Truesee's Daily Wonder

RICK CHASE Robert Speed, left, and his grandson Daniel Johnson are both receiving their GED diplomas after attending Hawkeye Community College's Metro Center in Waterloo, Iowa. Pictured Monday, May 23, 2011. (RICK CHASE / Courier Staff Photographer)

WATERLOO --- Bob Speed is finally getting his GED, more than 50 years after dropping out of high school.

The 70-year-old Dunkerton man will be joined by his 21-year-old grandson, Danny Johnson, in receiving the GED diploma Thursday. They are among 154 people who have completed the program in the past year. Fifty-one others also are going through the graduation ceremony at Hawkeye Community College's Tama Hall. Two other family pairs have completed the GED in the past year, including a brother and sister and a mom and son.

Both men say the support of the other was necessary to get through their studies and pass the five General Educational Development tests required for the diploma. "I was the math teacher, he was the English teacher," Speed said, laughing. They also credited the help of long-time HCC Metro Center instructor Jeanie Steffey.

The two hatched the plan to earn GEDs after Johnson, a Minnesota native, moved in with his grandparents.

"Dan came to live with us in January," Speed said. "Grandma said, 'If you guys really aren't busy this winter, you should go down and get your GEDs.'"

Speed agreed, as long as Johnson joined him.

"I thought it would be a good opportunity for me and Grandpa to get it done," Johnson said.

The pair were so dedicated to their task from the time they started studying in February that their classmates called them "the twins."

"We went seven weeks and we went four hours a day, five days a week," Speed said. "We had a goal that we wanted to get done this year and make the graduation." Students had to pass the tests in math, science, history, reading and writing by May 10 to go through the ceremony.

Johnson said preparing for the tests was "a little nerve-wracking now and then. I struggled with the math part. I lost sleep over it, I'll tell you that."

"Reading and writing were my weakest points," Speed added. "It was a challenge to get it out, to get it on paper and do your best."

That didn't stop him from running a business for 35 years as a concrete contractor, which grew to 65 employees. "Whenever I wrote a letter for my business, I always had the secretary check it over to make sure the spelling was right," he said.

"Fifty-two years ago it was a lot easier without a GED than it is today," said Speed, who dropped out of Dunkerton High School. "You could pretty much get a job without a high school education at that time."

He got into the concrete business after five years of working at the Rath meat packing plant in Waterloo. Eventually, he relocated to Minneapolis, where his concrete business flourished for 30 years. Speed and his wife retired to Dunkerton in 2007.

Johnson knew he needed to make the time to get his GED.

"I've worked odd jobs, and I've found it's a lot easier to get your foot in the door with an education," he said.

Someday, Johnson hopes to train as a mechanic. For the time being, though, he's putting in applications for a job so he can start making money.

Speed said he felt a lot of self-satisfaction in completing his GED.

"I've always been kind of a self-motivated individual and I just finally got that part done," he said.

Putting a Crimp in the Hookah

DOUGLAS QUENQUA

May 30, 2011

Kevin Shapiro, a 20-year-old math and physics major at the University of Pennsylvania, first tried a hookah at a campus party. He liked the exotic water pipe so much that he chipped in to buy one for his fraternity house, where he says it makes a useful social lubricant at parties.

Steve Kagan for The New York Times

Kevin Shapiro, 20, and his sister Allison, 18, on the deck of the family home in Chicago.

Stew Milne for The New York Times

Cassie Ramsey, a student, at a Providence, R.I., hookah bar. A boom in hookah use has led to new health efforts against them.

Pleeze help: Writing-challenged Brooklyn principal Andrew Buck asking parents, teachers for support

Ben Chapman
DAILY NEWS WRITER

Tuesday, May 31st 2011, 4:00 AM

MOST Americans know that Memorial Day is about honoring the nation’s war dead. It is also a holiday devoted to department store sales, half-marathons, picnics, baseball and auto racing. But where did it begin, who created it, and why?

Officially, in the North, Memorial Day emerged in 1868 when the Grand Army of the Republic, the Union veterans’ organization, called on communities to conduct grave-decorating ceremonies. On May 30, funereal events attracted thousands of people at hundreds of cemeteries in countless towns, cities and mere crossroads. By the 1870s, one could not live in an American town, North or South, and be unaware of the spring ritual.

But the practice of decorating graves — which gave rise to an alternative name, Decoration Day — didn’t start with the 1868 events, nor was it an exclusively Northern practice. In 1866 the Ladies’ Memorial Association of Columbus, Ga., chose April 26, the anniversary of Gen. Joseph Johnston’s final surrender to Gen. William T. Sherman, to commemorate fallen Confederate soldiers. Later, both May 10, the anniversary of Gen. Stonewall Jackson’s death, and June 3, the birthday of Jefferson Davis, were designated Confederate Memorial Day in different states.

Memorial Days were initially occasions of sacred bereavement, and from the war’s end to the early 20th century they helped forge national reconciliation around soldierly sacrifice, regardless of cause. In North and South, orators and participants frequently called Memorial Day an “American All Saints Day,” likening it to the European Catholic tradition of whole towns marching to churchyards to honor dead loved ones.

But the ritual quickly became the tool of partisan memory as well, at least through the violent Reconstruction years. In the South, Memorial Day was a means of confronting the Confederacy’s defeat but without repudiating its cause. Some Southern orators stressed Christian notions of noble sacrifice. Others, however, used the ritual for Confederate vindication and renewed assertions of white supremacy. Blacks had a place in this Confederate narrative, but only as time-warped loyal slaves who were supposed to remain frozen in the past.

The Lost Cause tradition thrived in Confederate Memorial Day rhetoric; the Southern dead were honored as the true “patriots,” defenders of their homeland, sovereign rights, a natural racial order and a “cause” that had been overwhelmed by “numbers and resources” but never defeated on battlefields.

Yankee Memorial Day orations often righteously claimed the high ground of blood sacrifice to save the Union and destroy slavery. It was not uncommon for a speaker to honor the fallen of both sides, but still lay the war guilt on the “rebel dead.” Many a lonely widow or mother at these observances painfully endured expressions of joyous death on the altars of national survival.

Some events even stressed the Union dead as the source of a new egalitarian America, and a civic rather than a racial or ethnic definition of citizenship. In Wilmington, Del., in 1869, Memorial Day included a procession of Methodists, Baptists, Unitarians and Catholics; white Grand Army of the Republic posts in parade with a black post; and the “Mount Vernon Cornet Band (colored)” keeping step with the “Irish Nationalists with the harp and the sunburst flag of Erin.”

But for the earliest and most remarkable Memorial Day, we must return to where the war began. By the spring of 1865, after a long siege and prolonged bombardment, the beautiful port city of Charleston, S.C., lay in ruin and occupied by Union troops. Among the first soldiers to enter and march up Meeting Street singing liberation songs was the 21st United States Colored Infantry; their commander accepted the city’s official surrender.

Whites had largely abandoned the city, but thousands of blacks, mostly former slaves, had remained, and they conducted a series of commemorations to declare their sense of the meaning of the war.

The largest of these events, forgotten until I had some extraordinary luck in an archive at Harvard, took place on May 1, 1865. During the final year of the war, the Confederates had converted the city’s Washington Race Course and Jockey Club into an outdoor prison. Union captives were kept in horrible conditions in the interior of the track; at least 257 died of disease and were hastily buried in a mass grave behind the grandstand.

After the Confederate evacuation of Charleston black workmen went to the site, reburied the Union dead properly, and built a high fence around the cemetery. They whitewashed the fence and built an archway over an entrance on which they inscribed the words, “Martyrs of the Race Course.”

The symbolic power of this Low Country planter aristocracy’s bastion was not lost on the freedpeople, who then, in cooperation with white missionaries and teachers, staged a parade of 10,000 on the track. A New York Tribune correspondent witnessed the event, describing “a procession of friends and mourners as South Carolina and the United States never saw before.”

The procession was led by 3,000 black schoolchildren carrying armloads of roses and singing the Union marching song “John Brown’s Body.” Several hundred black women followed with baskets of flowers, wreaths and crosses. Then came black men marching in cadence, followed by contingents of Union infantrymen. Within the cemetery enclosure a black children’s choir sang “We’ll Rally Around the Flag,” the “Star-Spangled Banner” and spirituals before a series of black ministers read from the Bible.

After the dedication the crowd dispersed into the infield and did what many of us do on Memorial Day: enjoyed picnics, listened to speeches and watched soldiers drill. Among the full brigade of Union infantrymen participating were the famous 54th Massachusetts and the 34th and 104th United States Colored Troops, who performed a special double-columned march around the gravesite.

The war was over, and Memorial Day had been founded by African-Americans in a ritual of remembrance and consecration. The war, they had boldly announced, had been about the triumph of their emancipation over a slaveholders’ republic. They were themselves the true patriots.

Despite the size and some newspaper coverage of the event, its memory was suppressed by white Charlestonians in favor of their own version of the day. From 1876 on, after white Democrats took back control of South Carolina politics and the Lost Cause defined public memory and race relations, the day’s racecourse origin vanished.

Indeed, 51 years later, the president of the Ladies’ Memorial Association of Charleston received an inquiry from a United Daughters of the Confederacy official in New Orleans asking if it was true that blacks had engaged in such a burial rite in 1865; the story had apparently migrated westward in community memory. Mrs. S. C. Beckwith, leader of the association, responded tersely, “I regret that I was unable to gather any official information in answer to this.”

Beckwith may or may not have known about the 1865 event; her own “official” story had become quite different and had no place for the former slaves’ march on their masters’ racecourse. In the struggle over memory and meaning in any society, some stories just get lost while others attain mainstream recognition.

AS we mark the Civil War’s sesquicentennial, we might reflect on Frederick Douglass’s words in an 1878 Memorial Day speech in New York City, in which he unwittingly gave voice to the forgotten Charleston marchers.

He said the war was not a struggle of mere “sectional character,” but a “war of ideas, a battle of principles.” It was “a war between the old and the new, slavery and freedom, barbarism and civilization ... and in dead earnest for something beyond the battlefield.” With or against Douglass, we still debate the “something” that the Civil War dead represent.

The old racetrack is gone, but an oval roadway survives on the site in Hampton Park, named for Wade Hampton, former Confederate general and the governor of South Carolina after the end of Reconstruction. The old gravesite of the Martyrs of the Race Course is gone too; they were reinterred in the 1880s at a national cemetery in Beaufort, S.C.

But the event is no longer forgotten. Last year I had the great honor of helping a coalition of Charlestonians, including the mayor, Joseph P. Riley, dedicate a marker to this first Memorial Day by a reflecting pool in Hampton Park.

By their labor, their words, their songs and their solemn parade on their former owners’ racecourse, black Charlestonians created for themselves, and for us, the Independence Day of a Second American Revolution.

Two Iowa City women were arrested for possession of marijuana Wednesday night after their friend ingested some and had a bad experience.

According to Iowa City Police criminal complaints, officers and medical personnel were called to 19 Pentire Circle at 9:53 p.m. for a report of a female who “ate brownies with cannabis.” The woman’s heart was racing, police said.

Iowa City Police Sgt. Denise Brotherton said the paperwork on the charges has not been turned in by the arresting officers, but based on the call for service, it appears there were at least 9 people at the residence, including the caller.

When officers arrived, medical personnel were assisting a woman who said she ate pot-laced brownies. Police said two other women – 19-year-old Tearra N. Thomas and 18-year-old Alexis C. Riley – said they also ate some of the brownies, but were feeling fine. Thomas allegedly told officers she bought the brownies in Illinois and knew they contained marijuana.

Officers seized the remainder of the two brownies and took Riley and Thomas into custody for possession of a controlled substance, a serious misdemeanor.

Brotherton said it’s uncertain if the woman who had the bad experience will be charged since it’s possible she didn’t know she was ingesting marijuana.

“The other two knew (the brownies) were there and had them in their possession,” Brotherton said.

Thomas declined to comment on the charge. Riley did not return a message seeking comment.

Alexis Christine Riley

Tearra Nichole Thomas

The Waterloo Police Department will be on hand to receive the guns, and Lind said "no questions will be asked."

Citizens who trade in a functioning handgun will receive a gift card worth $150. Those who trade in a functioning rifle or shotgun will get a gift card worth $100.

Lind, a Republican who represented Waterloo in the Iowa Senate from 1986 until his abrupt resignation in 1997 in a dispute over tax policy, said: "I'm not a gun control advocate. I believe in the right to bear arms. I just want to get bad guns off the street."

Lind said he got the idea after reading an article in a trade journal about a similar promotion in Baton Rouge, La., last October that yielded about 250 guns.

"They gave away about $25,000 worth of gas in Baton Rouge, but I don't have that kind of bank account," said Lind, who will donate $5,000 worth of gas gift cards at his station in return for weapons.

The event will take place for the duration of the listed times, or until the gift cards run out.

Waterloo police officers will conduct the gun exchange. All firearms, muzzleloaders, air guns, and ammunition will be accepted. However, only functioning handguns, rifles, and shotguns will be eligible for the gift card exchange.

Ariz. Sen. John McCain, who ran for president with Sarah Palin as his running mate in 2008, says the former Alaska governor has what it takes to beat President Obama in the next election — that is, if she decides to run.

During an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” McCain expressed optimism that Palin could win in 2012.

“Of course she can. She can. Now, whether she will or not, whether she’ll even run or not, I don’t know,” McCain said when asked about Palin’s presidential prospects.

McCain said Palin inspires “great passion, particularly among the Republican faithful,” but added that there’s a connection between her high unfavorability rating and the heavy media criticism of her.

“I’ve never seen anyone as mercilessly attacked and relentlessly attacked as I have seen Sarah Palin in the last couple of years,” McCain said.

Regardless of McCain’s kudos, it remains a mystery whether Palin will seek the presidency. Palin fueled speculation that she’ll run last week when she announced an East Coast bus tour. She dubbed the “One Nation” trip a chance to “educate and energize Americans about our nation’s founding principles, in order to promote the fundamental restoration of America.”

