This from the AP:

TUCSON, Ariz. – The man accused of wounding U.S. Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and killing six is mentally incompetent to stand trial, a judge ruled Wednesday after U.S. Marshals dragged the man out of the courtroom because of an angry outburst.

As survivors of the deadly January attack looked on, Jared Lee Loughner lowered his head, raised it and said what sounded like “Thank you for the freak show. She died in front of me.” His words were loud but mumbled, and it wasn’t clear who he was talking about. He wore a khaki prison suit and sported bushy, reddish sideburns.

U.S. District Judge Larry Burns’ decision means the 22-year-old will be sent to a federal facility for up to four months, to see if he can improve to the point where he understands the case against him.

The ruling came after two mental health professionals said they concluded Loughner suffers from schizophrenia and is mentally unfit for trial.

I have mixed emotions about this. I hate to see this guy escape the needle, but I have no doubt he’s batsh*t crazy. So it is what it is. Hopefully, they can get him medicated to the point where he’s lucid enough to stand trial.

This article titled “Jaycee Dugard’s kidnappers plead guilty to holding her captive” was written by David Batty, for The Guardian on Friday 29th April 2011 00.25 UTC

A convicted sex offender and his wife have pleaded guilty in California to kidnapping and raping Jaycee Dugard when she was 11 and holding her captive for nearly 20 years.

Phillip Garrido, who had two children with Dugard, faces a maximum sentence of 431 years in prison while his wife, Nancy, could be jailed for 36 years.

The guilty pleas are part of a deal with prosecutors that will spare Dugard, now 30, and her daughters from having to testify at a trial.

“I’m relieved Phillip and Nancy Garrido have finally acknowledged their guilt and confessed to their crimes against me and my family,” she said in a statement.

Dugard and her children, now 13 and 16, were kept in a hidden compound of backyard tents and sheds for 18 years, never attending school or receiving medical attention.

Garrido, 60, pleaded guilty to 14 kidnapping and sexual assault charges. Nancy Garrido, 55, who originally faced the same charges as her husband, pleaded guilty to one count of kidnapping and one count of rape.

She is technically eligible for parole, but county District Attorney Vern Pierson said it was “extraordinarily unlikely” she would ever be released from prison.

Pierson said the plea deal was only possible because Dugard was willing to testify about her experiences in captivity.

He said he spoke with her on Wednesday, and she remained willing to take the witness stand but was reluctant to put her children through the ordeal.

“Frankly, I’m relieved that this means that that will not happen,” Pierson said. “Should her children be called and drug [sic] into all of this was something that I don’t think any mother in her right mind would want to see.”

Both defendants waived their right to appeal and are due to be sentenced on 2 June.

Dugard was snatched from her family’s South Lake Tahoe street in June 1991 while walking to a school bus stop. Her disappearance prompted a massive search, nationwide publicity and one of the largest police investigations in the region.

The case attracted international attention after Dugard surfaced in August 2009. She and her children were discovered in August 2009 when Phillip Garrido took them to a meeting with his parole officer.

Dugard has been reunited with her mother and has remained in California with her and her daughters. She requested privacy and has not attended any of the court hearings. She is writing her memoirs, which are expected to be published in September.

Dugard’s case revealed problems with California’s sex offender monitoring system, which has since been reformed.

She received a m (£12m) settlement under which the state acknowledged parole agents responsible for monitoring Garrido had missed numerous clues and chances to find her.

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The college student who broke into Sarah Palin’s email account has been sent to prison after all. The federal judge in the case sentenced David Kernell to 1-year in prison but recommended he serve that time at a halfway house. The Federal Bureau of Prisons rejected the judges request and Kernell has been sent to prison.

This article titled “FBI arrests 127 in its biggest ever Mafia crackdown” was written by Ed Pilkington in New York, for The Guardian on Thursday 20th January 2011 20.24 UTC

The charge sheets read like a script from the heyday of Hollywood’s love affair with the mob, replete with made men, consiglieres and vows of undying loyalty to the boss. In a move that made it seem time had stood still since The Godfather first astonished America in 1972, the FBI today renewed its decades-long battle against the US mafia.

