Three months ago, CBS 5 caught Solyndra tossing millions of dollars worth of brand new glass tubes used to make solar panels. Now the bankrupt solar firm, once touted as a symbol of green technology, may be trying to abandon toxic waste.
It's a tedious process. Slowly but surely, the shattered remains of brand new solar panel tubes head to a recycling plant in Hayward.
Meanwhile the next phase of the company's liquidation is under way. It involves getting rid of all the heavy metals left inside the building that were used to make the panels.
The Fremont Fire Department's Jay Swardenski oversees the cleanup. He said some materials, such as cadmium, are toxic, and hard to dispose of.
"They don't degrade at all, so we want to make sure we don't allow these materials to get into the environment," he said.
It's not just the leftover hazardous materials, but also the machinery used to apply them to the glass tubes. "Certainly those tools will need to be decontaminated, cleaned up, handled correctly as they are taken apart," he said.
Swardenski told CBS 5 the disposal process is going smoothly in Fremont, but what about nearby Milpitas? Solyndra leased a building on California Circle for the final assembly of its solar panels. But the cleanup at the leased building in Milpitas is in limbo, because Solyndra doesn't want to pay.
CBS 5 found the building locked up, with no one around. At the back, a hazardous storage area was found. There were discarded buckets half filled with liquids and barrels labeled "hazardous waste."
The building's owner, a company called iStar, claimed in court documents, "there may be serious environmental, health and safety issues" at the premises. According to the documents, they include, "numerous containers of solvents and chemicals and processing equipment contaminated with lead."
"Essentially it looks like they left a pretty big mess behind," San Jose State Assistant Professor Dustin Mulvaney told CBS 5. Mulvaney has written a white paper (.pdf) on solar industry waste for the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition.
Looking at CBS 5's video, Mulvaney said it's hard to tell how much hazardous waste is at the Milpitas facility. But he said one thing is for sure.
"Materials labeled hazardous waste require a lot more protocol, so its actually a lot more expensive to clean," Mulvaney said. "It's very sad looking at this facility taken apart like this, because a lot of money went into building this."
Swardenski feels the same way. "It is hard. They are beautiful buildings; there was a lot of effort put into them. But we'll work as hard to pout them back into productive use," he said.
CBS 5 asked both Solyndra and iStar for comment on this story. But as of the original airdate, neither company has replied.
A 32-year-old Mather man was arrested and Tasered on Sunday morning after officers said he led them on a chase down the freeway and Vallejo city streets.
Sanjeet Singh Bains was tailgating another vehicle while westbound on Interstate 80 just before 2:30 a.m. when he began weaving and failed to yield a California Highway Patrol officer near the American Canyon Road exit, CHP Officer Darwin Lee said.
Bains was pulled over, but as officers were handcuffing one of his hands, he jumped into his car and drove away, according to Vallejo police, which assisted with the chase.
The suspect exited at Redwood Parkway and ditched his vehicle in the 1500 block of Valle Vista Avenue, running off on foot, said Vallejo police Lt. Lee Horton. A CHP helicopter called in for the search shined a high-power light on Bains, leading police to his spotlighted location near Admiral Callaghan Lane and Redwood Parkway, Horton said.
A Vallejo officer who saw the suspect ordered him to stop, but officers said Bains started to laugh and continued walking toward the officer with the CHP's handcuff in one hand. The officer then Tasered him, Horton said.
Police said Bains kept struggling with the officer after being Tasered and it took numerous officers to physically restrain him.
Bains was arrested by CHP after being cleared medically. He was booked on suspicion of evading police without regard to safety, driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and resisting arrest. He has since posted a bond and been released.
On the "ABC's of SNL" podcast, Jon Lovitz called Obama a "jackass" for claiming that the rich don't pay enough taxes. When lamenting a practical 50% tax on the wealthy he said "isn't that enough?"
A species of "armored catfish" are damaging South Florida's lakes, causing coastal erosion and even burrowing holes that trip up humans walking along the water's edge.
Catfish are usually one of the more popular breeds of aquatic life, with their smooth skin and flavorful meat. There's even a highly unconventional form of fishing known as "noodling," in which people use their bare hands to capture catfish.
But the Sun-Sentinel reports that the Loricariidae (armored catfish) are far less welcome. The non-native and invasive species have rugged scales along their backs and spiky fins. Catching the South American natives can be difficult, as the armored catfish reportedly are not baited by fishing hooks and must instead be caught by nets or even spears.