 

TUCSON, AZ - MARCH 26: U.S. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin (L) attend a campaign rally at Pima County Fairgrounds on March 26, 2010 in Tucson, Arizona. Palin traveled to Arizona to stump for McCain, who is facing a primary challenge in his bid for a fifth term in the Senate. Today's event marked the first time the pair had campaigned together since their failed 2008 presidential run. (Photo by Darren Hauck/Getty Images)

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/05/29/john-mccain-of-course-palin-can-beat-obama/#ixzz1NmBZaQA8

Spanking businessman accused of sexual assault

VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Single mothers, former drug addicts and other struggling young women who came to wealthy businessman Henry Allen Fitzsimmons for a chance to climb out of their financial hole knew his help came with a catch. In exchange for an allowance, a place to live and promise of a college education, they agreed to be spanked if they broke his rules.

At least six of the women say his corporal punishment went too far, including one who says he sexually assaulted her, and the 54-year-old Virginia Beach restaurant owner faces felony charges.

“These women are victims. They’re single moms. They need their bills paid,” prosecutor Tom Murphy said at a court hearing Thursday. “It’s bizarre, there’s no doubt.”

Fitzsimmons’ attorney claims his slight, white-haired client is the victim, taken advantage of by women half his age who knew what they were getting into and filed charges only after a falling out.

“He’s not a danger,” Fitzsimmons’ attorney, Moody “Sonny” Stallings Jr., told The Associated Press of his jailed client. “Strange, but he’s not a danger to anybody.”

A judge on Thursday allowed a grand jury to decide whether to indict Fitzsimmons on two felony abduction charges and three felony object sexual penetration charges filed against him.

Six other assault and sexual battery charges were dropped because prosecutors acknowledged the women had agreed to the spankings.

For months, Fitzsimmons gave each of the women $200 weekly, promised to pay for their college tuition, treated them to lavish nights on the town and even bought one a car as part of his so-called Spencer Scholarship Plan.

They were spanked if they violated rules, such as failing to call Fitzsimmons or drinking too much alcohol.

Several websites, including one run by Fitzsimmons, tout the Spencer plan and the scholarship program, which provides full tuition, room and board in addition to an allowance for participants as long as they follow the plan. It is unclear how many women have participated in Fitzsimmons’ program.

The six who filed the criminal complaints had all been members, but Fitzsimmons’ attorney said there have been several others.

The Spencer Plan started in the 1930s as a form of “carefully regulated corporal punishment” between husband and wife.

Couples agreed to a list of things the wife needed to change, such as not spending money frivolously. If the rules were broken, the husband punished her by spanking and it was put behind them. It has expanded through the years.

One 21-year-old woman testified Thursday that the day she joined the program in November, Fitzsimmons spanked her and gave her $300.

He paid for her to live in an oceanfront suite and gave her a $200 weekly allowance. In return, she was required to walk 20 blocks each day, keep a log of her meals and spending and refrain from drugs. When she didn’t, she was spanked.

Fitzsimmons took it further, she said, when on three occasions he sexually assaulted her with a curtain rod, a hairbrush and a horse riding crop. When asked by attorneys why she allowed it to happen, she replied: “I’m not allowed to tell him no.”

The Associated Press does not identify those who say they were sexually assaulted.

Another 22-year-old woman said she thought the program was an amazing opportunity. She had only been spanked once before she went to him in January to discuss him paying for her 3-year-old child’s birthday party. She said he refused to let her leave until she let him spank her.

She and others said they feared Fitzsimmons, who walks with a limp. They say he made vague threats and convinced them they couldn’t make it without him.

“He terrorized my life,” one woman said. “He took me away from all my friends and family and convinced me nobody loved me but him.”

None of the women filed charges until Fitzsimmons in April accused one of them of stealing money and fired her from his restaurant, the oceanside Envy Bar and Grill, where many of them worked.

A week later, six women began filing charges. On Thursday, that former employee’s complaint was dropped, along with those of two other women whose only complaints were that they had been spanked.

“Who’s the victim here?” Stalling asked in court. “They were taking the money and all of a sudden when the mother gets fired they all run down to the police station and want to file charges.”

Fitzsimmons came to Virginia Beach last year from Minnesota, but much of his past is a mystery.

He has a master’s in business administration, but his much of his attention is spent counseling young women and helping those in need, friends said.

Terry Schantz and his girlfriend are helping run Fitzsimmons’ bar since he was arrested in April and denied bond.

He said Fitzsimmons was a generous and caring man who would buy groceries for those in need or find the homeless a place to live. He said he can’t imagine Fitzsimmons being violent.

Stallings admits the case is strange but says Fitzsimmons is no predator.

“They’re trying to say he preys on these women,” he said. “These aren’t 15-years-olds. These are all adults and they’re getting the money from this old guy.

 

Obama's first Council of Economics Advisers chairman, Christina Romer, whose scholarly work is widely respected, famously predicted that the February 2009 stimulus package would hold unemployment below 8 percent.-

 

AP File

As megablogger Glenn Reynolds, aka Instapundit, has noted with amusement, the word "unexpectedly" or variants thereon keep cropping up in mainstream media stories about the economy.

"New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly climbed," reported CNBC.com May 25.

"Personal consumption fell," Business Insider reported the same day, "when it was expected to rise."

"Durable goods declined 3.6 percent last month," Reuters reported May 25, "worse than economists' expectations."

"Previously owned home sales unexpectedly fall," headlined Bloomberg News May 19.

"U.S. home construction fell unexpectedly in April," wrote the Wall Street Journal May 18.

Those examples are all from the last two weeks. Reynolds has been linking to similar items since October 2009.

Mainstream media may finally be catching up. "The latest economic numbers have not been good," David Leonhardt wrote in the May 26 New York Times. "Another report showed that economic growth at the start of the year was no faster than the Commerce Department initially reported -- 'a real surprise,' said Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics."

Which raises some questions. As Instapundit reader Gordon Stewart, quoted by Reynolds on May 17, put it, "How many times in a row can something happen unexpectedly before the experts start to, you know, expect it? At some point, shouldn't they be required to state the foundation for their expectations?"

One answer is that many in the mainstream media have been cheerleading for Barack Obama. They and he both naturally hope for a strong economic recovery. After all, Obama can't keep blaming the economic doldrums on George W. Bush forever.

I'm confident that any comparison of economic coverage in the Bush years and the coverage now would show far fewer variants of the word "unexpectedly" in stories suggesting economic doldrums.

It's obviously going to be hard to achieve the unacknowledged goal of many mainstream journalists -- the president's re-election -- if the economic slump continues. So they characterize economic setbacks as unexpected, with the implication that there's still every reason to believe that, in Herbert Hoover's phrase, prosperity is just around the corner.

A less cynical explanation is that many journalists really believe that the Obama administration's policies are likely to improve the economy. Certainly that has been the expectation as well as the hope of administration policymakers.

Obama's first Council of Economics Advisers chairman, Christina Romer, whose scholarly work is widely respected, famously predicted that the February 2009 stimulus package would hold unemployment below 8 percent. She undoubtedly believed that at the time; she is too smart to have made a prediction whose failure to come true would prove politically embarrassing.

But unemployment zoomed to 10 percent instead and is still at 9 percent. Political pundits sympathetic to the administration have been speculating whether the president can win re-election if it stays above the 8 percent mark it was never supposed to reach.

Administration economists are now making the point that it takes longer to recover from a recession caused by a financial crisis than from a recession that occurs in the more or less ordinary operation of the business cycle. There's some basis in history for this claim.

But it come a little late in the game. Obama and his policymakers told the country that we would recover from the deep recession by vastly increasing government spending and borrowing. We did that with the stimulus package, with the budget passed in 2009 back when congressional Democrats actually voted on budgets, and with the vast increases scheduled to come (despite the administration's gaming of the Congressional Budget Office scoring process) from Obamacare.

All of this has inspired something like a hiring strike among entrepreneurs and small-business owners. Employers aren't creating any more jobs than they were during the darkest days of the recession; unemployment has dropped slowly because they just aren't laying off as many employees as they did then.

In the meantime, many potential job seekers have left the labor market. If they re-enter and look for jobs, the unemployment rate will stay steady or ebb only slowly.

We tend to hire presidents who we think can foresee the future effect of their policies. No one does so perfectly. But if the best sympathetic observers can say about the results is that they are "unexpected," voters may decide someone else can do better.

A hospital employee with tuberculosis may have exposed as many as 680 patients and 100 hospital workers at Emory University Hospital to the bacterial disease. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Public Health Image Library)

3:37 p.m. EDT, May 27, 2011

Rats! Much-hated rodent has growing fan club in New York City

Amy Sacks
SPECIAL TO THE NEWS

Saturday, May 28th 2011, 4:00 AM

No one's laughin' at these teachers: Educators busted for ethnic jokes in the classroom

Clare Trapasso and Rachel Monahan
DAILY NEWS WRITERS

Saturday, May 28th 2011, 4:00 AM

‘Grandma Bandit,' now known to be a ‘Grampa' killed after police chase

Bill Rankin and Rhonda Cook

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

9:04 p.m. Friday, May 27, 2011

The puffy-faced, middle-aged woman at the CVS checkout counter opened a black purse and showed the clerk a rusty gun. She said she was sorry, that she was dying of cancer and had no choice.

 

Atlanta Police Department Surveillance video showed this suspect, described as a 50- to 60-year-old woman, who is wanted in the robbery of multiple drug stores.

 

“Don’t be scared,” the woman said, according to police. “Just give me all the money in the cash drawer.”

Roxanne Taylor's  string of drugstore robberies -- daring heists that earned her the nickname "Grandma Bandit" -- ended Friday morning after she was fatally shot following a police chase. It was unclear if she died by her own hand or was killed by police, who fired multiple times after hearing a gunshot, authorities said. The DeKalb County Medical Examiner's Office could not be reached Friday, and authorities were unable to confirm whether Taylor indeed  had a terminal disease.

Authoritieswere however able to make another determination about the bandit later Friday. In a tersely worded statement, DeKalb police spokeswoman Mekka Parish wrote

Greetings,

Positive identification has been made on the person involved in todays incident on North Druid Hills. After further investigation detectives have determined the person believed to be a female suspect in fact is a male.

His name is Roxanne Taylor, a 57 year old man.

No additional information is available.

Taylor did not look like the typical armed  robber -- the jittery young male with a stocking cap or hoodie pulled down low.

Instead, the 57-year-old  holder of a helicopter pilot's license lived in a trendy loft near the state Capitol. Wearing dark sunglasses and a black University of Georgia ball cap, he had walked up to the checkout counters of at least seven metro pharmacies in recent weeks, exposed the handgun and demanded cash, police said.

There were differing opinions all along on whether the bandit was a woman or a man dressed as a woman.

An employee of a Rite Aid pharmacy on Ponce de Leon that was robbed May 14 described Taylor as a skinny man with large cheek bones who was dressed as a woman and who walked around the store for about a half hour before coming inside, an Atlanta police report said.

It was during a May 20 robbery of a CVS on Cheshire Bridge Road that Taylor told the cashier he had cancer, another police report said.

Ron Hunter, a criminology professor at Georgia Gwinnett College, said it is extremely rare for middle-aged women to be committing violent crimes. "And people who do armed robberies during the daylight hours are a little more bolder, more brazen -- not a 58-year-old female.”

Asked Friday night if there was any further explanation on how they determined Taylor was a man, Parish said, "We know the legal name was Roxanne. All indications we had early on was that he appeared to be female; it wasn't until further investigation that we determined he was a man."

Hunter, a former Tallahassee police sergeant, said he is eager to learn whether Taylor actually had cancer. "Someone who commits this kind of crime is also someone who will most likely lie," he said.

But if Taylor did have a terminal disease, that could explain the reckless conduct, Hunter said.

"If she was broke, she knows she doesn't have much time left and she just doesn't care," he said. "There is also 'suicide by cop.' It's someone who's desperate and wants to end their life and thinks they can't do it themselves so they'll put themselves in a situation where they force someone else to do it."

According to police, Taylor struck at least four pharmacies in Atlanta and three in DeKalb, taking $89 to $350. "Just give me the money and be quiet," he told a clerk during a robbery Tuesday at the Rite Aid pharmacy on Howell Mill Road, an incident report said.

This week,  surveillance photos showing Taylor inside a number of pharmacies were made public.

On Friday morning, as Taylor sat in a gold Jeep Liberty at a Wendy's drive-through on Piedmont Road, he was spotted by someone who had seen the photos and notified Atlanta police. Officers tried to stop Taylor after he left the restaurant, but Taylor fled, leading police on a chase up Interstate 85 northbound, authorities said.

Taylor took the North Druid Hills Road exit, hit another car, then was confronted by APD officers, who had been notified he could be armed and dangerous, APD spokesman Carlos Campos said.

The officers who had been pursuing Taylor heard a gunshot and returned fire, hitting Taylor a number of times, DeKalb spokeswoman Parish said. Neither of the officers, whose names have not been disclosed, were injured. Taylor could be seen slumped over in the Jeep car, its driver's side window blown out, as police inspected the crime scene.

Court records show Taylor was having financial problems last fall. In September, the company that owned Mattress Lofts, where he lived, began the process of evicting him. It also filed a motion in Fulton County Magistrate Court, saying he owed $2,133.

According to business records, Taylor once worked for Atlanta Aviation Graphics in an office-and-warehouse complex near Grant Park. But the property owner said Friday the company left the space at least two years ago.

Federal Aviation Administration records show that Taylor received a pilot's license in 1977 and was certified to fly helicopters in 2001. In 2006, Taylor updated his FAA medical certificate, which is required every five years.

Staff writers Mike Morris and Kristi E. Swartz contributed to this article.

LINK TO PHOTOS: 

http://projects.ajc.com/gallery/view/metro/dekalb/i-85-shooting/

Porter: The decision to raise baby Storm without a gender stokes parental insecurity

Baby Storm with father David Stocker in Toronto. Storm, who is 4 months old, is being raised as genderless. Photo taken on May 7, 2011.

Steve Russell/Toronto Star

 

 

Storm’s parents have hit a nerve.

They’ve been called “selfish,” “irresponsible,” “reprehensible,” “profoundly ignorant” and child abusers, all because they don’t want you or anyone else to know whether their 4-month-old baby has a vagina or a penis.

The story, written by the Star’s Jayme Poisson, has received more hits and vitriol than any other story ever published on thestar.com.

Why?

Well, sex always sells, and gender is the moment’s hot-button issue. Maybe Storm’s parents, Kathy Witterick and David Stocker, will prove themselves revolutionary, and 40 years from now high school students will perceive the current maelstrom as we now do the interracial romance Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner — quaint and archaic.

