North Korea hails nuclear, military feats of Kim Jong-il (Reuters)

SEOUL (Reuters) ? North Korea lauded the military might built up by deceased leader Kim Jong-il on Thursday, likely tying his young successor to the same policies that have set Northeast Asia on edge as the impoverished state inches closer to nuclear weapons capability.

A gathering of 100,000, soldiers in uniform and bare-headed civilians, gathered in silence in wintry sunlight in the capital Pyongyang to mourn the passing of the man who had led the country for 17 years until his death on December 17.

Kim Jong-un, a jowly man in his late 20s who will become the third of his line to lead North Korea, took center stage overlooking the central square named after his grandfather to listen to tributes to the "great revolutionary."

"Great Leader Kim Jong-il ... laid the foundation for our people to live on as autonomous people of a world-class military power and a proud nuclear state," parliament chief Kim Yong-nam said in the eulogy.

The North has conducted two nuclear tests.

Larry Niksch, who has tracked North Korea for the non-partisan U.S. Congressional Research Service for 43 years, believes it could take as little as one to two years to have a working nuclear missile once it produced enough highly-enriched uranium for the warhead's core fuel.

That could threaten regional security and give the North a powerful bargaining tool in extracting aid for its economy.

North Korea's state television footage showed the young Kim flanked to his right by the country's top military general Ri Yong-ho on the balcony of the Granc People's Study House. Also nearby him were Defense Minister Kim Yong-chun, and his uncle and the key power-broker in the transition, Jang Song-thaek.

Jang, 65, is believed to be the regent heading a select group of caretakers, as the brother-in-law of Kim Jong-il who survived purges to become his closest confidant who oversaw the power succession before his death of a heart attack.

He stood behind the younger Kim in Wednesday's mass funeral parade, escorting the hearse carrying the coffin.

Solemn and grimacing, the younger Kim, believed to be born in early 1984, stood motionless throughout the ceremony. He only came to the forefront of the North's dynastic succession last year by taking on key military and ruling party posts.

"Comrade Kim Jong-un is the highest leader of the party and people who takes on Great Leader Kim Jong-il's philosophy and leadership, personality and morals, courage and audacity," Kim Yong-nam said.

CRUEL AND CUNNING ENOUGH TO SUCCEED?

Mourners, their heads bowed as the ceremony concluded, spilled over to both sides of the Taedong River as temperatures stood at about minus 10 Celsius (14 Fahrenheit). Boats moored on the river and trains in their yards blew their whistles for three minutes to mourn Kim Jong-il's passing.

The eulogies were short on boasts about economic achievements from a strongman who used his Songun, or "military first," policy to divert resources to build a conventional and weapons of mass destruction program.

The North's economic output is now smaller than in the 1990s under the rule of his father Kim Il-sung, who founded the state in 1948, and it has been squeezed harder under international sanctions for its missile and nuclear tests.

Gyorgy Toloraya, a Russian expert who is Director of Korean Programs at the Institute of Economy at the Russian Academy of Sciences, who met Kim Jong-il for the first time in 2000 described him as "fast and witty and having "a remarkable memory" on any subject.

"...one exclusion might be modern economics, in which he, it seemed, was not so very interested, regarding it just as a tool for rich Westerners to extract profits from their fellow compatriots and poor countries," Tolaraya wrote on 38North, a website published by the U.S.-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.

Most Korea-watchers do not expect the North to stage a repeat of the attacks it undertook in 2010 when it killed South Korean civilians with an artillery barrage and, according to most observers, sank a South Korean naval vessel. It denied sinking the vessel and says it was provoked into the barrage.

It may take Kim Jong-un some months to assume the full panoply of official titles held by his father.

"The real question is whether the new Kim has the cruelty and cunning, qualities that his father and grandfather Kim Il-sung possessed in plenty, to preserve in the long run the essential engine of the destitute dynasty he inherits," wrote Sung-Yoon Lee of Tufts University, a leading North Korea watcher.