In a devastating blow to the organised crime families of the north-eastern US, more than 800 FBI and police officers made the largest roundup of Cosa Nostra bosses and soldiers in US history. Some 127 mafia members and their accomplices were charged.

The arrests in New York, Newark in New Jersey and Rhode Island were both an indication of the mafia’s enduring power in the US and of the determination of the FBI to regain the initiative in its struggle with the organisation.

Announcing the arrests, Eric Holder, the US attorney general, said they “send a clear message that we are committed – and determined – to eradicate these criminal enterprises once and for all and to bring their members to justice”.

The sweep struck seven families: all five with headquarters in New York – the Bonanno, Colombo, Gambino, Genovese and Luchese – as well as the largely New Jersey-based DeCavalcante family and the New England branch centred on Providence in Rhode Island and Boston. Among those in custody are top figureheads, including the former boss of the New England branch, Luigi Manocchio, 83.

The scale of the assault on the mafia is underlined by the fate of the Colombo family, which has had its entire leadership other than those already in jail taken down: its street boss, acting underboss and consigliere, as well as four captains and eight of its soldiers.

The charge sheet includes alleged murders dating back to the 1980s. Holder said they included not only “classic mob hits to eliminate perceived rivals” but also senseless murders such as the killing of two victims in a public bar in a dispute over a spilled drink. Other charges run from narcotics trafficking to extortion, illegal gambling, arson, loan sharking and trade union racketeering.

Defendants are listed with their mob aliases and nicknames: Fed Alesi aka Whiney; Anthony Cavezza aka Tony Bagels; Giovanni Vella aka Mousey; Bartolomeo Vernace aka Pepe or Bobby Glasses.

The indictments lay out the hierarchy of families that have changed remarkably little. Cosa Nostra is ruled by a panel drawn from all its families called the “Commission”. Each crime family is headed by a boss, assisted by an underboss and adviser, known as a consigliere. They manage “crews” headed by a captain or “capodecina” and consisting of soldiers and associates.

To become a member of the family, or in the vocabulary a “goodfella” or “wiseguy”, individuals go through an initiation ceremony in which they commit themselves to a life of crime.

Such a dramatic move against the mob is not just good publicity for the FBI and the justice department, it also signals a change of gear within law enforcement with regard to the mafia. In recent years there has been a perception that the authorities took their eye off the ball, allowing organised crime to regroup.

“After 9/11 the emphasis of law enforcement shifted, with resources going to fight terrorism,” said Jon Shane, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice and a former police captain in Newark. “Investigations died down, allowing the mafia to make a resurgence.”

Shane said the law enforcement agencies were now having to make a sustained effort to regain the initiative. “There’s always a time lag getting back into the game: players change, operations change.”

Last September Holder redirected additional firepower to the fight. As a further boost, yesterday he announced the merger of the organised crime division and the gang unit of the department of justice, to create an elite group of prosecutors devoted to running down the mafia.

The focus of the arrests suggest the crime families have once again tightened their grip on certain areas of the economy, notably illegal gambling, drug trafficking and construction. Holder says their influence amounts to a tax on various sectors.

They also maintain a stranglehold on some unions. Several arrests were made of officials belonging to the Longshoremen’s Association working on the New Jersey waterfront, as well as a cement and concrete union prevalent on New York building sites.

The FBI has gained the upper hand by securing the co-operation of a number of high-profile “super grasses”, who have been prepared to drop the sacred “omerta” – the eternal vow of silence – in exchange for a plea bargain.

Decline of the family: Mighty mobs that stumbled

Gambino

At its most powerful under “Teflon Don” John Gotti, the organisation had coast-to-coast reach and was the most influential of New York’s five families. But it was penetrated by the FBI, culminating in the 1990s defection of second-in-command Salvatore Gravano.

Genovese

The family displayed an ambition which, under Lucky Luciano, laid the foundation for a multinational crime empire. In the 1950s, the same ambition sparked infighting that almost crippled the organisation. After this, Frank Costello – having survived a hit – became one of the few mob bosses to retire, dying in his sleep in 1973.

