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BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Jan 07 - 12:27 AM Great story! I knew this fellow when I worked in Darrington in the Forest Service. And you should see his house. . . I was tempted to practice my rock climbing on his fireplace wall. Rescuer survives his own scare A Darrington helicopter pilot who has helped save dozens of lives is injured in a crash in the snow. By Kaitlin Manry (The Herald, Everett, Washington) January 17, 2007 It was over in four seconds. Anthony Reece was working 140 feet in the air, piloting his helicopter as part of a logging operation in the mountains of Skagit County. About 1 p.m. on Jan. 4, the Darrington man noticed that the sky had darkened. Snow started to fall. He knew icy weather could cause problems. So he decided to call it a day and head in. In the five decades he spent flying, he had never been injured in a crash. At 70 years old, he didn't want to start. But on his way in, someone radioed him and asked him to pick up a final load of cedar. As he readied his Hughes 369 for the load, the helicopter's engine quit. Using the chopper's last bit of inertia, he pointed upward at the snowy sky, giving a colleague working on the ground time to run out of the way. The blades slowed. He fell. As his chopper neared the ground, Reece thought "God darn, this is gonna hurt." The next thing he remembers is a loud crunch, then someone pulling at his feet. He felt like the wind had been knocked out of him. As co-workers moved Reece into a pickup truck and rushed him down the mountain, his wife of 48 years, Sue Reece, got a call from her brother. He was working near the wreck. Anthony crashed, he told her. Firefighters and emergency medical technicians were on their way up. Her husband was injured, but moving. Sue Reece hopped in her car and drove from Darrington to Mount Vernon. "I thought, 'Well, maybe he'll be all right,'" she recalled. "Of course I worried about him. I've been doing that real regular for 48 years." She met her husband at a Mount Vernon hospital and rode in an ambulance with him to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. Diagnosed with three cracked vertebrae and a split sternum, Reece spent four days in the hospital. On Jan. 8, he returned to his house in the woods of Darrington. Balloons and flowers from well-wishers filled his living room. A borrowed hospital bed sat by the window. Sue Reece said she tried to pay for the bed, but the owner refused. Anthony Reece had plucked her son from a raging river years ago. As a pilot, Reece has participated in hundreds of search and rescue missions. He's found lost hikers and carried injured climbers to safety. He's also transported the bodies of fallen outdoorsmen home, so their families could see them one last time. "I would describe him as one of my heroes," said Kelly Bush, district ranger and search-and-rescue coordinator at North Cascades National Park. "He's definitely saved lives. There are dozens of lives - people that have been in the last hours of living that are critically injured - and if it were not for his quick response and skill they wouldn't be living today." Among the missions Reece participated in are several well known rescues. In 2005, he flew the bodies of Mountaineers leader Johanna Backus and two other climbers after they died in a rockslide on Sharkfin Tower in the North Cascades National Park. He flew their injured climbing partner to safety. The previous year, he responded when Nigel Aylott, a well-known Australian adventurer, was killed by a falling boulder near Darrington during the Subaru Primal Quest adventure race. He's also credited with saving Seattle Weekly writer Brian Miller after he fell while climbing 8,815-foot Forbidden Peak in the North Cascades park. "A number of people owe their lives to his skillful piloting," Bush said. "We rangers are a dime a dozen. A good pilot is really what it's all about." In 2005, 81 pilots died in the United States. When you add in people who fly bush planes, crop dusters or ferry around celebrities, it's easy to see why pilots have the third most dangerous job, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. As he's flown through his youth into old age, Reece has lost many pilot friends to accidents. He always has accepted the risk, all the while doing everything he can to minimize it. He says he doesn't scrimp on maintenance and avoids unnecessary danger. People who've flown with him say he's an expert at reaching difficult areas safely. Dave Doan, aviation manager for the state Department of Natural Resources, has flown with Reece for 30 years, fighting forest fires and managing the department's timber. He said Reece is known throughout the Pacific Northwest as a safe, reliable pilot. "I felt very comfortable and very safe whenever I was with him," Doan said. "He never took chances. He never did anything that would scare you or anything like that. Comparing him to other pilots, he was in the top tier." As is standard, the National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash. Reece thinks a chunk of ice slid off the chopper into its air intake valve, instantly killing the engine. As for flying again, it's not on the schedule anytime soon. Reece wears a brace to support his broken bones and gets around with the help of a walker. He sleeps in the hospital bed and is under the watchful eye of his wife. She's not in any rush to see him return to the skies. However, flying has always been a part of Reece. Ever since he was a boy he's been enamored with planes, always dreaming of soaring above the clouds. And much to his wife's dismay, the gray-haired grandfather is not sure he can drop the urge to fly. "God knows," he said, shaking his head. "It's hard to tell what an old, dumb guy like me will do." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 18 Jan 07 - 12:56 AM Wow. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Metchosin Date: 18 Jan 07 - 10:09 AM This may be a spoof or old news as it came to me in an email titled My Kind of Nursing Home. Hopefully it wouldn't be my kind, this is rather sad, they booted the poor old buggers out for showing a little iniative too. Nine Oldsters booted out of nursing home -- for trying to have an orgy! By MIKE FOSTER - Weekly World News LONDON -- A group of nine love-hungry codgers were booted out of an old folks home after they tryed to have an orgy in the recreation room! The unidentified oldters, who ranged in age from 73 to 98, had apparently planned the unauthorized after-hours get-together for weeks. according to Melinda Helterford, spokesperson for the well-respected Edith Scarborough Nursing Home. "They somehow got it in their heads to celebrate the 90th birthday of one of the women with a kind of sex party," said Miss Helterford. "This may sound harmless or amusing to some people, but Scarborough has a reputation to uphold. We cannot tolerate that kind of conduct." The nursing home made a concerted effert to keep the bizarre story out of the press and so details are difficult to come by. But according to British papers, the let-it-all-hang-out party took place just after midnight on October 28. The three wrinkly Romeos and six sagging seductressess gathered together in the rec room and stripped to the buff. "They really set the scene", a nursing home staffer who was not identified told a London tabloid. "They'd got their hands on candles which they lit, and even put on music to create the mood." The nude geezer gala went on for about 20 minutes before orderlies heard rumba music coming from the recreational room and went to investigate. When they opened the doors, they were shocked to find old-timers crowded together in their birthday suits, slathered in baby oil. "They hadn't got too far--I guess it was taking some of the gents a while to get started," the staffer said. "But they were all naked. Believe me, it was the scariest thing I've seen in my life." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Thomas the Rhymer Date: 18 Jan 07 - 10:10 AM UPI international, today... Would-be groom jailed for swallowing ring DORCHESTER, England, Jan. 18 (UPI) -- A would-be groom is in jail for 12 weeks for allegedly trying to get a free weeding ring for his future bride by swallowing it in a British jewelry store. While visiting a jewelry store in Dorchester, England, Simon Hopper allegedly swallowed the ring, worth nearly $3,500, and was arrested for attempted theft, Sky News reported. Hopper had been looking at rings with jeweler Fred Burgess, when he allegedly swallowed the ring while the other man's back was turned. When Burgess asked where the ring had gone, Hopper responded by claiming he had already returned it to him. Suspicious, Burgess contacted the police and only discovered the ring when one of the responding officers used a metal detector to search Hopper. Burgess said the crime was one thing, but waiting the next few days for it to return to him naturally was another matter. "He managed to hold on for four days but then the inevitable happened and I got the ring back," he told Sky News. "It's had several good cleans. I'm not sure I'll be revealing its background to the future buyer." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 18 Jan 07 - 01:27 PM NORMAN, Oklahoma (AP) -- The pilot of a TV news helicopter used the wind from the aircraft's rotor to push a stranded deer to safety after it lost its footing on a frozen lake and could not get up. A small crowd had gathered to watch the deer struggling, its hooves repeatedly slipping, near the shore of Lake Thunderbird around 4 p.m. Wednesday. With the helicopter's camera rolling, KWTV pilot Mason Dunn used the wind from the rotor to push the deer, initially sending it into a break in the ice where the animal managed to hold onto the ice with its front legs. Dunn then lowered the helicopter and the wind sent the deer sliding on its belly across the ice until it reached shore and scampered into a nearby wooded area. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Jan 07 - 02:36 PM You can see the video here. It's today's video--if you wait to view it you may need to go to the January 18 videos, if they archive them. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 20 Jan 07 - 04:06 AM Sex offender applies to school — as 12-year-old The Associated Press Updated: 2:34 a.m. CT Jan 20, 2007 The article is rather long, but summarizing: A 29 year old convicted sex offender convinced two "old guys" (61 and 43) that he was a 12 year old kid, and moved in with them where they reportedly had regular sex. The scheme came apart when one of the old fellows tried to enroll the 29 year old in school (in Phoenix, AZ) as a 12 year old, claiming to be his grandfather. It is reported that the two old guys were "greatly offended" to learn that they'd been conned by the 29 y.o. Four arrested, the fourth being a former cellmate(?) of the "kid." Reports indicate he was enrolled in some other schools, but it's not yet known whether he actually attended any of them. And alternate possibility: they all knew exactly what was going on, and were attempting to get him into the school to find "new juveniles." If it's too bizarre to be believed, someone's probably tried it. (opinion) John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 20 Jan 07 - 06:43 AM DNA exonerations put heat on Texas county 12th person cleared in Dallas County, more than most states The Associated Press Updated: 2:33 a.m. CT Jan 20, 2007 DALLAS - In a case that has renewed questions about the quality of Texas justice, a man who spent 10 years behind bars for the rape of a boy has become the 12th person in Dallas County to be cleared by DNA evidence. That is more DNA exonerations than in all of California, and more than in Florida, too. In fact, Dallas County alone has more such cases than all but three states — a situation one Texas lawmaker calls an "international embarrassment." James Waller, 50, was exonerated by a judge earlier this week and received an apology from the district attorney's office after a new type of DNA testing on hair and semen showed he was not the rapist who attacked a 12-year-old a boy living in Waller's apartment building in 1983. The boy had been the chief witness against him. ... ... ... ... Only New York, Illinois and Texas have had more DNA exonerations than Dallas County, which has a population of 2.3 million, according to the Innocence Project, a New York-based legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions. ... ... ... ... Since the nation's first DNA exoneration in 1989, 26 defendants have been cleared in Illinois, including 11 in Chicago's Cook County, according to the Innocence Project. There have been 21 exonerations each in Texas and New York, nine in California and six in Florida, the organization said. In Dallas County, about 400 prisoners who filed wrongful-conviction claims have received DNA testing, leading to the 12 exonerations, said Trista Allen, a spokeswoman for the district attorney's office. New District Attorney Craig Watkins, who took office two weeks ago, is determined to look into the underlying causes, she said. [end quote] It was noted that even though cleared of the crime, it will require separate legal action to remove his name from the "registry of sex offenders." Personal observations: BUT WHAT IF - the percentage of false convictions in Dallas County is NOT different than elsewhere, and the rest of them just aren't looking as hard? [not an assertion, just a question] It generally is not a trivial matter for someone once convicted to get a DNA test in an old case, and many places put significant restrictions on reopening cases to consider "new evidence," even when evidence as potentially compelling as a DNA result is claimed. (It took this fellow 7 years to get his test, and to get it admitted.) Twelve exoneratons out of 400 tests implies an error rate in convictions of 3% of those tested, from a few cases where presumedly there was reason to expect an error might be found. The 400 who were tested are a very small fraction, one supposes, of those who'd like to have a re-hearing. (Has anyone ever heard of a convicted person who didn't want one?) Texas doesn't have a particularly sterling reputation, with lots of claims of "frontier justice" and "lynch mob convictions;" but the information in this article doesn't necessarily support the implied conclusion (and slur) of the article. (A more complete set of statistics might support an entirely different set of lies?) John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 20 Jan 07 - 08:08 AM http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/2/story.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10419961 Spy report poor value for money 7:15AM Saturday January 20, 2007 The US Defence Department has acknowledged that an espionage report it produced warning about Canadian coins with tiny radio frequency transmitters hidden inside was not true. The Defence Security Service has started an internal review. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 20 Jan 07 - 03:22 PM Foolestroupe - Bee-dubya-ell reported the denial in the thread BS: Canadian Spy Coins. "Discussion" already posted there. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 21 Jan 07 - 01:11 AM Thief chooses wrong pickup to steal Lake Stevens man jumps in truck bed, subdues thief at high speed The Herald (Everett, WA) link CLEARVIEW - When he stopped to do the right thing, he never expected it would turn into a hair-raising ride at freeway speeds standing in the back of his pickup truck. It was a stunt usually performed by Jackie Chan but instead pulled off by Clint Lucas, a Lake Stevens construction manager. After witnessing a car accident at the intersection of 180th Street SE and 35th Avenue SE, Lucas, 26, stopped to make sure everyone was OK. That's when police believe Trinidad Mendoza, who was involved in the high-speed crash, got into Lucas' 2006 Ford F-350 and started to drive away, according to a police affidavit filed in Everett District Court. Lucas, who stands 6-1 and weighs 200 pounds, jumped into the bed of his $40,000 truck. He held on as Mendoza sped off, the court papers said. "I don't really know how I was feeling," Lucas said. "I just had a lot of adrenaline going through me. It's a hard thing to describe. I just knew I needed to get the truck stopped, and I needed to get him out of it." Lucas was balancing in the bed as his truck swerved west on 180th Street. Mendoza stopped briefly, perhaps so Lucas could get out, but then started driving again, Lucas said. "He seemed pretty scared, like he didn't know what he was doing. I think he expected me to jump out of the truck," Lucas said. Lucas wasn't going anywhere. "By that point, I was pretty committed," he said. With the truck moving at freeway speeds, Lucas kicked in the back window with his steel-toed work boots. Lucas clubbed the man with rolled-up construction plans and an old trowel. Finally, Mendoza stopped about a half-mile down the road, according to the court document. "I needed to stop him. He just stole my truck, and I wasn't going to let him get away with it," Lucas said. Lucas jumped out of the back of the pickup, gave chase, and wrestled Mendoza to the ground. Two other men, who had seen what happened, helped subdue the renegade driver. They used plastic zip ties to cuff Mendoza's wrists until police arrived. "I knew I wanted to get him stopped," Lucas said. Mendoza is being held at the Snohomish County Jail for investigation of car theft and a warrant for parole violations. Bail is $10,000. Lucas suffered scrapes on his knee and forearms, he said. His willingness to help out was bruised, too. "It happened when I was trying to help somebody," Lucas said. "I will definitely think twice next time I see something." Still, he realized the whole incident could have been a lot worse. He could have been seriously injured and the driver could have put up more of a struggle. And just as he was trying to do the right thing for someone else, others stopped to help him. "That people actually decided to stop and help me," he said, "That was great." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 Jan 07 - 12:46 AM How to save a hairless dog? 