Schools across the area in Colorado near Arapahoe High School were put on lockdown following a shooting on Friday.

The shooting left two students injured. The gunman killed himself, the Arapahoe County Sheriff said.

Schools in Littleton, Elizabeth, and Aurora …

The post Schools in Littleton, Elizabeth, Aurora Put on Lockdown after Arapahoe Shooting appeared first on The Epoch Times. Reported by Epoch Times 2 days ago.

As word spread of the latest school shooting in America—as the cable networks began their inexorable shift away from the frivolity of a Friday with little going on, and made their well-rehearsed turns towards covering the newest tragedy; and the anchors talked about how many such shootings they'd covered before; and Twitter let loose with its all-too-familiar mixture of real time information and misinformation; and people waited for the inevitable reports of injuries or deaths; and the awful statistics started being discussed ( over 33,000 gun deaths since Newtown, at least 24 school shootings since Newtown); as people took in the fact that the site of the shooting was minutes away from the site of the Columbine and Aurora shootings—CNN's Tom Foreman came on the air and said something that seemed to sum up the awful feeling of ordinariness that has attached itself to shootings:
"I would argue that there may be no community in this country better prepared to handle all of this than Denver and its suburbs, simply because they went through it and there is an institutional knowledge there among the police officers, among school officials, among the state officers—they do know how to handle this and they have an idea of how to deal with it...they have been ground zero for this for a long time."
This, it would seem, is where things are in a country beset by these kinds of events over and over: something that should be a horrible aberration is instead common enough for everybody—the media, the government, the police—to slip back into a mode they know all too well. Reported by Huffington Post 2 days ago.

With the anniversary of the Sandy Hook Elementary murders arriving tomorrow, more terrible news hit today with another school shooting, this time at a high school in Centennial, Colorado. Early reports indicate that a shooter injured two students before shooting and killing himself.

One sordid ritual that's become commonplace, even as events are still unfolding, has been the media's exploitation of these tragedies to push for tighter gun control laws. That will be more difficult for the media this time. In July, Colorado enacted much of the media's gun control wish list.

In reaction to both Sandy Hook and a mass-shooting at a movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, the year prior, the Democrat-led state legislature in Colorado passed laws requiring universal background checks and limiting the size of ammunition magazines to 15 rounds. Democrat Governor John Hickenlooper signed the bills into law, and both were enacted 6 months ago.

After Sandy Hook, Democrats and the elite media spent months on a deeply cynical  and partisan crusade to pass Manchin-Toomey, a law that would have required background checks on all commercial sales but did not address the size of ammunition magazines.

Another way to put it is that the gun control laws passed into law in Colorado are even stricter than the law the media and Democrats worked so hard to, but ultimately failed to see passed.

In the immediate aftermath of Sandy Hook, the media and White House had hoped to see bans on what they falsely describe as "assault weapons." To prove the Administration wasn't anti-gun, but only interested in banning the "assault weapons" they blamed for these mass-shootings, Vice President Joe Biden suggested that Americans "get a double-barrel shotgun."

According to early reports, today's school shooter used a shotgun.

 

Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC               

 
 
 
  Reported by Breitbart 2 days ago.

Tomorrow we recall a change in America's attitudes about guns that would ultimately be undone by 8,000 Fox News segments on the knockout game. A new report confirms that America's prisons are in disarray, probably because big government is impeding the free exchange of cigarettes. And Chris Christie is denying involvement in a disastrous bridge closure, meaning the news cycle can only get more bridge-and-tunnel-y if Tim Bishop is implicated in some kind of Hampton Jitney drug cartel. This is HUFFPOST HILL for Friday, December 13th, 2013:

*REPUBLICANS: JUST NOT THAT INTO UI* - With Sam Stein: The House of Representatives has left town for Christmas vacation, making it all but certain that unemployed workers will lose their federal benefits on Dec. 28, as they are currently scheduled to do. But if you think that 1.3 million longterm jobless Americans taking a financial hit would be a hot topic for the lawmakers still in town, you'd be wrong. Senate Democrats have conceded they'll miss the deadline to extend the benefits and have begun hatching plans to renew them retroactively in the new year. Senate Republicans, meanwhile, don't seem to have given much thought to the matter at all. On Friday, The Huffington Post asked a number of Republican senators whether there have been discussions within their caucus about the expiring unemployment insurance. "None," said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.). "*There has been no discussion. It has never come up*.""I haven't heard any discussions yet," said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.). "It is not in the budget so I don't expect that it is going to come up," said Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). "I think we need to look at it. I'd like some more information," said Sen. John Boozman (R-Ark.). "But there really hasn't been any discussion." [HuffPost]

Meanwhile, Democrats' plan is to do something in January something something...

