Squirrel tests positive for plague

The squirrel was picked up at a campground in early September "It's not something that people should panic about," says an official Authorities recommend avoiding contact with fleas (CNN) -- Authorities in Riverside County, California, said Tuesday that a ground squirrel has tested positive for exposure to fleas infected with the bacteria that can cause plague. It's the country's first positive test in more than a decade, according to Dottie Merki, environmental health program chief at the Riverside County Department of Environmental Health. "It's not something that people should panic about, but we do want them to be educated so they can protect their families and their pets," she said. The squirrel was picked up in early September at a campground north of Idyllwild, located in the San Jacinto Mountains in southern California. Routine tests are done as plague is endemic to the area, said Merki. Authorities plan to conduct more tests this week, weather permitting, she said. Plague is caused by the bacterium, Yersinia pestis. Humans can get plague from handling an infected animal or from being bitten by a rodent flea carrying the bacterium, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Plague can cause serious illness or death, though modern antibiotics are effective in treating it if administered promptly, the CDC said. Health officials in Riverside County stressed that the risk of transmission to humans is small, especially if people take the proper precautions. They offered the following advice: -- Avoid contact with squirrels and other wild animals -- Do not feed or touch wild animals -- Do not touch dead animals -- Do not rest or camp near animal burrows -- Protect your pets by leaving them at home, or by keeping them on a leash and using flea-control methods Deaths rise to 12, with nearly 120 sickened in rare meningitis outbreak

Opinion: Justice elusive in abuse cases

Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was sentenced Tuesday to at least 30 years in prison. Former football coach Jerry Sandusky got long sentence for abusing boys David Finkelhor says abuse leaves collateral damage that is difficult to address He says spotting abuse must be key part of curricula in human service fields Writer: Youth groups, schools, libraries should disseminate guidelines for prevention Editor's note: David Finkelhor is director of the Crimes Against Children Research Center and professor of sociology at the University of New Hampshire. He has been conducting research on victims of child sexual abuse since 1976. (CNN) -- Former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky has been sentenced to a long prison term for sexually abusing boys, and for many people, this means that justice has been done. But in the complex crime of child sexual abuse, "doing justice" is rarely as simple as convicting and locking up the offender. For most victims of sexual abuse, sending the offender to jail is not the most important thing. Their top priority is to be believed, to receive an apology or to restore their sense of trust. Sandusky's victims may have been accorded belief, but the apology does not seem forthcoming, at least from Sandusky. And the sense of trust often takes a long time to repair. For the communities and families damaged by disclosures of sexual abuse, wounds continue to fester long after the cell door closes. There are almost always many who feel guilt or are blamed for having allowed the abuse or for mismanaging the situation and causing avoidable pain. The justice and mental health systems often don't do enough to help with all this collateral damage. But "doing justice" also means preventing future harm. Many victims ultimately come forward to prevent other children (sometimes their own siblings) from becoming victims. Sandusky gets no less than 30 years jail Prosecutor: Sandusky was delusional Allred: Sandusky statements 'desperate' Law enforcement believes that putting abusers away for a long time keeps the community safe. But while convictions and incarcerations do prevent some future offenses, it is naive to think that we can prosecute our way to child safety in this crime. For example, a third of all child sex offenses occur at the hands of other youth (PDF), and these crimes are not likely to be prevented by greater incarceration, in part because few of these juveniles have records that would have allowed authorities to intervene. The key to real prevention is awareness and education. There is no question that the Sandusky case has advanced these goals. Certainly, campuses all over the country are reviewing their standards and educating their staff members to make sure it "won't happen here." But the Sandusky case also reminds us of how much more we potentially have to do. Nearly 50 years after mandatory reporting laws came into effect and 10 years after the priest abuse scandal, highly educated and well-meaning professionals still fail to do the right thing. Here are some changes that should be on our prevention agenda: • Make abuse prevention, detection and management prominent in the curricula of graduate education in all human service fields. • Create off-the-shelf abuse prevention guidelines and educational materials that small and large youth-serving organizations can adopt and disseminate without a lot of expense. • Provide evidence-based prevention education for children and youth at all levels of the educational system. • Through schools, libraries and pediatricians, give parents the skills and vocabularies for talking about abuse with their kids. Finally, we need to see justice in these cases as a process, not just an outcome. Convictions may be obtained, but victims and families are left battered. Studies suggest that most cases with child victims take far too long to resolve in the legal system. Many victims and families complain that they aren't kept up to date on what is happening in the case and why. Victims' identities are often not protected. Investigative interviews and procedures can be intimidating and exhausting. Helpful mental health and support services are not readily available. At the same time, much is being done to make the process more victim-friendly. Child advocacy centers are being established all across the country. Law enforcement is being trained in child development skills and sensitive interviewing practices. Judges are being admonished to speed cases along. But we still have a long way to go before we can close cases like that of Jerry Sandusky with confidence that "justice was done." Follow @CNNOpinion on Twitter Join us at Facebook/CNNOpinion The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Finkelhor.

