Long Beach school shaken over girl's death

LONG BEACH, Calif. (AP) - Ten-year-old Joanna Ramos died from blunt force trauma after emergency surgery for a blood clot on her brain, investigators and family members said.

As far as police can tell, the blunt force did not come from a weapon, or a wall, or a whttp://www.blogger.com/post-create.g?blogID=4320281449247754780indshield, but only the fists of another young girl whom she fought hours earlier.

While the specific circumstances of Joanna's death are especially tragic and extremely unusual, medical experts said a blow in just the right spot can often prove fatal.

"This is rare, in that I've never seen it in a female, certainly not in a female adolescent," said Dr. Keith Black, a neurosurgeon at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Black, who was not involved in Joanna's medical care, sees such injuries all the time among older patients and said a blow to the head from one young girl to another could "absolutely" be sufficient to cause enough trauma to lead to death.

Punches to the head can often lead to delayed bleeding if a vein is torn, and that can lead to a clot when blood collects on the surface of the brain,

Coroner's Lt. Fred Corral said Ramos died of blunt force trauma to the head and said her death has been ruled a homicide, but he didn't immediately have further details about her injuries.

The finding rattled the already shaken school community at Willard Elementary, where Joanna attended the fifth grade. She died Friday, about six hours after a brief fight with another girl in an alley near the school in a working-class neighborhood in the port city of Long Beach.

Joanna, who would have turned 11 on March 12, was unconscious by the time she arrived at the emergency room and underwent emergency surgery for a blood clot on her brain late Friday after she began vomiting and complained of a headache, her older sister, 17-year-old Vanessa Urbina, told The Associated Press.

"After surgery the doctor said she was still alive, and then a few minutes later he comes back and tells us that her heart stopped and they couldn't bring her back," Urbina said, crying as she sat on the steps of the school near a memorial of flowers and balloons.

Police said they have made no arrests and were conducting an investigation that will be presented to prosecutors when it's completed.

Worried parents lingered as they dropped off their children Monday in a light rain and wondered aloud how the school, tucked a few blocks off a major city street, could have become the scene of such unexpected violence.

"I'm just so confused at this moment, thinking should I take my daughter out of this school," said Victoria Pyles, whose daughter started classes at the school last week. "If this is what is going on, I don't like it. It's very scary."

School officials believe the fight occurred near the school in a 15-minute window between the time school let out and the start of Joanna's after-school program at 2:30 p.m., said Chris Eftychiou, a spokesman for the Long Beach Unified School District.

Joanna didn't have any visible injuries or show any signs of distress for about an hour, but she eventually told staff she felt unwell and was picked up by a relative, he said.

Urbina, the older sister, said Joanna's cousin picked her up. After her mother retrieved her, Joanna vomited in the car all the way home and told her mother she felt sleepy and wanted to go to bed.

Symptoms—such as headache, nausea, lethargy—may not set in for hours and people can mistakenly think that they're fine, Black said.

Typically, he said, the hit to the head would have to be fairly significant to cause a blood clot and often involves the head hitting walls or the ground, but a punch is enough.

"You can certainly get enough of an impact to get enough movement in the brain by a fist to tear a vein, if it's in the right location," Black said.

Police have said the fight lasted less than a minute, did not involve weapons, and no one was knocked to the ground.

A friend of Joanna's saw her as she reported to the after-school program after the fight and said she had blood on her knuckles from wiping at a bloody nose, said Cristina Perez, the friend's mother.

Perez said her daughter, who is 10, heard about plans for the fight, apparently over a boy, during recess earlier in the day and knew to stay away from the alley after school.

Fights involving young children, including girls, are increasing nationally, in part because of the wired world children now live in, said Travis Brown, a national expert on bullying and school violence. 

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Scientists discuss latest tsunami debris forecast

HONOLULU (AP) - Tsunamis generated by the magnitude-9 earthquake in Japan last March dragged 3 million to 4 million tons of debris into the ocean after tearing up Japanese harbors and homes.

Scientists believe ocean currents are carrying some of the lumber, refrigerators, fishing boats and other objects across the Pacific toward the United States.

One to 5 percent of the 1 million to 2 million tons of debris still in the ocean may reach Hawaii, Alaska, Oregon and Washington and British Columbia, said University of Hawaii senior researcher and ocean current expert Nikolai Maximenko.

That's only a portion of the 20 million to 25 million tons of debris the tsunamis generated altogether, including what was left on land.

Maximenko is planning to discuss his latest estimates for where the debris is and when it may wash ashore at a news conference Tuesday. Last year, his team estimated debris could arrive in Hawaii in early 2013.

Some debris appears to have already arrived in the U.S., like a half-dozen large buoys suspected to be from Japanese oyster farms found in Alaska late last year.

Nicholas Mallos, conservation biologist and marine debris specialist for the Ocean Conservancy, said many of the objects are expected to be from Japan's fishing industry. The conservancy is hosting the news conference.

Fishing gear could harm wildlife—like endangered Hawaiian monk seals—if it washes up on coral reefs or beaches.

"The major question is how much of that material has sank since last year, and how much of that remains afloat or still in the water column," Mallos said.

It's unclear whether items like refrigerators will make it across because there's little precedent for such things in the ocean.

Computer models created by the University of Hawaii indicate the debris is spread far apart across thousands of miles from the eastern coast of Japan to an area some 1,000 miles north of the Hawaiian Islands.

"The debris field is largely dispersed over a large area. And because of that dispersion, we can no longer rely on satellite imagery to track the debris," Mallos said. 

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Boy, 9, charged in Washington school shooting

PORT ORCHARD, Wash. (AP) - Preliminary criminal charges have been filed against a 9-year-old boy accused of accidentally shooting his third-grade classmate in Washington state.

A capacity hearing will be held in two weeks to determine if the charges will ultimately proceed. Under state law, children between 8 and 12 years old can face charges if a court determines the child has the capacity to understand an act is wrong.

The boy has been with unlawful possession of a gun, bringing a dangerous weapon to school and third-degree assault charges.

His bail was set at $50,000 during a preliminary hearing Thursday.

