Church volunteer had sex with kids he met at church school, police allege

A well-known Orange County church has been roiled by allegations that a volunteer sexually assaulted children.

A Sunday school volunteer at Rock Harbor Church in Costa Mesa
allegedly formed relationships with children in his church and went on
to sexually abuse at least one of them multiple times between November
2009 and November 2011, according to church leaders and court documents.

Two families at Rock Harbor came forward with new allegations
against Christopher Bryan McKenzie, the pool cleaner accused of
years-long sexual relationships with at least three children younger
than 14, pastors said Monday night.

McKenzie, 48, of Costa Mesa, attended Rock Harbor and applied to be a
child-care volunteer at the 3,000-member campus in late 2007,
Communications Director Jeff Gideon said.

On Saturday, Newport Beach police announced
they had arrested McKenzie on suspicion of sexually abusing two boys,
one from the late 1990s to 2005 and one from 2005 to 2007. Neither had
ties to the church, police said.

At a Monday night meeting, Rock Harbor pastors announced two families from the congregation added allegations against McKenzie.

Lead Pastor Todd Proctor said the families approached Rock Harbor leadership after the announcement and were directed to police.

It's alleged McKenzie had substantial sexual conduct with one of the
children on at least three occasions, according to court documents.

In total, McKenzie is charged with inappropriate interaction with
four children. The fourth, who pastors said is also from Rock Harbor,
was allegedly used to distribute obscene material.

Pastors told congregants Monday that they don't believe McKenzie had
inappropriate contact with any children at the church or during a church
function. Volunteers are never allowed to be alone with children,
Proctor said.

However, he said, leaders believe McKenzie most likely met the
children and formed relationships with their parents at Rock Harbor
where he volunteered in a fifth-grade classroom for about five years.

At Rock Harbor, all child-care applicants are background checked,
screened on the Megan's Law website, must produce references and are
interviewed, leaders said.

McKenzie pleaded guilty to driving under the influence of
alcohol in 2007. Gideon said the team conducting a background check was
not informed of the incident. If a crime does appear on a volunteer’s
application, a committee weighs the severity and how much time has
elapsed, Gideon said.

McKenzie was ultimately granted approval to volunteer.

"Our kids probably had different levels of interaction with Chris,
and we need to recognize that," Proctor said, adding that he had spoken
to each of his three boys about the allegations. "One of my sons in
particular had way more exposure under Chris' leadership."

Throughout the meeting, pastors repeatedly encouraged parents to talk
to their children and contact police if they believe something
inappropriate occurred.

"It's all heartbreaking," Proctor said.

McKenzie was charged with 10 felony counts of lewd acts upon a child
younger than 14, four felony counts of using a minor for the
distribution of obscene matter, and two felony counts of distributing
pornography to a minor with sentencing enhancements for substantial
sexual conduct with a child and committing lewd acts upon a child
younger than 14 against more than one victim.

If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of 45 years to life in state prison. He is being held on $1-million bail.

ALSO:

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More than 1,600 unidentified, unclaimed remains buried in Boyle Heights

--Jeremiah Dobruck, Times Community News

Photo: Christopher Bryan McKenzie. Credit: Daily Pilot

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3 Walmart Suppliers Made Goods in Bangladeshi Factory Where 112 Died in Fire

Ashraful Alam Tito/Associated Press

A Nov. 28 photo shows Walmart's Faded Glory label on a piece of clothing found after a fire at a garment factory in Bangladesh.

Documents found at the Tazreen apparel factory in Bangladesh, where 112 workers died in a fire nearly two weeks ago, indicate that three separate apparel companies were using the factory during the past year to supply goods to Walmart and its Sam’s Club subsidiary.

The documents — photographed by a Bangladeshi labor organizer after the fire and made available to The New York Times — include an internal production report from last September showing that five of the factory’s 14 production lines were being devoted to make apparel for Walmart.

Walmart has indirectly acknowledged that the Tazreen factory was producing some of its apparel, saying in a statement that a supplier had “subcontracted work to this factory without authorization and in direct violation of our policies.” In that statement, issued two days after the Nov. 24 fire, Walmart said “we have terminated the relationship with that supplier.” Walmart has declined to name the supplier.

