Utah town makes arming households a top priority

Officials in a small Utah town want to make sure every head of household has a firearm and knows how to use it, and they want to give school teachers training with guns too.

Spring City Councilman Neil Sorensen first proposed an ordinance requiring a gun in every household in the town of 1,000. The rest of the council scoffed at making it a requirement, but they unanimously agreed to move forward with an ordinance "recommending" the idea.

The council also approved funding to offer concealed firearms training Friday to the 20 teachers and administrators at the localelementary school.

"It sends a statement that criminals better think twice," Sorensen told The Associated Press on Tuesday. "If a teacher would have had a concealed weapon in Sandy Hook, I think the death loss would have been fewer. If sane, trained people had guns, they could have shot back."

The measure, which will go before the full council in February for further review, seems to have the support of the council's five members and many residents in the farming community about 90 miles south of Salt Lake City.

But school administrators don't think arming teachers is wise, and they are not encouraging teachers to participate in Friday's training.

"The more guns you have in the school, the more dangerous it is," said Leslie Keisel, superintendent of the North Sanpete School District.

Councilman Noel Bertelson said making guns in every house mandatory was too much, but he agrees the town would be safer if everyone was armed. With only a part-time police force, he said, response time is not like it is in a big city.

"If a person is able to take care of themselves for a while, it would probably be a good thing," Bertelson said.

The community is still reeling from the double-murder on New Year's Eve 2011 of an elderly couple in nearby Mount Pleasant. Sorensen said what used to be a peaceful, quiet town has been sullied by increasing criminal activity.

Thefts of metal for scrap and other property also have become a problem, Councilman Boyd Mickelsaid.

"We are kind of tired of people breaking in and taking stuff," said Mickel, explaining why he voted to urge every house to have a gun.

Timm Thompson, a coal miner and father of four girls who lives in Spring City, backs the council's measure.

"People think small towns are a good place to live," Thompson said. "But there is more crime and drugs than you can imagine."

Thompson, who owns 78 guns he keeps locked in a safe, doesn't want teachers to act as police officers. He said some kids are "hooligans" and could overpower teachers for the guns.

Sisters Katy Harmer and Caroline Lott, however, say arming teachers would make them feel better about sending their children to the Spring City Elementary School. The co-owners of the town's coffee shop, Das Coffee, said most Spring City residents keep guns for hunting, leaving only a handful without weapons.

Angela Johnson, owner of the Sinclair gas station, said she doesn't like guns but backs the council's proposal.

"If criminals knew they would be fired against, I think it would cause pause," Johnson said.

Because the Spring City Council is stopping short of a law requiring gun ownership, elected officials won't run afoul of state law, former Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff told KSL.com.

Shurtleff said that when the Washington County town of Virgin enacted a local law in 2000 requiring households to keep guns, he warned them against trying to enforce the measure.

Spring City leaders say they got the idea from a city in Georgia that passed a similar law. In 1982, Kennesaw, Ga., made headlines by requiring heads of households to own a gun and ammunition. On its website, Kennesaw boasts that its burglary rate declined after the law took effect.

Teachers at Spring City Elementary School won't be required to attend Friday's concealed weapons training, but can if they wish, Principal Mark Thomas said.

"I don't think there is anything wrong about being educated how to use a gun," Thomas said.

But Thomas doesn't believe having more armed teachers would necessarily prevent or mitigate the damage in mass shootings. Utah law allows teachers to have concealed weapon in classrooms, but the district doesn't advocate for that, Thomas said.

"By bringing weapons into school, are we creating more problems than we are solving?" he asked. "It could create a new problem. We don't want to deal with that problem."

The proposed ordinance will be discussed at the Feb. 7 City Council meeting. A public hearing will be held three weeks later.

Police Foil Teen's Bomb Plot on School

A 17-year-old, self-proclaimed white supremacist will be arraigned today in what police say was a plot to attack fellow students at his high school in Russell County, Ala., with homemade explosive devices.

