Sources: 16 killed in N.Y. rampage
Gunman blocks back door, opens fire at immigrant offices in Binghamton

Binghamton shooter deadApril 3: Law enforcement officials tell NBC’s Pete Williams that one gunman is responsible for the mass shooting and hostage drama in Binghamton, N.Y., and that he has died.
Binghamton shooter ID’d April 3: NBC’s Pete Williams identifies the man responsible for shooting and holding hostages in Binghamton, N.Y.’s American Civic Association building as 42-year-old Jiverly Voong.

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. - A gunman walked into an immigrant services center and opened fire on Friday, killing 15 people before he killed himself, law enforcement sources told NBC News.
Earlier, Gov. David Paterson put the number of dead at 12 to 13.
A federal law enforcement official said the suspected gunman was found dead in the building of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.
The man carried identification with the name of 42-year-old Jiverly Voong of nearby Johnson City, N.Y., a law enforcement official said. Sources later told NBC’s Pete Williams that the name Voong, as well as another surname initially reported, was an alias.
“I speak for all of New York when I offer my prayers for the victims and families of this tragedy,” Paterson said hours after the gunman shot several people and took dozens hostage. The gunman first blocked the back door with his car, authorities said.
Rep. Maurice Hinchey, whose district includes Binghamton, said the gunman had recently been let go from IBM in Johnson City and opened fire on a citizenship class.
“People were there in the process of being tested for their citizenship,” Hinchey said in a telephone interview. “It was in the middle of a test. He just went in and opened fire.”
Authorities scheduled a news conference for Friday afternoon.
At least 41 people were in the American Civic Association building at the time of the shooting and that citizenship classes had been scheduled Friday at the center, The Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin reported.
Mayor Matthew Ryan initially said the gunman had a high-powered rifle but law-enforcement sources later told NBC that he had actually used two handguns.
The suspect was described as a man in his 20s between 5 feet, 8 inches, and 6 feet tall, wearing a bright green nylon jacket and dark-rimmed glasses.
Police locked down a nearby high school and advised local business owners to stay inside.
Rich Griffith, who works across the street from the hostage scene, said he saw three people carried out of the building on stretchers alive.
Binghamton, with a population around 45,000, is about 150 miles northwest of New York City. The American Civic Association helps immigrants in the area with naturalization applications, counseling, resettlement, citizenship, family reunification and translators.
Mary Pat Hyland, who teaches classes at the center, told MSNBC that many of the immigrants served there are from Vietnam and Laos. “We have a very diverse ethnic area,” she said.
The association’s president, Angela Leach, “is very upset right now,” said Mike Chanecka, a friend who answered a call at her home as Leach wept in the background.
“She doesn’t know anything; she’s as shocked as anyone,” Chanecka said. “For some reason, she had the day off today. And she’s very worried about her secretary.”
At least six hospitalizedFive people with gunshot wounds were being treated at Wilson Medical Center in Johnson City, according to hospital spokeswoman Christina Boyd.
The wounded ranged in age from 20 to their mid-50s, and their conditions ranged from stable to critical, she said.
Linda Miller, a spokeswoman at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Binghamton, confirmed that a student from Binghamton University was being treated in the emergency room.
Around 1 p.m. ET, Pennie Kerber, 72, told the AP in a phone call from her home across the street that the scene appeared to be settling down.
“The cops are all standing around in the front now. They’re still all over the roof for sure,” she said. “The SWAT shooters that were to the side of the building look like they’re not there anymore.”
Redeemer Lutheran Church in Binghamton planned a prayer vigil on Friday night for those affected by the shooting.
Police evacuate studentsWhen the shooting started at 10:30 a.m. ET, people fled to the basement in search of safety. More than a dozen people were hiding in a closet for more than an hour.
College student Leslie Shrager told the AP that she and her five housemates were sleeping when police pounded on the front door of their house next door to the shooting scene.
Officers escorted the six Binghamton University students outside, she said, and that’s when they learned of the shooting.
“One of our housemates thought they heard banging of some kind. But when you’re living in downtown Binghamton, it’s always noisy,” said Shrager, of Slingerlands, an Albany suburb. “Literally two minutes later the cops came and got us out.”

