Employee, 48, shoots 4, self at LA-area office

A man who shot four people, killing two, at a utility office east of Los Angeles before turning the gun on himself was a 48-year-old company employee from Southern California, authorities said Saturday.


Investigators identified the shooter as Andre Turner of Norco in Riverside County and ruled that his death was a suicide, Los Angeles County coroner's Lt. Larry Dietz told the Associated Press.


The two other men killed were Henry Serrano, 56, of Walnut and Robert Lindsay, 53, of Chino, Dietz said.


Two other shooting victims, a man and a woman whose names were not released, were in critical condition at a hospital, the Sheriff's Department said in a statement.


All five people worked for Southern California Edison in the same area of the same building at an office park in Irwindale, a small industrial city east of Los Angeles, authorities said. Authorities have released no information on a possible motive.


A phone number listed in Turner's name rang unanswered Saturday morning.


Horrified employees barricaded themselves behind locked doors and hid under desks Friday afternoon as Turner walked through the office firing a semi-automatic handgun, authorities said.


The complex is surrounded by a fence and patrolled by a security guard. Employees need a security card to get into the building, said Gil Alexander, a spokesman for Southern California Edison. About 230 employees work in the building where the shooting took place, and about 1,100 employees work in the complex.
The utility's office is in a complex of buildings that also includes a business called California Lighting Sales.
Cindy Gutierrez, the controller for that company, said employees there didn't hear gunshots and didn't realize anything was amiss until building management announced over the intercom that everyone should stay indoors.
Two nearby schools were locked for about two hours after the shooting and no one on the campuses was hurt.
Irwindale is a city of about 1,400 residents in the San Gabriel Valley, 22 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. It is home to the Irwindale Speedway auto racetrack and large rock and gravel quarries.
Southern California Edison is one of its largest companies, employing 2,100 people.

Irwindale Edison shooter, victims identified

Irwindale, California -- The gunman who killed at least two people and then himself in an office building in southern California is a 48-year-old man from the nearby town of Norco, authorities said Saturday.
He was identified as Andre Turner.
Those slain Friday were Henry Serrano, 56, of Walnut, California; and Robert Lindsay, 53, of Chino, California, the Los Angeles County coroner's office said.
The building is occupied by Southern California Edison, one of the nation's largest electric utilities, serving almost 14 million people, according to a company statement.
The victims were employees from Southern California Edison, but utility officials didn't provide further details, including whether the gunman was an employee.


According to police, Turner, an Edison employee, shot four of his co-workers, killing two of them and wounding two others. Officials say Turner then turned the gun on himself and took his own life.


The two victims who were killed were identified as 57-year-old Henry Serrano of Walnut and 53-year-old Robert Lindsay of Chino.


The two others injured in the shooting, a man and a woman, were hospitalized in critical condition. Their identities were not released.


The shooting broke out at Edison's No. 3 building on the 4900 block of Rivergrade Road at about 1:30 p.m. Friday.


Olive Junior High School and Walnut Elementary School in the Baldwin Park Unified School District were placed on locked down for some time following the shooting.


SWAT and emergency response teams surrounded the building as employees say they had to barricade themselves inside conference rooms and break rooms.


Many contacted family members using cellphones, and loved ones say they just tried to keep them calm.


"I just was telling her, just do what she has to do to survive and be safe," said Ron Orona, whose daughter works in the building.


Monica Salazar said her mother, a 30-year Edison employee, was inside the building at the time of the shooting. Her mother communicated through text message, saying a group of them had locked themselves in a conference room.


As Salazar was being interviewed by Eyewitness News, she was reunited with her mother.


Edison is calling the shooting one of the worst days in the company's 125-year history. The utility will be offering funds and grief counseling for employees and the families of the victims.


Detectives are working to determine the motive behind the shooting. Authorities say they plan on searching Turner's home and looking at surveillance footage from inside the building at the time of the shooting.

