BS: I Read it in the Newspaper

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 12:08 AM

America's Sexiest Plumber

Last Update: 1/19/2005 11:44:31 AM
By BRYAN ROURKE - The Providence Journal

"Every little girl imagines herself in a pageant, Miss America kind of thing," Lori Sardinha-Costa said. "This is not quite the pageant I envisioned as a child, but that's okay. I'm fine with it."

More than 250 plumbers from around the country entered the contest, which was judged by a panel of people from American Standard and the Plumbing Heating Cooling Contractors National Association. Personality, professionalism and, of course, appearance were the criteria.

From all the entrants, the vast majority of whom were men, 13 finalists were chosen for the 2005 America's Sexiest Plumber calendar. (One month features two brothers.) Sardinha-Costa was selected the overall winner, receiving a trip for two to next month's Super Bowl in Jacksonville, Fla.

Sardinha-Costa's picture appears in the calendar for the month of July. "I say that's because it's the hottest month," she said.

Sardinha-Costa, who lives in Fall River, Mass., has worked for the family business, M. Sardinha & Son Plumbing, for several years, the last two as a plumber.

"I just decided to get my apprentice license and basically get out there and get my hands dirty," she said. "My dad is reaching retirement age and so I need to secure my future."

The business has six plumbers, Sardinha-Costa the only woman. She's unusual in a male-dominated industry, not just for her gender, but her appearance.

"I still like to wear lipstick and do my hair," she said.

Since winning the contest, Sardinha & Son Plumbing has reportedly received lots of calls requesting not simply a plumber, but specifically Sardinha-Costa.

"My uncle came into the office from a call," Sardinha-Costa said. "He said 'We wanted the blonde. What are you doing here?' They were a little disappointed when they saw Angelo."

Others have called not to schedule plumbing service from Sardinha-Costa, but a social visit.

"An older gentleman said he wanted me to come to his house and have lunch with him," Sardinha-Costa said. "He said it was his dying wish. Let him dream."

Sardinha-Costa is married; she has been for 10 years.

"It's bragging rights for my husband," Sardinha-Costa said. "He's married to America's sexiest plumber."


(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, http://www.shns.com.)

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: wysiwyg
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 12:15 AM

Beer Truck Crashes into Garage

Last Update: 2/8/2005 8:19:10 PM
Posted By: Matt Molloy

A Sayre man got a delivery he wasn't expecting Tuesday night when a Coors Light beer truck crashed into his garage.

Edward Namet came home to find his garage in ruins and an unattended beer truck to blame.

Witnesses say the driver stepped out of the truck to make a delivery. When he returned the truck was rolling down the street and smashed right into Namet's garage.

"I had this car, this brand new car in there and took it out this afternoon, so they are very fortunate that they didn't hit the car too," said Namet.

There is still no word on why the truck started rolling in the first place.

The accident is under investigation.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Cluin
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 01:07 AM

'If you don't take a job as a prostitute, we can stop your benefits'

(edited)
A 25-year-old waitress who turned down a job providing "sexual services" at a brothel in Berlin faces possible cuts to her unemployment benefit under laws introduced this year.

Under Germany's welfare reforms, any woman under 55 who has been out of work for more than a year can be forced to take an available job--including in the sex industry--or lose her unemployment benefit. Last month German unemployment rose for the 11th consecutive month to 4.5 million, taking the number out of work to its highest since reunification in 1990.

The government had considered making brothels an exception on moral grounds, but decided that it would be too difficult to distinguish them from bars. As a result, job centres must treat employers looking for a prostitute in the same way as those looking for a dental nurse.

Prostitution was legalised in Germany in 2002 because the government believed that this would help to combat trafficking in women and cut links to organised crime.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,foolestroupe - "I come fru da window!"
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 06:41 AM

"AN INTENSE CYBER affair between a Jordanian man and woman turned ugly hen the couple met and turned out to be already married -- to each other."

http://www.theinquirer.net/?article=21118

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,foolestroupe - "I come fru da window!"
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 06:50 AM



Rau is only an extreme example - our prisons are full of mentally ill people
February 9, 2005

Services to support people with psychoses have been shamefully neglected, writes Allan Fels.

Over the past few days the tragic story of Cornelia Rau has unfolded to an increasingly incredulous public. How is it that for the past 10 months she has been held in prison and in a detention centre when her mental distress was so apparent to her fellow detainees and the Aboriginal people who discovered her?

Has the mental health system let her and her family down?

This case is of particular interest for me. Eight years ago my daughter Isabella, now 33, was diagnosed with schizophrenia after many years of bizarre behaviour. Not only has her illness had a major impact on her life, but it has also affected those who love her.

While she is a charming, intelligent, loving daughter and medication generally relieves her psychotic symptoms, she still has difficulties distinguishing reality and requires support with everyday living.

If Isabella had not been well treated medically and closely cared for, her life could have taken a similarly disastrous turn to that of Rau - who is now, at last, receiving psychiatric care at Glenside Hospital in Adelaide.

One of the most concerning aspects of Rau's situation is that she was clearly severely unwell, distressed and in need of care, yet was allowed to drift into the no-man's-land of an immigration detention centre - where she might still be languishing indefinitely but for the efforts of asylum-seeker support groups.

This is but one particularly flagrant example of how people affected by schizophrenia and other mental illnesses are neglected and allowed to drift into homelessness, neglect and, in many cases, prison or some other inappropriate institution.

While mental health services have been deinstitutionalised over recent years, there are disturbing signs that people affected by mental illness are effectively being "re-institutionalised" in prisons. In NSW - where the prison population has increased by 50 per cent in the past 10 years - 46 per cent of inmates at reception have a mental disorder and the prevalence of psychotic illnesses such as schizophrenia is 30 times greater than the norm.

People sometimes ask if deinstitutionalisation has gone too far. The truth is that it hasn't been given the chance to go anywhere. While the old psychiatric institutions have rightly been closed, community-based services have never been given sufficient resources to provide an adequate replacement - leaving the prison system (and in this case, the detention system) to act as a sump.

It is necessary to state the obvious: that adequate funding from federal and state governments is needed urgently to enable mental health services to provide treatment and care when it is needed - not long after, when a crisis develops and the person and their family have endured so much unnecessary distress.

We know that 1 per cent of Australians - 200,000 people - will experience schizophrenia and three quarters of those will develop it between the ages of 16 and 25. It is a treatable illness and the earlier it is treated the better.

With proper diagnosis and treatment, people with schizophrenia are no more likely to be violent than people being treated for any other illness such as cancer or heart disease.

Expert opinion is that people are born with a vulnerability to develop the illness which can be easily triggered by stress, injury or drug use. People do not develop schizophrenia because they are "weak-willed", nor because they have poor parenting.

Schizophrenia is a costly illness: in 2001 it cost $1.85 billion. More than a third of these costs were borne by people with the illness and their family carers. Many costs were a consequence of the illness going untreated.

It is clear that with the closing of the large psychiatric institutions governments grossly underestimated the number and range of community services that would be needed to provide humane and effective care.

Treatment should include access to good medications and psychological treatments, improved community-based supported accommodation, rehabilitation and recreation programs, help for families and other carers and an end to stigma.

This last point is critical. Stigma associated with schizophrenia means that people affected are thought to be less worthy than others and are treated less well as a result.

At the individual level it means that finding somewhere to live, study, work and play is made more difficult. At a government level it means mental health services are not funded equitably - mental health receives 8 per cent of the health budget, yet is responsible for 25 per cent of the illness burden.

Rau did not choose to be ill and this situation could have been averted by earlier diagnosis and effective treatment. For all our sakes we need to demand more from our governments.

Professor Allan Fels, AO, is dean of the Australia and New Zealand School of Government and an associate of SANE Australia, the national mental health charity. http://www.sane.org

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,foolestroupe - "I come fru da window!"
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 07:04 AM

PS.
Professor Fells used to be the previous head of the ACCC. I remember seeing a TV doco that mentioned that he had a family member with a problem.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST
Date: 09 Feb 05 - 02:32 PM

Numerous non-flying arboreal vertebrates use controlled descent (either parachuting or gliding sensu stricto) to avoid predation or to locate resources, and directional control during a jump or fall is thought to be an important stage in the evolution of flight. Here we show that workers of the neotropical ant Cephalotes atratus L. (Hymenoptera: Formicidae) use directed aerial descent to return to their home tree trunk with >80% success during a fall. Videotaped falls reveal that C. atratus workers descend abdomen-first through steep glide trajectories at relatively high velocities; a field experiment shows that falling ants use visual cues to locate tree trunks before they hit the forest floor. Smaller workers of C. atratus, and smaller species of Cephalotes more generally, regain contact with their associated tree trunk over shorter vertical distances than do larger workers. Surveys of common arboreal ants suggest that directed descent occurs in most species of the tribe Cephalotini and arboreal Pseudomyrmecinae, but not in arboreal ponerimorphs or Dolichoderinae. This is the first study to document the mechanics and ecological relevance of this form of locomotion in the Earth's most diverse lineage, the insects.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Feb 05 - 07:23 PM

Oregon Man Arrested for E-Mail Suicide Pact
February 11, 2005
Grants Pass, Ore.

link

A man used an Internet chat room to try to set up a mass suicide on Valentine's Day involving more than two dozen women across the United States and Canada, authorities said. Gerald Krein, 26, was arrested Wednesday at his mother's mobile home in Klamath Falls and faces charges of solicitation to commit murder, sheriff's deputies said. Investigators are subpoenaing chat room records to try to contact people who may have planned to take part in the suicide.

