Suspect in Las Vegas Strip killings arrested in Los Angeles

  
          Ammar Harris

The suspect in last week's triple slaying on the Las Vegas Strip has been arrested in Los Angeles, the Clark County District Attorney's Office said on Thursday.

Ammar Harris, 26, was taken into custody in LA in connection with the shooting death of Oakland rapper Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr. aka Kenny Clutch, officials said.

Details about his arrest were not immediately available.  Las Vegas, reported that the suspect was hiding out in LA at a friend's home that a task force of officers had been watching.

Las Vegas police expect to have more information about the arrest at an afternoon press conference.

Police accuse the suspect of being the driver of a Range Rover from which gunfire erupted, killing the 27-year-old rapper.

Clutch died at the wheel of a Maserati.

The Maserati crashed into a taxicab which subsequently exploded, killing the driver and the 48-year old passenger.

 

Harris was identified by police as the lead suspect in the case.

Harris could be seen online boasting about the stacks of money that have come his way thanks to being a pimp, according to reports.

In one video, Harris "flashes a thick stack" of $100 bills.

In a Web posting, he boasts of the flock of women at his home, all of whom are working for him.

In another, he talks about the birthday party he is organizing on a boat in the Atlantic Ocean, replete with a $1,000 bikini contest.

Stephen Curry scores 54 points, hits 11 three-pointers in Madison Square Garden

 

 Warriors point guard Stephen Curry scored 54 points, joining an elite group of NBA players to top 50 at the famed Madison Square Garden.

But Curry's performance for the ages fell four points short as the Knicks hung on for a 109-105 win.
Curry obliterated his previous career-high (42) and became the 13th player to reach the 50-point plateau at the Garden. It's the most points scored in what's known as the Mecca of basketball since Michael Jordan scored 55 in 1995.
Curry was 18 of 28 shooting, including 11 of 13 from 3-point range. He also had seven assists and six rebounds.
Golden State needed a big game from Curry since All-Star David Lee was not in the lineup. Lee was suspended for one game for his role in the skirmish at Indiana on Tuesday, leaving the Warriors down two starters -- center Andrew Bogut missed his fourth straight game (back) -- and minus a major chunk of their offense.
Curry did all he could to fill the void. He scored 16 points in the fourth quarter as the Warriors (33-25) came ever-so-close to stealing a win over the Knicks (34-20).
With about five minutes left, he collected a loose ball and pushed it up court. Despite having a two-on-one advantage, Curry pulled up on the fast break and drained a 25-footer, giving the Warriors a 100-99 lead.
But New York had an answer each time. Guard J.R. Smith, who had 26 points off the bench, answered with a 3-pointer at the 4:42 mark.
Curry

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put the Warriors back up 103-102 with another 3-pointer, sending a gasp through the Garden. Golden State had a chance to add to the lead, but Curry turned it over. That led to a 3-pointer from Carmelo Anthony, who had 35 points and eight assists, putting the Warriors down 105-103.A pair of Curry free throws tied the game at 105. But the Warriors came up empty their last three possessions, as Knicks guard Raymond Felton blocked Curry's pull-up, and guard Jarrett Jack and center Festus Ezeli committed turnovers.
The Warriors had 18 turnovers, giving them 70 so far on the road trip.
Anthony put the Knicks up four with a jumper. The Warriors had a chance to cut it to one, but Thompson missed two wide-open 3-pointers as the Knicks shamelessly double-teamed Curry.
Curry missed his first 3-pointer of the game and only had four points in the first quarter. But the Warriors' fourth-year guard went bananas in the second quarter, scoring 23 points.
It began innocuously with a driving finger roll at the 9:30 mark. Just 15 seconds later, he nailed his first 3-pointer, cutting the Knicks once-12-point lead to 32-28. It was part of a string where Curry scored 11 straight points for the Warriors.
His 3-pointer

Golden State Warriors guard Stephen Curry (C) drives between New York Knicks forward Kenyon Martin (3) and guard Pablo Prigioni (9) in the second quarter of their NBA basketball game at Madison Square Garden in New York, February 27, 2013.

at the 5:14 mark put Golden State ahead 40-37.
The Warriors trailed 58-55 at the half. Curry had 27 points, giving him 50 first-half points over the last two games.
On his first shot of the second half, Curry showed he was still feeling, drilling a 3-pointer to cut the Knicks' lead to 61-60. Not two minutes later, he dropped in another 3-pointer then converted a driving layup to give the Warriors a 67-65 lead.
With the time winding down in the third, and the Knicks bringing help, Curry spun off a screen and drilled a 37-footer over the outstretched hands of Knicks big man Amar'e Stoudemire, sending chills through the Garden.
Through three quarters, he had 38 points on 13 of 21 shooting.
He capped the quarter by dribbling down some clock, spinning away from a defender and drilling pull-up 3-pointer from 27 feet over Amar'e Stoudemire. Golden State trailed 84-81 entering the fourth quarter.

Three killed, seven injured in Swiss factory shooting

 

 


A Swiss factory worker shot two colleagues dead and injured seven more on Wednesday at a wood processing plant near the city of Lucerne, police said.
The shooting was already over and the killer was dead by the time police arrived at the scene. Five of the injured were in a serious condition.
Lucerne police chief Daniel Bussmann told a news conference the 42-year-old attacker had worked at the factory in the town of Menznau, west of Lucerne, for 10 years, but said the motive for the attack was not clear.
A prosecution spokesman said the shooting took place over two to three minutes, with the dead and injured found on the factory floor, in a corridor and the site canteen.
Police did not immediately confirm how the gunman had died.
Mauro Caprozzo, chief executive of the wood processing company Kronoswiss, denied rumors that job cuts were due to be announced at the factory on Wednesday.
He said the killer was a quiet, unassuming character.
"One almost didn't see or notice him," Caprozzo said.
A gunman killed three women and injured two men last month in the Swiss village of Daillon, stirring a debate about Switzerland's firearm laws that allow men to keep guns after their mandatory military service.
There is no national gun register in Switzerland but some estimates indicate that at least one in every three of the country's 8 million inhabitants keeps a gun, many stored at home. Citizens outside the military can apply for a permit to purchase up to three weapons from the age of 18 in a country where sharp shooting and hunting are popular sports.
A shooting in the Zug regional parliament in 2001, in which 14 people were killed, prompted calls to tighten the law, but the majority of Swiss citizens rejected a proposal in 2011 for extra measures such as lock-ups for guns outside service periods.

 2 Police officers shot dead in California


 


 Two police detectives were shot and killed while investigating a sexual assault complaint, and a suspect was also fatally shot after a brief chase, authorities said.
The veteran officers, one male and one female, were shot around 3:30 p.m. as they went to a suspect's home to follow up on the case. Their deaths were confirmed by Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak.
A suspect was shot and killed a short time later while authorities were pursuing the gunman, the sheriff's office said.
After the officers were shot, nearby residents received an automatic police call warning them to stay locked inside. About half an hour later, more than a dozen semi-automatic shots echoed down the streets in a brief barrage of gunfire that killed the suspect.
Police Chief Kevin Vogel said Sgt. Loren Butch Baker, a 28-year veteran, and Detective Elizabeth Butler, a 10-year veteran, were shot and killed.
"There aren't words to describe this horrific tragedy," he said. "This is the darkest day in the history of the Santa Cruz police department."
The suspect who was killed in the shooting was identified as 35-year-old Jeremy Goulet, who was arrested Friday after a co-worker at a Santa Cruz coffee shop alleged he went to her house and made inappropriate sexual advances. The Santa Cruz Sentinel reported that he was fired the next day.
To investigate the complaint, the detectives went to the house where Goulet was living and an altercation ensued, leading to the officers being fired upon, authorities said.
The detectives called for backup and neighbors also summoned police. Responding officers located Goulet a short time later. The sheriff's office said he was killed in the gunfire that followed.

