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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: 02 May 05 - 10:54 AM I'd forgotten about that story, but the outcome isn't surprising. My mom worked for Child Protective Services in Washington State, and from the stories she would tell, it was clear that it was an uphill battle to try to help families and family members in this kind of situation. The united front of a dysfunctional family is hard to get past--their word versus the word of who? an anonymous source, or a curious social worker? This thread is meant to call attention to interesting stories, but if any of them need more discussion then they merit threads of their own, or at least categories more specific to the topic, so don't be discouraged by any brief discussion of the topic here. These articles are posted to be viewed along the lines of think pieces. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Charley Noble Date: 02 May 05 - 08:44 AM I was also viewing today on the morning news the story of the "Killer Squirrels of Portland-West" who have been attacking joggers in packs. Where will it end? I wonder if they bury the leftovers for subsequent snacks. Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Charley Noble Date: 02 May 05 - 08:40 AM Mary Jo- Thanks for having the courage to post the rest of the story. Good luck to you in your effort to escape the family you so graphically describe. Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: GUEST,Mary Jo Date: 02 May 05 - 06:16 AM I am replying to this post: From: Stilly River Sage Date: 15 Apr 04 - 01:53 PM Civil liberties gone amuck? Or is California just more whacko that usual? Thursday, April 15, 2004 http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/169174_molester15.html Serial child molester is set free By VANESSA HO, SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER In the spring of 1996, Blue Kartak was a baby-faced 16-year-old runaway in Seattle when he met a friendly man at a coffeehouse who promised to take him to Disneyland. The man turned out to be a serial child molester who drugged and raped Kartak in a motel room in California. His attacker, Edward Harvey Stokes, was convicted and given a life sentence for the crime. But last week, Stokes -- who's said he has attacked more than 200 victims -- walked out of a California jail as a free man and moved back to Washington state. The reason: A state appeals court ruled he never had a chance to confront his accuser -- Kartak -- who committed suicide before Stokes' trial. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Just for your information, I am the Aunt of Blue Kartak, the 16 year old who commited suicide. Blue was not 16 when he killed himself. He was in his twenties. He was married and had a son of his own. There is more to this story than they tell you in the news. Like the fact that Blues dad, my older brother Pete, is also a pediphile, drug lord and general maniac. Having grown up with my brother, I had many reasons to take my own life, and I am afraid the molestation by this stranger had only a little to do with Blues suicide, mostly that it was the stick that broke the camels back. No more. The whole Kartak family is unhealthy and sick with denial, alcohalism, blame and lies. Poor Blue was a victim of his own family! I know what Pete did to me and my brother Kevin and am horrified at the thought of what he may have done to his own son! I came across this thread while doing a search on my family members, all who do not communicate together any more because of a family history of alcohalism and denial that there was insest in the family. This is what happens when families do not face up to facts and instead blame everyone else outside the family for their families ills. This pediphile was not the only or sole cause to Blues untimely death, I can not stress that enough!!!!! Sign me, the only one healthy and talking. Too bad my family cant shut me up...but they are the ones who are sick!! Please keep them in your prayers!!!! Mary Jo |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 01 May 05 - 12:25 AM From a recent edition of the RRUssian newpaper Pravda, a sort of National Enquirer : Doctors from Russia's Ulyanovsk ask local authorities for help The doctors in the Russian city of Ulyanovsk are raising the alarm. Not only they are paid peanuts for their work, they seem to be running the highest occupational risks in town. The patients have been beating up the doctors in Ulyanovsk's hospitals on a regular basis. The personnel of one of the hospital emergency rooms were the first to lose their patience. Three doctors and two nurses suffered abuse from the patients of that room over a short period of time. You just can not treat the patients because they are often under the influence and ready to insult you verbally or use their fists at first opportunity. The doctors had to call on the deputies of the city parliament. They requested the deputies to take urgent measures so that armed guards might be constantly available on hospital premises. They also requested that an alarm system with an emergency button for calling the police should be installed. Deputies discussed the issues at a special meeting of the committee for health and social development of the Ulyanovsk parliament. However, the problem boils down to money which is too tight to mention. Monthly costs of an emergency button alarm system amount to 10,000 rubles. The city authorities say they have no such sum in their coffers. The deputies finally decided that the doctors would have to cover the costs of their security by paying with the money charged for paid medical services. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 30 Apr 05 - 05:08 PM Look at the advertising dollars that the news outlets pulled in electrifying the nation on the Lacie Peterson story. Anything that has that kind of potential gets editors pounding their desks for story, man!! A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Burke Date: 30 Apr 05 - 03:43 PM Of course Stilly's 1st headline from 3:30 yesterday has some follow-up's Missing Georgia bride-to-be found alive in New Mexico "released by her captors and was able to contact authorities." Bride-to-Be Admits Making Up Kidnap Story Missing Georgia Bride-To-Be Found with Cold Feet I hate to say it, but why was this woman's disappearance national news? If someone disappears 2 days before the wedding, don't you just figure on it being cold feet? |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 29 Apr 05 - 04:30 PM Under a kinder and gentler regime, SPring is the time when young men's hearts turn to thoughts of love. Under the present one, they turn to thoughts of embezzlement and physical harm. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 29 Apr 05 - 03:33 PM Maybe it's just because it's a Friday, but the headlines are really getting wierd. This is the as-is list of news stories that appears on my IP personal web page this afternoon: * Ga. Bride-To-Be's Family Announces Reward * L.A. on Edge After Freeway Shootings * Mother Charged in Stabbing Deaths of Kids * House GOP Plans Social Security Draft * Men Who Claimed to Find Treasure Arrested Technology News * Spitzer Sues Intermix Over 'Spyware' * Verizon Pulling Plug on Free NYC Wi-Fi * Cinema Owners Seek to Curb Phone Rage * European Digital Library Is Proposed * Bahrain Site Registration Sparks Protests Health and Lifestyle News * FDA OKs Lizard-Derived Shot for Diabetes * Girl Sticks Schoolmates With Used Needle * CDC Pushing New Mosquito Repellents * Study Links Middle Age Obesity to Dementia * Eli Lilly Halts Child Sepsis Study Stabbings, kidnappings, phone rage, lizard shots, needle sticks, child sepsis? Whew! |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 29 Apr 05 - 12:56 PM Men Who Claimed to Find Treasure Arrested April 29, 2005 LAWRENCE, Mass. - Two men who made national headlines by claiming they found a buried treasure in the back yard of a home were charged Friday with stealing the collection of old currency from a house where they were working. Barry Billcliff, 27, of Manchester, N.H., and Timothy Crebase, 22, of Methuen, Mass., were charged with receiving stolen property, conspiracy and accessory after the fact, Methuen Police Lt. Kevin Martin said. The men were to be arraigned Friday. Crebase told investigators the men found the money in the gutter of a barn they were hired to repair, according to the Eagle-Tribune newspaper of Lawrence. The men had made several appearances on national television this week, and police noticed details of the story changed with each appearance. Police Chief Joseph E. Solomon told ABC's "Good Morning America" that authorities might never have suspected anything had the men not sought publicity. "Had they just put the money away or, you know, gone somewhere outside of the area and sold a little money at a time, I don't think anybody would have known or suspected anything," Solomon said. "Sometimes wanting to be famous is really the downfall of people." The arrest interrupted the men's planned appearance Thursday night on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live" because they were being booked by police around the time the show was airing. They were to have been interviewed from the yard where they claimed to have found the money while digging. The men said they found 1,800 bank notes and bills dating between 1899 and 1928 while digging in the yard of the house Crebase rents. The materials had a face value of about $7,000. Domenic Mangano, owner of the Village Coin Shop in Plaistow, N.H., examined the find and said the currency was authentic. He gave varying estimates of its worth, ranging from $50,000 to $100,000. The men's stories, though, attracted suspicion because of discrepancies. The depth of the buried crate, for example, ranged from 9 inches to 2 feet. The men also gave conflicting reasons for digging in Crebase's yard. They told one reporter they were preparing to plant a tree. In other reports, they said they were trying to remove a small tree or dig up the roots of a shrub that was damaging the home's foundation. Billcliff insisted the discrepancies in the story of how the money happened found could be explained. "It's like watching a car accident," he told the newspaper. "Sometimes someone will say something and someone else will say something slightly different, but mostly it's the same." Christine Tetlow of Manchester, N.H., who identified herself as a longtime friend of Billcliff, defended him and said the pair did not steal the money. "If you need money, he'll be the first person to step up and give it to you and never ask to get it back," she said. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Charley Noble Date: 26 Apr 05 - 05:55 PM With regard to the frigid mother, I'm reminded of this old limerick: There was a young widow named Brice, Who kept her dead husband on ice; She said, "T'was hard when I lost him, I'll never defrost him; Cold comfort but cheap at the price." Who knows, maybe we'll find an appropriate article any day now! Amos- "oral deposition" smacks of "contempt of court." You should be ashamed to make such a suggestion... Cheerily, Charley Noble |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Apr 05 - 12:11 PM Reading a lot today. Here's a remarkable one (it probably deserves better company that the sperm donor and the finger-tip hoax). Injured Colo. Skier Rescued a Week Later April 26 DENVER - Charles Horton, a massage therapist and experienced outdoorsman, broke his leg April 17 on what was to have been a one-day ski trip. Eight days, later authorities found him cold, hungry - and very much alive. Horton spent the time alone in the wilderness near Steamboat Springs, about 100 miles northwest of Denver, sleeping under snowcapped trees and in rudimentary shelters. On day No. 3, the experienced outdoorsman began using his elbows to drag himself across the frozen ground in an attempt to get to his car 3 miles away. It wasn't until Sunday that longtime friend and landlord Johnny Walker returned from a vacation and found Horton's cat was unfed, his plants needed water and there was a slew of phone messages wondering why Horton had missed massage appointments. "My heart just sank," Walker said. "It was going to be a horrible loss." Walker called the Rio Blanco County Sheriff's Office. After a one-hour search, rescue workers found Horton early Monday