Detectives learned of the plan from a woman in Canada who said she saw the message in a Yahoo chat room that had the words "Suicide Ideology" in the title. The woman, who was not identified by authorities, told detectives she was going to take part in the suicide but had second thoughts when another chat room participant said she would do it and talked about killing her two children before taking her own life, said Klamath County Sheriff Tim Evinger.

"Our primary goal is to try to locate where these endangered children might be," Evinger said. "We need to investigate where these other computers are. Hopefully we can intervene if anyone still has the notion to follow through with this." The chat room participants planned to log in on Valentine's Day and commit suicide while keeping in touch over the Internet, Evinger said. The chat room is no longer active.

Krein was looking for women and children to join in the suicide, said sheriff's Capt. Chris Montenaro. Investigators believe the total number, including Krein, was 32, Montenaro said. Deputies seized Krein's computer and a Web cam, and the suspect was being held without bail. Krein had moved to Klamath Falls from the Sacramento, Calif., area about a year ago to take care of his ailing father, Evinger said. Neighbors told the Herald and News newspaper that Krein was a burly man who favored tie-dyed T-shirts and looked "like a mountain man."

District Attorney Ed Caleb said he is taking the solicitations seriously. "There is always a chance this is a joke, but our position is in this world, any time a person makes these kinds of overt actions, they need to be looked into," Caleb said. A grand jury will convene on Monday to determine if Krein will face additional charges, Caleb said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 13 Feb 05 - 08:41 PM

'Everybody knew who she was except Immigration' - National - www.smh.com.au



'Everybody knew who she was except Immigration'
By Russell Skelton
February 13, 2005
The Sun-Herald

Cornelia Rau, the Australian woman who immigration authorities could not identity for 10 months, was well known to Federal Police, Foreign Affairs and Trade officials, two state police forces and leading hospitals in Queensland and NSW.

Ms Rau was once taken to hospital by police after she was found unconscious in her underwear on Bondi Beach.

Documents passed on to the South Australian Government say Ms Rau, a diagnosed schizophrenic, had accumulated files in a wide range of state and federal agencies as her illness and psychotic episodes over six years and in various parts of Australia and Europe required their constant involvement.

Since 1998 she has regularly appeared on the missing persons list in Australia and overseas. Her disappearance from Sydney Airport in 1999 after returning from Europe led to Federal Police attempts to try to find her.

She accumulated a file at the Foreign Affairs Department in 2002 after she applied for a false passport and had brushes with the law in Italy where she was treated at a Rome psychiatric hospital.

NSW police picked her up at least three times, including the time she was discovered at Bondi and taken to St Vincent's Hospital.

A senior South Australian Government official said: "Amazingly, everybody including authorities in Monaco knew who Cornelia Rau was except the Immigration Department. The real question is how could Immigration have not known who she was for 10 months?"

There was serious bungling inside the Baxter immigration detention centre over Ms Rau's diagnosis and treatment, exacerbated by the deep-seated culture of denial on the part of the immigration officials in handling detainees suffering from acute psychotic and personality disorders caused by prolonged periods of detention.

Inquiries show that Baxter resident psychologist Adam Micallef had ordered an urgent psychiatric assessment of Ms Rau just weeks after she arrived and well before detainees and visitors expressed alarm about her erratic and bizarre behaviour.

But the request, made to South Australia's mental health authorities at the Glenside psychiatric hospital in Adelaide - where Ms Rau is currently being treated - in early November, was suddenly withdrawn a week later. "We were told that an assessment was no longer required," a source in the South Australian Government said.

"When you look back on it now, it seems very odd that the request was withdrawn when we now know from the detainees that her behaviour was deteriorating."

Immigration Minister Amanda Vanstone has insisted that Ms Rau, who was mistakenly detained in Baxter for four months, exhibited no signs of psychotic behaviour that would have alerted officials to her true mental state.

But it is understood that Mr Micallef, who was employed by Global Solutions Limited (GSL), the private company contracted to operate Baxter by the Immigration Department, was apparently so alarmed by Ms Rau's behaviour, which included violent verbal outbursts, a refusal to be locked up at night, undressing, and bouts of uncontrollable sobbing, that he called for an outside assessment to determine whether she should be committed to Glenside.

Although Baxter authorities withdrew the request, Mr Micallef renewed it again in early January shortly before he quit Baxter and the employ of GSL. Last week Mr Micallef declined to comment on the Rau case or the circumstances surrounding his sudden departure from Baxter, which led to a breakdown in communications between state authorities wanting to examine Ms Rau and Baxter officials. The wrangling over access continued for almost two weeks. Ms Rau was eventually transferred to Glenside on February 5.

"Under the terms of my employment contract at Baxter I am prevented from speaking to the media," Mr Micallef said.

State health officials said Mr Micallef's departure caused unnecessary delays in moving her to Glenside. "We were happy to co-operate and provide a psychiatric assessment, but we could not locate anybody at Baxter to make arrangements with, valuable days were wasted, nobody was returning calls," an official said.

South Australia's Mental Health Services chief, Jonathan Phillips, last week blasted Baxter and immigration authorities, saying that he had been unable to obtain access to Ms Rau and had offered to conduct any psychiatric assessment of her himself if necessary.

Dr Phillips said he was extremely concerned Ms Rau had been diagnosed by Immigration doctors as having had a personality disorder rather than a mental illness. "I was not happy to accept that, given what we knew about her level of disturbance," he said.

On December 20, when giving evidence in a case involving psychiatric care for a detainee, Mr Micallef told the Federal Court he believed a conflict of interest existed between GSL-employed psychologists and the detainees they were hired to care for.

He told the court that detainees did not know if their files were made available to GSL or the Department of Immigration and he acknowledged under cross-examination that that was a problem.

GSL has ignored repeated requests over the past 12 months to set up a health advisory panel to monitor health needs of 256 detainees held at Baxter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This is starting to become a Saga like "Alice's Resturant" or "The Boxer"....

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Feb 05 - 11:07 PM

Arrrrggghhhh. . . Good for Keri.

Lesbian's Picture in Tux Cut From Yearbook
February 25, 2005

GREEN COVE SPRINGS, Fla. - County school officials are backing a principal's decision to bar a picture of a lesbian student dressed in a tuxedo from the high school yearbook. Sam Ward, principal of Fleming Island High School, said he pulled the senior class picture because Kelli Davis was wearing boy's clothes. His decision was debated Thursday at a Clay County school board meeting that drew 200 people, but the board took no action, and Superintendent David Owens said the decision will stand.

Most of the 24 people who spoke at the meeting supported Kelli Davis. "This is not to be treated as a gay rights issue," said her mother, Cindi Davis. "Rather it's a human rights issue." Others applauded Ward's decision, including Karen Gordon, who said, "When uniformity is compromised, then authority no longer holds."

Officials at the northeastern Florida school have said the picture was pulled from the yearbook because Davis did not follow the rules on dress. School board attorney Bruce Bickner said there is no written dress code for senior pictures, but principals have the authority to set standards.

The student editor of the yearbook, Keri Sewell, was fired after refusing her adviser's order to take the picture out.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 26 Feb 05 - 11:39 AM

Third woman sues Koko the gorilla's caretakers over alleged breast-baring request

        

ASSOCIATED PRESS

4:20 a.m. February 26, 2005

WOODSIDE – A third woman has filed a lawsuit claiming a caretaker for Koko, the world-famous sign-language-speaking gorilla, pressured her to expose her breasts as a way to bond with the animal.

Iris Rivera, 39, sued the Gorilla Foundation this week in San Mateo County Superior Court, saying the foundation's president, Francine Patterson, repeatedly told her to expose her breasts.


Rivera, an administrative assistant at the foundation until she quit last month, claims Patterson told her last year that Koko was signing that "she wants to see your nipples."

Two other former employees of the foundation, Nancy Alperin and Kendra Keller, filed similar claims last week.

But while Alperin and Keller refused to expose themselves to Koko, Rivera acquiesced, the lawsuit states.

"She took it as a disagreeable duty of her employment," said Rivera's lawyer, Michael Adams.

An attorney for the foundation said the lawsuits had "no merit."

Rivera's lawsuit alleges sexual and disability discrimination, invasion of privacy and Labor Code violations and seeks unspecified damages.

The Gorilla Foundation was founded in 1976 to promote the preservation and study of gorillas. It's best known for Koko, a 300-pound simian who has mastered a vocabulary of more than 1,000 signs

---

Someone should let Big Mick know...

