The food police are back, this time in the form of one MeMe Roth, head of something called "National Action Against Obesity." MeMe is currently attacking the Girl Scouts for selling delicious cookies, but she may well have bitten off more than she can chew. This isn't the first time that the little beanie-wearing peddlers of baked goods have come under fire, so don't think they've been caught off guard by this -- they're hardened, battle-ready, and know a dozen ways to kill using only a single plastic-wrapped column of Thin Mints.
The Girl Scouts aren't likely to give up the seasonal fundraising items that have long paid their bills, something for which I'm very glad as I'd be especially loath to do without my own favorite purchase: the Samoa, or as it's known under this roof, the Coconut Sheppie.
It's so hard to give up that check:
A northeast Missouri man was sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home confinement for burning his father's body to hide his death, allowing the family to continue to cash the dead man's Social Security disability checks for nine more years.Kris McWilliams, 36, was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in St. Louis. He was also ordered to pay $133,000 in restitution.
His mother and sister have pleaded guilty to the same theft of government funds charges. They will be sentenced March 22.
Larry McWilliams died of natural causes in January 1997 at the family home in Lewis County.
U.S. Attorney Catherine Hanaway says the family then moved McWilliams' body behind the home and burned it to hide any evidence that he had died.
It's not all bad news for the McWilliams: at least now they finally get to collect the death benefit.
If "every family has a different carbon footprint," the Gores must be Godzilla:
Back home in Tennessee, safely ensconced in his suburban Nashville home, Vice President Al Gore is no doubt basking in the Oscar awarded to "An Inconvenient Truth," the documentary he inspired and in which he starred. But a local free-market think tank is trying to make that very home emblematic of what it deems Gore's environmental hypocrisy.Armed with Gore's utility bills for the last two years, the Tennessee Center for Policy Research charged Monday that the gas and electric bills for the former vice president's 20-room home and pool house devoured nearly 221,000 kilowatt-hours in 2006, more than 20 times the national average of 10,656 kilowatt-hours.
"If this were any other person with $30,000-a-year in utility bills, I wouldn't care," says the Center's 27-year-old president, Drew Johnson. "But he tells other people how to live and he's not following his own rules."
Sounds like the standard guru-in-a-Rolls-Royce story to me.
Duane warming up on a chilly night.
Wail on, Skydog!
"Vaginas organically harvested visually..."
Clay Moore's family held a press conference this morning to tell the story of Clay's escape from his kidnapper, and of course, to ask to be left alone now. The story of the safety pin is wonderful:
On the day he was kidnapped, Clay Moore’s parents made the 13-year-old use a safety pin to mend his school uniform because he was to blame for tearing it.
That safety pin became key to Clay’s escape from the kidnapper, who snatched him at gunpoint from a school bus stop last Friday and left him in an East Manatee woods taped up and gagged.
Clay hid the safety pin in his mouth while the kidnapper walked him to a woods before tying him up, and the safety pin later became crucial to Clay’s eventual escape.
Clay and his family appeared at a press conference in Bradenton this morning to thank everyone for their help during the crisis, to tell their son’s daring story of escape, and finally ask for privacy from the media so they can get back to normal lives.
Clay told his uncle that after the kidnapper left, he spit the pin from his mouth, used a stick to bring it to him and then cut the duct tape that bound his hands. Then, the now-sweating boy wriggled and chewed his way from the remaining duct tape.
After escaping, he ran through a field, found a farmer with a cell phone, and called his uncle. He was held for about 2.5 hours, Sheriff Charlie Wells said at the conference.
When his uncle asked what possessed him to put the safety pin in his mouth as he was being walked into the woods, Clay said, "I thought it would be helpful."
It was.
The kidnapper is believed to have fled back to Mexico.
It appears prairie dogs are in the decline of their civilization:
The world's expert on lust, violence and cannibalism among prairie dogs uses a slide in his lectures that sums up a lifetime of research. Several of the squirrel-size creatures are shown perched on their hind legs: cute, cute, cute, cute, cute.But then, next to each fuzzy head, John Hoogland has written something darker he has seen happen in a prairie dog "town." "Promiscuity, kidnapping, pedophilia, murder, infanticide," it says. Not so cute.
"Studying prairie dogs is like watching little people," he says. "Whatever we do, they do as well, and usually more often."
Hoogland, 58, a professor at the University of Maryland, has spent 34 years unraveling the daily routines of the burrowing rodent. It has always been interesting work: These towns can make Melrose Place look like Sesame Street.
