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Politics women are okay

Rand Paul is Clueless – Says Women are Just Fine Thank You. No Republican War at All

The midterm elections are fast approaching… okay, so it’s still January. But the midterms are coming this year, and with that knowledge, Republicans are quickly realizing… again, that their outreach to voting groups should go beyond rich white men.

Mike Huckabee began that outreach last week trying to convince women that Republicans are their friends. And today, Rand Paul picked up where Huckabee left off. Of course, Huckabee’s conclusion that Republicans don’t have a war on woman and Paul’s misguided understanding that women are doing just fine thank you, are both wrong. But they will keep saying it because they don’t have a clue, and the midterm election is almost here.

Said Paul on CNN.

“The whole thing of the ‘war on women,’ I sort of laughingly say, ‘Yeah, there might have been – but the women are winning it,'” the Republican senator from Kentucky said on CNN’s “State of the Union.” He said women have made great strides and, as an example, now make up more than half the students at medical and law schools.

“I think women are doing very well, and I’m proud of how far we’ve come,” the potential 2016 presidential candidate continued.

“And I think some of the victimology and all of this other stuff is trumped up. We don’t get to any good policy by playing some sort of charade that somehow one party doesn’t care about women or one party is not in favor of women advancing, or other people advancing.”

As the GOP gears up for the 2014 midterms, some in the party have acknowledged that Republican candidates could do better when it comes to talking about women’s issues.

“Some of our members just aren’t as sensitive as they ought to be.” House Speaker John Boehner said last month, when asked about efforts by the House GOP campaign arm to improve how candidates appeal to female voters.

CNN’s chief political correspondent, Candy Crowley, pressed Paul on whether the issue is a “matter of words and tone.”

“Somewhat,” Paul said. “I think also a lot of the debates we have in Washington and in the public, generally, are dumbed down. They’re characterized and we get to the point where we’re talking about stuff and throwing stuff back and forth, and we are never getting to the truth.”

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executive actions Politics

President’s New Plan – More Execute Orders While Congress Sits on its Hands

An internal White House assessment concludes that President Obama must distance himself from a recalcitrant Congress after being badly damaged last year by legislative failures, a government shutdown and his own missteps.

Obama has said that his fraught relationship with Congress, especially after Republicans won the House in 2010, complicated his ability to promote his agenda. But for the first time, following what many allies view as a lost year, the White House is reorganizing itself to support a more executive-focused presidency and inviting the rest of the government to help.

The new approach comes after weeks of internal White House debate over a single question: What went wrong in 2013? The answers will help determine the outline of the State of the Union address Obama will deliver Tuesday evening, as well as how he pursues a meaningful legacy in the remainder of his term.

Last year began with the fresh-start ambitions of his second inauguration but ended in a long trail of mistakes, international embarrassments and missed legislative opportunities that sapped Obama’s credibility with the public.

Senior adviser Dan Pfeiffer outlined the lessons learned in a three-page memo that Obama discussed with his Cabinet in recent weeks, according to several administration officials who have read the document.

Among its conclusions is that Obama, a former state legislator and U.S. senator, too often governed more like a prime minister than a president. In a parliamentary system, a prime minister is elected by lawmakers and thus beholden to them in ways a president is not.

As a result, Washington veterans have been brought into the West Wing to emphasize an executive style of governing that aims to sidestep Congress more often. A central ambition of Obama’s presidency — to change the way Washington works — has effectively been discarded as a distraction in a time of hardening partisanship.

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Celebrities Featured

His Dad Made Over $100million, but Muhammad Ali’s Son Lives on Food Stamps

In 1986, when Muhammad Ali Jr. was 14 years old, his father, the greatest boxer alive, picked up the teen for a visit.

“We got in the car, and I said I needed to stop for something to eat,” Ali Jr. recalls. “By the time I came back out, he was gone.”

Ali Jr. called his father’s new wife, Lonnie, and said, “Daddy left me up here. I don’t know why he left me.” She said she’d tell him as soon as he arrived home.

“He turned the car around and came back to pick me up,” Ali Jr. says. “I said, ‘Daddy, why did you leave me?’ He said, ‘I kind of forgot you were in the car.’ ”
Ali Jr. remembers it sadly, the moment when his dad’s Parkinson’s became apparent.

“That was the first time I ­actually realized something was wrong with him,” he said.

