Snowmobiler Caleb Moore died Thursday as a result of injuries he suffered in a crash in the X Games one week ago. He was 25. Moore, a native of Krum, Texas, competed on all-terrain vehicles since his childhood before trying snowmobiles four years ago. Family spokeswoman Chelsea Lawson released a statement announcing Moore's death, which occurred Thursday morning. The family declined to release any other details of his injuries. It is the first death in the Winter X Games, which had its 17th edition in Aspen last week. "We are deeply saddened by Caleb Moore's passing and our thoughts and prayers go out to his parents, Wade and Michelle, his brother, Colten, and the entire Moore family," ESPN said in a statement released Thursday. "He will be remembered for his natural passion for life and his deep love for his family and friends, and he will always be an inspiration to everyone he touched in the action sports community." ESPN added that it will conduct a thorough review of the snowmobiling discipline and adopt any appropriate changes. The company says it works closely on safety issues with athletes and other sports experts. "Still, when the world's best compete at the highest level in any sport, risks remain," the statement said. "Caleb was a four-time X Games medalist attempting a move he has landed several times previously." Moore suffered a concussion and was taken off the course during the snowmobile freestyle final at Buttermilk Mountain in Aspen, Colo., on Jan. 24 <b>...</b>
www.youtube.com Latest English News Point Former England cricket captain Tony Greig has died in Sydney after suffering a heart attack, according to Australian broadcaster Nine Network. The South Africa-born 66-year-old had been diagnosed with lung cancer two months ago, it was reported. The all-rounder played 58 Tests for England from 1972-1977 and is described by ESPNcricinfo website as the most "complete cricketer" of that time. He later became a popular commentator and had worked for Nine Network. The broadcaster reported that Greig died at about 13:45 local time on Saturday, after being rushed from his home to Sydney's St Vincent's Hospital earlier in the day. He is quoted as having told Channel Nine colleagues last month: "It's not good. The truth is I've got lung cancer. Now it's a case of what they can do." He underwent an operation later in November. In October, he tweeted: "Thanks to all of you who have sent me good wishes for a recovery. With your prayers and the help of my family I will give it my best shot." And on Christmas Day, he posted the message: "Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy and Prosperous New Year to you all. Would love to be at Test but son Tom and I will be tuned in?" Greig scored more than 3500 runs and took 141 wickets during his Test career, and was named one of Wisden Cricketers' Almanack's players of the year in 1975. He captained England's Test side on 14 occasions. Following the end of his England career, he was a key player in Kerry <b>...</b>
A week after performing at inauguration festivities in Washington, D.C., a 15-year old Chicago girl was shot dead blocks from her school on the South Side in the latest incident of gun violence in the city.
Hadiya Pendleton, a student at King College Prep School and majorette in the band, performed with her classmates at several inaugural events last week in the nation's capital.
After school on Tuesday, however, Pendleton was shot and killed in a South Side park. At the time of the shooting, Pendleton was standing with a group of 10 to 12 friends taking cover from the torrential rain that swept over the city, according to police.
A man jumped a fence and ran towards the group and opened. As the teenagers scattered, two were felled by the gunfire. Pendleton was shot in the back and Lawrence Sellers was shot. He is listed in serious condition, police said.
The area where the teenagers were seeking escape from the rain is a known gang hangout and police believe the shooter mistook the kids for gang members. Pendleton does not have an arrest record and there is no indication she is part of a gang, the police said today.
The shooter sped off in a car.
Mayor Rahm Emanuel called Pendleton's mother, Cleopatra today, to console her.
"Nothing can break your heart more and I did it just to call as a parent so they know they're not alone," the mayor said.
The mayor was enraged by Pendleton's death.
"You look at her. You look at how she talked about her future. She took her final exams. She had dreams and this gangbanger, this punk took that way from Cleopatra, they took it away from Hadiya and in my view they took it away from the city of Chicago," he said.
The shooting occurred about a mile from President Obama's home. White House spokesman Jay Carney said, "The president and first lady's thoughts and prayers are with the family of Hadiya Pendleton. All of our thoughts and prayers are with her family."
Pendleton and the King College Prep Marching Band participated in a national band competition on Saturday, Jan. 19, in Washington as part of the inaugural festivities.
The competition was part of the "Presidential Inauguration Heritage Music Festival" which took place from Jan. 16 to 20 at George Mason University in Fairfax, Va. They performed at the Kerr Center for Performing Arts and during an inaugural brunch event at Howard University.
On Wednesday a petition was started on the White House website urging President Obama and his family to attend Pendleton's funeral. The president, the petition said, "should stand up and take advantage of a tragic opportunity to keep the anti-gun violence movement engaged."
Pendleton's death comes as Chicago continues to combat its gun violence problem. In 2012 the city's homicide rate surged over 500 for the first time since 2008. The start of 2013 had seen a decline in homicides from last year's infamous pace, but a bloody weekend put to rest any talk about improvements. There have now been 42 homicides so far this month in the city, making it the bloodiest January since 2002.
