timmmmmmmmmmmmmmay!!!!!

(01-30) 23:28 PST GOLETA, Calif. (AP) --

A person opened fire at a postal station blocks from the University of California, Santa Barbara, on Monday night, killing three people and critically wounding a fourth, authorities said.

The shooting took place about 9:15 p.m., Capt. Keith Cullom of the Santa Barbara County Fire Department told The Associated Press. He said two people died at the scene, and a nursing supervisor said later that a third was pronounced dead at a hospital. The fourth was listed in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head.

"The suspect is still not apprehended," Cullom said.

Police had cordoned off the area about a half mile from the university and were searching for the shooter shortly before midnight. They were looking both in the neighborhood and in the postal station itself.

"Our SWAT teams are going in there as if the suspect is still inside and we're taking every precaution of course," sheriff's spokesman Erik Raney told reporters. He said police were advising people in the immediate area to stay inside their homes.

Raney said the shooter was believed to be a former postal employee and all of the victims were believed to be current employees.

Postal officials said no one was immediately available Monday to discuss the shootings.

The station, where mail is sorted, is located across the street from a fire station, and Cullom said witnesses ran there immediately after gunfire broke out.

"One of our firefighters did remove one of the injured that was near the door," he said.

Two women were taken to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, where nursing supervisor L. Perry said one of them was pronounced dead upon arrival. The other was hospitalized in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head, Perry said.

None of the victims' names were immediately released.

Raney said the two victims pronounced dead at the scene were found outside the building and the two wounded were found inside.

"There were reports of gunfire in front of the building. There were reports of gunfire inside the building," he said.

The shooter's weapon was not immediately recovered, he said.

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/01/30/state/n230118S86.DTL

(01-30) 11:59 PST Dedham, Mass. (AP) --

A dominatrix was acquitted of manslaughter Monday in the death of a man who prosecutors say suffered a heart attack while strapped to a replica of a medieval rack.

Barbara Asher, a 56-year-old woman who called herself Mistress Lauren M, was also cleared of dismemberment.

Prosecutors said that 53-year-old Michael Lord suffered a heart attack in 2000 during a bondage session in a "dungeon" in Asher's condominium and that Asher did nothing to help him for five minutes for fear authorities would find out about her business.

Asher had her boyfriend chop up the body of the 275-pound retired telephone company worker, and they dumped it behind a restaurant in Maine, prosecutors said. His remains have never been found.

Prosecutors said Asher confessed to police, but the alleged confession was not taped, and investigators testified they did not save their notes.

Asher's lawyer, Stephanie Page, said there was nothing to prove Lord was even dead — no body, no blood, no DNA.

During his closing argument to the jury, prosecutor Robert Nelson put on a black leather mask with a zippered mouth opening and re-enacted the bondage session. With both hands, he reached back and clutched the top of a blackboard as if strapped to the rack. Then he hung his head as if dead.

Asher's lawyer objected, and the judge agreed.

"That's enough Mr. Nelson," Judge Charles Grabau said. "Thank you for your demonstration."

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/news/archive/2006/01/30/national/a115042S21.DTL

(01-27) 09:00 PST Little Rock, Ark. (AP) --

Conservative commentator Ann Coulter, speaking at a traditionally black college, joked that Justice John Paul Stevens should be poisoned.

Coulter had told the Philander Smith College audience Thursday that more conservative justices were needed on the Supreme Court to change the current law on abortion. Stevens is one of the court's most liberal members.

"We need somebody to put rat poisoning in Justice Stevens' creme brulee," Coulter said. "That's just a joke, for you in the media."

Coulter has made a career of writing and lecturing on her strongly conservative views.

At one point during her address, which was part of a lecture series, some audience members booed when she cut off two questioners. "I'm not going to be lectured to," Coulter told one man in a raised voice.

She drew more boos when she said the crack cocaine problem "has pretty much gone away."

On the Net:

www.philander.edu

URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/n/a/2006/01/27/national/a090033S77.DTL

By LARRY MARGASAK, Associated Press Writer 23 minutes ago

Troops and civilians at a U.S. military base in Iraq were exposed to contaminated water last year and employees for the responsible contractor, Halliburton, couldn't get their company to inform camp residents, according to interviews and internal company documents.

Halliburton, the company formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney, disputes the allegations about water problems at Camp Junction City, in Ramadi, even though they were made by its own employees and documented in company e-mails.

"We exposed a base camp population (military and civilian) to a water source that was not treated," said a July 15, 2005, memo written by William Granger, the official for Halliburton's KBR subsidiary who was in charge of water quality in Iraq and Kuwait.

"The level of contamination was roughly 2x the normal contamination of untreated water from the Euphrates River," Granger wrote in one of several documents. The Associated Press obtained the documents from Senate Democrats who are holding a public inquiry into the allegations Monday.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (news, bio, voting record), D-N.D., who will chair the session, held a number of similar inquiries last year on contracting abuses in Iraq. He said Democrats were acting on their own because they had not been able to persuade Republican committee chairmen to investigate.

