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'Compassionate, gifted' Connecticut priest busted in cross-country meth ring

Philip Caulfield
NY Daily News
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 13:00 UTC
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© CONNECTICUT POST
Monsignor Kevin Wallin, of Bridgeport, Conn., was charged along with four others with selling crystal meth as part of a cross-country drug ring.
He went from pastor to pusher.

A Connecticut priest was part of a cross-country drug ring that smuggled crystal meth from California into the well-heeled hamlets of Fairfield County, federal prosecutors said.

Monsignor Kevin Wallin, a former pastor of St. Augustine Parish in Bridgeport, sold meth to undercover narcs six times since September 2012, the U.S. Attorney's Office said Wednesday.

The 61-year-old former church leader and four others were indicted by a grand jury on six counts of possession with intent to distribute.

If convicted, he could face up to 20 years in prison and a $2 million fine.

Federal investigators arrested the group on Jan. 3.
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Heart - Black

Algeria: 12 hostages have died in the siege


Associated Press
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:58 UTC
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Algeria's state news agency says 12 hostages have been killed since the start of the operation to free workers kidnapped by Islamic militants at a natural gas plant in the Sahara.

The APS news agency quotes an unidentified security source for the new death toll and says the fatalities include both Algerian and foreign workers at the remote desert facility.

APS also said Friday that 18 of the hostage takers have been killed.

The militants, meanwhile, offered to trade two captive American workers for two terror figures jailed in the United States, according to a statement received by a Mauritanian news site that often reports news from North African extremists.

The Friday report from the government news agency APS, citing a security official, did not mention any casualties in the battles between Algerian forces and the militants. But earlier it had said that 18 militants had been killed, along with six hostages.
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Eye 2

Man bites off girlfriend's thumb in fight


cfnews13.com
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:54 UTC
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Police in Central Florida say a man bit off his girlfriend's left thumb during a fight while he was driving her to work at Taco Bell.
Police in Central Florida say a man bit off his girlfriend's left thumb during a fight while he was driving her to work at Taco Bell.

Florida Today reports that hospital officials called police after the woman arrived for treatment Wednesday.
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Pistol

Gun laws in the U.S.: Seven things you need to know about the data


Guardian
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:50 UTC
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From concealed carry laws to background checks, the 50 states are a patchwork of inconsistent gun regulations.
Weapons laws can vary dramatically from state to state. Here are the key findings we collected while building our interactive.

When you first encounter this interactive, it's perhaps best to know that our key finding was that gun regulation from state to state is not one-size-fits-all.

Trying to create "buckets" to classify regulations broadly among the states is a challenge because most states have not enacted comprehensive legislation. In fact, it's common to find that states regulate one area of gun control in a very isolated way. For example, Rhode Island and Pennsylvania have enacted universal background checks for prospective gun owners, which also apply to sales at gun shows. However, other states, like Virginia, have imposed other administrative requirements - many of which emphasize record-keeping over regulation - that also pertain to gun shows.

A key point about the "blue" regulation areas used to highlight gun regulations in this interactive: the law specifically regulated gun rights in those states; however, if a state's regulation area is colored "grey", we can't necessarily make the assumption that there are absolutely no gun restrictions in that locale.

Below are other key findings we encountered while wrangling the data for this interactive:
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Attention

West Point center cites dangers of 'far right' in U.S.

Rowan Scarborough
The Washington Times
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 12:45 UTC
4th of July
© Associated Press/The Gainesville Sun
A U.S. flag flies July 3, 2012, over a field during the Fanfare and Fireworks celebration at the University of Florida in Gainesville, Fla.
A West Point think tank has issued a paper warning America about "far right" groups such as the "anti-federalist" movement, which supports "civil activism, individual freedoms and self-government."

The report issued this week by the Combating Terrorism Center at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., is titled "Challengers from the Sidelines: Understanding America's Violent Far-Right."

The center - part of the institution where men and women are molded into Army officers - posted the report Tuesday. It lumps limited government activists with three movements it identifies as "a racist/white supremacy movement, an anti-federalist movement and a fundamentalist movement."

The West Point center typically focuses reports on al Qaeda and other Islamic extremists attempting to gain power in Asia, the Middle East and Africa through violence.

But its latest study turns inward and paints a broad brush of people it considers "far right."