Now 41, nearly destitute and living in the dangerous Chicago neighborhood of West Englewood, Ali Jr. fears his father has now forgotten him for good — and the boxing great’s wife, Lonnie, is keeping him from even saying a proper goodbye.

“If I saw my father right now, I’d say I love you, I miss you, and I want you to see your grandkids,” says Muhammad Jr., who lives in a two-bedroom hovel he shares with his wife, Shaakira, and two children, Ameera, 6, and Shakera, 5.

“I wished before my dad got really sick, I could have had that father-son relationship, but that’s impossible now. I wish I could have made up for lost time. But it doesn’t break my heart anymore. It’s been broken so many times I’m used to it by now.”

Muhammad Jr. was born in 1972 in Philadelphia to Ali, then 30, and actress Belinda Boyd, who was 17. Muhammad Jr. can’t remember ever enjoying a family meal together. Mostly, his grandparents raised him, as his father was busy boxing and his mom was acting in films.

He grew up with three sisters — Maryum and twins Jamillah and Rasheda — but when they were infants, Ali began an affair with Veronica Porsche, who became his second wife in 1977.

The kids still saw their dad, and Junior fondly remembers those days as an extended family.

“My father used to do magic tricks. He’d have a handkerchief that he’d make into a cane; he’d then make it disappear. His card tricks were really good. He was such a comical person. My father liked to wear masks and scare people. He liked to have people on the edge of their seats.

“We used to go to Pennsylvania where he had a training camp, and he’d do tricks on stage. We all went. It was all the family, including my stepsisters Leila and Hana. We’d get on the Bluebird Winnebago bus and go up to see him,” Muhammad Jr. says.

“We stayed in log cabins, ride horses, watch him train, jump ropes and eat all the time as a family. He had a great cook.

“But I never went to any boxing matches apart from one when he fought Leon Spinks, and I just remember he kept on smiling even though he was getting hit a lot.

“He never wanted me to be a fighter. He said, ‘Don’t get into it if you don’t know what you’re doing, as it’s dangerous.’

“I used to see him all the time when I was a child. He made sure he was there, would get all the siblings together, and never kept us a secret from each other. I was proud of my daddy. Fame and fortune meant nothing, I just saw him as my daddy.”

But being Muhammad Ali Jr. had its pitfalls. Although his dad was conquering the world for a third time in 1978, his son was battling on the playground.

“You may think having Muhammad Ali as your dad is great, but I had problems. People wanted to pick fights. School was hell. They wanted to see if I was like my father. I’d get bullied all the time. Girls would only get with me because of my father, not because of me. Nothing was as it seemed. I didn’t know who really loved me. People just used me so they could get a glimpse of my dad. Some people didn’t like it that my dad was black or didn’t go to war. We had to fight all his battles.

“It meant my grandparents sheltered me a lot. Dad didn’t know, as he wasn’t around every day. I felt in some ways like I never had a childhood.

“I’d say my father was good and bad. The reason I say that is because my father never really spent time with me. Whenever we had time, he spent it with his daughters rather than me. Even in the only picture I have of all the family together, they’re all wrapped close, and I’m far out to the left. I felt like the outcast. I still do,” Muhammad Jr. sobs.

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News

Uncovered: Gaddafi’s Sex Chamber where He Raped Children as Young as 14

It has been more than two years since the capture and death of Muammar Gaddafi, the Libyan dictator whose reign subjected an impoverished people to four decades of murder and terror.

When the bedraggled former leader was hauled out of a drainpipe and shot in October 2011, his death ended the bloody Nato-led civil war that had ravaged the country since the start of that year.

The full horror of his brutality has been slow to emerge, with many Libyans still fearing retaliation by those who continue to be loyal to their late leader. But it can now be revealed that the most heartbreaking of Gaddafi’s victims include hundreds, possibly thousands of teenage girls who, throughout his 42-year reign, were beaten, raped and forced to become his sex slaves.

Chilling: This is the bedroom in Gaddafi’s ‘sex dungeon’, decorated in 70s style with brown walls and a double bed, where he would take girls as young as 14 and sexually abuse them against their will


Degrading: This is the fully-fitted gynecological suite where young girls would be placed in one of the two beds and checked for STDs before they were sent in to the waiting dictator

Many were virgins kidnapped from schools and universities and kept prisoner for years in a specially designed secret sex lair hidden within Tripoli University or his many palaces. In the 26 months since he was deposed, Gaddafi’s den – where he regularly raped girls as young as 14 – has remained locked. But today its gaudy interior, where the colonel brutalised his victims, can be seen for the first time in photographs from a hard-hitting BBC4 documentary.