Authorities say the boy brought a .45-caliber handgun he got from his mother's house to an elementary school in Bremerton on Wednesday, and the weapon discharged from inside his backpack.

A bullet hit the 8-year-old girl in the abdomen and arm, leaving her critically wounded.

Crying and wearing an orange jail jumpsuit, a frightened 9-year-old boy accused of accidentally shooting a classmate sat before a judge in juvenile court Thursday as his father gently rubbed his back.

The scene—coming a day after police said the boy accidently shot a fellow third-grader—raised questions that will be played out in the legal system: Did he know what he did was wrong? And is anyone else responsible?

Bail was set at $50,000 during the preliminary hearing, and ultimately the court will determine whether the third-grader will face criminal charges as an 8-year-old girl remains critically wounded.

"I just want everyone to know that my kid made a mistake. It was a terrible mistake," the boy's father, Jason Cochran, said outside the courthouse.

If the bail is met, the boy would be released to his uncle and placed under house arrest. The uncle, Patrick Cochran, is the boy's legal guardian and also sat by his nephew's side in the courthouse.

"He's a good kid. It's all I can say," said Patrick Cochran. "I apologize to the family of that girl. I really do."

Authorities say the boy brought a .45-caliber handgun he got from his mother's house to an elementary school in Bremerton on Wednesday, and the weapon discharged from inside his backpack just before classes let out, critically injuring Amina Kocer-Bowman. children

Todd Dowell of the Kitsap County prosecutor's juvenile division said that under state law, children between 8 and 12 years old can face charges if a court determines the child has the capacity to understand an act is wrong. A capacity hearing in this case will be held in two weeks.

Kitsap County officials said both the child's mother and father have criminal records. Bremerton police Lt. Peter Fisher would not discuss whether authorities were investigating any adults in connection with Wednesday's shooting, and he wouldn't release further information about the investigation.

The boy's classmate remained in critical condition at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle after undergoing surgery for a gunshot wound. Dr. Eileen Bulger said the girl will likely be at the hospital for several weeks and face further surgeries. She was sedated and on a ventilator but has woken up and interacted with her parents.

On Wednesday, Bremerton police characterized the shooting at Armin Jahr Elementary as accidental. A bullet hit Kocer-Bowman in the abdomen and arm, according to authorities.

Her father, John Bowman, thanked his daughter's teacher in a statement, saying "had she not administered first aid and stopped the bleeding from the gunshot wound, this event would have surely been tragic."

The boy was being investigated for unlawful possession of a gun, bringing a dangerous weapon to school and third-degree assault charges. Authorities believe he got the weapon during a visitation with his mother over the weekend, according to charging documents released Thursday. The documents state that the boy told a classmate about five days ago that he was going to bring his "dad's gun" to school and run away. The gun discharged after the boy slammed his backpack down on a desk, the documents said.

Court documents show Jamie Lee Chaffin, who is listed as the boy's mother in a child support case, sued the boy's father for failing to pay child support. She also has been in and out of the court system, according to court documents.

In 2005, she was arrested for possession of meth in Bremerton but pleaded guilty to a drug paraphernalia charge. She also was convicted of marijuana deliver and forgery.

Twenty-seven states have some form of firearm child access prevention laws. Such laws can include criminal penalties for adults who allow children to get their hands on guns, but Washington is not one of those states, according to the San Francisco-based Legal Community Against Violence.

Gail Hammer, a law professor at Gonzaga University in Spokane, said it is very rare for a child as young as 9 to be charged with a crime. Even if a young child is convicted, he wouldn't be sent to an adult prison, Hammer said.

"Generally with young children they try to deal with it in the juvenile system," she said.

In Olympia, the Seattle Democrat who chairs the state Senate Judiciary Committee said there is a lapse in state law. "We do not hold people very accountable in this state for leaving guns around the house with small children," Sen. Adam Kline said.

Palin before resignation: I can't take it anymore

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - In the final months before she resigned as Alaska's governor, Sarah Palin displayed growing frustration over deteriorating relationships with state lawmakers and outrage over ethics complaints that she felt frivolously targeted her and prompted her to write: "I can't take it anymore."

The details are included in more than 17,000 records released Thursday by state officials—nearly 3 1/2 years after citizens and news organizations, including The Associated Press, first requested Palin's emails. The emails, most from Palin's final 10 months in office, illustrate what Palin has said all along: The intense scrutiny of her family and work was a financial and emotional drain that forced her to step down as governor.

In a March 19, 2009, email to spokeswoman Sharon Leighow and aide Kris Perry, she complained that more than 150 freedom of information requests had cost the state more than $1 million, adding: "and who knows what all the bogus ethics charges have cost the state."

She expressed anger at having to pay for her own defense, with a bill that at that point totaled more than $500,000, saying her husband had to go back to work on the North Slope because of it.

"We've all had to pay for our OWN legal defense in this political bloodsport—it's horrendous—why do you think Todd is on the slope today?" Palin wrote. "I am paying to defend in my capacity as GOVERNOR—actions taken in my official position. This is unheard of anywhere else."

She added that she had been the target of "many frivolous suits and charges since the DAY I became VP candidate. I can't afford this job."

Palin expressed frustration with the media in an April 11, 2009, email: "If there were any other way I could speak to Alaskans without going through some of these reporters, I sure would." Palin currently works as a commentator for Fox News.

By the spring of 2009, the emails show, Palin was regularly butting heads with lawmakers of both parties over her absences from the Capitol. She asked her aides to tally how many days she was out of Alaska in 2008. The staff came up with 94 days, but 10 less if you count travel days when she was in the state part of the day, The absences included all of October and most of September while she was on the campaign trail as the GOP vice presidential candidate.

"It's unacceptable, and there must be push back on their attempts to lame duck this administration," Palin wrote to her top aides on April 9.

Citizens and news organizations, including the AP, first requested Palin's emails in September 2008, as part of her vetting as the Republican vice presidential nominee. The state released a batch of the emails last June, a lag of nearly three years that was attributed to the sheer volume of the records and the flood of requests stemming from Palin's tenure.