'Hairless dog' species beats extinction Peru protects 'punk' animal given its ancient lineage By Andrei Khalip , Reuters, Jan 22, 2007 LIMA, Peru - His eyes gleaming with joy underneath a natural yellow mohawk, Josh the Peruvian Hairless Dog heads out to greet tourists at Lima's Pucllana ruins. About the size of an English pointer, Josh and his kin are not guard dogs, instead they are guarded behind the walls of this and other historic monuments on the Peruvian coast — the hairless hound's habitat for more than 3,000 years. ... Its history is long and rather sad, especially after the Spanish conquest starting in 1532. Native pre-Incan civilizations used the dogs for hunting and as pets for company. They are represented on the ceramic pottery of the Chimu, Moche and Chancay cultures found on the coast. They were sometimes mummified and buried along with people to help the departed find their way to the world of the dead or to continue serving their owners in the afterlife. The Spanish brought giant war dogs to fight the natives and would often amuse themselves by setting off one such dog against a small pack of the smaller local breed. "There are reports it could tear four, five hairless dogs in pieces easily," Vargas said, caressing Josh's head. For centuries afterwards, it mostly ceased being a pet animal and would roam along the coast feeding on mollusks, often hunted by people simply for fun or for skins, believed to help with arthritis and used sometimes as thermal bags due to a popular myth that they retain heat. As a result, the breed got to the 21st century on the brink of extinction, and that's when the government decided to safeguard it by ordering all archeological sites along the coast to have at least a pair -- after Huaca Pucllana's 1989 initiative. They are now also Peru's only own world-registered breed. "We know there are quite a few now, and there are people breeding them and people buying them here and for export — it is a luxury dog now," Vargas said, adding though there was still a lot of prejudice against the dog's naked skin. "Ugly dog, they call it, dirty dog, 'punk' dog. But it is much cleaner than hairy dogs — leaves no hair around the place, has no fleas, does not provoke allergies. And it is a great company and a live thermal bag in winter." Josh, his mother, Jala, and brother, Cuni, feel quite at home at the Lima ruin, where the breed had lived for millennia. "It's rather curious," Vargas said. "As soon as the museum closes it's like they say: 'Our home is ours again,' and start walking up and down the walls of the ruin. They are the masters here." Copyright 2007 Reuters Limited. [If you wanna dig, you gotta get TWO DOGS!] [Full story and photo at link, for now] |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 Jan 07 - 04:39 AM Tijuana police issued slingshots Guns confiscated amid allegations of collusion with drug runners The Associated Press Jan 23, 2007 TIJUANA, Mexico - The police department has issued about 60 slingshots to officers in the violent border city of Tijuana, where soldiers confiscated police weapons two weeks ago on allegations of collusion with drug traffickers. Municipal police spokesman Fernando Bojorquez said Monday that the slingshots, along with bags of ballbearings, were given to officers patrolling areas of the city visited by tourists. Tijuana's police force of 2,000 officers has been without guns since Jan. 5, but some patrol alongside armed state police. President Felipe Calderon sent 3,300 soldiers and federal police to Tijuana at the beginning of January to hunt down drug gangs. The soldiers swept police stations and took officers' guns for inspection amid allegations by federal investigators that a corrupt network of officers supports smugglers who traffic drugs into the U.S. The weapons are still being checked. About 100 police demonstrated outside Tijuana town hall on Monday demanding the return of their guns. "The arms are our tools for work," said officer Juan Manuel Nieves. "Do they want more police to be killed?" More than 300 people were slain in Tijuana last year including 13 police officers. © 2007 The Associated Press John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Jan 07 - 10:01 AM This post is going to be a mixed bag of sorts. I found photos of the hairless dogs via Google. This particular pooch seems to counter something I read, probably at Mudcat at one time on some trivia thread, about male dogs having nipples. I think the statement was that they don't, but this pooch clearly does. In the "for what it's worth" department--which may be nil. And though the biggest problem is in Ciudad Juarez, opposite El Paso, that last post triggered a memory of a troubling and unsolved mystery in Mexico, the murder of hundreds of young women. If you're subscribed to read the Washington Post you should be able to read this article. It is from Dec. 16, 2005, and starts: Unresolved Murders of Women Rankle in Mexican Border City New State Officials Seek Justice in Hundreds of Bungled Cases By Sylvia Moreno Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 16, 2005; Page A30 CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico -- Almost 18, Laura Berenice Monarrez was a serious student with dreams of a big future. She wanted to be a medical examiner, she told her mother in a long conversation on Sept. 18, 2001. Boys were just a distraction from her career plans, she said. Three days later, "Bere" Monarrez disappeared. Seven weeks after that, her body and those of seven other pretty young women were found in an abandoned cotton field beside a busy boulevard near downtown. All had been raped and strangled. Today the so-called campo algodonero or "cotton field" case remains unsolved, as do many of the 377 slayings of women and girls over the past 12 years in this gritty, industrial border city. "For us, four years have passed and we have a lot of programs, but we have no justice," said Benita Monarrez, 43. Although government funds have been established to compensate families of murder victims, she said, the money means nothing as long as her daughter's killer remains at large. "For me, that is injustice." For years, the mysterious deaths and disappearances of women have frustrated officials and terrified families in Juarez, a transient city where thousands of women live in shantytowns and work in maquiladoras, the factories on the U.S. border that produce electronic circuit boards and auto parts. About a fourth of the victims were kidnapped, raped and strangled in a similar way, leading victims' families to believe that a sexual serial killer remains on the loose. The whereabouts of almost 40 other women who have disappeared since 1993 are still unknown. And this year, the number of homicides with female victims has surged to 30, although authorities attribute 80 percent of them to domestic or family violence. find the rest online. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Jan 07 - 10:50 AM Good news for our science readers and writers! The flaws of Wikipedia are being addressed: Scholarpedia |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 Jan 07 - 07:35 PM Stily - Excellent picture of the hairless, although this one seems to be missing the tail-tuft hair that the first article indicated was "characteristic." Some variation within the breed is likely, of course. There have been several articles recently on various locales where large numbers of disappearances, almost invariably of women or children, have been reported, with some being confirmed as murders (sexual or otherwise), others attributed to "sex slavers," and some just "traditional brutality." It might merit a separate thread, but I can see that as being extremely depressing if many of them were all visible together in one place. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Jan 07 - 09:17 PM I poked around that Google page of images and found the following:
Humans probably brought this canine to the Americas 2,000 to 3,000 years ago during the migration from Asia across the Bering Strait. Ceramics from pre-Incan cultures show these dogs growling, giving birth, suckling and copulating. The Inca and other pre-Columbian cultures highly valued this breed, which is now surging in popularity in the United States and Europe, but ironically declining in status in Peru. It was adjacent to this photo on this page. Lots of search terms, should you be so inclined! Me, I'll stick with a really short-haired Am. Staff. Terrier and a Catahoula mix. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 Jan 07 - 10:32 PM I have no idea what the kennel clubs have to say about it, but the "Mexican hairless" (Chihuahua?) term was always, so far as I saw, applied to little lap dogs with white (or pink) skin. The Peruvians appear to be of a rather different kind; but the world is full of so many different and remarkable things that I can't quibble. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 23 Jan 07 - 10:33 PM The counts says 400. I wonder if Foolestroupe will tell of if it's off again. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Jan 07 - 12:13 AM Yours was actually post 571. That 400 is just a phantom. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 24 Jan 07 - 12:42 AM Yeah Stilly, 12 x 50 is hardly 400 - which I knew; but I couldn't resist tweaking Robin. Airline defends removing family from flight AirTran Airways backs decision to boot parents, toddler for temper tantrum The Associated Press, Updated: 3:06 p.m. CT Jan 23, 2007 ORLANDO, Fla. - AirTran Airways on Tuesday defended its decision to remove a Massachusetts couple from a flight after their crying 3-year-old daughter refused to take her seat before takeoff. AirTran officials said they followed Federal Aviation Administration rules that children age 2 and above must have their own seat and be wearing a seat belt upon takeoff. "The flight was already delayed 15 minutes and in fairness to the other 112 passengers on the plane, the crew made an operational decision to remove the family," AirTran spokeswoman Judy Graham-Weaver said. Julie and Gerry Kulesza, who were headed home to Boston on Jan. 14 from Fort Myers, said they just needed a little more time to calm their daughter, Elly. "We weren't given an opportunity to hold her, console her or anything," Julie Kulesza said in a telephone interview Tuesday. The Kuleszas said they told a flight attendant they had paid for their daughter's seat, but asked whether she could sit in her mother's lap. The request was denied. She was removed because "she was climbing under the seat and hitting the parents and wouldn't get in her seat" during boarding, Graham-Weaver said. The Orlando-based carrier reimbursed the family $595.80, the cost of the three tickets, and the Kuleszas flew home the next day. They also were offered three roundtrip tickets anywhere the airline flies, Graham-Weaver said. The father said his family would never fly AirTran again. © 2007 The Associated Press. What an abominable shame that the whole world can't stop for a spoiled 3 year old, -- -- or is it? John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Jan 07 - 10:03 AM I saw that earlier, then read the child behavior thread that has been going to a couple of days. It sounds like those parents set this kid up for the tantrum. They're lucky they were offered extra flights, let alone reimbursement for the original fare. Temper tantrums aren't difficult to avoid, but it means you have to head them off before they get started. There are all sorts of ways to do that. I have two kids, and we never had a tantrum because no one ever let them consider getting so wound up. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 24 Jan 07 - 12:19 PM Woman leaves town a $4 million surprise By ANGELA K. BROWN, The Associated Press link GRANDVIEW [Texas]-- Wynonia Pallmeyer never lived in Grandview. But once a month for more than a decade, she drove 35 miles from her home in Fort Worth to this small town she had grown to love. Few here knew the unassuming and sometimes tenacious silver-haired woman, other than people involved in the nursing home where her husband, Edward, lived the last years of his life. Now Pallmeyer has made a lasting mark on the town, leaving it nearly $4 million, almost a third of her $14 million estate. "I'm not surprised by her generosity -- just that she had that much money," said Martha Bennett, a Grandview Bank vice president who served with Pallmeyer on the nursing home's board. "You just don't run into people like that." Pallmeyer's relationship with Grandview, a town of about 1,400, began in the mid-1980s after her husband became ill and needed long-term care. Someone referred her to the not-for-profit Grandview Nursing Home, ranked among the best in Texas. She was so pleased with the home that she joined its board and continued to serve long after her husband's death. When the facility needed something -- an ice cream machine, a whirlpool, a van, money for a chapel -- Pallmeyer provided it, administrator Barbara LeBaron said. Although she wore diamond jewelry and drove a Mercedes, Pallmeyer never flaunted her money, friends said. She lived in a modest 2,000-square-foot house built in 1959 and valued at $150,500. Pallmeyer, who died at 86 in June 2005, apparently didn't know the total value of her estate -- which she amassed over decades with her husband by buying real estate and mineral rights. Friends said she had a keen business sense. So Pallmeyer, who had no children or other relatives, requested in her will that three of her friends form a committee to decide how her riches would be distributed after her death. "For some odd reason, she didn't want to make those choices herself," said the Rev. Donnie Voss, a senior associate pastor at Travis Avenue Baptist Church in Fort Worth, which Pallmeyer attended for decades. "But she was clear in her intent that the money would go to charitable causes." Committee member Rudolph McDuff, a former Grandview mayor who knew Pallmeyer for 25 years, said she was "a nice lady who knew what she wanted to do and didn't listen to nobody." She never discussed leaving her money to the town but said she wanted the nursing home taken care of, McDuff said. So all of McDuff's recommendations -- charities and churches -- involved Grandview. The nursing home will receive about $2 million. LeBaron said she had no idea how much it was receiving until she and a co-worker opened an envelope and found a check for almost $1 million last fall, after the will was finalized. The rest of the money will arrive later. "We had to look at it," LeBaron said with a laugh. "To think what an effect it could have for us and that somebody could be that generous." The nursing home had already borrowed nearly $1.5 million from the federal government to build a therapy wing, beauty salon and break room. Now the board expects to be able to repay the loan sooner, LeBaron said. The Grandview Youth Association, which has received about half of its $200,000, has already built a youth football field. It plans to build baseball and soccer fields and a pavilion to be named after Pallmeyer, said Janet Smith, an association board member. The Grandview community center, closed for more than a year, plans to use its $600,000 for much-needed renovations, and the town's library will use its $200,000 for expansion. "Knowing her the way I did, I knew she'd be satisfied with giving it to different groups instead of one person or organization," McDuff said. Among the other beneficiaries are several universities in North Texas and a homeless shelter and a charitable foundation in Fort Worth. The other two committee members were a minister at Pallmeyer's church and one of her neighbors in Fort Worth. Community leaders say Pallmeyer's legacy and what her gift will mean can't be overestimated. "It's hard to describe in words how you feel," said Robert Stewart, president and CEO of Grandview Bank. "In Grandview, we have a very small business community, and obviously they struggle for funding. These gifts are going to go a long way toward taking care of the needs these organizations have." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 25 Jan 07 - 11:19 AM U. of N.C. goofs, tells 2,700 they're in |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Jan 07 - 12:02 AM Mountain Lion Attacks Hiker in California January 25, 2007 SAN FRANCISCO - Wildlife officials on Thursday credited a woman with saving her husband's life by clubbing a mountain lion that attacked him while the couple were hiking in a California state park. Jim and Nell Hamm, who will celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary next month, were hiking in Prairie Creek Redwoods State Park when the lion pounced. "He didn't scream. It was a different, horrible plea for help, and I turned around, and by then the cat had wrestled Jim to the ground," Nell Hamm said in an interview from the hospital where her husband was recovering from a torn scalp, puncture wounds and other injuries. After the attack, game wardens closed the park about 320 miles north of San Francisco and released hounds to track the lion. They later shot and killed a pair of lions found near the trail where the attack happened. The carcasses were flown to a state forensics lab to determine if either animal mauled the man. Although the Hamms are experienced hikers, neither had seen a mountain lion before Jim Hamm was mauled, his wife said. Nell Hamm said she grabbed a four-inch-wide log and beat the animal with it, but it would not release its hold on her husband's head. "Jim was talking to me all through this, and he said, 'I've got a pen in my pocket and get the pen and jab him in the eye,'" she said. "So I got the pen and tried to put it in his eye, but it didn't want to go in as easy as I thought it would." When the pen bent and became useless, Nell Hamm went back to using the log. The lion eventually let go and, with blood on its snout, stood staring at the woman. She screamed and waved the log until the animal walked away. "She saved his life, there is no doubt about it," said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the Department of Fish and Game. Nell Hamm, 65, said she was scared to leave her dazed, bleeding husband alone, so the couple walked a quarter-mile to a trail head, where she gathered branches to protect them if more lions came around. They waited until a ranger came by and summoned help. "My concern was to get Jim out of there," she said. "I told him, 'Get up, get up, walk,' and he did." Jim Hamm, 70, was in fair condition Thursday. He had to have his lips stitched back together and underwent surgery for lacerations on his head and body. He told his wife he still wants to make the trip to New Zealand they planned for their anniversary, she said. Nell Hamm warned people never to hike in the backcountry alone. Park rangers told the couple if Jim Hamm had been alone, he probably would not have survived. "We fought harder than we ever have to save his life, and we fought together," she said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 27 Jan 07 - 01:14 PM This could be a song challenge, but I think the song's already been written - several times: Cops: Escapee surfaces at NASCAR track Fugitive driving singer Gayle's bus says he was to give racer Stewart a ride The Associated Press, Updated: 4:01 p.m. CT Jan 26, 2007 NASHVILLE, Tenn. - It has all the makings of a country song: an escaped prisoner, his terminally ill mother, a Wal-Mart truck, NASCAR and a Nashville singer's tour bus. Since Christopher Daniel Gay, 32, escaped from a prisoner transport van Sunday in South Carolina, police say, he has evaded a five-state manhunt by stealing a pickup, a big rig and the bus that belongs to singer Crystal Gayle. No one has been reported injured, and the search for him continued Friday. Initially, police say, his motive for fleeing was simple. "I take it he was just trying to see his mom," said Michael Douglas, the police chief in Pleasant View, Tenn., near the home where Gay's mother is dying of cancer. Gay, who has a history of theft involving trucks and other heavy equipment, escaped during a bathroom break in Hardeeville, S.C., as he was being taken from Texas to face felony theft charges in Alabama. The van was taking a route allowing it to pick up prisoners in other states. He stole a pickup truck in South Carolina and made his way more than 300 miles northwest to Manchester, Tenn., where he stole a Wal-Mart tractor-trailer filled with $300,000 worth of merchandise, police said. On Tuesday, Gay got to within 50 yards of his mother's home, about 25 miles northwest of Nashville, but abandoned the Wal-Mart truck1 and fled into some woods, authorities said. "What he done was wrong, but he knows his mama don't have long," his mother, Anna Shull, told The Tennessean this week. Efforts to contact Gay's family were unsuccessful Friday. Authorities don't think Gay got to see his mother. Since then, authorities believe he stole the bus belonging to Gayle — the younger sister of Loretta Lynn, known for her long hair and hits such as "Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue." A man believed to be Gay arrived Thursday night at USA International Speedway in Lakeland, Fla., telling the track's manager he was there with NASCAR racer Tony Stewart and asking him for help getting a new generator for the tour bus he was driving, officials said. The Speedfest 2007 event is being held there this week, but there are no plans for Stewart to appear. "His story just started having a lot of inconsistencies, so we asked him for some identification," said speedway President Bill Martino in a phone interview Friday. The man, who Martino said was clean-cut and dressed nicely, refused and fled. Track officials, suspicious of the man's story, provided authorities with the license plate number of the tour bus. 