| Strip club donates $1,200 to keep city's Little League going Mar 13th 2012, 14:46 By Jonathan Gonzalez, NBCLosAngeles.com Little League baseball players from an unincorporated area of Los Angeles will reportedly get to play ball this season thanks to a charitable donation from the unlikeliest of donors. Jet Strip, a gentlemen's club in Lennox, has donated $1,200 to the Lennox Little League, which has been strapped for cash after the Lennox School District imposed some new regulations, according to the Daily Breeze.
A call to the district was not immediately returned. The donation, along with those from other businesses, will allow 300 little leaguers to play at least one more season, but the league's president, Roberto Aguirre, still isn't optimistic about the long-term future of the league. "It feels good to be from Lennox when people do stuff like that," Aguirre said to the paper. "At the same time, the future is very scary for us, because [the donation] is a one-time deal." James Wallace, Jet Strip's general manager, is also a 15-year member of the Lennox Coordinating Council, comparable to an unofficial city council of the community. Wallace told the paper that he likes to keep the gentlemen's club's donations quiet. "We don't really like to brag about it," he said. The school board has also received donations of $1,000 and $600 from the little league in Westchester and the council, respectively. But Aguirre told the paper that the bigger problem facing the league is the inability to sell food at games. Read more from NBCLosAngeles.com Citing health concerns, the K-8 district stopped the league from selling grilled foods, like hamburgers and hot dogs, though it has installed a drain, and a local non-profit, YouthBuild, has promised to build a snack bar for free. "People don't want candy, candy, candy - chips, chips, chips," Aguirre said. "They want hamburgers, hot dogs and french fries." But raising the $65,000 necessary for materials to build a snack bar will be tough for a community that is economically depressed. Lennox is a small, mile-by-mile community adjacent to Los Angeles International Airport that is so impoverished, the league offers families a payment plan so that some can afford the annual $85 it costs to play in the league. "We're looking up in the sky and hoping for something great," Aguirre told the paper. "If this snack stand happens, it's going to be the best thing that could happen for our league." Follow NBCLA for the latest LA news, events and entertainment: Twitter: @NBCLA// Facebook: NBCLA |  15 inches of rain floods Louisiana homes, roads Mar 13th 2012, 14:11 A state emergency has been declared for parts of Louisiana after flash floods soaked parts of the state. WVLA-TV reports. By msnbc.com staff States of emergency were in force Tuesday in four Louisiana parishes after torrential rain left homes and roads under several feet of water. More than 100 residents fled their homes and dozens of motorists had to be rescued. Flooding closed the major highway through St. Landry Parish, and many roads across the four parishes remained closed on Tuesday. "In my 28 years in law enforcement I have never seen the interstate closed," St. Landry Sheriff's Capt. Jimmy Darbonne told weather.com.
Dozens of homes in Carencro, a town in Lafayette Parish, were evacuated on Monday when some 15 inches of rain fell within five hours. "We had up to 7 feet of water on some streets," said Capt. Kip Judice, the local sheriff's spokesman. "We had no deaths or injuries but a lot of near calls." About 100 Carencro residents took refuge Monday evening at a Red Cross shelter, and several area schools were closed Tuesday. Carencro flood images via NBC33TV.com  John Bruce / St. Martin Parish Sheriff's Department This highway intersection in St. Martin Parish, La., was among the areas cut off Monday by flooding. Flooding also hit Acadia and St. Martin parishes. "Essentially, you saw about one quarter of a year’s worth of rainfall fall within about five hours," The Baton Rouge Advocate quoted Mike Marcotte, a National Weather Service forecaster, as saying. "I’m sure the people that were involved in this will remember and they should remember because it’s going to be something that won’t be repeated for a long time to come." More content from msnbc.com and NBC News US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook |  Closing arguments in Rutgers webcam spying trial Mar 13th 2012, 13:54 LIVE VIDEO — Watch the closing arguments in the trial of a former Rutgers student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with another man. By msnbc.com news services A jury in the trial of a former Rutgers University student accused of using a webcam to spy on his roommate's intimate encounter with another man will have to wrestle with some relatively untested legal issues when it gets the case. The defendant is 20-year-old Dharun Ravi, who faces 15 criminal charges, including bias intimidation and invasion of privacy and seven charges that he covered his tracks. Closing arguments in the case began Tuesday. Defense attorney Steven Altman said his client is a kid, not a criminal, and he emphasized that there was no recording, no broadcast and no YouTube video of the encounter.
