Suspect in shooting near White House arrested

WASHINGTON (AP) — A man with an apparent obsession with President Barack Obama has been arrested in Pennsylvania after the Secret Service discovered two bullets struck the White House while the president was away, authorities said Wednesday.

One bullet smashed into a window of the living quarters of the executive mansion but was stopped by ballistic glass.

The arrest of Oscar Ramiro Ortega-Hernandez, 21, came days after reports of shots fired on Friday night near the White House while Obama and his wife Michelle were on a trip to California and Hawaii. The president has since traveled on to Australia, second stop on a nine-day Asia-Pacific tour, and the White House had no comment on the unfolding events.

The U.S. Secret Service said it discovered Tuesday that the two bullets hit the White House. U.S. Park Police had earlier linked Ortega, a 21-year-old man from Idaho Falls, Idaho, to the reports of gunfire.

A U.S. Park Police crime bulletin issued before Ortega's arrest said he is known to have mental health issues, adding "Ortega should be considered unstable with violent tendencies."

Authorities are investigating his mental health and say there are indications he believed his attack on the White House was part of a personal mission from God, according to a law enforcement official. There are also indications the man had become obsessed with Obama and the White House, according to two officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

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Crackdowns reach epicenter of Wall Street protests

NEW YORK (AP) — Crackdowns against the Occupy Wall Street encampments across the country reached the epicenter of the movement Tuesday, when police rousted protesters from a Manhattan park and a judge ruled that their free speech rights do not extend to pitching a tent and setting up camp for months at a time.

It was a potentially devastating setback. If crowds of demonstrators return to Zuccotti Park, they will not be allowed to bring tents, sleeping bags and other equipment that turned the area into a makeshift city of dissent.

But demonstrators pledged to carry on with their message protesting corporate greed and economic inequality, either in Zuccotti or a yet-to-be chosen new home.

"This is much bigger than a square plaza in downtown Manhattan," said Hans Shan, an organizer who was working with churches to find places for protesters to sleep. "You can't evict an idea whose time has come."

State Supreme Court Justice Michael Stallman upheld the city's eviction of the protesters after an emergency appeal by the National Lawyers Guild.

The protesters have been camped out in the privately owned park since mid-September. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said he ordered the sweep because health and safety conditions and become "intolerable" in the crowded plaza. The raid was conducted in the middle of the night "to reduce the risk of confrontation" and "to minimize disruption to the surrounding neighborhood," he said.

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Gunman wounded by police in UC Berkeley shooting

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — A man with a gun was shot by police Tuesday inside the business school at the University of California, Berkeley, after hundreds of students and anti-Wall Street activists descended on the campus for a day of protests.

The shooting occurred at the Haas School of Business on the east side of campus, less than a half-mile away from the protest site.

Ute Frey, a spokeswoman for the university, said officials did not yet know whether the suspect was part of the Occupy Cal movement.

"I just hope it wasn't from the protest or the movement, because that's not what the movement is about," said Sadia Saif, a 19-year-old UC Berkeley sophomore.

University officials said a female staff member saw a man carrying what appeared to be a gun in an elevator at the business school after 2 p.m. The staff member called police at 2:17 p.m., saying she saw the man remove the gun from a backpack.

Police said they arrived at 2:19 p.m. and had to locate the suspect in the building. Officers found the suspect in a third-floor computer room where there were at least four students, university officials said.

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Police move in on Portland park, protesters remain

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Several hundred protesters, some wearing goggles and gas masks, marched past authorities in a downtown street Sunday, hours after riot police forced Occupy Portland demonstrators out of a pair of weeks-old encampments in nearby parks.

Police moved in shortly before noon and drove protesters into the street after dozens remained in the camp in defiance city officials. Mayor Sam Adams had ordered that the camp shut down Saturday at midnight, citing unhealthy conditions and the encampment's attraction of drug users and thieves.

More than 50 protesters were arrested in the police action, but officers did not use tear gas, rubber bullets or other so-called non-lethal weapons, police said.

After the police raid, the number of demonstrators swelled throughout the afternoon. By early evening, dozens of officers brandishing nightsticks stood shoulder-to-shoulder to hold the protesters back. Authorities retreated and protesters broke the standoff by marching through the streets.

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