Hospital radiologists can help detect domestic violence, researchers say

NEW YORK - Radiologists, who typically interact little with patients, can play a key role in identifying victims of abuse by spotting patterns of injuries that point to domestic violence, researchers said on Tuesday.

Abuse victims, most often women, have more face, skull and arm fractures than other patients, combined with high rates of asthma, chronic pain and suicide attempts, a team at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston reported.

The signs of abuse can be detected by radiologists, who specialize in interpreting images such as X-rays, given that such victims undergo four times more emergency-related imaging exams than other patients, the researchers said.

The abuse can be physical, sexual and psychological, they said.

"There's a wealth of information that's available to us as radiologists," said Dr. Elizabeth George, chief resident in the department of radiology at Brigham and Women's Hospital and a lead researcher of the report.

"There might be indications on the prior imaging, and if you see a pattern, that could alert you to something else going on in this case, such as violence."

The World Health Organization reports that one in three women experiences physical or sexual violence in her lifetime.

The Violence Policy Center, a research and advocacy group focused on gun violence, reported that more than half the women murdered in the United States last year were killed by current or former romantic partners.

Signs of abuse can be easily missed in a busy hospital emergency department, George said.

The researchers also said hospital records may not identify or report certain injuries as abuse.

"Survivors need someone there who knows what's happening," said Ruth Glenn, head of the Colorado-based National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.

"That alone can plant the seed to find safety. The medical field is perfectly set up to do this."

Turning the findings into action to help victims will require a coordinated effort among radiologists, social workers, emergency room doctors and others, George told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

More than 96 percent of U.S. victims of violence at the hands of an intimate partner are women, and the highest rates occur among black and Hispanic women, according to the report, published in Radiology, a journal of the Radiological Society of North America.

(Reporting by Kate Ryan; Editing by Ellen Wulfhorst. Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's and LGBT+ rights, human trafficking, property rights, and climate chenge. Visit www.trust.org)

source: news.abs-cbn.com

NFL: Thousands join Patriots for Super Bowl victory parade

NEW YORK -- Hundreds of thousands of people lined the streets of downtown Boston on Tuesday for a Super Bowl victory parade to celebrate the New England Patriots capturing their sixth NFL championship.

The Patriots defeated the Los Angeles Rams 13-3 on Sunday in Super Bowl 53 at Atlanta to win their third NFL crown in five seasons and sixth in 18 campaigns.

Six-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, head coach Bill Belichick and Julian Edelman, the Super Bowl Most Valuable Player, held the championship trophy high into the air from the back of a truck.

Other teammates rode in the city's famous "duck boats" -- vehicles that can handle streets or water -- and waved at cheering spectators in unusually warm weather of 61 degrees (16 Celsius) under partly cloudy skies.

Red, white and blue confetti fell along the parade route as screaming fans, many wearing jerseys of their beloved Patriots and some waiting six hours for a prime viewing spot, greeted players along the route from the Hynes Convention Center to City Hall.

Sports championship parades are getting to be common for Boston teams in the 21st Century, with a 12th overall championship for area clubs.

In addition to six for the Patriots, Major League Baseball's Boston Red Sox enjoyed one last October 31 after capturing the World Series for the fourth time in 15 seasons.

The Boston Bruins won the 2011 National Hockey League crown and the Boston Celtics claimed the NBA title in 2008.

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Boston gangster James ‘Whitey’ Bulger found dead in prison

James "Whitey" Bulger, who lived a double life as one of Boston's most notorious mobsters and as a secret FBI informant before going on the run for 16 years, was found dead at a federal prison in West Virginia, the Federal Bureau of Prisons said.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation was looking into Bulger's death, the Bureau of Prisons said in its statement.

Bulger's death at age 89 came a day after he was transferred to the high-security prison. Federal officials did not give a cause of death but the Bureau of Prisons said no other inmates or staff were injured. CNN and the Boston Globe reported that Bulger was killed without giving further details.

Henry Brennan, a defense lawyer for Bulger, said in an email he could not confirm or deny the reports.

Bulger was convicted in August 2013 of 11 murders, among other charges including racketeering, and sentenced to two consecutive life terms plus five years.

