Thursday, December 4, 2008
2: Immigration: Build a 700 mile fence or That makes no sense.
Monday, December 1, 2008
1: International Story
India: Pakistan must act over Mumbia attacks
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- India on Monday demanded Pakistan take "strong action" on those behind last week's massacre in Mumbai, raising diplomatic tensions between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Onlookers in Mumbai read messages posted outside Oberoi hotel, the site of one of the terror attacks.
But Pakistan's prime minister has dismissed accusations his country played a role, saying the claims were made "out of anger."
India's foreign ministry said it had summoned Islamabad's chief envoy to New Delhi to reiterate claims that elements from Pakistan carried out the attacks that left 179 dead and 300 injured.
India's Ministry of External Affairs told Pakistan's High Commissioner Shahid Malik that it expects "strong action" against the those behind the siege.
Pakistani authorities say Islamabad has not received any evidence that militants from within its borders carried out Wednesday's coordinated attacks in India's financial capital.
"Now that the dust has settled down, I hope they will be considering all such things which they have said in the past," Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told CNN on Monday. Watch Gilani say Pakistan will defuse tensions »
Also Monday, India's top envoy in Islamabad was summoned by the Pakistani Foreign Ministry.
Pakistan's foreign secretary met with the diplomat and "refuted the unsubstantiated allegations by the Indian media of Pakistan's complicity in the Mumbai incident," a ministry spokesman said.
The attacks have damaged India's already strained relationship with Pakistan. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is heading to New Delhi on Wednesday to help quell the tensions between two key U.S. allies. Watch how attacks could damage relations »
"It is extremely important that there be the highest levels of cooperation between Pakistan and India at this point, and that means all institutions," Rice said Monday as she headed to London.
Indian officials said the only surviving suspected attacker is in custody and has told police that he is Pakistani. Sources told CNN's partner network in India, CNN-IBN, that the suspect said he was trained by Lashkar-e-Tayyiba, a Pakistan-based terror group allied with al Qaeda.
Lashkar-e-Tayyiba has denied any role in the attacks, and said it has no links to the Deccan Mujahideen, the unknown group that claimed responsibility for the massacre.
Pakistan and India have fought three major wars since independence in 1947, and conducted tit-for-tat nuclear weapons tests in 1998. The Indian government is reportedly considering suspending the five-year-old cease-fire with Pakistan and perhaps even ending the dialogue process with the country.
Gilani vowed "full cooperation" with Indian investigators and predicted that the incident would not lead to an escalation of tensions between the nuclear neighbors.
"With India, we had good relations, but I feel sorry that this incident naturally disturbed the people of India for which we are very sympathetic," Gilani said.
"Pakistan will act very responsibly, and we have talked to all our friends that they should use their good offices to defuse the situation."
He hinted that the recent resignations by Indian officials amounted to an admission of an intelligence failure.
"(Tensions) will not escalate because some responsible people have owned the responsibility of intelligence failure," Gilani told CNN.
Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil announced his resignation Sunday amid criticism of the response to the attacks. Patil, whose ministry oversees internal security, had been accused of failing to improve intelligence before the attacks. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh immediately tapped India's finance minister to take over the post.
The head of the Indian state Maharashtra -- which includes Mumbai -- said Monday that he would also step down after his deputy resigned. The chief minister, Vilasrao Deshmukh, said he would leave it up to his ruling Congress party to decide whether to accept his resignation.
Mumbai police lowered the casualty toll from Wednesday's attacks and the sieges that followed to 179 dead and about 300 wounded. That does not include the nine gunmen killed in three days of battles with police and the Indian military, police said Monday.
At least 28 foreigners were among the victims, including six Americans and six Israelis.
A Mumbai police official said Monday that no one has come to claim the bodies of the nine attackers, which are lying in the city's morgue "as of now."
Pakistan and India have fought three major wars since independence in 1947, and conducted tit-for-tat nuclear weapons tests in 1998. The Indian government is reportedly considering suspending the five-year-old cease-fire with Pakistan and perhaps even ending the dialogue process with the country.
The head of Pakistan's Interior Ministry Rehman Malik said India has not provided any evidence linking the attacks to Pakistan. Malik vowed to "take action" if there is any proof that the attack was launched from Pakistani soil.
Pakistan's civilian government, which took office earlier this year, continues to battle Islamic extremists along the rugged border with Afghanistan, where U.S. and NATO troops have been fighting al Qaeda and Taliban militants since al Qaeda's 2001 attacks on New York and Washington.
Haqqani said the militants want India and Pakistan to remain "at each other's throats so they can flourish," but he said his government has seen no sign of an Indian buildup along the border.
Interpol had said it would send a delegation to India to aid in the investigation. But on Sunday, the international law enforcement agency was still waiting official permission into the country, a spokesman said.
The targets of the attacks included luxury hotels packed with foreign tourists. The 105-year-old Taj Mahal hotel was the site of the attackers' final stand, as gunmen held hostages and refused to leave the facility.1: National Story
Shuttle Endeavour lands at California air base.
(CNN) -- Space shuttle Endeavour landed safely Sunday afternoon at California's Edwards Air Force Base after NASA waved off two opportunities for a Florida landing because of poor weather.
Endeavour glides in for a landing Sunday at California's Edwards Air Force Base.
The shuttle, steered by commander Christopher Ferguson, landed at 1:25 p.m., ending a mission that lasted more than two weeks.
Wind, rain and reports of thunderstorms within 30 miles of the shuttle landing facility at Florida's Kennedy Space Center prompted NASA to cancel the landing attempts there. Those had been scheduled for 1:19 p.m. and 2:54 p.m. ET.
After determining Monday's weather forecast at Kennedy Space Center was equally unpromising, flight controllers decided they would try to land the shuttle and its seven astronauts at Edwards AFB, about 100 miles from Los Angeles, California, where Sunday's forecast was sunny.
Flight controllers prefer landings at Kennedy Space Center because of cost and schedule. NASA has estimated it costs about $1.7 million to bring a shuttle home to Kennedy Space Center from California. Watch Endeavour's Sunday landing in California »
It also takes at least a week to get the shuttle ready for the trip, but schedule is not a major factor for the Endeavour; it is not scheduled to fly again until May.
Endeavour's 15-day mission to the international space station began on November 14 and included four spacewalks.
During that time, the crew brought key pieces -- including exercise equipment, more sleeping berths and a urine recycling system -- for a project to double the capacity of the station from three in-house astronauts to six.
The recycling system was installed to turn urine and sweat from the astronauts into drinking water.
Other modules are scheduled to arrive on a February shuttle flight. The goal of expanding the station's capacity to six astronauts is expected to be reached by the summer.
