A Winslow police officers fatal shooting of a Navajo woman, suspected of shoplifting a case of beer, has sparked outrage in Arizona and elsewhere.

Two Arizona Department of Public Safety officers investigate March 31, 2016, the scene where 27-year-old Loreal Tsingine was fatally shot by a Winslow, Ariz., police officer on March 27, 2016.(Photo: Charly Edsitty, KPNX-TV)

PHOENIX — An Arizona police officer's fatal shooting of a woman suspected of shoplifting a case of beer has sparked outrage.

Members of the Navajo Nation, whose reservation borders Winslow, Ariz., said Loreal Tsingine, 27, suffered discrimination and excessive force, and they demanded that the officer's name be released.

Winslow police said Tsingine brandished a pair of scissors at the officer before she was shot five times Sunday.

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Man fatally shot by Ariz. police officer begged for life

The altercation took place a couple of blocks away from a convenience store where a clerk had reported a theft, said Lt. Jim Sepi, a spokesman for the Winslow Police Department.

The officer approached Tsingine, who fit the clerk's description, according to police: a Native American woman wearing gray sweatpants and a white top.

When the officer attempted to take Tsingine into custody, police said, she fought back, brandishing the scissors. The officer felt a substantial threat, Sepi said, and shot Tsingine five times.

A witness to the shooting said he saw Tsingine in the convenience store.

"She went behind the (cashier's) counter, she grabbed a pack of cigarettes, and then she went to the liquor and grabbed some shooters," said Ryanle Benally, who was in the store with his stepson. "And she went to where the hot dogs were at, and she grabbed a hot dog and started eating it in the store."

Benally saw Tsingine leave the store and the police arrive.

He expected to see Tsingine get arrested.

Family says #LorealTsingine Navajo wmn killed by cop was 5' tall and weighed 100 lb. #NotAThreat#JusticeForLoreal
https://t.co/pfNH2MzPvs

— ndnviewpoint (@mahtowin1) March 31, 2016

"I said, 'Let's go see what happens to that lady. This is what happens when you steal, I want you to see it,' " Benally said.

He and his stepson trailed from a distance and saw two police cars pull up to where Tsingine was walking.

"We were walking, and I said, 'Look, they're going to arrest her.' But that didn't happen," he said.

Winslow Police Chief Stephen Garnett asked the Arizona Department of Public Safety to conduct an investigation into the shooting.

The Department of Public Safety declined to comment on Tsingine's actions, words or demeanor until the case is investigated further.

Navajos and others took to social media to express their grief and anger in the shooting, many using the hashtags #JusticeforLoreal and #Justice4Loreal.

Andrew Curley, a member of Red Nation, a coalition of Native American and non-Native American activists, said an organic movement has formed to challenge what he called the police violence against Tsingine.

Join us Sat., April 2, Winslow, AZ for a vigil @ 3 PM to demand #Justice4Loreal. @apachesk8boards@douglasmilesarthttp://pic.twitter.com/8iejsHCnbt

— The Red Nation (@The_Red_Nation) March 30, 2016

"Loreal is a victim of discrimination, and we want justice," Curley said. "We can all relate to this case because we have all been racially profiled by law enforcement. While we are saddened at (Loreal's) death, we're not surprised because we know that this is a systemic issue."

Curley said the group supported the independent investigation into the shooting and  asked the Navajo Nation to take a more active role in this case.

In a statement, Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye said,  "We hear about these types of shootings happening across the country. If there is no legitimate justification for taking Tsingine's life, then the Navajo Nation wants the fullest extent of the law to be taken in serving justice."

Vice President Jonathan Nez posted the following statement on Facebook: "The Navajo Nation sends our condolences to her family during this tragedy. Significant numbers of Navajo citizens have expressed public outcry over this violence. We will continue to investigate."

Tsingine's family admitted she had some mental health issues, but they didn't go into detail.

Organizers of a vigil scheduled for Saturday  demanded that the name of the officer involved in the shooting be released and that their concerns on police brutality against Native Americans be taken seriously.

"How many of us have drawn suspicion and have been unfairly harassed by the Flagstaff police, Winslow police or the state's highway patrol?" Curley said. "This could have been any of of us. We grieve the loss of a member of our community."

The officer involved in the shooting was placed on administrative leave, pending the outcome of the Department of Public Safety investigation.

