CMYK
State & Nation
BRIEFLY
Synagogue shooting
leaves 1 dead, 3 injured
POWAY, Calif. — One per-
son was killed and three in-
jured in an attack Saturday
at a synagogue in Poway, San
Diego County authorities said.
A man has been detained
for questioning in connec-
tion with the shooting at the
Chabad of Poway, officials
said.
Deputies were dispatched
to the scene just before 11:30
a.m. local time after receiving
reports of an active shooter,
said Sgt. Aaron Meleen of the
San Diego County Sheriff’s
Department.
A large group of congre-
gants had gathered behind the
temple following the shooting,
he said. It was not immediate-
ly clear how many people were
attending services.
Some children were initially
reported missing, he said, but
they have been found.
Those wounded in the
shooting were taken to Palo-
mar Medical Center in Escon-
dido, according to the Sheriff’s
Department.
Poway Mayor Steve Vaus,
who was at the sheriff’s com-
mand center at nearby Chap-
arral Elementary School, told
CNN that there was one fatality
and that the shooting was being
investigated as a hate crime.
700,000 baby sleepers
recalled after deaths
The children’s product
company Kids II has recalled
700,000 rocking baby sleepers
after the deaths of five infants
who had used the rocker while
unrestrained.
Kids II, which manufactures
baby products for brands such
as Baby Einstein, Ingenuity,
Bright Starts and Disney Baby,
is offering consumers a refund
for their recalled baby rockers,
the U.S. Consumer Product
Safety Commission said in a
statement Friday announcing
the recall.
Approximately 694,000
Kids II rocking sleepers were
sold nationwide at Walmart,
Target, Toys “R” Us and on-
line from March 2012 to this
month, according to the safety
agency. The sleepers usually
cost $40 to $80.
The recall comes weeks
after Fisher Price recalled
4.7 million of its Rock ‘n Play
sleepers after it was reported
that at least 10 infants had died
of suffocation since 2015 after
rolling over from their backs
to their stomachs while in the
seat. After first issuing a safety
warning for the sleeper, Fisher
Price eventually recalled the
product.
California man’s car
barrels into 8 people
A 34-year-old Army vet-
eran whose car barreled into
a crowd of eight people Tues-
day evening in California was
purposely targeted Muslims,
police now say. The attack
left seven injured, including a
13-year-old in critical condi-
tion.
Isaiah Joel Peoples was ar-
rested at the scene. On Friday,
he was charged with eight
counts of attempted murder
and held without bail in Santa
Clara County.
According to the San Fran-
cisco Chronicle, Sunnyvale
Police Chief Phan Ngo an-
nounced Friday that the de-
partment’s investigation un-
covered evidence that Peoples
“intentionally targeted the
victims based on their race
and his belief that they were
of the Muslim faith.” Ngo gave
no details about the nature of
the evidence.
The FBI was involved in
the investigation because of
the possibility Tuesday’s at-
tack was an act of terrorism,
according to attorney Chuck
Smith, who represents Peo-
ples. But federal law enforce-
ment quickly withdrew from
the case, Smith told The Post
on Saturday.
From wire services
NRA’s president to step down
OLIVER NORTH OUT: Group deals with power struggle, probe of tax-exempt status
By DANNY HAKIM
New York Times
INDIANAPOLIS — Oliver
North announced Saturday
that he would not serve a
second term as the National
Rifle Association’s president,
deciding to step down as the
organization grappled with a
bitter dispute over its future
and its worst leadership cri-
sis in decades.
He made the announce-
ment as the NRA faced a
challenge from New York At-
torney General Letitia James,
who had opened an investi-
gation into the gun group’s
tax-exempt status.
On Friday, James’ office
sent letters instructing the
NRA and affiliated entities,
including its charitable foun-
dation, to preserve relevant
financial records. Some of
the NRA’s related businesses
also received subpoenas,
according to people with
Biden’s pitch stresses unity, honor
FOCUS ON TRUMP: Former vice president sees 2020 race as referendum on president’s character
By MICHAEL SCHERER
Washington Post
Former Vice President Joe
Biden also wants to make
America great again — just
not like that.
There will be no red ball
caps or lock-him-up chants,
but the underlying focus on a
festering nostalgia for a prior
era has been unmistakable in
the opening days of his presi-
dential campaign.
Whereas President Donald
Trump evoked an idyllic past
of greater economic pros-
perity and less political cor-
rectness, the bygone era that
Biden pines for is a time be-
fore Trump, when American
presidents sought to unify
the country and build up na-
tional institutions.
“This is not who we are,
the way we are treating peo-
ple,” Biden said in his first
interview as a candidate on
ABC’s “The View” on Friday.
“There is an American creed.
It’s about decency, honor, in-
cluding everyone, leaving no
one behind.”
In that way, Biden has
rejected the conventional
wisdom ascendant in Demo-
cratic politics by framing the
campaign as a referendum
on Trump’s character and his
behavior in office. Biden and
his advisers have bet his can-
didacy on the idea that a fo-
cus on the incumbent, more
than new policy ideas, anti-
establishment crusades or
ideological innovation, will
win back the White House for
Democrats.
