Yesterday, news broke of San Francisco launching a probe into Nevada's habit of dumping mental health patients into other states, most notably California. Today, San Francisco has company. The City of Los Angeles is launching its own probe into Nevada patient dumping.
Los Angeles officials are investigating reports that Nevada’s primary state psychiatric hospital bused indigent mentally ill patients with few or no resources to California cities.
Spokesman Sandy Cooney said the L.A. city attorney's office was “gathering information and ... trying to determine whether what we gather warrants an investigation.”
The Sacramento Bee reported last month that more than 200 Nevada psychiatric patients were given bus tickets and sent to Los Angeles County after their release from hospitals. [...]
Los Angeles’ inquiry follows the San Francisco city attorney office’s announcement Monday that it had launched a formal investigation into the allegations against Nevada’s facility.
The Bee was the first to bring the allegations of so-called "patient dumping" to light. The paper reported that at least 36 of 1,500 patients discharged by Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital in Las Vegas over the last five years had been sent to San Francisco on Greyhound buses.
San Francisco is now requesting documents from Nevada. And pretty soon, Los Angeles will be doing the same. And they may yet have more company. Ever since The Sacramento Bee first noticed the story of James Flavy Coy Brown, this scandal has been steadily growing. And now, it's threatening accreditation and federal funding for Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital, the state's only public mental health treatment hospital in Southern Nevada. Ironically enough, what's likely been clumsy state effort to cut corners and cut costs may end up costing the state far more.
Yesterday, Nevada Mental Health Services Director Mike Willden went on "Ralston Reports" to defend the actions of his staff and Governor Brian Sandoval's (R-Denial) office. Well, he tried. What else could he say?
That's the problem. What else can we say? How is this even defensible? Who can condone the dumping of human beings somewhere else, and do so just because their needed treatment "costs too much"?
Again, the ultimate irony here is that Nevada may very well pay far more now. We didn't have to fall into this mess. We could have just done the right thing, cared for our own, sent those who requested to go to places where care was already lined up... And saved ourselves this lurid legal fiasco.
Ultimately, cutting corners and ripping the social safety net to shreds don't make for good public policy. We're now learning this lesson the hard way. But really, we didn't have to.
Oh, yes. That's right. We have even more hot Nevada Legislature news this morning!
We've been closely following SB 229 here. That's "The Save Tahoe Bill" that stands to repeal 2011's SB 271 and fully reinstate Nevada's commitment to cooperate with California and the federal government to preserve & protect the Lake Tahoe. Earlier this month, SB 229 passed the Senate Natural Resources Committee.
Nonetheless, it passed. And it's now heading to the Assembly. We'll see soon if more legislators are willing to correct an embarrassing mistake.
Oh, and there's also this. Yesterday was Earth Day. And really, what better way is there for Nevada to show commitment to smart environmental stewardship than to restore our commitment to cherishing one of our greatest natural treasures?
This week looks to be another hectic one in Carson City. History is already being made everywhere we look in the Nevada Legislature. So it's understandable that some matters are being overlooked during such a busy time.
However, this is also important. After all, we're about to talk about the state's budget. And we're about to talk about "The T Word".
Back in February, we heard plenty of banter on "revenue-neutral reform". But today, that doesn't look to be going anywhere. Why not? Basically, people just didn't like it.
But with just 41 days left, Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas, said any effort to pass a services tax is dead and sounded less than optimistic about the chances of any kind of broad-based business tax making it to a vote.
Kirkpatrick blamed a flurry of press reports on the services tax for its demise.
“You killed it,” Kirkpatrick told a Sun reporter last week. “You got all the Democrats against me on it before I even had a chance to explore it, so I didn’t even explore it.”
The idea of expanding Nevada’s sales tax to services such as legal advice, accounting and hair dressers was originally introduced in Nevada by a Democrat last session. But in the past two years, Republicans around the country have launched an effort to move away from income taxes and toward consumption taxes such as a services tax.
Actually, Speaker Kirkpatrick, the media themselves didn't kill it. Lack of public support killed it. And perhaps the fact that it was just plain bad policy had a hand in killing it as well.
And then, there's this. Last month, Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson (R-Henderson) leaped ahead of Kirkpatrick, and even seemed to lurch to the left of her at first (??!!), with his wild & crazy IP 1 alternative mining tax proposal. In the wake of that, whatever momentum was left for "revenue-neutral" sales tax extension dissipated quite quickly. Of course, it didn't take long for this to run into serious legal & political roadblocks. Yet despite that, Roberson at least succeeded in completely reshaping the contours of the Nevada Legislature's tax debate.
And that, in turn, revived political fortunes for SJR 15 and mining tax reform. In February, SJR 15 looked to be near death. But now, there's tremendous pressure for the Assembly to act soon following the Senate's resounding 17-4 passage of the bill to take the mining industry's tax policy bailouts out of the Nevada Constitution.
And then, there's The Education Initiative. Funny enough, Roberson constructed his mining tax alternative for the expressed purpose of defeating the actual IP 1. But instead, his and other Republicans' case for restoring social safety net funding can now benefit The Education Initiative since it's the one tax reform initiative left standing. Who could have guessed defeat would soon open the path to victory?
It's been a wild and crazy ride so far for tax reform during the 77th session of the Nevada Legislature. And it still has another six weeks to go. Perhaps there may be more surprises. Or perhaps the Legislature will settle for the status quo again. Yet even if the latter occurs, it may ultimately be temporary. Whatever comes out of the Legislature by June, we'll finally have the chance to vote on real reform next year. And that's real progress.
Last night was truly one to remember. SJR 13 passed the Nevada Senate 12-9. And during the debate on the Senate floor, we saw many surprises. For one, Senator Kelvin Atkinson (D-North Las Vegas) came out. And BuzzFeed ran with the story, which made it national.
Late Monday, the Nevada Senate became the first legislative chamber in the country to vote to overturn a state constitutional amendment banning same-sex couples from marrying.
After a little more than an hour of debate in which one senator publicly declared that he was gay for the first time, the Nevada Senate voted 12-9 to repeal the state's 2002 amendment limiting marriage to one man and one woman and replace it with language requiring the recognition of all marriages between two people, "regardless of gender."