Prison had been something Bulger had gone to great lengths to avoid - killing potential witnesses, cultivating corrupt lawmen and living as a fugitive for 16 years. It all ended when a tip from a former Icelandic beauty queen led to his capture in June 2011 in Santa Monica, California, where he was living with a long-time girlfriend.

Bulger and his Winter Hill gang had operated for more than two decades in the insular Irish-dominated South Boston neighborhood, engaging in loan sharking, gambling, extortion, drug dealing and murder. They did so with the tacit approval of an FBI agent who looked the other way when it came to Bulger's crimes so that he would supply information on other gangsters.

Bulger, portrayed by Johnny Depp in the 2015 film "Black Mass," was feared for his short temper and brutality. Prosecutors said he strangled two women with his hands and tortured a man for hours before shooting him in the head with a machine gun.

"We took what we wanted," Kevin Weeks, a former Bulger lieutenant who would eventually testify against him, wrote in "Brutal," his memoir. "We made millions through extortion and loansharking and protection. And if someone ratted us out, we killed him. We were not nice guys."

Bulger was born Sept. 3, 1929, and grew up in South Boston. He was called "Whitey" because of his light blond hair but was said to detest the nickname and preferred being called Jimmy. As a teenager he joined a gang known as The Shamrocks, compiled an arrest record for assault and armed robbery and ended up in a juvenile reformatory.

Bulger was a bank robber early in his criminal career, which landed him in prisons such as the infamous Alcatraz, located on an island in San Francisco Bay.

Upon his release in 1965, he eventually fell in with the Irish mob in South Boston and worked his way through the ranks as a bookie and loan shark. He survived a gang war between two Irish mobs and was a leading figure in Boston's underworld by the early 1970s.

His career was boosted by his relationship with rogue FBI agent John J. Connolly, who Bulger had known since they were boys. Connolly was supposed to be in charge of getting information out of him and Bulger did provide information that helped the FBI go after his main rival, New England's Italian Mafia, as well as local criminals.

In return, Connolly let Bulger know about working investigations while Bulger and close associate Steve "The Rifleman" Flemmi carried on with impunity. After he retired from the FBI, Connolly tipped off Bulger about a coming indictment, sending the mobster on the run in 1995.

Connolly was convicted in 2008 of racketeering, taking bribes and second-degree murder for his role in the slaying of an accountant who Bulger and Flemmi feared would testify against them.

"A BAD, BAD, BAD GUY"

Bulger's former associates turned on him while he was at large and their information led to a 2000 indictment that originally charged him with 19 murders.

"The guy is a sociopathic killer," Tom Foley, who worked on Bulger cases for the Massachusetts State Police, told CNN. "He loved that type of life. He's one of the hardest and cruelest individuals that operated in the Boston area. He's a bad, bad, bad guy."

When Bulger fled, he first took Teresa Stanley, his girlfriend of 30 years, with him. After a few weeks at large, however, Stanley wanted to go home so Bulger dropped her off in the Boston area. He picked up another of his girlfriends, Catherine Greig, and disappeared again.

Bulger spent his final years of freedom in No. 303 of the Princess Eugenia apartment complex in Santa Monica with Greig.

One of their neighbors, Anna Bjornsdottir, a former U.S. television actress and Miss Iceland of 1974, earned a $2 million reward for turning in Bulger. She was watching a television news report about the Bulger manhunt when she recognized the man she knew by the name Charlie Gasko and notified the FBI.

At first he denied his identity but eventually told authorities, "You know who I am. I'm Whitey Bulger." More than $800,000 in cash and a cache of weapons was found hidden in the walls of his apartment.

Greig was sentenced to eight years in prison and fined $150,000 for helping Bulger evade capture. She is scheduled for release in September 2020.

Bulger's two-month trial for murder, extortion and drug dealing in 2013 was sometimes raucous. A parade of former associates testified against him, giving brutal details about how Bulger would kill enemies and then take a nap.

Sometimes Bulger sat silently at the defendant's table and at other times he engaged in profane shouting matches with witnesses such as Flemmi.

Bulger, who denied ever being an FBI informant, refused to testify on the grounds that the trial was a sham.

The U.S. Justice Department paid more than $20 million in damages to families of people killed by Bulger on the grounds that he was operating under government supervision while killing.

While Bulger was robbing banks and killing people, his younger brother Billy was acquiring political notoriety and power.

