Former Prostitute Lauri Burns Helps Rescue Troubled Teen Girls

Lauri Burns was just 23, but she was ready to die. Emaciated, heroin-addicted, working as a prostitute, she was shooting up alone in a Santa Ana, Calif., motel room one night in 1986 when she caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror.

"My hair was all over," Burns recalls. "I had blood dripping down my arms. It was the most horrible feeling."

That moment, after a decade of life on the street – and a near-fatal beating from a john a few months later – scared her straight. She vowed to turn her life around and succeeded beyond her wildest dreams, going to trade schools and parlaying a knack for math into a thriving career as a computer program manager at defense manufacturer Northrop Grumman.

Even as she rebuilt her own life, Burns resolved to rescue other girls at risk of falling through the cracks. Since 1998, she has taken in more than 30 girls as a foster mom; in 2007, she founded the Teen Project, a nonprofit that has provided counseling, life-skills education and old-fashioned mothering to hundreds of girls when they age out of foster care at 18.


Growing up in a physically abusive home on New York's Long Island, Burns was shoplifting and taking drugs by the time she hit her teens; she even did a Girl Interrupted-like stint in a mental institution. Pregnant at 19, she would leave her baby daughter Summer with friends for weeks at a time until she finally entered rehab and sobered up for good. "I was broken," she says.

Today, at 49, she is a strong and steady support for five young women now living in the Teen Project home, a five-bedroom house not far from Burns's home in Mission Viejo, Calif. Burns purchased the house with funds raised from private donations. One of Burns's two employees serves as a den mother to former foster kids who stay there for about two years.

Earlier this year, Burns opened a drop-in center for homeless young people in Venice, Calif. Burns has found temporary homes – in some cases her own – for 10.

Young women whom Burns has helped say her energy and belief in them made all the difference. "My life has changed in every way," says Rose Hernandez, 21, who escaped a childhood home she describes as abusive. She recently graduated from cosmetology school.

Also moving up in the world is Janelle Garcia, 25, who finished her stint at the Teen Project house last year and then lived with Burns while she completed her associates degree. Recently accepted at the University of Alaska, she plans to become a doctor and just got engaged. "If Lauri can see it in me, and she's that successful, then I believe it. And I know I can make it."

All of which makes Burns—married for three years to Jeff McMullens, 61, and eagerly anticipating the upcoming wedding of daughter, Summer, 29, a Columbia University graduate and social worker—feel her own struggle was worth it. "I wouldn't," she says, "trade my life for anyone's."

source: people.com

Fil-Am teen among Denver injured

Manila, Philippines - A Filipino-American teenager was one of those injured when a gunman opened fire on Friday at a Colorado movie theater playing the new Batman film “The Dark Knight Rises,” the Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed yesterday.

DFA spokesman Raul Hernandez said the Philippine Consulate in San Francisco reported that Ryan Lumba, 17, was among those injured and admitted to the University of Colorado Hospital.

“The Consulate received a report that a Fil-Am was one of those injured and had been admitted to one of the local hospitals in the Aurora area. However, no specific information could be released,” Hernandez said in a text message to The STAR.

In an ABS-CBN report, Lumba’s mother Remy said her son, who remains unconscious was shot in the stomach and underwent surgery.

Aurora is a suburb of the city of Denver, Colorado, 32 kilometers from the scene of the 1999 Columbine High School massacre, in which two students shot dead 13 people before committing suicide.

Other Asians who were injured during the shooting incident include three Indonesians, Indonesian Foreign Affairs Minister Marty Natalegawa reported yesterday.

“Three Indonesian nationals were injured in the incident. It’s a father, a mother and their son,” he said.

Natalegawa added the 15-year-old son and the mother were being treated for gunshot wounds while the father only suffered a bruise on his left eye.

Police said Holmes was arrested soon after the massacre, although the motive of the assailant remains unknown.

A federal law enforcement official said Holmes bought a ticket to the show, went into the theater as part of the crowd and propped open an exit door as the movie was playing.

Several survivors remarked on their initial confusion as the attack unfolded that the silhouetted gunman dressed in black, wearing a helmet, body armor and a gas mask as he stepped through a side door, was part of a stunt in the movie.

“I thought it was showmanship. I didn’t think it was real,” Jennifer Seeger, one of the shooting survivors, said.

“He looked like an assassin ready to go to war,” said Jordan Crofter, one of the moviegoers unhurt in the attack.

“All I saw is the door swinging open and the street lights behind, and you could see a silhouette,” Crofter, who was sitting on the left side of the theater and toward the front, added.

But then as he threw gas canisters that filled the packed suburban Denver theater with smoke and opened fire, people screamed and dove for cover.

Seeger, who was in the second row, about four feet from the gunman, ducked to the ground as the gunman shot people seated behind her.