Derek Shrout was arrested Friday after a teacher at Russell County High School found what appears to be the teen's journal and contacted authorities. Police said the journal contained plans to kill six students and one teacher with homemade grenades. Six of the seven individuals were black.

In the journal, police say that Shrout thought the white male on his list was gay.

"That's the reason the white male was on the list. It screams hate crime," Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor said.

Investigators say Shrout started writing in his journal just three days after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14.

"The journal contained several plans that looked like potential terrorist attacks and attacks of violence and danger on the school," Taylor said.

Shrout told police that the journal was a work of fiction.

"I didn't think anything like that could happen in Russell County. I thought maybe that's just something that happens everywhere else," said student Qunitin Hobbs.

Shrout told police that he rarely interacted with the people he's accused of targeting. Police say Shrout learned how to make the devices on the Internet.

A search of Shrout's home turned up dozens of empty tobacco containers filled with shrapnel. The containers had holes in them ready for fuses to ignite. He hadn't obtained gunpowder, fuses or a substance to ignite the devices.

"He could have got the whole school, just got all of us at once," said student Javon Rogers.

Shrout is expected to plead not guilty in his court appearance later today. The teen is being charged as an adult with attempted assault.

Police Foil Teen's Bomb Plot on School

A 17-year-old, self-proclaimed white supremacist will be arraigned today in what police say was a plot to attack fellow students at his high school in Russell County, Ala., with homemade explosive devices.

Derek Shrout was arrested Friday after a teacher at Russell County High School found what appears to be the teen's journal and contacted authorities. Police said the journal contained plans to kill six students and one teacher with homemade grenades. Six of the seven individuals were black.

In the journal, police say that Shrout thought the white male on his list was gay.

"That's the reason the white male was on the list. It screams hate crime," Russell County Sheriff Heath Taylor said.

Investigators say Shrout started writing in his journal just three days after a gunman killed 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Conn., on Dec. 14.

"The journal contained several plans that looked like potential terrorist attacks and attacks of violence and danger on the school," Taylor said.

Shrout told police that the journal was a work of fiction.

"I didn't think anything like that could happen in Russell County. I thought maybe that's just something that happens everywhere else," said student Qunitin Hobbs.

Shrout told police that he rarely interacted with the people he's accused of targeting. Police say Shrout learned how to make the devices on the Internet.

A search of Shrout's home turned up dozens of empty tobacco containers filled with shrapnel. The containers had holes in them ready for fuses to ignite. He hadn't obtained gunpowder, fuses or a substance to ignite the devices.

"He could have got the whole school, just got all of us at once," said student Javon Rogers.

Shrout is expected to plead not guilty in his court appearance later today. The teen is being charged as an adult with attempted assault.

Louisiana Mall Evacuated After Flash Mob Gets Ugly

The Mall of Louisiana was evacuated Saturday night after a flash mob turned into an ugly brawl.

Cellphone video captured the chaos as shoppers jammed escalators and ran for the nearest exits in Baton Rouge, the state capital. Employees at the mall were ordered to abandon their cash registers and evacuate immediately.

The fight broke out in the mall food court, where 200 teens had gathered for a flash mob.

“We think there was some sort of post on social media about a flash mob for tonight which drew such a large crowd of juveniles,” Casey Rayborn Hicks, a spokeswoman for the East Baton Rouge Sheriff’s Office, said.

Hicks said deputies are investigating the events that led to the fight.

The panic was especially acute, weeks after a gunman opened fire at an, killing three people, including himself, and injuring one.

“Saw people running and screaming I turned around a girl told me someone has a gun I Oregon mall started running with them,” shopper Missy Melancon wrote on Facebook.

No injuries or weapons were reported, though nerves were rattled.

“Never been that scared in my life,” Juston D’Nea Millet wrote on Facebook.  “People were running everywhere.  It was like a movie, but you were in it.”

Vt. Air Guard hopes for jet, but others fear noise

Plans on where to base the U.S. military's next-generation fighter jet, the F-35, concern people in communities from California to Florida to Maine who worry the aircraft are too loud.