And he said that Ravi was not acting out of hatred of his roommate or gays in general. "If there's hate in Dharun's heart, if there's ugliness in Dharun's heart," Altman, fighting a cold and speaking with an uncharacteristically soft voice, asked jurors, "Where's there some information and some evidence to support it?" Prosecutors are expected to make their closing arguments later in the day. Jurors are expected to start deliberating by Wednesday. Ravi's randomly assigned roommate, Tyler Clementi, a fellow first-year student at Rutgers, committed suicide on Sept. 22, 2010 — three days after authorities say Ravi spied on him and one day after he's accused of trying to do it again. The jury heard about 30 witnesses over 12 days of testimony in the trial. They did not hear testimony from Ravi himself, though they did see video of a statement he gave to police. "It's my decision, yes," Ravi told the judge after the ninth and final defense witness testified. There's no dispute that Ravi saw a brief snippet of video streamed live from his webcam to the laptop of a friend in her dorm room on Sept. 19, 2010. The friend, Molly Wei, said Clementi and his guest — identified in the trial only by the initials M.B. — were fully clothed and kissing at the time. The man told the jury he noticed the webcam. "I had just glanced over my shoulder and I noticed there was a webcam that was faced toward the direction of the bed," said M.B. "Just being in a compromising position and seeing a camera lens - it just stuck out to me." Defendant in Rutgers webcam trial won't testify Ravi posted a Twitter message that night that concluded: "I saw him making out with a dude. Yay." Later, Wei showed some other students. They said the men had removed their shirts, and that the webstream was turned off after mere seconds. Wei was initially charged, but later entered a pretrial intervention program that could allow her to avoid jail time and a criminal record if she complies with a list of conditions. Two days after the first incident, Clementi asked for the room alone again. Man seen kissing Rutgers student Tyler Clementi testifies he noticed webcam This time, Ravi tweeted: "Yes, it's happening again" and "dared" followers to connect with his computer to video chat. There was testimony that he told one friend that there was going to be a "viewing party" at Rutgers. Asked by police, Ravi said it was a joke. But there was no webcast. Ravi's lawyers say it's because he disabled his computer before Clementi had M.B. over. And witnesses placed Ravi at Ultimate Frisbee practice for most of the time he was asked to stay away from his room. Judge Glenn Berman said on Monday that some of the charges are difficult because they have not been frequently tested by higher courts. After jurors left for the day Monday, Berman made rulings on the instructions he will give them. But he wasn't fully confident that an appeals court would not view things differently, especially regarding the bias intimidation law. "I could be wrong," he told lawyers. "I said this statue to me is muddled. It could be written better." The challenge for jurors could be deciding whether the laws apply to what Ravi is alleged to have done. One of the invasion-of-privacy charges accuses Ravi of viewing exposed private parts or sex acts — or a situation where someone might reasonably expect to see them. Another accuses him of recording or disseminating the images to others. There's no evidence that the webstream was recorded, and witnesses said Ravi wasn't there when Wei opened the webstream for other students. Prosecutors build strong case in Rutgers webcam spying trial, analysts say The bias intimidation charges could also be complicated. Ravi can be convicted of intimidation if he's also found guilty of an underlying invasion-or-privacy charge. Two of the four charges of that crime are second-degree crimes punishable by up to 10 years in prison. Each of those charges says Ravi committed invasion of privacy — or attempted to — out of malice toward gays — or that Clementi believed he was targeted because of his sexuality. The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. More content from msnbc.com and NBC News
US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook |  Afghan shooter: Chain-of-command failure Mar 13th 2012, 13:52 More information on the alleged killing of 16 civilians in Afghanistan by a U.S. soldier continues to surface, and the Morning Joe panel wonders how the Army Staff Sergeant was able to leave his base to conduct the shootings. Vanity Fair's Sebastian Junger and MSNBC's Col. Jack Jacobs join the conversation. By Col. Jack Jacobs , NBC News contributor NEWS ANALYSIS
At the moment, we know only that a 38-year-old U.S. Army Staff Sergeant left his post and shot to death 16 civilians in Afghanistan, including nine children and three women, and surrendered soon after the incident. Others were wounded and may not survive. The sergeant's wife and children in the United States have been relocated and are under the protection of the American government. News of the attacks has spread slowly across the country, but thousands of people took to the streets in the eastern Afghanistan Tuesday to demonstrate against the killings, burning an effigy of President Barack Obama and chanting “Death to American.” There have been NATO casualties in the area in the wake of the incident, but most of the American activity is not daily active combat with the enemy, but instead public works projects and the training of Afghans. In this regard, it is telling that the sergeant was able to walk unaccompanied and unmolested to the sites where the civilians were killed.