Billy served in the Massachusetts legislature for 35 years, including several years as president of the state Senate, after which he was president of the University of Massachusetts. He was forced to resign the latter job in 2003 after it was learned that eight years earlier he had spoken by phone with his brother, who at the time was a federal fugitive, and did not report it to authorities. (Reporting and writing by Bill Trott; additional reporting by Jonathan Allen, Sarah N. Lynch, Nate Raymond and Bernie Woodall; editing by Diane Craft and G Crosse)

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Storm lashing US Northeast kills at least five people

BOSTON - A powerful storm lashing the northeastern United States on Friday killed at least five people as winds topping 129 kms per hour helped flood streets in Boston, ground flights and halt train service across the region.

Almost 1.7 million homes and businesses were without power in the Northeast and Midwest as the storm pummeled the East Coast from Virginia to Maine. Government offices in Washington closed as winds gusted to more than 96 kph in the US capital.

A flood surge at extreme high tide sent seawater into Boston's coastal streets, the second time this year that the area had flooded. Wind gusts approaching 70 mph (113 kph) helped force in the water while downing trees and power lines.

The high water receded in the afternoon, but the National Weather Service said Boston could face renewed flooding with a near-record high tide forecast around midnight on Friday.

"That one still looks like it's going to be on target for at least moderate coastal flooding, which means we're going to see some problems in Boston," said Jim Hayes, a meteorologist with the agency's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland.

Snow and rain are forecast to taper off through Friday night and into Saturday as skies clear, Hayes said, adding that winds are also expected to drop somewhat overnight and into Saturday as the offshore storm system recedes.

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam declared a state of emergency, streamlining state aid to communities harmed by high winds.

The storm packed a deadly punch, with a falling tree killing a man in his 70s in Newport, Rhode Island, a police spokesperson said.

In Putnam Valley, New York, an 11-year-old boy was killed when a tree crashed into his home, WPIX television reported, citing Putnam County sheriff's deputies. A spokesman for the sheriff's department could not be reached for comment.

A 44-year-old male passenger in a truck was killed in James City County, Virginia, when an oak tree toppled onto the vehicle, police said in a statement.

In Chesterfield County, Virginia, a tree fell onto a home and struck a sleeping 6-year-old boy, the county said in a statement. The child died of his injuries at a hospital.

Outside Baltimore, a 77-year-old woman was struck by a falling tree branch at her home near Kingsville, Maryland, a Baltimore County Fire Department spokesperson said.

Private forecasting service AccuWeather said the storm dumped as much as 46 cms of snow on parts of New York state and Pennsylvania.

It also snarled transportation from the Middle Atlantic into New England, with more than a quarter of flights into and out of New York's three major airports and Boston's airport canceled, according to tracking service FlightAware.com.

One flight landing at Washington's Dulles International Airport came in through turbulence so rough that most passengers became sick and the pilots were on the verge of becoming ill, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

Passenger railroad Amtrak halted service between Boston and Washington through Friday, and said it was suspending southbound service out of the US capital until at least Saturday morning because of downed trees on the track.

Hayes said top wind speeds had been clocked at 134 kph in Massachusetts and Rhode Island and reached 125 kph at Etlan, Virginia.

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Protesters flock in droves to anti-Trump Women's Marches

NEW YORK - Protestors took to the streets en masse across the United States Saturday, hoisting anti-Donald Trump placards, banging drums and donning pink hats for a second Women's March opposing the president -- one year to the day of his inauguration.

Hundreds of thousands of marchers assembled in Washington, New York, Chicago, Denver, Boston, Los Angeles and other cities nationwide, many donning the famous pink knit "pussy hats" -- a reference to Trump's videotaped boasts of his license to grope women without repercussions.

Protestors hoisted signs emblazoned with slogans like "Fight like a girl" and "A woman's place is in the White House" and "Elect a clown, expect a circus."

The Los Angeles mayor said estimated turnout in the city was 500,000, while New York police estimated about 200,000 protesters.

In Manhattan, a diverse crowd descended on Central Park West, the avenue that borders the city's beloved park and arrives at the foot of the Trump International Hotel -- part of the magnate-turned-commander-in-chief's real estate empire.

"We live in an alternate universe -- it is so bad," said Althea Fusco, 67, who traveled to the city from upstate New York with two neighbors.

