court said had begun as a drug-fueled sexual assault. Knox insisted Monday that she had nothing to do with the murder and that Kercher was a friend who was always nice to her. Gesticulating, at times clasping her hands together, the American said she has always wanted justice for Kercher. “She had her bedroom next to mine, she was killed in our own apartment. If I had been there that night, I would be dead,” Knox said. “But I was not there.” “I did not kill. I did not rape. I did not steal. I wasn’t there,” Knox said. Also convicted in separate proceedings was Rudy Hermann Guede, a small-time drug dealer and drifter who spent most of his life in Italy after arriving here from his native Ivory Coast. Guede was convicted in a separate fast-track procedure and saw his sentence cut to 16 years in his final appeal. Lawyers for Knox and Sollecito have said Guede was the sole killer. Knox said she had nothing more than a passing acquaintance with Guede, who played basketball in a court near the house, and didn’t even know his name. Sollecito, who addressed the court before Knox, told jurors that he did not know Guede at all. Sollecito was anxious as he addressed the court, shifting as he spoke and stopping to sip water. He said prior to the Nov. 1, 2007 murder was a happy time for him, he was close to defending his thesis to graduate from university and had just met Knox. The weekend Kercher was murdered was the first the pair planned to spend together “in tenderness and cuddles,” he said. At the end of his 17-minute address, Sollecito took off a white rubber bracelet emblazoned with “Free Amanda and Raffaele” that he said he was been wearing for four years. “I have never taken it off. Many emotions are concentrated in this bracelet,” he said. “Now I want to pay homage to the court. The moment to take it off has arrived.” Knox and her family, present in Perugia, hope she will be set free after spending four years behind bars caught up in what they say is a monumental judicial mistake. Prosecutors, who have depicted Knox as a manipulative liar, are seeking to increase her sentence to life in prison. The jury is made up of the presiding judge, a side judge and six jurors, five of them women, and they have several options as they go into deliberations. They can acquit both defendants and set them free. They can uphold the conviction, then confirm the sentence, reduce it or increase it. They can theoretically decide to split the fate of Knox and Sollecito, convicting one and acquitting the other. The verdict doesn’t have to be unanimous, only a majority is required. A verdict is expected late Monday, though in theory deliberations could continue into Tuesday. Over the course of the appeals trial, the defendants’ positions have significantly improved, mainly because a court-ordered independent review cast serious doubts over the main DNA evidence linking the two to the crime. Prosecutors maintain that Knox’s DNA was found on the handle of a kitchen knife believed to be the murder weapon, and that Kercher’s DNA was found on the blade. They said Sollecito’s DNA was on the clasp of Kercher’s bra as part of a mix of evidence that also included the victim’s genetic profile. But the independent review – ordered at the request of the defense, which had always disputed those findings – reached a different conclusion. The two experts found that police conducting the investigation had made glaring errors in evidence-collecting and that below-standard testing and possible contamination raised doubts over the attribution of DNA traces, both on the blade and on the bra clasp, which was collected from the crime scene 46 days after the murder. The review was crucial in the case because no motive has emerged and witness testimony was contradictory. It was a huge boost for the defense’s hope and a potentially fatal blow for the prosecution. The prosecutors, however, refute the review and stand by their original conclusions.
