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About The daily Astorian. (Astoria, Or.) 1961-current | View Entire Issue (Oct. 1, 2018)
9A THE DAILY ASTORIAN • MONDAY, OCTOBER 1, 2018 Las Vegas shooting memorial: ‘None of us will ever be the same’ By KEN RITTER Associated Press LAS VEGAS — A flock of doves fluttered skyward at sunrise in Las Vegas today, each bird bearing a leg band with the name of one of the 58 people slain in the deadli- est mass shooting in nation’s modern history one year ago. Marking the anniver- sary of the night that a gun- man opened fire from a high- rise casino suite on a crowd of 22,000 country music fans, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval gathered with several hundred people at an outdoor amphithe- ater remembrance ceremony. “Today we remember the unforgettable. Today, we com- fort the inconsolable,” Sando- val told survivors , families of victims, first-responders and elected officials who gathered at dawn. He added: “Today, we are reminded of the pain that never really goes away.” Among those who offered prayers, songs and speeches was Mynda Smith, whose sis- ter Neysa Davis Tonks was killed. Mynda Smith said her sis- ter, who pronounced her name “Neesha,” was a 46-year- old single mother rais- ing three boys in Las Vegas. Smith called her sister ener- getic, adventurous, a fan of all kinds of music and a per- son who danced when no one AP Photo/John Locher People pray at a makeshift memorial on Sunday for victims of the Oct. 1 2017 mass shooting in Las Vegas. was watching. Smith started a scholarship fund for victims’ children and said she reached out to loved ones of almost all the dead. “None of us will ever be the same,” Mynda Smith said. “We have all changed. We have all been broken. But we can find a way to pick up those pieces and glue it all back Problems mount for Pentagon’s immigrant recruit program By LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press WASHINGTON — Stricter Trump administration immigration policies have sty- mied Pentagon plans to restart a program that allowed thou- sands of people with critical medical or Asian and African language skills to join the mil- itary and become American citizens, according to several U.S. officials. The decade-old program has been on hold since 2016 amid concerns that immi- grant recruits were not being screened well enough, and security threats were slipping through the system. Defense officials shored up the vet- ting process, and planned to relaunch the program earlier this month. But there was an unex- pected barrier when Home- land Security officials said they would not be able to pro- tect new immigrant recruits from being deported when their temporary visas expired after they signed a contract to join the military, the U.S. officials said. They were not authorized to publicly describe internal discussions and spoke on condition of anonymity. The program is called Mil- itary Accessions Vital to the National Interest program, or MAVNI. The plan to restart it was backed by Defense Secre- tary Jim Mattis, who believes that noncitizens can bring key skills, language abilities, and cultural knowledge to the military. Mattis, a combat veteran of multiple war tours, has fought with and commanded foreign nationals, and he believes their service adds to the lethality of America’s fighting force, according to the officials. The Pentagon chief told reporters late last month that the program is designed to enlist immigrants with needed skills. “We need and want every qualified patriot will- ing to serve and able to serve,” Mattis said. together. Yes, the cracks will be seen. But it can be whole again and we will be stronger.” Christie Kraemer, a Las Vegas real estate agent who wasn’t at the concert but knew people who were, said “I never want Oct. 1 to happen again. But I love Oct. 2 because of the way everyone came together.” Shooting survivors Chris and Larisa Rapanick of Ches- apeake, Virginia, made the trip to Las Vegas for weekend events including a 5K run, a country music club show and a reunion of survivors on Sat- urday. At the sunrise service, they stood with their two adult daughters. “We weren’t going to let this ruin a place we like to come to,” Chris Rapanick said. “I’m glad to be standing here.” Clark County Sheriff Joe Lombardo recalled the chaos and confusion of the shooting, and the prayers to “heal bro- ken hearts,” blood banks filled with donors and “acts of kind- ness that comforted the suffer- ing” that followed. “When the sun rose the next morning, grief turned to anger, anger turned to resolve and resolve turned to action,” Lombardo said. Many who were cheering Jason Aldean’s headline set on at the Route 91 Harvest Festi- val late Oct. 1, 2017 , said later they thought the rapid crack- crack-crack they heard was fireworks — until people fell dead, wounded, bleeding. The Rapanicks heard bul- lets hitting a canvas awning near them as they fled and saw a shot hit a plastic cup that flipped in the air. From across neon-lit Las Vegas Boulevard, a gam- bler-turned-gunman with what police later called a meticulous plan but an unknown reason fired assault-style rifles for 11 minutes from 32nd-floor win- dows of the Mandalay Bay hotel into the concert crowd below. Police said he then put a pistol in his mouth and killed himself. Medical examiners later determined that all 58 deaths were from gunshots. Another 413 people were wounded, and police said at least 456 were injured fleeing the carnage. Lombardo declared the police investigation over in August, issuing a report that said hundreds of inter- views and thousands of hours of investigative work could not provide answers to what made Stephen Craig Paddock unleash his hail of gunfire. President Trump says he supports ‘comprehensive’ FBI Kavanaugh probe By DARLENE SUPERVILLE and MICHAEL BALSAMO Associated Press WASHINGTON — Presi- dent Donald Trump said today he wants the FBI to do a “com- prehensive” investigation into allegations of sexual miscon- duct by Brett Kavanaugh. But he also said he stands by his Supreme Court nominee “all the way.” Trump said during a Rose Garden press conference that he wants the probe to wrap up quickly because the accu- sations have been “so unfair” to Kavanaugh and his family. But he said it’s fine with him if the FBI wants to pursue accu- sations made by three women who have publicly come for- ward even as he has left the scope of the investigation to Senate Republicans. “My White House will do whatever the senators want,” Trump said. “The one thing I want is speed.” The president added, “We don’t want to go on a witch hunt, do we?” AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais President Donald Trump speaks about Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh in the Rose Garden of the White House. FBI agents interviewed one of the three women who have accused Kavanaugh of sex- ual misconduct as Republi- cans and Democrats quarreled over whether the bureau would have enough time and freedom to conduct a thorough inves- tigation before a high-stakes vote on his nomination to the nation’s highest court. The White House insisted it was not “micromanaging” the new one-week review of Kavanaugh’s background, but some Democratic lawmak- ers claimed the White House was keeping investigators from interviewing certain witnesses. President Donald Trump tweeted that no matter how much time and discretion the FBI was given, “it will never be enough” for Democrats try- ing to keep Kavanaugh off the bench. And even as the FBI explored the past allegations that have surfaced against Kavanaugh, another Yale Uni- versity classmate came forward to accuse the federal appel- late judge of being untruth- ful in his testimony to the Sen- ate Judiciary Committee about the extent of his drinking in college. As the fresh review unfolded, the prosecutor who was brought in by Republi- cans to handle questioning at last week’s hearing outlined in a new memo why she did not believe criminal charges would be brought against Kavana- ugh if it were a criminal case rather than a Supreme Court confirmation process. Rachel Mitchell wrote that she did not believe a “reasonable prosecu- tor would bring this case based on the evidence before the Committee.” Mitchell argued that that there were inconsistencies in accuser Christine Blasey Ford’s narrative and said no one has corroborated Ford’s account. Ford, a California college pro- fessor, was not questioned as part of a criminal proceeding but in the confirmation process.