"There are some people who get totally upset, and I can understand why," Ralph LaPrairie, a fisheries biologist with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, told the Sun-Sentinel.
The Loricariids are a popular aquarium fish, as they use their suckered mouths to clean algae from tanks. But that same behavior that is helpful in fish tanks actually erodes local shorelines up to 10 feet as the fish devastate aquatic plant life. They have also been wreaking havoc in Texas waterways for a number of years.
"One, it's a safety issue. Two, it's a curb-appeal issue," Chip Sollins, owner of Lake Erosion Restoration, a contractor in Boca Raton, Fla., told the paper.
Invasive fish are a growing problem across the U.S. with wildlife officials in Maryland offering a $200 gift certificate raffle to residents who capture and kill snakehead fish, which have been devastating local wildlife in tributaries along the Potomac River.
However, any potential solution for the pests would be an expensive one for local residents. The Sun-Sentinel says hiring a contractor to eradicate any local armored catfish populations can cost as much as $100,000. And there are reportedly millions of the small armored fish currently living in South Florida, with no known natural predators.
"If we do nothing, I think eventually we're going to end up with a sinkhole," said Susanne Ury, president of the Royal Lakes Homeowners Association.
In addition to contributing to erosion, the armored catfish lay their eggs in 18-inch-deep holes along the water's edge, creating potentially dangerous foot traps for people walking in the water.
The incident last September has only come to light after it became widely known among locals.
The diplomatic protection officers had been patrolling outside the former Prime Minister's £4.3 million London townhouse.
They approached the man, who appeared to be drunk, urinating on Mr. Blair's front doorstep.
A scuffle ensued in the 3am incident and the police fired the 50,000-volt taser to incapacitate the Arab man so they could arrest him.
The unarmed suspect, Ayedh Alrashidi, who only speaks Arabic and understands little English, collapsed and was taken to a nearby hospital.
It was later revealed that Mr Alrashidi, 40, described as "a wealthy and peaceful man", is a government official from Kuwait.
He was charged with being drunk and disorderly and assaulting a police officer.
At a later hearing at Westminster Magistrates Court, an agreement was reached between the Crown Prosecution Service and his solicitor that Mr Alrashidi would be bound over to keep the peace for a year.
Mr Tablieh said: "Mr Alrashidi is a Kuwaiti national, who lives abroad. He doesn"t speak very good English. He is a peaceful man and he didn"t realise what was happening."
Mr Alrashidi had been staying with friends in a flat just ten minutes walk from Mr Blair's West London home in Connaught Square.
A friend of Mr Alrashidi said: "He didn"t deserve to be treated like that, he is a man who lives a life of luxury in Kuwait, as a respected government official. He didn"t realise he was outside Mr Blair's home."
A Scotland Yard police spokesman said: "A taser was deployed and a man was charged with assault and being drunk and disorderly." (SOURCE)
GUESS PISSING ON THE FRONT PORCH IS PART OF KUWATI HIGH CLASS CULTURE
A video captured a woman shaking and sobbing uncontrollably while being frisked by a Transportation Security Administration agent. Political blogger Jim Hoft - who runs the Gateway Pundit website - captured the incident at a Madison, Wis., airport Sunday.
“This morning at a Midwest airport I witnessed this poor woman suffering through this horrible sexual violation,â€Â Hoft said on his Gateway Pundit website.
The video shows a TSA agent patting down a woman in a pink sweater.
During the pat down, the woman can be heard sobbing and is visibly shaking while the TSA agents runs her hands down the woman’s legs.
After the agent leaves, the woman simply stands still, hunched over.
A male porn star who suffered from depression died yesterday, five days after an altercation with police which resulted in him being shot with a Taser gun.
Authorities responded to a suicide attempt in Los Angeles on Sunday and found Marland Anderson, who is also known as Sledge Hammer, with his girlfriend.
The actor had allegedly suffered an anxiety attack and had attempted to self-harm, which led his adult performer girlfriend, Alexa Cruz, to call the police.
According to director Stoney Curtis, Anderson’s close friend of 20 years, the 39-year-old had been dealing with depression, which was exacerbated by his marijuana use.
‘It turned out he genetically had a mild form of schizophrenia, and it wasn’t a problem until he started smoking pot and taking various things for depression,’ Curtis told XBIZ.com.
