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At Orsini’s workshops, he stresses the importance of maintaining situational awareness: don’t walk around wearing earbuds or staring at a phone. At offices and places of worship, it’s essential to have worked out an escape plan, and to practice it regularly. To smash open a window, he advises trainees, strike the corners, not the center. He teaches Run, Hide, Fight—the protocol that has become a dreadful necessity as mass shootings have proliferated.
In early September, 2018, Orsini taught the same protocol at Tree of Life, a synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh. The Jewish Healthcare Foundation had bought a bleeding-control kit for every synagogue in town. Tree of Life had installed a kit near the front door and was upgrading its security measures. The rabbi, Jeffrey Myers, did not like carrying his cell phone on Shabbat, for religious reasons, but Orsini urged him to reconsider.
On the morning of Saturday, October 27th, Myers began services at nine-forty-five. At five minutes to ten, an armed man entered and started shooting. Myers instructed congregants to run, then he, too, fled, as he had been trained to do. From a second-floor bathroom, he called 911. The gunfire grew louder, then softer, then louder again, giving him a rough sense of the shooter’s movement through the building. Myers’s phone call helped first responders understand what was happening inside.
When the gunman attempted to leave the synagogue, two police officers confronted him, and he shot at them; one was hit, and the other took shrapnel. The shooter then retreated into the building. For the next hour and a half, the city’s emergency airwaves squawked with the communications of police, medics, and swat operators working the scene.
The emergency-medicine physician at the scene was Keith Murray, who serves as the medical director of the city’s swat force. He leads a team called the Tactical Emergency Medical Service unit, which adheres to the “tactical combat casualty care” protocol that Frank Butler recommended in the nineties, after reviewing the Vietnam War data.
Murray and the paramedics he oversees have undergone advanced swat training, including in the use of firearms. Dressed in body armor, carrying sidearms, they move with swat operators to the “far forward” point of conflict, to provide medical care as soon as possible. Like combat medics, they risk their lives in order to save lives.
Pittsburgh’s first responders use an app that alerts them to urgent calls. When an incident occurs, they receive bulletins on their phones, and they can notify the group if they plan to respond. As the Tree of Life emergency unfolded, Murray and ninety others responded that they were on the way.
Murray, who is in his early forties, grew up in Nevada, in a military family. He attended medical school in Chicago, where he became interested in tactical medicine. In 2011, he moved to Pittsburgh to start the Tactical Emergency Medical Service unit, and he and Macky Neal became friends. Both have young children, and wives in the medical field: Neal’s wife, Donielle, runs a research project on liver cancer; Murray’s wife, Jennifer, is a surgeon. Until Neal met Murray, he’d never heard of a trauma doctor being attached to law enforcement.
Murray and his unit entered Tree of Life wearing Kevlar helmets and body armor, alongside swat operators. Murray carried a Glock in a drop holster on his left thigh. The pockets on his tactical vest held medical gear, including hemostatic dressings, chest seals, and tourniquets.
Inside the synagogue, they found a woman who had been shot in the upper right arm, and put a tourniquet on her. They cleared room after room, making their way to the third floor, where the shooter had barricaded himself in a classroom.
The other operators couldn’t access the room because the first two lay in the doorway. An officer shot rounds through the wall, but the attacker was moving. “He’d shoot and move, shoot and move,” Murray told me. swat operators splashed light on the darkened space, to get their bearings, and saw dust falling from the disintegrating ceiling, like snow.
An officer dragged the point man out of the doorway and down the stairs, to a treatment station that Murray had set up. The team cut away his clothes and saw that he had been hit in multiple locations, including the left arm and both legs. As the gunfire continued, Murray put two tourniquets on the point man’s arm and a tourniquet on each leg. The officer who made the rescue had been shot in the wrist, and a teammate tourniquetted him.
Beverly: Bobby Ring, 7, at left, and his brother Thomas, 5, jam on their cardboard guitars along with "All Together Now" guitarist Bruce Hilton during the first weekend of the Beverly Homecoming festival in Lynch Park. Photo by Mary Catherine Adams/Salem News.
, Beverly: Bobby Ring, 7, at left, and his brother Thomas, 5, jam on their cardboard guitars along with "All Together Now" guitarist Bruce Hilton during the first weekend of the Beverly Homecoming festival in Lynch Park. Photo by Mary Catherine Adams/Salem News.
EVERETT — A Snohomish County judge on Thursday ordered Western State Hospital officials to come up with a plan detailing how they are going to comply with a state law and federal mandate requiring the hospital to cut down on long wait times for mentally ill inmates languishing in county jails.
Superior Court Judge Anita Farris was told that the state doesn’t expect to be in compliance until at least June, some six months past a deadline set by a federal judge. She also was told that inmates are waiting longer for treatment than before the April ruling in U.S. District Court.
