BS: I Read it in the Newspaper

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 12 Feb 07 - 01:35 PM

And the moral of the story is:

"When someone asks for an apology, give it to 'em! Munchkins included!"

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Feb 07 - 11:34 AM

Policeman in serious condition
Feb. 13, 2007 link

FORT WORTH -- The first period was competitive hockey -- firefighters and police officers shoving and bumping on the rink at Fort Worth Ice.

The game Saturday ended, however, with the officers hugging their opponents.

Early in the second period, firefighters leaped from their bench and performed CPR on a Fort Worth police officer who had a heart attack while playing in the charity hockey match Saturday.

The event drew several hundred people and raised $4,000 for the family of officer Dwayne Freeto, who was killed on duty in December.

On Monday, the officer who had the heart attack was in serious condition at Harris Methodist Fort Worth, a hospital official said.

A police official said privacy laws prevented him from identifying the officer.

"Those firefighters saved his life," said Sgt. Kevin Foster, who was watching the match.

Police were leading the firefighters 2-1 when the officer fell face first, fire Capt. Joe Short said.

"It wasn't a slip," Short said. "You could tell something was wrong."

Firefighters scaled the wall in front of their bench and "swarmed" the officer, said Debbie Papenfuss, an organizer of the match.

The officer was breathing irregularly: deep, shallow, deep, Short said.

Then he stopped.

Short gave the officer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while other firefighters rotated chest compressions, he said. A fire truck arrived with an automated external defibrillator.

In their rubber boots, those firefighters had trouble getting across the ice. So the firefighters wearing skates got the defibrillator and restarted the officer's heart.

The officer was taken to the hospital, and the match was called. Officers and firefighters knelt together in prayer.

The firefighters just did as they were trained, Short said.

"It's a little different with all those people and the mayor, fire chief and police chief watching you," he said. "But we're glad we were there and hope he's OK."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 10:36 PM

Former Congressman Faces Indecent Exposure Charges

A man who once represented Bradford County [near our county-- ~WYS~]in congress is now facing indecent exposure charges.

Authorities in Florida say Joseph McDade exposed himself to two women at a beach resort. The 75-year-old republican has been charged with exposing his sexual organs. The charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a one-thousand dollar fine.

McDade represented the 10th congressional district from 1963 to 1999, when he retired.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 10:46 PM

When men get to that age and get into this kind of trouble, it's a good idea to have a doctor with an MRI or other scanner check them out to see if they've had any "small" or "silent" strokes. Those seem to contribute to what often constitutes aberrant behavior in old guys. Maybe he's always been this way and just now got caught, but if this is something totally out of character, he needs a checkup. (This comes from my late-psychiatric MSW social-worker mother, after discussing some odd behavior in my late-father-in-law.)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: wysiwyg
Date: 14 Feb 07 - 10:49 PM

Well, he's in Florida now.

~S~

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Feb 07 - 10:04 AM

This incredibly resourceful group almost merit a thread on their own:

Canny Pilot, Travelers Subdue Hijacker
February 16, 2007

TENERIFE, Canary Islands - A fast-thinking pilot with passengers in cahoots fooled a hijacker by braking hard upon landing, then accelerating to knock the man down. When he fell, flight attendants threw boiling water in his face, and about 10 people pounced on him, Spanish officials said Friday.

The Air Mauritania Boeing 737 carrying 71 passengers and a crew of eight was hijacked by a lone gunman brandishing two pistols Thursday evening shortly after it took off from Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, for Gran Canaria, one of Spain's Canary Islands, with a planned stopover in Nouadhibou in northern Mauritania.

The hijacking alarmed Spanish officials because a trial of 29 people accused in the Madrid terrorist bombings of 2004 had begun the same day in Madrid. But the man's motives were not terrorism; he wanted the plane to fly to France so he could request political asylum, said Mohamed Ould Mohamed Cheikh, Mauritania's top police official.

"We were afraid. We thought it was people from al-Qaida or the Algerian GSPC who were going to cut our throats," said Aicha Mint Sidi, a 45-year-old woman who was on the plane. The GSPC is a Muslim extremist group.

"I trembled during and after the hijacking. I thought the plane was going to blow up any minute, either in mid-air or on landing," said another passenger, Dahi Ould Ali, 52. Both spoke after returning to Nouakchott.

The hijacker has been identified as Mohamed Abderraman, a 32-year-old Mauritanian, said an official with the Spanish Interior Ministry office on Tenerife, another of the islands in the Atlantic archipelago. He spoke under ground rules barring publication of his name. Mauritania has said the hijacker was a Moroccan from the Western Sahara.

The hijacker ordered the pilot to fly to France, but the crew told him there was not enough fuel. And Morocco denied a request to land in the city of Djala in the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara, so the pilot headed for Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, the original destination.

Along the way, speaking to the hijacker, the pilot realized the man did not speak French. So he used the plane's public address system to warn the passengers in French of the ploy he was going to try: brake hard upon landing, then speed up abruptly. The idea was to catch the hijacker off balance, and have crew members and men sitting in the front rows of the plane jump him, the Spanish official said.

The pilot also warned women and children to move to the back of the plane in preparation for the subterfuge, the official said.

It worked. The man was standing in the middle aisle when the pilot carried out his maneuver, and he fell to the floor, dropping one of his two 7 mm pistols. Flight attendants then threw boiling water from a coffee machine in his face and at his chest, and some 10 people jumped on the man and beat him, the Spanish official said.

Around 20 people were slightly injured when the plane braked suddenly, the official said.

The hijacker was arrested by Spanish police who boarded the plane after it landed at Gando airport, outside Las Palmas.

Air Mauritania identified the heroic pilot as Ahmedou Mohamed Lemine, a 20-year-veteran of the company.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 20 Feb 07 - 09:33 AM

From a Times story on Jimmy Carter's campaign against diseases in Africa:

"Mr. Carter has almost managed to wipe out one horrific ailment — Guinea worm — and is making great strides against others, including river blindness and elephantiasis. In this area, people are taking an annual dose of a medicine called Mectizan — donated by Merck, which deserves huge credit — that prevents itching and blindness.

Mectizan also gets rid of intestinal worms, leaving Ethiopian villagers stronger and more able to work or attend school. Among adults, the deworming revives sex drive, so some people have named their children Mectizan."

Little Master Viagara and Miss Ambien are sooooo proud!! :D


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Feb 07 - 10:24 AM

These climbers were incredibly lucky to have been found and helped off of the mountain. They're lucky that 500 foot slide didn't send them airborne off of a cliff.

But they are absolute IDIOTS for taking a dog and for climbing that mountain at this time of year. ANY climber who undertakes a climb of any of the Cascade volcanoes in Washington or Oregon before mid-March should be compelled to sign a document that acknowledges "rescue groups are not going to risk their lives coming to rescue you if you're really going to make this half-assed trip this time of year on this mountain." The tail wags the entire expedition, when poorly trained climbers or poorly planned trips force the excellent climbers into dangerous situations to rescue folks who have no business being up there.

A distinction in this article implies that they did some things right--the locator device and staying warm (the dog is a plus and a minus on this trip--I can't imagine what the dog suffered on a trip like this, but it can't have been a great trip for him)--but they were rock climbers, not mountaineers. There is a big difference between the two. As a former member of a technical rock climbing and mountaineering rescue group, I see a couple of types of rescues turn up in the news--those where accidents happen and someone needs help, and where something stupid happened and someone needs help. Despite their equipment, this was where something stupid happened.