I bet Edward Gibbon could do a bang-up job telling their tale.
"They are herbivores, strictly," Hoogland says. "Except for eating babies."
I didn't know prairie dogs hung out at Berkeley.
You'll enjoy the bus video that goes along with this story:
A city bus driver is lauded as a hero after he leapt off his bus and snatched a 3-year-old girl from traffic. The bus security cameras show the girl getting off the bus with a cheery "Bye!" and walking straight into traffic on a busy street. Chris Leslie, 38, is pictured streaking out the door after her.One view from the bus camera shows a car making a rapid stop directly in front of Leslie and the girl last week.
"As I grabbed her, I looked as I pulled her back and luckily the car in the next lane, a pickup, had stopped," he said. "It was probably the first time in my life I was in the right place at the right time."
The girl's mother was busy in the bus with another child in a stroller and the toddler didn't heed a command to wait. Leslie said the mother and daughter were still hugging at the bus stop when he pulled away.
Glad this guy was paying attention.
I've never seen "The Sarah Silverman Program" ("Law & Order" runs perpetually in my house, with weekly breaks for "Rome." If there were a "Law & Order: Ancient Rome" show, that would be perfection) but reader rg seems to enjoy it, so I've found a clip. What do you think? The star's a mean, sarcastic girl and I have a policy of steering clear of that type, to include throwing sheets over mirrors:
The investigation is making headway:
Manatee County Sheriff Charlie Wells released the name of the man he says kidnapped 13-year-old Clay Moore Friday morning, and said the boy was kidnapped for ransom.The suspect is for 22-year-old Vicente Ignacio Beltran-Moreno.
There is a warrant out for his arrest.
Wells said Moreno kidnapped Clay Moore at his bus stop Friday morning for money. He said a ransom note was found asking for money.
Sheriff Wells said the ransom note was one more unusual aspect of the case.
“I don’t recall seeing a ransom note other than television shows,” Wells said.
Wells said Beltran-Moreno is likely out of the state. He said they have contacted other law enforcement agencies, but did not say where.
The sheriff said investigators went through several aliases before confirming the suspect’s real name.
According to the sheriff’s office, Moreno was a former migrant worker, and was most recently an aluminum sub-contractor.
Sheriff Wells said he is certain Moreno is the man who kidnapped Clay Moore at gunpoint from his bus stop Friday morning.
“We are sure of it,” he said.
Wells had high praise for Clay Moore, saying the match between Moore’s description of the suspect, the composite sketch and Moreno’s face was “incredible.”
“[Clay] was extremely helpful and observant. He gave us valuable information, and he was right on the money. He was courageous, and he provided us with valuable, valuable information on how to solve this case,” Wells said.
Investigators say they have found the pick-up truck that the suspect used in the abduction. It was a red Ford Ranger.
They found the truck at the suspect’s last known address, at 3719 17th Street Court East in Bradenton.
Deputies served a search warrant on the house at 5:15 Saturday morning.
Clay had a safety pin in his sleeve that he used to score through the duct tape holding him. He was on a large farm and had to walk around quite a bit to find help. I'm glad a farm worker on a tractor let him use his phone, but that appears to be all the guy did for him. The boy didn't know where he was and law enforcement had to trace him from the phone. Even as they drove up, Clay was still walking, trying to get somewhere.
The sheriff seems to be having trouble with the idea of a note. The last true kidnap-for-ransom I remember is Barbara Jane Mackle's back in 1968, and her father was one of the wealthiest men in Florida.
The Mackle case is probably the very first real news story I have recollection of as a child (I remember the nightly body counts from Vietnam on CBS, but don't recall exactly when I began noticing them). As you might imagine, the kidnapping was a huge story here in Florida, especially after the information was released that she'd spent her captivity buried alive in a box.
Hello, sailor.
A recent e-mail has caused me to once again ponder the time-honored and extremely Southern phenomenon of the child beauty pageant circuit. I know that our culture does not include a predilection for subtlety and I enjoy that. But can't an eight-year-old girl be beautiful without eye makeup and lipstick?
Add this to the long list of odd moments in Florida education:
The assistant principal at Van Buren Middle School had a message for her students this morning.Over the intercom, Allison Edgecomb described the school's principal, Anthony Giancola, as a member of the Van Buren family. This comes just one day after he was arrested at the school on drug charges.
Edgecomb asked students to keep Giancola in their prayers.