Body in concrete a missing ex-reporter?

An autopsy was being conducted Tuesday to determine if remains found in Georgia belong to Sean Dugas of Florida. Former Florida reporter, Sean Dugas, 30, goes missing August 27 A buried body encased in concrete is found Monday in a Georgia backyard Twin brothers, 31, are being held on an accusation of concealing a death, police say Police: Brothers earlier told their father they used his backyard to bury the missing man's dog (CNN) -- Authorities were investigating Tuesday whether a concrete-encased body buried in a Georgia backyard is a former Florida journalist who went missing in August. Twin 31-year-old brothers have been arrested on an accusation of concealing the death of another person, said police in Winder, Georgia, where the body was found. William and Christopher Cormier are being detained as the investigation continues, and the twins are known locally for their traveling and playing poker, said Winder Police Chief Dennis Dorsey. An autopsy was being conducted Tuesday to determine if the remains belong to former crime reporter Sean Dugas, 30, of the Pensacola News Journal, who has been missing since August 27, said Pensacola Police Capt. David Alexander. Pensacola detectives were working Tuesday in Winder, Georgia, located about 50 miles northeast of Atlanta. Winder police went to the home of the brothers' father on Monday, acting on information from Pensacola police, Winder Police Chief Dorsey said. The father said his sons arrived from Florida three weeks ago, and the brothers told their father they had been caring for the missing man's dog but ended up killing the dog, Winder police said. The dog was buried in the backyard of a home that the father is renting, Dorsey said. In the yard, police unearthed a body in a plastic storage container that had been encased with concrete, Dorsey said. The body was buried two feet below the surface, Dorsey said. Authorities believe the body was buried about three weeks ago, and the concrete may have been purchased at a Home Depot, Dorsey said. When the two brothers arrived at their father's home during the police investigation, they were detained, Dorsey said. The father hasn't been charged and is cooperating with investigators, Dorsey said. Managing Editor Ginny Graybiel of the Pensacola News Journal said that Dugas worked at the newspaper from 2005 to 2010. "He started as a clerk and became a police reporter -- along the way he did a good bit of entertainment coverage," Graybiel said. "Sean was a very gentle, good-hearted soul. To be the victim of a crime like this is, of course, something we never could have imagined." Dugas' girlfriend noticed he was missing August 27 when she went to pick him up at home for lunch that day and found he wasn't home, Pensacola's Capt. Alexander said in a statement. When she returned to the home on September 7, she found it empty except for a television, Alexander said. A man who also lived at the house was gone, police said. The girlfriend reported to police on September 13 that Dugas was missing, Alexander said. More from CNN Justice: Mother awaits sentence for gluing toddler to wall, beating her Sandusky gets 30 to 60 years for abuse Man indicted in Central Park rape case Police find backpack belonging to missing girl