In addition to out LGBT Sens. David Parks and Pat Spearman, Sen. Kelvin Atkinson declared on the floor during the debate, "I am a black, gay male." Because he was speaking about his sexual orientation publicly for the first time Monday night, he said he had heard negative comments about the marriage amendment repeal from others prior to the vote. But, he said, "People should mind their business and allow people to do what they want to do."
State Sen. Ben Kieckhefer was the sole Republican to vote for the marriage amendment's repeal.
Coming out isn't easy. Nope, it can be difficult. And for some, it takes time. So it's incredibly courageous for Senator Atkinson to not only come out, but do so on the Nevada Senate floor. Oh, and he came out just as his colleagues were about to vote on his civil rights. Whoa.
And that wasn't all. As BuzzFeed also mentioned, Senator Ben Kieckhefer (R-Reno) was the sole Senate Republican to cross the aisle and support marriage equality last night. On one hand, this wasn't too surprising. After all, he "came out" in support of equality last month at the first SJR 13 hearing.
Yet on the other hand, this was quite surprising. Senate Minority Leader Michael Roberson (R-Henderson) did a total back-flip on SJR 13. And he was whining about amendments. And he was blaming Democrats (??!!) for his flip-flop. And he was arguing that "marriage shouldn't be in the Constitution", even as he was voting to keep marriage discrimination in the Nevada Constitution. And in case all that wasn't confusing and ridiculous enough, he also ultimately whipped Republicans against the current version of SJR 13.
Yet despite this intense intrigue and pressure, Senator Kieckhefer stood by his principles. He showed true courage. And he ultimately did what he knew was right.
RT @SethBRau: Senator @Jones4Nevada says he'd rather lose an election than not give his brother-in-law equal rights #SJR13 #nvleg #powerful
Against tons of pressure, Senator Justin Jones (D-Enterprise) voted for SJR 13 last night. He was even threatened by the mastermind of the Question 2 marriage ban himself! And some didn't expect him to do this anyway because of his faith. Yet despite the misperceptions and the political threats, Senator Jones voted for equality anyway. Now that's true courage.
At first, last night was a bit disappointing and frustrating. Yet again, our civil rights were being treated as political footballs. But this time, we saw a difference. This time, 12 Nevada Senators ultimately showed true courage. Oh, and they took some advice from one of my favorite philosophers on what to do with the pure political BS.
This isn't even a full list, far from it. Again, all 12 Senators who voted for SJR 13 last night are true profiles in courage. I just thought we should talk about this before we see more spin suggesting otherwise.
It's finally here! Tonight is the SJR 13 vote. We've been following the #SJR13 conversation on Twitter throughout the evening, and there's certainly been plenty of emotion.
And we've seen plenty of surprises. Senator Kelvin Atkinson (D-North Las Vegas) came out on the Senate floor. Senator Ruben Kihuen (D-Las Vegas) said he was willing to do the right thing, even if it meant he wouldn't be allowed into his church next Sunday. Senator Justin Jones (D-Enterprise) said he'd rather lose his next election than deny his brother-in-law his civil rights. Oh, and Senator Pat Spearman (D-North Las Vegas) uttered this lovely gem.
"I know what it feels like when people want to push separate but equal... Separate is not equal" @Spearman4Senate #SJR13 #nvleg
"I go back to Dr, King. Now is the time. We waited far too long," says Spearman. "History will judge us."
Oh yes, and Senator Ben Kieckhefer (R-Reno) came through and voted for marriage equality. And that's how the final vote ended up 12-9 in favor of SJR 13.
This is the beginning. This is the beginning of a new era of equality and justice for Nevada. This is the beginning of true equality for Nevada's LGBTQ citizens. This is the beginning of something new and wonderful for all of us here in The Silver State.
Oh, and this is the beginning of a flood of gratitude for the 12 courageous Senators who voted for marriage equality in the Nevada Senate tonight. Senators Atkinson, Spearman, Kihuen, Jones, Kieckhefer, David Parks (D-Paradise), Mark Manendo (D-Paradise), Mo Denis (D-North Las Vegas), Debbie Smith (D-Sparks), Joyce Woodhouse (D-Henderson), Aaron Ford (D-Spring Valley), and Tick Segerblom (D-Las Vegas) all voted in favor of equality. For some, it was a difficult reckoning with past issues with faith and family. And for all, this was incredibly personal and heart-wrenching.
With the exception of Kieckhefer, all other Republicans voted against equality. Some brought up the lame-ass excuse of "surprise amendments". And they whined about enshrining marriage equality in the Nevada Constitution. So they all ultimately voted to keep discrimination in the Nevada Constitution. Whatever. Voters will remember this night in 2014 and 2016.
Oh, and they lost. Equality won. And this is the beginning of the rest of our lives.
Earlier today, we were discussing our state's need to admit that we have a problem with our current (non-)treatment of mental health patients. Ever since Californians began to learn the story of James Flavy Coy Brown, outrage has been mounting over Nevada's habit of patient dumping (out of state). And now, Governor Brian Sandoval (R-Denial) and the Nevada Legislature are about to find themselves in even more trouble.
San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera today announced a formal investigation into whether the State of Nevada improperly "dumped" psychiatric patients to his city and across California.
In a letter to the director of Nevada's Department of Health and Human Services sent this morning [and copied to Sandoval and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto (D)], Herrera demands that the state turn over documents related to its aggressive practice in recent years of discharging mental patients to Greyhound buses and transporting them across the country. [...]
The director of San Francisco's Behavioral Health Services department told The Bee earlier this month that at least two other Rawson-Neal patients had arrived in San Francisco in the last year "without a plan, without a relative."
"Assuming the reports are true, Nevada's practice of psychiatric 'patient dumping' is shockingly inhumane and illegal," Herrera said in a statement. "We intend to investigate these reports thoroughly, and I am inviting input from providers of services to San Francisco's homeless, who may be willing to volunteer evidence and testimony to assist the city in a potential civil action. "
Herrera said the city will seek compensation from Nevada if it determines that "patient dumping" has resulted in the improper transfer of patients to San Francisco.
"We're prepared to litigate aggressively on behalf of San Francisco and its taxpayers to recover whatever costs or damages we're able to identify," he said. "I also intend to pursue injunctive relief, including monitoring of the offending medical facilities, to send a strong message to any other state or locality that would consider similarly irresponsible public health practices."
Oh, yes. That's right. This just happened. And "Governor Sunny" can't say we didn't warn him.