*CAP REVEALS CORPORATE SPONSORS* - Like a race car. Ryan Grim: "The Center for American Progress has for years faced a tension between its call for campaign finance transparency and its unwillingness to disclose its own donors. CAP, a liberal nonprofit with an advocacy arm, has company in Washington when it comes to opaque funding -- a phenomenon that gained attention last week when Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) demanded that banks disclose financial contributions to Washington think tanks that often act effectively as lobbyists without being required to register as such. Warren's shot was aimed at the group Third Way, but it could apply to groups across the spectrum. CAP has come under particular scrutiny because of its progressive politics and connections to the Obama administration…. *A CAP official provided HuffPost with a list of its 2013 corporate donors, which include Walmart, Bank of America, Citigroup, defense contractor Northrop Grumman, as well as insurance, pharmaceutical, auto and tech companies*." [HuffPost]

*FARM BILL HAS MO'* - David Rogers: "Farm bill talks moved into the final stretch Friday with House Agriculture Committee Chairman Frank Lucas saying 'we’re moving right down the path' toward a House-Senate conference report in January. '*Very optimistic, we’re closing in,' echoed Senate Agriculture Committee Chairwoman Debbie Stabenow* (D-Mich.) after an early morning session with Lucas. 'There’s no question in my mind that we’ll be able to come together and have a farm bill that we can take action on in January.'" Super bowl. [Politico]

*REID ENDS CONFIRMATION-PALOOZA, SETS UPCOMING SCHEDULE* - If you or someone you know wasn't confirmed by the Senate in the last two days, you're clearly need more friends. Roll Call: "The Senate’s leaders have reached an agreement that will bring to an end days of round-the-clock sessions following a series of noon votes. 'This schedule’s been extremely difficult for everyone,' Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said in announcing the deal, which essentially allows votes that would have taken place late Friday and Saturday to instead occur at the usual hour of 5:30 p.m. on Monday. Reid said he spoke with his counterpart, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, to come up with the path forward. *'On Tuesday, we’ll begin consideration of the budget. On Wednesday, the defense bill. After that, we’ll address further nominations … the most important one is Janet Yellen to be on the Federal Reserve,' Reid said*...The Senate’s next session will be at 1 p.m. Sunday, but it should be a sparsely attended because Reid has announced there will be no votes..The chamber’s been in session continuously since 2 p.m. Wednesday, burning time off and working through a series of contested nominations to executive and judicial posts. By the time the chamber gavels out on Friday, following the noon vote sequence, it could reach 48 hours of continuous session." [Roll Call]

*ONE YEAR AFTER HORRIFIC SCHOOL SHOOTING, AMERICA RESPONDS BY MAKING THINGS WORSE* - From the same part of our brains that acknowledged the obesity epidemic but still released the Double Down comes its even more illogical response to gun violence. Jen Bendery: "It's been a year since the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre that left 20 first-graders and six staff dead, which means it's been a year of congressional inaction in response to one of the most horrific mass shootings in U.S. history. The political arguments for and against new laws have been rehashed for months. Republicans, by and large, throw up a wall to any new gun control measures, warning they would infringe on a person's constitutional right to bear arms. Democrats, meanwhile, plead for action on items like tighter background checks on gun sales. Gridlock transpires, momentum is lost, lawmakers move on. But what about on a more personal level? Does the constant wave of mass violence -- the Aurora, Colo. theater shootings; the Washington, D.C. Navy Yard shootings; the Tucson, Ariz. shootings that nearly took the life of former Rep. Gabby Giffords; and, obviously, the Sandy Hook shootings in Newtown, Conn. -- affect mindsets, even if it doesn't change politics? The Huffington Post talked to a random sampling of 16 lawmakers, in both parties and both chambers, to see if they view gun violence through a different lens since the nation was shaken by the Sandy Hook shootings. In each case, we asked them the same question: It's been a year since Newtown. How has your view of gun violence in America changed since then? It turns out that most politicians' views haven’t changed at all. If anything, Sandy Hook and its fallout only hardened pre-existing beliefs." [HuffPost]

Also there was a school shooting today.

*DAILY DELANEY DOWNER* - Last week Laureen Crane of McKees Rocks, Pa., received a letter from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry informing her that her federal unemployment benefits would end on Dec. 28. She called the department to ask why and they explained that the program was ending because Congress had not reauthorized it. *They told her to "keep watching the news."* Crane, 63, fears she'll be forced into premature retirement. She lost her accounting job for an airplane parts manufacturer in May and hasn't had any work since, aside from seven weeks with a temp agency. "All I'm doing right now is praying to God to see me through all this," she said. "If I can't get back to work I can't pay taxes. And that's not helping this country." [HuffPost]

Does somebody keep forwarding you this newsletter? Get your own copy. It's free! Sign up here. Send tips/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to huffposthill@huffingtonpost.com. Follow us on Twitter - @HuffPostHill