Lucchese

Named after Gaetano “Three Fingers Brown” Lucchese, the family had strongholds in East Harlem and the Bronx. But in the 1990s, former acting boss Alphonse D’Arco turned informer.

Bonanno

Joseph Bonanno’s career included gun- running for Al Capone. The family is best known for its infiltration by FBI agent Donnie Brasco and for boss Joseph Massino turning informer in 2004.

Colombo

Named after Joseph A Colombo, who became boss in 1963. The family is known for its violent internal conflicts, including the Gallo wars of the 1960s and a battle for control in the early 1990s.

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This is a pretty amazing story. Mob boss John “Sonny” Franzese is the real deal. He’s one of the few original old school mafia bosses still breathing. He’s 93-years old and used to hang out with Frank Sinatra and Sammy Davis Jr. at the Copacabana nightclub. His first arrest was in 1938.

A federal judge sentenced Franzese to 8-years in prison for extorting Manhattan strip clubs. The judge said it was difficult to send such an elderly man to prison, but wanted to send a message that advanced age won’t absolve someone of their crimes. Franzese is in a wheelchair and can barely speak.

It would be easy to get sentimental and want to let the old man off the hook. He’s just an old gangster in the final years of his life. But when you really look at his life you realize he deserves to die in prison. He’s murdered dozens of people throughout his life and ordered the murder of dozens more. He’a also a convicted rapist and bank robber.

Franzese’s first arrest, for assault, came in 1938. Prosecutors say he was kicked out of the Army four years later after displaying “homicidal tendencies.”

In 1947, court papers say, he raped a waitress in a garage. In 1966, he beat a murder charge accusing him of killing a rival and dumping the body — cement blocks chained to the feet — into a bay.

Franzese was convicted in 1967 in a bank robbery, sent to prison and paroled in the late 1970s. Though never convicted of another crime, authorities say he rose to second in command of the Colombos, one of New York’s five Italian crime families.

the government said Franzese’s true legacy was something more akin to “Goodfellas.”

The main reason Franzese dodged arrest in other murders is that he became good at making bodies disappear, the papers said. Investigators caught him on tape in 2006 describing his favorite recipe for that: Dismember victim in kiddie pool. Cook body parts in microwave. Stuff parts in garbage disposal. Be patient.

“Today, you can’t have a body no more,” the latest court papers quote him saying. “It’s better to take that half an hour, an hour, to get rid of the body than it is just to leave the body in the street.”

He may look like your grandpa, but he’s an evil guy. Fascinating for sure, but nevertheless evil.

The New York Daily News is reporting that a Satanic or occult related shrine was discovered at the home of Arizona shooter Jared Loughner. A camoflouge tent in the backyard was found containing a makeshift alter with a skull and a bowl of rotting oranges. “Experts” at the scene claim those are items frequently found in cases involving the occult.

That is certainly a creepy discovery to be sure, but I think it’s too early to start speculating on wild theories involving the occult. From what we know so far the kid appears to be suffering from paranoid schizophrenia. Whether or not he dabbled in the occult may or may not be relevant.

One thing we do know for sure is that Jared Loughner wasn’t motivated by any kind of right wing ideology.

A former classmate of Jared Loughner, the man who shot Rep. Giffords and others, says she was friends with him until 2007 when he became quite “reclusive” and dropped out of school. She says he was “left wing” and a “political radical.”

A classmate of the man accused of shooting Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords this morning describes him as “left wing” and a “pot head” in a series of posts on Twitter this afternoon.

Caitie Parker did not immediately respond to our request for an interview, but her “tweets” in the hours after the shooting paint a picture of Jared Loughner as a substance-abusing loner who had met Giffords before the shooting. She says, Loughner described the congresswoman as “stupid and unintelligent.”

We’ve confirmed that Parker and Loughner went to school together at Mountain View High School in Tucson and that both attended Pima Community College, so her claims of knowing Loughner seem to be legit.

Parker “tweets” that she and Loughner were in the band together and were friends until 2007 when he became “reclusive” after getting alcohol poisoning and dropping out of college.