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Energy Secretary Steven Chu’s admission, on Thursday , that he approved more taxpayer money to the financially strapped solar panel company Solyndra, after it defaulted on a $535 million loan from that agency. Big Three network coverage? Zero. This is just a continuing pattern of ABC, CBS and NBC barely touching the bourgeoning scandal for the Obama administration. What initially began as an embarrassing collapse of one of the green companies touted by the Obama has turned into a story of coverup of still more stimulus money being wasted on the left’s pet cause of climate change. Yet, as a search of Nexis shows, the networks have glanced over the Solyndra story with the Big Three networks running a total of just 8 total full stories, two anchor briefs and a couple of mentions on their evening and morning news shows, since the company declared bankruptcy in August. When the CEO and CFO of Solyndra, on September 23, invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination, before the House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, the networks mostly skipped over the news. As the MRC’s Brent Baker reported , “neither ABC nor NBC mentioned the development Friday night and CBS allocated a mere 25 seconds.” NBC’s Lisa Myers did note on the September 24 Today show: “Images of its executives taking the Fifth today are not the optics the White House had hoped for,” but neither ABC nor CBS advanced that angle on the story on their morning shows. Myers, to her credit, explained the severity of the story as seen in the following excerpt: MATT LAUER: Top executives from a now bankrupt solar energy company who were given half a billion in taxpayer loans by the Obama administration are appearing at a congressional hearing this morning but they are pleading the Fifth. NBC's senior investigative correspondent Lisa Myers is in San Antonio with the latest on this. Hi, Lisa. Good morning. LISA MYERS: Good morning to you, Matt. This company was the poster child for the President's green jobs initiative. So, images of its executives taking the Fifth today are not the optics the White House had hoped for. Taxpayers now stand to lose as much as a half billion dollars. Solyndra executives personally showed the President around their operation last year. Top executives promised to testify today, under oath,
Continue reading …NPR Picks Sesame Workshop CEO (and Former Ted Kennedy and Jerry Brown Aide) as President
October 3, 2011 No CommentEven as House Republicans plan to zero them out, National Public Radio has picked a new president with Democratic Party connections on his resume. The choice is Gary Knell, the CEO of Sesame Workshop, which makes Sesame Street “and other highly regarded children’s shows” for PBS, as NPR said. The Washington Post mentioned Knell is “a former counsel to the Senate Judiciary Committee when it was chaired by the late Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.). Before his stint in Washington, he worked as a legal adviser to Gov. Jerry Brown (D-Calif.) during Brown's first term, and for Rep. Howard Berman (D-Calif.).” NPR has a long history of Democratic party men as presidents. Back in 1993, the MRC noted they chose a Democratic operative in Delano Lewis, a longtime associate of former Washington D.C. Mayor Marion Barry. Lewis replaced Carter official Douglas Bennet, who left to join the Clinton Administration as an Assistant Secretary of State. Bennet had taken over in 1983 for Frank Mankiewicz, who managed ultraliberal George McGovern's 1972 presidential campaign. NPR announced the choice on its newscast Morning Edition on Monday, but NPR media reporter David Folkenflik sounded like he was the network publicist . Only Knell and the people who chose him were allowed to speak, and it was praise for NPR all around, about how tremendously professional and influential it is, with 27 million listeners a week. “That’s Knell, brought to you by the letter K,” Folkenflik lamely began. Folkenflik mentioned that Knell worked for Senate Democrats, but tried to offset that by claiming that as Sesame Workshop CEO, he had worked with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on global issues. (She named him to the US Commission on UNESCO.) Knell told Folkenflik he wanted to “depoliticize” the NPR debate. “I'm not naively walking into this…I think, obviously, [NPR has] been caught somewhat in the political cross hairs in Washington. Some of that is undeserved, I think. And what I would really like to see is depoliticizing NPR a little bit, so that it's not caught in those cross hairs.” Vivian Schiller, the former NPR chief executive who is now the chief digital officer for NBC News, wrote on Twitter , “New @npr CEO Gary Knell is an experienced leader, a good man and a friend. Best shot to liberate pubradio from untenable reliance on fed $$ .” That tweet was quoted on the NPR website, but didn't make it on the morning airwaves. That's surely not the company line. Knell won the job with the usual promises that NPR would seek more money from every source: federal and state governments, corporations, foundations, listeners, and surely eccentric leftist billionaires from Hungary who want to destroy Fox News Channel. Otherwise, he said, he wants to get out of the way of its journalists, whom he called “amazingly fabulous.” “I think the point here is that it's not about liberal or conservative. It's about fairness,” Knell said. “And I think we've got to make the case that we're delivering a fair service — not only in the way we do our jobs but in the way we disseminate the news.” It's too bad that the Knell era began with a slavishly corporate story with no dissenters allowed to speak.
