'The Rifleman' to face Whitey Bulger at Boston mob trial

J. Pat Carter / AP file

Stephen "The Rifleman" Flemmi testifying in September 2008.

By Tracy Connor, Staff Writer, NBC News

Accused Boston mob boss James ?Whitey? Bulger hasn?t laid eyes on his old partner, Stephen ?The Rifleman? Flemmi, since he skipped town in 1994 on the cusp of being indicted.

U.S. Marshals Service via Reuters

James "Whitey" Bulger, who has pleaded not guilty, is accused of participating in 19 murders and a range of other crimes involving money-laundering, extortion, drugs and weapons. If he's convicted of just two counts, he could go to prison for life.

That will change this week ? and if the recent past is any indication, Flemmi?s turn as star prosecution witness at Bulger?s racketeering and murder trial could be explosive.

When Bulger?s former prot?g?, Kevin Weeks, took the stand against him last week, hard stares were exchanged and expletives flew across the federal courtroom.

Bulger, 83, also lost his cool when retired FBI agent John Morris testified the gangster had secretly worked as an informant, calling him ?a [expletive] liar,? according to prosecutors.

Flemmi, 78, was the No. 2 man in the Winter Hill Gang but he stayed put in Boston to face federal charges while Bulger went on the lam for 16 years.

When he pleaded guilty in 2003, admitting to 10 murders, the brother of one of his victims became so enraged he started yelling and was escorted from the courtroom.

?It was hard to take,? said Steve Davis, brother of Flemmi's girlfriend Debra Davis, who was allegedly strangled in 1981 and buried on a riverbank because she knew too much.

Davis said he would try to control himself when Flemmi makes his return to Boston ? but no promises.

?I?m disgusted thinking about him,? he said. ?Guy makes me sick.?

And, he said, no one knows how Bulger will react to having his former right-hand-man working to put him behind bars for the rest of his life.

"This could be the boiling point of the whole trial," said Davis, who has not missed a day since the trial began with opening statements June 12.

While Bulger was living under an assumed name in California, Flemmi testified in 2009 at a civil trial on lawsuits filed by victims against the FBI and said Whitey wanted Davis dead out of jealousy and fear.

"Bulger kind of resented the fact that I didn't spend enough time with him," Flemmi told the court. "He would contact me and I wouldn't respond."

He said that when Bulger learned that Flemmi had told Davis about their relationship with the FBI, she was doomed.

"He wanted to kill her," Flemmi said.

For this trial, Flemmi will follow a rogue?s gallery of state witnesses to the stand, including hitman John ?The Executioner? Martorano, who served just a dozen years in prison after admitting to 20 murders.

Courtesy Steve Davis

Debra Davis, ex-girlfriend and murder victim of Stephen Flemmi.

Like Martorano, Flemmi is expected to detail a number of bloody crimes he claims he committed with Bulger, the slaying of Debra Davis among them.

What will really anger Bulger, however, is if Flemmi joins other witnesses in portraying his old friend as informant who snitched for the FBI.

When Weeks called him a "rat," Bulger cursed at him in the courtroom.

Davis' hope is that whatever Flemmi says on the stand will infuriate Bulger so much that he feels like he needs to testify and tell his side of the story ? the only way he thinks he can get answers about his sister's death.

If not, he'll have to settle for Bulger stewing at the defense table while Flemmi relives the past. Does Davis think that Bulger will hurl a few choice words at Flemmi like he did with Weeks?

"I don?t know," he said. "But that was fun."

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Waves: Sports TV/Radio listings for Tuesday, July 16

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California Insurance Commissioner on Obamacare Enrollment ...

credit: brianwallace / Foter / CC BY-NCThe announcement earlier this month that state-run health exchanges under Obamacare will not be required to independently verify an individual?s income or insurance status has already opened up the health law to the risk of fraud and improper subsidy payments.

And now insurance officials in California see another fraud risk associated with enrollment in the law in the lack of controls on the enrollment counselors the state is planning to hire. The AP reports that the state?s insurance commissioner is warning that the lax requirements for would-be sign-up assisters could open the door to identity theft and fraud:

The exchange, known as Covered California, recently adopted rules for a network of more than 21,000 enrollment counselors who will provide consumers with in-person assistance as part of the federal Affordable Care Act. In some cases, they will have access to personal and financial information, from?ID cards?to medical histories.

But the state insurance commissioner and anti-fraud groups say the exchange is falling short in ensuring that the people hired as counselors are adequately screened and monitored.

Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones also said the exchange does not have a plan for investigating any complaints that might arise once the counselors start work. That means consumers who might fall prey to bogus health care products, identity theft and other abuses will have a hard time seeking justice if unscrupulous counselors get ahold of their Social Security number, bank accounts,?health records?or other private information, he said.

"We can have a real disaster on our hands," Jones, a Democrat, said in an interview.

To some extent, this is just an industry turf war. Health insurance agents and brokers are worried about enrollment counselors moving into their space, and would prefer for navigators to face greater scrutiny. But the fraud concerns are not completely without merit. Because Obamacare?s legions of enrollment assisters will be tasked with helping people sign up for insurance under the law, they will in many cases have to be able to access sensitive personal information?income, medical records, perhaps even Social Security numbers. That creates the potential for abuse by people who are being paid by the government to help boost Obamacare?s enrollment.

There?s a bigger related issue here, though, and that?s whether it is legal to pay for these enrollment counselors using federal exchange grants, as California is doing.?

Obamacare sets up a ?navigator? program that employs people to help assist with enrolling in the law. But the law also says that states running their own exchanges?like California?can?t use federal exchange grants to pay for navigators. But that?s what California wanted to do, so the state and the Obama administration agreed on a neat little trick: They decided not to call the folks working for their enrollment assistance program ?navigators.? But it?s pretty clearly a navigator program in all but name, and California is using federal exchange grant money to fund it.

