About this talk
Questions of good and evil, right and wrong are commonly thought unanswerable by science. But Sam Harris argues that science can -- and should -- be an authority on moral issues, shaping human values and setting out what constitutes a good life.
From: http://www.ted.com/talks/sam_harris_science_can_show_what_s_right.html
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Driver wearing Islamic face veil fined in France
A woman driving her car while wearing an Islamic face veil has been fined by French police for not having a clear field of vision, her lawyer said.
Published: 5:09PM BST 23 Apr 2010
Jean-Michel Pollono said traffic police in the western city of Nantes fined his client €22 (£19) in early April. The fine was based on a rule that says drivers should have "freedom of movement and a sufficient field of vision."
Mr Pollono said on Friday on France-Info radio that he was protesting the decision, which he claimed said a veil was "the same as a motorcycle helmet" in terms of hindrance to vision.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered a law drafted that would ban veils that cover the face and body anywhere in public. Such veils are very rare in France.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7624054/Driver-wearing-Islamic-face-veil-fined-in-France.html
Published: 5:09PM BST 23 Apr 2010
Jean-Michel Pollono said traffic police in the western city of Nantes fined his client €22 (£19) in early April. The fine was based on a rule that says drivers should have "freedom of movement and a sufficient field of vision."
Mr Pollono said on Friday on France-Info radio that he was protesting the decision, which he claimed said a veil was "the same as a motorcycle helmet" in terms of hindrance to vision.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has ordered a law drafted that would ban veils that cover the face and body anywhere in public. Such veils are very rare in France.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7624054/Driver-wearing-Islamic-face-veil-fined-in-France.html
Officials discuss 2 suicide notes from road-rage suspect
Posted on Sat, Apr. 24, 2010
By Bonnie L. Cook
Inquirer Staff Writer
John A. Yannarell, the Gilbertsville man who took his life Thursday after he was accused of three road-rage incidents, left two suicide notes, law enforcement officials said Friday.
One was directed to his loved ones, said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman. The second, she said, was directed at her - and rather than accepting responsibility for his violent acts on the highways, Yannarell blamed those he targeted.
Ferman said that in the first suicide note, Yannarell - who apparently killed himself with a drug overdose - professed his love to those close to him. Authorities were working to figure out who they were.
The district attorney declined to release a copy of the note directed to her. But, she said, "He was casting aspersions and making nasty comments about the people who were the victims."
Ferman said she was keeping the note private because she feared it might upset the victims. She emphasized that all the victims acted properly by reporting to authorities Yannarell's violent behavior.
The Montgomery County coroner ruled out a gunshot wound as the cause of death for Yannarell, 50. Ferman said that quantities of the painkillers Oxycontin and Percocet were found in Yannarell's possession.
An autopsy showed "no evidence of trauma on the body," said Coroner Walter Hofman. Law enforcement officials said Thursday that Yannarell might have turned a gun on himself.
"Quite a few" pill bottles were recovered by police from Yannarell's home, Hofman said, and "more likely than not," their contents caused his death.
Hofman said the substances would undergo extensive testing at a toxicology lab, and the results were expected back within 14 to 21 days.
Yannarell was a no-show at a preliminary hearing Thursday morning. Had he appeared, he would have faced a charge of attempted murder in the April 9 shooting of fellow commuter Elizabeth Cox of Pottstown on Route 422.
Cox told police she was driving east on 422 between Route 29 and Oaks when she saw Yannarell change lanes aggressively. As he passed her on the right shoulder, she said, she felt "a vibration and then a pain in my leg."
Thinking she had been sideswiped, she followed his car to get the tag number, Cox told police. Only later did she realize she had been shot in a leg and elbow.
Cox, whose phone is unlisted, could not be reached for comment. Her injuries were not life-threatening.
Yannarell was also due Thursday to be charged in two earlier incidents of alleged road rage. Last September, a prosecutor said, Yannarell cut off a car, narrowly avoiding a crash on Route 422, then lobbed a bottle of Gatorade at the driver.
On Jan. 26, a driver reported that Yannarell fired at him from the passenger-side window after the driver tried to merge to the right lane while going north on Route 100 in Upper Pottsgrove Township. The driver wasn't injured.
Ferman said police had received calls from people who said Yannarell was a "decent fellow." But, she said, "to people who encountered him on the road, he was a horrific menace."
"You are not dealing with a one-shot deal here," Ferman said. "Clearly, from the volume of information we received after the first incident, he had a problem" with anger management.
From: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20100424_Officials_discuss_2_suicide_notes_from_road-rage_suspect.html
By Bonnie L. Cook
Inquirer Staff Writer
John A. Yannarell, the Gilbertsville man who took his life Thursday after he was accused of three road-rage incidents, left two suicide notes, law enforcement officials said Friday.
One was directed to his loved ones, said Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman. The second, she said, was directed at her - and rather than accepting responsibility for his violent acts on the highways, Yannarell blamed those he targeted.
Ferman said that in the first suicide note, Yannarell - who apparently killed himself with a drug overdose - professed his love to those close to him. Authorities were working to figure out who they were.
The district attorney declined to release a copy of the note directed to her. But, she said, "He was casting aspersions and making nasty comments about the people who were the victims."
Ferman said she was keeping the note private because she feared it might upset the victims. She emphasized that all the victims acted properly by reporting to authorities Yannarell's violent behavior.
The Montgomery County coroner ruled out a gunshot wound as the cause of death for Yannarell, 50. Ferman said that quantities of the painkillers Oxycontin and Percocet were found in Yannarell's possession.
An autopsy showed "no evidence of trauma on the body," said Coroner Walter Hofman. Law enforcement officials said Thursday that Yannarell might have turned a gun on himself.
"Quite a few" pill bottles were recovered by police from Yannarell's home, Hofman said, and "more likely than not," their contents caused his death.
Hofman said the substances would undergo extensive testing at a toxicology lab, and the results were expected back within 14 to 21 days.
Yannarell was a no-show at a preliminary hearing Thursday morning. Had he appeared, he would have faced a charge of attempted murder in the April 9 shooting of fellow commuter Elizabeth Cox of Pottstown on Route 422.
Cox told police she was driving east on 422 between Route 29 and Oaks when she saw Yannarell change lanes aggressively. As he passed her on the right shoulder, she said, she felt "a vibration and then a pain in my leg."
Thinking she had been sideswiped, she followed his car to get the tag number, Cox told police. Only later did she realize she had been shot in a leg and elbow.
Cox, whose phone is unlisted, could not be reached for comment. Her injuries were not life-threatening.
Yannarell was also due Thursday to be charged in two earlier incidents of alleged road rage. Last September, a prosecutor said, Yannarell cut off a car, narrowly avoiding a crash on Route 422, then lobbed a bottle of Gatorade at the driver.
On Jan. 26, a driver reported that Yannarell fired at him from the passenger-side window after the driver tried to merge to the right lane while going north on Route 100 in Upper Pottsgrove Township. The driver wasn't injured.
Ferman said police had received calls from people who said Yannarell was a "decent fellow." But, she said, "to people who encountered him on the road, he was a horrific menace."
"You are not dealing with a one-shot deal here," Ferman said. "Clearly, from the volume of information we received after the first incident, he had a problem" with anger management.
From: http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20100424_Officials_discuss_2_suicide_notes_from_road-rage_suspect.html
Three men jailed after rabbit torture trial
Published: 23 Apr 10 13:14 CET
A Swedish court jailed three men on Friday for torturing two rabbits in Stockholm last year. The court served the three men with prison terms ranging from two to four months, while a fourth man was fined.
The four men, aged 18 to 22, were on trial for torturing two rabbits to death in woodland and in a cellar in southern Stockholm a year ago. One of the rabbits was burned alive. The other animal was kicked to death while a dog was taunted into attacking it.
The incident was caught on a film seized by police during a house search in January, and shown in the Södertörn district courtroom last Thursday.
The film, broadcast by Sveriges Television (SVT) last Tuesday, shows how the laughing men tape the hind legs of the rabbit together, pour flammable liquid all over the defenceless animal and then set it alight. They then continue to pour the liquid on the burning creature until it burns to death.
Police have described the case as one of the most loathsome animal cruelty cases that they have ever had cause to investigate.
The Local reported last week that angry scenes greeted the opening of the trial with police forced to intervene to eject animal rights protesters from the courtroom.
The trial has also met an angry response in Swedish media and on the internet with posters on several community websites calling for the identities of the men to be made known and threats made against them.
Three of the accused admitted to the court that they had been at the locations when the alleged offences were committed. The purpose of the cruel episode is reported to have been to train the dog.
"I get severe anxiety when I think about it. I can't understand that I was such an idiot," one of the men said during the trial, according to the Aftonlbadet tabloid.
The fourth man denied all charges against him.
From: http://www.thelocal.se/26252/20100423/
A Swedish court jailed three men on Friday for torturing two rabbits in Stockholm last year. The court served the three men with prison terms ranging from two to four months, while a fourth man was fined.
The four men, aged 18 to 22, were on trial for torturing two rabbits to death in woodland and in a cellar in southern Stockholm a year ago. One of the rabbits was burned alive. The other animal was kicked to death while a dog was taunted into attacking it.
The incident was caught on a film seized by police during a house search in January, and shown in the Södertörn district courtroom last Thursday.
The film, broadcast by Sveriges Television (SVT) last Tuesday, shows how the laughing men tape the hind legs of the rabbit together, pour flammable liquid all over the defenceless animal and then set it alight. They then continue to pour the liquid on the burning creature until it burns to death.
Police have described the case as one of the most loathsome animal cruelty cases that they have ever had cause to investigate.
The Local reported last week that angry scenes greeted the opening of the trial with police forced to intervene to eject animal rights protesters from the courtroom.
The trial has also met an angry response in Swedish media and on the internet with posters on several community websites calling for the identities of the men to be made known and threats made against them.
Three of the accused admitted to the court that they had been at the locations when the alleged offences were committed. The purpose of the cruel episode is reported to have been to train the dog.
"I get severe anxiety when I think about it. I can't understand that I was such an idiot," one of the men said during the trial, according to the Aftonlbadet tabloid.
The fourth man denied all charges against him.
From: http://www.thelocal.se/26252/20100423/
US man charged with aiding suicides
5:58 PM Saturday Apr 24, 2010
MINNEAPOLIS - A former US nurse who told police he went on the internet and encouraged dozens of depressed people to kill themselves for the "thrill of the chase" is charged with helping a Canadian woman and a British man commit suicide, authorities said.
William Melchert-Dinkel, 47, was charged with two felony counts of aiding suicide under a rarely used decades-old state law that legal experts say could be difficult to prosecute on freedom-of-speech grounds.
Melchert-Dinkel is accused of encouraging the suicides of Mark Drybrough, 32, who hanged himself at his home in Coventry, England, in 2005; and Nadia Kajouji, 18, of Brampton, Ontario, who drowned in 2008 in a river in Ottawa, where she was studying at Carleton University.
His first court appearance is scheduled for May 25.
Melchert-Dinkel's attorney, Terry Watkins, also declined to discuss the case in detail, saying he hadn't received all the evidence yet.
Prosecutors claim Melchert-Dinkel posed as a female nurse then feigned compassion for those he met in suicide chat rooms, while offering step-by-step instructions on how to take their lives. The criminal complaint filed in the case said he told investigators he encouraged "dozens" of people to commit suicide and "characterised it as the thrill of the chase". He also estimated that he had actually assisted five or fewer people kill themselves.
He told police in January 2009 that he stopped the internet chats shortly after Christmas 2008 for moral and legal reasons.
He said he "felt terrible" about the advice to commit suicide he provided to others.
According to the criminal complaint, Melchert-Dinkel admitted using the online names Cami, Li Dao and Falcongirl while posing as an expert in suicide methods, including hanging and narcotics.
County Attorney Paul Beaumaster declined to comment on the case on Friday. A message left for Dybrough's mother was not immediately returned. Kajouji's mother was not immediately available for comment.
An email found on Drybrough's computer from Melchert-Dinkel showed him giving technical advice on how to hang yourself from a door, "you can easily hang from a door using the knob (on the other) side to tie the rope to, sling it over the top of the door, attach the noose or loop to yourself then step off and hang successfully," the complaint says.
The investigation tied Melchert-Dinkel to Kajouji through searches of their computers. Canadian authorities determined she had online discussions with someone named Cami and entered into a suicide pact with her. A search of his computer revealed a photograph of Kajouji and correspondence between him and other suicidal people.
Some experts say prosecuting the state law, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $30,000 fine, could be difficult because Melchert-Dinkel didn't physically help kill them, just allegedly encouraged them and gave technical directions. The state law does not specifically address situations involving the internet or suicides that happen out of state.
However, Richard Frase, a criminal law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, said the charges may stick because while advocating suicide over the internet in the abstract may be protected speech, encouraging a specific person in how to do it "probably puts it over the line in terms of free speech," he said.
In order for Melchert-Dinkel to be convicted, the jury would have to decide that the victims would not have killed themselves if not for his specific actions, said Phebe Haugen, a professor at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul.
"He's right on that line between being an advocate without thinking about the particular persons and somebody who was directing the actions of specific victims," said Haugen, who is also a former prosecutor.
Authorities began investigating in March 2008 when an anti-suicide activist in Britain alerted them that someone in the state was using the internet to manipulate people into killing themselves.
Melchert-Dinkel worked at various hospitals and nursing homes over the years and was cited several times for neglect and being rough with patients, according to the Minnesota Board of Nursing, which revoked his license last June.
After his license was revoked, Melchert-Dinkel said he didn't think he'd be criminally charged. "Nothing is going to come of it," Melchert-Dinkel told the AP in October. "I've moved on with my life, and that's it."
From: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10640635
MINNEAPOLIS - A former US nurse who told police he went on the internet and encouraged dozens of depressed people to kill themselves for the "thrill of the chase" is charged with helping a Canadian woman and a British man commit suicide, authorities said.
William Melchert-Dinkel, 47, was charged with two felony counts of aiding suicide under a rarely used decades-old state law that legal experts say could be difficult to prosecute on freedom-of-speech grounds.
