Fred Barnes, The Weekly StandardThings are looking up for Republicans. President Obama’s agenda is collapsing before our eyes. Obama is pointing to the 2014 midterm elections to capture the House and revive his presidency. “My job is not simply to occupy the Oval Office,” he said at a San Francisco fundraiser. “My job is to make sure we move the country forward, and I think we can best do that if Nancy Pelosi is speaker of the House once again.” Obama said Pelosi is “thought ful” and “visionary” and “never lets ideology cloud...

Ron Brownstein, NJThe outcome of Wednesday’s dramatic Senate vote on expanding background checks simultaneously demonstrated the difficult geography confronting gun-control advocates in the Senate and the potentially daunting math facing gun-rights proponents in the Electoral College.On the one hand, the defeat showed how difficult it is for gun-control advocates to reach the 60-vote threshold required to break a filibuster in an institution whose two-senator-per-state apportionment magnifies the impact of small, heavily rural states where guns are interwoven into the culture.

Nick Gillespie, ReasonAfter the failure of Senate legislation to expand background checks for gun purchases, President Obama told the press,"I've heard some say that blocking this step would be a victory," Obama said. "My question is: A victory for who? A victory for what? All that happened today was the preservation of the loophole that lets dangerous criminals buy guns without a background check."

Joe Nocera, New York TimesOn April 20, 1999, Katie Lyles, a high school sophomore, was taking a math test when she heard a popping sound. “I assumed it was a prank,” she says.It wasn’t. The fire alarm soon went off, and a teacher shouted, “This is not a drill. Go, go, go!” Katie and several classmates ran through the neighborhood, seeking shelter. All around them, they could hear the screams of sirens and the whir of helicopter blades.

Mark Steyn, National ReviewThis has been a strange and deadly week in America. On Monday, two bombs exploded at the Boston Marathon, the first successful terrorist attack on a civilian target on American soil since 9/11. And yet a mere two days later, Boston’s death toll was surpassed by a freak fertilizer accident at a small town in Texas.In America, all atrocities are not equal: Minutes after the Senate declined to support so-called gun control in the wake of the Newtown massacre, the president rushed ill-advisedly on air to give a whiny, petulant performance predicated on the proposition that one...

Michael Tomasky, NewsweekIt is, obviously, understandable that people are shocked when something like the Boston bombing happens. Such an attack is a shocking thing—the images, the video, the beautiful faces of the three young people whose lives were taken; all shocking.But in today’s world, it isn’t really a surprising thing. After 9/11, how can anyone be surprised? In fact, I would take it back further. After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, and after Oklahoma City, how could anyone have been surprised? I remember the 1993 bombing very well.

