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Water wars loom as the US runs dry
Labels: WorldEx-CNB chief Ng Boon Gay back in court for verdict
Labels: Technology
SINGAPORE: Former anti-drugs chief Ng Boon Gay is in court for the verdict of his sex-for-contracts corruption case.
Ng, 46, was accompanied by his wife Ms Yap Yen Yen.
District Judge Siva Shanmugam started the court session on Thursday afternoon by explaining the grounds for his decision.
He found Ms Cecilia Sue's credibility to be successfully impeached.
He also said her explanations as to why there were inconsistencies in her statements to the Corrupt Practices Investigation Bureau (CPIB) and evidence in court were inadequate and unconvincing.
Ng was charged in June last year with four counts of obtaining sexual favours from 36-year-old Ms Cecilia Sue, who was a sales manager for two IT vendors.
Ng allegedly breached the Prevention of Corruption Act by engaging in sexual acts with Ms Sue on four occasions, between June and December in 2011.
Ms Sue was the sales manager of Hitachi Data Systems from June to November 2011.
She joined Oracle Corporation Singapore in December in 2011 as its senior sales manager.
In exchange, Ng is accused of furthering the business interests of the two IT companies in their dealings with the Central Narcotics Bureau.
After a closely-watched 14-day trial, both the prosecution and defence made their closing arguments late on 28 January 2013.
In rounding up, lead prosecutor Tan Ken Hwee said as a civil servant and one who had the authority to make decisions, the burden of proving he had received gratification legitimately, was on Ng.
He said under the provisions of the law, as long as Ng had grounds to suspect that a reason Ms Sue performed the sexual favours was to induce him to show her employers favour, then it would be sufficient to prove he was corrupt.
But the defence, led by Senior Counsel Tan Chee Meng urged the court not to convict an innocent man just to bring home the message that corruption is wrong.
Mr Tan said the defence's case is that despite an ongoing relationship with Ms Sue, there was no conflict of interest.
If convicted, Ng can be jailed up to five years and fined a maximum of $100,000 for each count.
- CNA/ck
Obama's 'I'm in charge' speech
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- David Rothkopf: With this State of the Union speech, Obama returned to work of governing
- He says Obama's manner was confident, purposeful, sent message to fellow politicians
- He focused on economy, investing in Americans: jobs, energy, education, immigration
- Rothkopf: Obama remarks taking on gun lobby showed his new vigor as empowered advocate
Editor's note: David Rothkopf is CEO and editor-at-large of the FP Group, publishers of Foreign Policy magazine, and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
(CNN) -- It is sometimes said of a great actor that he could hold an audience spellbound while reading a laundry list. This is essentially what President Obama tried to do on Tuesday night. As State of the Union addresses go, his was artless. It lacked inspired phrases or compelling narrative. Save for the energy he gave it at key moments, it was pedestrian.
It was also very important.
It was important because with it, Obama returned in earnest to the work of governing. Having won a clear victory in November, and having spent the intervening months putting out the wildfires our Congress likes to set, he delivered word Tuesday night that he had a clear and full agenda for his second term.
David Rothkopf
Candidate Obama, the man who has dominated American politics for most of the last five years, seems gone for good. That version of our president may have had more poetry about him. But this version wants to actually get down to governing.
Whether he can or not remains to be seen. Indeed, it seems certain that many, if not most, of the goals he set on Tuesday night will elude him. But the speech was also important because it sent several clear messages to his fellow politicians.
He said, "I won. I am in charge. I will not shy away from a progressive agenda."
He said, "I know what I want. I'm not afraid of defeat as I was in the past. I will never run in another political campaign again."
Oh, he didn't say these things literally. You won't find those words in the transcript. But look at the tape -- you'll find them in his body language and between the lines of his speech.
