Tiny grazers play key role in marine ecosystem health

Apr. 2, 2013 ? Tiny sea creatures no bigger than a thumbtack are being credited for playing a key role in helping provide healthy habitats for many kinds of seafood, according to a new study by the Virginia Institute of Marine Science and U.S. Geological Survey.

The little crustacean "grazers," some resembling tiny shrimp, are critical in protecting seagrasses from overgrowth by algae, helping keep these aquatic havens healthy for native and economically important species. Crustaceans are tiny to very large shelled animals that include crab, shrimp, and lobster.

The researchers found that these plant-eating animals feast on the nuisance algae that grow on seagrass, ultimately helping maintain the seagrass that provides nurseries for seafood. The grazers also serve as food themselves for animals higher on the food chain.

Drifting seaweed, usually thought of as a nuisance, also plays a part in this process, providing an important habitat for the grazing animals that keep the seagrass clean.

"Inconspicuous creatures often play big roles in supporting productive ecosystems," said Matt Whalen, the study's lead author who conducted this work while at VIMS and is now at the University of California, Davis. "Think of how vital honeybees are for pollinating tree crops or what our soils would look like if we did not have earthworms. In seagrass systems, tiny grazers promote healthy seagrasses by ensuring algae is quickly consumed rather than overgrowing the seagrass. And by providing additional refuge from predators, fleshy seaweeds that drift in and out of seagrass beds can maintain larger grazer populations and enhance their positive impact on seagrass."

USGS scientist Jim Grace, a study coauthor, emphasized that seagrass habitats are also quite beneficial to people.

"Not only do these areas serve as nurseries for commercially important fish and shellfish, such as blue crabs, red drum, and some Pacific rockfish, but they also help clean our water and buffer our coastal communities by providing shoreline protection from storms," Grace said. "These tiny animals, by going about their daily business of grazing, are integral to keeping healthy seagrass beds healthy."

In fact, the authors wrote, if not for the algal munching of these grazers, algae could blanket the seagrasses, blocking out sunlight and preventing them from photosynthesizing, which would ultimately kill the seagrasses. Seagrass declines in some areas are attributed partly to excessive nutrients in water bodies stimulating excessive algal growth on seagrasses.

"Coastal managers have been concerned for years about excess fertilizer and sediment loads that hurt seagrasses," said J. Emmett Duffy of Virginia Institute of Marine Science and coauthor of the study. "Our results provide convincing field evidence that grazing by small animals can be just as important as good water quality in preventing nuisance algae blooms and keeping seagrass beds healthy."

The USGS scientists involved in this study serve as members of a worldwide consortium of researchers examining the health of seagrasses. This research by Virginia Institute of Marine Science and USGS researchers is the first in a series of studies worldwide on seagrass ecosystems.

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The above story is reprinted from materials provided by United States Geological Survey.

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Journal Reference:

1. Matthew A. Whalen, J. Emmett Duffy, James B. Grace. Temporal shifts in top-down vs. bottom-up control of epiphytic algae in a seagrass ecosystem. Ecology, 2013; 94 (2): 510 DOI: 10.1890/12-0156.1

Note: If no author is given, the source is cited instead.

Disclaimer: Views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect those of ScienceDaily or its staff.

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/most_popular/~3/VwpnUO3D5EQ/130402150151.htm

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Dolphin, turtle deaths signal 'something amiss'

NEW ORLEANS (AP) -- Continuing deaths of dolphins and sea turtles are a sign that the Gulf of Mexico is still feeling effects from the 2010 spill that spewed 200 million gallons of oil from a well a mile below the surface, a prominent environmental group said Tuesday.

The deaths ? especially in dolphins, which are at the top of the food chain ? are "a strong indication that there is something amiss with the Gulf ecosystem," said National Wildlife Federation senior scientist Doug Inkley.

"Both species have very high mortality the first year, slightly lower the second year and the third year even lower, but still well above average," Inkley said. "To have these deaths above average for so long a period of time is unprecedented."

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's fisheries service has said previously that many turtles probably drowned in shrimp nets and that brucellosis, a bacterial infection, was the only common thread in the dolphin deaths.

