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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
8/11/2013 11:02:57 AM

Pilot in deadly Conn. wreck survived earlier crash


In this photo provided by the National Transportation Safety Board NTSB senior air safety investigator Bob Gretz, back to camera, confers with emergency responders on the scene of Friday Aug. 9, 2013 morning's crash of a Rockwell 960B airplane into a neighbohood in East Haven, Conn. (AP Photo/National Transportation Safety Board)
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HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) -- The plane accident that killed four people in a Connecticut neighborhood was not the first crash for the pilot, a former Microsoft executive who was taking his teenage son on a tour of East Coast colleges.

The pilot, Bill Henningsgaard, was killed along with his son, Maxwell, and two children who were in a house struck by the small propeller-driven plane on Friday. Their bodies were all recovered from the crash scene.

East Haven police on Saturday released the names of the crash victims, including Henningsgaard, 54, of Medina, Wash.; his 17-year-old son; 13-year-old Sade Brantley and 1-year-old Madisyn Mitchell, who lived in the East Haven home hit by the plane.

National Transportation Safety Board investigator Patrick Murray said Saturday the plane was upside down when it struck a house at about a 60 degree angle. He said the pilot was making his first approach to the airport and did not declare an emergency before the crash.

After removing the wreckage and before analyzing any data, he said at a news conference in New Haven, "We don't have any indication there was anything wrong with the plane."

A preliminary NTSB report on the crash is expected within 10 business days. A more in-depth report could take up to nine months.

On Saturday night, dozens of people turned out for a vigil at Margaret Tucker Park to honor those who died in the crash. Among those in attendance was the woman who lost two children when the plane struck their house.

Mayor Joseph Maturo told the crowd at the vigil that the show of support was a great tribute.

"I think this is a great tribute to a great town," the mayor said, "a caring town, a loving town. A town that comes out when things are down and people need you."

Gov. Dannel Malloy said in a statement that the vigil was a "profound statement of the ties that bind East Haven and our entire state together as one community."

"When a family suffers an unimaginable tragedy, we come together and pray that they have the strength they need to carry on," Malloy said. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all the families tonight who are suffering from grief and loss."

Henningsgaard, a highly regarded philanthropist, was flying a small plane to Seattle in 2009 with his mother when the engine quit. He crash-landed on Washington's Columbia River.

"I forced myself to confront that fact that the situation any pilot fears — a mid-air emergency, was happening right then, with my mother in the plane," he wrote in a blog post days later.

In the Connecticut crash, Henningsgaard was bringing the 10-seater plane, a Rockwell International Turbo Commander 690B, in for a landing at Tweed New Haven Airport in rainy weather just before noon when the plane struck two small homes, engulfing them in flames. The aircraft's left wing lodged in one house and its right wing in the other.

As the children's mother yelled for help from the front lawn, several people in the working-class neighborhood raced to rescue the children, but they were forced to turn back by the fire.

A neighbor, David Esposito, was among those who raced to help the children's mother. He said he ran into the upstairs of the house, where the woman believed her children were, but he couldn't find them after frantically searching a crib and closets. He returned downstairs to search some more, but he dragged the woman out when the flames became too strong.

The pilot's family had learned it was Bill Henningsgaard's plane through the tail number, said his brother, Blair Henninsgaard, the city attorney in Astoria, Ore.

In 2009, Bill Henningsgaard was flying from Astoria, Ore. with his 84-year-old mother to watch his daughter in a high school play when he crashed into the river as he tried to glide back to the airport. He and his mother, a former Astoria mayor, climbed out on a wing and were rescued.

Henningsgaard was a member of Seattle-based Social Venture Partners, a foundation that helps build up communities. The foundation extended its condolences to his wife and two daughters.

"There are hundreds of people that have a story about Bill — when he went the extra mile, when he knew just the right thing to say, how he would never give up. He was truly all-in for this community, heart, mind and soul," the foundation wrote Friday in a post on its website.