The company's former water treatment expert at Camp Junction City said that he discovered the problem last March, a statement confirmed by his e-mail the day after he tested the water.

While bottled water was available for drinking, the contaminated water was used for virtually everything else, including handwashing, laundry, bathing and making coffee, said water expert Ben Carter of Cedar City, Utah.

Another former Halliburton employee who worked at the base, Ken May of Louisville, said there were numerous instances of diarrhea and stomach cramps — problems he also suffered.

A spokeswoman for Halliburton said its own inspection found neither contaminated water nor medical evidence to substantiate reports of illnesses at the base. The company now operates its own water treatment plant there, spokeswoman Melissa Norcross said.

A military medical unit that visited Camp Ramadi in mid-April found nothing out of the ordinary in terms of water quality, said Marine Corps Maj. Tim Keefe, a military spokesman. Water-quality testing records from May 23 show the water within normal parameters, he said.

"The allegations appear not to have merit," Keefe said.

Halliburton has contracts to provide a number of services to U.S. forces in Iraq and was responsible for the water quality at the base in Ramadi.

Granger's July 15 memo said the exposure had gone on for "possibly a year" and added, "I am not sure if any attempt to notify the exposed population was ever made."

The first memo on the problem — written by Carter to Halliburton officials on March 24, 2005 — was an "incident report" from tests Carter performed the previous day.

"It is my opinion that the water source is without question contaminated with numerous micro-organisms, including Coliform bacteria," Carter wrote. "There is little doubt that raw sewage is routinely dumped upstream of intake much less than the required 2 mile distance.

"Therefore, it is my conclusion that chlorination of our water tanks while certainly beneficial is not sufficient protection from parasitic exposure."

Carter said he resigned in early April after Halliburton officials did not take any action to inform the camp population.

The water expert said he told company officials at the base that they would have to notify the military. "They told me it was none of my concern and to keep my mouth shut," he said.

On at least one occasion, Carter said, he spoke to the chief military surgeon at the base, asking him whether he was aware of stomach problems afflicting people. He said the surgeon told him he would look into it.

"They brushed it under the carpet," Carter said. "I told everyone, 'Don't take showers, use bottled water."

A July 14, 2005, memo showed that Halliburton's public relations department knew of the problem.

"I don't want to turn it into a big issue right now," staff member Jennifer Dellinger wrote in the memo, "but if we end up getting some media calls I want to make sure we have all the facts so we are ready to respond."

Halliburton's performance in Iraq has been criticized in a number of military audits, and congressional Democrats have contended that the Bush administration has favored the company with noncompetitive contracts.

_____

On the Net:

Senate Democratic Policy Committee: http://democrats.senate.gov/dpc/

Halliburton: http://www.halliburton.com

Bush Says King's 'Dream' Not Yet Completed

(01-16) 19:39 PST WASHINGTON (AP) --

President Bush hailed Martin Luther King Jr. Monday as one of the greatest Americans who ever lived, but said more must be done to ensure that his dream of equality becomes a reality.

"At the dawn of this new century, America can be proud of the progress we have made toward equality, but we all must recognize we have more to do," Bush said during a Martin Luther King Jr. holiday celebration at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. "The reason to honor Martin Luther King is to remember his strength of character and his leadership, but also to remember the remaining work."

Bush told the crowd at the annual "Let Freedom Ring" performance that Congress must renew provisions of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act that are set to expire next year. The president had previously declined to support the renewal until last month, and the crowd erupted in applause when Bush insisted that it be renewed.

"We recommit ourselves to working for the dream that Martin Luther King gave his life for — an America where the dignity of every person is respected; where people are judged not by the color of their skin -- by the content of their character; and where the hope of a better tomorrow is in every neighborhood in this country," Bush said.

The president helped honor the late Rosa Parks, who died last fall, with the John Thompson Jr. Legacy of a Dream Award. Grammy-nominated gospel artist Yolanda Adams performed with a diverse choir made up of Georgetown University students and members of the Washington community.

Earlier, Bush visited the National Archives to see the original Emancipation Proclamation, which was on display for four days to mark the holiday weekend. Abraham Lincoln signed the document declaring the end of slavery in the midst of the Civil War on Jan. 1, 1863, and it is only occasionally brought out of storage because the poor quality of the paper and ink make it vulnerable to light.

"It seems fitting on Martin Luther King Day that I come and look at the Emancipation Proclamation in its original form," Bush said after putting on a pair of reading glasses to peer at the document kept in a glass case. "Abraham Lincoln recognized that all men are created equal. Martin Luther King lived on that admonition to call our country to a higher calling, and today we celebrate the life of an American who called Americans to account when we didn't live up to our ideals."

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, also paying tribute to the late civil rights leader, said he believes civil rights "are not a black, brown or white issue. They are a people's issue."

Gonzales said that as a parent and citizen and as "the attorney general for all Americans," he believes he has an obligation to help make the dream of equality come to fruition.

"I've lived that dream," he said, "and I must preserve and protect the hopes and opportunities that I have received for future generations."

On the Net:

www.whitehouse.gov