damian

Saturday, 21 January 2012

Prosecutor: Man killed homeless for thrill

SANTA ANA, Calif.?? An Iraq war veteran charged with stabbing to death four homeless men in a weeks-long rampage in Southern California was a thrill seeker who took pleasure in killing his victims, prosecutors said Wednesday.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas told reporters outside a jailhouse courtroom that 23-year-old suspect Itzcoatl Ocampo appeared lucid, calm and intelligent and showed no signs of mental illness.

"He gets a thrill out of it," Rackauckas said. "This is a serious, vicious killer who went out there intentionally going about killing people and terrorizing a whole area."

Ocampo made his first court appearance Wednesday morning wearing an orange jail jumpsuit. The slender former Marine shifted his eyes back and forth as the judge discussed plans to delay his arraignment until Feb. 17 at the request of Ocampo's attorney.

Homeless numbers down, but risks rise

After the brief hearing, defense attorney Randall Longwith declined to comment on the allegations and said his main concern was gaining access to Ocampo, who was being held in a medical ward and denied visitors.

Longwith said he obtained a court order on Tuesday to be able to see his client briefly and spoke with him through a food slot in his jail cell while Ocampo was wearing only underwear and wrapped in a blanket designed to prevent him from hurting himself.

"We're just concerned that he hasn't really had access to an attorney or to anyone at this point," Longwith told reporters. "He seems very scared."

Ocampo was arrested Friday night when bystanders chased him down after a man was stabbed to death outside a fast-food restaurant in Anaheim, about 26 miles southeast of Los Angeles. He was caught with blood on his hands and face, authorities said.

Ocampo was charged Tuesday with four counts of murder and special allegations of multiple murders and lying in wait and use of a deadly weapon. Three victims were stabbed more than 40 times each with a single-edged blade at least 7-inches long, authorities said.

Ocampo will be given a psychological evaluation and is being held in isolation and monitored around the clock to prevent him from hurting himself or being harmed by other inmates, said Jim Amormino, a spokesman for the county sheriff's department.

The killing spree began in December and prompted police to fan out across the county known as the home to Disneyland and multimillion-dollar beachfront homes to urge the homeless to sleep in groups or in one of two wintertime shelters.

Ocampo would stalk each of his victims, then stab them repeatedly with a knife that could cut through bone. He selected his last victim, 64-year-old John Berry, after he was featured in a Los Angeles Times story about the killing spree, prosecutors said.

Berry filed a police report the day before he died, saying he feared he was being stalked, but officers didn't have a chance to follow up amid a flood of nearly 600 leads and tips.

"It is unfortunate that we didn't get to him before the suspect did," Anaheim Police Chief John Welter said.

Ocampo's family said the 23-year-old was a troubled man after he returned from Iraq in 2008.

Ocampo's arrest was the latest violent crime involving a veteran. This month, an Iraq War veteran fatally shot a ranger at Mount Rainier National Park and died later as he fled police across the mountain's snow-covered slopes.

Veterans Affairs officials say such high-profile violence can paint an inaccurate picture of returning veterans. The cases, however, raise the issue of veterans having a difficult time adjusting back into civilian life.

To help, the VA created a program to assist veterans in readjusting to their lives and avoid repeated brushes with the law. "We've seen over and over again that once they access those services, we can help them," VA spokesman Josh Taylor said.

A neighbor who is a Vietnam veteran and Ocampo's father both tried to push him to get treatment at a VA hospital, but he refused. His father, Refugio Ocampo, said, his son came back from his deployment a changed man.

He said his son expressed disillusionment and became ever darker as he struggled to find his way. After Ocampo was discharged in 2010 and returned home, his parents separated. The same month, one of his friends, a corporal, was killed during combat in Afghanistan. His brother said Ocampo visited his friend's grave twice a week.