But I think there’s more at play than cultural obstinacy. Something more personal. My bet? Witterick and Stocker’s decision triggers our insecurities as parents.

Somewhere deep beneath the wrath lurks a muffled voice that wonders: “Am I too controlling of my kids?”

Let’s go back to those adjectives. Who was the last parent to be derided as a selfish, reprehensible child abuser? Ah yes, Tiger Mother Amy Chua, whose book championed the polar opposite approach to parenting. While Witterick and Stocker promote total freedom and exploration for their children, Chua extols control and duty. Storm’s parents let their two older boys pick their own clothes at 18 months. Chua forced her 4-year-old to practise piano for three hours a day and threatened to burn all her stuffed animals if she didn’t play “perfectly.”

Beneath your horror, deep down, a voice whispers: “Should I have pushed my kids harder to excel?”

The Mommy Wars continue to rage, fuelled by our insecurities and the mounting scientific studies that reveal, mostly, how damaging we are to our children. (My recent favourite: stressed-out parents cause their children to have more flus and colds.) Parents used to mimic what their parents did. Now, we have hundreds of experts telling us hundreds of contradictory things. We choose our poison, and then defend it militantly.

And we feel threatened by anyone who’s taken a different tack.

Storm’s parents aren’t winging it. They have an expert of their own — Alfie Kohn, an American writer and education critic. I tried to get his book, Unconditional Parenting, from the public library, but a waiting list was sparked by last weekend’s story about Storm. So, I bought the second last copy from Indigo Books.

Unconditional parents, Kohn posits, raise authentic, confident humans instead of drones by drawing on fountains of patience and unconditional love. Your kid screams his head off? You don’t send him to his room for a time-out, which Kohn calls solitary confinement.

Instead, you approach the situation as a “teachable moment” and try to uncover the root of your child’s anger. Instead of instilling a “mindless obedience” to your rules, you involve your kids in writing them.

There’s no carrot either — by giving your son a sticker for peeing in the potty, you are polluting his inner volition and teaching him to do things only for approval, Kohn says.

As a parent, he says, you should address the whole child all the time, and not just his or her behaviour.

I managed 100 pages, out of duty for this column.

I salute Witterick and Stocker. The path they’ve chosen as parents sounds just as exhausting as Chua’s, who studied treatises on violin technique when not sitting in on all three hours of her daughter’s violin lessons every Saturday.

They, too, are über-parents.

They, too, think the stakes are high. If Chua’s daughters didn’t get scholarships to Harvard “and perform virtuoso duets for the Supreme Court justices,” she would have failed as a parent.

For Storm’s parents, if the baby’s gender was decided for him or her, it presumably could smother the child’s authentic self, and cause depression down the road. Kohn says children who experience “love withdrawal” through time-outs “tend to have lower self-esteem. They display signs of poorer emotional health overall and may even be more apt to engage in delinquent acts.”

In the end, it comes down to control — controlling what our kids become, or what they don’t become.

I think Storm will turn out just fine, like most kids do. He’ll look at his penis at some point and look at his dad’s, and announce he is a boy. Or she’ll look at her vagina and her mother’s, and declare she is a girl.

Then she’ll put on some brown corduroys and rain boots, and rush outside to play.

Posted: Friday, May 27, 2011 2:00 am | Updated: 11:10 pm, Thu May 26, 2011.

Josh Krysak

Herald-Standard

Lawyer offended by claim he used busty paralegal to distract jury: It was his 'over-qualified' wife

Meena Hartenstein
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Friday, May 27th 2011, 4:00 AM

D. Aileen Dodd

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

A Starling Elementary School parent was arrested on several charges, including felony obstruction of a law enforcement officer and criminal trespass, after she came to see her child’s Field Day competition, ignoring school edicts to stay off campus.

 

 

Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office Patricia Swilley

 

Patricia Swilley was sent criminal trespass warnings on May 10 and 13 informing her not to come to the Grayson school because she had repeatedly violated visitation rules, according to Gwinnett school officials.

“The school had had multiple issues with her in terms of not following directions,” said Sloan Roach, Gwinnett Schools spokeswoman. “The parent has a history of disrupting the school. She would attempt to enter the building without signing in. The principal has attempted to address this with this parent throughout this year.’’

A mugshot of Swilley showed her with a bloodied lip. Swilley's husband, who wouldn't identify himself when reached at home, said the family had no comment. 

Roach said arrests and trespass warnings are rare at Gwinnett Schools. Last fall, however, a Lawrenceville mom was issued a similar warning after she aggressively advocated for her Mason Elementary student with disabilities and violated school rules.

Swilley faces charges for criminal trespass, remaining on school property without cause, obstruction of a law enforcement officer and disruption of a public school, according to Gwinnett's Roach.

Swilley had appealed to Gwinnett school board members that she needed help during public comment at the monthly board meeting. She said her daughter was having trouble at Starling. Swilley also said she had had problems with the staff, but still wanted to attend school events.

On Wednesday, Swilley dropped off her daughter at school and was told she could not be on campus, but the woman returned at 9 a.m. and went to Field Day anyway, Roach said.

“Both the principal and police … provided multiple opportunities for her to leave without incident and she refused,” Roach said. “When a police officer asks you to do something, you need to do it.”

A scuffle ensued as police tried to arrest Swilley, and the woman and officers who tried to arrest her received minor injuries, Roach said.

“She resisted arrest,” Roach said. “She was transported to jail.”

Swilley later was released on a $9,600 bond, Gwinnett County Detention Center officials said late Wednesday.

Starling Principal Donna Ledford sent out a note to inform other parents of the public Field Day incident.

In her statement, Ledford said, "I am dismayed that students and parents had to witness this parent's behavior, her disregard for school officials and law enforcement officers, and her subsequent arrest. Both I and the police officers attempted to handle this situation in a manner that would have allowed this parent to leave the school on her own."

A woman called 911 Saturday and lied about being mugged to draw Burlington police away from a friend’s party, according to police.

Christina Macaulay, 21, made the false report at about 1:30 a.m., while Officer Kimberly Edwards was issuing Macaulay’s friend a ticket for unreasonable noise at a party on North Union Street, police said.

Several officers responded to the intersection of North Street and North Union Street — where Macaulay said she had been mugged — found no one and presumed Macaulay may “have been incapacitated or even abducted by her so-called attacker,” police said in a prepared statement.

Police said when they located Macaulay an hour later, she claimed a man stole her purse and dropped it when she gave chase. When interviewed later by investigators, Macaulay said she lied about the mugging, police said.

Macaulay pleaded not guilty to one count of obstruction of justice during her arraignment Tuesday in Vermont Superior Court in Burlington.

Her friend, Benjamin Eddington, 22, of Waltham received a ticket for unreasonable noise.

Edwards responded to the party after someone called police to report loud music coming from the North Union Street residence.

New Zealand truck driver Steven McCormack nearly pops after getting air hose lodged in buttocks

Michael Sheridan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Wednesday, May 25th 2011, 7:19 AM

Athens Banner-Herald

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

An Athens man who hid in an attic to avoid officers with a warrant for his arrest literally fell into their arms when the ceiling collapsed early Monday morning, Athens-Clarke police said.

Officers went to a home in the 100 block of Martin Court about 1:40 a.m. on information that 41-year-old James Vernard Smith was there, police said. A woman who answered the door at first denied Smith was there, but said he was in the attic after a witness reported seeing him smoking a cigarette on the back porch just before officers arrived.

The officers climbed up into the attic to get Smith, but he kept scuttling away until he was cornered, then broke out a roof vent to escape, according to police.

An officer subdued Smith by pepper-spraying him, and he was crawling toward the officers when the plasterboard below him gave way, and he fell partially through the ceiling. Officers helped lower Smith the ground and arrested him, police said.

Smith was charged with burglary, obstruction of a law enforcement officer, failure to appear in court, several motor vehicle violations and two counts of violating probation.

An arrest report for 36-year-old Sean A. Harrington lists him as "not employed," but some may say that's debatable after reading the description of his alleged crimes. Police say he was caught stealing merchandise from Rack Room Shoes on S. Hurstbourne Pkwy., near Six Mile Lane, on Friday afternoon. According to the report, Harrington was allegedly, "concealing shoes down the front of his pants" and left the store without paying.

From there, he allegedly proceeded to a Marshalls clothing store, and allegedly stole clothing valued at $99.95.

Police eventually caught up with Harrington and arrested him.

When a security at Rack Room Shoes reviewed their surveillance records, they discovered that Harrington had stolen a total of $539.89 worth of goods from their store between April 17 and May 20.

Upon Harrington's arrest, police were able to examine his cell phone -- and they made a significant discovery. The arrest report states that the phone, "had numerous text messages of others ordering merchandise from [Harrington], who would then go out and steal specific items."

He was charged with receipt of stolen property and theft by unlawful taking.

Police say he has been banned from Rack Room Shoes, Marshalls and the shopping center at S. Hurstbourne Pkwy. and Six Mile Lane "told him he would be arrested for returning to the property."

TRENTON – Trenton police have arrested a 12-year-old boy accused in an armed robbery Sunday afternoon on Hoffman Avenue.

The robbery occurred just before 5 p.m., when the 27-year-old victim was approached by the youth, police said. The 12-year-old pulled out a handgun and told the victim to “give it up,” according to police.

The victim surrendered a T-Mobil cell phone and $13 cash, and the suspect took off running toward the Roger Gardens apartments.

Detective Wilfredo Rodriguez was called out to take the case, and during his investigation learned the identity of the suspect, police said. Rodriguez arrived at the 12 year old’s home, where he found the boy and a .22-caliber revolver with the serial number filed off, police said.

Police filed juvenile petitions against the child for armed robbery and weapons offenses. His name was not released because he is under 18.

Gazette Staff The Billings Gazette | Posted: Friday, May 20, 2011 2:45 pm

Penny Johnson, British businesswoman, receives $9.7 million for botched plastic surgery

Nina Mandell
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, May 23rd 2011, 1:16 PM

Will Kane

Chronicle Staff Writer

Crime rate will rise without NFL season, Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis says

Nina Mandell
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, May 22nd 2011, 7:33 PM

PAINESVILLE, Ohio — A northeast Ohio couple found themselves up to their ankles in trouble for rafting on a flood-swollen river without life preservers and lying about it afterward.

A judge sentenced them to stand in a tiny swimming pool while wearing life jackets and handing out water safety brochures Saturday at a festival in Painesville, 30 miles northeast of Cleveland.

Twenty-year-old Grace Nash and 22-year-old Bruce Crawford pleaded guilty to misdemeanor misconduct during an emergency. Searchers spent hours looking for them last month after they were spotted on the Grand River. They made it to land but lied to an official about being in the water.

They chose the pool punishment and community service over 60 days in jail.

Nash tells The News-Herald in Willoughby they've learned their lesson

1:24 p.m. CDT, May 22, 2011

Crook's surprised look caught on surveillance video after robbery: cops

Katie Nelson
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, May 22nd 2011, 3:17 PM

George W. Bush rakes in $15 million in speaking fees since leaving office: report

Philip Caulfield
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, May 22nd 2011, 12:42 PM

 

WLIO

A billboard in Ohio has become the talk of Hardin Couny

An Ohio family services organization has one question for heroin users: Do you know where your heroin has been?

An eye-catching billboard sponsored by Hardin County Jobs and Family Services has turned heads with its honest – and slightly disgusting message to potential or current drug users.

"Summer 2009, Police arrested a Kenton Man with over 900 balloons of Heroin Up his Butt *

"Where has your heroin been?"

According to My Fox Columbus, the billboard refers to 26-year-old Justin Humphreys, who was convicted of trafficking heroin after the car he was a passenger in was pulled over.

Hardin County Job and Family Services director Robert Norman told WLIO-TV that he wants to catch the attention of non-drug users, and parents, to talk about the growing problem of heroin use in the county.

He told the television station he’s received calls of support and anger from the billboard viewers.

"There are people who are concerned for the image of our community. But, you know I certainly hope that people would highly evaluate a community that's willing to face the problems that they're confronted with," he told Fox 28

But he added, "It's God who leads you, not Harold Camping."

Bauer, a tractor-trailer driver, took off for California last week, figuring that if he "worked last week, I wouldn't have gotten paid anyway, if the Rapture did happen." He plans to hop back in his minivan and begin the cross-country drive back Sunday with his wife, young son and another family relative.

The May 21 doomsday message was sent far and wide via broadcasts and web sites by Camping, an 89-year-old retired civil engineer who has built a multi-million-dollar nonprofit ministry based on his apocalyptic prediction. According to Camping, the destruction was to have begun its worldwide march as it became 6 p.m. in the various time zones.

At Chicago's Millennium Park, hours before that time arrived locally, people continued to take photographs of the famed Cloud Gate as they do every other Saturday - and many saw the prediction about Judgment Day as something of a joke.

"I guess the whole school thing was a waste of time," said Sarah Eaton, a 19-year-old college student visiting the city from St. Paul, Minn.

Mena Bishara, 24 of Houston, said if he did believe it he sure wouldn't be walking around the park with his sister.

"Skydiving," he said. "Or I'd buy a motorcycle."

The Internet also was alive with discussion, humorous or not, about the end of the world and its failure to occur on cue. Many tweets declared Camping's prediction a dud or shared, tongue-in-cheek, their relief at not having to do weekend chores, pay their bills or take a shower.

The top trends on Twitter at midday included, at No. 1, "endofworldconfessions," followed by "myraptureplaylist."

Camping's radio stations, TV channels, satellite broadcasts and website are controlled from a humble building sandwiched between an auto shop and a palm reader's business. Family Radio International's message has been broadcast in 61 languages. He has said that his earlier apocalyptic prediction in 1994 didn't come true because of a mathematical error.

"I'm not embarrassed about it. It was just the fact that it was premature," he told The Associated Press last month. But this time, he said, "there is...no possibility that it will not happen."

Camping believed that some 200 million people would be saved, and that those left behind would die in earthquakes, plagues, and other calamities until Earth is consumed by a fireball on Oct. 21.

Christian leaders from across the spectrum widely dismissed the prophecy. One local church was concerned that Camping's followers could slip into a deep depression come Sunday.