In the criminal case before Farris, the defendant is a mentally ill man who gets around using a wheelchair. He is accused of stalking his father and threatening to shoot up a school. He has been found incompetent to stand trial. He’s been waiting since November for treatment at Western. The man talked throughout Thursday’s day-long hearing, often speaking over his lawyer and witnesses. Corrections officers finally removed him after he started speaking in gibberish and yelling at the judge.
His parents, who are fearful that he’ll be released without treatment, watched from the back of the courtroom. Western has refused to admit the man, despite a court order. He isn’t expected to be hospitalized until Jan. 11. His case is one of several that the Snohomish County Superior Court bench is being forced to review under similar circumstances. Farris was told Thursday that 92 people were waiting to be admitted to Western for competency restoration services.
The longtime judge ordered hospital officials and their lawyer, a state assistant attorney general, to return Jan. 7 with a plan detailing how they are going to add more beds and provide treatment for patients who are unable to assist with their own defense.
Farris again ordered public defender Tiffany Mecca to subpoena Kevin Quigley, the secretary of the state Department of Social and Health Services. The judge was told last month that Quigley was out of the state on vacation but plans were under way to serve him a subpoena once he returned.
“The buck stops with Mr. Quigley,” Farris said.
The judge earlier this month said she would arrest state officials if they didn’t show up to explain why they continue to violate the law.
She pointed out that Quigley wrote a letter in November to staff saying that he was pausing efforts to open new competency beds because federal inspectors determined that the hospital didn’t have adequate personnel for its existing wards. Western is at risk of losing federal funding if it doesn’t improve safety and staffing.
Quigley wrote in the letter that his department should have taken more of a stand against judges who ordered the hospital to cut wait times. Pretrial defendants are waiting weeks and months in county and city jails for treatment.
Legislators passed a law in July ordering the mental hospital to admit people within 14 days. U.S. District Court Judge Marsha Pechman instituted a seven-day deadline after a lawsuit was filed on behalf of several inmates. She found that defendants’ constitutional rights were being violated. She ordered the hospital to be monitored and to make progress toward cutting wait times. She gave Western until Jan. 2.
Victoria Roberts, the deputy assistant secretary for DSHS, testified Thursday that the hospital cannot meet Saturday’s deadline. She and Western CEO Ron Adler told Farris that the national shortage of psychiatrists and unsuccessful efforts to recruit mental health nurses and other personnel has impeded the state’s efforts to increase capacity at the hospital.
There are 10 openings for psychiatrists at Western. The hospital in 2015 hired about 350 people, including nurses and security staff, but turnover is high. The judge was told that comparatively low salaries, mandatory overtime and safety concerns have led to people quitting.
The hospital is taking steps to recruit more staff. Gov. Jay Inslee recently approved salary increases and signing bonuses. The state plans to add 30 beds outside the hospital using contract workers as a short-term solution. Maple Lane, a former juvenile detention center in Centralia, is expected to come online in April. Another center is planned to open in Yakima in March.
Farris pointed out that staffing shortages at the hospital have been going on for years. In 2012 state lawmakers ordered DSHS to come up with a long-term plan to address the problems that are causing treatment delays. Legislative auditors found that the department provided inaccurate data and failed to come up with an adequate plan.
Farris said that she couldn’t hold the hospital in contempt for the “massive screw-ups in the last three years,” but she can demand that they show what steps they are taking now. If they don’t make progress on the specific steps she’s ordered them to detail, Farris said she can fine them up to $2,000 a day for each violation.
The judge Thursday also questioned why prosecutors aren’t enforcing the state law that requires the hospital to admit patients within 14 days. She signed an order requiring the state Attorney General’s Office to have someone at the next hearing to answer that question.
“The state and state agents should be putting on evidence to enforce the law passed by the state Legislature,” Farris said.
Do you agree with the AA?
The AA wants poor road surfaces to be included in the hazard perception test because of the damage they cause to vehicles.
It also called for advice on what to do when drivers encounter a pothole to be added to the Highway Code.
One in five local roads in England and Wales is in a poor condition as councils face a huge funding deficit to tackle potholes, a recent report by the Asphalt Industry Alliance warned.
Hazard perception is part of the theory driving test and involves candidates identifying something that would cause them to take action such as slow down or change direction in 14 video clips.
The pass rate of the practical driving test fell to a nine-year low of 45% after changes to make the exam more realistic were introduced in December last year.
A survey of a small sample of driving instructors found that the majority have broken down during a lesson at least once in the past 12 months because of pothole-related damage, and many have to adapt lessons to avoid certain roads where there are too many potholes.
Some learners have even had to abandon a practical driving test because their car was damaged by a pothole, the AA was told.
Damage to tyres, wheels and suspension are the most common problems.
