2020 OLYMPICS - Week 7/19 Roundup

For me it is confusing to have the '2020' Olympics in 2021, it's the delay of course.

"The American athletes to watch during the Tokyo Olympics" PBS NewsHour 7/19/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The opening ceremonies of the Olympic Games are just four days away.  But the specter of COVID hangs over the games as more than 50 people involved, including athletes, contractors and staff, test positive.  Olympics officials say they still hope to put on compelling games despite it all.  With that in mind, Judy Woodruff previews some of the Americans to watch with Christine Brennan of USA Today.

Christine Brennan, USA Today:  Well, we really — the dream team is women's basketball.  And going back, the U.S. women's Olympic basketball team has not lost, Judy, since 1992, Barcelona 1992.

 

 

"Quiet Olympics opening ceremony sees loud public protest over virus concerns" PBS NewsHour 7/23/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Usually a star-studded show, the Tokyo Olympics opened with a quieter ceremony.  National teams paraded to a nearly empty stadium.  It was noisier outside, as protests against holding the games in the middle of a pandemic continued.  Only 23% of Japan's population is fully vaccinated.  William Brangham speaks to Associated Press reporter Philip Crowther about the situation on the ground in Tokyo.

 

 

"Delayed by a year, Tokyo Olympics kick-off amid COVID-19 fears, protests" PBS NewsHour 7/24/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A year after they were postponed due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Olympics kicked off in Tokyo, Japan-- but not without controversies.  The opening ceremony was held without spectators and most competitions are being held without an in-person audience.  Meanwhile, as COVID-19 cases rise, public outcry against the Games has grown.  New York Times Tokyo Bureau Chief Motoko Rich joins.

WOMEN'S GYMNASTICS - Systemic Sexual Abuse

"Abuse in U.S. women’s gymnastics program ‘truly one of the tragedies of American sports’" PBS NewsHour 2/25/2021

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  The sexual abuse scandal that has engulfed U.S. women's gymnastics took a new shocking turn on Thursday.  Former U.S. Olympic Gymnastics coach John Geddert died by suicide just hours after being charged with human trafficking and sexual assault.  Christine Brennan, a sports reporter for USA Today who has covered Olympic sports for years, joins Judy Woodruff to discuss.

HEALTH - Toxic Waters

"Investigations reveal startling scope of lead in drinking water" PBS NewsHour 12/20/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  On Tuesday, Michigan's attorney general filed new criminal charges in Flint's lead contamination case.  But Flint is not alone.  Reports from both USA Today and Reuters find that lead contamination is widespread, affecting some millions of Americans, usually in rural communities with small water systems.  Judy Woodruff speaks with Laura Ungar, the lead reporter on the USA Today investigation.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  As we reported earlier, Michigan's attorney general filed criminal charges against city officials in Flint for operating that city's water systems in an unsafe manner.

Well, it turns out Flint is not alone in having a lead contamination problem.  Two recent news investigation find two startling numbers.

A Reuters investigation of lead levels in blood found nearly 3,000 areas in the country with contamination levels higher than those in Flint.

And a USA Today report found that some four million Americans get water from utilities that do not meet federal safe drinking water standards.

Laura Ungar was a lead reporter on the USA Today investigation.  And she joins me now.

Laura Ungar, welcome to the program.

You and your colleagues focused on smaller communities around the country.  Why?

LAURA UNGAR, USA Today:  Well, we wanted to look at the problem beyond Flint and look to see just how big the scope was.

And so, basically, we looked at where the problem was the worst, and we found that, in these small water systems, which are generally located in rural areas, small, remote communities, the problem was worse in those communities.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  And give us an example of what you found.  You got a number of families you write about in this series.

LAURA UNGAR:  Yes.

For example, one family in Ranger, Texas, they have a situation where their 2-year-old son has high levels of lead in his blood.  And they lived there for about a year, almost a year, before finding out from a citywide letter that they had high lead in their city, in their city's water supply.

And then they — actually, their tap was tested, and they didn't find out the results of that from the city.  They found it out from me, actually.  I told them the levels that were found in their own tap.

So — and they were very upset about that situation, because, you know, their son is 2, and he's facing high lead, which, as you know, just causes all sorts of problems with children.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  And, again, it wasn't just this one small community.  You found something like four million Americans affected.

LAURA UNGAR:  Yes, it's more than four million.