In recent days, the patient dumping scandal has been getting more attention... And more complaints. Los Angeles is also considering legal action against Nevada. A federal investigation is still underway. California legislators have asked the federal government to take action against Nevada soon. And now, even Utah mental health officials have been speaking out against Nevada's patient dumping habit.
Earlier today, Steve Sebelius wondered aloud if this issue has become the opening shot of the 2014 campaign season. While the issue has been slow to "bubble up" on this side of the state line, it's been receiving more attention lately. And every time Governor Sandoval clumsily denies its existence and/or tries to deflect from it, some higher level Democrats have been salivating over this potential opportunity to finally weaken "Governor Sunny's" political position.
So there's that. But more importantly, there's also the actual policy FAIL. Nevada didn't live up to its obligation to care for these real people. And as a result, these people were just disposed of like garbage. They were left in strange places without a home and without the treatment they need.
With today's news, there's finally the chance Nevada will be forced to deal with this problem. And perhaps with the budding scent of scandal sticking to Governor Sandoval, he may ultimately feel the urge to be done with the ugly political optics. We shall see what happens next.
Just minutes ago, the full Nevada Senate approved SB 192. And the vote wasn't close. In fact, it was 14-7.
All the Republicans voted for the bill introduced by one of their own, Barbara Cegavske (R-Spring Valley). However, Democrats were split. Senators Mo Denis (D-North Las Vegas), Ruben Kihuen (D-Las Vegas), Tick Segerblom (D-Las Vegas), and Justin Jones (D-Enterprise) voted in favor. Meanwhile, Senators David Parks (D-Paradise), Mark Manendo (D-Paradise), Joyce Woodhouse (D-Henderson), Debbie Smith (D-Sparks), Kelvin Atkinson (D-North Las Vegas), Pat Spearman (D-North Las Vegas), and Aaron Ford (D-Spring Valley) all voted against SB 192.
So what happens next? It's on its way to the Assembly. However, there is a catch.
Remember that SB 192 was amended to address concerns over the bill providing license to discriminate. The Senate Judiciary Committee passed an amended version earlier this month with new language clarifying that this law can not be used as legal justification for any type of civil rights violations.
Yet with this being said, several Senators clearly still had concerns. Will the new language really be enough of a safeguard to prevent future attempts to (mis)use this bill to justify wrongful workplace, housing, health care, and other forms of discrimination? Will gay couples be wrongfully denied of housing? Will a bus driver be allowed to deny a Muslim passenger the ability to stop at the mosque? Will any pharmacists try to deny contraception to their patients?
Will there be law suits flying all over state and federal courts anyway? And why is this bill even necessary in the first place? Many are still scratching their heads over these last two questions.
However, there were more than enough Senators to pass it today. We'll just have to wait and see what the Assembly does with it. Oh, joy. (/snark)
Last week, we observed the mounting "tea party" campaign to kill comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) legislation in Congress by invoking the Boston Marathon Attack. Never mind that Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev were granted legal asylum, and ultimately citizenship. At the very least, CIR would not have expedited the Tsarnaev brothers' plot. If anything, it may have given law enforcement more tools to prevent this tragedy!
However, that didn't stop Senator Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) from continuing to peddle wildly inaccurate "tea party" conspiracy theories. Yet oddly enough, he also denied he ever went there! Yes, go ahead and see the madness for yourself. This is from today's Senate CIR hearing.
During a hearing on Friday, Grassley argued that “[g]iven the events of this week, it’s important to understand the gaps and loopholes” in the immigration system. “While we don’t yet know the immigration status of people who terrorized the the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out, it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system.”
And Senator Chuck Schumer (D-New York) didn't stop there. He continued calling out both the radical & xenophobia fueled opposition to CIR. He also pointed out the nefarious delay tactics opponents are trying to use to kill the bill.
Perhaps Senator Schumer paid close attention to what Ezra Klein wrote this morning.
“I call Washington ‘the city of the perishable,’” Nancy Pelosi once told me. Anything left out on the floor of Congress too long runs the risk of spoiling.
The conservatives massing to stop immigration reform agree with Pelosi. This push for immigration reform, they hope, is perishable. And as long as it doesn’t come for a vote anytime soon, it can spoil — or be spoiled.
So they’re grasping at anything that can delay it. At Friday’s Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Chuck Grassley spent his entire opening statement emphasizing the need for less speed. “Unfortunately, I think that we’re kind of off to a rough start from the standpoint that the majority is rushing to read and analyze the bill,” he said. One unsavory reason he gave for slowing down the bill: “While we don’t yet know the immigration status of people who have terrorized the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out, it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system.”
Seeing the danger of tying the Boston bombers to the proposal, Sen. Lindsey Graham replied from the Sunday shows. “What happened in Boston and international terrorism I think should urge us to act quicker, not slower,” he said on CNN, arguing that passing the bill would mean strengthening border security and better tracking who is actually here. Sen. Marco Rubio’s office also harshly rebutted Grassley’s comments.
The other advantage of slowing the bill down is that it creates an opening to oppose the law — or at least its progress — without opposing the law itself. It could even allow some senators to have it both ways. A key dynamic to watch as reform grinds on is where Rubio falls on the calls to endlessly lengthen the schedule. If, as conservative opposition mounts, he joins with those who want a slower process, he could help the anti-immigration forces on their key tactical priorities for killing immigration reform even as he publicly supports the bill itself.
Even if the law passes the Senate, it will be mired in the House. “The bill will be immediately sent to the committees, and then either sent back to the Senate with changes, or rewritten in a bicameral conference committee,” reports Robert Costa. “That tweaking process could take months, which is just fine with many Republicans, who’d like the public to have as much time as possible to chew over the controversial elements of Obama’s prized bills. The caucus consensus is: The more time Congress takes to consider a bill, the more time the public has to sour on its components.”
They know this is their best path, and perhaps their only available path, to kill CIR in Congress. Just stretch out the process and find more excuses to delay even further. And then, just hope that the process becomes so toxic that bill can no longer survive.
They have to do this because their arguments have no basis in reality. As mentioned above, the "TERRORISM!!!" panic is completely illogical. And the economic case doesn't make sense, either. Former Commerce Secretary (under President George W. Bush) Carlos Gutierrez recently refuted this.