Inside the small, nondescript single-storey complex, the girls were forced to watch pornography to ‘educate’ them for their degrading treatment at the hands of Gaddafi. And even those who did manage to escape were often shunned by their deeply religious Muslim families who believed their family honour had been tainted.

When the dictator’s body was dragged through the streets by a baying mob, just hours after he was beaten and shot in the head, the hastily convened transitional government moved swiftly to seal off the sex dungeon. They feared the full extent of Gaddafi’s debased and lewd lifestyle would horrify the Western world and cause deep embarrassment to Libya.

One of the rooms holds little more than a double bed, lit by an orange lamp. Its 1970s decor and grimy Jacuzzi – all left exactly as they were when Gaddafi last used it – give it a seedy and gloomy air. But even more chilling is the clinical gynaecological suite in an adjoining room. It was here, on two beds fitted with stirrups behind a table laden with surgical instruments, that Gaddafi’s young victims were examined to ensure they had no sexually transmittable diseases. And here they were forced to undergo abortions if they became pregnant.


‘Sexual deviant’: Colonel Gaddafi kept hundreds of girls as sex slaves during his years at the helm of Libya, but also kept a ‘harem’ of young boys

They, however, were the lucky ones. Other young victims were so badly abused that they were dumped in car parks and on waste ground, and left to die.

Gaddafi’s modus operandi was to tour schools and universities where female students were invited to his lectures.

As he spoke before his hushed audience, he would silently scan the room seeking out attractive girls. Before leaving he would pat those he had ‘selected’ on the head.

Within hours his private bodyguards would round up those chosen and kidnap them. If their families tried to keep them from Gaddafi’s clutches, they were gunned down.

One teacher at a Tripoli school recalled how the girls were all very young. ‘Some were only 14,’ she said. ‘They would simply take the girl they wanted. They had no conscience, no morals, not an iota of mercy even though she was a mere child.’

One mother, whose daughter was a student, said the community around Tripoli University lived in fear when a visit from the colonel was announced. ‘The girls he wanted would be rounded up and sent to him,’ she said.

‘One just disappeared and they never found her again, despite her father and brothers searching for her. Another was found three months later, cut, raped and lying in the middle of a park. She had been left for dead.’

Even today, the Libyan people are afraid to speak openly about Gaddafi’s depravity, fearing reprisals from his former henchmen.

But one woman – who was repeatedly raped by the despot over seven years from the age of 15 – has anonymously spoken of how he terrorised and abused her. She had been chosen to present the colonel with a bouquet when he toured her school in his home town of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast, 350 miles east of Tripoli.

When he patted her head afterwards, in an apparently paternal gesture,  she thought she had pleased the man she and her fellow Libyans were forced to call ‘the Guide’.

The next day three woman dressed in military uniform arrived telling  her parents she was needed to present more flowers. Instead, she was driven at high speed to Gaddafi’s lair. Once there, he barked at his women soldiers: ‘Get her ready.’

The girl was stripped, given a blood test and shaved of all  but her pubic hair. She was dressed in a G-string, forced into a low-cut gown and had thick make-up plastered on her face. When she was shoved into Gaddafi’s room, to her horror he was lying naked on the bed. When she tried to run out, the women soldiers grabbed her and flung her back on the bed.

She was raped repeatedly during the seven years she was held captive, eventually escaping when a door was accidentally left unlocked.

Fuelled by cocaine and alcohol – and often Viagra – Gaddafi abused her horribly. ‘I will never forget that first time, that moment,’ she says. ‘He  violated my body and pierced my  soul with a dagger. That blade will never come out.’

It took the documentary-makers months of negotiations to be allowed access to information on Gaddafi  as Libya remains secretive and hide-bound by bureaucracy.

Coerced: Gaddafi had a private all-female guard, some of whom he allegedly also abused, having ‘selected’ them from schools and universities across the country (file picture)

Ultimate terror: When a girl had been ‘selected’, Gaddafi’s guards would kidnap her from her family, take her to the dungeon, where she would be stripped, checked for STDs, shaved of all but her pubic hair, plastered in makeup and sent in to Gaddafi, a witness has said

But they also established that Gaddafi set up a ‘murder for hire’ team run from Havana to rid him of enemies around the world. In a secret interview from Cuba, former CIA agent Frank Terpil said: ‘I would say [it was] Murder Incorporated .  .  . murder for hire. Gaddafi thought that anybody who was a dissident, they [should be] eliminated, he had contracts out on a bunch of people in London.’