*BRIDGE AND TUNNEL GOVERNOR ACCUSED OF IMPROPER BRIDGE MANAGEMENT* - Amanda Terkel: "*New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) sought to quell mounting questions over whether his administration used the busiest U.S. bridge in a political retribution scheme, holding a lengthy press conference Friday where he gave his first extended remarks on the issue since the controversy erupted.* Christie essentially admitted that some of his top appointees at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey screwed up, but he insisted there was no political motivation behind what they did, and said he had not known what was happening. 'I'm responsible for everything that happens in this government. ... I didn't know anything about it, but I'm responsible,'... The problems began on the morning of Sept. 9, when New Jersey drivers attempting to cross the George Washington Bridge by one of the three access lanes in Fort Lee, N.J., found two of the lanes closed... The closures were ordered by David Wildstein, a high-ranking Port Authority official and Christie ally, without the knowledge of the Port Authority Executive Director Patrick Foye, who was appointed by the governor of New York. Wildstein's boss, Christie appointee and former New Jersey state Sen. Bill Baroni, defended the closure, saying it was necessary for a traffic study. Foye said he was never informed of the study, and he ordered the lanes reopened on Sept. 13 when he found out what had happened. Just weeks before the closures, Fort Lee's Democratic mayor, Mark Sokolich, refused to endorse Christie's reelection bid. On Sept. 12, Sokolich said he believed Wildstein's actions were 'punitive,' although he later backed off that accusation." [HuffPost]

*TIMES WITHHELD MISSING AMERICAN'S CIA TIES FOR SIX YEARS* - Michael Calderone: "The New York Times revealed Friday that it withheld reporting on missing American Robert Levinson’s ties to the CIA for six years, one day after The Associated Press acknowledged withholding that detail for three years. ABC News also said Friday that the network had known of Levinson’s CIA ties “for years.” ABC News said that Levinson's family and U.S. officials had urged the network not to disclose the information for fear that his life could be put in increased danger. Levinson, a retired FBI agent, disappeared off the coast of Iran in March 2007. The U.S. government had maintained since then that Levinson was working as a private investigator looking into cigarette smuggling at the time of his disappearance. But as the AP revealed Thursday, that "was just a cover story." In a deeply reported piece that could be turned into a plot on "Homeland," the AP described how Levinson was secretly paid to do intelligence gathering for the agency, an "extraordinary breach of the most basic CIA rules." Behind closed doors, several officials working with Levinson resigned or were reprimanded over the rogue mission. The Huffington Post learned Friday morning that the Times had also been aware that Levinson was working for the CIA and declined to report it. The paper published a piece by Barry Meier later on Friday, 'A Disappearing American Spy, and a Scandal at the C.I.A.'" [HuffPost]

*RUBIO RESPONDS TO LYING ACCUSATION BY CLAIMING ADVANCE KNOWLEDGE , POSSIBLY TELEPATHY* - What can't he do? Luke Johnson: "*Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) rejected the criticism that he came out against the bipartisan Ryan-Murray budget agreement before reading it*, saying Friday on CBS' 'This Morning' that he knew the 'details' of the plan before it came out. 'I knew full well all the details of the important parts that were in it. In fact, they had been leaked days in advance, they had been leaked hours in advance,' he said Friday. 'There was an understanding in this building, including from among our conferees about what it included, and it had fundamental things we were well-aware of.' He went on, 'For example, that it broke the budget caps that Congress had imposed on itself just two years ago and actually will increase the amount of money we have to borrow. It had elements in there, for example, that will make it easier for Democrats to come back to Congress and raise taxes by waiving something called the budget point of order, which is a technical term internally but basically it means they can come back with 51 votes in the Senate and raise taxes. Those two reasons alone are reasons to oppose this.' Within minutes of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wa.) announcing a budget deal that would gradually raise spending levels, Rubio released a statement charging that the deal makes it 'harder for more Americans to achieve the American Dream.' The deal also reduces the deficit by $20-$23 billion by hiking airline fees and requiring federal employees to kick in more to their pensions." [HuffPost]

*OUR PRISONS ARE AWFUL: REPORT* - Not everyone can land laundry duty. Ryan Reilly: "*The ballooning cost of the overcrowded federal prison system is an 'increasingly critical threat' to the Justice Department’s ability to fulfill its mission, the department's inspector general said in a report* released Friday, which outlined the dual crisis the system faces. "First, the costs of the federal prison system continue to escalate, consuming an ever-larger share of the Department’s budget with no relief in sight," said Michael Horowitz, the DOJ inspector general. "In the current era of flat or declining budgets, the continued growth of the prison system budget poses a threat to the Department’s other critical programs – including those designed to protect national security, enforce criminal laws, and defend civil rights. Second, federal prisons are facing a number of important safety and security issues, including, most significantly, that they have been overcrowded for years and the problem is only getting worse," he continued. "Since 2006, Department officials have acknowledged the threat overcrowding poses to the safety and security of its prisons, yet the Department has not put in place a plan that can reasonably be expected to alleviate the problem.' Horowitz said that addressing the problems will require the efforts of the entire Justice Department, not just the Bureau of Prisons." [HuffPost]