Federal eavesdropping immunity upheld

Supreme Court upholds law allowing gov't to stop certain suits over terror eavesdropping Groups challenged law broadened after the September 11, 2001, attacks Justices will hear related challenge to surveillance law later this month Washington (CNN) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday left in place a law that allows the Justice Department to stop suits against telecommunications companies for participating in wiretaps of potential terrorists. The ruling was a key setback for civil libertarians challenging the broader powers of government since the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States to use electronic surveillance to track potential threats in the name of national security. The Justices declined to take up a challenge to the once-secret domestic eavesdropping program under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act -- this one involving the monitoring of information moving into and out of the United States. Previous petitions dealing with alleged abuses of the surveillance law also have been rejected by the court. Another case will be heard later this month. In this case, Verizon Communications, Sprint Nextel, and AT&T were accused of privacy violations by assisting the government with intelligence gathering following the hijack attacks on New York and Washington. The law had previously required the government to justify a national security interest before any phone calls and emails originating in another country could be monitored. A federal judge had to sign any search warrant. But President George W. Bush secretly suspended that requirement following the attacks. After "warrantless wiretapping" was exposed, the president and supporters in Congress moved to amend the law, which defenders contend is designed to target only foreigners living outside the United States. The retroactive immunity was challenged in the class action suit turned aside by the high court on Tuesday. Privacy groups worry such electronic dragnets could easily and unknowingly intrude on the privacy rights of U.S. citizens. The government calls that "speculation" but cites national security in refusing to provide specifics. The lawsuits launched by a number of telecommunications customers cited the testimony of Mark Klein, a retired AT&T engineer from San Francisco, who claimed company executives gave government access to internal hardware. The result, he testified, was "vacuum-cleaner surveillance of all the data crossing the Internet, whether that be people's email, web surfing or any other data." In an appeal, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and the American Civil Liberties Union said the retroactive immunity was unconstitutional because it gave unfettered power to the executive branch -- namely the attorney general and the director of national intelligence -- to decide it could not be held accountable in court. Attorney General Eric Holder has used that power to block about 30 suits. Justice Samuel Alito did not participate in the appeal. Previously released financial records show he has owned telecommunications stock and likely recused himself to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest. The Supreme Court will hear a related challenge to the domestic surveillance program on October 29. The larger issue involves the constitutionality of the government's electronic monitoring of targeted foreigners. A federal appeals court in New York last year ruled domestic plaintiffs who deal with global clients and co-workers reasonably feared the government was reading and hearing their sensitive communications. Those groups took costly measures to avoid such intrusions. The question to be addressed is whether certain Americans have "standing" to challenge the federal law without a specific showing they have been monitored. Other lawsuits over the surveillance program that raise various legal issues are pending in lower courts. The case rejected Tuesday is Hepting v. AT&T (11-1200). The case to be heard later this month is Clapper v. Amnesty International USA (11-1025)

Man indicted in Central Park rape case

A 42-year-old man is accused of raping a 73-year-old woman in Central Park The alleged attack took place in daylight The man also is accused of attacking other women New York (CNN) -- The Manhattan district attorney indicted a man Tuesday in the daylight rape of a 73-year-old woman in Central Park in September. David Albert Mitchell, 42, faces 10 charges in New York State Supreme Court, including first-degree rape and sexually motivated robbery, District Attorney Cy Vance's office announced. The woman said she had witnessed a man masturbating in Central Park a few weeks prior to the rape and took a photo for evidence, the DA's office said in a news release. On September 12, a man approached the woman and asked if she recognized him; when she tried to walk away, the man choked and raped her, the office said. Among the 10 charges on which Mitchell was indicted Tuesday, two are misdemeanor sex-abuse charges alleging attacks on two other women immediately after the rape. In addition, Mitchell faces one felony count and one misdemeanor count alleging that he pulled a knife on a man in Central Park three weeks before the rape. Mitchell's attorney declined to comment on Tuesday's indictment. After Mitchell's arrest in mid-September, Paul Browne, deputy commissioner of the New York Police Department, said Mitchell has an extensive arrest record in Virginia and West Virginia. He was charged with murder and sexual assault in 1989 but was acquitted the following year, Browne said, and in May 2003, Mitchell was convicted of abduction and kidnapping in Virginia and sentenced to eight years in prison. CNN's Jason Kessler contributed to this report.