Pastor Jacob Denys of Milpitas-based Calvary Bible Church planned to wait outside the nonprofit's headquarters on Saturday afternoon, hoping to counsel believers who may be disillusioned if the Rapture does not occur.

"The cold, hard reality is going to hit them that they did this, and it was false and they basically emptied out everything to follow a false teacher," he said. "We're not all about doom and gloom. Our message is a message of salvation and of hope."

As the day drew nearer, followers reported that donations grew, allowing Family Radio to spend millions on more than 5,000 billboards and 20 RVs plastered with the doomsday message. In 2009, the nonprofit reported in IRS filings that it received $18.3 million in donations, and had assets of more than $104 million, including $34 million in stocks or other publicly traded securities.

Marie Exley, who helped put up apocalypse-themed billboards in Israel, Jordan and Lebanon, said the money helped the nonprofit save as many souls as possible.

She said she and her husband, mother and brother were glued to the television on Friday night waiting for news of an earthquake in the southern hemisphere. When that did not happen, she said fellow believers began reaching out to reassure each other of their faith in the prophecy.

"Some people were saying it was going to be an earthquake at that specific time in New Zealand and be a rolling judgment, but God is keeping us in our place and saying you may know the day but you don't know the hour," she said Saturday, speaking from Bozeman, Mont. "The day is not over, it's just the morning, and we have to endure until the end."

Camping, who lives few miles from his radio station, was not home Saturday at midmorning.

But Sheila Doan, 65, Camping's next-door-neighbor of 40 years, was. She said the worldwide spotlight on the prediction is far more attention than Camping's 1994 prediction got.

Doan said she is a Christian but that she doesn't buy into his views and is not among his followers.

"I wouldn't consider Mr. Camping a close friend and wouldn't have him over for dinner or anything, but if he needs anything, we're there for him," Doan said.

Elections

Tea Party Favorite Herman Cain Joins 2012 GOP Race

May 21, 2011

FoxNews.com

Oklahoma mother gets 10 years for $31 marijuana sale

Both Brownwood and Early Police Departments were able to secure several drug related arrests recently by being alert and investigating suspicious circumstances, along with a little luck when one suspect dialed a wrong number – that of a police officer.

Brownwood Police netted a drug arrest on Wednesday, according to BPD officials, after a suspect dialed a Brownwood narcotics officer’s cell phone by mistake, offering him a chance to purchase drugs.   Officials state that the male caller left a message stating that he had prescription drugs which he was willing to sell.  In an undercover effort, the officer made arrangements to meet with the caller.

The suspect, identified as 51-year-old James Dunn, was accompanied by his wife, 64-year-old Bertha Dunn when they met the officer at the former Food Plaza building on Belle Plain.  The solicitors wanted to trade the prescription drugs for marijuana, police said.

Assisted by Brown County Sheriff’s investigators and Brownwood patrol officers, the BPD narcotics officer arrested the couple and charged them with two counts of Delivery of a Dangerous Drug.

 LINK TO PHOTOS:

http://www.brownwoodnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5269:wrong-number-suspicious-circumstances-lead-to-drug-arrests&catid=35:news&Itemid=58

Jessica Cheatteam was held in contempt of court Wednesday after she flatly refused to say in open court and in front of a jury that Michael Williams shot Terry Redmond on April 26, 2009, in Harvey's Scotsdale neighborhood, a claim she shared with Sheriff's Office detectives who were investigating the slaying two years ago.

Cheatteam, who was 13 years old when Redmond was shot several times, was sitting at the witness stand only feet  from Williams, 18, while members of his family sat in the audience yards behind him.

Her refusal to testify led Judge June Darensburg of the 24th Judicial District Court to send the jury out of the courtroom and arrange for a public defender, Graham Bosworth, to provide legal advice to the teenager. But after conferring privately with Bosworth, Cheatteam again refused to testify.

"Are you refusing to testify and answer our questions?" asked Assistant District Attorney Sunny Funk, who is prosecuting Williams with David Hufft.

"That's correct," Cheatteam said.

Darensburg then found Cheatteam in contempt of court and sentenced her to six months in jail, the maximum for contempt. Cheatteam seemed unfazed as she was escorted out of court to the Rivarde Juvenile Detention Center in Harvey.

Cheatteam was back in Darensburg's court Thursday, shortly after the judge declared a mistrial because of allegations that jurors improperly discussed the case among themselves, including the effect of Cheatteam's refusal to testify.

Dressed in a navy blue jail outfit, her handcuffs chained to her waist and her ankles shackled together, Cheatteam sat alone while attorneys discussed her immediate fate with Darensburg at the bench. It was then that she saw members of Williams' family in the hallway outside court, apparently looking at her through the windows flanking the courtroom's doors.

"What they looking at?" she yelled, sending a jolt through the courtroom.

Darensburg ordered her bailiff to clear the hallway. Moments later, the judge vacated her contempt order and released Cheatteam from custody. However, Cheatteam was sent to a juvenile facility in another jurisdiction for reasons that were not discussed openly in court because of her age.

"Good luck to you, Miss Cheatteam," Darensburg told the girl.

Hufft said in opening statements Wednesday that Cheatteam has been uncooperative. While the prosecutors have another witness who saw events that preceded the shooting, Cheatteam is the only witness alleged to have seen the shooting itself.

Detectives learned she witnessed the crime while interviewing people who called 911 to report gunfire, Detective Jeffrey Rodrigue testified. He described her as "very" young but "very calm" and "very cooperative" when he and Sgt. Kevin Decker questioned her at the Sheriff's Office investigations bureau in Harvey until almost midnight.

Authorities allege Williams was thrown to the ground by Redmond, 42. Redmond then ran through an open field off Angus Drive, and crossed a concrete-lined drainage canal while Williams chased after him armed with a .40-caliber semiautomatic pistol.

A deputy dispatched to investigate reports of gunfire, Eric Blandford, testified he found Redmond's body on the grassy shoulder of Florence Street where it dead-ends at the canal near Esther Street. Witnesses claim Williams ran back toward an awaiting white sedan on Angus and fled. He was arrested days later at a friend's home in Marrero by SWAT officers.

Williams denies being the shooter, and his public defender Joe Perez repeatedly called into question a Sheriff's Office policy in which detectives "interrogate" witnesses and suspects in what they call "pre-interviews," before recording the formal statements that juries later hear. Perez questioned several witnesses about the interviews, including Rodrigue about his contact with Cheatteam. Following about an hour of pre-interview, Cheatteam gave a 14-minute taped statement, according to testimony.

In opening statements, Perez told the jury Cheatteam has given "multiple renditions" of what she saw. As such, Perez alleged, prosecutors threatened "what would happen to her if she did not cooperate."

Darensburg declared a mistrial Thursday after hearing a report from one juror that another juror had made derogatory comments about Perez's case, alleging it was "smoke and mirrors," Perez said. Judges routinely instruct juries not to discuss the case among themselves, because such discussions should be reserved for deliberations after all evidence is presented.

Darensburg opened a hearing in which several jurors were individually questioned, after which Perez asked for a mistrial. Darensburg granted the request.

Williams' new trial is now set to begin July 25. Cheatteam has been subpoenaed to be there, court records show.

Suspect ‘pocket dials’ 911 during alleged drug deal in South Hall

 Jeff Gill

Gainesville Time

State police seized an estimated $6 million worth of cocaine on Wednesday when a New York man attempted to pick up the package from a local commercial delivery service.

Police said Edwin Olivo, 37, of the Bronx, tried to pick up the package — which contained 102 kilos, or about 225 pounds, of cocaine — around noon. State police spokesman Lt. J. Paul Vance said the package had been moved by a forklift to the delivery service's loading dock.

Olivo was loading the package into his car when he was arrested, according to Vance.

"This is cocaine in its purest form," Vance said.

PHOTOS: State Police Cocaine Bust

http://mobilepictures.courant.com/gallery.php?counter=0&slug=hc-pictures-state-police-cocaine-bust-20110518

He would not identify the delivery service, and would not disclose where the package was from. But Vance said it had been shipped to the delivery service from another country. He also would not say why the package was shipped to Connecticut.

Lambert could not be reached for comment Wednesday, and his attorney did not return phone calls.

LINK TO VIDEO:

 http://www.abc15.com/dpp/news/region_west_valley/sun_city/valley-funeral-home-owner-disturbed-by-abc15-investigation

Frank Lambert, owner of All State Crematory in Mesa, Arizona, was caught after a repairman fixing one of his vans reported a suspicious odour to police

Arizona law states that if a crematory is unable to cremate human remains after taking them into custody, they should maintain or store any of the remains in a secure holding facility at 38 degrees.

Thomas said not only were the bodies not refrigerated but the containers of remains were actually stacked, allowing the remains to be exposed if the containers fell open.

Maggots were also seen on the boxes and the surrounding floor.

"If you are unable to refrigerate them you leave them with the funeral homes or seek assistance from another source," Thomas said. "Lambert kept accepting the bodies from different funeral homes despite the fact that he couldn't take care of them."

Lambert told board members Tuesday night that he was trying to do the best he could. As the sole cremationist, Lambert only had help transporting the bodies to and from the crematory, Thomas said. Lambert also serves as the funeral home director.

Thomas said that Lambert was averaging about 15 cremations a day before the bodies started to pile up.

Last month a repairmen working to replace the windshield of Lambert's van, which is used to transport remains, noticed a strong smell coming from the vehicle and called police.

Thomas said that officials were not able take action at the time because no crime had been committed. The Arizona State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers is responsible for the jurisdiction and regulation concerning crematories.

After an anonymous tip to a local television station, Thomas was shown pictures and video depicting bodies outside in vans, instead of in a refrigerator system. The pictures also showed maggots on the crematory floor.

Thomas went to investigate and found that Lambert had cremated all of the bodies, leaving nothing out of the ordinary.

When presented with the photographic evidence against him, Lambert did not deny any of the allegations and just stated that he was doing the best that he could, Thomas said.

In a unanimous decision on Tuesday, the board approved a consent agreement that would revoke Lambert's crematory license and his cremationist license, which allows him to perform cremations. Lambert would also be required to pay a $3,000 civil fine plus administrative costs.

Thomas said Lambert will have 30 days to respond to the agreement or he will go before a formal hearing, in which more action could be taken against him.

Thomas said that this is the second issue of negligence to happen in the last seven months involving crematories.

"We had an issue in October with cremations in Bisbee," he said. "The cremations were only being partly cremated."

Calls into the Bisbee police department alerted officials that there were readily identified skulls and bones being thrown into open pits in Bisbee cemetery. Because of the solid remains police classified this incident as a crime scene.

Thomas said that the partially cremated remains were being thrown into the cemetery, instead of being properly taken care of.

"In situations like this, the loved ones are entrusting the funeral homes," Thomas said. "The trust just wasn't carried out."

State Board of Funeral Directors and Embalmers chief Rudy Thomas told the Arizona Republic: 'We were completely appalled. I was surprised and embarrassed for the industry because this is not the norm.'

Lambert said 49 of 74 bodies in his care sat in the baking heat for as long as three days earlier this month

Witnesses told local news programme ABC15 they had seen maggots swarming the crematory floor, while black smoke could clearly be seen rising from the Crematory during the broadcast.

Undercover reporters caught Lambert leaving bodies in his van overnight and, in one case, taking another van full of corpses home with him at the end of the work day.

Lambert told reporters he was 'doing the best' he could because he didn't have room in his refrigerator.

Lambert was caught leaving bodies in his van overnight and, in one case, taking another van full of corpses home with him at the end of the work day

At a funeral directors board meeting on Tuesday, Lambert said he was averaging 15 cremations a day.

He said bodies began piling up because he did not have any help. 

The board slapped Lambert with 19 violations, revoked his crematory license and license to perform cremations.

He was also ordered him to pay a $3,000 fine.

Black smoke seen

Kindergartner caught with 18 bags of heroin at school, cops say he handed it out to classmates

Lukas I. Alpert
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, May 19th 2011, 9:26 AM

Dallas ISD middle school student tied to classroom chair and beaten, mother says

The alleged incident occurred at Storey Middle School in east Oak Cliff, where four students stormed into the boy’s science classroom and targeted him, said the boy’s mother, Keneshia Richardson.

She said the students, all boys, attached her son’s wrists to a chair with duct tape and a telephone cord, wrapped clear tape around his face and mouth, and knocked him to the ground. At one point, his shirt was ripped off, she said. The substitute teacher in the classroom did not stop the attack, she said.

Richardson suspected the four students targeted her son because he’s in remedial classes.

Dallas ISD spokesman Jon Dahlander said that the district was aware of the incident but that some of the details of the mother’s account were different than what he had been told.

“This is not quite the way that the incident has been described,” said Dahlander, who declined to elaborate. “In any event, it is under investigation and disciplinary action is pending” for the accused students and the substitute teacher.

Dahlander said the substitute, whose name wasn’t released, has been placed on the district’s “do not call list” as a substitute not to be used again.

Richardson, who filed a report with Dallas ISD police Wednesday afternoon, said her son was sitting in his third-period class when the four students barged in. She said he had trouble breathing after they placed clear Scotch tape around his nose, mouth and face.

“It was uncalled for,” Richardson said. “They don’t realize how serious it could be. He couldn’t breathe.”

The alleged attack finally stopped after a girl in the classroom scared the boys away, grabbed the student off the floor and released him from the chair. The boy ran down the hallway to a school resource officer, who provided him another shirt to wear.

“If the little girl had not come over and taken the tape off, my son would have died,” Richardson said. “I’m scared at this point to send my children back to school.”

Man wins World Beard & Moustache Championship, shapes facial hair into moose, flag of Norway

Lindsay Goldwert
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, May 19th 2011, 4:00 AM

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/gingrichs-bumpy-start-deepens-doubts-about-his-presidential-candidacy/2011/05/17/AFNOp65G_story.html?hpid=z3

Newt Gingrich apologizes to Paul Ryan

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Mark Levin’s radio show revealed that Newt Gingrich had called him and is beginning to understand the “magnitude of his words” blasting Ryan’s Medicare reform plan on “Meet the Press.” Ryan, ever the gentleman, says “I think he just misspoke.” Gingrich apologized and Ryan said he accepted the apology.