The economy was his centerpiece -- but it was not just another campaign speech about growth. It was a speech about, as one of his team put it earlier in the day, "growing the economy from the middle out." He spoke about restoring the middle class and creating opportunity. From the beginning it was clear that this was no longer a speech about recovering from a crisis. It was not another speech about America at war. Obama's concern -- the crisis he was addressing -- was that incomes and job creation are stagnant even as the economy grows and corporate profits hit record levels.
His prescription was clear. We must invest in America and in its people. In infrastructure, domestic energy resources, cleaner energy and energy efficiency, education, research and building the workforce through immigration reform. Obama called for raising the minimum wage to help lift up the poorest and better reward those among them who are willing to work for a living. He also sounded the theme that we must do all these things to better compete in the global economy, citing the examples of China, Germany and others whose examples he said we should heed and exceed.
Even the portion of his speech that dealt with foreign policy was oriented to the domestic economy. Yes, he began with the newsworthy announcement that he would bring home half of all troops in Afghanistan by next year and end our war there the following year. Yes, he talked about defeating al Qaeda even as it shape-shifted its way around the world. And he addressed drone oversight, North Korea's nuclear test, Iran's nuclear program and the Middle East.
But many of his statements on these issues were formulaic. And the thrust of all of them -- even the boldest, like his return to his Prague promise of working to reduce nuclear stockpiles -- was enabling America to focus more energy on rebuilding its strength at home. Furthermore, perhaps the most important international thrusts had nothing to do with war at all. (His comments on cyberthreats, for example, were really directed at protecting intrusions against the private sector.)
Opinion: Obama dares Congress to get the job done
Obama's renewed focus on climate, including his call for "market-based" solutions -- meaning reopening the idea of carbon markets or other such mechanisms, a couple of years after such ideas were considered by many to be dead -- was a return to promises made long ago. It was also a recognition of the urgency with which this global threat must be addressed. His new secretary of state, John Kerry, was the leading voice in the Senate on these issues and has already told his staff how important these and other environmental concerns would be. This issue was raised early in the speech, even though it is clearly something requiring global cooperation. It was an important shift of emphasis.
Similarly, perhaps the biggest new foreign policy initiative Obama called for was opening of talks to achieve a trans-Atlantic trade agreement. This is a powerful idea that could be the centerpiece of second-term international economic policy. It would further enhance trade with the European Union, strengthen our Atlantic alliance and set the stage for its modernization in the 21st century, and open the way for a new global round of trade talks. And finally, since agricultural trade reform is so central to big emerging powers like Brazil and India, it would help strengthen our relations with them.
Of all the elements of the speech, however, the most compelling and emotional was Obama's concluding section demanding a vote on reforming America's gun laws. Citing gun deaths in his hometown, Chicago, with the victims of violence in the gallery watching him, he demonstrated his newfound confidence by standing up to one of the most powerful lobbies in Washington, tackling an issue he himself had sidestepped earlier in his presidency.
Opinion: In 2013, democracy talks back
At that moment of the speech -- calling for real change in the wake of tragedies like the school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut -- what we saw was a president in full, a man who knew his job, knew his power and was not afraid. He might or might not get the reforms he wanted. But he could certainly send a message to even his most obdurate opponents that he would use whatever tools and influence he had to demand they at least take a stand.
One can only hope he will do more, go past getting a vote to getting the results we need -- background checks, bans on assault weapons and high-volume magazines, mental health care reform, a real effort to stop gun trafficking. But whatever the outcome, at that moment Tuesday night, the focused energy of this president at this stage of his presidency reverberated through the rafters of the Capitol and suggested that this long speech was not a laundry list but a to-do list, an agenda for change offered up by a confident and empowered advocate.
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The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of David Rothkopf.
Calif. deputy slain in shootout with man believed to be Dorner was father of two
Labels: HealthUpdated 7:22 PM ET
The San Bernardino deputy who was killed during a shootout with suspect killer Christopher Dorner has been identified as Det. Jeremiah MacKay, said the San Bernardino County's Department during a news conference on Wednesday.
