A group of men who say they were sexually abused decades ago when they were students at the prestigious Horace Mann School spoke out for the first time Monday and demanded the school sponsor an independent investigation into the cases.

The men, now in their 40s and 50s, appeared at a news conference alongside their lawyer Gloria Allred, the New York Times reports. In addition to asking the school to investigate how the teachers got away with abusing students, the men also called on the state to lift the statute of limitations that currently prevents victims to pursue criminal prosecutions of their abusers after they turn 23.

Speaking publicly about the abuse for the first time, the men detailed the experiences that they say still haunt them. Jon Seiger, 51, said the headmaster of the school and a teacher forced him to drink alcohol and have sex with them. The headmaster also encouraged other teachers to abuse him, Seiger said.

Many of the teachers who are accused of abusing children have since died. Allred represents a total of 22 men and three women who say they were abused at the Riverdale school. The school has offered monetary settlements to several of them, the Times reports.

A group of alumni recently hired former judge and sex crimes prosecutor Leslie Crocker Snyder to investigate the sexual abuse cases. Allred said a school-sponsored investigation would be more effective.

Founded in 1887, Horace Mann is the one of the most elite preparatory schools in the country and one of the most expensive private schools in the city.

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Bushra shouldn’t be alive. One day, after eight years of marriage and three children, her husband, aided by his mother and another relative, tied her up and poured acid over her. Then they tied her scarf around her neck, hung her from the ceiling and left her to die in front of her two youngest children. To make sure Bushra really died, they set the house on fire. The reason: returning from a visit to her family, Bushra had brought her husband’s family expensive gifts rather than cash. They hadn’t mentioned they expected cash.

Thanks to kind neighbors, Bushra survived. But like every acid attack victim, she looked like a monster. Of course, condemning victims to a life as monsters is what men intend when they throw acid at their partners and relatives. In Pakistan, it’s an easy crime to commit: acid is cheap, a bottle of it costs some $0.30.

But today Bushra, now 43, has a good job – as a beautician in an upscale salon here in Lahore, a bustling city of some 10 million near the Indian border. “Since I walked in here I’ve never looked back,” she tells me as I visit her. Bushra belongs to the sisterhood of Pakistani acid attack survivors who’ve been helped back to life by Musarrat Misbah, the owner of Pakistan’s Depilex chain of beauty parlors.

I’m ashamed to admit that at my first meeting with Bushra and her fellow attack survivors, I reacted with shock and averted my eyes. But after spending time with them, all I felt was awe at their courage and lack of bitterness. Some of them are outgoing, some shy, but they’re among the most formidable people you’ll ever meet. And I’m humbled by their incredible kindness. “Your hand looks tired,” said Bushra as I was writing down her answers. “You need a hand massage.” She began to massage my hands, arms and neck. This is a woman who was almost dead, and now cares about my weary hand!

Misbah, a stunning woman in her early fifties, never set out to help acid victims. “I’m a beautician through and through,” she tells me. “I love my job. I’m always the last one to leave at night.”

One night as she was closing her salon, a woman in a burka showed up and curtly said she needed help. When she pulled her veil back, Misbah saw a face so disfigured that she fainted. Since then, the beauty entrepreneur has become Pakistan’s unofficial protector of acid attack victims.

The 30-some Depilex salons now double as offices for her Smile Again Foundation, which helps survivors get reconstructive surgery and then trains them in professions so they can re-enter society. “Without vocational training, where would these girls go?” asks Misbah. “Back to those men who threw acid at them?”

To date, the Smile Again Foundation has helped over 500 victims. But it’s only a small share of the estimated 9,000 women who were acid-attacked between 1994 and 2001. The assaults continue despite the passing of a law banning the practice two years ago. Acid attacks are common mainly in central and southern Asia but also occur worldwide.

“They often come from a poor background, and when you’re poor and uneducated, you often don’t know the difference between right and wrong,” reflects Hina Dilpazeer, Pakistan’s leading TV actress, who campaigns for victims. “If society’s poor get an education, I’m convinced attacks will drop.”

Many of Smile Again’s graduates now work in Depilex’s parlors, while others have are nurses and call center workers. “The foundation is my home and family,” says Bushra, who hasn’t seen her children since the attack. “People make faces when they see me outside. But here at the salon I’m safe, I’ve gained clients’ respect.”

But the road to recovery is rough, as not even the 35 required operations result in a natural face. “Reconstructive surgery is very expensive,” says Misbah. “Donors prefer supporting schools.” Threats have forced her to hire a bodyguard.

For survivors like Nasreen, a 27-year-old from rural Punjab, life is essentially over. When she was 13, three middle-aged daughters of wealthy neighbors taunted her, and when she finally responded in anger, their fiancés threw acid on Nasreen as she slept. The attack left her blind. But when I meet Nasreen at the Depilex salon in Lahore, her nails are beautifully done and she sports a stylish hairdo.

“This is like a haven,” explains Nasreen. “Everyone else shuns me.” Smile Again pays her a stipend as she can no longer work in the fields: her attackers still live next door after paying their way out of a 25-year prison sentence.

At any given time, between five and seven women stay at Misbah’s home while awaiting surgery or receiving training. But Misbah feels insufficient: “I just hope God gives me strength to help more girls. I want to build a shelter where I can live with them. Sorry if I sound like Mother Teresa.” However, with acid attacks a persistent problem not just in Pakistan, the world needs more Mother Teresas, even though other groups are helping victims in Pakistan and overseas.

And though thousands of acid attack survivors desperately need help, Misbah is making a huge difference in individual women’s lives. These days, Bushra puts on lipstick and beautiful clothes. Her brother-in-law then tells her, “Why do you do that? You should just sit in a corner.” To which she responds, “You have no power over me.”

Q&A

“Acid attack culprits will be tried as terrorists” — Begum Zakia Shahnwaz, Senior Advisor to the Chief Minister of Punjab – the top-ranking female politician in Pakistan’s most populous state

Metro: What is Punjab doing to protect women?

Shahnwaz: Last year we proposed a comprehensive bill, which is very likely to be passed. It includes violence against women. It will tell the men that this animalistic behavior can’t go on.

For acid attack victims we will provide physical and psychological care, and the perpetrator will be tried in a terrorist court, where cases are dealt with swiftly. And acid attacks are terrorist acts. The bill also includes changes in the inheritance law, a higher female quota in the public sector, anti-harassment legislation and high-standard day-care centers. And every college in Punjab will be required to provide two women-only buses.

Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto was the first woman elected to lead the government in a Muslim country. On the other hand there are acid attacks. When it comes to women’s situation, is Pakistan advanced or way behind?

In North America and Europe, which are far more advanced than us, women are battered and abused. Our fundamental problem is that we haven’t given education to the masses, and abuse also stems from economic frustration. But bear in mind that many of our powerful women are beaten by their husbands, too. The difference is that the strong woman can walk away and the poor woman can’t. However, men should remember that when they get old their wives will return the abuse. When the children are young, they can’t protect her, but as adults they will.

Are you optimistic that women’s situation will improve?

Yes. Everyone here says that politicians are corrupt, the army is bad, NGOs are bad, the press is bad. But not everyone is bad or corrupt. There are people who want to help women.

Sarwari: From pariah to family breadwinner

Sarwari always covers her head and wears dark sunglasses. When she removes her veil, a head burned beyond recognition emerges, but it’s progress. For 20 years, Sarwari’s burned chin stuck to her chest and her eyes bulged out like a frog’s.

“One year after I got married to my husband, he wanted to take a second wife,” she tells me when I visit her in the one-room house outside Lahore where she lives with her brother and his family. “I said, ‘No, just divorce me’.” Her husband poured acid over her. Even so, Sarwari’s mother didn’t let her file a case against her husband: he’s her first cousin.

One year ago, a relative heard about Smile Again and brought Sarwari there. Surgery detached her chin from her chest and gave her eyelids. She’s now been able to start a bottle-cap business. “It gives me an income, so I can give my brother’s family money,” she says. “But I want to be more financially secure, because my brother is getting married, too. If I can provide for his family his wife will be nice to me.”

