Chip Somodevilla/Getty Harper Lee, photographed here in 2007, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

 While Monroeville, Ala., is Harper Lee's hometown, she made New York City her town by choice.

 It was here she wrote the bulk of "To Kill a Mockingbird" and sweated through the many rewrites of what would become one of the most cherished novels of the 20th century in an airless, one-bedroom apartment in Yorkville.

 What has been little spoken of until now is the crucial role a New York couple played in bringing the Pulitzer Prize-winning "Mockingbird" to the page.

 In Mary McDonagh Murphy's documentary, "Hey Boo: Harper Lee & To Kill a Mockingbird," opening Friday at the Quad Cinema, Joy and Michael Brown sit down before the cameras for a rare interview. They relate how they came to give Lee the gift of a year free to write without the need to earn a living.

 It was Christmas Eve, 1956, when Lee showed up at the apartment of her dear friends with her own modest presents. She'd been working for several years as an airline reservations clerk in a midtown office. She couldn't get the time off to head home for the holidays, so she came to the Browns.

 Lee wrote about the evening for McCall's magazine after "Mockingbird" was published in 1960, recalling how she found an envelope addressed to her in the branches of the Christmas tree.

 "I opened it and read: 'You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas.'

 "'It's a fantastic gamble,' I murmured, 'a great risk.'

 "My friend looked around his living room, at his boys half buried under a pile of Christmas wrapping paper. His eyes sparkled as they met his wife's and they exchanged a glance ...

 "Then he looked at me and said softly: 'No, honey, it's not a risk. It's a sure thing.'"

 After briefly stepping into the public eye, the Browns have become reticent again in the wake of a controversy over an as-yet-unpublished biography of Lee. Excitement spread when Penguin Press announced that "The Mockingbird Next Door" had been written by a former Chicago Tribune reporter with input from Lee.

 Lee, who is now 85 and suffered a stroke in 2007, made a statement through her 99-year-old sister Alice's law firm that she had not "willingly participated" with author Marja Mills. Mills then produced a letter, one prepared by her and signed by Alice, vouching that both sisters had acted as "invaluable guides." The matter is unresolved.

 Meanwhile, the Browns speak eloquently in the documentary as Michael, a Broadway lyricist who performed in supper clubs around town, explains that in 1949 he received a letter from his friend Truman Capote, "in tiny, little handwriting," saying a friend of his was coming to New York and "would you kindly look after her."

 The friend was Capote's childhood soulmate, Nelle Harper Lee, who had quit the University of Alabama to become a writer.

 Those first years in Manhattan were rough going, says Charles J. Shields, author of the biography "Mockingbird." But though she would walk down streets smacking parking meters to shake loose dimes and nickels, Lee had an exceptional social life.

 "She sort of followed Truman around. He was a literary lion and gave her entree," according to Shields. "All she would say about herself at parties was that she was from Alabama and working on a book."

 That she was, thanks to the Browns. Michael had received a lump-sum payment, and Joy, a former ballerina who had studied with George Balachine, immediately thought to give it to Nelle.

 "I knew that if she could get her work seen that she'd have it," Michael recalls, adding later. "But I never, never foresaw anything like this. Like what happened."

 Joy still sounds incredulous more than 50 years later.

 "They published 5,000 copies for heaven's sake. Who was going to buy 5,000 copies of this book?"

 In fact, that first printing of "Mockingbird" fell at least 30 million copies short of the eventual demand.

 After Lee retreated from fame, sidestepping all public exposure, New York City offered the anonymity that allowed her to ride the subways and visit secondhand bookstores without having to answer what came to be a harrowing question: When was the second book coming?

 As Anna Quindlen, who pays homage in "Hey Boo" along with other notables like Tom Brokaw and Oprah Winfrey, muses: "I don't know if she felt she couldn't do it, but I prefer to think she wouldn't do it."

 Lee being Lee, what are the chances we'll ever find out? ||||| Or his spur to a sales force:

 You gotta be a good greeter —

 Sell the car!

 You gotta turn on the heater —

 Sell the car!

 And when you get to St. Peter —

 Sell the car!

 Sell the Edsel for ’59!

 For DuPont, Mr. Brown created “Wonderful World of Chemistry,” a show that in all likelihood has had the greatest number of performances of any musical in history.

 Marion Martin Brown Jr. was born on Dec. 14, 1920, in Mexia, Tex. As a youth, he played the piano and wrote songs; at 15, he entered the University of Texas. After receiving his bachelor’s degree there while still a teenager, he earned a master’s in English from the University of Virginia.

 After wartime service as a cryptographer, Mr. Brown moved to New York, where he adopted the name Michael. He became a regular at supper clubs, including the Blue Angel, performing his own satirical compositions.

 One of his best-known original songs from this period is “Fall River Hoedown,” a.k.a. “Lizzie Borden.” A lively ensemble number written for the Broadway revue “New Faces of 1952,” it contained this memorable lyric:

 Oh, you can’t chop your mama up in Massachusetts

 And then blame all the damage on the mice.

 No, you can’t chop your mama up in Massachusetts.

 That kind of thing just isn’t very nice.

 The Chad Mitchell Trio popularized that song and another by Mr. Brown, “The John Birch Society,” which included these lines: “You cannot trust your neighbors, or even next of kin./If mommy is a Commie then you gotta turn her in.”

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 His most widely seen show was without doubt “Wonderful World of Chemistry.” Presented in the DuPont pavilion at the 1964 World’s Fair in New York, it was a rare example of an industrial musical open to the public. The show, written, produced and directed by Mr. Brown, was performed at least 40 times a day, by at least eight companies, for months on end.

 Seen by an estimated five million people, the show, 24 minutes long, played some 17,000 performances. Broadway’s longest-running musical, “Phantom of the Opera,” by contrast, has had about 11,000 performances since opening in 1988.

 It was the modest windfall from just such an industrial show — a musical fashion show for Esquire magazine in the fall of 1956, Joy Brown recalled last week — that let Mr. Brown and his wife help usher “To Kill a Mockingbird” into being.

 The Browns had met Ms. Lee through her friend Truman Capote. Mr. Brown had contributed lyrics to a song in the 1954 Broadway musical “House of Flowers,” with a book by Mr. Capote and music by Harold Arlen.

 By 1956, Ms. Lee, an Alabama native, was living in New York. Her longed-for career as a writer was stymied by the need to pay the rent, and she was toiling away as an airline reservations clerk.

 That Christmas, visiting the Browns, she spied an envelope with her name on it in the branches of their tree.

 “I opened it and read: ‘You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas,’ ” Ms. Lee recalled in a 1961 essay in McCall’s magazine in which she did not identify the Browns by name.

 “It’s a fantastic gamble,” Ms. Lee, in the words of her essay, told Mr. Brown. “It’s such a great risk.”

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 “He looked at me,” the essay continued, “and said softly: ‘No, honey. It’s not a risk. It’s a sure thing.’ ”

 The result, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” was published in 1960, and for nearly a half-century afterward the Browns and Ms. Lee kept their secret. News of the gift — Ms. Lee insisted that it be a loan — came to light in 2006 with the publication of “Mockingbird: A Portrait of Harper Lee,” a biography by Charles J. Shields.

 In an interview last week, Ms. Brown declined to specify the amount of the loan but said it had long since been repaid.

 Besides his wife, whom he married in 1950, Mr. Brown is survived by two sons, Michael Jr. and Kelly. Another son, Adam, died in 1994.

 Mr. Brown wrote music, book and lyrics for the short-lived Broadway musical “Different Times,” staged in 1972. He was also the author of the popular children’s picture book “Santa Mouse” (1966), with illustrations by Elfrieda DeWitt, and its several sequels.

 “To Kill a Mockingbird,” widely considered a seminal novel of the 20th-century, won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1961 and was the basis of an acclaimed Hollywood film starring Gregory Peck, released the next year.

 Speaking by telephone last week, Ms. Brown recalled her and her husband’s astonished delight upon hearing what the book’s original publisher, J. B. Lippincott & Company, planned for it in 1960. “We thought, they’re printing 5,000 copies,” she recalled. “Who in the world is going to buy 5,000 copies?”

 According to its current publisher, HarperCollins, “To Kill a Mockingbird” has been translated into more than 40 languages and has sold 30 million copies worldwide, a sure thing if ever there was one. |||||

Write a summary.

– If it hadn't been for a New York City couple, the world might never have seen To Kill a Mockingbird. Its author, Harper Lee, was a ticket agent for British Overseas Airways in 1956, and it was difficult for her to find time to write with a separate full-time job, Ozy reports. She discussed this concern with her friends Michael and Joy Brown, a couple her friend Truman Capote had introduced to her. Michael, who died this year, worked as a writer of industrial musicals—performances, often with big budgets, that US corporations would produce to inspire their workers, the New York Times reports in his obituary. Michael Brown's work included, for example, a "Love Song to an Electrolux" and a DuPont musical called Wonderful World of Chemistry. The work brought in plenty of money, and at Christmas 1956, Lee found an envelope for her in the Browns' Christmas tree. "I opened it and read: 'You have one year off from your job to write whatever you please. Merry Christmas,'" she wrote in the 1960s, as the New York Daily News reported. Though she was reluctant to accept the gift—which she eventually repaid—the couple supported her during the period, allowing her to quit her job and write To Kill a Mockingbird. That gift's impact continues to reverberate, as the book still sells more than 750,000 copies per year, Ozy notes. (Lee, now 87, has had her fair share of trouble in recent years: She recently sued her agent as well as a museum in her hometown.)


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Story highlights Donald Trump believes the world would be better off if dictators like Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi were still in power

 Both Gadhafi and Hussein committed atrocities against their own people

 (CNN) Donald Trump believes the world would be much better off if ruthless dictators like Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi were still in power.

 "100%," Trump replied when asked that question in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper that aired Sunday on "State of the Union."