 After the shootings, police went door-to-door in the neighborhood, searching homes, garages, even closets to determine whether there might be additional suspects.
Police, sheriff's deputies and FBI agents filled intersections, some with guns drawn, in what is ordinarily a quiet, residential neighborhood in the community about 60 miles south of San Francisco.
A store clerk a few buildings away from the shooting said the barrage of gunfire was "terrifying."
"We ducked. We have big desks so under the desks we went," said the clerk, who spoke on condition of anonymity and asked that her store not be identified because she feared for her safety.
Two schools were locked down during the shooting. The students were later evacuated by bus to the County Government Center about half a mile away.
As darkness fell, helicopters and light aircraft patrolled above the neighborhood, which is about a mile from downtown Santa Cruz and the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. The campus of University of California, Santa Cruz, is about five miles away.
The city's mayor, Hilary Bryant, said in a statement that the city was shocked over the shootings.
"Tonight we are heartbroken at the loss of two of our finest police officers who were killed in the line of duty, protecting the community we love," the statement said. "This is an exceptionally shocking and sad day for Santa Cruz and our Police Department."
Goulet worked as a barista at a coffee shop in the Santa Cruz harbor. He was convicted in Portland, Ore., in May 2008 of peeping at a 22-year-old woman who was showering in her condominium and of carrying concealed weapon, according to a Portland newspaper, The Oregonian. He was put on probation but, after a dispute with his probation officer, was sentenced to two years in jail.
The violence comes amid a recent spate of assaults in the city, which community leaders had planned to address in a downtown rally scheduled for Tuesday. That, along with a city council meeting, was canceled after teary-eyed city leaders learned of the deaths.
Those shootings include the killing of a 32-year-old martial arts instructor who was shot outside a popular downtown bar and restaurant; the robbery of a UC Santa Cruz student who was shot in the head; a 21-year-old woman who was raped and beaten on the UC Santa Cruz campus; and a couple who fought off two men during a home invasion.

Alexandria officer shot in head, fighting for life


 

 An Alexandria motorcycle officer was shot in the head and was fighting for his life in a Washington hospital Wednesday evening.
Alexandria police said 17-year veteran officer Peter Laboy was injured several times including a gunshot wound to his head, which is his most severe injury. He endured a multi-hour surgery and was now recuperating in the ICU at Medstar Washington Hospital Center, Chief Earl Cook said during an evening news conference outside the hospital.
Laboy remains in critical condition.
Cook called the shooting a "horrific event."
"This is an exceptionally shocking day for Alexandria and its police department," Cook said. "I really cannot speculate on the prognosis ... I do know he's in critical condition. And our prayers and the care here, we're hoping, will help save his life."
Police have arrested Kashif Bashir, 27, of Woodbridge, the driver of a yellow cab that fled police after Laboy was shot. Bashir faces charges of malicious wounding of a law enforcement officer and use of a firearm in the commission of a felony.
Investigators have not determined a motive for the shooting. Police recovered a firearm at the scene in Old Town Alexandria but investigators don't know yet whether it was the gun used in the shooting.
Police haven't yet pieced together what happened when Laboy approached Bashir and want to speak with witnesses who may have seen the shooting, Cook said.
"It will take days, if not weeks, for us to completely put together what has happened in this incident," Cook said.
Police said several bystanders called to report the shooting and that Laboy did not communicate that he had been shot. He did not return fire, police said.
Other officers arrived soon after and spotted a yellow cab that was tied to the reported shooting, which led to the chase into Fairfax County.
"Peter is kind of a cop's cop," Cook told reporters. "He loved the job, he worked diligently."
UPDATE: Wednesday - 2/27/2013, 5:55pm ET -
ALEXANDRIA , Va. - An Alexandria cop who was critically wounded in a midday shooting was wearing a bullet resistant vest at the time and has been a police officer for 17 years.
The 45-year-old officer was still in surgery late Wednesday afternoon. He was shot around noon in Old Town Alexandria.
Investigators have not released the officer's name. He has been a motorcycle officer for six years.
Police continue to question the driver of the yellow cab that fled the shooting scene. The driver was the only person in the cab, police say.
Police have scheduled a 7 p.m. press conference to discuss the shooting investigation.
EARLIER: Wednesday - 2/27/2013, 5:35pm ET -
ALEXANDRIA, Va. - An Alexandria motorcycle officer is in critical condition after he was shot by someone in a yellow taxi in Old Town Wednesday afternoon.
Alexandria police say the officer, whose name has not been released, stopped the taxi for a minor offense near Washington and Wilkes streets just before noon. But the encounter quickly turned violent and the officer was shot in the upper body.
The yellow cab then led other police officers on a chase that ended in Fairfax County when the cab hit a white Mercedes Benz at Fort Hunt Road and Belle View Boulevard, police say.
The Mercedes was traveling in the opposite direction on a steep curve. Neither the cab driver nor the driver of the Mercedes was seriously injured, police say.
Police arrested the taxi driver. His name was not released and it is unclear what charges he may face or if he was the shooter.
The officer was flown to Medstar Washington Hospital Center with life-threatening injuries, police say

 Alex Smith traded to Kansas City Chiefs

 

  
In his last 26 regular-season starts, Alex Smith had 32 touchdown passes and 10 interceptions.