One mother, Shirley Chambers, lost the last of her four children to a shooting early Saturday. Ronnie Chambers' death came after his brother Carlos was shot and killed in 1995, his sister La Toya in 2000, and his brother Jerome also in 2000.
"Right now I'm totally lost because Ronnie was my only surviving son," Shirley Chambers told WLS. "He was trying to change… He would do anything for you."
Assistant DA gunned down while getting out of a car.
A manhunt is underway for two suspects after an assistant district attorney was gunned down Thursday outside a courthouse in Kaufman, Texas.
The prosecutor was shot five times around 9 a.m. local time outside the Kaufman County Courthouse, ambushed while getting out of his car, KDFW-TV is reporting.
Sheriff David Byrnes said the killing was an attack on the criminal justice system."This is the next level (of crime)," he said.
The Dallas Morning News is reporting that "authorities with knowledge of the assistant DA's caseload say he had been heavily involved in the investigation of members of the Aryan Brotherhood."
A probe is underway to determine if the shooting is connected to that investigation, the Morning News says.
The victim was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital. The identity has not been released because his family hasn't been notified, Kaufman County Sheriff David Byrnes said.
Security officers and deputies closed nearby streets in Kaufman, a North Texas town of about 6,700 residents less than 40 miles from Dallas. Kaufman schools were put on lockdown.
Kaufman County Judge Bruce Wood said the courthouse is closed today and it would be up to the sheriff to determine when it would reopen.
Wood told the Morning News he saw the victim every day in the courthouse hallways.
"He was revered and he did an outstanding job," Wood said. "We see each other every day. … It's a very small courthouse."
"It's a horrible situation," Wood told the Morning News. "None of us would have ever expected anything like this to ever happen in our county."
The shooting has resulted in warnings elsewhere. WFAA-TV in Dallas says the email below was sent by the Dallas County DA:
"This message is not intended to scare anyone but please be advised. A Kaufman County prosecutor was fatally shot a few minutes ago outside the Kaufman County Courthouse in Kaufman. Two masked gunman are the suspects. They have not been apprehended yet.
Please be aware of your surroundings when leaving the building for your safety. This is probably a isolated incident but until further notice if you plan to work past dark today please be careful and ask security for assistance escorting you to your vehicles if needed. I will keep you informed as to the arrest of the suspects when i am notified. Don't panic but please be aware of your environment when leaving the building."
Kaufman Police Chief Chris Aulbaugh said the shooting would have a major impact on his town and the county.
"Any loss of life, especially someone out there protecting the community, would have that effect," he said.
Texas snowmobiler Caleb Moore died today after succumbing to injuries he sustained last week at the Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo., when his snowmobile flipped on top of him in a violent crash during competition.
"This morning Caleb Moore passed away," the Moore family said in a statement through family spokeswoman Chelsea Lawson. "He will be truly missed and never forgotten.
"The family wishes to express their deep gratitude for all the prayers and support they have received from all the fans, friends and family around the world that Caleb has inspired."
This is the first death as a result of a competitor's sustaining injuries during competition in the 17-year reign of the X Games.
Another recent X Games competitor to succumb to serious injuries was Canadian freestyle skier Sarah Burke. The 29-year-old died on Jan. 19, 2011, nine days after sustaining a traumatic brain injury in an accident on a half-pipe course during a training run in Utah.
Moore, a 25-year-old medal-winning athlete from Krum, Texas, had been in critical condition after developing complications in his heart and brain after an accident last Thursday night during the Snowmobile Freestyle finals. Moore was completing a back-flip when he came up short and the skis on his sled hit the landing, causing the 450-pound machine to flip end-over-end.
Moore went over the handlebars of the snowmobile and it came crashing down on top of him. He tumbled down the slope for several feet before coming to a stop at the bottom, where he lay on the ground for a few minutes.
Moore eventually got up and walked off the course with help, but he was rushed to Aspen Valley Hospital with a concussion, according to an X Games Medical report. While there, doctors discovered bleeding around Moore's heart and he was flown to St. Mary's Hospital in Grand Junction, Colo.
St. Mary's Hospital declined ABC News' request for comment.
Moore underwent emergency heart surgery last Friday and had since remained in intensive care. But on Sunday, the Moore family released a statement through ABC's sister network ESPN saying, "his cardiac injury has led to a secondary complication involving his brain."
Moore's younger brother Colten Moore, 23, also competed in the Snowmobile Freestyle finals and crashed during the X Games competition. He was taken to the hospital with a separated pelvis but was released Friday and "will not require surgery," according to Lawson.
An online fundraiser was set up on behalf of the Moore family on Tuesday to help the family pay for medical bills. As of this writing, the fund had raised over $26,500.
Jackson "Jacko" Strong, Moore's fellow X Games snowmobile competitor, is also auctioning off his 2012 Polaris IQ 600R snowmoblie, which he rode in competition at this year's X Games, to help benefit the Moore family.