He often stored the bodies of those killed in Libya in freezers so that he could regularly view them.

If Gaddafi was power-crazed, he was also paranoid. A Brazilian plastic surgeon found himself escorted deep inside a bunker in Tripoli in the middle of the night in order to remove  fat from Gaddafi’s belly and inject it into his increasingly wrinkled face.

Despite the pain, Gaddafi refused a general anaesthetic, fearing he might be poisoned – and because he wished to remain alert.

Halfway through the operation, he stopped to have a hamburger.

He also created an elite squad of bodyguards – all female – whom he used for sex and forced to watch multiple barbaric executions.

For decades Gaddafi surrounded himself with these beautiful young women. Dressed in close-fitting military uniforms, with manicured nails and perfectly coiffed hair, they exuded glamour while toting guns.

But they were little more than disposable prostitutes used and abused by Gaddafi and his family.

Known as ‘the Haris al-Has’ – the private female guards – almost  all were coerced into joining his cadre. One of them, who admits she had ‘once adored him’, recalled the horrific treatment they had to endure. ‘Early one morning, at 2am, we were taken to a closed hall,’ she said. ‘We were to witness the murder of 17 students. We were not allowed to scream. We were made to cheer and shout. To act as though delighted by this display. Inside I was crying. They shot them all, one by one.’

According to Benghazi-based psychologist Seham Sergewa, who interviewed scores of the girls for the International Criminal Court, there were about 400 members of the elite squad over the years.

‘A pattern emerged in their stories,’ she explains. ‘The women would first be raped by the dictator then passed on, like used objects, to one of his sons and eventually to high- ranking officials for more abuse.

‘In one case a girl of 18 said she was raped in front of her father. She kept begging her distraught father to look away. Many of the victims say they contemplated suicide many times. Doubtless there were some who took their own lives.’

 

It has also emerged that teams of boys were sent to Gaddafi’s sex den, where they too were abused. Former chief of protocol Nuri Al Mismari, who was at Gaddafi’s side for 40 years, adds: ‘He was terribly sexually deviant. Young boys and so on. He had his own boys. They used to be called the “services group”. All of them were boys and bodyguards .  .  . a harem for his pleasure.’ One of the few Libyans who was prepared to be named and talk about the horrors Gaddafi inflicted on his people was Baha Kikhia, the widow of Libya’s former foreign minister with whom Gaddafi had a frosty relationship.

When her husband vanished one evening, she confronted Gaddafi about his whereabouts. The colonel insisted he was being kept alive but, to Baha’s horror, his body was one of many found in freezers after the regime fell.

‘He liked to keep his victims in the refrigerators to look at them now and again,’ she says haltingly. ‘He would visit his victims.

‘It was as though they were some sort of macabre souvenirs. Something that he could look at and touch to remind himself of his omnipotence. Some had been there as long as 25 years.’

The Libyan people had always known Gaddafi to be violent and unstable, but it was only after he was accused of perpetrating the Lockerbie bombing on December 21, 1988 – in which 270 American and British lives were lost when Libya blew up the Pan Am airliner on which they were travelling –  that the West was prepared to take any action.

Strict sanctions were applied by America, although according to Gwenyth Todd, the former National Security Council Director for Libya at the White House, Western leaders – including Britain’s then Prime Minister, Tony Blair – eventually sought to have them lifted and Gaddafi’s reputation restored.

In 2001, Libyan Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi was convicted of the Lockerbie bombing and jailed for life.

But eight years later, seriously ill with cancer, he was controversially released by the Scottish legal system on compassionate grounds  –although many including Jim Swire, the father of one of the victims, maintain he was not guilty of the bombing.

The BBC4 documentary also suggests the Lockerbie jet was not the only one Gaddafi’s regime blew up. Ali Aujali, Libya’s former ambassador to Washington, insists Gaddafi was responsible for bringing down a civilian aircraft in 1992 within a day of the fourth Lockerbie anniversary, killing all 157 on board.

‘Gaddafi shot down a Libyan jet just to send a message to the world that sanctions had hurt Libyan lives,’ Aujali says. ‘It was his way of showing the world how sanctions were affecting life in Libya – making it look as though the plane crashed because it needed spare parts which weren’t available. It was 100 per cent down to Gaddafi.’