The decision led to
Russian virus breached voting system
FAKE VENDOR EMAIL: Florida incident illustrates vulnerability of U.S. election documents
By FRANCES ROBLES
New York Times
It was the day before the
2016 presidential election,
and at the Volusia County
elections office, near Flor-
ida’s Space Coast, workers
were so busy that they had
fallen behind on their corre-
spondence.
Lisa Lewis, the supervisor
of elections, stumbled on an
important email sent to her
and three others in the office,
by then a week old, that ap-
peared to be from VR Systems,
the vendor that sells electronic
voter list equipment to nearly
every county in the state.
“Please take a look at the in-
structions for our modernised
products,” it said, using Brit-
ish spelling and offering an at-
tachment. Something about
the email seemed off.
“It was from Gmail,” Lewis
said. “They don’t have Gmail.”
Lewis, it turned out, was
right to be suspicious. Al-
though it had VR Systems’
distinctive logo, with a red V
knowledge of the inquiry.
A lawyer for the NRA con-
firmed the investigation.
The move by James came
amid a stunning internal
power struggle that took a
major turn Saturday when
North, in a letter that was
read on his behalf at the
NRA’s convention, said he
would not be renominated.
He and insurgents in the NRA
this past week had been try-
ing to oust Wayne LaPierre,
the group’s longtime chief
executive.
“It was a great privilege to
serve as your president this
past year,” North said in the
letter. He added that the NRA
had “a clear crisis” that it
needed to deal with “imme-
diately and responsibly,” and
that he had recently created
a committee to investigate fi-
nancial improprieties.
His move appeared to end
the struggle against LaPierre,
Former Vice President Joe Biden speaks to the International Association of Fire Fighters on
March 12, 2019, in Washington, D.C.
launching the campaign with
a video about Trump’s reac-
tion to the 2017 Charlottes-
ville protests, a circumstance
the Biden team felt present-
ed a clear contrast in values.
“The president of the Unit-
ed States assigned a moral
equivalence between those
spreading hate and those
with the courage to stand
against it,” Biden said, refer-
ring to Trump’s comment
that “very fine people” were
among the white national-
ists and neo-Nazis at the
violent conflict.”And in that
moment, I knew the threat to
this nation was unlike any I
had ever seen in my lifetime.”
and a blue R, the email con-
tained a malicious Trojan
virus, and it originated not
from the elections vendor
but from the Russian military
intelligence unit known as
the GRU. The email had been
sent to 120 elections email
accounts across Florida.
Also buried in Lewis’ in-
box was a warning from
VR’s chief operating offi-
cer, flagging the dangerous
spearphishing attempt and
warning all his customers not
to click on it.
But, it now appears, some-
one did.
Slipped into the long-antic-
ipated special counsel report
on Russian interference in the
2016 election last week was a
single sentence that caused a
stir throughout the state and
raised new questions about
the vulnerability of the na-
tion’s electoral systems.
Although the spearphish-
ing attempt in Florida had
first been brought to light
nearly two years ago when The
though it was likely that
their dispute would be fully
resolved at a board meet-
ing Monday. Supporters
of North spoke up during a
contentious gathering after
his statement, but LaPierre
appeared to hold substantial
support in the room.
Their standoff began
Wednesday, when North
urged LaPierre to resign. On
Thursday, LaPierre sent a let-
ter to the board in which he
accused North of threatening
to release damaging infor-
mation about him and other
executives if he refused to
step down.
The shadow cast by James’
looming action had in some
ways spurred the confronta-
tion unfolding at the NRA’s
annual convention.
Even before her election
in 2018, James had promised
to investigate the organiza-
tion’s tax status, and had
People familiar with
Biden’s thinking say that the
Charlottesville, Va., protests
and the president’s reaction
caused a real shift in 2017 in
the former vice president’s
desire to run for president.
Andrew Bates, a spokesman
for the campaign, said Biden
found the events “profound-
ly disturbing.”
Two weeks later, Biden de-
cided to break the tradition
of former presidents and vice
presidents by writing an arti-
cle that compared Trump to
“the charlatans and the con-
men and the false prophets
who have long dotted our
history.”
Intercept cited a secret Na-
tional Security Agency report,
state officials said they were
certain no elections comput-
ers had been compromised.
The Mueller report turned
that assertion on its head. “The
FBI,” it said, “believes that this
operation enabled the GRU to
gain access to the network of at
least one Florida county gov-
ernment.”
In an interview Friday, Sen.
Marco Rubio, R-Fla., took it
one step further, saying that
Russian hackers not only ac-
cessed a Florida voting system
but were “in a position” to
change voter roll data.
The report has sent Florida
officials scurrying once again
for specifics. Which county?
Could there have been more
than one?