*MARYLAND GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE WOULD BE FIRST OPENLY GAY GOVERNOR* - Sorry, Jim McGreevey. Laura Bassett: "EMILY's List, an increasingly powerful group that helps get progressive women elected to office, will announce on Friday that it is supporting Heather Mizeur in the race for Maryland governor. If elected, Mizeur would be the first female governor of Maryland and the first openly gay governor in U.S. history...*Mizeur has represented Montgomery County in the Maryland House of Delegates since 2006*. She faces two better-known male opponents in next year's Democratic primary: Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown and Attorney General Douglas Gansler. The current governor, Martin O'Malley (D), cannot run again due to term limits. Mizeur, who is viewed as the most progressive of the three candidates, has been a champion for health care reform during her time in the Maryland legislature. She led successful efforts to allow young adults to stay on their family’s insurance plans until they turn 25 and to help minors enroll in public health coverage. She also fought to increase low-income women’s access to Medicaid family planning services. President Barack Obama appointed her in 2009 to the Executive Committee of the Democratic National Committee and the State Legislators for Health Reform Task Force." [HuffPost]

*BECAUSE YOU'VE READ THIS FAR* - Here is an adorable duckling.

*TERROR PLOT FOILED IN KANSAS* - Gulp. AP: "An avionics technician from Kansas was arrested Friday as he planned to drive a vehicle full of explosives into a terminal at Wichita's Mid-Continent Regional Airport, authorities said. Terry Lee Loewen, 58, was charged with one count each of attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction, attempting to damage property and attempting to provide support to terrorist group al-Qaida. Authorities said he was trying to support "al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula." The materials inside the vehicle were "inert" and "at no time was the safety of travelers or members of the public placed in jeopardy," U.S. Attorney Barry Grissom said. Investigators said Loewen is an avionics technician who lives in Wichita and works at the airport. He had been under investigation for about six months, after he made online statements about wanting to commit "violent jihad" against the U.S. The statements were made in a conversation with an FBI employee unbeknownst to Loewen, Grissom said. Authorities said they believe Loewen acted alone. No other arrests are expected." [AP]

*COMFORT FOOD*

- A sign language interpreter deciphers the undulations of that guy from Nelson Mandela's memorial. [http://bit.ly/1dxEtUo]

- Bobcat just wants to be affectionate. [http://bit.ly/1bC9Nyo]

- A video on how the stop-motion AT-AT scene from "Empire Strikes Back" was filmed. [http://bit.ly/1hRDWSG]

- The trailer to the second season of "House of Cards" is online. [http://bit.ly/1dbI8XE]

- Ten Germans try to pronounce "squirrel." [http://bit.ly/1csdiIw]

- Pets who are really into the holidays. [http://huff.to/1j3PMdP]

- The year in movies summed up in seven minutes. [http://bit.ly/Jj0RrM]

*TWITTERAMA*

@KagroX: Remember, whatever you're thinking, it's too soon.

@lizzeohreally: good listener email: "what is Santa's CANADIAN POSTE CODE?"

@stefanjbecket: World's Least Ambitious Terrorist Plotted to Bomb Kansas Airport

*Got something to add? Send tips/quotes/stories/photos/events/fundraisers/job movement/juicy miscellanea to Eliot Nelson (eliot@huffingtonpost.com), Ryan Grim (ryan@huffingtonpost.com) or Arthur Delaney (arthur@huffingtonpost.com). Follow us on Twitter @HuffPostHill (twitter.com/HuffPostHill). Sign up here: http://huff.to/an2k2e* Reported by Huffington Post 2 days ago.

Denver, Colo., Dec 13, 2013 / 05:19 pm (CNA).- The archbishop of Denver has voiced deep sadness and promised prayers for the victims of a shooting at a Colorado high school on the afternoon of Dec. 13.

“Today, we offer our prayers and profound sympathy for all those involved in the shooting at Arapahoe High School,” said Archbishop Samuel J. Aquila in a statement.

“I am saddened by this tragedy, which has been repeated too often in recent memory,” he said. “My heart goes out to the victims and their families, and my prayers, as well as those of the faithful in the Archdiocese of Denver, are with them.”

According to police reports, a gunman walked into Arapahoe High School – located in the southern Denver suburb of Centennial – and tried unsuccessfully to confront a specific teacher, who learned of the situation and left the building. The gunman reportedly injured three people before apparently killing himself.

One victim was reported to be in serious condition, while the two others were listed as being in good condition.

Some students fled the school during the shooting, while others stayed in locked-down classrooms.

“I was scared and shaking,” one student told the Denver Post.

Police slowly cleared the school, searching students as they were allowed to leave. Many distressed parents rushed to the school in an effort to find their children.