San Bernardino County Sheriff's Det. Jeremiah MacKay, 35, was identified as the man killed Tuesday in a gun battle with man believed to be fugitive ex-cop Christopher Dorner.
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CBS
Sheriff John McMahon said that MacKay, 35, was pronounced deceased at the hospital. According to McMahon, MacKay was a member of the sheriff's department for 15 years and that he was married and a father to two children -- a 7-year-old girl and a 4-month-old son.
MacKay was presently assigned to the Yucaipa station but was also a detective at the Big Bear station.
"My sincere condolences go out to the MacKay family," said McMahon. "This is truly another sad day for law enforcement. Our department is grieving from this event."
MacKay was killed Tuesday as authorities closed in Dorner, wanted for killing two civilians and a Riverside cop, while he was holed up in a vacant cabin in the Angelus Oaks area of Big Bear.
Gun battle with wanted ex-cop - caught on tape
Another deputy, who was later identified at the press conference as Alex Collins, from the Yucaipa office, was also wounded in the same gun battle. According to McMahon, Collins is currently at a hospital being treated and went through a couple of different surgeries.
"I just spoke to his wife," said McMahon of Collins. "He's in good spirits and should make a full recovery after a number of additional surgeries."
Before he fled to the cabin, Dorner had highjacked a pickup truck.
He then "abandoned the vehicle, ran into the forest, and hid inside this cabin before he barricaded himself. He was engaged in gunfire and shot two of our deputy sheriffs," said sheriff spokesperson Cindy Bachmann.
The cabin eventually caught on fire and a charred body was found inside, although authorities have yet to confirm it was the man they were seeking for over a week.
Meanwhile, Riverside police held a funeral for the officer killed in last week's gun battle. CBS San Diego affiliate KFMB reports Michael Crain, a 34-year-old father of two, was allegedly shot by Dorner when the fugitive ambushed him and another officer. The second officer was wounded.
Lt. Andra Brown from the San Diego Police Department told the station several officers traveled to the funeral Wednesday to pay their respects to Crain and flags at San Diego Police headquarters in downtown will remain at half staff.
Dorner Not IDed, But Manhunt Considered Over
Labels: Business
Though they have not yet identified burned remains found at the scene of Tuesday's fiery, armed standoff, San Bernardino, Calif., officials consider the manhunt over for Christopher Dorner, the fugitive ex-cop accused of going on a killing spree.
"The events that occurred yesterday in the Big Bear area brought to close an extensive manhunt," San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon told reporters this evening.
"I cannot absolutely, positively confirm it was him," he added.
However, he noted the physical description of the suspect authorities pursued to a cabin at the standoff scene, as well as the suspect's behavior during the chase and standoff, matched Dorner, 33.
The charred remains of the body believed to be Dorner were removed from the cabin high in the San Bernardino Mountains near Big Bear, Calif., the apparent site of Dorner's last stand. Cornered inside the mountain cabin Tuesday, the suspect shot at cops, killing one deputy and wounding another, before the building was consumed by flames.
"We did not intentionally burn down that cabin to get Mr. Dorner out," McMahon said tonight, though he noted pyrotechnic canisters known as "burners" were fired into the cabin during a tear gas assault in an effort to flush out Dorner. The canisters generate high temperatures, he added.
The deputies wounded in the firefight were airlifted to a nearby hospital, where one died, police said.
Christopher Dorner Believed Dead After Shootout with Police Watch Video
Carjacking Victim Says Christopher Dorner Was Dressed for Damage Watch Video
Christopher Dorner Manhunt: Inside the Shootout Watch Video
The deceased deputy was identified tonight as Det. Jeremiah MacKay, 35, a 15-year veteran and the father of two children -- a daughter, 7, and son, 4 months old.
"Our department is grieving from this event," McMahon said. "It is a terrible deal for all of us."
The Associated Press quoted MacKay on the Dorner dragnet Tuesday, noting that he had been on patrol since 5 a.m. Saturday.