Pinkberry co-founder accused of homeless beating

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Like the men Ocampo is accused of preying on, his father is homeless. His father lost his job and ended up living under a bridge before finding shelter in the cab of a broken-down big-rig he is helping to repair.

Days before his arrest, Ocampo visited his father, warning him of the danger of being homeless. He showed him a picture of one of the slain men, his father said. "He was very worried about me," his father said. "I told him, 'Don't worry. I'm a survivor. Nothing will happen to me.'"

As fear spread through the homeless community, police last week set up road blockades to seek help from members of the public in tracking down a suspect. Ocampo, who appeared to relish the media spotlight, passed through the checkpoints twice but did not draw attention to himself, Rackauckas said.

In addition to Berry, James Patrick McGillivray, 53, was killed near a shopping center in Placentia on Dec. 20. The body of Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was found near a riverbed trail in Anaheim on Dec. 28. The third victim, Paulus Smit, 57, was stabbed to death outside a library in Yorba Linda on Dec. 30.

Ocampo is being held without bail. If convicted, he faces a minimum sentence of life in prison without parole. Authorities have not decided whether to seek the death penalty.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/46035524/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

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Friday, 20 January 2012

January finance reports: Harris County ? Off the Kuff

January is a very busy month for campaign finance reports, since they are due for all levels of government. I?ve been busy updating the 2012 Primary Election pages for Harris County and elsewhere in Texas with reports as I can find them. Here?s an overview of some races of interest in Harris County. I?ll have similar reports for State Rep and Congressional races next week.

Let me preface this post by saying that I loathe the County Clerks? Campaign Finance Reports page. You can?t search for an individual by name, you can only search for all candidates whose last name starts with a given letter. All of the reports are scanned PDFs, which means that most of them are handwritten, though even the ones that are electronically generated are then apparently printed and scanned. This has the effect of creating much larger files, which are then harder to navigate, and Adobe being what it is they managed to crash Chrome on my PC and IE9 on my laptop. They do open in the browser with a direct link, unlike the city?s reporting system which opens each report as an Acrobat file for download, which I then have to upload and share to make available on my page, so as long as your browser continues to function that?s nice. All I know is that when I am named Supreme Commander of the world, my first official action will be to outlaw paper filing of campaign finance reports. It?s 2012, for Pete?s sake.

OK, rant off. Here are the highlights:

District Attorney

Incumbent Pat Lykos starts the year in good shape, having raised $194K with $320K on hand; she spent $40K during the cycle. Primary opponent Mike Anderson reported no money raised or spent. He was a late entrant and likely hasn?t had any fundraisers yet. I?m sure he?ll have sufficient resources to wage a campaign. On the Democratic side, Zack Fertitta had an impressive haul, taking in $170K, with $141K on hand. I don?t know exactly when he named a treasurer, but I?m pretty sure he didn?t start raising money until a couple of months into the cycle. His primary opponent Lloyd Oliver, who is listed for some bizarre reason in the county financial reporting system as ?Oliver Lloyd? ? I only found his report by accident, looking for other L-named candidates ? reported no money raised or spent.

Sheriff

Sheriff Adrian Garcia will have a tough race in November, and he starts the year well armed for it, having collected $187K and maintaining $302K. He has two primary opponents ? Delores Jones has $1,038 on hand, while perennial contender Charles Massey El had no report visible; yes, I checked under M and under E. There are eight Republican hopefuls, but only four filed reports. Ruben Monzon raised $33K; Carl Pittman raised $13K and reported $24K in loans; Brian Steinacher claimed the princely total of $750 raised. The most interesting report belonged to Louis Guthrie, who claimed to raise $96K with $30K in loans. That caught my eye at first, but he only listed $21K on hand, which made me suspicious enough to read the whole report. The individual contributions he detailed added up to only $6450 in cash plus about $18K in kind for things like printing and food, which are usually considered expenses. Something is definitely off there, but even if you took him at his word, the four of them together raised less than Garcia did.