(Editing by Ron Popeski and Ed Lane)

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/nkorea/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20111229/wl_nm/us_korea_north_funeral

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Idaho teen gives birth, loses cancer fight

By Jessie L. Bonner

POCATELLO ? Jenni Lake gave birth to a baby boy the month before her 18th birthday, though she was not destined to become just another teenage mother.

That much, she knew.

While being admitted to the hospital, she pulled the nurse down to her at bed level and whispered into her ear. The nurse would later repeat the girl?s words to comfort her family, as their worst fears were realized a day after Jenni?s baby was born.

?She told the nurse, ?I?m done, I did what I was supposed to. My baby is going to get here safe,?? said Diana Phillips, Jenni?s mother.

In photographs, the baby?s ruddy cheeks and healthy weight offer a stark contrast to the frail girl who gave birth to him. She holds the newborn tightly, kissing the top of his head. Jenni, at 5 feet, 4 inches tall, weighed only 108 pounds at the full term of her pregnancy.

A day after the Nov. 9 birth, Phillips learned that her daughter?s decision to forgo treatment for tumors on her brain and spine so she could carry the baby would have fatal repercussions. The cancer had marked too much territory. Nothing could be done, Phillips said.

It was only 12 days past the birth ? half spent in the hospital and the other half at home ? before Jenni was gone.

A BLEAK PROGNOSIS

The migraines started last year, when Jenni was a 16-year-old sophomore at Pocatello High. She was taken to the family doctor, and an MRI scan found a small mass measuring about 2 centimeters wide on the right side of her brain.

She was sent to a hospital in Salt Lake City, and another scan there showed the mass was bigger than previously thought.

Jenni had a biopsy Oct. 15, 2010, and five days later was diagnosed with stage three astrocytoma, a type of brain tumor. With three tumors on her brain and three on her spine, Jenni was told her case was rare because the cancer had spread from her brain to another part of her body with no symptoms.

Her parents, who are divorced, remember they were brought into a room at the hospital and sat down at a long table as doctors discussed her chances of survival.

?Jenni just flat-out asked them if she was going to die,? said her father, Mike Lake, 43, a truck driver who lives in Rexburg.

The answer wasn?t good. With treatment, the teen was told she had a 30 percent chance of making it two years, Lake said. While he was heartbroken, Lake marveled at how strong she seemed in that moment. ?She didn?t break down and cry or anything,? he said.

But her mom recalled Jenni did have a weak moment that day.

?When they told her that she might not be able to have kids, she got upset,? said Phillips, 39.

Jenni started aggressive chemotherapy and radiation treatments, while also posting videos on a YouTube site titled ?Jenni?s Journey,? where she hoped to share her story with updates every other day. She managed to upload only three videos, though, as her treatments left her tired and weak.

On her second video, posted Nov. 20, 2010, Jenni appears distraught while a friend records her having lunch with her mom.

?Last night, like, I was just lying in bed and I was thinking about everything that was going on and it just like, it just hit me, like everything, and I don?t know, it made me cry,? Jenni says on the video.

Her mom is shown burying her face in her hands. ?Do you know how hard it is to be a mom and know that she?s sick and there?s nothing you can do,? she says, before collapsing into tears.

By March of this year, the tumors had started to shrink, the family said.

In a picture taken at her prom in early May, Jenni is wearing a dark blue strapless dress and gives the camera a small smile. There?s a silver headband in her hair, which is less than an inch long. Chemotherapy had taken her shoulder-length blond tresses.

Her boyfriend, Nathan Wittman, 19, wearing a black dress shirt and pants, is cradling her from behind.

FOR JENNI, A CLEAR CHOICE

Jenni and Nathan?s adolescent relationship withstood the very adult test posed by cancer, the treatments that left her barely able to walk from her living room to her bedroom, and the gossip at school.

?The rumors started flying around, like Nathan was only with her because she had cancer,? said Jenni?s older sister, Ashlee Lake, 20, who tried to squelch the mean-spirited chatter even as the young couple ignored it.

They were hopeful and dreamed of someday opening a restaurant or a gallery.

Jenni had been working as an apprentice in a local tattoo shop. ?She was like our little sister,? said the owner, Kass Chacon. But in May, Jenni?s visits to the shop grew less frequent.

