Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 28 Mar 07 - 05:28 PM Circuit City to fire more than 3,400 workers Retailer will replace them with new employees paid at market-based rate The Associated Press Updated: 12:45 p.m. CT March 28, 2007 RICHMOND, Va. - Circuit City Stores Inc. said Wednesday it plans to cut costs by laying off about 3,400 retail workers, or 8.5 percent of its in-store staff, and hiring lower-paid employees to replace them. It is also trimming about 130 corporate information-technology jobs. Its shares rose nearly 2 percent in afternoon trading. Circuit City, the nation's No. 2 consumer electronics retailer behind Best Buy Co. Inc., said the store workers being laid off effective Wednesday were earning "well above the market-based salary range for their role." They will be replaced as soon as possible with employees who will be paid at the current market range, the company said in a news release. "We are taking a number of aggressive actions to improve our cost and expense structure, which will better position us for improved and sustainable returns in today's marketplace," Philip J. Schoonover, Circuit City's chief executive, said in a statement. Circuit City employs about 40,000 part-time and and full-time store employees, according to spokeswoman Jackie Foreman. Those being laid off will get severance packages and may apply for any open positions after 10 weeks, Foreman said. [Some additional hype at the link.] John |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 28 Mar 07 - 05:12 PM Town uses snowplows against tumbleweed Montanans are used to being inundated by snow, but this is a new twist The Associated Press Updated: 5:54 a.m. CT March 28, 2007 BOZEMAN, Mont. - Montana residents are used to digging themselves out after heavy snowstorms, but residents of one neighborhood had to put a snowplow to different use: clearing mounds of tumbleweed from their driveways. Winds flooded a Springhill-area neighborhood with tumbleweed Tuesday, covering sheds, burying mailboxes and blocking a street and driveways. Residents of Shooting Star Lane were forced to use snowplows and pitchforks to clear the debris. Cindy Bowker, who has lived in the neighborhood for 12 years, awakened to find tumbleweed surrounding her home, blanketing her back deck and windows. She had to tunnel through the weeds from her front door to her two-car garage and driveway. "Both garages were covered," Bowker said. "We got the real dense stuff out and just drove through it. It was up over the headlights. It was all the way up the steps and covered our front door." A few residents of the seven-home cul-de-sac blamed a 160-acre farm northeast of them for the tumbleweed problem. Half of the farm's crop went bad last year, and the weeds sprouted on about 80 acres, Bowker said. Across the street from Bowker, Hank and Jan Mueller's snowmobile, shed, camper and driveway were covered with tumbleweed. "We've had blizzards up here, but this was not like anything we have ever seen," Jan Mueller said. © 2007 The Associated Press. John |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Donuel Date: 28 Mar 07 - 12:11 PM A man must be like honey bee And gather all he can. To fly from blossom to blossom A honey bee must be free, A blossom ain't the Queen. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 28 Mar 07 - 12:05 PM I read about that--you'd think that they'd offer their first class passenger a free ticket or some suitable compensation. The body is disturbing enough--the wailing would be very difficult to sit through. SRS |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 28 Mar 07 - 11:30 AM BA Sat Corpse in First Class |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 28 Mar 07 - 10:44 AM Husband to really look up toMarch 28, 2007 The world's tallest man, whose search for a bride covered the world, ended up marrying a woman about half his age and half his height from his home town, Chinese media reported today. Bao Xishun, 56, a 236cm herdsman listed by Guinness World Records as the tallest living man, married a 29-year-old Chinese saleswoman, the Beijing News said. "After sending out marriage advertisements across the world and going through a long selection process, the efforts have finally paid off," the newspaper said. His bride, Xia Shujuan, a mere 168 cm, comes from Chifeng in Inner Mongolia, as does Bao. (From the Sydney Morning Herald which has a picture of the happy couple. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 27 Mar 07 - 09:59 AM I looked up the site. I'd like one of those t-shirts--send folks into a tizzy here, where our toads are good toads. But makes the point for not importing critters. (I call my house "toadhouse" in my wireless network--that was the first critter that met me on the doorstep when I was moving in.) Group Finds Toad the Size of a Small Dog March 27, 2007 link DARWIN, Australia - An environmental group said Tuesday it had captured a "monster" toad the size of a small dog. With a body the size of a football and weighing nearly 2 pounds, the toad is among the largest specimens ever captured in Australia, according to Frogwatch coordinator Graeme Sawyer. "It's huge, to put it mildly," he said. "The biggest toads are usually females but this one was a rampant male ... I would hate to meet his big sister." Frogwatch, which is dedicated to wiping out a toxic toad species that has killed countless Australian animals, picked up the 15-inch-long cane toad during a raid on a pond outside the northern city of Darwin late Monday. Cane toads were imported from South America during the 1930s in a failed attempt to control beetles on Australia's northern sugar cane plantations. The poisonous toads have proven fatal to Australia's delicate ecosystems, killing millions of native animals from snakes to the small crocodiles that eat them. As part of its so-called "Toad Buster" project, Frogwatch conducts regular raids on local water holes, blinding the toads with bright lights then scooping them up by the dozen. "We kill them with carbon dioxide gas, stockpile them in a big freezer and then put them through a liquid fertilizer process" that renders the toads nontoxic, Sawyer said. "It turns out to be sensational fertilizer," he added. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 26 Mar 07 - 05:16 PM Last Mustang Ranch building destroyed Blaze was part of firefighting training The Associated Press Updated: 10:02 a.m. CT March 26, 2007 RENO, Nev. - The last remaining building on the grounds where the infamous Mustang Ranch brothel once stood went up in flames Sunday. The 48-room, 20,000-square-foot structure known as the Mustang Ranch II annex was destroyed as part of a firefighting training exercise. "It's out with the old and in with the new," said a woman who goes by Air Force Amy, who once worked there. "The day of the $20 roll in the hay in a trailer is gone." The building was the last at the former site of the Mustang Ranch, the state's first legal brothel. The government padlocked the ranch, located just east of Reno, in 1999 after years of tax problems. In 2003, the government auctioned off the annex for $8,600 to Dennis Hof, a brothel owner who planned to use it as a museum. Moving it was too expensive, so he donated it to fire crews. Amy, now employed by Hof, said the annex was built in 1983 for male prostitutes but the plans didn't fly. It later housed about 20 women compared with 50 women at the busier main building. The government sold the gaudy pink stucco buildings that formed the heart of the complex for $145,000 to another brothel owner, who moved them to another site and continues to operate them under the famous name. The BLM plans to return the Mustang Ranch land to a natural state and use it for public access to the Truckee River. © 2007 The Associated Press. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 26 Mar 07 - 12:10 PM Monday, March 26, 2007 His selfless wish Make-A-Wish granted Colton Wilson's hope for a better field for his varsity baseball team at South Whidbey High School By Kevin Johnson, Herald Writer link LANGLEY - If you had one wish, what would it be? Money? A vacation? Another wish or two? How about asking for something for someone else? Maybe something for your high school or your community. Perhaps for a new baseball field. That's the dream the Make-A-Wish Foundation granted last month to Colton Wilson. Colton, a sophomore catcher on the South Whidbey High School varsity baseball team, was diagnosed last July with a rare form of cancer known as Ewing's sarcoma. Ewing's sarcoma is characterized by the presence of cancer cells in the bone or soft tissue. According to the American Cancer Society's Web site, about 150 children and adolescents in the United States are diagnosed with this type of tumor each year. Colton's cancer was found in the tibia of his right leg. During his treatment, the Make-A-Wish Foundation learned of his illness. The foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to fulfilling the dreams of children with life-threatening medical conditions. Last year, the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Alaska, Montana, Northern Idaho and Washington granted 260 wishes, typically for family vacations or other personal requests. Though most diehard baseball fans might have chosen to have a catch with their favorite big-league player or see their favorite team at spring training, Colton chose a different path - renovating the high school baseball field. The wish caught everyone - his parents, his coach, even the people at the Make-A-Wish Foundation - by surprise. No one expected a wish like this. Especially from a teenager. "Kids usually wish for something for themselves," Jessie Elenbaas, Colton's Make-A-Wish coordinator said. "It's one of those rare wishes, so selfless. It's a powerful thing." Said Dave Guetlin, South Whidbey's head baseball coach: "It blew my socks off that a young man could be that selfless. It's just jaw-dropping. It truly is." In a letter to the Make-A-Wish Foundation, Colton explained his reasoning. "The reason I chose this wish is because my community has been behind me with each