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Feb 05 - 02:09 PM

Spam controls imperil e-mail reliability

By ANICK JESDANUN, AP INTERNET WRITER
link
NEW YORK -- Sometimes the only way to know whether an e-mail got through is to call. Just ask Ashley Friedlein, who runs E-consultancy Ltd. in London. He never heard back from a correspondent in the United States, a subscriber of Verizon Online. So he phoned and learned his e-mail was never received. "I wouldn't have known anything about it had I not called to check" he said. Blame the mishap on increasingly aggressive spam controls employed by Verizon and other e-mail operators. As spammers identify new tricks for sneaking their junk past software sentinels, service providers' technical parries could put even more legitimate mail at risk.

Spam and spam-fighting have "in some cases eroded the reliability of the mail system," said Eric Allman, chief technology officer of leading e-mail software vendor Sendmail Inc. "Now a lot of mail gets filtered out." A typical user might lose anywhere from a legitimate message every few months to as many as five a week, estimates Richi Jennings of Ferris Research. A lot of spam simply ends up in junk folders that recipients never check. But sometimes service providers reject such messages outright, meaning recipients have no control even if they turn spam filters off. In such cases, senders don't always get non-delivery error messages, even though Internet standards encourage them.

Most of the recent complaints have been directed at Verizon. Though the company denies it has changed its policies, leaked excerpts from an internal memo that circulated late last year talked of new techniques that might disrupt legitimate e-mail. Verizon spokeswoman Bobbi Henson confirmed the memo's existence but said it contained inaccuracies and had been retracted. Henson denied assertions that Verizon had blocked entire countries in Europe based on their Internet addresses, and she said decisions to block certain service providers were limited to a few in Asia that were sending nothing but spam. She insisted Verizon's anti-spam controls were standard industry practices.

Still, complaints continue. Joseph Gaila, a Lithuanian now retired in Ellicott City, Md., says he and his wife missed several Christmas greetings from relatives abroad. He said he used to get one or two messages a day from Lithuania but suddenly received none for weeks.

Fabio Turone, a science journalist in Milan, Italy, says he tried unsuccessfully from at least three different accounts to e-mail a Verizon customer in Kingston, N.Y. Finally the pair created a Yahoo message group to communicate.

Five Verizon customers have jointly filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles Superior Court, alleging Verizon breached its contract by failing to provide a dependable e-mail service. A Philadelphia-area law firm is seeking arbitration, arguing that it lost potential clients. "When you go to work every day, you expect e-mails to you will be gotten to you on a regular basis," said Michael Boni, a Philadelphia attorney who filed both cases.

Henson, who had no comment on the litigation, acknowledged that legitimate mail could get lost or delayed, but said customers were demanding action, because as much as 80 percent to 90 percent of all incoming e-mail is now junk. "If we didn't block we would have so much volume that our platform couldn't even handle that," she said. "Instead of just a small number of customers not (getting legitimate mail), virtually everyone would not be getting mail." Verizon offers a completely unfiltered e-mail account upon request but few have opted for it, Henson said.

Although Verizon has been getting the recent attention, it is hardly alone in misclassifying legitimate messages as spam. In the industry, such mail are known as "false positives." E-mail lists and newsletters sent in bulk are often misclassified.

There's no good way to tell which service providers are better at handling legitimate messages because they all tend to be secretive about their specific techniques and change them regularly to keep spammers off guard.

Nonetheless, some service providers are becoming more aware of the risks. "On a percentage basis, generally it's not a huge issue," said Kevin Doerr, product unit manager for Microsoft Corp.'s Hotmail service. "Of course, for most human beings, one false positive is one too many." In response, Microsoft and Yahoo Inc. say they now have mechanisms for quickly refining filters should users start reporting mail in spam folders as "not junk."

E-mail providers are more willing to let legitimate senders prove their worth and get themselves on "always accept" white lists, said Stephen Currie, director of e-mail products at EarthLink Inc. "Before, it was all, `Let's identify the bad,'" he said. Microsoft, Yahoo and America Online Inc. also have been working on ways to authenticate e-mail senders - to identify legitimate senders and bless their messages before spam filters kick in.

But even as service providers get smarter, so have spammers. They have new software that automatically routes junk messages through a real user's Internet service provider so spam traffic gets mixed with legitimate mail. "We're going to start seeing more stories of desperate ISPs blocking all mail from Comcast, Verizon, Cox and Road Runner," warned John Levine, co-author of "Fighting Spam for Dummies."

Bruce Gingery, a security consultant in Cheyenne, Wyo., says users should simply get used to losing mail. "Even though people are relying more and more on e-mail, e-mail was never designed as a guaranteed delivery medium," Gingery said.

Service providers, he said, are only required to make a "best effort" - a term left open to wide interpretation among mail providers.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Little Hawk
Date: 26 Feb 05 - 02:20 PM

Ha! Ha! Ha!

So Koko "wants to see her nipples", eh? Men want to see EVERY woman's nipples, don't they? That doesn't mean we GET to! Koko should realize this, and so should her keepers. The woman was right to complain about it.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 26 Feb 05 - 04:13 PM

Don't be judgemental, LH -- Koko has her own ideas of what bonding should consist of.

Come to think of it, so do I!! :D


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 26 Feb 05 - 11:49 PM

And I bet that bonding has to do with looking at nipples, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Mar 05 - 12:39 AM

Michael Jackson's False Front?

(She hits the nail on the head in the sentence I italicized to call it to readers' attention.)

By Tina Brown
Washington Post Thursday, March 10, 2005; Page C01

The strange thing about the Michael Jackson trial is that the supporting actors are more interesting than the star. The weirdness of the King of Pop is so overexposed that no new revelation can shock. Either Jackson is a complete lunatic who slept with young boys and didn't fondle them or he's a complete lunatic who slept with young boys and did.

Better to fixate instead on pass-through characters, like the French-born cooks at Neverland featured in Martin Bashir's "Primetime Live" report "Michael Jackson's Secret World." Who but Michael Jackson would ever hire these two? The wife looks like a war criminal in a blond fright wig. And how about Bashir himself? Why on earth did Jackson and the Princess of Wales both choose to open up their entire lives to this brooding, charm-free figure? He looks about as well-intentioned as the interrogator you meet when you are rendered by the U.S. military -- and seems to wreak the same havoc on his subjects' lives. His fawning letters to Jackson -- "Neverland is an extraordinary, a breathtaking, a stupendous, an exhilarating and amazing place. I can't put together words to describe Neverland" -- are classics of the genre. They're even more journalistically embarrassing than some of the gems I've written myself to elusive interview subjects over the years.

When the young accuser took the stand on Wednesday, one hoped for the start of some moral clarity on the unrelenting awfulness of the cast of characters. But in his first appearance, the kid's testimony was all about being a participant in Jackson's media charade for Martin Bashir.

It makes real crime junkies hanker for the exotic of the normal. That's why the arrest in the BTK case hit with such creepy, compelling force. The suspected serial killer next door, the head of the church council who police said waited in the dark with the phones lines cut -- it returned the world of deviance to the old reality format in which seemingly ordinary people nurture diabolical double lives.

One thought to consider about Jackson himself is whether he is much less weird than meets the eye. Could it be that, like Saddam Hussein's WMD bluff, the whole freak show is a stunt that's gotten out of hand? The thought struck me during Bashir's original 2003 documentary for Britain's ITV, the one that got Jackson indicted. In the low, appalled voice one reserves for especially heinous horrors, Bashir asks, "Is it true that your father used to say you had a fat nose?" Jackson theatrically averts his head at the ghastliness of this memory and then says with a half-weeping snicker: "Yeah . . . You want to die. You want to die. . . . God. It's hard."

You could argue, I guess, that the Fat Nose memory is the Rosebud in Jackson's life, inducing him to internalize self-loathing racial stereotypes to the point that he ended up bleaching his skin, straightening his hair like Morticia in "The Addams Family," and hiding the offending proboscis beneath a surgical mask even after its many surgeries had turned it into a pencil point. But what if Jackson is, in reality, having some sly fun with Bashir and by extension all celebrity journalists hellbent on getting the answers to such piffling questions?What if the whole persona is a scam under the heading of The Emperor's New Nose? After all, Jackson has shown plenty of business smarts in his time. The fey Peter Pan who tells Bashir his favorite pastimes are climbing trees and having water balloon fights was still canny enough to buy the Beatles' lucrative song catalogue.

An interview with Jackson's ex-wife Lisa Marie Presley by Chris Heath in Rolling Stone in April 2003 would support the "secretly sane" theory. "I was always saying [to Jackson] people wouldn't think I was so crazy if they saw who the hell you really are," Presley told Heath. "That you sit around, and you drink and you curse and you're [expletive] funny and you have a bad mouth, and you don't have that high voice all the time. I don't know why you think that works for you, because it doesn't anymore."

Ms. Presley, to be sure, has a reason to portray Jackson as less bizarre than people assume. Marrying someone most people regard as an extraterrestrial freak didn't do a whole lot for her image. ("Ok. Hello," she expounds. "I was delusionary. " I got some romantic idea in my head that I could save him and save the world.") But it might add some genuine dramatic tension if Jackson turned out to be pop music's version of Vincent "The Chin" Gigante, the Mafia boss who fooled the justice system for years by shuffling around the streets of Greenwich Village mumbling to himself in his bedroom slippers and bathrobe. If this were true, of course, it would also mean Jackson is just a plain old garden-variety ped, albeit one who instead of hanging around public playgrounds built his own at Neverland.