In fact, Sarwari, now 40, commands respect as she’s the family’s breadwinner. But she has received taunts from her sister-in-law’s sisters, who said, “Your husband’s new wife is beautiful!” But, Sarwari explains, “I said, ‘What are you talking about? I’m financially secure, I provide for other people. I’m beautiful’.”

Happy ending: Abuse led her to self-immolation but Urooj has found a new life

Urooj tried to burn herself to death. “My in-laws tortured me,” she tells me. The abuse worsened when Urooj didn’t immediately get pregnant. “My husband would say, ‘You’re infertile, what’s the point of you being alive?’” she says. After Urooj got pregnant, she gave birth to a girl: a misfortune.

Urooj survived the burns, with damage to 70% of her body. Her parents blamed her, while her husband remarried. Urooj hasn’t seen her daughter again. But a friend had heard of Smile Again and brought Urooj there. She now works as a beautician.

When she met a man online, they decided to get married, much to her parents’ ire. “They said that I should have accepted my fate and continued living with my first husband,” she says. “I told them, ‘I’ve lost everything. I don’t want such parents’.” Today Urooj, now 32, has a full-time job. But such happy endings are rare for acid attack victims. Of the 500 women assisted by Smile Again, only eight have married. “In the early years after the attack they don’t dare to think about it,” says Misbah. “But when they become more confident they start thinking about it.

The problem is, who would marry them?” But these women are fighters. They’ve clawed themselves back from near-death, so they can dream of romance, too. In my first visit, on Valentine’s Day, all the victims-turned-beauticians in Misbah’s salon wore bright red lipstick.

Supporter’s to do list

An Italian surgeon emailed Musarrat Misbah, promising to treat three survivors free of charge. But many Pakistani doctors instead charge Smile Again a higher fee. Here’s how you can help.

• Donate. By PayPal.
• Volunteer. At one of Smile Again’s locations.
• Hire. Provide employment to the survivors.
• Encourage. Plastic surgeons to volunteer their services.
• Like. Smile Again’s Facebook fan page.
• Organize. Surgeries & lodging for the survivors, and raise money for their travel expenses.
• Teach. If you’re in any other profession that can be taught to the survivors: volunteer to teach them, thereby helping them to earn a living.
• Pressure. Put pressure on your government to ask Pakistan to ban sales of acid.

Proud Anam, 16: ‘I’ve only cried once in past year’

Anam, 16, is a beautiful girl. That is, the right side of her face is beautiful. The left side has been destroyed by acid. “I was walking to school with my father one day, when I heard a man from the neighborhood call my name,” she recalls. “I kept walking, but then he shouted, ‘If you don’t stop I’ll throw acid at you’. I kept on walking, but then I felt something burning on my back, and when I turned around to see what it was the man threw acid on my face and body.”

After an entire year in the hospital, Anam was released. But she became a recluse: she didn’t leave the house and certainly didn’t want to look at herself in the mirror. Two years later Anam is a self-confident young woman who is studying for her high school graduation while training as a beautician with the Smile Again Foundation. “I used to be very angry and say why me?” she explains. “But when I look at the kind of torture the other women here have gone through I have nothing to complain about.”

Anam’s attacker had given Anam’s parents a marriage proposal for her older sister, but the parents and sister had rejected it. The family suspects that he had wanted to harm the sister, but when he only found Anam he attacked her. Anam will have surgery, but like other acid attack victims, she will be marked for life. Even so, she makes a huge and successful effort to remain upbeat. “I’ve only cried once in the past year,” she says. “That’s when my attacker was sentenced. He only got four years in jail.”

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President Barack Obama, marking a poignant moment in his push to curb gun violence, awarded presidential medals posthumously on Friday to six educators killed in the Newtown school massacre, saying they gave their lives to protect “the most innocent and helpless among us.”

Obama bestowed the honor, which recognizes citizens who have performed “exemplary deeds” of service, on four teachers and two administrators killed in the December 14 shooting rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, a tragedy that sparked nationwide calls for tighter gun control laws.

In a White House ceremony, Presidential Citizens Medals, the nation’s second-highest civilian honor, were presented one-by-one to the slain women’s families, many of them in tears as Obama embraced and consoled them. Twenty first-graders were also killed in the attack by a lone gunman.

Obama said the educators came to school that morning with “no idea that evil was about to strike.”

“And when it did they could have taken shelter by themselves, they could have focused on their own safety, on their own well-being, but they didn’t,” he said.

“They gave their lives to protect the precious children in their care and gave all they had for the most innocent and helpless among us. That’s what we honor today.”

Obama, who has called the day of the mass shooting the worst of his presidency, is moving swiftly to try to build momentum for gun control legislation, using his otherwise policy-heavy State of the Union address on Tuesday to make an impassioned appeal.

But he faces an uphill battle against a powerful pro-gun lobby and a strong U.S. tradition of hunting and gun ownership. The right to bear arms is enshrined in the Second Amendment of the U.S. Constitution.

Principal Dawn Hochsprung, school psychologist Mary Sherlach and teachers Rachel D’Avino, Lauren Rousseau, Anne Marie Murphy and Victoria Soto were killed in the attack carried out by the 20-year-old gunman, Adam Lanza.

Obama paid tribute to the slain educators in a ceremony that also honored a dozen other Americans in fields that included child development, gay rights, military veterans assistance, immigrant outreach and helping disabled women. They were selected from among nearly 6,000 nominations.

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No charges were filed against the four men, but prosecutors said they could be held for up to five days as police press them for clues as to how the fire early Sunday morning could have caused so many deaths.

Stunned residents in the southern city of Santa Maria attended a marathon of funerals beginning in the pre-dawn hours. As sunset approached, friends and family members readied for a candle-lit procession through the streets of the city.

The tragedy came as Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup soccer tournament and 2016 Olympics, putting its safety standards and emergency response capabilities in the international spotlight.

President Dilma Rousseff, who cut short a visit to Chile to fly to the scene of the disaster on Sunday, called for a minute of silence before addressing a meeting of newly elected mayors in the capital, Brasilia.

“The pain I saw in Santa Maria was indescribable,” Rousseff said. “Faced with this tragedy, it is our duty to make sure it never happens again.”

Most of the dead were suffocated by toxic fumes that rapidly filled the Kiss nightclub after the band set off a flare at about 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, authorities said.

The club’s operating license was under review for renewal after expiring last year.

Witnesses said bouncers initially blocked the only functioning exit because they believed fleeing customers were trying to skip out on their bar tabs.

Tarso Genro, governor of the prosperous southern state of Rio Grande do Sul where the disaster occurred, said authorities had shifted their focus from rescue and taking care of the wounded to investigating the scene.

“We’re going to find out who was responsible,” he vowed.

The death toll was revised down to 231 from 233 as officials said some names had been counted twice. Eighty-two people were hospitalized, 75 of them in serious condition, officials said.

Mourning throughout Brazil was mixed with frustration at a culture of lax regulation blamed for putting lives at risk.

“So many young ones with all of their lives ahead of them,” Brazilian soccer legend Pele wrote on Twitter. “The government has to make a priority of event security in this country!”

SAFETY ENFORCEMENT UNEVEN

Relatives and friends of the dead demanded accountability, signaling the start of a wave of police probes, lawsuits and recriminations that could drag on for months or even years.

Based on testimony from more than 20 witnesses, investigators are now certain that the band’s pyrotechnics show triggered the blaze, police official Sandro Meinerz said.

The band’s guitarist, Rodrigo Lemos Martins, 32, said he doubted the band was responsible for the blaze. “There were lots of wires (in the ceiling), maybe it was a short circuit,” he was quoted as saying in Folha de S.Paulo newspaper.

The band’s accordion player, Danilo Jaques, 30, was among those killed, but the other five members survived. The band’s vocalist and production engineer were detained by police investigating who was responsible for firing the flare, according to Brazilian media.