step of this hard experience," he wrote. "Their fundraisers, cards, homemade food, phone calls, and more have helped me get through this and I want to return the favor." Colton learned he was qualified for a wish while going through his first round of chemotherapy. Shortly after, while still at Children's Hospital in Seattle, he decided on his request. He told his older sister, Stina, he wanted a new field for the high school. "It was just amazing," Colton's mother, Lana Wilson, said. "I didn't know how amazing it was until the coach came over and he was in tears." A frightening diagnosis Colton's battle with Ewing's sarcoma began last summer. On a Saturday in July, he was riding his dirt bike on property down the street from his home when he began to feel pain in his right shin. That evening, the pain intensified and Colton had trouble sleeping. But the following morning, the pain was gone. Colton went to spend the night at his grandmother's house in Mukilteo. He planned to a attend a baseball camp at Everett Community College the next day. But the pain returned and once again he had trouble sleeping. His grandmother took him to a walk-in clinic in Everett. Doctors took an X-ray of the leg. After more X-rays and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) exams the Wilsons heard the shocking news - Colton had a tumor. He was advised to head straight to Children's Hospital in Seattle to begin treatment. Colton went through his first round of chemotherapy in August to shrink the tumor. In November, surgeons removed 51/2 inches of his bone and replaced it with bone from a donor. On March 6, doctors took an X-ray to see how the natural bone was reacting to the donor bone. "Everything looked really good," Lana Wilson said. "They say that they are, 'Talking to each other.'" Community support Colton currently walks with the aid of crutches, although he recently got the OK to put more weight on his right leg and can abandon the crutches when he's home. Meanwhile, his teammates and the community have rallied around the teenager and his wish. All 26 South Whidbey baseball players - junior varsity and varsity included - have gone under the razor, shaving their heads to honor their teammate, who lost his hair while undergoing chemotherapy. The players also wear Colton's jersey number - 51 - on their caps. "We just wanted to rally around him," teammate C.J. Baker said. Colton's wish list for the Falcons' baseball field includes, among other things, a new outfield fence, bleachers, field tarps, pitching screens and a new mound. The Make-A-Wish Foundation plans to secure much of the needed materials through donations, then use its resources to fill in the gaps. Elenbaas said the goal is to have the renovation completed by the end of the school year. Even beyond the field improvements, Colton's wish has had a positive impact on the community, Guetlin said. "Colton has touched a lot of lives, he really has," Guetlin said. "I talk about him in my classes (saying), 'You're all going to have adversity. Look at what Colton's doing.' There are a lot of lessons to be learned from someone like Colton." Throughout his battle with cancer, Colton has maintained a positive attitude. "He said, 'There's a reason this happened to me,'" Lana Wilson said. "Something good will come from all this.'" His mother says that Colton's prognosis is good. He turned 16 in early February and got his driver's license a couple days later. The chemotherapy ends in June and he should be done with all of his tests by July. In the meantime, coach Guetlin already has a job lined up for Colton when he returns to practice. The catcher, who earned a varsity letter last season as a freshman, will be charting pitches and driving around the field in a golf cart. And who knows, maybe next season he'll once again be crouching behind the plate, this time receiving pitches in the House that Colton Built. His own field of dreams. Colton's wish Colton Wilson's wish to see the South Whidbey High School baseball field renovated includes the following: A new outfield fence Two sets of aluminum bleachers Field tarps to cover the mound and home plate A new pitcher's mound Protective screens Home plate and pitching mats Baseballs Bats Batting helmets To donate to Colton's wish list, contact his wish coordinator, Jessie Elenbaas, at 206-623-5380. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 22 Mar 07 - 02:55 PM [KING] A woman is a female who is human, Designed for pleasing man, the human male. A human male is pleased by many women, And all the rest you hear is fairy tale. [ANNA] Then tell me how this fairy tale began, sir. You cannot call it just a poet's trick Explain to me why many men are faithful And true to one wife only. [KING] [Spoken] They are sick! [Singing] A girl must be like a blossom With honey for just one man. A man must be like honey bee And gather all he can. To fly from blossom to blossom A honey bee must be free, But blossom must not ever fly From bee to bee to bee. (But I didn't write that!! (Ducks and runs)) A |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 22 Mar 07 - 02:34 PM What a sanctimonious bunch, reinforcing a double-standard (the boys don't have to go, do they?) and withholding the really useful information like how to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancy. Like these girls are going to marry men who are virgins, keep it a closed system? Ha! But critics say that while teaching abstinence to children may be laudable, it is just as essential to make them aware of sexually transmitted diseases and condom use. They also point to studies showing that the majority of adolescents who take purity pledges break them within a few years, often by engaging in risky and unprotected sex. One study conducted by researchers at the universities of Columbia and Yale found that 88 percent of pledgers wind up having sex before marriage. "Unfortunately these young people tend, once they start to have sex, to have more partners in a shorter period of time and to use contraception much less than their non-pledging peers," said Debra Hauser, executive vice president at Advocates for Youth, a Washington-based non-profit organization. "Teens may pledge with the best of intention... and then as they break their pledges they are so shamed and embarrassed that it's unlikely they will go for help." |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 22 Mar 07 - 12:54 PM The latest conservative Christian social invention is the Fancy Dress Chastity Ball. Read all about it. Boy, do these guys know how to party, or what? I am a little perplexed that they call these Chirstian values, though. Is this part of the Christian belief system? I don't remember reading that directive, although this might be selective memory on my part. A |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 22 Mar 07 - 09:46 AM JERSEY CITY, March 21 — There's the holdup, and then there's the push-up. Now this: Three people made off with nearly $12,000 worth of bras and panties at a Victoria's Secret at the Newport Center Mall here as customers milled about on Tuesday night. The police said that about 7:30 p.m. two men and a woman wearing a puffy white coat grabbed dozens of undergarments from roll-out drawers on two display tables and stuffed the merchandise into large "booster bags" (shopping bags lined with aluminum foil), which investigators say thwart the sensors in anti-theft systems. In all, the police said, the take was $6,921 worth of panties and $4,905 in bras. "That's a lot of underwear," said Lt. Edgar Martinez, a spokesman for the Jersey City Police Department. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 22 Mar 07 - 09:32 AM Jeep Runs Over Va. Man While He's in BedBy THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: March 22, 2007 Filed at 9:07 a.m. ET ROANOKE, Va. (AP) -- The underside of a car is a familiar sight to auto mechanic Dean Blevins. Seeing one on top of him at 2:30 in the morning, while he was in bed -- that was new. A Jeep crashed through a wall of Blevins' apartment early Tuesday and pinned him in his bed. It took firefighters an hour to free him, but he suffered only minor bruises and scrapes. As he saw the vehicle's engine above him and felt hot antifreeze splash onto his face, Blevins said, his initial thoughts were less about his injuries than about going after the driver. ''If I'd a had my gun,'' he told The Roanoke Times, ''I'd a probably shot him.'' The driver, Wesley Dewayne Smith, 34, of Roanoke, was charged with driving under the influence. Building owner Wesley Dearing said the Jeep's windshield got snagged between the first and second floors of the wood-frame building, probably saving Blevins from being crushed. Blevins, 58, was treated at a hospital and released. His apartment was condemned until repairs could be made, but he said he had calmed down enough to laugh about the experience. ''I'm lucky to be alive,'' he said. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 20 Mar 07 - 09:40 AM A very hopeful lesson. A |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Mar 07 - 09:37 AM Oops! Tech Error Wipes Out Alaska Info From Associated Press March 20, 2007 link JUNEAU, Alaska - Perhaps you know that sinking feeling when a single keystroke accidentally destroys hours of work. Now imagine wiping out a disk drive containing an account worth $38 billion. It happened to a computer technician reformatting a disk drive at the Alaska Department of Revenue. While doing routine maintenance work, the technician accidentally deleted applicant information for an oil-funded account - one of Alaska residents' biggest perks - and mistakenly reformatted the backup drive, as well. There was still hope, until the department discovered its third line of defense, backup tapes, were unreadable. "Nobody panicked, but we instantly went into planning for the worst-case scenario," said Permanent Fund Dividend Division Director Amy Skow. The computer foul-up last July would end up costing the department more than $200,000. Over the next few days, as the department, the division and consultants from Microsoft Corp. and Dell Inc. labored to retrieve the data, it became obvious the worst-case scenario was at hand. Nine months worth of information concerning the yearly payout from the Alaska Permanent Fund was gone: some 800,000 electronic images that had been painstakingly scanned into the system months earlier, the 2006 paper applications that people had either mailed in or filed over the counter, and supporting documentation such as birth certificates and proof of residence. And the only backup was the paperwork itself - stored in more than 300 cardboard boxes. "We had to bring that paper back to the scanning room, and send it through again, and quality control it, and then you have to have a way to link that paper to that person's file," Skow said. Half a dozen seasonal workers came back to assist the regular division staff, and about 70 people working overtime and weekends re-entered all the lost data by the end of August. "They were just ready, willing and able to chip in and, in fact, we needed all of them to chip in to get all the paperwork rescanned in a timely manner so that we could meet our obligations to the public," Skow said. Last October and November, the department met its obligation to the public. A majority of the estimated 600,000 payments for last year's $1,106.96 individual dividends went out on schedule, including those for 28,000 applicants who were still under review when the computer disaster struck. Former Revenue Commissioner Bill Corbus said no one was ever blamed for the incident. "Everybody felt very bad about it and we all learned a lesson. There was no witch hunt," Corbus said. According to department staff, they now have a proven and regularly tested backup and restore procedure. The department is asking lawmakers to approve a supplemental budget request for $220,700 to cover the excess costs incurred during the six-week recovery effort, including about $128,400 in overtime and $71,800 for computer consultants. The money would come from the permanent fund earnings, the money earmarked for the dividends. That means recipients could find their next check docked by about 37 cents. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 20 Mar 07 - 08:42 AM I have always said a man's vision should exceed his vocabulary, or what's a metaphor? Waiting for the stork to arrive is one. Eagles, though, don't use it. They have a different method of language. They use some obscure metaphor about making omelettes without killilng babies or some such. A |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 19 Mar 07 - 12:11 PM NPR this morning made an avian faux pas by offering some throw-out like like "Philadelphia is waiting for the stork to arrive." But storks are Old World birds and we're awaiting the hatching of New World birds. Oh, well, can't expect them to always be right. SRS |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 18 Mar 07 - 11:03 PM Wonderful news! A |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 18 Mar 07 - 09:54 PM Bald Eagle Nest Found in Philadelphia March 18, 2007 PHILADELPHIA - Wildlife authorities have found the first bald eagle nest in the city in more than 200 years and hope the occupants will produce offspring, state officials said. The nest "demonstrates the resilience of this species and its apparent growing tolerance to human activity," said Dan Brauning, a supervisor with the state Game Commission, in a statement Friday. Officials are not disclosing the nest's exact location, to avoid disturbing it, but it is being closely monitored, the commission said. "We don't know if the nest will result in the pair successfully breeding and laying eggs yet, but we are very hopeful," Brauning said. The state began a campaign to re-establish the eagle population in 1983, when only three nesting pairs remained in Pennsylvania. Officials said last year that the number was higher than 100. Bald eagles were upgraded from endangered to threatened status by the federal government in 1995 and by the state a decade later. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Mar 07 - 11:36 AM In death, a hidden cost of obesityPeople were obese in more than a quarter of cases analyzed by the county last year. link As more Americans tip the scales, the impact of the nation's obesity problem is also felt at the end of life's journey. Funeral homes and the Snohomish County [Washington] Medical Examiner are seeing the trends in weight gain affect how they do their work. More often, bigger cots, larger cremation and embalming facilities, more staff and power hoists are needed to lift and prepare a growing number of deceased obese people. "It's very important that you treat the deceased with dignity and respect," medical examiner spokeswoman Carolyn Sanden said. The changes have increased costs for taxpayers and often, for families of the departed as well. "People are getting larger with time," Snohomish County Medical Examiner Dr. Norman Thiersch said. "Unfortunately we haven't had the ability to track it until last year." Of the cases investigated last year, county officials provided the weight of 326. More than one-fourth - 84 adults - were considered obese based on their body mass index. Fifteen people each weighed more than 300 pounds. The heaviest of the county's cases in 2006 was a middle-aged man who weighed 499 pounds and was over 6 feet tall. People are considered obese if they have a body mass index of more than 30, according to the World Health Organization. Body mass is a common way to gauge whether someone is overweight or obese using height and weight. The trend in weight gain was a key factor in the county Medical Examiner's Office request to spend $75,000 for an on-call body transport service this year. Worker injuries from removal and transport of heavier bodies is an ongoing and increasing problem in the Medical Examiner's Office, officials said. The injuries have become expensive, staff reports to the County Council said, averaging $16,000 a year since 2003. One open claim is $93,300, officials said. Officials plan to hire First Call Plus of Washington, called the state's largest body removal, cremation and embalming company. The Kent-based company is run by Jerry Webster, the retired chief investigator from the King County Medical Examiner's Office. Once Webster's firm is hired, the county's seven medical investigators no longer will have to lift and transport bodies. Instead, they'll be able to focus on investigations, case work and going to the new calls. The county also has spent $18,000 in recent years on larger tables and electric hoists. "To accommodate the larger body, we needed the larger table," Thiersch said. The county's older, smaller stainless steel tables could handle the weight of a 300- or 400-pound body. However, it was the size of the bodies that proved too large to be properly rolled over and examined, he said. Crews now use electric winches to pull heavy bodies on stretchers into investigation trucks. Nylon straps and hoists now are used to transfer bodies within the medical examiner offices. Devices also protect the bodies from unintended damage, which can offend families or obscure evidence of crimes or disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate 22 percent of adults in Washington are obese and another 36 percent are overweight. Nationwide, an estimated 33 percent of adults between 20 and 74 years old are obese. The national obesity rate has more than doubled from the 15 percent estimated to be obese in a survey from the late 1970s. Funeral home directors have noticed the trend. "It's not unusual to encounter 300-pound people now, which used to be the exception rather than the rule," said Jim Noel, who has worked 47 years in the funeral home profession and is executive director of the Washington State Funeral Directors Association. Federal and state worker safety rules have led to more back-saving equipment at funeral homes, including lifting devices, Noel said. Cots are wider and sturdier for carrying obese people and have extra handholds. The challenges don't end with transportation. About two-thirds of people in Washington state are cremated after they die, Noel said. And as people gain weight, uniquely designed crematory furnaces are increasingly necessary. Some funeral homes are able to cremate most bodies, but sometimes must contract for larger cremations with Webster's facility in Kent, said Mark Hunstman, managing director at Solie Funeral Home and Crematory in Everett. Webster's cremation services are often needed when bodies reach about 300 pounds. "We have the equipment to handle these morbidly obese folks, the decedent remains and the expertise in cremating them," he said. He has special cots that cost nearly $4,000 and are able to handle a 1,000-pound body. He also is called for services because he has embalming tables large enough for the morbidly obese. Webster said he sees families who buy custom-sized caskets for large family members, and the family of one 784-pound woman had to buy three cemetery plots. Cremations for the obese can cost hundreds of dollars more depending on what funeral homes charge, Webster said. "This whole issue of obesity can be a very sensitive issue to some of the survivors," he said. "One of the biggest concerns from families is, how is this person going to be treated? Is it going to be dignified and respectful? We show a lot of care. "Our hope and goal through everything is that a large person is handled in a dignified and respectful manner regardless of their size." |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 11 Mar 07 - 04:07 PM So You Say You Went to College? Dog with college degree called to court Attorney says police chief, canine earned degrees from same online school The Associated Press Updated: 8:48 a.m. CT March 1, 2007 FOSTORIA, Ohio - An attorney challenging the authority of the city's police chief wants the department's police dog to appear in court as an exhibit, because he says the dog and the chief have criminal justice degrees from the same online school. The issue gives "one pause, if not paws, for concern" about what it takes to get the degrees from the school based in the Virgin