Harder to figure out is the behavior of the alleged victim's mother, who handed over her sick kid to sleep in the bedroom of a previously accused child molester. Perhaps scientists will discover that celebrity is a virus that can infect the psyche's immune system as pervasively as HIV takes over the body's. It infected everyone in the Jackson case from the accuser's family to the defendant himself. Jackson started out a little strange, to be sure, but he lost his boundaries altogether only because he got the absolute permission that superstars enjoy to indulge the outer limits of narcissism.

It's hard to know if Jackson will one day be seen as a repellent relic of celebrity culture, or another Oscar Wilde or Vivaldi, an artist persecuted for something or other we can't recall. Even the people who are absolutely sure he's guilty don't want to stop listening on their iPods to "Thriller" and "Billie Jean." That's a question neither conviction nor acquittal can answer yet -- whether Jackson will be remembered for the shame or for the art.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Mar 05 - 12:16 PM

I read the hometown newspaper every day, and of course I turn to the obituaries. There have been some real interesting ones lately, and on a sad note, one of the very interesting ones was for an old friend of mine. I hadn't seen him for a long time, but in reading what he's been up to since the 1980s, he continued being a funny, generous, and outgoing man. I won't post his obit here, however.

Some of them go on and on, and clearly they didn't have any editorial help in sorting them out. Then there are the pithy ones--(this is a nice example).

I read one this morning that, if you had to distill it down to a few words, says it all:

Lois M. Gavin

Lois Gavin was born January 7, 1926, in Stockton,
California, and passed away March, 3, 2005, in Marysville,
Washington.

She loved her kids.

For myself, I'd of course like to have the family include some of my more interesting jobs and passtimes and interests, but if they could only write one thing, this would be it--"she loved her kids."

Is anyone else an obit reader, and do you have any memorable ones? (And just think--if it's really good, it can become a song, like Tom Lehrer did with "Alma")

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 16 Mar 05 - 11:00 PM

Is anyone really surprised at this outcome?


Ex-Caregiver Charged With Murdering Girl
March 16, 2005

MIAMI - A woman who was supposed to be taking care of Rilya Wilson was charged Wednesday with murdering the 4-year-old, three years after the foster child's disappearance scandalized Florida's child-protection agency. Geralyn Graham was also charged with kidnapping and aggravated child abuse. No body has been found, prosecutors said. "Our grand jury has heard the facts and determined that Rilya's disappearance was the result of an act of violence and has indicted the child's former caretaker," State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle said.

Graham allegedly confessed while jailed on unrelated fraud charges and investigators later found corroborating evidence, said Fernandez Rundle, who declined to give specifics. "She basically broke down and told someone in the jail details about Rilya Wilson, including how she killed her," the prosecutor said.

Graham's attorney, Brian L. Tannebaum, said: "That's completely not true. That's based on a jailhouse snitch. ... They have no other evidence." Rilya's story became known three years ago when it was discovered that she was not living at the home she shared with Graham and another woman, Pamela Graham, who was Rilya's legal guardian. The Grahams claimed a state social worker had taken the child in early 2001 for medical testing and never returned with the girl, who was 4 when she was last seen.

The girl's disappearance had gone unnoticed by the Florida Department of Children & Families for months. The scandal led to a major shakeup at the agency, as well as a search for the girl.

Prosecutors refused to give details on how they determined to charge Geralyn Graham, and the indictment doesn't mention any evidence. The indictment did allege, however, that Rilya was either suffocated or beaten to death sometime in December 2000. Tannenbaum said, "This is a woman who they charged with kidnapping without any evidence that she took the child anywhere and now they've charged her with the murder of a child they have not located."

Graham is in jail on unrelated fraud charges and could have a court appearance as early as Thursday on the new charges, said state attorney spokesman Ed Griffith. The fallout of Rilya's disappearance was immediate. A blue-ribbon panel appointed by Gov. Jeb Bush to investigate Rilya's disappearance found massive problems at DCF, including the failure to check the background of caregivers and low pay for child protection workers.

DCF Secretary Kathleen Kearney resigned in September 2002 and seven of 14 regional administrators with the agency were replaced. The Legislature passed a law making it a felony for welfare workers to falsify documents relating to anyone in state care.

Geralyn Graham was arrested shortly after the disappearance on unrelated charges and was convicted of using a friend's Social Security number to buy a sport utility vehicle. She got three years in jail, where she remains. Pamela Graham pleaded guilty to accepting welfare payments for Rilya after the girl left her care and received two years' probation.

But no charges were filed for Rilya's disappearance until August when Geralyn Graham was accused of aggravated child abuse, for locking Rilya in a cage and other alleged mistreatment. She was also charged with kidnapping for removing Rilya from Pamela Graham's custody. Pamela Graham, who was cooperating with authorities, was charged with child abuse.

Rilya was born Sept. 29, 1996, to a homeless cocaine addict. The girl's name was an acronym for "Remember I love you always." She was taken into state custody when she was less than 2 months old.

In April 2000, when she was 3, Rilya was placed in the custody of Pamela Graham. The Grahams have falsely called themselves sisters, but Pamela Graham told co-workers that Geralyn was her wife. Geralyn Graham told The Miami Herald in August that she and Pamela had been in a "loving" but non-sexual relationship for 10 years. DCF later acknowledged that its background check had failed to discover that Geralyn Graham had a long criminal history for fraud and had been diagnosed as psychotic six months before Rilya moved in.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 17 Mar 05 - 09:02 AM

http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=3086274

Israel Gay Pride Parade Upsets Clergy

Posted: March 16, 2005 at 11:01 a.m.

JERUSALEM (AP) -- A coalition of evangelical Christians from the United States, U.S. rabbis and local ultra-Orthodox Jews vowed Wednesday to try to prevent an international gay pride parade from being held in Jerusalem this summer, but the mayor of the holy city said he has no way of stopping it.

California pastor Leo Giovinetti, said hosting the 10-day WorldPride 2005 event could bring divine retribution upon Jerusalem, citing the biblical story of Sodom and Gomorra as a precedent. Ultra-Orthodox lawmaker Nissim Zeev hinted at more earthly troubles in store.

"If they think they can party here in this city and carry out this provocation without hindrance, I think the police will be kept busy dealing with demonstrations," he told a news conference. "With demonstrations we never know how they end up, we know how they begin. Residents here are enraged. Everything should be done to stop this (event) and not cause people to break the law."

Israeli gays have held small marches in Jerusalem in the past that have passed relatively peacefully, with a few shouted insults from onlookers and minor acts of vandalism.

This time the plan is for a major international happening, comprising parties, a gay film festival and workshops and culminating in the WorldPride parade, street fair and rally. The event, held every five years, attracted tens of thousands of participants when it was held in Rome in 2000.

Giovinetti, from San Diego, has a nationwide radio ministry in the United States which he says reaches millions of listeners -- and he is seeking a million signatures for a petition against the August festival, which he said is offensive to the values of religious people and debases the sanctity of Jerusalem.

"We did not come here because we hate homosexuals," he said. "But when they said, 'I'm coming to your house and I'm going to spit on your mother, what are you going to do about it?' In order to be a good son I'm going to say, 'Mom, that's not right and I'm going to fight it."'

The petition, drafted by Giovinetti, quotes the biblical book of Isaiah, (3:8-9) as a warning against profaning the holy city: "Judah and Jerusalem will lie in ruins because they speak out against the Lord and refuse to obey him. They have offended his glorious presence among them ...They sin openly like the people of Sodom."

Organizers of the festival, under the theme "Love Without Borders," say they want to promote coexistence.

"The holiness of Jerusalem does not come from manipulating religion to keep people away," said Hagai El-Ad, the director of Open House, the Jerusalem group that has organized local gay parades in the city. "Jerusalem's holiness comes from it being a city that can bring together all kinds of people," he said.

The decision to host the WorldPride Parade in Jerusalem was made by InterPride, the association that organizes gay parades around the world.

Giovinetti, the head of an evangelical congregation in San Diego, accused organizers of deliberately targeting holy places. "We are convinced that it is no accident that the last parade was held in Rome and that today Jerusalem is being targeted. Clearly the group's agenda is to create a provocation and thus offend religious sensibilities," he said.

A majority of Jerusalem's more than 600,000 residents are either Orthodox Jews, Palestinian Muslims or Christians, traditional communities that oppose homosexuality.The city's ultra-Orthodox Jewish mayor, Uri Lupolianski, said in a statement that while he opposes the parade, he has no legal way of stopping it, as authorization for public events is given by the police.

New York Rabbi Yehuda Levin, representing a group of U.S. Orthodox rabbis, the Rabbinical Alliance of America, said that with the help of the powerful conservative Christian lobby, the coalition plans to put pressure on Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and key Cabinet ministers.

"Whatever the police say about the festival, if those men don't want it to happen it won't happen," he said.