NOAA cannot comment about Inkley's statement because its investigation of the deaths is part of the federal tally of environmental damage for oil spill litigation, spokeswoman Connie Barclay said.

The federation's report, "Restoring a Degraded Gulf of Mexico: Wildlife and Wetlands Three Years into the Gulf Oil Disaster," was based on previously reported research by other scientists, including NOAA's updates on the dolphin and sea turtle strandings.

The key to restoring the Gulf is conserving coastal wetlands, and it's critical to make sure that any fines imposed from the trial now in progress in New Orleans go to that purpose, said Inkley and David Muth, director of the federation's Mississippi River Delta Restoration Program.

The trial will assign a percentage of responsibility among BP PLC and other companies involved in the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig explosion April 20, 2010. It will also decide penalties under both the Clean Water Act and the National Resource Damage Assessment process.

NRDA uses scientific research to assess environmental damage and decide how to fix it. Under the RESTORE Act of 2012, 80 percent of all Clean Water Act fines will go to Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida and Texas.

The federation looked at how coastal wetlands and six species of animals are doing in the Gulf three years after the spill, basing its assessment on historical status and what the future looks like as well as the spill's effect.

It rated the status of coastal wetlands, Atlantic bluefin tuna, and sea turtles as poor; bottlenose dolphins and deep-sea coral as fair; and shrimp and brown pelicans as good.

Also on Yahoo! News:

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/group-dolphin-turtle-deaths-sign-202226016.html

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Bullet-Storm: The Review | Oracle of Film

Developers: People can Fly & Epic Games
Producers: Electronic Arts
Plot: Two bounty hunters crash-land on a savage planet, one of them slowly losing their mind and the other hell-bent on a revenge mission.

I was unsure of how to take Bulletstorm, when I first started playing it. It is produced by the minds that came up with the Gears of War franchise, one of my favourite game series out there. As the player makes his way through the prologue missions, I cannot help, but draw the similarities between the two games. You are one of four soldiers, all muscle and gruff voices, spitting out witty one-liners every time they make a kill. Sure, this time you are on the other side of the law, but the characters are uncannily like Marcus Fenix and his men. Even the villain, Sarrano, resembles General Hoffman vaguely. The first half an hour and you are sure that the developers are trying to cash in on the same formula that made Gears so awesome.

Thankfully, as the game gets deeper, it finds its own legs to stand on. When you finally crash-land on the planet, the majority of the story takes place on, you have already lost half of the main characters and the stakes are raised. Like Gears, the entire game is set in real-time, so you are never cut from the action, creating a non-stop adrenaline rush kind of feel. In fact, it does this more so. In Gears, the action dies down in between chapters, yet here you are never given a chance to catch your breath. Even the story is told in such a fast way, you would be forgiven for missing it. This is not a bad thing though and creates a unique gaming experience that has you struggling to put down the controller, at the end of the day.

Nope, I have no idea what that thing is either.

The gameplay is also very inventive. Rather than money, you are given a points system that helps you buy new weapons and get to the next level. To earn these points, you have to kill your enemies in inventive ways. Each weapon, or even location, comes with a new set of kills you can try out. The more you try the kill, the less points you earn, so the most successful players end up always trying out a new technique, creating a diverse and varied gaming experience. Like Arkham City, it is fairly easy to kill the basic enemy, but the charm comes from trying to look awesome while doing it. It is a feature I want to see more from the gaming world.

I hope I am not selling this as a mindless action thriller, because the story is a lot smarter than that. True, it is a shooter game, but the story is pretty good. It works with the structure that it gets and comes up with an interesting backstory for the landscape that you are fighting in. True, you could argue it is a pointless feature, but it adds a third dimension to the whole game. Also, the characters are really well developed. Don?t go into this game expecting a Heavy Rain-esque character story, but the story makes you care for the characters. Grayson (the main character) is a haunted soul, emptied by his thirst for revenge. When logical Ishi, your sidekick, gets badly injured and needs cyborg attachments to survive, Grayson becomes a guilt-ridden deep character. Also Ishi is constantly fighting the robot side of his brain, always one step away from turning around and killing Grayson himself. It is surprisingly thoughtful from the same guys who stuck a pointless sub-plot with Dom Santiago in Gears 2 and expected the audience to care.