That four million is places where — or people affected by places that either tested improperly or skipped tests.  There are even more than that when you talk about where high lead has been found and, in some cases, has not been fixed.

"After Flint's lead crisis, the ‘most important medication' for kids is education" PBS NewsHour 12/20/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  There is a well-established link between lead exposure and learning disabilities, but early childhood education has been shown to counteract the effects.  In Flint, Michigan, where the youngest residents have been the most vulnerable to lead poisoning, the city has opened a free child care center in an attempt to counteract the harmful effects on developing brains.  Hari Sreenivasan reports.

GUN CONTROL - U.S. Child Gun Accident Rates

"A child dies every other day from gun accidents in U.S." PBS NewsHour 10/15/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  A joint investigation by the Associated Press and the USA Today Network has found that in the first six months of this year, gun accidents killed at least one child in the U.S. every other day.  Both the shooters and victims were most likely to be three years old.  Ryan Foley, one of the reporters on the story for the AP in Iowa, joins Hari Sreenivasan to discuss.

HARI SREENIVASAN, PBS NEWSHOUR WEEKEND ANCHOR:  A joint investigation by the “Associated Press” and “USA Today Network” has found in the first six months of this year, gun accidents killed at least one child in the United States every other day.  The report published yesterday analyzed more than 1,000 deaths and injuries from accidental shootings involving children ages 17 and younger between January 2014 and this June.

Joining me now to talk about this is one of the reporters of that story, Ryan Foley, a member of “A.P.'s” national reporting team focused on state government coverage.  He is in Iowa today.

First of all, what's the purpose of the investigation?  What prompted it in the first place?


RYAN FOLEY, ASSOCIATED PRESS:  So, we wanted to take a more comprehensive look at these shootings, why they were happening, who the victims were, what types of guns were being used.  And we also knew that there wasn't a lot of government research into these questions.

VIOLENCE IN AMERICA - Ferguson, Again

"How peaceful Ferguson anniversary protests turned violent" PBS NewsHour 8/10/2015

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Police critically wounded an 18-year-old black man overnight in Ferguson, Missouri, where mostly peaceful protests marked the anniversary of the killing of Michael Brown.  Authorities say Tyrone Harris Jr. and others shot at officers, who in turn shot back, wounding Harris.  Judy Woodruff learns more from Yamiche Alcindor of USA Today.

JUDY WOODRUFF (NewsHour):  Authorities in Saint Louis County, Missouri, imposed a new state of emergency today after police critically wounded an 18-year-old black man overnight.

It happened at the end of protests in the town of Ferguson marking the death of Michael Brown one year ago.  Police said a late-night demonstration got rowdy, and Tyrone Harris Jr. and others opened fire on them.  They said officers shot back, wounding Harris.

The incident drew the attention of U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, who was at a police convention today in Pittsburgh.

LORETTA LYNCH, Attorney General:  I strongly condemn the violence that was perpetrated against the community, including the police officers, in Ferguson last evening.  Not only does violence obscure any message of peaceful protest.  It places the community as well as the officers who are seeking to protect it in harm’s way.

JUDY WOODRUFF:  There were new protests around Ferguson and Saint Louis today.  Some 100 people rallied at the county courthouse.  Nearly 60 were arrested.

I spoke a short time ago with reporter Yamiche Alcindor, who’s covering the story for USA Today.

Yamiche, welcome.

What is the situation right now?

YAMICHE ALCINDOR, USA Today:  Well, moments ago, several protesters were arrested outside a federal courthouse building.

And some of them are really people that are really prominent protesters, along with Cornel West.  So, right now, they’re being processed at that federal courthouse and they’re actually facing federal charges.  But it’s going to be really a $125 fine.  They wouldn’t really say whether or not it’s a misdemeanor or a felony, but of course it’s a $125 fine.

So, it’s not — it’s still a summons.  It’s not going to be anything too serious, but this is still part of the Moral Monday that people had here today, where it was really a series of civil disobediences that they wanted to have in coordination and really in memory of Michael Brown.

OHIO - Capitol Hill Terror Suspect's Father

"Father of Ohio terror suspect defends 'mama's boy'" by Kimball Perry, Patrick Brennan, and John Bacon; USA TODAY 1/15/2015

The father of an Ohio man accused of plotting an attack on the U.S. Capitol is a "mama's boy who never left the house," his father says.