The officer is a law enforcement veteran of three years and wore a body camera at the time of the shooting, Sepi said.

In a police statement released a day after the shooting, Winslow police expressed condolences to Tsingine's family, the officers and the Winslow community.

Winslow is nearly 60 miles east of Flagstaff, Ariz.

Contributing: Yihyun Jeong, The Arizona Republic

Cops have executed another Native American woman. Forces of the internet, plz focus on Winslow, AZ. #Justice4Lorealhttps://t.co/FWQ9ImeYAD

— McDUH (@mcduh) March 31, 2016

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Stanford researchers find fracking operations near Pavillion, Wyoming had clear impact to underground sources of drinking water.

anyone seeing a recurring theme of people not giving a shit about public drinking water until it's dirty? We need water to survive, like daily, and I don't see any rioting...

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$2.13 an hour for dish-washing? Servers sue over side work

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Ask any restaurant server or bartender about side work and you are liable to get an earful. Sweeping floors, washing dishes, making salad? These are tasks that should pay minimum wage, but servers and bartenders routinely do them for as little as $2.13 per hour.

On Wednesday, a Ruby Tuesday server sued the restaurant chain claiming she is required to do excessive side work in a federal lawsuit she hopes will become a class action involving thousands of workers at 658 restaurants nationwide. The case is one of several, targeting some of the country's largest restaurant chains, filed after the U.S. Supreme Court in 2012 let stand a ruling allowing Applebee's employees to sue over side work. That suit ended in an undisclosed settlement with over 5,500 workers.

Ruby Tuesday, with headquarters in Maryville, issued a statement saying, "While we cannot comment on pending litigation, we are committed to our Ruby Tuesday team members, and we will be providing a vigorous defense of the company on this matter in the appropriate forum."

Untipped workers at McDonald's, Taco Bell and other restaurants have made headlines recently with their "Fight for $15" campaign, demanding that the fast food companies pay them at least $15 an hour. And raising the federal minimum wage, now $7.25 an hour, has become the subject of debate among policy makers, with some states moving their rates to $15 per hour.

But the national minimum wage for tipped workers is just $2.13 per hour, a rate that hasn't changed in 25 years, although some states require a higher wage. Workers are allowed to be paid so little by their employers because tips are considered part of their wages.

Chris Hall, an attorney with the Ruby Tuesday case, said many tipped workers aren't aware of the Department of Labor rule that they should spend no more than 20 percent of their time doing untipped work like wiping tables and polishing silverware.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor's Wage and Hour division, between 2013 and 2015, investigators found tip credit violations in over 1,500 cases, resulting in nearly $15.5 million in back wages.

But workers and advocates say many people are afraid to complain about problems.

Darron Cardosa, a server in New York City who blogs under the pseudonym "The Bitchy Waiter," said some side work is a necessary evil but it can easily become excessive.

"You just suck it up," he said. "If you complain too much, maybe you won't get as good a shift next week, or maybe you'll get sent home early."

It is illegal for employers to fire workers for complaining about labor issues "but they can find another way to make you regret it, or another reason to fire you," Cardosa said.

David Lichter is a Miami-area attorney representing 4,000 workers claiming tipped wage violations by the Darden restaurant chain — whose brands include Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, and, at the time of the suit in 2012, Red Lobster. The many individual complaints are still working their way through arbitration.

"These cases are not new and they're not uncommon," Lichter said. "Unfortunately, it seems to be a common practice in the restaurant industry. ...If you can pay sub-minimum wage for a job that would otherwise pay minimum wage you can make more money."

Teofilo Reyes is the research director with the Restaurant Opportunities Center United, which advocates for restaurant workers and pushes for tougher industry standards. He said seven states have eliminated the separate tipped wage — Alaska, California, Minnesota, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington — and his group is advocating eliminating it nationally.

Reyes said the 20 percent rule can be difficult to apply because tipped work and untipped work can intertwine throughout the day.

"Eliminating the lower wage for tipped workers is the only way to ensure it isn't a problem," he said.

Kevin Dugan is the regional director with the New York State Restaurant Association. He said the 20 percent rule can be very difficult for employers.

"Restaurants would be better served if the laws were more specific about what constitutes side work," he said. "Certain things are open to interpretation."

But in general he said the lower tipped wage is important for many small restaurants that operate on a "very, very small profit margins."