"This one you just never know if the guy's going to pop out, or where he's going to pop out," MacKay said. "We're hoping this comes to a close without more casualties. The best thing would be for him to give up."
The wounded deputy, identified as Alex Collins, was undergoing multiple surgeries for his wounds at a hospital, McMahon said, but was expected to make a full recovery.
Before the final standoff, Dorner was apparently holed up in a snow-covered cabin in the California mountains just steps from where police had set up a command post and held press conferences during a five-day manhunt.
The manhunt for Dorner, one of the biggest in recent memory, led police to follow clues across the West and into Mexico, but it ended just miles from where Dorner's trail went cold last week.
Residents of the area were relieved today that after a week of heightened police presence and fear that Dorner was likely dead.
"I'm glad no one else can get hurt and they caught him. I'm happy they caught the bad guy," said Ashley King, a waitress in the nearby town of Angelus Oaks, Calif.
Hundreds of cops scoured the mountains near Big Bear, a resort area in Southern California, since last Thursday using bloodhounds and thermal-imaging technology mounted to helicopters, in the search for Dorner. The former police officer and Navy marksman was suspected to be the person who killed a cop and cop's daughter and issued a "manifesto" declaring he was bent on revenge and pledging to kill dozens of LAPD cops and their family members.
But it now appears that Dorner never left the area, and may have hid out in an unoccupied cabin just steps from where cops had set up a command center.
Obama keeps faith in science and warns of cyber threats
Labels: WorldPeter Aldhous, San Francisco bureau chief
"IT IS our unfinished task to restore the basic bargain that built this country - the idea that if you work hard and meet your responsibilities, you can get ahead."
In adopting the phrase "unfinished task" as a signature motif for his 2013 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama signalled a return to familiar themes. For those who care about investment in science, that was a reassuring message.
The fight against global warming and the importance of technology to protect national security also got high billing. On the latter, Obama signaled that hacking skills, rather than kilotons, are increasingly a crucial currency, promising a new focus on combating cyberattacks - paralleled by negotiated cuts to the US nuclear arsenal.
In a combative speech designed to counter Republican opponents who want to cut the budget deficit by curbing spending on Obama's priorities - including education and research - the President made the case for continued investment in innovation.
"Every dollar we invested to map the human genome returned $140 to our economy. Today, our scientists are mapping the human brain to unlock the answers to Alzheimer's; developing drugs to regenerate damaged organs; devising new material to make batteries ten times more powerful. Now is not the time to gut these job-creating investments in science and innovation. Now is the time to reach a level of research and development not seen since the height of the Space Race."
The estimate of a 140:1 return on investment in genomics comes from a 2011 study by the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio. While the precise numbers from that analysis have been questioned, the importance of continued innovation to America's future economic competitiveness has been stressed in multiple reports, notably from the US National Academies.
"Now our enemies are also seeking the ability to sabotage our power grid, our financial institutions, and our air traffic control systems. We cannot look back years from now and wonder why we did nothing in the face of real threats to our security and our economy."
Obama called on Congress to pass new legislation to counter threats from hackers backed by hostile governments. That won't be easy: last year, a bill that would have demanded that companies meet minimum standards for cybersecurity, and report if they are attacked, foundered amid complaints that it would impose large costs on US businesses.
Boxing: Botha claims offered US$155,000 to throw Williams bout
Labels: Technology
SYDNEY: Veteran South African boxer Francois Botha on Wednesday claimed he was offered A$150,000 (US$155,000) to throw his fight against Sonny Bill Williams, sparking an angry denial from the New Zealander's manager.
Williams, a former World Cup-winning All Blacks rugby star, won the controversial heavyweight bout on points in Brisbane last Friday, which was marred by unsubstantiated reports that Botha failed a drugs test.
Botha, 44, alleges Williams' manager Khoder Nasser offered him the money in a Brisbane park three days before the World Boxing Association fight, claiming he received a phone call asking to pick him up alone.