But the adult star reacted with such force that he broke the gurney free from a floor lock and broke the handcuff, which led police to Taser him.
He was taken to hospital where Cruz later found out that he had been forcefully subdued.
‘The police didn’t tell me he was in ICU or he’d been tased. I thought he was getting treatment,’ she told XBIZ.com.
‘I thought he was in the 72-hour hold. When I got to the ICU, I asked multiple nurses and they all said he had been tased, that he was over-tased.’
Anderson fought for his life all week but his mother decided to take him off his respirator on Thursday night after doctors told her he would never come out of the coma.
Curtis said he will launch a full-scale investigation into the incident to get to the bottom of what happened.
'What I would like to see is a separate number called for people with psychiatric issues where the police are not involved, because the police do not know how to handle someone who is having a mental breakdown,' he told XBIZ.com.
'They just break out their clubs and tasers. People shouldn’t be dying just because they are having a mental breakdown.'
A Secret Service agent shamed the United States after a wild night of babes and booze that ended in an argument with a Colombian hooker over as little as $47.
One of 11 elite agents assigned to ensure President Obama's protection at a summit meeting in Cartagena, Colombia, was busted after his lady of the evening refused to leave his hotel room in the morning without her fee.
That woman was one of 11 hookers hired by the agents - and the only one who hadn't left Cartagena's swank Hotel Caribe, where White House staffers, members of the press and dignitaries are staying during the Summit of the Americas meeting, sources said.
President Obama's Secret Service team was reeling from a prostitution scandal.
The confrontation occurred early last week, said Rep. Pete King, a Long Island Republican who was briefed on the incident yesterday.
One of the agents sent home after agency bosses in DC learned what was going on was "in a supervisory role,â€Â said King, chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.
A hotel employee told The Associated Press that agents arrived at the beachfront hotel a week ago and drank heavily during their stay.
Prostitution is legal in much of Colombia inside "tolerance zones" controlled by police. The going rate for hookers in Cartagena is around $47, according to Colombian TV.
After completing the day's debates in the Sixth Summit of the Americas held in Cartagena, Colombia, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took the opportunity to relax with friends in Havana coffee.
The picture gives us the AFP shows the happier face of strong American woman who takes the time to enjoy the Colombian night.
1) Only in America could politicians talk about the greed of the rich at a $35,000 a plate campaign fund raising event.
2) Only in America could people claim that the government still discriminates against black Americans when we have a black President, a black Attorney General, and roughly 18% of the federal workforce is black.
3) Only in America could we have had the two people most responsible for our tax code, Timothy Geithner, the head of the Treasury Department and Charles Rangel who once ran the Ways and Means Committee, BOTH turn out to be tax cheats who are in favor of higher taxes.
4) Only in America will you find people who burn the American flag and call America an "imperialist nation," but who get offended if you say they're not patriotic.
5) Only in America can we have terrorists kill people in the name of Allah and have the media primarily react by fretting that Muslims might be harmed by the backlash.
6) Only in America could someone drinking a $5 latte and texting to his friends on an iPhone 4 complain that the government allows some people to make too much money.
7) Only in America would people take rappers who brag about shooting people and selling drugs seriously when they complain the police are targeting them unfairly.
8) Only in America would we make people who want to legally become American citizens wait for years in their home countries and pay tens of thousands of dollars for the privilege while we discuss letting anyone who sneaks into the country illegally just become American citizens.
9) Only in America could the people who believe in balancing the budget and sticking by the country's Constitution be thought of as "extremists."
10) Only in America could the most vicious foes of successful conservative women be self-proclaimed feminists and the National Organization for Women.
11) Only in America could you need to present a driver's license to cash a check or buy alcohol, but not to vote.
12) Only in America can we have terrorists fly planes into our buildings and have some people's first thought be "what did we do to make them hate us?"
13) Only in America would we think teaching kids at college is an appropriate job for communists, terrorists, and other dregs of humanity.
14) Only in America could people demand the government investigate whether the oil companies are gouging the public because the price of gas went up when for every penny of profit the oil companies make, the government tacks on roughly 24 cents' worth of taxes.
15) Only in America could the first people asked to weigh in on the seriousness of a racial incident by the media be professional race hustlers like Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Ben Jealous. In other words, it's like calling in a car dealer as a neutral source on whether or not you need to get a new car.