The crew also worked on a joint that helps generate power for the space station. Heidemarie Stefanyshyn-Piper and Steve Bowen spent hours cleaning and lubricating the Solar Alpha Rotary Joint, which is designed to allow the solar panels on the left side of the station to rotate and track the sun.
The astronauts also removed and replaced several trundle bearing assemblies.
The mission went according to plan, despite a minor interruption on the first spacewalk when a grease gun in Stefanyshyn-Piper tool's bag leaked, coating everything inside with a film of lubricant. While she was trying to clean it up, the bag -- with $100,000 in tools -- floated away.1: Local Story
BELFAST (Nov 26): A tropical storm with gusty winds and heavy rain toppled trees and knocked out power Tuesday night across Waldo County.
The extent of the damage was still unknown Wednesday morning, though a recorded message at Central Maine Power said outages had been reported in Belfast, Islesboro, Waldo, Brooks, Searsport and Swanville.
Diana Story at the Belfast Police Department said a large pine tree in her Monroe driveway was uprooted and fell away from five vehicles that were parked there. Parts of the Back Brooks Road were flooded Wednesday morning when she drove to Belfast for work, she said.
Winds blew at a reported 70 miles per hour at Belfast harbor, though most boats had been stored for the winter and minor damage was evident.
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| Malcolm Gater holds up a piling carved by Ron Cowan. The piling stood in the harbor until Tuesday night when it was blown ashore. (Photo by Ethan Andrews) |
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| A metal gangway shifted off the wharf by high winds and water in Belfast Harbor (Photo by Ethan Andrews) |
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| A shed near the Belfast Boathouse narrowly escaped damage from a falling tree. (Photo by Ethan Andrews) |
In Searsport, Police Chief Dick LaHaye said the portion of the Mt. Ephraim Road near the Loop Road was closed due to a downed tree and power lines in the roadway.
Downed trees were also reported on the Mortland and Savery roads, as well as Black Road North.
Emergency crews were restoring power and cutting fallen trees from roadways, and Waldo County Emergency Management Agency Director Dale Rowley said all 26 communities in the county had experienced power outages. The least affected area of the county, he said, was between Winterport and Stockton Springs. There was not a lot of damage, Rowley added, but many trees and limbs were down, as were roadside power lines.
As of 12:55 p.m. Wednesday, Rowley said most roads were cleared of debris. "As far as I know I think all the roads are back open again," he said.
One lane of the Prairie Road in Unity was still blocked off due to flooding, but Rowley said flooding is common on that road. "Our communication center radios were down for a short time, too, but that was rectified fairly quickly," Rowley said.
Fire crews from each town were out all night assisting with debris removal, and many local EMA directors had set up emergency operation center. At about 10 p.m. Tuesday, Rowley said, Gov. John E. Baldacci declared the situation an emergency. That allowed power crews to work overtime to rectify the outages, Rowley said, and to garner assistance from out-of-state power companies.
CMP spokesperson Gail Rice said that as of 10:30 a.m. Wednesday, Nov. 26, there were 17,200 customers without power in the company’s Rockland district. The district includes Waldo and Knox counties. That figure is down from the peak number of outages early Wednesday morning, which Rice said reached 18,500.
“That was our hardest hit area from the storm,” said Rice.
Rice said out-of-state crews have come in to assist CMP workers in restoring service, but it is likely that some remote customers will be without power through Thursday morning.
“The rain saturated the ground to the point that entire trees were uprooted, bringing down a lot of power lines and causing a lot of damage,” Rice said.Monday, November 17, 2008
2:National story
Obama, McCain meet face-to-face
(CNN) -- President-elect Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain met Monday for the first time since the presidential election to talk about how they can work together on problems facing the country.
John McCain, left, and Barack Obama meet at Obama's transition office in Chicago.
McCain arrived at Obama's transition headquarters in Chicago, Illinois, at around 11 a.m.
Obama aides said the president-elect was expected to focus on common ground issues, like climate change and ethics reform, in Monday's meeting.
The two were not expected to talk about any possible Cabinet position for McCain, according to both McCain and Obama advisers.
"We're going to have a good conversation about how we can do some work together to fix up the country, and also to offer thanks to Sen. McCain for the outstanding service he's already rendered," Obama told reporters shortly before the meeting got under way.
Asked whether he would help Obama with his administration, McCain responded, "Obviously." 
The meeting comes as Obama is trying to fill out his Cabinet with the most capable people and show he can reach across party lines.
In Obama's first television interview since the election, he told CBS' "60 Minutes" that the global economic crisis provides an opening for the two parties to come together.
"You actually have a consensus among conservative, Republican-leaning economists and liberal, left-leaning economists. And the consensus is this: that we have to do whatever it takes to get this economy moving again, that we're going to have to spend money now to stimulate the economy," Obama said on the program, which aired Sunday.
The last time Obama and McCain appeared together was in a debate during the bruising campaign season.
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They were joined Monday by Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-South Carolina, and Obama's new chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel.
Ed Rollins, a Republican strategist and CNN contributor, said he expects the former rivals to "bury the hatchet" when they meet.
"I think John McCain can serve a very important role as a liaison in the Congress to Republicans, and I think he'll be willing to do that," Rollins said.
Obama last week met with two former rivals for the Democratic nomination -- Sen. Hillary Clinton and Gov. Bill Richardson -- about the secretary of state position in his administration, sources told CNN.
Rollins said Obama's meeting with Clinton "makes the Democratic Party very powerful."
"I think it shows Barack Obama's a bigger man than most people in the sense that he's willing to take the person who gave him a real race for his money into his Cabinet," he said.
Obama's transition team has made public some key staff appointments, but no Cabinet positions have been announced.
Republicans have praised the prospect of Clinton becoming secretary of state.
Henry Kissinger, who was secretary of state in the Nixon and Ford administrations, said Clinton would be an "outstanding" selection, Bloomberg News reported.
GOP Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona told Fox News, "She's got the experience; she's got the temperament for it."
And California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger told ABC it would be a "great move."
A new poll suggests that most Americans are confident that the president-elect will make the right decisions when it comes to picking his top officials.
Forty-three percent of those questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday morning are very confident that Obama will make the right choices, with 34 percent somewhat confident and only 23 percent not confident.
"Obama is having the kind of honeymoon that no president-elect has had in at least 30 years," said CNN polling director Keating Holland. "It's no surprise that Americans have a positive view of anything Obama might do -- at least until he does something controversial."
Asked which appointment will matter the most to the country's future, 41 percent said the secretary of the treasury; 25 percent said secretary of state; 24 percent, secretary of defense; and 8 percent named the attorney general.