 Trump said he believes Iraq and Libya, the respective countries of the since-deceased dictators, would be less fractured and promote a more stable Middle East if the two had not been forcefully pushed out of power. Hussein fell from power following the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 and Gadhafi was ousted following violent civil strife in 2011 that ultimately drew a NATO-led military intervention.

 "I mean, look at Libya. Look at Iraq. Iraq used to be no terrorists. He (Hussein) would kill the terrorists immediately, which is like now it's the Harvard of terrorism," Trump said. "If you look at Iraq from years ago, I'm not saying he was a nice guy, he was a horrible guy, but it was a lot better than it is right now. Right now, Iraq is a training ground for terrorists. Right now Libya, nobody even knows Libya, frankly there is no Iraq and there is no Libya. It's all broken up. They have no control. Nobody knows what's going on."

 Read More ||||| Donald Trump Donald TrumpSanders slams Trump for 'insults' to women Ex-CIA head: Trump 'gives waterboarding a bad name' Kasich campaign pushing for April debate MORE said in an interview broadcast Sunday that the Benghazi committee's hearing featuring former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton Hillary Rodham ClintonReid: GOP could confirm Supreme Court nominee in lame-duck session Sanders slams Trump for 'insults' to women Ex-CIA head: Trump 'gives waterboarding a bad name' MORE was “very partisan,” adding that the “hatred” displayed was “unbelievable.

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 “It was very partisan, and it looked quite partisan,” Trump said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “The level of hatred between Republicans and Democrats was unbelievable.”

 "You’ve never seen anything like this."

 Trump said the partisanship “hurts both parties” and “hurts the country” because it prevents the government from accomplishing anything.

 The GOP front-runner painted himself as a “great unifier.”

 “I’m going to unify. This country is totally divided,” Trump said. “Barack Obama has divided this country unbelievably, and it’s all hatred, what can I tell you, I’ve never seen anything like it. I’m going to unify the country.”

 He said his past support of Democrats shows that he’s above partisan politics.

 “One of the big knocks on me was that over the years I’ve gotten along with Democrats and I’ve gotten along with Republicans, and I said that’s a good thing,” Trump said. “As a businessman, I had an obligation to do that, to myself, to my family, to my company, to my employees. I get along with everybody. I will be a great unifier for our country.”

 Trump also said he does not consider Clinton an “enemy.”

 “I don’t consider her any enemy. Right now she’s an opponent. I don’t consider her an enemy.” |||||

– Bernie Sanders was busily going after Hillary Clinton's blood Saturday night, Donald Trump was waxing poetic about the stability we used to enjoy under some of its bloodiest dictators. Asked Sunday by CNN's Jake Tapper if the world would be a more stable place if Moammar Gadhafi and Saddam Hussein were still in power, Trump responded, "100%." His full quote: "I mean, look at Libya. Look at Iraq. Iraq used to be no terrorists. (Hussein) would kill the terrorists immediately, which is like now it's the Harvard of terrorism. If you look at Iraq from years ago, I'm not saying he was a nice guy, he was a horrible guy, but it was a lot better than it is right now. Right now, Iraq is a training ground for terrorists. Right now Libya, nobody even knows Libya, frankly there is no Iraq and there is no Libya. It's all broken up. They have no control. Nobody knows what's going on." Trump turned his thoughts to the Benghazi hearing, adds the Hill, saying, "it was very partisan, and it looked quite partisan. The level of hatred between Republicans and Democrats was unbelievable. You’ve never seen anything like this." His solution: Donald Trump. "I’m going to unify," he said. "One of the big knocks on me was that over the years I’ve gotten along with Democrats and I’ve gotten along with Republicans, and I said that’s a good thing. As a businessman, I had an obligation to do that, to myself, to my family, to my company, to my employees. I get along with everybody. I will be a great unifier for our country."


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While the rest of us were popping champagne to celebrate the arrival of 2018, Seattle greeted the New Year with a 1.75 cent per ounce tax on sweetened beverages. It was needed, former Mayor Ed Murray once said, for a host of noble reasons: to reduce sugar consumption; to raise revenue for important projects like a year of “free” community college for all graduating public high school students; and, to subsidize purchases of healthy foods by low-income families.

 Before he resigned in disgrace over multiple allegations of personal misconduct, Murray considered the soda tax one of his greatest accomplishments, a “cutting edge piece of legislation,” with Seattle setting an example for the whole nation.

 Seattle policymakers should have paid more attention to what happened in Cook County, Ill., which repealed its soda tax last year within two months after a tremendous public outcry. Let’s be clear. Soda taxes don’t make people healthier. They don’t raise revenue—they drive it outside city limits. They don’t help ease inequality—they make the poor poorer. Soda taxes don’t unite the city around some vague sense that everyone will be healthier—they unite diverse coalitions in opposition to them: Bernie Sanders and libertarians, labor unions, and businesses all come together to express strong opposition to these regressive, job-killing taxes.

 Seattle’s soda tax is particularly burdensome. A case of Gatorade that cost $15.99 on December 31, 2017 now costs $26.33, an increase of more than 64 percent.

 Fortunately, business managers and customers are not stupid; retailers like Costco have posted signs directing customers to locations outside city limits where shoppers can buy the product without paying the massive tax. Already, there is evidence that people are voting with their feet and buying drinks in the suburbs, depriving Seattle of the revenue it claims to need. The same thing happened to Philadelphia when it implemented a soda tax.

 Seattle’s tax does not apply to sugary drinks that list milk as their primary ingredient, such as many flavored coffee beverages. To their credit, Starbucks rejected their hometown tax.

 The west coast is often ground zero for politicians who pride themselves on social engineering. In fact, a study by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University released on January 3, 2018 revealed that three of the top five states with the most paternalistic laws are California, Oregon, and Washington. Nanny staters have looked to Seattle to fulfill their dream of running our lives. The people of the city need to speak up and end this nightmare. ||||| LISTEN: Seattle's sugary drink tax nearly doubles prices at Costco Your browser does not support the audio element.

 Customers are feeling the pinch of Seattle’s new Sweetened Beverage Tax. At Costco, a $15.99 case of Gatorade now costs an additional $10.34 due to the tax.

 A sign alerts Costco customers to the price change and also lets them know that they can go to the company’s Tukwila or Shoreline stores to buy the product without the added charge.

 RELATED: Does Seattle’s new beverage tax target the working class?

 The new tax went into affect on January 1, 2018 and tacks on 1.75 cents per ounce. It affects soda, sports drinks, kombucha, and other sugary beverages that don’t list milk as their first ingredient.

 “If you buy in bulk, you’re going to notice it. If you’re just buying an individual can, you probably won’t blink,” KIRO Radio’s Tom Tangney said on Monday’s edition of Tom and Curley.

 Because so many of Costco’s products are sold in large quantities, customers are seeing more drastic price increases.

 “I gotta say, I like Costco’s approach to this,” KIRO Radio’s Mike Lewis said. “People should know. And they should know and they should be able to make an educated decision.”

 Many Seattle residents are upset about the tax. Some don’t want to pay more for soda and other drinks. Others think the tax is regressive, meaning it disproportionately affects low-income families. And still others question why the tax leaves out sugar-heavy beverages like many of those sold at Starbucks.

 “Make it consistent. Apply it to every sugary drink. Apply it to fast food,” Lewis said. “If you want to actually start talking about health effects, let’s actually have a conversation about that. Let’s not go to what’s the most convenient thing and attack that.” ||||| Daniel Stein estimates Cook County’s sweetened beverage tax has cost his vending machine company about $75,000 so far, a figure that doesn’t even include lost sales.

 The Dec. 1 repeal of the penny-per-ounce tax on sugar and artificially sweetened beverages likely will cost him more before it’s all over. He’ll again have to send technicians to his 850 or so vending machines in Cook County to adjust the price of products. But Stein feels only happiness and relief that the tax that’s consumed his life for months will soon go away.

 “I don’t want to sound judgy but this whole thing has been kind of unfortunate. I’m just glad it’s almost over. … Closure is good,” said Stein, owner of Northbrook-based Mark Vend.

 Wednesday’s repeal vote was a resounding victory for the beverage industry, powered by giant corporations like the Coca-Cola Co. and PepsiCo, that spent millions fighting the unpopular tax. But Cook County retailers and restaurants, many of whom joined forces with Big Soda in opposition, also celebrated the win after seeing sales dwindle and customers stray across county lines since the tax was implemented Aug. 2.

 “Obviously, our members are very pleased,” said Rob Karr, president and CEO of the Illinois Retail Merchants Association. “Now the hard work for retailers begins — to win back shoppers who took their business elsewhere across county lines.”

 The short-term impact of the tax was felt by stores both big and small.

 Costco’s nine Cook County locations saw a 34 percent decline in sales of beverages affected by the tax, said John McKay, chief operating officer of Costco’s northern division.

 The chain saw a corresponding increase of 38 percent in sales of sweetened beverages in its nine stores just outside Cook County, McKay said.

 “You’re displacing shopping from one area, you’re creating congestion in another and it’s just counterproductive,” McKay said.

 At Fairplay Foods in suburban Worth, sweetened beverage sales were down about 47 percent, said Rosie Regas, co-owner of the independent chain. Fairplay’s three Chicago stores saw a smaller but still significant drop in sweetened drink sales of around 27 percent.

 Regas said she didn’t blame customers for shopping elsewhere; she did the same, driving from her home in Orland Park into Will County to avoid the tax.

 “This was a nightmare. I get it — the county needs money. But find another way,” Regas said.

 And the hospitality industry already has been feeling the cumulative burden of various taxes, said Sam Toia, CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association. The sweetened beverage tax did nothing but further diminish already thin profit margins, he said.

 There are similar sweetened beverage taxes in other jurisdictions in the U.S. — such as Philadelphia and Berkeley, Calif. — but Cook County’s tax was unique in how mired in controversy it was leading up to and during its implementation, said John Cawley, professor of policy analysis and management at Cornell University.

 At one point, the county said the the tax would apply to purchases made with federal food stamp benefits, then reversed course after receiving further guidance from the state, Cawley noted. Such administrative gaffes created genuine confusion and the well-funded opposition benefited, he said.