Rant over.

---

Rescuer: Dog May Have Saved Climbers
February 20, 2007

GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. - Three climbers who tumbled off a ledge on Mount Hood were taken away in an ambulance after they hiked down much of the state's highest peak with their rescuers - and a dog who may have saved their lives.

"We're soaking wet and freezing," said one of two rescued women as she walked from a tracked snow vehicle to an ambulance.

One of the women, whose name was not released, was taken to a Portland hospital and being treated for a head injury, said Jim Strovink, spokesman for the Clackamas County Sheriff's Department.

"She's going to be fine," he said, noting that she had walked most of the way down the mountain.

Two others, Matty Bryant, 34, a teacher in the Portland suburb of Milwaukie, and Kate Hanlon, 34, a teacher in the suburb of Wilsonville, were taken to Timberline Lodge on the mountain to rejoin five other members of the climbing party, he said.

Rescuers using an electronic locating device found the three climbers and their black Labrador, Velvet, on Monday morning in the White River Canyon, where they had holed up overnight at about 7,400 feet, officials said. The crew hiked with them down the east flank of the 11,239-foot mountain; on the way down, the climbers got into a tracked snow vehicle that took them to the ambulance.

"The dog probably saved their lives" by lying across them during the cold night, said Erik Brom, a member of the Portland Mountain Rescue team. He described the wind in the canyon as "hellacious."

The two women left the snow vehicle first, followed by Bryant and the dog. The three climbers boarded the ambulance, and Velvet leapt in after them.

In addition to the dog, who provided warmth and comfort, rescuers attributed the happy outcome to the climbers' use of an electronic mountain locator unit that guided searchers to their exact position.

"That's why it is a rescue, not a recovery," Lt. Nick Watt of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office told a news conference at Timberline Lodge, a ski resort at 6,000 feet. "They did everything right."

The three were in a party of eight that set out Saturday for the summit, camped on the mountain that night and began to come back down on Sunday when they ran into bad weather, officials said.

As they were descending at about 8,300 feet, the three slipped off a ledge. They slid about 500 feet down an incline and later moved from the site of the fall, rescuers said.

"They're lucky to be alive after that," Strovink said.

Trevor Liston of Portland, who was among the five who made it off the mountain Sunday, said at a news conference at Timberline Lodge that he saw the three fall, but he didn't say how it happened.

Someone in the party used a cell phone to place an emergency call to authorities. Rescue officials maintained regular cell phone contact overnight with the three who had fallen.

Brom, a member of the team that found them, said the climbers had traveled miles from the site of the fall, descending.

Battling winds up to 70 mph and blowing snow, rescue teams had worked through the night trying to locate the climbers, said Russell Gubele, coordinating communications for the rescue operation.

Teams made it close to the missing climbers overnight, but decided to wait until daylight Monday because they couldn't see anything, Gubele said. Rescuers moved cautiously during the night because of "very severe avalanche danger," he said.

Gubele described the trio as "experienced rock climbers, but not necessarily experienced in mountain climbing."

In December, three climbers who did not have mountain locator units went missing on the mountain. Authorities searched for days, but were able to recover the body of only one climber, Kelly James of Dallas, who died of hypothermia. The bodies of Brian Hall of Dallas and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke of New York have not been found.

In the past 25 years, more than 35 climbers have died on Mount Hood, one of the most frequently climbed mountains in the world.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Feb 07 - 11:53 AM

Listening to the news today I did hear a remark from someone on the rescue squad that they didn't mind these mid-winter rescues because they like the practice.

That's a convenient attitude to have if these kinds of rescues are going to keep coming. Healthier for the rescuers who are out risking their lives. I recognize that were I out doing the rescue work now my attitude might dilute some of the creative energy needed for a successful outcome in the work.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 12:46 AM

Amazing that detectives were able to keep track of this--but depressing that he was able to duplicate the conditions so that they could find him (again and again).

NYPD Tip Leads to Montenegro Arrest
February 22, 2007

NEW YORK - A tip from a New York detective investigating the 1990 killing of a Bronx widow has led to the arrest of a man in Montenegro who is a suspect in similar slayings in Europe, officials said Thursday. The suspect, identified in Montenegro as Smail Tulja, 67, was arrested in his home in the tiny Balkan country's capital, Podgorica, on an FBI warrant, officials said. An FBI affidavit filed in the United States identified the suspect as Smajo Djurlric; the New York Police Department said his name was Smajo Dzurlic.

U.S. officials said Tulja was wanted in the unsolved beating and dismemberment death of Mary Beal, 61, and may be involved in up to seven other killings of women in Belgium and Albania. "It's gratifying that after 17 years this guy's in custody for the terrible thing that was done to her," said Detective James Osorio, a member of the NYPD's Cold Case and Apprehension Squad.

After Tulja appeared in court in Montenegro on Thursday, his lawyer there, Dusan Luksic, told The Associated Press: "My client is not guilty of the murder of Mary Beal." Tulja had twice before eluded authorities seeking to question him about dismemberment murders. In 1990, he left the country after Beal's decapitated, dismembered body was found in two bags near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Tulja, then a cab driver living in New York, had dated Beal and detectives discovered bloodstains in his Bronx apartment, said Sgt. Dennis Singleton, who investigated the case.

Then in the mid-1990s, New York authorities working with their Belgium counterparts learned Tulja was living there and a possible suspect in the dismemberment killings of five women there, but he again left the country, the sergeant said. Last year Osorio learned about the dismemberment killings of two women in Albania and noted the slayings "were carried out in a similar fashion to Mary Beal," court papers said. His squad eventually sought the assistance of federal and international authorities, and Interpol located him in Montenegro.

Tamara Popovic, national police spokeswoman in Montenegro, confirmed that police in Belgium and Albania consider Tulja a suspect in the killings of several women in those countries. Tulja's attorney said that he had no information about the other killings.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 23 Feb 07 - 02:27 PM

Here's one from my home town!


Police: Washington Man Stole Up to 300 Cars
February 23, 2007

EVERETT, Wash. - Authorities said a man stole a pickup, a sedan and a Volkswagen Beetle - along with perhaps 300 other cars. Not to mention boats and recreational vehicles. Taylor Jacob Norton, 22, sold many of the vehicles to support a methamphetamine habit, and used others just to give rides to friends, sheriff's Detective Jess Sanders said. Drug paraphernalia was found in his home, investigators reported. "He's a one-man crime ring," Sanders said.

An electronic beacon from a stolen car led to Norton's arrest on Jan. 23 in his mobile home outside Arlington, 40 miles north of Seattle, authorities said. In the yard, authorities said, were four stolen vehicles - a 1994 Chevrolet pickup, a 1998 BMW 528, a 2003 BMW 325 and a 2003 Volkswagen Beetle, which had the locator device.

Norton then led investigators to dozens of homes where he said he stole vehicles, recalling the make, model and license plate number of each one, as well as how he made off with it, Sanders said. At each house, a theft matching his account was confirmed by law enforcement officials. "He enjoyed telling us," the detective said. "It's something he's really proud of."

Norton was being held for investigation of 48 crimes with bail totaling $201,000. Deputies believe he also stole dozens of cars in western Washington. "There are a lot of people stealing a lot of cars," Sanders said, "but that's a lot of cars for one person to steal."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 11 Mar 07 - 04:07 PM

So You Say You Went to College?

