• 4 officers shot INSIDE of a Detroit police precinct; the gunman died source

• » A rough weekend for the Motor City: Ten people have been shot and injured or killed in the city in the last three days – the police precinct shooting of course being the most disturbing. One of the officers in today’s shooting was shot in the head, but is talking and moving his arms. The rest suffered minor wounds.

• respected Physician Kermit Gosnell, an early abortion practicioner, went to the Mantua neighborhood of Philadelphia in the late ’60s as an activist trying to change the rough-and-tumble neighborhood. He helped open both an abortion clinic and a methadone clinic.
• reckless Over the years, Gosnell became known for taking risks that most abortion doctors wouldn’t – a trend that led to a declining reputation, and eventually, his recent arrest on really disturbing charges. He didn’t even have a nurse for most of the time he ran the clinic! source

• “Dear residents of Rockford, Illinois: This is The New York Times. We’re doing a photo feature on why your town is so depressed and lacking in jobs. (16 percent unemployment?! We need to do this story, stat!) We need to take photos of your citizens. None of you are allowed to smile. If you smile, we’re going to find someone else who looks plainer than you. OK? Thanks. We’ll send a photog from Manhattan to the Rust Belt on a private jet sometime next week. Remember. Plain. No smiles. Optimism is dead. Thanks.” source

• great Idaho single mom Holly Lahti had a turn of great luck after winning a $190 million in a Mega Millions lottery jackpot over a week ago. This is usually good news.
• awful Sadly, the feel-good story just couldn’t last. Lahti’s 2003 mugshot showed clear signs of abuse. She’s long been separated from her husband.
• result Since winning, Lahti has been in hiding, possibly because the husband has a claim to part of her winnings based on Idaho law. Oh god no. What a nightmare. source

• » And the kicker: When her husband Josh found out from the reporter that she had won, he had this to say: “That’s awesome! I won’t have to pay child support!” He’ll get more than that, maybe.

• So far, the documents released by the government raise more questions than they answer, but they do confirm one troubling fact: that no senior officials have been held to account for the widespread abuse of detainees. Without real accountability for these abuses, we risk inviting more abuse in the future.
• A statement from the ACLU • Regarding a series of documents they released detailing the deaths of 190 US detainees, some of which have been reported by the media, but others are new. A handful – around 25 to 30 – are what the ACLU describes as “unjustified homicide.” One disturbing finding – over 25 percent of the deaths listed were due to cardiac problems, which leads to questions over how detainees are being confined. For its part, the Department of Defense, uh, defends itself. “Although there have been cases of individuals involved in misconduct,” said Pentagon spokeswoman Lt. Col. Tanya Bradsher,  “there is no evidence of systematic abuse by the United States military.” Food for thought? source

• This will be a challenge for [medical] customers and we regret that. But we don’t want to put our Italian facility at risk that the product will be misused.
• Hospira spokeswoman Tareta Adams • Discussing the company’s decision to pull a key drug used in lethal executions off the market. The drug, thiopental sodium, is widely used by prisons all over the country, but in the wake of manufacturing issues in 2009, they had to stop producing the product. They were about to restart production at an italian factory, but an order by that country’s parliament forced Hospira to agree not to allow the Italian-produced drugs to be used in lethal injections in the U.S. So now, American prisons will be screwed or forced to use other medications to do the same thing. In Oklahoma, the drug pentobarbital, usually used to put animals down, was used in an execution there after a court decision. source

• some think it will make us unsafe. We think (in addition to not making us unsafe) it’ll save taxpayers money. While the repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell is a done deal, the Government Accountability Office nevertheless conducted a study on the fiscal impact of the program. After reviewing all cases of expulsion under the program over the last six years, they found that maintaining the program was quite costly (and we don’t mean from an emotional standpoint).

• $193 million to implement the program over six years

• $52k cost of expelling each service member (this includes finding and training replacements)
• 39% of those expelled either spoke a foreign language, or held a “critical occupation” in the military source

• 100+ people were arrested by the FBI in New York and New Jersey this morning for mob ties
• 24+ of those were members of the NYC area’s five crime families; the rest were associates source

• » Among the charges face: Murder (some dating back to the ’80s and ’90s), extortion, loan-sharking, gambling and labor-racketeering in some of the mob’s continued strongholds – the construction industry and the waterfront. Not the waterfront!

• Inside this backpack was a bomb. Not just any kind of bomb. An incredibly sophisticated bomb the likes of which law enforcement officials haven’t seen, loaded with shrapnel that was designed to hurt people. Worse, the bomb was placed in a position that was designed to attack a parade route in Spokane, Wash. The bomb was designed to be remotely controlled. And wanna know what that parade route was for? That’s right, an MLK Day parade. So why is this story getting underplayed? By, well, everybody? A few examples:

Buried a little

• CNN: Buried in a listPerhaps it hasn’t caught the full attention of the network that this might perhaps have been a huge terror attack. Ricky Gervais is in the infamous features slot. Also, the story’s short.
• MSNBC: A video teaseNot a top news item, and further down the page than CNN. Considering the nature of the attack, doesn’t this seem like underplay? But at least they have a photo of the thing, right?

Further down the list …

• Washington Post: Also buriedEven lower on the page than MSNBC, the Post’s coverage of the incident is just a link to an AP story, rather than any unique coverage from a local angle.
• 
  Fox news: also buriedSo, according to this list here, domestic terrorism ranks at a similar level as “Drug-Smuggling Pigeon Caught in Colombia.” Check. Great job.

Basically nonexistent

• WSJ: Near the bottomBelow such stories as “Is the NFL Telegraphing Drug Tests” and “Pandas Can Stay in D.C. 5 More Years” is a story about the incident. It’s short, but written by WSJ staffers.
• 
  NY Times: Hah! Yeah, it’s not hereThe Times appears not to have given the story any play on its front page at all today. You have to go all the way to the bottom of the National page to even find it. It’s also from yesterday.

• » Why this might be: We think there are a few factors at play here. First of all, since the bomb was caught before anyone was hurt, it effectively dulled its “immediate danger” factor. But the firepower of the bomb suggests a much more sinister danger and motive that should increase the story’s play, but isn’t due to its lack of obvious eye-catching imagery and clear motive. There’s a motive suggested by the situation and the nature of the bomb, but few details to back this up. The lack of details make it hard to play it up. (Even the Spokane Spokesman-Review has played it down at this point.) Finally, there has simply been a lot of news in the last two days – the health care repeal, Giffords, Joe Lieberman, Steve Jobs, etc., and it’s the kind of thing that might get buried. None of these are excuses for underplaying it, but just a thought process as to why this happened. source

• 3 initial federal charges for Loughner; more will likely be coming source

• » And in case you’re wondering: Loughner could face the death penalty for the charges, which include attempted assassination of a congresswoman.