Melchert-Dinkel is accused of encouraging the suicides of Mark Drybrough, 32, who hanged himself at his home in Coventry, England, in 2005; and Nadia Kajouji, 18, of Brampton, Ontario, who drowned in 2008 in a river in Ottawa, where she was studying at Carleton University.
His first court appearance is scheduled for May 25.
Melchert-Dinkel's attorney, Terry Watkins, also declined to discuss the case in detail, saying he hadn't received all the evidence yet.
Prosecutors claim Melchert-Dinkel posed as a female nurse then feigned compassion for those he met in suicide chat rooms, while offering step-by-step instructions on how to take their lives. The criminal complaint filed in the case said he told investigators he encouraged "dozens" of people to commit suicide and "characterised it as the thrill of the chase". He also estimated that he had actually assisted five or fewer people kill themselves.
He told police in January 2009 that he stopped the internet chats shortly after Christmas 2008 for moral and legal reasons.
He said he "felt terrible" about the advice to commit suicide he provided to others.
According to the criminal complaint, Melchert-Dinkel admitted using the online names Cami, Li Dao and Falcongirl while posing as an expert in suicide methods, including hanging and narcotics.
County Attorney Paul Beaumaster declined to comment on the case on Friday. A message left for Dybrough's mother was not immediately returned. Kajouji's mother was not immediately available for comment.
An email found on Drybrough's computer from Melchert-Dinkel showed him giving technical advice on how to hang yourself from a door, "you can easily hang from a door using the knob (on the other) side to tie the rope to, sling it over the top of the door, attach the noose or loop to yourself then step off and hang successfully," the complaint says.
The investigation tied Melchert-Dinkel to Kajouji through searches of their computers. Canadian authorities determined she had online discussions with someone named Cami and entered into a suicide pact with her. A search of his computer revealed a photograph of Kajouji and correspondence between him and other suicidal people.
Some experts say prosecuting the state law, which carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison and a $30,000 fine, could be difficult because Melchert-Dinkel didn't physically help kill them, just allegedly encouraged them and gave technical directions. The state law does not specifically address situations involving the internet or suicides that happen out of state.
However, Richard Frase, a criminal law professor at the University of Minnesota Law School, said the charges may stick because while advocating suicide over the internet in the abstract may be protected speech, encouraging a specific person in how to do it "probably puts it over the line in terms of free speech," he said.
In order for Melchert-Dinkel to be convicted, the jury would have to decide that the victims would not have killed themselves if not for his specific actions, said Phebe Haugen, a professor at the William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul.
"He's right on that line between being an advocate without thinking about the particular persons and somebody who was directing the actions of specific victims," said Haugen, who is also a former prosecutor.
Authorities began investigating in March 2008 when an anti-suicide activist in Britain alerted them that someone in the state was using the internet to manipulate people into killing themselves.
Melchert-Dinkel worked at various hospitals and nursing homes over the years and was cited several times for neglect and being rough with patients, according to the Minnesota Board of Nursing, which revoked his license last June.
After his license was revoked, Melchert-Dinkel said he didn't think he'd be criminally charged. "Nothing is going to come of it," Melchert-Dinkel told the AP in October. "I've moved on with my life, and that's it."
From: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10640635
US murderer to be executed by firing squad
12:33 PM Saturday Apr 24, 2010
SALT LAKE CITY - Utah is set to execute a convicted killer by firing squad after a judge agreed to the inmate's request, renewing a debate over what critics see as an antiquated, Old West-style of justice.
Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49, was given the choice of being killed by lethal injection or shot by a five-man team of executioners firing from a set of matched rifles - a rarely used method of execution that harkens back to Utah's territorial history.
"I would like the firing squad, please," Gardner told state court Judge Robin Reese after hearing his avenues for appeal appear to be exhausted.
Gardner was sentenced to death for killing an attorney 25 years ago during a failed escape attempt and shootout.
Defence attorney Andrew Parnes said he planned to quickly seek a stay of execution and appeal Reese's ruling to the Utah Supreme Court.
It is unclear if a stay would be granted, but an appeal, once received, would be promptly reviewed because of the nature of the case, Utah State Courts spokeswoman Nancy Volmer said.
Gardner also has seven days to ask Utah's Board of Pardons and Parole to commute his sentence to life without the possibility of parole.
This is the fourth time a judge has signed a warrant for Gardner's execution. Parnes said it seems his client's death may be "closer than ever before".
"I don't think it was a shock or a surprise, and he's coming to grips with that," Parnes said without explaining Gardner's choice of firing squad.
"It's his personal choice," he said. "He did that in 1985 and he's done it again."
Gardner would be Utah's first execution since 1999 and the third man to be killed by a firing squad in the state since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976: Gary Gilmore on Jan. 17, 1977 - after famously uttering the last words, "Let's do it," and John Albert Taylor on January 26, 1996.
Of the 35 states with the death penalty on the books, Utah is the only one to still use the firing squad as a method of execution. Oklahoma is the only other state that considers a firing squad an acceptable option, but by law would only use it if lethal injection was deemed unconstitutional. The state has never used the method.
In an appeal, Parnes would likely reiterate arguments made to Reese that Gardner had been denied state funds to pay for experts and investigators who could have provided mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of his case.
"We believe that there is a reasonable probability that had the evidence been presented at a sentencing phase in front of a jury of eight or 12 people that at least one of those jurors would have returned a verdict of life," he said after the hearing. "If there is not unanimity, then it is an automatic life sentence under the laws of Utah."
Assistant Utah Attorney General Tom Brunker said he doesn't think Gardner is entitled to an appeal, but that he may be able to seek an expedited review of his case by the state's highest court.
"We will vigorously oppose any further stays of execution," Brunker said.
Friday's hearing was conducted amid heavy security with several officers standing guard around the shackled Gardner, who wore an orange jumpsuit and white shoes.
He traded pleasantries with Brunker and Utah's Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who asked Gardner how he was doing.
"Good, considering the circumstances," Gardner replied.
Utah's death row inmates were for decades allowed to choose how they wanted to die. State lawmakers removed that choice in 2004 and made lethal injection the default method, though inmates sentenced before then still have a choice.
The repeal of the firing squad wasn't tied to any discomfort with the method itself. Rather, state lawmakers disliked the heaps of negative media attention that firing squads focused on the state, said US Rep. Sheryl Allen, who twice carried legislation to change the law.
In 1996, more than 150 media outlets descended on Utah to cover Taylor's execution, painting the firing squad as an Old West-style of justice that allows killers to go out in a blaze of glory that embarrasses the state.
Lawmakers did not retroactively ban the firing squad out of fear that it would give condemned inmates a new avenue of appeal, Allen said.
Gardner is one of at least four of 10 men on Utah's death row who have said they want to die by firing squad.
About 20 anti-death penalty protesters demonstrated in the courthouse rotunda before the hearing.
"The firing squad is archaic, it's violent, and it simply expands on the violence that we already experience from guns as a society," said Bishop John C. Wester, of Utah's Catholic Diocese.
Gardner was convicted of the fatal shooting death of Utah attorney Michael J. Burdell during an escape attempt and shootout at the old Metropolitan Hall of Justice in downtown Salt Lake City on April 2, 1985.
Although he was handcuffed and surrounded by prison guards, a female acquaintance slipped Gardner a loaded, long-barreled .22-caliber handgun in the basement of the building just before the shooting. He shot Burdell in the head and wounded the court bailiff before being captured on the courthouse lawn.
On Friday, both Burdell's girlfriend from 1985 and his father, Joseph Burdell Jr., testified that Burdell would not want Gardner to die in his name.
A pacifist who was drafted into the US Army, Burdell served in Vietnam but refused to carry a gun, Donna Nu said.
"He would have not wanted Ronnie Lee's execution. He didn't believe in that," a tearful Nu said. "If Ronnie would have just wounded him and Michael would have lived, he would have defended him."
From: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10640609&pnum=2
SALT LAKE CITY - Utah is set to execute a convicted killer by firing squad after a judge agreed to the inmate's request, renewing a debate over what critics see as an antiquated, Old West-style of justice.
Ronnie Lee Gardner, 49, was given the choice of being killed by lethal injection or shot by a five-man team of executioners firing from a set of matched rifles - a rarely used method of execution that harkens back to Utah's territorial history.
"I would like the firing squad, please," Gardner told state court Judge Robin Reese after hearing his avenues for appeal appear to be exhausted.
Gardner was sentenced to death for killing an attorney 25 years ago during a failed escape attempt and shootout.
Defence attorney Andrew Parnes said he planned to quickly seek a stay of execution and appeal Reese's ruling to the Utah Supreme Court.
It is unclear if a stay would be granted, but an appeal, once received, would be promptly reviewed because of the nature of the case, Utah State Courts spokeswoman Nancy Volmer said.
Gardner also has seven days to ask Utah's Board of Pardons and Parole to commute his sentence to life without the possibility of parole.
This is the fourth time a judge has signed a warrant for Gardner's execution. Parnes said it seems his client's death may be "closer than ever before".
"I don't think it was a shock or a surprise, and he's coming to grips with that," Parnes said without explaining Gardner's choice of firing squad.
"It's his personal choice," he said. "He did that in 1985 and he's done it again."
Gardner would be Utah's first execution since 1999 and the third man to be killed by a firing squad in the state since the US Supreme Court reinstated capital punishment in 1976: Gary Gilmore on Jan. 17, 1977 - after famously uttering the last words, "Let's do it," and John Albert Taylor on January 26, 1996.
Of the 35 states with the death penalty on the books, Utah is the only one to still use the firing squad as a method of execution. Oklahoma is the only other state that considers a firing squad an acceptable option, but by law would only use it if lethal injection was deemed unconstitutional. The state has never used the method.
In an appeal, Parnes would likely reiterate arguments made to Reese that Gardner had been denied state funds to pay for experts and investigators who could have provided mitigating evidence during the penalty phase of his case.
"We believe that there is a reasonable probability that had the evidence been presented at a sentencing phase in front of a jury of eight or 12 people that at least one of those jurors would have returned a verdict of life," he said after the hearing. "If there is not unanimity, then it is an automatic life sentence under the laws of Utah."
Assistant Utah Attorney General Tom Brunker said he doesn't think Gardner is entitled to an appeal, but that he may be able to seek an expedited review of his case by the state's highest court.
"We will vigorously oppose any further stays of execution," Brunker said.
Friday's hearing was conducted amid heavy security with several officers standing guard around the shackled Gardner, who wore an orange jumpsuit and white shoes.
He traded pleasantries with Brunker and Utah's Attorney General Mark Shurtleff, who asked Gardner how he was doing.
"Good, considering the circumstances," Gardner replied.
Utah's death row inmates were for decades allowed to choose how they wanted to die. State lawmakers removed that choice in 2004 and made lethal injection the default method, though inmates sentenced before then still have a choice.
The repeal of the firing squad wasn't tied to any discomfort with the method itself. Rather, state lawmakers disliked the heaps of negative media attention that firing squads focused on the state, said US Rep. Sheryl Allen, who twice carried legislation to change the law.
In 1996, more than 150 media outlets descended on Utah to cover Taylor's execution, painting the firing squad as an Old West-style of justice that allows killers to go out in a blaze of glory that embarrasses the state.
Lawmakers did not retroactively ban the firing squad out of fear that it would give condemned inmates a new avenue of appeal, Allen said.
Gardner is one of at least four of 10 men on Utah's death row who have said they want to die by firing squad.
About 20 anti-death penalty protesters demonstrated in the courthouse rotunda before the hearing.
"The firing squad is archaic, it's violent, and it simply expands on the violence that we already experience from guns as a society," said Bishop John C. Wester, of Utah's Catholic Diocese.
Gardner was convicted of the fatal shooting death of Utah attorney Michael J. Burdell during an escape attempt and shootout at the old Metropolitan Hall of Justice in downtown Salt Lake City on April 2, 1985.
Although he was handcuffed and surrounded by prison guards, a female acquaintance slipped Gardner a loaded, long-barreled .22-caliber handgun in the basement of the building just before the shooting. He shot Burdell in the head and wounded the court bailiff before being captured on the courthouse lawn.
On Friday, both Burdell's girlfriend from 1985 and his father, Joseph Burdell Jr., testified that Burdell would not want Gardner to die in his name.
A pacifist who was drafted into the US Army, Burdell served in Vietnam but refused to carry a gun, Donna Nu said.
"He would have not wanted Ronnie Lee's execution. He didn't believe in that," a tearful Nu said. "If Ronnie would have just wounded him and Michael would have lived, he would have defended him."
From: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/article.cfm?c_id=2&objectid=10640609&pnum=2
Friday, April 23, 2010
Mad axe killer believed he was cursed
By CLIO FRANCIS - Stuff
Last updated 05:00 23/04/2010
A man who murdered his beloved stepfather in a frenzied axe attack believes he did so under the grip of a makutu, or curse.
Preston Cole Rameka, 28, was found not guilty of the murder of Terrence Finch, 55, from the Chatham Islands, by way of insanity in the High Court at Auckland yesterday. He will be detained at the Mason Clinic indefinitely.
The court heard Rameka had become obsessed with Maori culture in the months before the killing. He believed he was a healer, clairvoyant and was conversing with God and spirits. He also believed he had supernatural powers.
On April 15 last year, he became overwhelmed by the voices of his ancestors urging him to attack his stepfather, the court heard. Standing over Mr Finch's bed, with his nine-year-old stepbrother in the house, he slashed twice with the axe.
His mother, and Mr Finch's wife, Tina Rameka, said she arrived home minutes later and said his "eyes were bulging and he looked as if in a trance".
Rameka told Dr Tapsell he wished he could take back his actions: "I loved Terry, he was like the father I never had, I miss him."
Mrs Rameka, told Stuff.co.nz she wanted to have her son committed to a mental institution several weeks before the killing but "didn't know how to approach him".
"He was scary that day, he was yelling and screaming."
But she said her son was improving. "I love Preston very much. He is doing so much better now.
"I had to leave the court a couple of times because I didn't want to hear some things."
Yesterday, at a hearing before Justice Graham Lang, two psychiatrists testified they believed Rameka was suffering from schizophrenia and was "acutely psychotic" at the time of the murder.
