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NEWS FROM ACROSS THE NATION
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• VICTIM, SUSPECT IN GA. MALL SHOOTING DEAD: MARIETTA, Ga. (AP) — After a shooting at a mall in suburban Atlanta, the victim died of her injuries and the suspect apparently killed himself, police said Tuesday.

The two apparently knew each other and had some sort of confrontation Monday afternoon in a parking lot at Cumberland Mall, northwest of the city, Cobb County police said. Violet Lambert, 55, of Atlanta died at a hospital, according to police. Witnesses said she had been shot in the eye.

Police said that a short time later, they found a white van they had been seeking at a home in East Point, just south of Atlanta. The suspect, Danny Wray Brown, 59, of East Point, was found at the home dead of an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, according to police.

The gunman had also fired a shot at a bystander at the mall who tried to help the woman. The bystander was not seriously hurt.

The woman’s purse and shopping bags were splashed with blood, the Marietta newspaper reported. Blood also covered the left rear panel of her red Cadillac, with a bullet hole just above the gas tank.

Witnesses said the gunman fled the scene in a white van with a ladder rack on top. Cobb County police said the white van was found parked at a home in East Point, about 15 miles south of the mall. Authorities obtained a search warrant for the residence, and detectives discovered Brown’s body there.

 

• BERKELEY STUDENTS USE KICKSTARTER TO FUND LIBRARY: BERKELEY  (AP) — A new Berkeley charter school had all the latest technology but no library — so the students designed one and raised money via Kickstarter to build it.

Eighth graders in a design class at REALM Charter School have raised $78,000 via the crowdfunding site. They hope to have the new library open by the end of the school year.

With help from a local group called Project H, the students designed the bookshelves as well as the tables and chairs. They started on paper, moved on to cardboard models, and then used plywood.

 

• 2 STABBED OUTSIDE SAN FRANCISCO STRIP CLUB: SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Police are trying to determine what prompted someone to stab two men outside a strip club in one of San Francisco’s popular entertainment districts.

One of the men’s wounds was described as life-threatening. The stabbing occurred a little after 1 a.m. Tuesday in the city’s North Beach neighborhood.

Police spokesman Albie Esparza says the victims — a 24-year-old man and an 18-year-old man — were stabbed in the abdomen during an altercation.

 

• LA SCHOOL BOARD OKS $25M LAWSUIT SETTLEMENT: LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Unified School District has agreed to settle a lawsuit over teacher layoffs by spending $25 million to hire more staff for dozens of struggling schools.

City News Service says the school board on Tuesday approved the proposal. However, it still needs court approval.

The ACLU of Southern California and the Public Counsel Law Center sued the district four years ago, arguing seniority policies meant teacher layoffs hit low-income and inner-city schools hardest because they had the newest teachers.

A 2011 settlement was appealed by the teachers’ union.

The new proposal calls for the district to hire additional assistant principals and support staff for 37 schools with high teacher turnover rates.

 

• ATTACKS ON PAYMENT SYSTEMS TRAIL OTHER CYBERCRIMES: NEW YORK (AP) — While the theft of millions of credit card numbers from Target customers last year drew attention to Internet crime, a new study finds that breaches of retail payment systems are less common than other kinds of attacks.

A report from Verizon found that Internet attacks in which data were compromised resulted more often from various small online acts, such people clicking on malicious Web links and choosing easy-to-guess passwords.

The report, considered to be one of the top annual looks at Internet-related crime, includes information from 50 organizations around the world, ranging from law enforcement to security companies. The report was due out Wednesday.