Alex Smith quietly stayed behind the scenes after losing his job and watched from the sideline as San Francisco returned to the Super Bowl for the first time in 18 years. Yet the No. 1 overall draft pick from 2005 did make one thing known: The veteran quarterback still considers himself a starter.
And he hoped to get that chance again. Now, he appears to have it.
The Kansas City Chiefs have agreed to acquire Smith from the 49ers in the first major acquisition since Andy Reid took over as the team's new coach in early January, a person with knowledge of the trade told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
The person spoke on condition of anonymity because the deal cannot become official until March 12, when the NFL's new business year begins. Another person familiar with the swap said the 49ers will get a second-round pick in April's draft, No. 34 overall, and a conditional pick in the 2014 draft.
After spending his first eight up-and-down years with the 49ers, Smith will get a welcome new start. The Chiefs will get the proven play-caller they hope can help turn things around under a new coach much the way Smith did under Jim Harbaugh in San Francisco.
"You never know when your opportunity's going to come," Smith said late in the season. "The good ones are ready when they do come."
The Chiefs have gone this route before, acquiring Joe Montana from the 49ers nearly 20 years ago, in April 1993, after he won four Super Bowls but gave way to Steve Young — San Francisco's quarterback of the future.
Not so different from Smith's situation last season behind second-year QB Colin Kaepernick.
Moving Smith was hardly unexpected. He realized it once Kaepernick emerged as a capable starter over the season's final two months, and Smith all but said goodbye with his first pro team when he played briefly in the regular-season finale against Arizona to cheers of "Let's Go, Alex!" and "Alex! Alex!" from the Candlestick Park crowd.
With Smith now headed for Kansas City, Matt Cassel is likely headed out of town. And Reid will enter his first draft as Chiefs coach in April no longer needing to search for a quarterback.
The Chiefs' problems at quarterback are the single biggest reason they went 2-14 last season and secured the No. 1 pick in the draft for the first time in franchise history.
It's been a long-running problem for a franchise that has tried Steve Bono and Elvis Grbac (two more one-time 49ers), and more recently Damon Huard, Tyler Thigpen and Tyler Palko at quarterback. And then there's Cassel.
He was acquired by recently fired general manager Scott Pioli, and has two years left on a $63 million, six-year deal. He will likely be cut once Smith is acquired.
Cassel was benched last season in favor of Brady Quinn, who also is a free agent after going 1-7 as the starter.
If Smith can bring the steady form that defined his last two years, the Chiefs might be able to establish a much-needed consistency under center. They also found themselves a team-first player who led the 49ers through workouts during the 2011 lockout.
Under the three-year contract he signed last March, Smith is guaranteed $8.5 million in base salary for the 2013 season.
Smith thrived under 49ers coach and former NFL quarterback Harbaugh in one-plus season as the starter. Then, just like that, it all changed after he sustained a concussion.
Last week at the NFL combine, Harbaugh praised Smith and reiterated just how strong San Francisco was with Colin Kaepernick as the starter and someone with Smith's credentials at backup.
Yet everyone knew it was likely the 49ers would do their best to improve Smith's situation considering all he did for the franchise for nearly the past decade.
"Alex is really playing the best football of his career the last two years," Harbaugh said. "We think we got the best quarterback situation in the National Football League, feel strongly about that. Again, that'll be a process that plays out. Alex Smith continuing to be a 49er or if a trade occurs in the next weeks or months. Those are the two possibilities, most likely possibilities."
Smith acknowledged when he lost the job to Kaepernick back in November that he had done nothing wrong but get hurt. Not only had he completed 26 of his previous 28 passes — 18 of 19 for 232 yards and three touchdowns without an interception and a 157.1 passer rating in a Monday Night Football win at Arizona on Oct. 29 — Smith had just earned NFC Offensive Player of the Week honors after that victory in the desert.
He then sustained a concussion in the second quarter of a 24-24 tie against St. Louis on Nov. 11 — saying later he threw a touchdown pass with blurry vision. Smith sat out the next game as Kaepernick dazzled in his debut as an NFL starter, beating the Bears handily at home on Monday Night Football.
After that, Harbaugh vowed to stick with the "hot hand," as he regularly put it, while complicating matters by still referring to Smith as a starter.
Smith's most poignant response to the situation was, "I feel like the only thing I did to lose my job was get a concussion."
Kaepernick led the 49ers to the NFC championship and a 34-31 loss to Baltimore in the Super Bowl in his second season. Now the 49ers are looking for his backup.
The 28-year-old Smith struggled for most of his career in San Francisco, plagued as much by coaching and constant coordinator changes as by his own indecisiveness. But when Harbaugh became coach in January 2011, Smith blossomed under the former QB's guidance. He was among the league leaders in passer rating (104.1) with a 70.2 completion percentage when he got hurt last season.
Fox Sports first reported the deal Wednesday.

Grandmother kills two boys, herself after picking them up from daycare, police say

  

 Debra Dennison

 A grandmother who was supposed to take her two grandsons from daycare to their birthday party at home instead killed the boys and herself, Connecticut state police said.

All three bodies were found in a car Tuesday evening, two hours after an Amber Alert went out for the 2-year-old and 6-month-old. Police have classified the case as a double murder-suicide and said all three had apparent gunshot wounds, according to state police.

The last time Ashton, 2, and 6-month-old Alton Perry had been seen alive was around 2:30 p.m. in North Stonington, when their grandmother, Debra Denison, picked them up from daycare, according to state police.

The boys' mother, Brenda Perry, called state police around 4 p.m., when she could not find her sons and their grandmother, state police said.She said she wanted the little boys to leave daycare early because it was Alton's birthday and they were supposed to open his presents. But the little boys and their grandmother never arrived for the party. "I wanted him to come home and play with his new toys and have a good day," Brenda Perry said.An Amber Alert was issued around 7:30 p.m., according to state police, soon after a family member found a suicide note Denison had left behind.Police said Denison suffered from mental illness. Brenda and her husband, Jeremy Perry,  that Denison had a gun and suffered from split personalities.Around 9:30 p.m., two hours after the alert was issued, state police received the call that would reveal the tragic end to the Amber Alert.A caller said a suspicious vehicle was parked near Lake of Isle in Preston and three injured people were inside the car. Two of them appeared to be children.Troopers and EMS responded, located the vehicle and a revolver and found Denison and her two grandsons. They were pronounced dead at the scene.

The state police are investigating and the Office of the Chief States Medical Examiner will determine the cause and manner of death.

 Planet of sound: Meteor blast resonated around Earth


 
Meteor that blow a chunk into the frozen lake in Russia

The meteor that exploded over the steppes of southwestern Russia sent a low-frequency rumble bouncing through the Earth, giving scientists new clues about the biggest cosmic intruder in a century.

The big boom over Chelyabinsk on February 15 also produced a wave of sound thousands of times lower than a piano's middle C -- far below the range of human hearing, according to the international agency that watches for nuclear bomb tests. The Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization said that sound wave showed up on sensors from Greenland to Antarctica, making it the largest ever detected by its network.

Scientists then used that wave to calculate the size of the small asteroid that plunged to Earth, said Margaret Campbell-Brown, an astronomer at Canada's University of Western Ontario.

The duration of the wave -- about 32 seconds -- let scientists estimate the energy of the blast at between 450 and 500 kilotons, the size of about 30 early nuclear bombs

From there, Brown said, they could calculate the size of the fireball; and using an estimate of the meteor's speed from the numerous dashboard and mobile-phone cameras that captured the scene, it was "first-year physics" to figure out the approximate size and weight, she said.

The latest estimate is that the Chelyabinsk meteor was about 56 feet (17 meters) across, weighed more than 700,000 tons and was moving about 18 kilometers per second (40,000 mph) when it blew apart, she said.

"In terms of things we have observed, this is the largest since Tunguska," Brown said, referring to the suspected meteor that flattened a Siberian forest in 1908.

The nuclear test monitors pick up "infrasound", or low frequency, waves from about 20 meteors a year -- "if conditions are right, perhaps as small as a pea," she said.

Russian authorities say more than 1,500 people were hurt, mostly by flying glass, when the Chelyabinsk meteor exploded in spectacular fashion. Amateur video footage showed a bright white streak moving rapidly across the sky before exploding with an even brighter flash and a deafening bang.

Bill Cooke, head of NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office, said scientists believe the object originated in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It was the Apollo group of asteroids, which circle the sun in oblong orbits, that occasionally cross Earth's.

Cooke said scientists expect to study the Chelyabinsk event for months. But the dozens of fragments that have been found so far point to a fairly common, stony asteroid with traces of nickel and iron.

"The composition is not at all unusual as far as meteorites go," he said. "It was just very big."

Police say woman, 22, is "person of interest" in Vegas shooting

 
Tineesha seen here with alleged shooter of Kenneth Cherry Jr.
 
Police identified a 22-year-old woman on Tuesday as a "person of interest" in the slaying of an aspiring rapper who was shot and killed while driving his Maserati on the Las Vegas strip and for the deaths of two more people in a fiery crash that ensued.

Las Vegas police said Tineesha Lashun Howard was riding in a black Range Rover with prime suspect Ammar Harris when he opened fire on the Maserati being driven by 27-year-old Kenneth Wayne Cherry Jr. before dawn on Thursday.