“They won’t tell us which
county it was. Are you kid-
ding me?” an exasperated
Ron DeSantis, Florida’s Re-
publican governor, said at a
news conference in Miami
on Thursday. “Why would
WATERTOWN DAILY TIMES
told Ebony magazine that
the NRA held itself “out as a
charitable organization” but
was actually “a terrorist orga-
nization.”
She has special jurisdic-
tion over the group because
it was chartered in New York.
Her office has broad author-
ity to investigate nonprofits
and can seek a number of
potential remedies against
them in court; a previous
inquiry by James’ predeces-
sors led to the shuttering of
President Donald Trump’s
charitable foundation, a far
smaller enterprise.
“The NRA will fully coop-
erate with any inquiry into
its finances,” said William
Brewer, the NRA’s outside
counsel, in a statement Sat-
urday. “The NRA is prepared
for this, and has full confi-
dence in its accounting prac-
tices and commitment to
good governance.”
MELINA MARRA/WASHINGTON POST
“I think Charlottesville
brought home to him in graph-
ic terms what was at stake for
the election in 2020,” said Ted
Kaufman, a longtime friend
and adviser who worked on
both of Biden’s previous presi-
dential campaigns. “When he
is the most energized is with
situations where some strong
person is exerting power over
someone weaker.”
While re-election efforts
are commonly referendums
on the incumbent, a credo
for other Democrats this year
has been a rapt focus on ei-
ther policy or personality —
in both cases, their own, and
not Trump’s.
you have not said something
immediately?”
The Florida Secretary of
State’s office in Tallahassee
said it had been unable to learn
which county it was. “The de-
partment reached out to the
FBI and they declined to share
that information with us,” said
Sarah Revell, a department
spokeswoman. “No county
has come forward.” The secre-
tary of state who was running
the department at the time,
Ken Detzner, did not respond
to requests for comment.
DeSantis, who took of-
fice in January, is scheduled
to meet with the FBI in the
coming weeks and has prom-
ised to make the information
public if it is not classified.
VR Systems’ chief executive,
Ben Martin, said his company
was aware of only a “small
number of customers” who
had received the fraudulent
email, and of those, none had
notified VR Systems that they
had clicked on the attachment
or were compromised.
Sunday, April 28, 2019 A3
Illicit
pot
sales
boom
CALIFORNIA IRONY:
Long-established
black market rolls
over legalized turf
By THOMAS FULLER
New York Times
COSTA MESA, Calif. — In
the forests of Northern Cali-
fornia, raids by law enforce-
ment officials continue to un-
cover illicit marijuana farms.
In Southern California, hun-
dreds of illegal delivery servic-
es and pot dispensaries, some
of them registered as church-
es, serve a steady stream of
customers. And in Mendocino
County, north of San Francis-
co, the sheriff’s office recently
raided an illegal cannabis pro-
duction facility that was pro-
cessing 500 pounds of mari-
juana a day.
It’s been a little more than
a year since California legal-
ized marijuana — the largest
such experiment in the United
States — but law enforcement
officials say the unlicensed,
illegal market is still thriving
and in some areas has even ex-
panded.
“There’s a lot of money to
be made in the black mar-
ket,” said Mendocino County
Sheriff Thomas Allman, whose
deputies seized cannabis oil
worth more than $5 million in
early April.
Legalization, Allman said,
“certainly didn’t put cops out
of work.”
California Gov. Gavin New-
som has declared that illegal
grows in Northern California
“are getting worse, not bet-
ter” and two months ago re-
deployed a contingent of Na-
tional Guard troops stationed
on the border with Mexico to
go after illegal cannabis farms
instead.
Stepped-up enforcement
comes with a certain measure
of irony — legalization was
meant to open a new chapter
for the state, free from the leg-
acy of heavy policing and in-
carceration for minor infrac-
tions. Instead, there are new
calls for a crackdown on illegal
selling.
Conscious of the conse-
quences that the war on drugs
had on black and Latino com-
munities, cities like Los An-
geles say they are wary of us-
ing criminal enforcement
measures to police the illegal
market and are unsure how to
navigate this uncharted era.
The struggles of the licensed
pot market in California are
distinct from the experience
of other states that have legal-
ized cannabis in recent years.
Sales in Colorado, Oregon and
Washington grew well above
50 percent for each of the first
three years of legalization, al-
though Oregon now also has a
large glut of pot.
But no other state has an ille-
gal market on the scale of Cali-
fornia’s, and those illicit sales
are cannibalizing the revenue
of licensed businesses and, in
some cases, experts say, forcing
them out of business.
Entrepreneurs in the in-
dustry, which spent decades
evading the law, are now turn-
ing to the law to demand the
prosecution of unlicensed pot
businesses.
“We are the taxpayers — no
one else should be operat-
ing,” said Robert Taft, whose
licensed cannabis business in
Orange County, south of Los
Angeles, has seen sales drop in
recent months.
“This is starting to get ri-
diculous,” he said of the illegal
pot shops, including nearby
businesses that list themselves
as churches and advertise
marijuana as a kind of sacra-
ment. “It’s almost like the state
is setting itself up to lose.”