How Japan has almost eradicated gun crime

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January 7, 2017

Japan has one of the lowest rates of gun crime in the world. In 2014 there were just six gun deaths, compared to 33,599 in the US. What is the secret?
If you want to buy a gun in Japan you need patience and determination. You have to attend an all-day class, take a written exam and pass a shooting-range test with a mark of at least 95%.
There are also mental health and drugs tests. Your criminal record is checked and police look for links to extremist groups. Then they check your relatives too — and even your work colleagues. And as well as having the power to deny gun licences, police also have sweeping powers to search and seize weapons.
That’s not all. Handguns are banned outright. Only shotguns and air rifles are allowed.
The law restricts the number of gun shops. In most of Japan’s 40 or so prefectures there can be no more than three, and you can only buy fresh cartridges by returning the spent cartridges you bought on your last visit.
Police must be notified where the gun and the ammunition are stored — and they must be stored separately under lock and key. Police will also inspect guns once a year. And after three years your licence runs out, at which point you have to attend the course and pass the tests again.
This helps explain why mass shootings in Japan are extremely rare. When mass killings occur, the killer most often wields a knife.
In a world where a lot is going wrong there is also a lot going right. So what if you could build a country with policies that actually worked, by homing in ideas around the world that have been truly successful?
The current gun control law was introduced in 1958, but the idea behind the policy dates back centuries.
«Ever since guns entered the country, Japan has always had strict gun laws,» says Iain Overton, executive director of Action on Armed Violence and the author of Gun Baby Gun.
«They are the first nation to impose gun laws in the whole world and I think it laid down a bedrock saying that guns really don’t play a part in civilian society. »
People were being rewarded for giving up firearms as far back as 1685, a policy Overton describes as «perhaps the first ever gun buyback initiative».
The result is a very low level of gun ownership — 0.6 guns per 100 people in 2007, according to the Small Arms Survey , compared to 6.2 in England and Wales and 88.8 in the US.
«The moment you have guns in society, you will have gun violence but I think it’s about the quantity,» says Overton. «If you have very few guns in society, you will almost inevitably have low levels of violence. »
Japanese police officers rarely use guns and put much greater emphasis on martial arts — all are expected to become a black belt in judo. They spend more time practising kendo (fighting with bamboo swords) than learning how to use firearms.
«The response to violence is never violence, it’s always to de-escalate it. Only six shots were fired by Japanese police nationwide [in 2015],» says journalist Anthony Berteaux. «What most Japanese police will do is get huge futons and essentially roll up a person who is being violent or drunk into a little burrito and carry them back to the station to calm them down. »
Overton contrasts this with the American model, which he says has been «to militarise the police».
«If you have too many police pulling out guns at the first instance of crime, you lead to a miniature arms race between police and criminals,» he says.
To underline the taboo attached to inappropriate use of weapons, an officer who used his gun to kill himself was charged posthumously with a criminal offence. He carried out the act while on duty — policemen never carry weapons off-duty, leaving them at the station when they finish their shift.
The care police take with firearms is mirrored in the self-defence forces.
Journalist Jake Adelstein once attended a shooting practice, which ended with the gathering up of the bullet casings — and there was great concern when one turned out to be missing.
«One bullet shell was unaccounted for — one shell had fallen behind one of the targets — and nobody was allowed to leave the facilities until they found the shell,» he says.
There is no clamour in Japan for gun regulations to be relaxed, says Berteaux. «A lot of it stems from this post-war sentiment of pacifism that the war was horrible and we can never have that again,» he explains.
«People assume that peace is always going to exist and when you have a culture like that you don’t really feel the need to arm yourself or have an object that disrupts that peace. »
In fact, moves to expand the role of Japan’s self-defence forces in foreign peacekeeping operations have caused concern in some quarters.
«It is unknown territory,» says political science professor Koichi Nakano. «Maybe the government will try to normalise occasional death in the self-defence force and perhaps even try to glorify the exercise of weapons? »
According to Iain Overton, the «almost taboo level of rejection» of guns in Japan means that the country is «edging towards a perfect place» — though he points out that Iceland also achieves a very low rate of gun crime, despite a much higher level of gun ownership.
Henrietta Moore of the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College London applauds the Japanese for not viewing gun ownership as «a civil liberty», and rejecting the idea of firearms as «something you use to defend your property against others».
But for Japanese gangsters the tight gun control laws are a problem. Yakuza gun crime has sharply declined in the last 15 years, but those who continue to carry firearms have to find ingenious ways of smuggling them into the country.
«The criminals pack the guns inside of a tuna so it looks like a frozen tuna,» says retired police officer Tahei Ogawa. «But we have discovered cases where they have actually hidden a gun inside. »
Join the conversation — find the BBC World Service on Facebook and Twitter.
Follow Harry Low on Twitter: @HarryLow49

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The Adventure of Daniel Hannan and the Princes in the Tower Paddy Ashdown: "The House of Commons is a lapdog, not a watchdog"