And this is backed up by actual data. CIR can actually help American born workers along with immigrant workers. And overall, CIR stands to help the American economy build and maintain a competitive advantage. Just watch out when trying to explain this to the "tea party".
But really, they don't care about the (lack of) veracity of their argument. They're now just flinging crap to the walls of Congress and hoping enough sticks to kill the bill. That's why the increasingly infamous Senator Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) just wrote a letter to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Searchlight, Don't Forget It) demanding CIR "address national security concerns". (Never mind that it already does & probably does so in a more effective way than what Rand Paul wants!) So of course, this quickly led to fellow 2016 Presidential Candidate Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida), himself a Gang of 8 member (??!!), promising to address "flaws in our immigration system that were exposed by the attack."
And in case this latest outbreak of "tea party" madness isn't enough, expect even more. They're continuing to attack Marco Rubio for even joining the Gang of 8, and they now have these lovely buttons to display their opposition to CIR in a very special way. In addition, RedState.com co-founder and particularly loud "tea party" pundit Erick Erikson declared, "Count me out!" (of the Gang of 8 CIR compromise).
What's so disgustingly funny about this is that the virulent "tea party" opposition to the Gang of 8 CIR bill might lead some to believe their bill is so "wildly & radically progressive". But really, it isn't. In fact, their bill appropriates even more federal funds for even more militarization of the US-Mexico Border while subjecting undocumented immigrants to a 13 year path to citizenship! Oh, and the bill (as is) fails to address the plight of LGBTQ families. That's what led a former Republican Member of Congress to speak out today.
"I know, as the partner of an immigrant how difficult it can be to build a life and protect the system under the current system," he said. "While this is an excellent starting point, I submit to you it is still incomplete. Families like mine are left behind as part of the proposal."
Immigrant and gay rights groups were disappointed last week when the "Gang of 8's" bipartisan immigration bill did not include measures allowing Americans to bring same-sex partners or spouses from abroad on family visas. Because of the Defense Of Marriage Act, now under review by the Supreme Court, the federal government is barred from recognizing gay marriages for immigration purposes, forcing many families into effective exile abroad.
"My partner was born in Panama and came to the United States on a scholarship to pursue [a graduate degree] in special education," [Former Rep. Jim] Kolbe [R-Arizona], who was outed in 1996 after voting in favor of DOMA, said. "He has been a dedicated teacher for almost two decades. He was...was forced to turn to Panama when his visa expired. The separation was painful."
Kolbe and his fiance are planning to marry in DC next month. It just took an incredibly long and expensive visa process to get them there. And as of now, the Gang of 8 bill does nothing to fix this. President Obama has endorsed inclusion of the Uniting American Families Act (UAFA) in CIR legislation, and at least a few Senators have expressed interest in adding UAFA to the Gang of 8 bill as an amendment.
The Gang of 8 bill truly is a compromise. It includes some priorities that progressives care about, along with priorities that conservatives care about. And it addresses a long standing problem that needs to be solved... Well, a decade ago.
But again, even this is just too much for the G-O-TEA. So they're pulling out all the stops to kill the bill. And now, we're left (again) to see which way Senator Dean Heller (R-TEA Curious) is blowing to determine the fate of immigration reform. It may ultimately depend on how much "TEA" Heller decides to drink.
Over the course of the month, we've been looking at the tragic case of James Flavy Coy Brown, the Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital patient who was "released" from the hospital, only to be thrown onto a Greyhound bus and dumped into Sacramento, California. Growing outrage over this heinous case of patient dumping resulted in state and federal investigations into Nevada's patient dumping habit. And we now Nevada has busedover 1,500 patients out of state since 2009, sending at least one patient to each and every one of the 48 continental states.
Recently, Governor Brian Sandoval (R-Denial) has been boasting about increasing the state government's budget, and especially education and health care funding, "without raising taxes" (and the accuracy of this statement actually depends on how one categorizes extending "The Sunset Taxes" of 2009 & 2011). Yesterday, The Las Vegas Sun's Andrew Doughman explained how Governor Sandoval has been able to do this. Surprise, surprise, there's a method behind his "magic"!
This month, he found $25 million for education programs and even released a handy slogan: “Increasing funds for education without raising taxes: Check.”
The next day, he said he found yet another $25 million for health programs for the state’s most vulnerable populations. Then, he announced $12 million more for eliminating furloughs for state workers by mid-2015.
How, exactly, did those presents end up under Nevada’s Christmas tree?
The majority of the money comes from regular state accounting adjustments, and it’s not necessarily good news. Nevada gets a portion of this new money because the federal government now projects the average American’s income will grow faster than the average Nevadan’s income. [...]
But in this case, economic growth isn’t fueling increases to the budget.
Besides getting more federal money because it’s getting poorer than other states, Nevada also is benefiting from revisions to the number of state residents enrolled in government health programs and a nationwide trend in lower-than-projected health care costs.
“Those are both pretty standard adjustments we’d make,” said Jeff Mohlenkamp, the state’s budget director. “They just happen to be working in our favor right now.”
So Sandoval has been able to increase the state's budget by claiming poverty and showing the number of Nevadans in need of some sort of federal/state aid. And there's technically nothing wrong with that in and of itself. It just becomes a problem when he and fellow Republicans demand austerity out of one side of their mouths... While simultaneously using the other side to milk the feds for more money!
It's also a problem that Sandoval wants to use these additional federal funds to claim he's "increasing funding without raising taxes"... And silence criticism of the shortcomings of Nevada's social safety net. Even with the additional federal funds, the state's mental health care budget still allocates much less per patient now than in 2007. And even the 2007 budget was not keeping up with 20 years worth of tremendous population growth.
And that leads us back to the patient dumping scandal. Yesterday, The Sacramento Bee published a stinging editorial on Nevada's patient dumping. And they cut right to the heart of this matter.
If they truly had the interests of the patients at heart, Nevada health officials would have contacted mental health authorities in locales that were receiving the patients. No mental health official in any city, county or state contacted by The Bee had heard of Nevada's practice of busing mentally ill patients – unescorted, no less.
Sandoval, thought to be one of the Republican Party's rising stars, has not acquitted himself well. When the Las Vegas television reporter caught up with Sandoval and asked about the "policy" of busing patients, he pushed back by saying, "I disagree with the premise of the question."
