Police doubt shooter wanted to hurt anyone
TEANECK, N.J. – Relatives and friends of a young man who fired shots in New Jersey’s largest mall, trapping terrified shoppers for hours before killing himself, struggled Tuesday to reconcile those actions with a person they described as pleasant and well-liked.
Investigators don’t believe the gunman, identified as 20-year-old Richard Shoop, intended to shoot anyone when he began firing at the ceiling and elsewhere at the Garden State Plaza in Paramus, about 15 miles northwest of New York City, shortly before the mall’s closed Monday night. There were no other injuries.
“We think he went in with the intent that he was not going to come out alive,” Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said.
Medicare chief says website repairs working
WASHINGTON – Under growing pressure, the administration refused repeatedly to state a position Tuesday on legislation formalizing President Barack Obama’s oft-stated promise that people who like their existing coverage should be allowed to keep it under the new health care law.
Senate Democrats spoke dismissively of the proposals, signaling they have no intention of permitting a vote on the issue that marks the latest challenge confronting supporters of “Obamacare.”
An earlier controversy appeared to be ebbing on a law that has generated more than its share of them. Even so, one strong supporter of the health care law, Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R. I., good-naturedly told an administration official, “Good luck getting through this mess.”
Whitehouse spoke to Marilyn Tavenner, the head of the agency deeply involved in implementing the law. She had assured lawmakers that initial flaws with the government’s website were systematically yielding to around-the-clock repair effort.
Toronto mayor refuses to quit after admission
TORONTO – Toronto Mayor Rob Ford acknowledged for the first time Tuesday that he smoked crack “probably a year ago,” when he was in a “drunken stupor,” but he refused to resign despite immense pressure to step aside as leader of Canada’s largest city.
Ford said he loves his job and “for the sake of the taxpayers, we must get back to work immediately.”
Allegations that the mayor had been caught on video smoking crack surfaced in news reports in May. Ford initially insisted the video did not exist, sidestepped questions about whether he had ever smoked crack and rebuffed growing calls to step down.
The mayor was forced to backtrack last week after police said they had obtained a copy of the video in the course of a drug investigation against a friend of Ford’s.
Kerry tries to revive Mideast peace talks
JERUSALEM – U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry headed to Israel and the Palestinian territories on Tuesday, hoping to breathe life into peace talks that have quickly run into trouble.
Three months after the U.S.-brokered talks were launched, there have been no visible signs of progress, and both sides have reverted to a familiar pattern of finger pointing.
With the talks set to end in April, the deadlock is raising speculation that the U.S. may need to step up its involvement and present its own blueprint for peace early next year, or perhaps lower expectations and pursue a limited, interim agreement.
Ahead of his arrival, Kerry tried to dispel all the speculation and said the U.S. remained focused on the pursuit of a final peace deal negotiated directly by the parties.
Associated Press