 “There were constant challenges that may have contributed to this fatigue. It’s not just on the county government. Millions were spent by the beverage industry and the Can the Tax Coalition to engineer this result,” Cawley said.

 The sweetened beverage tax also triggered numerous lawsuits, some of which are still playing out in court. The Illinois Retail Merchants Association sued the county to get the tax thrown out days before it was to take effect. The court granted a restraining order to keep the tax from being imposed. Later, however, the court allowed the tax to move forward. The merchants appealed that decision.

 “The appeal of the circuit court judge’s dismissal is still pending,” said lawyer David Ruskin, who is representing the merchants.

 Several retailers have been sued for allegedly misapplying the tax. A Schaumburg man is suing Walgreens for allegedly wrongly charging the tax on unsweetened sparkling water. The case, which seeks class-action status, is still pending, said Elizabeth Fegan, the lawyer for Vincent De Leon.

 “Walgreens has filed a motion to dismiss, which we plan to oppose,” Fegan said.

 Cawley, the Cornell professor, said there is a legitimate policy argument for taxing sugary food and beverages linked to obesity and diabetes because those conditions drive up health care costs for all.

 Groups like the American Heart Association, the Illinois Public Health Institute, the World Health Organization and the Center for Science in the Public Interest have touted the public health benefit of taxing sugar-sweetened beverages.

 But that argument was watered down in Cook County, where the tax also included artificially sweetened beverages and also didn’t apply to food stamp purchases.

 "(Taxpayers) will continue to cover the rising costs of treating the chronic diseases caused by drinking too many sugary beverages while also seeing cuts to health care services for our most vulnerable communities," Elissa Bassler, CEO of the Illinois Public Health Institute, said in a statement.

 gtrotter@chicagotribune.com

 byerak@chicagotribune.com

 Twitter @GregTrotterTrib

 Twitter @beckyyerak

  ||||| SPOKANE, Wash. - Seattle is trying to discourage people from sipping on soda through a sugary drink tax, and now a bill is being re-introduced to bring that tax statewide.

 The tax adds nearly two cents to every ounce of a sugary drink sold. The bill was first read in February of last year and re-introduced Monday.

 Local representative Marcus Riccelli co-sponsored the bill originally, and said he doesn't believe the bill will go anywhere this year or be brought up for a committee vote.

 But after seeing the effects of the tax in Seattle, some are worried about the tax coming to Spokane.

 Pictures from a Seattle-area Costco have sparked outrage and controversy online. The images show a case of Coke costing an extra nearly $8, and a case of Gatorade going from $16 to more than $26.

 Some are worried that if that tax were to come to the rest of the state, it would be bad for local businesses.

 "I understand the reasoning behind it. It just seems like for a business like us, it's just another cost that we're trying to overcome," said Heather Baldwin, the lead bartender at King's Bar & Grill.

 Baldwin says their business relies heavily on soda. "The majority of our drinks are made with soda mix. And then we do have a lot of non-alcoholic drinking people and that's what they choose to drink."

 If the tax were passed statewide, it would also include a tax on syrups and powders which restaurants use to make the soda in their machines.

 "It's going to be sent downhill to us, via the retailers upping their prices and then we're going to have to up our prices," Baldwin said.

 Seattle leaders say the tax is a good way to discourage people from drinking soda, which can lead to an increased risk of heart disease, diabetes and hypertension. Some here in Spokane agree that's a good thing.

 "It's a great idea, honestly. Sugar is actually one of the worst things that we can put in our body. And so, I think it's a great idea, incorporating the same tax as alcohol," said Spokane resident Jason Prettyman.

 Seattle is expected to make $15 million this year from the tax. It will be using part of the money to help fund a program that provides healthy meals for low-income families. ||||| Men of the West! The day may come when state or municipal governments impose a tax on sweetened beverages which functions perfectly as intended. But it is not this day!

 Another year, another soda tax. This one was shoved through in the city of Seattle by the municipal government. As usual, its purported intent was to improve the health and lives of residents by “modifying their behavior” and having them drink fewer sugary beverages. And it’s definitely a muscular incentive for new behavior to be sure. The price of soda has nearly doubled overnight. Seattle residents must be feeling healthier already! (CW33)

 Soda lovers are crying carbonated tears! Turns out, a soda tax went into affect in Seattle and people are not drinking the Kool-Aid on this one. Mega-chain Costco isn’t feeling the surge either and put in big black numbers how much the new tax is costing their customers. Not only that, they’re putting signs next to the price display that tells shoppers where they can get their fizz fix outside the city!

 As noted in the article, in one of the more creative and admirable moves by a retail chain in recent memory, Costco took to changing their price signs, showing how much the beverages should cost, and then tacking on the new tax as a separate line item.

 The city government appears to have been caught totally off guard by the visceral response from consumers. The majority opinion out on the streets seems to be that shoppers will be heading outside the city to shop. And considering the fact that a case of soda has now increased in price by enough to more than pay for the gas, perhaps they’ll just do all of their shopping there. Talk about behavioral modification!

 CATO highlighted a Twitter thread from Scott Drenkard of the Tax Foundation, calling on these anti-sugar warriors to at least make some effort to get their story straight.

 “First they interview people at the Costco who are rightfully shocked at how high prices on soda and sports drinks are now (they are almost doubled).”

 “Then they interview a public health advocate who says ‘that’s right! We want these prices to change people’s behavior and slow sales!’”

 “Then they talk to the consumer, ‘think you’ll change your behavior, maybe even shop somewhere else?’ And she’s like, ‘ya the Tukwila store is close enough.’ Then they ask a city council member if this will hurt local biz, who says ‘there is no data’ suggesting that.”

 “Then the SAME public health advocate says that people won’t respond to price increases, shopping elsewhere because it isn’t ‘worth their while.’”

 “You can’t have it both ways people! The tax is either big enough to elicit behavior change, which would slow sales and hurt local biz and potentially reduce calories, or it isn’t. Get your stories straight!”

 This is yet another example of the theory of the frog in a boiling pot of water. People are used to having their taxes increased if they live in cities run by Democrats. It’s just a fact of life. And if you increase the tax slowly over time, let’s say by twenty cents per year, many of them will adapt to it. (That’s how they did it with tobacco in most places.) But if you literally double the price overnight, that horse is going to buck.

 Seattle hasn’t run into the same constitutional issues that the Chicago soda tax was brought down by, but the level of failure here is just as massive. The original, stated goal was to have people drink less soda, thereby improving their health. But your average consumer doesn’t enjoy being treated like a mouse in a laboratory experiment. Provide them with enough information to make an informed choice and you might achieve the desired result. But raising the price of something they want to the point where only the wealthy can afford it isn’t going to elicit any cooperation.

 Of course, the underlying reason for the tax is to raise more money for the city’s coffers. Now, with shoppers heading out of town to buy soda (and probably a lot of other groceries as well), Seattle is seeing what Chicago experienced in the early days of their short-lived soda tax. People are still drinking soda, so there’s no health improvement. But they’re not buying it in the city so the hoped-for revenue surge doesn’t happen. Plus, grocery stores begin losing business, so their tax revenue contribution goes down and some of them may even have to begin laying off workers.

 It’s a win-win for liberalism! But sadly, not so much for everyone else. |||||

– "That new soda tax in Seattle is working out about as well as Chicago's," proclaims a headline at Hot Air. It's not a compliment. The tax, which went into effect Jan. 1, slaps an additional 1.75 cents on each fluid ounce of sugar-sweetened drinks, a group that includes soda, sports drinks, and kombucha. That's nearly double the one-cent levy the Chicago-encompassing Cook County tried, a tax it repealed after about two months. The Chicago Tribune reported at the time that Costco's nine affected locations saw their sales of beverages impacted by the tax fall 34%, while sales jumped 38% at locations just beyond the county line. And Costco is again at the fore of what's happening: Because bulk purchases contain significantly more ounces than an individual one, the impact is starker, as KIRO discovered when it spotted an updated Costco sign for Gatorade in Seattle. The sign details Costco's price for the 35-pack of 16-ounce bottles—$15.99—and separately lists the city's $10.34 tax, for a new total of $26.33. But that's not all the sign says: It also directs consumers to nearby locations that are outside city limits and exempt from the tax. The tax is meant to fight obesity and raise funds for worthy expenditures, but the blog for Citizens Against Government Waste sees the ends quite differently: "Let’s be clear. Soda taxes don’t make people healthier. They don't raise revenue—they drive it outside city limits. They don’t help ease inequality—they make the poor poorer." But some in government seemingly remain hopeful: KXLY reports a bill was reintroduced Monday that would push the tax statewide. (Speaking of Seattle and beverages, the world's largest Starbucks is no longer located there.)


Article:

CLEVELAND, Ohio – Cleveland police officers forced Tamir Rice's 14-year-old sister to the ground, handcuffed her and placed in the back of a Cleveland police car steps away from her wounded 12-year-old brother.

 The scene plays out within the first two minutes of the 30 minute video taken from the Cudell Recreation Center surveillance camera that captured the shooting. The additional video was obtained by Northeast Ohio Media Group after protracted talks with city officials, who initially refused to release it.

 An attorney representing the Rice family called the video "shocking and outrageous."

 "This has to be the cruelest thing I've ever seen," Akron-based attorney Walter Madison said.

 The video confirmed earlier claims made by Tamir's mother, Samaria Rice, and her legal team at a Dec. 8 press conference that an officer cuffed her daughter as she ran to check on her brother and that officers waited several minutes before administering first aid.

 The girl, who was at the park with Tamir, ran to her brother's side when she heard two gunshots fired by first-year Cleveland police officer Timothy Loehmann.

 As the girl neared her brother, Loehmann's partner, Frank Garmback confronted her and forced her to the ground. Loehmann rushed over, and the two knelt beside her as she rolled on the ground. Eventually the officers handcuffed the girl and placed her in the back of the police cruiser, less than 10 feet from her dying brother.

