$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Oct 8, 2009 17:17:37 GMT -5
Six Connecticut Women Arraigned for Attack on Bad Karaoke Singer
STAMFORD, CT (AP) -- Six young Connecticut women have been arraigned on assault charges accusing them of beating up another woman because they didn't like the way she was singing karaoke.
Five of the women were arraigned Wednesday in Stamford Superior Court, and the other appeared in court Monday.
Police say the attack on the 25-year-old woman from Port Chester, N.Y., happened on the night of Sept. 23 when she was singing "A Horse With No Name" by America at Bobby Valentine's Sports Gallery Cafe in Stamford.
Authorities say the six women, all under the legal drinking age of 21, knocked the singer to the floor, punched her, whipped her with pocketbook straps, and pulled her hair. The victim suffered bruises and a chipped tooth.
The defendants are charged with third-degree assault and other crimes. They're due back in court later this month.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Oct 16, 2009 15:03:56 GMT -5
Report: 1 in 8 Female Students Pregnant at Chicago High School
The number of teenage moms has increased in recent years — and one Chicago high school has reportedly become a shocking example of that, revealing that one in eight of its female students are pregnant.
Of the 800 female students at Paul Robeson High School in Chicago, Ill., 115 are expectant mothers, CBS2Chicago.com reported Thursday.
The staggering number can be attributed to various factors inside the home — not the school — principal Gerald Morrow reportedly told the station.
"It can be a lot of things that are happening in the home or not happening in the home, if you will," Morrow said, according to the network, noting that "absentee fathers" are another factor in the school's high number of teen pregnancies.
The birth rate for teens aged 15 to 19 increased 5 percent from 2005 to 2007, according to a March 18 report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics.
Morrow was not immediately available for comment Friday when contacted by Foxnews.com.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Oct 17, 2009 13:43:38 GMT -5
Neighbors Thought Dead Man Was Halloween Display
Saturday, October 17, 2009
LOS ANGELES — Residents of a Southern California apartment complex say they saw a lifeless body slumped on a neighbor's patio, but didn't call police because they thought it was part of a Halloween display.
Mostafa Mahmoud Zayed had apparently been dead since Monday.
Cameraman Austin Raishbrook, owner of RMG News, told the Los Angeles Times he was at the scene in Marina del Rey Thursday when authorities arrived. The 75-year-old Zayed was slumped over a chair on the third-floor balcony of his apartment with a single gunshot wound to the eye.
A Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department investigator says the case is an "apparent suicide."
Raishbrook says neighbors told him they noticed the body Monday "but didn't bother calling authorities because it looked like a Halloween dummy."
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Post by crazilyz on Oct 20, 2009 16:10:56 GMT -5
I think the bigger question would be along the lines of who would be dumb enough to actually make a purchase.
StubHub mistakenly offers Mets playoff tickets<br> October 19, 2009 By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Hey, Mets fans, that awful season was just a bad dream — if you believe StubHub.
The company sent an e-mail Monday offering tickets for Mets’ playoff games.
“Be there alongside your New York Mets as they chase baseball immortality,” the e-mail said. “Go to StubHub, where you’ll find a fantastic selection of tickets to every playoff game — so you experience the championship chase live and in person.”
StubHub said e-mails were sent to fans promoting several teams not in the postseason.
“This was due to an e-mail glitch,” spokeswoman Joellen Ferrer said in a statement. “We regret the error and apologize for any inconvenience or confusion this may have caused. Follow-up e-mails will be sent to every person that received the e-mail, notifying them of the error on our part. In no way does this affect any transactions that have taken place on StubHub.”
The Mets finished 70-92 and were out playoff contention by mid-July.
Ferrer said similar e-mails also were sent to Cubs fans. She was not sure of the identity of other teams whose supporters received e-mails.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Oct 22, 2009 17:47:58 GMT -5
Minn. Man Pleads Guilty Driving La-Z-Boy Chair Drunk
DULUTH, Minn. — A Minnesota man has pleaded guilty to driving his motorized La-Z-Boy chair while drunk.
A criminal complaint says 62-year-old Dennis LeRoy Anderson told police he left a bar in the northern Minnesota town of Proctor on his chair after drinking eight or nine beers.