In Vermont, where the Air National Guard has flown planes from Burlington International Airport for more than 60 years, opponents are especially vocal. But in other communities, even some long accustomed to the roar of military aircraft, the noise of the F-35 has been an issue.

South Burlington City Council President Rosanne Greco, a retired Air Force officer, said she favored bringing the F-35 to her community until she read the draft environmental impact statement released last spring.

The F-35s "will have incredibly significant negative impact on up to 10,000 people who will be unfortunate enough to be in the noise contour zone that the federal government deems unsuitable for residential use," Greco said. "For me it's become a clear-cut analytical choice. The facts say this is harmful to our environment."

The report, she said, considers exposure to average aircraft noise greater than 65 decibels (about the sound of a vacuum cleaner about three feet away) "not considered suitable for residential use." Another section discusses the potential long-term health impacts of exposure to aircraft noise.

The plane's supporters say Greco is exaggerating the number of people who would be affected by the noise contour zone. And they believe she and others are cherry-picking information from the report without providing its full context. There is a section of the report that discusses long-term health effects, for example, but it concludes there aren't any significant health impacts.

The Air Force already has chosen where it will base the F-35s, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter, for training. The next step is to decide where to base the first operational planes, those that would be ready for war.

"Vermont is the most vocal, but Vermont is the preferred alternative for the Guard unit," Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said. "But it's the not the only alternative."

Plans are to base 18 to 24 of the new aircraft in South Burlington by 2020. The military's final decision on the first round of operational bases is expected next spring.

How much louder the planes are than other aircraft is debatable. Opponents cite Air Force charts indicating the F-35 can be at least twice as loud as the F-16 now flown out of Vermont. Others say that's an unfair comparison because measuring sound involves everything from how the planes are flown to weather conditions, the time of day and how long people are exposed.

F-35 supporters in Vermont say the opponents — who have a Facebook page and a separate website — are a small group of activists who number maybe 300. The city of South Burlington, home to the airport, opposes the planes, mostly because of the noise.

Gov. Peter Shumlin and the state's congressional delegation favor bringing the F-35 to Vermont. There are three pro-F-35 Facebook pages and one business group has collected almost 11,000 signatures in support.

If the 18-plane option for Vermont is chosen, considered most likely, the F-35 isn't expected to bring new jobs to the area but it would guarantee about 1,100 well-paying jobs already here. Six additional planes would add about 250 more jobs.

If the Vermont Guard isn't chosen, Col. David Baczewski, commander of the Vermont Guard's 158th fighter wing and a veteran F-16 pilot, said there would be no immediate impact on the current F-16 operations in Burlington.

He said he worries that if the Department of Defense orders another round of base closings, Vermont could be forced to compete against other guard units to keep its role as a front-line fighter base.

"I'd rather separate myself from the pack, be the leading-edge, top fighter wing that we are (and) get named (to fly) the F-35 right off the bat and secure the future," Baczewski said.

Noise concerns have followed the F-35 since it first began flying. Pegged at about $130 million each for the Air Force version, it is the military's most expensive procurement program ever. The F-35 is designed to be the nation's supersonic and most advanced fighter through mid-century, with different models for the Air Force, Navy and Marines.

Despite its cost and noise concerns, there is no other alternative as the plane, nicknamed the Lightning II, is intended to replace fighter planes mostly designed in the 1970s.

In California, the Marine Corps Air Station Miramar is slated to get F-35s in several years, but environmental groups have already questioned the potential impact on endangered species. Neighbors have said they don't want the plane rattling their windows.

Noise concerns also have been raised in Arizona, where the Marines and Air Force are basing F-35s in Yuma and Phoenix, about 185 apart.

In Florida's Panhandle, an area long-accustomed to the sounds of military aircraft, a lawsuit by the city of Valparaiso in part over noise concerns prompted the Air Force to change the Eglin Air Force Base runways the F-35s would use, in most instances, to avoid flying over the city.