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January 7, 2017

Since Daniel Hannan, a formerly obscure MEP, has emerged as the anointed intellectual of the Brexit elite, The Staggers is charting his ascendancy…
Daniel Hannan, as I’ve noted in the past, has an awkward habit of deleting his tweets. Often, by a strange coincidence, it’s the more embarrassing proclamations that vanish into the ether – no explanation, no, “Apologies, friends, I buggered that up didn’t I?” The tweet simply vanishes as if it had never been tweeted.
I’ve taken, then, to screenshot-ing some of the best morsels, just in case they’re not there the next time I look. Here’s one now:
Funny thing about that tweet is that Danny Boy has not, at time of writing, deleted it. Despite the fact he was tricked into embarrassing himself by a mean-spirited Remoaner, it’s still sitting there on the internet looking for all the world like its author is not crippled with embarrassment at the fact he could have been such a dunderhead as to write it. Two things are wrong with it, one relatively small, the other so huge as to be all encompassing.
The small one lies in the choice of monarchs. Not all of them are unreasonable: Henry VIII famously broke with the Catholic Church in his search for a divorce, an heir, and a quick bonk with Anne Boleyn. Since that meant an end to the period in which the English crown was answerable to a higher authority in the form of the Pope, we’ve already been treated to umpteen “Britain’s first Brexit” articles, and they’re not soon likely to stop – all this, despite the fact the big man liked to go around telling people he was also the King of France.
Similarly England spent much of the reign of his daughter trying to avoid being swallowed by the Spanish Empire, so it’s probably fair to suggest that Elizabeth I wasn’t a big fan of European integration either. George V, though, was closely related to – indeed, shared a face with – half the other head of states in Europe during his time on the planet, so what he’s doing there is anybody’s guess.
The truly vexing inclusion, though, is Edward V. Is Daniel Hannan really saying that a boy king who reigned for 79 days and was murdered by a wicked uncle at the age of 12 had serious concerns about the European project? Was it the damage that the Combined Agricultural Policy wrought on developing world farmers that Edward was brooding about in his tower? The money wasted on repeatedly moving the European Parliament between Brussels and Strasbourg? What?
@JonnElledge To be fair, if you’d ask the Princes in the Tower if they wanted to leave or remain, I’d bet they’d vote leave.
— Chris Cook (@xtophercook) December 29, 2016
Okay let’s be charitable and assume it’s a typo, presumably for another of Henry’s kids Edward VI. (It certainly wasn’t Edward III who spent much of his reign trying to get into Europe, by kicking off an endless war with France.) But the bigger problem here lies not in the specifics of Daniel’s answer, but in the fact he bothered to answer at all. The entire exercise is entirely ludicrous. It’s like asking for Theresa May’s position on the dissolution of the monasteries, or Jeremy Hunt’s proposals for tackling the Black Death.
The question is an ahistorical nonsense – not just because the European Union was invented in the late 20th century to deal with problems specific to a particular time, but because it misunderstands how England’s role in Europe has evolved over the centuries.
For the first five hundred years or so after the Conquest, the nations of the British Isles were a key part of a western European political system that included France and the Low countries. Until it lost Calais in 1558, indeed, the English Crown generally held territory in France.
The idea that the United Kingdom, as the state became, was with Europe but not of it – that its destiny lay on the high seas, not the continent – is a notion that’s core to Eurosceptic mythology, but one which didn’t emerge until the imperial era. Exactly when I’m not sure (unlike certain Conservative MEPs I’m not afraid to admit my ignorance, which is what makes us better than the animals and egg avatars). However you count it, though, the period between then and 1973 must make up a minority of England’s history as a nation. For most of its history, the idea that the England was somehow not properly “European” would have seemed crazy.
Actually, there was one major European project which a king of both England and Scotland kept us out of, a policy decision confirmed by his successors. That project was a key plank of French foreign policy, grew to encompass more far flung countries like Sweden, and was launched largely to prevent the Germans from getting above themselves. It was the Thirty Years War.
But is James I & VI on Hannan’s list? Is he b*llocks.
If Westminster is, as Andrew Neil termed it, “a tiny, toy-town world beyond the reach of most of us,” then the House of Lords is that rare, discontinued train set, whose eBay bidding chain is made up of collectors with money to burn.
Arriving at the peer’s entrance – of course it has more than one entrance – the tall man in the tailcoat on the front desk asks: “If sir wouldn’t mind waiting in the lobby, please.” His sentence structure is as strange as his use of the third person. Several coat pegs have «reserved» written above them and the ceremony of the place is forthright.
Lord Ashdown, though, appears unfazed.
After a brisk march through a few echoing corridors, during which not one person says hello to him, the former Royal Marines captain gestures towards an enormously long table flanked by just two leather chairs. Ashdown was created a Life Peer in 2001 and has been an outspoken constitutional critic of the second chamber ever since; which begs the question, then, why did he accept the title in the first place?
He prefaces a confident answer with a shrug. “I came into this place to get rid of it. How else can you get rid of something unless you’re in the right place to vote to get rid of it, or at the very least for its reform? I think it is an affront to have an undemocratic second chamber. The principle of democracy is that those who make the laws have the power to do so because they have been conferred through the ballot box.”
While Ashdown might resent what he calls the “creature of the executive”, he isn’t entirely against all of that creature’s comforts. “I suppose if you want to keep it then alright, all this gold-plated stuff isn’t too uncongenial; but far too many of their Lordships get their feet under the table and lose whatever radical principles they had before. They get so seduced by being called Milord every other second that they want to keep the place going.”
So what should the second chamber look like, according to Ashdown? “My view is that it should be elected as it is elsewhere in the world. It should be geographically based, it should be based on regions, and it should be elected on a term different from the House of Commons. It should be elected by proportionate representation and if it was then it would have a wider diversity of people.
“Of course, the Commons has primacy but that doesn’t mean that it should have absolute primacy. This place does some of its job well; it’s a good revising chamber but it’s very bad at holding the government to account.”
The investment manager Gina Miller told the New Statesman last year that in campaigning to block the Conservative government’s move to invoke article 50 without reference to the Commons, she was “doing the Labour party’s job.” If reformed, as Ashdown insists is necessary, can the Lords provide an effective opposition when one is absent elsewhere? He explains: “The House of Commons is supposed to be the watchdog of the government, but in truth it’s more like a lapdog. You see it now, Labour failing to oppose the government on things that really matter – the interception bill, Brexit for example, where their position has been so weak. The House of Lords does, then, compensate for the failings of the Commons, but nowhere near as much as it should, and would do if it was elected. If you had a second chamber that successfully did its job in holding the executive to account, I would argue that you wouldn’t have had the poll tax, and you wouldn’t have had the Iraq war.”
Ashdown says that the second chamber should be elected but retain its power of veto; couldn’t that be viewed as a contradiction in terms? What would stop the Lords from preventing something that had been decided democratically in the Commons? What if the Lords wanted to block Brexit? Ashdown takes a deep breath. “I would caution against that. The people have voted and whether you like it or not, that is superior to both Houses. We must allow the government to enact Brexit, but that doesn’t mean that it should be allowed to go through completely unamended.”
In a democracy, the principle of a popular mandate ought to be sacrosanct; but if we restrict the second chamber’s role to scrutinising and amending legislation, are we missing an opportunity for better governance? Why not let the Lords have an originating function? Ashdown suggests that some degree of competition between two elected chambers could be healthy, noting the positives of plurality. “If you look at the model of other second chambers around the world — there are 84 by my count — only four are not elected. These are Belarus, Ukraine, Britain and Canada. Not very good company, is it?
“I think they all have a limited power of check. Now take, for instance, treaties. The government has the ability to introduce treaties, part of their own prerogative, not subject to parliamentary scrutiny at all. The Nato treaty is one, Brexit is another. I think that the House of Lords should have a particular role in the ratification of treaties. The present Salisbury Convention, which isn’t bad, could simply be translated into law very easily. In any case, I accept the primacy of the Commons, but it must not have total primacy.”
Ashdown’s politics are decidedly centrist, informed by the habit of compromise and in favour of coalitions. All things considered, his views on the Lords are perhaps unsurprising. But in a political climate that is so obtrusively partisan, how optimistic can he be about recovering the centre ground? Ashdown is emphatic: “There has never been a successful government that has not been of the progressive centre. Extreme governments, on either side, lead you to disaster. If you will not be receptive to the idea of coalitions then you can’t provide sensible government.”
Britain’s duopoly, Ashdown warns, is a dying concept. He adds with a finger wag: “The truth is that democracy is not divided in two. I mean, what do you know in the internet age when people have multiple choices? They want to have a bit of this and a bit of that. The world is not divided into Conservatives and Labour. There are people with a whole range of views and it is one of the remarkable things about our time. If our lives are pluralist, then how can you make our politics binary?”
This article originally appeared in the New Statesman’s Political Studies Guide for 2017.