It seems certain others will share the blame for Brazil’s second-deadliest fire ever. The use of a flare inside the club was a clear breach of safety regulations, fire officials said.

Some details may never be known. Meinerz said the club owner told authorities that the club’s internal video surveillance system had stopped working three months ago.

Clubs and restaurants in Brazil are generally subject to a web of overlapping safety regulations, but enforcement is uneven and owners sometimes pay bribes to continue operating.

The investigation of the Kiss fire could drag on for years. After a similar fire at an Argentine nightclub in 2004 killed 194 people, more than six years passed before a court found members of a band criminally responsible for starting the blaze and causing the deaths.

That tragedy also provoked a massive backlash against politicians and led to the removal of the mayor of Buenos Aires.

Civil lawsuits stemming from the Brazil fire are likely to be directed at the government because the owners of the nightclub probably don’t have much money, said Claudio Castello de Campos, a Brazilian lawyer who has handled big cases including the crash of a TAM Airlines jet in Sao Paulo in 2007.

Castello de Campos disputed some statements by local officials that the Kiss nightclub could have continued operating legally while it was waiting for its license to be renewed. “If the license was expired, that’s an irregular situation,” he said.

Valdeci Oliveira, a legislator in Rio Grande do Sul state, said he and his colleagues would seek to ban pyrotechnics displays in closed spaces such as nightclubs.

“It won’t bring anybody back but we’re going to introduce the bill,” Oliveira said on his Twitter feed.

The Brazil fire is the worst to hit an entertainment venue since a fire on Christmas Day in 2000 engulfed a mall in Luoyang, China, killing 309 people.

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Sellal also said that 29 Islamists had been killed in the siege, which Algerian forces ended by storming the plant, and three had been captured alive.

Earlier an Algerian security source told Reuters that documents found on the bodies of two militants had identified them as Canadians, as special forces scoured the plant following Saturday’s bloody end to the siege.

“A Canadian was among the militants. He was coordinating the attack,” Sellal told a news conference, adding that the raiders had threatened to blow up the gas installation.

The Canadian’s name was given only as Chedad.

In Ottawa, Canada’s foreign affairs department said it was seeking information, but referred to the possible involvement of only one Canadian.

American, British, French, Japanese, Norwegian, Filipino and Romanian workers are dead or missing after the attack, for which veteran Islamist fighter Mokhtar Belmokhtar has claimed responsibility on behalf of al Qaeda.

The jihadists had planned the attack two months ago in neighboring Mali, where French forces began fighting Islamists this month, Sellal added.

In Tokyo, Prime Minister Shinzo Abe told a news conference he had received information that seven Japanese had been killed and the fate of three more was still unknown.

Six Filipinos died and four were wounded, a government spokesman in Manila said.

Norwegian International Development Minister Heikki Holmaas said his stepfather, Tore Bech, was among the missing and presumed dead. Bech was a manager at the site for the Norwegian energy company Statoil.

Sellal said that initially the raiders in Algeria had tried to hijack a bus carrying foreign workers to a nearby airport and take them hostage. “They started firing at the bus and received a severe response from the soldiers guarding the bus,” he said. “They failed to achieve their objective, which was to kidnap foreign workers from the bus.”

He said special forces and army units were deployed against the militants, who had planted explosives in the gas plant with a view to blowing up the facility.

One group of militants had tried to escape in some vehicles, each of which also was carrying three or four foreign workers, some of whom had explosives attached to their bodies.

After what he called a “fierce response from the armed forces”, the raiders’ vehicles crashed or exploded and one of their leaders was among those killed.

LIBYAN NUMBER PLATES

Sellal said the jihadists who staged the attack last Wednesday had crossed into the country from neighboring Libya.

An Algerian newspaper said they had arrived in cars painted in the colors of state energy company Sonatrach but registered in Libya, a country awash with arms since Muammar Gaddafi’s fall in 2011.

The raid has exposed the vulnerability of multinational-run oil and gas installations in an important producing region and pushed the growing threat from Islamist militant groups in the Sahara to a prominent position in the West’s security agenda.

Algerian President Abdelaziz Bouteflika has ordered an investigation into how security forces failed to prevent the attack, the daily El Khabar said.

Algerian Tahar Ben Cheneb – leader of a group called the Movement of Islamic Youth in the South who was killed on the first day of the assault – had been based in Libya where he married a local woman two months ago, it said.

ONE-EYED JIHADIST

Belmokhtar – a one-eyed jihadist who fought in Afghanistan and Algeria’s civil war of the 1990s when the secular government fought Islamists – tied the desert attack to France’s intervention across the Sahara against Islamist rebels in Mali.

“We in al Qaeda announce this blessed operation,” he said in a video, according to Sahara Media, a regional website. About 40 attackers participated in the raid, he said, roughly matching the government’s figures for fighters killed and captured.

Belmokhtar demanded an end to French air strikes against Islamist fighters in neighboring Mali. These began five days before the fighters swooped before dawn and seized a plant that produces 10 percent of Algeria’s natural gas exports.

U.S. and European officials doubt such a complex raid could have been organized quickly enough to have been conceived as a direct response to the French military intervention. However, the French action could have triggered an operation that had already been planned.

The group behind the raid, the Mulathameen Brigade, threatened to carry out more such attacks if Western powers did not end what it called an assault on Muslims in Mali, according to the SITE service, which monitors militant statements.

In a statement published by the Mauritania-based Nouakchott News Agency, the hostage takers said they had offered talks about freeing the captives, but the Algerian authorities had been determined to use military force. Sellal blamed the raiders for the collapse of negotiations.

BLOODY SIEGE

The siege turned bloody on Thursday when the Algerian army opened fire, saying fighters were trying to escape with their prisoners. Survivors said Algerian forces blasted several trucks in a convoy carrying both hostages and their captors.

Nearly 700 Algerian workers and more than 100 foreigners escaped, mainly on Thursday when the fighters were driven from the residential barracks. Some captors remained holed up in the industrial complex until Saturday when they were overrun.

The bloodshed has strained Algeria’s relations with its Western allies, some of which have complained about being left in the dark while the decision to storm the compound was being taken.

Nevertheless, Britain and France both defended the military action by Algeria, the strongest military power in the Sahara and an ally the West needs in combating the militants.

Among other foreigners confirmed dead by their home countries were three Britons, one American and two Romanians. The missing include five Norwegians, three Britons and a British resident. An Algerian security source said at least one Frenchman was also among the dead.

The raid on the plant, which was home to expatriate workers from Britain’s BP, Norway’s Statoil, Japanese engineering firm BGC Corp and others, exposed the vulnerability of multinational oil operations in the Sahara.

However, Algeria is determined to press on with its energy industry. Oil Minister Youcef Yousfi visited the site and said physical damage was minor, state news service APSE reported. The plant would start up again in two days, he said.

Algeria, scarred by the civil war with Islamist insurgents in the 1990s which claimed 200,000 lives, insisted from the start of the crisis there would be no negotiation in the face of terrorism. France especially needs close cooperation from Algeria to crush Islamist rebels in northern Mali.

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The suspected sole gunman, a 16-year-old boy, was arrested by police who arrived at Taft Union High School in inland Kern County about a minute after being called, said County Sheriff Donny Youngblood.

The shooting comes less than four weeks after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at a Connecticut elementary school in a December rampage that shocked the nation and has fueled a heated national debate over gun control.

The latest shooting unfolded on Thursday morning at the only senior high school in Taft, a city of about 10,000 people on the southwest edge of the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, about 30 miles southwest of Bakersfield.

One student critically wounded by gunfire was airlifted to a nearby hospital, Youngblood said.

The identity of the shooter, who police say walked into a class in progress and opened fire, was not immediately released. The suspect apparently had a disagreement with the student who was critically injured, police said.

The assailant called out the name of another intended target, who was also a student in the class, and he shot at that person, but missed, Youngblood said.