 Officers then stood around Tamir as he lay wounded. One officer had his hands on his hips when a man, identified by police as an FBI agent who was in the neighborhood, entered the frame and administered first aid. It was the first medical care the boy received in the four minutes that followed the shooting.

 Paramedics did not arrive until about eight minutes after the shooting. Much of what happened to Tamir after the shooting is blocked by Garmback and Loehmann's squad car. The paramedics can be seen working as officers stand around the boy.

 Tamir is whisked away on a stretcher a little over 13 minutes after the shooting.

 Madison said the video depicted officers who showed "overwhelming indifference" to Tamir as he lay on the ground.

 "No one thinks that it's appropriate to try to save him," Madison said. "The first person who does is not affiliated with the Cleveland police department.

 "This is the level of service that makes people very upset and distrustful of law enforcement."

 Northeast Ohio Media Group reached out to officials with the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association. They were not immediately for comment Wednesday night.

 Cleveland Mayor Frank Jackson's administration denied Northeast Ohio Media Group's Dec. 11 request for 90 minutes of footage after the shooting, arguing it was part of "an open and ongoing investigation" and was therefore exempt from public viewing.

 The organization hired attorney David Marburger, an authority on Ohio public records law. After three weeks of demands, the city agreed to turn over 15 minutes of video.

 The video raises more questions for Madison, who said the family wants to know why Cleveland police hired Loehmann after he was on his way to being fired from Independence police in 2012 and was turned down by several other area police agencies before he joined the city's force.

 "This video really explains why," Madison said. "This is not the professional standard we would expect or deserve, and the city of Cleveland put him in the position to allow this to happen."

 Jackson announced last week that he was handing the investigation over to the Cuyahoga County Sheriff's Department.

 Chief Clifford Pinkney, second in rank only to Sheriff Frank Bova, will lead a team of detectives in probing the shooting. Pinkney has promised to conduct a thorough review.

 The department will hand over its evidence to Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty's office. Prosecutors will present the evidence to a grand jury, which will decide whether to criminally indict any officers involved.

 An earlier version of this story referenced a version of Cudell Recreation Center video with a running time of 15 minutes streamed from a Dropbox account. The downloaded version of the video provided to the Northeast Ohio Media Group is about 30 minutes.

  ||||| CLEVELAND (AP) — A video released by the city of Cleveland shows a police officer pushing a 14-year-old girl to the ground and handcuffing her with the help of another officer soon after a third officer fatally shot her younger brother.

 The grainy surveillance video shows the officers struggling with the teen before putting her in the back seat of a patrol car parked next to the where 12-year-old Tamir Rice lay on the snowy ground bleeding.

 Northeast Ohio Media Group is reporting that it obtained the nearly 30-minute-long video from the city on Wednesday after the city initially refused to release it. Other media outlets were given the video Thursday.

 Patrol officer Timothy Loehmann shot Tamir in the abdomen within two seconds of a patrol car stopping near the boy on Nov. 22. He died the next day.

 Tamir's family gave the city permission to release another version of the video days after the shooting. That video shows Tamir in a park near a recreation center carrying what turned out to be an airsoft-type gun that shoots non-lethal plastic pellets. That video ends with Loehmann shooting Tamir.

 Loehmann, a rookie, and his training officer and the driver of the patrol car, Frank Garmback, had responded to a report about a man with a gun. A police union official has said the officers thought the gun was real and that they didn't know Tamir, who was 5 feet 7 and weighed 195 pounds, was so young.

 The new video begins with the shooting of Tamir. About 90 seconds later, Tamir's sister, whose name has not been released, runs toward her fallen brother and Garmback immediately pushes her to the ground. Garmback and another officer are then shown handcuffing the struggling teen and finally placing her in the back seat of Loehmann and Garmback's patrol car.

 Walter Madison, an attorney for the family, called the treatment of the 14-year-old sister, who he would not name, "the cruelest thing I've ever seen on video." He also criticized the officers for not providing Tamir with medical attention. An FBI agent on a bank robbery detail nearby arrived about four minutes after the shooting and began first aid.

 A city spokesman declined to comment about the video on Thursday.

 The city last week turned over the investigation of the shooting to the Cuyahoga County sheriff's department. The county prosecutor is expected to present the case to a grand jury to determine if criminal charges should be filed against Loehmann and Garmback. |||||
What is a summary?

– A lawyer for Tamir Rice's family calls it the cruelest thing he's ever seen. In newly released surveillance video, two Cleveland police officers can be seen pushing the boy's 14-year-old sister to the ground as she tried to run to her brother's side just 90 seconds after he had been fatally shot by another officer. After a struggle, she is handcuffed and placed in the back of a squad car just a few feet from where her 12-year-old brother lay dying, reports Cleveland.com, which obtained the video after what it calls "protracted talks" with city officials who initially refused to release it. The video shows that in the minutes after the shooting, police stood around the wounded boy, who had been carrying a pellet gun, but made no attempt to offer first aid. The first person to begin first aid was an FBI agent who arrived around four minutes after the shooting, the AP reports. Tamir, who had been shot in the abdomen, wasn't pronounced dead until nine hours later. "How inhumane to put her in handcuffs and sit her in the car about 4 feet from where her brother lay dying and she has to watch that," another lawyer tells the New York Times. "And they rendered no aid to this kid." Tim Loehmann, the rookie officer who fired the fatal shot seconds after arriving on the scene, was found unfit to serve in his previous police job. Prosecutors are expected to present the case to a grand jury to determine whether Loehmann and his partner should face criminal charges.


News article:

MURRYSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — Flailing away with two kitchen knives, a 16-year-old boy with a "blank expression" stabbed and slashed 21 students and a security guard in the crowded halls of his suburban Pittsburgh high school Wednesday before an assistant principal tackled him.

 Alex Hribal, the suspect in the multiple stabbings at the Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pa., is escorted by police to a district magistrate to be arraigned on Wednesday, April 9, 2014,... (Associated Press)

 Alex Hribal, the suspect in the multiple stabbings at the Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pa., is escorted by police to a district magistrate to be arraigned on Wednesday, April 9, 2014,... (Associated Press)

 Westmoreland County emergency management spokesman Dan Stevens, left, looks on as Franklin Regional School District Superintendent Gennaro Piraino pauses while addressing the media during a news conference... (Associated Press)

 A parent holds hands with a Franklin Regional High School while picking up the student after more than a dozen students were stabbed by a knife wielding suspect at the school on Wednesday, April 9, 2014,... (Associated Press)

 Students walk past a row of buses as they leave the campus of the Franklin Regional School District after more then a dozen students were stabbed by a knife wielding suspect at nearby Franklin Regional... (Associated Press)

 A man and woman walk away from Franklin Regional High School after more then a dozen students were stabbed by a knife wielding suspect at the school on Wednesday, April 9, 2014, in Murrysville, Pa., near... (Associated Press)

 Students and guardians walk to their car from the Franklin Regional Middle School after more then a dozen students were stabbed by a knife wielding suspect at Franklin Regional High School on Wednesday,... (Associated Press)

 Emergency responders gather in the parking lot of the high school on the campus of the Franklin Regional School District where several people were stabbed at Franklin Regional High School on Wednesday,... (Associated Press)

 Students are escorted from the campus of the Franklin Regional School District after more then a dozen students were stabbed by a knife wielding suspect at nearby Franklin Regional High School on Wednesday,... (Associated Press)

 Alex Hribal, the suspect in the multiple stabbings at the Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pa., is escorted by police to a district magistrate to be arraigned on Wednesday, April 9, 2014,... (Associated Press)

 A police officer guards the entrance Heritage Elementary School as students are dismissed after more than a dozen students were stabbed by a knife wielding suspect at nearby Franklin Regional High School... (Associated Press)

 A student and guardian walk to their car from Franklin Regional Middle School after more then a dozen students were stabbed by a knife wielding suspect at nearby Franklin Regional High School on Wednesday,... (Associated Press)

 Mike Kane, a parishioner at the Newlonsburg Presbyterian Church in Murrysville, Pa., works on a sign outside his church that abuts the Franklin Regional School District campus, where more then a dozen... (Associated Press)

 Alex Hribal, the suspect in the multiple stabbings at the Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville, Pa., is escorted by police to a district magistrate to be arraigned on Wednesday, April 9, 2014,... (Associated Press)

 Parents arrive to pick up their children from a nearby middle and elementary school after more then a dozen students were stabbed by a knife wielding suspect at Franklin Regional High School on Wednesday,... (Associated Press)

 At least five students were critically wounded, including a boy whose liver was pierced by a knife thrust that narrowly missed his heart and aorta, doctors said. Others also suffered deep abdominal puncture wounds.

 The rampage — which came after decades in which U.S. schools geared much of their emergency planning toward mass shootings, not stabbings — set off a screaming stampede, left blood on the floor and walls, and brought teachers rushing to help the victims.

 Police shed little light on the motive.

 The suspect, Alex Hribal, was taken into custody and treated for a minor hand wound, then was brought into court in shackles and a hospital gown and charged with four counts of attempted homicide and 21 counts of aggravated assault. He was jailed without bail, and authorities said he would be prosecuted as an adult.

 His attorney did not immediately respond to a message for comment.

 The attack unfolded in the morning just minutes before the start of classes at 1,200-student Franklin Regional High School, in an upper-middle-class area 15 miles east of Pittsburgh. It was over in about five minutes, during which the boy ran wildly down about 200 feet of hallway, slashing away with knives about 8 to 10 inches long, police said.

 Nate Moore, 15, said he saw the boy tackle and stab a freshman. He said he going to try to break it up when the boy got up and slashed his face, opening a wound that required 11 stitches.

 "It was really fast. It felt like he hit me with a wet rag because I felt the blood splash on my face. It spurted up on my forehead," he said.

 The attacker "had the same expression on his face that he has every day, which was the freakiest part," Moore said. "He wasn't saying anything. He didn't have any anger on his face. It was just a blank expression."

