Church volunteer had sex with kids he met at church school, police allege




Christopher Bryan McKenzieA well-known Orange County church has been roiled by allegations that a volunteer sexually assaulted children.


A Sunday school volunteer at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa
allegedly formed relationships with children in his church and went on
to sexually abuse at least one of them multiple times between November
2009 and November 2011, according to church leaders and court documents.


Two families at Rock Harbor came forward with new allegations
against Christopher Bryan McKenzie, the pool cleaner accused of
years-long sexual relationships with at least three children younger
than 14, pastors said Monday night.


McKenzie, 48, of Costa Mesa, attended Rock Harbor and applied to be a
child-care volunteer at the 3,000-member campus in late 2007,
Communications Director Jeff Gideon said.


On Saturday, Newport Beach police announced
they had arrested McKenzie on suspicion of sexually abusing two boys,
one from the late 1990s to 2005 and one from 2005 to 2007. Neither had
ties to the church, police said.


At a Monday night meeting, Rock Harbor pastors announced two families from the congregation added allegations against McKenzie.


Lead Pastor Todd Proctor said the families approached Rock Harbor leadership after the announcement and were directed to police.


It's alleged McKenzie had substantial sexual conduct with one of the
children on at least three occasions, according to court documents.


In total, McKenzie is charged with inappropriate interaction with
four children. The fourth, who pastors said is also from Rock Harbor,
was allegedly used to distribute obscene material.






Pastors told congregants Monday that they don't believe McKenzie had
inappropriate contact with any children at the church or during a church
function. Volunteers are never allowed to be alone with children,
Proctor said.


However, he said, leaders believe McKenzie most likely met the
children and formed relationships with their parents at Rock Harbor
where he volunteered in a fifth-grade classroom for about five years.


At Rock Harbor, all child-care applicants are background checked,
screened on the Megan's Law website, must produce references and are
interviewed, leaders said.


McKenzie pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of
alcohol in 2007. Gideon said the team conducting a background check was
not informed of the incident. If a crime does appear on a volunteer’s
application, a committee weighs the severity and how much time has
elapsed, Gideon said.


McKenzie was ultimately granted approval to volunteer.


"Our kids probably had different levels of interaction with Chris,
and we need to recognize that," Proctor said, adding that he had spoken
to each of his three boys about the allegations. "One of my sons in
particular had way more exposure under Chris' leadership."


Throughout the meeting, pastors repeatedly encouraged parents to talk
to their children and contact police if they believe something
inappropriate occurred.


"It's all heartbreaking," Proctor said.


McKenzie was charged with 10 felony counts of lewd acts upon a child
younger than 14, four felony counts of using a minor for the
distribution of obscene matter, and two felony counts of distributing
pornography to a minor with sentencing enhancements for substantial
sexual conduct with a child and committing lewd acts upon a child
younger than 14 against more than one victim.


If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 45 years to life in state prison. He is being held on $1-million bail.


ALSO:


New litigation related to alleged lewd conduct at Miramonte


Officials blame leak, not explosion, for ammonia spill at Dole plant


More than 1,600 unidentified, unclaimed remains buried in Boyle Heights

--Jeremiah Dobruck, Times Community News


Photo: Christopher Bryan McKenzie. Credit: Daily Pilot


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Cheering U.N. Palestine Vote, New York Synagogue Tests Its Members





Congregation B’nai Jeshurun, a large synagogue on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, is known for its charismatic rabbis, its energetic and highly musical worship, and its liberal stances on social causes.




But on Friday, when its rabbis and lay leaders sent out an e-mail enthusiastically supporting the vote by the United Nations to upgrade Palestine to a nonmember observer state, the statement was more than even some of its famously liberal congregants could stomach.


“The vote at the U.N. yesterday is a great moment for us as citizens of the world,” said the e-mail, which was sent to all congregants. “This is an opportunity to celebrate the process that allows a nation to come forward and ask for recognition.”


The statement, at a time when the United Nations’ vote was opposed by the governments of the United States and Israel, as well as by the leadership of many American Jewish organizations, reflected a divide among American Jews and a willingness to publicly disagree with Israel.


