Article:

(CNN) -- Hundreds dead. Many more infected. Pervasive fear and denial are challenging authorities in west Africa who are trying to assess and address the Ebola crisis.

 So far, it has killed more than 650 people, says Doctors Without Borders.

 That's the highest death toll the World Health Organization has recorded in an Ebola outbreak. And it's getting worse.

 The swelling numbers prompted heads of state to cancel travel plans on Thursday to direct their full attention toward fighting the outbreak of the virus that has crippled parts of Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea and stirred palpable concerns that it will spread around the region and the world.

 Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Sierra Leone's President Ernest Koroma both canceled trips to the United States, and Koroma declared a state of emergency.

 He announced a action plan that addressed many of the barriers international medical workers complain they face while fighting disease.

 Some residents in affected villages have accused them of bringing the disease into the country and have barricaded their towns or otherwise blocked access to Ebola hemorrhagic fever victims.

 A nurse with Doctors Without Borders, Monia Sayah, told CNN, "the most challenging" aspect of trying to help people is that "we go into communities where we are not necessarily welcome," because people don't want to believe they or their loved ones have Ebola -- in part because "they understand now that the survival rate is not very high."

 Koroma said he will deploy police and military to accompany the aid workers.

 They will search house to house for the infirm and enforce orders designed to curb the virus' spread.

 What is the risk of catching Ebola on a plane?

 Aid groups pull out

 "The matter has reached a crisis point," Liberian Information Minister Lewis Brown told CNN's Richard Quest. "...The dire prognosis is that it will get worse before it gets better."

 The dangers are so real that some humanitarian organizations are pulling out to protect their own.

 Samaritan's Purse -- an international evangelical Christian humanitarian agency -- and the missionary group Serving in Mission have recalled all nonessential personnel from Liberia.

 The Peace Corps announced Wednesday it is doing the same, removing its 340 volunteers from that country, as well as Sierra Leone and Guinea.

 While there are no confirmed cases, a spokeswoman for the agency did say that two volunteers did come in contact with someone who ended up dying from the virus.

 Those Americans haven't shown signs of Ebola but are being isolated just in case, with the spokeswoman saying they can't return home until they get medical clearance to do so.

 American dies

 One American, 40-year-old Patrick Sawyer, died in a Nigerian hospital earlier this month -- having come from Liberia, where he was a top Ministry of Finance official, and before he could go back home to Minnesota to celebrate his daughters' birthdays.

 But the vast majority of those afflicted are Africans. They come from big cities and small villages, some of them falling ill without really knowing what hit them.

 "This epidemic is without precedent," said Bart Janssens, director of operations for Doctors Without Borders, a group also known as Médecins Sans Frontières. "It's absolutely not under control, and the situation keeps worsening."

 As of now, the outbreak has been confined to west Africa. But there are rising concerns that it could spread, especially since a person may not know they have Ebola or show symptoms for two to 21 days after being infected.

 Sawyer, for example, collapsed getting off a plane in Lagos, Nigeria. He very well could have made it out of the region, perhaps to the United States, before showing symptoms of Ebola; it's only then that the virus spreads.

 To further complicate matters, signs of Ebola include fever, headaches, weakness and vomiting -- symptoms that also define many other ailments, from malaria to the flu that Brown notes often pop up "at this time of year."

 For all these reasons and more, Janssens says, "If the situation does not improve fairly quickly, there is a real risk for new countries to be affected."

 Could outbreak spread to U.S.?

 2 infected Americans

 Ebola spreads through the transmission of bodily fluids. Those most at risk are loved ones of those infected, as well as health care workers tending to the ill.

 Sawyer is believed to have been infected by his ailing sister, who he spent time with in Liberia -- even though neither likely knew she had Ebola -- according to Brown.

 Then there are those like Dr. Sheik Humarr Khan, who fell ill early last week while overseeing Ebola treatment at a Sierra Leone hospital and died days later.

 Two Americans affiliated with Samaritan's Purse who also were infected "have shown a slight improvement in the past 24 hours" though both are in serious condition, according to the Christian humanitarian agency.

 One of them is Dr. Kent Brantly, a 33-year-old who last lived in Fort Worth, Texas. He has been the medical director for the Ebola Consolidated Case Management Center in Monrovia, Liberia, where he has been providing care for Ebola patients since October. After testing positive for the virus, Brantly went into treatment at ELWA Hospital.

 The other is Charlotte, North Carolina, resident Nancy Writebol, a Serving in Mission member working with Samaritan's Purse to help fight the Ebola outbreak.

 Ebola fears hit close to home

 It is believed one of the local staff was infected with Ebola and came to work with the virus on July 21 and 22, Samaritan's Purse Vice President Ken Isaacs said. That staff member died Thursday.

 "We think it was in the scrub-down area where the disease was passed to both Nancy and Kent," he said.

 Brown, the Liberian information minister, noted Brantly and Writebol's fight in his CNN interview, as well as Liberia's need for more health care workers like them.

 "We join the families in prayers that they can come through this and become ... shining examples that, if care is taken, one can come out of this."

 Liberian president: 'Ebola kills'

 On Monday, the CDC issued an alert warning travelers to avoid hospitals with Ebola patients and funerals for those patients in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea due to the outbreak.

 The United States is considering raising the alert to discourage "nonessential" travel to those three countries, a spokesman said.

 Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has told the Ministry of Health to consider quarantines in some areas and cremating bodies in an attempt to prevent further infection, according to Brown.

 The president also urged residents to avoid public amusement and entertainment areas, and set aside Friday "for the disinfection and chlorination of all public facilities."

 "My fellow Liberians, Ebola is real. Ebola is contagious. And Ebola kills," Sirleaf said. "All of us must all take extra measures announced by the Ministry of Health to keep ourselves safe.

 "The government will do its part. But you must do yours."

 READ: Ebola doctor in Sierra Leone dies

 READ: What you need to know

 CNN's Jonathan Helman, Elise Labott, Pamela Brown and Nana Karikari-apau contributed to this report. ||||| MONROVIA, Liberia (AP) — Liberia's president late Wednesday ordered the nation's schools to shut down and most civil servants to stay home as an Ebola outbreak that already has killed more than 130 people in the country deepened.

 Meanwhile, the U.S. Peace Corps said it was evacuating its volunteers from Liberia as well as neighboring Guinea and Sierra Leone as the regional death toll topped 670 people. The Ebola outbreak is now the largest recorded in history.

 President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, who is skipping a summit of African leaders in Washington this week amid the crisis, also called for the closure of markets in an area near the borders with infected countries Guinea and Sierra Leone.

 "My fellow Liberians, Ebola is real, Ebola is contagious and Ebola kills," she warned. "Denying that the disease exists is not doing your part, so keep yourselves and your loved ones safe."

 Fear and panic over the mounting death toll has prompted some rural communities to accuse foreign aid workers of bringing the deadly virus. Others have kept people with Ebola symptoms at home instead of bringing them to quarantine centers. In anger, one man recently set fire to part of the health ministry building in the Liberian capital, Monrovia, after his teenage brother reportedly died of Ebola.

 Sirleaf said that security forces would enforce the new precautions taken a week after an American man of Liberian descent boarded a plane in Monrovia and flew to Nigeria, where authorities said he died of Ebola. The fact that he was able to board a plane and traveled through a major airport transit hub in Togo has only heightened fears about Ebola's possible spread in the region.

 The airline involved, ASKY, has suspended its flights to both the capitals of Liberia and Sierra Leone, and said passengers departing from Guinea would be carefully screened.

 Ebola has no vaccine and no specific treatment, with a fatality rate of at least 60 percent. But experts say the risk of travelers contracting it is considered low because it requires direct contact with bodily fluids or secretions such as urine, blood, sweat or saliva. Ebola can't be spread like flu through casual contact or breathing in the same air.

 Patients are contagious only once the disease has progressed to the point they show symptoms, according to the World Health Organization. The most vulnerable are health care workers and relatives who come in much closer contact with the sick.

 Still, Liberia is among the poorest countries in the world, and the outbreak already has taxed the capacity of local health clinics and doctors, prompting concern for those who remain in the country.

 In a statement released Wednesday, the Peace Corps said that 340 volunteers in the three affected countries were being evacuated and "a determination on when volunteers can return will be made at a later date."

 Two U.S.-based missionary groups also have ordered the evacuation of their non-essential personnel from Liberia after a doctor and a missionary both contracted Ebola.

 SIM USA President Bruce Johnson announced Tuesday that his group and Samaritan's Purse decided on the evacuation following an upsurge in the number of Ebola cases in Liberia. A Texas-trained doctor and a missionary from North Carolina have contracted the disease and are in isolation in Liberia.

 ___

 Associated Press writer Krista Larson in Dakar, Senegal contributed to this report. ||||| Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption The current outbreak is the deadliest since Ebola was discovered in 1976

 Liberia's government has announced that it is closing down all schools across the country to stop the spread of the deadly Ebola virus.

 Some communities would be placed under quarantine as well, President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf said.

 Non-essential government workers will be sent home for 30 days and the army deployed to enforce the measures.

 The number of people killed by the virus in West Africa has now reached 672, according to new UN figures.