Exactly what Sandoval disagrees with is not clear. Nevada long has had a written policy to bus patients to their home states. The policy stated that one of its goals was to relieve the "burden" on Nevada taxpayers of the patients' care, though the state dropped the word "burden" from a revised policy after The Bee quoted from it.
"If there is a problem, we're going to correct it," Sandoval told the reporter.
Mr. Sandoval, you've got a problem. You need to correct it. [US Health & Human Services] Secretary [Kathleen] Sebelius, you need to make sure he does.
Especially since Sandoval is using additional federal funds to plug holes in the state's budget, he needs to come clean on this. After all, if he doesn't, the state may ultimately lose at least some of those federal funds. Accreditation of Rawson-Neal is now at risk. And on top of this, Los Angeles and San Francisco are considering suing Nevada over patient dumping.
So we can't just (mis)use additional federal funds to sweep our problems under the rug and deny their existence. After all, these federal funds are supposed to be used to help people in need! And Nevada will likely pay a heftier price if the state continues to neglect people in need of treatment.
So why live in denial any longer? Let's admit we have a problem. And then, we can truly fix it.
On Tuesday, we examined the latest developments in Nevada's patient dumping scandal. The Sacramento Bee has been on this story from the start, and it uncovered even more horrifying incidents of Nevada dumping mental health patients into other states with no plan for future care and no home to go. The investigation began when The Bee found James Flavy Coy Brown, a Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital patient who was thrown onto a Greyhound bus with only a 3 day supply of medication, some peanut butter crackers, and a few cans of Ensure. He was left to wander the streets of Sacramento, California, until officials there found him near suicide in a homeless shelter and placed him into treatment.
Earlier this month, Sacramento Bee Senior Editor Dan Morain traveled to Carson City to ask Governor Brian Sandoval (R-Denial) and state legislators why they allowed this to happen for so long. While Senators David Parks (D-Paradise) & Tick Segerblom (D-Las Vegas) expressed their disappointment (and resignation to continued health care underfunding), Sandoval continued to deny its existence. He couldn't quite express that level of denial to KSNV/News 3 Las Vegas this week, he certainly tried to deflect.
And while other legislators are finally starting to speak out on this matter, they still seem reluctant to take action.
According to an initial review, the state’s mental health agency removed administrative oversight of busing patients with a policy change in 2009, prompting an increase in the number of patients bused out of state, said Mike Willden, director of the state Health and Human Services Department.
The agency has subsequently added back that level of oversight following two internal investigations sparked by the Sacramento Bee reporting.
“We’ve taken action to date. We’ve disciplined staff, referred to the licensing boards. We’ve done several policy changes. Additional training has been done to ensure going forward that this can’t happen again,” Willden said. “Zero tolerance is our goal." [...]
“Until we can get that information in the next couple weeks, we will have to see if any policy changes need to be made,” said Assembly Speaker Marilyn Kirkpatrick, D-North Las Vegas.
Assemblywoman Lucy Flores, D-Las Vegas, called the revelations in the Sacramento Bee stories “shameful” but also said that legislators don’t yet have enough information about the hospital’s policies or the details of the investigations.
Assemblywoman Maggie Carlton, D-Las Vegas, said she’s spoken with Willden but also needs to see more detail.
“What we have to separate is dumping versus sending home,” she said. “We need to figure out what this is really about.”
Sure, no one should rush to a conclusion without having all the facts. But at this point, it's becoming increasingly clear what the problems are. The Nevada Department of Health & Human Services implemented a policy change in 2009 that removed administrative oversight of patient busing. And while state officials continue to deny that recent state budget cuts led to patient dumping, that's become increasingly difficult to do, as Think Progress and others have noted the severity of Nevada's mental health care budget cuts. Think about this: Would Nevada's mental health care officials really have allowed all this patient dumping if this didn't look like an attractive option to save money?
We know Nevada state government has been notorious for cutting corners and attempting to provide necessary services on the cheap (meaning hardly at all) whenever possible. But now, this extreme resolve to cut corners instead of properly providing necessary services is causing real problems for our state. Now, Utah officials are expressing outrage over Nevada's patient dumping.
“It's very bad practice and very bad care for people that are psychiatrically unstable,” said [Doug] Thomas[, Assistant Director of Substance Abuse and Mental Health for the State’s Department of Human Services]. “When you go into in-patient care you have that level of care to help you maintain your functioning, when you discharge you're at risk to go back in."
The story came to light when one of Rawson-Neal's patients turned up suicidal and confused at a Sacramento homeless services agency. 48-year-old James Flavy Coy Brown was allegedly discharged in February with only a Greyhound bus ticket and three days worth of medication for schizophrenia and depression.
Dr. Coni Kalinowski is the medical director for Mohave Mental Health. She says the transient problem and severe budget cuts have put Nevada’s mental health services in crisis mode.
“So we have a huge number of people who have acute psychiatric needs who need to be in a hospital but absolutely no place for them to go,” said Kalinowksi.
Still Doug Thomas says that does not justify putting sick people on a bus and shipping them off to places they've never been.
"The only reason why any of our hospitals, or providers, would put anyone on a bus would be to return them to family members or a community where they had a support system and often they would go with that person."
A Nevada state mental hospital's practice of discharging psychiatric patients to Greyhound buses and transporting them to cities and towns across the country is under investigation by the independent, nonprofit body that accredits hospitals nationwide.
In addition, city attorneys in San Francisco and Los Angeles are exploring whether the practice constitutes a form of cross-state "patient dumping," and might be grounds for legal action against Rawson-Neal Psychiatric Hospital and Nevada health authorities.
The responses follow a report in Sunday's Bee that revealed that Rawson-Neal, Nevada's primary psychiatric hospital, has bused more than 1,500 mentally ill patients out of southern Nevada in the last five years, sending at least one person to every state in the continental United States. About a third of those patients were shipped to California, including more than 200 to Los Angeles County, 36 to San Francisco and 19 to the city of Sacramento, according to a review of Greyhound bus receipts purchased since July 2008 by Nevada's mental health division. [...]
The hospital's practices have touched off preliminary inquiries in Los Angeles – which received 149 patients from Rawson-Neal during the five years reviewed, more than any city in the country – and in San Francisco.