Gabriella Santa, a college student who waits tables in Knoxville, said between busy days and slow days the money usually evens out, "but on weekday nights, when you're closing, and doing all this side work, and you've made only $20 in tips, and you're making $2.13 an hour — that's something anyone gets annoyed with."

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FCC seeks to end broadband providers' collecting consumer data without consent

(Reuters) – The U.S. Federal Communications Commission on Thursday advanced a proposal to ensure the privacy of broadband Internet users by barring providers from collecting user data without consent.

The proposed regulation from FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler won initial approval with a 3-2 vote to require broadband providers to obtain consumer consent, disclose data collection, protect personal information and report breaches — but would not bar any data collection practices.

"It's the consumers' information and the consumer should have the right to determine how it's used," Wheeler said.

Broadband providers currently collect consumer data without consent and some use that data for targeted advertising, which has drawn criticism from privacy advocates.

Wheeler's proposal does not prohibit Internet providers from using or sharing customer data for any purpose. The FCC would not extend the broadband provider privacy rules to sites such as Twitter, Google or Facebook, drawing the ire of providers.

Republican Commissioner Ajit Pai said Thursday there is no good reason to single out broadband providers for regulations, while not regulating websites. The plan "favors one set of corporate interests over another," he said.

The FCC has authority to set privacy rules after it reclassified broadband providers last year as part of new net neutrality regulations. A federal appeals court has not ruled on a challenge to that decision.

A final vote on new regulations will follow a public comment period during which the FCC is asking for possible "additional or alternative paths to achieve pro-consumer, pro-privacy goals."

Under the rules providers would need to tell consumers what information is being collected, how it is being used and when it will be shared.

They would also be required protect data under a data security standard. Consumers would need to be notified of breaches of their data no later than 10 days after it was discovered.

Ratings agency Moody's Investors Services said earlier the proposal to impose privacy restrictions on broadband providers such as Verizon Communications Inc, AT&T Inc, Comcast Corp is "credit negative."

Advocacy group Free Press praised the FCC for moving ahead and said the commission must consider other issues in setting rules including "pay-for-privacy, deep-packet inspection, upselling services, competition and data security."

The National Cable and Telecommunications Association urged the FCC to adopt a "technology neutral approach by treating companies with access to similar user information the same."

(Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Alan Crosby)

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Vermont Governor on Marijuana Legalization: It’s What ‘Enlightened States’ Do

The state may soon be the first to legalize recreational weed by law

In the next few weeks, as Vermont Gov. Peter Shumlin nears the end of his time in office, his state could make history. If he has his way, Vermont will become the first state in the union to legalize marijuana through its legislature. The four states that have already legalized recreational pot—Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Alaska—all did so by taking the issue to voters through ballot initiatives. The Vermont Senate passed a marijuana legalization bill in February and it is currently being debated in the House.

TIME spoke to Governor Shumlin, a Democrat, about the war on drugs ("failed us miserably"), what he's learned from other states ("no edibles") and his personal experience with marijuana ("we inhaled"). The interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

TIME: You've called problems with heroin addiction in your state a "full-blown" crisis. Do you see any connection between legalizing marijuana and problems with that illegal drug?

Shumlin: You can understand why someone would ask. And the answer is this, I do see them as separate. We have an opiate problem. Oxycontin has being handed out like candy, and that has led to the full-blown heroin crisis America is facing today. On marijuana, we have just the opposite challenge. The war on drugs has failed us miserably when it comes to marijuana policy, which is why so many states are by referendum legalizing marijuana. I'm hoping that Vermont will be the first state that does it legislatively because we have learned from the states that have made mistakes doing it by referendum. We are trying to pass the first cautious, sensible marijuana legalizing bill in the country.

What makes it more cautious and sensible than others?

What I meant by that is: No edibles. And you can only have a small amount of marijuana at one time, an ounce or less. Tax rates that are low enough to drive out the black market drug dealers. No smoking lounges. In other words, avoiding the pitfalls and embracing a more logical policy. About one in eight Vermonters admit to buying recreational pot on a monthly basis. We decriminalized an ounce or less, so you virtually get less of a criminal penalty for buying [small amounts of] pot than you do speeding on the highway. Although we wish you wouldn't smoke pot, just like we wish you wouldn't drink too much, we're going to let you do it without getting in trouble with the law—but you still have to go buy it from a drug dealer? They don't care what they sell you from their cache, whether it's marijuana or other drugs. They don't care how young you are. That's why we moved to a regulated market for alcohol.

