Blog Posts by Liz Goodwin

Parking lot in Virginia Tech (Roanoke Times reporter Lerone Graham, @LeroneNRV)

We have updated this story as details emerge

A police officer was shot and killed early this afternoon on Virginia Tech's campus during a routine traffic stop, putting the campus on lockdown for several hours. The suspect fled the scene, and police later found another body, along with a gun, on campus grounds.

NBC reported that the second body is believed to be the shooter and that the recovered weapon was his own, but police would not confirm that identification at a press conference Thursday evening, saying the investigation is still pending.

"Today tragedy again struck Virginia Tech in a wanton act of violence," said Charles Steger, president of Virginia Tech at the press conference. "Our hearts are broken again for the family of our police officer and we extend our deepest sympathy and condolences." He said counseling will be available for university students and staff.

Robert Carpentieri, of the Virginia state police, said at the presser the slain police officer stopped a driver for a traffic violation when a third party approached the officer and shot him. Virginia Tech deputy chief of police Gene Deisinger said the officer was a four-year veteran on the campus force. The officer's identity is being held pending notification of his extended family. It is believed to be the first time a Virginia Tech university police officer has been killed in the line of duty.

Shanties in Tijuana overlooking the U.S.-Mexico border fence (AP)

Only 327,577 people were caught crossing illegally from the Mexican border last year--a number that hasn't been so low since the days of Richard Nixon's presidency, according to the Washington Post.

The Department of Homeland Security says total border apprehensions for fiscal year 2011, which ended last September 30, are down 53.5 percent from 2008.

In 2000, when far fewer Border Patrol officers were stationed on the Southern border than today, a record-breaking 1.6 million illegal immigrants were caught trying to cross. Experts say three major factors are slowing illegal border-crossing: the stagnant American economy; a border that is manned with more officers and better technology; and the new hazards associated with crossing illegally since drug gangs have seized control of human smuggling routes.

Occupy Washington protesters outside McConnell's office (AP)

Occupy Wall Street protesters, facing pressure from city governments around the country to close their public encampments, are trying other tactics to keep raising awareness about what they say is the undue influence of money and corporations on politics.

On Tuesday, protesters in Oakland, San Jose, New York, Atlanta, and Los Angeles and 15 other cities held marches to protest bank foreclosures on homes. The San Jose Mercury News reported that protesters rallied around the home of Darlene Bowland, an elderly woman with cancer who was recently evicted from her home where she had lived for decades. Atlanta protesters blew whistles to distract from an auction of foreclosed homes, the paper reports. Among the protesters' demands is that banks cease evicting people until after the holidays.

In Washington D.C. on Tuesday, some protesters targeted the offices of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and House Speaker John Boehner, sitting outside of their offices as part of their "Take Back

POSTVILLE, Iowa—A group of Jewish boys in yarmulkes and winter coats walked past the "Taste of Mexico" restaurant on Lawler Street last week on their way home from school. Minutes later, a Somali man wearing a keffiyeh scarf around his neck passed by, perhaps on his way to the town's makeshift mosque on Main Street.

This improbably diverse rural town of about 2,000 people in northeastern Iowa suffered a near-fatal shock more than three years ago when a federal immigration raid scooped up 20 percent of its population in a single day. An ultra-Orthodox Lubavitcher Jewish family from Brooklyn bought the town's defunct meatpacking plant in 1987 and attracted workers from Israel, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. The plant became the largest producer of kosher beef in the world. When the plant was raided one spring morning in May 2008, most of the workers on shift were Guatemalan and Mexican, and undocumented. Many workers later said they had been physically or sexually abused at the plant, and at least 57 minors were illegally employed there, some as young as 13.

Six months later, the plant shut down abruptly. Sholom Rubashkin, the chief executive, was convicted of fraud and sent to prison. The national and local news media documented the near-demise of the town that followed, as businesses were shuttered overnight and hundreds of homes abandoned. The town shrank to nearly half its former size, as many of the illegal immigrants who were not netted in the raid left out of fear or because they couldn't find a job.

Immigration is one of the most contentious issues facing the Republican presidential candidates as they prepare for Saturday's debate in Des Moines, sponsored by Yahoo! and ABC News. Earlier this year, Rick Perry's candidacy suffered because of his support for allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state tuition at public universities in Texas. Last month, Newt Gingrich struck a moderate tone on the subject, saying, "I don't see how the party that says it's the party of the family is going to adopt an immigration policy which destroys families that have been here a quarter century." Other candidates say Perry and Gingrich support policies that amount to amnesty for people who have broken the law. Yahoo News visited Postville to examine what immigration looks like in the Republican presidential campaign's first battleground state, one that is 90 percent white but that has outposts like Postville that are changing the state's ethnic makeup and driving its population growth. Though still less than 4 percent of the population, Iowa's foreign-born population increased by 159 percent between 1990 and 2008, while the native-born population increased by only 5.7 percent.

