Navy veteran killed in Colorado movie theater massacre may have tried to stop gunman

Associated Press / RENO, NEV. –  

A Navy veteran who died after throwing himself in front of a friend during the Colorado movie theater shooting was remembered Friday for his fearlessness and optimism.

Some mourners at the funeral for 26-year-old Jonathan Blunk also said they've been told by officials that there are indications he may have tried to stand up to the heavily armed gunman and stop him during the July 20 attack in Aurora, Colo.

"Law enforcement is leaning toward he was trying to get the (suspect's) gun to save people's lives," said Roland Lackey, an Air Force veteran who officiated the service. "He was a hero, and I salute him."

FBI spokesman Dave Joly in Denver said Friday that a court gag-order prevented him from commenting on the case. Officials have not yet indicated publicly whether anyone inside the Aurora theater confronted suspected gunman James Holmes during the shooting spree that left 12 people dead and dozens wounded.

Among the 500 mourners who packed a mortuary in the Nevada city where Blunk was raised were his wife, Chantel; daughter, Hailey, 4; son, Maximus, 2; and dozens of service members.

Blunk, who served three tours in the Middle East from 2004 to 2009, was credited for saving his friend's life when the heavily armed gunman burst into the midnight showing of the Batman film "The Dark Knight Rises."

Kyle Dawson, his shipmate in the Navy, said authorities told Blunk's widow that her husband also matched the description of a man who went after the suspect.

Based on where Blunk's body was found in the theater, Dawson said, "he was trying to get the guy ... Jonny had no fear in any situation. You could count on him in any circumstance. He was a once-in-a-lifetime friend."

FBI spokesman Dave Joly in Denver said Friday that a court gag-order prevented him from commenting on the case.

James Holmes, 24, a former doctoral student in neuroscience, was charged with dozens of counts of first-degree murder and attempted murder in the July 20 attack, one of the deadliest mass shootings in recent U.S. history.

Blunk, a 2004 graduate of Hug High School in Reno, lived in Aurora and worked for a small flooring company. He planned to re-enlist in the Navy with a goal of becoming a Navy SEAL.

James Gill, his roommate in the Navy, spoke of the senselessness of the shooting spree at the suburban Denver theater.

"Asking why this happened to Jonny, of all people, has absolutely no answer," Gill said. "He made it a point to befriend everyone, and the guy didn't know what negativity was. Throw into that a little testosterone ... and you have one beautiful man."

Chantel Blunk said she and her husband often used humor to deal with life's difficulties.

"Everybody knows Jonny would say `suck it up,"' she said. "I'm going to miss him, but don't come at me with tears. I'll shoo you away from me if you do."

 Blunk was a certified firefighter and emergency medical technician who spent the bulk of his time in the Navy aboard the USS Nimitz. He received a full military burial, including a gun salute and the playing of taps, at a hilltop cemetery overlooking Reno.

Amy DeGuzman, of Bremerton, Wash., his supervisor in the Navy and a pallbearer, conducted a ceremonial roll call of shipmates that included Blunk's name. When there was no answer, a shipmate responded, "Jonathan Blunk gave his life saving another."

About 30 current and former sailors who served with Blunk attended the funeral, with some serving as pallbearers.

 "Be strong," Dawson advised family and friends, "and let's do what we can to get through it and be there for Chantel and the kids."

Contributions from a variety of sources, including the Reno Aces baseball team and the USS Nimitz, will go toward support of Blunk's widow and children, DeGuzman said.

Olympics-London mayor hosts Murdoch at the pool

WRLTHD Sports News
By Sara Ledwith
LONDON | Fri Aug 3, 2012 5:35pm EDT
Aug 3 (Reuters) - London Mayor Boris Johnson hosted R upert Murdoch at an Olympic swimming event on Friday, fuelling speculation that the head of News Corp might be poised to endorse a bid by the Games cheerleader for the leadership of the Conservative Party.

Johnson has supported the media tycoon despite a police investigation into phone-hacking by journalists at titles owned by News International, News Corp's UK operation.

Johnson has said he was warned in 2006 he may have been a victim of phone-hacking. As mayor of London, he is also head of the police force investigating the hacking allegations.

Johnson has defended the invitation, saying the 81-year-old Murdoch has done much to promote British sport. "I have a big programme of engagements and it is the right thing to do," the mayor told Reuters on Tuesday.

The mayor's office said on Friday Murdoch was among 23 business leaders Johnson hosted at the event.
"For me, it's totally inappropriate behaviour and beyond the jokey-blokey style," Jenny Jones, a member of the London Assembly for the Green Party, said of the invite.

"Boris Johnson does an awful lot of things that are close to the bone, but this borders on a lack of understanding of what's going on."