Storyville: Mad Dog – Gaddafi’s Secret World will be shown on BBC4 at 10pm on February 3.

h/t The DailyMail

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Politics

This Republican Official Wants to Abolish All Marriages To Stop Gays from Marrying

Mike Turner

A Republican lawmaker in Oklahoma has proposed a controversial way to stopping same-sex marriages in the state. According to News9.com, state Rep. Mike Turner (R) has proposed scrapping marriage in the state altogether.

The lawmaker contends that it is the only way to keep same-sex marriage illegal in the state while still defending the U.S. Constitution.

“[My constituents are] willing to have that discussion about whether marriage needs to be regulated by the state at all,” Turner told Channel 9.

Other lawmakers feel the same way, he said. They envision a state that doesn’t recognize any marriages at all.

“That would definitely be a realistic opportunity, and it’s something that would be part of the discussion,” Turner said.

The Republicans currently have what is called a shell bill in the roster of bills on the state house floor. They can call the bill to the floor for debate or rewrite it at a moment’s notice in order to respond to any rulings regarding the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.

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Arizona Politics

Arizona Republican Party Formally Censures John McCain – Says He’s Too Libral!

The Arizona Republican Party formally censured Sen. John McCain on Saturday, citing a voting record they say is insufficiently conservative.

The resolution to censure McCain was approved by a voice-vote during a meeting of state committee members in Tempe, state party spokesman Tim Sifert said. It needed signatures from at least 20 percent of state committee members to reach the floor for debate.

Sifert said no further action was expected.

McCain spokesman Brian Rogers declined to comment on the censure. But former three-term Sen. Jon Kyl told The Arizona Republic (http://bit.ly/1mIyKyy ) that the move was “wacky.”

“I’ve gone to dozens of these meetings and every now and then some wacky resolution gets passed,” Kyl told the newspaper on Saturday. “But most people realize it does not represent the majority of the vast numbers of Republicans.”

Kyl also said McCain’s voting record was “very conservative.”

McCain isn’t up for re-election until 2016, when will turn 80. He announced in October that he was considering running for a sixth term.

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Politics

President’s Weekly Address – Protecting Women from Sexual Assault

President Obama used this week’s address to inform the world that the Administration has taken another important step to protect women at college by establishing the White House Task Force on Protecting Students from Sexual Assault. An estimated 1 in 5 women is sexually assaulted at college, and the President said that we will keep taking actions like strengthening the criminal justice system, reaching out to survivors, and changing social norms so that all Americans can feel safe and protected as they pursue their own piece of the American dream.

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Beauty Education

What Guys Really Check Out First on Women

While an eye drop manufacturer commissioned the poll, the independent research company One Poll conducted it. Worth noting: The results include the 10 traits men notice first about women.

h/t – womenshealth

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Featured News sexual assault

Teen From Trinidad Arrested For Raping His 10 Year Old Sister And Sexually Assaulting His Mom

According to reports from the Trinidad Newsday an 18 year old man boy was arrested by police in connection with three counts of rape of his ten-year-old sister and grievous sexual assault against their 44-year-old mother. What makes this even crazier is how blatant he was in his wrongdoings. While out with his mother last year August he actually asked his mother to have sex with him. He obviously has no shame. She refused his request but reports say that he allegedly stripped and rubbed his privates against her. She filed a report against him.

But that was just one incident. On December 28, his sister tearfully confessed to an aunt that she was raped on at least three different occasions by her brother. The 18 year old was arrested Tuesday and was denied bail by Senior Magistrate Lucina Cardenas-Ragoonanan in the Couva Magistrates’ Court.

h/t – trinikid

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Celebrities Entertainment Featured

Gay Russian Artist Responds To Garage Magazine’s Racist ‘Black Woman’ Chair With NSFW Image

A gay artist from Russia has created a flipped image in response to the controversial photo of Garage Magazine’s white, female editor-in-chief sitting on a “black woman” chair.

The Russian editor-in-chief of Garage magazine, Dasha Zhukova, came under fire for an editorial photo showing her seated atop a chair designed to look like a black woman with a belt around her waist and thighs and her legs up in the air.

The photo, which offended many, began circulating on Monday, Jan. 20, which was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. Zhukova eventually apologized and called the decision to appear with such a racially insensitive piece of art “regrettable.” She also reasoned that designer Bjarne Melgaard’s actual intent was a “commentary on gender and racial politics.”

But, some did not find the apology sufficient.