"I wasn't told where I was going. As we stopped at a park, my cellphone was confiscated and was given to a guy in the car," Botha told New Zealand's Radio LiveSport from Durban.
"Then I was being walked (by Nasser), and during this walk, I was offered A$150,000 to throw the fight.
"I just said 'no, I can't do it'."
There is no suggestion that Williams was aware of the alleged offer.
Nasser slammed Botha as a bad loser after a fight that ended in 10 rounds, despite earlier promotions saying it was a 12-round contest.
"I think he (Botha) is still in a daze," Nasser told Fairfax Media of a man who has fought Lennox Lewis, Mike Tyson, Wladimir Klitschko and Evander Holyfield in a 23-year career.
"This is the same bloke who said he didn't know about the fight being 10 rounds, and then his promoter and he himself came out later and said it was 10 rounds.
"Then he said he wasn't drugs tested and then he said he was tested. Then he said he was tested by my brother, and now he has come up with this one. What is next?
"He has got to come to terms with the reality that he got his ass whipped by a guy who had had only five fights.
"It is all well and good to come out with all these allegations after, but where's his manhood? It's absolute madness.
"If it happened like he said, why didn't he come out and report it then -- or does it suit him now?"
While Williams won the fight, he was on the receiving end of some heavy blows from Botha in the 10th round with the South African saying another two rounds would have been enough to secure him victory.
Bookmakers refunded bets on Williams's win due to the controversy over how long the fight was supposed to be.
Doubts have also been raised about whether the WBA actually sanctioned the bout, and if Williams' claim on the title is legitimate.
There was no WBA official present in Brisbane for the fight.
- AFP/al
Police: No body yet found in hunt for Dorner
Labels: LifestyleSTORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: San Bernardino sheriff's spokeswoman says smoldering cabin too hot to enter
- Sources earlier tell CNN that LAPD reported body found, ID'd as suspect Dorner
- One sheriff's deputy in gun battle has died, other expected to survive
- Dorner is accused of killing an officer and the daughter and fiance of another cop last week
Follow the story here and at CNN affiliates KCBS/KCAL, KABC, and KTLA.
Near Big Bear Lake, California (CNN) -- Los Angeles police and the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Office moved Tuesday night to counter widespread reports that a body believed to be that of renegade ex-Los Angeles police officer Christopher Jordan Dorner had been recovered from a burning cabin near Big Bear Lake, California.
"No body has been pulled out," LAPD Cmdr. Andrew Smith said at a news conference. "No reports of a body being ID'd are true."
The cabin area was "too hot to make entry," Smith added.
Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the lead agency in the case, the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department echoed that, saying at a separate news conference that authorities believe whoever was in the cabin never left.
"They believe that there is a body in there, but it is not safe to go inside," she told reporters. She added that officials believed there was still live ammunition in the cabin, which was still smoldering.
CNN and other media quoted numerous sources earlier in the evening as saying authorities had removed a body from the rubble of the fire and identified it as Dorner.
The intense fire, which burned for hours as authorities waited at a distance, began after a SWAT team stormed a cabin near Big Bear Lake where a suspect -- who authorities said matched Dorner's description -- had holed up after a fatal shootout with San Bernadino County sheriff's deputies.
The cabin caught fire after police detonated smoke devices inside the cabin, a law enforcement source told CNN.
One of two San Bernadino County sheriff's deputies wounded earlier Tuesday in the shootout with the suspect died, San Bernardino County Sheriff John McMahon told reporters at California's Loma Linda University Medical Center. The other deputy was in surgery "but he should be fine," McMahon said.
The wounded officers were taken to the Loma Linda facility after shots were exchanged with a man at a police roadblock near Big Bear Lake, the sheriff's office said earlier in a statement.
Tuesday's confrontations began when a California Fish and Wildlife officer was driving down a highway near Big Bear and recognized a man fitting the description of Dorner driving a vehicle in the other direction. The wildlife officer chased the vehicle and the driver opened fire on the officer before abandoning the truck, a statement from the agency said.