 Assistant Principal Sam King finally tackled the boy and disarmed him, and a Murrysville police officer who is regularly assigned to the school handcuffed him, police said.

 King's son told The Associated Press that his father was treated at a hospital, though authorities have said he did not suffer any knife wounds.

 "He says he's OK. He's a tough cookie and sometimes hides things, but I believe he's OK," Zack King said. He added: "I'm proud of him."

 In addition to the 22 who were stabbed or slashed, two people suffered other injuries during the melee, authorities said. The security guard, who was wounded after intervening early in the melee, was treated and released.

 "There are a number of heroes in this day. Many of them are students," Gov. Tom Corbett said in a visit to the stricken town. "Students who stayed with their friends and didn't leave their friends."

 As for what set off the attack, Murrysville Police Chief Thomas Seefeld said investigators were looking into reports of a threatening phone call between the suspect and another student the night before. Seefeld didn't specify whether the suspect received or made the call.

 The FBI joined the investigation and went to the boy's house, where authorities said they planned to confiscate and search his computer.

 "They are a very, very nice family. A great family. We never saw anything out of the ordinary," said John Kukalis, a next-door neighbor for about 13 years.

 His wife, Sonya Kukalis, said: "It should be an eye-opener for everybody. Everyone always thinks it's the other neighborhood, the other town. We need to be kinder and show compassion to more people. Something must have been going on for him to do this."

 While several bloody stabbing rampages at schools in China have made headlines in the past few years, schools in the U.S. have concentrated their emergency preparations on shooting rampages.

 Nevertheless, there have been at least two major stabbing attacks at U.S. schools over the past year, one at a community college in Texas last April that wounded at least 14 people, and another, also in Texas, that killed a 17-year-old student and injured three others at a high school in September.

 On Wednesday, Mia Meixner, 16, said the rampage touched off a "stampede of kids" yelling, "Run! Get out of here! Someone has a knife!"

 The boy had a "blank look," she said. "He was just kind of looking like he always does, not smiling, not scowling or frowning."

 Meixner and Moore called the attacker a shy boy who largely kept to himself, but they said he was not an outcast and they had no reason to think he might be violent.

 "He was never mean to anyone, and I never saw people be mean to him," Meixner said. "I never saw him with a particular group of friends."

 Michael Float, 18, said he had just gotten to school when he saw "blood all over the floor" and smeared on the wall near the main entrance. Then he saw a wounded student.

 "He had his shirt pulled up and he was screaming, 'Help! Help!'" Float said. "He had a stab wound right at the top right of his stomach, blood pouring down."

 Float said he saw a teacher applying pressure to the wound of another student.

 About five minutes elapsed between the time the campus police officer summoned help over the radio at 7:13 a.m. and the boy was disarmed, the police chief said.

 Someone, possibly a student, pulled a fire alarm during the attack, Seefeld said. Although that created chaos, the police chief said, it emptied out the school more quickly, and "that was a good thing that that was done."

 Also, a girl with "an amazing amount of composure" applied pressure to a schoolmate's wounds and probably kept the victim from bleeding to death, said Dr. Mark Rubino at Forbes Regional Medical Center.

 Public safety and school officials said an emergency plan worked as well as could be expected. The district conducted an emergency exercise three months ago and a full-scale drill about a year ago.

 "We haven't lost a life, and I think that's what we have to keep in mind," said county public safety spokesman Dan Stevens.

 ___

 Associated Press writers Mike Rubinkam in Allentown and Jesse Washington in Murrysville, Pa., and AP news researchers Judith Ausuebel and Barbara Sambriski contributed to this report. ||||| Story highlights The DA says 4 people are in critical condition, including one who was "eviscerated"

 Alex Hribal, 16, faces 4 counts of attempted homicide, 21 counts of aggravated assault

 Teachers use students' hoodies as tourniquets on injured teens, student says

 An assistant principal tackled the accused attacker, authorities say

 A teenage boy wielding two kitchen knives went on a stabbing rampage at his high school in Murrysville, Pennsylvania, early Wednesday, before being tackled by an assistant principal, authorities said.

 Twenty students and a security officer at Franklin Regional Senior High School were either stabbed or slashed in the attack, Westmoreland County District Attorney John Peck told reporters.

 The accused attacker was been identified as 16-year-old Alex Hribal, according to a criminal complaint made public. Hribal, who was arraigned as an adult, faces four counts of attempted homicide, 21 counts of aggravated assault and one count of possession of a weapon on school grounds, the documents show.

 "I'm not sure he knows what he did, quite frankly," Hribal's attorney, Patrick Thomassey, said, adding he would file a motion to move the case to juvenile court.

 "...We have to make sure that he understands the nature of the charges and what's going on here. It's important that he be examined by a psychiatrist and determined where he is mentally."

 A doctor who treated six of the victims, primarily teens, said at first they did not know they had been stabbed.

 "They just felt pain and noticed they were bleeding," Dr. Timothy VanFleet, chief of emergency medicine at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, told CNN.

 "Almost all of them said they didn't see anyone coming at them. It apparently was a crowded hallway and they were going about their business, and then just felt pain and started bleeding."

 Arguing against bail for Hribal, the district attorney told the court that four of the victims were in critical condition, including one who was "eviscerated." There's a question whether the victim will survive, Peck said.

 Hribal is being held without bail at the Westmoreland County juvenile detention center.

 Authorities have not detailed a possible motive in the attack, but the district attorney said in court the teen made "statements when subdued by officials that he wanted to die."

 'Don't know what I got going down'

 The carnage began shortly before the start of classes, when an attacker began stabbing students in a crowded hallway and then went from classroom to classroom.

 Student Matt DeCesare was outside the school when he heard a fire alarm ring and then saw two students come out of the school covered in blood.

 Then he saw teachers running into the building and pulling "a couple of more students out," he told CNN. The students had been stabbed.

 To stanch the bleeding, the teachers asked the students for their hoodies.

 "We all took our hoodies off and handed them to the teachers to use as tourniquets to stop the bleeding," he said.

 Recordings of emergency calls released in the wake of the attack provide a soundtrack of sorts to the terror and chaos that played out inside the school.

 "I don't know what I got going down at school here but I need some units here ASAP," one officer can be heard saying.

 Minutes later in another call, another official, breathlessly, can be heard detailing casualties: "About 14 patients right now."

 Then another call for help. "Be advised inside the school we have multiple stab victims," one of the officers said. "So bring in EMS from wherever you can get them.

 'Saw the kid who was stabbing people'

 Student Mia Meixner was standing at her locker.

 "I heard a big commotion like behind my back," she told CNN. "And I turned around and I saw two kids on the ground."

 She thought a fight had broken out, but then she saw blood.

 "I saw the kid who was stabbing people get up and run away," she said.

 Then she saw a girl she knew standing by the cafeteria. "She was gushing blood down her arm."

 Meixner dropped her books and went to help the girl.

 "I started hearing a stampede of students coming down from the other end of the hall, saying 'Get out, we need to leave, go, there's a kid with a knife.' Then a teacher came over to me and the girl I was trying to help. And she said she would handle the girl and that I should run out. So then I just ran out of the school and tried to get out as soon as possible."

 Meixner never heard the attacker utter a word.

 "He was very quiet. He just was kind of doing it," she said. "And he had this, like, look on his face that he was just crazy and he was just running around just stabbing whoever was in his way."

 She said she didn't know the boy, but he had been in a lot of her classes. "He kept to himself a lot," she said. "He didn't have that many friends that I know of, but I also don't know of him getting bullied that much. I actually never heard of him getting bullied. He just was kind of shy and didn't talk to many people."

 Hribal's attorney described him as a "nice young man," who has never been in trouble.

 "He's not a loner. He works well with other kids," he said. "...He's scared. He's a young kid. He's 16, looks like he's 12. I mean, he's a very young kid and he's never been in trouble so this is all new to him."

 At least a dozen FBI agents could be seen going in and out of Hribal's family home in the hours after the attack. Shortly before the agents arrived at the house, a man believed to be Hribal's father drove up.

 "My prayers go out to everyone who was injured today, and I hope they recover as soon as possible," he told reporters.

 Hribal's attorney said the family was upset by the allegations. "They did not foresee this at all," he said.

 Tackled by an assistant principal

 Assistant Principal Sam King is being credited with bringing to an end the 5-minute rampage that authorities say began about 7:15 a.m. ET.

 King tackled the teen, Peck told reporters. A school resource officer was able to handcuff the suspect, Police Chief Thomas Seefeld said.

 The accused teen was being treated for injuries to his hands, the chief said.

 Police Officer William "Buzz" Yakshe, who also serves as a resource officer at the school, helped subdue the suspect, said Dan Stevens, the county deputy emergency management coordinator. Yakshe is "doing fine," Stevens said. "He's more upset than anything else over what happened, because these are his kids."

 A fire alarm that was pulled during the attack probably helped get more people out of the school during an evacuation order, Seefeld said. Students were running everywhere and there was "chaos and panic."

 JUST WATCHED Students stabbed at Pennsylvania school Replay More Videos ... MUST WATCH Students stabbed at Pennsylvania school 00:47

 Photos: Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school Photos: Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school – Parents and students embrace near Franklin Regional High School, where authorities say at least 20 people were injured in a stabbing spree Wednesday, April 9, in Murrysville, Pennsylvania. Hide Caption 1 of 12 Photos: Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school – Accused attacker Alex Hribal, 16, is escorted from a district magistrate after he was arraigned as an adult on April 9. He faces four counts of attempted homicide, 21 counts of aggravated assault and one count of possession of a weapon on school grounds, according to a criminal complaint made public. Hide Caption 2 of 12 Photos: Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school – A police officer blocks the entrance to the school on April 9. Hide Caption 3 of 12 Photos: Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school – Students leave the school's campus on April 9. Hide Caption 4 of 12 Photos: Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school – A police officer stands by the scene outside the high school on April 9. Hide Caption 5 of 12 Photos: Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school – A woman walks onto the campus of the Franklin Regional School District on April 9. Hide Caption 6 of 12 Photos: Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school – Students walk away from the campus on April 9. Hide Caption 7 of 12 Photos: Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school – Emergency responders gather in the parking lot of Franklin Regional High School on April 9. Hide Caption 8 of 12 Photos: Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school – Jenna Mickel, a sophomore at Franklin Regional High School, stands with her father, Richard, as she talks to reporters outside the school on April 9. Hide Caption 9 of 12 Photos: Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school – Emergency responders gather in the high school's parking lot. Hide Caption 10 of 12 Photos: Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school – A pair of women leave the school's campus on April 9. Hide Caption 11 of 12 Photos: Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school Stabbings at Pennsylvania high school – A Salvation Army disaster services vehicle drives past a school bus and onto the campus on April 9. Hide Caption 12 of 12

 At one point, a female student applied pressure to the wounds of one of the male victims, possibly helping to save his life, said Dr. Mark Rubino, chief medical officer at Forbes Regional Hospital in nearby Monroeville, Pennsylvania, where seven teens were taken for treatment.