Shit! We accidentally walked into Prototype.

But I must insist the game never gives up the fun. It is a game that just wants to make you grin like a maniac for a couple of days. The dialogue is razor sharp (best line: I am going to murder your dick!), funny and sometimes you are wondering how this game got past the censors. For a game that has a pretty rigid gameplay and story, it throws you so many interesting scenarios and enemies to face off against that you will never get bored. Sure, nearer the end, it gets a bit tricky for its own good, but I thoroughly enjoyed this game. A sequel is much needed, please.

Final verdict: Good honest fun and never a dull moment. Superb.

Five stars.

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Source: http://oracleoffilm.com/2013/04/02/bullet-storm-the-review/

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Game of Thrones, Season 3   

Every week in the Game of Thrones TV Club, Rachael Larimore will IM with a different fan of the show about the goings-on in Westeros and across the Narrow Sea. This week she discusses the season premiere with Seth Stevenson.

Rachael Larimore:?Hi, Seth! Is that you in?my chat window? It?s hard to see through the stacked pizza boxes, the giant Thermos of coffee, and my pyramid of Red Bull cans. Prepping for a season of Game of Thrones requires as much effort as cramming for a college European History final. The houses! The sigils! The high lords and the smallfolk. Have you done your homework?

Seth Stevenson: Aye, I am well-prepared to be a bannerman for House Larimore. But would it be easier to do this in person instead of over Google chat? I've been practicing my warging, so if you have a pet cat or parrot or something I can just transmogrify over to your house and communicate via animal gestures.

Larimore: No pets, just some house plants. I suspect that would be less effective. Now, could you warg into a dragon or something else with a fire source? Like Samwise Gamgee, I mean Samwell Tarly, I've been cowering behind a rock trying to hide from the White Walkers. Are you like me? Were you surprised when it was Lord Commander Mormont who saved him and not Rick and Carl? I think HBO picked up those White Walkers at a Walking Dead surplus sale.

Stevenson: Yeah, I have never loved the White Walkers stuff. There are enough zombie narratives out there already. Keep your undead out of my medieval power-scheming/dragon-magic narrative! (I did think it was funny that when Mormont discovered Samwell had failed to send the ravens, his reaction was essentially: You Had One Job.) When it comes to the land beyond the Wall, I'm more interested in the travails of Jon Snow. He's gone undercover in Mance Rayder's gang. Do you think he's gotten in too deep, like Jason Patric in Rush?

Larimore: Actually, I suspect that his upbringing will prepare him well for this dual role he has to play. Thanks to the fantastically enlightened attitudes of this medieval world?particularly those of his stepmother?Jon never really felt entirely part of his family growing up, however much affection he felt for his siblings. And so he created a? buffer between the Starks and himself. I think his ability to distance himself will help him put on a good face in front of Mance Rayder but allow him to keep his real motives to himself. On the other hand, Ygritte could totally undo him.

Stevenson: Excellent point about Jon. He's always been an outsider pretending to be an insider, and his current assignment is in many ways more of the same. I do love Ygritte (loved her almost as much when she played a fetching housemaid on Downton Abbey)?strong women are like catnip for Jon, I think.

Larimore:?Continuing the theme of people who've never really felt part of their family, what did you think of Tyrion, the most tolerable of the Lannisters, in this episode? Surely he didn't think he'd get Casterly Rock.

Stevenson: Poor Tyrion always underestimates the cruelty of his own kin. What I don't understand is why the other Lannisters can't recognize Tyrion's strategic brilliance and knack for survival?those are gifts that could be put to good use if they'd let him.