Christopher Lee Cornell, 20, who used the Twitter alias Raheel Mahrus Ubayda, was arrested outside a Cincinnati gun store Wednesday after purchasing two automatic weapons and 600 rounds of ammunition.

Authorities say he planned to set off pipe bombs outside the Capitol, then shoot lawmakers and staff as they fled to safety.

Cornell's father, John, told The Cincinnati Enquirer that his son had converted to Islam in recent years and had found "peace in the religion."

John Cornell, who said his son is not a violent man, said Christopher frequently endured abuse due to his religious beliefs.  He said Christopher lived in his parents' apartment and worked occasional part-time jobs.

"Everything you're hearing in the media right now, they've already painted him as some kind of terrorist," John Cornell told the Enquirer.  "They've painted him as some kind of jihadist. ... (Christopher) is one of the most peace-loving people I know."

The elder Cornell told CNN he believes much of the blame falls on the informant who led the FBI to Christopher Cornell.  "I believe he was really vulnerable and I believe he was coerced in a lot of ways," John Cornell said.

He said he and his wife are heartbroken and love their son more than ever.

"He may be facing life in prison," John Cornell told CNN.  "Do you know how devastating that is?"

FBI Special Agent T.A. Staderman described some details of the alleged plan in the seven-page complaint supporting charges of attempting to kill a U.S. government officer and possession of a firearm.

Federal authorities said the public was never in any danger because investigators were closely monitoring the activities of the suspect during the inquiry.

Tom Willingham, president and CEO of Point Blank Range & Gun Shop in Cincinnati, said he was approached by FBI agents and asked him to help them arrest someone they suspected of wanting to commit a terrorist act on U.S. soil.  "Nobody knew enough to be scared," Willingham told the Enquirer.

After the gun store employees ran Christopher Cornell's name through the national background check system to ensure he had no criminal record — "Not anyone can come in and buy a gun and walk out," Willingham said — Cornell bought the rifles and ammunition.  He was arrested by the Joint Terrorism Task Force in the parking lot.

Cornell is accused of using cyberspace to plot to assassinate congressional employees and attack the U.S. Capitol for his personal jihad.  He was charged with attempted killing of U.S. government officers and possession of firearms in furtherance of an attempted crime of violence.

Christopher Cornell was a wrestler at Cincinnati's Oak Hills High School, graduating in 2012.  Principal John Stoddard issued a statement describing Cornell as a "typical student" who was not a discipline problem.

"His teachers were shocked at the news of his involvement in this situation," the statement said.  "Teachers ... remember Christopher as a quiet, but not overly reserved, student who would participate in class and did not withdraw from his class work."

Schoolmate Jake Flick told NBC News that Cornell began to change during his senior year

"He would say the weirdest stuff about the government," Flick told NBC, adding that Cornell was very interested in "anarchy."

MILITARY - Mental Illness Programs Not Working

"Military using unproven programs to take on mental illness" PBS Newshour 2/23/2014

Excerpt

HARI SREENIVASAN (Newshour):  It’s estimated that nearly a thousand additional Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are being diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder every week.  A report out Thursday by the Institute of Medicine said that despite dozens of programs by the military to help treat the mental illnesses that veterans suffer, few of them are proving effective.  For more we’re joined by Gregg Zoroya of USA Today who has been covering this story.  So the Department of Defense asked for this review, what did it find?

GREGG ZOROYA, USA Today:  Well it really was a review that was, the request was really built on something that happened last year.  The Institute of Medicine had completed a four-year review of just how prevalent the problem was and they found that the numbers of folks that were ill were really kind of getting so large that both the Pentagon and the V.A. were having trouble staying ahead of it.  So the Pentagon asked for this report.  They wanted to know — we’ve got prevention programs out there, why aren’t they working?  And essentially what this panel, from the Institute of Medicine, found was that while some of these ideas in theory made sense when they were introduced earlier in the war, that there really hadn’t been a strong enough effort by the Pentagon and by some of the branches to try to understand whether through some real strong scientific research whether the programs worked.  And they found that in fact, they hadn’t.

SPACE - The "Hand of God"

"'Hand of God' captured in NASA image" by Jolie Lee, USA Today 1/10/2014

What looks like an X-ray of a hand is actually the remains of a star that has exploded 17,000 light-years away.

The astronomers who captured this image with a NASA space telescope are calling it the "Hand of God."

"We don't know if the hand shape is an optical illusion," said Hongjun An of McGill University, Montreal, Canada, in a statement from the Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR) Mission.