Dog with college degree called to court

Attorney says police chief, canine earned degrees from same online school

The Associated Press
Updated: 8:48 a.m. CT March 1, 2007

FOSTORIA, Ohio - An attorney challenging the authority of the city's police chief wants the department's police dog to appear in court as an exhibit, because he says the dog and the chief have criminal justice degrees from the same online school.

The issue gives "one pause, if not paws, for concern" about what it takes to get the degrees from the school based in the Virgin Islands, Gene Murray wrote in a court document filed Monday.

Murray is seeking to have a drug charge against a client dismissed by arguing that police Chief John McGuire — who is accused of lying on his job application — was not legally employed and had no authority as an officer.

McGuire is to go on trial in March on charges of falsification and tampering with records. A special prosecutor said McGuire lied on his application and resume about his rank, position, duties, responsibilities and salary in three of his previous jobs.
McGuire was hired as chief of this northwest Ohio city a year ago.
The union that represents Fostoria police officers and dispatchers filed a lawsuit challenging McGuire's hiring.

Murray said asking that the police dog, Rocko, show up in court at an evidence hearing is a key to discrediting McGuire, who took part in a traffic stop and search in October that resulted in drug possession charges against Clifford Green of Fostoria.

Both McGuire and Rocko, who is listed as John I. Rocko on his diploma, are graduates of Concordia College and University, according to copies of diplomas that are part of Murray's motion.

The court filing did not say how the attorney knows that diploma is for the dog or how Rocko allegedly managed to enroll in the college.
"My client had absolutely nothing to do with any animal getting a degree from an institution of higher learning," said McGuire's attorney, Dean Henry. "The whole thing is bizarre."

He said the dog was with the department before McGuire began working there.

Seneca County Prosecutor Ken Egbert said he will ask the judge to deny the request and limit the hearing to matters that are relevant.
"I don't think it's necessary to bring the actual dog," Egbert said.
A date has not been set for the evidence hearing.

City leaders have said McGuire's hiring was not influenced by his college degree, and any confusion about his background was resolved during interviews.

"We've already been through all that," Safety Service Director Bill Rains. "That was answered to our satisfaction."

Fostoria is about 35 miles southeast of Toledo.

© 2007 The Associated Press

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 12 Mar 07 - 11:36 AM

In death, a hidden cost of obesity

People were obese in more than a quarter of cases analyzed by the county last year.
link

As more Americans tip the scales, the impact of the nation's obesity problem is also felt at the end of life's journey. Funeral homes and the Snohomish County [Washington] Medical Examiner are seeing the trends in weight gain affect how they do their work. More often, bigger cots, larger cremation and embalming facilities, more staff and power hoists are needed to lift and prepare a growing number of deceased obese people.

"It's very important that you treat the deceased with dignity and respect," medical examiner spokeswoman Carolyn Sanden said.

The changes have increased costs for taxpayers and often, for families of the departed as well. "People are getting larger with time," Snohomish County Medical Examiner Dr. Norman Thiersch said. "Unfortunately we haven't had the ability to track it until last year."

Of the cases investigated last year, county officials provided the weight of 326. More than one-fourth - 84 adults - were considered obese based on their body mass index. Fifteen people each weighed more than 300 pounds. The heaviest of the county's cases in 2006 was a middle-aged man who weighed 499 pounds and was over 6 feet tall.

People are considered obese if they have a body mass index of more than 30, according to the World Health Organization. Body mass is a common way to gauge whether someone is overweight or obese using height and weight.

The trend in weight gain was a key factor in the county Medical Examiner's Office request to spend $75,000 for an on-call body transport service this year.

Worker injuries from removal and transport of heavier bodies is an ongoing and increasing problem in the Medical Examiner's Office, officials said.

The injuries have become expensive, staff reports to the County Council said, averaging $16,000 a year since 2003. One open claim is $93,300, officials said.

Officials plan to hire First Call Plus of Washington, called the state's largest body removal, cremation and embalming company. The Kent-based company is run by Jerry Webster, the retired chief investigator from the King County Medical Examiner's Office.

Once Webster's firm is hired, the county's seven medical investigators no longer will have to lift and transport bodies. Instead, they'll be able to focus on investigations, case work and going to the new calls. The county also has spent $18,000 in recent years on larger tables and electric hoists. "To accommodate the larger body, we needed the larger table," Thiersch said.

The county's older, smaller stainless steel tables could handle the weight of a 300- or 400-pound body. However, it was the size of the bodies that proved too large to be properly rolled over and examined, he said.

Crews now use electric winches to pull heavy bodies on stretchers into investigation trucks. Nylon straps and hoists now are used to transfer bodies within the medical examiner offices.

Devices also protect the bodies from unintended damage, which can offend families or obscure evidence of crimes or disease.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate 22 percent of adults in Washington are obese and another 36 percent are overweight. Nationwide, an estimated 33 percent of adults between 20 and 74 years old are obese. The national obesity rate has more than doubled from the 15 percent estimated to be obese in a survey from the late 1970s.

Funeral home directors have noticed the trend. "It's not unusual to encounter 300-pound people now, which used to be the exception rather than the rule," said Jim Noel, who has worked 47 years in the funeral home profession and is executive director of the Washington State Funeral Directors Association.

Federal and state worker safety rules have led to more back-saving equipment at funeral homes, including lifting devices, Noel said. Cots are wider and sturdier for carrying obese people and have extra handholds.

The challenges don't end with transportation. About two-thirds of people in Washington state are cremated after they die, Noel said. And as people gain weight, uniquely designed crematory furnaces are increasingly necessary.

Some funeral homes are able to cremate most bodies, but sometimes must contract for larger cremations with Webster's facility in Kent, said Mark Hunstman, managing director at Solie Funeral Home and Crematory in Everett.

Webster's cremation services are often needed when bodies reach about 300 pounds. "We have the equipment to handle these morbidly obese folks, the decedent remains and the expertise in cremating them," he said. He has special cots that cost nearly $4,000 and are able to handle a 1,000-pound body. He also is called for services because he has embalming tables large enough for the morbidly obese.

Webster said he sees families who buy custom-sized caskets for large family members, and the family of one 784-pound woman had to buy three cemetery plots. Cremations for the obese can cost hundreds of dollars more depending on what funeral homes charge, Webster said.

"This whole issue of obesity can be a very sensitive issue to some of the survivors," he said. "One of the biggest concerns from families is, how is this person going to be treated? Is it going to be dignified and respectful? We show a lot of care.

"Our hope and goal through everything is that a large person is handled in a dignified and respectful manner regardless of their size."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 09:54 PM

Bald Eagle Nest Found in Philadelphia
March 18, 2007

PHILADELPHIA - Wildlife authorities have found the first bald eagle nest in the city in more than 200 years and hope the occupants will produce offspring, state officials said. The nest "demonstrates the resilience of this species and its apparent growing tolerance to human activity," said Dan Brauning, a supervisor with the state Game Commission, in a statement Friday.

Officials are not disclosing the nest's exact location, to avoid disturbing it, but it is being closely monitored, the commission said. "We don't know if the nest will result in the pair successfully breeding and laying eggs yet, but we are very hopeful," Brauning said.

The state began a campaign to re-establish the eagle population in 1983, when only three nesting pairs remained in Pennsylvania. Officials said last year that the number was higher than 100. Bald eagles were upgraded from endangered to threatened status by the federal government in 1995 and by the state a decade later.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 18 Mar 07 - 11:03 PM

Wonderful news!