Islands, Gene Murray wrote in a court document filed Monday. Murray is seeking to have a drug charge against a client dismissed by arguing that police Chief John McGuire — who is accused of lying on his job application — was not legally employed and had no authority as an officer. McGuire is to go on trial in March on charges of falsification and tampering with records. A special prosecutor said McGuire lied on his application and resume about his rank, position, duties, responsibilities and salary in three of his previous jobs. McGuire was hired as chief of this northwest Ohio city a year ago. The union that represents Fostoria police officers and dispatchers filed a lawsuit challenging McGuire's hiring. Murray said asking that the police dog, Rocko, show up in court at an evidence hearing is a key to discrediting McGuire, who took part in a traffic stop and search in October that resulted in drug possession charges against Clifford Green of Fostoria. Both McGuire and Rocko, who is listed as John I. Rocko on his diploma, are graduates of Concordia College and University, according to copies of diplomas that are part of Murray's motion. The court filing did not say how the attorney knows that diploma is for the dog or how Rocko allegedly managed to enroll in the college. "My client had absolutely nothing to do with any animal getting a degree from an institution of higher learning," said McGuire's attorney, Dean Henry. "The whole thing is bizarre." He said the dog was with the department before McGuire began working there. Seneca County Prosecutor Ken Egbert said he will ask the judge to deny the request and limit the hearing to matters that are relevant. "I don't think it's necessary to bring the actual dog," Egbert said. A date has not been set for the evidence hearing. City leaders have said McGuire's hiring was not influenced by his college degree, and any confusion about his background was resolved during interviews. "We've already been through all that," Safety Service Director Bill Rains. "That was answered to our satisfaction." Fostoria is about 35 miles southeast of Toledo. © 2007 The Associated Press John |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Feb 07 - 02:27 PM Here's one from my home town! Police: Washington Man Stole Up to 300 Cars February 23, 2007 EVERETT, Wash. - Authorities said a man stole a pickup, a sedan and a Volkswagen Beetle - along with perhaps 300 other cars. Not to mention boats and recreational vehicles. Taylor Jacob Norton, 22, sold many of the vehicles to support a methamphetamine habit, and used others just to give rides to friends, sheriff's Detective Jess Sanders said. Drug paraphernalia was found in his home, investigators reported. "He's a one-man crime ring," Sanders said. An electronic beacon from a stolen car led to Norton's arrest on Jan. 23 in his mobile home outside Arlington, 40 miles north of Seattle, authorities said. In the yard, authorities said, were four stolen vehicles - a 1994 Chevrolet pickup, a 1998 BMW 528, a 2003 BMW 325 and a 2003 Volkswagen Beetle, which had the locator device. Norton then led investigators to dozens of homes where he said he stole vehicles, recalling the make, model and license plate number of each one, as well as how he made off with it, Sanders said. At each house, a theft matching his account was confirmed by law enforcement officials. "He enjoyed telling us," the detective said. "It's something he's really proud of." Norton was being held for investigation of 48 crimes with bail totaling $201,000. Deputies believe he also stole dozens of cars in western Washington. "There are a lot of people stealing a lot of cars," Sanders said, "but that's a lot of cars for one person to steal." |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 23 Feb 07 - 12:46 AM Amazing that detectives were able to keep track of this--but depressing that he was able to duplicate the conditions so that they could find him (again and again). NYPD Tip Leads to Montenegro Arrest February 22, 2007 NEW YORK - A tip from a New York detective investigating the 1990 killing of a Bronx widow has led to the arrest of a man in Montenegro who is a suspect in similar slayings in Europe, officials said Thursday. The suspect, identified in Montenegro as Smail Tulja, 67, was arrested in his home in the tiny Balkan country's capital, Podgorica, on an FBI warrant, officials said. An FBI affidavit filed in the United States identified the suspect as Smajo Djurlric; the New York Police Department said his name was Smajo Dzurlic. U.S. officials said Tulja was wanted in the unsolved beating and dismemberment death of Mary Beal, 61, and may be involved in up to seven other killings of women in Belgium and Albania. "It's gratifying that after 17 years this guy's in custody for the terrible thing that was done to her," said Detective James Osorio, a member of the NYPD's Cold Case and Apprehension Squad. After Tulja appeared in court in Montenegro on Thursday, his lawyer there, Dusan Luksic, told The Associated Press: "My client is not guilty of the murder of Mary Beal." Tulja had twice before eluded authorities seeking to question him about dismemberment murders. In 1990, he left the country after Beal's decapitated, dismembered body was found in two bags near the Brooklyn Navy Yard. Tulja, then a cab driver living in New York, had dated Beal and detectives discovered bloodstains in his Bronx apartment, said Sgt. Dennis Singleton, who investigated the case. Then in the mid-1990s, New York authorities working with their Belgium counterparts learned Tulja was living there and a possible suspect in the dismemberment killings of five women there, but he again left the country, the sergeant said. Last year Osorio learned about the dismemberment killings of two women in Albania and noted the slayings "were carried out in a similar fashion to Mary Beal," court papers said. His squad eventually sought the assistance of federal and international authorities, and Interpol located him in Montenegro. Tamara Popovic, national police spokeswoman in Montenegro, confirmed that police in Belgium and Albania consider Tulja a suspect in the killings of several women in those countries. Tulja's attorney said that he had no information about the other killings. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Feb 07 - 11:53 AM Listening to the news today I did hear a remark from someone on the rescue squad that they didn't mind these mid-winter rescues because they like the practice. That's a convenient attitude to have if these kinds of rescues are going to keep coming. Healthier for the rescuers who are out risking their lives. I recognize that were I out doing the rescue work now my attitude might dilute some of the creative energy needed for a successful outcome in the work. SRS |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 20 Feb 07 - 10:24 AM These climbers were incredibly lucky to have been found and helped off of the mountain. They're lucky that 500 foot slide didn't send them airborne off of a cliff. But they are absolute IDIOTS for taking a dog and for climbing that mountain at this time of year. ANY climber who undertakes a climb of any of the Cascade volcanoes in Washington or Oregon before mid-March should be compelled to sign a document that acknowledges "rescue groups are not going to risk their lives coming to rescue you if you're really going to make this half-assed trip this time of year on this mountain." The tail wags the entire expedition, when poorly trained climbers or poorly planned trips force the excellent climbers into dangerous situations to rescue folks who have no business being up there. A distinction in this article implies that they did some things right--the locator device and staying warm (the dog is a plus and a minus on this trip--I can't imagine what the dog suffered on a trip like this, but it can't have been a great trip for him)--but they were rock climbers, not mountaineers. There is a big difference between the two. As a former member of a technical rock climbing and mountaineering rescue group, I see a couple of types of rescues turn up in the news--those where accidents happen and someone needs help, and where something stupid happened and someone needs help. Despite their equipment, this was where something stupid happened. Rant over. Rescuer: Dog May Have Saved Climbers February 20, 2007 GOVERNMENT CAMP, Ore. - Three climbers who tumbled off a ledge on Mount Hood were taken away in an ambulance after they hiked down much of the state's highest peak with their rescuers - and a dog who may have saved their lives. "We're soaking wet and freezing," said one of two rescued women as she walked from a tracked snow vehicle to an ambulance. One of the women, whose name was not released, was taken to a Portland hospital and being treated for a head injury, said Jim Strovink, spokesman for the Clackamas County Sheriff's Department. "She's going to be fine," he said, noting that she had walked most of the way down the mountain. Two others, Matty Bryant, 34, a teacher in the Portland suburb of Milwaukie, and Kate Hanlon, 34, a teacher in the suburb of Wilsonville, were taken to Timberline Lodge on the mountain to rejoin five other members of the climbing party, he said. Rescuers using an electronic locating device found the three climbers and their black Labrador, Velvet, on Monday morning in the White River Canyon, where they had holed up overnight at about 7,400 feet, officials said. The crew hiked with them down the east flank of the 11,239-foot mountain; on the way down, the climbers got into a tracked snow vehicle that took them to the ambulance. "The dog probably saved their lives" by lying across them during the cold night, said Erik Brom, a member of the Portland Mountain Rescue team. He described the wind in the canyon as "hellacious." The two women left the snow vehicle first, followed by Bryant and the dog. The three climbers boarded the ambulance, and Velvet leapt in after them. In addition to the dog, who provided warmth and comfort, rescuers attributed the happy outcome to the climbers' use of an electronic mountain locator unit that guided