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Charles Manson is returned to prison after stay at Bakersfield hospital

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January 7, 2017

Mass murderer Charles Manson , who was hospitalized this week with a serious medical issue, has been returned to the Central Valley prison where he is serving his life sentence, a corrections official confirmed Friday.
The Times reported this week that Manson, 82, had been taken to a hospital for treatment of an undisclosed but serious medical problem. Officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation have declined to comment on Manson’s condition, citing federal and state privacy laws.
But Terry Thornton, a spokeswoman for the department, confirmed Friday that Manson was back behind bars.
«Inmate Manson is at California State Prison-Corcoran,” she said in an email, declining to elaborate in a follow-up phone call: «He is at the prison. I don’t know how much plainer it can be. »
Manson had been admitted to Mercy Hospital in downtown Bakersfield, according to sources who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter. Officials at the hospital, which often treats inmates for life-threatening illnesses or injuries, would not say whether Manson was there.
Manson and members of his “family” of followers were convicted of killing actress Sharon Tate and six other people during a bloody rampage in the Los Angeles area in August 1969. Prosecutors said Manson and his followers were trying to incite a race war he dubbed “Helter Skelter,” taken from the Beatles song.
Tate, the wife of director Roman Polanski, was 8½ months pregnant when she was killed at her hilltop home in Benedict Canyon on Aug. 9, 1969. Four others were stabbed and shot to death the same night: Jay Sebring, 35; Voytek Frykowski, 32; Abigail Folger, 25, a coffee heiress; and Steven Parent, 18, a friend of Tate’s caretaker. The word «pig» was written on the front door in blood.
The next night, Manson rode with his followers to the Los Feliz home of Leno and Rosemary LaBianca, then left three members to kill the couple.
Manson was initially sentenced to death. But a 1972 ruling by the California Supreme Court found the state’s death penalty law at the time unconstitutional, and his sentenced was changed to life in prison with the possibility of parole. He has been denied parole 12 times.
During his four decades of incarceration, Manson has been anything but a model prisoner. Among other things, Manson has been cited for assault, repeated possession of a weapon, threatening staff and possessing a cellphone, Thornton said this week.
According to a spokesperson for the Broward Sheriff’s Office, multiple people have been shot and one person is in custody after shots were fired at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.
The full length video of a press conference held at the Fort Lauderdale International Airport on the latest information about the shooting there early Friday afternoon.
The 74th Annual Golden Globe Awards will take place Sunday , the popular Tower of Terror ride at Disney California Adventure has officially closed , thousands of people died trying to cross the Mediterranean in the last year alone , and California’s minimum wage is now $10.50 .
Three family members were shot to death and one severely injured in an apartment in Fontana. Police believe another family member is to blame.
It’s snowing in the Sierra. It started snowing Jan. 4, and you can already see what Mother Nature has wrought.
It’s snowing in the Sierra. It started snowing Jan. 4, and you can already see what Mother Nature has wrought.