The Guardian newspaper said Murdoch might be set to back Johnson to take over as leader of the conservatives from Prime Minister David Cameron. The newspaper cited sources familiar with Murdoch's thinking, and referred to his tweeted praise for the organisation of the Games so far.

"London in best shape ever," Murdoch tweeted on Aug. 2. "All overboard about the Olympics, brilliantly organized by Zeb Coe and Boris Johnson."

He later corrected the spelling of the organising committee chairman's first name to Seb.
Many UK media have speculated that Johnson hopes to capitalise on a successful Games to launch a bid for the leadership of his party.

A YouGov survey for Murdoch's the Sun newspaper this week suggested support for the Conservatives would rise to 37 per cent if Johnson was leader, up from 34 percent now.

The mayor has long defended Murdoch's role in the 1970s and 1980s, when he defeated trade union opposition to simplify newspaper production and cut costs.

"In the life of the city - I think he did a lot of good," Johnson told Charlie Rose on U.S. public television in June. "I mean you know the guy is - look, I'm - I'm a believer."

Murdoch has stepped down from a string of boards overseeing the Sun, Times and Sunday Times newspapers in Britain, News Corp said in an internal memo earlier this month.

Mainstream Media Blacks Out Chick-fil-A Story?

WRLTHD commentary

Wednesday was Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day, and Americans flocked to the fast food restaurant in response to criticism of COO Dan Cathy's opposition to same-sex marriage (as well as threats from the mayors of some major cities). The photos of long lines and traffic jams reveal the extent of the restaurant's support--for some it's about traditional values and for others it's about freedom of religious exercise and speech in the face of government intimidation. There are even rumors that Chick-fil-A set a new world record for sales in a single day, though the company has yet to release any sales numbers.

But you wouldn't know anything about the national phenomenon by reading the front pages of most of the country's leading newspapers. There's no mention of Chick-fil-A on the front pages of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and the Boston Globe. The front pages of USA Today, the Dallas Morning News, and the Houston Chronicle have small headlines about the restaurant, while Chick-fil-A's hometown paper, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, fits in a story below the fold under the heading, "Chick-fil-A Controversy." And the front pages of major news websites are quiet in their coverage as well.

Inside some of those papers, the coverage is still relatively scant. The L.A. Times has a news story, while the New York Times has an op-ed from the gay dean at the Georgia Tech business school encouraging Americans to let Chick-fil-A "fly free." The Washington Post ran a photograph, but no story.

The Newseum's collection of the top ten newspaper covers from around the country seems to recognize the biggest national news story of the day. The papers covering the story aren't just located in the South, Chick-fil-A's regional base; smaller papers from Colorado, Ohio, New York, and California were all over the story.

London Olympics: Rebecca Soni gets double - wins gold in 200M breaststroke and sets another world record

WRLTHD Sports News

LONDON – Kinga Soni felt her hands and her shoulders start to shake and knew it was hopeless. The stars and stripes were rising to the rafters. Her daughter was standing on the top of the medal platform.

Why fight it?

“Okay,” she said to no one, “I give up.”
So she let the tears go. Rebecca Soni had won another gold medal in the 200-meter breaststroke, setting another world record in the process, in what might be the most dominant swimming performance of these Games. But her mother could only think about the journey.

She could only stand in the Aquatic Center, her trembling hand over heart, and wish that every mother in the world could feel like she did at that moment. To understand that it’s all worth it.
“It was really like, ‘Okay, you got your payoff,’” Kinga Soni said. “This was worth every wake up call at 3 a.m. This was worth every long drive to another pool. Every sacrifice.

“There is no better feeling in the world than seeing that flag go up and hearing that national anthem. Nothing better.”

This is why she and her husband, Peter, moved to New Jersey from Hungary when they wanted to start a family. This is why, when their youngest daughter decided she wanted to give up gymnastics to become a swimmer, they sought out the best clubs for her to join.

It didn’t matter what “Reb,” as the family called her, wanted to do. It only mattered that she loved it enough to stayed dedicated to it, and that dedication was never a question with Soni.

“Whatever I saw that my kids were enjoying, that’s what I lived for,” she said. “I just had to see that smile on their faces.”

This is a swimmer who started to dream about setting world records as a junior at West Windsor-Plainsboro High, when they seemed miles away. This is the athlete once sneaked out of the house, her face swollen with a glandular infection, and drove to the Rutgers Aquatic Center to swim. Kinga Soni didn’t know what to do, so she just hopped into another car and followed.
“I couldn’t stop her,” she said.

All these years later, the best swimmers in the world couldn’t stop her, either. So rarely does an Olympian save her best performance for the biggest moments, but this is what Soni did tonight.