She had been throwing up a lot and had sharp stomach pains. She went to the emergency room early one morning with her boyfriend and when she returned home, her family members woke up to the sound of crying. ?We could hear Jenni just bawling in her room,? said her sister, Kaisee, 19.

She had learned that she was pregnant, and an ultrasound would show the fetus was 10 weeks old.

Jenni?s journey was no longer her own.

From the start of treatment, she was told that she might never have children, her mother said, that the radiation and chemotherapy could essentially make her sterile.

?We were told that she couldn?t get pregnant, so we didn?t worry about it,? said Nathan, 19.

Jenni, the third of her parents? eight children, had always wanted to be a mom. She had already determined to keep the baby when she went to see her oncologist, Dr. David Ririe, in Pocatello two days after she found out she was pregnant.

?He told us that if she?s pregnant, she can?t continue the treatments,? Phillips said. ?So she would either have to terminate the pregnancy and continue the treatments, or stop the treatments, knowing that it could continue to grow again.?

Ririe would not discuss Jenni?s care, citing privacy laws, but said, generally, in cases in which a cancer patient is pregnant, oncologists will consider both the risks and benefits of continuing with treatment, such as chemotherapy.

?There are times during pregnancy in some situations, breast cancer being the classic example, where the benefits of chemotherapy may outweigh the risk to mother and baby,? Ririe said. ?There are other times where the risk outweighs the benefits.?

There was no discussion about which path Jenni would choose. Her parents didn?t think of it as a clear life or death decision, and Jenni may not have, either. They believed that since the tumors had already started to shrink earlier, she had a strong chance of carrying the baby and then returning to treatment after he was born.

?I guess we were just hoping that after she had the baby, she could go back on the chemotherapy and get better,? her mother said.

SAYING GOODBYE

Jenni and Nathan named the baby Chad Michael, after their dads. Nathan has legal custody of the child, who is primarily cared for by Nathan?s mom, Alexia Wittman, 51.

?Nathan will raise him,? she said.

Jenni didn?t show regret for her decision, not in the final weeks of her pregnancy as she grew weaker, and not when she started to lose her vision as the cancer took its course, her family said.

Jenni?s last words were about her son as he was placed beside her a final time, her father said. As she felt for the baby, she said, ?I can kind of see him.?

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/IdahostatesmancomNewsUpdates/~3/qUpzKiaf5vM/teen-gives-birth-loses-cancer.html

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Va. agency objects to "Moonshiners" portrayal (AP)

NORFOLK, Va. ? Virginia alcohol regulators say the Discovery Channel's "Moonshiners" television show is misleading viewers into thinking the state is tolerating illegal booze manufacturing and that it wouldn't have participated if they knew how the episodes would turn out.

The television series is about people who brew their own moonshine and local authorities' efforts to track them down. The show includes actual western Virginia residents and state agents.

Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control spokeswoman Kathleen Shaw told The Associated Press in an email Thursday that viewers have asked why the state is allowing a crime to take place. Shaw said the show is a dramatization, and no illegal liquor is actually being produced.

"If illegal activity was actually taking place, the Virginia ABC Bureau of Law Enforcement would have taken action," Shaw wrote.

Earlier Thursday, the department issued a statement saying it would not have participated in the filming had they known how the show would've turned out.

"Virginia ABC agreed to participate in an informative piece that documents the history of moonshine and moonshine investigations in Virginia. Virginia ABC did not participate nor was aware of the false depiction of moonshine manufacturing, distribution and/or transportation in the filming, and would not have participated in the `documentary' had it known of this portrayal," the statement said.

Shaw said the Discovery Channel had been asked to add a disclaimer "but the request was overlooked."

Messages left with a show publicist Thursday were not immediately returned.

Among other things, a Nov. 30 news release announcing the show's premiere says that "Viewers will witness practices rarely, if ever, seen on television including the sacred rite of passage for a moonshiner ? firing up the still for the first time."

The release does not specify whether parts of the show are dramatized.

