cryptogon.com

While the remains had yet to be officially identified, Peter Reichard, the assistant New Haven police chief, said the authorities were assuming they were of Ms. Le, 24, a slight, California-bred daughter of Vietnamese immigrants who was studying pharmacology.

The discovery appeared to have ended the six-day search for Ms. Le that began with speculation of a runaway bride but quickly gave way to near certainty that a crime had been committed.

Yale University’s president, Richard C. Levin, wrote in an e-mail message to students Sunday night, “Our hearts go out to Annie Le’s family, fiancé and friends, who must suffer the additional ordeal of waiting for the body to be identified.”

At the elite Ivy League university’s medical school campus in the Hill section of New Haven, about half a mile from the main campus of neo-Gothic and Georgian Revival architecture, students seemed shocked and fearful Sunday night.

“I’m freaked.” said Lucas Cheadle, 26, who is studying for his doctorate in neuroscience. Mr. Cheadle appeared agitated as he spoke, taking out a cigarette as he walked a few blocks from 10 Amistad Street, where the body was found. “My awareness of danger has definitely increased,” he said.

The authorities have not identified any suspects, but Ms. Le’s disappearance recalled a disturbing case from December 1998: the stabbing death of Suzanne Jovin, 21, a Yale senior whose body was found in a neighborhood not far from campus; that crime remains unsolved.

Ms. Le was from Placerville, Calif., a town of about 10,000 people in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Rochester, where she met Jonathan Widawsky, a graduate student at Columbia University whose family lives on Long Island in Huntington, N.Y. They fell in love. They planned to be married on Sept. 13 at the North Ritz Club in Syosset, N.Y., a catering hall by a big pond and a gazebo, set well back from the highway. More than 160 people were set to attend.

By Friday, family members had canceled the wedding.

Ms. Le’s absence was first noted on Tuesday, hours after she was seen on surveillance video entering the four-story lab building at 10 Amistad Street, down the street from Yale New Haven Hospital and about 10 blocks south of the main Yale campus. A young woman, 4-foot-11 and 90 pounds, she was wearing a brown skirt and bright green T-shirt.

Her purse containing her ID, cellphone and money was found in her office in another Yale building a few blocks away.

Over the following days, investigators pored over hundreds of hours of video from dozens of cameras, hoping to catch a glimpse of Ms. Le.

By Thursday, Yale officials said that more than 100 law enforcement officials were looking for Ms. Le. A $10,000 reward was posted for her whereabouts.

Ms. Le was not naïve about her safety. In February, she wrote an article for a student magazine offering tips on how to avoid becoming the victim of a crime.

“New Haven is a city, and all cities have their perils,” she wrote, “but with a little street smarts, one can avoid becoming yet another statistic.”

On Saturday, the police reportedly found bloody clothes above ceiling tiles in the lab building on Amistad. Other reports said the clothes were not the same ones Ms. Le was last seen wearing.

On Sunday, the search appeared to have moved to a waste-processing facility on the industrial fringe of Hartford where trash from much of New Haven, as well of the rest of the state, is burned to generate electric power. Officials did not say if they had found anything there.

Joe Avery, a New Haven police spokesman, said the body “was found behind the wall in something called a chase, which is a space that carries utilities from one floor to another.”

At the news conference Sunday night, Chief Reichard declined to supply more details. “We have an ongoing homicide case,” he said, “so we cannot tell you what we have, where we found anything or what it is.”

On Long Island, near Mr. Widawsky’s family’s home, those who knew the couple were already mourning.

“This is Annie’s bouquet,” a woman said to a television reporter earlier, proffering a sad-looking array of roses. “It’s wilting.”

On Bittersweet Place in Huntington, the Widawsky family remained in seclusion. The Le family, who had traveled to New Haven, was not heard from either.

Deborah Kiley of Deborah’s Hair Loft in Huntington, N.Y., was to have styled the hair of Ms. Le, her mother, Mr. Widawsky’s mother and five attendants on Sunday morning. She said she was praying for Ms. Le and her family.