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 19 Mar 07 - 12:11 PM

NPR this morning made an avian faux pas by offering some throw-out like like "Philadelphia is waiting for the stork to arrive." But storks are Old World birds and we're awaiting the hatching of New World birds. Oh, well, can't expect them to always be right.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 08:42 AM

I have always said a man's vision should exceed his vocabulary, or what's a metaphor?

Waiting for the stork to arrive is one.

Eagles, though, don't use it. They have a different method of language. They use some obscure metaphor about making omelettes without killilng babies or some such.


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 09:37 AM

Oops! Tech Error Wipes Out Alaska Info
From Associated Press
March 20, 2007
link

JUNEAU, Alaska - Perhaps you know that sinking feeling when a single keystroke accidentally destroys hours of work. Now imagine wiping out a disk drive containing an account worth $38 billion. It happened to a computer technician reformatting a disk drive at the Alaska Department of Revenue. While doing routine maintenance work, the technician accidentally deleted applicant information for an oil-funded account - one of Alaska residents' biggest perks - and mistakenly reformatted the backup drive, as well. There was still hope, until the department discovered its third line of defense, backup tapes, were unreadable.

"Nobody panicked, but we instantly went into planning for the worst-case scenario," said Permanent Fund Dividend Division Director Amy Skow. The computer foul-up last July would end up costing the department more than $200,000. Over the next few days, as the department, the division and consultants from Microsoft Corp. and Dell Inc. labored to retrieve the data, it became obvious the worst-case scenario was at hand.

Nine months worth of information concerning the yearly payout from the Alaska Permanent Fund was gone: some 800,000 electronic images that had been painstakingly scanned into the system months earlier, the 2006 paper applications that people had either mailed in or filed over the counter, and supporting documentation such as birth certificates and proof of residence. And the only backup was the paperwork itself - stored in more than 300 cardboard boxes.

"We had to bring that paper back to the scanning room, and send it through again, and quality control it, and then you have to have a way to link that paper to that person's file," Skow said.

Half a dozen seasonal workers came back to assist the regular division staff, and about 70 people working overtime and weekends re-entered all the lost data by the end of August. "They were just ready, willing and able to chip in and, in fact, we needed all of them to chip in to get all the paperwork rescanned in a timely manner so that we could meet our obligations to the public," Skow said.

Last October and November, the department met its obligation to the public. A majority of the estimated 600,000 payments for last year's $1,106.96 individual dividends went out on schedule, including those for 28,000 applicants who were still under review when the computer disaster struck. Former Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus said no one was ever blamed for the incident. "Everybody felt very bad about it and we all learned a lesson. There was no witch hunt," Corbus said. According to department staff, they now have a proven and regularly tested backup and restore procedure.

The department is asking lawmakers to approve a supplemental budget request for $220,700 to cover the excess costs incurred during the six-week recovery effort, including about $128,400 in overtime and $71,800 for computer consultants. The money would come from the permanent fund earnings, the money earmarked for the dividends. That means recipients could find their next check docked by about 37 cents.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 20 Mar 07 - 09:40 AM

A very hopeful lesson.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 09:32 AM

Jeep Runs Over Va. Man While He's in Bed

               
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: March 22, 2007
Filed at 9:07 a.m. ET

ROANOKE, Va. (AP) -- The underside of a car is a familiar sight to auto mechanic Dean Blevins. Seeing one on top of him at 2:30 in the morning, while he was in bed -- that was new. A Jeep crashed through a wall of Blevins' apartment early Tuesday and pinned him in his bed. It took firefighters an hour to free him, but he suffered only minor bruises and scrapes.

As he saw the vehicle's engine above him and felt hot antifreeze splash onto his face, Blevins said, his initial thoughts were less about his injuries than about going after the driver.

''If I'd a had my gun,'' he told The Roanoke Times, ''I'd a probably shot him.''

The driver, Wesley Dewayne Smith, 34, of Roanoke, was charged with driving under the influence.

Building owner Wesley Dearing said the Jeep's windshield got snagged between the first and second floors of the wood-frame building, probably saving Blevins from being crushed.

Blevins, 58, was treated at a hospital and released. His apartment was condemned until repairs could be made, but he said he had calmed down enough to laugh about the experience.

''I'm lucky to be alive,'' he said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 09:46 AM

JERSEY CITY, March 21 — There's the holdup, and then there's the push-up. Now this: Three people made off with nearly $12,000 worth of bras and panties at a Victoria's Secret at the Newport Center Mall here as customers milled about on Tuesday night.

The police said that about 7:30 p.m. two men and a woman wearing a puffy white coat grabbed dozens of undergarments from roll-out drawers on two display tables and stuffed the merchandise into large "booster bags" (shopping bags lined with aluminum foil), which investigators say thwart the sensors in anti-theft systems.

In all, the police said, the take was $6,921 worth of panties and $4,905 in bras.

"That's a lot of underwear," said Lt. Edgar Martinez, a spokesman for the Jersey City Police Department.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 12:54 PM

The latest conservative Christian social invention is the Fancy Dress Chastity Ball.

Read all about it.

Boy, do these guys know how to party, or what?

I am a little perplexed that they call these Chirstian values, though. Is this part of the Christian belief system? I don't remember reading that directive, although this might be selective memory on my part.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 02:34 PM

What a sanctimonious bunch, reinforcing a double-standard (the boys don't have to go, do they?) and withholding the really useful information like how to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancy. Like these girls are going to marry men who are virgins, keep it a closed system? Ha!

But critics say that while teaching abstinence to children may be laudable, it is just as essential to make them aware of sexually transmitted diseases and condom use.

They also point to studies showing that the majority of adolescents who take purity pledges break them within a few years, often by engaging in risky and unprotected sex.

One study conducted by researchers at the universities of Columbia and Yale found that 88 percent of pledgers wind up having sex before marriage.

"Unfortunately these young people tend, once they start to have sex, to have more partners in a shorter period of time and to use contraception much less than their non-pledging peers," said Debra Hauser, executive vice president at Advocates for Youth, a Washington-based non-profit organization.

"Teens may pledge with the best of intention... and then as they break their pledges they are so shamed and embarrassed that it's unlikely they will go for help."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 22 Mar 07 - 02:55 PM

[KING]

A woman is a female who is human,
Designed for pleasing man, the human male.
A human male is pleased by many women,
And all the rest you hear is fairy tale.

[ANNA]

Then tell me how this fairy tale began, sir.
You cannot call it just a poet's trick
Explain to me why many men are faithful
And true to one wife only.

[KING]

[Spoken] They are sick!
[Singing] A girl must be like a blossom
With honey for just one man.
A man must be like honey bee
And gather all he can.
To fly from blossom to blossom
A honey bee must be free,
But blossom must not ever fly
From bee to bee to bee.

---

(But I didn't write that!! (Ducks and runs))


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Mar 07 - 12:10 PM

Monday, March 26, 2007

His selfless wish
Make-A-Wish granted Colton Wilson's hope for a better field for his varsity baseball team at South Whidbey High School

By Kevin Johnson, Herald Writer
link

LANGLEY - If you had one wish, what would it be? Money? A vacation? Another wish or two? How about asking for something for someone else? Maybe something for your high school or your community. Perhaps for a new baseball field. That's the dream the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted last month to Colton Wilson.

Colton, a sophomore catcher on the South Whidbey High School varsity baseball team, was diagnosed last July with a rare form of cancer known as Ewing's sarcoma.