Justice Lang said it was clear Rameka met the statutory requirements to be declared insane.
"It was highly probable that he did not know [what he did] was morally wrong. He also clings to the notion that his actions, in part at least, be attributed to some form of curse."
Dr Tapsell said Rameka did not have a previous psychiatric or criminal history. He was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder at six, left school aged 12 and started smoking cannabis at 13. Rameka became increasingly immersed in Maori culture about the time of the death of the Maori Queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, in 2006. Several weeks before the killing he was hearing the voices of his ancestors.
From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3613888/Mad-axe-killer-obsessed-with-Maori-Queen
Last updated 05:00 23/04/2010
A man who murdered his beloved stepfather in a frenzied axe attack believes he did so under the grip of a makutu, or curse.
Preston Cole Rameka, 28, was found not guilty of the murder of Terrence Finch, 55, from the Chatham Islands, by way of insanity in the High Court at Auckland yesterday. He will be detained at the Mason Clinic indefinitely.
The court heard Rameka had become obsessed with Maori culture in the months before the killing. He believed he was a healer, clairvoyant and was conversing with God and spirits. He also believed he had supernatural powers.
On April 15 last year, he became overwhelmed by the voices of his ancestors urging him to attack his stepfather, the court heard. Standing over Mr Finch's bed, with his nine-year-old stepbrother in the house, he slashed twice with the axe.
His mother, and Mr Finch's wife, Tina Rameka, said she arrived home minutes later and said his "eyes were bulging and he looked as if in a trance".
Rameka told Dr Tapsell he wished he could take back his actions: "I loved Terry, he was like the father I never had, I miss him."
Mrs Rameka, told Stuff.co.nz she wanted to have her son committed to a mental institution several weeks before the killing but "didn't know how to approach him".
"He was scary that day, he was yelling and screaming."
But she said her son was improving. "I love Preston very much. He is doing so much better now.
"I had to leave the court a couple of times because I didn't want to hear some things."
Yesterday, at a hearing before Justice Graham Lang, two psychiatrists testified they believed Rameka was suffering from schizophrenia and was "acutely psychotic" at the time of the murder.
Justice Lang said it was clear Rameka met the statutory requirements to be declared insane.
"It was highly probable that he did not know [what he did] was morally wrong. He also clings to the notion that his actions, in part at least, be attributed to some form of curse."
Dr Tapsell said Rameka did not have a previous psychiatric or criminal history. He was diagnosed with attention deficit disorder at six, left school aged 12 and started smoking cannabis at 13. Rameka became increasingly immersed in Maori culture about the time of the death of the Maori Queen, Dame Te Atairangikaahu, in 2006. Several weeks before the killing he was hearing the voices of his ancestors.
From: http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/crime/3613888/Mad-axe-killer-obsessed-with-Maori-Queen
D'you remember me? Headmaster savagely beaten by ex-pupil who harboured a 20-year grudge over caning
By Jaya NarainLast updated at 8:32 AM on 22nd April 2010
A headmaster has been left deaf and scarred for life by a former pupil who harboured a 20-year grudge for being caned as a child.
Kieran Heakin, 58, suffered horrendous facial injuries when he was attacked in an Indian restaurant.
Former pupil Jermaine Bullen, 26, approached him and said: 'Do you remember me? You beat me when I was six years old and I have been waiting all these years to meet up with you.'
Bullen, a labourer, then launched his attack in the restaurant, punching and kicking the headmaster to the ground. He bore a grudge against Mr Heakin for two decades after he was thrashed by the teacher for misbehaving in school.
Yesterday Bullen was jailed for three years after he pleaded guilty to wounding with intent to commit grievous bodily harm. The attack came during a chance encounter after he spotted Mr Heakin waiting for a takeaway curry at the Kabana in Rochdale, Greater Manchester, with two fellow heads.
Mr Heakin, the headmaster of St John's RC Primary, in Burnley, suffered a broken nose, a broken cheekbone and ribs, a fractured eye socket and a broken jaw. His wife Angela, 57, said her husband was 'unrecognisable' and admitted she and their children Rebecca, 36, Damien, 31, and Edward, 22, had been left reeling by the unprovoked attack and the extent of his injuries.
The former mayor of Whitworth, near Rochdale, who has taught for 34 years, spent two weeks in hospital and two months recuperating at home.
He had to have four metal plates put into his skull and is now permanently deaf in one ear and has no sense of smell and taste.
Grudge: The attack has left Mr Heakin, left, deaf. Jermaine Bullen has been jailed for three yearsBut Mr Heakin - a committed Christian - said: 'In spite of my injuries I have forgiven Jermaine and I don't want any revenge.
'He lost his self control for a moment and will pay for that for many years to come.
'I remember him as an infant but I have not seen him for 19 years.
'He was expelled from schools many times. I don't like to dwell on the incident or the after-effects. As a committed Christian I have decided to forgive him. That is my job - I spend a lot of time telling children about forgiveness.'
Earlier Bolton Crown Court heard how Bullen confronted Mr Heakin, saying: 'You will remember me and you will remember my father - you used to bully me at school.'
Bullen, who was arrested the following day after fleeing the scene, has a string of offences on his record including affray, GBH and drugs charges.
David Farley, defending, said: 'When the assault was happening, he says all he could do was picture himself at that age and he lost control.'
From: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1267843/Headmaster-Kieran-Heakin-beaten-ex-pupil-20-year-grudge.html
6 lured to die in hanging game
By Li Xinran | 2010-4-21
AN ex-pub singer awaiting prosecution in the central province of Hunan is suspected of coaxing at least six men to hang themselves while playing dominant-submissive sex games.
Zhou Youping, 38, has been referred to prosecutors on murder charges regarding a series of hangings between October and November in Hunan's capital Changsha.
At least six of the cases involved deaths of out-of-town men without the discovery of a death note, suggesting homicide, the Sanxiang City Express reported yesterday.
Zhou was initially targeted by police for booking rooms in two budget hotels in Changsha with a pseudonym where two of the six victims hanged themselves, the newspaper said.
Zhou was arrested in November and confessed to police he was responsible for the deaths of the six he met online.
According to the newspaper, Zhou was a frequent visitor to an online chat room set up for homosexual relationships. He promised cash as well as other rewards for prey and was each time surrounded by myriads of candidates in the chatting room.
Zhou always demanded they be his slaves in hanging games, the report said.
However, Zhou told police that he never thought to fulfill his end of the deal, but just sat aside, watching for enjoyment, and had nothing to do with them before leaving the room.
He said he left them to die out of a strong hatred of their desire for money or other rewards.
However, three men survived Zhou's hanging games.
Zhou discovered that he was homosexual in 1989 when he was studying at a local art school.
He later became a popular pub singer in Changsha and towns nearby but was found guilty of robbing a friend in 2006 and was in jail until August 2008.
From: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2010/201004/20100421/article_434830.htm
AN ex-pub singer awaiting prosecution in the central province of Hunan is suspected of coaxing at least six men to hang themselves while playing dominant-submissive sex games.
Zhou Youping, 38, has been referred to prosecutors on murder charges regarding a series of hangings between October and November in Hunan's capital Changsha.
At least six of the cases involved deaths of out-of-town men without the discovery of a death note, suggesting homicide, the Sanxiang City Express reported yesterday.
Zhou was initially targeted by police for booking rooms in two budget hotels in Changsha with a pseudonym where two of the six victims hanged themselves, the newspaper said.
Zhou was arrested in November and confessed to police he was responsible for the deaths of the six he met online.
According to the newspaper, Zhou was a frequent visitor to an online chat room set up for homosexual relationships. He promised cash as well as other rewards for prey and was each time surrounded by myriads of candidates in the chatting room.
Zhou always demanded they be his slaves in hanging games, the report said.
However, Zhou told police that he never thought to fulfill his end of the deal, but just sat aside, watching for enjoyment, and had nothing to do with them before leaving the room.
He said he left them to die out of a strong hatred of their desire for money or other rewards.
However, three men survived Zhou's hanging games.
Zhou discovered that he was homosexual in 1989 when he was studying at a local art school.
He later became a popular pub singer in Changsha and towns nearby but was found guilty of robbing a friend in 2006 and was in jail until August 2008.
From: http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2010/201004/20100421/article_434830.htm
12 and 15-year-old charged with murder
Stepson is charged in Cromwell man's death
Updated: Thursday, 22 Apr 2010, 9:56 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 21 Apr 2010, 9:43 AM EDT
CROMWELL, Ind. (WANE) - A 12-year-old and a 15-year-old connected to a man found dead in Kosciusko County Wednesday, have been charged in juvenile court with murder. Another 12-year-old involved has also been charged with aiding and causing murder.
Kosciusko County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Dan Hampton said that Chase M. Williams, 12, Cromwell, has been charged as a juvenile with Aiding and Causing a murder. Paul H. Gingerich, 12, Cromwell, and Colt R. Lundy, 15, have been charged as juveniles with Murder. Colt Lundy is the stepson of the victim, Phillip Danner.
On Wednesday, deputies with the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department took three young people back to Indiana to be questioned in connection with the death of a Cromwell man whose body was discovered early that morning. The Coroner’s report said the man was shot once in wrist, once in face and twice in torso with a revolver and a semi-automatic handgun.
Lundy, Williams and Gingerich had been located and detained in Illinois. The boys told police they had plotted to run away, but Lundy said he couldn’t until he killed his stepfather.
Police also believe a fourth person may have been involved. However, prosecutors won’t say anything about that person other than that one of the teens said the fourth person was at the house, but did not go to Illinois.
Phillip Danner, 49, was found dead Wednesday in the kitchen of a home at 9219 East Doswell in the Enchanted HIlls addition.
According to Sheriff Rocky Goshert, the three juveniles believed to have been involved in the killing fled to Illinois.
Police in Peru, Illinois had responded to a suspicious vehicle report around 3 a.m. and found the boys in the vehicle. Goshert said the youths were at a Wal-Mart trying to exchange change for cash. An employee thought it was odd to see such young people at that time of night and called police.
One juvenile then told officers that Lundy had shot his stepfather and there may have been an argument before the shooting. The early investigation shows Danner was sitting at the kitchen table when he was shot.
Danner's wife, Robin, the mother of the juvenile suspected in shooting Danner, was vacationing in Florida with friends when the shooting happened.
Both Phillip and Robin were members of the Lakeland Eagles 3760 Lodge in Syracuse. Phillip had been the vice president for the past two years.
"He was a great Eagle," Collin Studer, the lodge president, said. "He loved to volunteer and help the club out with activities. He was a good person. I'm devastated by hearing this news."
Studer said he didn't know of any problems between Danner and his stepson.
Pamela Reed lives on the same street as the Danners and her daughter's gone to school with the 15-year-old for the last nine years.
"He's kind of precocious, but he was a good kid and we enjoyed having him around," Reed said.
A hearing on April 29, 2010 is set to determine if the three should be moved to adult court. Indiana law allows for juveniles from 10 years old and above to be waived as adults for murder if jurisdiction is established.
Bond has been denied because they are considered a flight risk.
From: http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/kosciusko-county-police-investigate-murder
Updated: Thursday, 22 Apr 2010, 9:56 PM EDT
Published : Wednesday, 21 Apr 2010, 9:43 AM EDT
CROMWELL, Ind. (WANE) - A 12-year-old and a 15-year-old connected to a man found dead in Kosciusko County Wednesday, have been charged in juvenile court with murder. Another 12-year-old involved has also been charged with aiding and causing murder.
Kosciusko County Chief Deputy Prosecutor Dan Hampton said that Chase M. Williams, 12, Cromwell, has been charged as a juvenile with Aiding and Causing a murder. Paul H. Gingerich, 12, Cromwell, and Colt R. Lundy, 15, have been charged as juveniles with Murder. Colt Lundy is the stepson of the victim, Phillip Danner.
On Wednesday, deputies with the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department took three young people back to Indiana to be questioned in connection with the death of a Cromwell man whose body was discovered early that morning. The Coroner’s report said the man was shot once in wrist, once in face and twice in torso with a revolver and a semi-automatic handgun.
Lundy, Williams and Gingerich had been located and detained in Illinois. The boys told police they had plotted to run away, but Lundy said he couldn’t until he killed his stepfather.
Police also believe a fourth person may have been involved. However, prosecutors won’t say anything about that person other than that one of the teens said the fourth person was at the house, but did not go to Illinois.
Phillip Danner, 49, was found dead Wednesday in the kitchen of a home at 9219 East Doswell in the Enchanted HIlls addition.
According to Sheriff Rocky Goshert, the three juveniles believed to have been involved in the killing fled to Illinois.
Police in Peru, Illinois had responded to a suspicious vehicle report around 3 a.m. and found the boys in the vehicle. Goshert said the youths were at a Wal-Mart trying to exchange change for cash. An employee thought it was odd to see such young people at that time of night and called police.
One juvenile then told officers that Lundy had shot his stepfather and there may have been an argument before the shooting. The early investigation shows Danner was sitting at the kitchen table when he was shot.
Danner's wife, Robin, the mother of the juvenile suspected in shooting Danner, was vacationing in Florida with friends when the shooting happened.
Both Phillip and Robin were members of the Lakeland Eagles 3760 Lodge in Syracuse. Phillip had been the vice president for the past two years.
"He was a great Eagle," Collin Studer, the lodge president, said. "He loved to volunteer and help the club out with activities. He was a good person. I'm devastated by hearing this news."
Studer said he didn't know of any problems between Danner and his stepson.
Pamela Reed lives on the same street as the Danners and her daughter's gone to school with the 15-year-old for the last nine years.
"He's kind of precocious, but he was a good kid and we enjoyed having him around," Reed said.
A hearing on April 29, 2010 is set to determine if the three should be moved to adult court. Indiana law allows for juveniles from 10 years old and above to be waived as adults for murder if jurisdiction is established.
Bond has been denied because they are considered a flight risk.
From: http://www.wane.com/dpp/news/local/kosciusko-county-police-investigate-murder
More light shed on orchids that deceive bees
Last updated at 09:16 GMT, Wednesday, 21 April 2010 10:16 UKBy Rebecca Morelle
Science reporter, BBC News
More light has been shed on orchids that trick male bees into pollinating them by mimicking female insects.
