Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/478363
ByJimSalterandJim Suhr The Associated Press FERGUSON, MO. Withmea- sured remarks and a concil- iatory tone, police, political leaders and civil-rights ac- tivists on Thursday sought to tamp down tensions af- ter two police officers were shot in front of the Fergu- son Police Department dur- ing a protest. The officers were quickly released from the hospital, but St. Louis County Po- lice Chief Jon Belmar said they could have easily been killed and called the attack "an ambush." Meanwhile, people were taken in for questioning after a SWAT team converged on a Fergu- son home near the shooting site. Police did not immedi- ately offer details. The shootings marked the first time in eight months of tension in Fergu- son that officers were shot at a protest, and the blood- shed threatened to inflame the already fraught rela- tionship between police and protesters just as the city seeks reforms in the wake of a withering Jus- tice Department report on its law-enforcement prac- tices. The attack resonated all the way to Washington. President Barack Obama took to Twitter to relay his prayers to the officers and to denounce violence against police as unacceptable. "Path to justice is one all of us must travel together," Obama wrote, signing the tweet with his initials to in- dicate the president person- ally composed it. Attorney General Eric Holder called the shooting "inexcusable and repug- nant." The shots were fired early Thursday just as a small crowd of protesters began to break up after a dem- onstration that unfolded hours after the resignation of Ferguson Police Chief Tom Jackson. The shots were believed to come from a handgun fired across the street from the police department, which has been a national focal point since the Aug. 9 shooting death of Michael Brown, who was black and unarmed, by a white police officer. The gunman may have fired from up to 120 yards away, a long distance for most pistols. But with a line of roughly 20 officers stand- ing in front of the building, the shooter did not have to be particularly accurate to hit two of them, Belmar said. "We're lucky by God's grace we didn't lose two of- ficers last night," Belmar said. Both officers suffered sig- nificant wounds but were expected to recover, Bel- mar said. A 41-year-old St. Louis County officer was shot in the right shoulder, the bul- let exiting through his back. A 32-year-old officer from Webster Groves was wear- ing a riot helmet with the face shield up. He was shot in the right cheek, just be- low the eye, and the bullet lodged behind his ear. Tensions have been high in Ferguson since August and escalated in Novem- ber after a St. Louis County grand jury declined to pros- ecute Wilson. Justice De- partment investigators con- curred with that finding in a report released March 4. But a separate Justice De- partment report released that same day found racial profiling and bias in the Ferguson police force, and a municipal court system driven by profit, largely on the backs of black and low- income residents. In the week after the re- port, Ferguson's court clerk was fired and the munici- pal judge, two police offi- cers, the city manager and Wilson voluntarily stepped aside. John Gaskin III, a St. Louis community activist, said the shooting was con- ducted by outside agitators who are intent on hijacking attention from peaceful, re- form-minded protesters. Activists "cannot afford these kinds of incidents happening, because that gets us absolutely nowhere." In a statement, Fergu- son Mayor James Knowles III and the city council said that though they respect the right to protest peace- fully, "we cannot continue to move forward under threats of violence and de- struction to our community. We ask our residents and clergy in this area to part- ner with us as we make our way through this process." Belmar said he reached out to civil rights leaders, asking them to urge peace. He treaded lightly in re- sponse to questions about how police will prepare for other potential demonstra- tions. He said he will re- evaluate the security plan and seek manpower help from other departments and perhaps the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Not everyone was concil- iatory. Jeff Roorda, spokes- man for the St. Louis po- lice union, said the shoot- ing was evidence that many people are not satisfied with Jackson's resignation. "What they wanted was to kill police officers, and that's what they tried to do," Roorda said. He called for nighttime curfews. St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger said there are no plans to institute a curfew. In amateur video of the shooting accessed by the Associated Press, two shots ring out and a man is heard screaming out in pain. Someone at the scene, unseen and unidentified in the video, says: "Acknowl- edgement nine months ago would have kept that from happening." Officers saw some alarm- ing trends prior to the shooting, Belmar said. Fist fights broke out among protesters. Rather than staying in one group in a parking lot across from the police station, demon- strators were spread out over a wide area. Some re- portedly threw rocks and bottles. Three people were arrested. Though the crowd was small compared with some earlier protests, with fewer than 200, Ferguson officers were concerned enough to ask officers from neigh- boring towns to assist. By 10 p.m., 69 officers had re- sponded, Belmar said. Some protesters said there was a different vibe than most nights. "It was a very rowdy group," said Kristie John- son, 32, who has been a fre- quent protester. "They were fighting each other. A lot of people out here tonight we haven't seen before." Marciay Pitchford, 20, said she was near the street. "All of sudden gunshots came through and every- body just started run- ning," she said. "It seemed like they were just trying to shoot any police officer. It came from behind our heads." Officers from St. Louis County and the Missouri State Highway Patrol planned to take over pro- test security in Ferguson on Thursday evening. 