Rod Dreher, USA Today

P. Klein,Examiner

Dana Milbank, Washington Post

-- Bob Leonard and his family were Boston Marathon veterans and he preferred a spot not too far from the finish line to shoot runners as they concluded their 26.1-mile run. The area was less congested and over the years he learned that the men and women in the lead there usually went on to win. With his Nikon, Leonard snapped about 10 to 20 photos a minute Monday, capturing group after group of finishing runners and the crowds lining the route. Three days later, when the FBI released images of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing, Leonard used the time stamp shown on them to narrow his search of the hundreds of photos he had took that day. He realized that he, too, had photos of the faces of the two men authorities were searching for. He uploaded them to the FBI and Friday morning, he saw his cropped photos all over the morning news. "That finally gave them a good facial picture," the 58-year-old electrical engineer said. "It was a pretty good breakthrough." The two men were later identified as brothers, 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed in shootout with police overnight Friday, and 19-year-old Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev, distinctive in his backward white baseball cap. The younger man was captured Friday night after a daylong siege of a Boston suburb. "They actually stood in that corner for quite a bit of time," Leonard of Taunton, Mass., said of the men, just before the younger brother was caught. After combing the digital images, he was sure he had something the FBI could use. He tried to upload them to an FBI site that it had asked the public to use. Then he called the hotline number and was on hold for about 40 minutes, the response was so overwhelming. He finally got an FBI spokesman, who told him to upload them to another site. Within 20 minutes, someone from Homeland Security called him back. "They were on the news ... clear pictures of the two subjects and those were the pictures that I sent in," said Leonard, who started photography as a hobby when his sons played high school sports. He was not the only picture-taker to help with images of the suspects. Seconds after the bombs exploded, David Green pulled out his smartphone and took a photo of the chaos developing a couple hundred yards in front of him – the smoke, the people running in panic. The Jacksonville businessman then put his phone back in his pocket and went to help the injured. It wasn't until Thursday, when officials released surveillance video of the two suspects, that Green realized what he had – a picture of Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev walking away from the scene. When Green's photo of one of the Boston bombing suspects fleeing the scene first surfaced, there was considerable doubt as to its authenticity because of the very low resolution of the image, which made the photo appear to be a composite image. When Green later provided the high-resolution frame directly from his cellphone, editors of The Associated Press were able to establish its authenticity based on the improved resolution as well as the time the photo was taken. The AP has established an exclusive arrangement for distribution of the photograph. Green, back at his home in Florida, wore his yellow and blue Boston Marathon jersey as he talked about the now-famous photo, his finisher's medal from the race propped on a shelf in his home office. Green, 49, had finished Monday's marathon in 3 hours and 17 minutes, about an hour before the blasts. After he recovered, he went back to Boylston Street, where the finish line is located, to watch the rest of the race with his friends. He realized his phone was dying, so he went into a nearby store with a recharging station. About 15 minutes later, he was walking back to his friends when the first bomb went off. "I thought maybe it was a cannon," Green said. Then the second one exploded as he was walking toward it. "When I saw it, I pulled out the camera and immediately took that picture," Green said. He then put it back in his pocket and went to help the injured, including a boy and others who were missing limbs. "It was like battle – a lot of noise, a lot of smoke, people coming at me in a panic," he said. A short time later, his friend Jason Lubin texted him and asked if he was OK. He replied with the photograph and a note: "It was just in front of me." Lubin said Thursday, after the FBI released photos of the two suspects, that he decided to take a closer look at Green's photograph – on the off chance Green had captured anything unusual. He pulled up the photo on his smartphone and zoomed in on the crowd. There in the lower left corner was Dzhokhar Tsarnaev walking around a corner, his backward white baseball cap standing out amid the dozens of panicked people fleeing. "I literally had to sit down," Lubin said. Green contacted the FBI, which told him to send them a copy of the photograph. "He is calmly walking, without panic," Green said of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. Leonard also took pictures of the chaotic aftermath, smoke five stories high from the explosions that he said were deafening. He also saw a person who lost a limb before police rushed everyone away from the scene. "The sense of loss tears your heart apart when you hear the victims' stories," said Leonard, who has lived in Taunton, about 30 miles south of Boston, since 1986 and knows what the race means. "It's just so senseless." ___ Associated Press writer Russ Bynum in Jacksonville Beach, Fla., contributed to this report.

It's 4:20 -- the first one! -- here in the Mile High City. I am up late, as I usually am before a big gig, getting all the digital stuff in its place, ironing clothes, and catching up on what has been a horrific week for news in America. My live coverage of the first Cannabis Cup in America (that healthy people can enjoy fully) begins tomorrow on 420RADIO.org at Noon Mountain Time. I am also enjoying my Colorado Constitutional right to possess and smoke some very pleasant marijuana my Lakewood friends and hosts supplied me. It's nice to smoke weed legally. Even though I smoke weed all the time and it's pseudo-quasi-legal in Portland, Oregon, it feels better toking free. Today, law enforcement captured Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, who was allegedly caught on camera allegedly dropping a backpack at the Boston Marathon that allegedly contained a bomb that blew the legs off thirty-odd people. Allegedly. Everyone deserves a trial and a fair defense... even (especially!) terrorists. A few of the Twitter and Facebook accounts I follow in the online marijuana community were aghast at the door-to-door searches and lockdowns of the towns. "False flag!" a tiny minority cried, supposing that scores of people in the highest municipal, state, and federal government conspired to kill and maim marathon fans in order to something NDAA drones facism corporations sheeple yada yada yada. Others lamented the loss of the 4th Amendment in an emergency, some just hate cops no matter what they are doing. I can understand. When your government has declared you a criminal and a danger to children, broken down your door and shot your dog, terrorized your family, imprisoned you for mandatory minimums even rapists don't earn, stolen all of your property and money, and forced you to check the "Have you ever been convicted of something so we won't hire you?" box on job applications for the rest of your life, it can make you a little anti-law enforcement. However, I was thrilled to see SWAT being used for its actual purpose for once! Not serving marijuana warrants and drug warrants to overwhelmingly peaceful people who will be flooding Denver this 4/20 to experience freedom! When we marijuana aficionados celebrate 4/20, it's not because we're looking for a excuse to party and get high. We're getting high already; we don't need a calendar and a watch for that. No, what we are celebrating is our culture and identification as members of an oppressed minority. 4/20 isn't just our "Stoner Holiday," it's also like our "Pride Parade." It's our stand against those who seek to keep us second-class citizens. It's our rejection of being forced to hide in a smoky garage while our friends drink beer openly in almost every public accommodation. It's our fellowship in shared traditions borne of outlaw status, like taking a furtive toke in a bathroom, blowing smoke through the ventilation fan, using eyedrops and Febreze and a lighted match to disguise the evidence of our "criminal" acts. It's a collective remembrance of our friends and family who lost anything from a job or scholarship to their freedom or their life because nature's most human-beneficial plant is banned. As I was finishing up my preparations for my 4/20 presentations tomorrow, I received the embedded picture above from a friend. It is from the Facebook account of Christine Tatum. She is a journalist and anti-pot crusader who I've mocked in the past for her over-the-top reefer madness. But this post, on 4/20, blaming marijuana for two young men's destructive lunacy, moves her from the "mocking" column to "righteous indignation" column on my "To Do" list. Here it is. Vanity Fair delivers the first report I have seen noting 19-year-old Dzhokhar's weed use. We MUST start asking hard questions about marijuana use and these violent outbursts. In some people, marijuana use induces psychosis, paranoia and aggression. The science is there. This connection is real. (Screencap at http://rad-r.us/MJBomber) Let's see, there are 26.1 million annual tokers, 17 million monthly tokers, and 2 million daily tokers in America. Two of them are alleged terrorists. That's literally, at best, a one-in-a-million risk. Meanwhile, here's a homework assignment for Christine Tatum and you, the reader. Learn a little about the possible link between anti-depressants and violence. You know, the drugs the FDA has said are safe medicines, unlike marijuana, even as they add a "black box warning" that the drugs "may increase suicidal thoughts or actions in some children, teenagers, and young adults..." and may lead to "acting aggressive, being angry, or violent" and "acting on dangerous impulses." Then, when you learn that many of the school shooters were on these anti-depressants, you might wish they'd have chosen marijuana instead. What must 4/20 be like for someone like Christine Tatum who sees violent evil behind the pot leaf? I hope to make it as uncomfortable for her as I can by livestreaming all the peaceful friendly people -- our people -- and educating everyone I can reach about the crucial need to end marijuana prohibition and restore our cannabis hemp heritage. Today, on the first 4/20 in post-legalization Colorado and Washington, we vow to continue legalization of cannabis until all fifty states and all their pot P.O.W.s are free. Light it up! Here's to making the Christine Tatums, Paul Chabots, Kevin Sabets, and especially the Gil Kerlikowskes of the nation irrelevant!