"I see an erosion of democracy," she said.

Speakers at the New York rally included activist and actress Rosie Perez and entertainer Whoopi Goldberg, who emphasized that "we are here to say -- as women -- we're not taking it anymore."

Throngs of demonstrators paraded in Los Angeles, where actress Natalie Portman was among the celebrities pumping up the crowd: "Because of you the revolution is rolling."

The marches aim to build on the movement launched last year when more than three million people turned out nationwide to voice opposition to Trump.

The weekend of demonstrations is aimed at translating enthusiasm into political action with the theme "Power to the Polls" -- a message designed to drive voter registrations and maximize women's involvement in the 2018 midterm elections.

The president meanwhile posted a deadpan tweet referencing the rallies protesting his policies, urging people to "get out there and celebrate the historic milestones and unprecedented economic success and wealth creation that has taken place over the last 12 months."

"Beautiful weather all over our great country, a perfect day for all Women to March," he wrote.

CANNOT REST 

Many of the demonstrations indeed took place under sunny skies but marchers in Park City, Utah -- where the annual Sundance Film Festival is underway -- braved chilly temperatures and steady snow to make their voices heard, led by celebrities including activist and actress Jane Fonda.

This year's edition of Sundance took on a political bent in light of the #MeToo movement against sexual misconduct, a campaign that has rippled through Hollywood and beyond since scores of actresses leveled sexual assault allegations against disgraced mogul Harvey Weinstein.

Crowds in the North Carolina city of Charlotte heard an address from its first black female mayor, while Washington protestors rallied at the foot of the Lincoln Memorial and marched to the White House, speaking out on a raft of issues ranging from immigrant protections to racial equality to sexual assault.

"We feel like our work isn't done and that there's so much more that we need to fix," said Tanaquil Eltson, 14, who also participated in Washington's 2017 march.

"I know the world around me isn't happy colors; it's scary. But I'm excited to be able to fix it," she said, clad in a red and blue Superwoman outfit.

Her mother Vitessa Del Prete, a retired US army lieutenant colonel, pointed to the recent flood of sexual abuse and harassment allegations against powerful men that has galvanized women to fight back against injustice.

"I've lived through decades of sexual harassment issues and it's getting better -- but it's nowhere near where it needs to be," the 51-year-old said, sporting a Wonder Woman costume in coordination with her daughter.

"Issues that face women are just not being represented well enough in our country, so it's a privilege to be able to get out here and try to do something from a citizen standpoint."

More than 300 towns and cities had organized anniversary marches and rallies. Other protests are set for Sunday, notably in Las Vegas, as well as in several European cities including Berlin.

"We cannot rest," said Pam Morris in Washington. "We have to keep energized until we overcome this administration."

"We cannot get worn down. We have to be here."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Thousands take to streets in Boston protest against hate speech

BOSTON -- Thousands of people in Boston protested a "Free Speech" rally featuring right-wing speakers on Saturday, with hundreds of police mobilized to prevent a recurrence of violence that left a woman dead at a Virginia white-supremacist protest last week.

In historic Boston Common park alone, hundreds of protesters who believe the event could become a platform for racist propaganda dwarfed the few dozen rally participants.

The number of protesters was poised to swell exponentially as a march with thousands more people bore down on the park.

Some 500 police officers placed barricades to prevent vehicles from entering the park, the nation's oldest. To keep the two groups separate, they also built a cordon around the site of the rally.

Last weekend's clashes in Charlottesville, Virginia, where one woman was killed in a car rampage after bloody street battles, ratcheted up racial tensions already inflamed by white supremacist groups marching more openly in rallies across the United States.

White nationalists had converged in the Southern university city to defend a statue of Robert E. Lee, who led the pro-slavery Confederacy's army during the Civil War, which ended in 1865.

A growing number of U.S. political leaders have called for the removal of statues honoring the Confederacy, with civil rights activists charging that they promote racism. Advocates of the statues contend they are a reminder of their heritage.

Duke University removed a statue of Lee from the entrance of a chapel on its Durham, North Carolina campus, officials said on Saturday.

Organizers of Saturday's rally in Boston have denounced the white supremacist message and violence of Charlottesville and said their event would be peaceful.