Today, the meatpacking plant, under new ownership, uses the federal e-verify system to check workers' immigration status. The hourly wage on the poultry line is higher than it was before the raid, but few Iowan-born locals work there. Ridding this small community of its illegal workforce, far from freeing up jobs for American-born citizens, has resulted in closed businesses and fewer opportunities. Even nearly four years later, many homes still remain empty, and taxable retail sales are about 40 percent lower than they were in 2008.

In order to staff its still low-paying jobs with legal immigrants, the new owner of the plant has recruited a hodgepodge of refugees and other immigrants, who often leave the town as soon as they find better opportunities, creating a constant churn among the population. The switch to a legal work force has made the community feel less stable, some locals say, and it's unclear if Postville will again become a place where immigrants will put down roots, raise children, and live in relative harmony with their very different neighbors.

'For me, it was a fairy tale'

Postville thinks of itself as a place where people of all backgrounds and nationalities can come, do hard and unsavory work, and get ahead. Svetlana Vanchugova, who teaches English classes to non-native speakers at the high school, is one such immigrant. Called "Ms. Lana" by her students, Vanchugova came to Postville in 1995 from Ukraine in order to escape an unhappy marriage and to start a new life with her two sons. "For me it was a fairy tale when I first came to this little town," she says.

Florida cop German Bosque has been arrested three times, fired five times, and was flagged in a record-breaking 40 internal affairs disciplinary investigations. And he's still on the beat.

The Sarasota Herald-Tribune's two-part investigation into Florida's police disciplinary system reveals that thousands of Florida officers have stayed on the job despite evidence implicating them in crimes or serious misconduct. And the agency responsible for keeping officers in line too often declines to investigate, the paper says.

Bosque was thrilled to find out he led the state in the number of disciplinary investigations. He told the Herald Tribune reporters:

Fine (AP)ESPN has released recordings that suggest that Laurie Fine, the wife of former Syracuse University associate head basketball coach Bernie Fine, suspected that her husband was sexually abusing a ballboy for the team.

Was Laurie Fine legally obligated to tell the police about her suspicions?

No--not even if it could be proved that she was guilty of knowingly allowing sexual abuse to occur in her own home.

Individuals rarely have a legal obligation to report a crime, including child abuse, says Deborah Epstein, a law professor and director of the Domestic Violence Clinic at Georgetown University. In New York state, where Syracuse University is located,  only people in certain professions--including most medical professionals, school officials, social workers, day care workers, and some others--have a legal obligation to report child abuse. (In California, all people are obligated to report crimes against children under 14 years old.)

"I know everything that went on, you know," Laurie Fine says to Bobby Davis in 2002 on the recording. Davis and his stepbrother, both former Syracuse ballboys, have accused Bernie Fine of molesting them when they were children. A third accuser has also come forward, saying he was abused by Bernie Fine in 2002. (Laurie Fine told Syracuse's Post Standard that parts of the recordings are accurate but that they may have been edited. Bernie Fine has not been charged with a crime, and he denies the allegations.)

In the recordings, Laurie Fine appears to explain why she didn't step in to stop the alleged abuse. "If it was another girl like I told you, it would be easy to step in because you know what you're up against. ... (When) it's another guy, you can't compete with that. It's just wrong, and you were a kid. You're a man now, but you were a kid then."

To be criminally liable, Laurie Fine would have had to have participated in the alleged abuse or have tried to actively hide her husband from the law.

New York has a "spousal privilege" law, which means the spouse of an accused person cannot be compelled to testify against him or her in court in most cases. That wouldn't be an issue in Davis's case, because the alleged abuse happened in the 1980s, well beyond the federal statute of limitations of 10 years for crimes involving the sexual abuse of children.

Sullivan (Twitter)Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback is apologizing to the teen who insulted him over Twitter last week.

"My staff over-reacted to this tweet, and for that I apologize.  Freedom of speech is among our most treasured freedoms," Brownback said in a statement to Yahoo! News on Monday. Brownback Communications Manager Sherriene Sontag-Jones says the governor has no plans to personally reach out to the high school student.

Sontag-Jones contacted Emma Sullivan's principal last week and said the 18-year-old had made an inappropriate comment about the governor over Twitter. The principal asked Sullivan to submit a written apology to the governor for her comment. Sullivan told Yahoo! News Sunday night that she would not apologize.

She wrote "Just made mean comments at gov. brownback and told him he sucked, in person #heblowsalot," to her 60 followers during Brownback's speech to high school students at the state Capitol. His staff found the comment while scouring social media sites for his name.

Austin and Arielle next to the truck where they live with their father (60 Minutes)

60 Minutes' Scott Pelley traveled to Seminole County, Florida to talk to children who are living in cars with their families. Florida is home to a third of America's homeless families, as the construction industry's collapse left many formerly working-class residents of the state to face extreme poverty for the first time. You can watch the moving 15-minute video on CBS's site.