The bees, lured by a pheromone-packed scent, attempt to mate with the flowers, but unwittingly carry away pollen after their visit.
Now, scientists working in the south of France have found how the flowers' false advertising could help new species of orchids to arise.
The research is published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology.
Lead scientist Dr Nicolas Vereecken, from the Free University of Brussels (Universite Libre de Bruxelles), said: "This pollination strategy is only known in orchids.
"For flowers to attract insects by imititating the female mating signals instead of advertising nectar or oil or pollen is very peculiar."
The floral odour that the flowers produced, he said, was key.
To find out more about the orchid's deceptive methods, a team of researchers from Belgium, Switzerland and Italy looked at two species of orchids that grow in southern France: Ophrys arachnitiformis and Ophrys lupercalis.
While both of these species draw in males by acting as female impersonators, they both emit very different scents that attract different species of bees.
Dr Vereecken said: "Because they usually attract different solitary bee species, and the position of each bee on the orchid is different - for one species, the insect picks up the pollen masses on its head, on the other one, it picks up the pollen masses on its back - there is virtually no chance for cross-pollination to occur."
However, the scientists were surprised to find a large population of a hybrid species of orchid growing nearby, created by interbreeding between Ophrys arachnitiformis and Ophrys lupercalis.
Video surveillance revealed that the bees, which usually were only lured to one species of orchid, had for some reason been tempted to play the field.
Dr Vereecken told BBC News: "We have seen the male of one bee species that usually visits Ophrys arachnitiformis visiting the other orchid. And it picks up one pollen mass on its head and another pollen mass its back.
"It shows how fast this reproductive isolation can be broken down in a single visit."
After the team looked more closely at the new hybrid orchid, they made another surprising discovery.
The scientists had previously thought that any orchid hybrids would produce a female-enticing scent that was mid-way between the aromas that its parent plants produced.
But this hybrid was producing a completely different odour, which in turn attracted the sexual advances of a third bee species.
This would mean, if the hybrid was not sterile, as this one was, that an entirely new species of orchid had been created.
Prior to this discovery, the researchers had thought that new species of orchids came about through gradual mutations, which over time altered the orchids' scent until they attracted new pollinators, preventing any cross-pollination with their un-mutated form.
But the unearthing of the hybrid had added another dimension, said Dr Vereecken.
He said: "Here we have a drastic change just in one generation.
"This study shows virtually all the steps leading to the creation of a new species."
From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8632814.stm
Migratory Bird Species Learns Tough, Boozy Lesson
Apr 21, 2010 10:45 pm US/Central
By Jane Slater
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ― Filled with drunken, half-alive birds, Richard Nagg said a street near his home Wednesday was quite the sight.
"The whole street was covered with birds and some were alive and some were dead, some were just kind of lying there like they were lethargic," Nagg said.
Cedar waxwings are migratory birds that get their name from their wax-like wingtips. The birds would have been headed to Canada, but it appears 140 of them became entranced with the sweet berries on the Yaupon bush.
"Every single one of them had a mouthful of berries," said Nagg.
Garland and state wildlife officials said they initially thought it was pesticide but said toxicology results showed it was really just too much of a good thing.
"There is alcohol in fermented berries that can literally make them drunk more or less and in some cases it's at a toxic level," said Jason Chessher, spokesman for the City of Garland.
While many said it was a shame to lose the birds, the bigger concern came this morning when there were reports of 40 dead cedar waxwings dotted along State Hwy. 66 on the Rowlett to Rockwall Bridge.
Officials said those birds died while trying to fly impaired from one canopy of trees to another across the road.
"I saw a few of them get hit while I was out there," said Martin Oviedo with the Texas Game Warden.
Officials said the problem should persist for another month or so. But in the Garland neighborhood, there have been sightings of the Cedar waxwings, but no dead ones this week.
From: http://cbs11tv.com/local/drunk.birds.migrate.2.1648889.html
By Jane Slater
FORT WORTH (CBS 11 / TXA 21) ― Filled with drunken, half-alive birds, Richard Nagg said a street near his home Wednesday was quite the sight.
"The whole street was covered with birds and some were alive and some were dead, some were just kind of lying there like they were lethargic," Nagg said.
Cedar waxwings are migratory birds that get their name from their wax-like wingtips. The birds would have been headed to Canada, but it appears 140 of them became entranced with the sweet berries on the Yaupon bush.
"Every single one of them had a mouthful of berries," said Nagg.
Garland and state wildlife officials said they initially thought it was pesticide but said toxicology results showed it was really just too much of a good thing.
"There is alcohol in fermented berries that can literally make them drunk more or less and in some cases it's at a toxic level," said Jason Chessher, spokesman for the City of Garland.
While many said it was a shame to lose the birds, the bigger concern came this morning when there were reports of 40 dead cedar waxwings dotted along State Hwy. 66 on the Rowlett to Rockwall Bridge.
Officials said those birds died while trying to fly impaired from one canopy of trees to another across the road.
"I saw a few of them get hit while I was out there," said Martin Oviedo with the Texas Game Warden.
Officials said the problem should persist for another month or so. But in the Garland neighborhood, there have been sightings of the Cedar waxwings, but no dead ones this week.
From: http://cbs11tv.com/local/drunk.birds.migrate.2.1648889.html
Thursday, April 22, 2010
Woman 'gets Chinese accent after bad migraine'
Tue Apr 20, 8:11 am ET
LONDON (AFP) – A Plymouth woman has suddenly started speaking with a Chinese accent after suffering a severe migraine, she said in comments quoted by local media Tuesday.
Sarah Colwill believes she has Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) which has caused her distinctive West Country drawl to be replaced with a Chinese twang, even though she has never even visited the country.
The 35-year-old from is now undergoing speech therapy following an acute form of migraine last month which reportedly left her with a form of brain damage.
"I moved to Plymouth when I was 18 months old so I have always spoken like a local. But following one attack, an ambulance crew arrived and they said I definitely sounded Chinese," she said.
"I spoke to my stepdaughter on the phone from hospital and she didn't recognise who I was. She said I sounded Chinese. Since then, I have had my friends hanging up on me because they think I'm a hoax caller."
Colwill added: "The first few weeks of the accent was quite funny but to think I am stuck with this Chinese accent is getting me down. My voice has started to annoy me now. It is not my voice."
FAS has been documented around the world and is usually linked to a stroke or traumatic brain injury. It was first recorded in the early 20th century and there are thought to be only a couple of dozen sufferers around the world.
From: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/britainchinahealthlanguage
LONDON (AFP) – A Plymouth woman has suddenly started speaking with a Chinese accent after suffering a severe migraine, she said in comments quoted by local media Tuesday.
Sarah Colwill believes she has Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) which has caused her distinctive West Country drawl to be replaced with a Chinese twang, even though she has never even visited the country.
The 35-year-old from is now undergoing speech therapy following an acute form of migraine last month which reportedly left her with a form of brain damage.
"I moved to Plymouth when I was 18 months old so I have always spoken like a local. But following one attack, an ambulance crew arrived and they said I definitely sounded Chinese," she said.
"I spoke to my stepdaughter on the phone from hospital and she didn't recognise who I was. She said I sounded Chinese. Since then, I have had my friends hanging up on me because they think I'm a hoax caller."
Colwill added: "The first few weeks of the accent was quite funny but to think I am stuck with this Chinese accent is getting me down. My voice has started to annoy me now. It is not my voice."
FAS has been documented around the world and is usually linked to a stroke or traumatic brain injury. It was first recorded in the early 20th century and there are thought to be only a couple of dozen sufferers around the world.
From: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/britainchinahealthlanguage
French to ban Muslim women from wearing veil
The French government is drawing up a law to ban Muslim women from wearing a full-face veil in public, despite advice that it could be illegal.
Published: 4:38PM BST 21 Apr 2010
The new law will stop the niqab and the burka from being worn in the streets, shops and markets and not just in public buildings.
Nicolas Sarkozy is to press ahead with the bill claiming that the veil is an "assault on women's dignity".
"We're legislating for the future. Wearing a full veil is a sign of a community closing in on itself and of a rejection of our values," Luc Chatel, a spokesman for Mr Sarkozy, on leaving a cabinet meeting led by the President.
Last month, the State Council – France's top administrative authority – warned Mr Sarkozy against a full ban on the veil, suggesting instead an order that women uncover their faces for identity checks or for state business.
It suggested a full ban could be declared unconstitutional and overturned in court.
However, there remains broad support in parliament for such a ban and the government is determined to press on with a law, which it says would affect only around 2,000 Muslim French women who currently cover their faces.
Most Muslim women, in France's immigrant communities and around the world, do not wear a full veil, but the niqab, which covers the face apart from the eyes, is widely worn on the Arabian peninsula and in the Gulf states.
The burka, a shapeless full-body cloak that covers the face with a fabric grille, is worn in some areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Muslim scholars differ in their interpretation of the Koran's rules on what constitutes modest dress, and many argue that veils are a cultural tradition rather than a religious obligation.
In France, the garments are widely identified with fundamentalist strains of Islam and with the isolation and repression of women in some communities, and politicians accuse radical clerics of promoting their use.
"We're not going to let this phenomenon drift," Mr Chatel said.
France's neighbour Belgium is also preparing legislation, and could become the first European country to ban the full veil when a bill goes before parliament on Thursday.
In France the idea of banning the veil has won support from across the political spectrum.
"I've always been convinced that we can forbid covering your face in public in general," said Communist lawmaker Andre Gerin, welcoming a decision he said would help "engage a dialogue with all Muslims".
North African militants with ties to al-Qaeda have threatened attacks on French interests if the law is passed, and US President Barack Obama has made it clear he does not support Europe's planned bans.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7615109/French-to-ban-Muslim-women-from-wearing-veil.html
Published: 4:38PM BST 21 Apr 2010
The new law will stop the niqab and the burka from being worn in the streets, shops and markets and not just in public buildings.
Nicolas Sarkozy is to press ahead with the bill claiming that the veil is an "assault on women's dignity".
"We're legislating for the future. Wearing a full veil is a sign of a community closing in on itself and of a rejection of our values," Luc Chatel, a spokesman for Mr Sarkozy, on leaving a cabinet meeting led by the President.
Last month, the State Council – France's top administrative authority – warned Mr Sarkozy against a full ban on the veil, suggesting instead an order that women uncover their faces for identity checks or for state business.
It suggested a full ban could be declared unconstitutional and overturned in court.
However, there remains broad support in parliament for such a ban and the government is determined to press on with a law, which it says would affect only around 2,000 Muslim French women who currently cover their faces.
Most Muslim women, in France's immigrant communities and around the world, do not wear a full veil, but the niqab, which covers the face apart from the eyes, is widely worn on the Arabian peninsula and in the Gulf states.
The burka, a shapeless full-body cloak that covers the face with a fabric grille, is worn in some areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Muslim scholars differ in their interpretation of the Koran's rules on what constitutes modest dress, and many argue that veils are a cultural tradition rather than a religious obligation.
In France, the garments are widely identified with fundamentalist strains of Islam and with the isolation and repression of women in some communities, and politicians accuse radical clerics of promoting their use.
"We're not going to let this phenomenon drift," Mr Chatel said.
France's neighbour Belgium is also preparing legislation, and could become the first European country to ban the full veil when a bill goes before parliament on Thursday.
In France the idea of banning the veil has won support from across the political spectrum.
"I've always been convinced that we can forbid covering your face in public in general," said Communist lawmaker Andre Gerin, welcoming a decision he said would help "engage a dialogue with all Muslims".
North African militants with ties to al-Qaeda have threatened attacks on French interests if the law is passed, and US President Barack Obama has made it clear he does not support Europe's planned bans.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/7615109/French-to-ban-Muslim-women-from-wearing-veil.html
Row over Second World War tribute featuring Nazis
A Russian poster meant to honour Second World War veterans has sparked outrage after it was mistakenly printed with images of Nazi soldiers instead of Soviet troops. Published: 1:43PM BST 22 Apr 2010
Veterans in the Ural Mountains city of Perm were furious after designers at a local publishing house illustrated the poster with Nazi propaganda pictures downloaded from the internet.
"This is simply blasphemy," Alexander Sergeyev, chairman of the Perm region veterans' committee, told the television channel.
The committee was especially upset because it paid for the printing of the posters, which were meant to be distributed ahead of the 65th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, celebrated in Russia on May 9.
The designers at the Perm Book Publishing House apparently could not tell the Nazi and Soviet soldiers apart, and of the six photographs in the poster, four featured German forces rather than the Red Army.
"We are young and we didn't see the war. We don't know what Fascist soldiers looked like," Svetlana Somova, a senior manager at the Perm Book Publishing House, said.
The most prominent photograph in the disputed poster features a grizzled Wehrmacht soldier, while another picture beneath it shows Nazi troops surrounding a captured Soviet tank.
The Perm region veterans' committee was given a chance to review the designs before the posters were printed, but its elderly chairman did not notice the mistakes because of his poor eyesight.
The mistakes were only noticed after the posters had been printed and hung in schools and local government buildings in Perm, located 700 miles east of Moscow.
The Soviet Union suffered immense losses of more than 20 million people in the Second World War, and its role in the 1945 defeat of Nazi Germany remains the subject of fierce patriotic pride in present-day Russia.
From: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/7619413/Row-over-Second-World-War-tribute-featuring-Nazis.html
Mother cut sons
Two warrants issued for woman from Wichita Falls
By Marissa Millender
Posted April 21, 2010 at 12:18 a.m.
Police issued two warrants for a woman suspected of stabbing her juvenile sons late Monday, according to Sgt. Joe Snyder, public information officer with the Wichita Falls Police Department.
The warrants name 39-year-old Crystal McGill as the suspect in the stabbing. One warrant is for aggravated assault family violence, with a suggested bond of $150,00, and the other is for injury to a child with a suggested bond of $100,000.
Police were called to the United Regional emergency room to investigate the incident just after 5 p.m.
According to Snyder:
A 14-year-old male and a 16-year-old male said they were in their room at home in the 1400 block of Kinsale Court when their mother walked in and started arguing with them.
The older boy told police that his mother jumped on the bed and started biting him.
