Josh Powell: "I'm sorry, goodbye" note left before killing himself, kids in house blast

Wash. - "I'm sorry, goodbye," is what Josh Powell wrote in a farewell note to his attorney just minutes before police say he set fire to his home Sunday, killing himself and his two young sons.

For the last two years, Powell has been scrutinized in the media, hammered by police and questioned by judges, prosecutors and social workers since the day his wife vanished in 2009. 

The alleged murder-suicide occurred just days after he was denied custody and ordered to undergo a psycho-sexual evaluation.

The deadly fire at Powell's home brought another twist in the public scandal that began when Susan Powell vanished. The case became a saga of accusations of sex and lies and now the loss of two young boys in caught in the middle.

A social worker brought the two boys to Powell's home Sunday for what was supposed to be a supervised visit. They rushed towards the home, leaving the social worker behind. By the time she got to the door, Powell had locked her out, Graham Fire and Rescue Chief Gary Franz said.

The social worker called her supervisors to report she smelled gas. Moments later, the home burst into flames. The blast was so intense, neighbors said it rattled their houses.

The Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Sgt. Ed Troyer said it seemed some sort of accelerant was used to make the house burn faster. He said that emails Powell sent just before the blaze seemed to confirm Powell planned the fire.

Susan Powell, 28, was reported missing Dec. 7, 2009, after she failed to show up to her work in Utah.

Josh Powell quickly became a person of interest in the case, but he had repeatedly denied any involvement in her disappearance, saying he was out camping with his two sons when she went missing. He was the only "person of interest" in the case.

"I would never even hurt her," a tearful Josh Powell told CBS' The Early Show in August. "People who know me know that I could never hurt Susan," he said.

On Sunday, the attorney for Susan Powell's parents, Chuck and Judy Cox, told the Associated Press the children had started talking to the grandparents about things they remembered from the night their mother disappeared.

"They were beginning to verbalize more," the attorney Steve Downing said. "The oldest boy talked about that they went camping and that Mommy was in the trunk. Mom and Dad got out of the car and Mom disappeared."

In a statement Sunday night from West Valley City police, authorities said the investigation will remain ongoing as they work to find Susan Powell. It said Utah police were headed to Washington state to work with investigators there in the continuing probe.

Kirk Graves, 39, of West Jordan, Utah, whose wife is Josh Powell's sister, said they were stunned by the news.

"We never contemplated the idea he would do something like this. You just don't expect it from a father," he said. "His world was falling apart around him and he was going to lose his boys and get arrested for Susan's disappearance. He's a narcissist and he has no love for anyone but himself."more information...

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Source: http://www.cbsnews.com

Suspect held in fatal shooting at UIC Medical Center

Murder charges are pending for a hospital employee wanted for allegedly shooting a woman to death in the University of Illinois Medical Center hospital parking garage early Friday.

A campus police officer recognized him during a traffic stop on the heels of a multi-hour “roof to basement” man hunt at the Near West Side hospital.

The Cook County Medical Examiner’s office identified the victim as 48-year-old Angela Bonds-Roberts of 3400 block of S. Harlem in North Riverside. She was pronounced dead at the scene at 1:40 a.m.

About 6:31 a.m., a UIC police officer making a traffic stop at 14th Street and Damen Avenue recognized the occupant of the vehicle as the person of interest in the medical center slaying, UIC Associate Chancellor of Public Affairs Mark Rosati said.

The 47-year-old man was arrested near Hoyne Avenue and 13th Street after a brief foot chase, Rosati said. Police recovered the weapon allegedly used in the shooting in the 2200 block of West 13th Street, he said.

He has not yet been charged and will be taken to the UIC Police headquarters for processing, Rosati said.

Police first responded after a gunman allegedly shot the woman about 11:40 p.m. in the garage 1800 block of West Taylor Street, officials said. Police initially thought he may have headed back into the hospital, prompting police to respond to the incident as a barricade situation.

A source said both the man in custody and the victim worked as maintenance workers at the hospital. As the woman was walking toward the parking garage after her shift had ended, the man approached her and fired shots, striking her in the head and torso.

Fire department crews were able to reach the woman shot, Chicago Police Sgt. Al Stinites said, but she was dead at the scene.

A “massive response” and police search did not turn up any indication that the shooter ever re-entered the hospital, Rosati said in an earlier press conference outside the hospital.

“A very large presence of Chicago and UIC police have conducted a very thorough, room by room, top to bottom, roof to basement search of the hospital going through multiple times and have found no sign that anyone was there who shouldn’t be, Rosati said.

Sources said the woman was in the head with a long-barreled handgun. She was also employed at the hospital, and the shooter was a housekeeper employed by the hospital for 15 years, according to Rosati, who said he had knowledge of the hospital grounds.

Chicago police had earlier recovered the gunman’s car near the hospital campus during the lockdown.

The hospital has resumed normal operations Friday morning, Rosati said. He would not comment on whether security cameras in the garage or the hospital may have captured footage of the shooting or the gunman.

No one else was reported injured and no one was taken hostage in the incident, officials said.