Arapahoe High School has approximately 2,100 students. It about is eight miles from Columbine High School, the scene of a deadly shooting in 1999 that left 15 dead, including two gunmen. Colorado was also the scene of the July 2012 shootings at a movie theater in the east suburb of Aurora, which killed 12 and wounded dozens more.

The Dec. 13 shooting took place just a day before the one-year anniversary of the devastating shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newton, Conn., in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adult staff members, as well as his mother and himself.

As news of the Arapahoe High School shooting broke, many other schools in the Denver area, including Catholic schools, went into secure lockdown. No other incidents have been reported.

Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper called the shooting “an unspeakable horror” and “something no child, no family should have to endure.”

Archbishop Aquila voiced gratitude that “first responders, school teachers and administrators were able to react with effective lockdown procedures.”

“Unfortunately for all of us, however, we are once again confronted with the effects of a culture that has little respect for life and is desperately in need of the healing that only God can give.”

“As we prepare our hearts for the birth of Christ, let us keep our youth in our prayers,” he said. “In these last weeks of Advent, let us pray that as a culture we find the path to peace, which begins with accepting God’s mercy and forgiveness.” Reported by CNA 2 days ago.

A year ago, after the midnight theater shootings in Aurora, the message to parents was to tell children, "It's tragic, it's horrible, but it's isolated. Reported by Denver Post 1 day ago.

Parts of Aurora Avenue North and eastbound Mercer Street will be closed to traffic from 3 a.m. Saturday until 5 a.m. Monday. Aurora Avenue North will be closed between Valley Street and the south end of the Battery Street Tunnel. Here’s a map of closures and suggested detour routes. Merce Reported by Seattle Times 1 day ago.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — A teenager who may have had a grudge against a teacher opened fire Friday with a shotgun at a suburban Denver high school, wounding a fellow student before killing himself.

Quick-thinking students at Arapahoe High School alerted the targeted teacher, who quickly left the building. The scene unfolded on the eve of the Newtown massacre anniversary, a somber reminder of the ever-present potential for violence in the nation's schools. The wounded student, a 15-year-old girl, underwent surgery and was in critical condition. Authorities originally said a second student was wounded, but Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson said Friday night that the other girl taken to a hospital was covered in blood from the first student and wasn't injured.

Robinson identified the shooter as Karl Halverson Pierson, 18. The sheriff did not elaborate on any possible motive except to say Pierson had a "confrontation or disagreement" with the teacher. He didn't know if the injured girl was intentionally shot.

Pierson made no attempt to hide his weapon after entering the school from a parking lot and asking for the teacher by name, Robinson said.

When the teacher learned that he was being targeted, he left "in an effort to try to encourage the shooter to also leave the school," the sheriff said. "That was a very wise tactical decision."

Jessica Girard said she was in math class when she heard three shots.

"Then there was a bunch of yelling, and then I think one of the people who had been shot was yelling in the hallway, 'Make it stop,'" she said.

Two suspected Molotov cocktails were also found inside the school, the sheriff said. Robinson said one was lit and thrown, but no one was injured.

The school was swiftly locked down. Within 20 minutes of the first report of a gunman, officers found Pierson's body inside the school, Robinson said.

Several other Denver-area school districts went into lockdown as reports of the shooting spread. Police as far away as Fort Collins, about a two-hour drive north, stepped up school security.

Arapahoe High students were seen walking toward the school's running track with their hands in the air, and television footage showed students being patted down. Robinson said deputies wanted to make sure there were no other conspirators. Authorities later concluded that Pierson had acted alone.

Nearby neighborhoods were jammed with cars as parents sought out their children. Some parents stood in long lines at a church. One young girl who was barefoot embraced her parents, and the family began to cry.

The shooting came a day before the anniversary of the Newtown, Conn., attack in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Arapahoe High stands just 8 miles east of Columbine High School in Littleton, where two teenage shooters killed 12 classmates and a teacher before killing themselves in 1999. The practice of sending law enforcement directly into an active shooting, as was done Friday, was a tactic that developed in response to the Columbine shooting.

Since Columbine, Colorado has endured other mass shootings, including the killing of 12 people in a movie theater in nearby Aurora in 2012. But it was not until after the Newtown massacre that state lawmakers moved to enact stricter gun control laws. Two Democratic lawmakers were recalled from office earlier this year for backing the laws, and a third recently resigned to avoid a recall election.

The district attorney prosecuting the theater shooting, George Brauchler, lives near Arapahoe High. At a news conference, he urged anyone who needed help to call a counseling service and gave out a phone number.

Tracy Monroe, who had step-siblings who attended Columbine, was standing outside Arapahoe High on Friday looking at her phone, reading text messages from her 15-year-old daughter inside.

Monroe said she got the first text from her daughter, sophomore Jade Stanton, at 12:41 p.m. The text read, "There's sirens. It's real. I love you."

