N.Y. Official: New Ebola Policy 'A Real Stunner'
A mandatory 21-day quarantine imposed by New York and New Jersey on health care workers returning from West Africa after treating Ebola patients caught local and federal officials by surprise and spurred a heated debate on handling the spread of the virus.
The policy of isolating medical personnel and others arriving from Ebola-affected countries zones was abruptly implemented Friday by the governors of New York and New Jersey, Andrew Cuomo and Chris Christie. The announcement came one day after a New York doctor who treated patients in Guinea became the first Ebola case diagnosed in the city and the fourth in the United States.
The mandate came as a surprise to the federal Centers for Disease and Control and Prevention in Atlanta, according to a federal official familiar with the situation.
"They're not happy," the official said of the CDC. "These two governors said, 'Take this, federal government.' They're very worried we won't be able to get physicians or nurses to go (to countries affected by the Ebola outbreak)."
U.S. Marine Says He'd Walked into Mexico Before His Arrest on Gun Charges
A U.S. Marine sergeant jailed in Mexico since late March for crossing the border with several guns in his car said that he had walked across the border on foot and stayed at a Tijuana hotel earlier on the day of his arrest.
Sgt. Andrew Tahmooressi, who also said he attempted suicide while being abused by his Mexican jailers, has maintained that he took a wrong turn on the California side of the border, his vehicle carrying firearms he said he legally owns but are unlawful to bring into Mexico.
"I stayed in a hotel earlier in the day," Tahmooressi said in an interview with CNN's "New Day."
"I parked my truck at a parking lot on the American side ... and I walk into Mexico with a backpack with extra clothes and hygiene supplies, passport, wallet. And I decide to go hang out in Mexico for some good Mexican food, inexpensive place to stay and to hang out."
California Chrome's Team Might Have to Choose Between Belmont, Nasal Strips
Update: Racehorse California Chrome is allowed to use a nasal strip at the Belmont Stakes, racing officials say.
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BACKGROUND:
California Chrome has worn nasal strips during victories in the first two events of thoroughbred racing's Triple Crown, but he might have to compete at the Belmont Stakes without one, if he competes at all.
Trainer Art Sherman said California Chrome, who won the Kentucky Derby and Preakness Stakes, might be held from the race if the 3-year-old horse is not allowed to wear the strips across his nose that help improve breathing.
When asked about a reported New York rule against it, Sherman said, "The horse has been on a six-race winning streak with nasal strips. I don't know why they would ban you from wearing one, but we'll have to cross that bridge when we get there, I guess."
The New York State Gaming Commission, which regulates horse racing in the state, said the decision would be up to officials at the state's racing association.
"Neither the New York State Gaming Commission nor the stewards at the New York Racing Association have received a request to use nasal strips in the June 7 Belmont Stakes," the commission said in a written statement. "If a request to use nasal strips is made, the decision on whether to permit them or not will be fully evaluated and determined by the stewards."
In 2012, I'll Have Another also won the first two legs of the Triple Crown but his owners were told the nasal strips were prohibited in New York, several media outlets reported. The horse was unable to run because of a leg injury that ended the colt's career.
Sherman said the decision would be up to co-owner Perry Martin.
"He might not run if they say you can't run with a nasal strip. He's very funny about things like that," Sherman said.
Nasal strips keep a horse's airway from becoming smaller during strenuous activity, the Flair Equine Nasal Strips website says.
"By reducing airway resistance during exercise, Flair strips help prevent fatigue related injuries, help protect the lungs from injury and bleeding and promote optimal athletic performance," the site says.
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Fort Hood Gunman Vented on Facebook About Sandy Hook Shooter, Iraq
Spc. Ivan Lopez vented about a range of subjects on Facebook before his shooting rampage at Fort Hood in Texas, including his outrage at Adam Lanza's mass school shooting in Connecticut.
He wrote of experiencing overpowering fear after an insurgent attack in Iraq and the hatred that consumed him after getting "robbed."
Lopez took his own .45-caliber handgun onto the sprawling post Wednesday and killed three people and wounded 16 more before taking his own life, according to authorities.
They are trying to piece together what in his background and psychiatric treatment could have triggered a new round of bloodshed at the same Killeen post where an officer killed 13 people in 2009.