Strong also crashed during the X Games competition last week. During his Best Trick snowmobile run, the 21-year-old Australian native let go of the handlebars and attempted to grab the back of the sled in a midair stunt, but couldn't get a good grip and flew off of it. The snowmobile landed on its skis and raced into the crowd watching on the sidelines. No one was seriously injured.
Both Moore brothers are decorated Winter X Games veterans, who made their debut in competitive snowmobiling in 2010 in Aspen after years of racing ATVs.
Caleb, who has three Winter X Games medals, took home the bronze medal in Snowmobile Freestyle at last year's games, and stood next to brother Colten on the podium, who had snagged gold.
WARSAW, Poland (JTA) -- Stella Müller-Madej, a Holocaust survivor who wrote about being saved by Oskar Schindler, has died.
Müller-Madej died on Jan. 29 in Krakow at the age of 83. She was born in 1930 in Krakow. In March 1941, she was moved to the Krakow Ghetto and in 1942 to the Nazi camp in Plaszow. She entered Auschwitz in October 1944. Thanks to the efforts of her uncle, Müller-Madej was listed with her family on Schindler's list and along with other prisoners was sent to the Brunnlitz factory.
After the war she returned to Krakow, and in 1991 she published a book, "A Girl From Schindler's List." In 2001, she published the second part of her memoirs, "A Girl From Schindler's List: Postwar Years," which describes the life of her family after the war and the impact of the trauma of World War II on her life.
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PHOENIX -- Phoenix police said Thursday they have found a body that matches the description of the suspect in an office shooting that killed a man and critically wounded another.
The vehicle that Arthur Douglas Harmon, 70, was likely driving was found in a parking lot in the Phoenix suburb of Mesa. A body matching Harmon's description was found nearby, said Sgt. Steve Martos, spokesman.
The person died of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, he said.
Harmon drew a gun and shot both men at the end of a mediation session Wednesday morning at an office building in north-central Phoenix, police said.
Steve Singer, 48, died hours later. Mark Hummels, 43, with the Phoenix law firm Osborn Maledon, was in critical condition. A 32-year-old woman was also shot but suffered non-life threatening injuries. Harmon also shot at someone who tried to follow him to get his license plate number, authorities said.
"We believe the two men were the targets. It was not a random shooting," said Sgt. Tommy Thompson, a Phoenix police spokesman.
Singer was the CEO of Scottsdale-based Fusion Contact Centers LLC, which had hired Harmon to refurbish office cubicles at two call centers in California.
According to court documents, Harmon was scheduled to go to a law office in the building where the shooting took place for a settlement conference in a lawsuit he filed last April against Fusion.
Fusion said Harmon was paid nearly
$30,000 under the $47,000 contract. But the company asked him to repay much of the money when it discovered that the cubicles could not be refurbished, according to the documents.
Harmon argued Fusion hung him out to dry by telling him to remove and store 206 "worthless" work stations after the mix-up was discovered. Harmon said Fusion then told him that the company decided to use a competitor.
Harmon's lawsuit had sought payment for the remainder of the contract, $20,000 in damages and reimbursement for storage fees and legal costs.
Hummels represented Fusion in the lawsuit. Harmon represented himself.
The shooting took place in the building where Pro tempore Judge Ira Schwartz, who scheduled the mediation meeting, has an office.
The response to the shooting centered on the building -- home to insurance, medical and law offices -- but soon spread to a north-Phoenix home and a central-Phoenix high-rise office building where Hummels' office is located.
SWAT teams and two armored vehicles surrounded the house. Police served a search warrant to enter the house, which county property records show was sold by Harmon to his son last year for $26,000.
For a time, officers used a megaphone to ask Harmon to surrender, believing he might be inside the home.
Lois Allen, who has lived across the street from the Harmon home for about eight years, said she was startled to see all the police cars in the neighborhood.
She said she never met Harmon but had seen him walking a dog before.
The gunfire at the office complex prompted terrified workers to lock the doors to their offices and hide far from the windows. SWAT officers searched the building.
"Everyone was just scared, honestly, just scared," said Navika Sood, assistant director of nursing at First at Home Health Services who along with her co-workers locked the entrances to their office.
Sood said police evacuated the office about 30 minutes after she first heard the popping noises.
Becky Neher, who works for a title company in the building, said she heard two gunshots.
"Someone yelled, 'We have a shooter,'" Neher said. She looked out her second-story office and saw two people lying on the ground outside the back of the building.
The shooting took place on the same day that hearings on legislation to address gun violence were convened in Washington, with former Arizona Rep. Gabrielle Giffords testifying for stricter gun controls. A gunman shot Giffords in the head during a shooting rampage in Tucson in January 2011.
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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Paul Davenport, Felicia Fonseca, Terry Tang and Walter Berry in Phoenix, and AP researcher Rhonda Shafner in New York
IN THE dusty hills north of Madrid, in low-slung buildings guarded closely like bank vaults of old, are the rows of servers that run the far-flung banking empire of Santander, a big international bank. Ever since the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre, banks like Santander have invested billions in safeguarding and duplicating their data centres to protect them from terrorist attacks and natural disasters.