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31 killed, brutalized in Brazilian prison riot; worst in decades

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January 7, 2017

Thirty-one inmates were slain Friday in northern Brazil, some with their hearts and intestines ripped out, during a prison killing spree led by the country’s largest gang, authorities said.
The bloodshed comes just days after 60 inmates were killed during rioting at two prisons in a neighboring state and it increases fears that violence could spread, including to the streets of major cities, as gangs vie for influence and territory both inside prisons and in slums where trafficking operations are often based.
It’s also becoming a flashpoint for the government of President Michel Temer, whose administration is already struggling with an economic crisis and mounting corruption allegations. Authorities of the state of Roraima, on the border with Venezuela, said they requested help from Brazil’s federal government more than once to deal with its prison crisis, but no support was sent.
“This is a national crisis,” said Uziel Castro, security secretary of the state where the latest massacre happened.
Castro said the slaying spree began around 2:30 a.m. Friday at the Agricultural Penitentiary of Monte Cristo in the town of Boa Vista. He said it was led by members of Sao Paulo-based First Command, Brazil’s biggest criminal organization.
He said First Command members did not attack members of a rival gang, but rather other prisoners, for motives that were not yet clear.
“There was no confrontation, this was a killing spree,” said Castro. “It was barbaric. Some were beheaded, others had their hearts or intestines ripped out.”
Castro said firearms were not involved, and none of the 1,500 inmates in the prison built for about 700 had escaped.

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Penn State abuse scandal costs approach a quarter-billion

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January 7, 2017

Penn State’s costs related to the Jerry Sandusky scandal are approaching a quarter-billion dollars and growing, five years after the former assistant football coach’s arrest on child molestation charges.
The scandal’s overall cost to the school has reached at least $237 million, including a recent $12 million verdict in the whistleblower and defamation case brought by former assistant coach Mike McQueary, whose testimony helped convict Sandusky in 2012.
The university has settled with 33 people over allegations they were sexually abused by Sandusky, and has made total payments to them of $93 million.
The total also covers the $48 million «fine» levied by the NCAA that is funding anti-child-abuse efforts in Pennsylvania, $27 million in lawyer fees to defend lawsuits, nearly $14 million that includes the legal defense of three former administrators facing criminal charges for their handling of Sandusky complaints and $5.3 million for crisis communications and other consultants.
The school’s latest financial statement said insurers have covered $30 million in costs, while other insurance claims remain pending.
The school also was hit in November with a $2.4 million fine from a federal investigation, started immediately after Sandusky was arrested, that concluded the university repeatedly violated campus crime reporting requirements.
A look at where some of the other pending Sandusky-related matters stand:
—
ADMINISTRATORS’ CRIMINAL CASE
A senior judge sitting in Harrisburg is considering a request by three former high-ranking Penn State administrators to throw out their criminal charges, following an oral argument that was held in Harrisburg in October.
Former Penn State President Graham Spanier, former Athletic Director Tim Curley and former Vice President Gary Schultz are accused of not responding properly to McQueary’s 2001 complaint that Sandusky was sexually abusing a boy in a team shower. They are also accused of putting children in danger.
The attorney general’s office wants to add a new count, of conspiracy to commit endangering the welfare of children, against all three defendants. Judge John Boccabella has not indicated when he might rule.
The three men have consistently maintained their innocence.
—
SANDUSKY’S APPEAL
Sandusky is serving a 30- to 60-year sentence in Greene State Prison on a 45-count conviction for sexual abuse of 10 boys, and he is currently pursuing an appeal in county court near State College.
In November, the judge handling that appeal — Judge John Cleland, who was also the trial judge — took himself off the case after Sandusky’s lawyers raised objections to Cleland’s role in a December 2011 meeting in a hotel the night before Sandusky waived a preliminary hearing.
Cleland’s sternly worded order included a footnote saying his review of the 34 issues raised by Sandusky found none of them had merit.
The state court system is working on appointing a new judge, but that decision has not been made.
—
SPANIER V. PENN STATE
Penn State countersued Spanier last month, saying he violated his employment agreement by not disclosing what he knew about Sandusky before Sandusky’s 2011 arrest. The school is seeking repayment of millions of dollars it has paid him over the past five years.
Spanier’s lawsuit claims the school violated an agreement made when he was pushed out of the top job — days after Sandusky was charged — by making public comments that were critical of him and not living up to promises regarding office space, teaching opportunities and payment of legal costs.
—
SPANIER V. FREEH
A judge has scheduled a hearing later this month in a lawsuit by Spanier against former FBI Director Louis Freeh and his law firm, who were paid by Penn State to produce a 2012 report into how Spanier and other top administrators handled the Sandusky matter.
Judge Robert Eby will hear oral argument in Freeh’s preliminary objections to the lawsuit. Spanier is seeking damages for the reputational and economic harm he alleges resulted from the report.
—
PATERNO V. NCAA
The family of former Penn State head coach Joe Paterno is suing the NCAA, saying it damaged the Paterno estate’s commercial interests by relying on conclusions about Paterno in the Freeh report. Two former Paterno assistants, son Jay Paterno and Bill Kenney, are also suing, saying they have not been able to find comparable work because of the Freeh report. The most recent action in that case involved a dispute over subpoenas. Paterno died in 2012.