Protests break out over Afghan shootings He is in American custody and, pursuant to the agreement between the United States and Afghanistan, will be prosecuted under the Uniform Code of Military Justice. This means that a General Officer, probably John Allen, who commands U.S. forces in Afghanistan, will appoint an officer, almost certainly a military lawyer, to investigate the incident. The investigator will interview witnesses and
then make a recommendation to the commander about how to deal with the case. This process, called an Article 32 Investigation, is the military equivalent of a grand jury, but unlike in a civilian procedure, the accused can be represented by counsel and cross-examine witnesses. The commander can follow the investigator's recommendation or not, as he sees fit, but in this case if the investigating officer recommends a trial by court-martial, you can bet the sergeant will be tried. The U.S. Army staff sergeant accused of killing 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, comes from a U.S. base with a troubled history. NBC's Miguel Almaguer reports. There has been much discussion about the fact that the non-commissioned officer was on his fourth trip to Southwest Asia, implying that the stress of repeated deployments may have been the proximate cause of a breakdown that resulted in this tragic violence. While we should not be sanguine about the huge demands we place on our undermanned and overtaxed forces, specious arguments justifying the outburst are easy but dangerous to construct. Most murderers have not served in the armed forces, and there are many thousands of American troops who have murdered nobody, but have more deployments than this suspect. Coincidence is not causation. NYT: An Afghan elder comes home to find a massacre Breakdown in the chain-of-command
What seems most striking about the incident is the failure of this sergeant's chain-of-command. The camp is guarded all the time, and particular attention is always given to security at night, when this soldier departed. There is a sergeant of the relief, supervised by a sergeant of the guard, supervised by an officer of the guard, supervised by an officer of the day and a field officer of the day. Furthermore, troops live together continuously, often in close quarters, and it is impossible to envision a situation in which nobody had any inkling of his propensity for violence. He worked for another sergeant who worked for a lieutenant or a captain, all of whom lived with him. The investigation will include interviews of his comrades, his leaders and his family. His snail mail, email and social sites will be scoured, and all of it is likely to reveal that his commander either did know, or should have known, that this violence was possible, or even probable, and that this man should have been removed from the unit. If this sounds familiar, it is because the situation is similar to that of Maj. Nidal Hasan. His supervisors knew that he was unstable and did nothing about it, and in 2009 Hasan killed 13 people at Fort Hood, Texas. For the moment, the National Command Authority has reiterated its commitment to the mission in Afghanistan, with some withdrawal of conventional troops slated to begin in 2014. But with an increasing number of influential people, including prominent Republicans, convinced that we should withdraw sooner rather than later, it's certain that there is already a plan for an accelerated pull-out beginning in 2013, soon after our national election. Nevertheless, whether troops are in Afghanistan or the United States or anywhere else, the stringent and vital requirement of good leadership is the same. Being in the uniform of the U.S. Armed Forces is not just another job and indeed is like no other endeavor in the world. Yes, we ask far too much of brave people who are willing to sacrifice for us, but when their leaders forget or ignore their awesome responsibilities, the result is often tragedy. Read more from Col. Jack Jacobs More content from msnbc.com and NBC News US News on msnbc.com on Twitter and Facebook |  Warmth records falling across Northeast, Midwest Mar 13th 2012, 13:34 Two-thirds of the United States will be enjoying unseasonably warm weather Tuesday. TODAY's Al Roker looks at what's behind this late-winter warm spell. By msnbc.com staff and news services Expect records for high temps to be broken all week across the Northeast and Midwest, a rare event given that we're still in winter. "We may be seeing about a week where we are going to be possibly breaking or at least coming close to temperature records," said National Weather Service meteorologist Byron Paulson. It is not unusual to see record high temperatures for a day or two in March, but a week is rare, he said.
"The jet stream, which would normally be cutting across the middle of the country, is way up north into Canada" and keeping the cold weather there, said NBC TODAY show weather anchor Al Roker, leading to warm weather in the U.S. Forecasts called for records or near-record highs on Wednesday and Thursday in the mid to upper 70s in Chicago. The warmth also brought the threat of thunderstorms to the Chicago area. In North Dakota and South Dakota, warm and windy conditions prompted widespread warnings that wildfire conditions were ripe for explosive growth if blazes are ignited.  National Climatic Data Service Yesterday, temperatures soared to record highs in the Northeast. In Boston, temperatures reached a record 71 degrees Monday afternoon -- eclipsing the former high of 69 degrees for a March 12 set 110 years ago. The unseasonably warm weather was expected to continue in Boston throughout the week, but likely not with record-setting temperatures, said Bill Simpson, a weather service meteorologist based in Taunton, Mass. Temperatures also soared Monday afternoon in New York City to 71 degrees in Central Park, tying the record that dates back to 1890, weather.com reported.  Jacquelyn Martin / AP A woman runs past budding cherry blossom trees along the tidal basin in Washington, D.C., on Monday. Among the 102 high-temp records broken on Monday were those in Albany, N.Y., Bridgeport, Conn., Buffalo, N.Y., Burlington, Vt., and Newark, N.J. In Washington, above-average temperatures meant cherry trees started blossoming sooner than expected ahead of the National Cherry Blossom Festival, which begins on March 20. Florets were extending on Monday, but peak bloom is expected to fall some time from March 24 to 28, still within the original forecast. Minnesotans accustomed to mid-March snowstorms instead basked in record-high temperatures in the mid-60s last weekend and more records might fall there under an unprecedented, extended warm front. The high temperature reached 66 degrees on Saturday and Sunday in the Minneapolis and St. Paul area, topping previous records for those dates set in 1878 and 1902, respectively, in records that run back to 1871. Temperatures could reach close to a record on Tuesday and into the 70s on Wednesday, about 30 degrees above normal, Paulson said. Temperatures were also forecast to reach from the mid-60s into the 70s the rest of the week, he said. Record high temperature were recorded across the upper Midwest over the weekend with temperatures punching into the 70s in Bismarck, N.D., and across southern Minnesota and eastern Wisconsin. Reuters contributed to this report. | |