(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 18 Mar 05 - 12:16 PM

Everyone is jumping on the bandwagon of this issue that should be between the couple involved and their doctors. The woman checked out 15 years ago and her husband is trying to honor her wishes. It's astonishing how he's managed to hang on (emotionally) for so long--clearly there were easier avenues he could have followed. And now the busy-bodies in the senate are heaping more difficulties on the pair, egged on by her delusional parents.

SRS


GOP Asks Brain-Damaged Woman to Testify
March 18, 2005

WASHINGTON - Senate Republicans embroiled in the life-or-death legal battle over the severely brain-damaged Terri Schiavo invited the Florida woman to testify to Congress in a procedural move intended to keep her on life support.

The Senate Health Committee has requested that Terri and her husband Michael appear at an official committee hearing on March 28. A statement from the office of House Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., on Friday said the purpose of the hearing was to review health care policies and practices relevant to the care of non-ambulatory people.

Frist's statement noted that it is a federal crime to harm or obstruct a person called to testify before Congress, thus stopping any action that could threaten the health of the woman.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 11:57 AM

Killings prompt duty-to-help bill
The state House passes a measure that would make it illegal to do nothing if you know someone is being injured by a crime.
(link)

OLYMPIA - Pushed by parents of three murder victims, lawmakers are pressing to make it a crime for people to do nothing when they know someone's life is in danger. They contend such a law might have prevented the killings of Rachel Rose Burkheimer of Marysville, Michael Schuerhoff of Bothell and Joey Levick of Burien. In each case, people saw the victims, alive but injured, and did nothing that might have saved them. "Every year we don't pass such a law we get another tragic example of why we need the law," said Dan Satterberg of the King County Prosecutor's Office, who helped craft the bill referred to as the "Joey Levick Act." It passed the House of Representatives 97-0 this week and awaits a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing.

Under the proposed law, misdemeanor criminal charges could be filed against people who do not summon assistance if they know a crime has occurred and the victim is hurt or faces serious harm. It requires only that people attempt to get help, such as by calling 911. They would not be expected to jeopardize their own lives. "That's not too much to ask, given what's at stake," Satterberg said. A conviction would carry a 90-day jail sentence and $1,000 fine.

Pursuit of the law started following the 1994 death of Levick and gained urgency after the killing of Schuerhoff in January 1996. Burkheimer's slaying in 2002 further spotlighted the situation. Levick was badly beaten and left semiconscious in a drainage ditch near Highway 509 in Burien. He lay there for 16 hours, slowly drowning in shallow drainage waters, before dying. Several people knew where he was at the time.

Schuerhoff was pushed off a Bothell railroad trestle, down a hill and into a slough. At least five people knew of his whereabouts and did nothing. Levick's parents, Melva and Joe, and Schuerhoff's mother, Anita, have told and retold their stories. Rep. Al O'Brien, D-Mountlake Terrace, a retired police officer, remembers hearing them as a freshman lawmaker in 1997. "I was in tears," said O'Brien, the prime sponsor of the bill this year. "My son called me up and said, 'It looks like you're tired,' and I said, 'I was crying.' It was horrible to hear about the young man left in the ditch."

Denise Webber of Marysville, Burkheimer's mother, joined the other parents at legislative hearings this year. Webber testified twice, each time clutching a photograph of her 18-year-old daughter who was shot to death in 2002. "I hit some points in her story to remind them," Webber said of lawmakers. She's spoken about how her youngest daughter was beaten and kept captive for hours in an Everett garage before being taken to her death in the hills near Gold Bar. Eight young men were convicted of murder and other crimes in connection with her death. No charges were brought against Trissa Conner, who owned the Everett home and spoke with Burkheimer during her ordeal but did not seek police assistance. "Trissa Conner got off scot-free. People were just appalled by that," Webber said.

Snohomish County Prosecuting Attorney Janice Ellis said Conner's lack of care was "criminal" and had a "clear impact" on Burkheimer's life. Previous legislation faltered amid concerns that law enforcement might apply it too broadly, even questioning inaction by innocent passersby. There also was concern that good Samaritans might face arrest or liability for getting involved. Revisions made this session limit the law to those who witness the crime and know that the victim suffered harm. "What this does is codify what we recognize as appropriate and desirable behavior," Ellis said. "It's hard to tell if people will be inspired to do the right thing because of potential criminal liability."

Vermont, Minnesota, Rhode Island and Massachusetts also have what's referred to as duty-to-rescue laws, according to House staff.

Webber said she's hopeful that attention focused on her daughter's case boosts the effort to make the legislation reality. "I just want it (the bill) passed, and I want more attention brought to it," she said. Should another setback occur, Anita Schuerhoff vowed to return next session. "We will not stop," she said. "There's a big history here. We're not going to give up."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: gnu
Date: 20 Mar 05 - 12:07 PM

Nfld. man given six months for DUI charges, blames liquor filled chocolates

Fri Mar 18, 1:15 PM ET   Odd News - Canadian Press



ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. (CP) - A Newfoundland man convicted for driving under the influence blamed it all on liquor-filled chocolates.

   

Allen Bottomley, 67, of King's Cove, Nfld., told the judge he'd eaten too many of the sweets before being stopped by police last fall. The judge didn't bite and sentenced him to six months in jail.


Bottomley faced two charges of driving under the influence in separate incidents in September and November of last year.


RCMP said his blood alcohol level was approximately twice the legal limit when he was pulled over on both occasions.


Const. Tony Seaward said Bottomley also had three previous convictions for impaired driving resulting in the loss of his licence for eight years.


Seaward said it doesn't matter how the alcohol is consumed, it's still illegal to get behind the wheel while impaired.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 21 Mar 05 - 10:50 AM

Gotta watch those rum balls!

Here's one that ties into a discussion on another thread (posting photos of flowers on a spring thread) but since it's kind of off that beaten path I'll stick it here instead. I've been planning to set up an account with Flickr. link

Flickr Photo Sharing Service Acquired by Yahoo

Will it be Google, will it be Yahoo? Who will acquire Flickr? Well, this weekend not only was Ask Jeeves acquired by IAC in a groundshaking surprise move, but Yahoo also acquired Flickr, the photo sharing and flogging (foto blogging) community service.

Duncan Riley from Blog Herald has the scoop:

The online photo management and sharing application owned by Canadian firm Ludicorp, has a strong following in the blogosphere and is regarded by many as the best service of its type available. Details of the purchase price has not been revealed, however the Flickr team reveal that Yahoo! has bought Ludicorp in its entirety.

The Flickr blog has already posted to users stating that whilst Flickr technology will be integrated in Yahoo! Photos, they expect the Flickr product to continue on a stand alone basis for the forseeable future.

Here are some further answers from the Flickr blog:

What is going to happen to Flickr?

Flickr will be continuing on the path it's on – to Flickr 1.0 and beyond. We'll be working with a bunch of people that Totally Get Flickr and want to preserve the community and the flavor of what is here. We're going to grow and change, but we're in it for the long haul, with the same management and same team.

You're not going to become a bunch of suits?

No, no, no! The precious DNA we've got – that of the Ludicrew – is on side and revving up for building Flickr. Having the team building out the team's vision for Flickr has been stressed as our number one priority, and keeping us around – in spite of our wiseassery, tomfoolery and tendency to hoot spontaneously – is crucial for preserving the Flickrness that is Flickr. They're not going to replace any of us with suits, nor induce us to wear them. Lapel? I don't know what you mean.

Are you going to become Yahoo Photos?

No. Yahoo Photos will get a lot of Flickr features, and there are alot of other areas around Yahoo that will also be Flickrized where Flickrization would be good. Yahoo Photos and Flickr have different kinds of users with different needs, and will remain separate for the foreseeable future. Flickr would also suffer from a sudden deluge of LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! omg! so we're going to grow it carefully.

Do I have to have a Yahoo ID to use Flickr?

No. In the future, you'll be able to log into Flickr using your Yahoo account, but you can continue logging on as before.

Will Terry Semel do the Developers Developers Developers shtick?

The fabulous Flickr API will continue to be open wide as all the outdoors, though we really gotta work on those commercial use licenses. Terry is as brilliant a businessman as Ballmer, but alas, does not dance. It messes up his hair.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Mar 05 - 11:21 PM

This looks like the stuff of Urban Legend, but I found the article in the San Francisco Chronicle.

Wendy's diner finds human finger in her chili
Maria Alicia Gaura, Dave Murphy, Chronicle Staff Writers

Thursday, March 24, 2005

An unlucky diner bit into a segment of a human finger while digging into a bowl of chili at a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose, Santa Clara County health officials confirmed Wednesday. The diner, who visited the restaurant Tuesday night, spit out the well- cooked digit, notified restaurant workers and became sick to her stomach, health officials said. The origin of the finger remains a mystery.

Santa Clara County Health Officer Dr. Martin Fenstersheib said he was called at home by San Jose police who went to Wendy's and immediately dispatched health inspectors to the restaurant. He said he ordered officers to transport the body part, wrapped in damp gauze, to the medical examiner's office.