16) Only in America does airport security put its hands on your underwear....while you're wearing it.
17) Only in America could the government force a skating rink to have handicapped parking spots and Braille on the ATM machines.
18) Only in America could the government collect more tax dollars from the people than any nation ever has before in all of recorded history, still spend a trillion dollars more that it has per year, and complain that it doesn't have nearly enough money.
19) Only in America could the rich people who pay 86% of all income taxes be accused of not paying their "fair share" by people who don't pay any income taxes at all.
20) Only in America could the people who approve of slaughtering 25 million females babies via abortion accuse OTHER PEOPLE of waging a "war on women."
SANFORD, Fla. (AP) " The man who fatally shot 17-year-old Trayvon Martin is said to be losing weight and suffering from high levels of stress from the intense public scrutiny he is under, his former lawyers said. Meanwhile, a special prosecutor said she will soon make an announcement in the case.
"He is largely alone. You might even say he is emotionally crippled by virtue of the pressure of this case," said Hal Uhrig, a former lawyer for George Zimmerman. The protests and the profound isolation of going into hiding may have pushed him "a little bit over the edge," said Uhrig and his colleague, Craig Sonner.
The two attorneys announced Tuesday they no longer were representing the neighborhood watch volunteer because they haven't heard from him since Sunday.
"As of the last couple days, he has not returned phone calls, text messages or emails," Sonner said. "He's gone on his own. I'm not sure what he's doing or who he's talking to. I cannot go forward speaking to the public about George Zimmerman and this case as representing him because I've lost contact with him."
Against their advice, the attorneys said Zimmerman contacted special prosecutor Angela Corey, who will decide if he should face charges, but prosecutors in her office refused to talk to him without his lawyers present.
"To handle it this way, suggests that he may not be in complete control of what's going on. We're concerned for his emotional and physical safety," Uhrig said.
A spokeswoman for Corey's office didn't respond to phone and email messages requesting comment, although late Tuesday Corey released a statement saying she would make an announcement on the case within 72 hours. The statement did not specify what new development in the case would be released.
Zimmerman said he shot Martin in self-defense after following the teenager in a Sanford, Fla. a gated community outside Orlando on Feb. 26. He said he was returning to his truck when Martin attacked him and that he shot the unarmed teen during the fight. He wasn't arrested partly because of Florida's "stand your ground" self-defense law.
The lack of an arrest has led to protests across the nation and spurred a debate about race and the laws of self-defense. Zimmerman's father is white and his mother is Hispanic. Martin was black.
Zimmerman is unable to see a psychologist because he could be spotted. A bounty for his arrest has been issued by the New Black Panther Party. Plus, he is anxious about possible charges if the special prosecutor believes he committed a crime, his attorneys said.
Zimmerman also has been in touch with conservative talk show host Sean Hannity, who declined to reveal Tuesday evening what was said.
Uhrig said after they found out that news, the "final straw" came when they learned Zimmerman contacted Corey's office and said he wanted to meet. Uhrig said he told her he no longer had attorneys whom he called "legal advisers" representing him.
Uhrig said they were "a bit astonished" that he had contacted her on his own and that Corey and her team refused to talk to a potential defendant or suspect without counsel.
Zimmerman's current lack of an attorney shouldn't affect the speed of Corey's decision-making since any decent lawyer would advise a client not to talk to prosecutors, said Roy Kahn, a defense attorney in Miami.
"It would not be in a client's best interest to give any statement before it's his time to testify at trial," Kahn said. "Even if I believe he's 100 percent innocent ... my advice to the client would be, 'Save it for the trial. It can't help you.'"
Sonner, the first attorney Zimmerman contacted after the shooting, said he agreed to take the case on a pro bono basis until Zimmerman is perhaps charged. He said he has never talked to Zimmerman face-to-face, only on the phone, and that the 28-year-old man has gone into hiding but that he believes he's still in the U.S.
Both attorneys said they'd be willing to represent him again if he asks.
Ben Crump, an attorney for Martin's family, said they're concerned that Zimmerman could be a flight risk if he is charged with a crime since his former attorneys don't know how to contact him.
"At this point, we're just concerned that nobody knows where he is at. Nobody knows how to get to him," Crump said.