The CNN/Opinion Research Corporation poll was conducted November 6 to 9, with 1,246 adult Americans questioned by telephone. The survey's sampling error is plus or minus 3 percentage points.
The transition team over the weekend announced several White House appointments.
Peter Rouse, Obama's chief of staff in his Senate office, will serve as a senior adviser to the president.
Mona Sutphen will serve as a deputy chief of staff. Sutphen is a member of the transition team staff and has been managing director of Stonebridge International LLC, an international strategic consulting firm based in Washington.
Jim Messina was also named a deputy chief of staff. Messina is currently the director of personnel for the president-elect's transition team. He served as a national chief of staff for Obama's presidential campaign.
Also, a longtime friend of the Obamas, Valerie Jarrett, was officially named Saturday as a senior adviser to the incoming president.
Obama, in a statement released Saturday morning by his transition staff, announced that Jarrett will serve as senior adviser and assistant to the president for intergovernmental relations and public liaison.
Jarrett is currently co-chair of Obama's transition team and was senior adviser for his presidential campaign.
1: International Story
BEIJING, China (CNN) -- A subway tunnel collapse in eastern China over the weekend killed at least seven people and 14 others remain missing, state-run media reported late Monday.
The 75-meter section of a tunnel in Hangzhou collapsed Saturday.
The search continues for the missing, believed to be trapped at the collapsed subway construction site in Hangzhou, the capital of Zhejiang province, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The collapse injured 24 people, all of whom were initially hospitalized, Xinhua said. As of late Monday, 11 had been released.
The accident happened at 3:20 p.m. Saturday when a 75-meter-long section of the subway tunnel under construction collapsed at the Fengqing Avenue in Xiaoshan District.
The company overseeing the project, China Railway Construction Group, has stopped all of its subway construction in the city pending safety checks, said Bai Zhongren, vice president of the company.
2: National story
Car bomb kills Israeli crime boss
JERUSALEM (CNN) -- A car bomb killed one of Israel's most prominent crime bosses in Tel Aviv Monday, Israeli police sources say.
Police at the scene of the car bomb blast which killed crime boss Yaakov Alpheron.
Police say Yaakov Alperon was killed instantly when an explosive device was apparently detonated by remote control on a busy street in Tel Aviv.
The blast injured two other people, including a 13 year-old boy.
Head of one of Israel's most notorious crime families, Alperon is the most senior figure to be killed and the latest casualty of ongoing mob wars that have left scores of innocent people dead. In the past these mob-style hits have led to more revenge attacks.1: National Story
FBI agent Donald Bain was sitting in his car in a parking lot with two other agents. He was armed and wore a Kevlar vest. He was also carrying a "flash-bang" grenade, a nonlethal weapon that emits a bright flash and deafening bang that's used to shock and disorient criminal suspects or the enemy in combat situations.
The three agents -- Bain, Thomas Scanzano and James Milligan -- were waiting for developments on a kidnapping that had turned into a hostage stakeout.
That's when, Bain says, the flash-bang grenade in his vest just blew up.
"The car is on fire," Bain recalled. "I was told later I was on fire. Smoke billowing in the car. It was obviously chaos."
Scanzano remembers "it was like being in combat. There was smoke and fire in the vehicle, and I knew that we were in trouble."
An ambulance rushed the three agents to a nearby hospital.
"To me, it felt like someone just whacked me in the back with a baseball bat as hard as they could," said Bain, recalling the incident, which happened four years ago.
Bain suffered severe bruising, a concussion and burns to his neck and ears. All three agents said they have experienced hearing loss.
"There was smoke, and it was like a grenade going off in the car," Scanzano said.
The company that manufactured the flash-bang grenade that Bain used is Pyrotechnic Specialties Inc., also known as PSI, based in Byron, Georgia.
Earlier this year, PSI, its chief operating officer, David Karlson, and three other defendants were indicted for fraud, conspiracy and money laundering. According to the federal indictment, PSI had a $15 million contract to supply flash-bang grenades to the military before it supplied them to the FBI.
The indictment states the company knew its flash bangs were defective and even knew how to fix those flaws, which would have cost PSI $3.72 per unit.
But, according to the indictment, many of the defective grenades the military was using were relabeled and then sold to the FBI and other local law enforcement agencies.
"In order to sell diversionary charges which had been rejected by, and were otherwise unacceptable to the Department of Defense, the defendants developed a scheme and artifice to defraud, and attempt to defraud, the United States of America, as well as state and local law enforcement agencies," the indictment states.
In a court filing, PSI's attorneys state the "indictment is lacking in detail, vague and/or confusing, however, either in regard to what particular conduct by PSI or Mr. Karlson is alleged to be wrongful; or what particular laws, regulations, rules or other authorities rendered any alleged conduct by PSI or Mr. Karlson wrongful, as well as many other areas."
CNN tried to speak with Karlson at PSI headquarters, but he would not comment. PSI attorney Craig Gillen also declined to comment.
The criminal trial is scheduled to begin in January in Macon, Georgia. No court date has been set for the civil lawsuits.
"It drives me crazy," Scanzano said. "I don't sleep. I have tremendous headaches. I have the doctors claim severe hearing loss, but for all practical purposes, I'm deaf in my left ear."
Andrew J. Stern, a Philadelphia attorney, has filed civil suits against PSI on behalf of the three FBI agents.
"I don't know how someone looks themselves in the mirror every day in light of the kind of things that have happened here," Stern told CNN.
Stern has also filed a civil lawsuit against PSI on behalf of Dean Wagner, a master sergeant in the Army who also said he was seriously injured by a flash-bang grenade that he says prematurely detonated and was manufactured by PSI.
An emotional Wagner told CNN he was days away from finishing his second tour in Iraq when he was putting away his flash bangs. One of them exploded, severely damaging his right hand. The injuries were so severe that he ended up having his hand amputated.
Wagner said PSI officials have no idea how the incident has affected his life.
"They don't have a clue what it's like," Wagner said. "If they could experience that, or someone close to them would have to go through that experience, I'm sure it would be a different story and maybe they wouldn't have allowed it to happen."1: Local Story
Last week, the 13-year-old Warren resident, who is an eighth-grader at Coastal Christian School in Waldoboro, became the first person to bag a moose in Waldo County in 73 years.
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| Patrick Krennerich |
The youngster bagged the 1- to 2-year-old cow, which weighed 550 pounds, at 4:15 p.m. Nov. 3 in Freedom using a 30-06 rifle. The moose was tagged by Paul Flynn at the Freedom General Store. Guide Steve Cole of Thorndike helped Krennerich bag the moose. Krennerich's dad, Nate Fickett, also was on the hunt.