2 OFFICERS SHOT Police,othergroupstrytoeasetensionsinFerguson CHRISTIANGOODE—ST.LOUISPOST-DISPATCH A police tactical team prepares to enter a home on Dade Avenue, in Ferguson, Mo., on Thursday. Police were looking for a suspect as they continued investigating the shooting of two police officers during protests earlier in the day. By Denise Lavoie The Associated Press BOSTON A carjack victim on Thursday described his harrowing ride at gunpoint with the Boston Marathon bombers three days after the attacks and the moment he made the terrifying de- cision to bolt from the car. Dun Meng, a Chinese national who moved to the U.S. in 2009 to attend Bos- ton's Northeastern Univer- sity, testified in bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's trial that he had left work in Cambridge late on the night of April 18, 2013, when he pulled over and returned a text message. A car quickly pulled up behind him, a man got out and knocked on his pas- senger-side window. Meng said he thought the man was asking for directions, so he lowered his window. The man then reached in, opened the door and quickly jumped into his car, Meng said. "He point a gun to me — right to my head — he ask money first, 'Where's your cash?'" Meng said. Meng said he later learned the man was Ta- merlan Tsarnaev, one of two brothers who had det- onated twin bombs near the finish line of the mar- athon, killing three peo- ple and injuring more than 260. Hours before the car- jacking, the FBI had pub- licly released photos of the Tsarnaevs as suspects in the bombing. Meng said he told Ta- merlan Tsarnaev he only had about $40 in cash, and Tsarnaev pulled the maga- zine out of his gun to show him the bullets inside. "He told me, 'You know I'm serious so don't be stu- pid.'" Meng said Tsarnaev asked him if he knew who committed the Boston Mar- athon bombing. "He said, 'I did it, and I just killed a policeman in Cambridge,'" Meng said. Meng said he realized then that this was more than a robbery. "I was very scared," he said. Prosecutors said shortly before the carjacking, the Tsarnaev brothers shot Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer Sean Collier in a failed at- tempt to steal his gun. After driving around for 20 or 30 minutes, Meng said, Tamerlan told him to pull over on a street in Wa- tertown and a sedan pulled up behind them. Meng said Tamerlan helped a man in that car load items from the sedan into Meng's Mer- cedes-Benz SUV. Meng identified the sec- ond man as Dzhokhar Tsar- naev, pointing to him in court. "The gentleman over there," he said. Meng said Tamerlan drove his car to a bank ma- chine in Watertown, where Dzhokhar asked him for his pin number and then with- drew money from his ac- count. Tamerlan asked Meng: "Can your car go out of state, like New York?" he testified. Meng said he decided to make his escape after Ta- merlan pulled into a gas station and Dzhokhar went inside to pay. "Every time when I recall this, I think this is the most terrifying moment. It's the most difficult decision in my life," Meng said. He unbuckled his seat- belt, opened the car door and dashed into the street. "I can feel he was trying to grab me," he said. "He was shouting. He was say- ing some word." Meng said he ran across the street to another gas station. The jury saw dramatic surveillance video of Meng running inside the station, holding the door shut and begging the clerk to call 911. He then crouches down, goes behind the counter and crawls into a storage room. MARATHON TRIAL Ca rj ac ki ng v ic ti m te st ifi es a bo ut scary ride with Boston bombers By Maria Cheng The Associated Press GENEVA The World Health Organization marked a grim milestone Thursday in the biggest-ever Ebola out- break, estimating that the virus had killed over 10,000 people, mostly in the West African nations of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone. Fifteen other Ebola deaths occurred in Mali, Ni- geria and the United States. When Ebola was first de- tected in March 2014 in Guinea's forest, officials as- sumedthedeadlyviruscould quickly be stamped out, just as it had in more than two dozen previous outbreaks, mostly in central and east- ern Africa. But health offi- cials now acknowledge they were too slow to respond to this emergency, allowing Eb- ola to cross porous borders in a region where broken health systems were unable to stop its spread. A huge global response — including soldiers sent by Britain, the U.S. and other nations — has slowed the deaths from Ebola dramat- ically, especially in Liberia, but the virus appears stub- bornly entrenched in parts of Guinea and Sierra Leone. WHO declared Ebola an international health emergency in August — but critics have slammed the agency for waiting un- til there were nearly 1,000 deaths to do so. WHO re- cently announced it was forming an independent expert panel to assess its response. Ebola cases also emerged elsewhere in Af- rica, including Nigeria, Sen- egal and Mali, and small outbreaks were later iden- tified in the U.S. and Spain. Liberia, once the hardest- hit country in the outbreak, released its last patient on March 5. It has now begun a 42-day countdown and if no new cases are found, it will be declared Ebola-free ac- cording to WHO standards. Both Guinea and Sierra Leone are still reporting dozens of new cases every week and the number of Eb- ola deaths taking place out- side of hospitals remains high, suggesting that peo- ple are wary of seeking help or are hiding cases. In both countries there are still reg- ular attacks against West- ern aid workers and officials are unable to track where the Ebola virus is spreading. WEST AFRICA UN tally of Ebola deaths passes 10,000 NOTICEOFPACIFICGASANDELECTRICCOMPANY'S REQUEST TO INCREASE YOUR RATES FOR COSTS RELATING TO DIABLO CANYON SEISMIC STUDIES AND RENEWABLES PORTFOLIO STANDARD (A.15-02-023) Summary OnFebruary27,2015,PacificGasandElectricCompany(PG&E)submittedanapplicationtotheCaliforniaPublic Utilities Commission (CPUC) requesting to increase its electric rates effective January 1, 2016. This application requests approval to recover costs associated with two separate issues. 