The officer's vehicle was hit numerous times, the statement said. While not specifically referring to the officer involved in the shootout, the statement said the agency's officers "are all safe and accounted for."
Cindy Bachman, a spokeswoman for the San Bernardino Sheriff's Department, said the suspect fled into the woods then into the cabin where he fired at the approaching deputies and holed up though the afternoon, still exchanging gunfire with authorities.
Later as the fire burned, with authorities staying back, she said authorities weren't 100% sure the suspect was still in the cabin.
Authorities have been searching for Dorner since he was named as the suspect in the shooting deaths February 3 of the daughter of his police union representative and her fiance. Police also say he killed one officer in Riverside, California, and wounded two others last Thursday.
Ex-cop at center of California manhunt
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The violent spree, authorities say, was part of Dorner's campaign of vigilante justice for what he believes was his unfair termination.
Los Angeles police spokesman Lt. Andy Neiman said Tuesday that the department had received more than 1,000 tips on Dorner's whereabouts. Some of the calls have come from Dorner's acquaintances or people who think they have spotted the fugitive.
The pace of tips being given to investigators increased by 400% after the city of Los Angeles put up a $1 million reward on Sunday for information leading to Dorner's arrest and conviction, Neiman said.
The search for the 270-pound, 6-foot Dorner has focused on the Big Bear Lake area, where authorities say his burning truck was discovered last week.
Talk Back: Why do some see Chistopher Dorner as a vigilante hero?
Over the past two weeks, the search, considered one of the largest in the history of Southern California, has taken authorities from Orange County to the border of Mexico and from Los Angeles to Big Bear Lake.
"Big Bear's still where we're looking right now," Neiman said Tuesday. The search area surrounds where Dorner's burning truck was discovered last Thursday .
"Until we can confirm that he's either there or he's not there, this investigation has to stick with what we know and what we know is that we found evidence that he was there," Neiman said.
While the LAPD spokesman told reporters he was "not ready to confirm" that a man seen in security camera video from a Southern California sporting goods store was Dorner, the Los Angeles Times quoted unnamed law enforcement sources saying it was him.
The video, published Monday by the celebrity news website TMZ.com, shows the man carrying what appears to be scuba equipment at the Sports Chalet store in Torrance, California, on February 1, two days before the killings of Monica Quan, the daughter of the police union rep, and her fiancé, Keith Lawrence.
A "no bail" arrest warrant was issued for Dorner after the Riverside County district attorney filed a murder charge Monday against him in the killing of Riverside Police Officer Michael Crain.
"That allows him to be apprehended anywhere within California, out of state or out of the country," District Attorney Paul Zellerbach told reporters Monday.
The murder charge is accompanied by two "special circumstances," including killing a police officer on duty and firing a weapon from a vehicle.
Dorner was also charged with the attempted murder of three other police officers, including another Riverside officer who was wounded when Crain was killed. That officer, whose name has not been released, is in a lot of pain and faces "many surgeries," Riverside Police Chief Sergio Diaz said.
Dorner is also accused of opening fire on two LAPD police officers, wounding one, in the suburb of Corona.
There has been speculation, based in part on an arrest warrant affidavit filed last week, that Dorner could have crossed state lines into Nevada or made his way to Mexico.
LAPD reopens case that led to Dorner's dismissal
Over the weekend, LAPD said it was reopening the case that resulted in his termination.
Dorner accused his training officer of kicking a mentally ill man during an arrest in 2007. The LAPD ruled the complaint unfounded and kicked Dorner off the force for filing a false complaint.
Dorner challenged his firing in court and lost.
Suspect's grudge dates back to 2007 complaint
In a manifesto released last week, Dorner blamed racism and corruption in the LAPD for his termination and vowed to wage "unconventional and asymmetrical warfare" against LAPD officers and their families. He called it a "last resort" to clear his name and strike back at a department he says mistreated him.