This fall there were 45 moose permits awarded in Wildlife Management District 23, the first time the zone that includes Waldo County has received moose permits since 1935. Krennerich's moose was the first tagged in the county for this season, thus the first in 73 years.
Krennerich was on the first of a several-day hunt with his guide and dad.
"It was enormously exciting for us," said Flynn of tagging the historic moose. "Having [the hunter] be a 13-year-old boy was even better."
Cole operates Spruce Mountain Lodge and Guide Service in Thorndike. Krennerich and Fickett found him via an Internet search. Cole's involvement in the successful hunt was to use a moose call and get Krennerich into an area to find moose.
And what was Krennerich's initial reaction to shooting the moose? "Well after he got done squealing he was pretty happy," said Cole. "It was pretty exciting. We hunted all day and didn't see anything and once it did happen it lasted just a few seconds."
Krennerich has gone deer hunting with his dad for about two years, but had not gotten any animal himself until this moose. This is the second year the youngster applied for a moose permit.
In June, there were about 100,000 applicants for about 3,000 moose permits issued in the state, with only 45 going to the area Krennerich got his moose. Krennerich and his dad would have gone on a hunt by themselves if the youngster's permit was in the northern part of the state, which has plenty of moose. That is not the case in Waldo County, which has a much less dense population of the large animals.
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| Patrick Krennerich, 13, of Warren kneels next to the moose he bagged Nov. 3 in Freedom. It was the first moose tagged in Waldo County since 1935. The one- to two-year-old cow, which weighed 550 pounds, was shot at 4:15 p.m. using a 30-06 rifle. This fall there were 45 moose permits awarded in Wildlife Management District 23, the first time the zone that includes Waldo County has received moose permits in 73 years. The moose was tagged by Paul Flynn at the Freedom General Store. The other moose tagging station in Waldo County is in Liberty. Guide Steve Cole of Thorndike helped Krennerich bag the moose. Krennerich's dad, Nate Fickett, also was on the hunt. (Image courtesy of Nate Fickett) |
The plan was to hunt for the entire week, if necessary, but, as fate would have it, only one day was needed for Krennerich to realize success. The hunt in WMD 23 is for all of November.
Krennerich, his dad and the guide hit the woods early in the morning Nov. 3 and spent the day tracking and calling for moose. Krennerich said he could hear moose, mostly cows, "talking" back to the group, but did not see any animals. Bulls (males) and cows (females) respond differently to calls.
The group sat near one bog for a couple of hours but got cold and decided to keep moving. "It was a long day," Nate said. "It started really cold. The frost was on the ground until noontime. The spot we got the moose was one we hunted earlier in the morning and that was the spot the guide really wanted us to concentrate on because that is where he had seen all the tracks when he did his scouting the week prior."
The guide's hunch proved the perfect formula to hunting success.
The guide began to make moose calls and the group could hear responses. Krennerich heard a bull, which is what he wanted (his permit allowed him to hunt both males and females). "There was a bull chasing the cow because you could hear it and you could see the trees moving and thrashing around," Nate said.
Still waiting for a chance to bag the bigger prize, Krennerich momentarily had his gun pointed at the cow, which had come out of the woods and appeared on a dirt road. However, the youngster still scanned the woods for a chance to see — and shoot — the bull.
Nate and the guide encouraged Krennerich to shoot the cow because, with so few moose in WMD 23, no one knew how many chances they would get. So Krennerich shot the moose twice from 30 yards.
"I was more excited than he was," Nate said.
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| Patrick Krennerich, front, shakes hands with guide Steve Cole after the successful hunt. (Image courtesy of Nate Fickett) |
Krennerich was more matter-of-fact in his response, saying he was just happy to get the moose that the group had gone into the woods and spent all day to find. "If I had a bull tag I would have gone after the bull," the youngster said.
Ultimately, Krennerich's name was drawn for a moose permit out of thousands of applicants and he was lucky enough to get his moose on the first day of his hunt.
Krennerich plans to go deer hunting during the Thanksgiving break. He also hopes to get a turkey during fall or spring turkey season, and he and his dad are planning a bear-hunting trip with Cole for next year.
While this was Krennerich's first personal hunting success, Krennerich has many fish stories to tell, the best being when he caught a 7.5-pound largemouth bass while fishing on Seven Tree Pond in Union two years ago.
"That was really cool," Krennerich said. "I thought I was stuck on a log and then it started moving." He decided to catch and release the fish. "I figured I would like to catch him again but that probably is not going to happen."
Krennerich did not have a camera to take a photo of the fish.
That Krennerich would experience his historic first moose this fall is perhaps fitting on many levels. First, he is a young man with an unwavering passion for the outdoors, including hunting and fishing. He loves being out in nature.
Krennerich is an avid golfer and, in winter, spends as much time as possible on his snowmobile. He has climbed Mount Katahdin three times, the first when he was age 10.
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| For a school project on mummies, Patrick Krennerich has all the ingredients needed to begin the mummifying process on a roaster chicker. |
Krennerich also has dealt with personal challenges during his young life. He is a cancer survivor. He also is civic minded, being recognized by Sen. Susan Collins a few years ago for being one of several local children to take the initiative to raise money and replace their school's worn flag, said his mother, Kelly Fickett.
Krennerich has been through his share of challenges. When he was 6 months old, he was diagnosed with cancer in the form of a malignant neuroblastoma tumor behind his right lung. "They found it after he had viral pneumonia that made his right lung collapse," said his mom. "They were monitoring the lung via regular x-rays and when it had reinflated, they saw the mass behind it. He had major surgery to remove the nectarine-sized tumor and then endured six months of chemotherapy. At the time, this form of cancer was universally fatal if diagnosed after one year of age. He is now completely cancer free, but does still undergo yearly echocardiograms and EKGs to check his heart for late affects of his chemotherapy. So far, nothing has shown up."
The tumor did, however, leave a lasting impact on Krennerich as it pushed on his spine and left a curve in it. That curve puts constant pressure on Krennerich's nerves, which, in turn have left him with migraine headaches, which occasionally can be debilitating. Sometimes the youngster has to spend 10 to 12 hours in bed, and the headaches often leave him physically ill.
Krennerich was homeschooled through the fourth grade. He then enrolled in public school in fifth grade and was immediately pushed ahead to the sixth grade.
While in sixth grade at the Warren Community School, Krennerich and a friend were given the responsibility of raising and lowering the flag every day. In the course of these duties, they noticed the flag was worn and took it upon themselves to raise money and make arrangements to purchase a new flag, which they also arranged to have flown over the United States Capital Building. Sen. Collins came to the school to honor them and had a special ceremony to raise the new flag.