The hours-long search started to wrap up shortly after 5 a.m. Police made multiple sweeps through every room and through a network of tunnels connecting buildings on the hospital campus as a police helicopter beamed down a spotlight from above.

Police remain in the area Friday morning, searching the grounds around a building in the 1200 block of South Damen Avenue Friday morning looking for evidence. Police tape surrounds the side and backyard of the building.

Class is not in session at the nearby University of Illinois at Chicago campus because of the Thanksgiving holiday, but UIC officials kept students and community members updated on the situation through a series of text messages, e-mails and online alerts.more information...

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Source: http://www.suntimes.com

Egyptian cabinet resigns amid clashes between protesters, military

Egypt's army-appointed government handed in its resignation Monday, trying to stem a spiraling crisis as thousands of protesters in Cairo's Tahrir Square clashed for the third straight day with security forces in violence that has killed at least 24 people and posed the most sustained challenge yet to the rule of the military.

The crowds in Tahrir, which had grown to well over 10,000 after nightfall, broke out into cheers with the news of the cabinet's move, chanting “God is great.” But there was no sign the concession would break their determination to protest until the military steps down completely and hands over power to a civilian government.

Beating drums, the protesters quickly resumed their chants of “the people want the ouster of the field marshal,” a reference to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of the council of generals that has ruled the country since the Feb. 11 fall of authoritarian President Hosni Mubarak.

The Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, which Tantawi heads, did not immediately announce whether it would accept the mass resignation. Many Egyptians had seen the government, headed by Prime Minister Essam Sharaf, as a mere facade for them military and either unable or unwilling to press ahead with democratic reform or take action to stem increasing turmoil and economic crisis around the country.

The anger, however, has ultimately been focused on the generals themselves, who many activists accuse of acting as abusively as Mubarak's regime and of intending to maintain their grip on power.

The turmoil comes only a week before Egypt is to start key parliamentary elections, which many had hoped would be a landmark in the transition to a democracy. Instead, they have been overshadowed by the standoff over the military. Activists believe that no matter who wins the vote, the generals will dominate the next government as much as they did Sharaf's. The military says it will hand over power only after presidential elections, which it has vaguely said will be held in late 2012 or early 2013.

If Monday's resignations are carried out, a crucial question will be who will replace the Cabinet. Some in the square demand the military immediately hand over all its authority to a national unity government made up of multiple factions.

“We are not clearing the square until there is a national salvation government that is representative and has full responsibility,” said activist Rami Shaat.

Violence has steadily escalated the clashes began Saturday, when police tried to clear several hundred protesters in the square. Repeated attempts to clear the protesters from Tahrir have failed, and a death toll that quadrupled overnight from Sunday has only brought out more and angrier protesters. The protests have spread to other cities around the country, including the coastal city of Alexandria, where one of the deaths took place.

Throughout the day on Monday, black-garbed security forces fired tear gas, rubber bullets and — many protesters said — live ammunition at young men in the streets around Tahrir. The protesters hurled stones and threw back the gas canisters that clattered across the pavement, streaming stinging clouds.

Sounds of gunfire crackled around the square, and a constant stream of injured protesters — bloodied from rubber bullets or overcome by gas — were brought into makeshift clinics set out on sidewalks, where volunteer doctors scrambled from patient to patient.

“I will keep coming back until they kill me,” said Mohammed Sayyed, his head bandaged from a rubber bullet wound. “The people are frustrated. Nothing changed for the better.”

“What does it mean, transfer power in 2013? It means simply that he wants to hold on to his seat,” said Mr. Sayyed, holding two rocks in his hand, ready to throw, as he took cover from tear gas in a side street off Tahrir.more information...

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Source: http://www.theglobeandmail.com

Iowa's Lake Delhi Dam Bursts Due to Flooding

The Lake Delhi dam in eastern Iowa failed Saturday as rising floodwater from the Maquoketa River ate a 30-foot-wide hole in the earthen dam, causing water to drop 45 feet to the river below and threatening the small town of Hopkinton.

Northeast Iowa has been inundated with torrential rain in recent days with as much as 9 inches being reported in some locations. The heavy rain has pushed the Maquoketa River to 23.92 feet - more than 2 feet above its previous record of 21.66 feet in 2004.

Jack Klaus, a spokesman with the Delaware County emergency management office, said warning sirens were sounding in Hopkinton as water began to surround homes there Saturday afternoon. Areas below and above the dam had been evacuated, including numerous cabins and homes - as many as 700 - above the dam because of high water.

"There's going to be significant losses of property there," Klaus said.

Some campers and residents on the lake had to be rescued overnight. Some people suffered some bumps and bruises but Klaus said no serious injuries were reported.

About 20 miles farther downstream in Monticello, the Jones County Fair was being held. The fairgrounds are along the river on the northside of Monticello, a town of about 3,600 people, and activities and concerts for later Saturday were canceled.

There also were some nearby neighborhoods that could be affected.

North of Lake Delhi, the river flooded several buildings in downtown Manchester and utility service was turned off to about 50 homes affected by the flooding.