“He would reload and shoot and anyone who would try to leave would just get killed,” Seeger recalled, adding that bullet casings landed on her head and burned her forehead.

Within minutes, frantic emergency services calls brought some 200 police officers, ambulances and emergency crews to the theater.

Holmes was captured in the parking lot.

According to Aurora police chief Dan Oates, Holmes used a military-style semi-automatic rifle, a shotgun and a pistol.

“My understanding is all weapons he possessed, he possessed legally. All ammunition he possessed, he possessed legally,” Oates told a news conference, adding that he had purchased four guns at local gun shops within the past 60 days and bought 6,000 rounds of ammunition.

Suspect described as ‘a loner, shy’

Meanwhile, neighbors described Holmes as a “loner” often seen carrying guns to and from his home.

“He was always wearing camouflage pants and a hat,” said Gabriel Macias, a Mexican who works at a meat factory. He recalled seeing Holmes carrying guns and weapon cases to and from his apartment.

“We did not know him well because he talked to nobody. He was always locked up behind his door,” said Macias.

Melvin Evans, a security guard from a nearby building, said he occasionally saw Holmes at a local bar.

“He was always by himself. Looked like a nice guy,” said Evans, 33. “I go to the bar every Sunday for karaoke. I’ve seen him there every now and then. We would talk sometimes, the weather, you know.”

A student, who only gave his name as Ben, said Holmes kept to himself and would not say hello or acknowledge other people in the hallway.

Ben also revealed he had called police shortly after midnight – coincidentally around the time of the massacre at a Batman premiere – to report a song blaring from inside Holmes’ apartment.

Ben could not make out the song, but it appeared to be playing on repeat.

Tom Mai, a next-door neighbor of the Holmes family in San Diego, remembered Holmes as a shy teenager who did not play or socialize with other youngsters in the neighborhood, the San Diego Union-Tribune newspaper said.

“He said that he last saw him two years ago when he came home during summer recess from college,” it said on its website. The family, he said, “was nice and involved with a Presbyterian church.”

On Friday morning, police escorted Holmes’ father, a manager of a software company, from their home while his mother, a nurse, stayed inside, receiving visitors who came to offer support. Holmes also has a younger sister.

“As you can understand, the Holmes family is very upset about all of this,” Lt. Andra Brown, the San Diego police spokeswoman, told reporters in the driveway of the family home. “It’s a tragic event and it’s taken everyone by surprise. They are definitely trying to work through this.”

Police released a statement from his family that said: “Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy and to the families and friends of those involved.”

Holmes’ family said they were cooperating with investigators.

The FBI described Holmes as a white male, 6-foot-3 (1.9 meters) tall, born on Dec. 13, 1987, with no significant criminal record and no links to terrorism.

Police in Aurora, Colorado, told reporters records showed that the shooting suspect’s only infringement in the city was a speeding ticket in 2011.

Holmes graduated from University of California, Riverside, in the spring of 2010 with a bachelor’s degree in neuroscience, a school spokesman said.

Mai said the mother told him Holmes could not find a job after earning a master’s degree and returned to school.

He enrolled in the Ph.D. neuroscience program at the University of Colorado-Denver in June 2011 but left the program last month, according to the university. – With AP

source: philstar.com

Justin Bieber caught speeding ‘like a maniac’

LOS ANGELES – Teen heartthrob singer Justin Bieber was pulled over and cited for speeding “like a maniac” to shake off paparazzi Friday near Los Angeles, police and a lawmaker who witnessed the incident said.

A California Highway Patrol (CHP) spokesman said officers saw two vehicles speeding on the 101 freeway northwest near Coldwater Canyon northwest of Los Angeles, where the Canadian crooner lives.

“Officers made an enforcement stop on one of the vehicles, took him off the freeway,” CHP spokesman Vince Ramirez told AFP, adding that the driver “was identified as Justin Bieber.”

“He was issued a citation for speeding,” he added, saying he had no further details.

The 18-year-old was driving his eye-catching mirror chrome Fisker Karma, according to the celebrity news website TMZ.

LA City Councilman Dennis Zine, who witnessed the incident, told TMZ that Bieber was driving at over 100 miles per hour (160 kph).

“Bieber was driving like a maniac. He was weaving in and out of traffic. There was hardly any space between cars as he weaved from lane to lane,” he said.

Zine, who was an LAPD motor officer for 18 years, added: “If I was on patrol, I would have arrested him for reckless driving. I was going 60 and he drove by me like he was in a rocket ship. He was a maniac.”

He added that paparazzi behaved irresponsibly, driving on the freeway shoulder. At least four lensmen swarmed around Bieber’s car once it was pulled over, he added.

A spokesman for the Canadian singer declined to comment.

Last August, Bieber was involved in a minor car crash in his black Ferrari, in an underground parking lot, in which a Honda Civic “tapped” his car from behind. He was not cited over that incident.

source: interaksyon.com