Ewing's sarcoma is characterized by the presence of cancer cells in the bone or soft tissue. According to the American Cancer Society's Web site, about 150 children and adolescents in the United States are diagnosed with this type of tumor each year. Colton's cancer was found in the tibia of his right leg.

During his treatment, the Make-A-Wish Foundation learned of his illness. The foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fulfilling the dreams of children with life-threatening medical conditions. Last year, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Alaska, Montana, Northern Idaho and Washington granted 260 wishes, typically for family vacations or other personal requests.

Though most diehard baseball fans might have chosen to have a catch with their favorite big-league player or see their favorite team at spring training, Colton chose a different path - renovating the high school baseball field. The wish caught everyone - his parents, his coach, even the people at the Make-A-Wish Foundation - by surprise. No one expected a wish like this. Especially from a teenager.

"Kids usually wish for something for themselves," Jessie Elenbaas, Colton's Make-A-Wish coordinator said. "It's one of those rare wishes, so selfless. It's a powerful thing."

Said Dave Guetlin, South Whidbey's head baseball coach: "It blew my socks off that a young man could be that selfless. It's just jaw-dropping. It truly is."

In a letter to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Colton explained his reasoning. "The reason I chose this wish is because my community has been behind me with each step of this hard experience," he wrote. "Their fundraisers, cards, homemade food, phone calls, and more have helped me get through this and I want to return the favor." Colton learned he was qualified for a wish while going through his first round of chemotherapy. Shortly after, while still at Children's Hospital in Seattle, he decided on his request. He told his older sister, Stina, he wanted a new field for the high school.

"It was just amazing," Colton's mother, Lana Wilson, said. "I didn't know how amazing it was until the coach came over and he was in tears."

A frightening diagnosis

Colton's battle with Ewing's sarcoma began last summer.

On a Saturday in July, he was riding his dirt bike on property down the street from his home when he began to feel pain in his right shin. That evening, the pain intensified and Colton had trouble sleeping. But the following morning, the pain was gone. Colton went to spend the night at his grandmother's house in Mukilteo. He planned to a attend a baseball camp at Everett Community College the next day.

But the pain returned and once again he had trouble sleeping. His grandmother took him to a walk-in clinic in Everett. Doctors took an X-ray of the leg. After more X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams the Wilsons heard the shocking news - Colton had a tumor. He was advised to head straight to Children's Hospital in Seattle to begin treatment.

Colton went through his first round of chemotherapy in August to shrink the tumor. In November, surgeons removed 51/2 inches of his bone and replaced it with bone from a donor.

On March 6, doctors took an X-ray to see how the natural bone was reacting to the donor bone. "Everything looked really good," Lana Wilson said. "They say that they are, 'Talking to each other.'"

Community support

Colton currently walks with the aid of crutches, although he recently got the OK to put more weight on his right leg and can abandon the crutches when he's home.

Meanwhile, his teammates and the community have rallied around the teenager and his wish.

All 26 South Whidbey baseball players - junior varsity and varsity included - have gone under the razor, shaving their heads to honor their teammate, who lost his hair while undergoing chemotherapy.

The players also wear Colton's jersey number - 51 - on their caps.

"We just wanted to rally around him," teammate C.J. Baker said.

Colton's wish list for the Falcons' baseball field includes, among other things, a new outfield fence, bleachers, field tarps, pitching screens and a new mound.

The Make-A-Wish Foundation plans to secure much of the needed materials through donations, then use its resources to fill in the gaps. Elenbaas said the goal is to have the renovation completed by the end of the school year.

Even beyond the field improvements, Colton's wish has had a positive impact on the community, Guetlin said. "Colton has touched a lot of lives, he really has," Guetlin said. "I talk about him in my classes (saying), 'You're all going to have adversity. Look at what Colton's doing.' There are a lot of lessons to be learned from someone like Colton."

Throughout his battle with cancer, Colton has maintained a positive attitude. "He said, 'There's a reason this happened to me,'" Lana Wilson said. "Something good will come from all this.'"

His mother says that Colton's prognosis is good. He turned 16 in early February and got his driver's license a couple days later. The chemotherapy ends in June and he should be done with all of his tests by July.

In the meantime, coach Guetlin already has a job lined up for Colton when he returns to practice. The catcher, who earned a varsity letter last season as a freshman, will be charting pitches and driving around the field in a golf cart. And who knows, maybe next season he'll once again be crouching behind the plate, this time receiving pitches in the House that Colton Built.

His own field of dreams.

Colton's wish

Colton Wilson's wish to see the South Whidbey High School baseball field renovated includes the following:

A new outfield fence
Two sets of aluminum bleachers
Field tarps to cover the mound and home plate
A new pitcher's mound
Protective screens
Home plate and pitching mats
Baseballs
Bats

Batting helmets
To donate to Colton's wish list, contact his wish coordinator, Jessie Elenbaas, at 206-623-5380.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 26 Mar 07 - 05:16 PM

Last Mustang Ranch building destroyed
Blaze was part of firefighting training
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:02 a.m. CT March 26, 2007

RENO, Nev. - The last remaining building on the grounds where the infamous Mustang Ranch brothel once stood went up in flames Sunday.
The 48-room, 20,000-square-foot structure known as the Mustang Ranch II annex was destroyed as part of a firefighting training exercise.
"It's out with the old and in with the new," said a woman who goes by Air Force Amy, who once worked there. "The day of the $20 roll in the hay in a trailer is gone."

The building was the last at the former site of the Mustang Ranch, the state's first legal brothel. The government padlocked the ranch, located just east of Reno, in 1999 after years of tax problems.

In 2003, the government auctioned off the annex for $8,600 to Dennis Hof, a brothel owner who planned to use it as a museum. Moving it was too expensive, so he donated it to fire crews.

Amy, now employed by Hof, said the annex was built in 1983 for male prostitutes but the plans didn't fly. It later housed about 20 women compared with 50 women at the busier main building.

The government sold the gaudy pink stucco buildings that formed the heart of the complex for $145,000 to another brothel owner, who moved them to another site and continues to operate them under the famous name.

The BLM plans to return the Mustang Ranch land to a natural state and use it for public access to the Truckee River.

© 2007 The Associated Press.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Mar 07 - 09:59 AM

I looked up the site. I'd like one of those t-shirts--send folks into a tizzy here, where our toads are good toads. But makes the point for not importing critters. (I call my house "toadhouse" in my wireless network--that was the first critter that met me on the doorstep when I was moving in.)


Group Finds Toad the Size of a Small Dog
March 27, 2007
link

DARWIN, Australia - An environmental group said Tuesday it had captured a "monster" toad the size of a small dog. With a body the size of a football and weighing nearly 2 pounds, the toad is among the largest specimens ever captured in Australia, according to Frogwatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer. "It's huge, to put it mildly," he said. "The biggest toads are usually females but this one was a rampant male ... I would hate to meet his big sister."

Frogwatch, which is dedicated to wiping out a toxic toad species that has killed countless Australian animals, picked up the 15-inch-long cane toad during a raid on a pond outside the northern city of Darwin late Monday.

Cane toads were imported from South America during the 1930s in a failed attempt to control beetles on Australia's northern sugar cane plantations. The poisonous toads have proven fatal to Australia's delicate ecosystems, killing millions of native animals from snakes to the small crocodiles that eat them.

As part of its so-called "Toad Buster" project, Frogwatch conducts regular raids on local water holes, blinding the toads with bright lights then scooping them up by the dozen. "We kill them with carbon dioxide gas, stockpile them in a big freezer and then put them through a liquid fertilizer process" that renders the toads nontoxic, Sawyer said.

