'Stand Your Ground' Laws Are Winning

On Tuesday, the same day that Attorney General Eric Holder said that "Stand Your Ground" laws "sow dangerous conflict," Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer called her state's version of the law "important" and a "constitutional right." And Wednesday, Florida state Sen. David Simmons called Holder's comments "inappropriate" and "inaccurate." Stand Your Ground may be getting more attention now after the Zimmerman verdict, but the laws themselves don't look like they're going anywhere.

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And that's not for a lack of effort from critics of the self-defense policy. While the exact laws differ somewhat from state to state, Stand Your Ground laws justify the use of force in self-defense when there's a reasonably perceived threat. It's on the books in some form or another in more than 21 states. Florida was the first to adopt the law, and the state is the focus of the law's critics now. Those critics range from Stevie Wonder (who has decided to boycott any state with a Stand Your Ground law) to the dozens of student activists who crowded Gov. Rick Scott's office on Tuesday.

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But the critics aren't limited to Florida. In New Hampshire, the state's attorney general on Wednesday called for "another look" at the state's Stand Your Ground law. "I think what it can do is cause a situation to escalate that doesn't need to," he said.

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'Stand Your Ground' Laws Are Winning

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That may sound promising to the law's detractors. But the thing is, the New Hampshire attorney general's office never supported Stand Your Ground to begin with. But it still passed. And the attorney general supported its repeal earlier this year. But that failed. The state's struggles are just one example of how steep of a climb it is to peel back Stand Your Ground nationally. As New Hampshire's Union Leader put it, the state will "have to endure without live performances from Stevie Wonder from now on." In Florida, meanwhile, opponents of the law don't seem to think they have a chance.

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In Iowa, there's even one lawmaker who this week proposed to introduce Stand Your Ground to the state. A version of Stand Your Ground failed in 2012 after passing the House, but now it looks likely to return in the next legislative session. Iowa's not alone: A bill to expand Stand Your Ground was introduced recently in Ohio. On Wednesday, the bill's backer, state Rep. Terry Johnson, said that "you need to be able to defend yourself, you need to have a clear idea that this is a basic right that you can exercise at that moment, at that time."

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At the federal level, Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., offered a resolution in February "urging the repeal of Stand Your Ground." And in 2012, Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas, submitted the Justice Exists For All of Us Act, which would have outlawed any state statutes that do "not impose a duty to retreat" before using force, outside of the realm of domestic abuse. That bill was eventually referred to committee, where it died at the end of the 112th Congress. The only real hope for critics of Stand Your Ground at the federal level looks to be from the Justice Department's investigation into the law, but we'll see how that goes.

Without a doubt, more states will look at their Stand Your Ground laws in the coming weeks. And the outrage and frustration over the death of Trayvon Martin, and the role Florida's law played in it, isn't likely to just disappear anytime soon. But right now, with Stand Your Ground firmly entrenched and with serious institutional and financial support from the likes of the National Rifle Association, the laws are so far winning out.

A view of a burnt vehicle after homes were destroyed during the Mountain Fire near Idyllwild, California July 18, 2013. REUTERS/Gene Blevins

By Steve Gorman

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A wildfire that chased some 6,000 people from homes, vacation cabins and campgrounds in the mountains of Southern California roared through dry brush and timber for a fourth day on Thursday as crews battled to keep flames away from popular resort areas.

The blaze erupted on Monday afternoon about 100 miles east of Los Angeles in the scenic but rugged San Jacinto Mountains overlooking Palm Springs, Rancho Mirage and several smaller low-lying desert towns.

No injuries have been reported, but authorities say seven mountain residences, including three mobile homes, have been destroyed, along with five commercial structures, about a dozen outbuildings and several vehicles.

Authorities on Wednesday ordered the evacuation of the mile-high resort area of Idyllwild, along with the adjacent village of Fern Valley and all the parks and campgrounds in the vicinity as the blaze burned largely unchecked.

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A view of the remains of personal items after homes were destroyed during the Mountain Fire near Idy …

Several smaller communities in the area had already been evacuated during the first three days of the fire.

The latest evacuation notices brought to roughly 6,000 the total number of residents, vacationers and campers displaced by the so-called Mountain Fire, said Steve Gut, a spokesman for the U.S. Forest Service.