The 24,199 pages of emails that were released last year ended in September 2008, as she was campaigning with GOP presidential nominee John McCain. Thursday's release includes 17,736 records, or 34,820 pages, generally spanning from October 2008 until Palin's resignation as Alaska governor, in July 2009.

Tim Crawford, treasurer of Sarah Palin's political action committee, on Thursday encouraged everyone to read the emails. "They show a governor hard at work for her state," he said.

Several media organizations, including msnbc.com, said they were not informed of Thursday's release.

Leighow, now a spokeswoman for the current governor, Sean Parnell, said records in the governor's office indicated that msnbc.com did not request the second group of emails but she said a CD containing the documents was being sent to their offices because it contained emails inadvertently omitted from the first release.

Palin's frustration over a series of ethics complaints filed against her, one of the issues she cited when stepping down, emerges in an April 2009 email in which she commiserated over a story indicating another ethics complaint was to be filed: "Unflippinbelievable... I'm sending this because you can relate to the bullcrap continuation of the hell these people put the family through," she wrote to aides Ivy Frye and Frank Bailey.

Later that day, in an email to her husband and two top aides, on the issue, she said: "I can't take it anymore."

Earlier, after a Feb. 18, 2009, Washington Post story titled, "Back Home in Alaska, Palin finds cold comfort," was pointed out to her, she emailed her husband. "Would you pray for our strength. And for God to totally turn things around... Enough is enough. May we see victories and feel His hand of mercy and grace." He replies, "I did." 

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Wisconsin mayor in drinking scandal loses recall vote

(Reuters) - The mayor of a Wisconsin town whose heavy drinking last summer sparked pressure to step down lost a special election on Tuesday to a former Democratic state representative.

First-term Sheboygan Mayor Bob Ryan, 48, lost the first mayoral recall election in the city's history to Terry Van Akkeren, 57.

Van Akkeren received about 53 percent of the votes cast to Ryan's 46 percent, according to unofficial returns from the city clerk's office.

More than 4,000 Sheboygan voters had signed petitions to force the recall after Ryan was caught on tape making sordid jokes about a sister-in-law and was photographed passed out in a tavern during a drinking binge last summer.

Ryan had said on Monday he believed the recall election may have served as an intervention. He has said he has not had a drink for months.

"I have nothing to be ashamed of," Ryan said Tuesday after learning of the results, adding that he would not run again for mayor, "but maybe I'll write a book."

Ryan had said he believed the election should be about who could best bring jobs to Sheboygan, a city on Lake Michigan's western shore about midway between Milwaukee and Green Bay.

"The people have spoken," said Van Akkeren, who is expected to be sworn in as mayor on March 5.

Van Akkeren, whose son and son-in-law serve on the city council, had said the election should focus on the character of the mayor, which he said had led to Sheboygan being ridiculed by Jay Leno and others.

Ryan beat Van Akkeren to become mayor three years ago, but Van Akkeren defeated Ryan on Tuesday by about 750 votes and carried all but four of the city's 26 wards, according to the unofficial returns.

Ryan and Van Akkeren finished first and second respectively in an eight-way election on January 17. Since Ryan did not receive a majority of votes cast, a runoff election was called.

Van Akkeren drew broad support from labor after Ryan cut collective bargaining for many public sector workers under a state law passed last year. Van Akkeren said Tuesday he could not reinstate collective bargaining, as he had pledged to do if elected, but could give workers "a place at the table."

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Obama sings at White House blues show

President Barack Obama broke into song at a White House blues show, as Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger urged a reluctant US leader to step up and sing a few lines.

"Not tonight!" the US leader protested as Jagger and blues legends B.B. King and Buddy Guy invited him to singalong to the classic "Sweet Home Chicago."

To cheers from the audience, a smiling Obama sang parts of the tune, an ode to his adopted hometown, originally made famous by the legendary bluesman Robert Johnson.

Obama singing soul legend Al Green's "Let's Stay Together" was a sure-fire hit last month, garnering positive coverage on cable news and online -- one of the videos of him crooning "I'm so in love with you," at New York's famed Apollo Theater in Harlem, has been viewed over five million times on YouTube.

Earlier Jagger, 68, delivered some bluesy rock in his renowned dancing swagger in the East Room of the US presidential mansion at the "Red, White and Blues" event, singing "I Can't Turn You Loose."

He also let loose "Commit a Crime" with fellow British rocker Jeff Beck.

As president, Obama told the audience, "some nights when you want to go out and just take a walk, clear your head, or jump into a car just to take a drive, you can't do it. Secret Service won't let you. And that's frustrating.

"But then there are other nights where B.B. King and Mick Jagger come over to your house to play for a concert. So I guess things even out a little bit," he joked.

Obama said at the event that the blues remained a popular and powerful genre.

"This music speaks to something universal. No one goes through life without both joy and pain, triumph and sorrow, the blues gets all of that, sometimes with just a lyric or just one note," Obama said. 

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The nation's weather

A strong winter storm continues moving through the central U.S. on Tuesday.

A low pressure system that brought snowy and windy conditions to the Central and Northern Plains will advance northeastward toward the Great Lakes. This will bring snow showers to the Upper Midwest and Great Lakes throughout the day. Moisture will be limited with this system, so most areas will see 1 to 2 inches of new snow.

Strong winds will accompany this system with gusts between 20 to 30 mph. The southern side of this system will remain in the 40s, thus supporting freezing rain and rain showers across the Midwest. Rainfall accumulation from the Mid-Mississippi River Valley through the Ohio River Valley will be less than a half of an inch. This fast moving system will reach into the Northeast late in the evening hours, bringing rain and snow to the region.

In the West, a strong low pressure system spinning in the Gulf of Alaska will continue pushing waves of energy over the Pacific Northwest. Flow from the west continues pulling abundant moisture onshore, allowing for more rain and high elevation snow showers to develop. Expect another 4 to 8 inches of new snow over Idaho and western Montana, while 9 to 13 inches of new snow are likely across the far northern Washington Cascades.

Rainfall totals at lower elevations and along the coasts will range from 0.50 to 1.0 inches on Tuesday. High pressure to the south will keep most of California dry with mostly sunny skies. Temperatures in the Lower 48 states Monday have ranged from a morning low of -11 degrees at Stanley, Idaho, to a high of 79 degrees at Harlingen, Texas. 