What the image shows is a pulsar wind nebula, a dying star and the cloud of materials left over from the star after it exploded.  The particles are interacting with nearby magnetic fields, causing the particles to glow in the image, according to NuSTAR.

It's unclear if the nebula looks like a hand because of the way the particles are interacting with the magnetic fields, or if the particles are actually shaped like a hand.

NuSTAR says the star itself is about 12 miles in diameter and is spinning at nearly seven times a second.  As the star spins, it spews particles "upheaved during the star's violent death."

The NuSTAR space telescope was launched in June 2012 with the goal of observing black holes, dead and exploded stars and "other extreme objects," according to NuSTAR.

NORTH DAKOTA - Local Town's White Supremacists Crazy

"Tiny N.D. town fights against white supremacist" by Blake Nicholson, USA Today 8/30/2013

LEITH, N.D. (AP) — In a tree-fringed grassy lot with a lone picnic bench in the tiny North Dakota farming town of Leith, Craig Cobb sees the perfect venue for a white power music festival.

Across a gravel intersection between two abandoned buildings, he envisions a park — perhaps with a swimming pool — dedicated to a neo-Nazi and white supremacist activist.  He pictures the town decorated with fluttering flags and banners bearing the swastika — the symbol of Nazism.

"They would have to be approved by the town council, of course," Cobb said, gazing out over Leith's sparse downtown from his overgrown, weed-infested front yard.

Cobb, 61, a self-described white supremacist, has purchased about a dozen lots in the community about 60 miles southwest of Bismarck.  Over the past year he has invited fellow white supremacists to move there and help him to transform the town of 16 people into a white enclave.  No one has come.

Still, the community is mobilizing to fight out of fear that Cobb could succeed, and the mayor has vowed to do whatever it takes to ensure Cobb's dream remains just that.

Last week, while news of Cobb's plan was being splashed across the front pages of The Bismarck Tribune and The Forum, about two dozen people — mostly residents of Leith and concerned friends from neighboring towns — showed up for an impromptu meeting in nearby Carson.

"We all share kind of the same concerns that people living in the community of Leith have — just the unknown," said Kathy Hoff, who lives just south of the town and attended the meeting.

Cobb spends his days in his ramshackle two-story home with no running water, posting online comments advocating for white supremacists to join his settlement.

"I only need 17 people," he said with a chuckle.  "You have to have a majority to win an election.  If we get 22 we've got a landslide."

Cobb's neighbors across a back alley are Sherrill Harper, who is white, and her husband Bobby, who is black.  Bobby Harper, a 52-year-old welder, said he has spoken to Cobb only once, and that Cobb's plans don't bother him much.

"The most extreme thing you can do is hate another man because of the color of his skin, (but) I don't think we should get too excited," he said.  "I believe right will prevail."

Officials are considering enforcing health codes and ordinances relating to the upkeep of Cobb's run-down property.  A proposal to disband Leith's government and turn over control to the county is even on the table.

"He would still own his property," said Mayor Ryan Schock, a 38-year-old farmer and lifelong Leith resident.  "But … he can't control the city if there's no city government."

No decisions have been made, but the six-member town council that usually convenes once a month might call a special meeting to discuss the matter soon, Schock said.

Ryan Lenz, a writer with the Alabama-based civil rights nonprofit Southern Poverty Law Center, said his organization has long tracked Cobb, who is wanted in Canada for willfully promoting hatred in Vancouver in 2010 via a blog.

"It's a pipe dream for white nationalists to have an entire area in which their neighbors are Aryan," Lenz said.

That's hard to achieve, Lenz said, but Cobb has made strides because he has gobbled up land — even transferring some to Tom Metzger, a former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan and founder of the White Aryan Resistance.

That doesn't mean he's any closer to enacting his plan.  Metzger said he likes Cobb but that declared plans for white enclaves never work and that he will not be joining Cobb in Leith.

"I think it's better just to have people move in quietly, have a job, operate a regular daily life and get along with their neighbors," he said.  "I wouldn't go into a town pushing my weight around."

Cobb, a native of Missouri, fled prosecution in Canada and chased the promise of high-paying jobs in the booming western North Dakota oil fields.  He said he was fired from a job because of a dispute with a co-worker and that he lost a job with a Fargo-based paving company after media coverage of his settlement plans.