__

Online: Moonshiners website http://dsc.discovery.com/tv/moonshiners/

Brock Vergakis can be reached at www.twitter.com/BrockVergakis

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/tv/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111229/ap_en_tv/us_moonshiners_virginia

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Nelson retirement opens Neb.'s Senate seat to GOP

U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., announces his retirement from the U.S. Senate, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011 outside of his home in Omaha, Neb. Nelson said he will retire rather than seek a third term next year, dealing a significant setback to Democratic efforts to maintain control of the chamber. (AP Photo/Dave Weaver)

U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., announces his retirement from the U.S. Senate, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011 outside of his home in Omaha, Neb. Nelson said he will retire rather than seek a third term next year, dealing a significant setback to Democratic efforts to maintain control of the chamber. (AP Photo/Dave Weaver)

U.S. Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., announces his retirement from the U.S. Senate, Tuesday, Dec. 27, 2011, outside of his home in Omaha, Neb. Nelson said he will retire rather than seek a third term next year, dealing a significant setback to Democratic efforts to maintain control of the chamber. (AP Photo/Dave Weaver)

FILE - In this file Feb. 11, 2009 file photo, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. talks to reporters on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sources say Nelson will retire. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File)

FILE - In this April 26, 2010 file photo, Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb. leaves the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington. Sources say Nelson will retire. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak, File)

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) ? Democratic Sen. Ben Nelson survived nearly two decades representing heavily Republican Nebraska by carving a path down the political center. But faced with navigating that road in an increasingly polarizing climate, Nelson is stepping away ? and swinging the door wide open for the GOP.

Nelson, the lone Democrat in Nebraska's five-member congressional delegation, announced Tuesday that he wouldn't seek a third term. He was facing a tough campaign against several Republicans who've spent the past several months attacking his support for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul and federal stimulus legislation.

"Who can blame him given the current political mood of the country?" said former state Democratic Party Chairman Steve Achelpohl.

Other Democrats lamented Nelson's decision to retire, fearing it sets up the GOP for an easy victory next year. Republicans need to net just four seats to reclaim control of the Senate, and Nebraska looks to be an easy pickup.

There are no Democrats in line to take Nelson's place in the increasingly conservative state. He joins several other Democrats to retire from the Senate, including Virginia's Jim Webb and North Dakota's Kent Conrad.

After months of speculation that he would leave office, the 70-year-old conservative Democrat told supporters in an emailed statement that he felt it was time he "step away from elective office, spend more time with my family, and look for new ways to serve our state and nation."

"Therefore, I am announcing today that I will not seek re-election," he said. "Simply put: It is time to move on."

The former two-term governor thrived in Nebraska politics partly because he was willing to support Republican ideas when he believed they were in the state's best interests, Achelpohl said.

"Nebraskans are generally independent thinkers, and he was certainly an independent thinker," Achelpohl said. "He just had his finger right on the pulse of the predominant political thinking right in our state and nationally."

Democrats banking on Nelson's ability to leverage those centrist stances and capture statewide races were left scrambling, and many state activists acknowledged being taken by surprise.

While some floated the names of state Sen. Steve Lathrop of Omaha and Nelson's former lieutenant governor, Kim Robak, as possible contenders, many said it was too early to know who might run. Messages seeking comment were left for Lathrop and Robak.

A dream candidate for Democrats: former Nebraska Sen. Bob Kerrey. Traveling in India on Tuesday, Kerrey told The Washington Post, "Ben's retirement is a huge loss for Nebraska. I am very sad he's leaving. That is as far as I am going (right now)."

Democrats acknowledged the party will face a steep uphill fight to hold on to Nelson's seat, but pointed to a crowded GOP primary field with no obvious front-runner. The ticket includes Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning, state Treasurer Don Stenberg, state Sen. Deb Fischer, and investment adviser Pat Flynn.

"This virtually guarantees a Republican victory in 2012," said University of Nebraska Lincoln political scientist Mike Wagner. "There's almost no scenario in which a Democrat can win ? especially at this late stage."

National Republican party leaders also have encouraged Gov. Dave Heineman to join the race, but Heineman has said it would take a lot to persuade him.