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Pastor dies 5 months after Fla. church shooting

LAKELAND, Fla. (AP) - Prosecutors are awaiting the results of an autopsy on the body of a Florida pastor found dead in his home last week, five months after he was seriously wounded in a shooting at a church.

The Ledger of Lakeland ( http://bit.ly/yNXxmt) reports that prosecutors will use the results to determine whether to file murder charges against 57-year-old Jeremiah Fogle.

Polk County Sheriff's officials have previously accused Fogle of killing his wife before heading to the Greater Faith Christian Center Church and shooting the Rev. Carl Stewart and another pastor, who was injured but survived and has since returned to the pulpit. 

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2 minor injuries as plane clips copter in Calif.

RIO VISTA, Calif. (AP) - A small plane and a helicopter clipped each other over Northern California Sunday night, leaving two pilots with minor injuries, officials said.

The six-seat Beechcraft Bonanza crashed just short of an airport, while the two-seat Robinson R22 helicopter landed in a field just off state Highway 160.

The accident occurred about 7 p.m. about eight miles south of the small Rio Vista Municipal Airport, halfway between Oakland and Sacramento along the Sacramento River, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said.

The two pilots were taken to hospitals with minor injuries, Sacramento County sheriff's Deputy Jason Ramos said.

It was not clear if anyone else was aboard either aircraft.

The plane went down near the airport it was trying to reach in Byron, some 20 miles to the south.

Both aircraft had private owners, according to FAA records. 

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Winter storm dumps snow on South, many lose power

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) - A winter storm on Sunday dumped several inches of snow on a band of southern states, triggering accidents on slippery roads and knocking out power to tens of thousands.

The storm brought wet snow to parts of Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.

In northern Tennessee, about 20 vehicles were involved in crashes along a three-mile stretch of Interstate 75 near the Kentucky border on Sunday afternoon.

Tennessee Highway Patrol Sgt. Stacy Heatherly said the crashes were reported shortly before 2 p.m. Sunday in near "white-out" conditions caused by heavy snowfall and fog. Police said a juvenile was seriously injured. All lanes of Interstate 75 had reopened by early evening.

Dozens of wrecks were also reported in North Carolina as snow, sleet and rain fell with little accumulation, according to The Winston-Salem Journal.

In Virginia, the northbound lanes of Interstate 95 were shut down following a two-vehicle crash that critically injured one man, The Richmond Times-Dispatch reported. The accident was reported at about 6:20 p.m. on I-95 near the interchange with Interstate 295 in Prince George County. The male diver of one vehicle suffered life-threatening injuries, and an adult male passenger in his vehicle was hospitalized.

Snow began sticking in the Richmond area after dark, and Virginia State Police had responded to about 350 crashes by early evening. 

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Calif. university backs chancellor's leadership

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - Faculty members at a California university where campus police pepper-sprayed a group of peaceful Occupy protesters have voted against a motion that would have expressed a lack of confidence in the ability of the school's chancellor to lead the campus, university officials said Friday.

Members of the University of California, Davis Academic Senate had two weeks to vote on a motion that would have expressed "no-confidence" in Chancellor Linda Katehi's leadership after the widely condemned pepper-spray incident.

The final tally showed faculty members voted 697-312 against the motion, officials said.

In a companion motion, faculty voted 586-408 in favor of expressing confidence in Katehi's leadership but condemning the use of pepper spray during the Nov. 18 incident.

The motions are nonbinding but could influence UC leaders as they consider the future of the 57-year-old Katehi, who became chancellor of the 32,000-student campus in 2009.

The faculty vote came three months after a campus police officer doused pepper-spray on sitting students who had set up an Occupy Wall Street encampment on campus. Widely circulated videos of the incident sparked national outrage and a debate over the use of police force in responding to Occupy protests.

After the incident, Katehi apologized to the campus community for the "appalling use of pepper spray." The Greek-born chancellor said she had ordered police to remove the tents but avoid arrests and violence.

The vote prompted a contentious debate among faculty members, but UC spokesman Steve Montiel released a statement late Friday describing President Mark Yudof as "gratified" by the results and expressing his support of Katehi.

During the voting period, philosophy professor David Copp urged his colleagues to approve the no-confidence measure. "A wise leader would not have ordered the police to act against non-violent demonstrators," he wrote in a statement supporting the motion. 

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Attorneys try to save 9/11 detainee from death penalty

The nephew of the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks does not deserve the death penalty, his attorneys argue in court documents filed on Friday.

Pakistani Ali Abdul Aziz Ali, 34, is accused of helping to plot the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks against the United States.

He is imprisoned at the US military prison at Guantanamo, Cuba, where he is approaching a trial before a military court.

However, James Connell, one of his attorneys, told AFP that Aziz Ali played a "relatively minor role in the conspiracy" that "would not justify the death penalty under the US standards."

Aziz Ali, also known as Amar Al-Baluchi, is the nephew of alleged September 11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and a cousin of Ramzi Yousef, who set a bomb that detonated in the basement of the World Trade Center in 1993.

"There are strict rules in the US to whom the death penalty can apply," Connell said. "It only can apply to people who were either masterminds of plots or actually carried out a killing, and our argument is Mr Al-Baluchi doesn't fall in either of those categories so he's not eligible for the death penalty, even under military law."

Aziz Ali is accused of following his uncle's orders to repeatedly send funds to the September 11 terrorists to help them pay for their flying lessons in the United States.

He allegedly tried to join them but his application for an entry visa into the United States was rejected in August 2001.

Five other accused September 11 conspirators await military trials. Guantanamo detainees who face possible death penalties include Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, his nephew and three other prisoners.

Lawyers for Aziz Ali urged in a document they filed Friday that the military court follow the example in the case of Guantanamo detainee Majid Khan Shoukat. He avoided the death penalty when the Defense Department filed "non-capital charges" against him, which bring a maximum sentence of life in prison.

The more serious "capital charges" could bring the death penalty.