Krennerich loves history and wants to be an archaeologist when he grows up, but is having trouble deciding which part of history to focus on — perhaps either Egyptian or Civil War. Last year he wrote a science paper and choose mummies as his topic. He wrote about all of the different kinds of mummies and even mummified a small roaster chicken to go with the paper.
Krennerich has many collections — coins, stamps, sports trading cards — but his most prized collection is hundreds of books. He has many old books. He enjoys historical fiction and westerns, especially those by author Louis L'Amour. Everywhere he goes, he always has two books with him, the one he is reading at the moment and an extra in case he finishes it.
His grandfather, Howard Vultee of Camden, who used to be an avid hunter, gave Krennerich one of his most prized possessions, a head mount of a grants gazelle from Africa. Vultee calls the youngster a "renaissance man."
Krennerich also loves to go banding wild birds with his uncle Richard Brown of Lunenburg Mass, who is a professor ornithology (study of birds) at Atlantic Union College in South Lancaster, Mass.
Krennerich, who hopes to someday go on a hunting safari, also has a passion for building model airplanes and automobiles.
1: Same Sex Marriage: Adam & Eve? or Adam and Steve?
2: same sex marriage:Adam & Eve or Adam & Steve
Friday, November 7, 2008
2: International Story
Pakistan: Missile strike kills nine
ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A suspected U.S. missile strike in northwestern Pakistan killed nine people Friday, two Pakistani military sources said.
The strike happened about 12:10 p.m. in a village in North Waziristan, a region near the Afghan border that is rife with Islamic extremism, the sources said.
They spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Wes Robertson, acting spokesman at the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan, had no comment on the suspected strike.
Suspected U.S. military strikes against militants in Pakistan have sparked outrage in Pakistan's new national government.
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On Monday, Pakistan's new president, Asif Ali Zardari, and its prime minister, Yusuf Raza Gilani, met with U.S. Gen. David Petraeus, the senior U.S. military commander for a region that includes Pakistan and Afghanistan. Petraeus said he heard complaints from senior Pakistani leaders about U.S. military attacks on targets in Pakistan.
One week ago, on October 31, two suspected U.S. missile strikes killed 28 people in northwestern Pakistan, military sources and local intelligence officials told CNN.
Those attacks happened just days after Pakistan's Foreign Ministry summoned the U.S. ambassador, Anne Patterson, to lodge a complaint about missile attacks it believes have been conducted on Pakistani soil by unmanned U.S. drones.
The ministry told Patterson that such attacks violate Pakistan's sovereignty and should be stopped immediately. The ministry also argued that such attacks have cost lives and undermined public support for Pakistan's counter-terrorism efforts.
Pakistan's parliament passed a resolution last month that condemned any incursion on Pakistani soil by foreign forces.
2: International Story
Mafia suspect arrested during liposuction
Soon after the alleged mobster woke up in a private Italian clinic following liposuction surgery, he discovered he had lost a lot more than weight.
After a year on the run, Domenico Magnoli, 27, finally lost his liberty when he discovered the well-wishers surrounding his bed were police officers, who promptly arrested him, investigators and health officials said Friday.
The plainclothes officers posed as visitors and carried flowers and boxes of chocolates to greet Magnoli after an operation to remove fat from his thighs and stomach late Thursday, Sky TG24 TV reported.
Magnoli had just woken when he was arrested, said Vincenzo Greco, health director of the private La Madonnina clinic, at Calabria, southern Italy. Greco confirmed that officers did not wear their police uniforms.
Paramilitary Carabinieri police in Cosenza said that Magnoli was arrested on a French warrant for alleged drug trafficking. Police said Magnoli, born in Cannes, has links to the Piromalli crime clan in the 'ndrangheta syndicate. He had been a fugitive for about a year.
The 'ndrangheta is a criminal organization based in Calabria which operates cocaine and other drug trafficking rings between South America and Western Europe, and which has outstripped the Sicilian Mafia in power, prosecutors say.
Greco said Magnoli had liposuction six months earlier with the same surgeon at another clinic.Thursday, November 6, 2008
2: Local Story
BELFAST (Nov 3): A 19-year-old male from Stockton Springs was removed from the railing of Veterans Memorial Bridge on Monday morning, Nov. 3, and later admitted to a psychiatric institution.
Belfast Police Chief Jeff Trafton said a call regarding a male straddling the railing of the Route 1 bridge was received at 8:12 a.m. Monday. Three minutes later, the first police units arrived and found the distraught man with one leg on the sidewalk and the other on the outside of the railing.
Patrolman Eric Kelley and a host of other law enforcement personnel from the local department, the Waldo County Sheriff's Department and the Maine State Police talked with the young man until they got close enough to him to remove him from the railing.
Trafton, who was at the scene, said the the man was distraught over several personal issues, including a breakup with his girlfriend.
The male was taken to Waldo County General Hospital in Belfast for an evaluation and then admitted to a treatment program, Trafton said.
The last person to contemplate jumping from the bridge actually did it and survived unscathed in August 2005. The 19-year-old from Puerto Rico swam ashore after his jump and was taken to a hospital for evaluation. A youth jumped from the bridge with a noose around his neck in 2003 and survived, though he was seriously injured. Several others were also talked down from the bridge in recent years.2: Local Story
Private investigator, retired sea captain build case against Hofland
STOCKTON SPRINGS (Nov 6): Almost a year ago, retired sea Capt. George Perkins of Stockton Springs hired private investigator Gary Boynton to help him document his alleged loss of money, family heirlooms, construction equipment, firearms and other items during a time that alleged gunman Randall Hofland, of Searsport, worked as Perkins' caregiver.
Boynton has gathered a binder full of documents tracking Hofland's past, Perkins' financial records and other information that he has submitted to the Maine Attorney General's Office.
Boynton said he believes Hofland will face charges in connection with his involvement with Perkins; no charges have been filed to date.
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| Gary Boynton of World-Wide Investigations, left, and retired sea Capt. George Perkins (Photo by Tanya Mitchell) |
Boynton, a former lieutenant with the Waldo County Sheriff's Department is an private investigator with his company, World-Wide Investigations. This past year he has learned everything he could about Hofland.
It all started in early 2001, when Perkins said he started to feel sick. In a matter of months, his motor skills declined, and soon after, Perkins was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease.
"All the doctors said I was dying," remembered Perkins. "They started upping my doses of morphine."
With Perkins becoming increasingly incapacitated and unable to manage on his own, Boynton said Perkins' relatives decided how best to assist Perkins with his needs.