"The point of this is to have political speech from across the spectrum, conservative, libertarian, centrist," said Chris Hood, an 18-year-old Boston resident who stood among a crowd of a few dozen people who planned to join the Free Speech rally. "This is not about Nazis. If there were Nazis here, I'd be protesting against them."

Last weekend's violence sparked the biggest domestic crisis yet for U.S. President Donald Trump, who provoked ire across the political spectrum for not immediately condemning white nationalists and for praising "very fine people" on both sides of the fight.

Two male rally participants wearing Trump's red "Make America Great Again" campaign hats attempted to enter the protest pen that police had set up to keep the two sides separated. They were swarmed by black-clad protesters, some with their faces covered, as the crowd screamed "go home" and "no hate" at them.

Beyond the Boston rally and march, protests are also expected on Saturday in Texas, with the Houston chapter of Black Lives Matter holding a rally to remove a "Spirit of the Confederacy" monument from a park and civil rights activists in Dallas planning a rally against white supremacy.

Boston authorities had roadblocks in place to avert car attacks like the deadly one carried out in Charlottesville by a man said to have neo-Nazi sympathies against counter-protesters and a similar spate of attacks by Islamist extremists in Europe, most recently Barcelona.

PROTESTERS REJECT PLEA

Boston Mayor Marty Walsh had asked protesters to avoid Boston Common, saying their presence would draw more attention to the far-right activists. He joined the crowd of thousands assembling in Boston's historically black Roxbury neighborhood early on Saturday.

"These signs and the message so far this morning is all about love and peace," Walsh told reporters. "That's a good message."

Monica Cannon, an organizer of the "Fight White Supremacy" march, said it was a necessary move.

"Ignoring a problem has never solved it," Cannon said in a phone interview. "We cannot continue to ignore racism."

The Free Speech rally's scheduled speakers include Kyle Chapman, a California activist who was arrested at a Berkeley rally earlier this year that turned violent, and Joe Biggs, formerly of the right-wing conspiracy site Infowars.

Antonio Vargas, a 20-year-old student at Gordon College, joined the protest march.

"I believe in equality," Vargas said. "I believe race shouldn't define the pattern of your life or the result of your life.

"There also is a time to stand up and not be silent."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

US Northeast hit by blizzards, cold, after record snow

BOSTON - The U.S. Northeast struggled to dig out from the latest in a series of winter storms that made February the snowiest month in Boston's history, while Kentucky and Indiana braced for heavy snow on Sunday night and Monday.

Blizzard conditions forced the cancellation of more than 1,800 U.S. airline flights on Sunday, most of them into and out of airports in Boston and New York, where wind gusts of up to 60 miles per hour (97 kph) were predicted.

A woman in New Jersey was found frozen to death in the snow near her home on Sunday morning. In the Midwest, snow around Lake Michigan caused a three-dozen-car pileup on a major Chicago expressway, sending 12 people to the hospital for injuries.

Temperatures are 25 to 30 degrees (14 to 17 degrees Celsius) below normal for the East Coast, exacerbated by strong winds, said meteorologist Bruce Sullivan of the National Weather Service.

The temperature at 1 p.m. in Boston was around 18 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 8 Celsius), but felt like zero (minus 18 Celsius) thanks to wind chill. By Monday morning, it was likely to feel like minus 20 (minus 29 Celsius), the NWS said.

The latest storm heaped disappointment on retailers who were relying on the Presidents' Day weekend and Valentine's Day to make up for subpar sales during the last three lashings of snow.

Massive snowfall from Boston's fourth major snowstorm in two weeks set a record for the city's snowiest month since weather records were kept, the NWS said.

Boston had seen about 6 feet (1.8 meters) of snow since late January and had already set a record for accumulations in a single week. Bitter cold and huge drifts hampered snow removal efforts.

"Hopefully, it will stop eventually," Boston Mayor Martin Walsh said on Sunday, pleading with drivers to stay off dangerous roads.

KENTUCKY, INDIANA BRACE FOR SNOW

While the Northeast dug out, Kentucky and southern Indiana were bracing for a storm.

"A significant winter storm with snowfall totals potentially in the double digits ... will impact southern Indiana and central Kentucky" Sunday night and Monday, the National Weather Service said, forecasting 10-15 inches across portions of south central Kentucky.