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New York Times correspondent Shadid dies in Syria

NEW YORK (AP) - New York Times correspondent Anthony Shadid, a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who strove to capture untold stories in Middle East conflicts from Libya to Iraq, died Thursday in eastern Syria after slipping into the country to report on the uprising against its president.

Shadid, shot in the West Bank in 2002 and kidnapped for six days in Libya last year, apparently died of an asthma attack, the Times said. Times photographer Tyler Hicks was with him and carried his body to Turkey, the newspaper said.

"Anthony was one of our generation's finest reporters," Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger said in a statement. "He was also an exceptionally kind and generous human being. He brought to his readers an up-close look at the globe's many war-torn regions, often at great personal risk. We were fortunate to have Anthony as a colleague, and we mourn his death."

Shadid's father, Buddy Shadid, told The Associated Press on Thursday his son had asthma all his life and had medication with him.

"(But) he was walking to the border because it was too dangerous to ride in the car," the father said. "He was walking behind some horses—he's more allergic to those than anything else—and he had an asthma attack."

The Times reported that Shadid and Hicks recently were helped by smugglers through the border area in Turkey adjoining Syria's Idlib Province and were met by guides on horseback.

Hicks told the newspaper that Shadid suffered one bout of asthma the first night, followed by a more severe attack a week later on the way out.

"I stood next to him and asked if he was OK, and then he collapsed," Hicks told the Times.

Hicks said that Shadid was unconscious and that his breathing was "very faint" and "very shallow." He said that after a few minutes he could see that Shadid "was no longer breathing."

Shadid, a 43-year-old American of Lebanese descent, had a wife, Nada Bakri, and a son and a daughter. He had worked previously for the AP, The Washington Post and The Boston Globe. He won Pulitzer Prizes for international reporting in 2004, when he was with the Post, and in 2010, when with the Times, for his Iraq coverage.

In 2004, the Pulitzer Board praised "his extraordinary ability to capture, at personal peril, the voices and emotions of Iraqis as their country was invaded, their leader toppled and their way of life upended."

Shadid also was the author of three books, including "House of Stone: A Memoir of Home, Family, and a Lost Middle East," in which he wrote about restoring his family's home in Lebanon, forthcoming next month from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.

Shadid was a native of Oklahoma City and graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He joined the AP in Milwaukee in 1990, worked on the International Desk in New York and served as the AP's news editor in Los Angeles. He was transferred to Cairo in 1995, covering stories in several countries.

AP Senior Managing Editor John Daniszewski, who worked with Shadid in Baghdad during the U.S. invasion in 2003, called him "a brilliant colleague who stood out both for his elegant writing and for his deep and nuanced understanding of the region."

"He was calm under fire and quietly daring, the most admired of his generation of foreign correspondents," Daniszewski said.

Ralph Nader, the former third-party presidential candidate, called Shadid "a great, great reporter."

"His courage, stamina, intellect and extraordinary powers of observation respected his readers' intelligence while elevating his profession's standards," the longtime consumer advocate said in a statement.

Nader added in a phone call to the AP that he knew Shadid from his time at The Washington Post and had met his family. 

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New Jersey lawmakers approve gay marriage, veto looms

Lawmakers in the US state of New Jersey approved a bill legalizing same-sex marriage, but the measure appeared likely to stall as Republican Governor Chris Christie has pledged to veto it.

The state's General Assembly on Thursday voted 42-33 in favor of the measure, following the Senate's approval earlier this week. The measure is now to be sent to Christie on Friday.

Christie, a rising star in the Republican party who supports White House hopeful Mitt Romney and has been mentioned as a possible vice-presidential candidate, has repeatedly said he will not approve the bill.

"I am not a fan of same-sex marriage," Christie said in a recent television interview.

"It's not something that I support. I believe marriage should be between one man and one woman. That's my view. And that'll be the view of our state because I wouldn't sign a bill like the one that was in New York."

Christie has said he would support a referendum on the issue.

So far, seven US states -- Connecticut, Iowa, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York, Vermont and Washington -- and the District of Columbia have legalized same-sex marriages.

A group of 80 US mayors -- including New York's Michael Bloomberg, Chicago's Rahm Emanuel, Antonio Villaraigosa from Los Angeles and Annise Parker from Houston -- last month unveiled a campaign to win support for same-sex marriage.

Gay marriage was briefly authorized in California in 2008, but later banned by a referendum re-writing the state's constitution to restrict marriage to unions between a man and a woman. 

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Obama raising campaign cash in California

LOS ANGELES (AP) - President Barack Obama pitched for blue-collar jobs and then dashed for campaign cash on Wednesday, embarking on a three-day West Coast trip to haul in millions of dollars for his re-election bid.

Obama's day brought him from the factory floor of a Milwaukee padlock manufacturer to the posh home of a Hollywood soap opera producer, where 1,000 people paid hundreds of dollars apiece to support Obama and listen to the rock band the Foo Fighters. The messages throughout the day—from policies to spur job growth to the need to mobilize for a tough campaign ahead—are intertwined as Obama seeks re-election.

"It's not going to be easier this time. It's going to be harder this time," Obama said Wednesday night at the home of Bradley Bell, the executive producer of "The Bold and the Beautiful," at an event attended by notables that included actors Jack Black and Rashida Jones. "People out there are hurting and they need us to do more."

The president later attended a swanky dinner at Bell's Holmby Hills home that included actors George Clooney, James Belushi and other guests paying $35,800 each. Will Ferrell was a co-host of the event but was filming in New Orleans and did not attend.

The president recalled a common refrain from former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo, who said, "campaigning is poetry and governance is prose."

"We've been slogging through prose for the last three years," Obama said, noting that "people, they like the poetry." He acknowledged that some of his supporters remain frustrated that the war in Afghanistan has yet to end and the U.S. naval prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, remains open.

"I understand that. I feel the same way sometimes," he said.

Obama was spending the night at the Beverly Hilton, the same hotel where singer Whitney Houston died on Saturday.

California traditionally has been a fundraising mecca for Democrats—and a reliably blue state—and Obama's campaign was expected to collect millions from six events in Los Angeles and San Francisco over two days. He was wrapping up the week with two fundraisers in the Seattle area.