With the growing number of abuses at nonprofit groups, the tax-exempt system in the United States cries out for better regulation. Theft and fraud plague charities, self-dealing is on the rise, excessive compensation is increasingly widespread, nonprofits boards are abusing their fiduciary responsibilities, and telemarketers are cheating donors and providing little benefit to the organizations they are supposed to support. The public should be appalled by this state of affairs. Unfortunately, the problems get little public attention because many, if not most, nonprofits and regulators have chosen to soft-pedal the issue. Nonprofit leaders are afraid that any disruption in the current system is likely to dampen charitable giving at a time when both government and private money are tight. What's more, some of the largest charities and foundations fear any additional regulations or tough enforcement, saying that will lead to too much government intervention. To turn around the situation, some experts have proposed that we put the Internal Revenue Service out of the business of regulating nonprofits and create a separate, independent entity along the lines of the Securities and Exchange Commission or the British Charity Commission to oversee nonprofit groups. Such a new entity would need to be politically independent, headed by an outstanding leader with a reputation for integrity, appointed by Congress for a fixed term and provided with a budget and tools needed for the job. If a separate agency can't be created, the IRS could take a step in the right direction by creating an ombudsman so donors and others could report concerns about organizations abusing their tax-exempt status. Politically, however, it would be exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, for Congress to agree to a drastic restructuring of the regulatory system. While it's important to keep the pressure on lawmakers to adopt big structural changes, it's probably best also to push for changes that have a more realistic chance of passage. Among the top changes that are needed: Strengthen regulations. Many need to be clarified and made more precise so nonprofits can better understand what is unacceptable. For example, the rules on excessive compensation now allow too much wiggle room, especially because they let nonprofits compare their pay with businesses. That's why hospitals and colleges so often can get away with paying their leaders salaries that exceed $1-million. Similarly, a regulation that forbids self-dealing among foundations has so many loopholes that it does little to prevent wrongdoing. Regulations governing earnings from businesses not related to a group's mission need to be strengthened; plenty of big businesses run by nonprofits are now able to escape taxation. In many cases, new regulations must be adopted. The self-dealing provisions on foundations should be extended to cover all nonprofits, a measure that would curtail a growing, unhealthy trend among nonprofit boards to enter into financial deals that benefit some of their members. Nonprofit hospitals should be required to devote a minimum amount of their budgets (say 5 percent) to charity care for poor and uninsured patients. Sharply increase the money the IRS spends to monitor charities. The excise tax on private foundations was enacted to finance the IRS's oversight and policing of nonprofit organizations. It has not served that purpose. Instead, only a small portion of this money pays for regulatory and oversight activities. The IRS has some 500 staff members responsible for examining whether America's more than 1.1 million charities follow the law. Similarly, the IRS is incapable of providing a thorough assessment of the tens of thousands of new organizations that apply for charity status every year. Less than 1 percent of groups that apply are rejected for not meeting basic standards. Nor is there sufficient money for the IRS to review nonprofits' tax status on a periodic basis, say every five years, to make certain they are still viable charitable organizations. If the Internal Revenue Service, or any other agency, is to carry out effectively its nonprofit regulatory function, it will require at least four or five times the money the IRS currently spends to oversee nonprofits. By refusing to provide this type of budget, Congress has demonstrated a total lack of concern for both the sector and public accountability. Bolster the ability of state attorneys general. With the exception of seven or eight states, the state attorney general's offices have so few resources that they can't really police the nonprofits in their states. Even those with large staffs sometimes are inhibited by the political influence of their elected attorneys general. Pennsylvania's nonprofit scandals--such as allegations of rampant self-dealing at the Milton Hershey School and the child sex abuse that Penn State University failed to stop--are prime examples. As long as attorneys general are elected, efforts should be made to depoliticize their nonprofit oversight units, insulating them with their own advisory boards and ombudsmen. All attorneys general offices are starved for money. Either state legislatures need to appropriate more funds for their operations--an unlikely option at this time--or Congress should provide them with matching funds to enlarge their staffs and take a more aggressive stance. Perhaps the IRS could borrow an idea like the Race to the Top competition run by the Education Department to encourage states to compete for money to improve their regulatory efforts. Create nonprofit watchdogs to monitor the enforcers. The Center for Effective Government was created 30 years ago to monitor the Office of Management and Budget and hold it accountable (hence its original name, OMB Watch). It did a great job in pushing the budget office and other government agencies to be more transparent. A similar nonprofit organization should now be started to keep an eye on nonprofit regulators at both the federal and state levels. Foundations should be eager to pour money into such a group, since their prime concern must always be the integrity of the nonprofit organizations they support. Grants to such a nonprofit would be a wise investment that could pay great dividends over time. While all those changes could make a difference, what matters most is that political and nonprofit leaders take forceful action to stomp out charity and foundation abuses. The Senate Finance Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee, the key Congressional oversight panels for nonprofit organizations, have demonstrated little desire to do so thus far. Sen. Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, is an exception. He has raised lots of concerns about nonprofits but has been reluctant to go beyond issuing news releases to take tough action. Unless some other lawmakers step up to the plate, the chances for real change will be slim. Some of the self-styled leaders of the nonprofit world, such as Independent Sector and United Way Worldwide, are in part guilty for this state of affairs. The big nonprofit associations have never pushed hard for major regulatory changes and substantial increases in money to regulators at both the federal and state levels. It's about time they and members of Congress change their tune. If regulators, lawmakers, donors and others don't take action soon, scandals will continue to rise, donors will start losing their trust in nonprofits, and eventually the people who depend on charities for services will have nowhere to turn. Pablo Eisenberg, a regular Chronicle contributor, is a senior fellow at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership at the Georgetown Public Policy Institute. His e-mail address is pseisenberg@verizon.net.

