Brawl in Arizona Walmart parking lot leaves one dead

A late night brawl in a Cottonwood, AZ, Walmart parking lot late Saturday evening left one suspect dead and seven others, including a police officer injured.  Officials said the officer was shot in the leg when he attempted to break up the melee.  The incident began when a Walmart employee noticed a large group of people gathered in a store restroom.  When she tried to enter the restroom, she was shoved by one of the suspects.

By the time police officers arrived, the group had made its way to the parking lot where officers were immediately attacked, and there was a struggle for an officer's weapon.  Three shots were fired, killing one suspect and injuring two others, but it was unclear who had fired the shots.

Injuries included lacerations and bruising, and seven suspects were arrested and charged with various charges including aggravated assault, attempted homicide and obstruction of justice.

The suspects' vehicle was a Chevrolet Suburban with Idaho plates, and all suspects belong to a family that had been living in their vehicle in front of the store for several days.

CBS News.com story

Recruiters already targeting LeBron James' 10-year-old son

LeBron James has told college basketball programs to stop recruiting his son.  He told reporters on Wednesday that the 10-year-old LeBron James Jr. has already received scholarship offers.

According to NCAA rules, a prospective player must be enrolled in the 9th grade before any kinds of offers can be made. The rules are meant to curtail monetary assistance, which is strictly forbidden in the NCAA. However, other college standouts like Marquette's Matt Carlino  received an offer from Arizona when he was in elementary school.  College coaches are not prevented from observing players for evaluations, only making offers.

LeBron James rebuked reporters for the attention his son is receiving, but he is also partially responsible for perpetrating some of it.  In December, he tweeted a video of his son in a youth tournament penetrating, scoring and passing in a similar style that he himself plays.

ABC News.com story

Obama vetoes Keystone pipeline bill

As promised, President Obama vetoed the Keystone pipeline bill on Tuesday, leaving the project in limbo.  The Senate must override the veto by a two thirds vote by March 3, which does not appear likely, since the majority Republicans are 4 votes short of an override percentage.

Republicans have promoted the bill on its job creation potential, but environmental experts have criticized it due to the potential of carbon emissions and their effect on climate change.  Opponents have also countered that the pipeline would not create a lot of permanent jobs.

Republicans lambasted the president, saying he is too controlled by environmental extremists.  Republican Speaker of the House, John Boehner called the veto a "national embarrassment."

Washington Post article

More mystery craters appear in Siberia

More mysterious craters have been spotted in Siberia, and researchers are starting to sound more than a little alarmed about the phenomenon. Vasily Bogoyavlensky, deputy director of Russia's Oil and Gas Research Institute, says at least seven suspicious craters have now been spotted—five of them in a region known as the "end of the world"—and a satellite image shows one of them has at least 20 water-filled "baby craters" around it. "I would compare this with mushrooms: When you find one mushroom, be sure there are [a] few more around. I suppose there could be 20 to 30 craters more," he tells the Siberian Times. He's calling for urgent research "to prevent possible disasters" that could affect cities and oil industry infrastructure in the region.

Bogoyavlensky and other experts believe gas emissions, possibly linked to climate change, are causing the holes to appear and suspect there are many more to be found, reports NBC News. "The processes that are causing them to form likely occur over a wide area of the continuous permafrost in this part of Siberia," the chief of the US Geological Survey's Gas Hydrates Project tells the Huffington Post. She hasn't researched the holes firsthand, but she agrees they demand further study "to determine the processes that cause their formation, how they evolve with time, and whether it is possible to predict where new ones will occur." Bogoyavlensky plans an upcoming expedition to the craters (only one of them has been studied in depth thus far) and intends to install seismic stations in the region.

USA Today story

Inside story of famous World War II photo on 70th anniversary

The iconic flag-raising picture from Iwo Jima that inspired so many Americans was taken 70 years ago today in 1945 on the Japanese island.  The photo, which was taken by Joe Rosenthal, is often credited with turning the war effort around.

The photo, which looks staged, shows five Marines and one Navy sailor who converged on the summit of a mountain to raise a U.S. flag.  It is often thought of as one of the most perfectly composed news photos of all time.

The photo was actually a second raising of a larger flag, after a smaller one had been put up first.  Rosenthal wasn't at the top of the mountain for the first one, but got there as the second one was put up to be more visible to troops fighting below.  The photo also inspired a sculpture that is set at the U.S. Marine war memorial in Arlington, VA.

CNN.com story

Las Vegas road rage victim went back to look for suspect

The woman killed in an apparent road rage incident last week returned home to pick up her son and then went back out to find the man now suspected of shooting her, a Las Vegas homicide detective said Tuesday.

Tammy Meyers, a 44-year-old mother of four, had been giving her 15-year-old daughter a driving lesson Thursday when she had an encounter with another driver that left her scared and upset, Lt. Ray Steiber told reporters.

When she got home, Meyers told her daughter to go into the house, wake up the girl's brother and have him get in the car. Meyers' son Brandon, 22, brought a registered firearm with him.

Meyers drove back out of the neighborhood to see if she could find the man, Steiber said.

"The vehicles and persons found each other," he said. "Through the course of them finding each other, at one point Mrs. Meyers was following what we consider a suspect vehicle and then at another point they broke apart and Mrs. Meyers went home."

Shortly after Meyers arrived at her house a second time and got out of her car, a gray or silver sedan pulled into the cul-de-sac and a volley of shots was fired.

The son returned fire, Steiber said.

Meyers was struck in the head by one bullet and was rushed to the hospital, where she died on Valentine's Day after being taken off life support.

Steiber said the family called 911 after Meyers was shot.

The driver, described as a man in his 20s to 30, is about 6 feet tall with medium build. He wore a white V-neck T-shirt.

Steiber said authorities believe a bullet from the suspect's gun killed Meyers, and not one from the son's firearm.

The initial incident came after the suspect was speeding past Meyers as she drove her daughter home from a driving lesson. Seeing the speeding car, the daughter reached over and honked the horn.

Steiber said the man pulled in front, stopped his car and came back to the Meyers car. His words scared mother and daughter. They did not say anything to the suspect, Steiber said.

Vigil for the victim

Meyers' husband spoke at a vigil for his wife on Tuesday. He said some of the facts in the case were starting to get twisted by the media.

"My son is not an animal. My son is a hero in my book," Robert Meyers said. "There were mistakes like everyone of us have made in our lives. But this particular mistake was made to keep a bigger mistake from happening. And my wife paid the ultimate price for it."

Brandon Meyers said he was trying to protect his family.

CNN.com

Commuter with measles prompts California transit warning

After an infected passenger used commuter trains in the San Francisco area, officials sent out an official warning to passengers who may have come into contact with the man from February 4 to February 6.  The majority of Bay area residents is vaccinated, but the number of parents who are declining to vaccinate their children has risen in recent years.  An infected person is contagious several days before and after the rash appears.

Some symptoms of measles are a high fever, a runny nose, coughing and red, watery eyes.  The actual rash is highly visible on the skin.  Anyone born before 1957 is considered immune, and officials are urging vaccination.  An outbreak earlier in the year was traced to contact with an infected person at Disneyland.  Some complications of contracting measles are pneumonia, encephalitis, and problems with pregnancy, even miscarriage or blindness of the fetus.

ABC News.com story