Initially, brother Mark Perkins came to Maine from his home in Massachusetts to care for his brother, said Boynton. Mark eventually returned to the Bay State, Boynton said, but Mark convinced his friend, Hofland, to serve as his brother's live-in caregiver.
Hofland, who Boynton said was originally from the San Diego, Calif., area, moved to New Hampshire as an adult, where he met Wendy, the woman who eventually became his wife and the mother of his three children.
Boynton said Hofland remained in New Hampshire until he and his wife divorced, a separation that Boynton claims was contentious.
Shortly after the divorce was final, Boynton said Hofland took a computer repair course in the Boston area. That's where, according to Boynton, Hofland met Mark Perkins.
"After Hofland left his wife, he moved in with Mark [Perkins] and lived down there for a while," he said.
Mark Perkins was looking for someone to care for his brother in Maine, and Boynton said Hofland was his obvious choice. Hofland allegedly lived with George Perkins from 2001 through May 2004.
George Perkins' mother and sister assisted him with his doctor visits, which took him from Belfast to Boston. After almost three years of ill health, Perkins met Dr. Agha Raza at Waldo County General Hospital, the man Perkins credits for giving him his life back. Perkins said Raza immediately sent him to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota.
Raza believed Perkins did not have Alzheimer's, but rather cerebrospinal fluid leak. Perkins said spinal fluid was draining out through small leaks in his spine, causing the position of his brain to shift and affecting his ability to move, talk and walk.
Once Perkins underwent a treatment at the Mayo Clinic in which his white blood cells were used to stop the spinal leaks, he said he started regaining control of his basic functions within 20 minutes. With many hours of therapy and continued monitoring of his spine, Perkins reports that he has a clean bill of health.
"It was like I went from 2 years old to 60," recalled Perkins.
While Perkins was being treated at the Mayo Clinic for five weeks in April and May 2004, Perkins said Hofland was supposed to be moving out of his home back in Stockton Springs.
Perkins believes his valuables were taken, and with the help of Boynton, he is seeking to get them back.2: Local Story
School cop: 'First priority is safety of students'
BELFAST (Nov 6): Had Randall Hofland entered Belfast Area High School with a gun in his hand last week, he would likely have encountered an armed, uniformed police officer named Greg Stearns.
He has followed the developments at the Stockton Springs Elementary School with great interest. “Something like that can happen anywhere,” he said Monday in the office of Principal Butch Arthers. “It keeps us aware and alert.”
Stearns' position was created last year after several incidents at the high school, including a fire set in a bathroom, a bomb threat and a loaded gun that was brought to the school.
Arthers said, “Greg's everyday presence makes people realize they will have a cop to deal with [if something goes wrong]."
Asked to describe the school's readiness for a volatile situation such as Hofland's appearance in Stockton Springs, Stearns and Arthers said training begun after last year's incidents is ongoing. And there are plans being made to make the building even more secure.
Arthers said the school was locked down for a day after Hofland allegedly pointed a gun at a Searsport officer during a seat belt safety check Oct. 23 and took off. That means the exterior doors were locked and regularly monitored with security cameras in case he showed up there. Anyone wanting to enter the school had to be assisted by a staff member during the lockdown, Arthers said.
Should an armed or undesirable person get into the school, Stearns said, “Our first priority is the safety of the students; the safety of 650 [students] is more important than one gunman.”
Stearns has completed an FBI negotiations course and said he would begin negotiating with the intruder. “Negotiations do work,” he said. “Sometimes they take a minute or two, sometimes they take hours. The hope is that no one's gun is used.”
The intruder's weapon is, of course, a major concern, Stearns said. “If [the gunman] is ordered to put the gun down and refuses to do it and threatens someone with it, we have to act on that.”
Local police have had training in what is called an “active shooter” situation, in which a gunman has entered a public space like a school. Arthers said the school's job in that situation is to get everyone into classrooms and lock the doors and let the police take over.
He said students are urged to get into the nearest room as quickly as possible because anyone in the hall during an active shooter emergency is considered a suspect.
As soon as possible, Arthers said, all students and staff in the building are evacuated according to a plan that is still being worked on. Basically, it means everyone leaves the building and gets on school buses for a trip to Troy Howard Middle School.
Arthers said school personnel have been instructed on who will lock what exterior doors in an emergency. He stressed the school's job is to get everyone behind locked doors and let the police take care of the intruder.
Though BAHS has bulked up its security since last year's episodes, Arthers said more changes may be coming. He is currently working on a plan to reconfigure the main entrance to require all visitors to first enter the central office.
The building now has a long canopy that leads to a small foyer with two sets of doors. Under Arthers' plan, the office and lobby would be extended toward the parking lot, creating a larger foyer. The exterior doors would lead to the foyer and would always be open. The second set of doors would be locked except when students are arriving for the day or leaving in the afternoon.
Staff members, including Stearns, would be stationed at the doors at those times.
A door from the foyer would lead into the central office, where a visitor would sign in. The visitor could then enter the building. The plan has not yet been presented to the school board, Arthers said.
Stearns said, “Nothing is perfect or foolproof,” and “every situation is different.” He said the Stockton Springs situation “was handled wonderfully, by everyone.”
The SRO position is working well, both men said. “I think I'm being accepted [by students and staff],” Stearns offered. “I'm a small piece of a huge team.”
Arthers added, “I've said all along, it had to be the right person selected for this job. Greg is one of the right people, and that's a key.”
2: What Should Happen To Them ?
Men accused of plotting to kill Obama indicted
Two men accused of plotting to kill Barack Obama and other African-Americans have been indicted on charges including making threats against a presidential candidate, federal officials said Wednesday.
Paul Schlesselman, left, and Daniel Cowart are accused of planning to kill more than 100 African-Americans.
A federal grand jury in Tennessee indicted Daniel Cowart, 20, and Paul Schlesselman, 18, on the threat charges and with illegal possession of a sawed-off shotgun and conspiracy to rob a federally licensed gun dealer.
According to court documents, Cowart and Schlesselman -- who authorities said are self-described white supremacists -- planned to kill more than 100 African-Americans, including 14 who would be beheaded.
They planned to cap the killing spree by charging at Obama with a car, firing from the windows as they went, dressed in white tuxedoes and top hats, the documents said.
The two were arrested last month. According to an affidavit from a federal agent who questioned them, they backed out of an October 21 attempt to rob a gun dealer after spotting two cars and a dog.
They shot out the window of a church on their way back to Cowart's grandfather's home in Tennessee, where they were arrested the next day, authorities said.
Federal law enforcement sources said there was no evidence that Cowart, of Bells, Tennessee, and Schlesselman, of West Helena, Arkansas, had any details of Obama's schedule.