Gut said the blaze was moving in different directions but that flames were still several miles from the outskirts of Idyllwild, a popular mountain getaway known for its hiking, rock climbing, horseback riding and music scene.

Fire incident commander Jeanne Pincha-Telley told a news conference in Idyllwild that one flank of the blaze had reached to within 2 miles of the extreme southern edge of Palm Springs at the foot of the mountain. Palm Springs itself was not under evacuation.

Pincha-Telley said the towering column of smoke and cinders pouring skyward from the blaze might complicate efforts to contain the flames as hot embers carried aloft could ignite new spot fires in the area.

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Barbara Lundquist, one of many people who evacuated from Idyllwild yesterday, talks to a reporter du …

In the next two days, she said, that column is "predicted to go right over the top of this town."

By early Thursday, the fire had charred some 2,800 acres of drought-parched chaparral and timber, much of it in steep, remote wilderness terrain inside the San Bernardino National Forest.

That was more than three times the acreage reported burned two days earlier.

With nearly 3,000 firefighters, 17 water-dropping helicopters and 10 air tankers assigned to it, the blaze ranked as one of the most severe of more than a dozen large wildfires that crews were battling to contain in several western states, according to the National Interagency Fire Center in Idaho.

Experts say this year could see one of the worst U.S. fire seasons on record. In recent weeks, a Colorado wildfire ranked as that state's most destructive on record ravaged more than 500 homes and killed two people. In Arizona, 19 members of an elite "hotshots" crew died while battling a separate fire on June 30.

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Broken windows are seen after homes were destroyed during the Mountain Fire near Idyllwild, Californ …

In California, as of Thursday morning, firefighters had managed to carve containment lines around 15 percent of the Mountain Fire's perimeter. The cause of the blaze remained under investigation, authorities said.

(Reporting by Steve Gorman; Editing by Cynthia Johnston and Christopher Wilson)

A combination picture shows photos of suspect Anthony Joseph Garcia taken in (L-R) 2006, 2012 and after his arrest in Illinois on July 15, 2013, as released by the Omaha Police Department on July 15, 2013. REUTERS/Omaha Police Department/Handout via Reuters

By Katie Schubert

OMAHA, Nebraska (Reuters) - Credit card charges, store surveillance video and possibly parts of a handgun all help connect a man described by police as fitting a serial killer's profile to the murders in May of an Omaha doctor and his wife, a police affidavit showed on Thursday.

Dr. Anthony J. Garcia, 40, has been charged with those killings and two 2008 murders that police have said were acts of revenge against two Creighton University doctors who fired him from a pathology residency in 2001 for unprofessional conduct.

Garcia, who lives in Indiana, was arrested on Monday in Illinois. His attorneys have told the Omaha World-Herald newspaper that he wanted to move forward to prove his innocence.

He is accused of killing Dr. Roger Brumback and his wife, Mary Brumback, both 65, who were found dead on May 14, each with stab wounds to the side of their necks and Dr. Brumback was also shot, the affidavit said.

Police said those stab wounds were similar to ones found in the 2008 murders of 11-year-old Thomas Hunter, the son of another Creighton doctor, and the family housekeeper, Shirlee Sherman, 57, the affidavit said.

Garcia was fired in 2001 by Dr. Brumback and Dr. William Hunter, and police have said they do not believe Hunter's son or housekeeper were intended targets.

Witnesses in 2008 reported seeing an SUV similar to one registered to Garcia at that time and a person of similar build near the Hunter home, the affidavit said.

Omaha Police Chief Todd Schmaderer said on Monday that Garcia "fit the elements of a serial killer" and police had evidence he had been in Nebraska at the time of the murders, though he had not lived in Omaha since 2001.

VIDEO CHAT

The affidavit released on Thursday offered some links that could place Garcia near the vicinity of the Brumback house around the time that couple was thought to have been killed.

The couple had last been heard from on the afternoon of May 12 when they chatted by web video with their daughter, the affidavit said. They were found dead two days later in the same clothes they had worn during the Mother's Day chat.

About an hour before the chat, Garcia made a credit card charge and could be seen on video at a convenience store in Iowa, about 30 minutes from their house, the affidavit said.

Garcia's credit card was also used that afternoon at an Omaha restaurant about four miles from the Brumback house, it said.