Still, nothing compared with Massachusetts, where 20 inches (50 cm) fell on the coastal town of Ipswich on Sunday and relentless winds were expected to pile up dangerous drifts of the lightweight snow

In Boston restaurants sought to coax customers out of hibernation for a meal or drink on Sunday evening, when the snow was expected to let up. One South Boston eatery added the hashtag "#cabinfever" to its Twitter messages.

"You don't want to stay penned up all day," said Allie Needham, 26, a business analyst at a chemical company, as she walked along an empty street in Cambridge on her way to meet friends for breakfast.

With all public transportation suspended in Boston on Sunday, Bostonians got creative. In the Back Bay neighborhood, a snowboarder hitched a ride from a snowmobile. One resident on Twitter said it was about time for an entrepreneur to start up a dog sled service.

Across the state, about 600 members of the National Guard were helping out during the blizzard, said Massachusetts Governor Charlie Baker.

Conditions were so bad in New Hampshire that the town of Alton called off its annual ice carnival this weekend.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

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Boston celebrates July 4 amid tight security

BOSTON - Less than three months after bombs ripped through the heart of Boston, residents and visitors face heavy security as they celebrate Independence Day at an open-air concert and fireworks display on the banks of the Charles River.

Like the Boston Marathon, where two pressure-cooker bombs killed three and injured more than 260 on April 15, the Boston Pops' July Fourth concert on the Esplanade is one of the city's most cherished events and routinely draws half a million people.

This year, security is tighter than ever, police said, noting that hundreds of additional state and local police plus federal officials will be patrolling the city as well as the area around the Hatch Shell where the orchestra will play.

"We were walking around last night and we saw guys in sniper outfits," said Cindy Munroe, visiting from Coventry, Rhode Island. "It was making me a little nervous, but we're probably safer here than anywhere else right now."

By mid-afternoon, with temperatures reaching a steamy 92 degrees Fahrenheit (33 Celsius), concertgoers were setting up tents and parasols as others sat on lawn chairs and blankets.

To reach the amphitheater where conductor Keith Lockhart will lead the Pops through Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture and other patriotic favorites, revelers passed through tightly controlled checkpoints, some manned by soldiers in camouflage gear. On the river, marine patrols kept watch from afar and wireless surveillance cameras were set up in trees and on poles.

Security was "obviously all over the place," said Derek Switaj, a student at Boston College, adding, "I feel safe, I feel fine, and I'm excited for tonight."

For days, police have sealed manhole covers and removed trash cans plus anything where bombs could be hidden. Police have also received millions of dollars worth of equipment, including handheld instruments that can detect whether bags hold explosives, from private companies, the firms and police said.

"We are certainly focused on this event and that people get here safely and get out safely," Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis told reporters as the city put final touches on preparations for its biggest public event since the marathon.

After the bombing, the surviving suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, told officials that he and his brother, Tamerlan, considered attacking the city on July 4 but moved up the timing after building the bombs more quickly than initially planned, law enforcement sources have said. Tamerlan Tsarnaev died in a shootout with police.

In the last days, police assured Boston and the country that there is no imminent danger. "There are no threats out there toward this particular event," Massachusetts State Police Colonel Timothy Alben told reporters. "But that won't affect the intensity of scrutiny."

Officials, including Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, who locked down the city and some suburbs as police searched for the Tsarnaev brothers on April 18 and 19 after they were identified on video cameras, urged the public to enjoy the festivities as usual.

Visitors will have to brave the day's heat with fewer amenities, however. Coolers with wheels are banned as are backpacks, sharp objects, cans, and glass containers, police said. Revelers may bring in only clear liquids in clear bottles and food in clear bags, officials explained.

By late afternoon, a large portion of the grassy oval remained empty. Some visitors sounded a determined note, showing their support for the city and the holiday.

"We don't want to lose our freedom, right?" said Munroe, the visitor from Rhode Island.

Nicole Mierzwa, who is visiting from Rochester, New York, on a 13-week nursing assignment, said she was not put off by what happened in April.

"There are crazy people everywhere, and you just have to carry on and do your thing and not be afraid," she said, standing at the edge of the lawn. "It is a little bit frightening to see machineguns and the SWAT team but it's good that they're prepared and they're taking it seriously."

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