"It turns out to be sensational fertilizer," he added.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 10:44 AM

Husband to really look up to

March 28, 2007


The world's tallest man, whose search for a bride covered the world, ended up marrying a woman about half his age and half his height from his home town, Chinese media reported today.

Bao Xishun, 56, a 236cm herdsman listed by Guinness World Records as the tallest living man, married a 29-year-old Chinese saleswoman, the Beijing News said.

"After sending out marriage advertisements across the world and going through a long selection process, the efforts have finally paid off," the newspaper said.

His bride, Xia Shujuan, a mere 168 cm, comes from Chifeng in Inner Mongolia, as does Bao.

(From the Sydney Morning Herald which has a picture of the happy couple.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 11:30 AM

BA Sat Corpse in First Class

From The (London) Sunday Times, March 18, 2007:

A BRITISH Airways passenger travelling first class has described how he woke up on a long-haul flight to find that cabin crew had placed a corpse in his row.

The body of a woman in her seventies, who died after the plane left Delhi for Heathrow, was carried by cabin staff from economy to first class, where there was more space. Her body was propped up in a seat, using pillows.

The woman's daughter accompanied the corpse, and spent the rest of the journey wailing in grief.

Paul Trinder, who awoke to see the body at the end of his row, last week described the journey as "deeply disturbing", and complained that the airline dismissed his concerns by telling him to "get over it".

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 12:05 PM

I read about that--you'd think that they'd offer their first class passenger a free ticket or some suitable compensation. The body is disturbing enough--the wailing would be very difficult to sit through.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Donuel
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 12:11 PM

A man must be like honey bee
And gather all he can.
To fly from blossom to blossom
A honey bee must be free,


A blossom ain't the Queen.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 05:12 PM

Town uses snowplows against tumbleweed

Montanans are used to being inundated by snow, but this is a new twist

The Associated Press
Updated: 5:54 a.m. CT March 28, 2007

BOZEMAN, Mont. - Montana residents are used to digging themselves out after heavy snowstorms, but residents of one neighborhood had to put a snowplow to different use: clearing mounds of tumbleweed from their driveways.

Winds flooded a Springhill-area neighborhood with tumbleweed Tuesday, covering sheds, burying mailboxes and blocking a street and driveways.
Residents of Shooting Star Lane were forced to use snowplows and pitchforks to clear the debris.

Cindy Bowker, who has lived in the neighborhood for 12 years, awakened to find tumbleweed surrounding her home, blanketing her back deck and windows.

She had to tunnel through the weeds from her front door to her two-car garage and driveway.

"Both garages were covered," Bowker said. "We got the real dense stuff out and just drove through it. It was up over the headlights. It was all the way up the steps and covered our front door."
A few residents of the seven-home cul-de-sac blamed a 160-acre farm northeast of them for the tumbleweed problem. Half of the farm's crop went bad last year, and the weeds sprouted on about 80 acres, Bowker said.

Across the street from Bowker, Hank and Jan Mueller's snowmobile, shed, camper and driveway were covered with tumbleweed.

"We've had blizzards up here, but this was not like anything we have ever seen," Jan Mueller said.

© 2007 The Associated Press.

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: JohnInKansas
Date: 28 Mar 07 - 05:28 PM

Circuit City to fire more than 3,400 workers Retailer will replace them with new employees paid at market-based rate

The Associated Press
Updated: 12:45 p.m. CT March 28, 2007

RICHMOND, Va. - Circuit City Stores Inc. said Wednesday it plans to cut costs by laying off about 3,400 retail workers, or 8.5 percent of its in-store staff, and hiring lower-paid employees to replace them. It is also trimming about 130 corporate information-technology jobs.

Its shares rose nearly 2 percent in afternoon trading.

Circuit City, the nation's No. 2 consumer electronics retailer behind Best Buy Co. Inc., said the store workers being laid off effective Wednesday were earning "well above the market-based salary range for their role." They will be replaced as soon as possible with employees who will be paid at the current market range, the company said in a news release.

"We are taking a number of aggressive actions to improve our cost and expense structure, which will better position us for improved and sustainable returns in today's marketplace," Philip J. Schoonover, Circuit City's chief executive, said in a statement.

Circuit City employs about 40,000 part-time and and full-time store employees, according to spokeswoman Jackie Foreman. Those being laid off will get severance packages and may apply for any open positions after 10 weeks, Foreman said.

[Some additional hype at the link.]

John

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Wesley S
Date: 29 Mar 07 - 10:29 AM

Sheep hoarder charged with animal cruelty

POSTED: 2:40 a.m. EDT, March 29, 2007

Story Highlights• North Carolina man kept 77 sheep at his home; some lived inside
• 30 sheep had to be killed because of health problems
• 13 lambs have been adopted by a high school

APEX, North Carolina (AP) -- A man who kept 77 sheep in his suburban home was charged Wednesday with 30 counts of misdemeanor animal cruelty.

David Watts, 47, was being held at the Wake County jail in lieu of $12,000 bail after a court appearance. A judge denied a request by Watts' lawyer to release him pending trial.

Watts surrendered the flock to animal control officers Monday after police found some sheep grazing on artificial flowers in the town cemetery in Apex, a suburb of Raleigh. (Watch neighbor complain of odor from house )

Thirty of the sheep were euthanized because of various health problems. In addition, sheep bones and carcasses were found in Watts' yard.

Veterinarian Kelli Ferris, who examined the flock, said some of the animals' hooves had never been trimmed, causing infections that led the sheep to walk on their knees.

Watts kept some of the younger sheep on the ground floor of his house and kept the others in pens in the yard, authorities said.

Watts denies abusing the animals. He told The News & Observer of Raleigh on Tuesday that he was overwhelmed by the number of lambs born this year.

Watts, who said he has raised sheep for a decade, called the animals "relaxing to be around."

"It's like in Florida, you can swim with the dolphins. If you can get sheep to follow you, it might be a similar experience."

A high school in western North Carolina adopted 13 lambs. The lambs will live on the school farm, where students will care for them. It was unclear where the rest of the sheep went.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 29 Mar 07 - 10:33 AM

Polygamy!! Shameful.


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Mar 07 - 03:39 PM

The snowplow/tumbleweed story sounds like practice for the Sunday (April 1) edition of the paper.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 30 Mar 07 - 10:50 AM

There are some really troubling murder stories turning up in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram this week. This is an ongoing story that is interesting in that I think they got it right when attributing responsibility for the crime.


Husband pulled trigger, but wife indicted
link

FORT WORTH -- In December, Darrell Roberson fatally shot a man outside his Arlington home after finding the man and his wife in a compromising position inside a pickup. But Roberson is no longer in trouble with the law. His wife, Tracy Denise Roberson, is now the one facing criminal prosecution in connection with the killing.

On Wednesday, a Tarrant County grand jury declined to indict Darrell Roberson, 38, on a murder charge in the death of 32-year-old Devin LaSalle. Instead, the panel on Thursday returned an indictment against Tracy Roberson on a charge of manslaughter, stemming from allegations that she recklessly caused LaSalle's death by falsely claiming that she was being raped, prompting her husband to shoot LaSalle.

Tracy Roberson, 35, was also indicted on a charge of making a false report to a police officer on accusations that she also lied to Arlington police, telling them she was being raped when, officials said, she had actually been having an affair with LaSalle. A warrant for her arrest was issued Thursday.