Small town shocked at deaths of family of 5

A downstate woman said Saturday she saw her neighbor shoot at her 10-month-old baby before apparently killing herself.


Authorities have said five people, including two children and a baby, were killed in a murder-suicide, but they haven’t identified the shooter. The bodies were found Friday in Emington, a small farming community about 80 miles southwest of Chicago.


Neighbor Annelise Fiedler told The Associated Press that she heard a round of shots Friday afternoon and ran outside to her backyard.


She saw 30-year-old Sara McMeen in the next yard over hovering over her baby as if she’d dropped her. Fiedler asked McMeen if everything was alright, and “she looked at me and said, ‘No, everything is not alright.”


McMeen fired a shot at the infant, “and then I just ran,” said Fiedler, a town trustee. Fiedler said she didn’t see or hear what happened after that, and she didn’t see any of the other victims.


Along with McMeen, Livingston County coroner Michael Burke identified them as 29-year-old Daniel Warren, 8-year-old Skyler Lemke, 7-year-old Ian Lemke and 10-month-old Maggie Warren.


Town officials said the baby and another child were found with the woman in the backyard of the home in the 100 block of South Street. A boy and the man were found elsewhere.


Squad cars from at least three jurisdictions lined the short, curbless street of the crime scene with sheriff's deputies blocking the street Friday night.


A woman who answered the cellphone of a man believed to be the surviving father of two of the slain children said: "We're all in shock — my son called me to go check on my grandkids. I'm sorry, I can't talk anymore."


"They're all gone, all gone," said Debbie Delaney, Emington's secretary and treasurer. Her husband is mayor of Emington and her son is one of the firefighters called to the scene, she said.


Neighbors said the family had moved into the small home near the town's park late in the summer and had kept to themselves.


"They didn't seem to want to neighbor," said Darlene Lithgow. "The kids were nice. They would come by and talk to me."


"We've never experienced anything like this," said Bob Young, a retired school administrator and Livingston County board member who lives in town. "(The feeling) is one of shock I guess, wondering what could we have done."


The town has a grain elevator, a church, a post office that may soon be closed, a park and a dog-grooming business. For the older men, there's a coffee klatch that meets at the grain elevator; for youth there's the Emington Hot Shots 4-H club. Young said the slain kids were not in the club.


Over the last 20 years, Young said, the town has gone from being a "real stable" community to one whose low cost of living attracts a more transient population from the northern part of the state. But he said the worst calls county police typically handle there are domestic disputes and teenage pranks.


Young said he had seen the slain children playing on the park's swings and slides.


"They seemed happy and well provided for," he said.


The two older children who were killed were students in the first and third grades at the elementary school in Saunemin, a town south of Emington, Young said.


The school superintendent told him they were now on Christmas break but would be making counselors available, Young said.


Some unsettled residents came during the day to the United Church of Christ, where Young is moderator. He didn't lock it up until after 7 p.m.

Emails may prove Mullin was hired illegally

Detroit — Despite the fact that her former employer fired her at a highly publicized meeting, Turkia Mullin wouldn't mind the chance to resume her job as chief executive of Detroit Metro Airport, her attorney said Thursday.


Mullin filed a lawsuit Thursday charging that the Wayne County Airport Authority board held an illegal meeting Oct. 31 when it voted to dump her. Mullin wants a Wayne Circuit judge to toss the results of that meeting and grant her back pay.


Attorney Ray Sterling said she'd even be willing to return to the airport.


"(Board member) Sam Nouhan and many others said she did a great job in her two months at the airport," Ray Sterling said in an email to The News. "She wanted to continue her mission then, and she would welcome the opportunity to continue it now."


Airport officials declined to discuss the specifics of the lawsuit. "We can't comment on the lawsuit since we haven't been served with it yet," said Scott Wintner, airport spokesman.


Mullin alleges the airport board wrongly refused her attorney's request to have an open discussion of her employment at the meeting and that the board did not properly notify the public about the meeting.