She describes him as “quite liberal” and as a “political radical.”

Below is a log of “tweets” posted by Parker beginning around the time of the shooting.

I actually don’t believe leftist politics or any other politics played a role here. Loughner is mentally ill. He did what he did because he’s crazy. To suggest that “right wing rhetoric” had anything to do with it is absurd.

Discussions about “political discourse” are pointless because discourse had nothing to do with this. The left is trying to use this as a weapon against conservatives. What they want is for conservatives to shut the f*ck up and go along with their destructive left wing agenda. That’s not gonna happen.

In fact, I may actually increase the ferocity of my right-wing rhetoric in light of these phony allegations.

This article titled “US congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords shot as six die in Arizona massacre” was written by Ben Quinn and Paul Gallagher, for guardian.co.uk on Sunday 9th January 2011 01.53 UTC

A US congresswoman was shot in the head at point blank range yesterday and six people were killed at a public meeting outside a grocery shop in Arizona. The dead included a nine-year-old girl and a federal judge.

Gabrielle Giffords, a 40-year-old Democratic member of the House of Representatives, was airlifted to University Medical Centre in Tucson after being targeted by a 22-year-old army reject. A surgeon at the hospital said Giffords was in a critical condition following emergency surgery last night, but added: “I am very optimistic about her.”

Describing the shooting as “an unspeakable tragedy”, President Barack Obama asked people to pray for “a friend of mine” who was battling for her life. “While we are continuing to receive information, we know that some have passed away, and that Representative Giffords is gravely wounded,” he said. “Gaby is not only an extraordinary public servant but also someone who is warm and kind, who was liked by her colleagues and her constituents.”

As Obama ordered the FBI director, Robert Mueller, to Tucson to oversee the investigation, Arizona sheriff Clarence Dupnik said police had a photo of a second man they are hunting who they thought was also involved in the attack.

Giffords’s assailant was last night named as Jared Lee Loughner. He was described by a doctor who treated some of the victims at the scene as a young white man with a “determined look on his face” and wearing dark clothing.

After shooting Giffords, he used an automatic weapon to shoot at up to 30 people leaving several dead and 13 wounded, many of whom were also airlifted to hospital. Among the dead, according to Pima County sheriffs, were the child, and the US District Judge John Roll, who had been involved in immigration cases and had previously received death threats.

Only when Loughner ran out of ammunition did he attempt to flee. One of Giffords’s aides tackled the assailant and helped to pin him down until police arrived.

Giffords had been named as a political campaign target for conservatives in last November’s mid-term elections by former Alaskan governor Sarah Palin because of her strong support for Obama’s health reforms. Palin had published a “target map” on her website using images of gun sights to identify 20 House Democrats, including Giffords, for backing the new healthcare law.

While the motive for the shooting was not immediately clear, Giffords is one of 10 Democrat members of Congress who were the subject of harassment over their support for the healthcare overhaul. Giffords’s Tucson constituency office was vandalised last March after she voted in favour of Obama’s controversial health bill, which has been bitterly opposed by the American right.

In an interview after the vandalism, Giffords referred to the animosity against her. “We’re on Sarah Palin’s targeted list,” she said, “but the thing is, the way that she has it depicted has the crosshairs of a gun sight over our district. When people do that, they have to realise that there are consequences to that action.”

Palin came under huge criticism for her campaign and issued a statement via her Facebook page last night offering her “sincere condolences” to Giffords and her family.

The shooting happened shortly after 10am local time outside a Safeway store in Tucson. Loughner ran up and opened fire on Giffords while she was talking to a couple. The event, called “Congress on Your Corner”, was designed to allow members of Giffords’s 8th Congressional district to meet her face to face. The congresswoman herself had used Twitter shortly before the shooting, saying: “My first Congress on Your Corner starts now. Please stop by to let me know what is on your mind or tweet me later.”

Witnesses said that the gunman ran into a “crowded area” and began “firing indiscriminately”. Andrea Gooden, who was working across the road from the scene, said: “I heard about 15 shots. Then there were people racing across the parking lot.”