morning on a snow-covered road used by the U.S. Forest Service not far from town. Horton, 55, of Steamboat Springs, was dehydrated and suffering from minor frostbite and mild hypothermia. He was hospitalized in fair condition Tuesday, authorities said. "His skills and knowledge, his gear and his will to live are what kept him alive," said Sgt. Anthony Mazzola of the Rio Blanco County Sheriff's Office. "This is stuff books are written about." Horton hadn't told anyone when he expected to return, and almost everyone who knew him was out of town, his friend Mary O'Brien said. "His co-workers were gone, I was gone, his girlfriend was gone. We were all missing the fact that he was missing," she said. "It was a mad mess." O'Brien said Horton spent the first two nights under a tree, sleeping on boughs and building a fire to keep warm. Temperatures dipped into the 20s at midweek when a cold front moved through, but little snow fell, National Weather Service meteorologist Dave Nadler said. On Tuesday, he decided to start toward his car. Crawling on his back, supporting himself with his elbows and dragging his broken leg behind, he covered about 200 yards in 10 hours, O'Brien said. "He decided it was taking too much energy to move, so he decide he was staying put," she said. Rescuers found him about two miles from their command center, barely able to speak. Searchers on snowmobiles would periodically stop, shut down their engines and blow whistles. On one stop, they heard Horton blowing his whistle in response. "We all said that if anybody could (survive), it would be him," O'Brien said. "He had the personality and the skill. He's not the type that would panic." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Apr 05 - 11:32 AM That must have been some hum-dinger of a cat attack. I had a serious bite a few years ago, was nearly hospitalized from the infection, but it bled a bit, it didn't splatter. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 26 Apr 05 - 11:19 AM She was a cold, hard woman, plainly. But I think his management of things has had a chilling effect on her freedom of speech. A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Apr 05 - 10:36 AM Amos, you beat me to this story, but I have a longer version, so I'll post it: Schuth: Mother died in 2000 link By Dan Springer / Lee Newspapers LA CROSSE, Wis. — Philip Schuth said his mother died of natural causes in 2000, but he hid her body in a chest freezer because he was afraid of being charged with murder. He was particularly worried investigators would find her blood splattered on the wall of an upstairs hallway. It was from when a cat attacked her years before her death, he said. So he kept her death a secret for 41/2 years — painting over the blood and living off her Social Security checks, which were electronically deposited in a joint account. He also kept secret the "anti-personnel" bombs and a stash of guns in his basement, and set up booby traps in the house. Those are some of the revelations made in a probable cause statement filed Monday in La Crosse County Court. According to the affidavit by Capt. Jeff Wolf of the sheriff's department, Schuth revealed his secrets to negotiators this weekend during a 14-hour standoff with police that began Friday evening. It began after Schuth reportedly struck a 10-year-old child and then shot the boy's father, who with his wife had driven to Schuth's home on French Island to confront him about the assault. The man, Randy Russell Jr., was treated for gunshot wounds to the right shoulder and released from Gundersen Lutheran Medical Center later that evening. Schuth retreated into his home at 1330 Bainbridge St. and refused to come out. Investigators said that during the negotiations Schuth said he put his mother, Edith Schuth, in the freezer when she died Aug. 15, 2000. Schuth gave himself up Saturday morning, and officers searched the home. Officers brought the freezer to the sheriff's department, where they took it apart. They chipped away enough of the roughly 300-pound block of ice to reveal an intact corpse in a sitting position. Police believe Edith Schuth was born 90 or 91 years ago. Officers also found 15 loaded handguns and homemade explosive devices Schuth said would be there, according to the affidavit. The home had very little furniture and there was no running water, but Schuth had more than $10,000 in cash in the home and another $25,000 in a bank account, even though Schuth said he has not worked steadily in years, investigators said. Schuth said he calculated that without continuing income that money in the account would be depleted in about five years due to taxes, and he said he contemplated either killing himself or committing an armed robbery for which he would be immediately apprehended, said the affidavit. At his first court appearance Monday, Schuth rocked gently in his courtroom chair and chatted with another inmate as he waited for the hearing to begin. At the hearing, Schuth said very little except to inform La Crosse County Circuit Judge Ramona Gonzalez that his name is pronounced "Schuf." Gonzalez ordered Schuth held on a $100,000 cash bond after La Crosse County District Attorney Scott Horne said charges will not be filed until next week. Horne said he wants to wait until an autopsy is done to file charges. When Schuth is next in court May 3, he could face a variety of charges including attempted homicide and two counts of first-degree reckless endangerment in connection with Friday's shooting. And, three counts of possession of improvised explosive devices, concealing a corpse and possession of a short-barreled shotgun, Horne said. Since the body was still frozen Monday, a forensic pathologist in Hastings, Minn., said the autopsy will have to be delayed until at least Thursday. While Horne said he does not believe Schuth killed his mother, the case is being treated as a homicide. While Schuth was cooperative, he also warned negotiators that if officers entered his home with loaded guns it was going to be "high noon," according to the affidavit. He also told negotiators that he had more than 10, but less than 100 "anti-personnel devices" in the home, and when officers later searched the home they found two large shopping bags containing 15 to 20 explosive devices. The Dane County Bomb Squad examined the devices, Sunday discovering they were filled with explosive powder and metal objects including nails, heavy duty staples and other metal items, according to the affidavit. The squad detonated one to confirm the devices were functional. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 26 Apr 05 - 09:30 AM Some guys just HAVE to live interesting lives: Man Says He Kept Mom In Freezer To Collect Her Checks