She is seeking to have the board's decision invalidated and, if nothing else, to have a new meeting in public; the board had talked with its attorney in private before it voted. Sterling had unsuccessfully sought to have that portion of the meeting be public.


The email was dated before the airport board met to nominate its CEO, violating the requirement that decisions be made before the public.


Airport Board Chair Renee Axt, who has resigned since the FBI began investigating Mullin’s hiring, selected the three person search committee from airport board members.


That committee was made up of Sam Nouhan, whose law firm was contracted for $1 million of work for Wayne County, Charlie Williams, who mediated the sale of Greektown Casino’s parking garage, earning $420,000, and Sue Hall, who is employed by the Wayne County Sheriff's Department.


Nouhan, Hall and Williams would decide who would be Metro Airport’s director.


Another email obtained by Marlinga showed that the group had withheld Mullin’s name from a report to Delta Airlines, Metro Airport's largest carrier.


Board member Nouhan wrote in the email that Delta is qualified to critique candidates with airport experience, but that it is not in regards to non-airport candidates, such as Mullin.


"That is why I didn’t reveal (Mullin’s) identity," Nouhan wrote.


Marlinga said that he believes withholding Mullin’s name is another deliberate attempt to hide the board's fait accompli selection of the ex-CEO.


On Friday, a judge will decide the legality of Mullin’s hiring. If in violation of Michigan’s open meetings law, her contract and the $750,000 severance salary granted to her would be nullified.

East Allen County Schools Approves Early College High School Idea

FORT WAYNE, Ind. - Students at East Allen County Schools will be able to earn college credits while earning their high school diploma. At a meeting Tuesday, board members voted to move forward with a plan to partner with Vincennes University.


“East Allen University will be a highly-focus ed high school program where students can earn an Indiana Core 40 high school diploma while also earning college credits toward an Associate Degree from Vincennes University," said Superintendent Dr. Karyle Green. "The program will include internships with business partners, project based learning, and inquiry learning. One of the key concepts of the school will be a personalized school environment promoting the inclusion and belonging of all students leading to high academic achievement through enhanced support structures."


District leaders said they've been working since early summer to design an innovative 9-12 program to go into the closed Paul Harding High School space. The school is scheduled to open in August with approximately 60-100 freshmen and grow to approximately 350-425 students over the next four years.


Students can earn an Indiana Core-40 high school diploma and earn 62 credits towards a degree at Vincennes. Sixty-two credits are enough for an Associate Degree. The early college program will include internships, project-based learning, and 21st-century skills, with curriculum heavily based on math, science and language arts.
“Until a student is sophomore and above, they're just getting their basic "General Studies" as you might say, for their high school opportunities. And to get into the college courses, they have to pass what is called the "Accu-Placer,” said Dr. Karyle Green, Superintendent of East Allen County Schools. “So we anticipate having that full program of studies completed and designed by the end of calendar year 2012.”
According to Vincennes, research shows that 86 percent of high school graduates pursue higher education in early college programs.
“One of the priorities of early college to is address those students who are either first generation, or not highly represented in college because of poverty levels or economic levels. So we really focused on those who would be first generation or would struggle to find a way to get to college,” Dr. Green said.
Dr. Green said EACS University will open at Harding in August. Current 8th grade students, within EACS district, and outside, are invited to attend informational meetings with their parents in January to learn more.

SUV crashes into Fillmore Starbucks; 1 killed

FILLMORE, Calif,--A man was killed when an SUV slammed into a Starbucks in Fillmore, authorities said Wednesday.


Sergio Mendez, 30, was in the coffee shop on Highway 126 at 7 p.m. Tuesday when the sport utility vehicle crashed through the east wall, according the Ventura County Sheriff’s Department.


The SUV pinned Mendez against the front door frame.


Mendez and two others were rushed to Ventura County Medical Center, where the other victims were treated and released. Mendez, who suffered serious internal injuries, died during surgery.