It’s possible Gingrich looked worse at the end of the day than at the beginning. He started defiant, he ends remorseful. He first denied what he had done, now he comprehends, we are told. It is also true that Ryan came out smelling like a rose. The party rallied around him, he never appeared peeved, and Gingrich surrendered by nightfall. Not a bad showing of intellectual, political and personal standing.

I’ll posit this: Gingrich isn’t the least bit sorry for what he said; he’s just terribly sorry it probably ended his presidential ambitions, such as they were.

They're baaaack.

And just in time for the 2012 political season.

HBO is currently filming its adaptation of "Game Change."

That's Mark Halperin and John Heilemann's bestselling chronicle of the 2008 John McCain-Sarah Palin presidential campaign that didn't sell so well.

Their Arizona-Alaska effort to keep the White House in Republican control, coming after eight years of you-know-who and his sidekick, you-know-him-too, who led the country into two wars and left the country in the hands of an ex-state you-know-what who's upped the ante in one war and started another against Libya.

Other than that and the spending beyond belief and the $3 trillion-plus of new national debt and no end in sight to the harsh political tone of Washington and the healthcare bill that seems to have more large companies exempted from its rules than are covered, other than those little things, everything turned out for the better.

Anyway, for those folks who want to reminisce about that endless campaign as we head into another that'll cost even more, this movie should be right up their alley.

Here's a newly released photo of McCain, who will play himself. No, not really. This is Ed Harris pretending to be John McCain.

Julianne Moore has been chosen to play the role of the Tina Fey lookalike from Alaska.

-- Andrew Malcolm

TRENTON – A Trenton man apparently irate about not receiving police attention used rocks to smash three windows and the windshields of two patrol cars outside the West District police station this morning, authorities said.

The precinct building, which is unoccupied during the overnight hours, and the cars sustained thousands of dollars worth of damage, police said.

Irvin Saydee, 33, was taken into custody after he alerted police to trouble through a call box that has a direct line to dispatchers.

“He was upset nobody was responding from the building, and they detailed the cars on the unknown trouble,” said Sgt. Tom McDonough, a police spokesman.

The vandalism occurred just before 6 a.m., McDonough said. Damaged were the two front doors, a large 8-feet-by-10-feet window, and the windshields. The large, softball-sized rocks went through one pane of the double glass but did not pass through to the other side, McDonough said.

The building has a security system, but it was not activated because both panes of glass did not break, according to police.

Saydee has been charged with third-degree criminal mischief, aggravated assault on a police officer, and weapons offenses for the rocks.

Officer Keith Rogers was struck in the face by the suspect during the struggle to make the arrest and sustained swelling to his face and cheek, McDonough said.

Police: Woman Throws Flaming Cotton Balls At Officers

 

Just after 5 p.m. on Saturday, Brevard police responded to complaints about a 32-year-old male resident at Mountain Glen Apartments.

"Neighbors said he was saying non-sensical things and acting strangely," Chief Phil Harris told WYFF.

Police who responded to the initial call learned that there was an outstanding misdemeanor warrant for the man. They went to the apartment where the man lives with his 55-year-old aunt. Harris said when the aunt opened the door, the officers could see the man they were looking for inside.

"The lieutenant said, 'I need to talk to you,' but he refused to come out,'" Harris said.

The chief said the aunt tried to block the officer from entering the apartment, but he gently pushed her aside and continued inside. That led to a struggle between the man and the officers, he said.

As the officers attempted to bring the man under control with handcuffs, Harris said a 25-year-old woman came in. Harris said the woman then retreated to a bedroom and came out a few seconds later with some type of liquid.

"She threw it on the officers. The officers had no clue what the liquid was," Harris said.

Harris said the woman then took out a lighter, lit a cotton ball and threw it toward the officers, who were still on the floor trying to handcuff the man. The flaming cotton ball fell short of the officers, but ignited the apparently flammable liquid that had landed on the carpet.

"One of the officers said the flame was burning toward them," Harris said. "He had enough time to stand up and back away. It was like a scene from a movie."

In the process of avoiding the fire, Harris said the officers lost control of the man, who then ran into the bedroom with the woman.

Harris said the officers then used their feet and a fire extinguisher to put out the flames. Harris said the officers then saw smoke coming from the bedroom. They ran outside, broke out the bedroom window and pulled the man and woman out of the burning room, Harris said.

"They didn't stand there and quietly get handcuffed," Harris said. "The male ran and another officer tackled and handcuffed him. The female continued to fight until she was subdued and put in a patrol car."

While inside the patrol car, Harris said the woman managed to slip out of the handcuffs and damage equipment in the vehicle.

The man and woman were taken to jail after being examined at the hospital. Harris said the man's aunt was also taken into custody.

25-year-old Natasha Sinclair was charged with two counts of attempted first degree murder, first degree arson and assaulting a government official/employee. She remains in the Transylvania County Detention Center.

Michael Anthony Kitchen was charged with resisting a public officer and assaulting a government official/employee. He was later released on a $6,000 bond.

Charlene Honeycutt was charged with resisting a public officer. She was later granted a custody release.

Harris said four Brevard officers were also taken to the hospital and treated for smoke inhalation.

"I'm extremely proud of how my officers performed in a really challenging situation," Harris told WYFF.

The Hazardous Materials team spent several hours at the site, Harris said. Investigators determined that the liquid involved was some type of oil-based fuel, similar to what is used in a lantern.

Harris said several witnesses at the scene also expressed appreciation for the police.

"They thought the officers acted courageously. They feel safe because of what they witnessed the officers doing," Harris said. "These people attacked ... and tried to kill the officers, and the officers pulled them out of the burning building."

Harris said he was pleased with the support his officers received from other agencies that responded -- including the Brevard Fire Department, Transylvania County Sheriff's Office, the Hazardous Materials team, the North Carolina Highway Patrol and the North Carolina Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Harris said there were no indications that a meth lab was present in the apartment.

LINK TO PHOTO: http://www.wyff4.com/news/27900410/detail.html#ixzz1Mbjo9XvR

Friends and family say he's a normal kid who likes Twitter and basketball

                                                                                                                          A month shy of his 16th birthday, Ty Hobson-Powell made history Sunday when he walked across the stage at The Lyric as the youngest person ever to graduate from the University of Baltimore.

Hobson-Powell gave up a fledgling basketball career when he began college three years ago, commuted more than an hour each way from his home in Northwest Washington after transferring last fall from Howard University and once completed 27 credits in a single semester while shuttling between classes at Howard, Montgomery College and the Internet. He will be going to law school in the fall, and possibly to medical school after that.

But Hobson-Powell shatters the stereotype of the socially challenged brainiac who has little interest in the world outside academia. He's also not a straight-A student.

"He's twittering too much and playing basketball too much to get a perfect 4.0" grade point average, Dr. Edwin Powell, who teaches at Howard's medical school, said of the second of his four children.

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://www.foxbaltimore.com/newsroom/top_stories/videos/wbff_vid_7597.shtml

Woman suing Chuck E. Cheese for promoting gambling; Says slot machines foster addictive behavior

Monday, May 16th 2011, 2:40 PM

 

President Obama gestures while speaking about immigration reform in El Paso, Texas.-LM Otero/AP

In 2007, when such a bill was backed by a lame-duck Republican president and had bipartisan backing from Senate heavyweights Edward Kennedy and Jon Kyl, Sen. Obama voted for union-backed amendments that Kennedy and Kyl opposed as bill killers.

In 2009 and 2010, President Obama acquiesced in Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to pass cap and trade and bypass immigration, and in Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision not to bring an immigration bill to the floor.

Both times the votes were probably there to pass a bill. Obama did not lift a finger to help.

But that did not stop the president who is constantly calling for civility to heap scorn on those who seek stronger enforcement. "They'll want a higher fence. Maybe they'll need a moat," he said to laughter from the largely Latino audience. "Maybe they'll want alligators in the moat. They'll never be satisfied."

Was that on the teleprompter or was it ad-libbed? In either case Obama was showing his contempt for those who bitterly cling to the idea that the law should be enforced.

That's no way to assemble the bipartisan coalition necessary to pass an immigration bill.

It's obvious that nothing like the legalization (opponents say "amnesty") provisions considered in 2007 can pass in this Congress. They can never pass the Republican House, where Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith is a long-standing opponent and Speaker John Boehner will not schedule a bill not approved in committee.

Nor will this Congress pass the most attractive proposal Obama mentioned, the DREAM Act, providing a path to legalization for those brought in illegally as children who enroll in college or serve in the military. That failed last December in a more Democratic Senate and won't pass now.

Some new approach is needed, and Obama did little to point the way. One idea, advanced by a bipartisan Brookings Institution panel, is a bill that would strengthen enforcement and would shift the U.S. away from low-skill and toward high-skill immigration.

Canada and Australia have done this to their great benefit. And with a sluggish economy it makes little sense, as current law does, to give preference to low-skill siblings of minimum-wage workers rather than to engineering and science Ph.D.s. We need more job creators, not more job seekers.

The problem here is that the lobbying forces backing comprehensive legislation don't favor such an approach. Latino groups and lobbies representing employers of low-skill workers are interested in legalizing the low-skill Latinos who make up the majority of the 11 million illegal immigrants.

High-tech firms seek more H-1B visas for high-skill graduates, but these tie immigrants to particular employers. They don't have an interest in provisions allowing these people to work for anyone they don't like or to start their own businesses, as they can in Canada and Australia.

In the absence of significant lobbying support, the only way to provide support for Brookings-style legislation is a bold presidential initiative advertising it as a clean break from past proposals.

Obama didn't come close to doing that in El Paso. He included a few words about letting in more high-skill folks, but didn't suggest any reduction in low-skill immigration.

And he said only a few words about workplace enforcement on which his administration has developed a valuable new tool.

That's a refinement of the E-Verify electronic system now available in which employers can verify the Social Security numbers of new employees.

The Department of Homeland Security has been ironing out glitches in E-Verify and, as former National Security Agency General Counsel Stewart Baker reports, DHS now allows job seekers in some states to use E-Verify before applying for a job not only to check their status but also to protect against identity theft.

The administration has been attacking state laws requiring employers to use E-Verify. If Obama were serious about enforcement he would be calling for mandatory E-Verify. That would be a more effective tool against illegal immigration than even the strongest border enforcement.

But as Obama's record makes clear, he's not really interested in passing a law. He knows his support has been slipping among Latino voters and he wants to goose it back up. El Paso was all about election 2012, not serious immigration reform.

Posted: 2:26 pm EDT May 13, 2011

Updated: 5:17 pm EDT May 13, 2011

The girl, who goes to Dayton View Academy, waited until she got home to tell her mom what she saw. The school is punishing her for not telling chaperons who were on the bus at the time it happened.

"If you tell something on a kid, you have to look for the response from that child and at the time," said Saundra Roundtree, the girl's mother. "She was afraid. I told her 'don't say anything when you are at school. I will handle it.' "

Roundtree said her daughter won't be able to go to her eighth-grade prom or the class picnic. The students who reportedly had sex are being punished as well, but Roundtree feels as though disciplining her daughter sends the wrong message. She added that all eight chaperons were sitting in the front of the bus watching a movie when the incident occurred.

"That says that 'yea you go ahead and tell but you are going to get in trouble for it,' " Roundtree said. "Even if she knew about the act, I feel like the chaperons should have known about it before her."

Roundtree said her daughter, a straight-A student, has been trying on dresses and looking forward to the prom for months.

"I have to tell her today when she comes home and I already know she is going to be very upset," she said talking about telling her daughter of the punishment.

Roundtree said the dress that her daughter was going to wear will go to a kid in her church.

The school released the following statement on the matter:
"The authorities have completed their investigation, and the school has taken appropriate actions inline with our school policies concerning such matters."

Hotel launches lavish $1,000 tequila popsicle

A man who had allegedly stolen a tip jar from a restaurant in downtown Seattle on Thursday was hit by a Metro bus as he was fleeing, according to Seattle Police.

The man was taken to Harborview Medical Center with life-threatening injuries after the noontime incident.

According to Seattle Police, the man stole the donation jar from a business on Third Avenue and Columbia Street about noon on Thursday. He ran with the jar across Third Avenue and was struck by a northbound Metro bus.

At the time, no one was chasing the suspect, police said.

The bus driver attempted to stop, said police, but could not avoid hitting the suspect.

Police are continuing to investigate the accident and the driver has been relieved of duty during the investigation, said Metro spokeswoman Linda Thielke.

 

Ethan Miller, Getty

 

Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon have been targeted in several schemes designed to capitalize on their newfound parenthood.

New parents Nick Cannon and Mariah Carey should still be blissed out on baby joy with less than two weeks passing since their twins' birth, but the couple is reeling from a shocking accusation.

"The Child Protective Services were called with allegations that there was some drinking and drugs and all that going on while in the hospital," Cannon revealed during a pretaped appearance on Thursday's "Piers Morgan Tonight."

The babies, daughter Monroe and son Moroccan, were born April 30 and remain hospitalized with Carey, 42.

Cannon, 30, said the false rumor began when "a nurse suggested to my wife that if you drink Guinness … the yeast improves breast-feeding."

"I don't know if someone overheard that," he explained, "but then they were saying that my wife was drinking beer and all this stuff."

And it culminated with a visit from a CPS worker, who approached Cannon in one of the hospital's hallways on Tuesday.

"When I spoke to the person from the Child Protective Services, I was like, 'This is ridiculous,'" Cannon recalled.

The 92.3 NOW morning show host said the incident proves that "people will do anything to try to conjure up a story."

"Even to have to deal with that, even my wife in the state she's in, and we're in the hospital, and to even have to think of someone possibly wanting to investigate your children," he said.

Cannon said the hospital stay has also been plagued by intrusive photographers "actually in the hospital posing as different people, or real employees trying to get pictures of our kids."

It's "really sad when you think about people trying to make a buck off of newborn babies," he said.

And while the new dad realizes that some believe he should "deal" with these kinds of incidents because he's famous, he only accepts that line of thinking to an extent.

"I'm more disappointed in society … than having to be it's because we're famous," he explained. "It's just that people would even go to those lengths to even kind of do something to a family at such a beautiful time in their life."

Camp Curtin School students are getting cold sandwiches for the week as punishment for acting up and being unappreciative of the hot meals being offered in the school’s cafeteria, an administrator said Wednesday.