Clergy at several Jewish congregations have, in various ways, spoken out sympathetically about the United Nations’ vote. But B’nai Jeshurun stood out because of its size and prominence, and reaction from congregants was swift. Allan Ripp, a member, said he and his wife were appalled.


“We are just sort of in a state of shock,” he said. “It’s not as if we don’t support a two-state solution, but to say with such a warm embrace — it is like a high-five to the P.L.O., and that has left us numb.”


Other congregants, however, said it was a bold move that they welcomed.


“I thought it was very courageous of them,” said Gil Kulick, a congregant. “I think as of late there has been a reluctance to speak out on this issue,” he added, “and that’s why I was really delighted that they chose to take a strong unequivocal stand.”


American Jews have long had a vigorous, and sometimes vitriolic, debate about the positions of the Israeli government and the peace process with the Palestinians. But the tendency has been to keep critical views within the fold.


“At most times we impose a kind of discipline upon ourselves — nobody imposes it on us — particularly on a matter that the Israeli government has asked for unanimous support from the Jewish community,” said Samuel Norich, the publisher of The Forward, a Jewish affairs weekly based in New York. “When they speak out, that is rare,” Mr. Norich said of mainstream congregations.


Gary Rosenblatt, the editor and publisher of The Jewish Week, the largest-circulation Jewish newspaper in the country, said, “I think the sense of a need for a unified front in the American Jewish community is breaking down.”


In White Plains, a group of synagogues from different branches of Judaism — Conservative, Reform and Reconstructionist — sent an e-mail to congregants after the United Nations’ vote expressing cautious optimism about Palestine’s new status.


“For their own reasons, most of the American Jewish organizations felt it was necessary to fall into line,” said Lester Bronstein, a rabbi at Bet Am Shalom Synagogue in White Plains and one of the signers of the letter. “I think what we said is indicative of what more and more rabbis believe, and more and more, but in trickles, are able to say it.”


 The rabbis at B’nai Jeshurun — J. Rolando Matalon, Marcelo R. Bronstein and Felicia L. Sol — did not respond to requests for comment on the e-mail, which was also signed by the president of the synagogue’s board of directors and its executive director.


While its gist — that the vote could be a step toward a two-state solution and Middle East peace — was not surprising to congregants, its tone and its timing were jarring, some said.


“It’s very shocking to many of the congregants that this position was taken publicly and this e-mail was sent around,” said Eve Birnbaum, a member of the congregation for about 15 years.


“I am very dismayed, as a longstanding member of the synagogue, that the rabbis and the board would take a position that is contrary to what many members believe, contrary to the peace process,” she added.


It was not immediately clear how widespread opposition to the rabbis’ e-mail has been within the congregation, but Mr. Ripp said he had been inundated with messages from people upset about the rabbis’ statement, and some members had posted comments online and circulated e-mails expressing concern.


But others supported the action.


This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 4, 2012

An earlier version of this article misspelled the name of the congregation at one point.  It is B’nai Jeshurun, not B’nai Jeshrun,



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Facebook’s Instagram cuts support for key Twitter integration












SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Facebook Inc’s recently acquired photo-sharing service, Instagram, removed a key element of its integration with Twitter, signaling a deepening rift between two of the Web’s dominant social media companies.


Instagram’s Chief Executive Kevin Systrom said Wednesday his company turned off support for Twitter “cards” in order to drive Twitter users to Instagram’s own website. Twitter “cards” are a feature that allows multimedia content like YouTube videos and Instagram photos to be embedded and viewed directly within a Twitter message.












Instagram’s move marked the latest clash between Facebook and Twitter since April, when Facebook, the world’s no. 1 social network, outbid Twitter to nab fast-growing Instagram in a cash-and-stock deal valued at the time at $ 1 billion. The acquisition closed in September for roughly $ 715 million, due to Facebook’s recent stock drop.


The companies’ ties have been strained since. In July, Twitter blocked Instagram from using its data to help new Instagram users find friends.