Prosecutors say Anderson's blood alcohol content was 0.29, more than three times the legal limit, when he crashed into a parked vehicle in August 2008. He was not seriously injured.
Police said the chair was powered by a converted lawnmower and had a stereo and cup holders.
Sixth Judicial District Judge Heather Sweetland stayed 180 days of jail time Monday and ordered two years of probation for Anderson. His attorney, David Keegan, did not immediately return a call for comment.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Nov 19, 2009 7:18:10 GMT -5
U.S. residents fight for the right to hang laundryPERKASIE, Pennsylvania (Reuters) – Carin Froehlich pegs her laundry to three clotheslines strung between trees outside her 18th-century farmhouse, knowing that her actions annoy local officials who have asked her to stop.
Froehlich is among the growing number of people across America fighting for the right to dry their laundry outside against a rising tide of housing associations who oppose the practice despite its energy-saving green appeal.
Although there are no formal laws in this southeast Pennsylvania town against drying laundry outside, a town official called Froehlich to ask her to stop drying clothes in the sun. And she received two anonymous notes from neighbors saying they did not want to see her underwear flapping about.
"They said it made the place look like trailer trash," she said, in her yard across the street from a row of neat, suburban houses. "They said they didn't want to look at my 'unmentionables.'"
Froehlich says she hangs her underwear inside. The effervescent 54-year-old is one of a growing number of Americans demanding the right to dry laundry on clotheslines despite local rules and a culture that frowns on it.
Their interests are represented by Project Laundry List, a group that argues people can save money and reduce carbon emissions by not using their electric or gas dryers, according to the group's executive director, Alexander Lee.
Widespread adoption of clotheslines could significantly reduce U.S. energy consumption, argued Lee, who said dryer use accounts for about 6 percent of U.S. residential electricity use.
Florida, Utah, Maine, Vermont, Colorado, and Hawaii have passed laws restricting the rights of local authorities to stop residents using clotheslines. Another five states are considering similar measures, said Lee, 35, a former lawyer who quit to run the non-profit group.
'RIGHT TO HANG'
His principal opponents are the housing associations such as condominiums and townhouse communities that are home to an estimated 60 million Americans, or about 20 percent of the population. About half of those organizations have 'no hanging' rules, Lee said, and enforce them with fines.
Carl Weiner, a lawyer for about 50 homeowners associations in suburban Philadelphia, said the no-hanging rules are usually included by the communities' developers along with regulations such as a ban on sheds or commercial vehicles.
The no-hanging rules are an aesthetic issue, Weiner said.
"The consensus in most communities is that people don't want to see everybody else's laundry."
He said opposition to clotheslines may ease as more people understand it can save energy and reduce greenhouse gases.
"There is more awareness of impact on the environment," he said. "I would not be surprised to see people questioning these restrictions."
For Froehlich, the "right to hang" is the embodiment of the American tradition of freedom.
"If my husband has a right to have guns in the house, I have a right to hang laundry," said Froehlich, who is writing a book on the subject.
Besides, it saves money. Line-drying laundry for a family of five saves $83 a month in electric bills, she said.
Kevin Firth, who owns a two-bedroom condominium in a Dublin, Pennsylvania housing association, said he was fined $100 by the association for putting up a clothesline in a common area.
"It made me angry and upset," said Firth, a 27-year-old carpenter. "I like having the laundry drying in the sun. It's something I have always done since I was a little kid."
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Post by 9 on Nov 19, 2009 13:57:37 GMT -5
People need lives if they're complaining about people hanging laundry on their own property.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Nov 22, 2009 11:31:03 GMT -5
Woman Loses Benefits Over Facebook Photos
Sunday, November 22, 2009
BROMONT, Quebec — A Canadian woman on long-term sick leave says she lost her benefits because of photos on Facebook and she's fighting to get them reinstated.
Nathalie Blanchard has been on leave from her job at IBM in Bromont, Quebec, for the last year.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp. reported Saturday she was diagnosed with major depression and was receiving monthly sick-leave benefits from insurance giant Manulife.