Klaus said there was significant damage to county roads and the county had run out of barricades to block them off.

"We're warning people to stay off the roads," Klaus said. "We can't guarantee their condition."

Donna Dubberke, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Davenport, said areas below the dam will see an initial crest in the river caused by the dam's failure followed by a secondary crest as the high water above the dam made its way downstream.

"There will be initial wave from the sudden shot of water and a secondary shot behind it from the rainfall," she said.more information...

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Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/

Statue of Liberty evacuated, reopened

New York's Statue of Liberty was evacuated Wednesday after an elevator malfunctioned and filled the area with smoke, said the National Parks of New York Harbor.

"The motor on our elevator started smoking," said Mindi Rambo, spokeswoman for the National Parks of New York Harbor.

Rambo said it was not immediately known how many people were evacuated, but that "based on our experience several hundred would have been within the monument at this time of day during the summer."

"While we did have to evacuate the monument, the island itself remains open," she said.

The New York Fire Department was on scene and once they had given the all clear the statue would be reopened.

The Statue of Liberty was closed to the public because of safety concerns after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. The crown was reopened a year ago while the museum gallery and observation deck at the statue's base were reopened to the public in 2004.

The statue was a gift to the United States from France in 1886 and it is visited by several million people a year.

A symbol of freedom and democracy and a prominent draw for tourists, the statue was one of the first sights seen by millions of immigrants who arrived in New York harbor in the 19th and 20th centuries.more information...

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Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/

Top Secret America: Post documents growth of intelligence since 9/11

Since the terror attacks of Sept. 11, top-secret intelligence gathering by the government has grown so unwieldy and expensive that no one really knows what it cost and how many people are involved, The Washington Post reported Monday.

A two-year investigation by the newspaper uncovered what it termed a "Top Secret America" that's mostly hidden from public view and largely lacking in oversight.

In its first installment of a series of reports, the Post said there are now more than 1,200 government organizations and more than 1,900 private companies working on counterterrorism, homeland security and intelligence in some 10,000 locations across the U.S.

Some 854,000 people — or nearly 1 1/2 times the number of people who live in Washington — have top-secret security clearance, the paper said.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates told the Post that he doesn't believe the massive bureaucracy of government and private intelligence has grown too large to manage, but it is sometimes hard to get precise information.

"Nine years after 9/11, it makes sense to sort of take a look at this and say, 'OK, we've built tremendous capability, but do we have more than we need?" he said.

The head of the CIA, Leon Panetta, said he knows that with the growing budget deficits the level of spending on intelligence will likely be reduced and he's at work on a five-year plan for the agency.

The White House had been anticipating the Post report  and said before it was published that the Obama administration came into office aware of the problems and is trying to fix them.

The administration also released a memo from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence  listing what it called eight "myths" and intended as a point-by-point answer to the charges the Post series was expected to raise.

Among them was that contractors represent the bulk of the intelligence workforce. The memo put the number at 28 percent, or less than a third.

The memo said that 70 percent of the intelligence budget  is spent on "contracts, not contractors."

"Those contracts cover major acquisitions such as satellites and computer systems, as well as commercial activities such as rent, food service, and facilities maintenance and security," the memo said.

The Post said its investigation also found that:
_In the area around Washington, 33 building complexes — totaling some 17 million square feet of space — for top-secret intelligence work are under construction or have been built since 9/11.
_Many intelligence agencies are doing the same work, wasting money and resources on redundancy.
_So many intelligence reports are published each year that many are routinely ignored.

"There has been so much growth since 9/11 that getting your arms around that — not just for the DNI, but for any individual, for the director of the CIA, for the secretary of defense — is a challenge," Gates  told the Post.more information...

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Source:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Obama Deception Censored? Fall Of The Republic Alex Jones New Hit

Obama Deception Censored? Fall Of The Republic Alex Jones New Hit – Alex Jones the man behind controversial documentaries like “The Obama Deception: The Mask Comes Off” and “Fall of the Republic: Vol. 1, The Presidency of Barack H. Obama” has released a Youtube video claiming that his work is being censored.
Jones who is a well known conservative radio host recently released his 2009 film on the popular video hosting site and apparently it has been erased.



Here is what the conspiracy theorist had to say about his vanishing clips:
“This was a criminal act, and You Tube needs to investigate, track the IP and find out who did it.The Obama Deception was getting more and more popular, and the establishment doesn’t like the fact that it exposes the Left-Right paradigm and identifies Obama as a puppet.”

If Alex Jones really wanted to expose Obama and explained his ideas behind the “New World Order” why not re-upload The Obama Deception: The Mask Comes Off to You Tube and Facebook? more information...

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Source: http://www.thespreadit.com/

Tsunami warning retracted

There are no reports of damage from two earthquakes that hit off the coast of Papua New Guinea overnight.

The more powerful of the two measured 7.2 on the Richter scale and struck about 115 kilometres east of Kandrian on the island of New Britain.

The national quake agency in neighbouring Indonesia briefly issued a tsunami warning after the second quake, before retracting it.more information...

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Source: http://www.abc.net.au/