The threat against banks has, however, evolved. Although the physical infrastructure of the world's financial system is largely secure, the software that runs on it is not. Bank bosses and regulators are becoming more concerned by the threat posed to financial stability by networks of hackers that have launched a series of attacks on banks over the past few months.
In that time some 30 large global banks, mostly American, have suffered from a series of assaults designed to shut down their websites. These attacks are known as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks because hackers harness an army of infected computers to bombard the target with internet traffic with the intention of overloading it. They are relatively unsophisticated. But they have periodically frustrated customers trying to use online services at banks including JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Citigroup and PNC.
They have also shown some novel features, such as the conscription of computers in "cloud computing" data centres, increasing the amount of spurious traffic generated. Several people familiar with these attacks say there are strong indications that the hackers are state-backed; many suspect the involvement of Iran.
The attacks have caused little more than brief inconvenience, mainly because they were targeted at the public face of the affected banks rather than their connections to other banks and to payment systems. Even so, they have brought to light vulnerabilities in banking and payment systems. Ross Anderson, a professor of security engineering at the University of Cambridge, frets that hackers could cause mayhem if they were to aim DDoS attack at banks' crucial infrastructure instead of their websites. "If 20,000 machines started hammering British payment gateways on the last weekend before Christmas, people wouldn't be able to shop except with cash," says Mr Anderson.
Another risk is that hackers may graduate from crude DDoS attacks to more sophisticated ones that secretly penetrate banks' systems and then steal or delete data. "From what we've seen … the threats haven't been life-threatening," says one regulator. "At the same time we want to be ahead of this curve. The fundamental challenge is that the risk morphs quickly and can be difficult to detect."
The official responses include increasing regulators' oversight of banks' computer systems and war-gaming attacks on banks and the networks that connect them. Yet much remains to be done. At the moment banks have little incentive to share information on attacks and vulnerabilities with regulators or competitors. Supervisors also appear to be unwilling to talk publicly about their concerns or about investigations into lapses by banks, such as the systems failure in mid-2012 at the Royal Bank of Scotland that left many customers unable to carry out transactions.
One step is for regulators explicitly to acknowledge that an IT failure at one bank can spread financial instability or undermine trust in payment methods such as debit cards. They could then grade banks publicly on the quality of their systems and force them to improve things if they fall short of required standards.
But that approach raises another, thornier question: whether governments should just force banks to invest more of their own money in cyber-security, or whether they should devote their own resources to protecting banks from attacks by enemy states and their surrogates? "No one in the United States is expected to provide for their own air defence," points out Richard Bejtlich of Mandiant, a computer-security firm. "We have an army to repel a land invasion, so who is out there protecting the cyber lanes of control? Nobody. It is a free for all."
With their jazzy renditions of songs like "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy (of Company B)," "Rum and Coca-Cola" and "Don't Sit Under the Apple Tree (With Anyone Else but Me)," Patty, Maxene and LaVerne Andrews sold war bonds, boosted morale on the home front, performed withBing Crosby and with theGlenn Miller Orchestra, made movies and entertained thousands of American troops overseas, for whom the women represented the loves and the land the troops had left behind.
Patty, the youngest, was a soprano and sang lead; Maxene handled the high harmony; and LaVerne, the oldest, took the low notes. They began singing together as children; by the time they were teenagers they made up an accomplished vocal group. Modeling their act on the commercially successful Boswell Sisters, they joined a traveling revue and sang at county fairs and in vaudeville shows. Their big break came in 1937 when they were signed by Decca Records, but their first recording went nowhere.
Their second effort featured the popular standard "Nice Work If You Can Get It," but it was the flip side that turned out to be pure gold. The song was a Yiddish show tune, "Bei Mir Bist Du Schön (Means That You're Grand)," with new English lyrics bySammy Cahn, and the Andrews Sisters' version, recorded in 1937, became the top-selling record in the country.
Other hits followed, and in 1940 they were signed by Universal Pictures. They appeared in more than a dozen films during the next seven years — sometimes just singing, sometimes also acting. They made their film debut in "Argentine Nights," a 1940 comedy that starred the Ritz Brothers, and the next year appeared in three films with Bud Abbott and Lou Costello:"Buck Privates," "In the Navy"and "Hold That Ghost." Their film credits also include "Swingtime Johnny" (1943), "Hollywood Canteen" (1944) and the Bob Hope-Bing Crosby comedy "Road to Rio" (1947).
After selling more than 75 million records, the Andrews Sisters broke up in 1953 when Patty decided to go solo. By 1956 they were together again, but musical tastes were changing and they found it hard to adapt. When LaVerne Andrews died of cancer in 1967, no suitable replacement could be found, and Patty and Maxene soon went their separate ways. Patty continued to perform solo, and Maxene joined the staff of a private college in South Lake Tahoe, Calif.