In recent years, Los Angeles has cracked down on area hospitals for dumping patients on Skid Row, where the Greyhound station is located, filing lawsuits and criminal charges. Patient dumping is a misdemeanor by city ordinance.
"Clearly, we have an interest," Sandy Cooney, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles City Attorney's Office, said of the bus trips from Las Vegas. "We're trying to determine if this warrants an investigation." San Francisco also is in the early stages of an inquiry, said city attorney spokesman Matt Dorsey.
They can't say we (and others) didn't warn them. In fact, we've been warning here that Nevada will pay a hefty price if the state continues to dither while mental health services are underfunded and patients continue to be subjected to "Greyhound Therapy". And now, a federal investigation is underway as Rawson-Neal's accreditation is at risk and two major California cities consider law suits against Nevada for carelessly dumping patients into their cities.
Nevada, we have a problem. We can't deny it any more. Governor Sandoval can't deny it any more, and neither can anyone in the Legislature.
These people need treatment. It's in their best interest, and it's actually in the best interest of the greater community. And if you're wondering why it's so damned important, just remember how much trouble we've been seeing from the Steven Brooks case. It ultimately saves us lives and money to treat mental illness than to let it persist and worsen.
And yes, it's simply irresponsible for us to dump our problems onto other states and communities. It's inhumane to simply treat human beings like garbage in busing them to other states without any plans for future housing and treatment. And as we're learning the hard way, there's a price to pay for engaging in this kind of reckless behavior.
So why are folks in Carson City continuing to deny the severity of this horrid scandal? We can't afford to deny it any more. Nevada, we have a problem. And it's long past time for us to fix it.
Over the course of today, we've been learning more about the main suspects in the Boston Marathon Attack. Now, we can finally say both of them have been captured. One was caught dead... And the other has just been caught alive.
Boston Mayor Tom Menino tweeted “We got him,” along with a photo of the police commissioner speaking to him.
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.”
The capture of Dzhokhar A. Tsarnaev triggered an outpouring of seemingly pent-up emotions among residents here who took to cheering, applauding, and clapping as the long blue line of police and troopers left the city they had shut down as they hunted Tsarnaev.
Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is now in custody. Apparently, the investigation is still very active. But now, one main suspect is in police custody while the other is dead.
We'll continue updating the blog this weekend as more information comes in.
Over the course of this week, we've occasionally noticed local connections to the Boston Marathon Attack. Today, we found another one. A Reno Gazette Journal reporter has a brother who's trapped in his home as a result of today's lockdown of much of the Boston Metropolitan Area.
[Gary] DeLong and his wife, Susan, are busy with other things but the TV stays on, as it has all day. It’s a captivating story that has caught the world’s attention, and it’s playing out in his back yard. Everything that’s happened over the past few days –the marathon bombing, last night’s carjacking and subsequent shootout with police that claimed the life of the surviving suspect’s brother –occurred within a few miles from DeLong’s Brookline, Mass., home. He attended the marathon Monday but left before the bombs exploded.
The semi-retired emergency room physician said it’s disappointing to realize a single individual can virtually “shut down” such a huge metropolitan area. At the same time, he said it’s encouraging to see so many people cooperating with police requests to shelter in place and thus aid in the manhunt. He’s scheduled to depart for a fishing trip in Florida Saturday, but doesn’t at this point know if leaving Boston will be possible.
The bombing itself, DeLong said, leaves him sad and reflecting on the evil nature of those associated with such an act. It’s a decidedly unwelcome point in history for the city he loves so much.
“It’s horrific,” DeLong said. “From my perspective, it brings out a piece of humanity that shouldn’t exist. There is no place for this kind of senseless violence.”
Boston and several surrounding suburbs have been on lockdown all day. Pretty much the only people who've been outside are law enforcement officers and media reporters. Imagine having to spend an entire Friday at home. That's the fate that many in Massachusetts have had to suffer today.
Yet while much of Greater Boston is on lockdown, we've seen a media feeding frenzy. It's had Salon's Willa Paskin asking why the rush.
The news networks are trying to make sense of everything before they have the information needed to make sense (or the information needed to know it will never make sense). As an NPR reporter put it —and this helps explain why NPR, not as slavishly devoted to the new and fast, has had so much better coverage than TV news —“We are collecting dots. It’s a day to be careful about connecting them.” TV news keeps trying to connect them anyway. It’s against this backdrop of puffed-up insight that all the interviews with the people who knew the two bombing suspects are so gripping. The uncle, the aunt,the kid who smoked a bowl with Dzhokhar and the one who still can’t believe that he did it are all processing what’s going on in human, not news time: You can see them working it through, struggling with it, not providing answers they don’t have. There’s something to that.
As we discussed earlier, the media feeding frenzy has sometimes led to inaccurate reports. And that led to innocent people being hurt by false accusations. We need to be careful not to led prejudice lead us to wrong conclusions.
Many have been wondering why Dzhokar Tsamaev and Tamerlan Tsarnaev would commit such a brutal and heinous crime. A cousin recently spoke to The Boston Globe. He offered his experience with his cousins and his thoughts on this week's events.
A picture has begun to emerge of 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev as an aggressive, possibly radicalized immigrant who may have ensnared his younger brother Dzhokhar — described almost universally as a smart and sweet kid — into an act of terror that killed three people and injured more than 170 at the finish line of the Boston Marathon on Monday.
“I used to warn Dzhokhar that Tamaralan was up to no good,” Zaur Tsarnaev, who identified himself as a 26-year-old cousin, said in a phone interview on Friday from Mkhachkala, in the Russian republic of Dagestan. “[Tamaralan] was always getting into trouble. He was never happy, never cheering, never smiling. He used to strike his girlfriend. He hurt her a few times. He was not a nice man. I don’t like to speak about him. He caused problems for my family.”
Zaur Tsarnaev said he most recently expressed his concerns about Tamarlan — the alleged bomber pictured in a dark hat in FBI videos released Thursday — to Dzhokhar when Dzhokar visited last summer. He added that Dzhokhar went to mosque sometimes but he was “never an extremist.”
“Dzhokhar is a sweet boy, innocent. He was always smiling, friendly and happy,” Zaur Tsarnaev said. “I don’t know how he is involved in this.”
This story has become increasingly tragic over the course of this week. But at this point, we still don't know all the facts yet. And we still shouldn't jump to too many conclusions.
