Eric Holder makes history as first black attorney general

In this Jan. 15, 2009 file photo, Attorney General-designate Eric Holder testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington before the Senate Judiciary Committee. Holder's nomination as the first African-American attorney general has moved to the full Senate with broad bipartisan support. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted Wednesday to favorably recommend Holder for the job. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File) (AP)
Eric Holder won Senate confirmation Monday as the nation's first African-American attorney general, after supporters from both parties touted his dream resume and easily overcame Republican concerns over his commitment to fight terrorism and his unwillingness to back the right to keep and bear arms.
The vote was 75-21, with all the opposition coming from Republicans.
Holder's chief supporter, Sen. Patrick Leahy, said the confirmation was a fulfillment of civil rights leader Martin Luther King's dream that everyone would be judged by the content of their character.
"Come on the right side of history," said Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Judiciary Committee.
Holder becomes the only black in the Obama administration in what has traditionally been known as the president's Cabinet. Three other African-Americans have been chosen for top administration positions that hold the same rank.
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Holder was a federal prosecutor, judge and the No. 2 Justice Department official in the Clinton administration. Even his critics agreed that Holder was well-qualified, but they questioned his positions and independence.
The debate turned partisan in its first moments, when Leahy, expressed anger that a few Republicans demanded a pledge from Holder that he wouldn't prosecute intelligence agents who participated in harsh interrogations.
Leahy singled out Texas Republican John Cornyn as one who wanted to "turn a blind eye to possible lawbreaking before investigating whether it occurred."more

Police Chief Willie Fuller Suspended for charges of soliciting sex

Suspended Virginia Commonwealth University Police Chief Willie Fuller appeared briefly in a Chesterfield County court this afternoon for arraignment on charges of soliciting sex with a minor in an online sting operation.
Fuller, who appeared by video teleconference from the jail, did not yet have an attorney. A preliminary hearing was set for April 2.
After the hearing, Chesterfield Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney Dave Rigler said Fuller thought he was talking to a 14-year-old girl, not a detective, when the alleged offenses occurred Jan. 10.
"There was one day of chatting," he said, "everything he was charged with happened on that one day."
He was charged with two counts of using a computer to solicit sex from a minor and two counts of attempted indecent liberties with a minor.
Fuller is 50, but Rigler said he portrayed himself online as being about 35. Fuller’s screen name was hotcop2006, Rigler said.
Earlier today VCU said it had suspended Fuller without pay.
--Mark Bowes
12:36 p.m.
Virginia Commonwealth University Police Chief Willie B. Fuller has been arrested in an online sting operation in Chesterfield County and charged with soliciting sex from a 14-year-old girl, police said today.
Police said Fuller, 50, was arrested last night at his home in the 9000 block of Meadowfield Court in Henrico County. He was charged with two counts of using a computer to solicit sex from a minor and two counts of attempted indecent liberties with a minor.
His arrest resulted from a sting operation that involved undercover detectives going to online chatrooms or other Internet sites popular with juveniles. The detectives then create fictitious posts and pose as minors.
Although police declined to provide more specific information in this case, meetings are usually arranged between the detectives and the people with whom they communicate, most of whom are seeking sex.
Chesterfield Police Maj. Dan Kelly said Fuller clearly believed he was communicating with a 14-year-old girl.
"I’m not sure which [Internet] medium the detective was using at the time it occurred," Kelly said. "But it was part of our ongoing online efforts in these areas. When time permits, our detectives trained in this area will utilize their time and go online."
Kelly declined to say when Fuller made contact and over what period of time.
"We’re going to wait to talk more about the investigation at a later time," he said.
Fuller is being held without bond in the Chesterfield Jail pending a pre-trial hearing this afternoon in Chesterfield Juvenile and Domestic Relations District Court.
VCU suspended Fuller without pay and appointed Carlton Edwards, a VCU police captain, as interim chief.
"We've taken action," said VCU Rector Thomas Rosenthal. He said he received a call from university President Eugene Trani this morning about the arrest.
"We regard this situation as extremely serious," Trani said in an alert sent to member of the campus community. "We have taken aggressive action to address it, and we will cooperate in all appropriate ways with the Chesterfield County Police investigation."
Fuller came to VCU as police chief in 2000 from Virginia State University, where he was also police chief, said John M. Bennett, VCU senior vice president for finance and administration. Fuller also previously worked for VCU police.
Bennett said VCU instituted criminal background checks on all employees at some point after Fuller was hired, but he said he knew of no complaints against him.
He also said he did not know if any VCU computer equipment had been taken by Chesterfield police from Fuller’s home. Bennett said VCU did not plan its own investigaton.
Chesterfield Police Chief Thierry Dupuis notified VCU officials this morning of Fuller’s arrest, Bennett said. The board of visitors was notified and about 30 minutes later VCU President Eugene Trani alerted the university community by e-mail. more