Larimore:?Well, the other Lannisters have always been able to get by on their wealth, their beauty, and their ability to inspire fear in just about everyone. Those are advantages (wealth excepted) that Tyrion does not enjoy, so he's had to be scrappy whereas they have not. What was most remarkable to me about the scene where Tywin smacks down Tyrion is that he goes on a rant about Tyrion being an "ill-made spiteful little creature," and even questions his parentage, and so he could just as ?easily have been describing Joffrey. Yet the morally stunted grandson sits on the throne, while the physically stunted son is practically locked away in a dingy cell.

Stevenson:?I think they find Joffrey nearly as repugnant as Tyrion at this point. Even Cersei is losing patience with her son. But the little twit has a semi-legit claim to the throne, and?perhaps more important?is basically a puppet for his mom and grandpa, who pull the strings. So they find it useful to keep him in power. It does seem like Margaery Tyrell might soften Joffrey's image among the commonfolk. She's out doing charity work, talking to diasadvantaged kids?she's the Princess Di of Westeros. Just wait until she indulges in an affair with a rich merchant from the Free Cities, and then dies in a high-speed palanquin chase through the streets of King's Landing.

Larimore:?I'm confident that her palanquin can outrun Joffrey's sissy-mobile anyday, but the paparazzi could be a different story. I'm glad you brought up Margaery?how can you not love her? I think she will do well in King's Landing, despite projecting an image that a family as cruel as the Lannisters could easily mistake as being too soft. Sure, she visits orphans and is warm and open and giving, but did you notice the subtle way she reminded Cersei and Joffrey at dinner that they needed her? When she remarked how wonderful it was that the Tyrells were able to provide so much food to the poor in King's Landing, you could feel the chill in the room. The woman wants to be queen?she blinked neither at Renly's affair with her brother nor his death?so i think she can handle whatever joffrey might try to throw at her.

Stevenson:?She's smart, she understands the levers of power, she's got wheat and barley to spare, and she wears cute dresses. She's a catch! I'd like to see a face-off between Margaery and Daenerys. Two tough, aspiring queens with superfluous "e"s in their names. (I'm still betting on the girl with the dragon retinue.)

Larimore: Joffrey's nature is more that of the Mad King Targaryan whom King Robert took care of. And I think Margaery can handle him. But the Mad King had neither dragons nor the feistiness that Dany had to develop out there in the desert, which makes her perhaps a more dangerous foe. Margaery and Dany are both cunning, though in completely different ways. Can you just imagine the two of them having tea?

Stevenson: "This cup of Earl Grey is getting a bit tepid. DRACARYS!!"

Need to catch up on Seasons 1 and 2? Check out Slate V's nine-minute recap.

Please note: The comments are a no-spoiler zone. Do not give away what is to come based on the Song of Ice and Fire books. Violators will be brought before King Joffrey.

Source: http://feeds.slate.com/click.phdo?i=28f0cb5e4b64c43ad52aab7d2922c5eb

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'Glee's' Cory Monteith checks into rehab

Dan Steinberg / AP

By Bruna Nessif, E! Online

Cory Monteith has taken the first step to getting help.?The "Glee" star, who has been open about dealing with substance abuse in the past, has checked into rehab, E! News confirms. "Cory Monteith has voluntarily admitted himself into a treatment facility for substance addiction," his rep tells us. "He graciously asks for your respect and privacy as he takes the necessary steps towards recovery."

Lea Michele shows her love to Cory through a necklace

In 2011, Monteith told Parade magazine, "I'm lucky on so many counts -- I'm lucky to be alive." The TV star opened up about the rollercoaster he went through after dropping out of high school at the age of 16 and the time he realized his life was "out of control."

"Anything and everything, as much as possible," he says about his drug use at the time. "I had a serious problem."

It seems as though girlfriend and costar Lea Michele, who rocks a "Cory" necklace, is supportive of her man's decision to enter rehab, tweeting earlier today, "Feeling so grateful today."

Get a crash course on all the romances that happened on "Glee"

A rep for "Glee" tells E! News: "Cory is a beloved member of the 'Glee' family and we fully support his decision to seek treatment. Everyone at the show wishes him well and looks forward to his return."

-- reporting by Marc Malkin?