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The Latest: Airport suspect's charges to be released soon

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January 7, 2017

The Latest on Airport Shooting-Florida (all times local):
11 a.m.
Law enforcement officials say the gunman in a deadly Florida airport shooting had a semi-automatic handgun, and they expect to release charges against him this afternoon.
Authorities say Army veteran Esteban Santiago of Anchorage, Alaska, killed five and wounded six Friday in Fort Lauderdale.
At a news conference Saturday, a day after the attack, the FBI said it had interviewed the suspect’s family.
Local and federal officials also said at the news conference that they believe he came to Fort Lauderdale specifically to carry out the attack, though they had not uncovered any triggers for it in their investigation. They say they still believe the shooter acted alone and that they have several critical leads.
—
10:50 a.m.
Law enforcement says there are six people recovering from gunshot wounds after the shooting at a Florida airport, decreasing that total from the number of eight given previously.
Sheriff Scott Israel gave the new information at a news conference Saturday, one day after the shooting at the Fort Lauderdale airport.
He says three are in good condition, and three are in intensive care.
Five people were killed in the shooting.
—
8 a.m.
Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport has reopened following the terminal shooting that left five people dead and eight wounded.
Officials said on Twitter the airport reopened for commercial flights at 5 a.m. Saturday, although many flights are canceled or delayed. Local media reported long lines of passengers were forming outside terminals.
Terminal 2 remained closed Saturday morning. That’s where police say 26-year-old Esteban Santiago allegedly opened fire in a baggage claim area after retrieving a handgun from his checked luggage. Santiago remained jailed pending official charges.
The FBI and sheriff’s office planned a news conference later Saturday morning.
Airport officials also say they are trying to match more than 20,000 bags and personal items with their owners. Authorities say it is a complex and time-consuming process.
——
2:30 a.m.
The gunman who fatally shot five people and wounded eight others in Fort Lauderdale’s airport sent panicked passengers running out of the terminal and onto the tarmac with bags in hand.
Authorities say Army veteran Esteban Santiago of Anchorage, Alaska, had complained that the government was controlling his mind drew a gun from his checked luggage on arrival and opened fire on fellow travelers.
FBI agent George Piro says authorities are looking at leads in several states and have not ruled out terrorism.
The airport was shut down, with incoming flights diverted and outgoing flights held on the ground. Airport Director Mark Gale said it will try to reopen at 5 a.m. Saturday but urged travelers to check with their individual airlines on flight status

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Fort Lauderdale shooting: Airport reopens

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January 7, 2017

The Fort Lauderdale airport has reopened after five people were shot dead and eight injured by a gunman in a baggage claim area on Friday.
But Terminal 2, where the shootings happened, has stayed closed.
Suspect Esteban Santiago, 26, remains in custody and has been questioned.
He is a veteran of the Iraq war and US media say he may have been mentally disturbed. He reportedly said the government was controlling his mind and made him watch jihadist videos.
Officials say they have not ruled out terrorism as a possible motive.
The Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport re-opened for commercial flights at 05:00 local time (10:00 GMT) on Saturday, 16 hours after the attack.
Airport officials say they still have 20,000 items of luggage to return to their owners. A tweet from the airport account said this was a «complex and time-consuming process». When the gunman opened fire, many people rushed out on to the tarmac.
The attacker opened fire at the baggage claim area of Terminal 2 as passengers were collecting their luggage.
The man, who was wearing a Star Wars T-shirt, had travelled from Alaska, officials said. He checked in an unloaded gun and ammunition with his luggage, and loaded the semi-automatic gun in the toilet after landing and collecting his bag.
He surrendered to police when he ran out of ammunition.
Mr Santiago is expected to face federal charges and make his first appearance in court on Monday.
He is a former member of the Puerto Rico and Alaska National Guard, according to the Pentagon. He served in Iraq from April 2010 to February 2011, and ended his service in August 2016.
US media reported that he had received a general discharge from the Alaska National Guard for unsatisfactory performance.
His brother said he had been receiving psychological treatment recently.
His aunt told a local newspaper he had «lost his mind» while serving in Iraq.
A White House spokesman said President Barack Obama had expressed his condolences to the relatives of the victims. In a tweet , President-elect Donald Trump sent his «thoughts and prayers».
Flying with firearms is legal in the US as long as the guns are kept in a locked, hard-sided container as checked baggage only, under rules of the Transport Security Administration (TSA). Ammunition is also allowed only in checked luggage.
The attack was the latest in a series of mass shootings in the US in recent years, carried out by people who said they were inspired by jihadist groups, loners or mentally disturbed, who had easy access to weapons under US gun laws.
Last year, in the worst shooting in recent US history, a man, apparently inspired by IS, killed 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.

