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ByJakePearson The Associated Press NEW YORK ARikersIsland jail guard who investigators say left her post without per- mission as a mentally ill in- mate lay dying in his 101-de- gree cell in February had been disciplined four years earlier for a similar infrac- tion, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. Carol Lackner was ac- cused in 2010 of leaving her post and leaving Rikers Is- land entirely without per- mission while working in a women's section of the jail, according to the documents obtained through a public re- cords request. Thatadministrativecharge wassettled,herattorneysays, when Lackner agreed to give up five vacation days. He said she was on a break when she left, which is nevertheless a policy violation. More recently, Lackner was suspended for 30 days following the Feb. 15 death of 56-year-old Jerome Mur- dough. A city corrections in- vestigation found she aban- doned her post in a mental health observation unit 20 minutes before the homeless ex-Marine was discovered unresponsive in his over- heated cell. Murdough "basically baked to death" when he was left unchecked for at least four hours in a part of the jail that had a malfunction- ing heater, a city official told theAP.Whilelogbookentries indicate Lackner toured the area every half hour as re- quired, she isn't seen on video doing so, according to another city official. Both of- ficials spoke on condition of anonymitybecausetheywere not permitted to discuss spe- cifics of the case. Lackner, 34, didn't re- spond to calls and emails seeking comment. Her at- torney, Damond Carter, de- nied accusations she left her post without permission. He said she was brought in as a relief guard after effectively working three straight shifts and wasn't given any infor- mation about complaints of excessive heat, which she herself could feel. "It's unfair to lay ev- erything at her foot," said Carter, emphasizing that multiple factors contributed to Murdough's death, includ- ing his being sent to Rikers in the first place after being unable to make $2,500 bail on a misdemeanor trespass- ing arrest. A lawyer for Murdough's mother, who is planning a $25 million lawsuit against the city, said in a statement that no other prisoners should "suffer and die at the hands of corrections officers who do not live up to their re- sponsibilities." Murdough suffered from bipolar disorder and schizo- phrenia, according to his family. He was on psycho- tropic medication, which experts say can make peo- ple more sensitive to the heat. The medical examin- er's office says more tests are needed to determine ex- actly how he died, but an in- vestigator said he appeared to have died from hyperther- mia. PRISONS Guard in cell death has record of leaving post By Seth Borenstein The Associated Press WASHINGTON Species of plants and animals are becoming extinct at least 1,000 times faster than they did before humans arrived on the scene, and the world is on the brink of a sixth great extinction, a new study says. The study looks at past and present rates of ex- tinction and finds a lower rate in the past than sci- entists had thought. Spe- cies are now disappearing from Earth about 10 times faster than biologists had believed, said study lead au- thor noted biologist Stuart Pimm of Duke University. "We are on the verge of the sixth extinction," Pimm said from research at the Dry Tortugas. "Whether we avoid it or not will de- pend on our actions." The work, published ThursdaybythejournalSci- ence, was hailed as a land- mark study by outside ex- perts. Pimm's study focused on the rate, not the number, of species disappearing from Earth.Itcalculateda"death rate" of how many species become extinct each year out of 1 million species. In 1995, Pimm found that the pre-human rate of extinctions on Earth was about 1. But taking into ac- count new research, Pimm and his colleagues refined that background rate to about 0.1. Now, that death rate is about 100 to 1,000, Pimm said. Numerous factors are combining to make species disappear much faster than before,saidPimmandco-au- thor Clinton Jenkins of the Institute of Ecological Re- search in Brazil. But the No. 1issueishabitatloss.Species arefindingnoplacetoliveas more places are built up and altered by humans. Add to that invasive spe- cies crowding out native species, climate change af- fecting where species can survive, and overfishing, Pimm said. The buffy-tufted-ear marmoset is a good exam- ple, Jenkins said. Its habi- tat has shrunk because of development in Brazil, and a competing marmoset has taken over where it lives. Now ,it's on the interna- tional vulnerable list. The oceanic white-tip shark used to be one of the most abundant predators on Earth and