Paul Shoemaker of Social Venture Partners told The Seattle Times that Henningsgaard was "an incredibly good, real, honest man, for the community, for his family, for this world."

"The guy has already done so much for the world. And he was going to do so much more," he said.

Henningsgaard spent 14 years at Microsoft in various marketing and sales positions, according to his biography on Social Venture Partners website. He was a longtime board member at Youth Eastside Services, a Bellevue, Wash.-based agency that provides counseling and substance-abuse treatment, and led the organization's $10.7 million fundraising campaign for its new headquarters, which opened in 2008.

___

Associated Press writers Steven DuBois in Portland, Ore., Gene Johnson in Seattle and John Christoffersen in East Haven, Conn., contributed to this report.


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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
8/11/2013 11:07:03 AM

Hundreds search Idaho wilderness for missing teen


FILE - This combination of undated file photos provided by the San Diego Sheriff's Department shows James Lee DiMaggio, 40, left, and Hannah Anderson, 16. A massive search entered a seventh day Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013, for DiMaggio, suspected of abducting 16-year-old family friend Hannah. DiMaggio is suspected of killing Hannah's mother Christina Anderson, 44, and her 8-year-old brother Ethan Anderson, whose bodies were found Sunday night in DiMaggio's burning house in California near the Mexico border. (AP Photo/San Diego Sheriff's Department, File)
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CASCADE, Idaho (AP) — The search for 16-year-old Hannah Anderson and her suspected abductor, 40-year-old James Lee DiMaggio, has spanned three states and thousands of miles.

But now that law enforcement officers are at their closest yet to finding the pair, they face perhaps the most challenging search area of all.

The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness is the largest roadless area in the lower 48 states, sprawling across central Idaho and reaching north to the Montana border. To call the mountainous terrain rugged is an understatement.

About 150 FBI agents converged on the region Saturday morning, joining roughly 100 law enforcement officers from the U.S. Marshal's Service, Idaho State Police, Valley and Ada County sheriff's offices, the San Diego Sheriff's Department and other agencies.

"We are parents. If this was our child, we'd want the same resources out there," said Jason Pack, an FBI special agent from the agency's national press office in Washington, D.C. "We'll be here as long as it takes."

The search is technically and logistically complicated. Because authorities believe DiMaggio to be armed and dangerous, the local search and rescue team volunteers that know the area best aren't being used.

"The suspect is believed to be armed, so you can't have untrained folks out there. They have to have law enforcement training," Pack said.

The Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness Area is roadless, which means federal law prohibits motorized vehicles from going in. Instead, searchers are hiking or riding horseback, aided by trained search dogs which may be able to track the missing pair. There are a few airstrips in the 300-mile search area, where fixed wing aircraft and helicopters can land.

"It's called the River of No Return for a reason," said Mike Medberry, a 57-year-old writer and backpacking enthusiast who hiked in the area three summers ago. "This is country that is really up and down. It's harsh and rugged, with steep terrain, lots of downed logs and thick brush."

DiMaggio is suspected of killing Hannah's mother Christina Anderson, 44, and her 8-year-old brother Ethan Anderson, whose bodies were found Sunday night in DiMaggio's burning house in California near the Mexico border.

Ethan Anderson's remains were not positively identified until Friday night, when the San Diego County Sheriff's Department said its crime lab had used DNA to determine Ethan's identity. An Amber Alert was initially issued for both children.

DiMaggio's car was found Friday morning about 40 miles east of the tiny town of Cascade, parked where the dirt road ends and the Sand Creek trailhead enters the wilderness area. A bomb team determined Friday afternoon the car contained no explosive devices; officers from San Diego planned to search the vehicle for any clues Saturday.

The discovery of the car came about two days after a horseback rider reported seeing the man and girl hiking in the area. Ada County Sheriff's department spokeswoman Andrea Dearden, who is helping the Valley County sheriff's department handle the case, said the rider didn't realize the pair were being sought until he got home and recognized them in news reports.