searchers to their exact position. "That's why it is a rescue, not a recovery," Lt. Nick Watt of the Clackamas County Sheriff's Office told a news conference at Timberline Lodge, a ski resort at 6,000 feet. "They did everything right." The three were in a party of eight that set out Saturday for the summit, camped on the mountain that night and began to come back down on Sunday when they ran into bad weather, officials said. As they were descending at about 8,300 feet, the three slipped off a ledge. They slid about 500 feet down an incline and later moved from the site of the fall, rescuers said. "They're lucky to be alive after that," Strovink said. Trevor Liston of Portland, who was among the five who made it off the mountain Sunday, said at a news conference at Timberline Lodge that he saw the three fall, but he didn't say how it happened. Someone in the party used a cell phone to place an emergency call to authorities. Rescue officials maintained regular cell phone contact overnight with the three who had fallen. Brom, a member of the team that found them, said the climbers had traveled miles from the site of the fall, descending. Battling winds up to 70 mph and blowing snow, rescue teams had worked through the night trying to locate the climbers, said Russell Gubele, coordinating communications for the rescue operation. Teams made it close to the missing climbers overnight, but decided to wait until daylight Monday because they couldn't see anything, Gubele said. Rescuers moved cautiously during the night because of "very severe avalanche danger," he said. Gubele described the trio as "experienced rock climbers, but not necessarily experienced in mountain climbing." In December, three climbers who did not have mountain locator units went missing on the mountain. Authorities searched for days, but were able to recover the body of only one climber, Kelly James of Dallas, who died of hypothermia. The bodies of Brian Hall of Dallas and Jerry "Nikko" Cooke of New York have not been found. In the past 25 years, more than 35 climbers have died on Mount Hood, one of the most frequently climbed mountains in the world. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 20 Feb 07 - 09:33 AM From a Times story on Jimmy Carter's campaign against diseases in Africa: "Mr. Carter has almost managed to wipe out one horrific ailment — Guinea worm — and is making great strides against others, including river blindness and elephantiasis. In this area, people are taking an annual dose of a medicine called Mectizan — donated by Merck, which deserves huge credit — that prevents itching and blindness. Mectizan also gets rid of intestinal worms, leaving Ethiopian villagers stronger and more able to work or attend school. Among adults, the deworming revives sex drive, so some people have named their children Mectizan." Little Master Viagara and Miss Ambien are sooooo proud!! :D A |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 16 Feb 07 - 10:04 AM This incredibly resourceful group almost merit a thread on their own: Canny Pilot, Travelers Subdue Hijacker February 16, 2007 TENERIFE, Canary Islands - A fast-thinking pilot with passengers in cahoots fooled a hijacker by braking hard upon landing, then accelerating to knock the man down. When he fell, flight attendants threw boiling water in his face, and about 10 people pounced on him, Spanish officials said Friday. The Air Mauritania Boeing 737 carrying 71 passengers and a crew of eight was hijacked by a lone gunman brandishing two pistols Thursday evening shortly after it took off from Nouakchott, the capital of Mauritania, for Gran Canaria, one of Spain's Canary Islands, with a planned stopover in Nouadhibou in northern Mauritania. The hijacking alarmed Spanish officials because a trial of 29 people accused in the Madrid terrorist bombings of 2004 had begun the same day in Madrid. But the man's motives were not terrorism; he wanted the plane to fly to France so he could request political asylum, said Mohamed Ould Mohamed Cheikh, Mauritania's top police official. "We were afraid. We thought it was people from al-Qaida or the Algerian GSPC who were going to cut our throats," said Aicha Mint Sidi, a 45-year-old woman who was on the plane. The GSPC is a Muslim extremist group. "I trembled during and after the hijacking. I thought the plane was going to blow up any minute, either in mid-air or on landing," said another passenger, Dahi Ould Ali, 52. Both spoke after returning to Nouakchott. The hijacker has been identified as Mohamed Abderraman, a 32-year-old Mauritanian, said an official with the Spanish Interior Ministry office on Tenerife, another of the islands in the Atlantic archipelago. He spoke under ground rules barring publication of his name. Mauritania has said the hijacker was a Moroccan from the Western Sahara. The hijacker ordered the pilot to fly to France, but the crew told him there was not enough fuel. And Morocco denied a request to land in the city of Djala in the Moroccan-controlled Western Sahara, so the pilot headed for Las Palmas in Gran Canaria, the original destination. Along the way, speaking to the hijacker, the pilot realized the man did not speak French. So he used the plane's public address system to warn the passengers in French of the ploy he was going to try: brake hard upon landing, then speed up abruptly. The idea was to catch the hijacker off balance, and have crew members and men sitting in the front rows of the plane jump him, the Spanish official said. The pilot also warned women and children to move to the back of the plane in preparation for the subterfuge, the official said. It worked. The man was standing in the middle aisle when the pilot carried out his maneuver, and he fell to the floor, dropping one of his two 7 mm pistols. Flight attendants then threw boiling water from a coffee machine in his face and at his chest, and some 10 people jumped on the man and beat him, the Spanish official said. Around 20 people were slightly injured when the plane braked suddenly, the official said. The hijacker was arrested by Spanish police who boarded the plane after it landed at Gando airport, outside Las Palmas. Air Mauritania identified the heroic pilot as Ahmedou Mohamed Lemine, a 20-year-veteran of the company. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: wysiwyg Date: 14 Feb 07 - 10:49 PM Well, he's in Florida now. ~S~ |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 14 Feb 07 - 10:46 PM When men get to that age and get into this kind of trouble, it's a good idea to have a doctor with an MRI or other scanner check them out to see if they've had any "small" or "silent" strokes. Those seem to contribute to what often constitutes aberrant behavior in old guys. Maybe he's always been this way and just now got caught, but if this is something totally out of character, he needs a checkup. (This comes from my late-psychiatric MSW social-worker mother, after discussing some odd behavior in my late-father-in-law.) SRS |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: wysiwyg Date: 14 Feb 07 - 10:36 PM Former Congressman Faces Indecent Exposure Charges A man who once represented Bradford County [near our county-- ~WYS~]in congress is now facing indecent exposure charges. Authorities in Florida say Joseph McDade exposed himself to two women at a beach resort. The 75-year-old republican has been charged with exposing his sexual organs. The charge carries a maximum penalty of one year in jail and a one-thousand dollar fine. McDade represented the 10th congressional district from 1963 to 1999, when he retired. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 13 Feb 07 - 11:34 AM Policeman in serious condition Feb. 13, 2007 link FORT WORTH -- The first period was competitive hockey -- firefighters and police officers shoving and bumping on the rink at Fort Worth Ice. The game Saturday ended, however, with the officers hugging their opponents. Early in the second period, firefighters leaped from their bench and performed CPR on a Fort Worth police officer who had a heart attack while playing in the charity hockey match Saturday. The event drew several hundred people and raised $4,000 for the family of officer Dwayne Freeto, who was killed on duty in December. On Monday, the officer who had the heart attack was in serious condition at Harris Methodist Fort Worth, a hospital official said. A police official said privacy laws prevented him from identifying the officer. "Those firefighters saved his life," said Sgt. Kevin Foster, who was watching the match. Police were leading the firefighters 2-1 when the officer fell face first, fire Capt. Joe Short said. "It wasn't a slip," Short said. "You could tell something was wrong." Firefighters scaled the wall in front of their bench and "swarmed" the officer, said Debbie Papenfuss, an organizer of the match. The officer was breathing irregularly: deep, shallow, deep, Short said. Then he stopped. Short gave the officer mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while other firefighters rotated chest compressions, he said. A fire truck arrived with an automated external defibrillator. In their rubber boots, those firefighters had trouble getting across the ice. So the firefighters wearing skates got the defibrillator and restarted the officer's heart. The officer was taken to the hospital, and the match was called. Officers and firefighters knelt together in prayer. The firefighters just did as they were trained, Short said. "It's a little different with all those people and the mayor, fire chief and police chief watching you," he said. "But we're glad we were there and hope he's OK." |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Bee-dubya-ell Date: 12 Feb 07 - 01:35 PM And the moral of the story is: "When someone asks for an apology, give it to 'em! Munchkins included!" |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 12 Feb 07 - 12:31 PM One wonders what kind of family these kids have grown up in? And will the parents be held accountable for their children's behavior? 