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Messages left late Wednesday for the attorneys of Cowart and Schlesselman were not immediately returned.
The two are being held without opportunity for bail.
1: National Story
Airline crew subdues passenger with duct tape
RALEIGH, North Carolina (AP) -- An airline crew used duct tape to keep a passenger in her seat because they say she became unruly, fighting flight attendants and grabbing other passengers, forcing the flight to land in North Carolina.
The tape of 1,001 uses now has another one -- keeping unruly airline passengers in their seat.
Maria Esther Castillo of Oswego, N.Y., is due in court Thursday, charged with resisting arrest and interfering with the operations of a flight crew aboard United Airlines Flight 645, from Puerto Rico to Chicago.
Castillo, 45, struck a flight attendant on the buttocks with the back of her hand during Saturday's flight, FBI Special Agent Peter Carricato said in a criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Charlotte.
She also stood and fell onto the head of a blind passenger and later started pulling the person's hair, the complaint stated.
Ankle cuffs kept slipping off Castillo, so the flight crew and two passengers were forced to use duct tape to keep her in her seat, the complaint states.
She calmed as the pilot diverted the flight to Charlotte/Douglas International Airport, but became disruptive again when authorities boarded the plane to remove her, authorities said.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
2: Death Penalty : Keep It Or Kill It ?????
2: School Uniforms: Sounds Cool or NO WAY FOOL!!
1: Death Penalty- Keep It or Kill It
1: National Story
When Tuesday's ballots are counted, the United States will have elected either its first African-American president, or its oldest first-term president and first female vice president.
June Smith, an iReporter in Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania, said there was no line when she arrived at her polling place.
"I was surprised," she said.
iReporter Jason Dinant also said there were no lines at his polling place in Syracuse, New York.
But reports like Smith's and Dinant's were uncommon. Most iReporters were said there were long lines and waits as they prepared to cast their ballots.
Indeed, footage from Shoesmith Elementary in Chicago, Illinois -- where Obama voted -- and from Albright United Methodist Church in Phoenix, Arizona -- where McCain voted -- showed plenty of voters in line besides the presidential candidates.
iReporter Lindsey Miller, 23, votes at the same polling place as Obama. She said Secret Service agents were checking names off a list and using metal-detecting wands on some would-be voters as they entered the polling place. The line was around the block at 6 a.m., she said.
"A lot of people were in pajamas. I know I was -- not the time you want to be on national TV," the University of Chicago graduate student said.
iReporter Lynn Linnemeier said it took her about two hours to vote in southwest Atlanta.
"The line wrapped all the way around the front of the building and into the back parking lot," said Linnemeier, whose 9- and 16-year-old granddaughters woke up early to join her at the polls.
2: International Story
Strangled teen left on Brooklyn curb with trash
She was just 16 years old, a beautiful girl, straight-A student, with her whole life ahead of her. She hoped to become a nurse.
Chanel Petro-Nixon, 16, disappeared in broad daylight and her body was found in a trash bag.
Brooklyn teenager Chanel Petro-Nixon left her family home at 6:30 p.m. on Father's Day 2006, to walk to an Applebee's restaurant a few blocks away. She'd planned to meet friends there and fill out an application for a summer job at Applebee's.
Friends say she never showed up. No one ever saw her alive again. Four days later, her body was found in another area of Brooklyn, several miles from her home. She'd been strangled and stuffed into a large garbage bag left to be collected with the morning trash on the sidewalk in front of a brownstone.
Chanel went missing in broad daylight in an extremely busy area of Brooklyn. Family, police and community members are certain that someone must have seen something, but no witnesses have come forward.
Also troubling to police: The coroner says Chanel died within 24 hours of her body being found on June 22. She went missing on June 18. So, where was Chanel for the 48 hours she was alive but missing?
She was strangled, but not sexually assaulted, according to police. Robbery does not seem to be a motive. But Chanel's cell phone and the tennis shoes she was wearing are missing.
Chanel's father, Garvin Nixon, insists that his daughter would not stay out after dark without calling home.
"When we called, she always answered her phone, or would call back immediately within a few minutes to tell us where she was," he said.
Nixon tried calling his daughter to check on her within an hour after she'd left the house. When he didn't get a return call and couldn't reach her, he and Chanel's mother began calling her friends. Her friends had not seen or heard from Chanel either, even though they'd been calling her cell phone repeatedly and leaving urgent messages.
Authorities speculate that perhaps she went with someone she knew and trusted, which could explain why no witnesses observed any struggle between Chanel and her abductor.
Police have investigated Chanel's MySpace page, searching for clues to whom she may have communicated with before leaving her home the day she disappeared.
One theory is that her slaying is linked to that of another local teenager, Jennifer Moore. Like Chanel, she was strangled and her partially-clothed body was found in a garbage bag. But unlike Chanel, Jennifer Moore was raped.
Jennifer Moore's suspected killer, Draymond Coleman, was arrested and police have not ruled him out as a possible suspect in Chanel's slaying.
Police are asking anyone who finds Chanel's cell phone or sneakers to call the anonymous tip line at 1-800-577-TIPS. The cell phone is a Silver Sanyo Sprint phone, model 8200. The shoes are size 6½, white Nike Air Jordan retro sneakers with green trim and the number 14 on them.
A reward of $34,000 is being offered for any information leading to the arrest of the person or people responsible for Chanel's death.
Monday, November 3, 2008
1: School Uniforms: Sounds cool or NO WAY FOOL!
I think that kids should be able to express themselves through their outfits. All though, uniforms could also be a good idea because kids would not be able to make fun of other people's outfits.
1: Local Story
STOCKTON SPRINGS (Oct 31): After evading police for more than a week, Randall Hofland was arrested Friday morning, Oct. 31, after he allegedly held 11 children hostage at gunpoint in a classroom at Stockton Springs Elementary School.
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Hofland, 55, was reportedly tackled outside a fifth-grade classroom by a state trooper, who was one of the first police officers to arrive at the school.
Waldo County Jail
Randall Hofland after his arrest on Friday, Oct. 31. (Image courtesy of Waldo County Jail)
Maine State Police Lt. Gerard Madden said Hofland was armed with a loaded, semi-automatic handgun, but that there were no shots fired and that none of the children were physically injured. State officials in Augusta described the gun as a 10 millimeter-caliber Glock handgun.
The Waldo County Regional Communications Center received a call around 8:40 a.m. reporting a man was inside the Stockton Springs Elementary School with a gun, Madden said.
Public Safety Commissioner Anne Jordan, at a press conference held later Friday in Augusta, said the 911 call was made at 8:42 a.m. and that the first police officers arrived at 8:45 a.m.