 The BBC's West Africa correspondent Thomas Fessy says treatment facilities have reportedly been overwhelmed in the Liberian capital Monrovia.

 Ebola virus disease (EVD)

 Image copyright Science Photo Library

 Symptoms include high fever, bleeding and central nervous system damage

 Fatality rate can reach 90%

 Incubation period is two to 21 days

 There is no vaccine or cure

 Supportive care such as rehydrating patients who have diarrhoea and vomiting can help recovery

 Fruit bats are considered to be virus' natural host

 Profile: Dr Sheik Umar Khan

 Some wards have already filled up, forcing health workers to treat some patients at their homes.

 President Sirleaf said that Friday 1 August would be a non-working day in Liberia to allow for the disinfection of all public facilities.

 "All non-essential staff - to be determined by the heads of ministries and agencies - are to be placed on 30 days' compulsory leave," she added.

 Rapid spread

 The US humanitarian organisation Peace Corps said it was withdrawing 340 volunteers from Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea because of the spread of the virus.

 Two of its volunteers had been isolated after being exposed to someone who later died from the virus, it added.

 Media playback is unsupported on your device Media caption Dr Stephan Monroe: "Outbreak presents challenges to do what is needed to break the chains of transmission"

 A Peace Corps spokeswoman said: "These volunteers are not symptomatic and are currently isolated and under observation."

 Ebola kills up to 90% of those infected, but patients have a better chance of survival if they receive early treatment.

 It spreads through contact with an infected person's bodily fluids.

 The outbreak - the world's deadliest to date - was first reported in Guinea in February. It then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone. |||||
What is a summary?

– The Peace Corps is evacuating its volunteers from the three nations in West Africa hit hard by the Ebola epidemic, reports CNN. The 340 Americans will be returning to the US from Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Guinea as the outbreak worsens. In fact, two Peace Corps workers must remain behind in isolation because they had contact with an infected person, though neither has shown symptoms, says the group. The move comes as health officials try to contain the disease to West Africa. Today, Liberia shut down all its schools, sent home non-essential government workers for three weeks, and dispatched troops to enforce quarantines in some communities, reports the BBC. "My fellow Liberians, Ebola is real, Ebola is contagious and Ebola kills," said President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf. "Denying that the disease exists is not doing your part, so keep yourselves and your loved ones safe." With 670 deaths and counting, the outbreak is now the largest in history, reports the AP. "This epidemic is without precedent," says the director of Doctors Without Borders. "It's absolutely not under control, and the situation keeps worsening."


– A rush-hour collision between a Chicago Transit Authority bus and several other vehicles yesterday left one person dead and at least eight others injured, one of them critically, authorities say. The accident occurred around 6pm in the north Loop. Authorities say the articulated Route 148 Clarendon/Michigan Express bus collided with at least three other vehicles at Michigan Avenue and Lake Street. The bus went onto the sidewalk, and at one point a pedestrian was pinned underneath. She was taken away covered in a sheet, a witness who ran to help tells the Chicago Tribune. NBC Chicago describes the fatality as a 51-year-old woman. The driver, who was treated for non-life-threatening injuries, was the only person on the bus, and investigators are looking at video from a camera that records the interior of the bus.

Expand this summary.

NBC Chicago's Dick Johnson spoke with those involved in the crash and those who offered help. (Published Tuesday, June 2, 2015)

 One person was killed and eight others injured in a serious crash involving a Chicago Transit Authority bus during the Tuesday evening rush hour, officials said.

 The fatality was a 51-year-old woman who died at Northwestern Memorial Hospital. She was identified as Aimee Coath of Flossmoor, according to the Cook County Medical Examiner's office.

 Eight others, including the bus driver, were hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries.

 The Route 148 Clarendon/Michigan Express bus was eastbound on Lake Street just before 6 p.m. when it collided with several other vehicles at North Michigan Avenue and East Lake Street.

 Ambulances Called to Downtown Bus Crash

 NBC Chicgao's Dick Johnson reports from North Michigan Avenue and East Lake Street. (Published Tuesday, June 2, 2015)

 "[The bus] hit the curb and went up on the curb and slammed into a concrete wall," said witness Robert Kudd. "People were screaming and running towards the bus. The bus driver was hurt. The windshield of the bus was out."

 At least 10 ambulances were called to the scene.

 Kudd said one person who was pinned under the bus was removed with a white sheet covering them.

 "It was a bad scene. Several cars were smashed," he said.

 Evanston resident Julie Larkin works in the Michigan Plaza building near the site of the crash. She said she was in a first-floor CVS store when she heard a scream and then "horrible thuddy crash."

 She ran outside to see the bus driver with his eyes closed, apparently unconscious. No one except for the driver was on the CTA bus at the time of the crash, according to fire officials and the CTA. Several people boarded the bus to check on the driver while Larkin called 911.

 "I'll never forget that scream," she said.

 The articulated bus came to rest on the sidewalk adjacent to a plaza at 205 N. Michigan Ave. The bus was removed from the scene shortly before 8:30 p.m.

 Investigators were looking into what caused the crash, and were analyzing video footage from a camera on board that shows the interior of the bus, CTA spokesman Brian Steele said.

 Parts of Michigan Avenue and Lake Street were closed to traffic for several hours. The CTA rerouted several buses around the crash scene. ||||| The driver of a CTA bus that jumped a curb on Michigan Avenue during evening rush hour, killing a woman and injuring eight other people, has been cited for not stopping at a red light and for "failure to exercise due care," according to police.

 No criminal charges have been filed but police said they are continuing to investigate the accident, which happened around 5:50 p.m. Tuesday at Lake Street.

 The accordion-style bus had been headed east on Lake and stopped at a red light at Michigan Avenue, police said. The bus then proceeded through the light, striking two pedestrians and four cars before jumping the curb, police and CTA officials said.

 The bus came to rest on the sidewalk on the north side of Lake Street, near a plaza at 205 N. Michigan Ave. A pedestrian, Aimee Coath, 51, of south suburban Flossmoor, was trapped under the bus and had to be freed by paramedics.

 "They took her from under the bus and loaded her onto the gurney," said Charles Valiquette, 51. "Then they spread the sheet out on her."

 Valiquette, from Dayton, Ohio, said he was on Michigan Avenue just north of Lake when he heard the crash and turned around to see a bus on the sidewalk and a woman pinned underneath. He said he ran over to help.

 "I was talking to her. I told her to hang in there ... but it was just nothing," said Valiquette. "I don't think she saw the bus coming or heard it. There were other people in the crosswalk that saw the bus coming and made it."

 Witness describes scene of CTA bus crash Hector Vega describes the scene of a multivehicle crash involving a CTA bus at Michigan Avenue and Lake Street in Chicago on June 2, 2015. (Terrence Antonio James, Chicago Tribune) Hector Vega describes the scene of a multivehicle crash involving a CTA bus at Michigan Avenue and Lake Street in Chicago on June 2, 2015. (Terrence Antonio James, Chicago Tribune) See more videos

 Coath was taken to Northwestern Memorial Hospital, where she was pronounced dead at 6:07 p.m., according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

 “I only want to communicate how well loved she was,’’ Coath’s close friend, Elizabeth Oliver, said through tears. “She had so many friends. We will all miss her dearly.’’

 Another pedestrian and six others were taken to hospitals for injuries that were not life-threatening, police said. The bus driver, 48, suffered minor injuries and was also taken to Northwestern.

 CTA officials said the driver was evaluated after the crash and showed no signs of impairment from drugs or alcohol but said final results from a drug test were not yet available.

 The driver had been hired by the CTA less than a year ago as a bus operator, according to CTA spokesman Brian Steele. He had driven the No. 148 route prior to Tuesday's crash, but Steele could not say for how long.

 CTA officials are reviewing footage from the bus at the time of the crash. Steele said early Wednesday it was too soon to know what disciplinary action, if any, would be taken against the bus driver.

 Police: Driver ran red light before bus crash killed 1, injured 8 A CTA bus driver was ticketed after police said he ran a red light Tuesday evening before striking two pedestrians and several cars downtown, killing a 51-year-old woman and injuring at least eight other people. (CBS Chicago) A CTA bus driver was ticketed after police said he ran a red light Tuesday evening before striking two pedestrians and several cars downtown, killing a 51-year-old woman and injuring at least eight other people. (CBS Chicago) See more videos

 "We don't know enough about the circumstances," Steele said. CTA officials could not say if the driver had ever been cited before Tuesday's crash.

 Jack Baldwin said he was driving the first car that was struck by the bus. He heard a loud honk from the bus before it rear-ended his Nissan Sentra and his car spun out.

 "It took me a while to realize what is going on here," he said. After gathering himself, he said, he got out of his car and saw that other cars had been hit and the bus was over a sidewalk.

 "I see the bus up on the hill, and there were a bunch of screams," Baldwin said. "I walked over, and I see that there's a woman pinned under the bus. It's not easy to see something like that. "

 Margaret Aprison, 26, was headed home from her job at the nearby Aon Center, 200 E. Randolph St., and was walking near Lake and Stetson Avenue when she “heard all this noise and all this screaming” and saw the bus drive up onto the sidewalk near the plaza.