The president raised more than $220 million for his campaign and the Democratic National Committee in 2011 and is trying to use a protracted Republican presidential primary to build a financial buffer zone to help his cause in the November general election. Democrats have warned that outside groups supporting Republicans will pour hundreds of millions of dollars into the campaign to target Obama.

Obama was making his first fundraising trip outside Washington since his campaign announced it would encourage supporters to donate to a Democratic super PAC backing Obama's campaign. Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and their wives do not plan to appear at events for the super PAC, Priorities USA.

It was also Obama's first trip to Hollywood since Congress delayed action on legislation cracking down on online piracy. The legislation was pushed by the film industry and garnered major opposition from Internet companies before it stalled, pitting two Democratic constituencies against each other.

Obama has said any legislation must protect intellectual property that creates jobs in the U.S., while still respecting the integrity of the Internet as an open system. The president made no mention of the issue during remarks to the large audience of activists.

Obama started his day in Milwaukee, where he called for tax cuts for American manufacturers and higher taxes for companies that move overseas, pressing what he hopes will be a winning campaign issue. He also acknowledged that many factories have closed, their jobs have gone overseas and a lot of them "are not going to come back." 

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Interracial marriage in US hits new high: 1 in 12

WASHINGTON (AP) - Interracial marriages in the U.S. have climbed to 4.8 million—a record 1 in 12—as a steady flow of new Asian and Hispanic immigrants expands the pool of prospective spouses. Blacks are now substantially more likely than before to marry whites.

A Pew Research Center study, released Thursday, details a diversifying America where interracial unions and the mixed-race children they produce are challenging typical notions of race.

"The rise in interracial marriage indicates that race relations have improved over the past quarter century," said Daniel Lichter, a sociology professor at Cornell University. "Mixed-race children have blurred America's color line. They often interact with others on either side of the racial divide and frequently serve as brokers between friends and family members of different racial backgrounds," he said. "But America still has a long way to go."

The figures come from previous censuses as well as the 2008-2010 American Community Survey, which surveys 3 million households annually. The figures for "white" refer to those whites who are not of Hispanic ethnicity. For purposes of defining interracial marriages, Hispanic is counted as a race by many in the demographic field.

The study finds that 8.4 percent of all current U.S. marriages are interracial, up from 3.2 percent in 1980. While Hispanics and Asians remained the most likely, as in previous decades, to marry someone of a different race, the biggest jump in share since 2008 occurred among blacks, who historically have been the most segregated.

States in the West where Asian and Hispanic immigrants are more numerous, including Hawaii, Nevada, New Mexico and California, were among the most likely to have couples who "marry out"—more than 1 in 5. The West was followed by the South, Northeast and Midwest. By state, mostly white Vermont had the lowest rate of intermarriage, at 4 percent.

In all, more than 15 percent of new marriages in 2010 were interracial.

The numbers also coincide with Pew survey data showing greater public acceptance of mixed marriage, coming nearly half a century after the Supreme Court in 1967 barred race-based restrictions on marriage. (In 2000, Alabama became the last state to lift its unenforceable ban on interracial marriages.) About 83 percent of Americans say it is "all right for blacks and whites to date each other," up from 48 percent in 1987. As a whole, about 63 percent of those surveyed say it "would be fine" if a family member were to marry outside their own race.

Minorities, young adults, the higher educated and those living in Western or Northeast states were more likely to say mixed marriages are a change for the better for society. The figure was 61 percent for 18- to 29-year-olds, for instance, compared to 28 percent for those 65 and older.

Due to increasing interracial marriages, multiracial Americans are a small but fast-growing demographic group, making up about 9 million, or 8 percent of the minority population. Together with blacks, Hispanics and Asians, the Census Bureau estimates they collectively will represent a majority of the U.S. population by mid-century.

"Race is a social construct; race isn't real," said Jonathan Brent, 28. The son of a white father and Japanese-American mother, Brent helped organize multiracial groups in southern California and believes his background helps him understand situations from different perspectives. 

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Washington governor signs gay marriage law

(Reuters) - Washington state became the seventh in the nation to put a law on its books recognizing same-sex marriage on Monday, as opponents of the measure signed by Governor Christine Gregoire vowed to try to prevent it from ever taking effect.

The measure, which won final approval from state lawmakers last Wednesday, remains essentially on hold until at least early June, following a standard enactment period that runs until 90 days after Washington's legislative session ends.

Opponents launched their own campaign on Monday to seek the statute's repeal at the polls in November through a ballot measure that could delay enactment further or halt it entirely.

Still, the bill-signing marked another key victory for gay rights advocates after a federal appeals court declared a voter-approved gay marriage ban in California unconstitutional last week, and the New Jersey state Senate approved a same-sex marriage bill earlier on Monday.

Gregoire, a Democrat and a Catholic, signed Washington's measure to raucous applause during a ceremony in the ornate reception room of the Olympia statehouse, declaring, "This is a very proud moment. ... I'm proud of who and what we are as a state."

Anticipating a repeal campaign that lies ahead, she added, "I ask all Washingtonians to look into your hearts and ask yourselves -- isn't it time? ... We in this state stand proud for equality."

Several dozen protesters, including members of the group Knights of Columbus, stood silently in the Capitol Rotunda overlooking the reception hall holding signs with slogans espousing marriages of "one man, one woman."

The issue is also likely to figure in the state's Republican presidential politics. Republican presidential contender Rick Santorum, a staunch conservative and outspoken foe of same-sex marriage, was making two stops in Washington state on Monday in advance of the Republican caucuses there on March 3.

He was to meet with Republican lawmakers in Olympia in the afternoon, then give a speech in Tacoma on Monday night.

Democrats, who control both legislative bodies in Olympia, accounted for the lion's share of support for the gay-marriage bill, which gained momentum after Gregoire, who is in her last term of office, said last month she would endorse such a law.

Several prominent Washington-based companies employing tens of thousands of workers in the state have supported the bill, including Microsoft, Amazon and Starbucks. Opponents were led by Roman Catholic bishops and other religious conservatives.