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 25 Apr 05 - 06:18 PM FInger-licking Good! A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Donuel Date: 25 Apr 05 - 06:10 PM Thanks Sage. Wendy's should now advertise that their chili is now Finger Free. I was wondering if we should ask the Rabbi if sperm is kosher. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Apr 05 - 02:27 PM This story kind of rambles (it's actually three stories lumped together). I have a friend who "fosters" cats for the humane society--it's darned hard work to take care of a lot of animals even when you know what you're doing. 'Cat Hoarder' Forced to Give Up 70 Felines Shelter Takes in More Than 70 Felines Turned Over by Maine Man Who Officials Call 'Cat Hoarder' BRUNSWICK, Maine Apr. 24, 2005 - An animal shelter has taken in more than 70 cats that were given up by their owner in what officials described as a case of "animal hoarding." Sharon Turner, director of the Coastal Humane Society, said the man who had the cats is a hoarder and that hoarding "is a bona fide mental illness" related to obsessive compulsive disorder. An animal hoarder "is a person who amasses more animals than he/she can properly care for. Such individuals generally fail to recognize or refuse to acknowledge when the animals in their custody become victims of gross neglect," the Humane Society of the United States said on its Web site. Turner said the cats' owner had been working with the shelter over a couple of years to build up trust. Finally, she said, he recognized his financial limitations and "did absolutely the right thing" by giving the cats to the shelter. The shelter's staff scrambled Wednesday to accommodate the frightened felines at the same time they were accepting 12 of 92 English springer spaniels and puppies seized last week from a kennel in Dover-Foxcroft. Turner said the fuzzy cats were in unusually good condition given the circumstances. Some have wounds and burned paws from urine exposure, while others have upper respiratory illnesses that can affect the eyes. Other problems, she said, are a result of inbreeding. In the Washington County town of Waite, animal control officers responding to a tip seized 12 dehydrated dogs Wednesday from a mobile home and found the bodies of 18 more. The dogs living at the homes were all huskies except for one bichon frise, said Jennifer Howell, an agent with the state Animal Welfare Program. "Most of them were really thin, and a few were emaciated," she said. "They had no food and no water and inadequate shelter." The owner, whose name was not released, signed over control of the dogs to animal control officials, who took them to the Central Aroostook County Humane Society in Presque Isle. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 25 Apr 05 - 02:11 PM Nice day for a wet wedding A Mill Creek couple take their vows underwater By Bill Sheets, Herald Writer WEST SEATTLE - Melanie Clark and Curt McNamee took the plunge Sunday. The Mill Creek couple did so literally as well as figuratively, as they got married underwater in their scuba gear in a cove on Elliott Bay in West Seattle. McNamee, 54, has been diving since 1971, and Clark, 31, is a dive instructor. The two met at the Lighthouse dive shop in Lynnwood about three years ago. McNamee took one of Clark's classes, and the two began diving together. "It's through our mutual diving experiences that our bond was created," McNamee said. The idea for the underwater wedding was McNamee's. "I'm the diving guru, but Curt felt this was the way to go," Clark said, adding she was all for the idea. The bride wore a white lace dress and veil over her scuba gear, outfitted with lead fishing weights to keep them from floating upward, and she carried a bouquet of plastic flowers. The groom wore a T-shirt made to resemble a tuxedo and a black plastic top hat atop his diving hood. The ceremony began on the rocky beach, and then the bride and groom, the pastor and about 20 diver friends slowly disappeared into about 15 feet of water, where the couple exchanged their vows. The ceremony was performed by John Burkholder of Monroe, a friend of McNamee's for 19 years. Burkholder had done some diving years ago, but had to be re-educated to do the ceremony, McNamee said. Another diver taped the ceremony, and it was shown on three close-circuit TVs set up under a canopy onshore. The more than 50 in attendance - plus numerous passersby - watched with a mixture of laughter and curiosity. "It's different," said Clark's mother, Rosemary Patterson, who came from her home in Calgary, Alberta, for the wedding. "She lives diving; it's her love," she said of her daughter. "It's fabulous," said bystander Carol Nicholson, whose mother lives across the street from the beach. The water was murky, some of the divers said. The picture on two of the TVs was dark, but on a third the couple and others could be seen clearly. The couple used laminated flash cards to recite their vows, mouthing along with them the best they could through their scuba gear. When the card "I do" appeared on the TV screens, the crowd erupted into a cheer. The "rings" resembled large pipe nuts and were slipped on for symbolism's sake. The couple's real rings were worn underneath their diving gloves. Then a sign was held in front of the underwater camera: "You May Kiss the Bride." The two pulled out their mouthpieces long enough to kiss. The wedding party then bobbed to the surface, and the couple emerged to another cheer. A boat picked them up and drove them on a "victory lap," then dropped them off on a nearby pier. Their unusual hitching went off without a hitch, mostly. The officiant's wet suit wasn't properly weighted, so some in the wedding party had to hold him down to keep him from ascending. "The visibility wasn't very good in the water," McNamee said, still dripping wet shortly after the ceremony. "But you know what, it's OK." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Apr 05 - 02:22 PM I agree with the higher court. It's one thing to do that if she was desperate to have a child and didn't want a permanent partner, but she didn't have his consent, so if she was going to be sneaky about it to begin with, she shouldn't have sued for the child support. That's having her sperm and eating it, too. Even though I started this thread, I have my hat, so I'll just leave by the back door. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 23 Apr 05 - 01:20 PM I guess this calls for an oral deposition: CHICAGO - An appeals court said a man can press a claim for emotional distress after learning a former lover had used his sperm to have a baby. But he can't claim theft, the ruling said, because the sperm were hers to keep. The ruling Wednesday by the Illinois Appellate Court sends Dr. Richard O. Phillips' distress case back to trial court. Phillips accuses Dr. Sharon Irons of a "calculated, profound personal betrayal" after their affair six years ago, saying she secretly kept semen after they had oral sex, then used it to get pregnant. He said he didn't find out about the child for nearly two years, when Irons filed a paternity lawsuit. DNA tests confirmed Phillips was the father, the court papers state. Phillips was ordered to pay about $800 a month in child support, said Irons' attorney, Enrico Mirabelli. Phillips sued Irons, claiming he has had trouble sleeping and eating and has been haunted by "feelings of being trapped in a nightmare," court papers state. Irons responded that her alleged actions weren't "truly extreme and outrageous" and that Phillips' pain wasn't bad enough to merit a lawsuit. The circuit court agreed and dismissed Phillips' lawsuit in 2003. But the higher court ruled that, if Phillips' story is true, Irons "deceitfully engaged in sexual acts, which no reasonable person would expect could result in pregnancy, to use plaintiff's sperm in an unorthodox, unanticipated manner yielding extreme consequences." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: GUEST,Stilly River Sage Date: 22 Apr 05 - 10:40 AM Since I have posted about this story before I'll continue it here. It doesn't need a thread of its own, even though this woman is into finger-picking. Woman who found finger arrested Police raid Vegas home of Wendy's diner who claimed bowl of chili was tainted - Ryan Kim, Chronicle Staff Writer, Friday, April 22, 2005 link Anna Ayala, the Las Vegas woman who claimed to have bitten into a severed finger at a San Jose Wendy's restaurant, was arrested Thursday night in connection with the case, San Jose police said. San Jose police spokesman Enrique Garcia said Ayala, 39, was arrested, but he declined to provide further details. "We've arrested her in connection with the Wendy's investigation. She's currently in custody'' in Las Vegas, said Garcia late Thursday night. Police did not say on what charges Ayala was arrested. A press conference is scheduled at the San Jose Police Department at 1 p.m. today to discuss details about the arrest, Garcia said. A Clark County Detention Center official said Ayala was booked Thursday night as a fugitive from San Jose. Family friend Ken Bono said officers raided the home around 9 p.m. and caught Ayala alone as she was watching "Meet the Fockers" on video. "I had just left to get some soda at the store, and when I came back she was gone and there were cars from the (Las Vegas and San Jose) police," said Bono, 23, who lives with Ayala. "They said it for grand theft or something." Bono said Ayala is innocent and eventually will be exonerated. He said she has been unfairly targeted by the police and Wendy's International Inc. "They don't got jack s -- . They got her for something she didn't do. It's just something Wendy's is trying to do to her," Bono said. The arrest comes almost a month after Ayala visited the Wendy's restaurant in San Jose on Monterey Road, where she says she bit into a 1 1/2- inch fingertip as she ate a bowl of chili. Her March 22 report prompted several investigations -- including one by San Jose police and another by Wendy's, which concluded Thursday that the finger did not originate in its food preparations or ingredients. Wendy's officials declined comment Thursday night on Ayala's arrest, saying they had not been contacted by law enforcement. After her reported discovery of the finger, Ayala said she had trouble eating and sleeping and was forced to take medicine to help settle her nerves. At one point, she recounted her horror at finding the finger on ABC-TV's "Good Morning America." On April 6, investigators served a search warrant on Ayala's Las Vegas home. Ayala, who has steadfastly maintained she did not plant the finger, accused police of harassment. She initially filed a claim against Wendy's but withdrew it after the raid, saying the media and police scrutiny was causing her family "emotional distress." "People can say what they want and destroy my family, but it's not true," Ayala said last week. "This is really ruining my kids and me and dragging my family through the mud. It's killing us." Ayala has a history of filing unsuccessful legal claims against companies. Ayala claimed that she had received a $30,000 settlement from the El Pollo Loco restaurant chain after her 13-year-old daughter fell ill with food poisoning. But El Pollo Loco officials said Ayala had been paid nothing in response to her claim. In 2000, Ayala sued a San Jose car dealership and Goodyear Tire Corp., and in 1999 she filed a sexual harassment suit against La Oferta Review, a San Jose Spanish-language newspaper. The finger case took another turn last week when authorities compared the Wendy's finger with the DNA of a woman whose fingertip was chewed off by a leopard in Nevada. Authorities, however, ruled out a match. The probe put to rest speculation that the finger might be that of Sandy Allman, 59, of Pahrump, Nev. Allman lost the tip of a finger Feb. 23 when a leopard kept on her rural property attacked her. The case of the Wendy's finger has drawn media attention from around the world and, according to Wendy's officials, led to a sharp drop in sales. Last week, Wendy's doubled its reward to $100,000 for leads in finding the finger's original owner. On Thursday, Wendy's announced it would offer free Frosty shakes to all Bay Area customers this weekend as a show of goodwill and commitment in the wake of its investigation. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 21 Apr 05 - 08:11 AM http://www.heraldsun.com/firstnews/37-598785.html Yale Divinity Consultants Warned Air Force By ROBERT WELLER : Associated Press Writer Apr 20, 2005 : 10:42 pm ET DENVER -- Consultants from Yale Divinity School told the Air Force Academy last summer that a Protestant chaplain had promoted Christianity with a fire-and-brimstone warning during cadet basic training. The Yale report, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated Press, was compiled after the visitors attended the training at the academy's request in July. Academy spokesman Johnny Whitaker said Wednesday that commanders had taken the Yale report into consideration when they developed religious tolerance classes that are now mandatory for cadets and staff. The classes were a response to complaints that evangelical Christians wield so much influence at the school that anti-Semitism and other forms of religious harassment have become pervasive. "We're making strides out here. We recognize the problem," Whitaker said. The academy, still emerging from a sexual assault scandal, had asked the Yale team to review how the school's chaplains serve cadets. Kristen Leslie, a Yale professor of pastoral care who led the group, said the chaplain told 600 cadets "to go back to their tents and tell their fellow cadets that those who are not born again will burn in the fires of hell." She said the fact that the people speaking to cadets were in positions of power "suggests the cadets were supposed to assume this was the party line." In the religious tolerance classes, cadets and staff are told that teachers and commanders should not invite cadets to attend their churches. Whitaker said the academy is developing a follow-up program that will include firmer boundaries on permissible behavior. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 21 Apr 05 - 08:02 AM Paisley seeks horseshoe to rein in ancient witches' curse MARTIN WILLIAMS April 19 2005 THE lucky horseshoe is to some the stuff of irrational superstition and a wild imagination. But some community leaders are convinced one such horseshoe could hold the key to restraining an ancient witches' curse which it is claimed has bedevilled a town with bad luck for more than three decades. The horseshoe, which dates back to the seventeenth century, was unwittingly lost in the 1970s and some believe Paisley has been plagued by misfortune since. Piero Pieraccini, treasurer of the Paisley Development Trust, blamed high rates of violent crime, hardship and natural disasters, including flooding in the town, on the loss of an iron horseshoe which marks the communal grave of six men and women, who were believed to be the devil's disciples. The band were found guilty of witchcraft in 1697, hanged and publicly burned at the stake before their ashes were buried and the tomb sealed with the horse's stamp. Without the horseshoe, it is said, the town cannot prevent witches rising from the dead leaving the town at the mercy of their evil spirits. Now the trust has applied for a grant for almost £2500 from Renfrewshire Council to recast a brand new stainless steel horseshoe in the hope that it will bring good luck to Paisley. Mr Pieraccini added: "We have had a hell of a time in Paisley since that horseshoe vanished. Nothing has gone right for the town. "I believe it is because of the horseshoe and I definitely think it will make a huge difference if we repair it. "The local legend predicting that the prosperity of the town will suffer if the horseshoe was moved from the witches' grave seems to have come true." The witches were accused of placing a curse on 11-year-old Christian Shaw, daughter of the Laird of Bargarran at Erskine. Witnesses claimed they saw the weeping child floating through the air and regurgitate stones, coal, sticks and feathers after she was bewitched by the six. They were all found guilty at a trial in the town's Tolbooth and sentenced to death in front of hundreds of onlookers. The trust wants to return the horseshoe in time for the 308th anniversary of the witches' death. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: GUEST Date: 20 Apr 05 - 09:16 AM As the comic we get (not me mind you) in the UK known as the "Sun" put it - re Papal succession Papa Ratzi |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 19 Apr 05 - 11:11 AM Here's a story about the destruction of a cultural icon: Caltech Student Gets Prison for SUV Arson LOS ANGELES - A Caltech graduate student convicted of helping to firebomb scores of sport utility vehicles was sentenced to more than eight years in federal prison and ordered to pay $3.5 million in restitution. A federal judge Monday rejected William Jensen Cottrell's plea for leniency. "There's no way I'd ever be involved in anything like this again," Cottrell said. "I won't ever even jaywalk again." However, U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner said Cottrell had engaged in domestic terrorism and "we're very, very lucky" that no one was killed in the arson attacks. Cottrell, 24, was convicted in November of conspiracy to commit arson and seven counts of arson for an August 2003 vandalism spree that damaged and destroyed about 125 SUVs at dealerships and homes in the San Gabriel Valley east of Los Angeles. Cottrell was acquitted of using a destructive device - Molotov cocktails - in a crime of violence. That was the most serious charge he faced and it carried a sentence of at least 30 years in prison. At his trial, the prosecution had accused Cottrell of "arrogance" and a "towering superiority" toward people who did not share his environmental views. Cottrell had testified that SUV dealers were evil. The judge said he felt sorry for Cottrell, a doctoral candidate in the physics department at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, but he had only himself to blame. "What a talent to have wasted," Klausner said. Vandals used spray-paint to deface the vehicles with slogans such as "Fat, Lazy Americans," "polluter" and "ELF," for Earth Liberation Front, a radical environmental group. Prosecutors estimated the total damage at $2.3 million. Defense lawyers argued that Cottrell had agreed with two friends to spray-paint vehicles, but was surprised when they began to hurl Molotov cocktails. Federal prosecutors have identified former Caltech students Tyler Johnson and Michie Oe as "fugitive co-conspirators" in the case. It is believed that both have fled the country. Cottrell was arrested in March 2004 after authorities tracked e-mails sent to the Los Angeles Times. The sender said he was involved in the SUV attacks and affiliated with the Earth Liberation Front. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 18 Apr 05 - 05:31 AM http://news.independent.co.uk/world/asia/story.jsp?story=630157 Tsunami carried bronze Buddha 1,000 kilometres across the ocean By Jan McGirk, South-East Asia Correspondent 17 April 2005 A little bronze-eyed idol to the west of Kathmandu is causing quite a stir. It's a Buddhist sage, and in mid-December the 5in figure was, like so many in rural Burma, placed in a little decorated kiosk, strapped to a crude bamboo raft and released on to the Irrawaddy river to drift to propitious sites and cast away evil. Down the delta it floated and then, a week or so later, the Boxing Day tsunami struck. Eight days on, 1,000 kilometres away, fishermen in Tamil Nadu spotted the raft floating offshore, its foil decorations glinting in the sunlight. Nine men set off in a boat to investigate and brought back a crude bamboo raft, lashed together with plastic clothesline and studded with silver-foil flowers. Its only passenger was a tiny crosslegged metal figure sitting on a plate inside a wooden hut. Three vases, a candle, some coins and a maroon monk's robe with the word "Burma" stitched on the tag were stashed alongside it. None of the villagers in Meyyurkuppam, a small Tamil fishing hamlet in southern India, could identify the foreign statue, but two Western aid workers suggested that it looked like a Buddha. Actually, it was a chubby Jalagupta figurine, held holy by Burmese Buddhists. Everything on board the raft was intact, and its arrival coincided with another extraordinary event in Meyyurkuppam - everyone in the village had survived the tsunami. Hence their insistence on pampering what local Hindus have called "Buddha-Swami" under their biggest banyan tree. Believers credit this floating statue with protecting all 980 inhabitants of Meyyurkuppam. The first post-tsunami cult was thereby created. One New Age priest reportedly claimed that its power against evil kept a controversial nuclear reactor from leaking radiation along their coastline, sparing tsunami survivors a slow death from cancer. At least 30 technical personnel living close to the Kalpakkam reactor perished in the tsunami, yet the facility stayed intact. More than 16,000 Indians died or are still missing after the huge waves reshaped the Bay of Bengal. No lives were lost in Meyyurkuppam. "It is a miracle," said Kuppurswamy, the village headman. "We keep a glass of water and a flower in front of the deity every day. We will worship him like we worship our own gods. Our village has accepted it as its own." Last week, as Buddhist images and relics in Burma, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Sri Lanka and southern China were ritually cleansed during the three-day Theravada New Year celebrations, the tiny Buddhist sage of Meyyurkuppam received ablutions, along with ceremonial offerings of rice sweetmeats. Fairy lights were strung around the new icon. "He will be kept here," said N Padavattan, a local boatman. "We are very happy with the arrival of this god." "This is part of a wondrous cycle," said Phra Vivek, a Bangkok monk. "Buddhism arrived in the river deltas of South-east Asia in the third century when the Indian emperor Ashoka sent missionaries to the Golden Land. Now the ocean has carried Buddhism back to its source." K Gurumurthy, from the Indo-Myanmar chamber of commerce, was sent by the Burmese embassy in New Delhi in February to examine the metal figurine, which was at first rumoured to be a valuable bronze dating from the 17th century. He told reporters it had little intrinsic value, but was a commonplace modern statuette, floated in their scores downstream during the rainy season in the Irrawaddy delta. But never has one travelled so far across the sea, and in India and Burma this little statue is considered auspicious. The villagers have now agreed to move their Buddha-Swami to a pagoda on high ground, because post-tsunami regulations prohibit any construction within 500 metres of the shoreline. Once the state government donates land for a new temple, the building, funded by the Burmese generals, will get under way. Meanwhile, the fishermen's families offer daily prayers to the new Buddha-Swami. |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 17 Apr 05 - 05:01 AM This is the guy who had his licence revoked in the USA, then given a job in Aus... http://www.couriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,12869909%255E310 2,00.html Dr Death now pretending to be his brother Hedley Thomas 16apr05 IN THE comfort of a grand home in Portland, Oregon, someone purporting to be the younger brother of the man dubbed Dr Death, Jayant Patel, has been giving telephone interviews to journalists. He calls himself Jaydish. And he has a very high regard for Patel, whom he said had left for New York soon after being photographed by The Courier-Mail at the house. "I know he had a brilliant career over here (in the US)," he said. "He doesn't give a damn about Australia, probably. He has a lot of money and he just wants to travel around the world." The man spoke of Patel's work in Australia he called it "the Third World" (just as Patel had described it while working at Bundaberg Base Hospital) and the heroism he understood his so-called brother had performed after the tilt train derailment. But within minutes of the interviews being