10-Year-Old Girl Charged in Store Attack From Associated Press, February 12, 2007 BOSTON - A gang of girls attacked a woman at a discount store, hitting and kicking her and tearing off her clothes, said police, who arrested a 10-year-old girl accused of being involved. The girl, who was not identified, was charged with assault and battery for kicking the 22-year-old woman in the head and stomach on Sunday, said Officer Eddy Chrispin. The three other girls were not arrested, but police said they would seek criminal complaints against them. Their names and ages were not released. The woman apparently had bumped into the 10-year-old girl in an aisle at a Target store and refused to apologize, Chrispin said. Witnesses told police the four girls then knocked the customer to the floor "where she was being hit, her hair was being ripped out, and her pants were taken off," he said. The victim was treated at a hospital. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 11 Feb 07 - 06:15 AM Linked as a sidebar "issue of interest" at MSNBC, a video report should be at: Man invents 'no foam' beer tap Feb. 8: A Wisconsin man says he's got the answer for the perfect mug of beer. It's an electronic beer tap that eliminates the head of foam. WEAU's Mary Rinzel reports. NBC News Channel As my connection is too slow to make looking at videos worthwhile, I'll just hope the link works. Posted here in the backwater area, since a too public announcement could lead to strife and rancor. In a separate article: Scientist serves up doughnuts with a kick Also including "Perky pastries; hair-care treatment, lodging from lock-ups " COMMENTARY , By Brian Tracey, Business Editor, MSNBC That cup of coffee just not getting it done anymore? How about a Buzz Donut or a Buzzed Bagel? That's what molecular scientist Robert Bohannon has come up with. Bohannon says he's developed a way to add caffeine to baked goods, without the bitter taste associated with the stimulant. Each piece of pastry is the equivalent of about two cups of coffee. "This gives people the opportunity if they want to have a glass of milk and want to have caffeine. It will get them going," Bohannon said. The amount of caffeine in his creations can vary, but Bohannon can easily put 100 milligrams of caffeine — the equivalent of a 5-ounce cup of drip-brewed coffee — into the treats he plans to market under the "Buzz Donuts" and "Buzzed Bagels" names. Bohannon, who runs medical-testing firm as well as owning Sips Coffee & Tea cafe in Durham, N.C., isn't selling the amped-up baked goods yet, but he says he thinks there's demand the snacks. "There's some mornings that I'd like juice instead of coffee but I still want that caffeine kick," said Stephanie Harris, a customer at Sips Coffee & Tea. "So I would love to have a caffeinated bagel or caffeinated doughnut. That would be awesome." But with waistlines and anxiety already expanding across the nation, some observers already question whether it's wise to combine two key sources of these problems — caffeine and calories. "I see nothing positive from this," said Barry Popkin, a nutrition scientist at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "In many ways we're creating a super caffeine generation. They're undersleeping, they consume a lot of caffeine to stay awake but they don't understand there are health effects. Bohannon said recently began seeking patents and shopping the products to companies including Krispy Kreme Doughnuts Inc., Dunkin' Donuts and Starbucks Corp. There's no word yet on whether the companies like the idea. We're betting at least Starbucks is going to take a pass. Not-so bad ideas Looking for an unusual last-minute Valentine's day gift for your sweetie? Well, now about treating her with an appointment an upscale London beauty salon that says it can give her hair the ultimate shine by treating it with a mixture that includes semen from thoroughbred bulls.Hari's in the ritzy Chelsea neighborhood offers a 45-minute "Aberdeen Organic Hair" treatment that involves massaging a protein-rich mixture of bull semen and a plant root into the client's hair, a spokeswoman said.Owner Hari Salem told media that he tried hundreds of products — including wild avocados and truffle oil — before hitting on bull semen as the elusive element in a formula for making hair look gorgeous."The semen is refrigerated before use and doesn't smell," Salem told the U.K.'s Metro newspaper. "It leaves your hair looking wonderfully soft and thick."He said the treatment will be offered providing the bulls can keep up the supply.The bulls may have to choose between treating hair or creating heirs. Guests will be free to check out when they please if Hungary succeeds in converting its hulking jails into luxury hotels.Keen to fill a hole in its budget and replace some of its overcrowded prisons with new facilities, the Hungarian government is talking to a Spanish firm interested in buying its jails in prime downtown locations.Once home to some of the country's most dangerous criminals, the star-shaped Csillag prison in the south-eastern city of Szeged is one jail that could be sold, with the proceeds used to build a more modern, humane prison in the suburbs."You could do marvels with that building," said State Secretary Ferenc Kondorosi, who noted Hungary's prisons have a 138 percent occupancy rate.We're hoping future guests will be treated better, otherwise they might actually prefer solitary confinement. © 2007 MSNBC Interactive© 2007 MSNBC InteractiveThe Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report. Maybe you didn't really want to know? John |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 08 Feb 07 - 03:04 AM Dog wins bite fight with robbery suspect link WELLINGTON, New Zealand - Man bites dog; dog bites back. That was the sequence when Alsatian police dog Edge cornered two suspects on a cliff side after a grocery store robbery in Napier, New Zealand, police said on Thursday. One of the suspects leaped down the slope and landed almost directly into the hands of police officers waiting at the bottom. The other suspect, who was armed with a knife took on Edge, and bit the dog in the struggle. "He bit the dog first," Detective Sergeant John McGregor told The Associated Press. Edge was unfazed, sinking his teeth into his attacker. "The dog did win the fight, the offender ended up with one or two lacerations," McGregor said. "I think he knew he was going to get bitten - so he bit the dog first." Two men were arrested and appeared in Napier District Court Wednesday charged with aggravated robbery for the attack on the grocery store on Tuesday, during which the owner was stabbed. They were ordered to remain in police custody until Feb. 21. In June 2006 Edge underwent emergency surgery after an offender stabbed him in the chest with a hunting knife. After surgery and a blood transfusion, the dog made a complete recovery. Napier is a coastal city 125 miles north of the capital, Wellington. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 08 Feb 07 - 02:34 AM Here's a nice story! Rescue turns second-grader, custodian into heroes STAR-TELEGRAM link It was loud as boys and girls giggled and gabbed in the Westcliff Elementary School cafeteria. Then things turned serious. A second-grader began choking on a crunchy cheese snack. "His face started turning red," said Brendon Peden, 8. "His face kept getting redder and redder. Then, it got purple." Brendon was soon on his feet trying to save his classmate with the Heimlich maneuver. Brendon had seen it work on television, but he needed more muscle. "I heard some yelling," said Billy Davis, head custodian at Westcliff for 18 years. He picked up the two boys and the chair and performed a quick Heimlich. "Whatever he had in his throat, came out," Davis said. "I'm just glad I was there. He got a second chance." Next week, Davis and Brendon will be recognized at a Fort Worth school board meeting for their heroism on that January day. The two are stars at Westcliff Elementary, but they remain somewhat low-key about their status on campus. "We're just regular heroes, not superheroes," Brendon said. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 08 Feb 07 - 02:28 AM Police: Angry thief rams car into store STAR-TELEGRAM link BEDFORD [TX]— An irate thief rammed his car into the front doors of a gas station twice after an employee quizzed him about paying for a small jar of lip balm, police said Wednesday. The impacts were enough to crack the front door frame, police said. No one had been arrested as of Wednesday, but police were tracking the thief using a license plate number the employee wrote down while the man was ramming the store with his car. The theft happened about 2 a.m. Tuesday in the 2200 block of Murphy Drive. The clerk told police that a man about 6-foot-2 and weighing 200 pounds walked into the Texaco Food Mart, picked up a small jar of Carmex and started to walk out. As he reached the front door, the clerk asked him if he was going to pay for it, police said. The man strolled out, got into a white two-door car and then drove the car into the front door, police said. He backed up and then rammed the front door a second time before driving away, police said. The thief took off with the $1.39 Carmex and caused about $2,000 in damage. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Feb 07 - 10:32 PM Meanwhile, the most bizarre story, and one I heard when I first woke up, had to do with the astronaut love triangle. Astronaut charged with attempted murder By MIKE SCHNEIDER and ERIN McCLAM Associated Press Writers ORLANDO, Fla. — She was the Robochick. He was Billy-O. According to police, her obsession with him led her to drive 900 miles from Houston to Orlando, bringing with her a trenchcoat and wig, armed with a BB gun and pepper spray, and wearing a diaper to avoid bathroom breaks on the arduous drive. Once in Florida, Lisa "Robochick" Nowak apparently confronted the woman she believed was her rival for the affections of William "Billy-O" Oefelein. And this tawdry love triangle has one more twist — it involves two astronauts. Nowak, 43, a married mother of three who flew on a space shuttle in July, was charged with attempted murder, accused of hatching an extraordinary plot to kidnap Colleen Shipman, who she believed was romantically involved with Oefelein, a space shuttle pilot. Specifically, police said, Nowak confronted Shipman, who was in her car at the Orlando airport, and sprayed something at her, possibly pepper spray. At first the astronaut was charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts. Then prosecutors upped the charge to attempted murder, basing it on the weapons and other items they said police had found with Nowak or in her car: pepper spray, a BB-gun, a new steel mallet, knife and rubber tubing. Nowak was released from jail on $25,500 bail and ordered to wear a monitoring device. Her lawyer, Donald Lykkebak, took issue with the most serious charges. "In the imaginations of the police officers, they extend these facts out into areas where the facts can't be supported," Lykkebak said. NASA put Nowak on a 30-day leave and removed her from mission duties. Agency spokesman John Ira Petty at Johnson Space Center in Houston said he was concerned about the people involved and their families. But, he added, "We try not to concern ourselves with our employees' personal lives." The details of the relationships of all three were unclear. Nowak and Oefelein, who both live in the Houston area, had trained together as astronauts, but never flew into space together. Shipman, 30, works at Patrick Air Force Base near Kennedy Space Center. Earlier, Nowak was quoted by police as saying she and Oefelein had something "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship." Neither Oefelein nor Shipman could be reached for comment Tuesday, nor could Nowak's husband be found. But police found a letter in Nowak's car that "indicated how much Mrs. Nowak loved Mr. Oefelein," the arrest affidavit said. And Nowak had copies of e-mails between Shipman and Oefelein. Nowak and her husband separated several weeks ago after 19 years of marriage, according to a statement put out by her family. "Personally, Lisa is an extremely caring and dedicated mother to her three children," the statement said. "Considering both her personal and professional life, these alleged events are completely out of character and have come as a tremendous shock to our family." Accustomed to wearing astronaut diapers during the space shuttle's launch and return to Earth, Nowak wore them on the drive to Orlando so she would not have to make bathroom stops, police said. There, according to police, Nowak donned a wig and trench coat, boarded an airport shuttle bus with Shipman and followed her to her car. Then, crying, Nowak sprayed a chemical into the car. Shipman drove to a parking lot booth and sought help. A police affidavit made public Tuesday said Nowak had "stealthily followed the victim while in disguise and possessed multiple deadly weapons." The affidavit said the circumstances of the case "create a well-founded fear" and gave investigators "probable cause to believe that Mrs. Nowak intended to murder Ms. Shipman." Lykkebak said that Nowak only wanted to talk to Shipman. Asked about the weapons, he said, "You can sit and speculate all day." The judge also ordered Nowak to stay away from Shipman and to wear an electronic monitoring device upon returning to her home in Houston. A vague profile began to emerge of Nowak, who graduated from high school in Maryland in 1981 and the U.S. Naval Academy in 1985. She has won various Navy service awards. In a September interview with Ladies' Home Journal, Nowak said her husband, Richard, "works in Mission Control, so he's part of the whole space business, too. And supportive also." On Tuesday, a Houston neighbor, Bryan Lam, told The Associated Press that in November he heard the sounds of dishes being thrown inside the house and the police came. "I've seen them arguing before," he said. Nowak, in a NASA interview last year, before her mission aboard Discovery, as well as in an interview with ABC News, spoke about the strain her career placed on her family. She has twin 5-year-old girls and a son who is 14 or 15. "It's a sacrifice for our own personal time and our families and the people around us," she said in the NASA interview. "But I do think it's worth it because if you don't explore and take risks and go do all these things, then everything will stay the same." In an in-flight news conference aboard Discovery last summer, she talked about waiting nearly 10 years for her first space flight. "It's been a long wait, but it's worth the wait," she said. NASA astronauts often have nicknames, at least among their crewmates and Mission Control. Aboard Discovery last July, Nowak and crewmate Stephanie Wilson were known as "the Robochicks" because they operated the shuttle's robotic arm that checked the spacecraft for damage. A smiling, put-together woman in her NASA photos, Nowak's police mug shot showed a fatigued, haggard face with scraggly hair. Oefelein, a 41-year-old Navy commander nicknamed "Billy-O" by his comrades, trained with Nowak but never flew with her. He piloted a Discovery mission in December to the space station where astronauts rewired the outpost, installed a new $11 million section and dropped off a new American crew member. Oefelein is unmarried but has two children. He began his aviation career as a teenager, flying floatplanes in Alaska. The Orlando Sentinel reported Shipman is an engineer assigned to the 45th Launch Support Squadron at Patrick air base, and a Federal Aviation Administration pilot directory indicates she is certified as a student pilot. Chief astronaut Steve Lindsey, who flew with Nowak to the space station last July aboard Discovery, and fellow astronaut Chris Ferguson attended Monday's court hearing. "Our primary concern is her health and well-being and that she get through this," Lindsey told reporters afterward. Ferguson said he was "perplexed" by Nowak's alleged actions. NASA spokeswoman Nicole Cloutier-Lemasters said shuttle crews that fly for two-week stints do not go through psychiatric screenings. She said crews assigned to the space station are screened before, during and after missions. NASA will not conduct an investigation, Cloutier-Lemasters said. At least one retired astronaut, Jerry Linenger, said the space agency should review its psychological screening process. With NASA talking about a 2 1/2-year trip to Mars, it would be dangerous for someone to "snap like this" during the mission, he said. "An astronaut is probably the most studied human being by the time you go through your testing, your training," Linenger said. "I think there's still a lot of unknowns out there." ___ AP National Writer Erin McClam reported from New York for this story. AP writers Malcolm Ritter in New York, Seth Borenstein in Washington, Rasha Madkour in Houston, Kelli Kennedy in Miami and Jim Ellis in Cape Canaveral contributed to this report. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Don Firth Date: 06 Feb 07 - 10:15 PM Later on, I read the story in the Seattle Times. I definitely had the wrong end of the stick. But I was half asleep when I heard it. Nice touch. I wonder if all those long-time married couples who are heavily into "protecting the sanctity of marriage" and who stay together after menopause will suddenly find themselves "living in sin." How's that for a hot flash? Don Firth |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: frogprince Date: 06 Feb 07 - 09:13 PM Don, a bit surprised at you not getting tbe point : ). I remember seeing old fundamentalist literature, dating to 50 years or more before anyone ever mentioned the idea of gay marriage, which declared that no woman should ever be allowed to marry if it was known that she could not produce children. At least that's one screwed up idea that, so far as I know, has largely died out. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Amos Date: 06 Feb 07 - 03:05 PM it's irony, Don. Irony! What you get from Geritol. A |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Don Firth Date: 06 Feb 07 - 02:34 PM I heard that story about the Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance wanting marriages that don't produce children every three years annulled just after the clock radio came on this morning, and I thought I was still in the throes of one of those Fritos with salsa dip, anchovy pizza, chocolate malt, and a big glass of grape juice before going to bed type dreams. No one, not even that bunch, could be that deep in the Abyss of Abject Asininity. But lo! I find it's true!! There is indeed ample reason for the weeping of Jesus! Don Firth |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 06 Feb 07 - 02:09 PM So much for all of the security measures taken by individuals to protect themselves, and from the credit reporting agencies to protect the info. Yahoos like this group get it and aren't very careful. Sheesh! More found documents to be destroyed STAR-TELEGRAM HURST [TX]— More documents are scheduled to be burned Tuesday after boxes of the paperwork which contained identity information were found Monday discarded in a trash bin, police said. Police were notified about the paperwork found in the 700 block of Texas 10. The documents were traced to Metro Credit Services, which went out of businesses several weeks ago and left the documents in an office, police said. "The business was a collection agency and they would receive documents with all this information on them," said Hurst police Sgt. Craig Teague. The owner of the office hired workers to clean out the office and threw out the documents not knowing they had personal information, police said. Authorities spent about two hours Monday burning the documents, which contained driver's license numbers, residents' date-of-births and social security numbers. Officials plan to spend another two hours Tuesday burning more documents. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 06 Feb 07 - 05:06 AM Initiative would make kids mandatory Gay marriage proponents want couples to have children or get annulment The Associated Press, 9:41 p.m. CT Feb 5, 2007 OLYMPIA, Wash. - Proponents of same-sex marriage have introduced a ballot measure that would require heterosexual couples to have a child within three years or have their marriages annulled. The Washington Defense of Marriage Alliance acknowledged on its Web site that the initiative was "absurd" but hoped the idea prompts "discussion about the many misguided assumptions" underlying a state Supreme Court ruling that upheld a ban on same-sex marriage. The measure would require couples to prove they can have children to get a marriage license. Couples who do not have children within three years could have their marriages annulled. All other marriages would be defined as "unrecognized," making those couples ineligible for marriage benefits. The paperwork for the measure was submitted last month. Supporters must gather at least 224,800 signatures by July 6 to put it on the November ballot. The group said the proposal was aimed at "social conservatives who have long screamed that marriage exists for the sole purpose of procreation." Cheryl Haskins, executive director of Allies for Marriage and Children, said opponents of same-sex marriage want only to preserve marriage as the union of a man and a woman. "Some of those unions produce children and some of them don't," she said. © 2007 The Associated Press John |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 02 Feb 07 - 01:41 AM Lots of people get nominated for these prizes--the trick is to win! SRS |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Donuel Date: 01 Feb 07 - 06:26 PM Al Gore nominated for Nobel Peace Prize OSLO, Norway - Former Vice President Al Gore was nominated for the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his wide-reaching efforts to draw the world's attention to the dangers of global warming, a Norwegian lawmaker said Thursday. "A prerequisite for winning the Nobel Peace Prize is making a difference, and Al Gore has made a difference," Conservative Member of Parliament Boerge Brende, a former minister of environment and then of trade, told The Associated Press. Brende said he joined political opponent Heidi Soerensen of the Socialist Left Party to nominate Gore as well as Canadian Inuit activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier before the nomination deadline expired Thursday. "Al Gore, like no other, has put climate change on the agenda. Gore uses his position to get politicians to understand, while Sheila works from the ground up," Brende said. During eight years as Bill Clinton's vice president, Gore pushed for climate measures, including for the Kyoto Treaty. Since leaving office in 2001 he has campaigned worldwide, including with his Oscar-nominated documentary on climate change called "An Inconvenient Truth." |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Feb 07 - 10:48 AM Bill would require labels on analog TVs STAR-TELEGRAM link Super Bowl aficionados, consider yourself warned. If you're planning on buying a new TV to watch the Chicago Bears and the Indianapolis Colts face off this weekend, make sure you get the right TV. If you don't, your set could be dark for future Super Bowls. That's because broadcasters will stop transmitting analog signals Feb. 17, 2009, and TVs that can't receive all-digital broadcasts -- primarily older sets that use antennas -- won't work without converter boxes. U.S. Rep. Joe Barton, R-Arlington, wants warning labels put on any remaining analog TVs up for sale so consumers know what they're buying. "Digital televisions are selling like umbrellas in a thunderstorm, outpacing all expectations, and the Feb. 17, 2009, transition date is still two years away," said Barton, who filed the Digital TV Education Bill along with Reps. Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., and Fred Upton, R-Mich. "But we should use our transition time wisely. "This legislation ... will ensure that the relatively small number of consumers who are still using those analog televisions with over-the-air antennas in two years understand what they need to do." Critics say the bill is a way for the GOP to keep some oversight of the issue. Democrats are expected to oversee the transition to digital, as well as a coupon program designed to help make the switch more affordable. Barton said the proposal is in response to a bill that went into effect last year, requiring analog broadcasts to switch to digital broadcasts by 2009. He said he wanted to boost public education provisions. Consumers who watch TV by cable or satellite don't have to worry; those who use antennas can get a converter box to make their sets still work. The Federal Communications Commission estimates that about 14 percent of households with TVs used antennas in 2005. "That number is likely to dwindle even further as more consumers subscribe to satellite and cable service," Barton said. "And under FCC rules, all analog television receivers manufactured after March 1, 2007, must also be able to receive digital signals over the air, so people with new televisions will not need converter boxes." Manufacturers have been working to make many TVs digital-ready for some time. At Best Buy near Ridgmar Mall, most of the television sets are already digital-ready. Even though warning labels aren't yet required, employees say they make sure that potential buyers know which TVs will be affected by the digital change, said John Johnson, a salesman there. "We only have a few small TVs that will be impacted," he said. "Some say if it lasts a couple of years, that's OK." DIGITAL TV IS COMING Why change: Broadcasters have used analog technology since the 1940s to put TV into Americans' homes. Digital TV is a newer way to do that. Congress is requiring the switch to give viewers better sound and picture quality and allow for more channels. But without a converter, analog TVs won't receive the broadcasts after the digital switch is made Feb. 17, 2009. What the bill would do: The legislation would require retailers to post signs near any analog-only TVs; cable and satellite operators to include information in their bills about the transition; broadcasters to file reports with the Federal Communications Commission about consumer-education efforts; the FCC to create a public-outreach program and give Congress progress reports on those efforts; and the Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration to establish energy standards for digital-to-analog converter boxes. Converter boxes: These boxes hook up to analog TV sets to let them receive digital broadcasts. Officials say they aren't sure how much they will cost, but estimates are that it will be less than $100 per box, although some could sell for more than $200. The NTIA will run a "coupon" program geared to cut the cost of a converter box by $40. The program has not launched yet but ultimately will provide two coupons by mail to households that request them. Applications for the coupons will be available some time between Jan. 1, 2008, and March 31, 2009. www.ntia.doc.gov SOURCE: Commerce Department's National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Star-Telegram research |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: Stilly River Sage Date: 01 Feb 07 - 10:30 AM Big baby! Ouch! link Big baby causes sensation in Cancun AP - CANCUN, Mexico - He is called "Super Tonio," and at a whopping birth weight of 14.5 pounds, the little fellow is causing a sensation in this Mexican resort city. Cancun residents have crowded the nursery ward's window to see Antonio Vasconcelos, who was born early Monday by Caesarean section. The baby drinks 5 ounces of milk every three hours, and measures 22 inches in length. "We haven't found any abnormality in the child, there are some signs of high blood sugar, and a slight blood infection, but that is being controlled so that the child can get on with his normal life in a few more days," Narciso Perez Bravo, the hospital's director, said on Wednesday. In Brazil, a baby born in January 2005 in the city of Salvador weighed 16 pounds, 11 ounces at birth. According to Guinness World Records, the heaviest baby born to a healthy mother was a boy weighing 22 pounds, 8 ounces, born in Aversa, Italy, in September 1955. Antonio's mother, Teresa Alejandra Cruz, 23, and father, Luis Vasconcelos, 38, said they were proud of the boy, and noted that Cruz had given birth to a baby girl seven years ago who weighed 11.46 pounds. |
Subject: RE: BS: I Read it in the Newspaper From: JohnInKansas Date: 31 Jan 07 - 10:20 PM Suspicious devices close Boston bridges Suspicious devices part of marketing plan Promotion of 'Aqua Teen Hunger Force' cartoon closes Boston bridges The Associated Press Updated: 7:26 p.m. CT Jan 31, 2007 BOSTON - More than 10 blinking electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the city Wednesday in what turned out to be a publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon. Most if not all of the devices depict a character giving the finger. Boston police said Wednesday night one person had been arrested in connection with the hoax, and authorities scheduled a 9 p.m. news conference to provide more details. Highways, bridges and a section of the Charles River were shut down and bomb squads were sent in before authorities declared the devices were harmless. "It's a hoax — and it's not funny," said Gov. Deval Patrick, who said he'll speak to the state's attorney general "about what recourse we may have." Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc. and parent of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," a surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball. "The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement, issued a few hours after reports of the first devices came in. It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston; New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Atlanta; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Philadelphia. ... ... Does this new attitude mean the kids would get in trouble for welding the trolley car to the tracks, or putting the police car on top of the dome, or ... (There are at least 3 books that even I know of with much more creative jokes by the boys and girls at the beaver house, amd now the mayor gets mad 'cause a talking milkshake gives him the finger? John |