"Most of us were shocked, and then disappointed," she said over the school's intercom system. "Mostly, I think we are feeling sad."
Giancola apologized to his students and colleagues as he was getting into a police car on Thursday.
"I'm very sorry," he said before being taken to jail.
Police arrested Giancola on Thursday, handcuffing and taking him away from his school. They say he tried to buy crack cocaine from an undercover officer during school hours while in his school office.
So do you think he was going to save it for later, or would he have fired it up right there?
I'd be an undercover officer if they'd promise me tasty gigs like this.
Floridians, keep your eye out for this kid, the truck, and the driver:
Authorities are searching for a 13-year-old boy they say was kidnapped at gunpoint at a Manatee school bus stop.Deputies say the teenage boy was pulled from a school bus stop at gunpoint near Old Tampa Road and Douglas Hill Place in Parrish just before 9 a.m.
According to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the child is 13-year-old Clay Moore. He is white, five feet tall, and 100 pounds with wavy brown, blondish, chin length hair.
He was last seen wearing a green polo shirt and black jacket, both with Manatee School of the Arts emblem, khaki pants, and red backpack. They also say he has a birthmark between his eyes.
Witnesses described the armed kidnapper as either Hispanic male or a white male with a dark tan. They say he was around 30 years old, with short, dark hair and a dark mustache, wearing a long-sleeve blue and tan striped shirt, blue jeans and dark sunglasses.
Here is a description of the truck witnesses described:
* Late 90s or early 2000 Toyota or Ranger style
* Red
* Extended cab
* No tinted windows
* No tool box
Officials described a chaotic scene where the kidnapping took place.
According to Dave Bristow, spokesman for the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office, there were probably 14 or 15 children at the bus stop where the kidnapping took place. No other children were taken, or hurt in the incident.
Bristow described the incident as “horrific” because so many other children were witnesses, and it appears to be a random kidnapping.
According Bristow, the kidnapper came out with a gun, and Clay happened to be the closest student to him. He ordered Clay to go with him. Other students starting running, screaming, hysterical and he was able to get Clay into the truck.
Students at the scene say that Clay said “Sir, I don’t know you.”
One child described a heart-breaking scene:
“Everyone said when he got in the car, he was bawling his eyes out.”
Bristow said it was probably the scariest situation the children had ever encountered.
Manatee Sheriff Charlie Wells said every available resource is being used and called on to find the missing child and the suspect.
“I just wanna get this young man home,” he said.
Wells also said the family is at the command center, and are very emotional.
“The family is shook up, as we all are,” he said.
UPDATE:
They've caught the kidnapper. No word yet on the boy.
UPDATE II:
The boy is alive. Lordamighty, thanks for Ambers that get all the stops rolled out so fast.
UPDATE III:
Now it's the boy has been found, but the suspect is still at large.
UPDATE IV:
Egads, he is with deputies who are interviewing him:
Sheriff Charlie Wells said they found out the boy was okay when his mother got a cell phone call from someone who he said was rendering aid to Clay.
I've lived with their moccasined foot on my throat long enough:
The Clovis people, known for their distinctive spear points, likely were not the first humans in the Americas, according to research placing their presence as more recent than previously believed.Using advanced radiocarbon dating techniques, researchers writing in the journal Science on Thursday said the Clovis people, hunters of large Ice Age animals like mammoths and mastodons, dated from about 13,100 to 12,900 years ago.
That would make the Clovis culture, known from artifacts discovered at various sites including the town of Clovis, New Mexico, both younger and shorter-lived than previously thought. Previous estimates had dated the culture to about 13,600 years ago.
These people long had been seen as the first humans in the New World, but the new dates suggest their culture thrived at about the same time or after others also in the Americas.
Michael Waters, director of Texas A&M University's Center for the Study of the First Americans, called the research the final nail in the coffin of the so-called "Clovis first" theory of human origins in the New World.
Waters said he thinks the first people probably arrived in the Americas between 15,000 and 25,000 years ago.
"We've got to stop thinking about the peopling of the Americas as a singular event," Waters said in an interview.
"And we have to start now thinking about the peopling of the Americas as a process, with people coming over here, probably arriving at different times, maybe taking different routes and coming from different places in northeast Asia."
Multiple waves and multiple routes. It appears that there were a lot more ancient non-Indians hoofing it around this land besides Kennewick Man. Guess where they think some of those routes possibly originated?