 “I did end up seeing someone fly up in the air as the bus hit them,” then she saw the bus drive over where it appeared the person landed, Aprison said.

 Aprison saw a crowd gather around the bus, and noticed that a black car struck by the bus had not stopped moving and the driver was trying to use a cellphone.

 “The driver was trying to call 911 and he couldn’t get through,” Aprison said.

 A woman and a man in the car were able to get out, but the driver was trapped, she said. Aprison tried to tend to the two passengers as they waited for ambulances. The man was bleeding from the head, and Aprison persuaded him to sit down.

 “When the ambulance came, I was waving my hand, trying to get the attention of the ambulance,” Aprison said. “I stayed until I was literally asked to leave.”

 The injured man sat against the car as fire crews tried to get the driver out, rocking the car to try to free him, she said. “They were really shaking the car." |||||


Article:
EAST HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH)-- There's more information about the final moments before that plane crash in East Haven that killed four people.

 The NTSB came out with its preliminary report Tuesday and there is at least one witness that says the plane was flying upside down before the crash.

 We heard what neighbors saw on the ground August 9th.

 "The plane was really low and they're never that close to the center of town," said Nikky Zuniga, East Haven.

 "It was a boom and then I heard a couple of rescue trucks go by, and so I went outside and saw this big plume of smoke," said Carolyn Smith, a neighbor.

 The NTSB preliminary report says at 11:19, two minutes before the crash, the pilot, Bill Henningsgaard had been instructed to land on runway 20.

 Henningsgaard acknowledged the plane is referred to as 622. Its registration number in the audio between the plane and the tower.

 "Are you going to be able to make visual contact with the airport?" said Air Traffic Controller.

 "Are you talking to 622?" said the pilot.

 "622, affirmative."

 "622's made visual contact."

 "Ok."

 Seconds later, the tower called out the plane's number in a panic.

 "622."

 And then nothing.

 The report says a student pilot driving on I-95. "saw the airplane was inverted and traveling at a high rate of speed, nose first, towards the ground in the vicinity of where (the airport) was located."

 A witness who lived two doors down said he saw the plane descending right side down into the homes.

 Also, they noted the weather at Tweed, five minutes after the crash, which had wind from 170 degrees at 12 knots, gusting to 19 knots, visibility 9 miles, and overcast ceiling at 900 feet.

 EAST HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) -- A preliminary report on the fatal plane crash in East Haven describes the aircraft as being "inverted" and at a high rate of speed before the crash.

 The National Transportation Safety Board issued a preliminary report Tuesday morning, describing radio traffic, the weather and flight conditions leading up to the crash.

 A portion of the report cites the observations of a student pilot who was on I-95. "...he looked to his right while traveling east bound and saw the airplane at the end of a right roll. The airplane was inverted and traveling at a high rate of speed, nose first, towards the ground in the vicinity of where HVN was located. He stated that he stopped at a local business and found out that the airplane had crashed."

 HVN is the three letter airport code for Tweed-New Haven Airport.

 LINK: Read the report (.pdf)

 The August 9 crash killed 13-year-old Sade Brantley and 1-year-old Madisyn Mitchell of East Haven, as well as the pilot, Bill Henningsgaard, and his 17-year-old son, Maxwell. The plane went down into two homes on Charter Oak Ave., a short distance from the airport, at 11:21 a.m.

 The plane had taken off from Teterboro airport in New Jersey.

 The preliminary report describes radio conversations between the New Haven control tower and the pilot. The pilot had been instructed to land on runway 20. Less than two minutes before the crash, Henningsgaard acknowledged that he was preparing to land on runway 20, and told the tower he "is in visual contact now" with the airport.

 "At 1120:55 the HVN air traffic controller made a truncated transmission with the call sign '622'," the NTSB report said. "No further communications were received from the accident airplane."

 Much of the plane and the two homes were destroyed in the crash and fire. Funeral services for the East Haven victims were held last week.

 The wind was gusting up to 19 knots, or about 22 miles per hour, and there were overcast clouds at 900 feet, the NTSB said.

 Environmental cleanup continues at the crash site, and once that is completed the homes will be demolished.

 Also on Tuesday, two Dunkin Donuts restaurants held a fundraiser for the families affected by the crash. ||||| A firefighter surveys the scene of a small plane crash, Friday, Aug. 9, 2013, in East Haven, Conn. The multi-engine, propeller-driven plane plunged into a working-class suburban neighborhood near Tweed New Haven Airport, on Friday. (AP Photo/Fred Beckham)

 The National Transportation Safety Board has released its preliminary report on the airplane crash in East Haven on August 9 that killed four people and it includes information from a witness who said he saw the plane, inverted and traveling at a high rate of speed before the crash.

 William Henningsgard, of Medina, Washington, was operating the airplane and his 17-year-old son, Maxwell, was a passenger onboard when the aircraft went down on Charter Oak Avenue at 11:21 a.m. on August 9 and struck two houses at 64 and 68 Charter Oak Avenue, according to officials.

 Sade Brantley,13, and her 1-year-old sister, Madisyn Mitchell, were in one of houses that was struck. All four were killed.

 A student pilot who was traveling on Interstate 95 at exit 51 right before the crash told the NTSB he looked to his right and saw the airplane at the “end of a right roll.” It was “inverted and traveling at a high rate of speed, nose-first” toward the ground in the vicinity of Tweed-New Haven airport.

 When the witness stopped at a local business, he learned that it had crashed.

 A witness who lives two houses away from the crash scene told NTSB he was in his living room and saw the plane descending at a 90-degree angle, right-side down, into the houses.

 The airplane Henningsgard was operating had left Teeterboard Airport in New Jersey around 10:49 a.m. on the day of the crash. Two minutes before the crash, the pilot told air traffic control that could see the airport.

 The last radar target was at 11:20 a.m., according to the NTSB.

 At that point, it was .7 miles north of the runway the plane was scheduled to land at and it was traveling at an altitude of 800 feet, according to the report.

 When investigators arrived at the crash scene, they would find the front half of the plane, including the cockpit, left engine and front two-thirds of the fuselage in the basement, according to the NTSB.

 The right wing struck another house and the right engine and propeller struck the ground between the two houses.

 Fire consumed most of the wreckage.

 The NTSB also noted the wind as of 11:26 a.m. as 12 knots, gusting to 19 knots, along with a visibility of nine miles and an overcast ceiling at 900 feet.

 You can read the full report on the NTSB Web site. |||||Summary:

– Before crashing into a home in East Haven, Conn., the aircraft in the fatal crash was upside-down in what sounds like a nightmare scenario. According to a preliminary NTSB report, a witness "saw the airplane at the end of a right roll. The airplane was inverted and traveling at a high rate of speed, nose first, towards the ground" in the vicinity of the Tweed-New Haven Airport, where pilot Bill Henningsgaard was supposed to land. The former Microsoft exec, his 17-year-old son, and two children on the ground were killed. Another witness, who lives two houses from the crash site, saw the plane coming down at a 90-degree angle, NBC Connecticut reports. Less than two minutes before the plane went down, Henningsgaard told the control tower he was "in visual contact" with the airport and preparing to land, WTNH reports. A few seconds before the crash, the air traffic controller made a brief transmission, according to the report, but "no further communications were received from the accident airplane." The report also states that at the time of the accident the wind was gusting up to 22mph, and visibility was at 9 miles with overcast clouds at 900 feet.


Write an article based on this summary:

– Chase Bishop probably isn't in the mood for backflips anymore after his infamous one at a Denver bar earlier this month. The FBI agent who accidentally shot a man in the leg after his gun fell from its holster while dancing turned himself in to Denver police Tuesday and was booked into jail on a charge of second-degree assault. The 29-year-old from the FBI's Washington Field Office, due in court Wednesday, may also face additional charges, depending on the results of a blood alcohol test, per CBS News. Those results are expected in about a week. Bishop was off duty but in Denver for training at the time of the June 2 shooting at Mile High Spirits, reports the Denver Channel. Pointing out that it's against its rules for a patron to carry a firearm without informing staff, the bar says 24-year-old victim Thomas Reddington is "welcome at Mile High Spirits to enjoy complimentary drinks forever," per the New York Times. Reddington's lawyer says he's weighing a lawsuit against the FBI, which is conducting its own investigation, with suspension and termination among possible outcomes.

DENVER – An FBI agent whose gun appeared to accidentally fire in a video showing him dancing at a Denver nightclub and doing a back flip before dropping the weapon has been booked into jail. Chase Bishop, who is based in the bureau's Washington Field Office, was charged Tuesday with one count of second-degree assault, the Denver District Attorney's office said.

 Bishop turned himself in to the Denver Sheriff Department on Tuesday morning after a warrant was issued for his arrest, according to Denver police.

 Denver Police Dept.

 Denver Police had previously said they were awaiting the results of alcohol and drug tests before making an arrest. The district attorney's office said in a statement investigators are still awaiting the tests to determine Bishop's blood alcohol content at the time of the incident, and additional charges may be pending.

 "We are filing this charge now rather than waiting until the [blood alcohol content] report is received, which we understand could take another week, because sufficient evidence has been presented to file it," Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said in the statement. "If an additional charge needs to be filed after further evidence is received, we can file those charges then."