they have been hunted so much they are now rarely seen, said Dalhousie University ma- rine biologist Boris Worm, who wasn't part of the study but praised it. "If we don't do anything, this will go the way of the dinosaurs." Five times, a vast ma- jority of the world's life has been snuffed out in what have been called mass ex- tinctions, often associated with giant meteor strikes. About 66 million years ago, one such extinction killed off the dinosaurs and three out of four species on Earth. Around 252 million years ago, the Great Dying snuffed out about 90 per- cent of the world's species. SCIENCE STUDY Species disappearing far faster than before STUARTPIMM,DUKEUNIVERSITY—THEASSOCIATEDPRESS A baby golden lion tamarin is shown in this 2012photo. Once thought to be extinct, this tamarin is a success story because biologists have helped set aside land for them. By Andrew Taylor The Associated Press WASHINGTON The House is cutting back armed air mar- shals but increasing funding to deal with a surge in unac- companied immigrant chil- dren. It's boosting funding for gun background checks and resisting tea party cuts to economic development programs. Military readi- ness is taking a hit to pay for more ships and airplanes. It's trade-off time on Cap- itol Hill. As Congress stands at an impasse on most major is- sues, it is waist deep in an- nual spending bills that of- fer lawmakers secondary opportunities to make policy. But with agency budgets frozen on average, in order to add money for procure- ment of Coast Guard ships or to ease a backlog of un- processed rape kits, the money has to come from a program that somebody else treasures. "You have to rob Peter's pocket to pay Paul," Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., said. "For ex- ample, they're willing to add money for the (National In- stant Criminal Background Check System) for guns but they want to take it out of the National Science Foundation salaries. That's tough for me. I've got the National Science Foundation in my district." Moran was referring to an amendment to a spending bill on the House floor for the departments of Justice and Commerce and federal sci- ence programs. The amend- ment by Rep. Mike Thomp- son, D-Calif., would direct $19.5 million more to the NICS budget and came less than a week after a troubled young man killed six people near the University of Cali- fornia, Santa Barbara. The amendment was adopted by a 260-145 vote Thursday eve- ning. Thursday's moves came a day after a House Appro- priations subcommittee ap- proved a $39 billion mea- sure for the Department of Homeland Security. The measure essentially repre- sents a budget freeze, which meant something had to get whacked to finance the $77 million the panel added to President Barack Obama's $868 million request to care for immigrant children who make their way across U.S. borders without their par- ents. The number of children found trying to cross the Mexican border without parents has skyrocketed in recent years, with an esti- mated 60,000 or more un- accompanied children com- ing into custody this year — an almost 10-fold increase since 2011. Many of the children, who often land in the custody of the Department of Health and Human Services' Of- fice of Refugee Resettle- ment, have fled their home countries because of wide- spread gang and drug car- tel violence. In many cases, the children have at least one parent or other relatives liv- ing in the United States, and the government often reunites children caught at the border with parents or relatives living in the U.S. il- legally. Homeland Security Sec- retary Jeh Johnson told law- makers Thursday that the spike in unaccompanied mi- nors found at the border is a direct result of deteriorating conditions in Central Amer- ican countries such as Hon- duras, El Salvador and Gua- temala. "It is being driven largely by the circumstances in those countries, in those Central American coun- tries," Johnson told the House Judiciary Commit- tee. "The levels of violence, the levels of poverty." To pay for additional money to cope with the crisis of immigrant children, law- makers had to cut elsewhere. Enter the federal air mar- shals, the armed agents who provide protection on an un- knownnumberofflights.The government employed just a handful before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and now em- ploys thousands, though the exact number is secret. But they're increasingly seen as one layer — and an expen- sive one — in an increasingly sophisticated web of protec- tions for air travelers. New marshals were hired in droves after 9/11, but other layers of protec- tion — including reinforced cockpit doors and more so- phisticated risk-based tech- nology and screening pro- cedures — mean that