broadcast in Australia, along with footage of a man standing at the front door of the home in North West Blue Grass Place, nurses and medical staff in Bundaberg began telephoning each other. They independently reached the same conclusion: that the man claiming to be the brother of Patel was Patel. "They are certain of it," Queensland Nurses Union secretary Gay Hawksworth said yesterday. "It seems to me that we have questions over his mental state." The union organised for footage from the US to be shown to the nurses who were adamant that it was Patel, not any fictitious brother. One of the nurses told The Courier-Mail: "It was definitely him. Believe me, we have listened to that voice for two years." Just when it seemed the scandal over the discredited and dangerous fraud given a $200,000-a-year job as Bundaberg Base Hospital's director of surgery could not get more surreal, Patel's behaviour has confirmed what nurses suspected: he is delusional. "His behaviour is psychopathic," said a medical source at Bundaberg Hospital. Even when being questioned by chief health officer Gerry FitzGerald about a trail of deaths and serious injuries arising from his surgery, Patel's self-confidence was bullet-proof. "His view was that everything was wonderful and he was looking after patients and doing a wonderful job," Dr FitzGerald recalled. Patient Doris Hillier, who was left with dreadful infections and open wounds for between four and six weeks after surgery by Patel, described him as "a barbaric animal who just liked to operate on people for his own self-glory". Hospital insiders recounted yesterday how Patel boasted of having worked for "15 years as a trauma surgeon in New York and many years as a cardio-thoracic surgeon", even as he botched relatively simple operations in Bundaberg. "He continually talked about how fabulous he was at the top of his voice. The secretaries loved him because he bought them gifts and told them how wonderful he was." He also told staff he had come to Bundaberg as part of his religion. He made himself known to the local Jehovah's Witness group and told them he knew all about their religion, and to call him if there was ever a problem. His zeal to operate was so great that even patients who had refused procedures were overruled. One man, according to a hospital insider, was emphatic he did not want a procedure but Patel began calling around family members until he found a distant relative who authorised the surgery. "One lady was booked to go to Brisbane to have a procedure," one medical staffer said. "Dr Patel found out and talked her into having it here. She had cancer of the oesophagus. She had the surgery and died in intensive care. "That's what he was like. If he found someone in the ward, he would walk in and want to operate." |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Apr 05 - 07:57 PM If you encountered something of that consistency in your bowl of soft beans and sauce, would you go ahead and bite down on it so hard that you bit through bone? Heck, I hate even encountering a little speck of bone that got into the ground meat, let along a big chunk. SRS |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: The Fooles Troupe Date: 16 Apr 05 - 06:17 PM Very good odds of both pieces in one bowl if they were in one piece BEFORE she bit into it... Errrrggggghhhhhh!!! |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: GUEST,Amos Date: 16 Apr 05 - 10:29 AM I liked one of the headlines on the reward story: "Who Gave Wendy's the Finger???" A |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Apr 05 - 09:44 AM I read yesterday that Wendy's has put up a $50,000 reward, and today I see that it is now doubled to a $100,000 reward to try to get to the bottom of this. In their distribution chain they have discovered no person missing any limbs or digits. A morgue is probably a good guess, but I haven't seen it in print yet. Seattle P.I. story. Personally, I think Wendy's is onto something. Think of it--two pieces of finger find their way into a vat of chili. What are the odds that BOTH PIECES would end up in one bowl? They're clearly detatched in the photo. I think Ayala overplayed her hand (so to speak. . . sorry about that!). This is an instance when a little might have worked, but more isn't believable. SRS |
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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 |
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Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Leadfingers Date: 15 Apr 05 - 08:55 PM The 200 th post ( again) !!!! |
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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 - - - |
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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. |
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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 |
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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. |
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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. |
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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 |
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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 |
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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. |
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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 |
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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." |
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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 |
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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." |
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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 |
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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 |
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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 |