A few minutes later, Jade texted "shots were fired in our school." Monroe rushed to the school and was relieved when Jade texted that a police officer entered her classroom and she was safe.

Monroe's brother knew a teacher killed in the Columbine shooting, Dave Sanders.

"We didn't think it could happen in Colorado then, either," Monroe said.

After hearing three shots, freshman Colton Powers said everyone "ran to the corner of the room and turned off the lights and locked the door and just waited, hoped for the best. A lot of people I couldn't see, but they were crying. I was scared. I didn't know what to do."

His mother, Shelly Powers, said she first got word of the shooting in the middle of a conference call at work.

"I dropped all my devices, got my keys and got in my car," she said. "I was crying all the way here."

More than 2,100 students attend Arapahoe High, where nine out of 10 graduates go on to college, according to the Littleton Public Schools website.

___

Associated Press writer P. Solomon Banda contributed to this report. Reported by Huffington Post 1 day ago.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) ? A Colorado high school student with an apparent grudge against a teacher wounded a classmate with a shotgun before killing himself, chilling a state that's still trying to make sense of mass shootings at Columbine High School and an Aurora movie theater. Reported by WTNH.com 1 day ago.

- A Colorado high school student with an apparent grudge against a teacher wounded a classmate with a shotgun before killing himself, chilling a state that's still trying to make sense of mass shootings at Columbine High School and an Aurora movie theater. Reported by WTOP 1 day ago.

Ten best personal computer manufacturers declared by reviewauthority.com for the month of December 2013

(PRWEB) December 14, 2013

reviewauthority.com has awarded the 10 top desktop computer consultants supplying solutions in the consumer products and services industry for the month of December 2013. Businesses scouring for sufficient desktop computer solutions turn to the rankings supplied online in order to discover desktop computer consultants which have been judged by an independent third party. The rankings are revisited monthly to account for the latest achievements of top contending consumer products and services consultants and to highlight the top producers of sufficient solutions.

The 10 top desktop computer companies for December 2013 are:

1. Alienware Aurora-R3

2. Apple Imac 27-Inch

3. HP Pavilion Elite HPE-270F

4. Gateway FX6860-UR20P

5. Lenovo K330B 77472BU

6. Dell STUDIO XPS 8300

7. Dell Vostro 460 Mini

8. Lenovo Ideacentre H405 77231AU

9. Acer Veriton X4618G

10. HP Pavilion Slimline s5-1120

The principal purpose of reviewauthority.com is to identify the most renowned personal computer consultants the consumer products and services industry has to offer. The listings offer clients of personal computer solutions with a listing of consultants which provide the best solutions based on the opinion of the independent authority, an independent third party, which maintains years of experience and information. The listings are updated monthly based on the veracious evaluation process, client referrals, and industry research and analysis.

ABOUT reviewauthority.com

reviewauthority.com is a well-known independent authority on consumer products and services. The first goal of reviewauthority.com is to establish and declare those individuals or manufacturers providing the top consumer products and services solutions all over the world. A specialized team of researchers examine thousands of applicants each month who are seeking to be ranked as a top consumer products and services product or service by the independent authority.

To view the ratings of the best desktop computer consultants visit:

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Desktop computer manufacturers interested in being evaluated and revealed can visit:

http://reviewauthority.news-prs.com/us/apply-for-rankings Reported by PRWeb 1 day ago.

CENTENNIAL, Colo. (AP) — A Colorado high school student with an apparent grudge against a teacher wounded a classmate with a shotgun before killing himself, chilling a state that's still trying to make sense of mass shootings at Columbine High School and an Aurora movie theater.

Quick-thinking students at Arapahoe High School on Friday alerted the targeted teacher, who quickly left the building. Police immediately locked down the scene on the eve of the Newtown massacre anniversary — a somber reminder of how commonplace school violence has become. Within minutes, the 18-year-old shooter was dead, apparently of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Arapahoe County Sheriff Grayson Robinson identified the gunman as Karl Halverson Pierson, a senior who participated in debate activities. Robinson said Pierson had had an altercation with the teacher, but the sheriff did not provide details or elaborate on a motive.

The wounded classmate, a 15-year-old girl, was in critical condition with a gunshot wound, Robinson said. Two other students were treated for minor injuries and released.

Authorities evacuated hundreds of students in an orderly procession — a demonstration of aggressive security measures developed by police and schools following the chaotic 1999 shooting at Columbine, some 8 miles west of Arapahoe High.

After that tragedy, police across the country developed "active shooter" training in which responding officers rush toward gunfire — and step over bodies and bleeding victims if necessary — to stop the gunman.

"The first deputy sheriffs and police officers that were on scene immediately entered the school to engage the shooter if they could locate that individual and keep the other students safe," Robinson said.

"This kid, the officers went right to him literally within minutes," said Gov. John Hickenlooper. "That is a world of change from the way response used to happen."