“I can’t even accept it right now,” Ms. Kiley said. “I never forget a soul I meet. I was going to be part of a beautiful day, which is the most important day of a girl’s life other than the day she gives birth.”

The city could face a budget shortfall of $65 million to $95 million in the middle of the current fiscal year, Fairbanks said, as Phoenix – like most Valley cities – continues to take in fewer sales-tax dollars than expected.

Finance officials say they won’t be able to determine the size of the gap until departments submit their expenses this fall, and the council likely won’t take any action until early 2010. But the revenue trend doesn’t look good.

From January through August, Phoenix collected about $231 million in sales-tax dollars, $23 million, or 9 percent, less than projected. That means fewer dollars to pay for such services as police and fire protection, parks and libraries.

“In the U.S. and many other countries, the too-big-to-fail banks have become even bigger,” Stiglitz said in an interview today in Paris. “The problems are worse than they were in 2007 before the crisis.”

Stiglitz’s views echo those of former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, who has advised President Barack Obama’s administration to curtail the size of banks, and Bank of Israel Governor Stanley Fischer, who suggested last month that governments may want to discourage financial institutions from growing “excessively.”

A year after the demise of Lehman forced the Treasury Department to spend billions to shore up the financial system, Bank of America Corp.’s assets have grown and Citigroup Inc. remains intact. In the U.K., Lloyds Banking Group Plc, 43 percent owned by the government, has taken over the activities of HBOS Plc, and in France BNP Paribas SA now owns the Belgian and Luxembourg banking assets of insurer Fortis.

While Obama wants to name some banks as “systemically important” and subject them to stricter oversight, his plan wouldn’t force them to shrink or simplify their structure.

Pang, 42, had been taken from his Newport Beach, California, home yesterday afternoon by paramedics who had responded to a call from the house, said Sergeant Doug Jones of the Newport Beach Police today. He was taken to Hoag Hospital, Jones said.

Charles Sipkins, a Pang family spokesman, confirmed the death and declined to comment further. Pang’s lawyer, James Riddet, wasn’t available.

Pang, who was free on $1 million bail, pleaded not guilty on July 27 to charges in a separate criminal case that he structured cash withdrawals to avoid having to report them. He was charged in an indictment with two counts of making a total of about 50 cash withdrawals in amounts of as high as $9,900 to evade a U.S. law that requires reporting cash withdrawals of $10,000 or more.

A trial date was set for Sept. 15, though it was postponed last month to August 2010.

$823 Million Invested

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused Pang of lying to Taiwanese investors about his credentials, forging insurance documents and paying existing investors with funds raised from new ones, while claiming the returns came from investments in life insurance policies.

The financier was arrested in the criminal case in April, shortly after the SEC obtained an emergency order freezing the assets of Irvine, California-based PEMGroup.

PEMGroup’s investors, including eight financial institutions and about 35 wealthy individuals, have $823 million invested with PEMGroup, according to a May 6 report by the receiver. The underlying assets would be worth $193 million to $360 million, the receiver said in an August status report.

Thomas Mrozek, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Los Angeles, said in an e-mail that his office didn’t have confirmation of Pang’s death. In past cases, U.S. prosecutors have dismissed the case against a defendant upon the receipt of a death certificate, Mrozek said.

He said the process of deciding who would be president would follow the same pattern as in the run-up to the last election, when Putin effectively called all the shots and picked Medvedev as his successor. An election took place, but the result was a foregone conclusion.

“Was there any competition in 2007? No. Then we won’t have this in 2012,” Putin said. Smiling broadly, he added: “We will agree because we are people of one stamp. We will take all these things into account and then decide.”

Putin even sought to use Britain as a defence of the Russian example of a ruling elite deciding over the head of the people who should lead the state.

“Look at Great Britain, when a friend of mine [Tony Blair] retired and automatically promoted Gordon Brown to the post of prime minister. Did the people of Great Britain participate in this? There was a change in leadership in the country and they just decided. Whereas when my term expired I supported Dmitry Medvedev because I thought he was the best person to be leader, and I was right.”

