Weird News Blog

Carjacker Gets Lost, Calls 911 On Himself - News - MSNBC.com

2006-12-28T20:27:00.000-08:00

I have nothing to say that's funny.

Carjacker Gets Lost, Calls 911 On Himself - News - MSNBC.com

WPBF-TV

BOCA RATON, Fla. - Police said a man who carjacked an SUV in Boca Raton drove all the way to Palm Springs before becoming lost and calling 911 on himself. According to police reports, Claude King, 31, approached Caroline Funkey's black GMC Envoy while it was stopped at a red light on the Glades Road exit off Interstate 95 in Boca Raton. Upon stepping up to the car, King smashed the driver's side window and pulled the driver out of the vehicle. Once inside, police said King began to punch the other four passengers.

One of Funkey's friends, Kellina Beach, 18, struck her head on the pavement as she fell from the SUV and had to receive stitches at Boca Raton Community Hospital.

According to the report, once King removed the passengers from the SUV, he began to drive wildly around the area, finally heading southbound down I-95.

Police said that, while heading southbound, King struck a white Chevrolet pickup and decided to turn around and head north. According to the report, he then struck another vehicle along the way and decided to pull over in Palm Springs.

A few minutes after the carjacking, police said they received a 911 call from a pay phone at Second and Congress Avenues in Palm Springs. It was King.

"Um, I committed a crime," he told the dispatcher. "I stole a vehicle."

When the dispatcher asked for his name, King told them, "I'd rather do this: Could you just send the police over here?"

The dispatcher then asked where the stolen car was located, to which King replied, "I couldn't even tell you. I don't even know where I'm at."

Palm Springs police Officer Lt. Mark Hall said they found King sitting on the curb near the stolen SUV.

According to the police report, Boca Raton police arrested King and took him to the hospital for a swollen right hand. King was then booked into the Palm Beach County Jail, where he was being held without bail Wednesday night.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16380871/?GT1=8816

Driver gets 70 speeding tickets in 5 months

2006-08-13T15:04:00.000-07:00

The thought that comes to mind when I read this is the part about could have her license suspended, when she should have it suspended.
iWon News
PHOENIX, Arizona (Reuters) - As a mortgage broker in Arizona, Francesca Cisneros is used to working with big numbers. It's the double-digit speed limits she has trouble with.

Cisneros racked up 70 speeding tickets in the last five months, a record for the Scottsdale Police Department, police said on Friday.

Speeding cameras in Scottsdale, a suburb of Phoenix, snapped pictures of the 32-year-old woman as she tore through the sun-baked city in her Honda Civic between March 2 and July 31.

"She told arresting officers she was speeding because she seemed to be late for client meetings all the time," Scottsdale Police Department spokesman Mark Clark told Reuters. "I guess she's got some time management issues."

The second-worst offender in the department's history accumulated a mere 25 tickets, Clark said.

Police said Cisneros said she threw her speeding tickets away because she thought nothing could happen to her if she didn't pay them.

Clark said Cisneros faces some $11,000 in fines and could have her license suspended.

Code solved

2006-04-28T13:58:00.000-07:00

iWon News
It didn't take long to figure out that the judge's secret message was: "Jackie Fisher, who are you? Dreadnought,"

I still think it's funny that a judge put a secret message in a ruling.

Namaste,
Brian

Latest Da Vinci mystery: judge's own secret code - Yahoo! News

2006-04-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

Latest Da Vinci mystery: judge's own secret code - Yahoo! News
After reading this story, I had to ask, Why not? This judge thankfully, has a sense of humor and regardless of whether or not he meant to, will help both authors.

Namaste,
Brian

iWon News - Crazy Cat in Conn. Ambushes the Avon Lady

2006-03-28T21:34:00.000-08:00

Now that's one mean cat.

iWon News - Crazy Cat in Conn. Ambushes the Avon Lady

Mar 28, 8:36 PM (ET)

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (AP) - Residents of the neighborhood of Sunset Circle say they have been terrorized by a crazy cat named Lewis. Lewis for his part has been uniquely cited, personally issued a restraining order by the town's animal control officer.

"He looks like Felix the Cat and has six toes on each foot, each with a long claw," Janet Kettman, a neighbor said Monday. "They are formidable weapons."

The neighbors said those weapons, along with catlike stealth, have allowed Lewis to attack at least a half dozen people and ambush the Avon lady as she was getting out of her car.

Some of those who were bitten and scratched ended up seeking treatment at area hospitals.

Animal Control Officer Rachel Solveira placed a restraining order on him. It was the first time such an action was taken against a cat in Fairfield.

In effect, Lewis is under house arrest, forbidden to leave his home.

Solveira also arrested the cat's owner, Ruth Cisero, charging her with failing to comply with the restraining order and reckless endangerment.

---

Information from: Connecticut Post, http://www.connpost.com

Finding drunks in a bar -- what are the chances?

2006-03-27T10:30:00.000-08:00

Ok, I think we've all been in a bar where there's a guy who is just too drunk, but are they going to have to have breathalizers between drinks?

Finding drunks in a bar -- what are the chances?

Mar 23, 9:57 AM (ET)

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - Texas has begun sending undercover agents into bars to arrest drinkers for being drunk, a spokeswoman for the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission said on Wednesday.

The first sting operation was conducted recently in a Dallas suburb where agents infiltrated 36 bars and arrested 30 people for public intoxication, said the commission's Carolyn Beck.