In the chaos, another student received minor injuries while falling over a table trying the flee the classroom, and a fourth student was taken to a hospital with possible hearing damage from the sound of the gun blast, Youngblood said.

The suspected shooter was arrested after a teacher and a school administrator who confronted him persuaded the boy to put his gun down, Youngblood told reporters. Students fled the class while the two adults pacified the shooter, he said.

“The heroics of these two people, it goes without saying,” Youngblood said. “To stand there and face someone that has a shotgun, who’s already discharged it and shot a student, it speaks volumes for these two young men.”

MORE THAN 20 STUDENTS IN CLASSROOM

The shooter had up to 20 shotgun rounds in his pocket, and there were more than 20 students in the classroom, authorities said. The teacher, who has not been named, was hit in the head with a shotgun pellet, but was not seriously wounded, they said.

“I think he saved many lives today,” U.S. Representative Kevin McCarthy, a Republican who represents the Taft area, told a news conference.

The suspected gunman lives near the school, and he arrived late to campus, Youngblood said. A resident near the school saw him walking toward the campus armed with a shotgun and called authorities, Youngblood said.

An armed police officer is normally assigned to Taft Union High School but was not able to make it to work on Thursday because of snow on the roads, Youngblood said.

Taft school officials had held a lockdown exercise on Thursday ahead of the shooting, in part in response to the massacre in Newtown, Connecticut, said Taft Union High School District superintendent Bill McDermott. They soon were forced to hold a real lockdown in response to the gunfire, he said.

The violence at the California high school occurred on the same day Vice President Joe Biden met with representatives of the powerful National Rifle Association as part of his work to develop a plan to reduce gun violence.

Biden, who is heading a task force created in response to the Newtown shooting, will present his proposals to President Barack Obama, who has already signaled his support for reinstating a national ban on assault-style rifles.

The town of Taft, about 100 miles north of downtown Los Angeles, is economically reliant on oil and natural gas production in the area, and oil derricks dot its horizon.

The post One student critically wounded in California school shooting appeared first on Metro.us.

Thirty-six passengers and crew are claiming thousands of euros in compensation from Costa Cruises for physical as well as psychological injuries such as post-traumatic stress disorder.

John Arthur Eaves Jr., an American lawyer representing more than 150 passengers from 10 countries believes Costa Cruises is faced with multi-million dollar compensation bill. He has described the 11,000 euros ($14,350) in compensation to each of the more than 3,000 passengers aboard the stricken vessel as “peanuts”.

The legal team representing the victims say Costa Cruises must be held negligent due to the tradition of “bowing” (taking the ship close to the island’s shore to salute locals).

“[Costa Cruises] knew the practice of navigation close to the coast because it was in the public domain but still such course changes must be recorded in the captain’s logbook,” the lawyers said.

Ship staff under investigation are also putting blame on Costa Cruises, including Paolo Mattesi, executive of the company. Mattesi said the passengers’ security “was not provided by any officer with a formal delegation of security features”.

According to a survey of the port of Livorno, two of the ship’s radars (one compulsory, another optional) were out of order. This would not affect the dynamics of the accident but such failures should be reported to the maritime authorities and this did not happen, the survey concluded.

Eaves said he is pushing for improved standards in the cruise industry.
“There is a consistent pattern of lack of discipline and communication problems,” he told reporters. “The sooner we can resolve it, the sooner these victims can get back to rebuilding their lives.”

This lawsuit is a separate action to the criminal proceedings against Captain Francesco Schettino later this year. Prosecutors’ 50,000-page investigation against Schettino is reportedly the largest such case in Italian legal history. Schettino faces charges of manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship, with prosecutors calling for a 20-year prison sentence.

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In 2009, the starboard bow of the vessel made contact with the ferry dock at East 35th Street, resulting in a two to three foot tear six or seven feet above the waterline.

In 2010, there was “a hole punched through the skin of the ship well above the waterline” after hitting “a cluster of fender piles” at the dock. The names of the people involved in those incidents were redacted from the publicly available records.

The police would not confirm reports that the ferry’s crew passed breathalyzer tests after today’s incident.

Metro’s original story is below.

At 8:43 a.m. Wednesday morning police officers and fire fighters responded to reports of a ferry crash at the Pier 11 Seastreak ferry terminal near South Street Seaport.

The FDNY and NYPD reported 57 injuries found on the scene, though the U.S. Coast Guard reported 58. Initial reports indicated two critical injuries, one of which was brought to Weill Cornell Hospital on the upper east side, the other to nearby New York Downtown Hospital. New York Downtown Hospital downgraded that patient to stable after examination.

Other than the two critically injured victims, the FDNY said they encountered a mix of serious and minor injuries, but none were life-threatening.

The high-speed commuter ferry was operated by a company called Seastreak, and the vessel was called Wall Street, according U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Charles Rowe. It had departed from Highlands, New Jersey.

Rowe said the Coast Guard is conducting an investigation into the circumstances of the collision already, and is being joined by the National Transportation Safety Board.

Rowe reported 326 passengers on board, as well as five crew members. The most visible damage was to the starboard bow (the front of the ferry, on the right side), three feet above the waterline.

The vessel is about 130 feet long, and weighs 98 gross tons. There were no injuries on the dock, only on the ferry, and no one was thrown or fell into the water.

Rowe said the last truly comparable ferry accident occurred in 2010, when the Staten Island ferry crashed into the St. George Terminal on Staten Island, resulting in multiple injuries. He noted that the Staten Island ferry is a different and much larger vessel.

As of 2 p.m. New York Downtown Hospital had 24 patients being treated, but had already released several.

One man, dressed in a suit with a loosened tie, exited the hospital with scrapes on his left temple and appeared dazed.

Tony Lucia was on his way to work from his home in Allenhurst, New Jersey. He was seated on the first level by the window, in the third row from the back. Lucia said the ferry was going very fast, and he and the other passengers felt no change in speed to indicate that it was docking.

When the ferry made impact with the dock, he was thrown 20 feet.

“Everyone flew, and people were on the ground,” Lucia recounted outside New York Downtown Hospital. “We didn’t know what had happened, you couldn’t tell. We just hit something and it was a disaster.”

(Photos via Reuters)

The post (UPDATE) PHOTOS: Commuter ferry crash in New York injures 57, 2 critical appeared first on Metro.us.

After nearly six hours of failed negotiations, police killed the gunman as he opened fire on them through a second-story window of a townhouse where he had barricaded himself, said Aurora police spokeswoman Cassidee Carlson.

It was unclear from police and media reports whether officers entered the home or shot the man through the window. KUSA television reported that he was killed after police fired tear gas and entered the home, where they found three more bodies.

The victims were believed to be related to the gunman, Carlson said.

Around 3 a.m. (1000 GMT), police notified neighbors of an emergency situation and evacuated several blocks, Carlson said in a news briefing outside the row of beige townhouses in this middle-class Aurora neighborhood, just outside Denver.

One person inside had escaped and alerted authorities, she said.

Around 8 a.m., the gunman fired on a police vehicle, leading to an exchange of gunfire, KMGH television said. At that time police saw the first body, the station reported.

Carlson said the gunman, whose name has not been released, died just before 9 a.m.

A neighbor, Michael Ignace, 46, said he had spoken to the gunman and “he seemed like a reasonable guy, and we talked about motorcycles.”

Police entered Ignace’s apartment during the night and alerted him, but he chose to stay in his house, he said.

The same Denver suburb was rocked by the mass shooting in July that had been the deadliest in the United States of 2012 until the December 14 massacre at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut, where 28 died, including the shooter.

In Aurora, the gunman opened fire during a midnight screening of the Batman movie “The Dark Knight Rises.” Police identified former neuroscience graduate student James Holmes as the suspect in a crime that renewed debate about the sale of powerful semi-automatic rifles and extended capacity magazines.

The post Four dead in hostage-taking in Aurora, Colorado appeared first on Metro.us.