County Attorney

Not really on anyone?s radar since it?s a lower profile office and there are no contested primaries, but Democratic incumbent Vince Ryan raised $29K and has $126K on hand. Republican challenger and former State Rep. Robert Talton raised $14,650 and had $10,500 in loans, but spent $14,978 and was left with $10,367 on hand.

Tax Assessor

In the battle of Guys Whose Surnames Both Start With The Letter S And Are Thus Convenient To Find In The Otherwise Wack Harris County Finance Reporting System, incumbent Don Sumners reported no cash raised and $3,911 on hand, while current Council Member Mike Sullivan made good use of his remaining Council campaign fund, which allowed him to report $53K on hand. He actually raised $8200 for this cycle, and had $15K in loans outstanding. Democratic challenger Ann Harris Bennett, who was listed under the Bs, raised no money and had $1,856 on hand, presumably left over from her 2010 race for County Clerk. Remind me to ask Clerk candidates in 2014 about how they propose to overhaul the finance reporting system.

Constable

I didn?t bother looking at a lot of these reports, as there are just so many Constable candidates. Among those I did look at were ones for the open Precinct 1 seat. Alan Rosen did the most, raising $43K with $37K on hand. Cindy Vara-Leija raised $22K and had $15K on hand; Grady Castleberry, who also had a July report, raised $2K but had $19K in loans and $23K on hand. Quincy Whitaker?s January report was not visible as of this publication; his July report claimed $5K raised and $18K spent but did not list any loans or cash on hand.

That?s your Harris County finance report. I?ll have state and federal candidates next week. The one other county race I?m watching is the Democratic primary for Travis County DA, featuring incumbent Rosemary Lehmberg and former judge Charlie Baird. The Statesman noted their totals, and I have their reports linked on the non-Harris page ? here?s Lehmberg, and here?s Baird. Check that page and the Harris page for more reports as they come in. Greg has more.

UPDATE: It has been pointed out to me that there is a ?Friends of Mike Anderson? finance report, which I would have found if I could have searched by name and not by letter, and that this report shows contributions of $152K and cash on hand of $135K. That report lists his office sought as the 127th District Civil Court bench, but that?s neither here nor there.

Source: http://offthekuff.com/wp/?p=42597

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LL Cool J 'Thrilled' To Host Grammy Awards

It's the first time the show will have a host since 2005, when Queen Latifah was emcee.
By Jocelyn Vena

LL Cool J
Photo: MTV News

LL Cool J already has experience hosting the annual Grammy nominations concert, and now he's finally ready for the big show. On Wednesday (January 18), it was announced that the legendary rapper has been tapped to host the Grammy Awards broadcast on February 12.

"I'm thrilled to be part of Music's Biggest Night," LL said in a statement, according to People.com. He's hosted the nominations concert every year since 2008. "I will always have fond memories of my first Grammys Awards and to now be hosting the Grammy show, in the company of so many other incredible artists, is a dream come true."

This marks the first time someone has hosted the show since 2005 when Queen Latifah was on hand as the night's emcee. The news of his hosting gig comes one week after it was announced that a slew of eclectic performers were added to the night's bill. Nicki Minaj, Foo Fighters and Taylor Swift join Kelly Clarkson, Jason Aldean and Bruno Mars as some of the lucky nominees who will also take the stage at the show.

Earlier this month it had been rumored that six-time nominee Adele might take the stage at the big show. It would mark her first public performance since her vocal surgery in November. More performers, presenters and special segments will be announced in the coming weeks. The show airs live from Los Angeles on CBS next month.

Related Photos

2012 Grammy Performers

Related Artists

LL Cool J

Source: http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1677452/grammy-awards-ll-cool-j-host.jhtml

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Thursday, 19 January 2012

Public Enemy Block Party In Skid Row Makes A Statement On MLK Jr. Day (VIDEO)

As home to the largest homeless population in the country, Skid Row in downtown Los Angeles really is the most appropriate venue for hip-hop artists to make some noise about inequality.