Legal experts said they have never heard of a case quite like this before but that the legal theory behind it seems sound. "It certainly is different," said George E. Dix, a law professor at the University of Texas at Austin. "But the theory sounds perfectly acceptable to me. That is interesting."

Jason Gillmer, an associate professor at Texas Wesleyan School of Law in downtown Fort Worth, agreed. "I've never heard of a case like this, but if you think about the theory behind it, it makes sense," Gillmer said. "He is entitled to defend his wife and his family against aggravated assault. If he believes that is what is happening, he is entitled to use force. She didn't intend for her husband to kill her lover, but she recklessly caused it. "Whether or not a jury will be convinced remains to be seen."

Police have said that, in the early morning hours of Dec. 11, Darrell Roberson called his Arlington home trying to reach his wife more than a dozen times before his 7-year-old daughter finally answered. A short time later, Darrell Roberson, who had been playing cards in Dallas, headed to his home in the 6100 block of Ivy Glen Drive, police have said.

When he arrived, Roberson saw his wife, clad in a robe and underwear, with a man in a Chevrolet Silverado pickup, police have said. After Tracy Roberson claimed that the man was trying to rape her, her husband fired four shots at the vehicle as the man tried to drive away with his wife, police have said. LaSalle -- a UPS employee who had recently moved to Mansfield from New Orleans -- was struck once in the head. The father of three was pronounced dead at the scene.

Police have said that in the hours before the shooting, LaSalle received a text message from Tracy Roberson that read: "Hi friend, come see me please! I need to feel your warm embrace! If ur unable to I completely understand!!! Call me," according to an arrest warrant affidavit. Police have said that they do not know how long the couple had been seeing each other.

Arlington police investigated the shooting for several days before arresting Darrell Roberson on a murder warrant. Darrell Roberson, who works for a real estate firm, turned himself in to the Collin County Jail on Dec. 16 and was released shortly after on $100,000 bail.

According to court records, Tracy Roberson had not been taken into custody as of late Thursday afternoon, and it did not appear that she had a defense attorney. If convicted of manslaughter, Tracy Roberson faces two to 20 years in prison. Making a false report to a police officer is a Class B misdemeanor, punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $2,000 fine.

Prosecutor Sean Colston, who is handling the case, said he could not comment on the grand jurors' deliberations because they are secret. Generally speaking, however, he said there are certain defenses to crimes based on what a reasonable person believes at the time of the offense.

"If a person has a reasonable belief that he needs to defend someone based on a fact that later turns out to be false, that does not take away that justification for him," Colston said. "If a person has a reasonable belief that their actions are necessary, they can be afforded self-defense and defense of a third party."

No one answered the door at the Robersons' home Thursday. A neighbor said Darrell Roberson moved out late one night about a week after the shooting. She said she has not seen Tracy Roberson.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Apr 07 - 06:50 PM

15-year-old jailed for pushing is released

BROWNWOOD, Texas

Shaquanda Cotton, whose yearlong stay in a juvenile prison for pushing a hall monitor made her a symbol of alleged racial bias and the troubled Texas Youth Commission, was released Saturday, a state lawmaker said. The 15-year-old was freed from the Ron Jackson Correctional Complex and picked up by her mother, said Rep. Harold Dutton, chairman of the House juvenile justice committee, who lobbied state officials for Cotton's release

Dutton said Cotton and her family headed back to Paris, her East Texas hometown near the Oklahoma border, where civil rights activists have held two protests in as many weeks calling for her release. "She had a whole cavalry" when picked up, said Dutton, a Houston Democrat.

Cotton was sentenced on a felony count of shoving the teacher's aide, who is classified as a public servant, before the morning bell at Paris High School in 2005. She had no prior criminal convictions.

Activists say the fact that the same judge sentenced a white 14-year-old girl to probation for burning down her own house signaled evidence of racial bias.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 09:05 AM

From a NY Times article about deaths of US soldiers in Iraq:

""Crying doesn't make me any less of a man," said the 1-12 commander, Lt. Col. Morris Goins, who tears up as he recounts how one of his soldiers drowned in a canal, trapped in his Bradley fighting vehicle. "To not show emotion, you're an idiot, or you're living a pipe dream. If someone were to tell me not to show emotion, I'd hit them in the lip.""

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Donuel
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 09:57 AM

take this dick's(spammer) user # and post it. There are things that can be done.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 10:46 AM

What are you going on about, Don? Did this thread get hit with spam? It's gone now.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 10:49 AM

Someone added a long post advertising porn to the thread, and it was efficiently deleted by a clone.


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 02 Apr 07 - 11:17 AM

Thank you, clone! I've started participating in a film discussion list and must say that it is a delight to participate where only members can post. Anyone misbehaving is banned, and it makes for a much nicer overall environment.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: beardedbruce
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 08:06 AM

Survey shows Britons checking up on partners
POSTED: 11:43 p.m. EDT, April 2, 2007
Adjust font size:
LONDON, England (Reuters) -- Britons are a nation of spies, rifling through their partners' text messages, tapping phone conversations and even tailing loved ones with web cams and satellite navigation systems, a survey reveals.

The most favored way of keeping tabs on a partner is checking their text messages, with more than half (53 percent) of those questioned admitting sneaking a peek. The number shoots up to 77 percent in the 25 to 34 age group.

The second most popular way of finding out if a partner has been a love-cheat is to read their e-mails -- 42 percent told the UK Undercover Survey that they had carried out such a ploy.

The third is the old-fashioned one of rummaging through a partner's pockets, (39 percent), a technique popular with women.

Men prefer to break another unspoken rule -- reading a partner's diary.

Neither is the spoken word safe from eavesdropping.

About one in three (31 percent) of those questioned in the survey, commissioned by the Science Museum in London, for its Science of Spying exhibition, said they covertly listened in on their partner's conversations.

A small number of the 1,129 people questioned, said they had even secretly recorded their partner's telephone conversations, using dictaphones or other such taping devices.

This method was the most popular with the over-55s age group, where one in 20 (5 percent) put their hands up. This age group also included people using web cams and GSM tracking devices.

Almost one in 10 (9 percent) have resorted to checking up on their partner by following them.

Harry Ferguson, former M16 agent, said: "Everyone has the ability to be a bit of a spy every now and again, and you don't need to have James Bond's gadgets to enter the world of espionage."

The Science of Spying exhibition ends in September.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: beardedbruce
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 08:07 AM

Police: Slain woman had restraining order
POSTED: 9:05 p.m. EDT, April 2, 2007
Story Highlights• NEW: Woman had restraining order against suspected killer, police say
• NEW: Victim identified by colleagues as Rebecca Griego, 26
• Two bodies, weapon found in office on the fourth floor of Gould Hall
• Co-worker said woman asked friends to watch out for her former boyfriend
Adjust font size:
SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- A University of Washington researcher was shot to death in her office Monday morning by a former boyfriend who then turned the gun on himself, police said.

Officers responding to reports of gunfire found the two dead in an office on the fourth floor of Gould Hall, the university's architecture building, Assistant University Police Chief Ray Wittmier said.

The 26-year-old woman was granted a restraining order last month against Jonathan Rowan, according to court documents. University police said he was not affiliated with the school.

"I cannot find him but he can find me (knows my place of work)," the victim, identified by colleagues as Rebecca Griego, wrote in a restraining order petition filed against Rowan on March 6 in King County Superior Court.