It says anti-federalists "espouse strong convictions regarding the federal government, believing it to be corrupt and tyrannical, with a natural tendency to intrude on individuals' civil and constitutional rights. Finally, they support civil activism, individual freedoms, and self government. Extremists in the anti-federalist movement direct most their violence against the federal government and its proxies in law enforcement."
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Heart - Black

Acid thrown in face of Bolshoi ballet's artistic director

Mark Memmott
NPR
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:37 UTC
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© Yuri Kadobnov /AFP/Getty Images
Sergei Filin, artistic director of the Bolshoi ballet, in 2011.
A masked assailant threw acid into the face of the Bolshoi ballet's artistic director on Thursday in Moscow in what may have been a "reprisal for his selection of dancers in starring roles at the famed Russian company," The Associated Press reports.

Russia Today writes that 42-year-old Sergei Filin "may lose his sight." He "suffered severe burns of multiple degrees to his face and eyes," it adds. And, the news outlet reports that:
"It will take Filin at least six months to recover, Bolshoi spokesperson Ekaterina Novikova said. She added that Sergei Filin had received threats from anonymous callers before. 'We never imagined that a war for roles - not for real estate or for oil - could reach this level of crime,' Novikova said to Channel One.

"Bolshoi general director Anatoly Iksanov said he believed the attack was linked to Filin's work at the theater. 'He is a man of principle and never compromised," Iksanov said. 'If he believed that this or that dancer was not ready or was unable to perform this or that part, he would turn them down.' "
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Attention

At last! Controversial 'naked image' body scanners to be removed from U.S. airports after privacy backlash from furious passengers


Daily Mail
Fri, 18 Jan 2013 12:35 UTC
The federal government is pulling the plug on the airport body scanners that had ignited a nationwide controversy over the invasive nature of the body images that they capture. The Transportation Security Administration has announced that it will remove the 'naked image' scanners from U.S. airports because the machines' developers can't write software to make the images less revealing.
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When the machines were introduced into U.S. airports two years ago, they immediately became the focus of lawsuits and protests. The X-ray images they produce are so clear that opponents say they amount to pornography. Passengers can opt for a full-body pat-down if they refuse the scanner.

The TSA began removing the machines last fall from major airports including New York's LaGuardia and John F. Kennedy International in an effort to speed up lines at crowded airports.

Meanwhile, in a bid to quell passengers' privacy concerns, the TSA asked the machines' developers, OSA Systems Inc., to make the scans less intrusive.

But the company failed to meet a congressional deadline to get the job done.
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No Entry

Canada: Firefighters used chainsaw to rescue hoarder buried for at least three days under belongings


thestar.com
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 08:01 UTC
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Eleven fire fighters cut through a door and then sawed a pathway through ceiling-high mounds of garbage packed inside a small Burnaby, B.C., home to rescue an elderly man who had been pinned under debris for at least three days.

RCMP were called to the house in the city east of Vancouver Monday night after an anxious friend reported not seeing the neighbour, in his 70s, for several days.

Police sought the aid of the Burnaby Fire Department, whose members arrived later that night to help them gain entry.

Inside, they discovered "quite a mess" before uncovering the trapped man, said Assistant Fire Chief Greg Mervin.
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USA

New Jersey town proposes American flag ban

John Celock
Huffington Post
Thu, 17 Jan 2013 07:44 UTC
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West New York Mayor Felix Roque
West New York, a town in northern New Jersey, may adopt a law that bans the American flag from being displayed.

Tucked into a proposed ordinance that would regulate window displays in businesses and televisions mounted to cars is a provision that would ban "flags, banners and pennants." Flags are included among 19 items "prohibited anywhere" in West New York, a Hudson County town across the Hudson River from New York City. The West New York Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 Wednesday to pass a preliminary version of the ordinance, scheduled for a final vote next month.

The ordinance was authored by Mayor Felix Roque (D), currently under federal indictment for computer hacking. Roque's spokesman, Pablo Fonseca, denied that the ordinance would prohibit the flying of the American flag in the town.

"That takes it to an extreme," Fonseca told The Huffington Post. "The mayor is a retired colonel in the Army."
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Bizarro Earth

Western Europe gets new gas pipeline


UPI
Tue, 15 Jan 2013 05:08 UTC
Primda, Czech Republic -- German energy company RWE said opening the Gazelle natural gas pipeline, which connects to Russia's Nord Stream, provides a vital energy source for Europe.

RWE announced that it commissioned the Gazelle pipeline during a ceremony in the Czech Republic.

"Bringing this pipeline into service opens up the 'new northern route' for the transportation of natural gas to Western Europe," the company said in a statement. "Construction of the Gazelle pipeline is of major strategic importance for both the Czech Republic and for Europe as a whole."

The 103-mile pipeline connects to the Opal pipeline system in Germany and the Nord Stream dual pipeline system running through the Baltic Sea to Germany. The second string of Nord Stream, part of Russian energy company Gazprom's plans to diversify its export options, went into service in October.
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