And that's just what they did on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day at the free music festival organized by Chuck D, lead man of the political eighties hip-hop group Public Enemy.

In addition to Public Enemy, performing old-school and new-school hip-hop heads included Kurupt, Ronnie Hudson, Freestyle Fellowship, Lady of Rage, King Tee, Kid Frost, Yo-Yo, Egyptian Lover, L.A. Possee and others. With a couple hundred attendees, the 1 p.m. show continued into the dark, lasting almost five hours.

Public Enemy spit OG hits "Fight the Power," "Shut 'Em Down" and "Can't Truss It," and, according to the Los Angeles Times, Chuck D walked through the audience after his performance for about 15 minutes, posing with and hugging fans.

In between each two to three-song set, social activists and poets filled interludes with discussion of economic and racial justice, police profiling and brutality, immigration reform and other issues.

Only a handful of attendees were actual Skid Row residents, according to KPCC, with more having driven in from Oakland, Santa Monica and elsewhere. Christine Petit of LA CAN, which was one of the organizations handing out free food and goods at the event, told KPCC, "I mean, it's a festival for the residents [of Skid Row]. We were sort of hoping to keep it, you know, down. But word gets out."

Perhaps one of the most powerful moments, depicted in the video below, was when rapper Flava Flav shared that he started smoking cigarettes when he was just 6, drinking at 8, smoking marijuana at 10 and smoking crack and cocaine at 23 years-old. He was proud to say that he's been off crack and cocaine for six years now, and this year he's completely sober except for cigarettes. He had the audience repeat after him, "I am!" ("I am!"), "Somebody!" ("Somebody!")

"Hip-hop has to make a statement," Chuck D told the Ventura County Reporter. Even though the event had no official Occupy connection, he continued, "We cannot have Skid Row be obscured. We have a moral obligation down there. This statement marks our [Public Enemy's] 25th year. Occupy Skid Row is a peaceful protest of power, and hip-hop is trying to make the situation better."

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/17/public-enemy-skid-row_n_1211214.html

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Obama, Republicans tussle over oil pipeline

House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio, center, accompanied by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor of Va., right, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, gestures during a news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012, to discuss President Barack Obama's decision to halt the Keystone XL pipeline. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney speaks during the daily briefing at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 18, 2012. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

WASHINGTON (AP) ? President Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress are back where they were before Christmas, locked in an election-season tussle over a proposed 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to Texas.

Republicans hope to again force Obama to make a politically risky decision, while he is seeking to put it off until after the November election.

Obama blocked the $7 billion Keystone XL pipeline on Wednesday, at least temporarily, but Republicans signaled their intention to again to force the issue.

Rep. Fred Upton, a Republican from Michigan and chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said he will call Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who recommended Obama's rejection, to testify at a hearing as early as next Wednesday. That's the day after Obama gives his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress.

"This is not the end of the fight. Republicans in Congress will continue to push this because it's good for our country and it's good for our economy and it's good for the American people," especially those who are out of work, said House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio.

Republicans are looking to drive a wedge between Obama and two key Democratic constituencies. Some labor unions support the pipeline as a job creator, while environmentalists fear it could lead to an oil spill disaster.

The plan by Calgary-based TransCanada Corp. would carry tar sands oil from Alberta, Canada, through a 1,700-mile pipeline across six U.S. states to refineries on the Texas Gulf Coast.

Obama was already on record as saying no, for now, until his administration could review an alternate route that avoided environmentally sensitive areas of Nebraska ? a route that still has not been proposed. But in an unrelated tax deal he cut with congressional Republicans, Obama had been boxed into making a decision by Feb. 21.

The deal required that the project would go forward unless Obama declared by that date that it was not in the national interest. The president did just that Wednesday, generating intense reaction from all sides.