He ran out of the house, but when he turned to go back inside, saw his mother coming toward him holding a butcher knife.
The older boy said the suspect stabbed him in the head then followed him back into the bedroom and stabbed him again in the back, which broke the knife.
The boys told police the suspect left the room and returned with another knife, which is when the younger boy tried to interfere. He was stabbed in the hand.
The boys then ran out of the house and called a friend to pick them up. They were taken to the hospital where police noted that the older boy had bite marks on his face, forearm and shoulder and stab wounds on the middle of his lower back and his calf.
The 14-year-old had small lacerations on his palm.
Child Protective Services services were called and took custody of the boys.
Police were unable to contact McGill Monday night.
From: http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2010/apr/21/police-mother-cut-sons/?partner=popular
By Marissa Millender
Posted April 21, 2010 at 12:18 a.m.
Police issued two warrants for a woman suspected of stabbing her juvenile sons late Monday, according to Sgt. Joe Snyder, public information officer with the Wichita Falls Police Department.
The warrants name 39-year-old Crystal McGill as the suspect in the stabbing. One warrant is for aggravated assault family violence, with a suggested bond of $150,00, and the other is for injury to a child with a suggested bond of $100,000.
Police were called to the United Regional emergency room to investigate the incident just after 5 p.m.
According to Snyder:
A 14-year-old male and a 16-year-old male said they were in their room at home in the 1400 block of Kinsale Court when their mother walked in and started arguing with them.
The older boy told police that his mother jumped on the bed and started biting him.
He ran out of the house, but when he turned to go back inside, saw his mother coming toward him holding a butcher knife.
The older boy said the suspect stabbed him in the head then followed him back into the bedroom and stabbed him again in the back, which broke the knife.
The boys told police the suspect left the room and returned with another knife, which is when the younger boy tried to interfere. He was stabbed in the hand.
The boys then ran out of the house and called a friend to pick them up. They were taken to the hospital where police noted that the older boy had bite marks on his face, forearm and shoulder and stab wounds on the middle of his lower back and his calf.
The 14-year-old had small lacerations on his palm.
Child Protective Services services were called and took custody of the boys.
Police were unable to contact McGill Monday night.
From: http://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2010/apr/21/police-mother-cut-sons/?partner=popular
How long could you survive a vacuum?
21 April 2010 by Valerie Jamieson
Sadly we know how long humans can survive if suddenly exposed to the vacuum of space. Three Soviet cosmonauts died in 1971 when a faulty valve caused their Soyuz 11 capsule to depressurise at an altitude of 168 kilometres, shortly before re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Investigations revealed that the cabin pressure dropped to zero for 11 minutes and 40 seconds, until the capsule hit the atmosphere. The crew died within 30 to 40 seconds from hypoxia. "You need both oxygen and air pressure to deliver oxygen to the brain," says Jonathan Clark, a former space shuttle crew surgeon.
It is possible to recover from shorter spells in a vacuum, however. In 1966 a NASA technician was testing a spacesuit in a vacuum chamber when the pressure dropped to the level you would experience at an altitude of 36,500 metres. He passed out after 12 to 15 seconds. The last thing he recalled was the saliva boiling off his tongue; that's because water vaporises at low pressure. He regained consciousness within 27 seconds when the chamber was repressurised to the equivalent of an altitude of 4200 metres. Although he was pale, he suffered no adverse health effects.
When the external pressure reduces, gas bubbles form in the blood, leading to lung damage within minutes. And the nervous system can be damaged within hours due to nitrogen dissolving out of the blood. A sudden drop in pressure can be devastating: air trapped in the lungs explodes within seconds. However, if you approach near-vacuum in a more gentle fashion and with intensive medical care standing by, it is possible to survive up to a minute, says Clark.
From: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627561.700-maxed-out-how-long-could-you-survive-a-vacuum.html
Sadly we know how long humans can survive if suddenly exposed to the vacuum of space. Three Soviet cosmonauts died in 1971 when a faulty valve caused their Soyuz 11 capsule to depressurise at an altitude of 168 kilometres, shortly before re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere. Investigations revealed that the cabin pressure dropped to zero for 11 minutes and 40 seconds, until the capsule hit the atmosphere. The crew died within 30 to 40 seconds from hypoxia. "You need both oxygen and air pressure to deliver oxygen to the brain," says Jonathan Clark, a former space shuttle crew surgeon.
It is possible to recover from shorter spells in a vacuum, however. In 1966 a NASA technician was testing a spacesuit in a vacuum chamber when the pressure dropped to the level you would experience at an altitude of 36,500 metres. He passed out after 12 to 15 seconds. The last thing he recalled was the saliva boiling off his tongue; that's because water vaporises at low pressure. He regained consciousness within 27 seconds when the chamber was repressurised to the equivalent of an altitude of 4200 metres. Although he was pale, he suffered no adverse health effects.
When the external pressure reduces, gas bubbles form in the blood, leading to lung damage within minutes. And the nervous system can be damaged within hours due to nitrogen dissolving out of the blood. A sudden drop in pressure can be devastating: air trapped in the lungs explodes within seconds. However, if you approach near-vacuum in a more gentle fashion and with intensive medical care standing by, it is possible to survive up to a minute, says Clark.
From: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20627561.700-maxed-out-how-long-could-you-survive-a-vacuum.html
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Pensioner jailed for attempted Jehovah's Witness massacre
Published: 20 Apr 10 16:17 CETAn 83-year-old man who stormed a Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation with a machine gun in the city of Bielefeld was sentenced to 11 years prison on Tuesday for 39 counts of attempted murder.
The man, who the court said blamed the church for his estrangement from his daughter – herself a Jehovah’s Witness – entered the church hall in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia last July armed with a machine gun, knife and samurai sword.
But he was unable to fire the weapon and was eventually overpowered by worshippers before he could inflict any damage.
The court in Halle judged the man guilty of 39 counts of attempted murder – the number of bullets he was carrying – as well as weapons charges.
The man had denied any intent to murder and his lawyer said they would appeal the verdict.
Judge Jutta Albert said in her hour-long judgement that on the evening of July 30 2009, “nightmare became reality” for the 81 worshippers gathered at the Jehovah’s Witnesses church hall in Bielefeld.
The man had stormed the prayer meeting with intention of killing as many people as possible, she said.
The former prison warden, bricklayer and soldier carried three magazines with a total of 39 rounds, as well as a knife and a samurai sword.
Rejecting the claim he had not intended to kill anyone, Judge Albert said the man had been driven by an “animal hatred” because his daughter had turned away from him and joined the religious group.
She added that the pensioner had long planned the crime, keeping contact with the church in order to spy on it. This was proven by a letter he had written to his son expressing his hatred for the church and outlining his plans.
The man had “preyed on the ignorance of the congregation” and planned to “wreak a bloodbath in the church hall,” she said.
The only reason he failed to carry out his murderous plan was that he could not operate the machine gun. Likely he had been too delirious with rage to handle the weapon or had been unable to release the safety catch and pull the trigger because he was wearing thick gloves.
But crucially, the weapons were fully functional, Judge Albert said.
Reading from a criminal profile, she said the man had been above the average fitness and mentally capability for his age. However she also stressed he had a tendency to violence, having once beaten his adult daughter in a cellar while wearing leather gloves.
Lawyer Werner Robbers said after the trial his client still denied he had intended to murder anyone and would appeal the verdict and sentence. The man claimed during the trial he wanted to warn the Jehovah’s Witnesses congregation of the dangers of Islamic extremism.
He also claimed he had stumbled on the weapons by accident in the woods. If he’d wanted a bloodbath he would have succeeded, he said, given his familiarity with weapons.
From: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100420-26667.html
Victoria area put on alert for book-loving ex-mobster
FBI asks booksellers to be on the lookout for one of America’s most wanted.
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published on Monday, Apr. 19, 2010 10:33PM EDT
Last updated on Monday, Apr. 19, 2010 11:18PM EDT
Vancouver Island bibliophiles beware: That unassuming elderly gentleman browsing through the bookshelves next to you could be one of America’s most wanted criminals.
Several Greater Victoria booksellers confirmed Monday that FBI agents have visited their stores in the past week and asked staff to be on the lookout for 80-year-old James J. (Whitey) Bulger, a known book lover and former Boston mobster with a long list of brutal crimes on his rap sheet.
“They came into the store and dropped off a picture, which is in our staff room and not to be seen by the general public,” said Jim Munro, owner of Munro’s Books in downtown Victoria.
“It’s totally bizarre. The guy’s 80 years old and the photographs that we have are at least 20 years old.”
Described on the FBI website as the leader of Boston’s notorious Winter Hill Gang, Mr. Bulger is wanted for a variety of mob-related crimes including racketeering, money laundering, drug trafficking, extortion and as many as 19 murders.
He is also “an avid reader with an interest in history” and “is known to frequent libraries and historic sites,” the FBI website says.
Mr. Bulger was a key figure during the most violent decades of Boston’s underworld, an era that forms the basis for the 2006 Martin Scorcese film, The Departed, in which Mr. Bulger was played by Jack Nicholson.
He disappeared from the Boston area in January, 1995, after receiving a tip that FBI agents were about to arrest him. He has been on the bureau’s Top 10 Most Wanted list ever since.
An FBI task force dedicated to capturing Mr. Bulger has scoured five continents in search of the aging fugitive, who is known to be adept at using disguises.
Mr. Munro, who was out of town for the FBI visit, said the agents didn’t give his staff much information about why they were warning bookstores specifically in the Victoria area.
“They may have had some idea of sighting or something, I don’t know, but apparently he frequents bookstores,” Mr. Munro said.
Staff at Bolen Books in Hillside mall also confirmed that FBI agents dropped off photos and asked them to be on the lookout for Mr. Bulger, but added that “the owner of the store doesn’t want any of the staff talking to reporters about it.”
Tanner’s Books in Sidney also received a visit from the FBI, staff at the store said. Tanner’s owner, Cliff McNeil-Smith, did not respond to a request for comment.
Victoria police Sergeant Grant Hamilton confirmed that members of the department's major crimes unit recently helped members of the Boston FBI with an investigation in Victoria, but said local police weren't provided with specific details about the case.
Mr. Bulger stands between 5 foot 7 and 5 foot 9, weighs 150 to 160 pounds, and has blue eyes and silver white hair. He loves animals and enjoys taking long walks on the beach with his long-time companion Catherine Elizabeth Greig, the FBI website notes.
A $2-million reward is being offered for information leading to his arrest.
From: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/victoria-area-put-on-alert-for-book-loving-ex-mobster/article1539995/
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published on Monday, Apr. 19, 2010 10:33PM EDT
Last updated on Monday, Apr. 19, 2010 11:18PM EDT
Vancouver Island bibliophiles beware: That unassuming elderly gentleman browsing through the bookshelves next to you could be one of America’s most wanted criminals.
Several Greater Victoria booksellers confirmed Monday that FBI agents have visited their stores in the past week and asked staff to be on the lookout for 80-year-old James J. (Whitey) Bulger, a known book lover and former Boston mobster with a long list of brutal crimes on his rap sheet.
“They came into the store and dropped off a picture, which is in our staff room and not to be seen by the general public,” said Jim Munro, owner of Munro’s Books in downtown Victoria.
“It’s totally bizarre. The guy’s 80 years old and the photographs that we have are at least 20 years old.”
Described on the FBI website as the leader of Boston’s notorious Winter Hill Gang, Mr. Bulger is wanted for a variety of mob-related crimes including racketeering, money laundering, drug trafficking, extortion and as many as 19 murders.
He is also “an avid reader with an interest in history” and “is known to frequent libraries and historic sites,” the FBI website says.
Mr. Bulger was a key figure during the most violent decades of Boston’s underworld, an era that forms the basis for the 2006 Martin Scorcese film, The Departed, in which Mr. Bulger was played by Jack Nicholson.
He disappeared from the Boston area in January, 1995, after receiving a tip that FBI agents were about to arrest him. He has been on the bureau’s Top 10 Most Wanted list ever since.
An FBI task force dedicated to capturing Mr. Bulger has scoured five continents in search of the aging fugitive, who is known to be adept at using disguises.
Mr. Munro, who was out of town for the FBI visit, said the agents didn’t give his staff much information about why they were warning bookstores specifically in the Victoria area.
“They may have had some idea of sighting or something, I don’t know, but apparently he frequents bookstores,” Mr. Munro said.
Staff at Bolen Books in Hillside mall also confirmed that FBI agents dropped off photos and asked them to be on the lookout for Mr. Bulger, but added that “the owner of the store doesn’t want any of the staff talking to reporters about it.”
Tanner’s Books in Sidney also received a visit from the FBI, staff at the store said. Tanner’s owner, Cliff McNeil-Smith, did not respond to a request for comment.
Victoria police Sergeant Grant Hamilton confirmed that members of the department's major crimes unit recently helped members of the Boston FBI with an investigation in Victoria, but said local police weren't provided with specific details about the case.
Mr. Bulger stands between 5 foot 7 and 5 foot 9, weighs 150 to 160 pounds, and has blue eyes and silver white hair. He loves animals and enjoys taking long walks on the beach with his long-time companion Catherine Elizabeth Greig, the FBI website notes.
A $2-million reward is being offered for information leading to his arrest.
From: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/british-columbia/victoria-area-put-on-alert-for-book-loving-ex-mobster/article1539995/
Man kills estranged wife, then himself
Posted on Tue, Apr. 20, 2010 10:47 PM
By CHRISTINE VENDEL
The Kansas City Star
A man lured his estranged wife to his Kansas City house Monday night on the premise that he needed help starting his vehicle, police and relatives say.
He said he was going into the house to fetch jumper cables. But he returned with a gun. Within minutes, both were dead.
Their 12-year-old daughter heard the gunshots that killed her mother and saw her father shoot himself.
The violence erupted about 10 p.m. in the 3800 block of East 60th Terrace.
Investigators Tuesday declined to release the names of the man and woman because they had not yet notified the man’s family.
Relatives said the woman about two weeks ago moved out of the home she shared with her husband. She took her three children, ages 21, 18, and 12, and moved in with her mother, Angela Spann. The couple had been married about 12 years, Spann said.