 Video from the June 3 incident shows Bishop landing a backflip at the Mile High Spirits bar, and reaching down to pick up the weapon that had fallen from his pants. As he grabs the gun, it can be seen firing.

 A man who identified himself in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" as Thomas Reddington was shot in the leg. His attorney tells CBS Denver that Reddington suffered a serious injury.

 Bishop, 29, was off-duty and on vacation when the shooting happened. He was taken to the Denver Police Department headquarters and later released to an FBI supervisor.

 The FBI is conducting an internal investigation into the incident. Among the options are termination, suspension or reprimand. ||||| DENVER – An FBI agent who's accused of inadvertently shooting a bystander at a Denver bar earlier this month has turned himself in and has been formally charged with second-degree assault.

 Records show Chase Bishop, 29, was booked into the downtown Denver jail on Tuesday. He'd originally been held on the charge, but was formally charged Tuesday with the single assault count, which is a fourth-degree felony.

 Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said Bishop could face more charges depending on the results of a blood alcohol content test, which have not yet been received by her office.

 “We are filing this charge now rather than waiting until the BAC report is received, which we understand could take another week, because sufficient evidence has been presented to file it,” McCann said in a statement. “If an additional charge needs to be filed after further evidence is received, we can file those charges then.”

 Bishop, a Washington D.C.-based FBI agent visiting Denver for training, was dancing at Mile High Spirits in the morning on June 2 when he did a backflip and the gun fell from its holster, as seen in video from the scene. As Bishop bent down to pick up the gun, it fired, hitting a bystander in the leg.

 The victim, Tom Reddington, 24, sustained a nonlethal gunshot wound to the leg. Reddington's lawyer said they are looking at the possibility of a lawsuit against the FBI.

 Bishop is scheduled to be advised of the charge Wednesday morning in Denver District Court. ||||| An off-duty F.B.I. agent whose gun went off after he did a back handspring at a nightclub this month turned himself in on Tuesday to face an assault charge, the Denver district attorney’s office said.

 The agent, Chase Bishop, 29, who faces one count of second-degree assault, had been dancing at a club in the early morning hours of June 2 when he performed the back handspring, according to video of the episode that was broadcast by Denver7, a local news station, and has circulated widely. A firearm that had been in a holster fell on the floor, and when Mr. Bishop reached for the gun it discharged, injuring another patron in the lower leg, according to the district attorney’s statement.

 Beth McCann, the district attorney, said in the release that more charges could follow depending on the results of a blood alcohol content analysis.

 “We are filing this charge now rather than waiting until the B.A.C. report is received, which we understand could take another week, because sufficient evidence has been presented to file it,” Ms. McCann said. |||||


Here is a news article: But Lerner should have been gone shortly after this scandal first unraveled in the press. Not only is she the person who was in charge of the group that wrongly targeted conservatives, she dishonestly testified that she didn’t know about the targeting until 2012, when the inspector general found she knew as early as 2011. She’s the person who told a conference call of reporters, “I’m not that good at math,” even though she’s a manager in an agency that’s at bottom all about math.

 What I think is even more politically and morally suspect – and has gotten very little attention -- Lerner actually presided over the bizarre, bumbling rollout of the story, by planting a question about the controversy with an attorney at an American Bar Association conference. According to Morgan Lewis tax lawyer Celia Roady, Lerner herself asked that Roady inquire about whether the IRS had targeted conservative groups. That led to Lerner’s public apology – and the scandal swirling around the White House, which found itself surprised by the sudden disclosure.

 The invaluable tax-policy expert David Cay Johnston called for Lerner’s firing a week ago – and that was even before there was proof that she had set up the question at the ABA conference. ||||| Lois Lerner, the IRS staffer who is under fire for her role in the agency’s targeting of conservative groups, has been placed on administrative leave, according to congressional aides.

 She will still be paid while on leave, a congressional aide said, as required under civil service rules.

 Lerner, who heads an IRS division that oversees tax-exempt groups, first disclosed the extra scrutiny the agency gave to Tea Party groups almost two weeks ago when answering a planted question at a Washington legal conference.

 Since then, lawmakers from across the political spectrum have said that they believe Lerner misled them and have called for her dismissal.

 Sen. Chuck Grassley (Iowa), a senior Republican on the Finance Committee, said in a Thursday statement that new acting IRS Commissioner Danny Werfel had asked Lerner to resign — and that Lerner was only placed on leave after she declined that request. Aides on Capitol Hill confirmed that Lerner had refused to resign.

 In her first public appearance since the disclosure, Lerner on Wednesday invoked her Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination at a House Oversight hearing.

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 The IRS announced in an internal memo circulated to the media that Ken Corbin will be taking over as the acting director of the tax-exempt organizations division. Corbin, a 25-year veteran at the IRS, has been deputy director in a division that processed millions of tax returns a year.

 Lerner’s move to administrative leave comes after President Obama pushed out acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller over his role in the targeting. Werfel, formerly a senior official at the Office of Management and Budget, took over as acting commissioner on Wednesday.

 The IRS also announced after the controversy broke that Joseph Grant, Lerner’s boss at the agency, will retire in early June.

 Lerner will likely have to make her way back to Capitol Hill in the coming weeks, after House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) concluded that she waved her rights against self-incrimination by defending herself in an opening statement at Wednesday's hearing.

 Sens. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) on Thursday became the latest prominent lawmakers to call for Lerner to be removed, in a letter to Werfel made public shortly before news of Lerner’s administrative leave broke.

 Reps. Sandy Levin (D-Mich.), Joe Crowley (D-N.Y) and Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) have also called for Lerner to be pushed out.

 "In naming Ken Corbin as acting director to replace Lois Lerner, the administration has taken a strong step to address serious mistakes made by the IRS Exempt Organization Division," Levin said in a statement. "This and further corrective action are vital in restoring the confidence of the American people."

 According to a Treasury audit, Lerner found out in June 2011 that IRS staffers were giving extra scrutiny to conservative groups seeking tax-exempt 501(c)(4) status by searching for organizations with names like “Tea Party” and “patriots.”

 Lerner immediately ordered that the criteria targeting conservative groups be changed, but staffers in a Cincinnati office eventually once again implemented more political screening criteria, according to the audit.

 “I have not done anything wrong. I have not broken any laws. I have not violated any IRS rules or regulations, and I have not provided false information to this or any other congressional committee,” Lerner told House Oversight on Wednesday.

 “Because I'm asserting my right not to testify, I know that some people will assume that I've done something wrong. I have not.”

 The audit, from Treasury’s inspector general for tax administration, also found that some groups waited months, even years, for their tax-exempt applications to be approved.

 National Review first reported that Lerner was being placed on administrative leave.

 The publication also reported late Thursday that letters suggest Lerner was directly involved in the agency’s targeting of conservative groups more than nine months after she first learned of the activity.

 — This story was updated at 7:34 p.m.

  |||||
A summary of this is?

– The IRS official at the center of the recent scandal has been placed on administrative leave, reports the National Review. Lois Lerner had been in charge of the agency's tax-exempt unit, which singled out conservative groups for added scrutiny. Her immediate boss already has been forced into early retirement, and critics have been calling for Lerner's head to roll as well. (Her role in using a planted question to make the controversy public hasn't helped her cause.) On Capitol Hill yesterday, Lerner denied any wrongdoing but invoked the Fifth in refusing to answer questions. The chair of the House Oversight panel, Darrell Issa, says he plans to call her back to testify, arguing that she waived her right to the Fifth by making an opening statement, reports the Hill. The decision to put Lerner on leave comes days after the new acting chief of the IRS, Daniel Werfel, took over.


Here is a news article: Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, named as the suspect who allegedly went on a rampage, killing 16 Afghan civilians, was remembered by his neighbors in Lake Tapp, Wash., as a family man and "good guy," but news of a criminal record has surfaced and his wife's blog posts reveal a man frustrated with not being promoted.

 Between the 38-year-old's deployments, he had scattered trouble at home, including a criminal record that includes a misdemeanor arrest for assaulting a girlfriend in 2002 that led to 20 hours of court-ordered anger management, and a report of a drunk driving arrest in 2005 for which he wasn't charged.

 His record also includes a hit-and-run in 2008. Witnesses saw a bleeding man in a military-style uniform with a shaved head running into the woods, where the police found him. Bales said he fell asleep at the wheel, and paid about $1,000 in fines and restitution, according to The Associated Press. The case was dismissed.

 Bales' wife, Karilyn Bales, a public relations and marketing manager, wrote on her blog in March of last year that her husband was very disappointed about not getting promoted to E-7, sergeant first class.

 "Bob didn't get a promotion and is very disappointed, after all the sacrifices he has made for his love of country. But I am also relieved. We can finally move on to the next phase of our lives," she wrote.

 The Bales' house was recently listed for sale, and his wife wrote that they hope to move closer to family in the Midwest.

 He Was 'One of the Best Soldiers I Ever Worked With'

 Neighbors painted a picture of the career soldier as a family man who spoke little about his deployments.