The Cook County medical examiner’s office today confirmed that Christopher Kelly of Burr Ridge was pronounced dead at Stroger Hospital at 10:46 a.m. The office said Kelly died of salicylate intoxication. According to medical reference guides, salicylates are used in anti-inflammatory and pain relief medications.

Kelly was found in a lumber yard near 173rd Street and Cicero Avenue in Country Club Hills late Friday, said the town’s mayor, Dwight Welch. Kelly arrived at Oak Forest Hospital at 11:15 p.m. Friday, said Marcel Bright, a Stroger Hospital spokesman.

At Oak Forest, he was treated and stabilized and doctors determined he needed additional treatment at Stroger, so he was transferred there by private ambulance, Bright said. Kelly arrived at Stroger at 5:15 a.m.

Kely was treated by doctors and pronounced dead at 10:46 a.m., said hospital spokesman Marcel Bright.

Chicago Police are conducting a death investigation along with Country Club Hills police.

Oak Forest Hospital officials alerted authorities of Kelly’s whereabouts about 3 a.m., Welch said. Police found vomit in the lumber yard parking lot, Welch said.

“We are treating this as a death investigation–it’s a possible homicide or suicide, but it’s a high-profile case so we have a homicide level investigation,” Welch said.

Illinois State Police crime scene investigators called in by Country Club Hills continued to look for evidence in the empty lumber yard parking lot tonight. The remote spot, opposite cicada-filled corn fields near Interstates 57 and 80, was taped off as officers used flashlights to search on hands and knees.

Mayor Welch, who visited the lumber yard today, said detectives were looking for cigarette butts or anything else that might be traced back to potential witnesses or suspects.
An autopsy is scheduled for Sunday, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office.

Earlier today, two sources with knowledge of the situation told the Tribune they have been notified that Kelly died. Kelly is a former confidant and top fundraiser for Blagojevich, who was accused of using his office to leverage campaign donations and benefits for himself and his family.

Blagojevich, who is out of state on his book tour, released a statement through his publicist offering condolences.

“I am deeply saddened to hear that Chris has died. My heart goes out to his wife, Carmen, his three daughters, Grace, Jacqueline, and Claire and his entire family. They are in our prayers,” the statement read.

Kelly’s attorney, Michael Monico, declined to comment today when reached by a Tribune reporter.
Kelly, who was indicted alongside Blagojevich in April, pleaded guilty this week in a separate federal case.

On Tuesday, in a surprise move just a day before his scheduled trial, Kelly, owner of a roofing business, pleaded guilty to two counts of mail fraud as part of a kickback scheme to illegally obtain $8.5 million in work at O’Hare International Airport.

At the time, Kelly, 51, said he was under pressure from federal prosecutors to cooperate in their investigation of Blagojevich, but he refused.

The device was stationed by San Diego County Sheriff deputies at a recent town hall forum hosted by Congresswoman Susan Davis (D-San Diego) in Spring Valley and at a subsequent town hall with Congressman Darrell Issa (R-San Diego). The Davis Rally drew an estimated 1,300-1,500 people, including vocal conservative and liberal protest groups.

A public records search conducted by East County Magazine has confirmed that the device is an LRAD 500-x manufactured by San Diego-based American Technology Corporation (ATC). Capable of use as an effective loudspeaker, the LRAD also has the ability to emit a deafening tone aimed at incapacitating and dispersing a crowd without use of lethal force.

“It’s very concerning,” Kevin Keenan, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union, said. “ It is fine for the Sheriff’s Department to have new less-than-lethal weapons, but for their interactions with individuals these still-dangerous weapons need to be used only as substitutes for firearms. They can’t be used as just another tool on the tool belt. As we’ve seen with tasers and pepper spray, these types of weapons are being used to subdue people even though they pose the risk of serious physical harm.”

He added, “Even more concerning is having these weapons for public order policing. I can imagine no situation, or am not aware of any situation that’s ever happened in San Diego County or is likely to happen that would justify using these weapons for public order policing to control a crowd. The main effect of having those weapons at public events is to chill people and chill free speech and free association.”