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TCU vs. West Virginia 2017: Prediction, College Basketball game preview

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January 7, 2017

MORGANTOWN, W. Va. — In dissecting two losses this season by a combined five points, West Virginia’s coaching staff emphasizes one commonality.
Deflections, or rather, the lack of them.
The No. 7 Mountaineers and their nonstop pressure defense typically produce nearly 50 deflections per game. Yet they managed only 39 in a Nov. 25 loss to Temple and 32 in Tuesday’s 77-76 overtime defeat at Texas Tech.
«We didn’t get any deflections, so we didn’t get any live-ball turnovers,» said coach Bob Huggins. «It’s hard to deflect the pass if you don’t bring your hands above your head. Texas Tech threw it out of the trap before there actually was a trap, but if you get your hands up, they’ve still got to throw it over your hands, which gives you time to make rotations. »
Huggins’ squad seeks to regain its edge Saturday against visiting TCU at Morgantown, W. Va.
Though both teams stand 12-2 overall and 1-1 in Big 12 play, West Virginia was picked to challenge Kansas for the conference title while coaches slotted the Horned Frogs to finish last. Under Jamie Dixon , however, TCU’s rebuilding effort shifted into warp speed, resulting in a No. 30 RPI entering the weekend. That’s 23 spots higher than the Mountaineers.
Dixon, who owned a 12-7 record against West Virginia during a 13-year tenure as Pittburgh’s coach, should expect plenty of intensity from fans — as well as the Mountaineers’ defense, which leads the nation by forcing 24.8 turnovers.
«Their turnover numbers are dramatic, to say the least,» Dixon said. «We’ve been working on a lot of drills and try and improve in that area. We’ve been a low-turnover team all year until the last two games. »
Those last two games (an 86-80 loss to Kansas and a 60-57 win over Oklahoma) saw the Horned Frogs commit 31 turnovers. Dixon is justifiably concerned about the adaptability of a backcourt rotation that features true freshmen Jaylen Fisher and Desmond Bane, and Texas A&M transfer Alex Robinson — none of whom have never faced the Mountaineers’ press.
Fisher has started 13 of his first 14 games after becoming the highest-rated signee in TCU history at No. 34 nationally by ESPN. He’s scoring 9.7 points per game and dishing a team-high 4.4 assists.
Robinson (11.2 points, 2.0 steals) and the drastically improved 6-foot-11 Vlad Brodziansky (11.2 points, 5.1 rebounds) are the top scorers, while 6-7 junior guard Kenrich Williams (9.8 points, 9.8 rebounds) is a double-double threat after recovering from last season’s knee injury.
Perhaps nothing speaks to TCU’s talent infusion more than the diminished roles of seniors Karviar Shepherd and Chris Washburn, frontline regulars during past seasons who are combining to average 21 minutes.
West Virginia, 9-0 against the Horned Frogs since joining the Big 12 five years ago, is paced by forwards Esa Ahmad (12.6 points, 4.9 rebounds) and Nate Adrian (10.4 points, 6.4 rebounds) and the guard tandem of Jevon Carter (10.3 points, 3.4 steals) and Daxter Miles (10.1 points, 1.7 rebounds).
Prediction
Deflections are key to the Mountaineers winning games, something they weren’t able to get a handle on during the team’s two losses this season. TCU, who many coaches expected to finish bottom, have shifted their rebuilding efforts into overdrive, but history is on the side of the Mountaineers who are 9-0 against the Horned Frogs since joining the Big 12 five years ago and will keep that streak alive.
West Virgina, 92, TCU 71

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Why you should watch the World Darts Championship final – even if you don’t like darts Paddy Ashdown: "The House of Commons is a lapdog, not a watchdog"