 The students who were hurt range in age from 14 to 17, Stevens said. The injuries were stabbing-related, such as lacerations or punctures, he said.

 'It doesn't happen here'

 The attack in Murrysville is the latest in a string of school violence that has occurred across the nation. But mass stabbings, such as the one at the high school, are rare.

 The attack has rattled the town, a residential enclave with a population of about 20,000.

 A message on the Franklin Regional School District's website said all of its elementary schools were closed after the incident, and "the middle school and high school students are secure."

 Franklin Regional Senior High will be closed "over the next several days," district school Superintendent Gennaro Piraino said. The district's middle school and elementary schools will be open Thursday, and counseling will be available for the whole district, he said.

 Information on what led to the stabbings and the conditions of the injured are still unfolding.

 Bill Rehkopf, a KDKA radio host and Franklin Regional High School graduate, called the stabbing shocking.

 He said he kept thinking, "It doesn't happen here, it can't happen here." |||||
What is a shorter version of the above article?

– A student who was stabbed in the liver remains in critical condition following today's rampage at a high school in suburban Pittsburgh that left 23 others injured and a sophomore in custody. The suspect is 16-year-old Alex Hribal, and he has been charged as an adult with four counts of attempted homicide and 21 counts of aggravated assault. The motive remains unclear, but the AP says police are investigating reports of a threatening phone call between Hribal and another student last night. It wasn't clear which of the two made the call. The accounts of exactly what happened at Franklin Regional High School in Murrysville are still unfolding, but authorities say assistant principal Sam King and a security guard at the school tackled and subdued the attacker in a hallway. Some other details emerging: The attack began in a classroom when Hribal pulled out two 8-inch kitchen knives and began slashing students, reports the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. He reportedly followed them as they fled into the hallway and stabbed others as he ran. During the assault, the attacker "was very quiet," student Mia Meixner tells CNN. "He just was kind of doing it. And he had this, like, look on his face that he was just crazy and he was just running around just stabbing whoever was in his way." A doctor at a nearby hospital said a female student with "an amazing amount of composure" likely saved the life of one of the more seriously injured male students by applying pressure to his wounds. That appears to be junior Gracie Evans, who recounts to the Pittsburgh newspaper: "My friend was on his stomach, and the other kid who was severely injured was told to sit up. I knew that wasn't right. I said to a few students, we need pressure on this wound, and they gave me some paper towels, and I held pressure on that wound for about 10 minutes." Authorities say 22 people were stabbed or slashed, all but one of them students, and two more students suffered other injuries in the chaos.


Article:

SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. -- The owner of a teriyaki restaurant in Sedro-Woolley has asked local law enforcement to no longer dine at the establishment, the Skagit County Sheriff's office said Thursday afternoon. Through an interpreter Thursday night, an owner of Lucky Teriyaki told KOMO News that a language barrier appears to have led to a huge misunderstanding about what happened.

 In a post on the Skagit County Sheriff's Office Facebook page, Sheriff Will Reichardt said four of his deputies were eating at Lucky Teriyaki when two went to pay the bill. As they were paying, the owner told deputies they were no longer welcome at the restaurant.

 "They were told that other customers didn't like law enforcement there," Reichardt said in the post.

 Reichardt said his chief deputy followed up with the owner. The owner repeated the request, Reichardt said, and asked "that we spread the word to other law enforcement that they were no longer welcome either."

 Within an hour, the sheriff's Facebook post had been shared thousands of times, and comments continued to flood in.

 "Regardless of your feelings about law enforcement, that was nothing but wrong on so many levels," Faye Whitney wrote on Facebook.

 "It's their right to refuse service. If customers feel threatened, just like with gang members, they hurt business, so they must go," John Rowlette said in a tweet.

 Reichardt said the owner's request took him by surprise, as the Skagit County community has an "overpowering show of appreciation" for deputies and officers serving there.

 "I said there must be a misunderstanding because I never feel that way when I go over there," said Mike Bennett, who owns a business nearby. "They always seem like really good people. I was kinda like super surprised."

 Through an interpreter, the owners of Lucky Teriyaki said they've received death threats online and over the phone. A language barrier appears to have led to the misunderstanding about what happened at the restaurant, they said.

 While the deputies were eating, an employee noticed some customers at another table had spilled some soup and water, the owners said. The employee couldn’t understand why the customers were getting upset, and wondered if it was because the deputies were sitting nearby, they said.

 That's when the employee asked deputies if they were about to leave.

 According to the owner, the employee didn’t understand when law enforcement later tried to clarify what had happened.

 The owners said they feel terrible about it, and are inviting members of law enforcement to come eat at the restaurant for free on Monday, July 18.

 "Yeah, I want police to coming," one of the owners said.

 "He means welcome for police officers to come over here," said the owner's son, Xuechuang Li.

 Dave North, owner of The Bullpen Sports Bar & Grill in Sedro Woolley, said he's still planning a police appreciation day at restaurants in Skagit County for early August. It'll be a fundraiser for the Behind the Badge Foundation, and the date and participating restaurants will be announced once North works out the details. Anyone interested can contact North on his Facebook page.

  ||||| SEDRO-WOOLLEY, Wash. (AP) — The sheriff of a county about 70 miles north of Seattle says a restaurant owner has asked that law enforcement no longer dine there.

 Skagit County Sheriff Will Reichardt said on Facebook that after four deputies finished lunch at Lucky's Teriyaki in Sedro-Woolley Thursday, the owner asked them not to eat there anymore.

 Reichardt says the deputies were told that customers didn't like law enforcement there. The sheriff says his chief deputy called the owner later Thursday and says the request was confirmed along with a request to spread the word among other law enforcement agencies.

 Calls to the restaurant for comment were met with busy signals.

 The Sedro-Woolley Police Department said on Facebook it's disappointed but they'll continue to respond to the businesses in any way they request. |||||
What is a summary?

– The sheriff of a county about 70 miles north of Seattle says the owner of a Chinese restaurant has asked that law enforcement no longer dine there. Per the AP, Skagit County Sheriff Will Reichardt said on Facebook that after four deputies finished lunch at Lucky Teriyaki in Sedro-Woolley Thursday, the owner asked them not to eat there anymore. Reichardt says the deputies were told that customers didn't like law enforcement there. The sheriff says his chief deputy called the owner later Thursday and says the request was confirmed, along with a request to spread the word among other law enforcement agencies. "I understand a business owner has a right to refuse service if he wants to," Reichardt wrote in his Thursday post, which has since gone viral. "I also understand that as customers we all have the right to find some other restaurant to take our lunch break in." But a slightly different story has emerged on KOMO, which says the owners of the restaurant, through an interpreter, are calling the entire incident a giant misunderstanding that was brought about by a language barrier. They say that during the deputies' lunch, other customers became upset after some soup and water spilled; a worker thought maybe it was because the deputies were nearby and asked the deputies if they were getting ready to leave. An employee then further misunderstood when the chief deputy called to confirm the story, the owners say. A video on Q13 FOX shows the restaurant's owner breaking down while talking about the incident, and his son appears on camera to apologize for his lack of English skills; the owners are also inviting law enforcement members to eat there for free on Monday. The AP's calls to the restaurant for comment were met with busy signals.


– A Pakistani court has ruled that an American diplomat who allegedly shot and killed two men he says tried to rob him must remain in custody for 14 more days, CNN reports. Raymond Davis’ lawyer quickly filed a petition for his release, holding that he has diplomatic immunity. Davis has been transferred from police custody to “judicial remand”—which usually means prison. A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 25. The US has called for his release, and American officials have threatened to cut aid to Pakistan over the matter. Meanwhile, a Pakistani police chief called Davis’ actions “clear-cut murder.” He said witnesses reported that Davis continued firing at the men as one ran away. He admits that the men were armed, and that one pointed a gun at Davis, but says they didn’t fire. (For one of the dead men's wives, a tragic end; click for that story.)

Expand this summary.

LAHORE, Pakistan — The wife of a Pakistani man shot and killed by a U.S. official committed suicide by eating rat poison Sunday, explaining before she died that she was driven to act by fears the American would be freed without trial, a doctor said.

 The U.S. has demanded Pakistani authorities release the American, saying he shot and killed two armed men in self-defense when they attempted to rob him as he drove his car in the eastern city of Lahore. He was arrested on Jan. 27, and the U.S. has said he has diplomatic immunity and is being illegally detained.

 The shootings have stoked anti-American sentiment in Pakistan, feelings that could be further inflamed by Shumaila Kanwal's suicide. She died several hours after being rushed to a hospital, said Ali Naqi, the doctor in Faisalabad city who treated her.

 "I do not expect any justice from this government," said Kanwal in a statement recorded by the doctor before she died. "That is why I want to kill myself."

 Kanwal also spoke to reporters after arriving at the hospital, saying "I want blood for blood."

 "The way my husband was shot, his killer should be shot in the same fashion," she said.