Kansas City police had not been called to the house before. The husband did not have a criminal record but reportedly was seen in recent weeks outside her workplace.
Spann said her daughter had complained that her husband would not contribute financially to the household expenses, but relatives were unaware of any prior abuse.
“I just saw him on Sunday,” Spann said. “He came over to my house and spoke to me. He was all right.”
Spann speculated that her son-in-law “just flipped.”
“I can’t believe it,” she said. “It seems like a nightmare. I don’t know why he would do this to her and to their children.”
Spann now is taking care of the three children — the youngest of whom is traumatized by witnessing most of Monday’s violence.
Police reports said the husband shot at the woman who ran out of the garage and into the street, yelling for help. He fired more gunshots at her, then dragged her body into his garage and closed the garage door.
Spann said the man walked into the dining room, told his daughter, “I love you,” then shot himself in the head. The girl fled the house, screaming.
Spann said her daughter worked two jobs and always put her children first.
“All she thought of was her three kids,” Spann said. “She made sure they had a roof over their heads and food in their mouths.”
Helen Darby, clinical operations officer for the Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center, said the victim had worked in their billing department for eight years and was “a much loved employee. Our hearts and prayers go out to her family.”
From: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/20/1891810_man-kills-estranged-wife-then.html?storylink=omni_popular
By CHRISTINE VENDEL
The Kansas City Star
A man lured his estranged wife to his Kansas City house Monday night on the premise that he needed help starting his vehicle, police and relatives say.
He said he was going into the house to fetch jumper cables. But he returned with a gun. Within minutes, both were dead.
Their 12-year-old daughter heard the gunshots that killed her mother and saw her father shoot himself.
The violence erupted about 10 p.m. in the 3800 block of East 60th Terrace.
Investigators Tuesday declined to release the names of the man and woman because they had not yet notified the man’s family.
Relatives said the woman about two weeks ago moved out of the home she shared with her husband. She took her three children, ages 21, 18, and 12, and moved in with her mother, Angela Spann. The couple had been married about 12 years, Spann said.
Kansas City police had not been called to the house before. The husband did not have a criminal record but reportedly was seen in recent weeks outside her workplace.
Spann said her daughter had complained that her husband would not contribute financially to the household expenses, but relatives were unaware of any prior abuse.
“I just saw him on Sunday,” Spann said. “He came over to my house and spoke to me. He was all right.”
Spann speculated that her son-in-law “just flipped.”
“I can’t believe it,” she said. “It seems like a nightmare. I don’t know why he would do this to her and to their children.”
Spann now is taking care of the three children — the youngest of whom is traumatized by witnessing most of Monday’s violence.
Police reports said the husband shot at the woman who ran out of the garage and into the street, yelling for help. He fired more gunshots at her, then dragged her body into his garage and closed the garage door.
Spann said the man walked into the dining room, told his daughter, “I love you,” then shot himself in the head. The girl fled the house, screaming.
Spann said her daughter worked two jobs and always put her children first.
“All she thought of was her three kids,” Spann said. “She made sure they had a roof over their heads and food in their mouths.”
Helen Darby, clinical operations officer for the Samuel U. Rodgers Health Center, said the victim had worked in their billing department for eight years and was “a much loved employee. Our hearts and prayers go out to her family.”
From: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/20/1891810_man-kills-estranged-wife-then.html?storylink=omni_popular
Shaken woman tells story of incest, babies’ deaths in Rinehart case
Posted on Mon, Apr. 19, 2010 11:55 PM
By DONALD BRADLEY
The Kansas City Star
It was wrong having a baby with her father, the girl knew, but when Jack was born, she loved him as a mother should.
She tried to keep him warm in the overhead camper — the family’s home — when the 4-month-old got sick and wheezed that cold January. When baby Jack ran a high fever, she pleaded with her father for a doctor.
“I stayed up with him for two nights,” Ashley Rinehart, now 20, tearfully told a Cass County court Monday on the first day of her father’s trial.
“I just dozed for a few minutes, and when I woke up he was dead in my arms.”
As she told her story of years of alleged incest that began when she was 5 and produced four babies, her teal headband, chosen to match her blouse, bobbed with her cries.
Twenty feet away in the Harrisonville courtroom, Danial Rinehart, 49, leaned back in his chair and swiveled, peering over the top of his glasses as if listening to a stranger.
He is charged with second-degree felony murder, statutory rape and two counts each of child endangerment, incest and abandonment of a corpse.
Authorities say that DNA identifies him as the father of the babies and that he did not allow Ashley, who attended school only through the eighth grade, or any of the babies medical attention.
After his arrest in January 2009, he told police he didn’t want to take any of them to a doctor because his father had died in an ambulance.
The jury saw a video of a police interrogation in which Rinehart appeared to admit sex with his daughter but blamed his actions on medicine he took.
“It makes the back of my head swell up, and I didn’t know what I was doing,” Rinehart said.
He also said his daughters would peep at him through a hole in the wall when he took a shower and that the victim sometimes would want to have sex with him.
“How would she let you know that?” a detective asked.
“She would rub my shoulders,” Rinehart answered.
Over the years, the family, including three other daughters, moved from town to town, traveling a nomadic life in a pickup and spending nights in an overhead camper. By late 2005, the family had settled on a small farm north of Harrisonville that belonged to Danial Rinehart’s parents.
Assistant Cass County Prosecutor Scott Wright said new owners of the property found remains of two infants in chest-type coolers there.
Defense attorney Janeal Matheson said the trial, which is expected to continue at least through Thursday, would not be the “slam dunk” that prosecutors indicated it would be. She hinted that a key part of the defense would be that Jack’s death was accidental. The murder charge stems from the death of that child.
The investigation began when Hayley Rinehart, the year-younger sister of Ashley, ran away and called police from the Walmart in Harrisonville.
Their father had threatened the sisters with death if they ever revealed the abuse, Hayley said, but she couldn’t go on knowing what was happening to her sister.
The sisters also told of neglect and hunger. Authorities say Rinehart’s wife, Linda, knew of the incest but did nothing to stop it. She is charged with two counts of child endangerment and is scheduled for trial in August.
Court documents say Linda Rinehart was jealous of the relationship between her husband and daughter but helped with the deliveries of the babies.
Investigators say the first baby, Ethyl, was born in 2004 and buried in Oklahoma. Ashley was 14 at the time. The second, a boy, now 4, survives.
The last two babies were the remains found in the coolers. The jury saw graphic photos of the containers’ contents, bones and infant toys.
During her time on the witness stand, Ashley told how she buried Jack with a little stuffed bear, a Hot Wheels truck and a stocking cap with “Touchdown” on it.
The last baby, a girl, Goldie, was born April 6, 2008. Ashley had gone into labor while painting her father’s race car.
Goldie died soon after birth.
“I kept asking him (her father) if she was OK, and he said she was,” Ashley said. “But then he wrapped her in a blanket and left her at my feet.”
The judge stopped her testimony several times so Ashley could compose herself.
Danial Rinehart also talked about the ordeal of burying the dead babies. The detective told him he could have called a mortuary, and they would have taken care of all that.
“They would have?” Rinehart asked.
“Sure,” the detective answered. “But they might have asked some questions.”
From: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/19/1888689/shaken-woman-tells-story-of-incest.html
By DONALD BRADLEY
The Kansas City Star
It was wrong having a baby with her father, the girl knew, but when Jack was born, she loved him as a mother should.
She tried to keep him warm in the overhead camper — the family’s home — when the 4-month-old got sick and wheezed that cold January. When baby Jack ran a high fever, she pleaded with her father for a doctor.
“I stayed up with him for two nights,” Ashley Rinehart, now 20, tearfully told a Cass County court Monday on the first day of her father’s trial.
“I just dozed for a few minutes, and when I woke up he was dead in my arms.”
As she told her story of years of alleged incest that began when she was 5 and produced four babies, her teal headband, chosen to match her blouse, bobbed with her cries.
Twenty feet away in the Harrisonville courtroom, Danial Rinehart, 49, leaned back in his chair and swiveled, peering over the top of his glasses as if listening to a stranger.
He is charged with second-degree felony murder, statutory rape and two counts each of child endangerment, incest and abandonment of a corpse.
Authorities say that DNA identifies him as the father of the babies and that he did not allow Ashley, who attended school only through the eighth grade, or any of the babies medical attention.
After his arrest in January 2009, he told police he didn’t want to take any of them to a doctor because his father had died in an ambulance.
The jury saw a video of a police interrogation in which Rinehart appeared to admit sex with his daughter but blamed his actions on medicine he took.
“It makes the back of my head swell up, and I didn’t know what I was doing,” Rinehart said.
He also said his daughters would peep at him through a hole in the wall when he took a shower and that the victim sometimes would want to have sex with him.
“How would she let you know that?” a detective asked.
“She would rub my shoulders,” Rinehart answered.
Over the years, the family, including three other daughters, moved from town to town, traveling a nomadic life in a pickup and spending nights in an overhead camper. By late 2005, the family had settled on a small farm north of Harrisonville that belonged to Danial Rinehart’s parents.
Assistant Cass County Prosecutor Scott Wright said new owners of the property found remains of two infants in chest-type coolers there.
Defense attorney Janeal Matheson said the trial, which is expected to continue at least through Thursday, would not be the “slam dunk” that prosecutors indicated it would be. She hinted that a key part of the defense would be that Jack’s death was accidental. The murder charge stems from the death of that child.
The investigation began when Hayley Rinehart, the year-younger sister of Ashley, ran away and called police from the Walmart in Harrisonville.
Their father had threatened the sisters with death if they ever revealed the abuse, Hayley said, but she couldn’t go on knowing what was happening to her sister.
The sisters also told of neglect and hunger. Authorities say Rinehart’s wife, Linda, knew of the incest but did nothing to stop it. She is charged with two counts of child endangerment and is scheduled for trial in August.
Court documents say Linda Rinehart was jealous of the relationship between her husband and daughter but helped with the deliveries of the babies.
Investigators say the first baby, Ethyl, was born in 2004 and buried in Oklahoma. Ashley was 14 at the time. The second, a boy, now 4, survives.
The last two babies were the remains found in the coolers. The jury saw graphic photos of the containers’ contents, bones and infant toys.
During her time on the witness stand, Ashley told how she buried Jack with a little stuffed bear, a Hot Wheels truck and a stocking cap with “Touchdown” on it.
The last baby, a girl, Goldie, was born April 6, 2008. Ashley had gone into labor while painting her father’s race car.
Goldie died soon after birth.
“I kept asking him (her father) if she was OK, and he said she was,” Ashley said. “But then he wrapped her in a blanket and left her at my feet.”
The judge stopped her testimony several times so Ashley could compose herself.
Danial Rinehart also talked about the ordeal of burying the dead babies. The detective told him he could have called a mortuary, and they would have taken care of all that.
“They would have?” Rinehart asked.
“Sure,” the detective answered. “But they might have asked some questions.”
From: http://www.kansascity.com/2010/04/19/1888689/shaken-woman-tells-story-of-incest.html
Bus driver charged with raping passenger with Alzheimer's
BY JESSIE BALMERT • Advocate Reporter • April 17, 2010 NEWARK -- A Licking County Aging Program bus driver has been arrested after officials say he raped a 71-year-old passenger.
Donald Moore, 71, last known address 1086 Nadine Drive, Heath, was charged with rape, a first-degree felony, after officials say he engaged in sexual conduct with a woman in his bus at about 7 a.m. Thursday.
Moore picked up the woman from her home and drove her to the Licking Springs Nature Trail, 1539 Columbus Road, Granville, where a passerby spotted her topless inside the bus in the back of the preserve, Licking County Sheriff's Office Capt. Dave Starling said.
The nature trail was a diversion from the planned route, Starling said.
Starling said Moore admitted to raping the woman, who has Alzheimer's disease, five times between December and Thursday. All these instances occurred in his bus and the woman did not know Moore outside of his role as the driver, Starling said.
The witness also contacted the Licking County Aging Program, which is working with Licking County detectives to investigate, Executive Director Dave Bibler said.
Aging program officials will discuss the accusations against Moore at their board meeting Monday afternoon, Bibler said.
"Obviously, we are concerned with the victim in this case," Bibler said.
Investigators said Moore gave no reason for his actions. The aging program runs background checks on all employees, Bibler said. Moore has no criminal record in Licking County, according to court records.
Moore remains in the Licking County jail on a $100,000 bond set Friday by Judge Michael Higgins. Moore requested a low bond because of a pre-existing medical condition.
The case will be reviewed by a grand jury for possible indictment.
Transportation is one aspect of the aging program. The program, funded by the senior levy, also provides food, social activities and home services such as bathing and handyman work.
From: http://www.newarkadvocate.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=20104170314
Masturbation bill moves
Aims at separating public indecency and indecent exposure
Peter Marcus, DDN Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
One Colorado man had to register as a sex offender for taking off his pants in a parking lot after spilling coffee on himself; another had to register after answering the door to his hotel room without realizing he wasn’t properly covered.
Lawmakers are fighting back against the unfair prosecution of citizens for sex crimes when the offense is anything but.
A Senate committee yesterday backed legislation that would separate public indecency and indecent exposure. Colorado law currently does not separate between the two crimes, so public masturbation is considered a crime of public indecency, just as urinating in public is considered a crime of public indecency. The same applies for acts such as streaking.
House Bill 1334 sailed through the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday on a unanimous vote of 7-0. The bill’s Senate sponsor, Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, says the bill is about fairness.
“Let’s try to separate out the kinds of behavior that represents a lapse in judgment versus that which represents something much more serious for someone who is really a sexual perpetrator who should be on the sex offender registry,” said Steadman.
The measure has the support of both prosecutors and defense attorneys. It would move the crime of masturbating in public to the indecent exposure statute, making the act a class 1 misdemeanor instead of a class 1 petty offense. Indecent exposure would also include “exposing one’s genitals in public with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desire of any person.”
The legislation would also expand the definition of the lesser public indecency offense to include acts such as streaking, or “knowingly exposing one’s genitals in a way that is likely to cause affront or alarm to another person.” Someone previously convicted of that offense would then be charged with a class 1 misdemeanor.
Mark Randall, legislative director for the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council, called the measure an “improved bill.”