"Marriage is society's way of bringing men and women together so that children can be raised by, and cared for by, their mother and father," said Joseph Backholm, head of the Family Policy Institute of Washington.

"It is the most-important, child-focused institution of society, and we will fight to preserve it. Voters will have the opportunity to define marriage in our state."

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Hearse arrives at NJ funeral home handling Houston

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - A hearse under heavy police escort arrived late Monday at a funeral home officials said was handling the arrangements for late pop star Whitney Houston.

The hearse traveled from Teterboro Airport, where officials had told The Associated Press Houston's body would arrive Monday night on a flight from the Los Angeles area.

Several officials familiar with funeral planning said arrangements were being made by Newark's Whigham Funeral Home, which handled the 2003 funeral of Houston's father. They spoke to the AP on Monday on condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to speak for Houston's family.

Houston died Saturday at a hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. She was 48. Officials say she was underwater and apparently unconscious when she was pulled from a bathtub.

Houston was born in Newark and was raised in nearby East Orange.

A woman at the funeral home, where several police officers were stationed, said she could neither confirm nor deny reports that it would handle the arrangements. A white tent was set up leading into the funeral home's rear entrance, and two opulent golden sarcophaguses stood at the front entrance.

About a dozen Houston fans went to the funeral home, where they played her songs, sang and lit candles to remember her.

Houston's family raised the possibility of holding a wake Thursday and a funeral Friday at Newark's Prudential Center, which hosts college and professional sporting events and seats about 18,000 people. City officials were awaiting the family's arrival to complete the funeral planning.

A picture of Houston appeared Monday night on the electronic board outside the arena, one of the nation's busiest entertainment venues, with a New Jersey Devils game Friday night posing a logistical challenge to a planned funeral that day.

Houston began singing as a child at Newark's New Hope Baptist Church, where her mother, Grammy-winning gospel singer Cissy Houston, led the music program for many years. Her cousin singer Dionne Warwick also sang in its choir.

On Monday, mourners left flowers, balloons and candles for Houston at the wrought-iron fence around the tall brick church, which sits near the edge of an abandoned housing project near the train line leading to New York City.

"She was an inspiration to everybody," said Gregory Hanks, an actor who grew up in the neighborhood and who dropped off a bouquet of flowers.

Hanks said he saw Houston perform at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center years ago.

"I grew up listening to her as a little boy, and to hear her sing, you knew she was special," the 26-year-old said.

Sandy Farrow, a technology consultant from Mitchellville, Md., who was in the area visiting relatives, said she was a senior at Clifford J. Scott High School in East Orange when Houston was a freshman.

"We felt like she put East Orange on the map," she said.

Farrow said Houston's death came as a shock.

"We lost somebody who I thought, after all her troubles, was coming back," Farrow said.

Across the street from the church, Bashir Rasheed set up shop with a duffel bag full of T-shirts reading "In Memory of Whitney Houston 1963-2012." He said he had sold 24 shirts at $10 apiece within a few hours.

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Adele triumphs at Grammys, clouded by Houston death

British soul diva Adele made a triumphant return to the stage at the Grammys, winning a clean sweep of six awards and a standing ovation, in a show clouded by the death of Whitney Houston.

The 23-year-old Londoner, who has been out of action since October to undergo throat surgery, wowed a star-studded audience with a storming rendition of her worldwide hit "Rolling in the Deep."

The tune won best song Grammy, to add to Adele's haul of awards for best record, best album for her breakthrough "21," best short video, best pop album and best pop artist -- wins in all six categories in which she was nominated.

"This record is inspired by something that is really normal .. just a rubbish relationship," said Adele, adding: "It's been the most life-changing year."

"Oh, I got a bit of snot!" she said in her trademark cockney accent, wiping her nose and fighting back tears at the climax of the three-and-a-half hour show, which ended with a Beatles medley led by Paul McCartney.

The other hotly-anticipated comeback of the night was by iconic 1960s California surfer band the Beach Boys, who played together live on stage for the first time in over two decades.

A three-song tribute started with a close-harmony version of "Surfer Girl" by Maroon 5, and then the falsetto strains of "Wouldn't It Be Nice" by Foster the People, against a backdrop of multicolor surf boards.

After a standing ovation, the Beach Boys themselves, all now in their 60s, then took to the stage to play "Good Vibrations," with famously glum-looking Brian Wilson almost smiling as he hit the high notes with his old bandmates.

Another blast from the past came in the form of country legend Glen Campbell, currently on a farewell tour after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's, who had the audience singing along with his classic "Rhinestone Cowboy."

But while Adele was the big winner, the show was punctuated with tributes to Houston, the 1980s and 1990s superstar who died on Saturday at age 48 at the Beverly Hilton hotel on the eve of the US music industry's big awards night.

The Grammy show began with a prayer for Houston from host LL Cool J.

"There is no way around this. We've had a death in our family," he said, adding: "The only thing that feels right is to begin with a prayer for a woman who we loved, for our fallen sister."

The audience, with stars including McCartney in the front row, then watched a clip of Houston singing one of her greatest hits, "I Will Always Love You," and gave her a standing ovation.

"Whitney, we will always love you," said the US rapper host. "This night is about something truly universal and healing; this night is about music."

Later in the show, singer Jennifer Hudson -- who was presented with a Grammy by Houston in 2009 -- gripped the audience in silence with a classy rendition of "I Will Always Love You," the smash hit from Houston's film "The Bodyguard."

"Whitney, we love you," she said as she closed the performance sung to a piano accompaniment, spotlighted in the dark in a plain black dress.

Houston's family issued a statement before the show, saying: "We are devastated by the loss of our beloved Whitney. This is an unimaginable tragedy and we will miss her terribly." 

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More human remains found at Calif. ranch

 LINDEN, Calif. (AP) - Authorities on Sunday unearthed more skull fragments and other human remains, along with clothes, a purse and jewelry, in a well in rural Northern California, an area where a convicted serial killer said there may be 10 or more victims.

The remains and other items were found 45 feet deep in the well on an abandoned cattle ranch near Linden, Calif., San Joaquin County sheriff's spokesman Deputy Les Garcia said in a statement.