Beginning earlier this week, Twitter’s users began to complain in public messages that Instagram photos did not seem to display properly on Twitter’s website.


Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom confirmed Wednesday that his company had decided that its users should view photos on Instagram’s own Web pages and took steps to change its policies.


“We believe the best experience is for us to link back to where the content lives,” Systrom said in a statement, citing recent improvements to Instagram’s website.


“A handful of months ago, we supported Twitter cards because we had a minimal web presence,” Systrom said, noting that the company has since released new features that allow users to comment about and “like” photos directly on Instagram’s website.


The move escalates a rivalry in the fast-growing social networking sector, where the biggest players have sought to wall off access to content from rival services and to their ranks of users. Photos are among the most popular features on both Facebook and Twitter, and Instagram’s meteoric rise in recent years has further proved how picture-sharing has become a key front in the battle for social Internet supremacy.


Instagram, which has 100 million users, allows consumers to tweak the photos they take on their smartphones and share the images with their friends, a feature that Twitter has reportedly also begun to develop. Twitter’s executive chairman Jack Dorsey was an investor in Instagram and hoped to acquire it before Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg tabled a successful bid.


When Zuckerberg announced the acquisition in an April blog post, he said one of Instagram’s strengths was its inter-connectivity with other social networks and pledged to continue running it as an independent service.


“We think the fact that Instagram is connected to other services beyond Facebook is an important part of the experience,” Zuckerberg wrote. “We plan on keeping features like the ability to post to other social networks.”


A Twitter spokesman declined comment Wednesday, but a status message on Twitter’s website confirmed that users are “experiencing issues,” such as “cropped images” when viewing Instagram photos on Twitter.


Systrom noted that Instagram users will be able to “continue to be able to share to Twitter as they originally did before the Twitter Cards implementation.”


(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic and Gerry Shih; Editing by Nick Zieminski)


Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News


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All About Bachelorette Ashley & J.P. Rosenbaum’s Wedding Rings!







Style News Now





12/05/2012 at 09:00 AM ET











Ashley Hebert, J.P. Rosenbaum WeddingCourtesy Neil Lane (4); Victor Chavez/Getty


Neil Lane wants to make one thing clear about newlyweds Ashley Hebert and J.P. Rosenbaum: “Seriously, J.P. and Ashley are so in love,” the celebrity jeweler tells PEOPLE of the Bachelorette season 7 stars. “Say what you will about reality TV, this is real-life love and they’re in this forever!”


So what better way to celebrate such affection than with some serious wedding bling? “We wanted to do something very special for their bands and all of Ashley’s wedding jewelry,” says Lane, who also designed Hebert’s 3.5-carat, central cushion-cut engagement ring (above) for Rosenbaum’s May 2011 proposal. “All three of us worked together on the bands over the last month and for Ashley, we created a design for a handmade, platinum band with French-cut diamonds in the middle section bordered by round diamonds on the side (above).”



For his, “J.P. wanted something stylish and unusual but not too blingy,” Lane says. The upshot? A wide platinum band with a raised elliptical edge in the middle (above) “for a 3D [look].”


Ashley Hebert, J.P. Rosenbaum WeddingCourtesy Neil Lane (2)


Rounding out the couple’s wedding jewelry were 5-carat diamond-and-platinum cufflinks (above) for Rosenbaum (“J.P. wanted a little sparkle and glam on his cuff,” says Lane) and for Hebert, 10 carats of vintage, Indian-style drop earrings (above) and more than 30 carats in diamond bracelets (top).


“They loved the jewelry — and they really love each other,” says Lane, who first met the couple in Fiji toward the end of their season (see photo below). “When I first got to know them in Fiji, I knew they were going to last. They were so affectionate and then when I’ve seen them since it was clear they were a very true, inseparable couple ready to go on life’s journey together. It’s like they have goo-goo eyes for each other! They’re love-struck!” Tell us: Are you a fan of Ashley and J.P.’s gems?