The driver was not arrested after officers determined he did not appear to be intoxicated.
He may have fallen asleep at the wheel, but other possibilities were being investigated, said Capt. Bruce Macedo of the Sheriff’s Department.


Sergio Mendez, who served in the Marines from January 2002 to January 2006 and was deployed to Iraq and Kuwait, was sitting in a leather chair when the vehicle crashed into the cafe and pinned him against a doorframe. He died four hours later at a hospital.
Assistant Fillmore Fire Chief Pat Askren told the Ventura Star ( http://bit.ly/rzVNDd) that the inside of the shop "looked like a bomb went off." The SUV ripped off part of a bathroom wall as it traveled through the building.
Investigators were looking into the possibility that Cedarland lost consciousness while driving. Police said drugs or alcohol do not appear to be a factor.
Cedarland suffered a small cut.
Askren told the newspaper that the vehicle went over a strip of landscaping, continued through the parking lot that runs parallel to the road, went between a pair of palm trees on another strip of landscaping, then hit the Starbucks.


The crash felt like an earthquake, said Vishva Bandhu, who was in the adjoining Little Caesar's Pizza at the time. When Bandhu went outside, he saw Mendez bleeding amid the wreckage and 15 to 20 people, some crying and calling 911.
After an autopsy, officials determined Mendez died of multiple blunt-force injuries and ruled the death an accident.
Cedarland said he couldn't remember anything from before leaving the road until after the crash, said Ventura County sheriff's Deputy Jerry Peterson. Witnesses said he apparently didn't try to brake, Peterson added.
Los Angeles County sheriff's spokesman Steve Whitmore said Cedarland remained on the job as of Wednesday. Initial indications were that Cedarland blacked out or fell asleep, he added.
"It appears to be an accident, a tragic accident," Whitmore said.
Shawn Haney, a Marine spokeswoman, told the Star that the victim's full name was listed in records as Sergio Raul Mendez-Burgos. During his time in the Marines, Mendez received a Combat Action Ribbon and Presidential Unit Citation.

Jessica Lynch

Jessica Dawn Lynch,born April 26, 1983 is a former Private First Class (PFC) in the United States Army Quartermaster Corps. Lynch served in Iraq during the 2003 invasion by U.S. and allied forces. On March 23, 2003 she was injured and captured by Iraqi forces but was recovered on April 1 by U.S. Special Operations Forces, with the incident subsequently receiving considerable news coverage. Lynch's was the first successful rescue of an American POW since World War II and the first ever of a woman.
Initial media reports on Lynch's recovery in Iraq were incorrect. Lynch, along with major media outlets, faults the U.S. government for creating the story as part of the Pentagon's propaganda effort. Jim Wilkinson is credited for fabricating the government narrative.
On April 24, 2007, she testified in front of Congress that she had never fired her weapon; her M16 rifle jammed, as did all weapons systems assigned to her unit, and she had been knocked unconscious when her vehicle crashed.


Lynch was born in Palestine, West Virginia, the second child and first daughter to Deidre Lynch and Gregory Lynch, Jr. Her family could not afford to send her to college; her older brother had to drop out due to financial reasons. Searching for a way to pay for the children's educations, the Lynch family met with an army recruiter in the summer of 2000 when Lynch was seventeen and still attending high school. "He did not lie to the kids," her mother said. He said there was always the possibility of war in the future. "But at that time it was before September 11, and there was no terrorism," Lynch recalls, "so we were like, 'that would never happen to me.'[6] On September 19, 2001, Lynch entered basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina, and later Advanced Individual Training (AIT) for her Military Occupational Specialty (MOS) as unit-supply specialist at Fort Lee, Virginia.


