Putin to Russian officials: close foreign accounts

Putin gives Russian officials 3 months to close their foreign bank accounts

Associated Press -

MOSCOW (AP) -- President Vladimir Putin has given Russian officials a three-month deadline to close their foreign bank accounts or face dismissal.

Putin's decree released Tuesday by the Kremlin obliges officials to file their income declarations by July 1. Putin's chief of staff, Sergei Ivanov, said they will have to close their bank accounts by that time. Those who have real estate abroad will be required to explain how they could make the purchase, and those who fail will face being ousted.

Putin spokesman Dmitry Peskov emphasized there will be "no untouchables."

Putin first announced the measure in his state-of-the nation address in December as part of efforts to fight corruption, but the corresponding bills got bogged down in the Kremlin-controlled lower house, so Putin ended up ordering the move by decree.

Police arrest suspect in Utah cabin burglaries

FILE - In this undated file photo provided by the Iron County Sheriff's Office in January 2013, a man identified as Troy James Knapp walks past a cabin in the remote southern Utah wildness near Zion National Park. Authorities say they have arrested Knapp, a survivalist suspected of burglarizing Utah cabins and evading law enforcement for years. (AP Photo/Iron County Sheriff, File)

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Authorities captured an elusive survivalist on Tuesday who is suspected of burglarizing Utah cabins and leaving some covered with threats and bullet holes — ending a saga that began six years ago and drew in police and residents around the state.

Troy James Knapp, 45, dubbed the "Mountain Man" by cabin owners, was taken into custody in mountains outside of Ferron in central Utah after evading authorities for more than five years, the Sanpete County Sheriff's Office said.

The area is about 180 miles north of the site where detectives believed Knapp was a year ago.

Authorities have said Knapp was armed and dangerous when he broke into dozens of mountain cabins across remote southern Utah. They said he has been photographed by motion-triggered camera on snowshoes with a stolen rifle slung over his shoulder.

Knapp has been living off the comfort of those cabins in winter then retreating to makeshift summer camps deep in the forest with stolen guns and supplies, detectives have said.

The manhunt escalated in the spring of 2012 as the summer tourist season approached. Detectives suspected Knapp was roaming the mountains around Zion National Park, following rivers, using pay phones, and even riding park shuttle buses to stock up on food in a nearby town.

Zion rangers were alerted and distributed posters warning cabin owners to be on the lookout.

Authorities say Knapp's motives have never been clear but speculated that he was fed up with civilization.

The last known sighting of Knapp was Oct. 1 by a surveillance camera in Sanpete County. Iron, Kane and Garfield counties have all issued arrest warrants for him on burglary and weapons charges.

Iron County Sheriff Mark Gower told The Spectrum of St. George that the arrest involved several agencies.

"I'm excited as hell," Gower said. "We're absolutely stoked about this. It's been a long time coming."

While there have been no violent confrontations with Knapp, authorities had feared he was a ticking time bomb.

He is suspected of leaving some cabins riddled with bullet holes, defacing religious icons and writing taunting notes.

"Hey Sheriff ... Gonna put you in the ground!" he wrote in one note, according to court records.

Records indicate Knapp fell off the radar in 2002 when he apparently left California in violation of his parole for a burglary conviction. He had been charged with theft in 2000 in California, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two years in prison, according to records.

Authorities lost track off Knapp around 2003.

"He just dropped off the face of the Earth," Supervisory Deputy U.S. Marshal Michael Wingert told The Associated Press in February 2012.

In 2007, southern Utah authorities began investigating a string of cabin burglaries they believed were tied to one person. Over the years, detectives found unattended summer camps stocked with dozens of guns and stolen, high-end outdoor gear.

It wasn't until early 2012 that investigators identified Knapp as the suspect from cabin surveillance photos and videos. Wingert compared his skills as a survivalist to Davy Crockett.

As a teenager, Knapp was convicted in Michigan of breaking and entering, passing bad checks and unlawful flight from authorities, according to court records in Kalamazoo County.

His most serious arrest for felony assault in Michigan was reduced in 1994 to a charge of malicious destruction of property after he agreed to plead guilty.