Patricia Marie Andrews was born on Feb. 16, 1918, in Minneapolis. Her father, Peter, was a Greek immigrant who changed his name from Andreos to Andrews when he came to America. Her mother, Olga, was Norwegian.
Like her older sisters, Patty learned to love music as a child (she also became a good tap dancer), and she did not have to be persuaded when Maxene suggested that the sisters form a trio in 1932. She was 14 when they began to perform in public.
As their fame and fortune grew, the sisters came to realize that the public saw them as an entity, not as individuals. In a 1974 interview with The New York Times, Patty explained what that was like: "When our fans used to see one of us, they'd always ask, 'Where are your sisters?' Every time we got an award, it was just one award for the three of us." This could be irritating, she said with a touch of exasperation: "We're not glued together."
The Andrews Sisters re-entered the limelight in the early 1970s when Bette Midler released her own recording of "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," modeled closely on theirs. It reached the Top 10, and its success led to several new compilations of the Andrews Sisters' own hits.
The previous year, Patty Andrews had appeared in a West Coast musical called "Victory Canteen," set during World War II. When the show was rewritten for Broadway and renamed "Over Here!," the producers decided that the Andrews Sisters were the only logical choice for the leads. They hired Patty and lured Maxene back into show business as well. The show opened in March 1974 and was the sisters' belated Broadway debut. It was also the last time they sang together.
The sisters got into a bitter money dispute with the producers and with each other, leading to the show's closing in January 1975 and the cancellation of plans for a national tour. After that, the sisters pursued solo careers into the 1990s. They never reconciled and were still estranged when Maxene Andrews died in 1995.
Patty Andrews's first marriage, to the movie producer Marty Melcher, lasted two years and ended in divorce in 1949. (Mr. Melcher later married Doris Day.) In 1951 she married Wally Weschler, who had been the sisters' pianist and conductor and who later became her manager. They had no children. Mr. Weschler died in 2010. Ms. Andrews is survived by her foster daughter, Pam DuBois.
A final salute to the Andrews Sisters came in 1991 in the form of "Company B," a ballet by the choreographer Paul Taylor subtitled "Songs Sung by the Andrews Sisters." The work, which featured nine of the trio's most popular songs, including "Rum and Coca-Cola" and, of course, "Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy," underscored the enduring appeal of the three sisters from Minneapolis.
Former Sen. Chuck Hagel began confirmation hearings for his nomination to be Secretary of Defense. He sparred with Sen. John McCain over whether the surge during the Iraq war was worthwhile. (Jan. 31)
Phil Stewart and Patricia ZengerleReuters
12:05 p.m. CST, January 31, 2013
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Republican lawmakers clashed with Chuck Hagel on Thursday at a hearing over his nomination to become the next U.S. defense secretary, attacking his judgment on war strategy and occasionally putting him on the defensive during a heated session.
Critics in Congress have sought to portray Hagel, a former Republican senator and decorated Vietnam War veteran, as soft on Iran and anti-Israel, charges Hagel strongly denied in testimony at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing.
Republican panel members laid into Hagel, with influential Senator John McCain threatening to vote against him as he questioned Hagel's judgment on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where Hagel opposed surges of American forces.
Even before Hagel started speaking, James Inhofe, the panel's senior Republican, called him "the wrong person to lead the Pentagon at this perilous and consequential time."
"Senator Hagel's record is deeply troubling and out of the mainstream. Too often it seems he is willing to subscribe to a worldwide view that is predicated on appeasing our adversaries while shunning our friends," said Inhofe.
The committee also dwelt on chapters of modern U.S. history that still prompt passionate debate: from the Vietnam War, where Hagel served as an infantryman and was wounded, to President Ronald Reagan's call for nuclear disarmament and the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Hagel, speaking publicly for the first time since the attacks against his nomination began, at times seemed cautious and halting. He sought to set the record straight, assuring the panel that he backed U.S. policies of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and supporting a strong Israel.
"No one individual vote, no one individual quote, no one individual statement defines me, my beliefs, or my record," Hagel said to the packed hearing room.
"My overall world view has never changed: that America has and must maintain the strongest military in the world."
In an unusual reversal of partisanship, Democrats, more than his fellow Republicans, gave Hagel sympathetic support and time to air his views.
The committee's Democratic chairman, Carl Levin, said his concerns, especially over Hagel's past comments about unilateral sanctions on Iran, had been addressed. "Senator Hagel's reassurance to me ... that he supports the Obama administration's strong stance against Iran is significant," Levin said.
Another member of Obama's second-term national security team, Senator John Kerry, sailed through his nomination hearing before receiving the Senate's overwhelming support on Tuesday.
But Hagel, who publicly broke with his Republican Party over the Iraq War, encountered repeated confrontation. Beyond tough questioning on Israel and Iran, he was also grilled on his view of the Pentagon budget - Hagel is known as an advocate for tighter spending controls.