The restaurant, at 1405 Monterey Road, was shut for a couple of hours while the batch of chili and stocks of chili ingredients were impounded. The restaurant was allowed to reopen and to cook another batch of chili using newly purchased ingredients. Wendy's officials said they are eager to find out how their food became contaminated.

"The entire investigation is with the county health department," said Steve Jay, Wendy's marketing director for Santa Clara County. "We're fully cooperating."

Jay said the chili came from a master distributor but declined to name the firm. He added that Wendy's has been doing business in the area for more than 25 years and never had a serious problem before.

Fenstersheib said he spoke to the anxious woman several times by phone and had the queasy experience of confirming to her that the object was indisputably human. The woman asked officials not to name or even describe her. "I had to confirm it to her that she had indeed put a piece of a human finger in her mouth," Fenstersheib said. "She kind of lost it." The woman was "emotionally distraught ... due to the unpleasant sensation of having this (object) in her mouth," Fenstersheib said

He said the finger had been cooked at a high enough temperature to kill any viruses, including hepatitis or HIV, and that it was very unlikely that she will suffer any health effects from her experience, aside from psychological trauma.

"The potential for health impacts are extremely low for her or anyone else who ate that chili," Fenstersheib said. He said, however, that he will recommend baseline viral testing for the woman, to allow for comparison should any food-borne illness emerge in the coming months. A similar strategy might be wise for others who ate the contaminated food, he said. "The risk is low, but nothing in medicine is 100 percent," Fenstersheib said.

County officials say they have no idea how many other people consumed the contaminated chili, which was cooked at about 2 p.m. Tuesday and was served to customers until the finger turned up at 7:20 p.m. Anyone who may have eaten the contaminated batch is encouraged to call county health officials at [phone].

The finger was described by county Medical Examiner Dr. Joseph O'Hara as cooked but not decomposed. The digit was found in two pieces, a 1-inch fingertip complete with the skin whorls used in fingerprinting and a half-inch piece of fingernail. The digit appeared to have been torn off, possibly by manufacturing machinery, rather than cleanly cut. Considering the nail's slightly longer length and neat grooming, O'Hara speculated that it may have belonged to a woman, though "it's hard to tell."

Since all of the workers at the restaurant were found to be in possession "of all 10 of their fingers," health inspectors assume the finger likely entered the food chain as a result of the manufacturing process, according to county Environmental Resources Director Ben Gale. Health inspectors said the restaurant appeared to be generally clean and well-maintained, with only one minor violation having to do with a leaky vent.

Gale said it could take weeks to track each of the numerous ingredients to their places of manufacture, which will be in different states or possibly even different countries. Since the law requires that industrial accidents result in a stoppage of the assembly line and be reported to authorities, it may be possible to pinpoint the site of the original accident. In addition, authorities may be able to obtain a fingerprint and DNA from the finger to identify the person.

The restaurant was open Wednesday, and business was brisk despite the finger incident. Elizabeth Adcock, who visits that Wendy's frequently and was having a bowl of chili Wednesday at around 3 p.m., said she had heard television reports about the finger, but thought it might be an urban legend.

Another woman who was eating chili at the restaurant, San Jose State student Andria Mendoza, said she had overheard workers discussing a finger in Spanish, so she proceeded carefully. "I actually did check -- with my spoon," she said.

Customer Gary Grant of San Jose expressed disappointment that it was business-as-usual at the restaurant. "We come here all the time," Grant said. "We just ate here today, and nobody said a thing. There were no signs up."

"How can you trust somebody like that? You're still serving food. Which basically means you don't care."

Customer Fernando Anaya was in a lighter mood. "Where's the finger at?" he joked as he ordered a salad. Anaya said he worked at a cannery many years ago, so the incident with the finger doesn't shock him. He said he plans to keep eating at his local Wendy's. "I don't eat chili anymore,'' he said. "I used to, but the cholesterol is too high."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Mar 05 - 11:31 AM

Octopuses try to sneak away on two arms
UC researcher says octopods wrap other arms around selves, pretend to be bunch of algae

A UC Berkeley researcher has observed octopuses, known for using
camouflage to avoid predators, apparently trying to sneak away by
walking on two arms while pretending to be a bunch of algae. Two
kinds of octopus were seen to use different ways of walking along
the sea floor, researchers reported in today's issue of the journal
Science.

The movements were discovered by Christine Huffard of the University
of California, Berkeley, who was studying underwater video camera
tapes of the animals.

UC Berkeley professor Robert Full said Huffard was studying octopus
movement as part of a robotics project. He said the researchers use
examples from nature in designing robots. One project is to build a
soft robot.

Octopuses trying to avoid being eaten usually hold still to camouflage themselves. But by walking on two arms, these two types were able to
move quickly while using their other arms to disguise themselves.

Two individuals of O. marginatus from Indonesia wrapped six arms
around themselves, looking like a coconut on the sea floor. They then
used the two rear arms to move backward.

In Australia, O. aculeatus was seen raising two arms above its head
before lifting four more and moving backward on the two remaining
arms. The researchers described it as looking like "a clump of algae tiptoeing away." The researchers believe the octopuses were trying to flee from predators, though they cannot be sure.

The research was funded by the American Malacological Society and the National Science Foundation.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Mar 05 - 11:32 AM

darn thing went before I could finish formatting it.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 25 Mar 05 - 11:57 AM

LOL!! TEEEriffic story, SRS!! Love it!! I have known some octopi in my diving career who should learn from this!

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Rapparee
Date: 25 Mar 05 - 12:30 PM

Amos, when you were diving, did you see
anything like this?

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 25 Mar 05 - 04:03 PM

Nope!! They look like faggoty octopi to me. REAL octopi use all eight legs, none of this limp-wristed tiptoeing around! 'Course I never heard of flaming octopi before, except in Greek restaurants, but ya never know!

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 25 Mar 05 - 04:35 PM

What are you talking about, Amos? This is a pas de deux deux deux deux. That's very difficult! I bet you trip over your feet with only two of them. If you had extra feet you'd probably wrap them around your head also. :)

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 27 Mar 05 - 11:47 AM

link
Fire crew honored for quick action
By Melody Mcdonald, Star-Telegram Staff Writer

FORT WORTH - When 2-year-old Matthew Alford fell out of a second-story window last year, his head injuries were so severe that doctors didn't think he would live.

The firefighters who had worked to save Matthew had been told that the toddler had been taken off life support and died.

"That was pretty upsetting," said firefighter Larry G. "Sonny" Tompkins, a paramedic who was on the truck that day. "I had to break it to all the guys."

One day several months ago, Matthew and his mother, Lisa, unexpectedly dropped by the fire station to thank Tompkins and the crew for helping save Matthew's life.

Tompkins wasn't there, but word traveled fast.

"They called me at home and said, 'You'll never believe who just walked in the door,' " Tompkins said. "When they told me who it was, I just fell out. I had to sit down."

The Alfords attribute Matthew's "miracle" recovery, in part, to the quick-thinking, skill and determination of Tompkins and the three other responding firefighters -- Wade Green, David Ramirez and Kaleb Kemp.

On Saturday night, these four men -- the C-shift crew of Engine 37 -- received double awards, for top emergency medical services and as Company of the Year. Tompkins also took home the top award as Firefighter of the Year.

Fighting back tears, Lisa Alford and her family stood next to the crew on stage and told the crowd that there is no other place she would rather be.

"These gentlemen here mean the world to me," she said. "They saved my son."

Moment of terror

On Feb. 28, 2004, Lisa and Eric Alford and their sons -- Matthew and 8-year-old Josh -- were helping friends move into a new house in the 5400 block of Chatsworth Lane.

Lisa Alford had taken her sons and her friend's two sons, ages 5 and 9, to the new house to await the first load of items.

The three older boys went upstairs to play and, a short time later, Matthew followed them up.

"Not even five minutes later, I heard Josh scream bloodcurdling screams," Alford said. "He said, 'Matthew fell!'

"I got to the base of the stairs and looked up and saw Josh's face, and I knew it was bad."

The boys had opened the window to let in cool air; Matthew had fallen out.

Frantic, Alford grabbed her cellphone off the counter, raced outside and dialed 911. Matthew wasn't moving, and his head had started to swell.

The C-shift crew of Engine 37 arrived within minutes. They immediately called for CareFlite's helicopter ambulance and began working on Matthew.

"I remember Sonny just sitting over him and working and working -- all of them working," Alford said. "And them barking orders, 'Get me this. Get me that. Get this. Get this.'

"The whole time, I just kept praying that God would not take him from me."

Alford's friend, Doreen Krebs, the new homeowner, arrived and asked whether Matthew was going to be OK.

"Sonny just looked at her and said, 'Just pray,' " Alford said.

Critical moments

Matthew was flown to Cook Children's Medical Center in Fort Worth, where the surgeon told the family that his prognosis was bleak.

Matthew had shattered his forehead and severed the main artery that supplies blood to the brain.

After a three-hour surgery, the doctor was not optimistic.

"When he comes out, he said, 'It doesn't look good, and I don't think he will make it,' " Alford recalled.

Matthew surprised them all. He stayed in the pediatric intensive care unit for 29 days, until he was well enough to be moved to a transitional care unit.