Bachelorette Ashley Hebert Engagement Ring
Courtesy Neil Lane


–Elizabeth Leonard


HAVE AN AMAZING ENGAGEMENT RING OF YOUR OWN? SHOW US HERE!




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Longer tamoxifen use cuts breast cancer deaths


Breast cancer patients taking the drug tamoxifen can cut their chances of having the disease come back or kill them if they stay on the pills for 10 years instead of five years as doctors recommend now, a major study finds.


The results could change treatment, especially for younger women. The findings are a surprise because earlier research suggested that taking the hormone-blocking drug for longer than five years didn't help and might even be harmful.


In the new study, researchers found that women who took tamoxifen for 10 years lowered their risk of a recurrence by 25 percent and of dying of breast cancer by 29 percent compared to those who took the pills for just five years.


In absolute terms, continuing on tamoxifen kept three additional women out of every 100 from dying of breast cancer within five to 14 years from when their disease was diagnosed. When added to the benefit from the first five years of use, a decade of tamoxifen can cut breast cancer mortality in half during the second decade after diagnosis, researchers estimate.


Some women balk at taking a preventive drug for so long, but for those at high risk of a recurrence, "this will be a convincer that they should continue," said Dr. Peter Ravdin, director of the breast cancer program at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio.


He reviewed results of the study, which was being presented Wednesday at a breast cancer conference in San Antonio and published by the British medical journal Lancet.


"The result of this trial will have a major, immediate impact on premenopausal women," Ravdin said.


About 50,000 of the roughly 230,000 new cases of breast cancer in the United States each year occur in women before menopause. Most breast cancers are fueled by estrogen, and hormone blockers are known to cut the risk of recurrence in such cases.


Tamoxifen long was the top choice, but newer drugs called aromatase inhibitors — sold as Arimidex, Femara, Aromasin and in generic form — do the job with less risk of causing uterine cancer and other problems.


But the newer drugs don't work well before menopause. Even some women past menopause choose tamoxifen over the newer drugs, which cost more and have different side effects such as joint pain, bone loss and sexual problems.


The new study aimed to see whether over a very long time, longer treatment with tamoxifen could help.


Dr. Christina Davies of the University of Oxford in England and other researchers assigned 6,846 women who already had taken tamoxifen for five years to either stay on it or take dummy pills for another five years.


Researchers saw little difference in the groups five to nine years after diagnosis. But beyond that time, 15 percent of women who had stopped taking tamoxifen after five years had died of breast cancer versus 12 percent of those who took it for 10 years. Cancer had returned in 25 percent of women on the shorter treatment versus 21 percent of those treated longer.


Tamoxifen had some troubling side effects: Longer use nearly doubled the risk of endometrial cancer. But it rarely proved fatal, and there was no increased risk among premenopausal women in the study — the very group tamoxifen helps most.


"Overall the benefits of extended tamoxifen seemed to outweigh the risks substantially," Dr. Trevor Powles of the Cancer Centre London wrote in an editorial published with the study.


The study was sponsored by cancer research organizations in Britain and Europe, the United States Army, and AstraZeneca PLC, which makes Nolvadex, a brand of tamoxifen, which also is sold as a generic for 10 to 50 cents a day. Brand-name versions of the newer hormone blockers, aromatase inhibitors, are $300 or more per month, but generics are available for much less.


The results pose a quandary for breast cancer patients past menopause and those who become menopausal because of their treatment — the vast majority of cases. Previous studies found that starting on one of the newer hormone blockers led to fewer relapses than initial treatment with tamoxifen did.


Another study found that switching to one of the new drugs after five years of tamoxifen cut the risk of breast cancer recurrence nearly in half — more than what was seen in the new study of 10 years of tamoxifen.


"For postmenopausal women, the data still remain much stronger at this point for a switch to an aromatase inhibitor," said that study's leader, Dr. Paul Goss of Massachusetts General Hospital. He has been a paid speaker for a company that makes one of those drugs.


Women in his study have not been followed long enough to see whether switching cuts deaths from breast cancer, as 10 years of tamoxifen did. Results are expected in about a year.


The cancer conference is sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, Baylor College of Medicine and the UT Health Science Center.