footprint embedded on man's head is helping police track down his attacker

The imprint of a shoe or boot can clearly be seen on Johnathan Robinson's head
By Jaya Narain It is the sort of shocking image more likely to be seen in a violent American television crime show.
The clues left by a footprint embedded in the head of a robbery victim would be enough to have the forensic experts from the popular Crime Scene Investigation series homing in on the perpetrator.
And, far from the show’s glamorous recreations of Las Vegas and Miami, detectives in Salford are hoping the same methods will lead them to the brutal robbers who left pub landlord Johnathan Robinson needing emergency surgery.
Mr Robinson, 33, was attacked and run over by his own car as he left the Golden Lion pub with £2,500 of takings.
As he lay on the ground with a broken leg a thug viciously stamped on his head before seizing the cash.
Last night police said the clear imprint of the trainer or boot could lead to the arrest of the four-strong gang.
Forensic officers took close-up photographs of the footprint on Mr Robinson’s forehead and they were scanned into police computers.
From there, they can be digitally compared with footprints already on the system or with prints lifted at other crime scenes in the future.
Detectives are also checking footwear databases and speaking to manufacturers to find a match.

Detectives are checking footwear databases to try and find the thugs responsible
The robbery happened on Monday as Mr Robinson left the pub in Clifton, Salford, where he lives with his wife Donna, 35, and two children, aged six and four.
As the landlord sat in his car the passenger door was opened and a man began to repeatedly punch him in the face.
Mr Robinson said: ‘The driver’s door then opened and another was screaming at me to hand over the money.
‘I managed to push the door into him and tried to run back to the pub. But they ran over me in the car. My leg was shattered.
'I couldn’t get up and they stamped on my head. At that point I blacked out and they took the cash from my pocket. The last thing I remember was their car screeching away.’
Detective Sergeant Julie Connor said the footprint was ‘an absolutely vital clue’.
She added: ‘Many people have been convicted of crimes by matching the footprint to the footwear.
'We can even make matches to latent prints found, for instance, in a house or on a path. more

The thoughts of the president from *24*

Young mand says that former pastor Ted Haggard performed a sex act in front of him

DENVER — A young man who once attended New Life Church in the United States says that former pastor Ted Haggard performed a sex act in front of him in a hotel room in 2006 and sent him explicit text messages.
The man said his hidden relationship with Haggard was followed by a period of isolation, struggles with drinking, drugs and suicide attempts.
Those latest allegations against Haggard, once an influential national evangelical leader, were reported Monday night by KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs, which interviewed the man, now 25.
In a statement earlier Monday, Haggard apologized for his "inappropriate relationship" with the former church volunteer, but said it did not involve physical contact.
The newly disclosed relationship added a chapter to Haggard's dramatic fall, which began in November 2006 when a Denver male prostitute alleged a cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard.
Haggard confessed to undisclosed "sexual immorality" and resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of New Life Church.
The latest revelations involve Grant Haas, who told the TV station that he met Haggard in 2005 when he was 22. He said he told Haggard he had been kicked out of a Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for his "struggles with homosexuality."