At this point, the stay-inside order is finally being lifted for Greater Boston. However, Dzhokar Tsamaev is still at large and wanted. And police still suspect he's somewhere in Massachusetts.
We'll provide more updates on this story this weekend. And we'll do our best not to jump to wrong conclusions.
4:35 UPDATE: Is the second suspect being caught? Here's the latest update from Watertown, MA.
Mutiple networks, including NBC, FOX, and CBS, are reporting that a body is in a boat in Watertown, MA after being shot by police. The identity has not yet been confirmed. FOX News' Shep Smith reported that police searched a woman's backyard after she called to report blood on her shed, leading them to the boat where they engaged in a major firefight.
Right now, Twitter and the cable networks are lighting up over this. The suspect may finally be cornered in Watertown. Some outlets were ready to report him dead, but those reports were quickly retracted.
We don't know yet if he's dead or alive. We're not even 100% sure yet this is the suspect. But so far, it looks like he's being cornered.
On Wednesday, Ammar Harris had his day in court here in Nevada. He's charged with murder in the Las Vegas Strip shooting and car crash this past Feburary. After weeks of fighting extradition from California, Harris was finally brought back to Nevada to go to trial.
Now remember, Ammar Harris is on trial for murder. Yet in the first week after the shooting, some were quick to point fingers at Kenneth Cherry, one of the VICTIMS in that attack. "Oh, but he was a pimp. He was a gangster. He was asking for it!" We heard excuses for Cherry's untimely death, and it forced his family to step forward to remind everyone that he was a slain victim, not a criminal.
What made this case even more poignant was that it was happening around the time of the one year anniversary of the murder of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, Florida. There, George Zimmerman claimed he shot Trayvon Martin dead because he looked "threatening". He was walking home while carrying a bag of Skittles & a bottle of iced tea when Zimmerman shot him dead.
Even though Trayvon Martin was the victim, he posthumously faced allegations of criminal wrongdoing. A Florida police chief even used Trayvon's photo for "target practice". And remember, he was killed for wearing a hoodie while walking home with a bag of Skittles and a bottle of iced tea.
Yesterday, Trayvon Martin's parents sent a special message to the parents of Martin Richard, the 8 year old boy who was killed in the Boston Marathon Attack on Monday. He was watching his father finish the marathon when he was caught in the bomb blast.
The parents of Trayvon Martin, the teen shot and killed by neighborhood watchman George Zimmerman in 2012, have sent a message to the family of the 8-year-old boy who was killed in the Boston Marathon explosions.
Martin Richard, 8, was pictured on Facebook holding a peace sign created in response to a lesson by his teacher about the death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, which prompted the parents of Trayvon Martin to send a special message to the family of Martin Richard.
The statement released on Tuesday reads as follows:
"Our hearts are broken over the tragedy in Boston yesterday. Our family sends our sincerest condolences to all of those who have been affected by this terrible situation. We especially would like to send a message to the family of eight year old, Martin Richard. We have come to understand that the peace sign that Martin is holding in a photo being circulated throughout the media, was created in response to a lesson by his teacher about the death of our son. From our family to yours', we are praying for you, thinking about you and will remember your son for the rest of our lives."
This moved me to tears when I first read it this morning. Sadly, so did this. After facing a full media swarm descend upon his house, Ruslan Tsarni strongly condemned his nephews for their likely role in the Boston Marathon Attack.
Apparently, I wasn't alone. Joan Walsh was thinking about the same thing. It's the dark underbelly of American culture that always emerges after a tragedy like this one.
Tsarni’s rant wasn’t exactly what law enforcement might have advised: A soothing person giving young Dzhokhar a reason to come out of his hiding place alive,and to cooperate with officials in revealing whether there may be more hidden bombs as well as what his and his late brother Tamerlan’s motives were.
But it was a window on an ancient American story: the anguish of immigrants when one of their own becomes notorious, and shames not only his family, but his entire ethnic group.
“He put a shame on the Tsarni family. He put a shame on the entire Chechen ethnicity,” the uncle raged. “It has nothing to do with Chechnya.” To reporters questions, he answered: “We’re Muslims, we’re ethnic Chechens,” and he went on: “Of course we’re ashamed. They’re children of my brother. Who had little influence of them.” [...]
Tsarni’s anguished press conference (video below) was a live, televised twist on an old American narrative: an immigrant struggling not to have his people defined by the bad behavior of one of the group. Generations of American immigrants not only Americanized their names to seem less foreign; they cringed whenever one of their group “shamed” them with notorious criminal behavior.
Irish Americans ashamed of the poverty, destitution and sometimes notorious behavior of famine Irish refugees in the mid-19th century dropped the “Mc” or the “O” from their names. Even as a second generation Irish Catholic on Long Island in the 1960s and ’70s, I was schooled in not seeming “shanty Irish,” which mainly involved not yelling out the window at friends or my family, not serving food directly from the pot to the table, and keeping my fingernails clean. Our Italian neighbors shuddered at the high-profile Mafia escapades of the era. [...]
The rabid anti-Muslim prejudice in the U.S. since 9/11 provides new reasons for any Muslim who finds a family member accused of a crime. Tsarni expressed solidarity with the families of Boston bombing victims. “We’re sharing them with their grief. I’m ready to just bend in front of them, kneel in front of them, seeking their forgiveness, in the name of the family.”
I'll add that this isn't even limited to immigrants. As mentioned above, the families of Trayvon Martin and Kenneth Cherry have had to clear their names in the media... Despite the fact that they were the victims!
Still, this has allowed the "tea party" to throw a giant, xenophobic monkey wrench into the pursuit of comprehensive immigration reform (CIR) in Congress. Following Reps. Steve King's (R-Iowa) & Louie Gohmert's (R-Texas) respective nonsensical & unhinged attempts to tie the Boston Attack to the Gang of 8 CIR bill, fellow "tea party" icon Ann Coulter chimed in with another insensitive, nonsensical, and unhinged rant. This has even forced Senator Marco Rubio (R-Florida) to beg his fellow Republicans not to engage in any more mindless speculation that only results in more xenophobia and more trouble. Unfortunately for Rubio, his request seems to be falling on deaf ears.
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) raised the topic early in the hearing, which was supposed to feature Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano before she was forced to cancel her appearance due to the ongoing response to the attack.