The events of the Boston bombing and subsequent violence in Cambridge and Watertown have shocked the country and left many wondering what the psychological effects will be for those close to the events, as well as those who are affected from afar. The National Center for PTSD has been involved in understanding the impact of disasters and terrorism for over a decade, and we've come to understand that of all types of disasters, terrorism is correlated with higher rates of traumatic stress reactions, across larger areas of the population, and for longer durations. Terrorist acts erode the sense of security and safety people usually feel, both at an individual and community level. They challenge the natural need to see the world as predictable, orderly, and controllable. The scale, unpredictability, novelty, and high threat nature of terrorist attacks have a wide-ranging impact on perceived risk for being harmed in additional attacks. At times like this, there may be a need to differentiate daily between the likelihood that another attack will occur and the likelihood that it will happen to you personally, and a need to move towards accepting a level of risk in order to permit normal functioning. It may take time to learn that you can engage in normal routines and realize that you will not be harmed. These types of approaches have resulted in improvements in both distress and functioning in those living in situations of ongoing threat. We also know that positive social support cannot be underestimated in helping people recover from threat, trauma, and adversity. In fact, situations such as this can remind us of the preciousness of loved ones in our life, the importance of family and friends, the unyielding desire to engage in life, and the value of reaching out and caring for others in need. Many people directly exposed to mass violence will have traumatic stress reactions, and such reactions may occur off and on, even years later. These reactions should not necessarily be regarded as pathological responses or even as precursors of subsequent disorder. Nevertheless, they may be experienced with great distress, and require community support, and at times clinical intervention. Anger, frustration, helplessness, grief, sadness, fear, and a desire for revenge are expected and common reactions to terrorism. We do know that acting on anger and desire for revenge can increase rather than decrease feelings of anger, guilt, and distress. It's important to note that the majority of people are generally resilient, have developed ways of coping ideally suited for their particular circumstances, and usually use their social networks very effectively. Most will return to pre-event levels of functioning over the weeks and months following the event. Rather than traditional diagnosis and clinical treatment, the majority of people are more likely to need support and provision of resources to ease the transition to normalcy, assistance in maintaining or reestablishing their sense of identity and values, support to respond flexibly to the demands of a changed world, and encouragement to engage in their life as much as is possible. In general, interventions that have been found to be effective in the early phases after mass violence promote a sense of safety, calming, connectedness with others, self and community efficacy (the feeling that you can cope no matter what happens) and a sense of hope. Along these lines, self-care for those who are distressed can include: Reminding yourself that stress reactions after disaster are common, rather than feeling "weak" or guilty for feeling distressed Acknowledging those people, values, and goals in your life that the disaster highlighted as most important to you Realizing that you may not be able to function as effectively, and getting help with tasks and problems you're facing Spending time with, or helping others Finding a way to honor losses Taking time outs and channeling your energy productively, if you're feeling angry Checking your thoughts and looking for ways to change them or distract yourself from them, if they are contributing to you feeling worse about yourself or the world In general, taking an active, problem-solving approach to ongoing problems created by the events Reducing the amount of media viewing you are engaging in if it is increasing your distress or interfering with your functioning Shifting your expectations about what is a "good day." Creating specific routines for day-to-day living will lessen worries beyond those routines Proceeding with life's necessities, which will help develop and maintain a continued engagement in life. If a your level of distress is extreme, or your ability to function is severely hampered, don't hesitate to seek help. There are effective treatments for acute stress disorder, PTSD, and complicated grief, and the sooner help is sought, the sooner you will feel better. That National Center for PTSD has a number of fact sheets describing these interventions. See: Where to Get Help for PTSD. Situations such as these recent events can be particularly painful for those with previous histories of trauma, and can serve as a reminder of past events, so they should be particularly careful and conscientious about taking care of themselves, and seek support from others. Those with mental health conditions may also be particularly vulnerable to increased distress. Additionally, exposure to gruesome images in the media has been shown to contribute to PTSD in those with previous history of trauma exposure or mental health diagnoses, and the more media viewing they engage in, the higher their levels of distress seem to be. For more information, see Acts of Violence, Terrorism, or War: Triggers for Veterans. To assist following the bombings at the Boston Marathon, the National Center for PTSD posted these custom materials containing a wealth of resources: Resources for Survivors and the Public Resources for Providers Responding to Sudden Trauma www.PTSD.va.gov The National Center for PTSD, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, has a history of providing public education as well as professional consultation and training during times of national disaster, with involvement in the Nation's response to the Loma Prieta earthquake, 9/11, the Oklahoma City bombing, hurricane Katrina, and the Newtown, CT, school shooting. Beyond immediate assistance, The Center has conducted disaster-related research and, with the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, developed interventions such as Psychological First Aid and Skills for Psychological Recovery.