AA president Edmund King said: "It is a sad indictment of our poor road conditions that instructors are having to adapt their lessons to avoid potholed roads.
"More troubling is the fact that lessons and tests are being abandoned because of pothole related breakdowns.
"This is damaging to learners' confidence and to instructors; whose livelihoods depend on having a fit-for-purpose road network and an undamaged car.
"The situation is so serious that the hazard perception test and Highway Code need to change to reflect the state of the roads that learner drivers have to learn on.
"There is no advice for drivers about potholes anywhere in the Highway Code yet it is one of the most common hazards they encounter."
Drivers are being urged to photograph potholes and send them to the responsible highway authority and the Department for Transport to demonstrate the scale of the issue as part of the AA's #FlagitFunditFillit campaign.
The Government said the DVSA keeps the driving test under constant review to make it as effective as possible.
It said in a statement: "We have listened to the concerns of road users and are already providing councils in England with over £6 billion to help improve the condition of our local highways.
"This funding includes a record £296 million through the Pothole Action Fund - enough to fix around six million potholes."
The Grimes climbing gym is expanding to the East Village.
Climb Iowa, the state's largest indoor climbing and training facility, plans to bring a second location to the Des Moines metro next year.
Climb Iowa East Village will open at 317 E. Court Ave., in the same lot as Peace Tree Brewing Co., in January 2019. The new location will focus only on bouldering — a type of climbing that doesn't require ropes, harnesses or belaying.
"You basically put on climbing shoes and you're on the wall in just a few minutes," said Aaron Stevens, co-owner and general manager of Climb Iowa.
The new facility will not have a 37-foot climbing wall like the original Climb Iowa in Grimes. The bouldering walls are 14 feet high and will fit into the existing footprint of the 6,000-square-foot steel building.
Half of the space — 3,000 square feet — will be dedicated to bouldering, which is about 50 percent larger than what's currently offered in Grimes, Stevens said. The rest will have Rogue Fitness equipment, the strength and training equipment typically used in CrossFit gyms.
Climb Iowa opened its Grimes location, 3605 S.E. Miehe Drive, in 2008. Interest in the sport of climbing has grown over the decade the gym has been in the Des Moines metro, Stevens said.
Climb Iowa has members ranging from 3-years-old to 74-years-old. But Stevens pictures the East Village location catering more to ages 21 to 35. He described bouldering as a social sport, and anticipates friends working out together before grabbing a drink or a bite to eat in the neighborhood.
Interest in the sport of climbing nationwide has skyrocketed. According to Climbing Business Journal, 43 commercial climbing gyms opened last year — nearly double the number of gyms that opened in 2016. That set the record for the most facilities to open in one year.
The publication attributes interest in climbing to the 2016 announcement by the International Olympic Committee that climbing will be added to the 2020 Olympic Games. The Olympic climbing event will include sport, bouldering and speed.
Even after living through decades in the entertainment industry and enough real-life twists to fill several biographies beyond her own, Jane Fonda has still found herself surprised by the force of the #MeToo reckoning that has rocked Hollywood to its core.
“I never thought I would live to see this happen,” Fonda marveled at an event in New York City for “Jane Fonda in Five Acts,” the HBO documentary detailing her storied life that premieres Sept. 24 on HBO. But in order for the movement to affect real change, she maintained, it has to include survivors of abuse outside Hollywood, center intersectionality, and prioritize pay equity in order to empower women from the start.
“‘Oh, poor top-paid executives who can’t get his job back,'” Fonda added, voice thick with sarcasm. “F— it! Sweep the floor at Starbucks until you learn! If you can’t learn, you don’t belong in the boardroom. And there are plenty of women who do belong in the boardroom,” she added to applause from the room, including Fonda’s friend and feminist activist Gloria Steinem.
The objective of the General Legal Division (GLD) is to protect the legal interests of the Organization. To that end, GLD provides a wide spectrum of advice, services and assistance on legal matters affecting the operation and activities of the Organization. GLD provides such advice and assistance to the principal and subsidiary organs of the Organization, the Secretary-General, Secretariat units, offices located away from Headquarters, including United Nations (UN) Information Centers, the UN Economic Commissions and peacekeeping missions, as well as the separately administered Funds and Programmes and other subsidiary organs established by the General Assembly. Refer to ST/SGB/2008/13.
Participating in and providing advice to standing or ad hoc Secretariat and other bodies, such as, for example, the Headquarters Committee on Contracts, the Staff Management Committee, the Advisory Board on Compensation Claims, the Property Survey Board, the Board of the United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund, and the Claims Board.
Dobby the house elf heroically saves his friends from Bellatrix Lestrange in the Malfoy mansion, but at a great cost.
SPOILER ALERT: Don't read any further if you want no knowledge of the plot of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1" or "Breaking Dawn" from the Twilight series.