On March 23, 2003, a convoy of the United States Army's 507th Maintenance Company and the 3rd Combat Support BN elements, led by a Humvee driven by Lori Piestewa, made a wrong turn and were ambushed near Nasiriyah, a major crossing point over the Euphrates northwest of Basra, The convoy was supposed to detour around the town and instead turned directly into it, eventually running into an ambush. The ambush was unlikely to have been set up in advance, because the Iraqis did not know which course the convoy would take. Although some vehicles had GPS receivers, military GPS systems, unlike civilian equivalents, provide only grid references and not turn-by-turn navigation. Maps of the area lack the detail required to properly navigate through tight city streets. Wrong turns in convoys are frequent. Apparently, the convoy took more than one wrong turn. The convoy came under attack by enemy fire. The Humvee in which Lynch was riding was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade and crashed into the rear of a tractor-trailer. Lynch was severely injured.
Lynch, then a supply clerk with the 507th Maintenance Company (based in Fort Bliss, Texas), was wounded and captured by Iraqi forces. She was initially listed as missing in action. Eleven other soldiers in the company were killed in the ambush and five other soldiers were captured (and later rescued). Her best friend, Lori Piestewa, received a serious head wound and died in an Iraqi civilian hospital, possibly because it was not possible to perform delicate neurosurgery in that hospital under wartime conditions (such as intermittent electrical power).
A video of some of the American prisoners of war, including Piestewa, was later shown around the world on Al Jazeera television. Later, footage was discovered of both Lynch and Piestewa (in the footage, the latter was still alive) at an Iraqi hospital.


After some time in the custody of the Iraqi army regiment that had captured her,Lynch was taken to a hospital in Nasiriya. Iraqi hospital staff, including Doctors Harith Al-Houssona and Anmar Uday, said they shielded Lynch from Iraqi military and government agents who were using the hospital as a base of military operations. US forces were tipped off as to Lynch's whereabouts by an Iraqi, who told them she had been tortured and injured but was still alive. The Iraqi was described as a 32-year-old lawyer, initially described only as "Mohammed" and later identified as Mohammed Odeh al Rehaief. In light of Mohammed's role in Lynch's rescue, he and his family were granted refugee status by the United States.
Initial reports indicated that al Rehaief's wife was a nurse by the name of Iman in the hospital where Lynch was being held captive, and that while visiting his wife at the hospital, al Rehaief noticed that security was heightened and inquired as to why. However, hospital personnel later confirmed only part of al Rehaief's story, indicating that while al Rehaief had indeed visited the hospital, his wife was not a nurse there, nor was there any nurse by the name of Iman working there. While visiting the hospital from which Lynch was eventually extracted, al Rehaief said that he had observed an Iraqi colonel slapping Lynch. "My heart stopped", said al Rehaief, "I knew then I must help her be saved. I decided I must go to tell the Americans.


On April 1, 2003, US Marines staged a diversionary attack, besieging nearby Iraqi irregulars to draw them away from Saddam Hospital in Nasiriyah. Meanwhile, an element from the Joint Special Operations Task Force Task Force 121, U.S. Army Special Forces, Air Force Pararescue Jumpers (PJs), and Army Rangers, and Navy SEALs launched a nighttime raid on the hospital and successfully retrieved Lynch and the bodies of eight other American soldiers.
According to certain accounts of doctors present during the raid, they were gathered into groups at gunpoint and treated as possible hostiles until they could be identified as being hospital staff. Many military and Special Operations Forces experts have defended the tactics of the operators who led the raid, saying that Special Operations Forces teams are trained to expect the worst and move quickly, initially treating each person they encounter as a possible threat. Additionally, the doctors stated that the Iraqi military had left the hospital the day before and that no one in the hospital had offered any resistance to the American forces during the raid.
One witness account, claimed in an opinion article written by a correspondent within the BBC, included the opinion that the Special Operations Forces had foreknowledge that the Iraqi military had fled a day before they raided the hospital, and that the entire event was staged, even going so far as to use blanks in the Marine's guns to create the appearance that they were firing. The use of blanks was disputed by weapons experts since M-16s and M-4s used by the rescue personnel require a blank firing adapter, called a "BFA", in order to fire blanks, and these were not visible in the video. Furthermore, they state it would be dangerous to use blanks in these weapons in a potentially hostile environment, as time must be taken to both change the ammunition and remove the attachment before they could respond to threats.
In the initial press briefing on April 2, 2003 the Pentagon released a five-minute video of the rescue and claimed that Lynch had stab and bullet wounds, and that she had been slapped about on her hospital bed and interrogated.
Iraqi doctors and nurses later interviewed, including Dr. Harith Al-Houssona, a doctor in the Nasirya hospital, described Lynch's injuries as "a broken arm, a broken thigh, and a dislocated ankle". According to Al-Houssona, there was no sign of gunshot or stab wounds, and Lynch's injuries were consistent with those that would be suffered in a car accident, which Lynch verified when she stated that she got hurt when her Humvee flipped and broke her leg. Al-Houssona's account of events was later confirmed in a U.S. Army report leaked on July 10, 2003.