"This announcement is not a judgment on the merits of the pipeline, but the arbitrary nature of a deadline that prevented the State Department from gathering the information necessary to approve the project and protect the American people," Obama said in a written statement. "I'm disappointed that Republicans in Congress forced this decision."

Newt Gingrich, campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination in South Carolina, called Obama's decision "stunningly stupid," adding, "What Obama has done is kill jobs, weaken American security and drive Canada into the arms of China out of just sheer stupidity."

Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney said the decision was "as shocking as it is revealing. It shows a president who once again has put politics ahead of sound policy."

Project supporters say U.S. rejection of the pipeline would not stop one from being built. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has said Canada is serious about building a pipeline to its West Coast, where oil could be shipped to China and other Asian markets.

TransCanada said it would submit a new application once an alternative route for the pipeline is established. Company chief Russ Girling said if approved, the pipeline could begin operation as soon as 2014. He said TransCanada will continue to work with Nebraska officials to determine the safest route for Keystone XL that avoids the environmentally sensitive Sandhills area, which he said should be completed this fall.

But Assistant Secretary of State Kerri-Ann Jones told reporters that if TransCanada submits a new application for a different pipeline path, it would trigger a new review process.

"We cannot state that anything will be expedited at this time," she said. "We would look to information that is out there to extent we can. It is a new permit application so the process would have to be started over again."

The proposed $7 billion pipeline would pass through Montana, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas and Oklahoma en route to Texas. It is a dicey proposition for Obama, who enjoyed strong support from both organized labor and environmentalists in his winning 2008 campaign for the White House.

Environmental advocates have made it clear that approval of the pipeline would dampen their enthusiasm for Obama in November. Some liberal donors even threatened to cut off funds to Obama's re-election campaign to protest the project, which opponents say would transport "dirty oil" that requires huge amounts of energy to extract.

But by rejecting the pipeline, Obama risks losing support from organized labor, a key part of the Democratic base, for thwarting thousands of jobs.

"The score is job-killers two, American workers zero," said Terry O'Sullivan, general president of the Laborers' International Union of North America. O'Sullivan called the decision "politics at its worst" and said, "Blue-collar construction workers across the U.S. will not forget this."

Yet some unions that back Obama oppose the pipeline, including the United Auto Workers, Service Employees International Union and Communications Workers of America.

TransCanada says the pipeline could create as many as 20,000 jobs, a figure opponents say is inflated. A State Department report last summer said the pipeline would create up to 6,000 jobs during construction.

Obama appeared to have skirted what some dubbed the "Keystone conundrum" in November when the State Department announced it was postponing a decision on the pipeline until after this year's election. Officials said they needed extra time to study routes that avoid a 65-mile stretch through the Sandhills area, which supplies water to eight states.

The concerns were serious enough that the state's governor and senators opposed the project unless the pipeline was moved. Any new route would have to be approved by Nebraska environmental officials and the State Department, which has authority because the pipeline would cross an international border.

Obama said his decision does not "change my administration's commitment to American-made energy that creates jobs and reduces our dependence on oil."

To underscore the point, Obama signaled that he would not oppose development of an oil pipeline from Oklahoma to refineries along the Gulf of Mexico. TransCanada already operates a pipeline from Canada to Cushing, Oklahoma. Refineries in Houston and along the Texas Gulf Coast can handle heavy crude such as that extracted from Canadian tar sands ? the type of oil that would flow through the Keystone XL pipeline.

___

Associated Press writers Ben Feller, Dina Cappiello, Laurie Kellman and Sam Hananel in Washington, Shannon McCaffrey in Warrenville, S.C., Ramit Plushnick-Masti in Houston and James MacPherson in Bismarck, N.D., contributed to this story.