So you feel that doing this legislatively rather than by referendum is giving you more control over the process?

Absolutely. Let's just take where we are right now in Vermont. Prime Minister Trudeau has said he's going to legalize it within two years in Canada, and that's our northern border. Our southern border is Massachusetts, and they're having a referendum this fall. Frankly, if theirs passes, it gives us all the negatives of a bad marijuana bill and none of the positives. They can have up to 10 ounces. They've got edibles that have led to problems in Colorado with kids getting access and adults not knowing how much of this candy to eat. We have other states in the Northeast that are talking about moving toward legalization by referendum, including Maine. So Vermont needs to be proactive. We need to pass a cautious thoughtful bill that puts drug dealers out of business, gets this stuff out of the hands of kids, and gets all the benefits of a regulated market. And use the revenue to fight addiction generally.

Do you believe marijuana is less dangerous than alcohol, as reform advocates often claim?

This is what I know. I don't want Vermonters smoking pot. It makes you kind of goofy and unproductive. I have alcoholism in my family, and I gotta tell you, that's a really bad idea. It destroys lives, destroys families. I also don't think you should smoke cigarettes. I can guarantee you that will kill you early. But I'm always surprised that we talk about pot as if we don't have legal alcohol and legal tobacco sales. Government doesn't want you doing any of those things in excess but to continue to pretend that by outlawing marijuana, you're keeping it out of the hands of kids and adults is a level of denial that as governor—I can't live in La La Land …

When we had this debate—to legalize, not to legalize—the reasons to not legalize are almost always as if you don't have a problem already. Like, what's it going to mean for our kids? Well, kids will tell you it's easier to get pot in Vermont than it is alcohol. Then they say, what about people who are drugged driving on the roads? Well, what about the one in eight Vermonters who are using recreational marijuana right now? So if you're willing to acknowledge that you have a problem, you're much dealing with a regulated market than an unregulated market.

Both heroin and marijuana are currently viewed as "Schedule I" drugs by the federal government. What do you think about those being put legally on par, and should the government reclassify marijuana as Sen. Bernie Sanders has advocated?

I agree with Sen. Sanders that we should make the federal change. I'm also a governor. Governors can actually get things done. And if I lived under the illusion that this congress would get anything done that was sensible, I wouldn't be trying to do it myself.

On edibles, do you believe they should never be legal or just not be legal until problems with them have been better addressed?

I'm just saying: go slow, be cautious, let's go about this very carefully. I'm not saying never. I'm just saying let the other states that are wrestling with edibles continue to wrestle with it. When you ask [Colorado] Gov. Hickenlooper, 'What are some of the problems you're having?' The first words out of his mouth are 'Don't do edibles."

At a recent conference Hickenlooper warned other states that "if you're trying to encourage businesses to move to your state … think twice about legalizing marijuana." Do you worry about legalizing marijuana having a negative impact on the economy?

I think Colorado has found that it's been a positive for the economy, not a negative. When I suddenly find that my niece is going skiing with her college buddies in Colorado instead of Vermont, and they had never gone skiing in Colorado before on spring break, it doesn't entirely escape me that there might be some allures to Colorado today that they didn't have a few years ago for college-age kids—or young people who are looking for jobs. Denial has never been a good economic development strategy. And if I didn't believe that by regulating, you'd have a better shot getting it out of the hands of kids—having a regulated product where you know what's in it and driving the criminal element out of the market—I wouldn't be proposing this. I think it's going to make our state better and stronger, not weaker.

There's a lot of talk about California possibly legalizing by referendum in 2016. What effect would that have on other state legalization efforts?

There is no question that the war on drugs has failed when it comes to marijuana policy, that America is going to move to a more sensible policy state by state. And I think the more enlightened states are trying to get ahead of this one … We're all spending huge amounts of energy focusing on the evils of pot smoking and we hardly talk about the fact that in 2010, we sold enough drugs legally through our pharmacies in the form of Oxycontin to keep every adult American high for a month. That has led to death, destruction, addiction to heroin that's affecting every state in America. And then we flip out about the possibility that we could move to a more sensible approach to marijuana. I want to drive the drug dealers out of the pot market. I'm also proposing that our physicians limit the number of Oxycontins that they can pass out for minor medical procedures. I'm trying to take both on, head on.