On May 20, Matthew went home, and Alford began to wonder about the people who had worked so hard in those critical moments. For months, she had seen the firefighters' faces in her dreams.

"I had nightmares for a long time," she said. "I kept seeing the firemen's faces in my face saying, 'Ma'am, it's not good. It is not good.' "

One day, on her way home, she was forced to take a detour past the fire station in the 4700 block of Ray White Road.

She had no idea that the firefighters who had responded that day had been told that Matthew had died.

"I just walked in and said, 'I need to know if you guys were the ones who were working on February 28. I said my son fell from a 2-story window.' "

Alford said she instantly recognized Green.

"He just looked at me and said, 'Oh my God!' "

Tomkins wasn't there, so the others called his wife, Michelle.

"They said, 'Remember the little boy that fell in February?' " Alford recalled. " 'He is alive. He is running around the fire station.' "

The next week, Alford and her family returned to the fire station.

"Sonny just walked around and held him [Matthew]," Alford said. "He just kept saying, 'I can't believe this. I can't believe this.' "

'Miracle Boy'

Today, Matthew, now 3, is trying to catch up on lost months.

Before the accident, Matthew was advanced for his age -- able to recite the Pledge of Allegiance and count to 20 in Spanish.

He has had to relearn how to sit up and walk. He is in speech therapy to learn how to talk again.

"They will never say he is going to make a full recovery with an injury like this," Alford said. "But we have faith that he is going to do just fine."

The Alfords, who sometimes refer to Matthew as the "Miracle Boy," believe that God sent Tompkins and the C-shift crew of Engine 37 to the house that day.

After the ceremony Saturday night, Tompkins said he, too, felt a higher power had a hand in the rescue.

"Angels and God were with him," Tompkins said. "That is all I know."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Mar 05 - 10:38 AM

Ewwwww! The epitomy of the "dirty old man!"

Santa Ana, Calif.
87-year-old sentenced in sex-tourism case

An 87-year-old man convicted of attempting to travel to the Philippines to molest young girls was sentenced yesterday to 20 years in prison under a 2003 federal law aimed at fighting so-called sex tourism.

John W. Seljan was the first person to be convicted at trial of violating the Protect Act, which made it easier for U.S. authorities to prosecute people for overseas sex crimes, according to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents arrested Seljan in October 2003 at Los Angeles International Airport as he was about to board a flight to the Philippines. In his luggage, he had child pornography, sexual aids and nearly 100 pounds of chocolates and other candy. Authorities said he intended to have sex with two girls, ages 9 and 12.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,Amos
Date: 29 Mar 05 - 10:48 AM

More to be censured than pitied, I suppose. It must be awful hard (so tospeak) on old men to turn aged, smelly, grumpy and ugly, appealing to no-one, while still driven by the primordial demands of protoplasm. A rough life, indeed.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 29 Mar 05 - 10:59 AM

If he didn't have all of the candy and the porn, no one would have stopped him. It wasn't that he was going overseas for sex with consenting adult women that got him into trouble, he was going to prey on children. Makes you wonder what he's been doing the rest of his life?

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 31 Mar 05 - 10:45 AM

Just to show that even in San Diego we have a little imagination and a sense of humor:

Thief in San Diego Steals Bag of Poop From Woman Walking Dog

SAN DIEGO Mar 31, 2005 — The hunt is on for a turd burglar. Police in San Diego are searching for a gunman who swiped a bag of poop from a woman out walking her dog.

The woman told police that she was out walking her dog, Misty, on Monday night when a man in his 20s ran up behind her and grabbed the bag she was holding.

When the gunman discovered what was in it, he threw it down in disgust, pointed his gun at the 32-year-old woman and demanded money, San Diego police detective Gary Hassen said.


He then aimed his .22-caliber semiautomatic at Misty and pulled the trigger twice but the gun didn't fire, Hassen said.


The robber ran to a waiting small, silver car and fled the scene, police said.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 31 Mar 05 - 10:48 AM

I heard that on the radio this morning. The woman was very lucky, all things considered. The story is a very scary kind of "funny."

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 01 Apr 05 - 01:40 AM

link
A Woman's Risky Strategy to End Stalking
Indianapolis Woman Confronts, Chases Peeping Tom

March 31, 2005 -- For several months in 2003, a stalker made Hannah Arbuckle's life a nightmare.

One spring night, a strange man had come to the window of her newly purchased Indianapolis home with video camera in hand. She subsequently woke up countless other times to see him peering in her window.

Each time, he disappeared before the police arrived. "It's very frightening," Arbuckle said. "It happened weekly, multiple times in a week."

Arbuckle, then 28, finally came face to face with him one October evening and got him to stop — but only by doing something most security experts say is extremely dangerous.

She confronted him. "I just didn't want him to get away again," she told ABC News' Cynthia McFadden.

The stalker ran from her, but Arbuckle embarked on a wild chase after him. When police finally caught him, they found out he was a convicted rapist who had been out of prison for two years when he started stalking Arbuckle.

Robert Braun, 57, pleaded guilty to multiple counts of felony voyeurism. And even though he never physically harmed Arbuckle, because of his prior record and the photographs he took, he was given a 20-year sentence, with four years to be served behind bars, another two in home detention and probation for the remaining period.

Arbuckle now recognizes what she did was not safe. But she added: "Everything happens for a reason. And I'm safe, I'm here today, and he's caught."

She Had Enough

Arbuckle, the manager of a physical therapy clinic, says to this day, she has no idea why she chased him. But in her conversation with McFadden, it appears Braun had pushed the fiercely independent single woman too far.

When Braun started taking pictures from the windows, she made sure her blinds were closed.

But then he started taking pictures from a high window in her front door and from beneath the window shades. One night he was even seen sitting on her front porch.

"My biggest fear going through this is that I would wake up one night and he would be in my bedroom or in my house," Arbuckle said. She lived alone.

Arbuckle added that she did not think about running away. "I did not want to be pushed around," she said. "I definitely had enough."

Uncontrollable Situation

Arbuckle got her face-to-face confrontation with Braun when she surprised him on a Wednesday evening as she was walking out to her car.

He reacted, she told McFadden, by putting his hands in his pockets, turning around and walking away quickly. Arbuckle remembers thinking, "If he gets away this time, who knows what'll happen?"

So she chased him down the street, and yelled, "Stop running!" She says when he turned around she asked him, "Why are you looking in my windows?"

Arbuckle says he denied spying on her and said, "I don't know who you are, lady." But she was not willing to back off.

"I said 'You do — I've seen you.' The second I said that, his whole demeanor changed," Arbuckle remembers.

Braun ran to his truck and tried to drive away, but Arbuckle jumped in the back. He tore off, screeching through the streets, while Arbuckle called the police from her cell phone.

Arbuckle recounted what happened next: "He turned down a side street and slammed on the brakes and gets out of the truck, and he's reaching and grabbing at me and I'm kicking at him."

She says she was scared. "I realized I was in a situation where I was out of control."

Prelude to Worse?

The police soon found Arbuckle and arrested Braun. They also found what they call a "rape kit" in his car: duct tape, oil and a leather mask.

"This was not a high school prank," said Carl Brizzi, the county prosecutor in Indianapolis. "This was more than just peeping. He was working himself up. This was foreplay to commit a violent sex act."

When police searched Braun's home, they found dozens of photographs of Arbuckle taken over the course of 11 months, some taken five months before she first saw Braun at her window. In some pictures, Arbuckle is naked.

Arbuckle says she didn't realize the danger she had put herself in until after Braun had been arrested. "I had no idea," she said.

"She acted on instinct," Brizzi said. "She's an incredibly heroic woman, but she's also very, very lucky — and that's the one point about this — jumping into the back of the car was something Hannah had to do out of desperation and fear — certainly not something that we would encourage."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 01 Apr 05 - 04:32 AM

My hat's off to her. What a lady.


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Apr 05 - 12:15 AM

A good subtitle: Wendy's fingers woman in chili complaint. . .

Woman Claiming Finger in Chili Sues Often
link

LAS VEGAS - The woman who claims she bit into a human finger while eating chili at a Wendy's restaurant has a history of filing lawsuits - including a claim against another fast-food restaurant.

Anna Ayala, 39, who hired a San Jose, Calif., attorney to represent her in the Wendy's case, has been involved in at least half a dozen legal battles in the San Francisco Bay area, according to court records.

She brought a suit against an ex-boss in 1998 for sexual harassment and sued an auto dealership in 2000, alleging the wheel fell off her car. That suit was dismissed after Ayala fired her lawyer, who said she had threatened him.

The case against her former employer was settled in arbitration in June 2002, but it was not known whether she received any money.

Speaking through the front door of her Las Vegas home Friday, Ayala claimed police are out to get her and were unnecessarily rough as they executed a search warrant at her home on Wednesday.

"Lies, lies, lies, that's all I am hearing," she said. "They should look at Wendy's. What are they hiding? Why are we being victimized again and again?"