School officials are preparing for droves of anxious parents to join the fleet of buses carting children to a disused middle school in the neighboring town of Monroe. Chalk Hill Middle School, closed about a year and half ago, has been hastily refurbished in the three weeks since the December 14 attack and renamed Sandy Hook Elementary School.

With their children’s safety foremost on parents’ and officials’ minds in the wake of the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history, the school has been outfitted with a new security system. Monroe Police Department officers will patrol the grounds, and all outside doorways and sidewalks will be under surveillance.

“I think right now we have to make this the safest school in America,” Monroe Police Lieutenant Keith White said at a press conference on Wednesday.

Parents wishing to remain with their kids, ages 5 to 10 in kindergarten through grade 4, will be allowed to accompany them to their classrooms and afterwards may stay in the school’s “lecture room” for as long as they like, according to a memo to parents on the school’s website. Counseling will be available for students and parents at the new school, about 7 miles south of the scene of the shooting.

“I’m not sure I’m ready yet to totally let them go,” Sandy Hook parent Sarah Swansiger said on CNN about her trepidation over the return to school.

When the students return around 9 a.m. Thursday, they will find all of the belongings they left behind when teachers and police evacuated them from Sandy Hook nearly three weeks ago after Adam Lanza burst through the school doors and opened fire.

They will be welcomed to a building that has been decked out as a “Winter Wonderland” with the help of thousands of kids from around the world.

“This does not look like the other elementary school,” Newtown School Superintendent Janet Robinson said emphatically.

In the meantime, no new details have emerged to explain why the 20-year-old Lanza, armed with a semi-automatic assault rifle, two other firearms and hundreds of rounds of ammunition, targeted the school.

Described by family friends as having Asperger’s syndrome, a form of autism, Lanza shot and killed his mother, Nancy Lanza, at their home about 5 miles from the school before driving to Sandy Hook and embarking on the massacre, police said. He then took his own life as police were arriving at the school, which had an enrollment of 456.

Police have offered no firm motive for the attack, and state police investigators have said it could be months before they finish their report.

The massacre in Newtown, a rural New England town of 27,000 residents about 70 miles northeast of New York City, stunned the nation, prompting President Barack Obama to call it the worst day of his presidency and reigniting an extensive debate on gun control. Obama has tasked Vice President Joe Biden with assembling a package of gun-control proposals to submit to Congress in the next several weeks.

The National Rifle Association, the most powerful gun-rights lobby in the United States, has rebuffed calls for more stringent firearms restrictions and instead called for armed guards to patrol every public school in the country.

The post Sandy Hook kids head to school for first time since attack appeared first on Metro.us.

Connecticut Governor Dannel Malloy called for residents of his state to observe the moment at 9:30 a.m. EST (1430 GMT) to mark a week since a 20-year-old gunman killed his mother and then stormed Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, where he shot to death 20 children and six adults before killing himself.

Malloy’s fellow governors in Maine, Illinois, Michigan and several other states called on residents to follow suit with a moment of silence and to ring bells to remember the dead. The National Cathedral in Washington plans to ring its bell 28 times as part of an interfaith memorial.

“We have the moral obligation to stand for and with the victims of gun violence and to work to end it,” said Reverend Gary Hall, dean of Washington National Cathedral, who called on Americans to pray “that we may have courage to act, so that the murderous violence done on Friday may never be repeated.”

The company that operates the Nasdaq stock exchange said its operations would observe a moment of silence at 9:30 a.m., although market will open trading at that time as usual.

The observances will be held not long before the National Rifle Association, the largest U.S. gun rights group and one with powerful ties to Washington politicians, begins a media campaign to become part of the gun control debate prompted by the stunning slaughter of 20 children, all 6 or 7 years old.

Laws restricting gun ownership are controversial in the United States, a nation with a strong culture of individual gun ownership. Hundreds of millions of weapons are in private hands.

About 11,100 Americans died in gun-related killings in 2011, not including suicides, according to preliminary data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The NRA remained quiet for four days after the Newtown slaughter, citing “common decency.” It released a short statement on Tuesday saying it was “prepared to offer meaningful contributions to help make sure this never happens again.”

The group scheduled a news conference for 10:45 a.m. (1545 GMT) on Friday in Washington. NRA chief executive Wayne LaPierre planned to appear on the NBC television talk show “Meet the Press” on Sunday.

Some U.S. lawmakers called for swift passage of an assault weapons ban.

Vice President Joe Biden convened a new White House task force on Thursday charged by President Barack Obama with finding ways to quell violence.

“We have to have a comprehensive way in which to respond to the mass murder of our children that we saw in Connecticut,” Biden told the group, which included Attorney General Eric Holder, Thomas Nee, president of the National Association of Police Organizations, and other officials.

The gunman, Adam Lanza, used a military-style assault rifle and police said he carried hundreds of bullets in high-capacity magazines, as well as two handguns. The weapons were legally purchased and registered to his mother, Nancy, his first victim.

By Thursday, funeral services had been held for more than half of the 27 people Lanza killed last week.

Newtown school officials said that Friday would be a shortened day for students heading into the Christmas break.

Reflecting a heightened state of alert at schools across the United States, a school district near Boise, Idaho, canceled planned assemblies at a number of its 50 schools after receiving a rash of threats that suggested “something bad” would happen on Friday, Meridian school spokesman Eric Exline said.

“The event last Friday in Connecticut has unnerved people in a lot of ways,” he said.

The New Milford school district, near Newtown, canceled Friday classes “on the advice of the New Milford Police Department” but did not offer any further explanation.

In Florida, a 13-year-old student was arrested on Thursday after he allegedly posted a Facebook message threatening to “bring a gun to school tomorrow and shoot everyone,” said the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s office on Florida’s east coast.

Police said the teen did not have any weapons and posed no threat to local schools. He was charged with making a written threat and is being held at a local Juvenile Detention Center.

The post Silence, ringing of bells to honor victims of Newtown school massacre appeared first on Metro.us.

FEMA reports 236,000 New Yorkers have requested relief in the wake of the storm, but cash assistance for things like home repairs are only available to U.S. citizens, leaving thousands of undocumented immigrants with nowhere to turn.

FEMA officials did say there is some cash assistance available for undocumented immigrants, but only those who have U.S.-born children or relatives. A FEMA spokeswoman insisted undocumented immigrants who apply for assistance will not be asked for information on their immigration status.

In the hard-hit Rockaways, community organizer Dahlia Goldenberg of Queens Congregations United for Action said many undocumented immigrants who hold domestic jobs have been out of work for a month after the households of their employers were damaged.

“There are families where two out of three adults in the household have been out of work since the storm, and they don’t have the money to fix the boiler and can’t get help from FEMA for that,” Goldenberg said. “They have no plans for what to do when it gets colder.”

She added, “They’re big contributors to our city, so they should be getting help just like everybody else.”

Communities and churches have pulled together to provide
necessities like clothing and food to storm victims, but because
undocumented workers are not eligible for Disaster Unemployment
Assistance through FEMA, their financial needs have slipped through the
cracks.

Undocumented workers who don’t have U.S.-born children or relatives are eligible for crisis counseling and non-cash emergency aid, but Queens Councilman Daniel Dromm, head of the City Council Committee on Immigration, said FEMA hasn’t clearly communicated what is available to them.     

“On signs that FEMA posted, it says you need a social security number right off the bat,” Dromm said. “There are some things [undocumented workers] are eligible for, but those signs are very, very misleading.”

Jackie Vimo, the director of advocacy for the New York Immigration Coalition, said undocumented immigrants can apply for money raised by some organizations, like the Restaurant Opportunities Center of New York and the Mexican Consulate. She’s also urging Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s office to set aside some of the money it has raised for Sandy relief to go directly to undocumented immigrants.

“Many are without housing currently and are double, triple living in crowded conditions with relatives and really stretching family resources,” Vimo said. “In terms of long-term recovery, the fact that there is no specific plan is extremely challenging, and it’s something we are working on.”