THE IRAQ SURGE
McCain aggressively questioned Hagel, talking over him at times, and gesturing to express frustration at Hagel's refusal to say plainly whether he was right or wrong in opposing the 2007 surge of American forces in Iraq.
"Your refusal to answer whether you were right or wrong about it is going to have an impact on my judgment as to whether to vote for your confirmation or not," McCain said.
Pressed repeatedly by McCain on the issue, Hagel responded: "I would defer to the judgment of history to sort that out."
It was a far cry from their past, warm ties. McCain campaigned for Hagel in 1996, and Hagel was national co-chairman of the Arizona Republican's unsuccessful 2000 presidential bid.
On Thursday, McCain warned that concerns about Hagel's qualifications ran deep, noting "fundamental disagreements" with members of the committee.
Throughout 2012, Democrats and the mainstream media claimed that Republicans were waging a "war on women." The left began this narrative when Rush Limbaugh made misogynist comments about activist Sandra Fluke after she complained about being denied a chance to testify at a House hearing on insurance coverage for birth control.
Then came the colossally insensitive comments by candidates Richard Mourdock and Todd Akin about rape, giving the left further gasoline to pour on their "war on women" bonfire.
There's just one problem with the left's "war on women" claim -– it's bogus.
The mainstream media took three isolated incidents and chose to demonize all Republicans. They failed to highlight that Republicans were outraged about these comments and criticized Limbaugh, Mourdock and Akin for them.
Unfortunately, this "war on women" rhetoric adversely affected Mitt Romney's chances in the election.
The reason that left created the bogus Republican "war on women" was to distract Americans from its own "war on women" -- the left has viciously and systematically attacked conservative women for years. Unfortunately, most Americans have never heard about the left's "war on women."
The left's blatant hypocrisy about women is best exemplified by Barack Obama's reaction after Limbaugh's comments about Fluke. At a press conference, Obama explained that he phoned Fluke to send a message to his daughters and all women that they shouldn't be "attacked or called horrible names because they are being good citizens."
Obama was then asked by a reporter to comment on the many examples of liberal hate speech. Not surprisingly, our "Hypocrite-In-Chief" suddenly declined, claiming he "didn't want to get into the business of arbitrating language and civility."
Obama's posture on Limbaugh's comment is reprehensible considering the $1 million contribution to a pro-Obama super PAC by HBO's liberal misogynist Bill Maher. Maher has repeatedly made disgusting and sexually degrading comments about Sarah Palin, her daughter Bristol, and Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, among others -- far worse degradations than anything that Limbaugh said about Fluke.
Even though Obama was aware of Maher's vile comments about women, he refused to ask the super PAC to return the $1 million to Maher.
If Limbaugh talked about Obama's wife and daughters in the same way Maher talked about the Palins, one can only imagine the outrage by Obama and the mainstream media.
And why didn't Obama call the Palins like he did with Fluke if he's really concerned about all women?
Liberals argue that these attacks do not represent "respectable," "mainstream" liberal opinion about conservative women.
Really?
Some "respectable" and "mainstream" liberals opine below about conservative women:
• Feminist leader Gloria Steinem called Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison a "female impersonator."
• NOW leader Patricia Ireland commanded women to only vote for "authentic" female political candidates.
• Al Gore consultant Naomi Wolf accused the late Jeane Kirkpatrick of being "uninflected by the experiences of the female body."
• Liberal TV columnist Keith Olbermann -- a special guest at the Obama White House -- wrote that columnist S.E. Cupp was "a perfect demonstration of the necessity of the work Planned Parenthood does."
• Liberal Wisconsin radio host John "Sly" Sylvester made outrageously false and sexually degrading accusations against GOP Lt. Gov. Rebecca Kleefisch. Previously, Sylvester called former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice a "black trophy" and "Aunt Jemima."
• Liberal misogynist, Ed Schultz of MSNBC, hurled sexually laced insults at talk show host Laura Ingraham for criticizing Obama's Cambridge beer summit.
• Liberal activists attacked tea party mothers and grandmothers in sexually degrading terms during the fight over public union reform in Wisconsin.
The bogus "war on women" is liberal hypocrisy at its worst. The left's double standard regarding sexually degrading comments about women -- liberal women are off-limits, but for conservative women, it's open season -- shows Obama's and the left's politicized ethics as well as their complete lack of a moral compass.
No woman -- liberal or conservative -- should be subjected to any kind of degrading comments -- from anyone.
All women -- liberal and conservative -- should be outraged at any kind of degrading comment about any woman, regardless of their political beliefs.
All women should demand that the mainstream media end their blatant hypocrisy and condemn all people – both liberal and conservative – who degrade women.
Brian Loutrel, Fairless Hills, is a 1975 graduate of Pennsbury High School.
Divided by race, and tended to unevenly, some burial plots are left to simply fade away.
HAMILTON, Ga. — The chain-link fence slices through the Hamilton City Cemetery, splitting it into two clearly defined sections.