Another crime victim kills an attacker with only the two throttling, bone-crunching, death-dealing hands God gave him:
An American senior citizen killed an alleged mugger with his bare hands, and his traveling companions aboard a tour bus fended of two other assailants in the Atlantic coast city of Limon, police said.A retired member of the U.S. military aged about 70 put suspect Warner Segura in a head lock and broke his clavicle after the 20-year-old and two other men armed with a knife and gun held up their tour bus, Luis Hernandez, the police chief of Limon, 80 miles east of San Jose, said Thursday. Segura was later declared dead, apparently from asphyxiation.
The two other men fled when the 12 senior citizens started defending themselves during the Wednesday attack. Afterward, the tourists drove Segura to the Red Cross where he was declared dead. The Red Cross also treated one of the tourists for an anxiety attack, Hernandez said.
The tourists left on their Carnival cruise ship after the incident and Hernandez said authorities do not plan to press any charges against them.
"They were in their right to defend themselves after being held up," he said.
The could have just put one of the seniors behind the wheel and let him mow down the muggers in a more normal and stately fashion.
This isn't the first bad picture Duane's took, but it's the first to make me think of "I Love Lucy."
Wail on, Skydog!
Everybody has been clamoring for a Civil War-themed "Thriller" video for as long I can remember:
This Somali cabdriver in Nashville may teach ESL on the side but he's yet to master the nuance of Southern speech. Asking someone to "run you over" does not mean flattening them with your cab:
A Muslim cabdriver from Somalia ran over two college students near Vanderbilt University after getting into an argument with them about religion, police said.Ibrahim Ahmed, 37, a driver for United Cab, picked up two men near the Vanderbilt campus early Sunday morning, Capt. Mike Alexander of the Nashville Police Department said, referring to the incident report.
The two men, reportedly college students from Ohio who were visiting Nashville, were on their way back to the campus.
A conversation about religion ensued between the driver and his two fares. The local FOX affiliate in Nashville confirmed from a friend and fellow co-worker that Ahmed is a Sunni Muslim from Somalia.
At some point, according to the police, the two men exited the cab, and the cabbie also got out. They paid him his fare, and then they exchanged words.
According to the incident report, Ahmed then returned to his cab as the students fled on foot. Ahmed then allegedly drove across a parking lot, jumped a curb and struck the two men.
One of the students, identified as Jeremy Invus, was taken to Vanderbilt University Medical Center with critical injuries. The other passenger, Andrew Nelson, avoided the cab.
The students mights have "fared" better if they'd employed an alternate Southern expression and asked the cabbie to "carry" them, though the journey certainly would have taken longer.
So why do think Britney did it and just how far do you think she'll go to please Charles Manson?
Damn, you know I banned this guy then clean forgot about him:
Vincenzo 'Vinnie' Ricardo was the proverbial tree that fell in the forest: No one knew.From what police in Hampton Bays, N.Y., can determine, the 70-year-old was sitting alone watching TV in his two-story home when he died.
That was more than a year ago, and when workers were summoned to his house last week after a report that freezing temperatures had caused the home's pipes to burst, they found Ricardo's mummified body still sitting on the couch, the TV still on.
I didn't really. This is just how I deal with my sadness.
Vinnie the TV Man with the coroner
Sometimes this world is so crazy and mixed-up. To put together classic ingredients like a large, heavy automobile, an addled elderly driver, and a prime public area full of unwitting victims and not have it turn into a bloodbath is like putting a pan of Jiffy Pop on the stove and the aluminum foil not rising. What the heck? Do we not have popcorn, heat, and a foil tent here? The only reason people buy the stuff is to watch the aluminum foil expand:
A woman leaving a Department of Motor Vehicles office where she went for a state-ordered driver's license retest accidentally plowed her car into the building Wednesday, slightly injuring several people, the Florida Highway Patrol said.Therese Smith, 80, of Boca Raton, was easing out of a parking spot in front of the office at 100 S. Military Trail about 4:30 p.m. when she stepped on the gas too hard, propelling her 1990 Mercury Grand Marquis over a concrete parking block, onto the sidewalk, through a metal parking sign and into the windows of the DMV office, said Sgt. Mark Wysocky, FHP spokesman.
If she were an elderly driver Mystery Date she'd be the dud.
I think this was an episode of "Leave It To Beaver":
A Gig Harbor [Washington] woman says she was "freaked out" while giving her dog a bath when its ear floated away.The woman, Anni Sheriffius, told KIRO-TV that she believes a groomer cut off the dog's ear and tried to glue it back on with super glue.