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• Anti-Gaddafi forces prepare for assault on Sirte • Syrian dissidents unite to form opposition • Cameron emerges as “biggest hawk” on Libya • Read the latest summary 2.08pm: More than 3,000 people have been detained in the rebellious Syrian town of Rastan since government forces took back control of it at the weekend, according to AP. After five days of intense fighting between troops loyal to the al-Assad regime and soldiers who have defected to the protesters’ side, the regime appears to have hit back with force. An activist who said he was in hiding and gave his name as Hassan said those arrested were being held at a cement factory, as well as some schools and a large four-story compound called the Sports Club. He said: Ten of my relatives have been detained…The situation in the town is miserable The reports could not be independently confirmed. 1.52pm: An ominous update on the story reported earlier (see 9.52am) of David Gerbi, the Jewish Libyan who is seeking to reopen Tripoli’s main synagogue. He returned to the country after the fall of Gaddafi’s vehemently anti-Semitic regime in the hope that the new era would bring harmony and inclusiveness. However he has hit upon an early stumbling block: he is now being prevented from entering the synagogue. AP reports: A visibly angry David Gerbi says he went to clean garbage from the synagogue on Monday only to be told by men at the scene that they had warnings he would be targeted by violence. He says they told him to stop his efforts. Gerbi, who fled with his family to Italy in 1967, says he was surprised because he had permission from the local sheik. Gerbi’s colleague Richard Peters says several men armed with assault rifles later appeared to guard the building. Breaking down in tears, Gerbi says Libya needs to decide if it’s going to be a racist country or a democratic one. 1.51pm: Libya’s new rulers have named a new Cabinet, AP reports. 12.41pm: Reuters and Al Jazeera are reporting that a Red Cross convoy hoping to bring urgently needed medical supplies to the centre of Sirte was forced to turn back this morning after coming under fire. Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr tweeted that the aid trucks had turned back “after heavy exchange of fire”, with forces in the city, and an NTC commander told Reuters: The rebels secured the way for the International Red Cross to go but as soon as they entered the city they returned because of the (pro-Gaddafi) militias firing. We did not start the firing. The militias started the firing. But a Reuters team who witnessed the incident said they saw no incoming fire from the Gaddafi loyalists inside Sirte. 12.27pm: Here’s a lunchtime summary: Libya • Residents are continuing to flee the Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte as rebels prepare to launch a last big offensive to take control of the city. Those fleeing speak of a worsening humanitarian situation. Many are unafraid to make clear their support for the deposed dictator. (See 10.31am.) • The evacuation of some 1,200 migrant workers from the southern town of Sabha has begun, according to the International Organisation for Migration. The workers and their families were said to be “extremely relieved” that their long wait to leave the country was finally over. They will be taken to Chad, the IOM said. (See 11.29am.) • Gaddafi’s playboy son Al-Saadi has “strenously” denied charges of corruption and “armed intimidation” brought against him by Interpol. Al-Saadi, who is under house arrest in the neighbouring country of Niger, was issued with a red notice from the global policing body last week. Bahrain Thirty-six people have been sentenced by a court to prison sentences of between 15 and 25 years, according to Al Jazeera. Those sentenced are believed to include 14 people convicted of involvement in the killing of a Pakistani man during the anti-government unrest. Seven university students found guilty of taking part in the protests are also thought to have been among those sentenced. (See 10.21am.) Syria The formation of the Syrian National Council by the country’s chief opposition groups has been dismissed by a member of parliament. Khaled Abboud told AP that those who announced the SNC were “deluding themselves.” He added: “It’s a dream that will never come true.” 12.02pm: Al Jazeera are reporting that 36 protesters have been sentenced to up to 25 years in Bahraini jail. This could not be independently confirmed for now. Update: It appears that that figure of 36 includes the 14 people earlier reported to have been sentenced over the killing of a Pakistani man, and seven university students sentenced over the unrest. More when we have it. 11.29am: The nightmare may be over for some 1,200 migrant workers and their families who had been stuck in Sabha waiting to be able to leave Libya. According to AP, the International Organisation for Migration has said the workers are being evacuated to Chad. IOM chief of mission in Chad, Qasim Sufi, said Monday the group of people from 