On one side are beautiful, grassy vistas with well-tended plots where rest some of the city's most esteemed citizens. On the other are hundreds of abandoned, overgrown graves, some thought to contain the remains of slaves. Many are unmarked; some are inaccessible in the thick undergrowth.
At first glance, that fence seems as defiant and forbidding as the "Whites Only" signs that once defined life in this city of 1,021 about 90 miles southwest of Atlanta. But the situation at the Hamilton City Cemetery, which was established in 1828, is not uncommon in cities and towns across the Southeast. The fence represents not so much the grip of the region's segregationist past as a disturbing dilemma in the nation's present:
Just who owns African-American history, whether the lost stories from a worn graveyard or the very events or poetic moments that have shaped this nation? Perhaps more troubling: Who wants it and will cultivate it for future generations?
It's a question that resonates as we leave a month swelling with African-American achievement — the 150th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation, the Martin Luther King Jr. federal holiday, the second inauguration of the nation's first black president — and usher in Black History Month.
Yet those hard-won gains toward a post-racial society for the living seem to fade amid the forgotten souls in places such as the
Hamilton City Cemetery.
The most unsettling thing about the neglected black cemetery in Hamilton is how little is known about these citizens who lived and died long ago. The very earliest graves, the ones buried deepest in the woods, are unmarked. The ones from the 20th century mostly have markers that include only a name and dates of birth and death:
Here lies E.T. Smith: 1876-1916. Over there is Sophronie Pitts: Aug. 1, 1855-Aug. 27, 1944. And back there rests W.C. Robinson: Oct. 11, 1852-Nov. 25, 1935. Records at the county courthouse reveal no details of their lives.
Andrea McNally, an amateur historian who's leading an effort to have the city or Harris County clean and maintain the "black side" of the cemetery, has been repeatedly frustrated by the fact that no one here seems to know just who owns that part of the burial ground.
"Everyone I approached, when I asked about it, they said, 'Are you referring to the white or black cemetery?'" she says. "I went to the tax office, went to the deed office. Nobody knows who owns it."
Ownership is important because maintaining a cemetery is expensive. The dead lack a natural constituency to see that a site is properly maintained, say experts including Michael Trinkley, director of the Chicora Foundation, a Columbia, S.C.-based, non-profit heritage group that works on cemetery preservation.
Georgia state law allows — but does not require — local governments to maintain abandoned cemeteries. Both county and city officials deny ownership.
"Counties frequently don't know who owns cemeteries," Trinkley says. "They had no reason to tax them, because they can't collect taxes off them, so they had no reason to keep up with ownership."
Local governments, he says, are extremely reluctant to assume the steep costs of providing perpetual care for a plot that generates no tax revenue. "Cemeteries are like any other historic resource," he says. "They have to have a constituency."
He says communities have resolved similar situations in different ways:
In Columbia, S.C., black state legislators got a one-time, $300,000 state grant to care for Randolph Cemetery, started in downtown Columbia in 1872 by a group of black legislators and businessmen. It was the city's first cemetery for African Americans but eventually fell into neglect.
Portsmouth, Va., is taking steps to consolidate four essentially abandoned African-American cemeteries — Mount Calvary, Mount Olive, Fisher's and Potter's Field — under city ownership. The cemeteries were begun between 1879 and 1894 and have been abandoned since at least the early 1960s.
Thomasville, Ga., takes care of both its white cemetery, the Old Cemetery, and its black one, Flipper Cemetery, "in a very equal, even-handed fashion," Trinkley says.
These neglected black cemeteries are most common in the Deep South but also are seen in other parts of the country. Mansfield, Texas, near Fort Worth, faces a situation nearly identical to Hamilton's: a fence separating a white cemetery near downtown from a black one containing the anonymous graves of former slaves. A black church there took over ownership of that cemetery.
In many instances, African-American cemeteries in the South were started by small associations of a dozen or so black community leaders around the turn of the century. As those people died off, and as 6 million black people moved North during the Great Migration of 1910-70, ownership of the cemeteries became muddled, Trinkley says.
Hidden from view
No one seems to know whether that's what happened in Hamilton.
Many long-time residents of Hamilton were unaware that the cemetery was even there until the recent death of Annie B. Copeland, a 96-year-old African-American woman who wanted to be buried there.
"I've been here seven years, and I'd never heard of it," says Hamilton City Councilman Alvin Howard, one of the city's first black council members of the modern era. "I called the city manager, and had him meet me at the cemetery. He said, 'Mr. Howard, I'll be honest with you. We've just neglected it.' I said, 'I can't hold you at fault for what's happened in the past, but what we do from this day forward, we will all be held accountable.'"
The "white side" of the cemetery is owned and maintained by the Hamilton Cemetery Association, says Nancy McMichael, the Harris County clerk and assistant county manager. "I don't think anybody really knows who owns the African-American side," she says. "We had an attorney tell us that the county owns it, but the county has no holdings out there, per se."