But the payments dried up this fall and when Blanchard called Manulife, she says she was told she was available to work because of Facebook.
She said her insurance agent described several pictures Blanchard posted on Facebook, including ones showing her having a good time at a Chippendales bar show, at her birthday party and on a sun holiday.
Blanchard said Manulife told her it's evidence she is no longer depressed. She says her lawyer is exploring what the next step should be.
Blanchard told the CBC that on her doctor's advice, she tried to have fun, including nights out at her local bar with friends and short getaways to sun destinations, as a way to forget her problems.
Manulife wouldn't comment on Blanchard's case, but did say they would not deny or terminate a claim solely based on information published on websites such as Facebook.
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Post by Jason Giambi on Nov 25, 2009 23:12:43 GMT -5
There is a monkey on the loose here in Tampa...... 4 sightings alone in Palm Harbor today....
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Nov 25, 2009 23:36:03 GMT -5
Is he playing a tambourine?
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Post by $heriff Tom on Nov 26, 2009 10:18:16 GMT -5
Man Stuck Upside-Down in Utah Cave Dies
SALT LAKE CITY — A man stuck upside-down in a cave for more than a day died early Thursday, despite the efforts of dozens of rescuers, authorities said.
John Jones, 26, of Stansbury Park died about 12:30 a.m., nearly 28 hours after he became stuck 700 feet into the cave known as Nutty Putty, Utah County Sheriff's Department spokesman Sgt. Spencer Cannon said.
Rescuers were next to Jones for much of the day but he was wedged in a small hole too tightly to pull him out or even reach through to assist him, Cannon told The Associated Press.
"They were right there with him, checking his vital signs," Cannon said. "They were able to get close enough to verify that he was deceased."
The 6-foot-tall, 190-pound spelunker got stuck with his head at an angle below his feet about 9 p.m. MST Tuesday. At times more than 50 rescuers were involved in trying to free him.
The crevice where Jones was trapped was about 150 feet below ground in an L-shaped area of the cave known as "Bob's Push," which is only about 18 inches wide and 10 inches high, Cannon said.
The rescue effort at the cave, about 80 miles south of Salt Lake City, was slow throughout the day Wednesday with crews chipping away with air-powered tools in the narrow tunnel.
At one point late in the afternoon, Jones was freed from the crevice, only to fall back several feet into the tight space when a cord that was supporting him failed, Cannon said.
Rescuers were able to get him food and water during that temporary freedom.
In the hours after he became wedged again, Jones' physical condition deteriorated.
"He was experiencing difficulty maintaining consciousness and breathing. With whatever other factors there were, he did not survive," Cannon said.
Cannon said a medical examiner would determine the exact cause of death later. He said crews had suspended efforts to free his body for the night, but would resume at first light.
Jones, a medical student at the University of Virginia, was part of a group of 11 people exploring the cave passages.
"We were just looking forward to a good time," Mike Jones, the victim's 32-year-old brother, told The Salt Lake Tribune.
The group split up, with several children and some adults staying in a less dangerous area of the cave while others decided to explore further, 23-year-old Josh Jones, another brother, told The Salt Lake Tribune.
"It basically got to a point where we were trying to figure out if the cave went any further, and that's the route John decided to take," 25-year-old Joey Stocking of Logan told the Tribune.
Jones was going headfirst into the crevice when he got stuck.
"He thought he could kind of keep going on his belly down further, but it got to point where he couldn't go any further and he got wedged in," Stocking said.
The group tried to free him.
"I was only able to see his two feet that was hanging there in the crevice," Josh Jones said. "I wasn't able to see more because he was engulfed in the crevice itself."
Nutty Putty cave is actually a hole on the top of hill about seven miles west of State Road 68. The naturally formed thermal cave is about 1,500 feet long. Its multiple, tunnels and passageways lead to room-like openings, a Web site for Utah cave-enthusiasts explains.
According to the official Nutty Putty cave Web site, the area was first discovered in 1960. The cave is privately owned by Utah's State Institutional Trust Land Administration. An access pass is required to explore the cave, with usage restricted to about six groups daily.
The county's last rescue there was in 2004.