The dog named Jasimin, a shi tzu, was treated for an infection.
Pierce County sheriff's spokesman Ed Troyer says investigators are looking into possible charges of animal cruelty. But the pet grooming shop has shut down.
Wait til she goes to brush it herself and finds it's a rat in a Dolly Parton wig.
You know all those times you've looked around in vain for a place to sit and ended up making do with the floor? Little did you know you have a portable stool right on your neck!
This kid will still be getting therapy on his deathbed. As if life isn't hard enough for a foster child:
Prosecutors have reached a plea agreement with an 84-year-old-woman from The Dalles, who was accused of raping her 11-year-old foster child.According to the Wasco County District Attorney's office, Georgie Buoy, of The Dalles, will serve three years in the Oregon State Penitentiary.
Buoy originally faced six separate charges but reached a plea agreement on a single charge with prosecutors.
In a taped confession, Buoy admitted having sex with the boy while he was in her care in 2004. Buoy's attorney was not immediately available.
Buoy pleaded guilty today to attempted sex abuse. She must register as a sex offender after serving her sentence at the Coffee Creek women's prison in Wilsonville.
Buoy also must pay $5000 in fines to the victim, as well as up to $7500 in restitution for counseling.
$7500 for counseling? That won't put a dent in what he's going to need. At least with the restitution money he can purchase a Clorox jacuzzi.
St. Louis is making Florida look very good these days as a professional police tester makes his rounds there. The Holy Grail as always is the citizen's complaint form, but who knew you could end up in a jail cell for asking for one?
Fantastic work from off-duty and out-of-territory police officer Ken Hammond at the Salt Lake City rampage:
Hammond and his wife, Sarita, had eaten dinner and walked through the mall afterward. At one point, she made a stop, he said, and he heard a "sort of popping noise" while sitting on a bench. At first, he dismissed it as mall construction.As the couple walked, Hammond said, he saw "seriously injured" people. Looking in another direction, he said, he saw a man with a shotgun walking out of the business where the injured people were. He told his wife to go back to the restaurant and call 911.
Although he was standing on the second floor and the suspect was on the first floor, he said he identified himself as a police officer and drew his weapon. The suspect shot at him twice but missed him, he said.
He laid on the ground but was concerned the suspect might come up the escalators located behind him.
When he stood up, he said, he saw a uniformed Salt Lake City police officer standing on the lower level.
"It was kind of tense for a few seconds. ... I'm standing there in plain clothes with a gun out," said Hammond. "We just kind of stared at each other. I'm screaming as loud as I can, 'I'm Officer Hammond, Ogden City Police. I'm off-duty, OPD' -- just kept repeating myself."
He approached the Salt Lake City officer, he said, and the two were able to locate the suspect and exchanged gunfire with him, eventually killing him.
I would guess that the killer of five, Sulejmen Talovic, 18, wasn't a nice Mormon boy.
And the head and the neck...
An animal lover was mauled to death by cheetahs after entering their cage at a zoo in northern Belgium, authorities and zoo officials said Monday.Karen Aerts, 37, of Antwerp, was found dead in the cage, Olmense Zoo spokesman Jan Libot said. Police said they ruled out any foul play.
Authorities believe Aerts, a regular visitor to the zoo, hid in the park late Sunday until it closed and managed to find the keys to the cheetah cage.
"Karen loved animals. Unfortunately the cheetahs betrayed her trust," Libot said.
One of the cats that killed Aerts was named Bongo, whom the woman had adopted under a special program. She paid for Bongo's food, Libot said.
Animal rights group GAIA called for the immediate closure of the zoo, located 55 miles northeast of Brussels, saying it was unsafe for both visitors and the cats.
It's probably just unsafe for crazy cat ladies, much in the same way that Sea World is for those desiring a clandestine midnight skinnydip with killer whales.
Think Volvo, Duane, Volvo.
Wail on, Skydog!
Below the fold, Duane and his valentines wish a Happy Valentine's Day to you and yours:
"If I wanted to watch a Mormon dance I'd turn on 'Napoleon Dynamite.'"
And threw in some depantsing for good measure:
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.
Etiquette lubricates the wheels of social interaction, making public contact safe and predictable, and reducing the likelihood that you'll be on the receiving end of a public ass-kicking by a fourth-grader.