“While this may not be a perfect bill, it is an improved bill because you’re taking situations where people are streaking for the purely sophomoric entertainment of it and not labeling them as sex offenders,” said Randall.
Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, called it “disturbing” that prosecutors have been prosecuting citizens for sex offenses requiring registry on the sex offenders database just for urinating in public or streaking.
“It’s disturbing to me that we would spend our time and energy in the courts — one that the citizens would do something like this, but then that the DA would do that … talk about frivolous lawsuits, I mean, my word, this is just so disturbing,” Newell said yesterday during the committee hearing.
Maureen Cain, legislative liaison for the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, said the legislation is necessary because it impacts average citizens.
“This is a real problem affecting real people,” she said.
From: http://www.thedenverdailynews.com/article.php?aID=8117
Peter Marcus, DDN Staff Writer
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
One Colorado man had to register as a sex offender for taking off his pants in a parking lot after spilling coffee on himself; another had to register after answering the door to his hotel room without realizing he wasn’t properly covered.
Lawmakers are fighting back against the unfair prosecution of citizens for sex crimes when the offense is anything but.
A Senate committee yesterday backed legislation that would separate public indecency and indecent exposure. Colorado law currently does not separate between the two crimes, so public masturbation is considered a crime of public indecency, just as urinating in public is considered a crime of public indecency. The same applies for acts such as streaking.
House Bill 1334 sailed through the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday on a unanimous vote of 7-0. The bill’s Senate sponsor, Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, says the bill is about fairness.
“Let’s try to separate out the kinds of behavior that represents a lapse in judgment versus that which represents something much more serious for someone who is really a sexual perpetrator who should be on the sex offender registry,” said Steadman.
The measure has the support of both prosecutors and defense attorneys. It would move the crime of masturbating in public to the indecent exposure statute, making the act a class 1 misdemeanor instead of a class 1 petty offense. Indecent exposure would also include “exposing one’s genitals in public with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desire of any person.”
The legislation would also expand the definition of the lesser public indecency offense to include acts such as streaking, or “knowingly exposing one’s genitals in a way that is likely to cause affront or alarm to another person.” Someone previously convicted of that offense would then be charged with a class 1 misdemeanor.
Mark Randall, legislative director for the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council, called the measure an “improved bill.”
“While this may not be a perfect bill, it is an improved bill because you’re taking situations where people are streaking for the purely sophomoric entertainment of it and not labeling them as sex offenders,” said Randall.
Sen. Linda Newell, D-Littleton, called it “disturbing” that prosecutors have been prosecuting citizens for sex offenses requiring registry on the sex offenders database just for urinating in public or streaking.
“It’s disturbing to me that we would spend our time and energy in the courts — one that the citizens would do something like this, but then that the DA would do that … talk about frivolous lawsuits, I mean, my word, this is just so disturbing,” Newell said yesterday during the committee hearing.
Maureen Cain, legislative liaison for the Colorado Criminal Defense Bar, said the legislation is necessary because it impacts average citizens.
“This is a real problem affecting real people,” she said.
From: http://www.thedenverdailynews.com/article.php?aID=8117
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Dead man elected mayor of Tennessee town
Thursday, April 15 03:50 pm
A dead man was elected mayor of a small Tennessee town eager to oust a woman who'd been appointed to the job after the previous mayor died, local media reports.
Carl Robin Geary Sr., a local alderman known for "straight-talk" and always wearing overalls, was a candidate for mayor when he died of a heart attack on March 10.
He defeated incumbent Barbara Brock 268 votes to 85 in the town of Tracy City's election on Tuesday, the Chattanooga Times reported Friday.
"If he were to run again next week I'd vote for him again," Chris Rogers, owner of the town's Lunch Box restaurant, told the paper.
"I knew he was deceased. I know that sounds stupid, but we wanted someone other than her."
Elections officials said the seat would be declared vacant and the city's four aldermen would select a new mayor.
Brock, who was appointed in 2008 after the previous mayor died of a heart attack, campaigned on her efforts to beautify the town of 1,652 people.
She told the paper that she'd been defeated by a bunch of "good old boys" who didn't like the changes she'd made in town.
When asked how she felt about losing to a dead man, Brock said "I'll live."
From: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100415/tpl-dead-man-elected-mayor-of-tennessee-10170b4.html
A dead man was elected mayor of a small Tennessee town eager to oust a woman who'd been appointed to the job after the previous mayor died, local media reports.
Carl Robin Geary Sr., a local alderman known for "straight-talk" and always wearing overalls, was a candidate for mayor when he died of a heart attack on March 10.
He defeated incumbent Barbara Brock 268 votes to 85 in the town of Tracy City's election on Tuesday, the Chattanooga Times reported Friday.
"If he were to run again next week I'd vote for him again," Chris Rogers, owner of the town's Lunch Box restaurant, told the paper.
"I knew he was deceased. I know that sounds stupid, but we wanted someone other than her."
Elections officials said the seat would be declared vacant and the city's four aldermen would select a new mayor.
Brock, who was appointed in 2008 after the previous mayor died of a heart attack, campaigned on her efforts to beautify the town of 1,652 people.
She told the paper that she'd been defeated by a bunch of "good old boys" who didn't like the changes she'd made in town.
When asked how she felt about losing to a dead man, Brock said "I'll live."
From: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/18/20100415/tpl-dead-man-elected-mayor-of-tennessee-10170b4.html
Girls accused of killing gay man in attack
From The Times April 20, 2010Two drunken teenage girls kicked a man so badly as he lay unconscious during their homophobic attack that he later died, a court heard.
Ruby Thomas and Rachel Burke, both 18, stamped on Ian Baynham’s chest and kicked him in the head after their friend Joel Alexander, 19, had punched him to the ground, knocking him unconscious, the Old Bailey was told.
As Mr Baynham lay bleeding the teenagers continued to assault him, it was said, causing him to suffer a fit from brain damage after his skull had been fractured.
When Mr Baynham’s friend stepped in to try to save him, Ms Burke attacked him too, punching him in the face, the jury was told.
The three alleged killers fled from the scene and Mr Baynham was taken to hospital in East London, but he never regained consciousness and died 18 days after the attack in September last year.
Brian Altman, QC, for the prosecution, told jurors that Mr Baynham and Philip Brown were walking through Trafalgar Square, in Central London, “minding their own business”.
He said: “The scene is Trafalgar Square at the very heart of London, one of this city’s most famous open spaces, home to the National Gallery, Nelson’s Column, the famous plinths and late that evening, a scene of despicable violence.
Ruby Thomas (left) & Rachel Burke
“One onlooker likened the level of violence to a scene from the film A Clockwork Orange. What happened was an all too familiar and depressing tale of drunken, loutish behaviour. But what they did went far beyond mere antisocial conduct.
“Remarkably, two of these defendants are teenage girls. Fuelled by copious amounts of alcohol, all three jointly participated in a violent attack on a defenceless man in public.”
Mr Altman continued: “Mr Baynham was openly homosexual and what led to his death began with Thomas hurling homophobic abuse at him and his friend Mr Brown. She called them ‘f***ing faggots’. Mr Baynham grabbed and slapped her.
“Alexander intervened and lunged at him, punching him in the face. He fell to the ground. It is certain that the force of the punch was such as to render him unconscious. His head hit the pavement and there was nothing to break his fall. The impact was so heavy that he suffered severe brain damage from which ultimately he was to die.
“However, that did not suffice. There’s evidence that the females then began putting the boot into Mr Baynham as he lay unconscious on his back. He was deeply in distress from the blow. Shocked onlookers saw repeated stamping on his chest and forceful kicks to the head. He began making snoring noises, evidence of unconsciousness, and fitting on the pavement, signs of primary brain damage.”
Mr Alexander, from Thornton Heath, Surrey, Ms Burke, from East Sussex, and Ms Thomas, from Litchfield, Staffordshire, all deny manslaughter and violent disorder. Ms Burke also denies causing Mr Brown actual bodily harm.
The trial continues.
From: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/crime/article7102008.ece
Surgeon cut off testicle 'by mistake' at Bury hospital
Last updated at 16:04 GMT, Monday, 19 April 2010 17:04 UK
A patient lost a testicle during an operation because the surgeon cut it off by mistake, a General Medical Council (GMC) hearing has been told.
Dr Sulieman Al Hourani was only supposed to cut out a cyst, but removed the whole right testicle instead.
Dr Al Hourani was a locum surgeon at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, Greater Manchester, at the time of the surgery in September 2007.
He is accused of misconduct and also of stealing medication.
It is alleged the doctor, who is now practising in Jordan and was not present at the hearing, also injected himself with a drug meant for a patient.
Sarah Prichard, counsel for the GMC, said the mistake was made as a nurse helping the surgeon turned her back to get a stitch.
When she turned around the testicle had been removed.
Doctor dismissed
Ms Prichard said: "Literally as the nurse turned away to get a transfixion stitch, the incident occurred and the testicle was removed.
"Such was the level of concern they immediately realised it could be a serious medical incident and took steps to complete the relevant documentation."
A month later it is alleged that the doctor, who qualified after studying at Jordan University of Science and Technology, stole two boxes of dihydrocodeine from a treatment room on a ward at the same hospital.
An investigation was launched and the doctor was dismissed by his employer, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which ran the hospital.
The GMC was told of another incident in August 2006, when Dr Al Hourani had consulted a colleague and was advised to inject a patient with 10 milligrams (mg) of midazolam, a powerful sedative drug.
He then gave the patient 8mg and injected himself with the other 2mg, the hearing was told.
The case against Dr Al Hourani is being heard in his absence as he was notified of the hearing but chose not to "engage" with the GMC or appoint lawyers to represent him.
The case, scheduled to last three weeks, was adjourned until Tuesday.
From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/8630592.stm
A patient lost a testicle during an operation because the surgeon cut it off by mistake, a General Medical Council (GMC) hearing has been told.
Dr Sulieman Al Hourani was only supposed to cut out a cyst, but removed the whole right testicle instead.
Dr Al Hourani was a locum surgeon at Fairfield General Hospital in Bury, Greater Manchester, at the time of the surgery in September 2007.
He is accused of misconduct and also of stealing medication.
It is alleged the doctor, who is now practising in Jordan and was not present at the hearing, also injected himself with a drug meant for a patient.
Sarah Prichard, counsel for the GMC, said the mistake was made as a nurse helping the surgeon turned her back to get a stitch.
When she turned around the testicle had been removed.
Doctor dismissed
Ms Prichard said: "Literally as the nurse turned away to get a transfixion stitch, the incident occurred and the testicle was removed.
"Such was the level of concern they immediately realised it could be a serious medical incident and took steps to complete the relevant documentation."
A month later it is alleged that the doctor, who qualified after studying at Jordan University of Science and Technology, stole two boxes of dihydrocodeine from a treatment room on a ward at the same hospital.
An investigation was launched and the doctor was dismissed by his employer, Pennine Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, which ran the hospital.
The GMC was told of another incident in August 2006, when Dr Al Hourani had consulted a colleague and was advised to inject a patient with 10 milligrams (mg) of midazolam, a powerful sedative drug.
He then gave the patient 8mg and injected himself with the other 2mg, the hearing was told.
The case against Dr Al Hourani is being heard in his absence as he was notified of the hearing but chose not to "engage" with the GMC or appoint lawyers to represent him.
The case, scheduled to last three weeks, was adjourned until Tuesday.
From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/manchester/8630592.stm
T.F. woman sentenced to life for lewdness charge
By Ali Helgoth - Elko Daily Free Press | Posted: Wednesday, April 14, 2010 1:00 am
ELKO, Nev. — A Twin Falls woman convicted of forcing a 13-year-old boy to touch her breasts was sentenced Monday to life in prison.
Michelle Lyn Taylor, 34, was convicted of lewdness with a minor under 14 in November after a week-long trial in Elko County, Nev., District Judge Mike Memeo’s courtroom.
With the conviction, Taylor faced a mandatory life sentence, and Memeo set parole eligibility after 10 years, the minimum sentence. If released on parole she must register as a sex offender and will be under lifetime supervision.
The district attorney’s office did not offer a plea agreement in the case, said public defender Alina Kilpatrick, who argued the sentence is unconstitutional and doesn’t fit the crime.
“The jury was not allowed to know the potential sentence in this case and the Legislature doesn’t know the facts,” she said, alluding to the minimum sentence set by the Legislature in Nevada Revised Statute.
Kilpatrick said despite the parole eligibility after 10 years, there should be no mistake that it’s a life sentence for Taylor.
“She is getting a greater penalty for having a boy touch her breast than if she killed him,” she said.
After he sentenced her, Memeo said he was bound by state statute to impose the life sentence, but said he isn’t sure why the prosecution chose to charge her under that statute.
District Attorney Gary Woodbury could not be reached for comment.
Taylor, who lived in Jackpot, Nev., at the time of the crime, kissed a friend’s child, forced him to touch her breast and asked him to have sex with her in February 2008.
Taylor claimed she was intoxicated and doesn’t remember what happened that night. She told jurors she roughhoused with the boy, but didn’t force him to touch her inappropriately.
Man arrested in Nevada on felony warrant
A Twin Falls man wanted on kidnapping and drug charges was arrested Friday on a warrant at Barton’s Club 93 casino in Jackpot, Nev.
Timothy L. Craig, 50, was located by an Elko County sheriff’s deputy based on information distributed by the sheriff’s office’s terrorism liaison.
“(Twin Falls law enforcement) thought he was headed our way,” Undersheriff Doug Gailey said.
Gailey said the information was distributed throughout the various law enforcement entities in the county, and it eventually paid off in Jackpot.
Craig’s felony warrant is for $75,000.
From: http://www.magicvalley.com/news/local/article_441731b0-5a17-5b4f-8890-a70bc318ae88.html
ELKO, Nev. — A Twin Falls woman convicted of forcing a 13-year-old boy to touch her breasts was sentenced Monday to life in prison.
Michelle Lyn Taylor, 34, was convicted of lewdness with a minor under 14 in November after a week-long trial in Elko County, Nev., District Judge Mike Memeo’s courtroom.