Cannon said officials considered closing the tunnel or sealing it off after the last rescue but ultimately decided to erect a gate that requires a key for entry.
"We've had people stuck in this exact same spot. We're working and working to get him undone out of the spot and we don't really have any way of predicting what's gonna happen until — boom, all the sudden they're out," he said.
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MSBNYY
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Post by MSBNYY on Nov 26, 2009 22:14:16 GMT -5
Sounds like this guy's Thanksgiving was turned upside down!
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Post by 9 on Nov 27, 2009 11:37:30 GMT -5
At one point late in the afternoon, Jones was freed from the crevice, only to fall back several feet into the tight space when a cord that was supporting him failed, Cannon said. Wow ... THAT sucks.
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Post by 4dogg on Nov 27, 2009 17:01:26 GMT -5
Tiger Woods in car accident....should have used his driver
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Post by Jason Giambi on Nov 28, 2009 10:03:33 GMT -5
Russ Ohlendorf is now an intern at the USDA in DC. Princeton Grad is learning some new things for his family's own farm business.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Nov 28, 2009 10:44:40 GMT -5
So, as bad as that guy dying upside down in a cave sucks, how bout this addendum? They have decided its just "too dangerous" to try to recover the body, so he's staying in there. They are now working out a way to "close the cave" - I guess so it does not become a tourist attraction. But this guys body is going to lie enconsed in there forevermore!
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Post by 9 on Nov 28, 2009 10:45:33 GMT -5
It saves the family $ on burial charges.
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MSBNYY
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Post by MSBNYY on Nov 28, 2009 14:58:58 GMT -5
WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED THAT THEY CAN'T GET TO THIS GUY???
You know, if the family puts enough pressure on the right people, I bet they'll cave.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Dec 2, 2009 9:23:42 GMT -5
Currently on the AP wire...
A traffic stop in South Texas yields illegal drugs, including Ecstacy pills in the shape of President Obama.
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Post by CBC Guy on Dec 8, 2009 8:37:27 GMT -5
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Dec 17, 2009 16:34:25 GMT -5
Study: Mistress of French King Died From Drinking Too Much Gold
LONDON — A British medical journal has published findings saying a mistress of 16th-century French King Henry II may have died from consuming too much drinkable gold.
When French experts dug up the remains of Diane de Poitiers last year, they found high levels of gold in her hair. Since she was not a queen and did not wear a crown, scientists said it was hard to see how jewelry could have contaminated her hair and body.
Experts now say that the popularity of drinkable gold — believed to preserve youth — in the French court makes it very likely de Poitier's beauty elixir ultimately killed her. The findings were published Thursday in British medical journal BMJ.
Despite being two decades older than King Henry, de Poitiers was one of his favorites.
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Post by 9 on Dec 18, 2009 9:41:52 GMT -5
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Dec 24, 2009 17:39:23 GMT -5
lol @ "then held her head under water in a roadside ditch"
Woman Severely Beaten After Ice Cream Spill, Police Say
Thursday, December 24, 2009
DELMAR, Del. — Delaware State Police say a woman was severely beaten during an argument that started over spilled ice cream.
Two women and their children were passengers in a van Tuesday night when police say an argument started over whose child spilled ice cream in the van. Court records state 26-year-old Natasha Evans of Delmar, who was intoxicated, threatened to jump out.
The van pulled off U.S. 13 north of Delmar and when the second woman tried to get Evans back inside, records state Evans punched her, then held her head under water in a roadside ditch. Police say a man pulled over and pulled Evans off her.
The woman was taken to Peninsula Regional Medical Center, where police say she was in stable condition.
Evans is charged with attempted murder and three counts of endangering the welfare of a child
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Post by 9 on Dec 27, 2009 10:56:09 GMT -5
That's a horrible way to go. At least hold the person's head under CLEAN water.
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Post by $heriff Tom on Jan 18, 2010 16:21:27 GMT -5
Wisconsin Man Cited for 'Rocking Out' to John Denverwww.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583286,00.html?test=latestnews FOND DU LAC, Wis. — Police responding to a complaint of loud noise have cited a Fond du Lac man for "rocking out" to the music of John Denver.