Ayala acknowledged, however, that her family received a settlement for their medical expenses about a year ago after reporting that her daughter, Genesis, got sick from food at an El Pollo Loco restaurant in Las Vegas. She declined to provide any further details.

San Jose police have joined the Las Vegas police fraud unit in the investigation into how a 1 1/2-inch-long fingertip ended up in Ayala's bowl of chili at the San Jose Wendy's on March 22. Ayala said Friday she had not yet filed a claim against Wendy's, and it was unclear whether she had filed suit against the franchise owner.

Wendy's spokesman Bob Bertini would not comment on the investigation Friday.

The company, however, maintains that the finger did not enter the food chain in its ingredients. The employees at the San Jose store were found to have all their fingers, and no suppliers of Wendy's ingredients have reported any hand or finger injuries, the company said.

On Thursday, Wendy's offered a $50,000 reward to anyone providing verifiable information leading to the positive identification of the origin of the finger.

"It's very important to our company to find out the truth in this incident," Tom Mueller, Wendy's president and chief operating officer, said in a statement.

Investigators would not say what they were looking for in the search of Ayala's house. Ken Bono, a family friend who lives at the home, said officers searched freezers, a picnic cooler in the backyard and the belongings of an aunt who used to live at the house.

The Santa Clara County Coroner's Office used a partial fingerprint to attempt to find a match in an electronic database of missing people and those with criminal histories, but came up empty. DNA testing is still being conducted on the finger.

"The simple fact of the matter is that the finger came from somebody. Where's that person at?" said Sgt. Nick Muyo, a spokesman for the San Jose Police Department.

Bertini said Wendy's stores in the area have suffered from declining sales since the incident.

"Obviously the store has been down significantly," he said. "This has been an ordeal for all of us. Hopefully there will be a resolution soon."

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 12 Apr 05 - 05:52 PM

NASHVILLE, Tenn. Apr 12, 2005 — A man was beaten to death after catching his wife's lover living in a closet in their home, police said Tuesday.

Rafael DeJesus Rocha-Perez, 35, was charged with homicide in the slaying of 44-year-old Jeffrey A. Freeman over the weekend.

"From time to time, you come across a case with very unique even bizarre circumstances," police spokesman Don Aaron said. "This one probably rates right up there with them."

Freeman's wife had allowed Rocha-Perez to live in a closet of the Freemans' four-bedroom for about a month without her husband's knowledge, police said. On Sunday, her husband heard Rocha-Perez snoring and discovered him, authorities said.

Freeman ordered his wife to get the man out of the house while he went for a walk, authorities said. Martha Freeman told authorities that when her husband returned, Rocha-Perez confronted him with a shotgun, forced him into a bathroom and bludgeoned him.

The Freemans were co-owners of a company that does background checks for apartment rental and job applicants.

---

Oh, irony!! I guess she didn't finish the basic staff training or something!


A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 06:53 AM

Online Gamer Stabbed for Selling Cyber-Saber
Wed Mar 30,10:23 AM ET

BEIJING (Reuters) - A Shanghai online game player stabbed to death a competitor who sold his cyber-sword, the China Daily said Wednesday, creating a dilemma in China where no law exists for the ownership of virtual weapons.

Qiu Chengwei, 41, stabbed competitor Zhu Caoyuan repeatedly in the chest after he was told Zhu had sold his "dragon saber," used in the popular online game, "Legend of Mir 3," the newspaper said a Shanghai court was told Tuesday.

"Legend of Mir 3" features heroes and villains, sorcerers and warriors, many of whom wield enormous swords.

Qiu and a friend jointly won their weapon last February, and lent it to Zhu who then sold it for 7,200 yuan (US$870), the newspaper said.

Qui went to the police to report the "theft" but was told the weapon was not real property protected by law.

"Zhu promised to hand over the cash but an angry Qui lost patience and attacked Zhu at his home, stabbing him in the left chest with great force and killing him," the court was told.

The newspaper did not specify the charge against Qiu but said he had given himself up to police and already pleaded guilty to "intentional injury."

No verdict has been announced.

More and more online gamers were seeking justice through the courts over stolen weapons and credits, the newspaper said.

"The armor and swords in games should be deemed as private property as players have to spend money and time for them," Wang Zongyu, an associate law professor at Beijing's Renmin University of China, was quoted as saying.

But other experts are calling for caution. "The 'assets' of one player could mean nothing to others as they are by nature just data created by game providers," a lawyer for a Shanghai-based Internet game company was quoted as saying.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Amos
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 09:19 AM

COngrats to SRS for one-year survival of this entertaining thread.

A

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 11:48 AM

Thanks, Amos. I hadn't realized we'd passed an anniversary. This is for all intents and purposes a virtual scrap book (not a posession that someone could be murdered over!) It's clear by the regular set of posters that we are people who need a place to park those "clippings" of stories that are just too interesting to read and not share, though whatever makes them interesting certainly varies widely from day to day.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 07:33 PM

I decided that I was getting too many Aussie political ones such as those about Ms Rau - so they now have their own thread.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Shanghaiceltic
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 07:56 PM

Re the killing of one gamer by another, the saddest thing is that this person will almost certainly get the bullet. Few murderers ever get pardoned here and the end will be swift. Normally about one week after a death sentence is passed it is carried out.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 13 Apr 05 - 08:09 PM

I remember a recent evening when my son was very sad--he'd miscalculated the exchange rate in an online game and had severely short-changed himself on "stuff" he sold that he'd worked hard to get. I was sorry to see it happen, but at the same time, it probably was a good lesson to pay attention to what he's doing in a world of work and finance, whether virtual or the here and now.

SRS

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 07:59 PM

Here's one for you music lovers--you MUST attach those hefty speakers if you are going to use them in your car. (This isn't a joke--a child died and the law is a good outcome, but as I read this I wondered what on earth this guy was doing with a 56 pound speaker in his automobile?)

Teens' efforts pay off with law
Gov. Gregoire signs the Courtney Amisson Act, requiring car speakers to be bolted down.

By Jerry Cornfield, Herald Writer

OLYMPIA - A Snohomish teenager's death in 2002 has resulted in a new law requiring stereo speakers to be securely mounted inside vehicles.

Gov. Christine Gregoire signed the Courtney Amisson Act on Thursday, saying she wanted to ensure that "out of this terrible tragedy comes some good."

"We can all hope and pray that it will prevent anyone else from having happen to them what happened to Courtney," Gregoire said

Courtney was a 15-year-old sophomore at Snohomish High School who died of injuries suffered when a 56-pound speaker struck her in the back of the head during a car accident.

The law requires all stereo system equipment to be securely attached to the vehicle. Violations are a secondary traffic infraction, meaning a ticket can only be issued if a driver is stopped for another reason.

"It's a bill that will save lives," said Carol Amisson, Courtney's mother. "It takes less than 10 bucks for bolts to secure the speaker."

Ron Amisson, Courtney's father, said, "As simple as it would seem, it's amazing that it would have to come to the point of a law being made that somebody would have to be told to do this."

The law also directs the state's Traffic Safety Commission to prepare and distribute educational materials on risks posed by unsecured items in cars and trucks. Carol Amisson said she would help in that effort, if asked.

"Hopefully, no other parent will suffer the pain" of such a loss, she said.

Several of Courtney's friends attended the signing of the law. They began pursuing the bill three months after her death.

In each of the last three years, the students found a lawmaker to introduce the bill. They and Carol Amisson have testified at hearings each year.

"I'm excited that it finally went through," said senior Missy Waldron, 17, who spoke at hearings in 2003.

Carol Amisson praised the support and the perseverance of her daughter's friends. "At times when I couldn't squeak out a word, they'd touch my hand and say, 'We're doing it for Courtney.'"

On Thursday, students remarked that it was not easy work and that it did not come quickly, but that it will make a difference. They said while most students know about Courtney's death, many are driving around with unsecured stereo speakers in the back windows of their cars.

"People don't really care. They don't think about it, they just want the speakers and the sound," senior Julia Baggenstos said.

Each year, about 300 Snohomish High seniors travel to Olympia to lobby lawmakers on legislation as part of a government class taught by Tuck Gionet, who attended Thursday's signing.

This is the first of their proposed legislation to be signed into law.

Shortly before Gregoire signed the bill, students, their parents and school leaders met with Reps. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, and John Lovick, D-Mill Creek.

"This is sort of a small thing for the rest of the people in the state, but it's a big thing for us," said Dunshee, prime sponsor of the bill this year. "We did this for Courtney."

The law takes effect in 90 days.

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Leadfingers
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 08:55 PM

I read in the paper that El Ted is laid up with Chicken pox , which makes it easy to move on to - - -

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: Leadfingers
Date: 15 Apr 05 - 08:55 PM

The 200 th post ( again) !!!!

Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper
From: GUEST,Charley Noble
Date: 16 Apr 05 - 09:33 AM

I was discussing this interesting story with a friend of mine:

"Woman Claiming Finger in Chili Sues Often"

and she claimed there's a follow-up story which alledged that the finger in question came from a hospital morgue.

Can anyone else provide a link to a follow-up story? Inquiring minds really need more facts if we're to cook up a credible ballad.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble, alive and well in NYC