“We created the opportunity where we could show them what the bare minimum would be,” the administrator said, adding that the bare minimum remained a balanced meal including fruit and vegetables.

The administrator, who did not want his name used, said that some parents and students did not understand the measures taken to correct behavior issues, such as students not cleaning up their eating area.

Since the corrective action was taken, the administrator said, student behavior has improved.

Normal hot meals will be served starting Monday at the Harrisburg School District school.

The noted author didn't keep his feelings to himself. Instead, he turned his frustration into writing "Go the F**k to Sleep," a tongue-in-cheek adult bedtime book that has swept the Internet and has already hit No.1 on the Amazon bestseller list a month before its June 14 publication date. Illustrator Ricardo Cortés captures the colorful mood of Mansbach's poetry.

The cubs and the lions are snoring,
Wrapped in a big snuggly heap.
How come you can do all this other great sh*t
But you can't lie the f**k down and sleep?

"I laughed and laughed and laughed," said Colleen Oppenzato, a Brooklyn mother of a 3-year-old boy who fights sleep every night and a 1-year-old girl who doesn't. "I thought it was my life. Every single page, you're like 'yes, yes.' You don't need water, you don't need to go to the bathroom. You just don't want to sleep."

"Go the F**k to Sleep" hits a nerve with parents who hope for a life after their kids' bedtime. Independent publisher Akashic Books has responded to preorders and overwhelming Internet interest by increasing its first printing to at least 150,000 copies and moving up the publication date from October to June.

The nightly exhaustion is "a frustrating part about something we love very much," said Mansbach, a visiting professor at Rutgers University. "A lot of these frustrations are not permissible to talk about. We're not completely honest because we don't want to be bad parents."

"Looking at parenting books, there are more and more books that are less earnest about raising your child. They help parents step back and laugh at themselves a bit," said Mark Rotella, senior editor at Publishers Weekly and father of a 5- and 2 -year-old.

"It's more like a parenting book for when the parent is inconsolable in the middle of night and frustrated." (Rotella warns parents not to leave the book lying around for children to see, noting that the illustrations are captivating.)

Mansbach, whose novels include "The End of the Jews" and the best-selling "Angry Black White Boy," started out as a poet before writing full-length novels.

Each of his new book's 32 pages is written in the style of a classic children's picture book, but there are two conversations going on: The first two lines are what the parent is saying to the kid; the second half is the internal monologue that is never said.

The eagles whosoar through the sky are at rest
And the creatures who crawl, run and creep.
I know you're not thirsty. That's bullsh*t. Stop lying.
Lie the f**k down, my darling, and sleep.

At the end of the day, the child never hears the worst of the parent's frustration.

"The book is all about the obligation of a good parent to internalize the frustration and take the irrational behavior of a child and absorb it oneself," said Akashic Publisher Johnny Temple.

"The book is an outlet for that frustration, but it completely reinforces parents sucking it up and dealing with it. There's never a moment where the kid suffers because of the parent. It's actually pretty idealistic."

A G-rated version appropriate for young children is in the works, inspired by Temple's censored reading of the book to his 3- and 5-year-old children.

"They're aware we struggle every night to get them to sleep, and they get a big kick out of the fact that the book addresses their stall tactics," Temple said.

Has his reading of the book taught his children any empathy for their parents' nightly struggle?

Not at all. The 3-year-old's current tactic is to demand Mom or Dad snuggle to get him to sleep. "And this is after the juice and too many books," Temple said. Even then, it's a gamble to get up. "When you hear his breathing change, can you get out of the bed too early and burn yourself for another 15 minutes?"

The movie rights have been sold to Fox 2000.

DAYTONA BEACH -- A 68-year-old resident of a Beville Road mobile home park stabbed his live-in girlfriend repeatedly when she returned from the grocery store with a different type of milk than he had just purchased, investigators said today.

A short time after the Wednesday morning stabbing of his high school sweetheart, Betty Galas, Daniel Pacheco turned the knife on himself, then took multiple Tylenol pills, investigators said.  The couple live in the Colonial Colony South mobile home park.

Investigators disclosed today that Pacheco bought milk, which for some reason Galas, also 68, didn't approve of so she went to the store and returned with a different type.   The couple argued, then the stabbing occurred about 11:35 a.m. Wednesday.

Galas remains in stable condition today at Halifax Health Medical Center. She suffered multiple stab wounds. Pacheco is scheduled to go before a judge today at the hospital, where he is being treated for his injures, for a first appearance hearing on a charge of aggravated battery.

HOUSTON—Four people were arrested at a North Houston car wash where, in addition to washes and waxes, illegal drugs and raccoon meat were sold, Houston police said Wednesday.

Undercover officers said they went inside the full-service car wash located in the 4300 block of Yale and were able to purchase marijuana, prescription drugs and liquor.

HPD's deferential response team raided the business after receiving complaints from neighbors.
 
Police said they found two weapons and more than 1,000 prescription pills. Police checked the serial numbers of the two guns, and a 12-gauge came back reported stolen.

In addition to that, investigators said illegal gambling was taking place. There were two dominoes tables set up. Undercover officers who went into the business earlier in the day said there was high-stakes gambling going on inside a shed in the back.

The owner Michael Maxwell said it’s all lies.

“I don't know why they are here. They don't have a warrant. They come storming into my place,” Maxwell said. “I got all my permits that go with this place. I am licensed with the city. I pay my taxes. This is my property and it is private.”

President Obama's step-grandmother, Sarah Obama, threatened by Al Qaeda in Kenya: report

Larry Mcshane
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Thursday, May 12th 2011, 9:49 AM

Byron Acohido and Jon Swartz

USA TODAY

 

Ken Murray/News

The scene where an undercover cop shot and killed a gunman trying to rob him.

 

The officer, working with the NYPD's firearms unit, was led into the three-story Knickerbocker Ave. building in Bushwick by a 22-year-old known gun dealer shortly before 8 p.m., police said.

As the two men stepped into the entrance, a 31-year-old man - pretending not to know the dealer - came down the stairs and aimed a loaded pistol at the officer in an attempt to rob him, cops said.

The undercover officer - who was carrying $4,200 in cash to buy a handful of weapons during the sting - pulled his gun and squeezed off three rounds at the crook, striking him in the side, police said.

"It was a preset robbery," said Deputy Inspector Kim Royster, an NYPD spokeswoman. "The firearm fell to the ground and was picked up by the unarmed guy."

The wounded bandit took to the stairs and collapsed on the second floor, where he died.

"We don't believe they fired," Royster said. "But [the officer] could have lost his life in such tight quarters."

The arms dealer ran to the third floor with the loaded, .380-caliber semiautomatic and tried to stash it near the roof, police said.

The elite backup team waiting outside saw the attempt to hide the pistol as it stormed into the building, cops said.

The man was arrested and taken into custody.

"I heard three shots," said neighbor Jackie Chow. "Three undercovers ran into the building - then, all the cops came. It's shocking. I never saw anything like that before."

Weapon of suspect who was shot and killed by undercover cop (DCPI).

Donald Trump Lets His Hair Down

A conversation with the host of The Celebrity Apprentice

Rolling Stone Magazine

 

The Golden Throne: Trump in New York in April

Photograph by Peter Yang

Like you, we've always wondered what's inside Donald Trump's wallet.  So, on a recent visit to his office at the top of Trump Tower in Manhattan, the epicenter of his vast real estate empire and putative presidential ambitions, we ask him if we can take a look.  He pulls it out, dips it down and hides it behind his huge desk, peers inside, saying, "Let me just see if there's anything ... ," and then holds it out, fanning through it, revealing his Winged Foot Golf Club membership card and his very own gun permit, neither of which he apparently ever leaves home without.

"It's a Donald J. Trump wallet," he says, happily.  He's still a fairly big, fairly imposing guy at age 64, has hair that's the patriotic shade of amber waves of grain, dresses like men of the world used to dress, in a dark suit, with a crisp, white shirt and a tie that's the subtlest pink ever. "We sell them at Macy's. They sell great.  Hey — I have the number-one-selling tie in the country.  What color tie do you like?  Your tie looks like <snip>.  Do you want a tie?  It's not a bribe.  They're nothing.  I sell shirts, PVH, Phillips-Van Heusen.  Cuff links."  He waves his arms around, shoots his cuffs to show off glittering cuff links.  "Trump cuff links!" he shouts.  "They're magnificent!  Everybody's buying them!  If I said I got them at Harry Winston, for $100,000, you'd believe it!  Forty-nine dollars at Macy's!  Macy's doesn't even want to carry other brands!  We blow them out!"

That's pure Trump-speak — loud, over-the-top, just the kind of Ronco Veg-o-Matic, everyone's-a-mark, carny-barker, hard-sell ballyhoo that he hopes will also blow out the other presidential hopefuls, should he decide to run.  But will he run?  He says the world will know his answer by June — at which time, if he announces in the affirmative, he will also reveal the true size of his financials, which, he says, will shock the world, being around $7 billion, if not more, and make Mitt Romney, with his measly hundred millions, look like a floppy little fish indeed and certainly not the kind of guy who, for instance, could spin the roulette wheel on ties and cuff links and make gazillions.

"We need a businessman," Trump says, working himself into a lather of self-congratulation, "and I've been successful.  Right now, I have the greatest properties in the country.  I have great stuff.  The point is, I'm running for office in a country that's essentially bankrupt, and it needs a successful businessman, and, by the way, let me explain about one thing, might as well get that clear: I never went bankrupt."

 

He's drawing a distinction here, which is that while various of his businesses may have sought Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection over the past two decades, Trump the person never has.  In the early 1990s, for instance, after a decade of profligate spending — $3.8 billion worth, mainly financed by junk bonds and Trump-snookered banks — he came face to face with an economic downturn that forced four Trump properties — the Plaza Hotel and his three Atlantic City casinos — into bankruptcy.  It happened again in 2004, and also in 2009, when Trump Entertainment found itself $1.7 billion in debt.  Trump's way is to dismiss these financial catastrophes with a snarl and a shrug.  As he said in his 2007 book, Think BIG and Kick Ass in Business and Life, "I figured it was the bank's problem, not mine.   What the hell did I care?  I actually told one bank, 'I told you you shouldn't have loaned me that money.  I told you the god<snip> deal was no good.' " Or, as he casually says today, "I play with the bankruptcy."  Which is kind of a sad, dispiriting advertisement for his genius as a businessman.  Do we really want that kind of guy in office?  At least some people seem to think so.

"Look," Trump chuckles, "I'm number one in the polls already, and I haven't even done anything!"

Which is no longer true, since it was largely Trump's bellyaching that prompted the White House to release President Obama's so-called long-form birth certificate, proving once again that Obama was born in the U.S. (unless you're a birther, in which case it proves nothing).  "I'm very proud of myself," Trump crowed the day it happened.  Naturally, he made no mention of what his "investigators" in Hawaii discovered poking around about Obama's birth — "They cannot believe what they're finding!" he had said in early April — probably because they either didn't exist or they found nothing.  Instead, in his quest for ever-bigger headlines and even more attention, he stooped to new lows, by bringing up Obama's college education and playing the race card.  "How does a bad student go to Columbia and then to Harvard?" Trump said, the clear implication being that it was only thanks to affirmative action and never would have happened had Obama been white.  It's despicable stuff, and yet, coming from Trump, not all that surprising.  If nothing else, he's a master of smoke and mirrors, and so far has managed to keep anyone from focusing too tightly on his own past.  Those bankruptcies.  His marriage-wrecking affair and two divorces. His garish casinos that may or may not have had mob ties.  The time he referred to his current wife, Melania, as "a young and beautiful piece of ass" (which he now denies ever having said).  And let's not forget the whole abortion thing, where Trump has recently flipped to pro-life; the whole let's-invade-the-Middle-East-and-just-like-take-all-the-oil thing; and all the rest of those kooky things he spouts on a daily basis, keeping his name in the news in an effort, no doubt, to boost the ratings of his Celebrity Apprentice reality-TV show while appearing to be testing the presidential waters.  He's one top-notch novelty act and a Barnum-type showman with an unerring instinct for what to say to appeal to the loonier segment of the electorate.  He's good at catering to the lowest common denominator like that, decorum be <snip>ed.

But what about some Trump constants, some things that are unwavering in his character and nature?

For one thing, he goes to bed late, gets up early, usually wearing only "the undies," as he calls them, never "the formality" of pajamas, brushes his teeth first, takes a leak second, and only then steps into the shower, his hand reaching out through the steam to grab the shampoo and lather up that hair of his that has received so much attention over the years. How does he do it?

He steeples his fingers, purses his lips and launches right into it like it was some kind of major policy issue. "OK, what I do is, wash it with Head and Shoulders.  I don't dry it, though. I let it dry by itself.  It takes about an hour. Then I read papers and things.  This morning I read in the New York Post about Jerry Seinfeld backing out of his commitment to do a benefit for my son Eric's charity.  I've never been a big fan of Jerry Seinfeld — never dug him, in the true sense — but when I did The Marriage Ref, which was his show and a total disaster, I did him a big favor.  Then he did this.  It's a disgrace." He goes on, "I also watch TV.  I love Fox, I like Morning Joe, I like that the Today show did a beautiful piece on me yesterday — I mean, relatively speaking. OK, so I've done all that.  I then comb my hair.  Yes, I do use a comb." He pauses, frowning, casting his mind back to capture the details of the event. "Do I comb it forward?  No, I don't comb it forward."  He pushes the leading edge of the flying wing of his hair back, to show where the hairline is.  "I actually don't have a bad hairline.   When you think about it, it's not bad. I mean, I get a lot of credit for comb-overs.  But it's not really a comb-over.  It's sort of a little bit forward and back.  I've combed it the same way for years. Same thing, every time."

After that, he spends some time not saying what he doesn't want to say, in a very mulish, deeply parsed, Republican-president sort of way.

Does he have a Bible by his bed?

"I do," he says. Then: "I have a Bible near my bed."

Where near?

"It's up in my apartment." Silence.

When was the last time he went to church?

"Two weeks ago. A church in Palm Beach, Florida. What was the sermon about? I'd rather not get into it, frankly."

Where does he stand on gun control?

"I'm against gun control for the reason, it doesn't affect the bad guys, because they're going to have guns.  What kind of gun do I have? I'd rather not say.  I have a gun.  It's a handgun, OK?"