A police who responded to the man's apartment last week could hear Denver's music through the door.
The officer pounded on the door but the man didn't answer. Finally the officer found out the man's name from a neighbor and called to him, bringing the man to the door.
When asked why he had the music so loud, the man said he was "rocking out."
The Reporter newspaper in Fond du Lac reports that the 42-year-old was cited for unnecessary loud noise. The ticket could result in a fine of about $210.
The late singer is known for such hits as "Rocky Mountain High" and "Take Me Home, Country Roads."
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Post by $heriff Tom on Jan 19, 2010 15:07:50 GMT -5
Mystery Visitor Fails to Show Up at Edgar Allan Poe Grave
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
A mysterious visitor who left roses and cognac at the grave of Edgar Allan Poe each year on the writer's birthday failed to show early Tuesday, breaking with a ritual that began more than 60 years ago.
"I'm confused, befuddled," said Jeff Jerome, curator of the Poe House and Museum. "I don't know what's going on."
The tradition dates back to at least 1949, according to newspaper accounts from the era, Jerome said. Since then, an unidentified person has come every Jan. 19 to leave three roses and a half-bottle of cognac at Poe's grave in a church cemetery in downtown Baltimore.
The event has become a pilgrimage for die-hard Poe fans, some of whom travel hundreds of miles. About three dozen stood huddled in blankets during the overnight cold Tuesday, peering through the churchyard's iron gates hoping to catch a glimpse of the figure known only as the "Poe toaster."
At 5:30 a.m., Jerome emerged from inside the church, where he and a select group of Poe enthusiasts keep watch over the graveyard, and announced to the crowd that the visitor never arrived. He allowed an Associated Press reporter inside the gates to view both of Poe's grave sites, the original one and a newer site where the body was moved in 1875. There was no sign of roses or cognac at either tombstone.
Jerome said the Poe toaster has always arrived before 5:30 a.m. There was still a chance the visit could occur later in the day, but Jerome said he doubted the person would risk a public unveiling by performing the task in daylight, when other visitors could be there.
"I'm very disappointed, to the point where I want to cry," said Cynthia Pelayo, 29, who had stood riveted to her prime viewing spot at the gate for about six hours. "I flew in from Chicago to see him. I'm just really sad. I hope that he's OK."
Pelayo and Poe fans from as far as Texas and Massachusetts had passed the overnight hours reading aloud from Poe's works, including the poem "The Raven," with its haunting repetition of the word "nevermore." Soon they were speculating, along with Jerome, about what might have caused the visitor not to appear.
"You've got so many possibilities," said Jerome, who has attended the ritual every year since 1977. "The guy had the flu, accident, too many people."
Tuesday marked the 201st anniversary of Poe's birth, and Jerome speculated that perhaps the visitor considered last year's bicentennial an appropriate stopping point.
"People will be asking me, 'Why do you think he stopped?'" Jerome said. "Or did he stop? We don't know if he stopped. He just didn't come this year."
There have also been recent controversies over which city should be regarded as Poe's rightful home, with some making the case that the remains perhaps should be moved to Richmond, Va., Philadelphia or Boston, cities with their own Poe legacies.
Jerome said he thinks it's unlikely the dispute is connected to the Poe toaster's no-show. If anything, Jerome felt the visitor might have weighed in on the controversy by leaving a note with the roses and cognac, as has been done in some previous years.
One such note was left in 1993, when the visitor wrote: "The torch will be passed." Years later, another note indicated the man had died in 1998 and had handed the tradition to his two sons.
Sam Porpora, a former historian at Westminster Presbyterian Church, where Poe is buried, claimed in 2007 that he was the original Poe toaster and that he had came up with the idea in the 1970s as a publicity stunt. Jerome disputed Porpora's claims by citing a 1950 article in The (Baltimore) Evening Sun that referred to the annual tribute.
Poe was the American literary master of the macabre, noted for poems and short stories including "The Tell-Tale Heart," "The Fall of the House of Usher" and "The Pit and the Pendulum." He is also credited with writing the first modern detective story, "The Murders in the Rue Morgue," which appeared in 1841.