As of late Friday morning, it remained unclear how Hofland was able to enter the school.
For the week that Hofland was being sought by police, SAD 56 was on heightened alert and had a plan for all exterior doors at the school to locked. Visitors were to only be allowed in by a secretary or other staff member. That plan was in place Friday morning at the Stockton school.
Hofland, though, went into a fifth-grade classroom where there were initially 11 students. Hofland released two of the students, Madden said, and the remaining nine students were in the room with him when the first police officers arrived.
Madden said the school has a lockdown plan that went into effect immediately. All students were locked in their respective classrooms and remained there until police officers arrived on scene.
Tina Shute
Police officers and other officials gather Friday morning at Stockton Springs Elementary School. (Photo by Tina Shute)
Once the officers secured the classroom where Hofland was stationed while the rest of the school was evacuated. The children were taken to Searsport Elementary School.
Hofland was reportedly saying a lot of things to the students, according to Madden, some of which related to his encounter with police a week earlier at a motor-vehicle checkpoint in Searsport. Madden said he did not know exactly what Hofland said to the students.
Detective Jason Andrews of the Maine State Police was one of the first officers on the scene, and Madden said Hofland let the remaining children go after Andrews began speaking with him. Andrews and the other officers were not in the classroom with Hofland; they were talking with him from outside the classroom.
Steve Fuller
Lt. Gerard Madden of the Maine State Police speaks with the media Friday, Oct. 31, outside Stockton Springs Elementary School. (Photo by Steve Fuller)
Madden said it was a credit to the officers involved that they were able to talk Hofland out of doing any harm to the students. Madden also gave credit to the school for having a lockdown plan in place and following it.
Maine Department of Public Safety Spokesman Steve McCausland said Hofland gave the gun to one of the children in the classroom before he was taken into custody.
Hofland was placed under arrest at 9:08 a.m., according to McCausland. Hofland was arrested on warrants from last week, when he allegedly pointed a handgun at a Searsport police officer at a safety checkpoint on Route 1. That alleged incident occurred late Thursday, Oct. 23, and Hofland's whereabouts had not been known since then.
Maine Department of Public Safety
Randall Hofland, seen here in his driver's license photo. (Image courtesy of Maine Department of Public Safety)
Hofland was taken to the Waldo County Jail following his arrest, and will face additional charges for the alleged incidents at the school. Madden said those charges will be determined after consultation with the District Attorney's office.
In addition to the Maine State Police, officers from the Waldo County Sheriff's, Stockton Springs Police and Searsport Police departments responded Friday morning, as did Lincolnville Police Chief Ron Young.
The Maine State Police Tactical Team was called, Madden said, but Hofland was in custody before it arrived. Madden said he did not know if Hofland had made any demands or had threatened to harm himself.
Madden also said he did not know whether Hofland had any ties to the school or the particular classroom into which he went.
Madden said the Stockton school was closed for the rest of the day. Interim SAD 56 Superintendent Ray Freve said a decision was made to send all other students home as well, with Searsport District Middle and High school students being dismissed first and then the other elementary schools (in Searsport and Frankfort) being dismissed second.
Although many Stockton Elementary students had been picked up by their parents in Searsport, those who hadn't were sent home on their regular bus with their regular bus drivers. "We wanted to make it as natural as possible," said Freve of the dismissal plans.
Freve said he met with some parents of Stockton students in Searsport. The district's crisis intervention team was activated as a result of the incident, Freve said, and the team was scheduled to meet Friday afternoon to plan a response.
Freve said the crisis intervention team will be available to meet with students, staff members and parents. Help has also been offered from other sources, including the Department of Education.
Education Commissioner Susan Gendron offered any assistance the district wants, which Freve said could include additional guidance counselors from other school districts and psychologists.
School officials will review their response to the situation, Freve said. Freve, who has worked in education for more than three decades, said he didn't recall having ever seen a situation like the one that unfolded Friday in Stockton Springs.
Hofland, of Searsport, was the subject of a weeklong manhunt after he reportedly pointed a gun at Searsport police officer Oct. 23, during a seat belt safety check.
Police had asked the public to remain vigilant while they continued to look for Hofland, who was described as 5 feet 11 inches tall and weighing about 200 pounds.
SAD 56 schools were closed Friday, Oct. 24 while the search was under way. Searsport Police Chief Dick LaHaye said there were concerns about children waiting in their driveways for school buses during the manhunt.
Hofland has lived in the area for about seven years, according to LaHaye. An Internet search of Hofland's name turned up a number of postings on message boards, one of which was the Web site for the Union Leader newspaper in Manchester, N.H.
A story posted on the Union Leader's site June 16, 2008, told about a New Hampshire State Police "sobriety checkpoint." During a four-hour period, 187 drivers were stopped and six were arrested.
One person who posted comments on the story identified himself as "R. Hofland" from "Stockton, ME." His postings made clear his opposition to such stops.
"Only a fool would believe this pattern of 'stops' is not a violation of the intent of the 4th Amendment (and of the Bill of Rights in general), yet our Supreme Courts (NH and US for sure) have condoned these laws and their intrusions on our privacy and property," the poster, identified as "R. Hofland," wrote. "Those that tolerate it are doomed to a lifetime of such intrusions."
"R. Hofland" said he had been stopped at a similar checkpoint several years earlier while working in California. He said he had refused to produce his driver's license and registration when asked to do so. "R. Hofland" also said he was recording all of the conversations he had with police officers at that stop.
When another poster criticized "R. Hofland" for his statements, "R. Hofland" replied that such stops represent "an avalanche of seditious conspiracy by our government against the Rights of The People!"
Thursday, October 2, 2008
1: National Story
LOS ANGELES — A commuter train engineer sent a cell phone text message 22 seconds before his commuter train crashed head-on into freight train in Southern California last month, killing 25 people, federal investigators said Wednesday.
Cell phone records of Robert Sanchez, who was among the dead, show he received a text message a minute and 20 seconds before the crash and sent one about a minute later, the National Transportation Safety Board said in a news release.
The finding led Federal Railroad Administrator Joseph H. Boardman to announce an emergency order prohibiting use of personal electronic devices by rail workers operating trains and in other key jobs. The order must be published in the Federal Register to take effect. Spokesman Rob Kulat said that would happen "soon." California regulators have already enacted a ban.
Investigators are looking into why Sanchez ran through a red signal before the Metrolink train collided with a Union Pacific train Sept. 12 on a curve in the San Fernando Valley community of Chatsworth. The time of the final text suggests it is unlikely he had become incapacitated for some reason.