There have been no other reported sightings of the pair since Wednesday, but the discovery launched a massive search in the southwest corner of The Frank Church-River of No Return Wilderness.

The search area is bisected by the Middle Fork of the Salmon River, a wild waterway that winds through steep canyons and dense forests. The river is extremely popular for recreationists and floaters, some of whom will pay up to $2,000 for multi-day, guided trips down the river.

But away from the river, it's easy to disappear, said Jared Hopkinson, the owner of Rocky Mountain River Tours in Stanley, Idaho.

"If you wanted to go days without being seen, that's the place to do it," said Hopkinson. "There's a few river lodges that are accessible by fixed wing plane and raft, but other than that it is untouched by mankind, the same way it was when there were dinosaurs."

Police have set up checkpoints in the area where the car was found and near other nearby trailheads.

Law enforcement officials in San Diego have noted that DiMaggio bought camping gear a few weeks ago.

DiMaggio was close to the family. Brett Anderson, Hannah and Ethan's father, has described him as a best friend and said his children thought of him as an uncle.

Authorities have said DiMaggio had an "unusual infatuation" with the 16-year-old, although the father said he never saw any strange behavior. If he had, he said, "we would have quashed that relationship in an instant."

___

AP writer Elliot Spagat contributed from San Diego. AP writers Bob Jablon and John Antczak contributed to this report from Los Angeles. AP writer Todd Dvorak contributed from Boise.


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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
8/11/2013 11:11:58 AM

FBI fans through wilderness in search for teen


FILE - This combination of undated file photos provided by the San Diego Sheriff's Department shows James Lee DiMaggio, 40, left, and Hannah Anderson, 16. A massive search entered a seventh day Saturday, Aug. 10, 2013, for DiMaggio, suspected of abducting 16-year-old family friend Hannah. DiMaggio is suspected of killing Hannah's mother Christina Anderson, 44, and her 8-year-old brother Ethan Anderson, whose bodies were found Sunday night in DiMaggio's burning house in California near the Mexico border. (AP Photo/San Diego Sheriff's Department, File)
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CASCADE, Idaho (AP) — Federal and local law enforcement agents say they're focused on getting feet on the ground in the search for 16-year-old Hannah Anderson and her suspected abductor, 40-year-old James Lee DiMaggio in central Idaho's Frank Church River of No Return Wilderness.

Helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft have been flying FBI agents and other law enforcement officers into the roadless wilderness area throughout the day Saturday.

"We are going to continue searching for as long as we believe this is the area most likely where this pair would be," Ada County Sheriff's spokeswoman Andrea Dearden said. "We're going to put every resource possible here, every person possible that we can."

Detectives with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department finished searching DiMaggio's car Saturday afternoon at the remote trailhead where it was found about 40 miles east of the tiny town of Cascade. They had the vehicle towed to a garage in Cascade for further processing.

DiMaggio is suspected of killing Hannah's mother Christina Anderson, 44, and her 8-year-old brother Ethan Anderson, whose bodies were found Sunday night in DiMaggio's burning house in California near the Mexico border.

The steep and mountainous terrain makes it impossible to do a traditional grid search — and the search area itself spans more than 300 miles, Dearden said. Though search dogs have been brought in from out of state and horses have been identified for possible use, the animals aren't currently helping in the search, Ada County Sheriff's spokeswoman Andrea Dearden said Saturday afternoon.

Time is a critical concern. Dearden said investigators believe both Hannah and DiMaggio are alive, but they are worried about whether the 16-year-old has the right clothing and footwear for the mountainous conditions and whether she has the stamina to handle days of hiking through steep terrain.

Instead, search coordinators are trying to choose the most strategic locations to place the searchers, whether it be along trailheads, at the few airstrips within the wilderness borders, or along drainage paths and river shores.