"It seemed like at that moment his eyes lit up and his whole attitude towards me changed," he told KRDO. Reached by text message Monday, Haas agreed to be identified by The Associated Press. Haggard's statement also identified him.
"I'm like, 'This must be God,"' said Haas, who described wanting to be a pastor himself. "Why would this big guy, this big evangelical leader, be taking such an interest in me?"
Haas told KRDO that one night in Cripple Creek, a casino town west of Colorado Springs, Haggard "asked me if we were going to be godly or bad that night." He said he told Haggard he wanted him just to be his friend and pastor — but Haggard masturbated in front of him.
Haas also said Haggard at certain times sent him between 1,000 and 2,000 text messages a month, some describing his sexual experiences and drug use from the road.

After the Haggard scandal in November 2006, Haas said he contacted the church immediately.
The church has said it struck a legal settlement with the man — it has not named Haas — in 2007 that paid him for college tuition and counseling as long as he did not speak publicly about the relationship. Brady Boyd, Haggard's successor as pastor at New Life, called it "compassionate assistance — certainly not hush money."
According to documents Haas provided KRDO, he is to be paid $179,000 through 2009. Haas claimed the church didn't follow through on promises to pay for counseling and medical treatment. more

Six people confessed to murders that they didn't commit

Joseph White, right, was convicted in 1989 of murdering Helen Wilson. The Nebraska Attoreney General's Office Now says Bruce Smith, left, was the real killer.
(Courtesy Nebraska Attorney General/Joseph White)
More PhotosGonzalez hadn't heard the name Helen Wilson in the four years since her elderly downstairs neighbor had been raped and murdered, until the day police swept into the basement of McCormick's seafood restaurant in Denver and led Gonzalez out in handcuffs.

She'd waived extradition from Colorado, saying recently that she figured she could quickly clear up the misunderstanding and go home. But when she got back to Beatrice, Gonzalez discovered several suspects were already in custody, and they were telling police she was involved in Wilson's murder.

Gonzalez, then 29, says she had never even met some of her co-defendants. They, like her, were people at the margins, drifters, some with drug problems, others suffering from mental illness.

For months, Gonzalez says, the police hounded her and called her a liar. She met with a police psychologist, who suggested the murder was so horrific that she simply blocked it out, and offered to work with her to help her remember. When Gonzalez protested that she didn't know one of her co-defendants, the psychologist, Wayne Price, told her, "You apparently don't want to."

"The odds are that at this time, it looks like you were in [there] but did in fact block it," Price said. "And if you can help you out by remembering, it will help you."

"Yeah," Gonzalez sighed.

Now, she says, she was being given 24 hours to decide, either plead to a lesser charge or go to trial for first-degree murder and face the possibility of the death penalty. She says the police kept telling her she would be the first woman to be executed in state history. The police deny threatening her, and her lawyer said he could not recall.
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Texas Girls B-Ball coach fired for running up the score 100-0

Texas Winner Runs Up Score; Dallas Academy Girls Turn Losing Into Learning
The coach of a girls' high school basketball team in Texas that blew out another team 100-0 was fired Sunday after refusing to apologize "for a wide-margin victory."

Learning disabled girls' basketball teams show their real courage on the court.Micah Grimes, former coach of Covenant School girl's basketball team, defended the win in an e-mail to the Dallas Morning News, saying "my girls played with honor and integrity."

The Covenant School, a private Christian high school in Dallas, which formally apologized for the big win over Dallas Academy, a small private school for students with learning disabilities, last week, called the trouncing "shameful."

During the lopsided Jan. 13 game, spectators said the Covenant School ran up the score, playing aggressive offense, even with their 59-0 lead at halftime. The girls kept on the pressure until they scored the 100th point.

"I was really frustrated, especially at halftime," Dallas Academy junior Lauren Click said. "I actually did ask my coach, 'Do we have to go back out there?'"

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Girl's Hoops Team Regrets 100-0 WinSoftball Players Show Ultimate SportsmanshipLife 101: Learning to Live With AutismThe Dallas Academy has eight girls on the varsity team and is used to challenges on and off the court. Despite hours in the gym practicing each week, the Bulldogs haven't won a girls basketball game in five years.

"We are not quitters, and we don't give up," Click said. "And we try hard at whatever we do, even if we are losing 100 to 0." more