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January 7, 2017

There are few things on this planet which never disappoint. The World Darts Championship is one of them. Every year on the year, it bestows an unstoppable fortnight of dramatic brilliance, amplified by a bloody lot of bloody fun. There is nothing like it.
The game itself is simple, repetitive, comforting and compelling; sending a dart from hand to board is a rhythmic, hypnotic, idiosyncratic treat – the bass beat on contact complemented by the intellectual thrill of calculating scores and predicting outshots (the finishing sequences). Because it is immediately obvious what is going on, it is immediately absorbing, and because so many of us know how easy it is to play but how impossible it is to play well, we have a handy frame of reference to swiftly make it about ourselves.
Nor does it stop there. Darts is about far more than chucking a pointy thing at a flat thing; it tells a story of humanity that is animated and crystallised in close-up and high-definition. No other sport shows, simultaneously, action and reaction; on stage and on camera, there is nowhere to hide.
Brooking neither luck nor tactics, darts facilitates neither refereeing errors nor stalemates; excuses do not exist. Players can do nothing to affect one another. If things are going badly, no teammate will be along to save them, and there is no option to roll into the reds, deadbat a few or cover up on the ropes. Their only option is to throw better.
As such, there is no more exacting test of pressure, no examination of vertebrae more thorough. Under lights, on camera and in front of a crowd, perform a fine motor skill predicated on a steady hand and an empty mind – good luck with that.
“But is it a sport?” ask the kind of funsters who, in other scenarios, prattle on about the differences between indica, sativa, serotonin and empathogens. The correct answer, of course, is: “Who gives a shit?”
One of the most beautiful things about sport is that it allows us to share the most exhilarating, demoralising moments of people’s lives, entwining them with our own and supplying an intensity otherwise lacking – and darts takes that to another level. We see every expression of tension, fear, devastation and ecstasy – you might call it love – so feel that we know the players, and accordingly, can imagine that they know us too.
Because of that, darts offers a study in humanity to captivate not just those who like darts but those who like anything – its themes the same as those found in literature, theatre, cinema and art. Or, put another way, enjoying it is not a matter of taste; rather, there are those who do and those yet to discover that they do.
And, at the moment, darts is the best sport in the world. This is partly because others are regenerating; there are very few great teams and great individuals currently at their peaks. Darts, on the other hand, has never been played better. Michael van Gerwen won 25 tournaments last year, and 18 tournaments in 2015. He also set a new record for the highest three-dart average ever recorded on television, 123.40 .
Van Gerwen is not just the best dart player in the world but the best anything in the world; one of the best anythings in the history of everything. And he is only 27.
But, as with any great sportsperson, to assess van Gerwen by his numbers is to miss the point entirely. A wondrous bolus of uncut genius, his competitive charisma is startling – a mix of passion, intimidation, egomania, and the most distinctive phizog of all-time. He throws darts like flaming javelins, celebrates like a psychopath, and because it is impossible not to know how good he is, he makes no attempt not to know how good he is. He is perfect.
But he has won only one World Championship, in 2014 – the two since then taken by Gary Anderson, his good friend and polar opposite. A laidback, likeable Scot, Anderson is prone to miscounting and, until very recently, to mis-seeing. Only recently did he start wearing the glasses that he’s needed for years. Early in his career, Anderson was the man who faltered at crucial moments, but after working through family tragedy and adding another son to the two he already had, he convinced himself that it wasn’t important whether he won or lost and suddenly became the man who peaks at the right time.
The World Championship format is to his advantage. Generally, matches take place over legs, a succession of races from 501 to zero. But here, each forms part of a set, offering a margin of error to the inconsistent and absent-minded – playing legs against someone as relentless as van Gerwen is almost impossible.
And tonight, the pair meets in the dream final. Anderson, almost disquietingly relaxed, has sailed through his half of the draw, while van Gerwen recorded the competition’s highest ever average in last night’s win over Raymond van Barneveld. It is not unreasonable to anticipate as gripping a contest as has ever been played.
Yet Anderson and van Gerwen are simply part of a sprawling ensemble cast, the limelight shared not just with their opponents but the crowd. The simple genius of an affordable piss-up stretching the length of the piss-up season has created an experience unlike any other, part fancy dress party, part community singalong.
Nauseatingly cringeworthy though that sounds, the ethos of abandon cool all ye who enter here makes an enveloping, uplifting change from the self-conscious self-regard that compromises most other places of enjoyment. The atmosphere is partisan, but in support of everything; the feeling is tribal, but as one. At the start of 2017, we have never needed darts more.
Daniel Harris is a writer, and co-directed House of Flying Arrows, a documentary about darts, for Universal Pictures. Watch the trailer , and buy the film here. Harris tweets @DanielHarris.
If Westminster is, as Andrew Neil termed it, “a tiny, toy-town world beyond the reach of most of us,” then the House of Lords is that rare, discontinued train set, whose eBay bidding chain is made up of collectors with money to burn.
Arriving at the peer’s entrance – of course it has more than one entrance – the tall man in the tailcoat on the front desk asks: “If sir wouldn’t mind waiting in the lobby, please.” His sentence structure is as strange as his use of the third person. Several coat pegs have «reserved» written above them and the ceremony of the place is forthright.
Lord Ashdown, though, appears unfazed.
After a brisk march through a few echoing corridors, during which not one person says hello to him, the former Royal Marines captain gestures towards an enormously long table flanked by just two leather chairs. Ashdown was created a Life Peer in 2001 and has been an outspoken constitutional critic of the second chamber ever since; which begs the question, then, why did he accept the title in the first place?
He prefaces a confident answer with a shrug. “I came into this place to get rid of it. How else can you get rid of something unless you’re in the right place to vote to get rid of it, or at the very least for its reform? I think it is an affront to have an undemocratic second chamber. The principle of democracy is that those who make the laws have the power to do so because they have been conferred through the ballot box.”
While Ashdown might resent what he calls the “creature of the executive”, he isn’t entirely against all of that creature’s comforts. “I suppose if you want to keep it then alright, all this gold-plated stuff isn’t too uncongenial; but far too many of their Lordships get their feet under the table and lose whatever radical principles they had before. They get so seduced by being called Milord every other second that they want to keep the place going.”
So what should the second chamber look like, according to Ashdown? “My view is that it should be elected as it is elsewhere in the world. It should be geographically based, it should be based on regions, and it should be elected on a term different from the House of Commons. It should be elected by proportionate representation and if it was then it would have a wider diversity of people.
“Of course, the Commons has primacy but that doesn’t mean that it should have absolute primacy. This place does some of its job well; it’s a good revising chamber but it’s very bad at holding the government to account.”
The investment manager Gina Miller told the New Statesman last year that in campaigning to block the Conservative government’s move to invoke article 50 without reference to the Commons, she was “doing the Labour party’s job.” If reformed, as Ashdown insists is necessary, can the Lords provide an effective opposition when one is absent elsewhere? He explains: “The House of Commons is supposed to be the watchdog of the government, but in truth it’s more like a lapdog. You see it now, Labour failing to oppose the government on things that really matter – the interception bill, Brexit for example, where their position has been so weak. The House of Lords does, then, compensate for the failings of the Commons, but nowhere near as much as it should, and would do if it was elected. If you had a second chamber that successfully did its job in holding the executive to account, I would argue that you wouldn’t have had the poll tax, and you wouldn’t have had the Iraq war.”
Ashdown says that the second chamber should be elected but retain its power of veto; couldn’t that be viewed as a contradiction in terms? What would stop the Lords from preventing something that had been decided democratically in the Commons? What if the Lords wanted to block Brexit? Ashdown takes a deep breath. “I would caution against that. The people have voted and whether you like it or not, that is superior to both Houses. We must allow the government to enact Brexit, but that doesn’t mean that it should be allowed to go through completely unamended.”
In a democracy, the principle of a popular mandate ought to be sacrosanct; but if we restrict the second chamber’s role to scrutinising and amending legislation, are we missing an opportunity for better governance? Why not let the Lords have an originating function? Ashdown suggests that some degree of competition between two elected chambers could be healthy, noting the positives of plurality. “If you look at the model of other second chambers around the world — there are 84 by my count — only four are not elected. These are Belarus, Ukraine, Britain and Canada. Not very good company, is it?
“I think they all have a limited power of check. Now take, for instance, treaties. The government has the ability to introduce treaties, part of their own prerogative, not subject to parliamentary scrutiny at all. The Nato treaty is one, Brexit is another. I think that the House of Lords should have a particular role in the ratification of treaties. The present Salisbury Convention, which isn’t bad, could simply be translated into law very easily. In any case, I accept the primacy of the Commons, but it must not have total primacy.”
Ashdown’s politics are decidedly centrist, informed by the habit of compromise and in favour of coalitions. All things considered, his views on the Lords are perhaps unsurprising. But in a political climate that is so obtrusively partisan, how optimistic can he be about recovering the centre ground? Ashdown is emphatic: “There has never been a successful government that has not been of the progressive centre. Extreme governments, on either side, lead you to disaster. If you will not be receptive to the idea of coalitions then you can’t provide sensible government.”
Britain’s duopoly, Ashdown warns, is a dying concept. He adds with a finger wag: “The truth is that democracy is not divided in two. I mean, what do you know in the internet age when people have multiple choices? They want to have a bit of this and a bit of that. The world is not divided into Conservatives and Labour. There are people with a whole range of views and it is one of the remarkable things about our time. If our lives are pluralist, then how can you make our politics binary?”
This article originally appeared in the New Statesman’s Political Studies Guide for 2017.