From Kuwait, Lynch was transported to a Landstuhl Regional Medical Center, Germany, where she was expected to recover fully from her injuries. On the flight to Ramstein Air Base in Germany, the military medics kept her sedated and hydrated. Her family flew to Germany on April 5 to be reunited with her. In a statement, the hospital said, "Lynch had a big smile on her face when her parents arrived".
Lynch underwent back surgery on April 3 to correct a slipped vertebra that was putting pressure on her spinal cord. Since then, she has undergone several more surgeries to stabilize her fractures.
Eleven bodies were recovered at the same time of Lynch's rescue, nine from a shallow gravesite and two from the morgue. Following forensic identification, eight were identified as fellow members of her company, including Private First Class Lori Piestewa. All were subsequently given posthumous Purple Hearts. Details of their deaths are unclear.
Lynch was shown during a controversial display on Al Jazeera television of four other supply-unit POWs. That video also showed a number of dead soldiers from that unit with gunshot wounds to the forehead.
After learning of al-Rehaief's role in Lynch's rescue, Friends of Mohammed, a group based in Malden, West Virginia, was formed to press for al Rehaief to be naturalized as a U.S. citizen and to bring him to West Virginia. On April 29, 2003, Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge announced that Mohammed Odeh al Rehaief, his wife, and their five-year-old daughter had been granted humanitarian asylum on April 28. Al Rehaief and his family were brought to the United States at his request April 10. Al Rehaief published a book, Because Each Life Is Precious, in October 2003, for a reported US$300,000. He is now working in the U.S.


Upon her return she was greeted by thousands of West Virginia residents and by then-fiancé Army Sergeant Ruben Contreras. Soon after her return, Lynch and Contreras separated.
On April 12, 2003, Lynch was flown to the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to undergo specialized treatment and rehabilitation. On April 17, she underwent surgery to repair a bone in her right foot.
While recovering in Washington, Lynch was inundated with gifts and flowers from well-wishers, so much so that she asked the public to send cards instead. Her family suggested that the public send money to charity and relief organizations.
Lynch was released from the hospital on July 22, more than three months after her injury.
On August 27, 2003, Lynch was given an honorable discharge.


Soon after her rescue, Pentagon officials disputed a report appearing in the Washington Post that Lynch had fought back, and the first official report of Lynch's actions during her capture released by the Pentagon weeks later said that she did not appear to have fought back against her captors, in contradiction of earlier Pentagon press releases. According to one former Pentagon official, the stories of her supposed heroics that day were spread by the news media and Congressmen from West Virginia were instrumental in pushing the Pentagon to award her honors based on reports of her actions during her capture.
Months after returning, Lynch finally began speaking to the public. Her statements tended to be sharply critical of the original story that was reported by the Washington Post. When asked about her heroine status, "That wasn't me. I'm not about to take credit for something I didn't do... I'm just a survivor.
Despite the letters of support she received after her testimony before a House oversight committee, Lynch says that she still gets hate mail from Americans who accuse her of making up the heroic acts attributed to her. "I was captured, but then I was OK and I didn't go down fighting. OK, so what?" she says. "It was really hard to convince people that I didn't have to do any of that. That I was injured, that I still needed comfort.