WATERTOWN, Mass. -- Friday morning in the Boston area began in a tense silence, as the sprawling manhunt for an alleged teenaged terrorist forced city residents indoors for their own safety. Friday night, however, ended with spontaneous parades celebrating his capture. As 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was pulled wounded from his backyard boat hideout and raced to Beth Israel Hospital in police custody, many Bostonians finally exhaled, after a devastating week that began with the double bombings at Monday’s Boston marathon. The suspect's brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, was killed Friday morning in a shootout with police. "CAPTURED!!!" trumpeted the Boston Police Department on Twitter Friday night. "The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody." Yet authorities cautioned that the case won't end until prosecutors build a case against a man accused of killing three people at the marathon and an MIT campus police officer three days later and determine whether the brothers plotted with anyone else. There’s also a long healing process ahead for marathon runners and spectators maimed by Monday's pressure cooker bombs -- aluminum pots laden with ball bearings and nails -- and for the Boston transit police officer wounded during Friday's chaotic spree of violence. Despite the gruesome effectiveness of the Tsarnaev brothers' explosives, the revelers who converged Friday night on Watertown's main drag cheered when news reached them that the younger brother had been captured alive during the standoff with police. “I’m happy they caught him. I’m happy he’s alive, [because] I want to know why,” said Watertown resident Jeannette Harvey, who works in Massachusetts General Hospital’s trauma ward. Other celebrants carried homemade signs that said, "Thank You Police," and shouted, "Boston Proud, Boston Strong" until the wee hours of Saturday morning. Less than five hours before the parade, Tsarnaev was discovered by a multi-agency task force, hiding under a boat tarp on Franklin Street. Police said he fired at officers multiple times before he was taken into custody. Prospects for catching Tsarnaev so quickly looked slim just a few hours earlier. Boston officials warned the public that the manhunt could drag on indefinitely, and that military-style security measures -- which shut businesses and kept millions of people at home -- could remain in place. The patrols of heavily armed law enforcement officers had been a frightening sight for some. “It’s pretty creepy to see bomb squads literally outside our window," said 16-year-old Aspasia Krouskas. “I hope it ends soon.” "It’s like a ghost town,” said Juan Araniz, 69, who was home with four relatives. “Nobody’s outside.” As the sun rises on Boston Saturday morning, Tsarnaev will be fighting for his life in the hospital. The case against him is yet to come. No longer a fugitive, he eventually will be a defendant in one of the country's most significant prosecutions.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has issued an emergency declaration and pledged disaster relief aid to Texas to help in the recovery efforts following this week's deadly fertilizer plant explosion near Waco. Obama's order Friday night authorizes the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate disaster relief efforts in the town of West. Wednesday's explosion at the West Fertilizer plant killed at least 14 people, injured more than 200 others and demolished buildings for blocks around. After addressing the arrest of the second Boston Marathon bombing suspect Friday night, the president extended his sympathies to the community of West and everyone else affected by the explosion. Obama said he's spoken with Texas Gov. Rick Perry and West's mayor, and he pledged that the community will have the resources it needs to rebuild.