The Senate's Democratic campaign chairman, Sen. Patty Murray of Washington, said she expected that Republicans would "have their hands full with a very divisive primary in the state, which will provide an opportunity for Democrats to remain competitive."

State Sen. Heath Mello, an Omaha Democrat who worked as an aide to Nelson, said he feared Nelson's retirement would inject more partisan politics into an already heated race.

"That is not the way Nebraskans have chosen their senators in the past," Mello said. "We've always elected independent-minded people to represent Nebraska's interests, ahead of the political parties."

Nelson has recently expressed dismay about a divided Congress' inability to pass meaningful legislation, frustration that echoed in his statement Tuesday.

"I encourage those who will follow in my footsteps to look for common ground and to work together in bipartisan ways to do what's best for the country, not just one political party," he said.

Even as Nelson wavered about a re-election bid, he piled up campaign cash, hired a campaign manager and watched his party spend more than $1 million on ads supporting him. The preparation left him with more than $3 million campaign cash on hand last month, about twice his nearest competitor.

The Democrats' Majority PAC alone spent more than $406,000 on media buys and production costs for Nelson's expected re-election campaign in seven separate expenditures between Sept. 9 and Dec. 9.

"I'm absolutely stunned," Kathleen Fahey, a Democratic super-delegate in 2008, said of Nelson's announcement. "Ben has been such a great senator for everybody. I'm not liking this."

Nelson first was elected to the Senate in 2000, defeating Stenberg, a Republican and currently the state treasurer, to replace the retired Kerrey. Nelson positioned himself as a centrist supporting both Democratic and Republican legislation.

He was among only two Senate Democrats to support a failed GOP bid to block new federal controls on power plant pollution that blows downwind into other states earlier this year, and he took great pride in his membership in the 2005 "Gang of 14," made up of Republicans and Democrats who brokered a deal to avoid a filibuster showdown over President George W. Bush's judicial nominees.

However, Nelson's vote in favor of Obama's signature health reform legislation left the GOP confident that they could beat him next year. The health reforms are strongly opposed by many Nebraska conservatives, and after the vote Nebraska Republicans immediately kicked off a "Give Ben the Boot" campaign.

Nelson also was one of five Democratic senators targeted by a national conservative group with ties to GOP strategist Karl Rove. The group, Crossroads GPS, spent $1.6 million on ads attacking Nelson as well as Sens. Bill Nelson of Florida, Clair McCaskill of Missouri, Jon Tester of Montana and Sherrod Brown of Ohio ? all considered top targets by national Republicans in 2012.

"For once Senator Nelson has listened to Nebraskans," Nebraska Republican Party Chairman Mark Fahleson said Tuesday. "The Nebraska Republican Party is more focused than ever on electing another conservative Republican to join Sen. Mike Johanns and recapturing the U.S. Senate so that we can reverse the damage done by Ben Nelson, Washington Democrats and the Obama Administration."

Nelson upset incumbent Nebraska Gov. Kay Orr in 1990 to earn his first statewide office and was re-elected governor in 1994 by a landslide. In 1996, he reneged on a campaign pledge that he wouldn't seek higher office while governor and announced his candidacy for the Senate seat vacated by the retiring Sen. Jim Exon.

Omaha millionaire businessman Chuck Hagel soundly defeated Nelson in that Senate race, but the two later served as colleagues when Nelson was elected in 2000.

Bruning on Tuesday wished Nelson well and praised him as "a dedicated public servant of the state of Nebraska for over two decades," while Fischer expressed confidence the GOP would now claim the seat.

"I think we have a strong group of Republicans, and I happen to believe the seat will go to a Republican," she said.

Stenberg thanked Nelson for his service, but said Nebraskans need "a genuine, lifelong conservative."

___

Associated Press writer Larry Margasak in Washington and Grant Schulte in Lincoln, Neb., contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-28-Senate-Nelson/id-1f5f004f451747f998a0ec5e7e104dd8

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Missouri City Communications Team garners state and national ...

Photo courtesy of Missouri City. Holding awards earned in 2011 are from left: Missouri City Television Producer Robert Bracken, Public Information Manager Stacie Walker, Media Relations Specialist Andrea Guy and Missouri City Television Video Producer Denise Gyamfi.