___

Follow Matthew Daly on Twitter: (at)MatthewDalyWDC.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/f70471f764144b2fab526d39972d37b3/Article_2012-01-19-US-Oil-Pipeline/id-6ac1af4c583447dbaaaa7a216348199f

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Wednesday, 18 January 2012

Suspect in CA killings returned from Iraq changed

A relative holds a government military photo of Itzcoatl Ocampo, a former Marine who saw combat in Iraq, in Yorba Linda, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Ocampo has been named as a suspect in a series of killings of homeless men in Orange County, Calif. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

This Dec. 2011 photo provided by the family shows Itzcoatl Ocampo, a former Marine who saw combat in Iraq, in Yorba Linda, Calif. Ocampo has been named, Jan. 15, 2012, as a suspect in a series of killings of homeless men in Orange County, Calif. (AP Photo/Ocampo Family)

This photo provided by the Anaheim Police Dept. shows Itzcoatl Ocampo. Investigators are "extremely confident" that Ocampo a man in their custody is responsible for all four recent killings of homeless men in Orange County, Anaheim Police Chief John Welter said Saturday, Jan. 14, 2012. (AP Photo/Anaheim Police Dept.)

Refugio Ocampo, 49, father of Itzcoatl Ocampo, the man suspected of killing homeless men in Southern California, talks about his son in Fullerton, Calif., Sunday, Jan. 15, 2012. Refugio is himself homeless and said that his son came back a changed man after serving with the Marines in Iraq, expressing disillusionment and becoming ever darker as he struggled to find his way as a civilian. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon)

YORBA LINDA, Calif. (AP) ? Just months after he was deployed to Iraq in 2008, a Marine veteran now suspected in the deaths of four homeless men in Southern California sent his family a short, upbeat video greeting.

The video, which was mostly in Spanish, showed Itzcoatl Ocampo wishing his father a happy Father's Day and reading an excerpt from Dr. Seuss' "Green Eggs and Ham" to his then 10-year-old sister.

The former Marine's 17-year-old brother, Mixcoatl Ocampo, recalled how happy his family members were when they got the video in the mail that summer. They all gathered around the television in the living room to watch Itzcoatl Ocampo, who appeared in fatigues and talked against the backdrop of an American flag.

"We hadn't seen my brother since he got deployed," he said. "Dad saw the video, and when he first saw it he was thrilled."

According to friends and family, a much darker Ocampo returned home after he was discharged in 2010. His parents separated, and his father eventually became homeless.

Now, Ocampo's family is left trying to reconcile the smiling, slightly nervous-sounding soldier in the video greeting friends and family with the blankly staring man in the police mug shot accused of murder.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas has scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m. Tuesday to announce charges against Itzcoatl Ocampo. The 23-year-old is expected to be charged with four counts of murder in the serial killings of four homeless men since late December.

He was arrested Jan. 13 after a locally known homeless man, John Berry, 64, was stabbed to death outside an Anaheim fast-food restaurant. Bystanders gave chase, and police made the arrest. Ocampo is being held in isolation at the central jail in Santa Ana for his own safety because of the notoriety of the case, according to Lt. Hal Brotheim, a spokesman with the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

Ocampo's father, 49-year-old Refugio Ocampo, said his son came back a changed man after serving in Iraq, expressing disillusionment and becoming ever darker as his family life frayed and he struggled to find his way as a civilian.

The father said he lost his job and home, and ended up living under a bridge before finding shelter in the cab of a broken-down big-rig he is helping repair.

Just days before his elder son's arrest, Itzcoatl Ocampo came to visit his father, warning him of the danger of being on the streets and showing him a picture of one of the victims.

"He was very worried about me," Refugio Ocampo told The Associated Press on Sunday. "I told him, 'Don't worry. I'm a survivor. Nothing will happen to me.'"

Itzcoatl Ocampo had been living with his mother, uncle, and younger brother and sister in a rented house on a horse ranch surrounded by the sprawling suburbs of Yorba Linda. At the humble home, his mother, who speaks little English, tearfully brought her son's Marine Corps dress uniform out of a closet and showed unit photos, citations and medals from his military service.