It's Idaho's wildfire season, and though no blazes threaten the search area, smoke from big fires to the south has reduced visibility and ash is falling on the town of Cascade.

Though Dearden said the smoke hasn't yet hindered the search, nightfall is a problem.

"Simply for safety reasons it isn't practical to have people out there at night," she said.

Ray Arnold, a backcountry pilot and the owner of charter flight service Arnold Aviation in Cascade, said he flew local crews into the wilderness area to help with the search on Friday.

On Saturday, he was helping law enforcement out at the Cascade Airport, fueling aircraft and offering other support, he said.

"There's quite a bit of smoke but you know, if you get down a little lower, it's fine. It's not anything different than any other summer around here," Arnold said.

Though there's not a ton of tree canopy cover in the high alpine area where Anderson and DiMaggio are believed to be, it would still likely be difficult to spot the pair from a plane, Arnold said.

"If a person stands beside a tree or something and his clothes are similar to surroundings, it's hard to see a person, especially if they're not moving," Arnold said. "The people on the ground are probably using spotting scopes and they have a better chance of finding them in some ways. A person gets pretty small when you're up in the air."

Law enforcement officials in San Diego have noted that DiMaggio bought camping gear a few weeks ago.

"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
8/11/2013 11:18:13 AM

Assad sends air force to prevent rebel advances in home province

Reuters

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Men search for survivors amid debris of collapsed buildings after what activists said was an air raid by forces loyal to Syria's President Bashar al-Assad in Raqqa province, eastern Syria, August 10, 2013. REUTERS/Nour Fourat

By Oliver Holmes

BEIRUT (Reuters) - Warplanes bombed a village in Syria's north overnight in an apparent effort by President Bashar al-Assad to prevent rebels fighting him from advancing on communities in the stronghold region of his Alawite sect.

Assad's forces are on the defensive in his family's home province of Latakia, and recent rebel gains across northern Syria, including a military air base captured last week in Aleppo province, have further loosened his grip on the country.

Assad controls much of southern and central Syria, while insurgents hold northern areas near the Turkish border and along the Euphrates valley towards Iraq. The northeast corner of the pivotal Arab state is now an increasingly autonomous Kurdish region. (http://link.reuters.com/puw22v)

The mainly Sunni Muslim insurgents are battling to overthrow Assad, whose minority Alawite sect is an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, in a civil war which erupted two years ago when mainly peaceful protests against his rule were put down with force.

As many as 20 people were killed in the air strikes on the village of Salma, including 10 civilians, six Syrian fighters and four foreign fighters, the anti-Assad Syrian Observatory for Human Rights group said on Saturday.

Amateur video footage posted on the Internet showed a large apartment block with all its outside walls blown out. Men, some in military fatigues, were seen loading bodies onto a pickup truck.

Salma is a Sunni village in the Jabal Akrad mountain range which overlooks the Mediterranean. Salma-based rebel forces comprised of mainly Islamist brigades, including two al Qaeda-linked groups, have killed hundreds in offensives this month and have seized several Alawite settlements.

Rebels captured the religiously-mixed village of Kharratah two miles (three km) south of Salma, video posted online by rebels on Friday showed. The insurgents could be seen walking around the village, surrounded by green fields and orchards. No civilians could be seen and houses appeared to be empty.

ALAWITE REGIONAL STRONGHOLD AT STAKE

Assad has deployed extra forces in the region and the air raids reflected an urgent priority to protect the main region of his Alawite sect - 12 percent of Syria's 21 million people.

The president's forces have also been pushing to retake lost ground in neighboring Aleppo province, where insurgents have made significant headway over the past few weeks.

After the rebel capture last month of Khan al-Assal, a town southwest of Aleppo city, activists said on Saturday soldiers killed 12 civilians, including a woman, in a nearby town.