Meanwhile, tensions were rising in Sanford as townspeople awaited the prosecutor's decision. Someone shot up an unoccupied police car early Tuesday as it sat outside the neighborhood where Martin was killed. And a demonstration by college students closed the town's police station Monday.
Some residents said they worry there will be violence if Corey decides not to charge Zimmerman. Many in town believe she will announce her decision soon.
Police aren't saying what, if any, precautions they are taking.
Zimmerman set up a website therealgeorgezimmerman.com to collect money from his supporters, but the attorneys didn't know about it until they started getting questions from the news media, Sonner said. They had worked with his father and others to set up a different account and when they started getting questions about the new site, Uhrig assumed it was "bogus."
Since then, they determined the site is legitimate.
Sonner said he stands behind his statements that Zimmerman did act in self-defense, however, "I just can't proceed to represent a client who doesn't stay in contact with me."
Kendall Coffey, a former U.S. Attorney in Miami, said it is unusual for attorneys to hold a news conference to explain why they no longer are representing a client.
"The lawyers have every right to withdraw, but it's highly unusual, and it will be controversial, for counsel to describe their client's erratic behavior," said Coffey, who is now in private practice. "In the court of public opinion, the press conference was not helpful for George Zimmerman."
Speaking Wednesday on NBC's "Today" show, Sonner and Uhrig defended going public with their decision to stop representing Zimmerman, saying they didn't feel it was right to speak for him when they weren't in touch with him. Sonner also said Zimmerman was hiding in a place "where he won't be found."
President Barack Obama laid out a case for the Buffett rule Tuesday that what's at stake isn't just fairness - it's the future.
The president made the pitch in a campaign-style speech to students at Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton, connecting it to his message of fairness that he says is at the core of America.
Brushing back accusations that he's pushing "some socialist dream" Obama said that for education, research, infrastructure and other investments that benefit the country as a whole to continue, there must be a way to pay for it.
"It's our turn to preserve the American dream for future generations," Obama said. "Here in America, we have a sense of common purpose. Here in America, we can meet any challenge. Here in America, we can seize any moment. We can make this century another great American century."
The Senate is set to vote next week on in change in tax laws that would set a 30 percent minimum income tax for Americans earning more than $1 million annually.
House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) has put forward a budget plan that cuts taxes on many Americans, with a particular emphasis on the rich, something that Obama says is a mistake.
Cutting taxes on the rich did not work under President George W. Bush, he said. Rather than turning to another means to raise revenues, "a lot of the folks who were peddling these same trickle down theories - including some who are running for a certain office right now who shall not be named - [are] doubling down on these old broken down theories."
That mention, of "some who are running for a certain office right now who shall not be named" was the closest Obama got to explicitly acknowledging the general election race that drew closer with Rick Santorum's exit just before the Florida speech, all but delivering the Republican nomination to Mitt Romney.
Still, throughout his speech, the message was clear: In 2012, Barack Obama and the Democrats are in favor of "fairness," of having those Americans who can afford to do so pay a bit more in taxes so that the rest of the country can thrive. By contrast, Republicans wants to cut education, Medicare, Social Security and other programs, as Obama sees it.
Romney's communications director, Gail Gitcho, said in a statement on Monday that Obama is "the first president in history to openly campaign for reelection on a platform of higher taxes."
On Tuesday, she followed up by proposing the Obama rule, which "says that we must tax American families and small businesses so that government can grow. President Obama has made it clear that raising taxes is the one campaign promise he will keep. Mitt Romney wants to lower the tax rate so that more Americans can keep their hard-earned money and small businesses can begin to grow and hire. American families and small businesses have already suffered enough under the Obama rule."
Obama finished his speech by urging students to call their members of Congress to voice support for the Buffett rule.
"Florida, I've told you where I stand," Obama said. "Now it's time for members of Congress to say where they stand."
The president finished Tuesday with two campaign fundraisers in Florida, following up on the one he spoke at before the speech. In all, he's expected to raise $2 million while in the battleground state.
May 1881 US explorers approached Jeannette Island and Henrietta Island and claimed them for the United States. According to some US individuals, including the group State Department Watch, eight Arctic islands currently controlled by Russia, including Wrangel Island, are claimed by the United States. However, according to the United States Department of State no such claim exists. The USSR/USA Maritime Boundary Treaty, which has yet to be approved by the Russian Duma, does not address the status of these islands nor the maritime boundaries associated with them.