One undocumented immigrant’s story

Krystyna, a Polish house cleaner who declined to give her last name, is one of New York’s undocumented immigrants who took a life-changing hit after the storm. She was overcome with emotion as she described her struggle to pay her daughter’s college tuition even as she was out of work for weeks after Sandy.  She is too scared to apply for any type of FEMA aid because she is in the country illegally.  

“One time we went to get hot food and they asked for an ID and we ran because we were scared,” Krystyna, who lives in Far Rockaway, told Metro. “I know I am not legal here, and I can’t get anything. It’s a difficult time. I hope it never happens again.”

She was recently hired to clean a house affected by the storm, but worries that the conditions are unsafe.

“I start coughing because everything is moldy,” Krystyna said. “After three or four weeks, it stinks and we are scared to say we won’t do it because I might lose the job.”

The post Undocumented immigrants left behind in Sandy recovery appeared first on Metro.us.

Checks ranging from $1,784 to $526.9 million were mailed on Wednesday to 1,230 former customers of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, according to trustee Irving Picard. The average payout is $2.02 million.

Madoff’s victims earlier recovered $1.15 billion, including sums committed by the Securities Investor Protection Corp, which helps customers of failed brokerages.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Burton Lifland in Manhattan authorized the latest distribution last month following two legal victories for the trustee.

In June, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand a lower court decision that endorsed Picard’s methods for calculating losses. In July, a former Madoff customer dropped a court challenge to a $7.2 billion forfeiture by the estate of Madoff investor Jeffry Picower. Of that sum, $5 billion would go to the Madoff firm’s estate, and the rest to the U.S. government.

Picard has recovered $9.15 billion, or 53 percent of the $17.3 billion he believes was lost in Madoff’s Ponzi scheme.

The trustee is holding some funds in reserve as some Madoff victims pursue their own cases to recover more money.

Picard said this litigation is delaying further distributions. The trustee is also appealing court decisions that have limited his claims against banks such as JPMorgan Chase & Co that did business with Madoff.

A spokeswoman for Picard was not immediately available to comment on the latest distribution.

The market for trading claims on potential recoveries from Madoff’s estate will adjust for the distribution, according to Joseph Sarachek, managing director of claims trading at CRT Capital Group LLC, a Stamford, Connecticut-based broker-dealer.

He said claims that recently traded at around 69 cents on the dollar will likely soon trade in the 30s. “The Madoff market is fairly volatile,” Sarachek said. “The real question is when people think the next distribution will be.”

Lifland has authorized Picard and his law firm, Baker & Hostetler, to bill $321.2 million of legal fees to pursue Madoff cases for the period ended January 31, 2012.

Madoff was arrested in December 2008 and pleaded guilty three months later. The 74-year-old is serving a 150-year sentence in a North Carolina federal prison.

The post Madoff victims to receive $2.48 billion payout appeared first on Metro.us.

In New York City, the World Trade Center Memorial site is filled with family members paying tribute to loved ones who lost their lives that day.

A somber ceremony began this morning at 8:39 a.m. Once again this year, the name of each victim is read aloud. It will conclude at 12:30 p.m.

(Photo by Mile Dixon/Metro)

(Photos by Getty Images)

People pause outside of the World Trade Center.

An American flag sits in the name of Frances Ann Cilente during memorial ceremonies.

Pilsoon Kang, who’s lost her son, Joon Koo Kang, stands at the memorial during memorial ceremonies for the eleventh anniversary.

Christine Gonda places a picture of firefighter George Kane in the engraving of his name at the South Pool.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, speak with Miah Afsaruddin during ceremonies.

An honor guard carries the World Trade Center flag near the South Pool of the 9/11 Memorial.

A member of the military salutes while standing by the South Pool.

The post PHOTOS: Remembering 9/11 on the 11th anniversary appeared first on Metro.us.

But for the family members who lost a loved one in the terror attacks that changed the world, this day is no easier than the ten anniversaries before it. For them, the pain remains — even with time.

Jamie Hargrave lost his brother T.J. Hargrave, a Cantor Fitzgerald employee, on 9/11. His remains were never recovered. Hargrave was escorting his family into today’s commemoration ceremony where his brother’s daughter will read his name.

“It is brutally sad every year,” Hargrave told Metro. “It’s important we remember him. He was quite a man.”

When asked whether the pain of 9/11 gets easier with time, Hargrave responded, “Leading up to it and the time after, yes. This day, no.”

Myrtle Bazil carried a photograph of her daughter, Shevonne Olicia Mentis, with her into today’s ceremony. Mentis worked at Marsh & McLennan on the 93rd floor of the North Tower.

“We traveled on the train, I told her, ‘Bye, see you later,’” Bazil recalled as her eyes filled with tears. “Pain, the pain doesn’t go away.”  

Some family members acknowledged that with the 11th anniversary, the city has taken a significant step forward in moving on from the tragedy, but said the wounds are still fresh for those who lost loved ones.

“Like anything else, the memories die away to certain people and you can understand that,” Pat Marino, who lost his firefighter son Kenneth Marino in the WTC, told Metro. “But to the families, I think it’s going to stay just the same as day one. It doesn’t get any easier.”

For the first time, this year’s commemoration ceremony will not include speeches by elected officials — a change that most family members welcomed.

“It used to be like a political ploy when we came down here and I didn’t like it,” Marino said, joined by his wife Mary Ann. “It’s more focused on the victims.”

Crowd of observers thinner this year

Still, some people came to Lower Manhattan today simply out of respect.

Inside Zuccotti Park, 28-year-old Don Rogers came from his Belmar, New Jersey home to spend time near the site on this day. He said he noticed, though, that the crowd of observers is thinner this year.  

“I could see on TV, it’s just kind of another day,” Rogers, who was a senior in high school on 9/11, told Metro. “I think last year was more symbolic because it was ten years.”  

He didn’t lose a loved one in the attacks, but said he comes to the city on this day each year to remember, and plans to continue his personal tradition in the future.

“It affected so many people in New York and New Jersey,” Rogers said. “It just means a lot, more than anything, I think, in my lifetime will probably mean.”

The post For family members of 9/11 victims, time stands still on anniversary appeared first on Metro.us.

In an interview with the National Catholic Register, Father Benedict Groeschel, 78, said boys without fathers are often the ones to approach their abusers.

“Suppose you have a man having a nervous breakdown, and a youngster comes after him. A lot of the cases, the youngster — 14, 16, 18 — is the seducer,” Groeschel, who is part of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, said.

“It’s not so hard to see — a kid looking for a father and didn’t have his own — and they won’t be planning to get into heavy-duty sex, but almost romantic, embracing, kissing,” he added.

On the subject of Sandusky, who was convicted on multiple counts of child sex abuse, Groeschel  expressed sympathy.

“Here’s this poor guy — Sandusky — it went on for years. Interesting. Why didn’t anyone say anything?” Groeschel asked.

He also said he doesn’t think child sex abusers should be prosecuted for their first offense.

“I’m inclined to think, on their first offense, they should not go to jail — because their intention was not committing a crime,” he said.

The Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, the order to which Groeschel belongs, told Metro Thursday they are not planning to reprimand him for the comments.

Groeschel did, however, issue a statement of apology Thursday afternoon:

“I apologize for my comments. I did not intend to blame the victim. A priest (or anyone else) who abuses a minor is always wrong and is always responsible. My mind and my way of expressing myself are not as clear as they used to be. I have spent my life trying to help others the best I could. I deeply regret any harm I have caused to anyone.”

He hit his head?

Groeschel, 78, was recovering from a fall where he hit his head when he gave the interview to the National Catholic Register, said Father Glenn Sudano, a member of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

“He is a counselor and he is very dedicated to the poor, and the oppressed, and actually people who are victims of everything,” Sudano told Metro of Groeschel. “This is why it’s shocking that he even said this. It doesn’t even sound like him.”

Sudano would not disclose Groeschel’s whereabouts.