The government accuses rebels of executing 123 people in Khan al-Assal and activists say the killing in Tabara al-Sakhani, 12 miles to the south, could have been retaliatory.

Rebel-controlled districts of Aleppo city, once Syria's commercial hub but now partly reduced to rubble by the conflict, were also bombarded by army artillery, the Observatory said.

More than 100,000 people have been killed in the 28-month conflict and 1.7 million Syrians have been forced to flee to neighboring countries, the United Nations says.

Assad, whose family has ruled Syria for more than four decades, has relied on Alawite-led army units and security forces from the start, but has turned increasingly to loyalist militia armed and funded by Damascus to fight the rebels.

He has also enjoyed staunch support from Middle East Shi'ite powerhouse Iran, neighboring Lebanon's Shi'ite Hezbollah movement and the Assads' longtime arms supplier Russia.

His fragmented foes have received little military aid from Western powers that want Assad removed but are wary of the growing presence of radical Islamists in the rebel ranks.

(Editing by Mark Heinrich and Sonya Hepinstall)


"Choose a job you love and you will not have to work a day in your life" (Confucius)

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Luis Miguel Goitizolo

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RE: ARE WE NOW IN THE END TIMES?
8/11/2013 1:44:12 PM

Hundreds mourn Tasered Miami graffiti artist

Reuters
A man holds a poster during a vigil for graffiti artist Israel Hernandez-Llach, who died after being shocked by a police officer's Taser, in Miami Beach, Florida August 10, 2013. REUTERS/Gaston De Cardenas

MIAMI BEACH, Florida (Reuters) - Hundreds of friends and supporters of an 18-year-old graffiti artist who died after being shocked by a stun gun during a police chase in Miami Beach gathered on Saturday in a tearful rally at the site where he had been spray-painting.

Colombian-born Israel Hernandez-Llach died on Tuesday after police shocked him with a Taser as he ran away from officers who caught him spray-painting the wall of a shuttered McDonald's.

"He was a genius," said Lucy Rynka, 18, who graduated from Miami Beach Senior High School with Hernandez-Llach last spring. "He showed me how powerful art can be, how you can use color and design to relay a powerful message."

Miami Beach Police Chief Raymond Martinez has said that Hernandez-Llach was confronted by officers after vandalizing private property and ignored their commands to stop running.

Once in custody, Hernandez showed signs of medical distress and was pronounced dead soon after, Martinez said. A formal cause of death has not been established in the case pending toxicology results.

The Florida Department of Law Enforcement said on Friday it would conduct an independent review of the Miami Beach Police Department's investigation into the death of Hernandez-Llach, who was known as "Reefa" and whose work had appeared in some Miami art galleries.

Florida's state attorney and the medical examiner for Miami-Dade County are also reviewing the case, officials said.

Miami Beach police has come under scrutiny in recent years for a series of shootings and improper conduct, including the death of a 22-year-old man who was shot 16 times by police two years ago during a Memorial Day weekend hip-hop festival.

During the peaceful rally attended by around 400 people, some in the crowd booed and whistled at police officers standing nearby and shouted, "Whose streets? Our streets!"

The teen's father, Israel Hernandez-Bandera has called his son's death "an act of barbarism" and an "assassination of a young artist and photographer."

Jason W. Kreiss, an attorney representing the family, said Hernandez-Llach would likely not have been prosecuted over the spray-painting and would have probably faced a punishment of community service.

At the Saturday rally, the wall where Hernandez-Llach spray-painted was covered with his nickname and messages.

"The only thing I want everyone to remember is his goal was to have his art around the world," said Vivian Azalia, 18, told the crowd while fighting back tears. "I know he'd be happy with the support that's come from around the world and from the graffiti community."

(Editing by Kevin Gray and David Brunnstrom)

Hundreds mourn artist who died after Taser stun


Supporters of Israel Hernandez-Llach, who was shocked with a stun gun by police, gather in a tearful rally. 'An act of barbarism'


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