She says the Hamilton Cemetery Association is believed to have erected the fence about 50 years ago. Don Newberry, president of the association, declined to be interviewed.
Hamilton Mayor Rebecca Chambers says the city tried to clean the front part of the cemetery when she became mayor nine years ago. "When we found out what we had there, we tried to find out who owns it," she says. "We have been able to clean part of it. But from 1828 to now, trees have grown up that are huge. We don't want to disturb ground that we don't know what's there."
McNally, 47, who is white, says she started trying to get the cemetery cleaned up after she and her 12-year-old son, Patrick, saw it in September. "I started asking, 'Why isn't it being taken care of, just like the other side?'"
McNally, who works as a site operations manager for a national printer company, has spent months trying to learn who owns the cemetery and working to get it cleaned. She says she approached the city's largest black church, but many churches here have their own cemeteries.
She says she believes it's important to learn who is buried here and to document as much information as possible about them.
One of those buried here is Mack Miller, who was born in September 1886 and died Feb. 1, 1937. By standards of the day, he was a very wealthy man: At the time of his death, he owned a home in Hamilton, other property in LaGrange, a 117-acre farm in Kingsborough, and $1,000 he left to his mother, according to his will.
In the segregated 1950s and '60s, the "colored" park in Hamilton was Mack Miller Park. Hamilton native Robert Hixon, 56, believes it was named for Miller. That's difficult to confirm: The authoritative county history at the local library virtually ignores the contributions of black Hamiltonians.
What is known, from Miller's will, is that he hardly expected his final resting place to come to this: "It is my will and desire that my body be buried in a decent and Christian like manner," he stated in the very first item of the Jan. 3, 1936, document.
Appeal to veterans
Because many veterans' graves rest in the African-American section, McNally sought help from soldiers' groups.
The VFW post in nearby Cataula, Post 10558, took up her cause. And on the Saturday before Veterans Day, about 45 people, many of them combat veterans, cleared huge piles of brush, sawed down trees, pushed through undergrowth and cleaned debris off graves.
"They put out a flier for volunteers, saying they had a cemetery in the area that had been overgrown that had veterans buried there," says Sgt. 1st Class David Thomas, 29, who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. "It's a pride thing, really. I just think it's important that we take care of our own."
Sgt. 1st Class Ronald Spear, project chairman for the post, says the group put American flags on all veterans graves — on both sides of the fence. "We've got veterans out here, laid to rest," he says.
That afternoon, the clusters of people digging through layers of neglect included just three African Americans in a county with about 6,000 blacks. There were no city officials, no county officials, no one from any of the local black churches.
Whitley Culverson, 64, one of the black people present, remembers when the city had "Colored Only" and "White Only" water fountains.
"I wish our young people were out here," he says. "There's a lot of history out here. I think Martin Luther King is rolling over in his grave."
It's unclear what's going to happen with the Hamilton City Cemetery.
McNally is trying to get the matter heard by a circuit judge to determine ownership. If a judge determines that either the city or county owns the property, that entity would be responsible for maintenance.
Rachel Black, Georgia's deputy state archaeologist, says that, "If the cemetery's lucky, a historical society comes forward or a family group will form an organization that will provide perpetual care."
If that doesn't happen, how do these situations end?
"Sometimes they don't," she says. "They just keep going."
Massive 86-car pileup in Ohio leaves 12-year-old girl dead, at least 20 others injured MIDDLETOWN, Ohio — Blowing snow and slick roadways in various parts of the state on Monday set off multiple highway pileups, including one outside Cincinnati involving at least 86 vehicles that left a 12-year-old girl dead. The crash on Interstate 275 near the Cincinnati suburb of Colerain Township was one of at least four pileups that snared dozens of vehicles. Officers were called to the scene shortly after 11:30 am and discovered multiple chain-reaction collisions. The 12-year-old girl had gotten out of a damaged vehicle and was standing in the median near a cable barrier, a type of fencing made of rope-like steel wire cables, the Hamilton County sheriff's office said. Another vehicle hit the barrier, snapping a cable, which then struck the girl and killed her, office spokesman Jim Knapp said. At least 20 people were taken to hospitals, though their injuries were not expected to be life-threatening, the office said. The interstate was shut down for hours with wreckage strewn across it, authorities said. "It was just chaos, absolute chaos," Hamilton County sheriff's office Lt. Tory Smith told The Cincinnati Enquirer. The sheriff's office said the crash remained under investigation, but it noted that inclement weather was a factor. Snow had been accumulating on the roadway, and there were reports of ice. Visibility was poor. Parts of the state saw scattered snow showers on Monday, with <b>...</b>
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PrintFormer U.S. Senator Warner introduces former U.S. Senator Hagel during Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on his nomination to be Defense Secretary, on Capitol Hill in Washington
U.S. President Barack Obama's nominee for Secretary of Defense, former Senator Chuck Hagel (L), stands next to counterterrorism adviser John Brennan (R), the nominee for CIA Director, at the White House in Washington