The Obama Administration is reportedly giving away Wrangell, Bennett, Jeannette and Henrietta islands in Alaska to Russia. The federal government drew the line to put these seven Alaskan islands on the Russian side
Former senatorial candidate Joe Miller broke this story at World Net Daily:
The Obama administration, despite the nation's economic woes, effectively killed the job-producing Keystone Pipeline last month. The Arab Spring is turning the oil production of Libya and other Arab nations over to the Muslim Brotherhood. Iraq is distancing itself from the U.S. And everyone recognizes that Iran, whose crude supplies are critical to the European economy, will do anything it can to frustrate America's strategic interests. In the face of all of this, Obama insists on cutting back U.S. oil potential with outrageous restrictions.
Part of Obama's apparent war against U.S. energy independence includes a foreign-aid program that directly threatens my state's sovereign territory. Obama's State Department is giving away seven strategic, resource-laden Alaskan islands to the Russians. Yes, to the Putin regime in the Kremlin.
The seven endangered islands in the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea include one the size of Rhode Island and Delaware combined. The Russians are also to get the tens of thousands of square miles of oil-rich seabeds surrounding the islands. The Department of Interior estimates billions of barrels of oil are at stake.
The State Department has undertaken the giveaway in the guise of a maritime boundary agreement between Alaska and Siberia. Astoundingly, our federal government itself drew the line to put these seven Alaskan islands on the Russian side. But as an executive agreement, it could be reversed with the stroke of a pen by President Obama or Secretary Clinton.
The agreement was negotiated in total secrecy. The state of Alaska was not allowed to participate in the negotiations, nor was the public given any opportunity for comment. This is despite the fact the Alaska Legislature has passed resolutions of opposition " but the State Department doesn't seem to care.
The imperiled Arctic Ocean islands include Wrangell, Bennett, Jeannette and Henrietta. Wrangell became American in 1881 with the landing of the U.S. Revenue Marine ship Thomas Corwin. The landing party included the famed naturalist John Muir. It is 3,000 square miles in size.
The Obama administration is quietly diverting roughly $500 million to the IRS to help implement the president's healthcare law.
The money is only part of the IRS's total implementation spending, and it is being provided outside the normal appropriations process. The tax agency is responsible for several key provisions of the new law, including the unpopular individual mandate.
Republican lawmakers have tried to cut off funding to implement the healthcare law, at least until after the Supreme Court decides whether to strike it down. That ruling is expected by June, and oral arguments last week indicated the justices might well overturn at least the individual mandate, if not the whole law.
While President Obama and his Senate allies continue to spend more tax dollars implementing an unpopular and unworkable law that may very well be struck down as unconstitutional in a matter of months, I'll continue to stand with the American people who want to repeal this law and replace it with something that will actually address the cost of healthcare," said Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Mont.), who chairs the House Appropriations subcommittee for healthcare and is in a closely contested Senate race this year.
The Obama administration has plowed ahead despite the legal and political challenges.
It has moved aggressively to get important policies in place. And, according to a review of budget documents and figures provided by congressional staff, the administration is also burning through implementation funding provided in the healthcare law.
The law contains dozens of targeted appropriations to implement specific provisions. It also gave the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) a $1 billion implementation fund, to use as it sees fit. Republicans have called it a slush fund."
HHS plans to drain the entire fund by September " before the presidential election, and more than a year before most of the healthcare law takes effect. Roughly half of that money will ultimately go to the IRS.
HHS has transferred almost $200 million to the IRS over the past two years and plans to transfer more than $300 million this year, according to figures provided by a congressional aide.
The Government Accountability Office has said the transfers are perfectly legal and consistent with how agencies have used general implementation funds in the past. The $1 billion fund was set aside for federal" implementation activities, the GAO said, and can therefore be used by any agency " not just HHS, where the money is housed.
Still, significant transfers to the IRS and other agencies leave less money for HHS, and the department needs to draw on the $1 billion fund for some of its biggest tasks.
The healthcare law directs HHS to set up a federal insurance exchange " a new marketplace for individuals and small businesses to buy coverage " in any state that doesn't establish its own. But it didn't provide any money for the federal exchange, forcing HHS to cobble together funding by using some of the $1 billion fund and steering money away from other accounts.