Another witness, Steven Rayle, who helped restrain Loughner, said: “The event was very informal. Giffords had set up a table outside the Safeway and about 20 or 30 people were gathered to talk to her. The gunman, who may have come from inside the Safeway, walked up and shot Giffords in the head first.”

Jason Pekau, an employee at a shop close to the shooting, said two bodies were covered on the pavement after emergency services had arrived at the scene.

Giffords, who was born in Tucson and has two children, took office in January 2007 supporting immigration control, embryonic stem-cell research and the right to abortion.

Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat, told CNN that Giffords’s office had been shot at before and that she had received death threats in the past. At another event in 2009 which was similar to the one Giffords was holding, a protester was removed by police when his pistol fell to the supermarket floor.

Although a Democrat, Giffords was a strong supporter of the right to bear arms and was re-elected to her third term last November, edging out the Tea Party favourite Jesse Kelly.

Giffords is married to space shuttle astronaut Mark Kelly, and is the first Jewish woman elected to Congress from Arizona and the third female ever to be elected for that state. She has been building up a prominent public profile, with frequent appearances in the national media.

The US Capitol Police force said that it was advising Congress representatives and their aides to “take reasonable and prudent precautions” about their own security in the wake of the shooting.

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This article titled “Body of US presidential adviser John Wheeler found at Delaware dump” was written by Chris McGreal in Washington, for The Guardian on Tuesday 4th January 2011 19.58 UTC

Police in Delaware are trying to piece together the mystery of how a decorated soldier and former adviser to three US presidents was murdered, stuffed in to a dustbin lorry and dumped in a landfill.

Detectives say they are mystified by the killing of John Wheeler, a 66-year-old decorated Vietnam war veteran who worked for President Ronald Reagan and both of the Bush administrations.

Wheeler had played a leading role in the construction of the Vietnam war memorial in Washington which he advocated as a step toward reconciling the country after the divisive war.

His body was found as it spilled from a dustbin lorry that had made 10 stops around Newark, Delaware. He had lived in nearby New Castle.

The police say Wheeler, a graduate of West Point military academy, Yale and Harvard, was murdered but are not revealing how. The authorities say that they are awaiting the results of toxicology and other forensics tests.

The police said that Wheeler was last known to have been alive in Wilmington, Delaware, on Thursday. His body was discovered the next day about 12 miles away.

Newark police spokesman, Lieutenant Mark Farrall, said investigators searched Wheeler’s house, which was roped off with police tape after his death, but it was not considered a crime scene.

“We don’t have a crime scene at this point in time,” he said. Farrall added that investigators did not yet have any leads in the case.

Neighbours and friends were shocked by his death.

“This is just not the kind of guy who gets murdered … This is not the kind of guy you find in a landfill,” said Bayard Marin, a Wilmington lawyer who represented Wheeler told the News Journal. “He was a very aggressive kind of guy, but nevertheless kind of ingratiating, and he had a good sense of humour.”

Wheeler helped to create the Vietnam veterans leadership programme in the Reagan administration.

Later he was instrumental in setting up the Earth Conservation Corps under President George HW Bush and also led Mothers Against Drunk Driving in the mid-80s.

He was a special assistant to the secretary for the air force in the administration of George W Bush.

A friend, Richard Radez, told the Associated Press they exchanged emails at Christmas, including one in which Wheeler expressed concern that the US wasn’t sufficiently prepared for cyber-warfare. “This was something that had preoccupied him over the last couple of years,” Radez said.

James Fallows, a national correspondent for the Atlantic magazine, said on the magazine’s website that he had known Wheeler for nearly 30 years and that he spent much of his life trying to address “what he called the ’40-year open wound’ of Vietnam-era soldiers being spurned by the society that sent them to war.”

Jan Scruggs, who Wheeler joined in building the Vietnam veterans memorial in the heart of Washington, described him as “passionate” about the construction.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund praised Wheeler as a man who “served his country honourably, then dedicated himself to ensuring that our nation’s service members are always given the respect they deserve”.

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