Missouri City has the distinction of being recognized in 2011 both statewide and nationally for the communications of programs and services it offers its residents.?The marketing of the City Forestry program was recognized with a Silver Award from the Texas Association of Municipal Information Officers as the ?Most Creative Marketing with the Least Dollars Spent?.

Following City Council direction and utilizing the web site, Missouri City cable television, the citizen newsletter and social media, citizen meetings and news releases, the Communications Department spread the word on the ?green? programs in which citizens and businesses can participate. The award entry outlined the success of the forestry program with the help of citizen volunteers and businesses with the addition of 55 new trees to Freedom Tree Park, the beautification of Buffalo Run Park through a prairie restoration program, the addition of 200 trees at Independence Park and Sta-Mo Park that help control erosion and flooding and provide a habitat for wildlife, ?the creation of the Right Tree Trail at Ridgeview Park as a guide for planting trees below power lines and the Edible Arbor Trail where walkers, joggers and bikers can enjoy the fruits and nuts from the trees being planted there.

Missouri City Television aired numerous shows emphasizing why the ?Show Me? City is such a great place to live and work and have a good time.? For this initiative, MCTV was honored by the Texas Association of Telecommunications for overall programming, a similar award it received from the National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors.? Programming includes City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission meetings, videos on city services and special events, emergency traffic and weather information and bulletin board messages.

NATOA also gave a nod to the profile on the City?s Parks Board that featured the work these citizens do to maintain the integrity of the City?s green space as well as the video showcasing City employees who spend their after work hours on community service projects. The Telly Awards, which honors the best local, regional and cable television commercials and programs and the finest video and film productions created for the web, gave further kudos to MCTV; this time for the ?In the News? program that is produced twice monthly.?Missouri City Television airs on Channel 16 on Comcast and Channel 99 on AT&T U-Verse as well as on the City?s website, www.missouricitytx.gov. Individual videos also can be viewed directly from the web site?s video page.

Short URL: http://www.fortbendstar.com/?p=13966

Source: http://www.fortbendstar.com/citynews/missouricity/missouri-city-communications-team-garners-state-and-national-awards/

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Scene of Ind. girl's death is sex offender haven

Allen Count, Ind., Sheriff's Office

Michael Len Plumadore was held without bond after his arrest Monday night in the death of Aliahna Lemmon, 9.

By M. Alex Johnson, msnbc.com

Updated at 7:57 p.m. ET: Michael Len Plumadore, the man accused of killing and dismembering 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon at his home in Fort Wayne, Ind., has been on the run for 11 years for battery of a Florida law enforcement officer.

Florida Department of Correction records show that Plumadore, now 39, fled the state after he was sentenced to a year in prison in May 2000. Details of the incident in Miami Beach weren't immediately available.

Updated at 6:45 p.m. ET: The Associated Press, quoting one of the 15 sex offenders living at Northway Woods, reported that Aliahna Lemmon's mother had recently moved to the trailer park to take care of her father, James E. Lemmon, a convicted sex offender who had emphysema.

James Lemmon died Dec. 3 at age 66, Oberlin-Turnbull Funeral Home of Hamilton said. State prison records show that he was convicted March 6, 2006, of child molestation.

The official cause of Aliahna's death was pending completion of an autopsy Wednesday, but a preliminary coroner's report concluded that "the manner of death was homicide."

Original post: The Indiana trailer park that was home to 9-year-old Aliahna Lemmon ? whose dismembered body was found this week ? is also home to an extraordinary number of registered sex offenders, police and court records show.

---

An affidavit filed Tuesday by Allen County sheriff's investigators said Michael Len Plumadore, 39, of the Northway Woods trailer park in Fort Wayne, confessed to having killed and dismembered Aliahna on Friday. Her head, hands and feet were found in a freezer in Plumadore's home; the rest of her body was scattered elsewhere in the area.

Plumadore was held without bail Tuesday pending formal charges.