I WONDER WHAT MAKES KIDS DECIDED THEY NEED TO GO ON A SHOOTING SPREE AND KILL PEOPLE. I GUESS IT IS SOMETHING THAT I WILL NEVER UNDERSTAND.
WINNENDEN, Germany – Police say a girl seriously injured in a school shooting near Stuttgart has died of her wounds in the hospital, bringing the death toll to 17, including the gunman.
Police say 17-year-old Tim K., a former student who graduated from the Albertville high school last year, opened fire in two classrooms early Wednesday morning before fleeing.
He hijacked a car, triggering a manhunt, and was found in a nearby town where he was confronted by police and killed in the ensuing shootout.
The death toll brings the killing on par with Germany’s worst school shooting ever, when a 19-year-old killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer and himself in Erfurt in 2002.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.
WINNENDEN, Germany (AP) — A 17-year-old gunman dressed in black opened fire at his former high school in southwestern Germany on Wednesday then fled in a hijacked car, killing at least 15 people before police shot him to death, state officials said.
The gunman entered the school in Winnenden and opened fire, shooting at random, police said. He killed nine students, three teachers and a passer-by outside the building, officials said.
“He went into the school with a weapon and carried out a bloodbath,” said regional police chief Erwin Hetger. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life.”
Triggering a land and air manhunt, he hijacked a car, freed the passengers and drove about 25 miles (40 kilometers) before police found him. When confronted, he killed two bystanders in a shootout with police before he was slain, Baden Wuerttemburg governor Guenther Oettinger said. Two officers were seriously injured, but there was no immediate information on other casualties.
Four hours after the shootings began, police announced the teenager’s death.
It was the nation’s worst shooting since another teenage gunman killed 16 people and himself in another high school in 2002.
Concerned parents quickly swarmed the school, which was evacuated.
Police have have identified the gunman only as Tim K, who graduated last year from the school of about 1,000 students.
The German government was “deeply shocked and incensed about the appalling killing spree,” Ulrich Wilhelm, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel, said in Berlin.
In 2002, 19-year-old Robert Steinhaeuser shot and killed 12 teachers, a secretary, two students and a police officer before turning his gun on himself in the Gutenberg high school in Erfurt, in eastern Germany.
Steinhaeuser, who had been expelled for forging a doctor’s note, was a gun club member licensed to own weapons. The attack led Germany to raise the age for owning recreational firearms from 18 to 21.

Soldier mom, kids plan to report for duty
N.C. woman settles on alternative to leaving family behind, refusing orders
The Associated Press