Cherry, who performed under the name "Kenny Clutch," was mortally wounded and his silver sports car veered out of control, colliding with a taxicab in an intersection at the heart of the strip, near several casino resort hotels.
Harris, 26, has been the subject of a multistate manhunt since the incident, and police say he has a long criminal history that includes arrests for robbery, sexual assault, kidnapping and soliciting prostitution.
Police believe Harris is "involved in the sex trade," said Las Vegas Metropolitan Police spokesman Officer Bill Cassell.
Harris is described as having several tattoos, including a large black-eyed owl on his neck and small heart on his upper right cheek.
Police officials described Howard as a "missing and possibly endangered individual" from the Miami area.

"She's listed as a missing person," Cassell said. "How she went missing is part of the Miami Police Department's investigation."

Several photos released by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department showed Howard and Harris together in each others' arms. In one of them they are seen riding in a sport utility vehicle, possibly the Range Rover.

The Range Rover used in the shooting, which bore paper dealer plates, has been impounded by police, but officials have not said where they found the luxury sport utility vehicle. No weapons were recovered from inside.

Earlier on Tuesday, Las Vegas taxicab companies pledged $35,000 toward a reward fund for information leading to the arrest and conviction of Harris.

Authorities say the dramatic shooting in a busy intersection of the desert resort city may have stemmed from a verbal altercation in the valet area of the Aria Resort and Casino a few blocks away on the Strip.
The incident took place less than a mile from where rapper Tupac Shakur was fatally shot in September 1996 while riding in a BMW with Death Row Records co-founder Marion "Suge" Knight after the two men had attended a Mike Tyson boxing match.
Shakur, 25, was hit by gunfire from at least one assailant in a Cadillac while sitting in Knight's car at the intersection of Flamingo Road and Koval Lane and died six days later at a hospital. His murder remains unsolved.

Young Rapper Lil Poopy

 9-year-old rapper's adult-themed videos prompt state probe


 

 Lil Poopy In his Viral Music Video On YouTube



A 9-year-old rapper's adult-themed music videos are finding some new viewers -- Massachusetts child welfare authorities.

The child, Luie Rivera Jr., whose stage name is "Lil Poopy," is seen in videos posted online, including on YouTube, smacking a woman's backside, flashing wads of cash, riding in a Ferrari and rapping about how "coke is not a bad word."

A separate video shows the young performer in a nightclub with a dancing woman in a sexually suggestive position, with people in the crowd throwing cash.

The Brockton, Massachusetts, police department contacted the state's Department of Children and Families after receiving a call from a "concerned citizen" who saw the boy in videos featuring sexual themes and drug references. The state agency is brought in when there is suspicion of physical, mental, or emotional abuse of a child, according to Brockton police Lt. Robert Sergio.

"An investigation is now open," said Cayenne Isaksen, public affairs director for the state agency. Isaksen would not discuss details about the investigation, but added that non-emergency investigations typically take no longer than 15 days.

Lil Poopy is a member of internationally known, Moroccan-born rapper French Montana's group, Coke Boys.

According to WCVB, Luis Rivera, Lil Poopy's father, says his son is "not doing anything wrong," and that he planned on contacting his lawyer.

media has  been unable to independently reach the elder Rivera.

Sergio said Monday that no court orders are in place and no criminal charges have been filed.

What Tom Brady's New Contract Means for the New England Patriots

 

 

This is what Patriots fans are doing right now.
Jared Wickerham/Getty Images

Patriots quarterback Tom Brady is one step closer to retiring with the team that drafted him. 
According to Peter King of Sports Illustrated, the 13-year veteran has signed a three-year contract extension that will take him through the year 2017. 
Not only that, but the Patriots have ensured that Brady will play for well under market value over the next five years. Per King:

After the Patriots move money around to lessen the blow of Brady's money in a flat-cap era [...] here will be Brady's cap numbers over the next five seasons, according to a source with knowledge of the contract:
2013: $13.8 million.
2014: $14.8 million.
2015: $13 million.
2016: $14 million.
2017: $15 million.
The Patriots can do this by guaranteeing his salaries for the next three and giving him much of the money in a chunk of a bonus right now. That, the source with knowledge of the contract said, is what the Patriots intend to do.

Of course, all this doesn't come without a price. Brady's contract is guaranteed all the way through 2017. Every dollar. Basically, the Patriots are betting on Brady until he's 40 years old.
It's a win-win, though, because it allows Brady and the Patriots to be competitive for years to come.
In the short term, this frees up a good chunk of change for the Patriots. Brady was scheduled to have the top cap hit in the NFL at $21.8 million against the salary cap this year (via Spotrac), but the new deal will take $8 million off his hit for 2013 and $7 million off his hit for 2014.
This, in turn, affords the Patriots some much-needed flexibility with regards to the salary cap. They had $18.5 million in space before his restructure—hardly a pittance, but dwarfed by what will now be close to $27 million.
The next immediate priorities should be determining what this means for the futures of New England's key free agents, including wide receivers Wes Welker and Julian Edelman, cornerback Aqib Talib, right tackle Sebastian Vollmer and others.
The Patriots face a dilemma with Vollmer. They want him to play right tackle, but another team may be willing to pay him to play left tackle—and may be willing to overlook his injury history, to boot. The Patriots might be able to raise their potential offer to Vollmer with the extra cap room, but would they? And by how much? Dante Scarnecchia has been able to maximize talent on the offensive line, and the Patriots drafted Marcus Cannon in 2011.
There's no denying what Welker has meant to the offense, but his future remains murky as the two sides have been trying in vain to hammer out a deal for at least the past 14 months (the Patriots offered Welker an extension during the 2011 season). There are reasons to believe the offense would still work just fine without Welker, but with the extra money, maybe the Patriots can finally make it work financially.
Also, here's an interesting thought on Welker from Mike Loyko of NEPatriotsDraft.com:
Thus, it will be interesting to see what the future holds for Welker now that Brady's long-term future is secure.
Clearly, it helps New England out in the long term; Brady's average cap hit will be just $14.2 million, compared to Peyton Manning's $19.2 million average, Drew Brees' $20 million average and what could be even more than that for Joe Flacco if and when he signs his deal.
It also gives the Pats more time to find Brady's eventual heir. Who knows if backup quarterback Ryan Mallett will even be around in 2017?

If things go as planned (meaning as long as Brady doesn't get injured), we may never get a significant opportunity to see whether Mallett can be a viable NFL quarterback. He may develop a serious case of rust between now and then, anyway.

The smart play would be to draft a quarterback sometime around 2014 or 2015 and let him learn behind Brady for a few years before eventually assuming the mantle.
But before that happens, Brady will have a few more chances to put a capstone on his legacy with another Super Bowl—a legacy which surely won't be tainted at its end, as were the legacies of Brett Favre, Joe Namath and the like.
So many quarterbacks have dragged out their careers by heading to new teams. Barring a dramatic turn of events, Brady is going to retire a Patriot. That is, unless he doesn't retire at the end of this contract.

Two adults, two children missing after abandoning sailboat off California coast

 

 The search resumed on Monday for two adults and two children who called for help on their sinking sailboat about 65 miles off Monterey on Sunday.

A Coast Guard helicopter took off about 6:45 a.m. to look again for the four, including two children under 8, who reported their sailboat was sinking about 4:20 p.m. Sunday, according to Coast Guard Lt. Heather Lampert. She added that the boaters said their 29-foot sailboat was taking on water and their electronics were failing, and their boat may be called the Charmblow.

The four were originally thought to have gone missing off Half Moon Bay and are believed to be traveling south based on the flow of the current, Coast Guard officials said.