 "I just can't believe Bob's the guy who did this," neighbor Paul Wohlberg told the Associated Press. "A good guy got put in the wrong place at the wrong time."

 Kassie Holland, a neighbor, told the Associated Press that she would see Bales playing with his daughter Quincy, 4, and son Bobby, 3.

 "My reaction is that I'm shocked," she said. "I can't believe it was him. There were no signs. ... He always had a good attitude about being in the service. He was never really angry about it. When I heard him talk, he said, it seemed like, 'Yeah, that's my job. That's what I do.' He never expressed a lot of emotion toward it."

 Bales' platoon leader in Iraq described him to the Washington Post as an exemplary soldier who "saved many a life."

 "Bales is still, hands down, one of the best soldiers I ever worked with," Army Capt. Chris Alexander , 28, told the newspaper.

 Bales remains locked up today in Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where he is being housed in a private cell away from other inmates.

 Charges are expected soon against the career soldier, who was flown out of Afghanistan and arrived at the Army prison Friday night.

 Bales is accused of breaking into several Afghan homes in the middle of the night last Sunday and killing 16 civilians, mostly women and children. He could face the death penalty if found guilty.

 Pentagon officials said that Bales' being brought back to the U.S. does not necessarily mean that his military court proceedings will be held in the U.S., holding out the possibility that they could be held in Afghanistan. The Afghan government is demanding that Bales be tried in Afghanistan.

 Details of Bales' military record have also emerged and they depict a soldier who has seen intense combat and lost part of a foot.

 Bales, who enlisted shortly after the 9/11 terror attacks, was first deployed in November 2003 when his unit spent a year in Mosul, Iraq.

 In June 2006, he and his unit were sent back to Iraq and their year-long deployment was given a three-month extension until September 2007. During that time, he saw duty in Mosul in the north, Bagdad when the city was pressed by militants, and then Baquba, where his unit took major casualties.

 His final Iraq deployment was from September 2009 to September 2010 in Diyala province, which was also a hotbed of insurgent activity.

 In December 2011, he was ordered to Afghanistan.

 Bales' alleged murderous rage stood in stark contrast to what he said after a fierce battle in Zarqa, Iraq, in 2007.

 "I've never been more proud to be a part of this unit than that day for the simple fact that we discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then, afterward, we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us," he told Fort Lewis' Northwest Guardian.

 "I think that's the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy, someone who puts his family in harm's way like that," Bales said at the time.

 John Henry Browne, Bales' lawyer in Seattle, told The Associated Press Thursday that the soldier had witnessed his friend's leg blown off the day before the massacre.

 Bales reportedly spent his entire 11-year career at Joint Base Lewis-McChord in Washington state and lived not too far from the base. Originally from the Midwest, he was deployed with the Second Battalion, 3rd Infantry Regiment of the 3rd Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division in December.

 Browne said that he was highly decorated and had once been nominated for a Bronze Star though he did not receive it. He also lost part of a foot because of a combat injury.

 "He's never said anything antagonistic about Muslims. He's in general very mild-mannered," Browne told the AP.

 Bales reportedly left Camp Belambay -- where he was stationed to protect Special Operation Forces creating local militias -- in the middle of the night, wearing night-vision goggles, according to a source. The shooting occurred at 3 a.m. in three houses in two villages in the Panjway district of southern Kandahar province.

 In the first village, more than a mile south of the base, he allegedly killed four people in the first house. In the second house, he allegedly killed 11 family members -- four girls, four boys and three adults.

 According to a member of the Afghan investigation team and ABC News' interviews, he then walked back to another village past his base and killed one more person. He reportedly returned to the base on his own and turned himself in calmly.

 An official told ABC News that the soldier had suffered a mild traumatic brain injury (TBI) in the past, either from hitting his head on the hatch of a vehicle or in a car accident. He reportedly went through the advanced TBI treatment at Fort Lewis and was deemed to be fine.

 He also underwent mental health screening necessary to become a sniper and passed in 2008. He had routine behavioral health screening after that and was cleared, the official said.

 When the soldier returned from his last deployment in Iraq he had difficulty reintegrating, including marital problems, the source told ABC News. But officials concluded that he had worked through those issues before deploying to Afghanistan.

 On Thursday, Browne said that Bales' marriage was "fabulous."

 Afghan political leaders have called for Bales to be tried publicly in Afghan courts, but U.S. military officials said the case will be handled in U.S. military courts. A U.S. military official said Afghan officials were made aware of Bales' transfer out of Afghanistan before it occurred.

 The Associated Press contributed to this story. ||||| Washington state court records describe a 2008 hit-and-run accident involving the U.S. soldier now accused of killing 16 civilians in Afghanistan.

 According to Pierce County Municipal Court documents, Robert Bales was cited in a single-vehicle rollover in the early morning of Oct. 11, 2008. It isn't clear what Bales hit, but the report refers to damaged property.

 Witnesses saw a man in a military-style uniform, with a shaved head and bleeding, running away.

 Deputies found him in the woods, and Bales told them he fell asleep at the wheel.

 Bales paid nearly $800 in fines and court costs in monthly increments of $56. He paid $180 restitution, and the case was dismissed in October 2009. ||||| Kabul, Afghanistan (CNN) -- A Taliban commander expressed skepticism that one soldier carried out a massacre last week that left 16 Afghan civilians dead, and anger that the suspect subsequently was flown out of Afghanistan.

 "We don't think that one American was involved," the Taliban official told CNN, refusing to give his name or be otherwise identified. "The foreigners and the puppet regime (in Afghanistan) are blind to the truth of what happened here.

 "But if this was the act of one soldier, we want this soldier to be prosecuted in Afghanistan, and according to Islamic law. The Afghans should prosecute him."

 Stunned friends recall suspect's good deeds

 The commander also explained that the Islamic fundamentalist group had halted talks with U.S. officials. It had set up an office in Qatar on January 3 to reach "an understanding with the international community" and discuss specific issues with American officials.

 In a statement Thursday, the Taliban said work from their Qatar office was being suspended, a decision made due to what the group called U.S. officials' "alternating and ever-changing position." Preliminary talks had already begun over the exchange of prisoners, the Taliban said.

 The Taliban commander said the burning of Qurans in February by U.S. troops and issues surrounding the U.S. possibly transferring five Taliban members from the U.S. prison facility in Guantanamo Bay to Qatar were the main reasons for the decision.

 "The peace talks with the Americans were limited to discuss the prisoner deal. And those promises were not kept by the Americans," he said.

 The Taliban official had harsh words for the U.S. regarding the March 11 rampage in two villages in the district of Panjwai in Kandahar province, though he did not tie that directly with the group's decision to suspend talks.

 A resident of one of the villages, Ali Ahmed, described to CNN how what he and some others claimed were multiple attackers had come into a home before dawn that morning, asked his uncle where the Taliban were and then shot him dead.

 "Finally, they came to this room and martyred all the children," Ahmed said from the home, claiming a 2-month-old child was among the nine children killed. Later, he said some of the dead were piled in a room and set on fire.

 U.S. officials have said that one man, Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, left his outpost and singlehandedly carried out the massacre in two villages.

 He is currently at the U.S. military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, pending trial, having flown back to the United States last week.

 The incident, as well as the fact the suspect isn't set to be tried in Afghanistan where the crime occurred, has infuriated many Afghans and heightened tensions between that nation and the United States.

 After the shooting spree, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said that relations between the two countries were at the "end of the rope." The incident came weeks after U.S. troops burned Qurans at a coalition base in Afghanistan, sparking outrage and fierce protests across the central Asian nation.

 Yet Afghanistan's ambassador to the United States insisted Sunday that his nation trusts the U.S. investigation into the rampage.

 "We do trust the United States and we do know how important this relationship is, and we are working as a partner to resolve all the issues as a partner," Ambassador Eklil Hakimi told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.

 Hakimi said both the shooting rampage and Quran burning are tragic, but he acknowledged they come after more than 10 years of a U.S. presence in his country that has claimed the lives of more than 1,700 U.S. troops, according to the official U.S. military count.

 "We do understand sacrifices that our allies, especially our main allies, the United States -- that they have suffered quite a lot, those men in uniform, those women in uniform," Hakimi said. "Those are the things that we are grateful (for) and we are appreciating that."

 U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta promised Karzai a full investigation and said the United States will bring the shooter to justice.

 "He accepted that and hoped that it could be a transparent process so that the Afghanistan people would see that the U.S. is indeed going to not only prosecute this individual but ensure he's held accountable," Panetta said after meeting Karzai on Wednesday.

 "I also indicated to him that we take these kinds of incidents seriously. We need to look at just exactly was involved here that caused this terrible crime," Panetta said. "Was it related to combat stress? Other factors? We need to pay attention to those so it won't happen again."

 The shooting prompted Karzai to demand that foreign troops pull back from their outposts in Afghan villages and confine themselves to military bases. In his meeting with Panetta, Karzai also demanded that the transfer of security responsibilities from Washington to Kabul be accelerated.

 Family friends who knew Bales, the shooting spree suspect, growing up in the Cincinnati suburb of Norwood, Ohio, described him as "quiet" and "very nice." The Army said that he enlisted in the military two months after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

 Bales went on to serve four combat tours, the last one to Afghanistan beginning in January. And in between them, he settled down with his wife and their two young children near Joint Base Lewis-McChord outside Tacoma, Washington.