Canadian authorities have not approached the U.S. to extradite Cobb.  Cpl. Normandie Levas of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said the white supremacist can't be extradited because the charge against him in Canada doesn't exist under U.S. law.

Deputy North Dakota Attorney General Tom Trenbeath said authorities are aware of Cobb, and the Grant County Sheriff's Office has increased patrols in the area.  But Cobb hasn't broken any laws there, and Schock acknowledges that he has a right to live in Leith, no matter his views.

Cobb's comments and writings indicate he believes in a superior white race, distrusts both Jews and Christians, and questions the intelligence of women.  He declines to talk about his upbringing and gives no indication as to why he adopted his supremacist platform.

In an interview outside his house, he was calm, cheerful and even jovial, making comments that raised questions about whether he believes his plan could succeed — or if he's just seeking publicity.

"If I'm the only one in Leith forever, white consciousness has already been raised," he said.

NATIONAL SECURITY - President Obama, Don't Defund NSA Surveillance

President Obama is correct on this.

I am very familiar with the mata-data collected from phone systems.  I worked for a company that made the type of phone equipment that collected mata-data for 9yrs.  The data is ONLY phone numbers (including country codes), duration of calls, and date-time stamp.  No names or address are part of this data.  And, today, not even which phone company bills the number.  This is why you can keep your phone number even when switching phone providers.

Your personal data is ONLY on your phone provider's computer, and getting that data requires a warrant.

"Obama:  Don't defund NSA surveillance" by David Jackson, USA Today 7/24/2013

The White House is weighing in against a congressional proposal that would block funding for the National Security Agency's bulk collection of phone data.

"We oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our intelligence community's counterterrorism tools," said a statement from President Obama's press secretary, Jay Carney.

In opposing an amendment being pushed by Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich., Carney said that Obama welcomes a debate on surveillance, but opposes a "blunt approach" that could compromise national security.

It's not known whether the full House will approve the Amash amendment, or if the Senate would follow suit.

In any event, Obama would likely veto any attempt to cut NSA surveillance funding.

Carney's full statement:

"In light of the recent unauthorized disclosures, the president has said that he welcomes a debate about how best to simultaneously safeguard both our national security and the privacy of our citizens."

"The administration has taken various proactive steps to advance this debate, including the president's meeting with the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, his public statements on the disclosed programs, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence's release of its own public statements, ODNI General Counsel Bob Litt's speech at Brookings, and ODNI's decision to declassify and disclose publicly that the Administration filed an application with the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court.  We look forward to continuing to discuss these critical issues with the American people and the Congress."

"However, we oppose the current effort in the House to hastily dismantle one of our intelligence community's counterterrorism tools."

"This blunt approach is not the product of an informed, open, or deliberative process.  We urge the House to reject the Amash Amendment, and instead move forward with an approach that appropriately takes into account the need for a reasoned review of what tools can best secure the nation."

TEEN ASSAULT - Victim Suicide After Photos of Assault Go Viral

"Arrest of 3 teens in assault, suicide opens raw wounds" by Doug Stanglin, USA Today 4/12/2013

The victim, who was allegedly sexually assaulted while unconscious, hanged herself after photos of the incident went viral.

The arrest of three 16-year-old California boys on charges of sexually assaulting an intoxicated, unconscious teen has reopened raw wounds for the family of the 15-year-old who hanged herself eight months ago after photos of the incident spread on the Internet.

Audrie Pott, an accomplished musician and high school athlete at Saratoga High School, killed herself on Sept. 10, eight days after the alleged assault at a weekend party.  She had posted on Facebook that the incident was "the worst day of her life."

Santa Clara County sheriff's spokesman Lt. Jose Cardoza says the boys were booked as juveniles on two felony and one misdemeanor counts Thursday based on information from school resource officers at the high school in Saratoga, Calif.

The names of the suspects were not released because they are minors, but Robert Allard, attorney for Audrie's parents, says they hope the teens won't be treated as juveniles at trial, the San Jose Mercury News reported.

"The family has been trying to understand why their loving daughter would have taken her life at such a young age and to make sure that those responsible would be held accountable,"  Allard says.

"After an extensive investigation that we have conducted on behalf of the family, there is no doubt in our minds that the victim, then only 15 years old, was savagely assaulted by her fellow high school students while she lay on a bed completely unconscious."

The attorney said students used cell phones to share photos of the attack, and that the images went viral.