After Walmart was shown some of the documents from the factory on Wednesday, Kevin Gardner, a spokesman for the company, replied in an e-mail. “As we’ve said, the Tazreen factory was deauthorized months ago,” Mr. Gardner wrote. “We don’t comment on specific supplier relationships.”

The documents from the factory indicate that three different apparel suppliers — International Direct Group, Success Apparel and Topson Downs — were using the factory on Walmart’s behalf to make shirts, shorts and pajamas.

A document from October 2011 shows an order placed by the International Direct Group to produce Khaki & Co. brand shorts for Sam’s Club. A circled addendum on the order form indicates the shorts were shipped Feb. 5. The “roll-tab” shorts are currently available on the Sam’s Club Web site and have the same model number as the order placed at the factory 14 months ago.

Another document found at the factory, from July, provides product descriptions from Success Apparel for Walmart’s Faded Glory house-brand shorts. A photograph taken inside the factory after the fire showed a pair of Faded Glory shorts.

The documents indicate that Success Apparel often worked through Simco, a Bangladeshi garment maker.

Scott Nova, executive director of the Worker Rights Consortium, a monitoring group based in Washington that is financed by American universities, said the documents raised questions about Walmart’s statements after the fire.

“It was not a single rogue supplier as Walmart has claimed — there were several different U.S. suppliers working for Walmart in that factory,” Mr. Nova said. “It stretches credulity to think that Walmart, famous for its tight control over its global supply chain, didn’t know about this.”

Mr. Nova works closely with the Bangladesh Center for Worker Solidarity and made the factory documents available.

Investigators also found apparel made for Sears and Disney inside the factory after the fire. Both companies said suppliers had given orders to the factory without their knowledge and authorization.

Mr. Gardner, of Walmart, said accredited outside auditors had periodically inspected the factory on Walmart’s behalf. A May 2011 audit for Walmart gave the Tazreen factory an “orange” rating, meaning that there were “higher-risk violations” and that the factory would be re-audited within six months. If a factory receives three orange ratings over two years, it loses Walmart’s approval.

A follow-up August 2011 audit for Walmart gave Tazreen an improved “yellow” rating, meaning that there were “medium-risk violations” and that the factory would be re-audited within one year.

Mr. Gardner declined to say what, if any, inspections were carried out after August 2011.

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Homeless Man Charged with Subway Killing

By Sarah Michaud

12/05/2012 at 04:30 PM EST

Suspect in N.Y.C. subway killing

A homeless man has been arrested and charged with murder for allegedly pushing a man in front of a New York subway train.

Naeem Davis, 30, implicated himself in the crime after being taken into custody and questioned by the New York Police Department on Tuesday, police spokesman Paul J. Browne tells the New York Times.

The suspect's name and the charge were made public Wednesday after witnesses who saw Davis shove Ki-Suck Han, 58, in front of the train Monday afternoon identified him in a lineup, according to police.

Han attempted to climb back up onto the platform as the train approached, a moment captured by freelance photographer R. Umar Abbasi.

The image covered the New York Post Tuesday, sparking debate over journalistic ethics and, writes the Times, raising "questions about how bystanders in the city can – and perhaps, should – behave in moments of crisis."

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25 top-rated Facebook games from 2012

Games can be both a welcome and an annoying diversion on Facebook, the world’s most popular online social network. This year, Facebook crossed a big milestone — reaching 1 billion active users. Game companies such as “FarmVille” creator Zynga Inc. and Rovio Entertainment Ltd. of “Angry Birds” fame seek to tap into that vast base of users to gain more players for their games.

This week, Facebook Inc. issued a list of the 25 top-rated games that launched on Facebook in 2012. The company says the rankings are based on user ratings and engagement with the games. It’s the same methodology that Facebook uses to rank apps in its App Center.

Some of the games are played on Facebook’s website, while others are only on Apple Inc.‘s iOS or Google Inc.‘s Android devices using Facebook’s app.