When asked whether Groeschel would face any consequences for his actions, Sudano replied, “He is recuperating. I can imagine him being confused, and frankly, knowing him, when it sinks in, he is going to be devastated that he hurt people.”

Sudano said that since Groeschel is not in a position of authority within the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal, there will be no disciplinary action taken against him.

“It’s almost like your grandfather, what do you do?” Sudano asked. “There is no disciplinary action that logically could be done.”

Sudano said that only in extreme circumstances, when a crime is committed, will a friar be dispensed from his vows. Since the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal take a vow of poverty, there can be no monetary consequences for Groeschel, Sudano said.

Editor of Catholic newsletter apologizes

The National Catholic Register issued a statement of apology for printing Groeschel’s comments and removed the interview from its website.

“Child sexual abuse is never excusable,” Editor-in-Chief Jeanette R. De Melo said in a statement. “The editors of the National Catholic Register apologize for publishing without clarification or [challenging] Father Benedict Groeschel’s comments that seem to suggest that the child is somehow responsible for abuse. Nothing could be further from the truth.”

Condemned by New York Archdiocese

The Archdiocese of New York condemned Groechel’s comments and disassociated itself with them.

“The harm that was done by these remarks was compounded by the assertion that the victim of abuse is responsible for the abuse, or somehow caused the abuse to occur,” spokesman Joseph Zwilling said. “This is not only terribly wrong, it is also extremely painful for victims.”

The post Father Groeschel apologizes for sympathizing with Sandusky, but won’t face discipline appeared first on Metro.us.

The FDNY confirmed at least seven people are being treated after the shooting, which broke out at 9 am. Four people were actually shot and two people were killed, according to NBC New York. One of those people is reportedly the gunman, who was shot and killed by NYPD officers.

The other injuries are a result of people being trampled as bystanders fled the scene in panic immediately after the shooting.

The shooting took place in front of the building near 33rd Street and Fifth Avenue.

Victims of the shooting have been transported from the scene.

The gunman may have been a disgruntled employee who was fired from his job at a business inside the building yesterday. He reportedly tried to re-enter the building this morning, but was turned away by security. That’s when he exited the building and opened fire.

A large police presence, joined by the FBI, is still at the Empire State Building. The NYPD would not confirm details.

The post Gunman among two dead after shooting rampage at Empire State Building appeared first on Metro.us.

Khan, an internationally acclaimed dancer who was recently the recipient of the Olivier Award, was commissioned by director Danny Boyle to choreograph and perform a moving number just before the athletes entered the stadium. Khan, 50 dancers and a 10-year-old boy performed a contemporary dance as the haunting voice of Emile Sandé sang the somber hymn “Abide With Me.”

Today, at a discussion led by BBC’s Alan Yentob, Khan, joined by his dance company’s producer Farooq Chaudhry, spoke of his vision behind the dance and the theme he and Boyle worked to create — mortality. He said the dancers were meant to symbolize spirits and the young boy was meant to symbolize “hope” and legacy.  

“He said to me, ‘I would love you to do something about mortality. I want you to do it to end the artistic part and after that, the athletes will come in,’” Khan told reporters about his conversation with Boyle.

When a reporter asked Khan how he felt about NBC cutting the performance from the U.S. viewing, a surprised expression came across his face and he admitted it was the first he had heard of it.

He later said, “I don’t know why they cut it, but I feel disheartened and disappointed, really. Is it not accessible enough? Is it not commercial enough? If it’s for those reasons, than I am really, really disappointed. Maybe it’s too simple. Maybe it’s too empty… I don’t know why they did it.”

Chaudhry, who told reporters he had just found the performance was cut before the press conference began, said, “I was really shocked and horrified and would like to know on what grounds the American media can make that decision.”

NBC had not responded to multiple requests for comment at the time this story was published.

The media, though, had already begun reporting about the “7/7 tribute” that was cut by NBC, with one glaring error: Khan made no mention during the 90 minute discussion about the terror attack on London on July 7, 2005 that claimed 52 lives. It didn’t come up once. There is also no mention of it being a tribute in the official media guide of the opening ceremony.

The confusion seems to lie within a video tribute that showed pictures of victims and asked the crowd to pause for a moment of silence for “friends and family who could not be here tonight.” Khan’s performance began right after that, confusing viewers and reporters as to whether it was part of the tribute.

However, Khan’s failure to mention the dance being any kind of dedication would suggest that it was not part of the tribute. Nevertheless, NBC has yet to explain why it was cut.

There has been so much outrage over the cut performance, as well as many other moments that were hacked for American viewing, that the hashtag #NBCfail was trending on Twitter after the opening ceremony.

The post NBC cuts Akram Khan dance, incorrectly dubbed ’7/7 tribute’ by media appeared first on Metro.us.

The 23-page report could likely be the most disturbing material you read all year, but the information within sheds light on the fact that these heinous acts went on for years, and reveals there were many people on the Penn State campus who likely knew about the abuse and could possibly have done more to stop it.

We’ve been repeatedly hearing the names Joe Paterno, Graham Spanier, Tim Curley and Gary Schultz all week for their alleged role in covering up Sandusky’s misdeed, but the grand jury findings say at least two other people actually witnessed Sandusky abuse a child, and multiple others observed inappropriate behavior, or were told by other people that Sandusky may have posed a threat to children.

It’s impossible to understand how so many people could have known about what was (allegedly) happening on campus, yet the abuse (again, allegedly) went on for years.

Here’s a summary of the major players within the report and the involvement each of them had… or didn’t have.

Joseph Miller, Clinton County wrestling coach

According to the grand jury, Sandusky would assist with coaching at a Clinton County high school and had access to the building’s facilities. Joe Miller, a wrestling coach for the district’s elementary school, entered a room at the high school one evening in 2006 or 2007 to find Sandusky and a young boy, age 12 or 13, lying face-to-face on a mat, alone in a wrestling room.

“He recalls that Sandusky jumped up and said, ‘Hey Coach, we’re just working on some wrestling moves.’ Sandusky was not a wrestling coach. Miller found the use of that secluded room odd for wrestling because the bigger wrestling room right outside the weight room had more room to wrestle and more mats,” the report said.

It does not say, however, that Miller ever reported the incident.

Steven Turchetta, assistant high school principal and head football coach

Turchetta testified that he routinely witnessed controlling behavior from Sandusky towards the boys who he mentored through the Second Mile program, a charity founded by Sandusky to benefit underprivileged children. Turchetta said he became aware of allegations of sexual assault against Sandusky when a mother of one of the victims called the school to report it in 2008. Sandusky was forbidden to return to the school district and Turchetta did, indeed, notify authorities.

The investigation launched found that Sandusky had made more than 100 phone calls to the victim from January 2008 to July 2009.

Mike McQueary, PSU graduate assistant  

It’s well known by now that McQueary said he actually witnessed Sandusky sexually abusing a boy as young as 10 years old in a PSU locker room shower in 2002.

“The graduate assistant was shocked, but noticed that both Victim 2 and Sandusky saw him. The graduate assistant left immediately, distraught,” according to the report.

McQueary did nothing to rescue the young boy from the assault he was enduring. He did, however, say he reported the matter to head coach Joe Paterno. Paterno testified to passing along the information that Sandusky had been doing something of a sexual nature with the boy to Penn State Atheltic Director Tim Curley. Curley testified that he and Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Gary Schultz then had a meeting with McQueary about what he witnessed.

Curley and Schultz gave different accounts about the information they received from McQueary, and neither of them ever contacted police. Curley did inform PSU President Graham Spanier. However, Curley was not specific in the language he used in that conversation.  Curley and Schultz have both been charged with perjury. Records that were subpoenaed from the Department of Public Welfare and Children and Youth Services and University Police show that this incident was never reported.

Dr. Jack Raykovitz, executive director of the Second Mile

Curley testified that he informed Raykovitz about Sandusky’s “inappropriate conduct” or “horsing around,” but also said that he did not get a sense that the behavior was sexual in any way.