11 different nations are “extremely relieved” after enduring weeks of hardship and anxiety while trapped at a transit center in the embattled city. Gunfire and fighting had prevented IOM from getting the group out of the center or bringing supplies to them in Sebha, which also lacks running water and electricity. The group, including women and children, began leaving Sunday in a convoy of 15 trucks. The journey to Chad is expected to take about a week. Earlier reports suggested that around 3,000 migrants and their relatives had been contained in the southern town, which until late last month was controlled by pro-Gaddafi forces. A spokesman for the IOM said last month that the evacuation had been delayed because the NTC wanted to “make sure of the migrants, to register them and to identify who is a real migrant and who is not.” Sub-Saharan Africans have been a target of suspicion by the interim authorities ever since Gaddafi hired mercenaries to help him fight the rebels. 11.18am: Libya’s revolutionary army is an army that starts fighting at 10am and downs tools at 6pm — whether the battle is over or not , reports the Times this morning. Tom Coghlan writes that, what with their “courageous, chaotic, charming, inventive and incompetent” approach to battle, “it is hard not to like them immensely”. They even, he writes, have free cake and coffee on the frontline. But the amateurish tactics can often go wrong: Revolutionary commanders were somewhat embarrassed by the latest attack, which occurred during what was supposed to be a ceasefire for the Red Cross to visit the city. “There are many, many revolutionaries fighters, teenagers actually, who want to enter Sirte by themselves,” said Commander Omran al-Awaib yesterday. There is, he insisted, a high-level plan for taking the city. But the fighters often go out of their way to stress their lack of military training or indeed interest in military matters. “I got one lesson for 30 minutes,” smiled Ismael al-Zoubi, a 23-year-old graduate who now operates a multi-barrelled rocket launcher. High numbers of accidents are one result of an astonishingly relaxed attitude to weapons safety, particularly resulting from a relentless enthusiasm for shooting into the air. Recent accidents included a jerry-built rocket launcher bursting into flames, scattering its crew and filling the air with burning ammunition. On the same day another rocket launcher was accidentally fired inside a revolutionary camp killing two fighters. 10.31am: It is perhaps an indication of how bad the situation inside Sirte has got that many of the residents now fleeing the city are supporters of Gaddafi who say they simply cannot continue to live there. In this report from Al Jazeera English, the correspondent reports that “even the [NTC] fighters acknowledge that”. One woman, fleeing in her car, says: I am from Sirte. I am loyal to Gaddafi. I’m not with the rebels and NATO. I was living in my house. The bombardment forced us to leave everything. Inside the city, resistance to the NTC also remains strong, according to this report from the LA Times which contains interviews with residents . One man, a father, is quoted as saying: The rebels are worse than rats. NATO is the same as Osama bin Laden. The paper’s Ruth Sherlock continues: Revolutionary leaders say they are supported by a mandate to oust a brutal dictator. But many inhabitants of Sirte said they longed for Libya to be “just as it was” before the uprising began in February. “We lived in democracy under Moammar Kadafi; he was not a dictator,” said another Surt resident, Susan Farjan, who said she had been an on-screen journalist for Libyan state television. “I lived in freedom; Libyan women had full human rights. It isn’t that we need Moammar Kadafi again, but we want to live just as we did before.” Despite the living conditions and her dust-ridden clothes, Farjan’s makeup, Chanel perfume, diamante earrings and gold necklace told of a better life in times past. “Everyone loves Kadafi. My father loves him so much, the blood is green in his veins,” Farjan said as tears welled in her eyes, alluding to Kadafi’s use of green as the national color. Women and children gathered around Farjan suddenly burst into a raucous, tearful chorus: “God, Moammar, Libya. This is all we need!” 10.21am: A Bahraini court has sentenced 14 people to life imprisonment for the killing of a Pakistani man during anti-government unrest, according to AP. Seven university students charged with causing violence amid the protests were also sentenced, the news agency added. We will report more detail when we have it. 10.04am: US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has blunt words for Israel today on the impact of the Arab Spring . Speaking to journalists on his way to Jerusalem, he said: There’s not much question in my mind that they maintain that [military] edge. But the question you have to ask: is it enough to maintain a military edge if you’re isolating yourself in the diplomatic arena? Real security can only be achieved by both a strong diplomatic effort as well as a strong effort to project your military strength. 