On April 24, 2007, Lynch gave congressional testimony before the United States House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform that the Pentagon had erroneously portrayed her as a "Rambo from the hills of West Virginia" when, in fact, she never fired a shot after her truck was ambushed.
She began her testimony by noting for the record that her appearance was not politically motivated. In a prepared statement, she said:
"I believe this is not a time for finger pointing. It is time for the truth, the whole truth, versus hype and misinformation.
"I am still confused as to why they chose to lie and tried to make me a legend when the real heroics of my fellow soldiers that day were, in fact, legendary... [T]he bottom line is the American people are capable of determining their own ideals of heroes and they don't need to be told elaborate tales.
"The truth of war is not always easy to hear but it is always more heroic than the hype."


On May 6, 2006, Allison Barker of the Associated Press reported that Lynch, who had completed her freshman year, avoids talking about her military service at school, despite wearing a brace on her left foot protecting nerve damage from her capture: "I think people recognize who I am; they just don't make it obvious. That's good for me because it gives me the opportunity to blend in and not stick out and really experience the college life, just like they are." Lynch also talked about her career plans and legacy: "I know I want to do something with children. [But] I haven't really found my direction, with everything I've been through....I want people to remember me as being a soldier who went over there and did my job. Nothing special. I'm just a country girl at heart."
On August 24, 2006, Good Morning America Weekend Edition co-anchor Kate Snow reported that Lynch wrote a letter stating she would have a baby by the end of the year. Foxnews.com reported that Lynch and her boyfriend Wes Robinson would have their first child in January. She made the statement: "I was not sure if this could ever happen for me, learning to walk again and coping with the internal injuries that I still deal with pale in comparison to the tremendous joy of carrying this child." She gave birth on January 19, 2007 through a caesarean section, and named her daughter "Dakota Ann" after her fallen friend, Lori Ann Piestewa, the first woman of the US-led Coalition killed in the Iraq War and the first Native American woman killed on foreign soil in an American war.


An NBC TV movie depicting Lynch's ambush and rescue, Saving Jessica Lynch, based on Mohammed's testimony, aired in the U.S. on November 9, 2003, starring Canadian actress Laura Regan as Lynch. In an interview published in the August 15, 2005 issue of Time, Lynch stated that she saw some of it, but that the inaccuracies in it upset her enough that she did not finish watching it. Much of the content in the movie had been disputed.
The ABC program Extreme Makeover: Home Edition also featured Lynch in an episode in which she helped build a new house for the family of her friend Lori Piestewa. Piestewa had previously told Lynch that her dream was to return to her home in the Navajo Nation in Tuba City, Arizona and build her parents a home. A divorced mother, Piestewa left behind two young children who were being cared for by her parents, Percy and Terry Piestewa, in a rented mobile home. Lynch applied for a makeover for Piestewa's family. In a two-parter, the team built the family a new home in Flagstaff, Arizona, where they had expressed a desire to move. The team not only built the new home, but also built a Veterans Affairs building dedicated as a meeting place for Native American veterans in the area. The homebuilders gave $50,000 to the family, and Sears gave $300,000 worth of clothing to families on the Navajo reservation. In the course of the episode, a memorial for Piestewa was placed on Piestewa Peak.
Jessica Lynch appeared on the Biography Channel television series Aftermath with William Shatner on August 23, 2010, in which she recounted the story of her rescue and her life since then.


Tags: Jessica Lynch Finishing Teaching Degree

1 dead, 2 hurt in NYC elevator accident

A woman was crushed and killed by an elevator that began rising as she was stepping onto it in a Midtown office building Wednesday morning.


Two other people were injured in the horrific accident at 285 Madison Ave., which is near East 40th Street.