NFL confirms bounty scandal penalties

The Saints' Jonathan Vilma will sit out the season after all, according to an NFL decision Tuesday. NFL commissioner hits four over "conduct detrimental to the league" Nearly two dozen players took part in the Saints' "bounty" program, Goodell says The players' union criticized the NFL and says it's reviewing the decision Two of the players have left the Saints (CNN) -- Football Commissioner Roger Goodell upheld suspensions for four current and former New Orleans Saints players accused of taking part in a three-year "bounty" program, but he reduced the terms for two former team members, the NFL announced Tuesday. Former Saints defensive lineman Scott Fujita's three-game suspension was cut to one game, while the eight-game penalty given to Anthony Hargrove was cut to seven. But the two who remain with the Saints -- Will Smith and Jonathan Vilma -- saw no change to their suspensions, the league announced. NFL officials have concluded all four helped lead a program that offered bonuses to Saints players who inflicted injuries on opponents over a three-year period. Goodell found the program "represented conduct detrimental to the league and professional football." "Our investigation disclosed nearly two dozen players who either contributed to, or received money from, the pool operated by the Saints' defense. The four disciplined players either were involved in specific bounties on an opposing player, contributed substantially to the bounty program, engaged in payments that violated League rules or were untruthful when the program was initially investigated," Goodell said. NFLPA chief: Show us bounty evidence Do audio tapes prove NFL bounty scandal? Is the NFL bounty scandal overblown? Cerullo not 'snitch' in NFL bounty story Louisiana police: No state laws broken in New Orleans Saints wiretapping case The NFL already has penalized the Saints and members of its coaching staff of the program, which operated from 2009-2011. The NFL Players Association, the player's union, said it would "thoroughly" review Goodell's decision "and review all options to protect our players' rights with vigilance." "For more than six months, the NFL has ignored the facts, abused the process outlined in our collective bargaining agreement and failed to produce evidence that the players intended to injure anyone, ever. The only evidence that exists is the League's gross violation of fair due process, transparency and impartiality during this process." But in letters to the players, parts of which were released by the NFL, Goodell wrote that he believes all four deserved suspensions. Vilma, a Saints defensive captain, drew the longest suspension of the four. He was ordered to sit out a full season and is currently on the Saints' injured reserve list. In a letter announcing his decision, Goodell said he's convinced Vilma pledged $10,000 to any teammate who could hurt then-Minnesota Vikings quarterback Brett Favre "to an extent that he would not be able to continue playing" in the 2009 National Conference playoffs. "I recognize that you and some of your teammates have denied that you made such a pledge or claim not to recall your doing so, but I am persuaded, based on the entirety of the record before me, that you did so," Goodell wrote. "And I find that such a pledge or any similar incentive is conduct detrimental." Goodell said Smith, who has been on the field for the Saints this season, acknowledged that he approved of the program but denied "that anyone intended to inflict injury on any opposing player." NFL commissioner Goodell announces anti-bounty steps "Even in the face of repeated appeals to 'crank up the John Deere tractor and cart the guy off,' you and others now claim that the objective was instead merely to 'knock the wind out' of your opponents, requiring them to leave the game for only a play or two," he wrote. "From the standpoint of player safety, fair competition and the integrity of the game, the issues with which I am concerned today, this kind of after-the-fact explanation is little more than wordplay that, in my judgment as Commissioner, offers no basis on which to excuse conduct that does not belong in professional football." As for Fujita, now with the Cleveland Browns, Goodell said he had no evidence that the player had contributed to the bounty pool, but knew about it and didn't speak out against it. "Your failure to act contributed to allowing this program to remain in place not only during the 2009 season, but for two additional seasons after that," Goodeel wrote. Meanwhile, Hargrove is now a free agent and will be credited with the five regular-season games he has missed so far -- leaving him to sit out two games once he's signed to another team. Goodell wrote that Hargrove tried to mislead investigators and block the NFL probe into the Saints and made several statements that were "not credible" during a mid-September meeting. Saints general manager said he did not eavesdrop CNN's David Close contributed to this report.

CIA's secret bin Laden training site revealed

Bing.com/maps A Bing Maps view of the Harvey Point Defense Testing Facility. By Jeff Black NBC News In the best-selling book "No Easy Day," a retired Navy SEAL who was on the raid that killed Osama bin Laden revealed that training for the assault on the al-Qaida leader's compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, took place in North Carolina. Taking that information, the creators of the whistleblowing site Cryptome.org, apparently scoured satellite imagery of CIA facilities in North Carolina. After putting in the coordinates in Google Maps for the Harvey Point Defense Testing facility, purportedly a CIA training ground, only a clearing in a field was seen. On Bing Maps, however, Cryptome spotters, spied what looks like an uncompleted mockup of the bin Laden compound in Abbottabad. Cryptome published its findings on its website on Tuesday. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has said revelations in the book, written under the pseudonym Mark Owen, could put future operations in jeopardy and suggested that the writer should be punished for writing the best-seller. Digitalglobe / Reuters file This DigitalGlobe satellie image, taken June 15, 2005 and obtained on May 3, 2011, shows the compound that Osama bin Laden was killed in on Monday in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Although the Pentagon has said it had dismantled the facility, Cryptome found the imagery on a dated satellite pictures. Satellite imagery is not updated that often, sometimes not for years.  Cryptome is a website that uses publicly available material to reveal what would otherwise be secret. The site is run by John Young, a New-York based architect and political activist who was spilling confidential information even before WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange released secret government documents, according to a book review and profile of Young published on the website of Forbes magazine. NBC News senior investigative producer Robert Windrem contributed to this report. "No Easy Day," written by a former Navy SEAL who helped take down Osama bin Laden, claims the al-Qaida leader did not defend himself during the raid. The book will become available on Sept. 4, earlier than the anticipated Sept. 11 release date. NBC's Jim Miklaszewski reports. More content from NBCNews.com: 'Warmest year' looking more likely for 2012 across continental US Jerry Sandusky's victims said to be largely satisfied with sex abuse sentence Gay Scouts come out, rally around teen's Eagle Scout bid 1 in 5 Americans is not religiously affiliated, survey finds Deadly crossing: Death toll rises among those desperate for American Dream Video: Mexican authorities arrest suspect in tourist murder Follow US news from NBCNews.com on Twitter and Facebook