WASHINGTON -- A Justice Department official says the Boston Marathon bombing suspect will not be read his Miranda rights because the government is invoking a public safety exception. That official and a second person briefed on the investigation says 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev will be questioned by a special interrogation team for high-value suspects. The officials spoke on the condition of anonymity because they weren't authorized to disclose the information publicly. The public safety exception permits law enforcement officials to engage in a limited and focused unwarned interrogation of a suspect and allows the government to introduce the statement as evidence in court. The public safety exception is triggered when police officers have an objectively reasonable need to protect the police or the public from immediate danger. ___ AP Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier contributed to this report.

UPDATE: Authorities captured Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev Friday night, after police surrounded a Watertown, Mass. backyard where he was hiding in a boat. Residents broke into applause when police announced that Tsarnaev had been apprehended. The slideshow below has been updated with pictures from the scene. One of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombing is the subject of a massive manhunt after, authorities said, he was involved in a firefight with police on Friday morning. Authorities say brothers and bombing suspects 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev set off explosives in the direction of officers before the shootout began. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed in the incident, while Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is still at large. See photos and raw footage from the firefight, as well as images from the manhunt for 19-year-old suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, below.

We don't want the Boston Marathon bombers to be us. We don't claim them. They can't be Americans. As soon as suspects were identified, we rejected these young men. Even some of their family did. We call them Chechen or Russian or even Muslims as if those identities are more prominent than others. We blame them because of our fear. We hope our geography protects us. If there could be a terrorist living next door in our suburban neighborhood, we open ourselves to becoming something else and terrorism is likely again. More domestic terrorist events occurred in the United States during the 1960s and 1970s than the decade since 9/11, but do we have more fear now? Faisal Shahzad, the Times Square Bomber, became a naturalized American citizen in 2009. His children were born in the U.S. and their mother is American. Shahzad moved to the U.S. in 1998 and earned both an undergraduate degree and an MBA from the University of Bridgeport. Was he not an American simply because he also committed terrorism? His face could have been the face of fear but his bomb did not go off. Timothy McVeigh is as American as apple pie. He was born and raised in the state of New York. He was a decorated soldier in the first Gulf War. And then he built a bomb that blew up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City killing 168 people, including 19 children. Ibrahim Ahmad, a Jordanian American, was first blamed. It had to be foreign terrorists and not homegrown boys from the heartland. In Jihad Joe, J.M. Berger detailed Americans that fight abroad in the name of Islam. One example is Omar Hammami, an Alabama-born Islamic extremist, who joined Somalia's Al Qaeda-linked insurgent group, Al Shabab. Hammami's fellow jihadis call him "the American." Do we claim Americans if they go abroad and commit terrorism? A CBS News/NY Times poll taken 10 years after the 9/11 attack found that one in three Americans believe Muslim Americans are more sympathetic to terrorism than other Americans. A Public Religion Research Institute poll taken around the same time reported that 47 percent of Americans claimed that Islam and American values are incompatible. Forty-six percent report that they are uncomfortable with a Mosque being built near their home. We are afraid of terrorism and those individuals we link with the act. It is an American born fear, both rational and illogical. It is why a concerned citizen tackled a Saudi national, a victim himself, running from the Boston bomb. Violence often happens at our moments of glory. It may happen again. Even with effort, resources, and intelligent people dedicated to countering extremism, we can't ever end terrorism. As Bruce Hoffman outlines in this book, Inside Terrorism, this form of violence can be traced throughout history from Biblical times to the Middle Ages to post WWII anti-colonial conflicts, even today. Sometimes it will come from people that look like McVeigh, and sometimes it will come from people that look like Shahzad. The more we feed into the fear component of terrorism, the further we get from recovery. If we call the Boston Marathon bombers foreigners even though they've been living among us for a decade, then we feel safe once again.