Is it Trump-sized?

"It's a gun. I have a gun.  It's a handgun." Silence.

All this talk seems to be making him thirsty.  He calls for a Coke, and a hot number in spike heels arrives with a Coke in a glass of ice. Trump sips, smacks his lips.

 

"I've never smoked a cigarette in my life," he goes on.  "I've never had a drink, never had a joint, never had any drugs, never even had a cup of coffee. So, those are some good things about me.  I probably have some bad things about me, too."  He pauses, as if waiting for some bad things to materialize out of thin air, but when a miracle occurs and they don't, he starts up again. "I will say, though, that I like a little caffeine.  People assume I'm a boiler ready to explode, but I actually have very low blood pressure, which is shocking to people.  I'll drink water.  Sometimes tomato juice, which I like. Sometimes orange juice, which I like.  I'll drink different things. But the Coke or Pepsi boosts you up a little."

And then he goes on about the ratings of Celebrity Apprentice and the ratings of himself in presidential polls, both of which are "very, very" high.  This is all well and good, but it's incredibly boring, and eventually you are forced to cut him off, with, like, is there one orgasm in his life that he would consider the most memorable?

He leans back in his chair, tilts his head up, takes a long time to think this over, his cherubic cheeks reddening either with the effort of recollection or the maintenance of a boiler about to explode. At last, very smoothly, he says, "Well, always the children. And this building. Trump Tower." A duller answer one cannot imagine. Maybe he'll take a shine to something larger, like naming the central problem of existence.

"Conflict," he says, snapping forward. "Conflict, if it's not resolved, leads to lots of bad things, and that's where this country is right now. We're in many, many conflicts that ultimately could end up in calamity."

But, seriously, has anyone ever loved conflict more than him?

He smiles. "Look, sometimes you need conflict in order to come up with a solution. Through weakness, oftentimes, you can't make the right sort of settlement, so I'm aggressive, but I also get things done, and in the end, everybody likes me."

Well, maybe not everyone.  He's been called some pretty terrible things recently, like "farcical," "an unpolished and graceless blowhard" and "a monstrous parody of entitled American wealth masquerading as skillful entrepreneurship."  Just days ago, Republican strategist Karl Rove pronounced him "a joke."  Trump shrugs most of these things off. They come with the territory, and, in fact, by shrugging them off, he is able to once again demonstrate the insane, over-the-top self-confidence and self-regard that seem to have caught the fancy of a certain segment of the population — probably the same folks who believe it when Charlie Sheen claims he is somehow "winning."  Trump didn't do so well at the White House Correspondents' Dinner last month, however.  While President Obama and host Seth Meyers poked fun at him and his hair, all Trump could do was stare straight ahead, with no expression whatsoever, betraying how utterly humorless he is about himself. Trump doesn't like Rove's "joke" comment, either.  "That was a very nasty thing for him to say," he mutters darkly.  "He shouldn't have said that. We'll have it out with Karl Rove.  I don't lose too often."

So, Rove might want to look out. And so might Jerry Seinfeld, for that matter.

"I don't want to ruin my image by saying this, but I'm a much nicer person than people understand," Trump says.  "I like to do the right thing and help people.  But when people are disloyal to me — I have a couple of instances of well-known people, where I'd help them out, but when I needed a favor, not a big favor in this one case, this guy didn't want to do it.  That's 15 years ago. I haven't spoken to him since.  He died.  He's dead mentally.  In other words, for me, they don't exist.  I hold a grudge.  I have the longest memory.  I always kick back. I believe in that."

It's kind of weird hearing Trump spit out his words with such rigid vehemence just like he does on his reality show, knowing how huge a constant that grudge-holding is with him and that you yourself might one day be on the receiving end of just such a grudge. You can always hope that age will lay him low first, but it's not likely, given how healthy he is. "I had a father who was 94," he says, "a mother who was 90, so, you know, I'm genetically lucky that way, too."

Also, he's got a big thing about germs, so he's a frequent hand-washer and goes everywhere with packets of hand sanitizer stuffed into his suit jacket. He pulls one out now, dangling it in the air. It's a Super Sani-Cloth Germicidal Disposable Wipe ("The two-minute germicidal wipe") — which isn't exactly the kind of market-share leader you might expect Trump to favor. He rubs his palms together. "I don't use Purell, Purell is too sticky, but this other stuff is great. I always carry a couple of them."

Leaning back, he goes on, "The question has come out, 'How can Donald Trump campaign if he doesn't shake hands?' Well, over the years, I've shaken many hands, and I have no problem shaking hands. But it's not a healthy thing. With the germs, it's not a question of 'maybe' — they have been proven, you catch colds. You catch problems. Frankly, the Japanese custom is a lot smarter."

One can just imagine Trump, then, his first big time out on the hustings, massively ambivalent, surrounded by his fellow man, the crush closing in on him, the panic that must arise as he finally confronts the great unwashed them, that hideous, germ-ridden, infection-spreading other that he has for so long tried to avoid in the flesh but that his attention-craving ego (not to mention his TV show) so needs. It would have to be unbearable. After an event like that, he probably couldn't get to his Super Sani-Cloths fast enough. So that's another thing we would maybe have to look forward to in a Trump presidency: less handshaking, more bowing, fewer colds, fewer "problems." And if it were just that, what's not to like?

The Quad-City Times

Wednesday, May 11, 2011 8:06 pm

Police say a 43-year-old burglar trying to flee a weekend break-in in Hephzibah broke his neck while jumping from a deck and is now paralyzed.

Richmond County sheriff's Sgt. Dan Carrier said Carl Thur­mond was in the middle of a burglary on Daisy Lane about 9 p.m. when someone came home.

In an attempt to get away, the Hephzibah man jumped from the deck but landed on his head. He was taken to a hospital with broken vertebrae.

When authorities arrived, Thurmond still had a remote from a TV he was attempting to steal in his pocket, police said.

Towed Away: Thieves Using Tow Trucks To Steal Cars

Woman charged with setting fires on her property

Authorities say a Meeker woman could be responsible for as many as 11 fires on her property in April. Most of the fires occurred during the driest conditions when Pottawatomie County was under a burn ban.

MEEKER — A man set up a hidden camera hoping to catch the person who was setting fires on his property and discovered it was his wife, according to court documents.

Sharlet Renea Flick, 47, of Meeker, was charged in Pottawatomie County District Court this week with third-degree arson and endangering human life. She is accused of setting fire to a shed and vacant travel trailer on her property and endangering the lives of emergency workers in the process.

Authorities think she could be responsible for as many as 11 fires on her property in April. Most of the fires occurred during the driest conditions when the county was under a burn ban.

“Anytime we roll on a call firefighters are exposed to dangerous risks,” Shawnee Fire Chief Jimmy Gibson said.

Flick's husband set up a trail camera in their backyard grill and captured his wife on April 7 walking to a well house. As she walked back, trees around the well house lit up from a fire, according to a court affidavit.

Family members who confronted her about starting the fires and got strange responses took her to a hospital for mental health treatment, the affidavit states.

Numerous county deputies and 19 Shawnee firefighters responded to the fires. The fires caused thousands of dollars in damage, firefighters said.

Bristol Palin lands her own reality show: Single mom will move in with Kyle Massey and his brother

Kathleen Perricone
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, May 9th 2011, 2:06 PM

Sean Rose

After duPont Manual High School teacher Carrie Shafer was found partially undressed in a car with a 17-year-old boy in March, high school journalist Charley Nold set out to tell the story.

But Charley, 16, a staff writer for the school's online publication, the Manual RedEye, couldn't get his story past principal Larry Wooldridge.

Wooldridge rejected Charley's initial one-paragraph story announcing Shafer's arrest and subsequent resignation, instead scribbling out his own statement to be posted online, saying only that Shafer had quit and the school was seeking a replacement.

Charley, joined by classmate Julian Wright, then wrote a follow-up story that focused on student reaction to the incident, along with examples of alleged misconduct by teachers with students elsewhere in Kentucky, and warning signs for students about being exploited. Wooldridge rejected that story as well.

To date, the only things published by the RedEye on the departure of the popular science teacher are two statements by the principal, neither of which addresses Shafer's arrest on a misdemeanor charge of unlawful transaction with a minor. Neither police nor school district officials have confirmed whether the boy found with Shafer was a Manual student.

According to the RedEye's still unpublished story, the goal of school officials was to “ensure that this situation stayed within the school's walls.” Charley and other Manual students are concerned that Wooldridge is censoring their work to protect the school's reputation from an already widely reported scandal.

“As a principal he does a good job, but when it comes to matters of the student press I think he doesn't understand that we're not just part of the school,” Charley said. “We are a legitimate news organization.”

According to the Jefferson County Public Schools' code of conduct and student bill of rights, school publications “will be free from censorship or prior restraint.” But it also says school officials may establish guidelines that include restricting libelous or obscene material.

 LINK TO PHOTO OF TEACHER:

Carrie Shafer

Cornell Hood II got off with probation after three marijuana convictions in New Orleans.

He didn't fare too well after moving to St. Tammany Parish, however. A single such conviction on the north shore landed the 35-year-old in prison for the rest of his life.

State Judge Raymond S. Childress punished Hood under Louisiana's repeat-offender law in his courtroom in Covington on Thursday. A jury on Feb. 15 found the defendant guilty of attempting to possess and distribute marijuana at his Slidell home, court records show.

Hood moved from eastern New Orleans to the Slidell area after he admitted to separate charges of distribution of marijuana and possession with intent to distribute marijuana on Dec. 18, 2009, in Orleans Parish Criminal District Court. He received a suspended five-year prison sentence and five years' of probation for each -- which was precisely the same penalty he got in that court after pleading guilty to possessing and intending to distribute marijuana on Feb. 22, 2005.

When Hood switched homes, he also requested a new probation officer based in St. Tammany. Authorities granted the wish, and the officer, Dustin Munlin, drove to Hood's place for a routine visit on Sept. 27, 2010.

Munlin found nearly two pounds of pot throughout the house, according to court records. He alerted Sheriff's Office deputies. They arrested Hood, who apparently shared the King's Point house with his mother and young son.

Prosecutors later charged him with one count of possession with intent to distribute marijuana.

At Hood's one-day trial, the evidence presented by the prosecution included a digital scale and about a dozen bags that had contained marijuana before being seized from the house, testimony showed. Deputies also found $1,600 in cash and a student-loan application with Hood's name on it inside of a night stand.

Jurors deliberated for less than two hours and convicted Hood of a reduced charge, which usually carries no more than 15 years' imprisonment. Assistant District Attorney Nick Noriea Jr. then used Hood's past convictions on Thursday to argue that he was a career criminal worthy of a severe punishment.

Drug offenders in the state are subject to life imprisonment after being convicted three or more times of a crime that carries a sentence exceeding 10 years.

Police Sergeant Fired for Not Zipping It

Lisa Johnson Mandell

Apr 27th 2011 @ 12:24PM

Oh sure -- he claimed he was running around with his fly open in an effort to see who would tell him to zip up his pants, but the Ohio police sergeant who approached Sears employees with the proverbial barn door open, has been fired following a conviction of indecent exposure.

It took the Cincinnati Police Department almost a year to do it, but finally, on April 19, 39-year-old Robert McDonough III, was fired for escapades committed in May 2010. He was reassigned to desk duty last June, and found guilty and convicted in February 2011.

McDonough defended his actions claiming they were "an attempt to determine who would advise him that his zipper was down" according to UPI. But the court didn't buy it. He was sentenced to eight days of community service, two years of probation and a $250 fine. Then he was fired.

In addition, McDonough has been prohibited from shopping at Sears -- all locations -- ever again!

Kendra Brown

11:29 p.m. EDT, May 6, 2011

Contrary to popular belief, Mother’s Day was not conceived and fine-tuned in the boardroom of Hallmark. The earliest tributes to mothers date back to the annual spring festival the Greeks dedicated to Rhea, the mother of many deities, and to the offerings ancient Romans made to their Great Mother of Gods, Cybele. Christians celebrated this festival on the fourth Sunday in Lent in honor of Mary, mother of Christ. In England this holiday was expanded to include all mothers and was called Mothering Sunday.

Julia Ward Howe, a Boston poet, pacifist, suffragist, and author of the lyrics to the “Battle Hymn of the Republic,” organized a day encouraging mothers to rally for peace, since she believed they bore the loss of human life more harshly than anyone else.

In 1905 when Anna Jarvis died, her daughter, also named Anna, began a campaign to memorialize the life work of her mother. Legend has it that young Anna remembered a Sunday school lesson that her mother gave in which she said, “I hope and pray that someone, sometime, will found a memorial mother’s day. There are many days for men, but none for mothers.”

Anna began to lobby prominent businessmen like John Wannamaker, and politicians including Presidents Taft and Roosevelt to support her campaign to create a special day to honor mothers. At one of the first services organized to celebrate Anna’s mother in 1908, at her church in West Virginia, Anna handed out her mother’s favorite flower, the white carnation. Five years later, the House of Representatives adopted a resolution calling for officials of the federal government to wear white carnations on Mother’s Day. In 1914 Anna’s hard work paid off when Woodrow Wilson signed a bill recognizing Mother’s Day as a national holiday.

3:05 p.m. CDT, May 6, 2011

12:18 p.m. EDT, May 6, 2011

A miscommunication at a funeral home led to the burial and memorial service for the wrong person.

In late April, Falls Funeral Home and Cremation Center in Wichita Falls accidentally mixed up the bodies of two people, which not only had grieving friends and families paying closed-casket respects to the wrong woman, but also resulted in having one body exhumed after six days to be replaced with the correct one.

It all started about three weeks ago when James Elser and Shanon Aradillas got word their mother, Sylvia Wallace, had died at a nursing home in Wichita Falls.

Wallace had frequently told her children she wanted to be buried at her mother's grave site in Smyrna, Ga.

"That was her last request," Aradillas said. "She just wanted to be reunited with her mom."

So when the family members arrived at the nursing home, they had an embalmer, contracted through Falls Funeral Home, take her to the funeral home's facility to be prepared for burial as they arranged ways to get her to Georgia.

Falls Funeral Home's director, Rick Shaffer, said when Elser came to the funeral home, he started giving him prices and looking into airports that would receive a casket in Georgia.