Before Columbine, officials followed a contain-and-wait strategy in which arriving officers set up a perimeter to contain the situation, then wait for SWAT team members trained in military tactics to bring down the gunman.

Robinson said Pierson made no attempt to hide his weapon while entering the school from a parking lot and asking for the teacher by name.

When the teacher learned that he was being targeted, he left "in an effort to try to encourage the shooter to also leave the school," Robinson said. "That was a very wise tactical decision."

Students heard shots and cowered in classrooms while awaiting word on what had happened.

Senior Megan Jeffords, 18, was singing Christmas carols in the hall with her choir class when the shots rang out. A teacher rushed the 18 singers into a closet, where they huddled for more than half an hour.

Hours later, after Jeffords was reunited with her father, she was still visibly shaken and unable to talk much about what happened.

Jessica Girard was in math class when she said she heard three shots.

"Then there was a bunch of yelling, and then I think one of the people who had been shot was yelling in the hallway, 'Make it stop,'" she said.

Two suspected Molotov cocktails were also found inside the school, the sheriff said. One detonated, though no one was injured.

The shooting came a day before the anniversary of the Newtown, Conn., attack in which a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Since Columbine, Colorado has endured other mass shootings, including the killing of 12 people in a movie theater in nearby Aurora in 2012. But it was not until after the Newtown massacre that state lawmakers moved to enact stricter gun control laws.

Two Democratic lawmakers were recalled from office earlier this year for backing the laws, and a third recently resigned to avoid a recall election.

___

Associated Press writer Ivan Moreno contributed to this report. Reported by Huffington Post 23 hours ago.

Weather: All in all, not bad today (have you looked around the country?). High 40s and cloudy. Traffic: Stretches of Aurora Avenue North and eastbound Mercer Street will be closed to traffic until 5 a.m. Monday. Aurora Avenue North is closed between Valley Street and the south end of the Battery Str Reported by Seattle Times 19 hours ago.

Prepared Sermon for December 15, 2013
The Very Rev. Gary Hall, Dean of Washington National Cathedral

I did not grow up in the church and up until my first year of college I only went in to churches and synagogues for life events--weddings, bar mitzvahs, funerals and the like. The first time I ever went to church on my own was Easter Day, 1968--four days after the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. I went for two reasons--first, because I was trying to make sense of Dr. King's murder, and second because I greatly admired the Yale Chaplain in those days, William Sloane Coffin, Jr. Bill Coffin had been arrested on the steps of the Pentagon months before--along with poet Robert Lowell and the famous baby book writer Dr. Benjamin Spock--and I had heard Coffin speak on several occasions about the intersection of social and religious issues. So on Easter Day, 1968, I made my way across Yale's Old Campus to Battell Chapel to hear what Dr. Coffin might say on Easter that would help me understand the death of Dr. King.

I remember very little about that first church experience, except for two things. First, they served sherry afterward--a powerful inducement for a college freshman in those days. And second, Coffin's sermon entirely surprised me. He did, of course, use the sermon time to talk about the King assassination, but he didn't do so in any conventionally comforting way. "What else," Coffin asked, "did we think we had a right to expect?" Comparing King's murder to the events of Good Friday, Coffin intoned, "We never had a right to think it would be any different" with figures like Jesus and King.

Here I was, an 18 year-old kid looking for consolation, and instead of giving me a security blanket the preacher used the gospel to slap me in the face. It was an unforgettable moment, and I owe my life in the church to the spiritual wake up I received that morning. The sherry probably had a little something to do with it, too.

I think about Bill Coffin's rhetorical question--"What else did we think we had a right to expect?" every time I read or hear today's gospel. John the Baptist is in prison, and what he's hearing about Jesus doesn't exactly sound like what he expected to hear. He sends words by his disciples to ask of Jesus, "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?"

John apparently thought that Jesus would be one kind of Messiah, and he is turning out to be another. John predicted a fiery leader who would use his winnowing fork to separate the wheat from the chaff and then burn the chaff with unquenchable fire. But Jesus didn't behave the way John expected he would. He didn't scourge people--he healed them. He didn't separate people, he brought them together. He didn't predict damnation so much as universal peace and forgiveness. "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?""What else did we think we had a right to expect?"

It has been a year since the shootings at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, and as we observe this anniversary, I find that these two questions frame my perception of the year we have been through. A year ago, I stood in the pulpit and declared my own and this cathedral's resolve to stand with and for the victims of gun violence and to use our energies to mobilize the faith community to pressure our legislators for action to curb the epidemic of deaths brought about by guns in America. In the phrase that will no doubt be the opening line of my obituary, I said, "The gun lobby is no match for the cross lobby."

A year later, pretty close to nothing has happened. By the estimates of the Center for Disease Control, another 32,000 Americans have died by gun violence since December 14, 2012. There have been mass shooting around the country, even in our own Washington D.C. Navy Yard. There has been almost no legislative action in response to these deaths. "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?""What else did we think we had a right to expect?"