His cell phone received a call that evening in Atlantic, Iowa, about an hour east of Omaha, and Garcia checked into a motel in West Des Moines less than two hours later, the affidavit said.

It also said Garcia had purchased a Smith & Wesson 9mm semiautomatic handgun in March that was consistent with a magazine and two recoil springs police later recovered from the Brumback house in May.

According to the affidavit and records obtained by Reuters, Garcia had applied for Indiana medical licenses in 2008 and in 2012. Records released by the Indiana medical board from those applications show he failed to complete residencies in New York, Illinois and Louisiana in addition to Nebraska.

He was suspended from a New York residency for yelling at a radiology technician, then withdrew from the program in 1999. He also withdrew from an Illinois residency because of migraine headaches and was "essentially fired" from a residency in Louisiana, where he was refused a state medical license.

Garcia's application for a Louisiana medical license was rejected in February 2008, two weeks before Hunter and Sherman were killed, in part because he had not completed the other residency programs.

(Additional reporting by David Bailey; Editing by Cynthia Johnston, Toni Reinhold)

The scene of the Feb. 26 homicide where George Zimmerman, 28, shot and killed Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida is shown in this handout photo provided by the State Attorney's Office on May 17, 2012.REUTERS/State Attorney's Office/Handout

By Tom Brown

FORT LAUDERDALE, Florida (Reuters) - Florida must either repeal its "Stand Your Ground" self-defense law or enact sweeping changes to avert more tragedies like the fatal shooting of unarmed black teenager Trayvon Martin, Democratic leaders of the state's legislature said on Thursday.

A Seminole County jury on Saturday acquitted George Zimmerman of second-degree murder and manslaughter, with one juror citing Stand Your Ground as a factor in reaching her legal conclusion that Zimmerman, who is white and Hispanic, acted in self-defense.

The Zimmerman verdict demonstrated the ramifications of the 2005 law, Florida Senate Democratic leader Chris Smith said.

"This bill actually encourages people to shoot their way out of situations and that's not how we live in a civilized society," Smith told a news conference. "It's a mentality that has permeated the state of Florida. It's a mentality of shoot first, and we should not have that in a civilized society."

Smith was joined by Florida House Democratic leader Perry Thurston. Both called for a special session of the state's Republican-dominated legislature to overhaul the law or consider doing away with it.

Unless Florida lawmakers act quickly, calls for a boycott of the state like the one voiced by Motown legend Stevie Wonder are likely to grow as part of a mounting backlash, they warned. Civil rights groups also are calling for changes in the law.

With the state legislature in recess, Republican Governor Rick Scott would need to convene a special legislative session.

Dozens of young demonstrators have been occupying part of Scott's office in the Florida capital, Tallahassee, since Tuesday to press demands that he order the state's lawmakers back to work to toss out or modify the law.

Scott said he met with leaders of the sit-in demonstration for the first time on Thursday night, but he indicated he had no plans to call a special session.

The governor stressed, however, that the demonstrators had a "right to share their views with their state legislators and let them know their opinions on the law."

BALLOT INITIATIVE

Smith and other lawmakers tried to get the Stand Your Ground law changed in the past legislative session in Tallahassee but failed to get a committee hearing on the issue.

After the Martin shooting, Scott appointed a task force to examine the statute. The task force held seven hearings around the state before recommending to keep the law despite many calls for it to be repealed or amended.

"Tonight, the protesters again asked that I call a special session of the legislature to repeal Florida's Stand Your Ground law. I told them that I agree with the Task Force on Citizen Safety, which concurred with the law," Scott said in a statement.

Smith and Thurston said a ballot initiative was likely if the legislature failed to change the law, voicing confidence that public outrage over the verdict would help generate enough signatures to place the matter on the ballot.

According to the instructions given to the jury, Zimmerman had "no duty to retreat and had the right to stand his ground and meet force with force" if he reasonably feared for his life or great bodily harm.

Though the Stand Your Ground law was not specifically cited as part of the defense mounted by Zimmerman's lawyers, Smith said the jury instructions that helped pave the way for his acquittal came directly from the statute.

Smith and Thurston were joined at their news conference by Broward County State Attorney Michael Satz, who said he and other law enforcement officials supported calls for an urgent overhaul of the Stand Your Ground law.

