By Gilbert Falso :: 1:03 PM
Campus officials and local police officers have issued a lockdown order for the Central Connecticut State University (CCSU) in New Britain, CT.
At this time, they are declining to provide the reasons behind the lockdown. However, many students on campus are turning to social media for answers, and finding only confusion.
Pictures are being sent via Twitter and Facebook of police officers on campus, walking with guns drawn, but no suspect or incident has yet to be identified. The school has only referred to it as an “unspecified campus emergency,” and clarified that it was not a drill. Students and others currently on the campus have been told to “shelter in place.”
Local news reports are mentioning a possible gunman on campus, but those reports have not been confirmed by law enforcement officials.
The photo above shows police activity adjacent to the campus, and was posted to Twitter by a TV news reporter for FOX’s Hartford, CT affiliate.
New Haven, CT television station WTNH is broadcasting a livestream of news from the scene. Reporters on that station have said witnesses reported seeing a young man walking around wearing camouflage and carrying a weapon.
Students in dormitories have been told to lock and barricade their doors.
Two nearby elementary schools have been placed on a modified lockdown status while the event at CCSU is being resolved.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 1:41 PM
A Michigan woman is finding out what happens when the Internet doesn’t like your Halloween costume choice.
22-year-old Alicia Ann Lynch decided it would be a good idea to dress as a Boston Marathon Bombing victim for a party at her place of employment last week. She donned a runner’s t-shirt and shorts, numbered marathon bib, and added fake blood dripping from her head, arms, and legs, and then took a photo and posted it to Twitter and Instagram.
The Internet reacted swiftly and violently.
Within just a few hours. Lynch’s personal information, including an image of her driver’s license and nude images she had posted to Tumblr, were circulating across Twitter, Facebook, and Internet forum sites. Angry calls were placed to her employer, her parents, and her father’s place of business.
Lynch quickly deleted all of her social media accounts, but not before the damage had been done. She reinstated her Twitter account briefly over the weekend to issue a series of short apologies, but quickly closed it again.
She asked attackers to “stop with the death threats towards my parents,” in a Tweet. “They did nothing wrong. I was the one in the wrong and I am paying for being insensitive.”
In another Tweet, Lynch admitted to being fired from work for her insensitive costume.
“I have been fired from my job. I am paying for what I thought was a simple joke. I know it was wrong now. I wasn’t thinking,” she Tweeted.
By Paul Thomson :: 12:52 PM
As the details of Friday’s shooting at Los Angeles International Airport are pieced together, a timeline and images are starting to emerge from the rampage that killed one person, and injured several others.
One of these details is the photograph above, of accused gunman Paul Ciancia, after he was shot by Los Angeles Airport police officers. In the picture, is shown lying on the floor of the airport, restrained in handcuffs, with his head resting on what appears to be a Starbucks bag.
According to law enforcement sources, Ciancia was struck in the mouth with a .45 caliber bullet. The shot took out several of Ciancia’s teeth, and split his tongue. Ciancia is currently in critical condition at an LA hospital, and in a non-responsive state.
Ciancia, 23, allegedly shot and killed Gerardo Hernandez, a 39-year-old TSA agent, who was checking travel documents at a terminal checkpoint. Hernandez was struck at point-blank range twice. Once in the initial attack, and again when Ciancia returned to deliver the final shot. In addition to Hernandez, Ciancia’s rampage wounded five people, including two other TSA agents.
Officers from LAs Airport police force shot Ciancia at least four times. On Saturday, federal prosecutors filed charges of murder and commission of violence at an international airport against him. If convicted on the charges, he could receive the death penalty.
By Cynthia Herbert :: 11:52 PM
A boy in Craigsville, Virginia has stirred up controversy in the community after dressing in a Ku Klux Klan outfit for Halloween last week.
The child, aged 7, asked his mother to make him a KKK costume because, “it was cool,” he told a local television station. Although his mother warned him against the costume, due to the negative attention it would bring, she made it anyway.
“There’s going to be people saying bad things about you when you do wear it,” the boy’s mother told him.
Neighbors reactions were predictable – most were shocked about the boy’s choice, and concerned about the message that it conveyed to other children.
Video, including an interview with the boy and his mother, is below.
By Paul Thomson :: 11:27 PM
Computer engineers from Google and other Silicon Valley companies will be brought in to help address issues plaguing the Obama administration’s HealthCare.gov site. The announcement of additional help for the site came after it had been down over 36 hours.
A problem with networking technology crashed the site on Tuesday, and prevented users from logging in and requesting information on new health insurance plans. While some users could get back online on Wednesday, many couldn’t access the site until Thursday.
A government spokesperson said that “dozens” of engineers will be coming from Google and similar companies. Their expertise ranges across the board for the site’s major problems, which include reliability, stability, and scalability.
Health Secretary Kathleen Sebelius has identified an end-of-November target for addressing the myriad issues with the site, and industry experts are concerned that even this new push of talent won’t help fix all of the site’s problems.
“They’re in over their head here,” said Sidney Burton, a consultant who works with healthcare companies and insurance carriers. “They may be able to shore up certain parts of it within that timeframe, but overall, the site and its underpinnings will still have issues well into next year.”
The HealthCare.gov site launched on October 1, and in addition to the 36 hour downtime earlier this week, it has experienced numerous other issues over the past month.