Judge removes Arias juror, denies mistrial

Ex-Atlanta schools leader fighting for legacy

Defendants in Atlanta's school cheating scandal Starlette Mitchell, left, and Angela Williamson, right, turn themselves in at the Fulton County Jail accompanied by attorney Gerald Griggs, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in Atlanta. Thirty-five defendants are named in a 65-count indictment that alleges a broad conspiracy involving cheating on standardized tests in Atlanta Public Schools. All 35 defendants must turn themselves in Tuesday. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Rev. Timothy McDonald, center, leads a protest against the high bonds set for 35 defendants in Atlanta's school cheating scandal outside the Fulton County Jail, Tuesday, April 2, 2013, in Atlanta. The 35 defendants are named in a 65-count indictment that alleges a broad conspiracy involving cheating on standardized tests in Atlanta Public Schools. All 35 defendants must turn themselves in Tuesday. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

ATLANTA (AP) — When Beverly Hall first arrived in Atlanta as superintendent of the city's public school system, she cautioned she wouldn't be riding in on a white horse and that it would take time to fix the problems of low student performance.

But test scores dramatically improved during her 12-year tenure in the mostly poor, urban district, earning her bonuses and accolades as the nation's top superintendent. Now she's fighting to clear her name after she and nearly three dozen subordinates were indicted in what prosecutors say was a broad conspiracy to achieve those results by cheating.

"Her legacy is gone, it's destroyed," said Jerome Harris, Hall's friend and former boss when the two worked together in Brooklyn, N.Y. "The job, they've taken that away, but that's not important. She's not looking for a job. She's fighting for her name."

Tuesday was the deadline for Hall and the other 34 educators indicted last week to surrender to authorities. Several had turned themselves in as of early Tuesday evening, but Hall was not among them.

Harris, who has known Hall for three decades, was outside the jail Tuesday among a group criticizing the high bond amounts for the indicted teachers, principals, administrators and other employees. Hall's bond was initially recommended at $7.5 million, though it was later set at $200,000, the Fulton County Sheriff's Office said in a news release.

Harris recalled asking Hall to take over as principal of a troubled elementary school in Brooklyn. She cried, he said, because she didn't want to leave her beloved students at the magnet school where she had been assigned at the time.

"People don't have integrity like that," said Harris, who was then superintendent of Brooklyn Community School District 13. "I honestly believe Dr. Hall wouldn't tolerate cheating. She has that integrity. She wouldn't tolerate it."

Hall garnered a reputation as a fixer who could turn things around. After beginning her career as a classroom teacher in Brooklyn in 1970, Hall worked her way up to the No. 2 position in the New York city schools system.

In 1995, Hall was called in to take over as superintendent of the Newark, N.J., school district, which had been seized by the state because of low test scores, questionable spending practices and high dropout rates.

Almost immediately, she set about cleaning up school buildings, even declaring a health and safety emergency to speed up repairs in time for fall classes.

She criticized the old school board for losing its way and making it difficult for educators to concentrate on what was important — something Hall's supporters say happened to her years later in Atlanta.

"Somewhere along the way, this system focused more on the adults than on the children," Hall said in September 1995, during her time in Newark.

In Newark, Hall made changes that drew the ire of some employees and others in the community. Within a year, nearly a quarter of the district's 82 schools had new principals and hundreds of workers were laid off, including custodians, bus drivers and cafeteria workers. Hall said the cuts were designed to free up money for more teachers and funding for full-day kindergarten, but critics complained she should have sought more input before making the decisions.

It was her work raising student attendance and modest test gains in Newark that made her an attractive candidate for Atlanta, and she was hired in 1999. From the beginning, her salary included a big financial incentive — 30 percent of her annual salary — for meeting certain performance objectives that included test scores and attendance.

Her contract was renewed a few years later, and Hall was credited with making sweeping changes to the system's academic and business operations.

In recent years, however, her achievements crumbled. A state audit suggested tests were altered, and then-Gov. Sonny Perdue said "any reasonable person can see that cheating occurred and children were harmed." Detractors criticized her use of a driver who shuttled her around the district, while others said she was unapproachable and ignored cheating allegations.

District officials challenged the audit and defended the district's dramatic turnaround, saying there was no concrete evidence of cheating.

"There is a wanting to believe sometimes that poor minority children cannot achieve at high levels," Hall told reporters at the time. "When you begin to see the kind of change we've seen in Atlanta Public Schools, you have to constantly prove the progress is real."

Further investigations revealed more anomalies in test scores, and calls for Hall's resignation mounted. A 2011 state investigative report said administrators under pressure to maintain high scores under the federal No Child Left Behind law created a culture of "fear, intimidation and retaliation." Hall resigned that year.