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck had a different term for it Sunday.
"This is an act -- and make no mistake about it -- of domestic terrorism," he told reporters Sunday. "This is a man who has targeted those that we entrust to protect the public. His actions cannot go unanswered."
Timeline in manhunt
Targeting police
Authorities say Dorner began making good on his threats on February 3 when he allegedly killed Quan, 27, and Lawrence in an Irvine parking lot, south of Los Angeles.
According to the manifesto, Randal Quan, Monica Quan's father, bungled Dorner's LAPD termination appeal.
Randal Quan represented Dorner during the disciplinary hearing that resulted in his firing. The officer was among dozens named in the manifesto.
The retired officer told investigators he received a call from someone identifying himself as Dorner who told him he "should have done a better job of protecting his daughter," according to a federal arrest warrant affidavit.
Investigators traced the call to Vancouver, Washington, but based on the timing of other sightings, they don't believe Dorner was in Vancouver at the time, the affidavit states.
Days later, early Thursday morning, Dorner allegedly opened fire on two LAPD police officers, wounding one, in the suburban city of Corona.
Roughly 20 minutes later, Dorner allegedly fired on two officers in the nearby city of Riverside, killing Crain and wounding another.
Since then, the LAPD has provided security and surveillance details for more than 50 police officers and their families -- many of whom were named in the manifesto.
Additionally, the LAPD is no longer releasing the police chief's schedule to the public or the media.
'Ghosts' of the LAPD's past
It was Dorner's allegations of racism at the LAPD that led Beck over the weekend to reopen the investigation into his claims.
Beck said he was not doing it to "appease a murderer" but out of concern that Dorner's allegations will resurrect a painful part of the department's history.
LAPD haunted by past
For years, the LAPD was dogged by complaints of racism and corruption. In 1965 and 1992, the city was rocked by racial riots that were sparked, in part, by claims of police racism and brutality.
"I hear the same things you hear: The ghosts of the past of the Los Angeles Police Department," Beck said Sunday. "I hear that people think maybe there is something to what he says, and I want to put that to rest."
Despite numerous reviews of Dorner's case, he said it has "never been reviewed by me."
"If there is anything new, we will deal with it, and we will deal with it in a public way," Beck said.
CNN's Paul Vercammen, Stan Wilson, Casey Wian, Kathleen Johnston, Alan Duke, Matt Smith, Chelsea J. Carter, Michael Martinez and Holly Yan contributed to this report.
Parents of slain Chicago teen attend State of the Union
Labels: HealthUpdated 12:20 a.m. EST Feb. 13
(CBS News) CHICAGO -- Among the First Lady's guests at the capitol Tuesday for the State of the Union address were the parents of Hadiya Pendleton. The 15-year-old honor student was shot to death, not far from the Obamas' Chicago home -- an innocent victim of the city's gang wars.
Hadiya Pendleton
On Tuesday, two suspects were ordered held without bail.
Chicago detectives flooded the area of the city park where Hadiya was killed last month. They were led to the suspects using surveillance video and interviews with parolees in the neighborhood. Alleged gang members, Michael Ward, 18, who police say has already confessed, and Kenneth Williams, 20, were picked up on Saturday night and charged on Monday.
"They thought the group they shot into included members of a rival gang. Instead, it was a group of upstanding, determined kids, who -- like Hadiya -- were repulsed by the gang lifestyle," said Chicago Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy.
Hadiya's parents, invited to the State of the Union in Washington, were relieved.
Watch: Hadiya Pendleton's mother told reporters her daughter's death "cannot be in vain," below.
"I can't close the book on my child, but I am very excited that the murderers who hurt my baby have been caught," said Cleopatra Cowley, Hadiya's mother.
Ward, the alleged triggerman, has a long criminal record, but the police noted that when he pleaded guilty to unlawful use of a firearm about a year ago, he was given probation and stayed free despite three subsequent arrests.