Shaffer said he also showed Elser a pink casket in the funeral home that was meant for another woman, whose funeral was set for later that day.

"He said he liked the casket and I told him I'd order one for him that would come in the next day or two," Shaffer said.

Shaffer then asked the man who had prepared Wallace to dress the other woman before her service. And that's when the mix-up began.

"I said, 'Get that pink casket out and get her ready and get her in that casket,' " he said. "And he was thinking for some reason that I was talking about Mrs. Wallace. But I was talking about the other woman."

As a result, the man dressed Wallace and placed her in the casket and took her to be buried at the other woman's service at Crestview Cemetery — where an unsuspecting family paid their respects to the body of Wallace while their actual loved one was still at the funeral home.

"I have been in the funeral business for over 20 years, and this has never happened," Shaffer said. "It was my mistake. I assumed he had the right lady in the casket."

He realized the mistake when he returned to the funeral home later that night and saw the other woman's body still in the holding facility.

"I said 'Oh, my god,' I buried the wrong body."

He said he then tried to reach Elser over the next few days, and left him voice mails telling him to call back.

He did reach him finally, but — to add to the confusion — Elser was being evacuated from his home located in the path of the Possum Kingdom wildfire. Shafffer said he couldn't hear him that well over the phone, so he elected to tell him at a better time.

In the meantime, he broke the news to a member of the other woman's family.

"He said he understood the mistake and said, 'Let's just get it corrected and move on,' " Shaffer said. "He said he understood and he was glad I came to him first thing to tell him."

But the reaction from Elser and Aradillas was entirely different.

After Shaffer told them what had happened, they came to the funeral home and signed paperwork to have the bodies exchanged.

The next day, the casket containing Wallace's body was exhumed and the casket containing the correct woman's body was immediately put in its place. Wallace's body was brought back to the Falls Funeral Home, where it was shown to Elser, Aradillas and Bonnie Conaway, Elser's fiancee.

They didn't like what they saw.

"She just didn't look good at all," Elser said. "I wondered if they even embalmed her. It looked like they didn't. I mean, it was a really, really tough sight to see my mom, an angel, look like that after being buried in the ground for six days."

Shaffer said she was embalmed and he provided documentation.

The disgruntled siblings sought legal counsel, even though Shaffer said he tried everything he could to rectify the situation with them.

He said he offered to eliminate all service-related costs, including embalmment and holding fees.

"I felt absolutely terrible. I instantly asked them to tell me anything I could do to make this right for them," he said.

He said in addition to waiving fees, they wanted $2,000 to cover costs of renting two cars so they could personally take their mother's body to Georgia.

"I agreed to it and tried to reach them about it, but they never called me back," he said. "If they wanted more money, I wish they would have told me so I could work it out with them. I just wanted to make things right for them."

But the siblings said they were never contacted with an offer and they sought legal advice.

The family's attorney, Michael Payne, said it was a tragic situation that his clients obviously didn't ask for.

He said there are financial negotiations with the funeral home's insurance adjustor, but he wouldn't comment on specifics.

Shaffer said he was asked in a letter for a $55,000 settlement.

"Their objective from the moment of their mother's death was to get her buried where she wanted, in Georgia," Payne said.

"But we believe there have been rights violated," he said. "We are hopeful that this matter can be concluded quickly."

During the two-week long back-and-forth legal process, Wallace's body has stayed in a preservation facility at Falls Funeral Home.

Wednesday afternoon the family went to another company, Owens & Brumley Funeral Home, to take over the situation.

That day, Owens & Brumley funeral director Steve Mendenhall said Wallace was taken from Falls Funeral Home to Owens & Brumley, where she will be kept until they fly her out of Dallas today and to Atlanta, where they have arranged to have another funeral home pick the body up and take it to Smryna.

He said she will be buried Saturday, the eve of Mother's Day, by her mother's grave.

Elser, Aradillas and Conaway plan to rent a car and drive to Georgia for the service.

Mendenhall also said Falls Funeral Service is still covering the costs of the embalming and the casket.

To Elser, Owens & Brumley's handling of their mother is "a vast comfort" and a "bulldozer off my back," he said.

But he said the emotional stress is already done, and what he and his family have seen and endured will never fully subside.

"I still see the look of my mom after she had been buried for six days ... and it just, well, it will be in my mind forever," he said. "I'm stuck with that image. That will go to my grave. It will never go away."

HPD officer arrested on theft charges

BRIAN ROGERS and JAMES PINKERTON
Houston Chronicle

May 4, 2011, 2:14PM

Wollenberg-Pool/Getty and Martin/AP

President Obama's decision not to release the Bin Laden photos has riled up Sarah Palin

In a speech in Alabama, the Tea Party darling said denying the world a look at the ghoulish photos of the Al Qaeda chief was akin to "pussy-footing around."

"Don't do kind of that birth certificate whole mocking of Americans for asking for it," Palin said in a speech in Point Clear, Ala., hours before Obama put the kibosh on releasing the photos.

After resisting for years, Obama released his long-form birth certificate last week to silence those who doubted he is American born.

Earlier Wednesday, Obama told CBS "60 Minutes" that he's barring release of the Osama photos to avoid inciting "additional violence" or to have them used as a "propaganda tool."

"We don't trot out this stuff as trophies," Obama said.

White House officials added that soldiers abroad could be put in greater danger by releasing the photos.

But Palin, whose son served in the Army in Iraq. immediately countered the decision Wednesday by tweeting her disagreement.

"Show the photos as a warning to others seeking America's destruction," Palin posted on Twitter shortly after Obama revealed his final decision.

"No pussy-footing around, no politicking, no drama; it's part of the mission," wrote the failed 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate.

The night before her online tweet, she was giving a 50-minute speech at a fund-raiser for a group the helps special needs children when she spoke of Osama's death.

"No games. Just release the photos and get it over with," said the former Alaskan governor, according to  the website of the Baldwin Press-Register newspaper.

She added that the president was giving fodder to conspiracy theorists, "especially in some Arab nations."

"We are anxious for the photos, the proof, to be revealed so that we can show those terrorists and say, 'We contained [Bin Laden], we contained that hatred and that evil, and we have the pictures to prove it.'"

While she differed with Obama on the photos, she praised the president's chutzpah for getting Bin Laden.

"I think the president made the right call and knew that we needed to get in there and strike hard," Palin said.

San Bruno senior citizens busted on pot-farming charges

San Mateo County sheriff

Aleen Lam, 72, charged with growing hundreds of marijuana plants in her San Bruno home.

It's pretty common these days for robbers to target homes where marijuana is being grown.

Not so common: When the suspected pot growers are two women past retirement age.

San Mateo County sheriff

Virginia Pon, 65, charged with growing hundreds of marijuana plants in her San Bruno home.

That was what San Bruno police uncovered Friday, according to San Mateo County prosecutors.

It all began when neighbors heard loud banging coming from the women's home on Valleywood Drive, nestled in between Skyline Boulevard and Interstate 280.

Then they saw two men, later identified as Kitae Chae, 38, and Kenny Kong, 34, breaking down the front door and lingering inside for a few minutes before driving off in a BMW, District Attorney Steve Wagstaffe said.

The neighbors called police, and officers who stopped the BMW in South San Francisco found the men with $12,000 in cash, marijuana packaging material and seven ecstasy pills, Wagstaffe said.

When they arrived at the Valleywood Drive home, investigators found a substantial pot-growing operation: more than 800 marijuana plants, $3,000 in cash and a bypass through which electricity was being stolen from Pacific Gas and Electric Co., police said.

In short order, officers arrested the occupants -- 72-year-old Aleen Lam and Virginia Chan Pon, 65. It's not Pon's first run-in with the law: She is already facing charges in Yolo County for allegedly passing more than $40,000 in bad checks over a three-day period at Cache Creek Casino.

"I have never seen or heard of women in their 60s and 70s running a grow house," Wagstaffe said. "I certainly hope it is aberrational rather than a trend. I suppose profiteering in illegal enterprises crosses all the generations."

The two women face a variety of drug charges, and Chae and Kong are accused of drug and burglary counts. Lam has not yet entered a plea, while the others have pleaded not guilty. All four are being held at San Mateo County Jail in lieu of $100,000 bail each.

Prosecutors have filed a motion requiring that the two women show a legitimate source for any bail they post.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/blogs/crime/detail?entry_id=88229#ixzz1LOSR7Dvf

Woman Loses Phone; Nude Pictures Sent To Contacts

Pictures Stored In Phone Sent To Contact List

A tour-bus driver who claimed he was bus-jacked at gunpoint actually stole his own motor coach, drove around for more than 17 hours and used $400 of his employer's money to buy drugs and alcohol, the Osceola County Sheriff's Office said Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a tour group was left waiting for the bus, which was supposed to arrive Monday at 8 a.m.

Bruce Anthony Williams called the Sheriff's Office about 1:20 a.m. Tuesday to report that four men who identified themselves as members of the Bloods gang had robbed him at a Circle K gas station at 7626 W. U.S. Highway 192 and put him in the cargo area, deputies said.

Williams, 53, was pacing and changed his story several times, and investigators quickly decided that he had made up the story, they said. They contacted his employer in North Carolina, who had reported the bus missing after Williams left the tour group high and dry.

Williams told a deputy that he gave the bus-jackers a ride to either Winter Park or Winter Haven after they let him out of the cargo hold.

Later, he admitted driving the bus to parties and using $400 of his employer's money to buy cocaine and alcohol, a sheriff's report states. He also said he got drunk, fell asleep and forgot to pick up the tourists.

Williams, of Raleigh, N.C., is being held in the Osceola County Jail on charges of filing a false police report and grand-theft auto.

Appalling conditions: An investigation by two NGOs has found new workers at Foxconn factories in China are made to sign a 'no suicide' pledge

Grim: Netting has been put up outside worker dormitories buildings in Chengdu and Shenzhen after a spate of suicides last year

Production line: The investigation found illegal amounts of overtime was rife and workers claimed they were not allowed to talk during shifts

Must have: High demand for iPods and iPads in the west has fuelled the tough working conditions for part suppliers in China

Exxon-Mobil earned 69 percent more during the first quarter than a year ago, and the industry is trying to keep a $4 billion annual tax subsidy

5.5 million: Americans unemployed and not receiving benefits

The job market may be on the mend, but that’s not much consolation to millions of Americans facing a frightening deadline: the end of their unemployment benefits.

The country’s unemployment rolls are shrinking fast, after expanding sharply last year as the government extended benefits to ease the pain of a deep economic slump. As of mid-March, about 8.5 million people were receiving some kind of unemployment payments, down from 11.5 million a year earlier, according to the Labor Department.

To some extent, the shrinkage reflects a desirable reality: Some people are leaving the unemployment rolls because they’re finding jobs.  The number of employed in March was up nearly 1 million from a year earlier, according to the Labor Department’s household survey. That’s the biggest year-over-year rise since late 2007.

Many Americans, though, are simply running out of time. As of March, about 14 million people were unemployed and looking for work, according to the household survey. At the time the survey was done, about 8.5 million were receiving some kind of unemployment payments, according to the Labor Department’s Employment and Training Administration. That leaves about 5.5 million people unemployed without benefits, up 1.4 million from a year earlier.

There’s always a certain number of unemployed who don’t receive benefits. They may have just entered the labor force, quit their jobs or not been eligible for some other reason. But workers didn’t quit their jobs at a higher rate over the past year, and more exited the labor force than entered. That suggests the 1.4-million-person change largely reflects people losing their benefits.

For the more than 4 million Americans still receiving extended benefits, the picture isn’t encouraging. The longer they’ve been out of work, the harder it is to find a job. They’ve typically been unemployed for at least 26 weeks, and may have been out of work for as long as 99 weeks, which for many people is the limit.

In the coming months, hundreds of thousands more will drop off the unemployment rolls. The number of people using up their regular 26 weeks of unemployment payments peaked in August 2009 at nearly 800,000 a month. That means a lot of people should be hitting their 99-week limit right about now. And unless Congress does something unexpected, more people with shorter bouts of unemployment will start joining them as the government phases out extended benefits next year.

‘Celebrity Apprentice’ recap: Trump trumped by Obama/Osama

11:32 pm May 1, 2011

Rodney Ho

AJC

Man accused of stealing from cancer patients

ST. PETERSBURG - A Tampa woman saved the life of a man who had a heart attack during a triathlon Saturday morning, race officials said.

Teresa McCoy, 37, was just about to finish the bike portion of the Meek and Mighty Triathlon, part of the annual St. Anthony's Triathlon events, when she saw two police officers huddled over a fellow rider along Bayshore Drive.

McCoy recognized the middle-aged man as runner No. 100. The two had chatted briefly before the start of the race. McCoy, a nurse at Tampa General Hospital's cardiac lab, was No. 96.

With other riders speeding by, McCoy steered her bike to where the man was down.

The officers thought the man might be having a seizure, but McCoy checked for a pulse.

"I didn't feel one at all," she said. "He wasn't looking good."

McCoy began CPR, then yelled for someone to find a defibrillator. One of the officers had one in his trunk.

"As soon as we shocked him, he came to," McCoy said.

As paramedics arrived and loaded the man into an ambulance, McCoy got back on her bike and finished the race.

She learned later that the man survived. Officials declined to release the man's name at his family's request, but said he is expected to recover.

"I'm so glad he's alive," McCoy said Saturday night. "I know that God put me where I was supposed to be today. It's like I was his angel today."

Comic-in-chief Obama roasts an irked Donald Trump at the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner

Rich Schapiro
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, May 1st 2011, 4:00 AM

Credit: Kylie Nellis / WFAA contributor

Ben Ross with date Molly Muchow are on their way to the prom in the Oscar Mayer Weinermobile.

WFAA

April 30, 2011 at 10:19 PM

On Saturday night, he still made it to his prom in the vehicle of his dreams — a giant hot dog.

Ross was seriously injured while riding his motorcycle last month. While at his hospital bedside, his mom remembered Ben joking about going to the prom in the "Weinermobile."

So she launched an online campaign and convinced Oscar Mayer to send the distinctive hot dog-shaped vehicle to take Ben and girlfriend Molly Muchow to Saturday's prom at the Dallas Trade Center.

LINK TO PHOTO GALLERY: 

http://www.wfaa.com/news/local/Hot-dog--121039269.html?gallery=y&c=y