(CNN) -- Fans of Harry Potter have a lot to talk about this morning.
After months of updates to trailers, a stream of released stills and interviews with Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Daniel Radcliffe, fans across the country have finally seen the beginning of the end.
As they shake off the effects of a late night at the theater, the euphoria of the line parties subsides and the inevitable struggle settles in: Did "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1" do justice to J.K. Rowling's final installation of the series?
"I hope they do a good job on Dobby's death scene," said Traci Dammann, 34, before the midnight showing in Atlanta, Georgia, on Thursday. "It really moved me in the book."
Dammann, founder of a Harry Potter fan group in Atlanta, was also worried about how the film would portray Hermione's torture scene at Malfoy mansion.
"I just want it to be done how I imagined it, and correctly," she said. "It was gut-wrenching when I read it, and I want it to be gut-wrenching on the screen."
Fans of the seven-book series chronicling a young wizard's coming-of-age in a fantastic and dangerous, magical world have a lot of emotion invested in the franchise.
In many cases, they grew up reading the books, and for the past 10 years they've watched the actors portraying Harry Potter and his friends grow up themselves in seven big screen adaptations from Warner Brothers.
Warner Brothers, like CNN, is owned by Time Warner.
But also, for the last decade, Harry Potter fans have been disappointed by what plot points were left out of the movies and the inexplicable additions or director choices made when bringing the books to cinematic life.
"I think most people are pretty happy with the way [the movies] turned out, but all fans that I have talked to have problems with the movies," Dammann said.
"Harry's eyes in the movie are blue and ... in the books they're green," she said. "This is a huge thing to a lot of the fans because they're just so invested."
Spoiler alert: "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 1" has an already well-publicized additional scene, featuring Harry Potter and Hermione Granger slow-dancing -- a nod to fans who have long wondered if the two should be more than friends.
The answer, decidedly played in the film, is "no."
Other plot points fans are concerned about being translated "correctly" include the emotional death scenes of Mad-Eye Moody and Hedwig, Harry Potter's beloved owl, as well as the professor Snape backstory.
"When you get to 'The Deathly Hallows,' you've really kind of shot yourself in the foot if you don't have enough of that, because it's a major plot [development]," said Cleolinda Jones, a blogger and author of "Movies in Fifteen Minutes."
Harry Potter fans are not alone in their angst. Other fantasy book series have become popular movie series, including "Lord of the Rings," "Twilight," and "The Chronicles of Narnia." Fans of those movies and books wrestle with the same kinds of frustrations.
"When 'The Fellowship' came out, some fans were horrified by the changes," said Pat Dawson, a senior staff member of TheOneRing.net, a J.R.R. Tolkein fan forum.
"One of the things they did with 'Lord of the Rings,' and I've heard they do this with 'Harry Potter,' too: [Filmmakers] think that there needs to be humor that wasn't there in the book," Dawson said.
"They also will emphasize romance that maybe wasn't there in the book," like with Arwen and Aragorn, she said. "Tolkein pretty much left that out of the book completely."
"But as the next two movies came out, there were even more changes, so people [ended up] looking back fondly on 'The Fellowship' as one of their favorites of the three movies because it was so true to the book," Dawson said.
She said the Harry Potter movie franchise started to fall short of fan expectations with the third movie, "The Prisoner of Azkaban."
iReport: Your reviews of "Potter"
Because of a new director and such prolific source material, she felt it was not only difficult in this case to be as true to the book, but "it was untrue to the book in a lot of ways that fans were horrified by."
Adding to the fan frustration is the fact that the Harry Potter movies are almost over. The latest Harry Potter movie represents half of J.K. Rowling's 759-page series finale. The last movie adaptation -- "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2" -- will be in theaters next summer.
Knowing that the magical world they've enjoyed for well over a decade will be taking a bow from the big screen can be stressful and sad for fans.
"Twilight" fans are at a turning point in that franchise's movie arc, too, Jones said.
"They have a very specific kind of anxiety," Jones said. That's because there's a key scene in "Breaking Dawn," the fourth novel in Stephenie Meyer's series, that fans hope will not be taken the wrong way by mainstream audiences.
The complicated scene involves the character Jacob -- the werewolf -- falling in love with Bella and Edward's halfling vampire baby. Jones says the leaked scripts seem to indicate the scene is true to the book.
So, what can fans do when their favorite fantasy franchise movies conclude?
"Look forward to all the extras on the extended editions," said Dawson, who has experienced a similar grieving process with the "Lord of the Rings" movies.
"Just really enjoy the last couple of movies. Just sit there and really get into them and enjoy the fandom and everything that comes from that."
Even with tribulations over plot changes and character portrayals, most fans of these fantasy franchises still feel compelled to see the movies and share in the excitement over any new release.

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