Kentucky lawyer shot dead; laugh cited
SOMERSET, Ky. -- A defense attorney well-known in his small, southern Kentucky town was shot and killed outside of his law office early Friday by a man who wanted his help but was turned down, according to police reports.
Mark Stanziano, 57, was just arriving at his downtown office about 8 a.m. when a man who lives in an apartment across the street approached him with a handgun and wordlessly shot him at least four times, police said in statements, phone interviews and a citation after speaking with several witnesses.
One of the witnesses was a Pulaski County (Ky.) sheriff, who arrested Clinton Inabnitt, 40, of Somerset, police said. Inabnitt is charged with murder.
Inabnitt told officers that he shot Stanziano because the attorney declined to help him with a problem and laughed at him Thursday night, according to the police citation.
VA review finds big, ‘chronic’ failures
WASHINGTON -- A review of the Veterans Affairs health care system by a top White House aide has concluded that there are "significant and chronic systemic failures" that the VA's leadership must address.
A summary of the review by Deputy White House Chief of Staff Rob Nabors said the Veterans Health Administration must be restructured and that a "corrosive culture" has hurt morale and affected the timeliness of health care.
The review also found that a 14-day standard for scheduling veterans' medical appointments is unrealistic and has been susceptible to manipulation.
The White House released a summary of the review after President Barack Obama's meeting Friday with Nabors and acting VA Secretary Sloan Gibson.
The review includes a series of recommendations, including a need for more doctors and support staff.
IRS: Report hard drive to take longer
WASHINGTON -- An inspector general's report on a damaged hard drive belonging to former Internal Revenue Service employee Lois Lerner should be complete "in a matter of weeks," according to a letter the IRS sent to Congress on Friday.
In the letter to House Ways and Means Chairman Dave Camp, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen wrote that the agency is working to produce as much of Lerner's email and other information as possible.
"I had hoped to provide you with responses today," he wrote, "but critical information is still being collected and verified."
Lerner's damaged hard drive has become a major point of contention over the past week as House Republicans accused the IRS of covering up information related to the scrutiny of Tea Party groups.
According to the letter, the Treasury's inspector general for tax administration has asked the IRS "to treat the inspector general's] investigation as a priority and to avoid other activities around these issues until their work is concluded."
It's not clear from the letter what activities would be halted.
The hard drive included emails and other information from January 2009 through June 2011. The IRS has released emails showing that Lerner sought unsuccessfully to have the data recovered.
Backup tapes were recycled after six months, according to the IRS practice at the time, and the hard drive itself was also recycled.
Mexico officers said to fire at U.S. agents
TUCSON, Ariz. -- Mexican law enforcement on Thursday crossed into Arizona by helicopter and fired two shots at U.S. border agents, a Border Patrol union leader says.
A Mexican law enforcement helicopter crossed about 100 yards north into the Arizona desert, the U.S. Border Patrol said in a statement. The helicopter then fired two shots on the Tohono O'Odham Indian Nation, which sits on the border. Border Patrol union leaders say the Mexicans fired at agents but that none was hurt.
However, Mexican authorities have denied shooting at agents and say they were under attack during a mission to find smugglers on the border.
Tomas Zeron, the director of the Mexican attorney general's investigative office, said that Mexican military and federal police who were conducting an operation on a ranch in Altar, Sonora, were shot at by criminals. Mexican authorities never fired any weapons and in fact never crossed into the U.S. side of the border, he said.
Art del Cueto, president of the local Border Patrol union, said four agents were in a marked patrol vehicle when they were shot at.
"They could say they didn't fire at the agents intentionally. But for them to say that they were no shots fired within the United States, toward the United States Border Patrol, is a lie. They got in contact with our managers and apologized for the incident," del Cueto said.
A Section on 06/28/2014