Hall has consistently denied being involved in or having knowledge of any cheating. However, after the state's investigation was made public, she said: "If I did anything that gave teachers the impression that I was unapproachable and unresponsive to their concerns, I also apologize for that."

Former Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin, a longtime Hall supporter, wrote in a blog posting Tuesday that people should wait to pass judgment on Hall and others until they have their day in court.

"Yes cheating is awful," Franklin wrote. "And so is conviction before a fair trial."

Harris, who spoke with Hall a few days ago, said he worries about the long road ahead for his friend. He sighed as he gestured toward the tall, imposing walls of the Fulton County Jail.

"This will almost kill her," Harris said.

___

Follow Christina Almeida Cassidy on Twitter: http://twitter.com/AP_Christina.

Nuclear board warns of Hanford tank explosion risk

Board warns key US senator of explosion risk at nation's most contaminated nuclear site

Associated Press -

YAKIMA, Wash. (AP) -- Underground tanks that hold a stew of toxic, radioactive waste at the nation's most contaminated nuclear site pose a possible risk of explosion, a nuclear safety board said in advance of confirmation hearings for the next leader of the Energy Department.

State and federal officials have long known that hydrogen gas could build up inside the tanks at theHanford Nuclear Reservation, leading to an explosion that would release radioactive material. The Defense Nuclear Facilities Safety Board recommended additional monitoring and ventilation of the tanks last fall, and federal officials were working to develop a plan to implement the recommendation.

The board expressed those concerns again Monday to U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., who is chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and had sought the board's perspective about cleanup at Hanford.

The federal government created Hanford in the 1940s as part of the secret Manhattan Project to build the atomic bomb. It spends billions of dollars to clean up the 586-square-mile site neighboring the Columbia River, the southern border between Washington and Oregon and the Pacific Northwest's largest waterway.

Federal officials have said six underground tanks at the site are leaking into the soil, threatening the groundwater, and technical problems have delayed construction of a plant to treat the waste for long-term safe disposal.

Those issues are likely to come up during confirmation hearings next week for Energy Secretary-nominee Ernest J. Moniz. The fears of explosion and contamination could give Washington and Oregon officials more clout as they push for cleanup of the World War II-era site.

Central to the cleanup is the removal of 56 million gallons of highly radioactive, toxic waste left from plutonium production from underground tanks. Many of the site's single-shell tanks, which have just one wall, have leaked in the past, and state and federal officials announced in February that six such tanks are leaking anew.

"The next Secretary of Energy - Dr. Moniz - needs to understand that a major part of his job is going to be to get the Hanford cleanup back on track, and I plan to stress that at his confirmation hearing next week," Wyden said in a statement Tuesday.

The nuclear safety board warned about the risk of explosion to Wyden, who wanted comment on the safety and operation of Hanford's tanks, technical issues that have been raised about the design of a plant to treat the waste in those tanks, and Hanford's overall safety culture.

In addition to the leaks, the board noted concerns about the potential for hydrogen gas buildup within a tank, in particular those with a double wall, which contain deadly waste that was previously pumped out of the leaking single-shell tanks.

"All the double-shell tanks contain waste that continuously generates some flammable gas," the board said. "This gas will eventually reach flammable conditions if adequate ventilation is not provided."

All of the tanks are actively ventilated, which means they have blowers and fans to prevent a buildup of hydrogen gas, and those systems are monitored to ensure they are operating as intended, Energy Department spokeswoman Carrie Meyer said.

For even greater safety, she said, the agency implemented an improved monitoring system in February.

"DOE is absolutely committed to ensuring the safety of Hanford's underground tanks," Meyer said.

The board also noted technical challenges with the waste treatment plant, which is being built to encase the waste in glasslike logs for long-term disposal. Those challenges must be resolved before parts of the plant can be completed, the board said.

The federal government spends about $2 billion annually on Hanford cleanup — roughly one-third of its entire budget for nuclear cleanup nationally. About $690 million of that goes toward design and construction of the plant. Design of the plant, last estimated at more than $12.3 billion, is 85 percent complete, while construction is more than 50 percent complete.

The problems identified by the board show that the plant schedule will be delayed further and the cost will keep rising, Wyden said, adding: "There is a real question as to whether the plant, as currently designed, will work at all."