The transfers also allow the IRS to make the healthcare law a smaller part of its public budget figures. For example, the tax agency requested $8 million next year to implement the individual mandate, and said the money would not pay for any new employees.
An IRS spokeswoman would not say how much money has been spent so far implementing the individual mandate.
Republicans charged during the legislative debate over healthcare that the IRS would be hiring hundreds of new agents to enforce the mandate and throwing people in jail because they don't have insurance.
However, the mandate is just one part of the IRS's responsibilities.
The healthcare law includes a slew of new taxes and fees, some of which are already in effect. The tax agency wants to hire more than 300 new employees next year to cover those tax changes, such as the new fees on drug companies and insurance policies.
The IRS will also administer the most expensive piece of the new law " subsidies to help low-income people pay for insurance, which are structured as tax credits. The agency asked Congress to fund another 537 new employees dedicated to administering the new subsidies.
The Republican-led House last year passed an amendment, 246-182, sponsored by Rep. Jo Ann Emerson (R-Mo.) that would have prevented the IRS from hiring new personnel or initiating any other measures to mandate that people purchase health insurance. The measure, strongly opposed by the Obama administration, was subsequently dropped from a larger bill that averted a government shutdown.
A former student of a small Christian university in California who opened fire at the school, killing at least seven people, was upset with the administration and students and was asked to leave the school several months ago after behavioral problems, police said Tuesday. Officials say 43-year-old One L. Goh walked into Oikos University on Monday, and began a rampage that left seven people dead and three people wounded, trapped some in the building and forced others to flee for their lives.
Noah Berger, The Associated PressA body rests outside a coroner's van outside Oikos University in Oakland, Calif., Monday. A gunman opened fire at the university, killing seven people, law enforcement sources close to the investigation said. Police say they have a suspect in custody.
Oakland Police Chief Howard Jordan said Tuesday authorities were beginning to get some hints as to Goh's motive in the shooting.
"We've learned that the suspect was upset with the administration at the school. He was also upset that students in the past, when he attended the school, mistreated him, disrespected him, and things of that nature," Jordan said Tuesday on "Good Morning America." ''He was having, we believe, some behavioral problems at the school and was asked to leave several months ago.
"We've learned that this was a very chaotic, calculated and determined gentleman that came there with a very specific intent to kill people, and that's what his motive was and that's what he carried out," Jordan added.
Goh left behind a string of debts and minor traffic citations in his former home state of Virginia and was evicted from one apartment complex in the state, according to ABC News Bay Area affiliate KGO.
Soon after the shooting Monday, heavily armed officers swarmed the tiny college of fewer than 100 students in a large industrial park near the Oakland airport. For a time, police believed the gunman could still be inside. But he wasn't.
Instead, officers said he apparently drove about three miles from campus before surrendering to officers inside a supermarket.
Those connected to the school, including the founder and several students, described the gunman as a former nursing student. The chief said Goh is a South Korean national who's a former student of the university.
Police first received a 911 call at 10:33 a.m. reporting a woman on the ground bleeding. As more calls came in from the school, the first arriving officer found a victim suffering from a life-threatening gunshot wound, he said.
More officers arrived and formed a perimeter around the school on the belief that the suspect was still inside, he said.
"Potential victims remained inside the building either trapped by a locked door which officers were unable to open," Jordan said. Others were unable to flee because they were injured, he said.
Jordan said there were about 35 people in or near the building when gunfire broke out. Of the seven fatalities, five died at the scene and another two at the hospital. The wounded victims are in stable condition, and at least one person has been released from the hospital. He told GMA on Tuesday the victims ranged in age from 21 to 40.
"This unprecedented tragedy was shocking and senseless," Jordan said.
Art Richards said he was driving by the university on his way to pick up a friend when he spotted a woman hiding in the bushes. He pulled over, and when he approached her, she said, "I'm shot" and showed him her arm.
"She had a piece of her arm hanging out," Richards said, noting that she was wounded near the elbow.
As police arrived, Richards said he heard 10 gunshots coming from inside the building. The female victim told him that she saw the gunman shoot one person point-blank in the chest and one in the head.
Tashi Wangchuk, whose wife attended the school and witnessed the shooting, said he was told by police that the gunman first shot a woman at the front desk, then continued shooting randomly in classrooms.
Wangchuk said his wife, Dechen Wangzom, was in her vocational nursing class when she heard gunshots. She locked the door and turned off the lights, Wangchuk said he was told by his wife.