The son followed a friend into the Marine Corps right out of high school in 2006 instead of going to college as his father had hoped. Itzcoatl Ocampo was discharged in 2010 and returned home to find his family in disarray, his father said.

The same month, one of Itzcoatl Ocampo's friends, 22-year-old Cpl. Claudio Patino IV of Yorba Linda, was killed in combat operations in Helmand province, Afghanistan.

"Once he received the news, he was never the same," Mixcoatl Ocampo said. He said his brother visited Patino's grave twice a week.

Refugio and Mixcoatl both described a physical condition Itzcoatl suffered in which his hands shook and he suffered headaches. Medical treatments helped until he started drinking heavily, both said.

"He started drinking like crazy ? too much, way too much," the father said.

A neighbor who is a Vietnam veteran and the father both tried to push Itzcoatl to get treatment at a Veterans hospital, but he refused. Refugio Ocampo said he wanted his son to get psychological treatment as well.

"He started talking about stuff that didn't make any sense, that the end of the world was going to happen," he said.

While Refugio Ocampo lives away from his family, they remain close. He saw his children every day, and his wife brings food to the parking lot where the truck is located in the city of Fullerton.

Refugio Ocampo, who said he was educated as a lawyer in Mexico, immigrated with his wife and Itzcoatl in 1988 and became a U.S. citizen. He described building a successful life in which he became a warehouse manager and bought a home in Yorba Linda. In the past few years he lost his job, ran out of savings, lost his house and separated from his wife.

Standing near the truck where he sleeps, Refugio Ocampo fought back tears as he described the changes he saw in his son in the year since returning home.

"Before, he had the initiative to do things, the desire. But after the military, he didn't have any of that," he said.

Refugio Ocampo said investigators came to him Friday night and showed him surveillance photos from a crime scene, but he did not recognize his son as the person in the images.

"If he did it, it wasn't right, obviously. But there's something wrong with him," he said.

In addition to Berry and McGillivray, Lloyd Middaugh, 42, was killed near a riverbed trail in Anaheim on Dec. 28; and Paulus Smit, 57, was found dead outside a Yorba Linda library on Dec. 30.

Authorities have provided no information on evidence against Ocampo, or a possible motive. But Anaheim Police Chief John Welter has said investigators are confident they have the man responsible for the string of murders.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2012-01-16-Homeless%20Homicides/id-6fb6a12ee787495cb223fa0b0e7950a6

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Motorola Wins First Round Of Legal Tussle With Apple

?Apple claims the said Motorola Android devices were infringing on three of their patents. However, the ITC found no grounds for such claim, so Round 1 of this legal drama goes to Motorola.

Apple requested for the ban in October last year and the ITC just recently came out with its ruling. Apple may still appeal the ruling so Motorola isn?t out of the woods yet. Samsung is facing a similar legal battle with Apple, and the South Korean company was even forced to tinker with the design of some of their tablets to prevent a sales ban.

According to Apple, the use of an ?object oriented system locator system?, an ?ellipse fitting for multitouch surfaces? and the use of a multitouch touchscreen by Motorola infringed on their patents, so they sought to ban the Droid, Droid 2 and Droid X in the US. Fortunately for Motorola, the ITC thinks otherwise. The ball is now in Apple?s court if they will appeal the ruling or not.

Via?Droiddog

Glenn Santos

I'm an Editor here an Android Authority and it's always been a passion of mine to write about devices. I plan to up my game by getting a superphone and a dual-core tablet very soon (they're not available in my town yet). I also run the awesome writing team over at memokitchen.com.

Source: http://www.androidauthority.com/motorola-wins-first-round-of-legal-tussle-with-apple-45084/

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Saturday, 21 January 2012

Friday, 20 January 2012

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Thursday, 19 January 2012

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Glenn Santos