Congressional Republicans have raised questions about this, to little effect. It?s potentially a big issue, though, given the cost (California has received $910 million in federal exchange funding) and the importance of enrollment, especially in California, to the overall Obamacare scheme It?s also another example of how the administration has taken to ignoring the parts of the law that it finds inconvenient.?

Source: http://reason.com/blog/2013/07/15/california-insurance-commissioner-on-oba

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Syrian troops advance against rebels in Damascus

DAMASCUS, Syria (AP) ? Government troops fired tank shells and artillery in heavy clashes between Syrian forces and rebels Sunday on the edge of Damascus, where the military has been pushing its offensive to retake key districts that have been in opposition hands for months.

The Syrian army has seized the momentum in the civil war over the past three months, wresting back territory lost to rebel forces and solidifying its hold over contested areas, particularly on the fringes of Damascus. Two of the embattled districts are Jobar and Qaboun, from which rebels frequently launch mortar rounds on the heart of the capital.

A Syrian military commander said forces loyal to President Bashar Assad have recaptured 60 percent of Jobar, south of Qaboun, and were trying to retake the rest. The commander talked to reporters Sunday during a military escorted tour of Jobar organized by the Information Ministry. His claim could not be independently verified.

An Associated Press reporter on the tour saw widespread destruction that pointed to heavy fighting in the neighborhood. Marble tile factories were destroyed. Reporters made their way in the devastated area by climbing through holes knocked in walls because of warnings of rebel snipers in the area.

At least two bodies, apparently those of rebel gunmen, lay on the floor of a bunker described by the official as a "terrorist" hideout.

"The army is advancing rapidly in Jobar ... the area will be secured in the next few days according to a well-studied plan," the commander said. He declined to be named in line with regulations.

Jobar is near the road linking Damascus with its eastern suburbs known as Eastern Ghouta. Rebels have been using the road to transport weapons and other supplies to the capital, the seat of Assad's power.

The commander said the Jobar-Qaboun axis was important to "cleanse Ghouta from terrorist groups."

Assad's government routinely describes the rebels fighting to overthrow him as terrorists playing out a foreign conspiracy hatched by Israel, the United States and some of its Arab allies in the region, like Qatar and Saudi Arabia.

During the tour of Jobar, reporters were taken to a hideout the army said it seized a day earlier after killing 30 rebels and their leader there. Reporters were shown RPG mortar rounds and explosive devices, as well as an alleged chemical material with a strong odor.

Arabic graffiti on the walls read: "The al-Tawhid Brigade," and "the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant" ? names of militant groups fighting to topple Assad.

Sunday's tour came as Syria's main Western-backed opposition group claimed that 200 civilians were trapped in a mosque in Qaboun as fighting raged outside between rebels and Assad's army. It warned that thousands of civilians in Qaboun could be "massacred" by Assad's army as armored vehicles and elite forces move in.

The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which relies on a network of activists on the ground, said dozens of people were held captive Saturday by regime forces in the basement of the al-Omari mosque, but they were able to escape when clashes broke out between rebel and regime forces in the perimeter of the mosque, and the troops retreated.

It said 13 people, including seven fighters, died in the shelling of Qaboun Sunday.

"They (troops) are using tanks and artillery and are trying to break into Qaboun. The shelling is very intense and there is a lot of smoke," said an activist in the area, speaking via Skype on condition of anonymity, fearing retribution.

"This is day 26 of a bombing campaign, and they still haven't been able to break Qaboun," he said.

In Washington, U.S. officials said Israel targeted advanced anti-ship cruise missiles near Syria's principal port city in an airstrike earlier this month, according to a report by The New York Times. It cited the officials as saying the attack on July 5 near Latakia targeted advanced Russian-made Yakhont missiles that Russia sold to Syria.

There was no immediate comment from Assad's government, whose key political ally and arms supplier is Russia.

Asked about the reports on the CBS-TV show "Face the Nation," Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu refused to confirm or deny Israeli involvement.

He insisted that he will not allow "dangerous weapons" to reach Lebanon's Hezbollah militants.

___

Halaby reported from Amman, Jordan. Associated Press writers Zeina Karam in Beirut and Josef Federman in Jerusalem contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/syrian-troops-advance-against-rebels-damascus-143301924.html

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Apple to probe death of Chinese woman who died charging iPhone

Apple Inc is investigating an accident in which a Chinese woman was killed by an electric shock when answering a call on her iPhone 5 while it was charging, the U.S. technology company said on Monday.

Last Thursday, Ma Ailun, a 23-year-old woman from China's western Xinjiang region and a flight attendant with China Southern Airlines, was electrocuted when she took a call on the charging mobile telephone, the official Xinhua news agency quoted police as saying on Sunday.

"We are deeply saddened to learn of this tragic incident and offer our condolences to the Ma family. We will fully investigate and cooperate with authorities in this matter," Apple said in an e-mail.

Apple declined to comment on details, such as whether this was an isolated case.

Ma's sister tweeted on Sina's microblog saying that Ma collapsed and died after using her charging iPhone 5 and urged users to be careful, a message that went viral on the site.

In April, Apple apologized to Chinese consumers and altered iPhone warranty policies in its second-biggest market after its after-sales service suffered more more than two weeks of condemnation by the state-run media.

(Reporting by Lee Chyen Yee; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)

Source: http://au.ibtimes.com/articles/490320/20130715/apple-to-probe-death-of-chinese-woman-who-died-charging-iphone.htm

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