"This has to stop. Gun offenders have to do significant jail time," said McCarthy.
Tom Byrne, Chicago's chief of detectives, said Illinois' gun laws are undermined by a lack of mandatory minimum sentences for gun violations.
Hadiya Pendleton Update: No bail for two men charged in Chicago teen's shooting death
Before State of the Union, gun violence victims demand action
Accused Hadiya Pendleton killers denied bail
"If you get caught with a gun, and there's a minimum sentencing, you're gonna be off the streets for a while," Byrne said. "You're not gonna have the opportunity, within six months of being caught with a gun, to shoot somebody else."
If convicted in this case, the two suspects could face life in prison.
State of the Union: Obama Pushes Job Creation
Labels: Business
Pursuing an aggressive and diverse early second-term agenda, President Obama turned his focus Tuesday night squarely to the economy, using his State of the Union address to unveil new government initiatives aimed at creating jobs.
The defining duty of the new Congress and new administration is to "reignite the true engine of America's economic growth -- a rising, thriving middle class," Obama said Tuesday night from the House chamber.
"That must be the North Star that guides our efforts," he said.
Obama's proposals had a familiar ring, including re-packaged economic ideas but also offering several bold new measures aimed at boosting the middle class.
None of the proposals would add to the deficit "by a single dime," Obama pledged, with costs offset by savings carved out in the budget and from money saved from ending two wars.
"It's not a bigger government we need, but a smarter government that sets priorities and invests in broad-based growth," Obama said.
For the first time as president, Obama called for raising the minimum wage from $7.25 to $9.00 an hour by 2015. He proposed to ensure future increases by indexing the minimum wage to inflation.
He proposed a national goal of universal pre-school education, an effort to help states provide tens of thousands of low- to middle-income four-year-old children access to quality public education from an earlier age.
Charles Dharapak/Pool/AP Photo
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And, to heal the nation's crumbling roads and bridges, Obama offered a $50 billion "fix it first" infrastructure program that would prioritize repair of existing structures before building new ones.
"Every day, we should ask ourselves three questions as a nation," Obama said. "How do we attract more jobs to our shores? How do we equip our people with the skills needed to do those jobs? And how do we make sure that hard work leads to a decent living?"
Answers to those questions, the president suggested, include redoubling investments in clean energy technologies -- a step which he said would both benefit the environment and reduce U.S. dependence on foreign oil.
"For the sake of our children and our future, we must do more to combat climate change," he said.
He called for doubling the amount of renewable electricity generation in the U.S. by 2020, and announced an energy version of his "Race to the Top" education program that would give states grants for the best energy efficiency programs.
Related: 7 Things Obama Says at Every State of the Union
In tandem with his economic focus, Obama announced the withdrawal of 34,000 U.S. troops from Afghanistan by this time next year, cutting in half the current force and marking a quickened pace for the final exit of U.S. combat forces by a 2014 deadline.
There are currently 66,000 U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan. Obama has vowed to bring nearly all of them home by the end of next year, though a small contingent will likely remain to train Afghan forces and assist counterterrorism operations, officials have said.
Obama touched briefly on his recently-unveiled proposals to overhaul the nation's immigration system, expand rights for gay and lesbian Americans and curb an epidemic of gun violence.
With dozens of victims of gun violence looking on from the House gallery, including former Rep. Gabby Giffords, and families of victims from shootings at Newtown, Conn., Oak Creek, Wisc., and Aurora, Colo., Obama made an emotional plea for an up-or-down vote on his gun control plan.
"Each of these proposals deserves a vote in Congress," he said of proposed restrictions on assault-style weapons and high capacity magazines, and enhanced background checks, among other measures.
"If you want to vote no, that's your choice," he said. "But these proposals deserve a vote. Because in the two months since Newtown, more than a thousand birthdays, graduations and anniversaries have been stolen from our lives by a bullet from a gun."
Read More: President Obama's Past State of the Union Promises
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