Believe it or not, rudimentary English on the job site can come in handy:
A Park Hills man was killed Thursday in a freak sawmill accident in Washington County.Washington County deputies were not available to discuss the incident Friday morning.
According to Washington County Coroner Brian DeClue, Jose Garcia, 29, climbed into an edger at H & H Lumber to clear a piece of wood sometime between 8:30 a.m. and 8:45 a.m. Other workers shouted at him not to go under the machinery, but Garcia, who did not speak English, did not stop.
The company gives a monthly safety class, but it's in English -- a language with which Mr. Garcia had only the sort of passing familiarity one acquires from glancing at one's forged social security and green cards.
Larry Birkhead, Howard K. Stern, Zsa Zsa Gabor's husband, the frozen sperm of a dead 90-year-old: are any of you here the father of Anna Nicole Smith's baby?
This is dovetailing nicely with the government's plan to collect information on its citizens. Just gathering the DNA of every man who had sex with Anna Nicole in the past year will give them a sizable database.
If this lady were in England, she'd be laying waste to the countryside and they'd give her a colorful name like "The Pubside Predator":
A woman accused of fatally shooting her husband following a dispute over a warm beer pleaded not guilty on Thursday in St. Louis Circuit Court.Corine Jones, 66, of the 5100 block of Terry Avenue, is charged with first-degree murder and armed criminal action.
Investigators said she shot her husband, Robert Jones, 71, when he handed her a warm can of Stag beer on Dec. 3, 2006, at their north St. Louis home.
Police said Corine admitted to shooting her husband when they arrived at couple's home and found him dead in the kitchen.
It's unclear from the article whether he staggered into the kitchen to die or fell where he was shot, but at some point a fatal mistake was made and a warm beer was tendered. I'm fairly certain he died confused. Then again, maybe this was the end game of some campaign of terror he'd launched against her that included bowls of lukewarm chicken noodle soup and grilled cheese sandwiches that had only been cooked on one side.
She exited her abused carcass down the road in Hollywood. Her baby wasn't with her, of course:
Anna Nicole Smith, the former Playboy playmate whose bizarre life careened from marrying an octogenarian billionaire to the untimely death of her son, died Thursday after collapsing at a South Florida hotel, one of her lawyers said.Smith, 39, collapsed and was unresponsive while staying at the Seminole Hard Rock Cafe Hotel and Casino near Hollywood, said the attorney, Ron Rale. She was rushed to a hospital.
Since she died on the reservation, I'd like to suggest some sort of Indian burial for her. Like hanging her up in the trees with grave goods of TrimSpa, champagne, and Kentucky Fried Chicken and letting scavenging birds and (over)exposure do their work.
An update in the case of elderly no-knock warrant casualty Kathryn Johnston:
Prosecutors intend to seek murder charges against three Atlanta police officers involved in the shooting death of a 92-year-old woman in her home, according to a letter sent to an attorney for one of the officers.Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard sent a letter that said he will ask a grand jury on Feb. 26 to deliver a murder indictment against officers Gregg Junnier, J.R. Smith and Arthur Tesler, said Rand Csehy, Junnier's attorney.
Kathryn Johnston died and three officers were wounded in the Nov. 21 shootout when police used a no-knock warrant to search for drugs in Johnston's northwest Atlanta home.
When officers entered her home without first announcing their presence, police say Johnston fired a handgun and officers returned fire, killing her. An autopsy concluded she was shot five or six times.
Narcotics officers said an informant had claimed there was cocaine in the home, but none was found.
A copy of the letter obtained by The Associated Press said that prosecutors would ask the grand jury to indict Junnier on charges of felony murder, as well as counts of violation of oath, burglary, criminal solicitation, aggravated assault and false imprisonment.
I don't know how they'll go about making the charges stick, but I am glad the attempt is being made to hold these officers accountable. After all, she was just sitting alone in her house not bothering a soul, and now she's dead as a doornail at the hands of police. None of us may feel bad for people whose behaviors lead them into unfortunate and inevitable interactions with law enforcement, but I'm not up to including as risky behavior sitting at home minding my own business.
***
Previous postings:
Playing Dirty
Atlanta No-Knock Death
Deadly Warrant II
The Kathryn Johnston Thanksgiving Open-House Thread
Death Warrant
Talk about having your tail in jail and your rig impounded:
An Illinois trucker has left a path of destruction in northwest Albuquerque in what authorities say was a "meth-induced rage."Eric Dubach, 28, of Mount Vernon, Ill., caused $500,000 in damage when he drove his truck through fences, rammed parked vehicles, homes and businesses, and ran over signs around 4:30 a.m. Sunday, Bernalillo County Sheriff Darren White said.