With the conviction, Taylor faced a mandatory life sentence, and Memeo set parole eligibility after 10 years, the minimum sentence. If released on parole she must register as a sex offender and will be under lifetime supervision.
The district attorney’s office did not offer a plea agreement in the case, said public defender Alina Kilpatrick, who argued the sentence is unconstitutional and doesn’t fit the crime.
“The jury was not allowed to know the potential sentence in this case and the Legislature doesn’t know the facts,” she said, alluding to the minimum sentence set by the Legislature in Nevada Revised Statute.
Kilpatrick said despite the parole eligibility after 10 years, there should be no mistake that it’s a life sentence for Taylor.
“She is getting a greater penalty for having a boy touch her breast than if she killed him,” she said.
After he sentenced her, Memeo said he was bound by state statute to impose the life sentence, but said he isn’t sure why the prosecution chose to charge her under that statute.
District Attorney Gary Woodbury could not be reached for comment.
Taylor, who lived in Jackpot, Nev., at the time of the crime, kissed a friend’s child, forced him to touch her breast and asked him to have sex with her in February 2008.
Taylor claimed she was intoxicated and doesn’t remember what happened that night. She told jurors she roughhoused with the boy, but didn’t force him to touch her inappropriately.
Man arrested in Nevada on felony warrant
A Twin Falls man wanted on kidnapping and drug charges was arrested Friday on a warrant at Barton’s Club 93 casino in Jackpot, Nev.
Timothy L. Craig, 50, was located by an Elko County sheriff’s deputy based on information distributed by the sheriff’s office’s terrorism liaison.
“(Twin Falls law enforcement) thought he was headed our way,” Undersheriff Doug Gailey said.
Gailey said the information was distributed throughout the various law enforcement entities in the county, and it eventually paid off in Jackpot.
Craig’s felony warrant is for $75,000.
From: http://www.magicvalley.com/news/local/article_441731b0-5a17-5b4f-8890-a70bc318ae88.html
Iranian cleric 'blames quakes on promiscuous women'
Last updated at 11:06 GMT, Tuesday, 20 April 2010 12:06 UK
Promiscuous women are responsible for earthquakes, a senior Iranian cleric has said.
What a great way once again to act like a complete asshole; he must be a big succes with the ladies...
J.A.C.
Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi told worshippers in Tehran last Friday that they had to stick to strict codes of modesty to protect themselves.
"Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes," he said.
Tens of thousands of people have died in Iran earthquakes in the last decade.
Mr Sedighi was delivering a sermon on the need for a "general repentance" by Iranians.
"What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble? There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam's moral codes," he said.
'Disappoint God'
Young Iranians sometimes push the boundaries of how they can dress, showing hair under their headscarves or wearing tight fitting clothes.
Mr Sedighi also referred to violence following last year's elections, which occurred when thousands of - mostly young - Iranians protested against the result, as a "political earthquake".
"Now if a natural earthquake hits Tehran, no one will be able to confront such a calamity but God's power, only God's power. So lets not disappoint God."
More than 25,000 people died when a powerful earthquake hit the ancient town of Bam in 2003.
Seismologists have warned that the Iranian capital Tehran is situated on a large number of tectonic fault lines and could be hit by a devastating quake soon.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said many of Tehran's 12 million inhabitants should relocate.
There are plans to build a purpose built new capital near Qom.
From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8631775.stm
Promiscuous women are responsible for earthquakes, a senior Iranian cleric has said.
What a great way once again to act like a complete asshole; he must be a big succes with the ladies...
J.A.C.
Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi told worshippers in Tehran last Friday that they had to stick to strict codes of modesty to protect themselves.
"Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes," he said.
Tens of thousands of people have died in Iran earthquakes in the last decade.
Mr Sedighi was delivering a sermon on the need for a "general repentance" by Iranians.
"What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble? There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam's moral codes," he said.
'Disappoint God'
Young Iranians sometimes push the boundaries of how they can dress, showing hair under their headscarves or wearing tight fitting clothes.
Mr Sedighi also referred to violence following last year's elections, which occurred when thousands of - mostly young - Iranians protested against the result, as a "political earthquake".
"Now if a natural earthquake hits Tehran, no one will be able to confront such a calamity but God's power, only God's power. So lets not disappoint God."
More than 25,000 people died when a powerful earthquake hit the ancient town of Bam in 2003.
Seismologists have warned that the Iranian capital Tehran is situated on a large number of tectonic fault lines and could be hit by a devastating quake soon.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said many of Tehran's 12 million inhabitants should relocate.
There are plans to build a purpose built new capital near Qom.
From: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8631775.stm
Man killed in wheelie bin crash
Updated Sun Apr 18, 2010 10:23am AEST
Police say a 22-year-old man has been killed trying to ride a wheelie bin down a hill on the New South Wales central coast.
Officers say the man was lying on the bin with a 19-year-old on top of him when they hit a gutter at Umina Beach overnight.
He was thrown into a tree and died of massive head injuries.
The other man has been taken to hospital with broken ribs and internal injuries.
"They travelled a distance of about 300 metres before they lost control and collided with the curb," said Acting Police Inspector Bruce Coates.
"Both people were thrown from the bin. The 22-year-old man struck his head on a tree.
"Friends and witnesses tried to assist with life support at the scene. However, he was pronounced deceased at Gosford Hospital."
Inspector Coates says they were part of a group that was riding stolen wheelie bins at Umina Beach.
"A group of young people just decided they would take some rubbish bins and have a bit of a ride down this hill," he said.
"This was the second bin to travel down on the night. A gentlemen went down on a bin by himself immediately prior to this and he made the ride without being injured."
Inspector Coates say the man who died had been drinking.
"This is something that perhaps could have been avoided, young people doing something they shouldn't have been doing," he said.
"It is a tragedy. It's a terrible thing for the families and the people involved. Obviously riding rubbish bins down public streets is not something you should be doing."
From: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/18/2875771.htm
Police say a 22-year-old man has been killed trying to ride a wheelie bin down a hill on the New South Wales central coast.
Officers say the man was lying on the bin with a 19-year-old on top of him when they hit a gutter at Umina Beach overnight.
He was thrown into a tree and died of massive head injuries.
The other man has been taken to hospital with broken ribs and internal injuries.
"They travelled a distance of about 300 metres before they lost control and collided with the curb," said Acting Police Inspector Bruce Coates.
"Both people were thrown from the bin. The 22-year-old man struck his head on a tree.
"Friends and witnesses tried to assist with life support at the scene. However, he was pronounced deceased at Gosford Hospital."
Inspector Coates says they were part of a group that was riding stolen wheelie bins at Umina Beach.
"A group of young people just decided they would take some rubbish bins and have a bit of a ride down this hill," he said.
"This was the second bin to travel down on the night. A gentlemen went down on a bin by himself immediately prior to this and he made the ride without being injured."
Inspector Coates say the man who died had been drinking.
"This is something that perhaps could have been avoided, young people doing something they shouldn't have been doing," he said.
"It is a tragedy. It's a terrible thing for the families and the people involved. Obviously riding rubbish bins down public streets is not something you should be doing."
From: http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/04/18/2875771.htm
Monday, April 19, 2010
Human sacrifice? Beheaded body found near Kali temple in Birbhum
Posted: Friday , Apr 16, 2010 at 0056 hrs
In a case of suspected “human sacrifice”, the blood-splattered beheaded torso of a 25-year-old man was found outside a temple of Goddess Kali this morning at a village about 15 km away from Bolpur town in Birbhum district.
Police sources said in rural Bengal, such acts of superstition and primitive religious rituals are not uncommon, especially on sankranti, which fell last night.
A senior police officer said the torso was of a male body and was found near the altar placed in front of the temple in a village called Paruldanga. It was first spotted by the temple’s priest around 5 am when he went there for prayers.
“The slain torso had new clothes on the body. His hands were not tied. There was no indication of any resistance on the victim’s part. It seems he was drugged and was completely unconscious when he was slaughtered,” said the officer, who visited the spot and saw the torso.
“Several articles of worship like burnt incense sticks were found near the body. There was blood stain on the altar. Tantrik (occult) rituals are generally performed on amavasya and sankranti,” added the officer.
A police team sent to the area with sniffer dogs around 9 am was led to the house of a villager named Lalmohan Hansda.
Birbhum SP Rabindranath Mukherjee said, “It seems to be a case of a human sacrifice. But it can also be a as we have found injury marks on the face. We have picked up a person from the village.”
Chandan Mukherjee, the priest of the Kajjala Kali temple, reportedly told the police he had performed puja at the temple till 9 pm last night. When he returned this morning, he saw a body lying just outside the temple.
From: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/human-sacrifice-beheaded-body-found-near-kali-temple-in-birbhum/607102/
In a case of suspected “human sacrifice”, the blood-splattered beheaded torso of a 25-year-old man was found outside a temple of Goddess Kali this morning at a village about 15 km away from Bolpur town in Birbhum district.
Police sources said in rural Bengal, such acts of superstition and primitive religious rituals are not uncommon, especially on sankranti, which fell last night.
A senior police officer said the torso was of a male body and was found near the altar placed in front of the temple in a village called Paruldanga. It was first spotted by the temple’s priest around 5 am when he went there for prayers.
“The slain torso had new clothes on the body. His hands were not tied. There was no indication of any resistance on the victim’s part. It seems he was drugged and was completely unconscious when he was slaughtered,” said the officer, who visited the spot and saw the torso.
“Several articles of worship like burnt incense sticks were found near the body. There was blood stain on the altar. Tantrik (occult) rituals are generally performed on amavasya and sankranti,” added the officer.
A police team sent to the area with sniffer dogs around 9 am was led to the house of a villager named Lalmohan Hansda.
Birbhum SP Rabindranath Mukherjee said, “It seems to be a case of a human sacrifice. But it can also be a as we have found injury marks on the face. We have picked up a person from the village.”
Chandan Mukherjee, the priest of the Kajjala Kali temple, reportedly told the police he had performed puja at the temple till 9 pm last night. When he returned this morning, he saw a body lying just outside the temple.
From: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/human-sacrifice-beheaded-body-found-near-kali-temple-in-birbhum/607102/
Judge backs Redding atheist who balked at religious anti-drug program
By Denny Walsh and Sam StantonPublished: Saturday, Apr. 17, 2010 - 12:00 am | Page 1B
Last Modified: Saturday, Apr. 17, 2010 - 11:59 am
Barry A. Hazle Jr. served a year in prison on a drug charge. After he got out, his parole agent sent him back for being an atheist.
Now, the 41-year-old Redding computer technician has won a ruling from a Sacramento federal judge against the state and stands to collect damages for having his constitutional rights violated.
Even before U.S. District Judge Garland E. Burrell Jr. decided in his favor last week, California corrections officials had issued a new policy protecting the rights of atheist parolees.
"This has been a long and painful process for me," Hazle said in a statement through his attorney this week. "The judge's ruling can't give me back my lost freedom, but it begins to restore my faith in our judicial system."
Hazle's fight with the state over religion began Feb. 27, 2007, when he was paroled from the California Rehabilitation Center, Norco, where he did a year for drug possession.
As a condition of his release, Hazle was ordered to attend a 90-day, inpatient drug treatment program. He agreed to the program but even before his release told prison officials he wanted to be sent to a "treatment facility that did not contain religious components," federal court papers state.
Instead, he was assigned to the Empire Recovery Center in Redding, a 12-step program pioneered by Alcoholics Anonymous and featuring a strong religious overtone, utilizing references to God and "a higher power."
When Hazle asked to be moved to a program that was not faith-based, he was told – wrongly, as it turned out – there was none in Northern California.
His parole agent, Mitch Crofoot, instructed him that "he should continue to participate in the Empire program or he would be returned to prison," court papers state.
Hazle kept attending but also persisted in objecting to the arrangement, presenting Crofoot with a written appeal on April 3, 2007.
Three days later, according to court papers, Empire workers told the parole agent that Hazle had "been disruptive, though in a congenial way."
That same day Crofoot called Hazle out of an Empire treatment class, arrested him on a parole violation for not participating in the very program he was attending, and booked him into the Shasta County jail.
Soon thereafter Hazle was returned to prison, where he spent more than three months.
In September 2008, he sued officials with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. Six weeks later, the department issued a directive noting that parole agents "cannot compel a parolee" to take part in religious-themed programs if the parolee objects on religious grounds.
Instead, such parolees should be referred to nonreligious programs, the department said, citing an opinion issued Sept. 7, 2007, by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
But in court, the state argued that Hazle's return to prison was because of his behavior.
In his 14-page order, Burrell pointed out the undisputed facts about Hazle's behavior.
Crofoot's own understanding, court papers show, was that Hazle "was not being loud; he wasn't throwing things around; he wasn't stomping around; he wasn't being boisterous and that sort of thing. He was sort of passive aggressive."
Burrell concluded the state's argument "rings hollow."
Instead, the judge found that Hazle's forced participation in the program ran "afoul of the prohibition against the state's favoring religion in general over non-religion" and violated the rights guaranteed him by the Constitution.
"This is a textbook test of religious freedom," said legal scholar and Princeton University Provost Christopher Eisgruber. "It couldn't be much plainer."
"It's really about forcing someone to take part in religion in order to stay out of jail, and there's really not a whole lot of disagreement at that level," added Eisgruber, co-author of a 2007 book, "Religious Freedom and the Constitution."
"It's well established … that forced religion is not acceptable," concurred Michael Bien, a San Francisco attorney who advocates for prisoners' and parolees' constitutional rights. "Religion is not the only way to address substance abuse problems."
Corrections spokeswoman Terry Thornton said the department respects "the personal and spiritual beliefs of parolees and we act in accordance with all federal and state laws.
"But, since this matter is still in litigation the department can't comment any further," she added.
Monetary damages are to be determined, either by settlement or trial. A jury trial is scheduled to begin June 22.
"Barry Hazle took a stand that he shouldn't be forced to take part in a religious program that conflicted with his beliefs and he was sent to prison for doing so," his attorney, John Heller, said this week. "Judge Burrell's ruling is an important step in setting things straight, and I look forward to obtaining the relief that Barry deserves for this violation."
From: http://www.sacbee.com/2010/04/17/2685285/judge-backs-redding-atheist-who.html#storylink=omni_popular
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