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has also talked openly about using marijuana. Have you ever tried it?

Yes. I was in Vermont in the '70s … We inhaled.

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Active shooter situation reported at Greyhound bus station in Richmond with multiple injuries

RICHMOND, Va. -- A Virginia State trooper who was shot when a suspect opened fire at a Greyhound bus station in Richmond Thursday afternoon has died, according to Virginia State Police.

Virginia State Police Superintendent W. Steven Flaherty confirms Trooper Chad Dermyer was killed as a result of multiple gunshot wounds from the suspect in Thursdays Greyhound Bus Station shooting. Dermyer is survived by his wife and two kids.

The former Marine is from Jackson, Michigan and was assigned to the Hampton/Newport News area.

Virginia State Police spokeswoman Corinne N. Geller said four people, including the suspect, were shot when troopers were called to the bus station in the 2910 N. Boulevard at 2:45 p.m.

Geller said a trooper, who was already at the station, met a man just inside the entrance. Geller said the trooper was talking to the suspect when he pulled out a gun and shot the trooper.

Geller said two nearby troopers returned fire on the suspect.

The trooper, two civilians and the suspect were transported to VCU Medical Center.

Geller said the suspect died at the hospital, while Flaherty confirms Dermyer died at the hospital. The two civilians suffered non life-threatening injuries.

Multiple sources told WTVR CBS 6 reporter Jon Burkett that state police were at the bus station for a drug interdiction training exercise when gunfire erupted.

A man who stopped for a smoke break before going into the bus station, said he heard at least five to ten shots fired.

As a result of the incident, the Boulevard is closed between Robin Hood Road and Leigh Street.

Greyhound tweeted that the bus station was closed until further notice.

We are fully cooperating with the authorities and providing any information they may need, including video surveillance that was captured.

We're unable to confirm the number of injuries at this time. However, no employees were injured.

Our station has been evacuated and we are offering counselors to not only assist our employees, but customers that were at the station as well.

We are re-routing inbound schedules to our Richmond garage until further notice. If you are scheduled to travel today to or from Richmond, we will work with you to re-issue tickets for another time.

"We will re-route customers as possible and we will re-issue tickets once we resume service if you are supposed to travel to or from Richmond today," the company stated.

The bus station is across the street from the Diamond baseball stadium.

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Reddit deletes surveillance 'warrant canary' in transparency report

Reddit mascots are displayed at the company's headquarters in San Francisco, California April 15, 2014.

Reuters/Robert Galbraith

Social networking forum reddit on Thursday removed a section from its site used to tacitly inform users it had never received a certain type of U.S. government surveillance request, suggesting the platform is now being asked to hand over customer data under a secretive law enforcement authority.

Reddit deleted a paragraph found in its transparency report known as a "warrant canary" to signal to users that it had not been subject to so-called national security letters, which are used by the FBI to conduct electronic surveillance without the need for court approval.

The scrubbing of the "canary", which stated reddit had never received a national security letter "or any other classified request for user information," comes as several tech companies are pushing the Obama administration to allow for fuller disclosures of the kind and amount of government requests for user information they receive.

National security letters are almost always accompanied by an open-ended gag order barring companies from disclosing the contents of the demand for customer data, making it difficult for firms to openly discuss how they handle the subpoenas. That has led many companies to rely on somewhat vague canary warnings.

"I've been advised not to say anything one way or the other,"  a reddit administrator named "spez," who made the update, said in a thread discussing the change. "Even with the canaries, we're treading a fine line."

Reddit did not respond to a request for comment. The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.

In 2014 Twitter (TWTR.N) sued the U.S. Justice Department on grounds that the restrictions placed on the social media platform's ability to reveal information about government surveillance orders violates the First Amendment.

The suit came following an announcement from the Obama administration that it would allow Internet companies to disclose more about the numbers of national security letters they receive. But they can still only provide a range such as between zero and 999 requests, or between 1,000 and 1,999, which Twitter, joined by reddit and others, has argued is too broad.

National security letters have been available as a law enforcement tool since the 1970s, but their frequency and breadth expanded dramatically under the USA Patriot Act, which was passed shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.

Several thousand NSLs are now issued by the FBI every year. At one point that number eclipsed 50,000 letters annually.

(Reporting by Dustin Volz)

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