fewer air marshals are needed. So the House panel cut the mar- shals budget by $208 million, more than one-fourth. "It is an expensive mode of defense," Rep. David Price, D-N.C., said. "The level can safely be brought down given the other pro- tections we've put in place. The hardened cockpit door, lots of things that have meant that the air marshals are just one facet of a whole array of defenses." WASHINGTON SPENDING La wm ak er s ro bb in g Pe te r to p ay P au l By Ken Dilanian The Associated Press WASHINGTON The CIA's targeted killing program in Pakistan, once the mainstay of President Barack Obama's counterterrorism effort, is winding down. Because of stricter rules, diplomatic sensitivities and the changing nature of the al-Qaida threat, there hasn't been a U.S. drone strike in Pakistan's tribal areas since Christmas. And American officials say opportunities for drone attacks will dwin- dlefurtherastheCIAandthe military draw down in neigh- boring Afghanistan, reduc- ing their intelligence-gath- ering footprint. "The program (in Paki- stan)appearstohaveended," said Peter Bergen, who has closely studied drone strikes for the New America Foun- dation, a Washington think tank. U.S. officials won't go that far, but Obama announced thisweekaplantopullnearly allAmericantroopsoutofAf- ghanistan by the end of 2016. Thetargetedkillingprogram in Pakistan relies on drones flown from, and intelligence gathered in, U.S. bases in Af- ghanistan that would then be closed. In a major foreign pol- icy speech at the U.S. Mili- tary Academy Wednesday, Obama said the U.S. would continue to carry out occa- sional drone strikes against terrorist targets, but he cited Yemen and Somalia, not Pak- istan, where Hellfire missiles once rained down at a rate of two per week. Armed U.S. drones are still flying over Pakistan's tribal areas, and CIA tar- geting officers are still nom- inating militants to the kill list, according to U.S. offi- cials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren'tauthorized to discuss the covert program publicly. But over the last five months, no missiles have been fired. Several factors are driv- ing the change, U.S. officials say.Many of the senior al-Qa- ida figures in Pakistan have been killed. Those who re- main are much harder to tar- getbecausetheyareavoiding mobile phones and travel- ing with children, benefiting from stricter targeting rules designed to prevent civilian casualties. The drawdown of U.S. troops from Afghani- stan has eliminated the need for "force protection" strikes against large gatherings of militants in Pakistan sus- pected of plotting attacks against American troops. Also, the tribal areas of Pakistan are no longer the hotbed of al-Qaida activity they once were. Hard core militants from Pakistan have gone to Syria and Yemen, home to Al-Qaida in the Ara- bianPeninsula,whichU.S.of- ficials consider the most dan- gerous al-Qaida affiliate. And Obama administra- tion officials are pushing to havetheU.S.military,notthe CIA, carry out drone strikes. Since the military generally requires permission from a country to operate on its ter- ritory,mostanalystsdon'tbe- lieve it could carry out regu- lardroneattacksinPakistan. The CIA and the White House declined to comment. For as long as they are able to fly over Pakistan, CIA drones will hunt for se- nior al-Qaida figures, in- cluding Ayman al-Zawahri, the group's leader, U.S. offi- cials say. If the agency gets a clean shot at such a target next week or next year, it will push the button, officials say. But as the CIA closes its remote Afghanistan out- postswherecaseofficersmet with Pakistani sources and technicians eavesdropped on cell phones, intelligence collection will dry up, mak- ing militants harder to track and hit without harming noncombatants. WORLD CI A wi nd s do wn t ar ge te d dr one strike program in Pakistan MOHAMMAD SAJJAD — THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Pakistan women take part in a rally against the U.S. drone strikes in Pakistani tribal areas in Peshawar, Pakistan, on April 23. proudlyannouncethe 2014TehamaCounty Medical Guide Areference guide to North State medical professionals and related medical services available toTehama County residents. Advertising&CopyDeadline:Friday,June6,2014 • 7,000 in full-run distribution of The Daily News, Saturday, June 28, 2014 • 3,000 additional distribution through May, 2015: • Red Bluff Chamber of Commerce office/Visitor Center . • Local hotels and information centers. •Advertisers receive copies for waiting-room distribution. • Online version of this special publication is posted on RedBluffDailyNews.com, all year long, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week! 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