1. Seismic studies performed at Diablo Canyon Power Plant 2. Consultant fees incurred by the CPUC (as directed in the CPUC's Renewables Portfolio Standard) PG&E was directed by the CPUC to include the review, and recovery, of these costs in PG&E's annual Energy Resource Recovery Account (ERRA) compliance proceeding. Background The Diablo Canyon Power Plant (DCPP) seismic studies were conducted in response to both the California Energy Commission's recommendations and Nuclear Regulatory Commission licensing requirements. In Decisions 10-08- 003 and 12-09-008, the CPUC approved PG&E's proposal for enhanced seismic studies to assess the potential vulnerabilities at DCPP due to a major seismic event. These Decisions also directed PG&E to submit the costs for review of the studies in the ERRA Compliance Review proceeding.The costs requested in this application represent seismic study costs that were incurred by PG&E in 2014. The CPUC reviews and approves invoices it receives from independent consultants it has hired to support the CPUC's implementation and administration of the Renewables Portfolio Standard. The Renewables Portfolio Standard is a state mandate that requires utilities to provide a minimum percentage of their power from renewable energy resources by a certain date. PG&E pays its portion of the costs from independent consultants once the invoices are reviewed and approved by the CPUC. These costs are included for review in this application, as authorized in Decision 06-10-050. PG&E requests to collect $8.974 million in rates from customers who receive electric generation as well as transmission and distribution service from PG&E, known as bundled service customers. Rates for customers who purchase electricity from other suppliers (such as direct access and community choice aggregation) and rates for departing load customers will not be affected by these specific costs. How will PG&E's application affect me? If this application is approved, electric rates will increase by less than one percent for bundled-service customers effective January 1, 2016. Based on the rates in effect on January 1, 2015, a typical bundled-service customer using 500 kWh per month would see an average bill increase of $0.06 (or 0.07 percent), from $88.39 to $88.45. Actual bill impacts will vary depending on your electricity usage.A table presenting more illustrative descriptions of the impact of this application was included in a bill insert announcing this filing that was sent directly to customers in March and April. How do I find out more about PG&E's proposals? If you have questions about PG&E's filings, please contact PG&E at 1-800-743-5000. For TDD/TTY (speech-hearing impaired), call 1-800-652-4712. Para más detalles llame al 1-800-660-6789 • (詳情請致電) 1-800-893-9555 If you would like a copy of PG&E's application and exhibits, please write to PG&E at the address below. Pacific Gas and Electric Company 2014 ERRA Compliance Review Application P.O. Box 7442 San Francisco, CA 94120 A copy of PG&E's filings and exhibits are also available for review at the CPUC, 505 Van Ness Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94102, Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–noon. PG&E's application (without exhibits) is available on the CPUC's website at www.cpuc.ca.gov/puc. How does the CPUC's decision-making process work? This Application will be assigned to an Administrative Law Judge (Judge) who will determine how to receive evidence and other related documents,necessary for the CPUC to establish a record upon which to base its decision. Evidentiary hearings may be held where parties of record will present their testimony and may be subject to cross- examination by other parties. These evidentiary hearings are open to the public, but only those who are parties of record can participate. After considering all proposals and evidence presented during the formal hearing process, the assigned Judge will issue a proposed decision which may adopt PG&E's proposal, modify it or deny it. Any CPUC Commissioner may sponsor an alternate decision.The proposed decision, and any alternate decisions, will be discussed and voted upon at a scheduled CPUC Votin g Meeting. As a party of record, the Office of Ratepayer Advocates (ORA) will review this application. ORA is the independent consumer advocate within the CPUC with a legislative mandate to represent investor-owned utility customers to obtain the lowest possible rate for service consistent with reliable and safe service levels.ORA has a multi-disciplinary staff with expertise in economics, finance, accounting and engineering. Other parties of record will also participate in the CPUC's proceeding to consider this application. For more information about ORA, please call (415) 703-1584, e-mail ora@cpuc.ca.gov or visit ORA's website at http://ora.ca.gov/default.aspx. Stay informed If you would like to follow this proceeding, or any other issue before the CPUC, you may use the CPUC's free subscription service. Sign up at: http://subscribecpuc.cpuc.ca.gov/. If you would like to learn how you can participate in the proceeding,or if you have informal comments or questions about the CPUC processes, you may access the CPUC's Public Advisor's Office (PAO) webpage at www.cpuc.ca.gov/puc and click on "Public Advisor" from the CPUC Information Menu.You may also contact the PAO as follows. Email: public.advisor@cpuc.ca.gov Mail: Public Advisor's Office 505 Van Ness Avenue, Room 2103 San Francisco, CA 94102 Call: 1-866-849-8390 (toll-free) or 1-415-703-2074 TTY 1-866-836-7825 (toll-free) or 1-415-703-5282 | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM FRIDAY, MARCH 13, 2015 4 B