___


Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP


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Man lived with dead girlfriend for months, faced murder charges



Devon Epps during a December 2011 court appearance.

A jury is being selected in Stockton to hear the murder case against a
man accused of living for months with his girlfriend's dead body.


Devon Epps was evicted from his apartment in December 2011. The next
day, when the apartment manager stopped by, they found a dead body in
the bathroom.


The body had been there for some time, authorities said.


Epps was arrested and then arraigned a few days later. At an earlier hearing, he yelled at a San Joaquin County judge, according to Fox 40.




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U.S. Navy Denies Iranian Claim to Have Captured Drone





TEHRAN — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps naval forces have captured an American drone that it said entered Iranian airspace over the Persian Gulf, state television reported on Tuesday. The claim was quickly denied by the United States Navy.




Iranian state media said the aircraft was a ScanEagle built by Boeing, which, according to the company’s Web site, can be launched and operated from ships.


A spokesman for the United States Navy in Bahrain denied the Iranian claim, saying that no American drones were missing.


“The U.S. Navy has fully accounted for all unmanned air vehicles operating in the Middle East region,” a spokesman for the United States Naval Forces Central Command in Bahrain told Reuters. “Our operations in the gulf are confined to internationally recognized water and airspace. We have no record that we have lost any ScanEagles recently.”


However, the drone could have been one used by the Central Intelligence Agency, or even the National Security Agency, which both have eyes on Iran. Several kingdoms of the Persian Gulf also have ScanEagle drones.


If the seizure is confirmed, it would indicate a spike in tension between the United States and Iran in the skies over the gulf. On Nov. 8, Pentagon officials said Iranian warplanes had fired at a Predator drone flying over the gulf the previous week. It was believed to be the first incident in which Iranian warplanes had fired on an American drone, they said.


State television showed images of what seemed to be an intact ScanEagle being inspected by Rear Adm. Ali Fadavi, the commander of the Revolutionary Guards’ naval forces. The drone was displayed in front of a large map of the Persian Gulf with a text in English and Persian saying, “We shall trample on the U.S..”


Without mentioning the drone claim, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Tuesday warned Iran’s adversaries against aggression. “Our enemies should open their eyes,” he said in a speech. “They may be able to take a few steps forward, but in the end we will make them retreat behind their own border.”


Iran’s foreign minister, Ali Akbar Salehi, told state television on Tuesday that the country planned to use the capture of the drone as evidence against the United States in international organizations.


“We had announced to the Americans that according to international conventions, we would not allow them to invade our territories, but unfortunately they did not comply,” Mr. Salehi said. “We had objected to the Americans before, but they claimed they were not present in our territories. We will use this drone as evidence to pursue a legal case against American invasion in international forums.” Admiral Fadavi said his forces had “hunted down” the ScanEagle over the gulf after it violated Iranian airspace and had forced it to land electronically, the semiofficial Fars news agency reported. A state television commentator said the drone was on a spy mission.


A September report by the Government Accountability Office on unmanned aircraft systems warned that some drones were sensitive to jamming and spoofing. In a spoofing operation, an unencrypted GPS signal can be taken over by enemy forces, the report warns, effectively hijacking the drone.


A former member of Iran’s Foreign Policy and National Security Commission said the seizure of the drone illustrated Iran’s growing military powers and showed that the United States was not really interested in mending relations with Tehran.


“How can we trust President Obama for talks if he sends his drones into our airspace?” the former commission member, Heshmatollah Falahatpisheh, said in an interview. “This move is counterproductive for any détente.”


Iran’s Parliament, which always cheers on any success by the Revolutionary Guards, invited top commanders to present details of the capture to lawmakers.


“The hunting and capturing of this American drone once again showed off the defensive and repelling strengths of the Islamic republic to the world,” Ebrahim Aghamohammadi, a member of Parliament, told Fars. “We are moving forward with dominance.”