About six shots were fired, and a handgun was found in the room. There were no eyewitnesses, and no one else was harmed, Wittmier said.

Lance Nguyen, who worked with Griego at the Runstad Center for Real Estate Research, said the victim had become increasingly worried about her former boyfriend in recent weeks.

"She said it's a psycho from her past," Nguyen said.

In the restraining order petition, Griego wrote that Rowan had threatened her and her sister, and said he had threatened suicide "because he couldn't see me."

Campus police were not aware of the restraining order, Wittmier said. He also said he did not think the man had permission to carry a handgun on campus, where firearms are banned.

Student Meghan Pinch, 27, was in a first-floor classroom when she heard several loud bangs. She said that she did not think they were gunshots at first but that police then told everyone to evacuate.

"No one wanted to really think it was real," Pinch said as she waited outside to learn whether the victims were people she knew.

"We all are pretty close in this building," she said.

Gould Hall, built in 1972, houses three architecture department offices, a dean's office, a library, shop, lab, computer facilities and classrooms, according to the university's Web site.

The building, in an urban neighborhood on the edge of the campus, was closed for the day, with classes rescheduled elsewhere on campus.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 03 Apr 07 - 10:01 AM

Both of these posts are evidence of a serious disordinate importance on sexual connection. Interesting questions arise: what problems is this obsession being used to hold at bay? If sexuality were NOT a solution (in the minds of those involved) what would they then have to face up to? What is it about a sexual relationship that seems to be such a great solution to these other confusions, whatever they may be? ANd finally, what would you have to identify yourself as (to yourself) in order to be vulnerable to such a neurotic computation?

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 01:26 PM

Here's a really wierd one regarding the sexual connection, Amos. Really wierd. And of all names, for the perp to be named "Lorelei," is also just so against type, because it brings to mind the Marilyn Monroe character.


Woman, 30, posed as teenage boy in sex case
Everett woman, 30, accused of assaulting 14-year-old girl, police say

By Jackson Holtz, Herald Writer
link (the page has had such heavy traffic that they converted it to text only)

EVERETT - An Everett woman who posed as a teenage boy was arrested Sunday for allegedly molesting a 14-year-old girl who believed the older woman was her boyfriend. Lorelei Josephine Corpuz, 30, lived for more than a year as a 17-year-old boy named "Mark," according to papers filed in Everett District Court. As "Mark," Corpuz persuaded the girl's family to let "Mark" live in their home as the girl's boyfriend. Corpuz claimed to be an orphan, police alleged.

It wasn't until police arrested Corpuz on Sunday on an unrelated matter that the girl and her family learned that "Mark" was a woman - and almost twice the age they were led to believe, according to court papers. That's when officers were told that Corpuz allegedly had beaten and sexually assaulted the girl.

"The family was very surprised to learn that this female who had presented herself as a juvenile male was in fact" an adult woman, Everett police Sgt. Robert Goetz said Tuesday.

Police initially arrested Corpuz on a traffic warrant. On Tuesday, she was being held at the Snohomish County Jail on $150,000 bail for investigation of third-degree child rape. No charges have been filed.

The case may leave lasting emotional scars for the girl and her family, experts said. "This is an extremely unusual story," said Lucy Berliner, director of the Harborview Center for Sexual Assault and Trauma Stress in Seattle. "Female-on-female sexual abuse is the rarest category. It doesn't happen very often at all."

The girl met "Mark" in September 2005 at a shopping mall, Goetz said. They spoke over the phone and went on a date, according to court papers. "Mark" told the girl and her parents that his mother died of cancer and his father killed himself, the papers said. The girl told police the relationship became abusive and that she was hit weekly and twice was bitten on the back.

Corpuz was driving without a license when police stopped her on Sunday and determined she had a traffic warrant from Marysville for driving without a license. The 14-year-old was in the car at the time and Corpuz was reluctant to let police talk to the girl, Goetz said. The girl's parents were called and the family was interviewed. English is not their native language, Goetz said.

Corpuz has a criminal history stretching back to 2001. The state's court computer database lists "Mark" as her alias on a theft case in King County six years ago. Everett and Marysville police recognized her as a woman. She may have been able to pass herself off as a man when stopped by Lynnwood police earlier this year, however.

In February, a person was stopped for driving with a suspended license in Lynnwood and was using Corpuz's "Mark" alias. That person has the same height, weight, race and eye color as Corpuz, but police on Tuesday couldn't confirm that it was her. The person was given a ticket and released, said Paul Watkins, a Lynnwood police spokesman.

When posing as a man, Corpuz apparently uses her brother's name and identity, Goetz said. "She was able to get away with it," he said. "Apparently she's good at what she does."

The combination of being abused - then learning her trust was misplaced - may be especially difficult for the girl, Berliner said. "One is trauma, the other is shocking," she said. "Having both at the same time is very likely to make the effects of the abuse worse." The girl needs the loving support of family and friends, said Dr. Frank Ochberg, a Michigan psychiatrist and internationally known expert on the effects of trauma.

"In this kind of case it's almost inevitable that there will be a period of time when the victim blames herself and feels embarrassed," he said. "A lot of what you deal with is self-blame. You'd think the perpetrator would feel shame and embarrassment, but it doesn't work that way. It's the victim who feels that way."

The girl and her family need to be reassured that this is a highly unusual case, Berliner said. They shouldn't feel bad. "Why would you suspect it? How often do people go around lying about their gender?" she said. "It's too weird for people to imagine, so why would you imagine it?"

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: frogprince
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 01:46 PM

Sounds like Lorelei is an accomplished thespian...

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 02:15 PM

That's fer thure.


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: beardedbruce
Date: 04 Apr 07 - 03:28 PM

Authorities: Fifth-graders posted lookout, had sex in class
POSTED: 6:36 a.m. EDT, April 4, 2007

Story Highlights• Four students allegedly have sex in classroom while fifth acts as lookout
• Four children charged with obscenity, fifth with being an accessory
• Teacher who was to supervise class went to assembly instead
• Word of incident passes from students to teacher to sheriff's office

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (AP) -- Five fifth-grade students face criminal charges after authorities said four of them had sex in front of other students in an unsupervised classroom and kept a classmate posted as a lookout for teachers.

The students were arrested Tuesday at the Spearsville school in rural north Louisiana, authorities said. Two 11-year-old girls, a 12-year-old boy and a 13-year old boy were charged with obscenity, a felony. An 11-year-old boy, the alleged lookout, was charged with being an accessory.

"After 44 years of doing this work, nothing shocks me anymore," said Union Parish Sheriff Bob Buckley. "But this comes pretty close."

Authorities said the incident happened March 27 at the school, which houses students from kindergarten through 12th grade. A high school teacher normally watches the fifth-grade class at the time, but went to an assembly for older students and the class was inadvertently left unattended, Buckley said. (Watch authorities try to determine if a crime was committed )

The class, which had around 10 other students, was alone for about 15 minutes, he said.

"When no teacher showed up, the four began to have sex in the classroom with the other elementary students in the classroom with them," he said.

It took a day for authorities to find out about the incident. A student who had been in the class told a high school student about it the next day, Buckley said. The student told a teacher, and school officials notified the sheriff's office. Detectives began questioning students Thursday.

School officials did not return calls seeking comment.

The students, who were not identified because of their age, were released to their parents after their arrests, Buckley said. They will next be arraigned in juvenile court.

A message seeking comment from the district attorney was not immediately returned.

Buckley said it was unclear what penalties the children could face.