Air Force and Marine pilots at Eglin began F-35 training missions last March. Since then F-35 pilots have flown about 600 sorties, with about 2 percent generating noise complaints, a number the base considers small.

Some of the complaints come on days the F-35s are not flying, said base spokesman Mike Spaits.

"We empathize with their plight, but the reality is there does seem to be some level of hysteria involved with the noise complaints on the F-35," he said.

Maine is home to one of the Northeast's largest aerial training areas, the 4,000-square-mile Military Operation Area Condor, which extends into northern New Hampshire. Concerns about the noise of the F-35 play into long-running mistrust among some in Maine about low-level military training flights.

Current plans call for the F-35 to be operated above 7,000 feet over Maine, but there are special low-level corridors.

Some Maine residents seem resigned to the prospect that the louder F-35s will be operating over Maine, said Tom Mauzaka, a retired Air Force colonel, who lives in the western Maine town of Strong.

"This plane is loud," said Mauzaka. "It would be loud at 7,000 feet."

Little, if any, opposition has come from the other two Air Guard bases seen as suitable for operating the F-35s, Jacksonville, Fla., Air National Guard base and McEntire Joint National Guard Base in Eastover, S.C. But in another area of South Carolina, plans to base the F-35 at the Marine Corps Air Station in Beaufort have brought complaints about potential noise.

Back in Vermont, Winooski Mayor Michael O'Brien, whose city is about a mile from the north end of the runway, traveled to Eglin Air Force Base last month with Shumlin and other officials to listen to the F-16 and F-35 fly over, one after another.

Winooski opposes basing the F-35 at the South Burlington airport if the planes are significantly louder than the F-16s. O'Brien said he was at one end of an Eglin runway while the different planes went over in a number of different configurations.

"They are both loud, but it was hard to really get a handle on just how much louder," O'Brien said. "It didn't blow my socks off, the difference."

Jessica Chastain: I Will Never Date Another Actor

Every girl has her own set of dating rules, and Jessica Chastain's is pretty simple.

No actors,the Zero Dark Thirty actress declares in the February issue of InStyle UK. "I have dated an actor before, at Juilliard, but since then, I've only been on a couple of dates with one and I was so freaked out someone was going to take a picture of us, because they were famous.

PHOTOS: Before they were Oscar nominees The redheaded beauty, who has starred opposite some of Hollywood's hottest hunks, including Brad Pitt, Mike Vogel and Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, added that another part of the reason why she just can't date within the industry is that she wants to leave work ...at work. "I realized I wanted just to be able to hang out with someone...And I didn't want to talk about the business, first of all," she said. "

I love movies. But I love talking about them like when I was 15 years old. I'm a film fan, but I don't want to talk about auditions or what movie I'm gonna do. I find that so boring." PHOTOS: Hollywood's red-hot redheads The 35-year-old star refused to divulge who her current beau is, only hinting that "some people in the fashion world" might know him. Chastain's decision to keep her personal life private doesn't just stop with her love life, however. For her, she told the magazine, acting is about the craft, not the fame. PHOTOS: Jessica Chastain's best red carpet moments "You have to welcome that,"

she said of getting caught up in Hollywood's glitz and glamour. "There are some actors, who are very, very famous, who know what they're doing. They court it. Like Elizabeth Taylor. Richard Burton. It's something that you woo.

Fame and money have not been my goals, she continued. "This all happened from independent films. Not big pay cheques."

Library of Congress has amassed 170 billion tweets

The Library of Congress says it's amassed about 170 billion tweets since it began collecting an archive of all Twitter messages in 2010.

Twitter is donating its archive to the library, going back to the first one posted in 2006.

Library Director of Communications Gayle Osterberg wrote in a blog post Friday that the volume of tweets it receives has grown from 140 million daily in February 2011 to nearly half a billion tweets each day in late 2012.

Librarians have been developing a system to preserve and organize the collection. Now the library is shifting its focus to handle the technical challenges of making such a massive archive available to researchers.

The library may work with a private partner to provide access because its own search technology is slow.