Related content:

Source: http://todayentertainment.today.com/_news/2013/04/01/17550542-glees-cory-monteith-checks-into-rehab?lite

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Boy Racers: One Night Out Cruising In Christchurch... | Stuff.co.nz

KIRK HARGREAVES/ Fairfax NZ KIRK HARGREAVES/ Fairfax NZ KIRK HARGREAVES/ Fairfax NZ KIRK HARGREAVES/ Fairfax NZ KIRK HARGREAVES/ Fairfax NZ

Boy racers rock a utility from side to side at a gathering on Pound Rd early on Sunday.

Police keep an eye on the boy racers on Saturday night.

A boy racer belly flops onto a car near Deans Ave on Saturday night.

Texting is vital to organising a boy racer meet.

Boy racers gather in Lyttelton on Saturday night.

0?of?0 ? Previous? PreviousNext ?Next ?

They call it "pig hunting".

Torch lights flicker among trees as two men search for police who they think may be hiding in bushes at a rural intersection in Canterbury.

The duo are with dozens of boy racers gathered around cars parked nearby.

They make up a mobile party that travels around the region late at night, every weekend.

They're loud, obnoxious and their antics are, at times, violent and dangerous.

A car arrives and skids for the crowd but most drivers are too scared to get their tyres smoking, because if they are caught their vehicles will be impounded and they will lose their licence.

It's not long before four unmarked, silver police cars emerge from the darkness and the boy racers rush to their vehicles and leave.

The police are part of a specialist squad of seven officers set up to make life difficult for boy racers who break the law.

In the last month, they have been joined by extra staff targeting boy-racer activity in the city as part of Operation Hammer.

Police believe the group is more organised, threatening and aggressive, and their numbers have grown since the earthquake. They say the crackdown has been a success, with complaints about boy racers down about 70 per cent.

But a Facebook group which started out as the Anti Police Riot Squad and later changed its name to the Anti Police Harassment Squad is not impressed with the tactics.

They arranged a protest outside the Christchurch central police station a week ago.

Members say they are trying to clean up the negative image of the boy-racer community and believe a small minority is causing the trouble. They claim police are being heavy-handed and unfairly targeting law-abiding car enthusiasts.

Police disagree and make no apology for the crackdown.

Fairfax Media was invited to ride undercover with the group of boy racers to see first-hand how they are being treated. Only a handful of people knew the journalists were there on Saturday night.

What we found was an organised group who use social media and text messages to set up skid sites and avoid police. Rather than drinking in bars they would prefer to cruise the city's four avenues and meet to socialise with their mates on the side of a road.

We did not see much dangerous driving other than half a dozen skids. There was talk of fights and some of the boy racers said they knew the names and addresses of some of the police officers they believed were targeting them.

However, despite spending about seven hours with the group, we saw no police who were either heavy handed or targeting the boy racers unfairly.

Our driver, Kristi Jenkins, 20, who works at Calendar Girls and drives a limited-edition Subaru WRX, was sober and does not drink. She's been part of the scene for nearly five years.

"I love driving my car. I love feeling the power under my foot. It's not just a drive to the supermarket, it's getting a decent drive with my friends, listening to music and having a laugh.

"It [cruising on the weekends] is my down time."

Michael Cunneen, a builder, and Kevin Simaile, unemployed, also known as Nigz Nayra, were passengers in the car.

They believe there are up to 800 people, aged 16 to 35, who are part of Christchurch's boy-racer fraternity and, while that number is growing, there are still fewer than before the earthquakes. They believed most boy racers are "pretty civilised" but a small group of people were destroying their reputation.

"There are people out there just to cause drama that will go out looking to annoy the cops, do skids and fight people just for no reason and those are the people we're trying to get rid of," Cunneen said.

"They're out of control."

At a "park-up" on Deans Ave people were drinking and spilling out onto the road, while a man walked around with a megaphone telling drivers to "do a skid".

Two men were seen jumping on the roof of a van.

When police arrived they checked Jenkins' licence, warrant and registration and made sure everyone had their seatbelts on before we were able to leave. The Press saw nothing wrong with the policeman's handling of the situation but Jenkins said it was "horrible".