After two days of searching the site, investigators, public works employees and volunteers have found more than 300 human bones, Garcia said. The search would resume Monday if weather allowed.

Sunday marked the fourth straight day that remains have been found with the help of a map prepared by death row inmate Wesley Shermantine. He and childhood friend Loren Herzog became known as the "Speed Freak Killers" for a methamphetamine-fueled killing spree that had as many as 15 victims.

A piece of a human skull and bones found Saturday at the ranch will be sent to the Department of Justice in the hopes of identifying them through DNA testing, Garcia said. Dental records identified remains found Thursday in Calaveras County as those of 25-year-old Cyndi Vanderheiden, who disappeared in 1988.

Another set of remains were found Friday in the same area, and the parents of a missing 16-year-old girl have said authorities told them that Shermantine said their daughter was buried in that spot decades ago.

Shermantine was convicted of four murders and sentenced to death. Herzog was convicted of three murders and sentenced to 77 years to life in prison, though that was later reduced to 14 years. An appeals court tossed his first-degree murder convictions after ruling his confession was illegally obtained.

Herzog was paroled in 2010 to a trailer outside the High Desert State Prison in Susanville. He committed suicide outside that trailer last month after Sacramento bounty hunter Leonard Padilla told him Shermantine was disclosing the location of the well along with two other locations.

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Woman pleads guilty in NY newborn kidnap case

NEW YORK (AP) - A woman who snatched a newborn baby from a New York City hospital in 1987, then raised the child as her own for more than two decades, pleaded guilty to a kidnapping charge Friday as the girl's true mother wept in the courtroom.

Ann Pettway, 51, appeared resigned to a life behind bars as she entered the plea at a federal courthouse in Manhattan. Her voice was flat as she briefly recounted how she took a train from her home in Bridgeport, Conn., to Harlem Hospital, where she scooped up Carlina White, a 3-week-old baby who had been brought to the emergency room by her parents.

"I went to the hospital. I took a child," she said. "It was wrong."

Pettway said little else during the hearing, and offered no explanation for why she would so such a thing. As part of her plea bargain, prosecutors agreed to recommend between 10 and 12 1/2 years in prison, although the actual term will be set by a judge.

As Pettway admitted her guilt, Carlina's birth mother, Joy White, quietly cried in the courtroom gallery. Afterward, she told reporters that she was outraged at the plea bargain, and felt a decade in prison would be too light a punishment for the woman who had robbed her so cruelly. Justice, she said, would be a term of 23 years, one for every year she was separated from her daughter.

"I've lost 23 years of being with my daughter," she said, adding that those decades were filled with pain and heartache.

White said she still remembers encountering Pettway at the hospital on the day her daughter disappeared. She said the kidnapper was dressed like a nurse. "She came up to me and said to me, `Don't cry. Your daughter is going to be OK.'"

A judge set a tentative sentencing date of May 14.

The sensational mystery of the baby's kidnapping was one that had stymied police for decades. In the end, the case was solved by Carlina herself.

As she grew up in Bridgeport under the name Nejdra Nance, White had become increasingly suspicious of her own identity. Pettway ultimately told her a part-truth. She admitted that she was someone else's daughter, but claimed she had been willingly given away by a drug addict.

White eventually took to browsing the website of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for clues to her identity. After matching a photo of herself with one on the site, she tracked down her true mother. The two reunited in January of 2011. A DNA test later confirmed they were mother and child. 

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Bombings hit Syria, Saudis push for peace at U.N.

(Reuters) - Violence flared across Syria, including bomb attacks that killed at least 28 people in Aleppo, while at the United Nations diplomats said a new effort was afoot to gain backing for an Arab peace plan to end 11 months of bloodshed in the country.

The two Aleppo bombings on Friday were the worst attack to hit the country's commercial hub during the revolt against the 42-year dynastic rule by the family of President Bashar al-Assad.

Mangled bodies and severed limbs lay on the pavement outside the military and security service buildings that were targeted - as shown in live footage on Syrian television, which has consistently portrayed the revolt against President Assad as the work of foreign-backed "terrorists".

No one claimed responsibility for the Aleppo bombings but they took place as Assad's forces grow more ferocious in operations to crush the uprising. Some opposition figures accused the government of manipulating events to discredit them.

Friday saw more unrest across the country, with activists reporting that security forces opened fire in Latakia, in the town of Dael in Deraa province, and elsewhere to break up demonstrations taking place after weekly Muslim prayers.

In Damascus, members of the Free Syrian Army fought for four hours with troops backed by armored vehicles who had entered al-Qaboun neighborhood in the north of the capital during a protest one mile from the main Abbaside Square, activists said.

The rebels said they had sustained several casualties but it was not known if any had died of their wounds.

In the western city of Homs, where a week of bombardments has killed dozens of civilians and drawn condemnation from world leaders, four people were killed in the opposition-held neighborhoods of Baba Amro and Bab Sebaa, the activist Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Troops also opened fire as worshippers left a mosque in Homs after Friday prayers.

Activists in Homs said shelling started up again in the morning and they feared a big push was imminent to storm residential areas of the city that has come to symbolize the plight of those opposing the Assad government.

"The carnage in Homs continues and the martyrdom of the Syrian people continues," French Foreign Ministry spokesman Bernard Valero said. "Not only are we seeing an army that is massacring its own people, but for the Syrian army hospitals and doctors have become systematic targets for repression."

SAUDI PLAN AT UNITED NATIONS

At the United Nations, Saudi Arabia circulated a draft resolution backing an Arab peace plan for Syria among members of the U.N. General Assembly on Friday after a similar text was vetoed in the Security Council last week by Russia and China, diplomats said.

The new draft appeared as two advisers to U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon repeated a warning that Syrian government attacks on civilians could amount to crimes against humanity.

Like the failed council resolution, the assembly draft "fully supports" the Arab League plan floated last month, which among other things calls for President Assad to step aside.

Russia and China cast their vetoes in the council last Saturday saying the draft there was unbalanced and failed to blame Syria's opposition, along with the government, for violence that has killed over 5,000 people, according to U.N. figures.

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