Here’s the list:

1. “SongPop” (by FreshPlanet, on Facebook.com, iOS and Android)

2. “Dragon City” (by Social Point, on Facebook.com)

3. “Bike Race” (by Top Free Games, on iOS)

4. “Subway Surfers” (by Kiloo, on iOS and Android)

5. “Angry Birds Friends (by Rovio, on Facebook.com)

6. “FarmVille 2″ (by Zynga, on Facebook.com)

7. “Scramble with Friends” (by Zynga, on iOS)

8. “Clash of Clans” (by Supercell, on iOS)

9. “Marvel: Avengers Alliance” (by Playdom, on Facebook.com)

10. “Draw Something” (by Zynga, on iOS and Android)

11. “Hay Day” (by Supercell, on iOS)

12. “Baseball Heroes” (by Syntasia, on Facebook.com)

13. “ChefVille” (by Zynga, on Facebook.com)

14. “CSR Racing” (by NaturalMotion Games, on iOS)

15. “Candy Crush Saga” (by King.com, on Facebook.com and iOS)

16. “Matching With Friends” (by Zynga, on Facebook.com)

17. “Legend Online” (by Oasis Games, on Facebook.com)

18. “Jurassic Park Builder” (by Ludia, on Facebook.com)

19. “Dungeon Rampage” (by Rebel Entertainment, on Facebook.com)

20. “Pockie Ninja II Social” (by NGames Ltd., on Facebook.com)

21. “Jetpack Joyride” (by Halfbrick, on Facebook.com)

22. “Social Empires” (by Social Point, on Facebook.com and iOS)

23. “Bil ve Fethet” (by Peak Games, on Facebook.com)

24. “Ruby Blast Adventures” (by Zynga, on Facebook.com and iOS)

25. “Pyramid Solitaire Saga” (by King.com, on Facebook.com)

Social Media News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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Longer tamoxifen use cuts breast cancer deaths

Breast cancer patients taking the drug tamoxifen can cut their chances of having the disease come back or kill them if they stay on the pills for 10 years instead of five years as doctors recommend now, a major study finds.

The results could change treatment, especially for younger women. The findings are a surprise because earlier research suggested that taking the hormone-blocking drug for longer than five years didn't help and might even be harmful.

In the new study, researchers found that women who took tamoxifen for 10 years lowered their risk of a recurrence by 25 percent and of dying of breast cancer by 29 percent compared to those who took the pills for just five years.

In absolute terms, continuing on tamoxifen kept three additional women out of every 100 from dying of breast cancer within five to 14 years from when their disease was diagnosed. When added to the benefit from the first five years of use, a decade of tamoxifen can cut breast cancer mortality in half during the second decade after diagnosis, researchers estimate.

Some women balk at taking a preventive drug for so long, but for those at high risk of a recurrence, "this will be a convincer that they should continue," said Dr. Peter Ravdin, director of the breast cancer program at the UT Health Science Center in San Antonio.

He reviewed results of the study, which was being presented Wednesday at a breast cancer conference in San Antonio and published by the British medical journal Lancet.

"The result of this trial will have a major, immediate impact on premenopausal women," Ravdin said.

About 50,000 of the roughly 230,000 new cases of breast cancer in the United States each year occur in women before menopause. Most breast cancers are fueled by estrogen, and hormone blockers are known to cut the risk of recurrence in such cases.

Tamoxifen long was the top choice, but newer drugs called aromatase inhibitors — sold as Arimidex, Femara, Aromasin and in generic form — do the job with less risk of causing uterine cancer and other problems.

But the newer drugs don't work well before menopause. Even some women past menopause choose tamoxifen over the newer drugs, which cost more and have different side effects such as joint pain, bone loss and sexual problems.

The new study aimed to see whether over a very long time, longer treatment with tamoxifen could help.

Dr. Christina Davies of the University of Oxford in England and other researchers assigned 6,846 women who already had taken tamoxifen for five years to either stay on it or take dummy pills for another five years.

Researchers saw little difference in the groups five to nine years after diagnosis. But beyond that time, 15 percent of women who had stopped taking tamoxifen after five years had died of breast cancer versus 12 percent of those who took it for 10 years. Cancer had returned in 25 percent of women on the shorter treatment versus 21 percent of those treated longer.

Tamoxifen had some troubling side effects: Longer use nearly doubled the risk of endometrial cancer. But it rarely proved fatal, and there was no increased risk among premenopausal women in the study — the very group tamoxifen helps most.

"Overall the benefits of extended tamoxifen seemed to outweigh the risks substantially," Dr. Trevor Powles of the Cancer Centre London wrote in an editorial published with the study.

The study was sponsored by cancer research organizations in Britain and Europe, the United States Army, and AstraZeneca PLC, which makes Nolvadex, a brand of tamoxifen, which also is sold as a generic for 10 to 50 cents a day. Brand-name versions of the newer hormone blockers, aromatase inhibitors, are $300 or more per month, but generics are available for much less.