9.52am: There is a lovely tale in the Wall Street Journal today about the efforts of David Gerbi- the so-called ‘revolutionary Jew’ of Tripoli- to promote his faith in the new Libya . Gerbi, who fled the country as a 12-year-old boy in 1967 when anger was mounting throughout the region over Israel’s Six Day War, returned to the country this summer to help with the uprising against Gaddafi. Two years after Gerbi and his family left, the former dictator expelled the rest of the country’s Jewish community , the AP reports. But, yesterday, Gerbi took the first step towards what he hopes will be a brighter, more inclusive future in the post-Gaddafi era, reopening Tripoli’s lone synagogue for the first time in 44 years. 9.36am: Al-Saadi Gaddafi, the ousted Libyan dictator’s playboy son, “strenuously denies” charges of corruption and armed intimidation made against him by Interpol. According to an email forwarded to the Associated Press , the former head of the country’s Football Federation insisted he had “worked tirelessly” to promote Libyan soccer, and accused Interpol of taking a “political decision” to recognise the NTC. In the email, al-Saadi called the Interpol notice a “clear political decision to recognize the de jure authority of the National Transitional Council taken without appropriate regard to the current absence of a functioning, effective and fair system of justice in Libya.” It said al-Saadi “worked tirelessly to promote football in Libya, priding himself on the fact that Libya was formerly selected to host the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations.” It added that Gadhafi’s son “continues to call on all sides to seek a negotiated and peaceful resolution to the present conflict.” 38-year-old Al-Saadi, Gaddafi’s third son, is under house arrest in Niger, where he sought refuge last month . 8.49am: Welcome to Middle East live. Here’s a summary of developments across the region. Libya • A ceasefire declared by the NTC to allow residents to flee the Gaddafi stronghold of Sirte has ended, and forces loyal to the interim authorities are preparing for an all-out assault. The humanitarian situation inside the city, meanwhile, is grim. A doctor told the Guardian that residents have run out of basic medical supplies and are drinking contaminated water to survive. • A Guardian investigation has revealed David Cameron’s determination to push for military action on Colonel Gaddafi , and how he overrode scepticism from both his cabinet and MI6 to enter his first non-inherited war as prime minister. One minister who attended meetings of the National Security Council (on Libya) is quoted as saying: The prime minister was always the biggest hawk in the NSC. He was always the person who was pushing and saying ‘how can we get things moving in this way?’ • Leading opposition groups have decided to form a national council to help topple Bashar al-Assad’s regime. Figures from the previously fragmented dissident movement said they hoped it would be a big step towards democratic change. • It was another bloody weekend for Syria. Mahmoud Merhi, head of the Arab Organization for Human Rights, has told Bloomberg that security forces killed at least 10 protesters yesterday in Homs, Idlib and Deraa . United Arab Emirates Five activists on trial for insulting the Royal Family and threatening national security have refused to appear in court. The men, who include blogger Ahmed Mansoor, have already been jailed since April and say they would not get a fair trial. Bahrain Some of the doctors facing years in prison for their role in the uprising have alleged that a princess working undercover as a police detective was involved in their torture. The Times reports that Sheika Noora bint Ibrahim Al-Khalifa “beat prisoners with sticks and a rubber hose, and gave electric shocks to the face with a cable”. Syria Libya Bashar Al-Assad Bahrain Lizzy Davies guardian.co.uk
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Army surrounds building after insurgents burst in disguised as police officers and take hostages including mayor Iraqi insurgents are holding a town mayor and other people hostage in a police station after bursting in disguised as police officers, opening fire and blowing up an explosives vest, Iraqi officials said. The Iraqi army was surrounding the police station in the town of al-Baghdadi, 125 miles west of Baghdad in Anbar province, said the deputy provincial governor, Dhari Arkan. It was not immediately clear how many people were being held inside the station, or whether the attackers had made any demands. The ongoing standoff in western Iraq’s Anbar province demonstrates the vulnerability of the Iraqi security forces at a time when American troops are swiftly drawing down their presence after more than eight years of war. The attackers broke into the police station wearing police uniforms to disguise themselves and immediately opened fire, provincial police officials said. Then one of the insurgents blew himself up, the officials said. Among the hostages is the mayor of al-Baghdadi, whose office is on the second floor of the police station, according to the officials. The mayor of the nearby town of Hit, Hikmat Juber, confirmed the attack and hostage standoff. He said officials working on the second floor of the building where some provincial offices were located had also been taken hostage. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media. Anbar province has been a hotbed of Iraq’s insurgency for years. Sunni militants aligned with terror groups such as al-Qaida often attack the local police and military, whom they see as traitors and supporters of the Shia-led government. Under a 2008 agreement, all American forces must leave Iraq by the end of this year, although US and Iraqi officials have been discussing whether to have a small US military presence in Iraq into next year. Iraq Middle East guardian.co.uk
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In a speech delivered in near-perfect Italian, Knox asks judges to clear her and Raffaele Sollecito of Meredith Kercher’s murder Her voice choked with emotion – at times, to the point she was unable to continue until she had caught her breath – Amanda Knox has pleaded with the judges who will decide whether to clear her and her Italian former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito, of the murder of Meredith Kercher. “I want to go home to my life,” she told the court. “I don’t want to be deprived of my life, my future, for something I have not done.” At the end of an intensely emotional plea, delivered entirely without notes and in near-perfect Italian, she said very quietly: “Do justice.” Though she almost broke down completely at the start, and her delivery was even more charged with tension than at her trial, Knox’s words were clearer and simpler than then. Crucially, she flatly denied the key prosecution accusation: that she killed Kercher, her British flatmate. Standing in a packed but hushed courtroom, her hands raised with her fingertips touching, almost as if in prayer, the 24-year-old said: “I am not what they say [I am]. And I did not do the things they said I did. I didn’t kill. I didn’t rape. I didn’t rob.” Knox’s sister, Deanna, wept – as did one of the young American’s lawyers, Maria del Grosso. Dressed in a green shirt, black hooded jacket, black trousers and boots, the University of Washington student – who is serving a 26-year sentence for the murder – said she had good relations with all her three flatmates, even if she was a bit untidy and inattentive. “I lived my life above all with Meredith. She was my friend. She was always kind to me,” she said. Kercher’s death had made her frightened and disbelieving, she said; the person “who had the bedroom next to me was killed. And if I had been there that evening, I would be dead. Like her. The only difference is that I was not there. I was with Raffaele.” Her appeal took a dramatic turn in June when two independent, court-appointed experts dismissed the key forensic evidence against the appellants. Quite the most damaging remaining evidence is a statement Knox gave to police on the morning of 6 November 2007, at the end of an all-night interrogation, in which she put herself in the house at the time of the murder. In the statement, which she subsequently retracted, she also claimed the murderer was Diya “Patrick” Lumumba, her employer at a local bar, who was later shown to be innocent. Knox entreated the two professional and six lay judges to take into account the way she was at the time: “I had never suffered. I did not know tragedy. I didn’t know how to deal with it.” Her only experience of tragedy was through the television, she said. Her mistake had been to put her faith in the police. “I trusted them blindly, and when I made myself available, to the point of exhaustion in those days, I was betrayed,” Knox said. “On the night of 5-6 November, I wasn’t just stressed and pressurised, I was manipulated.” Earlier, her former boyfriend had made a stumbling, but nevertheless moving, appeal for his own freedom. “I’ve never done anyone any harm. Never. In my whole life,” Sollecito told the court. He said he had thought the accusation would somehow evaporate. “Instead of which, it’s not been like that. I’ve had to put up with, go on in, a nightmare,” he said. He had spent more than 1,400 days in prison during which, like Knox, he had been confined “for almost 20 hours [a day] in a space measuring two-and-a-half metres by three”. He ended by asking to give the judges a bracelet, inscribed with the words “Free Amanda and Raffaele”, which he said he had not taken off since the day it was given to him, and which had yellowed with age in the meantime. It was, he said, “a concentrate of various emotions: desire for justice, and the effort, the path we have followed in this dark tunnel towards a light that seemed ever further away”. Amanda Knox Meredith Kercher Italy Europe United States John Hooper Tom Kington guardian.co.uk
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