An hour later, the group reported that they were abandoning their boat. They didn't have life rafts so they were trying to make one out of a cooler and life preserver ring, Lampert said. It's unknown if they had life jackets The Coast Guard then lost radio contact with the group.The National Weather Service had issued an advisory throughout the weekend warning boaters of strong winds and rough seas around the Bay Area.Mariners "operating smaller vessels should avoid navigating in these conditions," the advisory said.A search overnight, which included crews from the California Air National Guard, and Coast Guardsmen aboard a 210-foot cutter, yielded no results.

Here are the happiest, saddest and 'most miserable' U.S. cities

 

 "Most miserable" U.S. cities1. Detroit
2. Flint, Mich.
3. Rockford, Ill.
4. Chicago
5. Modesto, Calif.
6. Vallejo, Calif.
7. Warren, Mich.
8. Stockton, Calif.
9. Lake County, Ill.
10. New York
11. Toledo, Ohio
12. St. Louis
13. Camden, N.J.
14. Milwaukee
15. Atlantic City, N.J.
16. Atlanta
17. Cleveland
18. Poughkeepsie, N.Y.
19. Gary, Ind.
20. Youngstown, Ohio
Source: Forbes magazine

Happiest U.S. cities1. Napa, Calif.
2. Idaho Falls, Idaho
3. Longmont, Colo.
4. Mission Viejo, Calif.
5. Simi Valley, Calif.
6. Santa Rosa, Calif.
7. Santa Cruz, Calif.
8 Lafayette, Colo.
9. Asheville, N.C.
10. Boulder, Colo.
Source: University of Vermont Computation Story Lab

Saddest U.S. cities1. Beaumont, Texas
2. Albany, Ga.
3. Texas City, Texas
4. Shreveport, La.
5. Monroe, La.
6. Flint, Mich.
7. Memphis, Tenn.
8. Battle Creek, Mich.
9. Lima, Ohio
10. Houma, La.

 Tabasco CEO Paul McIlhenny dies


 
 Tabasco sauce is bottled and labeled at the McIlhenny Co. on Avery Island, Louisiana

Paul McIlhenny, the chairman and chief executive of the company that makes Tabasco sauce, has died. He was 68.

McIlhenny Company, based in Avery Island, Louisiana, said he died Saturday. The cause of death was not immediately clear.

"All of McIlhenny Company and the McIlhenny and Avery families are deeply saddened by this news," Tony Simmons, president of McIlhenny Company, said in a statement Sunday. "We will clearly miss Paul's devoted leadership but will more sorely feel the loss of his acumen, his charm and his irrepressible sense of humor."

McIlhenny was part of the sixth generation of his family to live on Avery Island and among the fourth generation to make Tabasco, the iconic hot pepper sauce.

He joined the 145-year-old company in 1967 and is credited with overseeing years of record growth in sales and earnings. He is also credited with introducing new flavors and products, and expanding where Tabasco brand products are sold.

McIlhenny attended the University of the South in Sewanee, Tennessee.

In 2006, he was Rex, the first King of Carnival after Hurricane Katrina.

Around that time, McIlhenny reportedly joked that if the subject of hot sauce came up, he'd say: "That's one form of global warming I'm totally in favor of."

"We're defending the world against bland food," he said, according to The Times-Picayune newspaper.

McIlhenny loved wing shooting, red fishing, wine tasting and game cooking.

He is survived by his wife, two daughters and four grandchildren.

Microsoft Hacked mirroring FaceBook break in

 Microsoft says small number of its computers hacked


 



Microsoft Corp said on Friday a small number of its computers, including some in its Mac software business unit, were infected with malware, but there was no evidence of customer data being affected and it is continuing its investigation.
The world's largest software company said the security intrusion was "similar" to recent ones reported by Apple Inc and Facebook Inc.
The incident, reported on one of the company's public blogs happened "recently", but Microsoft said it chose not to make any statement publicly while it gathered information about the attack.
"This type of cyberattack is no surprise to Microsoft and other companies that must grapple with determined and persistent adversaries," said Matt Thomlinson, general manager of Trustworthy Computing Security at Microsoft, in the company's blog post.
Over the past week or so, both Apple and Facebook said computers used by employees were attacked after visiting a software developer website infected with malicious software.
The attacks come at a time of broader concern about computer security.
Newspaper websites, including those of The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal, have been infiltrated recently. Earlier this month U.S. President Barack Obama issued an executive order seeking better protection of the country's critical infrastructure from cyber attacks.

 

MC Hammer arrested in California

 
 Mc Hammer Mughsot


 
 Hammer at the height of his Fame in 1990


Rapper MC Hammer launched a string of tweets Saturday with his side of the story two days after he was arrested in northern California for allegedly obstructing an officer.

Among his tweets, Hammer said, apparently referring to the arresting officer, that he was asked whether he was on parole or probation before the man tried to pull him out of his vehicle Thursday night.

Police in Dublin, east of Oakland, said Hammer was in a vehicle with expired registration and he was not the registered owner.

"After asking Hammer who the registered owner was he became very argumentative and refused to answer the officer's questions," police spokesman Herb Walters wrote Saturday evening 

Hammer -- a rap and dance icon in the late 1980s and 1990s -- was arrested on suspicion of resisting an officer and obstructing an officer in the performance of his duties, according to police spokesman Herb Walters.

The incident occurred at the Hacienda Crossings shopping center.

Hammer began his tweets Saturday with "chubby elvis looking dude was tapping on my car window, I rolled down the window and he said 'Are you on parole or probation?'"

"While I was handing him my ID he reached in my car and tried to pull me out the car but forgot he was on a steady donut diet," Hammer continued. "It was comical to me until he pulled out his guns, blew his whistle and yelled for help (MallCop) !!! But make no mistake he's dangerous."

Hammer, 50, was booked and released on bail from Santa Rita Jail, Walters said. A court date is next month, and police have until that time to decide on any charges.

No drugs or alcohol were suspected in the incident, police said.

In another tweet, Hammer, born Stanley Kirk Burrell, said, "only thing more dangerous than a scared man with a gun, is a scared man with an agenda, a gun and a badge."

"I will now answer his question, contrary to his personal beliefs, all people of color are not on parole or probation fat boy!!!," wrote Hammer, later adding he thought of his arrest as "a teachable moment" and an "eye opener."

Hammer, who had a hit single in 1990 with "U Can't Touch This," has been enjoying a resurgence in his career and took the stage with "Gangnam Style" Korean performer Psy during the American Music Awards last November.

Hammer performed "Too Legit to Quit," which was released more than 20 years ago.

Hockey fans shown wearing KKK-style hoods to state semifinal

 
Officials are investigating a report that three high school hockey fans wore Ku Klux Klan-style hoods to a North Dakota state tournament semifinal game.
A college student attending Friday night's game between Davies High of Fargo and Red River High at Ralph Englestad Arena in Grand Forks posted a photo on Twitter of the three fans wearing the pointed white hoods.
I thought, 'Are those KKK hoods?' I couldn't believe it," said Shane Schuster, a 19-year-old who snapped a photo of the Red River fans with his cellphone's camera and then tweeted it. "I was shocked."
The tradition of wearing all white to a hockey game began in Winnipeg when Jets fans wore all white during a 1987 Stanley Cup first-round playoff game against the Calgary Flames. The tradition has spread to high school and college games.
The KKK, or Klan, is an organization that has used terrorist tactics to deny civil rights to people of color in promoting its white supremacy, anti-Semitism and anti-immigrant stands.
High school and tournament organizers were informed of the incident. Schuster said that by the second period, the hoods had been removed.
"After confirming the incident, we notified the administrators at Red River High School, who immediately began their investigation," Mark Rerick, Grand Forks Public Schools athletic director, said in a statement emailed to the Associated Press. "To the best of my knowledge, the students have been identified by the Red River administrators, who are continuing their investigation."
Davies High is named after Ronald Davies, a former federal judge from Fargo whose 1957 rulings helped integrate Central High in Little Rock, Ark., beginning a key period in the civil rights movement.
Red River won the game, 2-0, to advance to the state championship game against Grafton Park River.