Wendell Courtney, PSU counsel, The Second Mile counsel

“Schultz testified that the 1998 incident was reviewed by the University Police and the ‘child protection agency’ with the blessing of then-University counsel Wendell Courtney. Courtney was then and remains counsel for The Second Mile,” the report states. However, there is no testimony from Courtney included by the grand jury.

University Police Detective Ronald Schreffler and State College Police Department Detective Ralph Ralston

The mother of a victim called University Police in 1998 after she learned that her son had showered with Jerry Sandusky, according to the report. Schreffler conducted a lengthy investigation, during which he and Ralston listened in on phone conversations between Sandusky and the victim’s mother. Sandusky admitted to showering with other boys and said in one conversation, “I understand. I was wrong. I wish I could get forgiveness. I know I won’t get it from you. I wish I were dead.”

The investigation was closed after then-Centre County District Attorney Ray Gricar decided there would be no criminal charges brought against Sandusky. Schreffler testified that he was also told by the director of campus police, Thomas Harmon, to close the investigation, which by then included a second alleged child victim of Sandusky.

Jerry Lauro, investigator with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare

Lauro testified that he interviewed Sandusky with Schreffler during the 1998 investigation. Sandusky admitted to showering with the victim, hugging the victim while naked in the shower, and acknowledged that it was wrong. Lauro testified that Schreffler advised Sandusky not to shower with children again and Sandusky said he would not.

Jim Calhoun, PSU janitor; Ronald Petrosky; Office of Physical Plant employee; Jay Witherite, Calhoun’s supervisor

Calhoun said he witnessed Sandusky performing oral sex on a boy in the locker room showers in 2000. Much like McQueary, Calhoun reported leaving the scene without stopping the abuse. The same evening, Petrosky saw Sandusky and a young boy together in the locker room and watched them walk away holding hands. Calhoun, who was visibly shaken, told Petrosky about what he had seen later that evening. Petrosky testified that Calhoun was crying and seemed so upset that Petrosky worried he might have a heart attack.

“Jim said he had ‘fought in the [Korean] war… seen people with their guts blowed out, arms dismembered… I just witnessed something in there I’ll never forget,’” according to the report.  

That same evening, Calhoun also told Witherite about seeing Sandusky perform oral sex on the boy.

According to his testimony, “Witherite told him to whom he should report the incident, if he chose to report it.”

Jim Calhoun never filed a report.

There have been no trials or convictions in this case. Whether you believe the people in this report did enough or not, it’s hard not to wonder if any of Sandusky’s alleged victims might have been spared if just one of these people had done something more.


The full grand jury report:

Penn State Sandusky Grand Jury Presentment 2

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“We have never received anything,” Russell Mercer said. “That’s still true even today.”

Now they can visit the Sept. 11 memorial, which opened Sunday to the families, and touch the letters of his name. But without remains, the couple could not even have a funeral, holding just a memorial mass and constantly hoping the city would call them with news.

The Mercers are two of thousands of family members waiting for a call from the medical examiner’s office. More than 1,000 World Trade Center victims’ remains have still not been identified -— at last count, 1,632 of the 2,753 names have been established through DNA testing.

Last month, Ernest James, 40, a Marsh & McLennan employee, became the latest victim identified. He was the first victim to match remains to DNA since 2009.

Mercer said he holds out hope for a similar phone call. “You can’t give up on hope.”

Follow Alison Bowen on Twitter @AlisonatMetro.

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But those names may not be heard at future 9/11 memorials.

The city and the National September 11 Memorial & Museum board of directors — of which Mayor Michael Bloomberg is the chair — said they will begin surveying family members to see if they want the names of those killed read in future years.

“A decision has not been made and family members will be consulted before one is,” said mayoral spokesman Andrew Brent yesterday.

One proposed idea is that there will still be a ceremony in years to come, just one without the hours of name-reading.

The family members who lost loved ones were mixed on the idea of nixing the names.

“I think it’s important to this family [to read the names],” said Sandy Williams who lost her nephew, Brian Patrick Williams, on 9/11. “I think the name is important because it’s recognizing what they went through.”

But other family members said they wouldn’t mind if the names weren’t read again in future ceremonies.

“I think I’d be okay with it,” said Kelly Mladenik, the daughter of American Airlines Flight 11 passenger Jeffrey Mladenik. “Life goes on, as awful as it is and the cards that are dealt … life goes on.”

We asked:?How do you feel about a discontinuation of the 9/11 name-reading ceremony?

Morell Cole, a Brooklyn resident, lost her uncle in the attacks.
“They’ve said the names for 10 years. I appreciate it and it’s been done, but I think we can move on to different types of ceremonies.”

Kelly Mladenik lost her father on board American Airlines Flight 11.
“Life goes on, as awful as it is and the cards that are dealt … life goes on. We learned to cope and live our lives, the way he’d want us to.”

Andrea Villa lost her sister-in-law, Sharon
“Even though it’s a long time that it takes, we still have a special feeling when we hear her name. One of my children would like to do that — read her name — now that she’s old enough to do it.”

Alonzo Davis lost his brother, Clinton Davis, a Port Authority police officer, in the attacks.
“It’s getting tiring. This will be my last event, the 10th year, because it’s too much, really … drama for the whole family.”

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Responders told Metro that hearing the names of those killed brought back vivid scenes of helping — and being helpless.

“I saw the south tower fall first, which blew me into One Financial Center,” recalled first responder Kevin Frazier, who said he was one of the first at the foot of the World Trade Center as the two towers burned.

He comes every year to the service to pay his respects, he said, and remember.

Upstate paramedic Jeff Sitterly arrived the week after Sept. 11 to help firefighters as they combed through the wreckage. “At that point we were just there for the recovery,” he said.

He tries to attend the memorial services every year. “It’s been very emotional for me to be here, and it’s something I feel like I should do as often as I can.”

Some responders like FDNY veteran James O’Brien, moved to Florida after the 9/11 attacks, where his wife Tina said she now feels safe. They returned to the city for the anniversary. “There’s no place else,” she said. 

Watching outside the walls

Many responders were upset they could not attend the actual ceremony. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said family members were the priority, and so many of them wanted to attend it left little room for anyone else. First responders instead gathered at Zuccotti Park near the World Trade Center, where the city set aside space for them to watch. The FDNY also hosted their own 10-year anniversary ceremony Saturday at St. Pat­rick’s Cathedral. Others chose to honor the 343 fallen at their own fire houses. The NYPD held its memorial ceremony Thursday. 

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The storm battered the East Coast with up to 15 inches of rain on Saturday and Sunday, setting river level records in 10 states, the Geological Survey said.

Wide swathes of New Jersey, upstate New York and Vermont experienced the worst flooding in decades, and while many disaster areas began to see waters recede other rivers had not yet crested, the USGS said.

Some 1.7 million homes and businesses were still without power after as many as 6.7 million had lost electricity.

With damage in the billions of dollars — Standard & Poor’s estimated the national total at $20 billion, though others have put the number at half that — homeowners were also battling insurance companies that exclude flood damage coverage.

Adding to the anxiety, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said it had to put long-term projects on hold and focus on rushing immediate relief to battered states because it had only $800 million left in its disaster relief fund.

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The site, 911.metro.us, features breaking news and video on the 10th anniversary of the attacks on New York and the Pentagon.

And there’s also a public tribute area where readers can remember those lost or who suffered on 9/11.

“We think it’s important that our readers are able to remember those who died that day, or who are still suffering, from whatever cause, because of the 9/11 attacks.

“We’d also invite reflections from those who were not directly affected — 9/11 was one of the most important days in American history,” said Tony Metcalf, editor-in-chief of Metro USA.

Comments, which will be actively moderated, can be entered by liking Metro on Facebook (www.facebook.com/MetroNewYork, /MetroBoston and /Metro Philly.)

A selection will be used in the week starting Sept. 6, when Metro’s print titles, published in New York City, Boston and Philadelphia, will reflect on the 10th anniversary of 9/11. 

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