Dubach told authorities he stopped his tractor-trailer at a truck stop off Interstate 40, unhitched his trailer and snorted a "couple of grams" of methamphetamine before going on the joy ride, White Said.
So what was his reason for damaging four homes, five businesses and 24 cars? Why, it's as clear as the canopy of azure sky that hangs over the Land of Enchantment:
Dubach told officers he didn't like Albuquerque and wanted to mess it up, White said.
That's the cranked-up version of painting the town red.
Duane in embroidered jeans with Hot 'Lanta.
Wail on, Skydog!
Thanks once more to Greg Henderson for this one. The copy I had was poor and had Duane rather resembling the Creature from the Black Lagoon, if you can imagine the creature smoking on an electric guitar. It was a muttonchop issue.
UPDATE:
A repost for Sheila, who disingenuously asks for "the one where Duane is walking up the steps and walks up to the camera" to use for the opening page on her computer. Like she totally forgot all about how it would be like Duane giving her a kiss every morning.
(Via skydogj.)
INDC Bill loves the nightlife. That's why he went on a nighttime raid with the Iraqi Army in Fallujah. They told him they were headed to a disco and he hopped into the truck. They played him for a fool all night. Lucky for us he'd taken his camera along and took a picture of every single place those jokers told him he'd find a dance floor but didn't.
If you haven't ponied up your share for Bill to buy a gold medallion necklace, you might want to get that done today. While you're doing that you can ponder why you aren't seeing stories like Bill's in your local paper.
l watched O'Reilly last night in the hopes that after his having read of the latest charges against (and admitted to by) Michael Devlin of 69 counts of forcible sodomy on a child that first he'd offer a heartfelt apology to Shawn Hornbeck for saying he liked living with his abductor, then secondly he'd perform a live self-debarking. No soap.
Jumping on the O'Reilly bandwagon, conservative columnist Ilana Mercer writes not in parody but in all seriousness that she expects her own daughter to remain logical and considerate towards her parents during a prolonged kidnapping, the effects of months spent bound, gagged, and blindfolded in a closet punctuated with repeated sexual assault notwithstanding. Presumably if this were the 1950s they'd both be bitching about all those zombified returning Korean War POWs who didn't meet their standards of mental hygiene.
Meanwhile, the second kidnapping victim, cheerful little Ben Ownby who was so insistent on getting back to school after his four-day 17-count ordeal, has already been reported as collapsing in class from post-traumatic stress.
The three counties involved in the case have laid their charges, most of which carry a penalty of life in prison; the Feds are up next.
Meet Capt. Lisa Nowak, astronaut and bunny boiler:
An astronaut drove 900 miles and donned a disguise to confront a woman she believed was her rival for the affections of a space shuttle pilot, police said. She was arrested Monday and charged with attempted kidnapping and other counts.U.S. Navy Capt. Lisa Nowak, 43, who flew last July on a shuttle mission to the international space station, was also charged with attempted vehicle burglary with battery, destruction of evidence and battery. She was denied bail.
Police said Nowak drove from her home in Houston to the Orlando International Airport to confront Colleen Shipman.
Nowak believed Shipman was romantically involved with Navy Cmdr. William Oefelein, a pilot during space shuttle Discovery's trip to the space station last December, police said.
Nowak told police that her relationship with Oefelein was "more than a working relationship but less than a romantic relationship," according to an arrest affidavit. Police officers recovered a love letter to Oefelein in her car.
You know what this story really needs? Diapers:
When she found out that Shipman was flying to Orlando from Houston, Nowak decided to confront her, according to the arrest affidavit. Nowak raced from Houston to Orlando wearing diapers so she wouldn't have to stop to urinate, authorities said.
Typical astronaut -- driving while replicating the atmosphere of Jupiter.
Dressed in a wig and a trench coat, Nowak boarded an airport bus that Shipman took to her car in an airport parking lot. Shipman told police she noticed someone following her, hurried inside the car and locked the doors, according to the arrest affidavit.
Though Ms. Shipman should have been safe then, there's one thing that overpowers that primal urge for fight or flight in the face of danger, and that one thing is the tears of a maniac:
Nowak rapped on the window, tried to open the car door and asked for a ride. Shipman refused but rolled down the car window a few inches when Nowak started crying. Nowak then sprayed a chemical into Shipman's car, the affidavit said.Shipman drove to the parking lot booth, and the police were called.