Daytona 500 Crash

 Daytona 500 will run as scheduled despite fiery crash on same track
 

 



The Daytona 500 will take place as scheduled Sunday despite a jaw-dropping crash a day earlier that flung debris into the stands at the Daytona International Speedway.

At least 28 fans were injured, including two critically, when more than a dozen cars piled up in the final curve of the Nationwide Series Drive4COPD 300 in Daytona Beach, Florida, on Saturday. The Daytona 500 will run on the same track.

"First and foremost, our thoughts and prayers are with our race fans," the speedway said in a statement released Saturday. "We are in the process of repairing the facility, and we will be ready to go racing tomorrow."

Saturday's race had to be restarted after an earlier wreck put driver Michael Annett in the hospital with a bruised chest, according to Richard Petty Motorsports.

The second wreck occurred when several closely-packed cars were jostling for position at top speeds of about 175 mph. They got tangled up, setting off a dangerous chain reaction that ensnared a number of vehicles.

Reigning Sprint Cup champ Brad Keselowski Said he and others were simply "going for the win" -- was among those involved, while Tony Stewart somehow emerged unscathed and finished by winning the race.

Driver Kyle Larson's vehicle ended up flying into a fence that separates the track from spectators. It broke into pieces -- including tires and a fiery engine.

Larson walked away from the crash, even after the front part of his No. 32 car was completely gone. He and the other nine drivers involved told reporters that they were checked at a medical tent on the Daytona infield and released.

Some pieces of the shredded debris flew into the barrier, while others got into the stands -- some of it reaching the second level about 20 feet up.

A video posted on YouTube shows a cloud of debris flying into stands and one man gasping, "Oh, my God." A tire rests on one seat, as a man frantically waves and yells to get the attention of paramedics.

Afterward, several spectators could be seen lying down after apparently suffering injuries. A line of about 10 ambulances lined up on the track, with some first responders carrying stretchers.

Fourteen fans were treated at an on-site medical facility, while 14 others were transported to area hospitals, speedway president Joie Chitwood told reporters.

"I'm just hoping everyone is OK," said Keselowski. "As drivers, we assume the risk. But fans do not."

NASCAR president Mike Helton earlier told ESPN, which was broadcasting the race, some people were taken to Halifax Health Medical Center. He said the protective fence did its job in preventing potentially more injuries and possibly deaths.

Byron Cogdell, a spokesman for the hospital, Said that his facility was treating 12 patients. Two of those -- one of them a child -- are in critical but stable condition.

"Everybody appears to be in stable condition," Cogdell said.

Staff at Florida Hospital Memorial Medical Center were treating one person and expecting three more, spokeswoman Lindsay Rew said Saturday evening.

The injured include Eddie Huckaby, a 53-year-old Krum, Texas, resident who suffered a leg gash when a large piece of metal hit him as he was watching the race, his brother Terry Huckaby said He described the motor landing in the stands, as well as a wheel "and everything flying over your head and debris everywhere."

"He's doing fine," Terry Huckaby said of his brother, who underwent surgery at Halifax Health Medical Center. "The first thing he said, 'I don't want to miss that (Daytona 500) race, but I have to watch on TV.'"

Accidents are nothing new to NASCAR, where cars often cruise at speeds topping 190 mph, nor to the Daytona track. One of the sport's most horrific, and well-known, wrecks happened in the 2001 Daytona 500, when famed driver Dale Earnhardt Sr. was killed -- also, on that race's final lap.

Still, injuries and fatalities to spectators are much rarer.

With the stands having been quickly evacuated, crews worked to repair the damaged fence. Chitwood expressed confidence the 55th edition of the Daytona 500 would go on as planned, with spectators even sitting in the same seats struck by debris Saturday.

"With the fence being prepared tonight to our safety protocols, we expect to go racing tomorrow with no changes," Chitwood said.

Las Vegas Shooter Caught

 Police find Range Rover, ID suspect in Vegas shooting

 
 26 year old Amar Harris the alleged shooter
 
 Range Rover Of the shooter found in a Las Vegas Apartment complex

Police have found a black Range Rover SUV in Las Vegas and identified a suspect in a shooting that sent a Maserati into a taxi that exploded, killing three people.
Police Capt. Chris Jones tells The Associated Press the vehicle was found Saturday afternoon at an apartment complex east of the Las Vegas Strip. It has been impounded as evidence.
Jones says police are looking for 26-year-old Ammar Harris in connection with the shooting early Thursday on the Strip. His arrest history in Las Vegas includes charges of kidnapping and pandering.
Maserati driver and aspiring rapper Kenny Cherry was killed by gunfire.
Taxi driver Michael Boldon, of Las Vegas, and his passenger, Sandra Sutton-Wasmund of Maple Valley, Wash., died when the Maserati crashed into them.
Cherry, 27, was driving in his Maserati on the Vegas Strip when police say a shooter from a black Range Rover SUV peppered his car before it sped through a red light and smashed into a taxi, killing Michael Boldon, the taxi driver, and his passenger in the backseat.
The rapper would film online music videos on the Strip and post them online. In one song he raps, "One mistake change lives all in one night."
In this case, three lives were cut shot.
Boldon, the taxi driver, was described as a family man who hailed from Michigan. His passenger, Sandra Sutton-Wasmund, came from a loving Washington state family and was well regarded in her community.

'I want to make it clear that my son was no gangster or nothing like that'