The results pose a quandary for breast cancer patients past menopause and those who become menopausal because of their treatment — the vast majority of cases. Previous studies found that starting on one of the newer hormone blockers led to fewer relapses than initial treatment with tamoxifen did.

Another study found that switching to one of the new drugs after five years of tamoxifen cut the risk of breast cancer recurrence nearly in half — more than what was seen in the new study of 10 years of tamoxifen.

"For postmenopausal women, the data still remain much stronger at this point for a switch to an aromatase inhibitor," said that study's leader, Dr. Paul Goss of Massachusetts General Hospital. He has been a paid speaker for a company that makes one of those drugs.

Women in his study have not been followed long enough to see whether switching cuts deaths from breast cancer, as 10 years of tamoxifen did. Results are expected in about a year.

The cancer conference is sponsored by the American Association for Cancer Research, Baylor College of Medicine and the UT Health Science Center.

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Marilynn Marchione can be followed at http://twitter.com/MMarchioneAP

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Man lived with dead girlfriend for months, faced murder charges

A jury is being selected in Stockton to hear the murder case against a
man accused of living for months with his girlfriend's dead body.

Devon Epps was evicted from his apartment in December 2011. The next
day, when the apartment manager stopped by, they found a dead body in
the bathroom.

The body had been there for some time, authorities said.

Epps was arrested and then arraigned a few days later. At an earlier hearing, he yelled at a San Joaquin County judge, according to Fox 40.

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Nasrin Sotoudeh, Iranian Rights Advocate, Ends Hunger Strike

TEHRAN — An imprisoned human rights lawyer serving a sentence for “acting against national security” ended a 47-day hunger strike on Tuesday after judicial authorities acceded to her demand to lift a travel ban imposed on her 12-year-old daughter, her husband said.

The lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, 49, who until her imprisonment in 2010 was one of the last lawyers taking on high-profile human rights and political cases in Iran, decided in October to go on the hunger strike out of fear of increasing limitations imposed on her family. She fell into fragile health during the hunger strike, in which she would drink only water mixed with salts and sugar. Her weight dropped to 95 pounds.

It was the second time that Ms. Sotoudeh felt compelled to quit eating. She declared her first hunger strike in 2010, after her family was forbidden to visit or make phone calls. In that case, the authorities capitulated after four weeks, allowing her husband and two children to visit weekly.

Ms. Sotoudeh has also written several public letters from prison, one of which thanked the head of the judiciary for putting her in jail, saying she was horrified by the thought of being free while her former clients were still in prison.

In recent years several lawyers representing people suspected of security crimes have been arrested while others, like the 2003 Nobel laureate, Shirin Ebadi, have left the country. Tuesday’s ruling, which has not been officially confirmed by the authorities here, seemed to show that Iranian officials are receptive to pressure in human rights cases — something that Ms. Sotoudeh has argued consistently.

Iranian officials deny there are any political prisoners in Iran, saying that all those behind bars have been tried according to the country’s laws. Ms. Sotoudeh was sentenced to six years in prison last year on the national security charge and for “misusing her profession as a lawyer.”

During a news conference last week, Mohammad Javad Larijani, a member of an influential political family and the head of the judiciary’s self-appointed Human Rights Council, said that from Iran’s official point of view there was nothing out of the ordinary about Ms. Sotoudeh’s imprisonment.

“Her dossier has had its course,” he told reporters, emphasizing what he called the independence of Iran’s judicial system. “Judges and lawyers have exhausted all legal possibilities and now she is doing her time in jail.” He said that contrary to reports, Ms. Sotoudeh was in good health. “We care about our inmates, whether they are on hunger strike or not,” Mr. Larijani said.

International rights activists and human rights groups have tried to highlight Ms. Sotoudeh’s case, and international lawyers, movie directors and politicians — among them Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton — have called upon Iran to set her free. Ten days into her hunger strike, on Oct. 26, Ms. Sotoudeh, together with Jafar Panahi, an Iranian filmmaker who is under house arrest, was awarded the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by the European Union.

The international attention, widely replayed on Persian language satellite channels at odds with Iran’s rulers, has helped raise her profile among middle-class Iranians, who generally admire her persistence. The attention has made it increasingly hard for Iranian officials to ignore her case, Ms. Sotoudeh’s husband, Reza Khandan, a computer engineer, said in an interview.