"I think putting in the statute that you do not have the duty to retreat is a mistake. I think life is precious and before you do that you should do everything in your power not to do that and to retreat if you possibly can," Satz said.

"Before there was a common law duty that you had to retreat before you used deadly force," he added. "I just don't think you need the Stand Your Ground statute."

The Florida statute was adopted under former Republican Governor Jeb Bush. Many other states, acting with broad support from the National Rifle Association, have followed Florida's lead over the last seven years.

(Reporting by Tom Brown; Editing by Daniel Trotta, Matthew Lewis and Eric Beech)

By Phil Stewart

ASPEN, Colo. (Reuters) - The United States is overhauling procedures to tighten access to top-secret intelligence in a bid to prevent another mega-leak like the one carried out by former spy agency contractor Edward Snowden, senior U.S. officials said on Thursday.

The National Security Agency, which Snowden worked for as a Hawaii-based contractor, said it would lead the effort to isolate intelligence and implement a "two-man rule" for downloading - similar to procedures used to safeguard nuclear weapons.

"When are we taking countermeasures? ... The answer is now," Deputy Defense Secretary Ashton Carter told the Aspen Security Forum in Colorado.

NSA Director General Keith Alexander told the forum the two-man rule would apply to system administrators like Snowden and anyone with access to sensitive computer server rooms.

"You limit the numbers of people who can write to removable media," Alexander said. "Instead of allowing all systems administrators (to do it), you drop it down to a few and use a two-person rule."

"We'll close and lock server rooms so that it takes two people to get in there."

Carter partly blamed the security breach on the emphasis placed on intelligence-sharing after the wake of the September 11, 2001, attacks, which eventually allowed someone like Snowden to access so many documents at once.

"We normally compartmentalize information for a very good reason, so one person can't compromise a lot," Carter said. "Loading everything onto one server ... it's something we can't do. Because it creates too much information in one place."

Alexander said Snowden had been trusted with moving inside networks to make sure the right information was on the computer servers of the NSA in Hawaii.

HOW MUCH DID SNOWDEN STEAL?

Snowden fled to Hong Kong in May, a few weeks before publication in Britain's Guardian newspaper and the Washington Post of details he provided about secret U.S. government surveillance of Internet and phone traffic.

The disclosures by Snowden, who is wanted on espionage charges, have raised Americans' concerns about domestic spying and strained relations with some U.S. allies.

The 30-year-old American who has had his U.S. passport revoked, is stuck in the transit area of Moscow's Sheremetyevo airport and has applied for temporary asylum in Russia.

"A huge break in trust and confidence," Alexander said, adding that extremists, aware of the surveillance, were altering their behavior "and that's going to make our job tougher."

Alexander declined to say how many documents Snowden took, but when asked whether it was a lot, he said, "Yes."

Carter said the assessment was still being conducted, but "I can just tell you right now the damage was very substantial."

Senator Dianne Feinstein, who chairs the Senate Intelligence Committee, said last month that U.S. officials advised her that Snowden had roughly 200 classified documents.

But American officials and others familiar with Snowden's activities say they believe that at a minimum, he acquired tens of thousands of documents.

Asked whether U.S. officials had a good idea of what Snowden actually downloaded, as opposed to simply read, Alexander said, "We have good insights to that, yes."

Current and former U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity that while authorities now thought they knew which documents Snowden accessed, they were not yet entirely sure of all that he downloaded.

Snowden was adept at going into areas and then covering his tracks, which posed a challenge in trying to determine exactly what materials he had accessed, officials said.

Former and current U.S. officials told Reuters that a massive overhaul of the security measures governing such intelligence would be extremely expensive.

Alexander also said it would take time to implement across the Pentagon and the broader U.S. intelligence community. He also noted there were "15,000 enclaves," some of which are small.

"One of the things we can do is limit what people have access to at remote sites and we're doing both. So we're taking that on," he said.

Among U.S. allies, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under pressure to toughen her stance on the U.S. program.

Alexander said the programme had helped European allies including Germany, France and Denmark, without offering details. Asked about his reaction to German expressions of surprise, Alexander stated: "We don't tell them everything we do or how we do it. Now they know." (Additional reporting by Tabassum Zakaria and Mark Hosenball; Editing by Christopher Wilson and Peter Cooney)