In the Nov. 1 attack on the Predator, American officials maintained that the drone had been over international waters, while Iranian commanders insisted that it had violated Iranian airspace. Sea and air borders in the region are strongly contested. Iranian naval forces in small speedboats and United States warships monitor the sea lanes, through which nearly 30 percent of the world’s oil is transported.


Last month, Iran complained to the United Nations over at least eight violations of its airspace by American planes.


Iran’s latest claim came 12 months after Iran said it had brought down an RQ-170 Sentinel operated by the C.I.A. At the time, Iranian state television showed images of the bat-winged drone — apparently fully intact — that Iran had nicknamed “the beast of Kandahar,” a reference to a drone base in Afghanistan.


Iran has maintained that it hacked into the RQ-170’s controls and forced it to land. But American officials said it had crashed in Iranian territory.


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China goes crazy for iPhone 5: Preorders hit 100,000 units in under 24 hours












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Anderson Cooper Is Temporarily Blinded















12/04/2012 at 02:30 PM EST



Anderson Cooper can see once again after a temporary – and painful – bout of blindness.

Cooper posted a picture of himself on Instagram Tuesday sporting a white gauze patch over his right eye. "Temporarily blinded last week while on assignment," he said. "UV light bouncing off water. Much better now. Details today on #andersonlive."

On Anderson Cooper Live, he explained how he went blind over the weekend while filming a story for 60 Minutes on the coast of Portugal.

"I wake up in the middle of the night and it feels like my eyes are on fire," he said. "It turns out I have sunburned my eyeballs and I go blind. I went blind for 36 hours. I took this picture of me after I went to the hospital."

He then showed his audience his photo and joked, "That's my new Match.com profile picture, by the way."

But the potential damage he faced is no laughing matter, and Cooper had NBC's chief medical editor, Dr. Nancy Snyderman, on to warn viewers about eye protection.

Snyderman said that the light reflected off the water burned his retinas, but that the hospital visit could have easily been avoided.

"It's a reminder that frankly everyone needs sunglasses," she advised. And to Cooper, she added, "Fortunately for you you're going to be fine, but it's a real reminder."

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CDC says US flu season starts early, could be bad


NEW YORK (AP) — Flu season in the U.S. is off to its earliest start in nearly a decade — and it could be a bad one.


Health officials on Monday said suspected flu cases have jumped in five Southern states, and the primary strain circulating tends to make people sicker than other types. It is particularly hard on the elderly.


"It looks like it's shaping up to be a bad flu season, but only time will tell," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


The good news is that the nation seems fairly well prepared, Frieden said. More than a third of Americans have been vaccinated, and the vaccine formulated for this year is well-matched to the strains of the virus seen so far, CDC officials said.


Higher-than-normal reports of flu have come in from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. An uptick like this usually doesn't happen until after Christmas. Flu-related hospitalizations are also rising earlier than usual, and there have already been two deaths in children.


Hospitals and urgent care centers in northern Alabama have been bustling. "Fortunately, the cases have been relatively mild," said Dr. Henry Wang, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.


Parts of Georgia have seen a boom in traffic, too. It's not clear why the flu is showing up so early, or how long it will stay.


"My advice is: Get the vaccine now," said Dr. James Steinberg, an Emory University infectious diseases specialist in Atlanta.


The last time a conventional flu season started this early was the winter of 2003-04, which proved to be one of the most lethal seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths. The dominant type of flu back then was the same one seen this year.


One key difference between then and now: In 2003-04, the vaccine was poorly matched to the predominant flu strain. Also, there's more vaccine now, and vaccination rates have risen for the general public and for key groups such as pregnant women and health care workers.


An estimated 112 million Americans have been vaccinated so far, the CDC said. Flu vaccinations are recommended for everyone 6 months or older.


On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.


Flu usually peaks in midwinter. Symptoms can include fever, cough, runny nose, head and body aches and fatigue. Some people also suffer vomiting and diarrhea, and some develop pneumonia or other severe complications.


A strain of swine flu that hit in 2009 caused a wave of cases in the spring and then again in the early fall. But that was considered a unique type of flu, distinct from the conventional strains that circulate every year.


__


Online:


CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly


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