 The family owned a townhouse in a modest, middle-class neighborhood in Auburn, about 30 minutes from the base, before purchasing a house in 2006 for $280,000 near Lake Tapps, according to realty records.

 Tim Burgess, whose Auburn townhouse shared a wall with that of the Bales family, on Sunday described his former neighbor as "a really good guy (who) just wanted to serve."

 "I know he just wanted to go back and serve overseas, that was his goal," Burgess recalled from their conversations, while noting the two hadn't spoken in about five years.

 Robert Baggett, president of the Riverpark Homeowners Association, said Sunday that -- after the Bales family moved to Lake Tapps -- there were occasionally renters in the residence.

 But several years ago, their townhouse was foreclosed upon, according to Baggett and Burgess. The Bales also didn't pay homeowners association fees for "at least three or four years," said Baggett.

 "We don't know what happened," Baggett said of the Bales and their Auburn property, which Sunday had a notice that read "Do Not Occupy" on its front door.

 One of Bales' lawyers, John Henry Browne, said upon arriving at the Kansas City, Missouri, airport -- where he'd come so he can drive to meet with his client -- that all the reports surrounding Bales have been a "shock" to those who know him as a "very mild mannered person and a great person."

 Browne added that the entire situation was unique and challenging.

 "You couldn't imagine a more difficult case, I don't think," the lawyer said. "This case has political ramifications, it has legal ramifications, it has social ramifications."

 CNN's Sara Sidner in Kabul, Afghanistan, and Paul Vercammen in Auburn, Washington, contributed to this report. ||||| With formal charges looming against his client within days, the lawyer for an Army sergeant suspected in the horrific nighttime slaughter of 16 Afghan villagers flew to Kansas and was preparing for his first face-to-face meeting with the 10-year veteran.

 A white van, believed to be transporting Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, leaves Kansas City International Airport Friday, March 16, 2012, in Kansas City, Mo. Bales is is accused of gunning down 16 Afghan women... (Associated Press)

 The home of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians, is shown, Friday, March 16, 2012, in Lake Tapps, Wash. Bales has not yet been charged. He was being flown... (Associated Press)

 Boxes and a U.S. flag sit Friday, March 16, 2012, in Lake Tapps, Wash., on the front porch of the home of U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians. (AP Photo/Ted... (Associated Press)

 In this Aug. 23, 2011 Defense Video & Imagery Distribution System photo, Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, right, participates in an exercise at the National Training Center at Fort Irwin, Calif. Five days... (Associated Press)

 FILE - In this Sunday, March 11, 2012 file photo, men stand next to blood stains and charred remains inside a home where witnesses say Afghans were killed by a U.S. soldier in Panjwai, Kandahar province... (Associated Press)

 John Henry Browne of Seattle said he planned to meet Monday with Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is being held in an isolated cell at Fort Leavenworth's military prison.

 Bales, 38, hasn't been charged in the March 11 shootings, which have endangered relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan and threaten to upend U.S. policy over the decade-old war. But formal charges are expected to be filed within a week and if the case goes to court the trial will be held in the United States, said a legal expert with the U.S. military familiar with the investigation.

 That expert said charges were still being decided and that the location for any trial had not yet been determined. If the suspect is brought to trial, it is possible that Afghan witnesses and victims would be flown to the United States to participate, he said.

 Military lawyers say once attorneys involved in the initial investigation of an alleged crime involving a service member have what they believe to be a solid understanding of what happened and are satisfied with the evidence collected, they draft charges and present them to a commander. That person then makes a judgment on whether there is probable cause to believe that an offense was committed and that the accused committed it.

 That commander then "prefers" the charges to a convening authority, who typically is the commander of the brigade to which the accused is assigned but could be of higher rank.

 Bales' defense team said in a statement late Saturday that "it is too early to determine what factors may have played into this incident and the defense team looks forward to reviewing the evidence, examining all of Sergeant Bales' medical and personnel records, and interviewing witnesses."

 The lawyers' statement also said Bales' family was "stunned in the face of this tragedy, but they stand behind the man they know as a devoted husband, father and dedicated member of the armed services."

 Military officials have said that Bales, after drinking on a southern Afghanistan base, crept away March 11 to two slumbering villages overnight, shooting his victims and setting many of them on fire. Nine of the 16 killed were children and 11 belonged to one family.

 Court records and interviews in recent days have revealed that Bales had a string of commendations for good conduct after four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he also faced a number of troubles in recent years: a Florida investment job went sour, his Seattle-area home was condemned as he struggled to make payments on another, and he failed to get a recent promotion.

 Legal troubles included charges that he assaulted a girlfriend and, in a hit-and run accident, ran bleeding in military clothes into the woods, court records show. He told police he fell asleep at the wheel and paid a fine to get the charges dismissed, the records show.

 Rebecca Steed, spokeswoman at Fort Leavenworth, said Bales would be able to meet with Browne in what is described as a privileged visit. Along with medical visits, such meetings are generally more private than others conducted in the prison.

 Browne, 65, has represented clients ranging from serial killer Ted Bundy to Colton Harris-Moore, known as the "Barefoot Bandit." He has said he has handled only three or four military cases. Bales will also have at least one military lawyer.

 Tall and stylish, Browne has been a prominent figure in Washington state legal circles since the 1970s, known equally for his zeal in representing his clients and his flair before television cameras.

 _____

 Also contributing were Associated Press writers Manuel Valdes in Seattle, John Milburn in Topeka, Kan., and Deb Riechmann in Kabul, Afghanistan. ||||| Pentagon officials on Friday identified the soldier who allegedly killed 16 Afghan villagers as Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, a trained Army sniper who had served three tours in Iraq and suffered war wounds.

 Bales, a 38-year-old married father of two who enlisted in the months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, was flown Friday to a military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., to await possible criminal charges, according to a U.S. Army statement.

 Bales is accused of leaving his base in the Panjwai district of Kandahar province; shooting 16 people, including nine children; and attempting to burn their bodies before returning to the base and turning himself in. He could face the death penalty, military officials have said.

 The incident has sparked significant backlash in Afghanistan, straining already difficult relations with the United States over conduct of the war there.

 The suspect’s name had been a closely kept secret since he allegedly surrendered to authorities after the shootings on Sunday morning. Officials confirmed his name after news organizations began reporting it Friday evening.

 Bales’s attorney, John Henry Browne, has said that Bales did not want to deploy to Afghanistan in December, had experienced post-traumatic stress disorder stemming from his deployments and had suffered a head injury during a deployment in Iraq. Bales also had seen one of his fellow soldiers lose his leg in an explosion hours before he allegedly went on a rampage, Browne told reporters.

 Army Capt. Chris Alexander, 28, who was Bales’s platoon leader during a deployment in Iraq, said in an interview Friday night that he “saved many a life” by never letting his guard down during patrols.

 “Bales is still, hands down, one of the best soldiers I ever worked with,” Alexander said. “There has to be very severe [post-traumatic stress disorder] involved in this. I just don’t want him seen as some psychopath, because he is not.”

 Bales, a member of the 3rd (Stryker) Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, lived with his wife and young children in Lake Tapps, Wash., about a 20-minute drive east of Joint Base Lewis-McChord, near Tacoma. He attended high school in a Cleveland suburb but spent the past several years in Washington or on military deployments overseas.

 His family was moved onto the base in recent days for their protection, officials have said.

 The neighborhood where Bales lived includes many military families, according to neighbors. The family lived in a two-story beige house with a cedar-shake roof and a small front porch.

 In 2007, Bales was part of a long, bloody battle in southern Iraq in which 250 enemy fighters were killed and 81 were wounded while members of Bales’s unit suffered no casualties, according to an Army account that described the battle as “apocalyptic.”

 “I’ve never been more proud to be a part of this unit than that day,” Bales was quoted as saying. “We discriminated between the bad guys and the noncombatants and then afterward we ended up helping the people that three or four hours before were trying to kill us. I think that’s the real difference between being an American as opposed to being a bad guy, someone who puts his family in harm’s way like that.”

 Bales said of the battle that “the cool part about this was World War II-style. You dug in. Guys were out there digging a fighting position in the ground.”

 He also described an intense firefight as his unit tried to secure a downed helicopter: “It was like a match lit up. It looked like a toy with a candle lit underneath it.”

 He received more than a dozen medals and badges for his service overseas and for good conduct, according to the Army statement. But in her blog last year, his wife, Karilyn, said he was disappointed that he was not promoted to sergeant first class.

 In a post dated March 25, she noted “all of the work Bob has done and all the sacrifices he has made for his love of his country, family and friends.”

 “I am sad and disappointed too,” she wrote, “but I am also relieved, we can finally move on to the next phase of our lives.”

 That meant a different duty station, hopefully in Germany, Italy or Hawaii, she wrote.

 In previous blog posts she wrote of how difficult it was for her while Bales was deployed during the pregnancy of her first child but how excited he was to learn that their first born was going to be a girl. “Our baby girl will most definitely be Daddy’s Little Girl!” she wrote.