Plumadore lives in the same trailer park as Aliahna ? who a relative said was partly blind and deaf ? and her two younger sisters, and he often baby-sat for them. The girls had been staying with Plumadore for about a week because their mother was ill.

The affidavit doesn't say why Plumadore would have wanted to kill Aliahna. He isn't on the county's sex offender registry ? court records show only convictions for trespassing, assault and auto theft in Florida and North Carolina.

Northway Woods is one of an increasing number of isolated locations around the country that have become havens for registered sex offenders, who in most states must not live within a certain distance of places where children congregate, such as schools and churches.

The Allen County sheriff's registry shows that 15 sex offenders live at Northway Woods, a small mobile home park with 54 lots, only about 25 of which are occupied. Among them are men with multiple felony convictions for sexual abuse of a minor and child molestation.

In other words, three-fifths of the occupied units house a registered sex offender. That's an extraordinary concentration in Indiana, which has only 137 registered sex offenders per 100,000 population ? the third-lowest ratio among all 50 states, according to data compiled by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Sex offender registry map from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children(.pdf)

Seven other registered offenders live within 2 miles of the trailer park, the registry shows ? meaning nearly 5 percent of all of the county's 537 registered sex offenders live within a short walk of one another.

"You see it on TV all the time in other states, in other places, but this is in our own backyard," said Kathleen McKee, who lives in the Northway Woods park. "It's in our own home, and it's scary."

"I feel for the family, because I have three children myself ? two daughters and a son," McKee told NBC station WISE of Fort Wayne. "I can't imagine what that family is feeling, especially around Christmas time."

Before he was arrested, Plumadore gave a brief interview Monday morning to WISE. The station hasn't aired the interview, but it reported that Plumadore said he was going in to take a polygraph test and that he, too, was eager to find Aliahna.

WISE constructed and aired this timeline of the hours leading up to Plumadore's arrest:

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More content from msnbc.com and NBC News:

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Source: http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/27/9747130-scene-of-9-year-old-girls-killing-a-haven-for-sex-offenders

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Lawyer says soldier shooting client was attacked (AP)

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. ? The lawyer for the 19-year-old California man charged with the attempted murder of an Afghanistan war veteran said his client was under attack when gunfire rang out.

Ruben Ray Jurado was charged Tuesday with attempted murder and multiple sentencing enhancements for using a firearm in the shooting that critically wounded Christopher Sullivan, 22, a Purple Heart recipient. He's expected to be arraigned this week.

Sullivan was home for the holidays at a homecoming party when authorities say a fight began over football. When Sullivan moved to break it up, police say, gunfire broke out.

Defense attorney Michael J. Holmes said Tuesday that he wanted to talk to his client and the district attorney before commenting further on the case.

"It appears that he was being attacked and he was on the ground and was being kicked in the back, stomach, the head, and that is consistent with the injuries that I observed," Holmes said. "It is alleged at that point that Mr. Sullivan was shot."

Authorities said Jurado, who had played football with Sullivan in high school, began arguing with Sullivan's brother over football teams at the party Friday night and then punched him. Sullivan intervened and Jurado pulled a gun and fired multiple shots, hitting Sullivan in the neck, police said.

Sullivan remains in critical condition. His relatives say the gunfire shattered his spine and left him paralyzed from the neck down.

"He's opening his eyes more," his 20-year-old brother Brandon Sullivan told The Associated Press. "We're just waiting day by day."

Sullivan was wounded in a suicide bombing attack last year while serving with the military in Afghanistan. He suffered a cracked collarbone and brain damage in the attack and had been recovering in Kentucky, where he is stationed, before coming home for the holidays.

Sullivan was a wrestler and football player in high school in San Bernardino, about 60 miles east of Los Angeles. He had nine months to go in the military and then planned to become a firefighter or police officer. He always liked to help people, his brother said.

"Say there was a person at school who never had friends or nothing ? Chris would be the person who would go up to him and try to be his friend. He didn't like people to feel alone," Brandon Sullivan said. "He always had a smile on his face."

___

Associated Press writer Kristin M. Hall in Nashville, Tenn., contributed to this report.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/crime/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111228/ap_on_re_us/us_soldier_shot

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