Officials said the woman was halfway onto the elevator when it took off, without its doors closing. She died after she was crushed between the elevator and the shaft wall.


The other two people were already on the elevator. Their injuries were minor.


According to the New York Post, a woman died after getting pinned between floors while riding the elevator. Witnesses told the newspaper that the elevator started to ascend to the second floor with its doors open before the woman had fully entered the car.
Fire officials say two other people had minor injuries.


The accident occurred around 10 a.m. Wednesday at the Young & Rubicam building, located at 285 Madison Avenue at East 40th Street,

John Hinckley Still Poses Threat To Public Safety

John W. Hinckley Jr. should be granted more freedom from a psychiatric hospital so he can ultimately be released to live with his mother in Williamsburg, an attorney for the presidential assailant told a judge.


“Although he is flawed, he is fundamentally decent,” Barry Wm. Levine said as his client sat quietly at the defense table. “This man is not dangerous. The evidence shows he is not dangerous.”


Levine’s assertion came during opening statements of hearings before U.S. District Judge Paul L. Friedman, who must decide whether to grant a request by St. Elizabeths Hospital to expand Hinckley’s visits to his mother’s home. Hinckley has been held at the hospital since being found not guilty by reason of insanity in the shooting of President Ronald Reagan and three other men in 1981 outside the Washington Hilton hotel.


In recent years, Hinckley has been granted more freedom and has been visiting his mother for up to 10 days unaccompanied by hospital personnel. The graying 56-year-old — who wore a brown-striped tie and brown jacket to the hearing and revealed no emotion during testimony — has even recently obtained a driver’s license.


The hospital is asking to expand Hinckley’s visits to as many as 24 straight days. If those trips go well, doctors are also asking Friedman for the authority to allow Hinckley to live as an outpatient in Williamsburg.


As they have in the past, federal prosecutors are aggressively fighting the expansion of those privileges, arguing that Hinckley remains dangerous and cannot be trusted with the new privileges. They have raised questions about his relationships with women and accused him of being deceptive about them and other matters.


Hinckley has enjoyed incremental freedom from St. Elizabeths Hospital in Southeast Washington. Ultimately, Hinckley wants to live in the community, his lawyer at Dickstein Shapiro, Barry Wm. Levine, said today in court.


Hinckley waved to supporters this morning in a crowded courtroom before taking a seat next to Levine. Hinckley occasionally flipped through court documents. He rarely looked around the courtroom. Levine, a Dickstein partner, said Hinckley’s family members, including his mother, are expected to attend the hearing, which is scheduled to continue into next week.


In his opening statement, Levine described Hinckley as “flawed” and said he has not always been truthful. But Levine insisted that perfection in character is not the standard by which Friedman must assess Hinckley.


Hinckley, despite his transgressions, is not a dangerous person, the lawyer said. “The risk of danger,” he said, “is decidedly low.”


Levine, co-leader of Dickstein's white-collar criminal defense group, argued in support of a proposal from St. Elizabeths that would give Hinckley additional unsupervised time away from the psychiatric hospital. The proposal calls for two visits in his mother’s Williamsburg, Va., hometown of 17 days, followed by six visits of 24 days.


Chasson said Hinckley’s lack of candor means that his psychiatrists likely don’t know what he's really thinking. She described what she called a long history of deception and lies. Levine said the government is unfairly playing into public fear.


Friedman chastised prosecutors at the start of the hearing for the government’s failure to turn over the names of U.S. Secret Service agents who are expected to testify in the coming days about their surveillance of Hinckley during his trips away from the hospital.


Friedman said he had already told prosecutors to provide the names to Hinckley’s lawyers. “Just do it,” the judge said, raising his voice.


It remains unknown whether Hinckley will testify during the hearing. Levine said in recent court papers he is unwilling to allow Hinckley to testify if prosecutors are allowed to question him. Levine said Friedman should be allowed to question Hinckley one-on-one.