 Government officials, in some news reports, have said Bales may have been drinking on the night of the shootings and was agitated by marital problems at home. Browne disputed that, saying the reports were “very offensive.” The couple had financial problems but nothing severe, he said, adding that they had “a very strong marriage.”

 Family members of Bales could not be reached for comment Friday night.

 While living outside Tacoma, Bales had brushes with the law, according to court records and news accounts. In 2002, he was charged with misdemeanor criminal assault, according to the Tacoma News Tribune. The charge was dismissed after he paid a $300 fine and completed an anger management assessment, the newspaper reported.

 Then in 2008, witnesses told police they saw him running from a single-car rollover, the newspaper reported.

 Witnesses told the News Tribune they saw a “white man wearing military style uniform, shaved head and bleeding” running into the woods. Bales later told a police officer that he had fallen asleep while driving. Bales received a 12-month deferred sentence and paid a fine of $250 and the charges were dismissed, according to the report.

 With limited facts about the motive in Sunday’s shooting, some veterans groups and mental health advocates fear that the image being stitched together from the loose assemblage of facts is of a crazy veteran gone wild.

 “The main concern is that we’ll be back where we started with a stigma that all veterans that return are broken in some way,” said Ryan Gallucci, deputy director of national legislative service for the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

 On Friday, Gen. David M. Rodriguez, commander of the U.S. Army Forces Command, which is in charge of training and equipping soldiers for war, said the Army has done a “very, very good job of sustaining” troops through multiple combat deployments.” He said the decision of whether to send soldiers on multiple deployments are made “on a case-by-case basis.”

 “There is not a cookie-cutter solution or rule that says this guy can handle two or three [tours],” he said. “It’s about taking care of soldiers.”

 Some fear that the stereotype of veterans as unstable at best and violent at worst will be resurrected. Many veterans spoke out against a headline about the shootings in the New York Daily News this week that read, “Sergeant Psycho.”

 Tom Tarantino, the deputy policy director at Iraq and Afghanistan of America, said that without the facts, “you have this wired mind-set in the public consciousness and immediately everyone goes to the ‘Sergeant Psycho’ thing.”

 Many veterans advocates have dismissed simple theories about what set off the killings.

 “There are plenty of service members with stress and trauma who are drinking and self-medicating every day to deal with their conditions, and they don’t go out and gun down a bunch of women and children,” said Josh Renschler, the director of Men of Valor, a service member support group.

 He argued that while bouts of rage can be caused by traumatic brain injuries or post-traumatic stress disorder, they alone are not sufficient to explain killing of this magnitude.

 Jonathan Shay, a clinical psychiatrist and author who was awarded a MacArthur “genius grant” for his work with veterans, wondered about the soldier’s relationship with the Special Operations forces — which can be very standoffish to outsiders — that he was attached to at a remote outpost in Afghanistan. “To me this is a presumptive case of leadership failure,” he said. “Whoever was directly responsible for this soldier did not do his job in the sense of getting to know him.”

 Flaherty reported from Tacoma. Staff writers Craig Whitlock, Peter Finn and William Branigin, staff researchers Julie Tate, Lucy Shackleford and Madonna Leibling, and research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report. |||||
A summary of this is?

– Taliban leaders are insisting that US Staff Sergeant Robert Bales didn't act alone when he allegedly massacred 16 Afghan civilians as they slept. "We don't think that one American was involved," a Taliban official told CNN, without offering further details. "The foreigners and the puppet regime" in Afghanistan "are blind to the truth of what happened here." But whatever the case, Bales should be "prosecuted in Afghanistan, and according to Islamic law," he added. "The Afghans should prosecute him." The comments followed a move by the Taliban last week to cut off talks with the US because of American officials' "ever-changing position," said a spokesman. Meanwhile, more details continue to emerge about Bales, including his and his family's difficulty with repeated war tour deployments, and an arrest record that includes an assault on a girlfriend, and a hit-and-run in 2008. In the accident, a bloodied Bales was seen running into a nearby woods, reports ABC News. Bales said he fell asleep at the wheel, and paid about $1,000 in fines and restitution, according to AP. The case was dismissed. Bales' platoon leader told the Washington Post that Bales was "one of the best soldiers I have every worked with," and that he saved "many a life." Bales' attorney hopes to meet in Kansas today with his client at the Fort Leavenworth military prison.


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– Robert De Niro says he's not anti-vaccination—he's just in favor of screening an anti-vaccination documentary made by a disgraced medical researcher. The actor is defending his decision to include Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe at New York City's Tribeca Film Festival, which he co-founded, Rolling Stone reports. The film is directed and co-written by British anti-vaccination activist Andrew Wakefield, who was stripped of his medical license for ethics violations, reports the New York Times. Wakefield was behind a controversial 1998 study linking vaccines to autism, which was later discredited and retracted by the medical journal that published it. "Grace and I have a child with autism and we believe it is critical that all of the issues surrounding the causes of autism be openly discussed and examined," De Niro said, per Variety. He said that in the 15 years since he founded the festival, he has never been involved in programming, but "this is very personal to me and my family and I want there to be a discussion, which is why we will be screening Vaxxed. I am not personally endorsing the film, nor am I anti-vaccination; I am only providing the opportunity for a conversation around the issue." In an open letter in Filmmaker magazine, documentary maker Penny Lane urged the festival to reconsider its decision to spread "dangerous misinformation."

The upcoming Tribeca Film Festival has come under heat for its screening of a documentary that promotes the anti-vaccination movement. In a statement, Robert De Niro defended the screening of Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe while also distancing himself as part of the anti-vaccination movement.

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 “Grace [Hightower, De Niro's wife] and I have a child with autism and we believe it is critical that all of the issues surrounding the causes of autism be openly discussed and examined," De Niro said (via Variety). "In the 15 years since the Tribeca Film Festival was founded, I have never asked for a film to be screened or gotten involved in the programming. However, this is very personal to me and my family and I want there to be a discussion, which is why we will be screening Vaxxed. I am not personally endorsing the film, nor am I anti-vaccination; I am only providing the opportunity for a conversation around the issue."

 Andrew Wakefield, the doctor-turned-documentarian behind Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe, argues that vaccinations given to infants could lead to autism, a claim that the Centers for Disease Control has long denied. Wakefield's research papers on the subject have been attacked and discredited, and while his bio page on the Tribeca site mentions his work in the field, it doesn't mention that he's been accused of professional misconduct and falsifying information. Wakefield was also stripped of his medical license.

 De Niro's statement has sparked even more controversy as the actor's decision to include the documentary as part of the film festival that he helped found represents only one side of the anti-vaccination debate. Filmmaker Penny Lane, who made the documentary Nuts! about a snake oil salesman and medical fraud in general, penned an open letter to the Tribeca Film Festival asking them to reconsider the Vaxxed screening.

 "While it is true that we documentary filmmakers constantly debate vexing questions about the perceived and real differences between our work and the work of traditional journalism, I assure you that we are not debating whether it is okay to knowingly spread dangerous lies," Lane wrote of Wakefield. "In other words: issues around truth and ethics in documentary can get thorny. But this one should have been easy. The anti-vaccination hoax has been completely discredited by now. This film is not some sort of disinterested investigation into the 'vaccines cause autism' hoax; this film is 'directed by the person who perpetuated the hoax.'"

 As of now, Vaxxed is scheduled to screen April 24th at the film festival. ||||| Mr. De Niro’s statement seemed to suggest that this was the first time he has expressed a preference that a particular film be shown at the festival.

 “Grace and I have a child with autism,” he wrote, referring to his wife, Grace Hightower De Niro, “and we believe it is critical that all of the issues surrounding the causes of autism be openly discussed and examined. In the 15 years since the Tribeca Film Festival was founded, I have never asked for a film to be screened or gotten involved in the programming. However this is very personal to me and my family and I want there to be a discussion, which is why we will be screening VAXXED.”

 Within hours his statement, posted on Facebook, generated hundreds of comments.

 The trailer for the film, filled with dramatic music, opens with the words “Are Our Children Safe?” on a black screen with billowing smoke that appears to be coming from a syringe. The trailer includes the suggestion that a “whistle-blower” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would say that the organization “had committed fraud” and “that they knew that vaccines were actually causing autism.” Mr. Wakefield appears in the trailer saying, “Wow, the C.D.C. had known all along there was this M.M.R. autism risk.” ||||| The Tribeca Film Festival is facing serious backlash for including anti-vaccination documentary “Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe” from doctor-turned-documentarian Andrew Wakefield into its 2016 lineup.

 Wakefield is a fervent believer in the link between vaccination and autism. He has also been the subject of many controversies, including being accused of professional misconduct and falsifying information as early as 1998 in one of his research papers. Wakefield’s bio on the festival’s page for the documentary mentions the research paper and study but not that it was later discredited.

 Many called for a response about the festival’s decision. Robert DeNiro, co-founder of the Tribeca Film Festival, defended the choice to include the film, even though he doesn’t endorse the content.