Mr. Khandan said that his wife is a great admirer of the Burmese opposition leader and Nobel laureate, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, who spent years under house arrest, became an international symbol of resistance and is now a political leader herself.

“But this is her fight, and not our children’s,” Mr. Khandan said, “So Nasrin does everything she can in order to have something of a normal life.”

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Google updates Gmail for iOS to support multiple accounts, deliver autocomplete suggestions

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Lisa Whelchel 'Hit Rock Bottom' on Survivor, Says Brother

TV Watch
People Exclusive

By Steve Helling

12/04/2012 at 04:45 PM EST

Lisa Whelchel and brother Justice Coleman

CBS

They're hungry. They're tired. They're uncomfortable. But by day 31, Survivor contestants can often struggle with crippling homesickness.

As one of the most emotional contestants on Survivor: Philippines, Lisa Whelchel developed a coping mechanism to survive being away from her family. "I tried not to think about my loved ones at home, except to pray for them," Whelchel tells PEOPLE. "But I couldn't help but anticipate and hope that I made it long enough in the game to get to see my brother."

On Wednesday's episode of Survivor, Lisa is visited by her younger brother, Justice Coleman, 28, a pastor from Chatsworth, Calif., and the visit didn't go as planned.

"I came running out to give her the biggest hug of her life," Coleman tells PEOPLE. "I wasn't prepared to see her at that level of desperation. It was immediately obvious she had hit rock bottom."

"She broke down in my arms and was sobbing so hard and it was hard for me not to cry," he continues. "I wasn't expecting her to be at the end of her rope. She is a Survivor super fan and so I imagined her enjoying the game and having a blast."

"I almost didn't recognize her," he adds. "She looked absolutely ragged: physically and emotionally torn up. I was imagining a big smile on her face, since she was so deep into the game and doing so well, but she started crying so hard. I was legitimately concerned for her."

After the tears were dried, Coleman maintained he's proud of his sister for making the final six. "My sister has always been my role model growing up," he says. "In fact, she still is."

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CDC says US flu season starts early, could be bad

NEW YORK (AP) — Flu season in the U.S. is off to its earliest start in nearly a decade — and it could be a bad one.

Health officials on Monday said suspected flu cases have jumped in five Southern states, and the primary strain circulating tends to make people sicker than other types. It is particularly hard on the elderly.

"It looks like it's shaping up to be a bad flu season, but only time will tell," said Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The good news is that the nation seems fairly well prepared, Frieden said. More than a third of Americans have been vaccinated, and the vaccine formulated for this year is well-matched to the strains of the virus seen so far, CDC officials said.

Higher-than-normal reports of flu have come in from Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee and Texas. An uptick like this usually doesn't happen until after Christmas. Flu-related hospitalizations are also rising earlier than usual, and there have already been two deaths in children.

Hospitals and urgent care centers in northern Alabama have been bustling. "Fortunately, the cases have been relatively mild," said Dr. Henry Wang, an emergency medicine physician at the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Parts of Georgia have seen a boom in traffic, too. It's not clear why the flu is showing up so early, or how long it will stay.

"My advice is: Get the vaccine now," said Dr. James Steinberg, an Emory University infectious diseases specialist in Atlanta.

The last time a conventional flu season started this early was the winter of 2003-04, which proved to be one of the most lethal seasons in the past 35 years, with more than 48,000 deaths. The dominant type of flu back then was the same one seen this year.

One key difference between then and now: In 2003-04, the vaccine was poorly matched to the predominant flu strain. Also, there's more vaccine now, and vaccination rates have risen for the general public and for key groups such as pregnant women and health care workers.

An estimated 112 million Americans have been vaccinated so far, the CDC said. Flu vaccinations are recommended for everyone 6 months or older.

On average, about 24,000 Americans die each flu season, according to the CDC.

Flu usually peaks in midwinter. Symptoms can include fever, cough, runny nose, head and body aches and fatigue. Some people also suffer vomiting and diarrhea, and some develop pneumonia or other severe complications.

A strain of swine flu that hit in 2009 caused a wave of cases in the spring and then again in the early fall. But that was considered a unique type of flu, distinct from the conventional strains that circulate every year.

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Online:

CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/flu/weekly

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