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Ducks beat the slumping Arizona Coyotes, 3-2, in overtime

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January 7, 2017

Overtime finally worked for the Ducks. It came on a baffling play by the opposing goaltender after Anaheim clawed for two points against one of the worst teams in the NHL that was missing three players in the final period.
The hockey gods saw to it that Ondrej Kase was the hero. Perhaps the Ducks’ most humble player scored with 35.6 seconds remaining in overtime to give the Ducks a 3-2 win against the Arizona Coyotes on Friday at Honda Center .
Kase whacked at a puck that Arizona goalie Mike Smith inexplicably held on to for several seconds and Kase converted it as Anaheim got its first overtime win this season.
“My stick broke and I didn’t get anything on it and it ends up in the back of the net,” Smith said of the goal. “I tried to do too much.”
“It’s amazing,” Kase said. “Every score is good. We needed this score.”
Kase, whose English is limited in media situations, usually lets his goal celebrations tell the story. His teammates surrounded him to share the joy. It was his fourth NHL goal and, by his account, his first overtime goal.
“He’s a funny kid,” Cam Fowler said. “He’s been working really hard. I can see the progression in his game, and how far he’s come. He’s been a big player for us. He scored some big goals. I was really happy for him tonight to get that one. It’s the first overtime winner, hopefully something he can remember.”
Anaheim appeared on its way to a win after Chris Wagner’s seeing-eye goal in the second period gave it a 2-1 lead, but the Coyotes tied it 3:12 into the third period and were in position to win it despite a rash of injuries.
The Coyotes lost forwards Martin Hanzal and Jordan Martinook and defenseman Jakob Chychrun, who took an elbow from Ducks wing Nick Ritchie in the third period.
Wagner wheeled around the right circle and threw the puck on net with Smith guarding the post. Wagner’s shot hit Smith’s pad and somehow found an opening to bounce into the net.
Factor in two goal posts that Arizona hit earlier and Anaheim seemed to have luck on its side.
But for most of the game, the Ducks found themselves in a deadlock with the Coyotes, who took a minus-42 goal differential, the second worst in the NHL, into the game. Arizona has been without forwards Max Domi, a noted Ducks killer, and Brad Richardson because of long-term injuries.
The Coyotes still have a top line with speed that tied it 1-1 off a rush 79 seconds into the second period. Hanzal went to the net and had Anthony Duclair’s pass redirect off his body and into the net. The goal ended goalie John Gibson’s shutout streak at more than 114 minutes.
The Coyotes might have taken a lead shortly after on a curious play when Ducks defenseman Brandon Montour appeared to throw his stick at Tobias Rieder to stop Rieder on a partial breakaway. Replays seemed to show that Montour did not touch the puck first before the stick left his hand. Rieder looked at the official — such a play usually results in a penalty shot — but no penalty was called.
Corey Perry ’s play has seen an uptick lately and he helped the Ducks get the game’s first goal. Rickard Rakell and Josh Manson set up Perry between the circles and Perry wristed a shot that went in off Joseph Cramarossa for Cramarossa’s third career goal.