Original Photo:

 

h/t – huffingtonpost

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News

Boy, 10, born without any arms masters playing the trumpet with his TOES – Video

Wallace was born without any arms so in order to function in his daily life, he uses his toes as other people would use their fingers.

Jahmir Wallace may not have arms but he doesn’t need them to play the trumpet

Jahmir uses his toes the way other people would use their fingers

His inspiration for music is Stevie Wonder and he’s been wanting to play the trumpet ever since the third grade.

With hard work and an inspiring and positive attitude, Jahmir’s dream has become a reality and his classmates and teachers are thrilled to see him play.

‘My older sister used to play the piano.  So I thought maybe I should try an instrument. I thought maybe I could try and figure out new things,’ he said to WPTV.

Wallace remembers the first time he played a note on the trumpet four months ago and it filled him with sheer joy.

‘I kind of felt excited.  I kind of felt like ‘oh man this is kind of comfortable’ and it kind of felt like this might be the one for me,’ he said.

Teachers and employees at a local music store made Wallace a special stand to hold the horn so he could play the trumpet with ease.

Jahmir’s teachers are impressed by his playing abilities and his confidence.

‘To see how he moves his toes like we move our fingers,’ said Raffaele LaForgia, principal of Green Street Elementary. ‘It’s amazing.’

Jahmir’s teacher Desiree Kratzner taught him how to play the trumpet and inspired him to excel

Jahmir is one of 40 students who played in the winter concert on Friday

Wallace loves playing the trumpet, but he wouldn’t have been able to hone his skill had it not been for his teacher Desiree Kratzer who taught him to play.

Kratzer is ‘Very important because if it wasn’t for her I would never know what the trumpet was,’ he said.

WPTV reports that Jahmir’s favorite song in the concert is ‘Go Tell Aunt Rhodie.’ Fox News reports that his favorite song of all time is ‘I believe I can fly’.

Wallace had some uplifting words for kids who wanted to try an instrument but who may feel intimidated by the thought of it for whatever reason.

Jahmir says that anyone who wants to play an instrument should try because they may end up loving it

Read more DailyMail

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News

Maryland Mall Shooting May Have Been Domestic Dispute

Police investigating a shooting at a Maryland mall that left three dead, including the suspected shooter, are considering the possibility it was a domestic dispute involving a man, his estranged girlfriend, and her boyfriend, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Before confirming that, law enforcement is trying to make sure they have the identities of the dead correct, and trying to rule out any other possibilities, sources said.

At a news conference this afternoon, Howard County Police Department Chief Bill McMahon said police were not yet releasing the identities of the three dead, and said they were still investigating a possible motive, but they were sure the incident was over.

“We are very confident that it was a single shooter, that there is no other shooter in the mall,” McMahon said.

“All of the activity took place at one time, in one store,” he said, though he would not identify which store.

One of the three dead was found near a gun and ammunition, and was believed to have likely been the shooter, police said. There were no reports of any shots fired since that body was discovered.

Aside from the three dead, five people were injured, one who was shot and the others as they were trying to get away.

Police started getting 911 calls about a possible shooting at the mall at around 11:15 a.m., and it was immediately put on lockdown, McMahon said.

Witnesses described hearing five or six pops, which sparked panic.

“I didn’t know what I thought it was and then I saw the other people like starting to run and then there were these others, next to me, like that’s definitely a gunshot, so I just took off running for the entrance,” shopper Christine Cruz said.

Elizabeth Braun, 31, of Westminster, Md. told ABC News she realized something was wrong when she started to see people running panicked.

“I was actually in the mall about to make my purchase, I saw people running into the store,” said Braun. “The sales clerk was like ‘let’s go'”

Braun said she hid with at approximately 50 other people in a Victoria’s Secret storage room to stay out of harm’s way. Employees closed the stores metal gates to seal off the interior entrance that connected to the mall.

“Mostly [it] was pretty calm, mostly people were trying to figure what was going on,” Braun said of the people in the storage room.

Braun said entered through the food court around 11 a.m. and thought the mall seemed more empty than usual.

“I thought I must have gotten there here really early,” she said.

“It’s one of the two malls you would go to,” if you live in the area, she said. “I guess everyone is in this naive state of mind that this would never happen to them.”

The two-story mall is about 40 minutes outside Washington, D.C., and has a movie theater in addition to a number of shops.

ABC News’ Mike Levine contributed to this report.

h/t – abcnews

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