"It just feels like he's looking down at me. I'm speaking at him in a friendly manner, giving him respect, and he just talks back to me in an intimidating tone," she said.

Cunneen said there was nothing unusual about the park-up and did not believe police should have intervened.

"That was civilised. There's nothing going wrong there, just maybe a couple of people getting a bit rowdy, jumping on top of a van, but that's what you do sometimes.

"No-one's going to get pissy at them body slamming a roof, they're just going to have a good laugh about it.

"The only person they are going to hurt is themselves."

Throughout the evening the group travelled to sites including Lyttelton, Sign of the Kiwi and Pound Rd.

They knew to go there because of text messages sent by a person organising the meets for the evening.

People in each car subscribe to the messages by sending their contact details to a group set up by an anonymous person on Facebook. Their profiles are checked to make sure they are not police.

"Technology and social media is helping a lot and it's only going to get better and better," Cunneen said.

Simaile said meeting places were usually remote, industrial or rural areas, because "the less houses you have, the less chance you have of people ringing the cops [and complaining] and the meets will be longer".

But at the weekend police arrived at each meet-up only minutes after they began.

The group feared their text network had been hacked.

In Lyttelton, Jenkins received a text which said police were en route. Dozens of others had obviously also received the same message, because they all scurried to their cars and in minutes everyone was on the road again.

The group later admitted their relationship with police was like a game of cat and mouse and there was an element of "the thrill of the chase" when they were out cruising and meeting others at skid sites.

Outsmarting police and being able to evade them was part of the fun but the Government was wasting taxpayer money by dedicating too many resources to targeting boy racers, Simaile said.

Jenkins disliked being closely monitored by police but believed their presence stopped gatherings being a lot more "loose and wild".

"People wouldn't be afraid to skid up and a lot more people would be out," she said.

At times diesel is still poured on the roads when cars are doing skids but less frequently than in the past. If a dedicated skid-pad was established it would be reduced even further, the group said.

Burnouts showed a car's power and a driver's skill, Cunneen said.

"It [burning rubber] is a fantastic smell. It may be poison but it is amazing.

"We're all a bunch of car enthusiasts that love doing that [skids] and when we come together it's bound to happen.

"It's just inevitable."

- ? Fairfax NZ News

Comments

Source: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8495655/Boy-racers-Cruising-in-Christchurch

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Suspicion in DA death shifts to white supremacists

Law enforcement officials walk out of the home of Kaufman District Attorney Mike McLelland Monday, April 1, 2013, near Forney, Texas. McLelland and his wife were both murdered at their home Saturday. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Law enforcement officials walk out of the home of Kaufman District Attorney Mike McLelland Monday, April 1, 2013, near Forney, Texas. McLelland and his wife were both murdered at their home Saturday. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

Law enforcement officials walk out of the home of Kaufman District Attorney Mike McLelland Monday, April 1, 2013, near Forney, Texas. McLelland and his wife were murdered on Saturday at their home. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

FILE - This undated file photo taken from the Kaufman County, Texas, website shows Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland. McLelland and his wife were found killed in their house, Saturday, March 30, 2013, two months after one of his assistants was gunned down near their office, authorities said. (AP Photo/Kaufman County, File)

ATF agents walk into the home of Kaufman District Attorney Mike McLelland Monday, April 1, 2013, near Forney, Texas. McLelland and his wife were murdered on Saturday at their home. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

An ATF agent pulls some equipment from his vehicle as he prepares to go into the home of Kaufman District Attorney Mike McLelland Monday, April 1, 2013, near Forney, Texas. McLelland and his wife were both murdered at their home Saturday. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)

KAUFMAN, Texas (AP) ? Suspicion in the slayings of a Texas district attorney and his wife shifted Monday to a violent white supremacist prison gang that was the focus of a December law enforcement bulletin warning that its members might try to attack police or prosecutors.

The weekend deaths of Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland and his wife, who were found fatally shot in their home, were especially jarring because they happened just a couple of months after one of the county's assistant district attorneys, Mark Hasse, was killed near his courthouse office.