 “Grace and I have a child with autism and we believe it is critical that all of the issues surrounding the causes of autism be openly discussed and examined. In the 15 years since the Tribeca Film Festival was founded, I have never asked for a film to be screened or gotten involved in the programming. However this is very personal to me and my family and I want there to be a discussion, which is why we will be screening VAXXED. I am not personally endorsing the film, nor am I anti-vaccination; I am only providing the opportunity for a conversation around the issue.”

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 His statement spurred more negative reactions on Twitter, many questioning his decision to include such a controversial film if he in fact doesn’t support the anti-vaccination movement.

 Including the film has prompted some to categorized the festival’s decision as “irresponsible” and called out the film for being “dishonest” and “one-sided” in its message.

 According to the Centers for Disease Control, there is no link between vaccination and Autism Spectrum Disorders.

 Bob Wright, co-founder of Autism Speaks, in a statement on the org’s website says “vaccines are very important” and “parents must make the decision whether to vaccinate their children.”

 He adds that, “If parents decide not to vaccinate they must be aware of the consequences in their community and their local schools.”

 The film premieres on April 24 at the Tribeca Film Festival, which will include a conversation with the filmmakers after the screening. ||||| Vaxxed

 Tribeca Film Festival, I love you but you made a very serious mistake.

 On Monday, the widely discredited and dangerous anti-vaccination quack Andrew Wakefield tweeted: “Haven’t posted forever. Huge news tomorrow.”

 Perhaps he hadn’t “posted forever” because the media finally stopped giving him a megaphone. Perhaps once people in America and England began dying of measles, journalists finally realized that the “two sides to every story” approach granted Wakefield was literally killing people.

 Last I heard, Wakefield was headlining Conspira-Sea, a seven-day cruise where passengers learn about crop circles, chemtrails, yogic flying, ESP and astrology. Good, I thought, that’s where he belongs.

 Well, not so fast. It seems the quack is back. Wakefield’s “huge news” is that he is now a documentary film director, and that his new film Vaxxed: From Cover-up to Catastrophe will premiere at the prestigious Tribeca Film Festival this April.

 Your film festival guide suggests that if I’m interested in Vaxxed, I might also be interested in the category of “documentaries.” Well, as a documentary filmmaker who spent eight years making a film about a quack: yes, Tribeca Film Festival, I am very interested in both your choice to screen Vaxxed and in the field of documentary film.

 I have always admired Tribeca’s ambitious and broad documentary programming. I first saw (T)ERROR there, and The Genius of Marian, and Tomorrow We Disappear, and Thank You For Playing, and Give Up Tomorrow, and Let The Fire Burn – and so many other excellent films. And this is what makes your decision all the more pernicious: audiences have come to expect excellence from your documentary programming.

 When The Los Angeles Times contacted you for comment, they received this response: “Tribeca, as most film festivals, is about dialogue and discussion. Over the years we have presented many films from opposing sides of an issue. We are a forum, not a judge.”

 Here is the problem with your statement: it assumes that Vaxxed is just like any other film taking on an unpopular, controversial or provocative subject. It is not. There is a big difference between advocacy and fraud, between point of view and deception. For you to claim there is no difference helps to perpetuate Wakefield’s fraud.

 Also, it is disingenuous for you to claim you are not a “judge.” You are literally judging when you choose a film, from thousands of submissions, to screen under your banner.

 A lot of people, including those who buy tickets to see docs at your festival, believe documentary film has become a new and important form of news. But journalists are expected to tell the truth — or at least not knowingly spread dangerous lies. Your choice to include Vaxxed in your documentary lineup — a lineup including films about abortion, Syrian refugees, solitary confinement, the American electoral system, in-vitro fertilization and drone warfare — suggests that you think documentary filmmakers can’t be held even to the latter standard. This threatens the credibility of not just the other filmmakers in your doc slate, but the field in general.

 So yes, I take this personally.

 While it is true that we documentary filmmakers constantly debate vexing questions about the perceived and real differences between our work and the work of traditional journalism, I assure you that we are not debating whether it is okay to knowingly spread dangerous lies.

 Consider how many lies there are in the first 30 seconds of the Vaxxed trailer. Wakefield’s cinematic disregard of the truth means his film should not be called a documentary any more than Loose Change is.

 In other words: issues around truth and ethics in documentary can get thorny. But this one is easy. This film is not some sort of disinterested investigation into the “vaccines cause autism” hoax; this film is directed by the person who perpetuated the hoax.

 And this hoax isn’t cute, or fun, or thought-provoking. Very possibly, some people will walk away from your festival having been convinced, in part because of your good name and the excellence and integrity of your documentary programming, not to vaccinate their children. And very possibly people will die as a result.

 There’s no shame in having been taken in by quack – the reason I made NUTS! is that I wanted to explore just how easy it is to fall for a quack, especially one cloaked in the authority of a documentary film.

 I believe you were fooled in just this way: taken in by an apparently legitimate “documentary” film, a film which unethically used the tools of my trade toward bad ends. I believe you made a very serious (if human) mistake. But it’s not too late to fix it. You can still apologize for your error and cancel the screening.

 I know that some people will say I’m advocating censorship when I say this. I appreciate that concern. The last thing I would want is for festivals to stop being bold, independent tastemakers afraid of controversy. And I would never suggest banning the film is some global sense (as if that were even possible!).

 But the problem is not that Vaxxed is controversial, or even that it’s deceptive. Honestly, I consider a large number of well-made, popular documentary films fairly deceptive. The problem is that it is dangerous misinformation being legitimized under the banner of your considerable prestige.

 Penny Lane (Our Nixon) is a two-time grantee of the Tribeca Film Institute whose most recent film, NUTS! (concerning an infamous, evil quack who was still considerably funnier and nicer than Andrew Wakefield) recently won a special jury award for editing at Sundance and opens at Film Forum on June 22.

 3/31/16, CORRECTION: An earlier version of this post included an incorrect link to support Ms. Lane’s statement that “people in the America and England began dying of measles.” The link has been updated to reflect her source for this information. |||||


– A Pennsylvania man has agreed to plead guilty to hacking into email and online accounts of several female celebrities and stealing private information including nude photos and videos, the AP reports. The US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles announced Tuesday that Ryan Collins of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of gaining unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information. Prosecutors say the 36-year-old was charged as part of an investigation into the posting of nude photos of numerous celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence and model Kate Upton, but the he is not suspected of being involved in releasing those images. Per NBC News, Collins got victims' usernames and passwords for Apple and Google accounts by sending them fake emails that claimed to be from Apple or Google; once in, he grabbed information including nude photos. Prosecutors stated they do not have any evidence Collins posted any of the images he stole from more than 100 Google and Apple accounts, but his is the first arrest connected to the 2014 hack, which affected at least 50 iCloud accounts and 72 Gmail accounts. Prosecutors will recommend an 18-month sentence.

Expand this summary.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Pennsylvania man has agreed to plead guilty to hacking into email and online accounts of several female celebrities and stealing private information including nude photos and videos.

 The U.S. Attorney's Office in Los Angeles announced Tuesday that Ryan Collins of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, has agreed to plead guilty to one count of gaining unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information.

 Prosecutors say the 36-year-old was charged as part of an investigation into the posting of nude photos of numerous celebrities, including Jennifer Lawrence and model Kate Upton, but the he is not suspected of being involved in releasing those images.

 Prosecutors stated they do not have any evidence Collins posted any of the images he stole from more than 100 Google and Apple accounts. ||||| Breaking News Emails Get breaking news alerts and special reports. The news and stories that matter, delivered weekday mornings.

 / Updated By Andrew Blankstein

 A Pennsylvania man has been charged in the hacking of Apple and Google accounts belonging to more than 100 people, many of them celebrities, officials said on Tuesday.

 Between Nov. 2012 and Sept. 2014, Ryan Collins, 36, sent fake emails that purported to be from Apple or Google, and got victims to unknowingly hand over their usernames and passwords, the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California said.

 He then used that information to get into their email accounts, swiping nude photos in some instances, and sometimes downloading full backups from Apple’s iCloud, prosecutors said in a charging document filed Tuesday.

 Police began probing an apparent iCloud hack that resulted in leaked nude photos of Jennifer Lawrence and other celebrities, mostly women, in September of 2014.

 Collins, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, was charged in Los Angeles with violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and has agreed to plead guilty to one count of unauthorized access to a protected computer to obtain information, prosecutors said.

 The charge carries a maximum of five years in prison, but prosecutors will recommend a sentence of 18 months, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

 There’s an ongoing investigation into the hacking itself, as well as into the posting of the photos. There has not been any evidence that Collins himself posted any of the photos, or that he was directly involved in leaking them, officials said on Tuesday.

 Collins case will be transferred to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. This is the first arrest in connection with the security breach. At least 50 iCloud accounts and 72 Gmail accounts were compromised, officials said.

 "By illegally accessing intimate details of his victims' personal lives, Mr. Collins violated their privacy and left many to contend with lasting emotional distress, embarrassment and feelings of insecurity," David Bowdich, the Assistant Director in Charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles Field Office, said in a statement.

 "We continue to see both celebrities and victims from all walks of life suffer the consequences of this crime and strongly encourage users of Internet-connected devices to strengthen passwords and to be skeptical when replying to emails asking for personal information," he said. |||||