- Kenny Cherry's father

As investigators Saturday tried to find the gunman in a black Range Rover SUV who triggered the shocking chain of events, families and friends tried to grasp the blink-of-an-eye finality of it all.
"Right now my heart is breaking," said Cherry's great aunt, Patricia Sims, of Oakland, Calif. "This has really been a tragedy. Kenny was just a delightful kid."
Sims, 75, said Cherry moved to Las Vegas from Northern California, though she didn't know her nephew was a rapper using the name Kenny Clutch.
Cherry's parents were traveling to Las Vegas on Friday to claim his body.
The taxi exploded into flames, killing Boldon and Sutton-Wasmund, as four other vehicles crashed like pinballs at an intersection overlooked by some of Las Vegas' most famous hotel-casinos: Bellagio, Caesars Palace, Bally's and the Flamingo.
Police think an argument at the valet area of the upscale Aria resort-casino led to the shooting, but they haven't shared details. The shooting happened the same night that Morocco-born rapper French Montana was playing at Aria's signature nightclub, Haze.
"What the original disagreement was is crucial to the ongoing investigation and the identification of the suspects," said Las Vegas police officer Bill Cassell.
Police said a passenger in the Maserati was wounded in the arm but was treated at a hospital and released. He was reported to be cooperating with investigators, and his name wasn't made public.
Cherry's father, Kenneth Cherry Sr., of Emeryville, Calif., said he was struggling to handle his grief.
He said his son started a music career in Oakland after attending two Catholic high schools. According to his father, Cherry was recognized by other rappers within a West Coast hip-hop strain called hyphy.
Cherry was not well-known in wider music circles, according to Chuck Creekmur, CEO of AllHipHop.com.
"I had never heard his name before," Creekmur said.
Kenny Clutch's YouTube music video, "Stay Schemin," shows scenes of hotels along the Strip as he sings about paying $120,000 for his Maserati.
Cherry Sr. said he didn't know how his son made money or if he had any other jobs.
"I want to make it clear that my son was no gangster or nothing like that," he told The Associated Press. "He moved to Vegas about six year ago and he was writing music and rap."
Court records show Cherry had no criminal cases or convictions in Las Vegas, and Cassell said there was no record of arrests.
The police spokesman wouldn't say whether investigators determined if Cherry owned, rented or borrowed the Maserati. Cassell called that information "integral to the investigation."
Meanwhile, Boldon's family struggled to cope with his death.
"It's very devastating for us, for my family," said Tehran Boldon, 50, younger brother of the 62-year-old taxi driver. "Our family has no history of violence or gang membership that would predict losing a family member to such an event."
Boldon's sister, Carolyn Jean Trimble, said Boldon was a father, a grandfather and a car enthusiast. He was one of five children born and raised in Michigan, where he took care of his ailing father, who fought cancer, before moving to Las Vegas to be with his 93-year-old mother.
Bolden had owned a clothing store in Detroit and worked at a car dealership, his sister said. He began driving taxis after moving to Las Vegas about 1 1/2 years ago.
Boldon loved watching IndyCar and NASCAR races and drove a Mercedes when he wasn't in a cab. An avid car enthusiast, he tried to persuade Trimble to buy a Bentley, she said.
"Everybody just loved him," the older sister said. "When that car hit that cab, Mike had to be in there talking and laughing."
The irony that a man with a taste for beautiful cars was killed by a sports car wasn't lost on Trimble.
"He would be tickled to death: `Damn, of all things, a Maserati hit me, took me out like that,"' she said. "I'm happy he didn't suffer."
The county medical examiner said both Boldon and his passenger, Sutton-Wasmund, died of blunt force injuries and that their deaths were being treated as homicides. The 48-year-old woman was from Maple Valley, Wash.
Sutton-Wasmund co-owned a dress shop called The Dazzled Dame and had been in Las Vegas attending a trade show with her partner in the shop, said Debbie Tvedt, the office manager for a Maple Valley plumbing company, All Service Plumbing, that Sutton-Wasmund started with her husband, James Wasmund.
"It's a big loss," Tvedt said tearfully in a telephone interview with The Associated Press Friday night. "This woman was everything to this community.
"Sandi was very, very, very active with the Maple Valley Chamber of Commerce and our entire community," she said.
The Maple Valley-Black Diamond Chamber of Commerce website said Sutton-Wasmund was a board member from 2004 to 2011 before becoming a marketing representative.
Tvedt said her friend was a mother of three -- a 17-year-old son, a 12-year-old daughter and an 11-year-old son.
"Sandi was a loving wife, mother, daughter and sister. Her innocent and tragic loss will be felt by all of those who knew and loved her and by the community at large," said a statement provided to KING-TV in Seattle on behalf of the woman's family.
A phone message left for James Wasmund was not immediately returned.
Besides Cherry's passenger, police said five people were treated for injuries after the six-vehicle crash. No one was said to face life-threatening injuries.
Jogger Eric Lackey snapped a cellphone photo of the blazing scene moments after the crash. Black smoke billowed from the flaming taxi, amid popping sounds from the fire.
The famously glowing, always-open Las Vegas Strip was closed for some 15 hours before reopening Thursday night. One Nevada Highway Patrol sergeant recalled a similarly long closure after the 1996 drive-by slaying of rapper Tupac Shakur.
That shooting -- involving assailants opening fire on Shakur's luxury sedan from a vehicle on Flamingo Road -- happened about a block away from Thursday's crash.
The Shakur killing has never been solved.

New Samsung 8-Inch Notebook

  It's official: Samsung's got a new 8-inch Note tablet



 
 The rumors you might've heard are true: Samsung's got a new 8-inch tablet, appropriately named the Galaxy Note 8.0, on the way.
The new tablet will sit between the 5.5-inch Galaxy Note 2 smartphone and the 10.1-inch Galaxy Note 10.1 tablet. It competes with Apple's 7.9-inch iPad Mini and Google's 7-inch Nexus 7.
Like the other devices in Samsung's Galaxy Note line, the Galaxy Note 8.0 will include the S Pen, which Samsung emphasizes is not merely a stylus. You can use the pressure-sensitive digital pen — which is powered by technology created by Wacom, the company behind professional-grade digital drawing tablets — to add notes, manipulate content on the screen, and even preview videos and emails by simply hovering it close to the Galaxy Note 8.0's screen.
The Galaxy Note 8.0 will run Android 4.1.2 (better known as Jellybean). Under the hood, it has a 1.6GHz quad-core processor, a 5 megapixel camera in the back, a 1.3 megapixel camera in the front, 2GB of RAM, and a microSD slot. The tablet's 8-inch display offers 1280x800 pixels, which breaks down to 189 pixels per inch (ppi). (In comparison, the iPad Mini and Nexus 7 have 163 ppi and 216 ppi displays, respectively.)

Those who were intrigued by the Galaxy Note 10.1's multi-app split-screen feature will likely jump for joy when they hear that it is included on the Galaxy Note 8.0 and that it now supports nearly any app — not just Samsung's included suite of tools. (This means that you can take notes while watching a video, type out emails while editing a spreadsheet on the side, scribble over a photo while checking out instructions in a document, and so on.)
The Galaxy Note 8.0 will come in 16GB and 32GB versions. No word yet on pricing details, but since we should see the tablet hit shelves in the second quarter of this year, it won't be too long before we find out how much Samsung wants for its latest gadget.

Drug Lord El Chapo Dead But Then Wasnt

How Mexican Drug Lord 'El Chapo' Guzmán Was Killed, and Then Wasn't

 


It seems that Mexican drug boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán is alive and well, and probably laughing at those thousands of Twitter users, as well as some government officials, who suggested on Thursday that he was dead.
The rumors of his demise started slowly on Thursday afternoon, as journalists in Guatemala and Mexico exchanged emails about an incident in the remote jungle region of El Peten that might have involved Guzmán.
News of the supposed death of El Chapo, which means "Shorty" in Spanish, spread like wildfire Thursday evening when the Interior Minister of Guatemala told journalists in that country that a firefight between drug dealers and Guatemalan military personnel had resulted in the death of two suspected criminals. The conflict took place in San Francisco, a small town located in the El Peten region, the official said.
"There was a clash between Guatemalan security forces in San Francisco," Interior Minister Mauricio Lopez said on Thursday. "Two died. One of them is physically very similar to El Chapo."
"We are not sure, but it could be him, " Lopez added, according to Guatemalan newspaper Prensa Libre. The newspaper also said at that point of the night, the government was getting ready to conduct forensics tests that would help identify the two corpses.
Later on the same night, however, Guatemalan officials said they weren't even sure that a gunfight with drug dealers had occurred. Officials also said that military units were patrolling the area where the clash reportedly happened, to see if they could find any signs of a battle between the army and drug traffickers.
On Monday morning, after no Chapo had been found, Lopez apologized for the government's blunder on local radio station Emisoras Unidas.
"We have no reports so far of a clash between [drug traffickers and] the police or the army," Lopez said on Emisoras Unidas, adding that helicopters were still inspecting the areas where the clash had reportedly occurred.
"I am sorry if there was a misunderstanding," he said.
According to Lopez, confusion over the incident arose because the Interior Ministry relied excessively on the testimonies of local villagers, who said that they had seen a clash between the army and drug traffickers.
He said that too many "contradictory" pieces of information came to government officials at once from the remote region, which is mostly covered by dense tropical jungle and dotted by tiny settlements of cattle ranchers.
Ioan Grillo, a journalist and seasoned drug war analyst, had another theory for the Guatemalan blunder.
"My reading of Chapo Guzman drama: a snitch called up and said Chapo died in firefight, Grillo tweeted. "Guatemala pleased with news tells before confirming."
Such blunders have happened in the past. Just last year, on the eve of Mexico's presidential elections, officials in that country claimed that they had caught El Chapo's son, Jesus Alfredo. But less than a week later Mexican prosecutors announced that the man in their possession was in fact a car salesman from Guadalajara.
With regards to this most recent case, there is some reason though to believe that El Chapo is in Guatemala.
Wikileaks cables released to the press on Thursday suggest that El Chapo is hiding in El Peten, where Mexican cartels have managed to gain a stronghold over drug trafficking routes.
These cables consist of emails written by staffers of Stratfor, a security consulting agency, based in Texas. Previously officials from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration have suggested that El Chapo hides in a mountain range in western Mexico, that straddles the states of Durango and Sinaloa.