He alleges that at least three high school boys assaulted Audrie in the bedroom at the home of a friend whose parents were away for the weekend, patch.com reported.

USA TODAY and the Associated Press do not, as a rule, identify victims of sexual assault.  But in this case, Pott's family wanted her name and case known, Allard says.  The family also provided a photo to the AP.

Her father and step-mother Lawrence and Lisa Pott, along with her mother Sheila Pott, set up the Audrie Pott Foundation to provide music and art scholarships and to offer youth counseling and support.

The foundation website alludes to the teen's struggles, but until now neither law enforcement, school officials nor family have discussed the sexual battery.

"She was compassionate about life, her friends, her family, and would never do anything to harm anyone," the site says.  "She was in the process of developing the ability to cope with the cruelty of this world but had not quite figured it all out.

"Ultimately, she had not yet acquired the antibiotics to deal with the challenges present for teens in today's society."

Allard says the parents want their daughter's case to become a model for a law bearing her name, the Mercury News reports.

"Audrie's Law would address some of the things that happened here," he says.  "There are two common elements here that are being repeated across the country -- sexual assault by an adolescent and the cyberbullying that follows."

In Steubenville, Ohio, two teenager football players were convicted last month of raping a drunk and unconscious 16-year-old girl whose naked photos were later circulated on the Internet.

In Canada, 17-year-old Rehtaeh Parsons of Halifax, Nova Scotia, died Sunday after hanging herself last week.

Her mother, Leah Parsons, says a boy had taken a photo of Rehtaeh during an alleged sexual assault incident in November, 2011, and posted it online.

She hanged her self after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ruled last week that an 18-month investigation provided no grounds to charge four teens over allegations they raped the then 15-year-old Rehtaeh.

Her father, Glen Canning, said in a Facebook posting that his daughter "wasn't bullied to death, she was disappointed to death.  Disappointed in people she thought she could trust, her school, and the police."

Nova Scotia's justice minister said Thursday he has ordered an investigation into how the RCMP handled the initial allegations against the teenagers, according to the Canadian Press.

AMERICA - Georgia, Infant Killed

"Police search for shooter after Ga. infant killed" USA Today 3/22/2013 (includes auto-play video)

Police are searching for two young suspects in Brunswick, Ga., on Friday after a shooter fired on an toddler being pushed by his mother in a stroller, killing the 13-month-old boy.

At a news conference Friday, Brunswick Police Spokesman Todd Rhodes said officers have received more than 30 leads in the case and are encouraging citizens to come forward if they have any information on the shootings.

"We will not rest until somebody has been arrested for this senseless act," Rhodes said.

WTLV reports the mother and her toddler were on a morning walk Thursday, when they were approached by two suspects and shot, Brunswick Police Chief Tobe C. Green said.

The two suspects are described as black males, one age 13 to 15 and the other age 10 to 12.

Rhodes said the toddler was shot with a handgun, which has not been recovered, according to CNN.

Several people in the neighborhood called 911 after they heard the gunshots fired, but Rhodes said investigators believed that the mother was the only witness to what happened. Rhodes described the neighborhood as safe.

Brunswick police are checking the attendance records of area schools to see who was missing or absent from class Thursday, WTLV reported.  The town is about 80 miles south of Savannah.

The Brunswick Police Department is "aggressively and actively searching for the suspects," Rhodes told WTLV.

The mother, Sherry West, described the incident in a tearful interview with WAWS-TV of Jacksonville.  "He said 'I'm going to kill you if you don't give me money,' and I said, 'I swear I don't have any,'" she said.

West said she tried to protect her baby, Antonio, but shots rang out.  "I put my arms over my baby, and he shoves me, and then he shot my baby right in the head," she told WAWS-TV.

Rhodes told WJXT that the mother suffered non-life-threatening injuries and was in stable condition at a nearby hospital.

"She is cooperating as fully as she can possibly cooperate, providing the best information that she has, given what she has gone through" Brunswick Mayor Bryan Thompson told WJXT.  "She is, for right now, the only eyewitness we have."

Brunswick police, who went door-to-door searching for the suspects Thursday, are offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and conviction.  Rhodes said they have found no motive in the shootings.

The mother lives in a rented house in the Brunswick's Old Town historic district.  Beverly Anderson's husband owns the property, and she told AP that West has lived there for six or seven years.  Anderson said she spoke with her yesterday to extend her condolences and see if there was anything she could do for her.