And less than two weeks ago, Colorado's prison chief was shot to death at his front door, apparently by a white supremacist ex-convict who died in a shootout with deputies after fleeing to Texas.

The Aryan Brotherhood of Texas has been in the state's prison system since the 1980s, when it began as a white supremacist gang that protected its members and ran illegal activities, including drug distribution, according to Terry Pelz, a former Texas prison warden and expert on the gang.

The group, which has a long history of violence and retribution, is now believed to have more than 4,000 members in and out of prison who deal in a variety of criminal enterprises, including prostitution, robbery and murder.

It has a paramilitary structure with five factions around the state, Pelz said. Each faction has a general, who is part of a steering committee known as the "Wheel," which controls all criminal aspects of the gang, according to court papers.

Four top leaders of the group were indicted in October for crimes ranging from murder to drug trafficking. Two months later, authorities issued the bulletin warning that the gang might try to retaliate against law enforcement for the investigation that also led to the arrest of 30 other members.

At the time, prosecutors called the indictments "a devastating blow to the leadership" of the gang. Pelz said the indictments might have fragmented the gang's leadership.

Hasse's death on Jan. 31 came the same day as the first guilty pleas were entered in the indictment. No arrests have been made in his killing.

McLelland was part of a multi-agency task force that investigated the Aryan Brotherhood with help from the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration and police in Houston and Fort Worth. McLelland and his wife, Cynthia, were found shot to death Saturday in their rural home just outside the town of Forney, about 20 miles from Dallas.

Detectives have declined to say if the Aryan Brotherhood is the focus of their investigation, but the state Department of Public Safety bulletin warned that the group is "involved in issuing orders to inflict 'mass casualties or death' to law enforcement officials involved in the recent case."

Killing law enforcement representatives would be uncharacteristic of the group, Pelz said.

"They don't go around killing officials," he said. "They don't draw heat upon themselves."

But Pelz, who worked in the Texas prison system for 21 years, said the gang has a history of threatening officials and of killing its own members or rivals.

The 18-count indictment accused gang members of being involved in three murders of rival gang members, multiple attempted murders, kidnappings, assaults and conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine.

Some of the attempted murders in the indictment involved gang members who were targeted for not following orders or rules or who were believed to be cooperating with law enforcement. The indictment also alleges that gang members discussed killing a police officer in 2008 and allegedly ordered a subordinate gang member to kill a prospect "and to return the victim's severed finger as a trophy."

Meanwhile, law enforcement agencies throughout Texas were on high alert, and steps were being taken to better protect DAs and their staffs.

In Kaufman County, deputies escorted some employees into the courthouse Monday after the slayings stirred fears that other public employees could be targeted. Law enforcement officers were seen patrolling outside the courthouse, one holding a semi-automatic weapon, while others walked around inside.

Over the last century, 14 prosecutors have been killed in the U.S., according to news reports and statistics kept by the National District Attorneys Association.

Deputies were called to the McLelland home by relatives and friends who had been unable to reach the pair, according to a search warrant affidavit. When they arrived, investigators found the couple had been shot multiple times. Cartridge casings were scattered near their bodies, the affidavit said.

Authorities have not discussed a motive.

The slayings also called to mind the death of Colorado's corrections director, Tom Clements, who was killed March 19 when he answered the doorbell at his home outside Colorado Springs. Two days later, Evan Spencer Ebel, a white supremacist and former Colorado inmate suspected of shooting Clements, died in a shootout with Texas deputies about 100 miles from Kaufman.

In an Associated Press interview shortly after the Colorado killing, McLelland himself raised the possibility that Hasse was gunned down by a white supremacist gang.

After that attack, McLelland said, he carried a gun everywhere around town, even when walking his dog. He figured assassins were more likely to try to attack him outside. He said he had warned all his employees to be constantly on the alert.

___

Lozano reported from Houston. Associated Press Writer Angela K. Brown in Fort Worth also contributed to this report.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-04-01-US-District-Attorney-Dead-Texas/id-0f34161076444c4b80d25d99e7b83d32

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