He died Oct. 7, 1849, in Baltimore at the age of 40 after collapsing in a tavern.
As for the fate of his annual visitor? That's a new mystery.
Jerome said he will continue the vigil for at least the next two or three years, in case the visits resume.
"So, for me," he said, "it's not over with."
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Post by 9 on Jan 19, 2010 16:45:47 GMT -5
Some dopey broad flew from Chicago to Baltimore just to catch a glimpse of a nut job who's been leaving roses and cognac on the grave of a writer (albeit, a GREAT writer) who died in 1849? What the fuck is wrong with people?
If people have that much money to waste, I'll gladly give them my address. Assholes.
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Post by $heriff Tom on Jan 22, 2010 12:27:06 GMT -5
Maine Father Accused of Forcing Young Sons to Fight
Friday, January 22, 2010
ROCKPORT, Maine — A Rockport man is facing charges he hit his 4-year-old son with a shoe when the child refused to continue fighting with his 6-year-old brother.
Twenty-six-year-old Pedro Delgado was arrested last week after the boys' mother noticed bruising on the younger child's face following a weekend visit.
Knox County sheriff's Detective Justin Twitchell says Delgado had claimed the boy fell down the stairs. But the boys told police their father made them fight while he watched. They were told to use closed fists, kicks and knees to the body.
The Bangor Daily News says that when the boys refused to continue fighting Jan. 9, Delgado hit the younger boy in the face several times with a sandal.
Delgado could get five years in prison.
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$heriff Tom
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Post by $heriff Tom on Jan 29, 2010 12:27:19 GMT -5
LOL! The New York Post does it again.
Page 23, a pic of an old lady upside down in a flipped car. She seems ok, but she is very upset howling into her cell phone over her plight.
Headline? GOT ROLLOVER MINUTES?
Then the first line is "maybe she had a flip phone."
Bravo!
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Post by $heriff Tom on Feb 15, 2010 19:11:29 GMT -5
Global Warming in Last 15 Years Insignificant, U.K.'s Top Climate Scientist AdmitsFOXNews.com The embattled ex-head of the research center at the heart of the Climate-gate scandal dropped a bombshell over the weekend, admitting in an interview with the BBC that there has been no global warming over the past 15 years.
The predicted temperature changes (darker red indicating greater change) due to global warming, based on data from the Hadley Centre that some scientists now question. The embattled ex-head of the research center at the heart of the Climate-gate scandal dropped a bombshell over the weekend, admitting in an interview with the BBC that there has been no global warming over the past 15 years.
Phil Jones, former head of the Climatic Research Unit (CRU) of the University of East Anglia, made a number of eye-popping statements to the BBC's climate reporter on Sunday. Data from CRU, where Jones was the chief scientist, is key evidence behind the claim that the growth of cities (which are warmer than countryside) isn't a factor in global warming and was cited by the U.N.'s climate science body to bolster statements about rapid global warming in recent decades.
Jones's latest statements seemed to contradict the CRU's data.
In response to the question, "do you agree that from 1995 to the present there has been no statistically significant global warming?", Jones said yes, adding that the average increase of 0.12C per year over that time period "is quite close to the significance level. Achieving statistical significance in scientific terms is much more likely for longer periods, and much less likely for shorter periods."
Jones is nevertheless 100% confident that the climate has warmed, he stated, admitting that the Climate-gate scandal has undermined public confidence in science. The scandal has worn down Jones as well: Since the e-mails emerged -- and were subsequently posted online at www.EastAngliaEmails.com -- Jones has stepped down from his position, been forced to admit that he “misjudged” the handling of requests for information, and even acknowledged contemplating suicide.
Jones also allowed for the possibility that the world as a whole was warmer in medieval times than it is today -- a concession that may also undermine theories that global warming is caused by man.
In addition, Jones admitted that an overall lack of organization, and his poor record keeping and office-tidying skills, had contributed to his reluctance to share data with critics, which he regretted.
"To say when you're the record keeper for the globe's temperature that you're not a good record keeper, well, that's going to come back to haunt you for a long, long time," Pat Michaels.of the Cato Institute, a public-policy think tank, told Fox News.
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