Female Occidental College students, faculty and alumni say in a federal complaint that the Los Angeles school failed to take campus sex crimes seriously by improperly reporting and adjudicating sexual assaults and covering up rapes. The 250-page complaint filed by 37 women Thursday with the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights says the school maintained a hostile environment for sexual assault victims and their advocates and violated federal Title IX laws against sexual discrimination. Even when the school's investigations have found wrongdoing, punishment has been light, the complaint says. One student found responsible for raping a woman was given the punishment of writing a five-page book report, according to the complaint. "I've seen some of the outputs of these so-called 'educational sanctions' like book reports and apology letters and they're abysmal," said Danielle Dirks, a sociology professor who specializes in crime and punishment and one of the women who filed the complaint. "The fact that Occidental has invited rapists back to campus and even told survivors not to worry because 'he's reformed now' after these types of inadequate sanctions is an abomination." Six of the women who signed on to the complaint also retained attorney Gloria Allred. Allred's office did not return emails from The Huffington Post. The filing follows an April 1 complaint against Occidental under the Clery Act by some of the same women, alleging the school underreports campus sexual assaults, discourages victims from reporting attacks and fails to issue timely crime reports. The college was criticized in February by women who said the campus wasn't notified in a timely manner about sexual assaults. "Sexual assault on college campuses is a nationwide problem, from which Occidental College (Oxy) regrettably is not exempt," said Jim Tranquada, the college director of communications. "We take this issue very seriously, and will not tolerate sexual misconduct. "We readily acknowledge that Oxy has more work to do, and are vigilantly ensuring our continual progress," Tranquada said. The women who filed the complaint have been pushing the college for six years to improve sexual assault policies. Lately, the women have been working in a group called the Occidental's Sexual Assault Coalition trying to spark a movement and posting anonymous rape survivor stories on a website. Caroline Heldman, who helped write the complaint and chairs the college politics department, said the complaint describes reports from multiple students who say an administrator disparaged the sexual assault coalition to male athletes, saying, "Fuck 'em." Dirks said that kind of attitude was common. She said when she became vocal about Oxy's sexual violence policies, administrators accused her of "actively seeking to embarrass the college." Heldman said she's seen more engagement from the administration in addressing the problems "in one hour since filing these complaints than we had in the past six years." The college has hired Gina M. Smith and Leslie Gomez of Philadelphia-based Pepper Hamilton to conduct a review of the college's sexual violence policies. Smith recently worked with Amherst College and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, institutions that faced similar allegations of mishandling sexual misconduct complaints.

WASHINGTON --The family of Katherine Russell, wife of one of the suspected Boston Marathon bombers, issued a short statement Friday evening to reporters outside their North Kingstown, R.I., home. Russell was married to Tamerlan Tsarnaev, who was killed Thursday night in a shootout with police. She had a daughter with Tsarnaev a few years ago. The family, like many who knew the terror suspects, expressed shock and horror at the events of this week. They wrote: "Our daughter has lost her husband today, the father of her child. We cannot begin to comprehend how this horrible tragedy occurred. In the aftermath of the Patriot's Day horror, we know that we never really knew Tamerlane Tsarnaev." The FBI has given the spelling of Tsarnaev's first name as Tamerlan. The family statement continued: "Our hearts are sickened by the knowledge of the horror he has inflicted." They asked to be left alone "in this difficult time." The Russells ended the day with reporters knocking on their door. They began the day with police cars pulling up in front of their house. A neighbor who lives across the street told HuffPost that she saw police cars parked in front of the Russell home early Friday morning, including a state police cruiser. Paula Gillette, 59, said that one of the people on the scene appeared to be an FBI agent wearing a bulletproof vest. Soon after the police left, the Russell family pulled their car into their garage, Gillette said. Another neighbor confirmed seeing law enforcement in the neighborhood. "Today there were unmarked cars over by the house and around the neighborhood," Cailyn Mather, 20, told HuffPost. "There was a police presence." Gillette said Katherine Russell lived with her parents. She said they seemed like a close-knit family. She described them as "waspy types." Neither of the neighbors recalled meeting Tamerlan Tsarnaev.