'There's got to be a country song ...' Gayle didn't know the bus was missing from the Nashville garage where it was parked until speedway officials called Thursday night, police said. Her husband and manager, Bill Gatzimos, couldn't immediately be reached for comment Friday, but he told WSMV-TV, "There's got to be a country song in having your bus stolen and taken for a joyride by a fugitive." © 2007 The Associated Press. 1 "big rig from Walmart" would probably scan better in your song.(?) John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 27 Jan 07 - 06:23 PM But he couldn't stay away from them NASCAR tracks: Police arrest escapee at NASCAR track Christopher Daniel Gay, 32, was arrested around 11 p.m. Friday at the Daytona International Speedway where he had been watching a race, said Lt. Patrick Myers, spokesman for Daytona Beach Police. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 27 Jan 07 - 07:08 PM I didn't get to see my dyin' mama, Lying on her deathhbed, on her back, But at least I got to steal a tour-bus And watch those NASCAR drivers round the track. Yeah, there's some kinda ballad in there. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 27 Jan 07 - 08:56 PM I thought his momma's statement was 'bout half way there: "What he done was wrong, but he knows his mama don't have long," John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 28 Jan 07 - 05:29 AM New Mother Lied About Her Age The Associated Press Updated: 1:17 a.m. CT Jan 28, 2007 LONDON - A 67-year-old woman who is believed to be the world's oldest new mother told a British Sunday newspaper she lied to a U.S. fertility clinic — saying she was 55 — to get treatment. Carmela Bousada said in her first interview since she gave birth to twin boys on Dec. 29 that she sold her house in Spain to raise $59,000 to pay for in vitro fertilization at a California clinic, The News of the World reported. "I think everyone should become a mother at the right time for them," Bousada said in a video of the interview provided to Associated Press Television News. "Often circumstances put you between a rock and a hard place and maybe things shouldn't have been done in the way they were done but that was the only way to achieve the thing I had always dreamed of and I did it," she said. Bousada turned 67 this month but said she told the Pacific Fertility Center in Los Angeles she was 55 — the clinic's cut off for treating single women, the report said. She said the clinic did not ask her for identification. Dr. Vicken Sahakian, the clinic's medical director, confirmed late Saturday that he treated Bousada, but said clinic procedures would have required her to provide her passport. "I did not know that she was 66," Sahakian told The Associated Press, declining to comment on her case further. "We do check identity." Looking for a husband Bousada now hopes to find a younger husband to help raise her two sons, Pau and Christian, the newspaper said. The retired department store employee lived with her elderly mother for her entire life in Cadiz, in southern Spain. She hatched her plan to have children after her mother died, at an unspecified age, in 2005, the newspaper said. She kept her plan secret from her family and when she finally told them she was two months pregnant, they thought she was joking. "Yes, I am old of course, but if I live as long as my mom did, imagine, I could even have grandchildren," she said in the video. She was hospitalized during her pregnancy after she collapsed in a supermarket, but said her health has been good since she delivered. "When the doctors said they had to make an incision for the Caesarian, I told them, 'Make it really low so that I can still wear a bikini,"' Bousada was quoted as saying. The twins, who were born seven weeks premature, remained in hospital for three weeks, but are now healthy and at home with Bousada, the report said. Romanian citizen Adriana Iliescu gave birth to baby Eliza Maria in January 2005, also at the age of 66. Bousada was 130 days older than Iliescu when she gave birth. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: wysiwyg Date: 29 Jan 07 - 09:39 PM Judge orders new trial after juror sips vodka during proceedings LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — A judge ordered a new trial in a case in which a juror sipped vodka throughout the trial. Jefferson County Circuit Judge Geoffrey Morris said in his order that new trials may be granted only in the most extreme circumstances. But he said "the inexcusable, disruptive behavior of this juror was so extraordinary as to render this relief appropriate." The case involved a lawsuit brought by a woman who claimed she was injured when a garbage truck ran into her car. The jury foreman told Morris that the juror had been disruptive and uncooperative during deliberations, and eventually became so inebriated she could not participate. MORE at COURTTV.COM |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 30 Jan 07 - 04:49 AM Naked student interrupts lunch Prank 'went a little farther than he intended,' police officer says The Associated Press Updated: 9:36 p.m. CT Jan 29, 2007 WESTERVILLE, Ohio - A high school lunch period was disrupted Monday by a greased, naked student who ran around screaming and flailing his arms until police twice used a stun gun on him, authorities said. Taylor Killian, 18, had rubbed his body with grapeseed oil to keep from being caught, and got up after the first time he was shocked to continue running toward a group of frightened students huddled in a corner at Westerville North High School, Lt. Jeff Gaylor said. "That prank went a little farther than he intended, I guess," Gaylor said. Officer Doug Staysniak was monitoring the lunch period when Killian, with long hair and a full beard, ran in the room toward students, who screamed and ran away. The officer is normally assigned to a middle school and did not recognize Killian as a student, Gaylor said. Police said that an administrator ordered Killian to stop, but that the student made a sexual gesture and kept running. Killian is charged with inducing panic, public indecency, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. He was being held at the county jail Monday, and it was not known whether he had a lawyer. School officials reported that Killian was a good student, Gaylor said. There was no indication of substance abuse or a medical problem. © 2007 The Associated Press Must have been a very slow day at the schoolhouse, and a rather dull time at the newsroom for this one to get in; but do note that last paragraph. Sorry girls, no pictures with the article. John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 30 Jan 07 - 12:38 PM Let's hope they have the good sense to leave it as a prank and get that young man out of jail, out of the courtroom, and back into his classes. Why on earth should he be sitting in jail? Clearly he wasn't armed! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 31 Jan 07 - 10:20 PM Suspicious devices close Boston bridges Suspicious devices part of marketing plan Promotion of 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force' cartoon closes Boston bridges The Associated Press Updated: 7:26 p.m. CT Jan 31, 2007 BOSTON - More than 10 blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. Most if not all of the devices depict a character giving the finger. Boston police said Wednesday night one person had been arrested in connection with the hoax, and authorities scheduled a 9 p.m. news conference to provide more details. Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless. "It's a hoax — and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick, who said he'll speak to the state's attorney general "about what recourse we may have." Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc. and parent of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," a surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball. "The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement, issued a few hours after reports of the first devices came in. It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston; New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Atlanta; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Philadelphia. ... ... Does this new attitude mean the kids would get in trouble for welding the trolley car to the tracks, or putting the police car on top of the dome, or ... (There are at least 3 books that even I know of with much more creative jokes by the boys and girls at the beaver house, amd now the mayor gets mad 'cause a talking milkshake gives him the finger? John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Feb 07 - 10:30 AM Big baby! Ouch! link Big baby causes sensation in Cancun AP - CANCUN, Mexico - He is called "Super Tonio," and at a whopping birth weight of 14.5 pounds, the little fellow is causing a sensation in this Mexican resort city. Cancun residents have crowded the nursery ward's window to see Antonio Vasconcelos, who was born early Monday by Caesarean section. The baby drinks 5 ounces of milk every three hours, and measures 22 inches in length. "We haven't found any abnormality in the child, there are some signs of high blood sugar, and a slight blood infection, but that is being controlled so that the child can get on with his normal life in a few more days," Narciso Perez Bravo, the hospital's director, said on Wednesday. In Brazil, a baby born in January 2005 in the city of Salvador weighed 16 pounds, 11 ounces at birth. According to Guinness World Records, the heaviest baby born to a healthy mother was a boy weighing 22 pounds, 8 ounces, born in Aversa, Italy, in September 1955. Antonio's mother, Teresa Alejandra Cruz, 23, and father, Luis Vasconcelos, 38, said they were proud of the boy, and noted that Cruz had given birth to a baby girl seven years ago who weighed 11.46 pounds. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Feb 07 - 10:48 AM Bill would require labels on analog TVs STAR-TELEGRAM link Super Bowl aficionados, consider yourself warned. If you're planning on buying a new TV to watch the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts face off this weekend, make sure you get the right TV. If you don't, your set could be dark for future Super Bowls. That's because broadcasters will stop transmitting analog signals Feb. 17, 2009, and TVs that can't receive all-digital broadcasts -- primarily older sets that use antennas -- won't work without converter boxes. U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, wants warning labels put on any remaining analog TVs up for sale so consumers know what they're buying. "Digital televisions are selling like umbrellas in a thunderstorm, outpacing all expectations, and the Feb. 17, 2009, transition date is still two years away," said Barton, who filed the Digital TV Education Bill along with Reps. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Fred Upton, R-Mich. "But we should use our transition time wisely. "This legislation ... will ensure that the relatively small number of consumers who are still using those analog televisions with over-the-air antennas in two years understand what they need to do." Critics say the bill is a way for the GOP to keep some oversight of the issue. Democrats are expected to oversee the transition to digital, as well as a coupon program designed to help make the switch more affordable. Barton said the proposal is in response to a bill that went into effect last year, requiring analog broadcasts to switch to digital broadcasts by 2009. He said he wanted to boost public education provisions. Consumers who watch TV by cable or satellite don't have to worry; those who use antennas can get a converter box to make their sets still work. The Federal Communications Commission estimates that about 14 percent of households with TVs used antennas in 2005. "That number is likely to dwindle even further as more consumers subscribe to satellite and cable service," Barton said. "And under FCC rules, all analog television receivers manufactured after March 1, 2007, must also be able to receive digital signals over the air, so people with new televisions will not need converter boxes." Manufacturers have been working to make many TVs digital-ready for some time. At Best Buy near Ridgmar Mall, most of the television sets are already digital-ready. Even though warning labels aren't yet required, employees say they make sure that potential buyers know which TVs will be affected by the digital change, said John Johnson, a salesman there. "We only have a few small TVs that will be impacted," he said. "Some say if it lasts a couple of years, that's OK." DIGITAL TV IS COMING Why change: Broadcasters have used analog technology since the 1940s to put TV into Americans' homes. Digital TV is a newer way to do that. Congress is requiring the switch to give viewers better sound and picture quality and allow for more channels. But without a converter, analog TVs won't receive the broadcasts after the digital switch is made Feb. 17, 2009. What the bill would do: The legislation would require retailers to post signs near any analog-only TVs; cable and satellite operators to include information in their bills about the transition; broadcasters to file reports with the Federal Communications Commission about consumer-education efforts; the FCC to create a public-outreach program and give Congress progress reports on those efforts; and the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration to establish energy standards for digital-to-analog converter boxes. Converter boxes: These boxes hook up to analog TV sets to let them receive digital broadcasts. Officials say they aren't sure how much they will cost, but estimates are that it will be less than $100 per box, although some could sell for more than $200. The NTIA will run a "coupon" program geared to cut the cost of a converter box by $40. The program has not launched yet but ultimately will provide two coupons by mail to households that request them. Applications for the coupons will be available some time between Jan. 1, 2008, and March 31, 2009. www.ntia.doc.gov SOURCE: Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Star-Telegram research |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Donuel Date: 01 Feb 07 - 06:26 PM Al Gore nominated for Nobel Peace Prize OSLO, Norway - Former Vice President Al Gore was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world's attention to the dangers of global warming, a Norwegian lawmaker said Thursday. "A prerequisite for winning the Nobel Peace Prize is making a difference, and Al Gore has made a difference," Conservative Member of Parliament Boerge Brende, a former minister of environment and then of trade, told The Associated Press. Brende said he joined political opponent Heidi Soerensen of the Socialist Left Party to nominate Gore as well as Canadian Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier before the nomination deadline expired Thursday. "Al Gore, like no other, has put climate change on the agenda. Gore uses his position to get politicians to understand, while Sheila works from the ground up," Brende said. During eight years as Bill Clinton's vice president, Gore pushed for climate measures, including for the Kyoto Treaty. Since leaving office in 2001 he has campaigned worldwide, including with his Oscar-nominated documentary on climate change called "An Inconvenient Truth." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Feb 07 - 01:41 AM Lots of people get nominated for these prizes--the trick is to win! SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 06 Feb 07 - 05:06 AM Initiative would make kids mandatory Gay marriage proponents want couples to have children or get annulment The Associated Press, 9:41 p.m. CT Feb 5, 2007 OLYMPIA, Wash. - Proponents of same-sex marriage have introduced a ballot measure that would require heterosexual couples to have a child within three years or have their marriages annulled. The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance acknowledged on its Web site that the initiative was "absurd" but hoped the idea prompts "discussion about the many misguided assumptions" underlying a state Supreme Court ruling that upheld a ban on same-sex marriage. The measure would require couples to prove they can have children to get a marriage license. Couples who do not have children within three years could have their marriages annulled. All other marriages would be defined as "unrecognized," making those couples ineligible for marriage benefits. The paperwork for the measure was submitted last month. Supporters must gather at least 224,800 signatures by July 6 to put it on the November ballot. The group said the proposal was aimed at "social conservatives who have long screamed that marriage exists for the sole purpose of procreation." Cheryl Haskins, executive director of Allies for Marriage and Children, said opponents of same-sex marriage want only to preserve marriage as the union of a man and a woman. "Some of those unions produce children and some of them don't," she said. © 2007 The Associated Press John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Feb 07 - 02:09 PM So much for all of the security measures taken by individuals to protect themselves, and from the credit reporting agencies to protect the info. Yahoos like this group get it and aren't very careful. Sheesh! More found documents to be destroyed STAR-TELEGRAM HURST [TX]— More documents are scheduled to be burned Tuesday after boxes of the paperwork which contained identity information were found Monday discarded in a trash bin, police said. Police were notified about the paperwork found in the 700 block of Texas 10. The documents were traced to Metro Credit Services, which went out of businesses several weeks ago and left the documents in an office, police said. "The business was a collection agency and they would receive documents with all this information on them," said Hurst police Sgt. Craig Teague. The owner of the office hired workers to clean out the office and threw out the documents not knowing they had personal information, police said. Authorities spent about two hours Monday burning the documents, which contained driver's license numbers, residents' date-of-births and social security numbers. Officials plan to spend another two hours Tuesday burning more documents. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Don Firth Date: 06 Feb 07 - 02:34 PM I heard that story about the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance wanting marriages that don't produce children every three years annulled just after the clock radio came on this morning, and I thought I was still in the throes of one of those Fritos with salsa dip, anchovy pizza, chocolate malt, and a big glass of grape juice before going to bed type dreams. No one, not even that bunch, could be that deep in the Abyss of Abject Asininity. But lo! I find it's true!! There is indeed ample reason for the weeping of Jesus! Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 06 Feb 07 - 03:05 PM it's irony, Don. Irony! What you get from Geritol. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: frogprince Date: 06 Feb 07 - 09:13 PM Don, a bit surprised at you not getting tbe point : ). I remember seeing old fundamentalist literature, dating to 50 years or more before anyone ever mentioned the idea of gay marriage, which declared that no woman should ever be allowed to marry if it was known that she could not produce children. At least that's one screwed up idea that, so far as I know, has largely died out. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Don Firth Date: 06 Feb 07 - 10:15 PM Later on, I read the story in the Seattle Times. I definitely had the wrong end of the stick. But I was half asleep when I heard it. Nice touch. I wonder if all those long-time married couples who are heavily into "protecting the sanctity of marriage" and who stay together after menopause will suddenly find themselves "living in sin." How's that for a hot flash? Don Firth |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Feb 07 - 10:32 PM Meanwhile, the most bizarre story, and one I heard when I first woke up, had to do with the astronaut love triangle. Astronaut charged with attempted murder By MIKE SCHNEIDER and ERIN McCLAM Associated Press Writers ORLANDO, Fla. — She was the Robochick. He was Billy-O. According to police, her obsession with him led her to drive 900 miles from Houston to Orlando, bringing with her a trenchcoat and wig, armed with a BB gun and pepper spray, and wearing a diaper to avoid bathroom breaks on the arduous drive. Once in Florida, Lisa "Robochick" Nowak apparently confronted the woman she believed was her rival for the affections of William "Billy-O" Oefelein. And this tawdry love triangle has one more twist — it involves two astronauts. Nowak, 43, a married mother of three who flew on a space shuttle in July, was charged with attempted murder, accused of hatching an extraordinary plot to kidnap Colleen Shipman, who she believed was romantically involved with Oefelein, a space shuttle pilot. Specifically, police said, Nowak confronted Shipman, who was in her car at the Orlando airport, and sprayed something at her, possibly pepper spray. At first the astronaut was charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts. Then prosecutors upped the charge to attempted murder, basing it on the weapons and other items they said police had found with Nowak or in her car: pepper spray, a BB-gun, a new steel mallet, knife and rubber tubing. Nowak was released from jail on $25,500 bail and ordered to wear a monitoring device. Her lawyer, Donald Lykkebak, took issue with the most serious charges. "In the imaginations of the police officers, they extend these facts out into areas where the facts can't be supported," Lykkebak said. NASA put Nowak on a 30-day leave and removed her from mission duties. Agency spokesman John Ira Petty at Johnson Space Center in Houston said he was concerned about the people involved and their families. But, he added, "We try not to concern ourselves with our employees' personal lives." The details of the relationships of all three were unclear. Nowak and Oefelein, who both live in the Houston area, had trained together as astronauts, but never flew into space together. Shipman, 30, works at Patrick Air Force Base near Kennedy Space Center. Earlier, Nowak was quoted by police as saying she and Oefelein had something "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship." Neither Oefelein nor Shipman could be reached for comment Tuesday, nor could Nowak's husband be found. But police found a letter in Nowak's car that "indicated how much Mrs. Nowak loved Mr. Oefelein," the arrest affidavit said. And Nowak had copies of e-mails between Shipman and Oefelein. Nowak and her husband separated several weeks ago after 19 years of marriage, according to a statement put out by her family. "Personally, Lisa is an extremely caring and dedicated mother to her three children," the statement said. "Considering both her personal and professional life, these alleged events are completely out of character and have come as a tremendous shock to our family." Accustomed to wearing astronaut diapers during the space shuttle's launch and return to Earth, Nowak wore them on the drive to Orlando so she would not have to make bathroom stops, police said. There, according to police, Nowak donned a wig and trench coat, boarded an airport shuttle bus with Shipman and followed her to her car. Then, crying, Nowak sprayed a chemical into the car. Shipman drove to a parking lot booth and sought help. A police affidavit made public Tuesday said Nowak had "stealthily followed the victim while in disguise and possessed multiple deadly weapons." The affidavit said the circumstances of the case "create a well-founded fear" and gave investigators "probable cause to believe that Mrs. Nowak intended to murder Ms. Shipman." Lykkebak said that Nowak only wanted to talk to Shipman. Asked about the weapons, he said, "You can sit and speculate all day." The judge also ordered Nowak to stay away from Shipman and to wear an electronic monitoring device upon returning to her home in Houston. A vague profile began to emerge of Nowak, who graduated from high school in Maryland in 1981 and the U.S. Naval Academy in 1985. She has won various Navy service awards. In a September interview with Ladies' Home Journal, Nowak said her husband, Richard, "works in Mission Control, so he's part of the whole space business, too. And supportive also." On Tuesday, a Houston neighbor, Bryan Lam, told The Associated Press that in November he heard the sounds of dishes being thrown inside the house and the police came. "I've seen them arguing before," he said. Nowak, in a NASA interview last year, before her mission aboard Discovery, as well as in an interview with ABC News, spoke about the strain her career placed on her family. She has twin 5-year-old girls and a son who is 14 or 15. "It's a sacrifice for our own personal time and our families and the people around us," she said in the NASA interview. "But I do think it's worth it because if you don't explore and take risks and go do all these things, then everything will stay the same." In an in-flight news conference aboard Discovery last summer, she talked about waiting nearly 10 years for her first space flight. "It's been a long wait, but it's worth the wait," she said. NASA astronauts often have nicknames, at least among their crewmates and Mission Control. Aboard Discovery last July, Nowak and crewmate Stephanie Wilson were known as "the Robochicks" because they operated the shuttle's robotic arm that checked the spacecraft for damage. A smiling, put-together woman in her NASA photos, Nowak's police mug shot showed a fatigued, haggard face with scraggly hair. Oefelein, a 41-year-old Navy commander nicknamed "Billy-O" by his comrades, trained with Nowak but never flew with her. He piloted a Discovery mission in December to the space station where astronauts rewired the outpost, installed a new $11 million section and dropped off a new American crew member. Oefelein is unmarried but has two children. He began his aviation career as a teenager, flying floatplanes in Alaska. The Orlando Sentinel reported Shipman is an engineer assigned to the 45th Launch Support Squadron at Patrick air base, and a Federal Aviation Administration pilot directory indicates she is certified as a student pilot. Chief astronaut Steve Lindsey, who flew with Nowak to the space station last July aboard Discovery, and fellow astronaut Chris Ferguson attended Monday's court hearing. "Our primary concern is her health and well-being and that she get through this," Lindsey told reporters afterward. Ferguson said he was "perplexed" by Nowak's alleged actions. NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters said shuttle crews that fly for two-week stints do not go through psychiatric screenings. She said crews assigned to the space station are screened before, during and after missions. NASA will not conduct an investigation, Cloutier-Lemasters said. At least one retired astronaut, Jerry Linenger, said the space agency should review its psychological screening process. With NASA talking about a 2 1/2-year trip to Mars, it would be dangerous for someone to "snap like this" during the mission, he said. "An astronaut is probably the most studied human being by the time you go through your testing, your training," Linenger said. "I think there's still a lot of unknowns out there." ___ AP National Writer Erin McClam reported from New York for this story. AP writers Malcolm Ritter in New York, Seth Borenstein in Washington, Rasha Madkour in Houston, Kelli Kennedy in Miami and Jim Ellis in Cape Canaveral contributed to this report. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 08 Feb 07 - 02:28 AM Police: Angry thief rams car into store STAR-TELEGRAM link BEDFORD [TX]— An irate thief rammed his car into the front doors of a gas station twice after an employee quizzed him about paying for a small jar of lip balm, police said Wednesday. The impacts were enough to crack the front door frame, police said. No one had been arrested as of Wednesday, but police were tracking the thief using a license plate number the employee wrote down while the man was ramming the store with his car. The theft happened about 2 a.m. Tuesday in the 2200 block of Murphy Drive. The clerk told police that a man about 6-foot-2 and weighing 200 pounds walked into the Texaco Food Mart, picked up a small jar of Carmex and started to walk out. As he reached the front door, the clerk asked him if he was going to pay for it, police said. The man strolled out, got into a white two-door car and then drove the car into the front door, police said. He backed up and then rammed the front door a second time before driving away, police said. The thief took off with the $1.39 Carmex and caused about $2,000 in damage. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 08 Feb 07 - 02:34 AM Here's a nice story! Rescue turns second-grader, custodian into heroes STAR-TELEGRAM link It was loud as boys and girls giggled and gabbed in the Westcliff Elementary School cafeteria. Then things turned serious. A second-grader began choking on a crunchy cheese snack. "His face started turning red," said Brendon Peden, 8. "His face kept getting redder and redder. Then, it got purple." Brendon was soon on his feet trying to save his classmate with the Heimlich maneuver. Brendon had seen it work on television, but he needed more muscle. "I heard some yelling," said Billy Davis, head custodian at Westcliff for 18 years. He picked up the two boys and the chair and performed a quick Heimlich. "Whatever he had in his throat, came out," Davis said. "I'm just glad I was there. He got a second chance." Next week, Davis and Brendon will be recognized at a Fort Worth school board meeting for their heroism on that January day. The two are stars at Westcliff Elementary, but they remain somewhat low-key about their status on campus. "We're just regular heroes, not superheroes," Brendon said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 08 Feb 07 - 03:04 AM Dog wins bite fight with robbery suspect link WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Man bites dog; dog bites back. That was the sequence when Alsatian police dog Edge cornered two suspects on a cliff side after a grocery store robbery in Napier, New Zealand, police said on Thursday. One of the suspects leaped down the slope and landed almost directly into the hands of police officers waiting at the bottom. The other suspect, who was armed with a knife took on Edge, and bit the dog in the struggle. "He bit the dog first," Detective Sergeant John McGregor told The Associated Press. Edge was unfazed, sinking his teeth into his attacker. "The dog did win the fight, the offender ended up with one or two lacerations," McGregor said. "I think he knew he was going to get bitten - so he bit the dog first." Two men were arrested and appeared in Napier District Court Wednesday charged with aggravated robbery for the attack on the grocery store on Tuesday, during which the owner was stabbed. They were ordered to remain in police custody until Feb. 21. In June 2006 Edge underwent emergency surgery after an offender stabbed him in the chest with a hunting knife. After surgery and a blood transfusion, the dog made a complete recovery. Napier is a coastal city 125 miles north of the capital, Wellington. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 11 Feb 07 - 06:15 AM Linked as a sidebar "issue of interest" at MSNBC, a video report should be at: Man invents 'no foam' beer tap Feb. 8: A Wisconsin man says he's got the answer for the perfect mug of beer. It's an electronic beer tap that eliminates the head of foam. WEAU's Mary Rinzel reports. NBC News Channel As my connection is too slow to make looking at videos worthwhile, I'll just hope the link works. Posted here in the backwater area, since a too public announcement could lead to strife and rancor. In a separate article: Scientist serves up doughnuts with a kick Also including "Perky pastries; hair-care treatment, lodging from lock-ups " COMMENTARY , By Brian Tracey, Business Editor, MSNBC That cup of coffee just not getting it done anymore? How about a Buzz Donut or a Buzzed Bagel? That's what molecular scientist Robert Bohannon has come up with. Bohannon says he's developed a way to add caffeine to baked goods, without the bitter taste associated with the stimulant. Each piece of pastry is the equivalent of about two cups of coffee. "This gives people the opportunity if they want to have a glass of milk and want to have caffeine. It will get them going," Bohannon said. The amount of caffeine in his creations can vary, but Bohannon can easily put 100 milligrams of caffeine — the equivalent of a 5-ounce cup of drip-brewed coffee — into the treats he plans to market under the "Buzz Donuts" and "Buzzed Bagels" names. Bohannon, who runs medical-testing firm as well as owning Sips Coffee & Tea cafe in Durham, N.C., isn't selling the amped-up baked goods yet, but he says he thinks there's demand the snacks. "There's some mornings that I'd like juice instead of coffee but I still want that caffeine kick," said Stephanie Harris, a customer at Sips Coffee & Tea. "So I would love to have a caffeinated bagel or caffeinated doughnut. That would be awesome." But with waistlines and anxiety already expanding across the nation, some observers already question whether it's wise to combine two key sources of these problems — caffeine and calories. "I see nothing positive from this," said Barry Popkin, a nutrition scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "In many ways we're creating a super caffeine generation. They're undersleeping, they consume a lot of caffeine to stay awake but they don't understand there are health effects. Bohannon said recently began seeking patents and shopping the products to companies including Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks Corp. There's no word yet on whether the companies like the idea. We're betting at least Starbucks is going to take a pass. Not-so bad ideas Looking for an unusual last-minute Valentine's day gift for your sweetie? Well, now about treating her with an appointment an upscale London beauty salon that says it can give her hair the ultimate shine by treating it with a mixture that includes semen from thoroughbred bulls.Hari's in the ritzy Chelsea neighborhood offers a 45-minute "Aberdeen Organic Hair" treatment that involves massaging a protein-rich mixture of bull semen and a plant root into the client's hair, a spokeswoman said.Owner Hari Salem told media that he tried hundreds of products — including wild avocados and truffle oil — before hitting on bull semen as the elusive element in a formula for making hair look gorgeous."The semen is refrigerated before use and doesn't smell," Salem told the U.K.'s Metro newspaper. "It leaves your hair looking wonderfully soft and thick."He said the treatment will be offered providing the bulls can keep up the supply.The bulls may have to choose between treating hair or creating heirs. Guests will be free to check out when they please if Hungary succeeds in converting its hulking jails into luxury hotels.Keen to fill a hole in its budget and replace some of its overcrowded prisons with new facilities, the Hungarian government is talking to a Spanish firm interested in buying its jails in prime downtown locations.Once home to some of the country's most dangerous criminals, the star-shaped Csillag prison in the south-eastern city of Szeged is one jail that could be sold, with the proceeds used to build a more modern, humane prison in the suburbs."You could do marvels with that building," said State Secretary Ferenc Kondorosi, who noted Hungary's prisons have a 138 percent occupancy rate.We're hoping future guests will be treated better, otherwise they might actually prefer solitary confinement. © 2007 MSNBC Interactive© 2007 MSNBC InteractiveThe Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. Maybe you didn't really want to know? John |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Feb 07 - 12:31 PM One wonders what kind of family these kids have grown up in? And will the parents be held accountable for their children's behavior? 10-Year-Old Girl Charged in Store Attack From Associated Press, February 12, 2007 BOSTON - A gang of girls attacked a woman at a discount store, hitting and kicking her and tearing off her clothes, said police, who arrested a 10-year-old girl accused of being involved. The girl, who was not identified, was charged with assault and battery for kicking the 22-year-old woman in the head and stomach on Sunday, said Officer Eddy Chrispin. The three other girls were not arrested, but police said they would seek criminal complaints against them. Their names and ages were not released. The woman apparently had bumped into the 10-year-old girl in an aisle at a Target store and refused to apologize, Chrispin said. Witnesses told police the four girls then knocked the customer to the floor "where she was being hit, her hair was being ripped out, and her pants were taken off," he said. The victim was treated at a hospital. |