"Given the events of this week, it’s important for us to understand the gaps and loopholes in our immigration system," Grassley said, according to the Huffington Post. "While we don’t yet know the immigration status of the people who have terrorized the communities in Massachusetts, when we find out, it will help shed light on the weaknesses of our system."
Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY), one of the sponsors of the immigration bill, said that he will work with DHS on any immigration issues that emerge from the bombing. But he warned that his colleagues should not rush to tie it to reform legislation given the lack of available information.
"I'd like to ask that all of us not jump to conclusions regarding events in Boston or conflate those events with this legislation," Schumer said. "In general, we're a safer country when law enforcement knows who is here, has their fingerprints, photos, etcetera, conducted background checks ... Two days ago, as you may recall, there was widespread erroneous reports of arrests being made. This just emphasizes how important it is to allow the actual facts to come out before jumping to any conclusions."
Actually, we know the two named suspects had been living in America for over a decade. And the one who was shot dead this morning had become a permanent legal resident in 2007. But of course, that won't stop the "tea party" from trying to take advantage of this tragedy and (mis)use it to shoot down comprehensive immigration reform.
And herein lies the problem. We're all too often to react to tragedy with prejudice, and that prejudice only serves to hamper efforts to recover. We saw this earlier in the week as some "internet detectives" and media sensationalists were falsely accusing people of Monday's attack. But now that we know the names of two suspects (and one of them has already sided in a shootout with police), the same media senationalists are already jumping to wrong conclusions again as family members of the suspects have had to issue condemnations to quell any backlash against Muslims and ethnic Chechens.
Certainly, it looks increasingly like these suspects committed a very heinous crime and hurt many innocent people. However, their uncle and aunt are not to blame. Neither are other Chechen Americans living peacefully in this country. And neither are the many Muslim Americans who live peacefully in this country, just like the rest of us.
Yet again, a vicious cycle of bigotry and xenophobia is playing out. We can only hope enough people speak against this nonsense and debunk the madness before it causes any more problems. Haven't we seen enough victims hurt this week?
Police on Friday morning surrounded a home in Watertown, Mass., the same suburban Boston community where authorities engaged in a firefight with 19-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and 26-year-old Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the two suspects in the deadly marathon bombings. The older Tsarnaev was killed in the firefight, while Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remains at large.
Two unidentified people were taken into custody at the Cambridge, Mass., home where Dzhokhar Tsarnaev and his older brother Tamerlan grew up, but they were not being described as additional suspects. Three dozen FBI agents were ringing the house.
Across the area, as police cars screamed down streets and helicopters hovered overhead, authorities urged the public to stay inside, their doors locked to anyone but a law-enforcement officer.
"There is a massive manhunt under way," Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick said. "We are asking people to shelter in place."
The lockdown initially affected more than 300,000 people in Cambridge, Watertown, Newton, Brighton, Allston and Belmont, but by 8 a.m., the entire city of Boston was paralyzed, officials said.
Watertown, where the second suspect was last seen, was the epicenter of the search. Frightened residents were trapped in their homes as convoys of heavily armed officers and troops arrived by the hour.
Harvard University, Boston University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Emerson University were all closed and students were told to stay inside. Boston public schools were shuttered for the day.
The overnight violence began near MIT about five hours after the FBI released surveillance photos of the two men suspected of planting two bombs near the finish line of Monday's Boston Marathon, killing three and wounding 176.
As of now, a huge swath of the Boston metropolitan area has effectively been shut down this morning as residents are being asked to remain inside as the manhunt is underway. Dzhokhar Tsarnaev is still at large and wanted. And a third suspect may soon go into custody, as the Amtrak train he boarded has been stopped in Norwalk, Connecticut.
Overnight, MIT police officer Sean Collier was killed in a gun fight with two of the suspects.
Just in the last 24 hours, we've seen major developments in this case. Suspects have been identified, then two were named. And now, one is dead while another is being cornered in the Boston area and another may soon be arrested in Connecticut. It's amazing to see how quickly law enforcement is moving on this case.
However with that being said, there may still be other suspects/accessories to this crime at large. So far, this is still an active investigation. If you have any information that can lead to the capture of any suspects, contact the FBI immediately at this web site, or by calling 1-800-225-5324.
We'll update the blog today as this story continues to develop.
Just minutes ago, the FBI released new video and photos of the suspects in Monday's Boston Marathon Attack. Here's what we now have.
FBI Special Agent Richard DesLauriers said at a Thursday evening press conference that investigators have pinpointed two different suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings who "appeared to be associated."
Relying on video footage, DesLauriers said "suspect one" was donning a dark hat while "suspect two" was wearing a white hat. Suspect two was seen in video footage setting down a backpack at the site of the second explosion, right in front of the Forum restaurant.
And here are photos of the suspects. The FBI is warning civilians NOT to try to apprehend either of these suspects themselves. They are considered to be armed and dangerous. Instead, if you come into contact with either of these suspects and/or have information that can help authorities apprehend these suspects, please visit bostonmarathontips.fbi.gov and/or call 1-800-CALL-FBI.
Here's what we now know about the suspects, and about Monday's attack.
The images show two men in baseball caps and dark jackets who were seen walking together through the crowd at Monday's iconic race.
One of them set down a backpack at the site of the second blast, minutes before the explosion.
"Somebody out there knows these individuals…though it may be difficult, the nation is counting on those with information to come forward and provide it to us,” Boston FBI Special Agent in Charge Richard DesLauriers said at a Thursday evening briefing.
"We consider them to be armed and extremely dangerous," DesLauriers said of the men. "No one should approach them...If you see these men, contact law enforcement." [...]
Investigators are casting a wide net for clues. The FBI was canvassing hobby stores in the Boston area to determine whether electrical components in the bombs were bought there, NBC News learned.
Forensic work from the blast zone has helped authorities identify major components of the bombs.
They were housed in metal containers — at least one an everyday kitchen pressure cooker — and studded with metal, including fine nails or brads, to make the devices more lethal. A battery pack typically used on toy cars and a circuit board were also recovered.
Again, if you have information that can help authorities catch these suspects, use the contact info above to reach the FBI. Do NOT try to arrest these suspects yourself.
In the past 72 hours, we've seen plenty of false leads and misinformation. It's reassuring to see the FBI step forward with real, credible information. Now, it's just a matter of how long before this leads to an arrest.