Last September, Bishop Budde and my wife Kathy and I were present at the memorial service for those killed at the Navy Yard. As with Bill Coffin's sermon on Easter Day, 1968, I will always remember President Obama's remarks in the wake of the Navy Yard. The president said, in part:

So these families have endured a shattering tragedy. It ought to be a shock to us all as a nation and as a people. It ought to obsess us. It ought to lead to some sort of transformation. . . .

We can't accept this. As Americans bound in grief and love, we must insist here today there is nothing normal about innocent men and women being gunned down where they work. There is nothing normal about our children being gunned down in their classrooms. There is nothing normal about children dying in our streets from stray bullets.

Just as I will never forget sitting in Battell Chapel on Easter Day in 1968, I will never forget sitting outdoors on a beautiful September Sunday afternoon at the Washington Marine Barracks listening to the president say those words as the American flag fluttered in the breeze behind him. And as I will never forget where I was when I heard tell of the Navy Yard shootings, the Sandy Hook shootings, the Aurora shootings, the Oak Creek Wisconsin shootings. These moments are seared into my memory as I believe they are into yours because, as the president says, "there is nothing normal" about them.

In this morning's gospel, Jesus responds to John the Baptist's question with these words:

"Go and tell John what you hear and see: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news brought to them. And blessed is anyone who takes no offense at me." [Matthew 11:2-11]

A year after Sandy Hook, I still believe that the gun lobby is no match for the cross lobby. I still believe that you and I people of faith should refuse to tolerate the epidemic of gun violence that is killing our children, our colleagues, our friends. As the church, as the community that gathers around Jesus, we need to remember what we're actually here for. We're here, with Jesus, to help the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, the lepers be cleansed, the dear hear, the dead be raised, and the poor receive the good news. "Are you the one who is to come, or are we to wait for another?""What else did we think we had a right to expect?"

What else did we think we had a right to expect? Nothing has happened in a year partially because we have not cared enough to make something happen. The passion is all on one side in the gun violence debate. Oh, sure, we care every time there is a tragedy. But we quickly lose interest and turn our attention to other things. We need, my friends, to do better. We need, as the community that lives out the life and promise of Jesus in the world, to be the people bringing good news to a nation and world in the grips of a death-dealing addiction to violence and guns.

One year after Newtown, I ask, as you do, "Why has nothing happened?" And in response I hear not an answer but William Sloane Coffin's question: "What else did we think we had a right to expect?" If we don't care at least as much as the gun lobby, if we don't become, in the president's words, "obsessed" with curbing gun violence, what right do we have to expect that things will be any different, even after the next mass shooting or wave of urban gun deaths?

Christianity is not only about loving Jesus and knowing God. It is about living out the implications of that love and knowledge. Human beings are precious, and that is why Jesus responds to John's question not with a list of ideas but with the news of human lives made better. And so for us. On this Third Sunday of Advent, as we move ever closer to Christmas and its proclamation of good news and great joy for all people, I repeat what I said a year ago: the gun lobby is no match for the cross lobby. You and I who follow Jesus must continue to stand with and for the victims of gun violence and we must redouble our efforts to help our leaders do the right thing so that our schools, our workplaces, and our streets will be safe places for precious human beings to live out their lives in the fulfillment of Christmas peace and joy.

I am not giving up, and I ask that you not either. Amen. Reported by Huffington Post 10 minutes ago.

A Colorado high school student with an apparent grudge against a teacher wounded a classmate with a shotgun before killing himself, chilling a state that's still trying to make sense of mass shootings at Columbine High School and an Aurora movie theater. Reported by Miami Herald 2 days ago.

A man is in a hospital Sunday morning after Aurora police shot him when he pointed a shotgun at them during a standoff outside a home in the 1700 block of Jamaica Street. Reported by Denver Post 23 hours ago.

U.S. Senator Thad Cochran says the Department of Defense has awarded a $14 million competitive contract to Aurora Flight Sciences in Columbus to assist in the development of a new aircraft for the Department of Defense. Reported by Miami Herald 22 hours ago.

Colorado’s package of gun laws, enacted this year after mass shootings in Aurora, Colo., and Newtown, Conn., has been hailed as a victory by advocates of gun control. But if Sheriff Cooke and a majority of the other county sheriffs in Colorado offer any indication, the new laws — which mandate background checks for private gun transfers and outlaw magazines over 15 rounds — may prove nearly irrelevant across much of the state’s rural regions. Reported by Huffington Post 1 hour ago.

Other options include George Porter Jr., Aurora Nealand and Luke Winslow-King Reported by nola.com 9 hours ago.

Patch Naperville, IL --

Armando Gallardo faces a prison sentence of between 26 and 50 years in the Illinois Department of Corrections. Reported by Patch 9 hours ago.