 The case puts Pakistan's government in a difficult position. The government relies on the U.S. for billions of dollars in aid but is wary of being seen as doing Washington's bidding. The U.S. is widely unpopular in Pakistan, in part because of its undeclared campaign of drone missile strikes along the northwest border with Afghanistan.

 The government could face charges of being an American lackey if it hands Raymond Davis over to the United States. But refusing to do so risks harming a relationship with a vital ally.

 Pakistani officials have avoided definitive statements on Davis' level of diplomatic clearance and whether he qualifies for immunity.

 Federal officials have said the decision on his fate is up to courts in Punjab province, where the shootings occurred. But provincial officials have said the federal government must decide whether Davis has immunity. The two governments are controlled by rival political parties, which has further complicated the case.

 Besides the two men who were shot dead, a bystander was also killed when he was struck by an American car rushing to the scene to help Davis. Police have said they want to question the Americans suspected in that death as well.

 Relatives of the men who were allegedly shot by Davis have participated in several protests in Lahore, including one Thursday outside the U.S. consulate where demonstrators shouted "Hang the American killer!"

 Some commentators have tried to paint the two men as innocent Pakistanis rather than thieves who were attempting to rob Davis. But the U.S. Embassy has said the men had criminal backgrounds and had robbed money and valuables at gunpoint from a Pakistani citizen in the same area minutes before the shootings.

 ___

 Associated Press writer Asif Shahzad contributed to this report from Islamabad. ||||| (CNN) -- A Pakistani court has ordered a jailed American diplomat to remain in custody for 14 more days, authorities said Friday. The man's lawyer then filed a petition calling for his immediate release, saying he is covered under diplomatic immunity.

 Raymond Davis, who allegedly shot and killed two men, was transferred from police custody to "judicial remand," said Munir Ahmed Khan, a member of the police investigative team.

 Pakistani law says police can only keep a suspect in custody for 14 days. After that, a judge can either release the suspect -- on bail or for lack of evidence -- or transfer him to judicial custody, which is usually a prison instead of a police station lock-up.

 Davis said he was attacked by the two men on January 27 who tried to rob him as he drove through a busy Lahore neighborhood, according to the U.S. Embassy in Pakistan.

 The U.S. State Department has demanded that Davis be freed.

 Under international agreements, people carrying diplomatic passports are granted diplomatic immunity, the department said.

 Davis' lawyer filed a petition Friday, challenging the court's jurisdiction over the case. A judge will hear arguments on February 25.

 The United States says Davis was assigned to the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad but was working at the U.S. Consulate in Lahore at the time of the shootings.

 Lahore Police Chief Aslam Tareen rejected Davis' claim that he shot the men in self-defense.

 "It was clear cut murder," Tareen told reporters.

 Witnesses told police that Davis kept firing even when one of the men was running away, Tareen said.

 "It means he wanted to ensure that that they were killed," he said.

 He acknowledged the two men shot were armed, and that one of them pointed his gun at Davis -- but didn't shoot.

 "All the bullets were in their chamber," he said.

 The detention has strained relations between the United States and Pakistan.

 Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, according to the State Department, has raised the issue with Pakistani officials. And the U.S. ambassador to Pakistan, Cameron Munter, has met with Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari on the issue.

 Members of Congress told senior Pakistani leaders that billions of dollars of U.S. aid are in jeopardy unless Davis is released.

 "We indicated it could very well be" that the United States might consider withholding funding, Rep. Howard "Buck" McKeon, R-California, said Tuesday after returning to Washington from meetings in Pakistan and Afghanistan.

 McKeon said he and two other congressmen on the trip had frank conversations with Pakistani Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani and other senior officials about Davis.

 "It is entirely possible that a member of Congress would come down and offer an amendment to cut funding for Pakistan, based on their detaining Mr. Davis, and my guess is there would be a lot support for such an amendment, frankly because of the outrage of detaining an American with diplomatic immunity," said Rep. John Klein, R-Minnesota.

 The U.S. spent more than $1.5 billion in non-military aid to Pakistan in fiscal year 2010.

 The case has sparked some protest and fueled anti-American feelings in Pakistan.

 During several protests last week, hard-line clerics condemned the shootings and demanded the government not release Davis to the U.S. government.

 Local television showed a rally in Karachi where protesters re-enacted their version of the shooting. Men wearing smiling masks and holding toy guns played the part of Davis and gleefully danced around several protesters, who pretended to be the shooting victims.

 CNN's Jill Dougherty and Charley Keyes and Journalist Nasir Habib contributed to this report. |||||


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CORRECTS NAME AND TITLE TO LABIDI FROM LABIBI AND VICE PRESIDENT FROM PRESIDENT - Mohamed Labidi, the vice-president of the mosque where an attack happened, is comforted by Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard,... (Associated Press)

 QUEBEC CITY (AP) — A French Canadian suspect known for his far-right, nationalist views was charged Monday with six counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder in the shooting rampage at a Quebec City mosque that Canada's prime minister called an act of terrorism again Muslims.

 Alexandre Bissonnette made a brief court appearance and did not enter a plea in the attack that left six people dead during evening prayers Sunday. Wearing a white prisoner jump suit, his hands and feet shackled, he stared down at the floor and fidgeted, but did not speak.

 The 27-year-old suspect, who has espoused support for the French far-right party of Marine Le Pen and had liked U.S. President Donald Trump on his Facebook page, was known to those who monitor extremist groups in Quebec, said François Deschamps, an official with a refugee advocacy group. "It's with pain and anger that we learn the identity of terrorist Alexandre Bissonnette, unfortunately known to many activists in Quebec for taking nationalist, pro-Le Pen and anti-feminist positions at Laval University and on social media," Deschamps wrote on the Facebook page of the group, Bienvenues aux Refugiés, or Welcome to Refugees.

 An anthropology and political science major at Laval University in Quebec City, Bissonnette had also expressed support on his Facebook profile for "Génération Nationale," a group whose manifesto includes the rejection of "multiculturalism."

 More than 50 people were at the Quebec Islamic Cultural Centre when the shooting erupted. In addition to the six dead, 19 people were wounded — all men. Of the five victims who remained hospitalized, two were in critical condition, authorities said. The dead ranged in age from 39 to 60.

 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard both characterized the attack as a terrorist act, which came amid heightened tensions worldwide over Trump's travel ban on seven Muslim countries. Le Pen, leader of the National Front in France, is known for her anti-Muslim, anti-immigrant positions and has won the endorsement and admiration of white supremacists.

 Canada is generally welcoming toward immigrants and all religions, but the French-speaking province of Quebec has had a long-simmering debate about race and religious accommodation. The previous separatist government of the province called for a ban on ostentatious religious symbols, such as the hijab, in public institutions.

 Trudeau said in Parliament the victims were targeted simply because of their religion and spoke directly to the more than 1 million Muslims who live in Canada, saying, "We are with you."

 "Thirty-six million hearts are breaking with yours," Trudeau said. "Know that we value you."

 The prime minister later attended a vigil outside the mosque.

 The suspect was arrested in his car on a bridge near d'Orleans, where he called 911 to say he wanted to cooperate with police. Authorities, who initially named two suspects, said the other man taken into custody was a witness to the attack and was released earlier Monday. They said they did not believe there were other suspects but were investigating.

 Police did not give a motive for the attack.

 Trump called Trudeau to express condolences to the Canadian people and to offer any assistance that might be needed.

 The White House pointed to the attack as an example of why Trump's policies were needed. "We condemn this attack in the strongest possible terms. It's a terrible reminder of why we must remain vigilant and why the president is taking steps to be pro-active, rather than reactive when it comes to our nation's safety and security," White House spokesman Sean Spicer said.

 The victims were businessmen, a university professor and others who had gathered for evening prayers, said Mohamed Labidi, the vice president of the mosque.

 "'It's a very, very big tragedy for us," Labidi said tearfully. "We have a sadness we cannot express."

 He said the victims were shot in the back. "Security at our mosque was our major, major concern," he said. "But we were caught off guard."

 The shooting took place just before 8 p.m. Sunday. Witnesses described chaos as worshippers scrambled to find friends and loved ones, as police responding to the scene called for backup.

 Couillard said he would "not go there" when asked if he blamed recent rhetoric in in the U.S. for the attack.

 "Quebec is a good, generally loving society, but we have these devils as other societies have. We have to recognize that and fight them," Couillard said at a news conference in Quebec City at which he and Muslim leaders held hands in a display of solidarity.

 "The Muslim community was the target of this murderous attack," Couillard said, adding that solidarity rallies would be held across Quebec later Monday.

 The mosque has been a target of hate crimes in the past, including last summer when pig's head was left on its doorstep during Ramadan, when Muslims fast from dawn to sunset. Practicing Muslims do not eat pork.

 Quebec City Mayor Regis Labeaume, appearing shaken, said: "No person should have to pay with their life, for their race, their color, their sexual orientation or their religious beliefs."

 Worshipper Ali Hamadi said he left the mosque a few minutes before the shooting and a friend, Abdelkrim Hassen, was killed. He said Hassen, who worked in information technology for the government, had three daughters and a wife, whom he had to notify of the death.

 Majdi Dridi of the Muslim Association of Canada said he knew two of the victims. One was a work colleague who was a father of three little girls, he said.

 "I don't know what to say, I just hope that his family and his children can have the patience to accept what happened," Dridi said

 Trudeau had earlier reacted to Trump's visa ban for people from some Muslim-majority countries by tweeting Saturday: "To those fleeing persecution, terror & war, Canadians will welcome you, regardless of your faith. Diversity is our strength #WelcomeToCanada."

 Trudeau also posted a picture of himself greeting a Syrian child at Toronto's airport in late 2015. Trudeau oversaw the arrival of more than 39,000 Syrian refugees soon after he was elected.

 The mayor of Gatineau, Quebec, near Canada's capital of Ottawa, said there would be an increased police presence at mosques around his city following the attack. The New York Police Department also said it was stepping up patrols at mosques and other houses of worship.