During a check of the parking lot, an officer followed Nowak and watched her throw away a bag containing the wig and BB gun. They also found a steel mallet, a 4-inch folding knife, rubber tubing, $600 and garbage bags inside a bag Nowak was carrying when she was arrested, authorities said.
I bet with those items plus an unused pair of diapers she could fashion an emergency air filter for the Space Shuttle.
Inside Nowak's vehicle, which was parked at a nearby motel, authorities uncovered a pepper spray package, an unused BB-gun cartridge, latex gloves and e-mails between Shipman and Oefelein. They also found a letter "that indicated how much Mrs. Nowak loved Mr. Oefelein," an opened package for a buck knife, Shipman's home address and hand written directions to the address, the arrest affidavit said.
Was the BB gun loaded or just her diaper? If it was, Ms. Shipman could have been seriously winged.
I'd say NASA needs to beef up the psych eval section of their fitness reports before someone up in the space gets their Tang poisoned.
Feast your eyes on the object of her affection. He is devastatingly unremarkable, though he may have won her heart by sending her coded love messages in the scratchings on his metal collar.
The minds of Travis and Jonathan conceived of putting those two together. Maybe it's time for some mental Norplant. Still, I laugh harder every time I watch this:
I'm sorry I haven't been with you these past few days. I was getting an artificial anus installed and there were complications. However, as my friends will attest, I'm regaining strength and kilos. Rest assured I am in perfect health and will continue to lead you towards a glorious future.
UPDATE:
Hello! I was joking! My anus is worry-free!
(Herald login/pswd=crockett@tubbs.com/miamivice.)
After showing a Martha-Stewart-like attention to detail, a Michigan lady runs out of steam at the very end of her redecorating project:
A woman was arrested after her two daughters were found stabbed to death, authorities said.The girls, ages 8 and 5, were found lying next to one another in a bedroom of the mobile home they shared with their mother in Macomb Township, about 30 miles northeast of Detroit, Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said. Police said they recovered several large bloody knives.
"It's an extremely horrific scene," Hackel said.
Police were notified Sunday night by the 30-year-old woman's sister, who found the suspect sitting alone amid the carnage. The sister was told by the suspect she had "hurt her kids," Hackel said. The stabbings took place late Saturday or early Sunday, he said.
Three small dogs and a pet mouse were also found dead in the home, the sheriff said. Police said the suspect suffered a self-inflicted, minor stab wound to her arm.
Perhaps her discovery that being stabbed kind of hurts was the cause for her downsizing the project.
I-Film has all of yesterday's Super Bowl ads up. I haven't looked through all of them, but so far none of them have stood out for me as being anything special. Am I missing a good one?
Newsweek reporter Holly Bailey thought she was going to die. Little did she realize when she naively followed along on a presidential tour of the Caterpillar factory that she would be eyewitness to the convergence of the world's two most evil forces: the activist-boycotted death beast that smashes the life out of slow activists and the maniacally grinning death-dealing beastmaster that jumped on to ride its back. When George Bush fired up that Cat, she knew only a miracle could save her:
Does President Bush have it in for the press corps? Touring a Caterpillar factory in Peoria, Ill., the Commander in Chief got behind the wheel of a giant tractor and played chicken with a few wayward reporters. Wearing a pair of stylish safety glasses--at least more stylish than most safety glasses--Bush got a mini-tour of the factory before delivering remarks on the economy. "I would suggest moving back," Bush said as he climbed into the cab of a massive D-10 tractor. "I'm about to crank this sucker up." As the engine roared to life, White House staffers tried to steer the press corps to safety, but when the tractor lurched forward, they too were forced to scramble for safety."Get out of the way!" a news photographer yelled. "I think he might run us over!" said another. White House aides tried to herd the reporters the right way without getting run over themselves. Even the Secret Service got involved, as one agent began yelling at reporters to get clear of the tractor. Watching the chaos below, Bush looked out the tractor's window and laughed, steering the massive machine into the spot where most of the press corps had been positioned. The episode lasted about a minute, and Bush was still laughing when he pulled to a stop. He gave reporters a thumbs-up. "If you've never driven a D-10, it's the coolest experience," Bush said afterward. Yeah, almost as much fun as seeing your life flash before your eyes.
Don't ever commute, honey.