A 34-year-old Iraq war veteran with a history of depression and anxiety, Lopez was being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder before his shooting spree. He arrived at the post in February after being transferred from Fort Bliss in El Paso.
His Facebook posts, which were obtained from a Lopez family friend, appeared under the account name of "Ivan Slipknot," a reference to a heavy metal band. A family spokesman confirmed the account belonged to Lopez.
It is unclear whether his posts might help explain his mental state or a possible motive in the shootings. Authorities have said the motive is not known.
"Given that the alleged shooter is deceased, the possibility does exist that we may never know exactly why the alleged shooter did what he did," said Chris Grey, a spokesman for the U.S. Army Criminal Investigation Command.
In early March, around the time investigators said he purchased the .45-caliber pistol used in the shootings, Lopez wrote: "My spiritual peace has just gone. Full of hate. Now I think I'll be damned. Last night I was robbed and I'm pretty sure there were 2 skinny ones. Green light and thumb down. That easy."
The details of the robbery are unknown. Killeen, Texas, police said the records department was closed Saturday.
In another Facebook post, Lopez talked about Lanza, 20, who killed his mother, Nancy, before fatally shooting 20 children, six staff members and himself at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown in December 2012.
Lanza wanted his minute of fame, Fort Hood shooter writes
Lopez wrote that Lanza "pretends to be a victim of a mental illness followed by addiction to violent video games" and that the shooter sought "international attention" and a "minute of fame as a villain."
He added, "It is stupid to me that anyone can have easy access to a powerful weapon without being mentally evaluated. This makes the government indirect accomplice... These bastards have perfected their way of attacking studying previous massacres to gain publicity and their minute of fame as a villain. But thanks to Hollywood and the sensational profiling by the media [they] give more power to those intelligent cowards."
Another post dealt with his time in Iraq: "Celebrating life. It has been exactly 1 year and 2 days since left Iraq seeing in Fallujah the most brutal explosion... I was left paralyzed and started a discussion over the radio... I was only focused on breathing deeply so that I don't lose focus and continue the mission. [Those] were hours of agony waiting for an attack by the insurgency but we were able to exit Fallujah all alive. I was in vehicle #6.The worst was that #5 was a diesel truck, the perfect target. And I was only thinking about getting back with my family."
Lopez added: "To be in the line of fire is f-– up but even more f-– is the suffering of the families."
Lt. Gen. Mark Milley, the post's commanding general, said Lopez did not experience direct combat in Iraq.
"So far, we have not discovered any specific traumatic event, wounds received in action, contact with the enemy or anything else specific that he may have been exposed to while deployed," the general said.
Grey said authorities had "credible information" that Lopez "was involved in a verbal altercation with soldiers from his unit just prior to him allegedly opening fire."
Messages left Saturday by CNN for Grey about the Facebook posts were not immediately returned.
In a statement Friday, Lopez' father, also named Ivan, asked for prayers for all those affected. He described the soldier as "a calm family man" and "a good son."
"My son could not have been in his right mind," he said. "He was not like this."
Looking for clues into GI's actions, motive
Before Wednesday's shooting, Lopez stopped at the post's personnel office to pick up a leave form, according to the sister of one of the soldiers injured in the attack.
Armetra Otis, sister of Sgt. Jonathan Westbrook, said on CNN's "The Lead" that her brother "was at work and a guy came in and asked for a leave form."
The soldier was told he would have to come back later, Otis said.
"And apparently I guess he didn't want to hear that, so he came back and just opened fire, " Otis said.
Westbrook was shot four times, but released from a hospital Friday, his sister said.
Law enforcement sources told CNN that investigators were searching for possible motives, including whether Lopez was angry over canceled leave.
If Lopez sought a leave this week, it wouldn't be his first.
Glidden Lopez Torres, a family spokesman, said Lopez' mother, Carmen, an emergency room nurse in their hometown, died of a heart attack in November. A month earlier, Lopez' grandfather had died in Guayanilla, a tight knit seaside community of 22,000 on the southern coast of Puerto Rico.
The spokesman, not related to the soldier, said Lopez attended the funeral but was disappointed that it took about five days for his 24-hour leave to be approved by the military.
In Friday's statement, the soldier's father said his son's medical treatment, the recent deaths of his mother and grandfather and changes related to a transfer of military installations "surely affected his condition."
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