She set a world record one night before in her semifinal heat and couldn’t help hide a trace of disappointment. Her time was 2:20.00, but when Soni told reporters that she hoped she could “swim a little faster” in the final, it wasn’t just a cliché.

It was her dream. Tom Speedling was one of the few who knew it. From the time Soni was a junior, the coach of the Scarlet Athletic Club kept pushing the idea that she would be the first swimmer to break 2:20 in the 200-meter breaststroke. It seemed absurd at the time – Soni was miles away – but it burrowed into her brain.

She wanted that 2:19. It drove her training sessions, consumed her personal pursuit. One night earlier, when she set another world record, Speedling texted his congratulations. The response was no surprise.

“I wish it was 1/100th faster.”

So last night, when she touched the end of the pool so far ahead of her competitors that it almost didn’t seem fair, Soni looked at the time and opened her mouth wide.
(ITAL) 2:19.59. (END ITAL)

The celebration was as raucous as anything her friends and teammates had every seen from her. She pumped her fight once, then twice, then again. “YES!” she yelled, because not only did she have a gold medal, but she had achieved a lifetime goal in the process, too.

“That’s the most excited I’ve ever seen her,” Speedling said over the phone from Piscataway.
If only he could have seen her mother, too. Peter and Kinga Soni didn’t make the trip to Beijing four years ago. They worried about spending all that money when they didn’t know how Soni would do, watching on TV instead when their daughter beat the reigning world champ and record holder for a gold medal.


That was the stunner. This was expected. Soni came to London as the prohibitive favorite this time, and her parents made the trip this time. They watched as she just missed gold in the 100-meter breaststroke, then came to the Aquatic Center tonight hoping for history.

So when Soni stepped off the medal stand, the gold medal around her neck again, Kinga Soni couldn’t help herself. Her eyes still wet, she hustled to the edge of the seating area and leaned over the railing, making sure her daughter saw her as she made her victory lap.

When her daughter saw her, she tossed her bouquet of flowers into the crowd, and Kinga caught them. They couldn’t hear each other over the din, but in the moment of victory, they locked eyes.
“She lit up!” Kinga Soni said. “She really lit up!”

The mother didn’t need to see the gold medal around her daughter’s neck to know it was all worth it. The smile was enough.

Steve Politi: spoliti@starledger.com; Twitter: @StevePoliti.

Gabby Douglas wins all-around title, giving her 2nd gold in London

WRLTHD Sports News LONDON (AP)
Might be time to get Gabby Douglas a new nickname.
Olympic champ might work.
Known as "The Flying Squirrel," Douglas won the women's all-around title Thursday night, becoming the third straight American to win gymnastics' biggest prize. It's her second gold medal of the London Games, coming two nights after she and her "Fierce Five" teammates gave the United States its first Olympic title since 1996.
Douglas rocked the O2 Arena with her electric floor routine, flashing a dazzling smile and lots of pizzazz. She finished with a score of 62.232, about three-tenths ahead of Viktoria Komova of Russia, runner-up at last year's world championships.
Komova's floor routine was impressive, as well, and she stood at the center of the arena staring intently at the scoreboard. When the final standings flashed, her head dropped and she hurried to the sidelines, tears falling. Douglas finished with a score of 62.232, about three-tenths ahead of the Russian.
Aliya Mustafina and Aly Raisman finished with identical scores of 59.566, but the Russian got the bronze on a tiebreak. The lowest scores for both gymnasts were dropped, and the remaining three were totaled. That gave Mustafina a total of 45.933 and Raisman 45.366.
While her U.S. teammates hopped up and down in the stands, Douglas simply grinned. Up in the stands, her mother, Natalie Hawkins, hugged her children and Missy Parton, whose family Douglas lives with in West Des Moines, Iowa.
It was two years ago that Douglas told her mom she wanted to move from their home in Virginia Beach, Va., to train with Liang Chow, who coached Shawn Johnson in 2008. Hawkins said absolutely not; there was no way she was letting the youngest of her four children move halfway across the country at 14.
But Douglas' two older sisters lobbied on her behalf, giving their mother a list of reasons why Gabby should be allowed to go. The only reason to stay: They would miss her.