The gunman "banged on the door several times and started shooting outside and left," he said. Wangchuk said no one was hurt inside his wife's classroom, but that the gunman shot out the glass in the door. He said she did not know the man.
"She's a hero," he said of his wife.
Television footage showed bloodied victims on stretchers being loaded into ambulances. Several bodies covered in sheets were laid out on a patch of grass at the school. One body could be seen being loaded into a van.
Myung Soon Ma, the school's secretary, said she could not provide any details about what happened at the private school, which serves the Korean community with courses from theology to Asian medicine.
"I feel really sad, so I cannot talk right now," she said, speaking from her home.
At Highland Hospital, Dawinder Kaur's family told the Oakland Tribune that she was being treated for a gunshot to her elbow.
The 19-year-old U.S. Army Reservist told her family that that the gunman was a student in her nursing class who had been absent for months before returning Monday. The gunman entered the classroom and ordered students to line up against the wall.
When he showed his gun, students began running and he opened fire, her family said.
"She told me that a guy went crazy and she got shot," brother Paul Singh told the newspaper. "She was running. She was crying; she was bleeding, it was wrong."
Pastor Jong Kim, who founded the school about 10 years ago, told the newspaper that he did not know if the shooter was expelled or dropped out. Kim said he heard about 30 rapid-fire gunshots in the building.
"I stayed in my office," he said.
Deborah Lee, who was in an English language class, said she heard five to six gunshots at first. "The teacher said, 'Run,' and we run," she said. "I was OK, because I know God protects me. I'm not afraid of him."
Goh fled from the school in a Honda Accord that belonged to one of the victims, Jordan said. The suspect was detained at a Safeway supermarket about three miles from the university, about an hour after the shooting.
A security guard at the supermarket approached the man because he was acting suspiciously, KGO-TV reported. The man told the guard that he needed to talk to police because he shot people, and the guard called authorities.
"He didn't look like he had a sign of relief on him. He didn't look like he had much of any emotion on his face," said Lisa Resler, who was buying fruit at Safeway with her 4-year-old daughter when she saw the man.
Goh also called his father soon after the shooting and told him what happened, the police chief said. The father also called authorities, Jordan said.
Police went to the Westlake Christian Terrace senior housing complex on Monday afternoon to speak with a relative of Goh, Nam Ko Young, who's believed to be the man's father, said Young's neighbor, Barbara Ferguson. Young was seen leaving with police Monday afternoon. A staff member was sent to shut the television blaring news in the empty apartment, Ferguson said.
Ferguson said she's seen Goh and Young in the lobby and exchanged hellos in the past but that she doesn't know them well.
The suspect's brother was killed in a car accident last year in Virginia while on active duty in the U.S. Army, according to Stars and Stripes newspaper. The suspect attended the funeral of Sgt. Su Wan Ko in Centreville, Va., after the March 8, 2011, accident.
Jerry Sung, the university's accountant, said the school offers courses in both Korean and English to less than 100 students. He said the campus consists of one building. Sung said many of its students go on to work in nursing and ministry.
"The founder felt there was a need for theology and nursing courses for Korean-Americans who were newer to the community," Sung said. "He felt they would feel more comfortable if they had Korean-American professors."
Here's one from 10%er David Trahan Carencro, LA. Thanks for the recipe!
1. Kill pig and cut off head
2. Clean skull, removing skin, eyes, brain, etc. leaving only skull
3. Quarter skull and boil until meat and gel falls off bone
4. Take meat and gel, season and put into a mold or bowl
5. Should make a spam like block of lunchmeat.
6. Cut and eat like baloney on bread
Take rest of pig and butcher, use leftovers to make boudin.
And for the less 'adventurous' chef...
Cajun Hog's Head Cheese
Ingredients
1 fresh pork ham with skin
4 medium onions, chopped
8 fresh pork hocks or pig's feet
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1/2 cup green onions, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Simmer all ingredients in a large pot with enough water to cover meat. Cook until tender (until the meat falls off the bone or pulls apart easily). Remove from broth and let cool.
Chop meat and skin into small pieces (discard all fat). Return meat to broth and simmer until thick. Add 1/2 cup chopped green onions and cook for 1 minute. Pour into flat rectangular casserole dishes and let cool in refrigerator. Cut into serviceable portions (usually 3" x 3" squares).