"We're just very sorry about what happened and very aghast that something could happen in our little neighborhood," Anderson told AP.  "It's a quiet, safe little neighborhood."

Anderson said people walk up and down the street, children walk to school and families are frequently outdoors.  "It's scared everybody," she said.  "They don't feel so safe outside."

She said West stayed home to care for her baby, who was often spotted in his mother's arms.

"The house has a front porch with a swing, and we'd see him out on the swing with his mother," Anderson said.  "He was a happy, cheerful baby."

POLITICS - Current US Congress to Address Domestic Issues

REMINDER:  For non-US readers, the term "Congress" used here refers to both houses of our federal legislature, House of Representatives and Senate.  The 'confusion' MAY come when only one house (usually the House of Representatives) is actually referred in an article.

"Congress turns to domestic policy after budget battles" by Susan Davis and Jackie Kucinich and Alan Gomez, USA Today 3/22/2013

A brief reprieve in the fiscal battles between President Obama and a divided Congress will allow two contentious and politically divisive domestic issues — guns and immigration — to take center stage in the national debate this spring.

The ability for Washington to find solutions to either issue will require the kind of bipartisan cooperation and common ground the president and congressional leaders have been unable to find on the budget.

In other words:  It won't be easy.

The push to strengthen the nation's gun laws has been fueled by public pressure for legislative action in the wake of the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre in Newtown, Conn., that left 20 schoolchildren and six educators dead.

Renewed interest in overhauling the nation's immigration laws, and how or whether to create a path to citizenship for about 11 million undocumented residents, was sparked after the election in 2012 saw Hispanic voters siding with Obama over the GOP by 3-to-1.

Congress will turn to both issues this spring after approving competing budget resolutions and a short-term spending bill this week to avert a government shutdown through Sept. 30.  The action temporarily lessens the intensity of the two-year-plus fiscal drama with President Obama until mid- to late summer, when Congress will have to again vote on increasing the debt ceiling, the nation's borrowing authority.

Republicans in the House, led by Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Virginia, plan a series of votes on "kitchen table"-type issues that address concerns of ordinary Americans.  For example, after the upcoming two-week break, the House will take up a bill that would create more flexibility in comp time rules for private sector workers.  Cantor calls the list of bills a "Making Life Work" agenda.

The majority leader began plotting out a domestic agenda this year in preparation for the lull in fiscal battles.  "We knew we were going to have all these fiscal cliffs, and then what?" said Rory Cooper, a Cantor spokesman.

For gun legislation, the agenda will be largely determined by the Democratic-controlled Senate, which is scheduled to take up gun-control provisions in April.  House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, said the House will not consider gun legislation until the Senate passes a bill.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Thursday evening that the Senate bill will contain provisions that would strengthen federal penalties for gun trafficking and increase grants to fund school safety improvement.  The bill will include language extending background checks to nearly every firearm purchase, but Reid said that portion may be replaced if senators can negotiate compromise language.

The National Rifle Association opposes early drafts of legislation to create a universal background check system, presenting a significant political obstacle to passing a bill out of the Senate.

A ban on military-style assault weapons and high-capacity magazines faces certain defeat because it does not have the votes to clear a 60-vote hurdle.  Reid said the proposal probably won't garner even 40 votes in support, but it will get a vote anyway — as Obama called for in his State of the Union.

"I have to get something on the floor, so we can have votes on that issue and the other issues that I've talked about.  And that's what I'm going to try to do," Reid said.  Senate floor votes on gun legislation could begin as early as the second week of April.

Both chambers have made more progress toward consensus on immigration.  The Senate is likely to unveil a bill next month, and a bipartisan group of eight House lawmakers is likely to unveil a framework for comprehensive immigration changes in April as well.

House GOP and Democratic leaders have been briefed on the plan.  House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md., said it includes the outlines of a pathway to citizenship for immigrants who are in the country illegally.  "They are close, they've made real progress," he said.

Immigration continues to be a politically perilous issue for Republicans despite an official Republican National Committee report out this week that endorsed a comprehensive overhaul and increasing calls from GOP leaders, including former Florida governor Jeb Bush and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., to find ways to legalize the nation's undocumented residents.

Immigration advocates are stepping up their engagement as the debate intensifies.  A rally is scheduled for April 10 in Washington.  "We have been sweet-talked and slow-danced before.  The time is now," said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigration Rights of Los Angeles.