WATERTOWN, Mass. — Police say the 19-year-old suspect in the Boston Marathon bombings exchanged gunfire with law enforcement for an hour while holed up in a boat before being captured. Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis says the suspect, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev (JOH'-kahr tsahr-NY'-ev), was hospitalized late Friday in serious condition. His brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan, was killed earlier Friday in a furious attempt to escape police. The brothers are suspects in Monday's marathon bombings, which killed three people and wounded more than 180 others. The men are also suspected of killing a Massachusetts Institute of Technology police officer in his vehicle late Thursday. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. A 19-year-old college student wanted in the Boston Marathon bombings was taken into custody Friday evening after a manhunt that left the city virtually paralyzed and his older brother and accomplice dead. Police announced via Twitter that Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was in custody. They later wrote, "CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody." Tsarnaev's brother, 26-year-old Tamerlan, was killed Friday in a furious attempt to escape police. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev had been holed up in a boat in a Watertown neighborhood. The crowd gathered near the scene let out a cheer when spectators saw officers clapping. "Everyone wants him alive," said Kathleen Paolillo, a 27-year-old teacher who lives in Watertown. Boston Mayor Tom Menino tweeted "We got him," along with a photo of the police commissioner speaking to him. Watertown residents poured out of their homes and lined the streets to cheer police vehicles as they rolled away from the scene. During a long night of violence Thursday into Friday, the brothers killed an MIT police officer, severely wounded another lawman and hurled explosives at police in a car chase and gun battle, authorities said. The suspects were identified by law enforcement officials and family members as Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev, ethnic Chechen brothers who had lived in Dagestan, which neighbors Chechnya in southern Russia. They had been in the U.S. for about a decade, an uncle said, and were believed to be living in Cambridge, Mass. Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a 26-year-old who had been known to the FBI as Suspect No. 1 and was seen in surveillance footage of the marathon in a black baseball cap, was killed overnight, officials said. His younger brother, who had been dubbed Suspect No. 2 and was seen wearing a white, backward baseball cap in the images from Monday's deadly bombing – escaped and was on the run. Their uncle in Maryland, Ruslan Tsarni, pleaded on live television: "Dzhokhar, if you are alive, turn yourself in and ask for forgiveness." Authorities in Boston suspended all mass transit and warned close to 1 million people in the entire city and some of its suburbs to stay indoors as the hunt for Suspect No. 2 went on. Businesses were asked not to open. People waiting at bus and subway stops were told to go home. The Red Sox and Bruins postponed their games. From Watertown to Cambridge, police SWAT teams, sharpshooters and FBI agents surrounded various buildings as police helicopters buzzed overhead and armored vehicles rumbled through the streets. Authorities also searched trains. "We believe this man to be a terrorist," said Boston Police Commissioner Ed Davis. "We believe this to be a man who's come here to kill people." The bombings on Monday killed three people and wounded more than 180 others, tearing off limbs in a spray of shrapnel and instantly raising the specter of another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Chechnya was the scene of two wars between Russian forces and separatists since 1994, in which tens of thousands were killed in heavy Russian bombing. That spawned an Islamic insurgency that has carried out deadly bombings in Russia and the region, although not in the West. Investigators in the Boston case have shed no light on the motive for the bombing and have said it is unclear whether it was the work of domestic or international terrorists or someone else entirely with an unknown agenda. The endgame – at least for Suspect No. 1 – came just hours after the FBI released photos and video of the two young men at the marathon's finish line and appealed to the public for help in identifying and capturing them. State Police spokesman Dave Procopio said police realized they were dealing with the bombing suspects based on what the two men told a carjacking victim during their getaway attempt overnight. ___ Sullivan and Associated Press writers Stephen Braun and Jack Gillum reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Mike Hill, Katie Zezima, Pat Eaton-Robb and Steve LeBlanc in Boston and Jeff Donn in Cambridge, Mass., contributed to this report.

Perez & Smith, Wall St. JournalIt's not every day you see the streets of a major U.S. city practically deserted -- and Bostonians took notice of the rare occurance. Many social media users, holed up for Friday's citywide lockdown during the manhunt for Boston Marathon bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, shared their photos of the deserted city streets on Instagram.

Fred Kaplan, SlateJust hours after the Boston Marathon bombings, Russian President Vladimir Putin condemned the act as a “disgusting” crime and offered to help in any way he could.Now’s his chance.The Tsarnaev brothers appear to have Chechen roots; the older, now-deceased brother, Tamerlan Tsarnaev, may have touted radical Islamists on his YouTube site. (The only question is whether the site’s holder is the same Tamerlan Tsarnaev.) There is no doubt, then, that Putin has a big interest in helping out with the FBI’s investigation—a much bigger interest...

Dickey, Lake & Klaidman, The Daily BeastThe Boston Marathon bombing was not another 9/11. Not close. The order of magnitude speaks for itself: three dead in Boston, nearly 3,000 in New York City. Still, in the aftermath of the Boston tragedy with what now appear to be links to conflicts half a world away in the Caucasus, it is impossible not to ask the same questions that came on the heels of 9/11: just how safe are we in our homes, in our workplaces, on our streets, and at our celebrations? Why on earth would the United States be targeted so often by so many people with so many grievances—why do...