DAVIDSON, N.C. - When Lisa Pagan reports for duty Sunday, four long years after she was honorably discharged from the Army, she will arrive with more than her old uniform. She is bringing her kids, too.
“I have to bring them with me,” she said. “I don’t have a choice.”
Pagan is among thousands of former service members who have left active duty since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, only to later receive orders to return to service. They are not in training, they are not getting a Defense Department salary, but as long as they have time left on their original enlistment contracts, they are on “individual ready reserve” status — eligible to be recalled at any time.
Soldiers can appeal, and some have won permission to remain in civilian life. Pagan filed several appeals, arguing that because her husband travels for business, no one else can take care of her kids. All were rejected, leaving Pagan with what she says is a choice between deploying to Iraq and abandoning her family, or refusing her orders and potentially facing charges.
Then she hit on the idea of showing up Sunday at Fort Benning, Georgia, with her children in tow.
“I guess they’ll have to contact the highest person at the base, and they’ll have to decide from there what to do,” Pagan said. “I either report and bring the children with me or don’t report and face dishonorable discharge and possibly being arrested. I guess I’ll just have to make my case while I’m there.”
‘Obligations and commitments’Master Sgt. Keith O’Donnell, an Army spokesman in St. Louis, said the commander at Fort Benning will decide how to handle the situation.
“The Army tries to look at the whole picture and they definitely don’t want to do anything that jeopardizes the family or jeopardizes the children,” O’Donnell said. “At the same time, these are individuals who made obligations and commitments to the country.”
Of the 25,000 individual ready reserve troops recalled since September 2001, more than 7,500 have been granted deferments or exemptions, O’Donnell said. About 1,000 have failed to report. O’Donnell said most of those cases are still under investigation, while 360 soldiers have been separated from the Army either through “other than honorable” discharges or general discharges.
He said Pagan is not likely to face charges, since none of the individual ready reserve soldiers who have failed to report faced a court-martial.
Pagan, who grew up near Camden, N.J., was working in a department store when she made her commitment in September 2002. She learned how to drive a truck, and met Travis while stationed in Hawaii. She had her first child while in uniform, and they left the service in 2005 when their enlistments were up.
She always knew there was a chance she could be recalled, so she buried the thought in the back of her mind.
“When I enlisted, they said almost nobody gets called back when you’re in the IRR,” she said.
The young family settled outside of Charlotte in the college town of Davidson, where Travis landed a job as a salesman. It required lots of travel, but that was OK — Pagan enjoyed her life as a stay-at-home mom to their son Eric and second child, a daughter named Elizabeth.
She opened a child-care center in her home, and started taking classes at nearby Fayetteville State.
Mom makes her pleaThe orders to return to active duty arrived in December 2007. She told the Army there was no one to take care of her children: Her husband spent most of his time on the road, and they believe quitting his job is a sure path to bankruptcy and foreclosure. Her parents live in New Jersey and her husband’s parents live in Texas. Neither are able to help out. The Army was not persuaded.
Pagan hired attorney Mark Waple, who filed another appeal, which included a letter from Travis Pagan’s employer that said bluntly: “In order for Travis to remain an employee, he will be required to travel.” In December 2008, her appeal was again rejected.
“It’s the obligation of commanders to make certain that service members have a valid family care plan and that clearly has not happened in Lisa’s case,” Waple said.
Tom Tarantino, a policy associate with the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, a nonprofit group that helps veterans, said the Army has taken a hard line on many of these cases.
“Usually the only way that someone can get out of the deployment or get out of the military due to a family hardship is if they get into a situation where the kids will be put into foster care,” Tarantino said.
“That’s how serious it has to be, and I’m sure what the military is telling her — and I’m not saying that this is exactly the right answer — but the fact that it is inconvenient for her husband’s job is not the military’s problem. It’s very harsh.”
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29441874/?GT1=43001

Mich. woman with 2 wombs delivers twins
Mother has a condition known as uterus didelphys
The Associated Press
MARQUETTE, Mich. - A Michigan woman with two wombs has given birth to twin daughters — one from each uterus.
The Mining Journal and WLUC-TV report that Sarah Reinfelder’s two healthy babies were delivered seven weeks premature Thursday by cesarean section at Marquette General Hospital in the Upper Peninsula.
The 21-year-old Sault Ste. Marie woman has a condition known as uterus didelphys, and doctors say such twin births are rare. The uteri are different sizes, with the larger twin born from the larger uterus.
Dr. Connie Hedmark and Dr. Breanna Pond first delivered Kaylin Joy, then Valerie Marie, the larger twin by one pound. Kaylin Joy weighed 3 pounds, 15 ounces.
Neonatologist Julie Frei says she expects that the twins, who don’t have fully developed lung function, likely will be hospitalized for three or four weeks.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29446416/?GT1=43001

I SAW THIS STORY AND THOUGHT IT WAS WEIRD. I HAVE NEVER HEARD OF THIS CONDITION BEFORE SO I FIGURED I WOULD POST IT. THOUGHT EVERYONE COULD READY ABOUT IT. I LOVE TO LEARN NEW THINGS ABOUT THE MEDICAL FIELD, SO WHEN I FIND NEW THINGS I LOVE TO POST THEM.