Just as she did in Tuesday night's team final, Douglas set the tone with the very first event, vault. Once again doing the difficult Amanar - a roundoff onto the takeoff board, back handspring onto the table and 2.5 twisting somersaults before landing - Douglas took a small hop to the left and then another, putting her dangerously close to the out-of-bounds line. She never looked down, but it was clear she knew how close she was, twisting her upper body to the left to absorb the momentum and keep her legs from moving. She stayed in place - and in bounds - and her 15.966 gave her a lead she never relinquished.
Komova made it close on uneven bars, where she looks more like a little hummingbird as she flies between the bars. Her routine is incredibly difficult, yet she does it with such lightness and style. She took a small hop on her dismount, but camouflaged it by immediately thrusting her hands into the air and turning to salute the judges. When her score of 15.966 was announced, she nodded slightly as she zipped her Russian team warm-up all the way to her chin.
Next came balance beam, where both Komova and Douglas have struggled. Komova's fall during the team competition at last year's worlds hurt Russia's chance of catching the Americans, while Douglas might have won the U.S. title if not for a fall on the second day of competition.
With the stakes higher than ever, however, both were clutch. Most of Komova's tricks were landed with confidence, and her sheep jump - where she thrusts her head and arms back while kicking her feet behind her - was exquisite, the soles of her feet brushing her ponytail.
But Douglas did her one better. She oozed confidence as she whipped off a series of back handsprings, landing as easily and confidently as she had when she performed on the arena floor. She did a front somersault with such power the thud of her landing echoed inside the arena.

She took a small hop forward on her dismount, but it hardly mattered. The look on her face said it all: Yeah, I got this. Her score of 15.5 extended her lead over Komova to more than three-tenths of a point going into the final rotation, floor exercise.
While Douglas' skills on floor are impressive - she gets more air than the NBA's Carmelo Anthony, whom she and her teammates met the other day - it's her personality that makes it a show-stopper. The crowd was clapping almost from the opening notes of her techno music, and she got downright sassy with her dance moves, directing playful grins at the judges.
Her score of 15.033 meant Komova needed a 15.36 or better to win. She didn't come close, and Douglas grabbed herself another gold.

Michael Phelps Olympics 2012 Schedule and Goal for 20th Medal

WRLTHD Sports News
Swimmer Michael Phelps had the world talking, including on Twitter, after his historic 19th Olympic medal win at the London 2012 Olympics. The latest medal officially makes Phelps the most decorated Olympian ever, succeeding Russian gymnast Larissa Latynina's record of 18 medals.


Phelps won his overall 19th medal - his 15th gold medal -  in the 4x200-meter Freestyle Relay with fellow Team USA swimmers Ryan Lochte, Conor Dwyer, and Ricky Berens. The relay featured an unorthodox move to have Phelps anchor the relay, meaning swim fourth in the rotation.


The victory earned a celebratory tweet from President Barack Obama, "Congrats to Michael Phelps for breaking the all-time Olympic medal record," Obama tweeted. "You've made your country proud. -bo"


Phelps tweeted back, "Thank you Mr. President!! It's an honor representing the #USA !! The best country in the world!!"


Phelps' win will probably give him a bigger Twitter following as he has about 668,000, compared to Obama's 18 million followers.


"I started scrolling through thousands of mentions [on Twitter], and I was like, man, this is a lot of things to look at," said Phelps. "Obviously, I wanted to say thank you to all of my friends. Obama, [Spanish footballer Gerard] Pique the soccer player, a bunch of athletes, figures from all over the world that were sending things. It was pretty cool."


The new record of 19 Olympic medals breaks the 48-year-old record set by Latynina, who shared no hard feelings upon news that Phelps will overcome her milestone.


"I'm quite happy there is a man in the world who can overcome my record, finally," said Latynina.
However, Latynina told Yahoo, "Do I think I am still the greatest Olympian? Why yes, but that is my opinion. Why do I think this? Well, I did not only compete in three Olympic Games and won many medals, but the Soviet Union team had very great success when I was the coach."


Debbie Phelps (3rd R), mother of Michael Phelps of the U.S., celebrates the U.S. men's 4x200m freestyle relay win and her son's 19th Olympic medal, during the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Centre (Photo Credit: Reuters)


Phelps has three more Olympic medal opportunities, and can extend the new record to 22 if successful. Earlier today, Phelps won the 200-meter Individual Medley qualifying round and will compete in its semifinal at 3:43 p.m. EST today, along with rival Lochte. The 200-meter Individual Medley's final is tomorrow, Aug. 2, at 3:19 p.m. EST.

Olympic Gymnastics 2012: Ranking US Women's Best Shots to Win Gold

Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
Jordyn Wieber, Aly Raisman, Gabby Douglas and McKayla Maroney will look to add individual accomplishments to their team gold medal in the 2012 Olympic Games. Their win was the first gold medal in women's gymnastics for the U.S. since 1996.
It will be tough competition, as they face the individual best gymnasts from across the world in each event. They have a strong chance to medal in most of the events and should be strong competitors for the gold.
Here are the top five chances for a gold medal for the U.S. women.