 ___

 Gillies reported from Toronto. Associated Press writer Sean Farrell in Montreal contributed to this report. ||||| Alexandre Bissonnette, the 27-year-old accused of opening fire on a Quebec City mosque, has been charged with six counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder while using a restricted firearm.

 During a brief court appearance Monday evening, Bissonnette, wearing handcuffs, frequently cast his eyes toward the ground and avoided turning toward the packed gallery.

 He will remain in custody until his next court appearance on Feb. 21.

 Provincial police are treating the attack as a terrorist act. RCMP spokeswoman Camille Habel said Bissonnette could later face terrorism-related charges, depending on the outcome of the ongoing investigation.

 Six men were killed and five people remain in hospital with injuries.

 Two of the surviving victims will need more surgery, while the other three are stable and may be discharged soon. Another 13 people with minor injuries have been released, according to a hospital spokeswoman.

 'Introverted young man'

 On Monday afternoon, Laval University confirmed that he is a student, and is now barred from all activities effective immediately until all judicial proceedings are over.

 His employer, Héma-Québec, issued a statement saying the organization is "shocked" to learn that he was among their employees. Bissonnette was a member of their call centre team.

 This screengrab from the suspect's Facebook page, taken before it went offline, shows Alexandre Bissonnette as a child wearing his cadet uniform. (Facebook) "As an organization whose primary mission is dedicated to the gift of life, these events have sent a shock wave through the organization," the non-profit agency said.

 According to Bissonnette's Facebook page, which has since been taken down, Bissonnette is from the Quebec City suburb of Cap-Rouge. He was also a cadet as a child.

 Neighbours of Bissonnette's parents said he was renting an apartment with his twin brother near the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec, where the shooting took place Sunday evening.

 Neighbour Réjean Bussière said Bissonnette was very introverted.

 "He's a very closed-off young man," Bussière told CBC's French-language network, Radio-Canada.

 Only 1 suspected shooter

 Another man, Mohamed Belkhadir, was arrested outside the mosque within minutes of the shooting. He was released after police confirmed he was a witness and not involved in the shooting.

 He said he had been shovelling snow when he heard gunshots — when they stopped he entered the mosque to call 911.

 "I saw the image of someone with a firearm, I didn't know it was police. I thought it was a shooter who'd returned," Belkhadir told Radio-Canada.

 The man fled and police arrested him. He was released Monday.

 Shortly after noon Monday, provincial police said that man was no longer a suspect, but rather a witness to the attack.

 A half-hour after the shooting, Quebec City police Insp. Denis Turcotte said a second man called 911 indicating that he wanted to co-operate in the investigation.

 La SQ confirme qu’un seul des individus arrêté hier soir en lien avec l’#attentat de #Québec est considéré comme suspect. —@sureteduquebec

 Turcotte said the man parked about five kilometres from the scene of the shooting, near the bridge to Île d'Orléans, and waited for officers to arrest him.

 "He was armed and spoke to us about his acts,'' said Turcotte.

 'Pain and anger'

 As Bissonnette's name began to circulate online, one Facebook group dedicated to welcoming refugees in the Quebec City area expressed "pain and anger" over the news.

 The suspect was "unfortunately known to several activists in Quebec City for his pro-Le Pen and anti-feminist positions at Laval University and on social networks," wrote the Bienvenue aux réfugié.es - Ville de Québec Facebook group.

 Bissonnette's Facebook page seemed to confirm those political leanings. The suspect followed several profiles that espouse right-wing ideologies, including that of Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader of France's National Front.

 A search was conducted at the home of Bissonnette's parents on du Tracel Street in Cap-Rouge, as well as at a residence on des Quatre-Bourgeois Road, closer to the mosque.

 A woman who identified herself as a neighbour of Bissonnette's parents said the suspect had recently moved into an apartment that he was renting with his twin brother, not far from the mosque where the shooting occurred.

 "He is a child," she said. "You couldn't find one more calm than that. He never did anything, he always kept to himself. We never heard of anything."

 "I saw him last Wednesday; he was arriving at his parents' home. I think he often went there," the neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, told Radio-Canada.

 Another neighbour, Réjean Bussière, described Bissonnette as "a young man who is extremely withdrawn."

 Bissonnette and his brother were not the kind to bother others, Bussière said, "but they were not social people."

 On social media, many took issue with the categorization of Bissonnette as an introvert and a lone wolf, arguing that the suspect was spared of the term terrorist because he is white. Bestselling author J.K. Rowling was one of those voices.

 Earlier Monday, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called the attack a "despicable act of terror." ||||| QUEBEC CITY/TORONTO (Reuters) - A French-Canadian university student was the sole suspect in a shooting at a Quebec City mosque and was charged with the premeditated murder of six people, Canadian authorities said on Monday, in what Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called “a terrorist attack.”

 Court documents identified the gunman in the attack on Sunday evening prayers as Alexandre Bissonnette, 27, and charged him with six murder counts and five counts of attempted murder with a restricted weapon. The slightly-built Bissonnette made a brief appearance in court under tight security wearing a white prison garment and looking downcast.

 Prosecutors said all of the evidence was not yet ready and Bissonnette, a student at Université Laval, was set to appear again on Feb. 21. No charge was read in court and Bissonnette did not enter a plea.

 “The charges laid correspond to the evidence available,” said Thomas Jacques, a representative of the prosecutor’s office, when asked why Bissonnette was not charged with terrorism-related offences.

 Among the six men killed were a butcher, a university professor, a pharmacist and an accountant, according to police and Canadian media.

 The government of Guinea said in a statement that two of its citizens were among those killed in the mosque attack.

 Police declined to discuss possible motives for the shooting at the Centre Culturel Islamique de Québec.

 “They consider this a lone wolf situation,” a Canadian source familiar with the situation said.

 In Washington, U.S. government security experts were leaning to the view that the gunman most likely was motivated by hatred for Muslims, a U.S. government source familiar with official reporting said.

 Trudeau, who has made a point of welcoming refugees and immigrants from Muslim-majority countries, told parliament in Ottawa: “Make no mistake, this was a terrorist attack.”

 “Last night this community experienced something that no community should ever have to know: Unspeakable cruelty and violence perpetrated on those who came together in friendship and in faith,” Trudeau said later at a vigil attended by hundreds who braved frigid temperatures in Quebec City.

 He added a personal message to Canada’s 1 million Muslims:

 “We stand with you. We love you and we support you and we will always defend and protect your right to gather together and pray today and every day,” Trudeau added.

 Alexandre Bissonnette, a suspect in a shooting at a Quebec City mosque, is seen in a Facebook posting. Facebook/Handout via REUTERS

 The attack was out of character for Quebec City, a city of just over 500,000 which reported just two murders in all of 2015. Mass shootings are rare in Canada, where gun control laws are stricter than in the United States.

 Incidents of Islamophobia have increased in Quebec in recent years. The face-covering, or niqab, became an issue in the 2015 Canadian federal election, especially in Quebec, where the majority of the population supported a ban on it at citizenship ceremonies.

 In addition to the six killed, five people were critically injured and 12 were treated for minor injuries, a spokeswoman for the Quebec City University Hospital said.

 Federal Safety Minister Ralph Goodale told reporters in Ottawa there was no change to “the national terrorism threat level” from medium because “there is no information known to the government of Canada that would lead to a change at this time.”

 U.S. President Donald Trump called Trudeau to express his condolences “and offered to provide any assistance as needed,” said Trudeau spokesman Cameron Ahmad.

 Over the weekend, Trudeau said Canada would welcome refugees, his response to an executive order by Trump on Friday to halt the U.S. refugee program and to temporarily bar citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States.

 Trump’s action, which the president said was “not about religion - this is about terror and keeping our country safe,” was widely condemned in the United States and abroad as targeting Muslims.

 On Monday, White House spokesman Sean Spicer told reporters that the Quebec shooting was “a terrible reminder of why we must remain vigilant, and why the president is taking steps to be proactive, rather than reactive, when it comes to our nation’s safety and security.”

 FATHER OF FOUR KILLED

 A father of four, the owner of a halal butcher near the mosque, was among those killed, said Pamela Sakinah El-hayet, a friend of one of the people at the mosque.

 The mosque concierge was killed, as was Ahmed Youness, a 21-year-old student, El-hayet told Reuters. One of El-hayet’s friends, Youness’ roommate, was in the mosque at the time of the shooting. He was unharmed, she said, but in total shock.

 A man of Moroccan descent who had also been arrested was now considered a witness, although his nationality was not immediately known, a Canadian source familiar with the situation said.

 Ali Assafiri, a student at Université Laval, said he had been running late for the evening prayers at the mosque, near the university in the Quebec City area. When he arrived, the mosque had been transformed by police into a crime scene.

 Slideshow (16 Images)

 “Everyone was in shock,” Assafiri said by phone. “It was chaos.”

 Vigils were planned for Montreal and Quebec City, the provincial capital, as well as in Edmonton. There was an outpouring of support for the mosque on social media. |||||

– Authorities in Canada think Sunday night's mosque shooting that left six people dead is a "lone wolf situation," reports Reuters, and they think they've got their shooter: Alexandre Bissonnette, 27, appeared in court Monday and was charged with six counts of first-degree murder and five counts of attempted murder, reports CBC News. So far, he does not face any terrorism-related charges. Bissonnette attended Laval University, near the Quebec City mosque, and studied political science and anthropology. The AP reports that he was known to espouse "far-right nationalist views" online, and the Toronto Globe and Mail reports that this didn't begin until March when nationalist leader Marine Le Pen visited Quebec City. "I wrote him off as a xenophobe," says a fellow Laval student. "He was enthralled by a borderline racist nationalist movement." A member of a refugee advocacy group says Bissonnette had become a familiar name to those who monitor extremist groups. He was "unfortunately known to many activists in Quebec for taking nationalist, pro-Le Pen and anti-feminist positions at Laval University and on social media," François Deschamps wrote on the Facebook page of the group Welcome to Refugees, per the Montreal Gazette. Five victims of the shooting remained hospitalized as of Monday evening.