Aspiring Rapper Gunned Down on Las Vegas Strip ending in the death of 3

Aspiring rapper among dead after shooting, fiery crash on Las Vegas Strip

An aspiring rapper was among three killed during a shooting and subsequent car crash that killed three and closed a block and a half of the Las Vegas Strip.

 

Kenneth Cherry Jr. -- known as Kenny Clutch -- was driving his Maserati on Thursday when someone in a black Range Rover Sport fired several shots at his car as it headed north on Las Vegas Boulevard.

The Maserati continued into the intersection of the boulevard and Flamingo Road and collided with a taxi, which caught fire, killing cab driver Michael Boldon, 62,  said.

"It is gut-wrenching," Boldon's brother, Tehran Boldon, tearfully told said "My life mission will be to see them punished and brought to justice for the senseless thing they did."

A passenger in the taxi also died. A passenger in the Maserati and three others were injured in the pileup, Sheriff Douglas Gillespie said.

The fire closed a block and a half of the Strip near some of its biggest draws: Caesars Palace, the Bellagio, Bally's and the Flamingo. Police collected surveillance video from the casinos.

Shooting on the Las Vegas strip

The shooting took place two blocks from where rapper Tupac Shakur was killed in 1996.

Cherry prominently features his Maserati in a music video on YouTube.

"Out of everyone I know in the rapping industry, there is no way I would have ever, ever expected to find that he was shot on the Las Vegas Strip in such an aggressive manner," said Vicki Greco, Cherry's attorney. "He didn't have a (criminal) record or a history. He was just a good kid trying to make it and be a good father."

Cherry had two children, she said.

"First time in Vegas, and then, like, the whole thing, what you know from movies only -- I was shocked," said Christine Gerstenberger, who was visiting from Germany.

Thursday's incident started about 4:20 a.m. with a dispute in the valet lot of the Aria hotel, about a block away, Gillespie said. Investigators haven't confirmed the cause of the altercation, but he said it spilled onto the street.

The Maserati's passenger and other witnesses are helping detectives piece together what happened, he said. The "top priority" for police is to find those who were inside the Range Rover, which sped away from the intersection.

"This act is totally unacceptable, and we are going to make a very clear message to these individuals in regards to that," Gillespie said.

Police in neighboring states have been asked to look for the SUV, and Gillespie warned the occupants should be considered armed and dangerous.

"Clearly, the suspects have no regard for the lives and safety of others," he said.

The Range Rover had an out-of-state dealer plate, tinted windows and large black rims, Las Vegas Police Sgt. John Sheahan said.

John Lamb, who was inside Caesars Palace, said he heard the commotion and saw the taxi on fire from a window.

"There was a loud bang, and I heard two other booms. I looked out my window at Caesars Palace ... and could see the fireball," he told news

Murder Hotel

Hotel with corpse in water tank has notorious past.

 

Los Angeles  -- The Cecil Hotel's dark past earned it a spot on Los Angeles tours long before a woman's body was found inside its rooftop water tank.

"It's the place where serial killers stay," said tour guide Richard Schave.

Schave and his wife, Kim Cooper, conduct a "true crime and oddities" tour they call "Hotel Horrors & Main Street Vice."

The new mystery surrounding Elisa Lam's death will be added to Cooper's spiel during the tour stops at the Cecil Hotel, she said.

Cooper and Schave have made it their job to compile details on those who have killed or been killed while staying at the Cecil.

The killers

The most famous on their list are serial killers Richard Ramirez and Jack Unterweger.

Photos: Body found in hotel water tank

Ramirez, known as the "Nightstalker," now resides on California's death row, but in 1985 he was living on the Cecil's top floor in a $14 a night room, Cooper said.

The Cecil, filled then with hundreds of transients living in the cheap rooms, was a good place for Ramirez to go unnoticed as he killed 13 women, Schave said. He was "just dumping his bloody clothes in the Dumpster at the end of his evening and going in the back entrance."

Jack Unterweger worked as a journalist covering Los Angeles crime for an Austrian magazine in 1991 when he moved into the Cecil.

"We believe he was living at the Cecil in homage to Ramirez," Schave said.

He is blamed with killing three prostitutes in Los Angeles while a guest at the Cecil.

The killed

During the 1950s and 1960s, the Cecil had a reputation as a place where people would kill themselves by jumping out upper-floor windows, Cooper said. "It's just what people do when they are at the end of their rope," she said.

Helen Gurnee, in her 50s, leaped from a seventh floor window, landing on the Cecil Hotel marquee on October 22, 1954, she said.

Julia Moore jumped from her eighth floor room window on February 11, 1962, she said. She left behind a bus ticket from St Louis, 59 cents and an Illinois bank account book showing a balance of $1,800. 

Pauline Otton, 27, jumped from a ninth floor window after an argument with her estranged husband on October 12, 1962, she said. Otton landed on George Gianinni, 65, who was walking on the sidewalk 90 feet below. Both were killed instantly.

Not everyone on Cooper's list committed suicide.

"Pigeon Goldie" Osgood, a retired telephone operator, was found dead in her ransacked room on June 4, 1964, Cooper said. Osgood, known for protecting and feeding the pigeons at nearby Pershing Square, was stabbed, strangled and raped. The crime has not been solved.

Not an ordinary hotel

Schave and Cooper have theories about why the Cecil's past has been so sordid.

It was built in the 1920s as a hotel "for businessmen to come into town and spend a night or two," Cooper said.

But it was soon upstaged by nicer hotels in a better part of town, she said. When the Great Depression hit in the 1930s, it became more of a transient hotel. Eventually, it transitioned into a single room occupancy business, known as an SRO. Long-term tenants rented individual rooms and shared bathrooms with neighboring residents.

"This was just a place where people who were really down on their luck were going," Schave said. "These hotels are filled with people who are at the edge of being integrated in society."

During the 1970s, '80s and '90s, hundreds of people who were "down on their luck" called the Cecil home, he said. "They were all hustling to make ends meet."

"It's not like that any more, of course," Cooper said.

New owners converted three of the floors back to hotel rooms around 2007, but most of the building remains SRO, Schave said.

Another section serves as a hostel that is marketed toward European tourists, he said

It was not clear if Lam was staying in one of the hotel rooms, which offer more privacy, or the hostel.