Being in a bar does not exempt one from the state laws against public drunkeness, Beck said.

The goal, she said, was to detain drunks before they leave a bar and go do something dangerous like drive a car.

"We feel that the only way we're going to get at the drunk driving problem and the problem of people hurting each other while drunk is by crackdowns like this," she said.

"There are a lot of dangerous and stupid things people do when they're intoxicated, other than get behind the wheel of a car," Beck said. "People walk out into traffic and get run over, people jump off of balconies trying to reach a swimming pool and miss."

She said the sting operations would continue throughout the state.

Fla. Man Showing Off His OnStar Arrested

2006-03-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

There's nothing I can say.

Fla. Man Showing Off His OnStar Arrested

Mar 1, 9:39 PM (ET)

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. (AP) - A man showing off his OnStar system in his Cadillac Escalade found out the system worked too well. Ralph A. Gomez, 38, was being held Wednesday on $15,000 bond on charges of possession of an illegal narcotic within 1,000 feet of a church and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Gomez was showing off his OnStar system to his girlfriend, but the volume was set so low that he couldn't hear the OnStar operator. OnStar comes on many new General Motors vehicles and allows a customer to contact an OnStar representative in an emergency or to get directions.

If there is no response, OnStar contacts police.

That's what happened with Gomez on Friday night, Tom Clements, a spokesman for the St. Augustine Police Department, said Wednesday.

When police located Gomez' car, they determined there was no problem. But Clements said cocaine was clearly visible on the car's center console.

In addition to seizing $1,900 in the case, the Cadillac equipped with the OnStar system was also seized, Clements said.

There was no information available from Clements or the jail on whether Gomez has a lawyer.

Had to be a joke

2006-02-14T14:29:00.000-08:00

This had to be a college prank. There is no way that a student would do this and be serious.

Woman Allegedly Tries to Buy Pot From Cops

Feb 13, 10:44 PM (ET)

WEST FARGO, N.D. (AP) - A North Dakota State University student is facing charges after allegedly trying to buy marijuana at the police station.

Saturday's incident was "about the craziest thing I've ever come across," Officer Ken Zeeb said. "This is something that you couldn't even make up."

The 20-year-old woman called the police station about 3:15 a.m. Saturday, asking where she could buy marijuana, authorities said. The dispatcher, after repeatedly telling the woman it was illegal to sell and possess marijuana, then told her that police had some of the drug in the station's evidence locker.

Zeeb had arrived for his 4 a.m. shift about 15 minutes early and was in the evidence locker room when the woman arrived.

"The dispatcher got on the intercom and said, 'You know what? She's here. She just handed me $3 for marijuana,'" Zeeb said.

The woman was arrested on charges of criminal attempt and possession of drug paraphernalia.

"She didn't seem like she was really under the influence of drugs or alcohol," Zeeb said. "She understood what was going on and articulated herself well."

---

Information from: The Forum, http://www.in-forum.com

Stolen 30-Foot Climbing Wall Recovered

2006-02-12T20:16:00.000-08:00

How the heck do you steal a 30 ft tall, 6000 lb wall and where do you plan on hiding it?

Stolen 30-Foot Climbing Wall Recovered
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) - Worrying about thieves is nothing new for retail stores, but Outdoors Inc. thought its 6,000-pound, 30-foot-tall rock-climbing wall was safe. It wasn't.

Someone made off with the $30,000 wall used for rock climbing Wednesday morning, but it was recovered Friday at a lot near the Memphis airport, The Commercial Appeal reported.

The wall was snatched from a storage lot used by Outdoor Inc., which rents the wall to organizers of outdoors events and festivals. The wall, painted gray to resemble rock, is dotted with raised handholds climbers hang on to.

"I don't know what to think," co-owner Lawrence Migliara said. "Why would someone steal that? I just didn't know that wall was that desirable, to take that much of a risk."

An employee with the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority had seen the wall near the airport earlier, but did not call police until he heard news it had been stolen.

"I thought it was kind of weird," David Sinclair said. "That's not something you see every day. But I didn't really think much about it until I learned it was stolen."

Migliara said Thursday that he had received a tip that the wall was spotted being towed on a highway near Little Rock, Ark., but it was unclear Friday if the wall ever made it outside Memphis.

The owner of an auto body shop near the airport also called police Friday.

"I think it's absolutely hilarious for somebody to steal that," Samuel Harston said. "My God, what were they going to do with it?"

Memphis police are investigating, but said they had no leads.

---

Information from: The Commercial Appeal, http://www.commercialappeal.com

Lawmaker's wife told to leave during Bush speech

2006-02-02T08:26:00.000-08:00

Heads are gonna roll on this one. When you kick a republican's wife out for wearing a support the troops t-shirt while the president is making a speech telling people to do that, you've made a very big mistake.
Lawmaker's wife told to leave during Bush speech

Feb 2, 10:43 AM (ET)

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The wife of a senior House of Representatives Republican was told to leave the House chamber during President George W. Bush's State of the Union speech for for wearing a shirt bearing words of support for U.S. troops.

"Shame, shame," Rep. Bill Young of Florida said on the House floor on Wednesday, condemning the treatment of his wife Beverly by the U.S. Capitol Police.

"She was ordered to leave the gallery, because she was doing ... what the president said we should all do," Young said. "She had on this shirt. A very conservative shirt, long sleeves, high neck, but it says support our troops."

Also on Tuesday night anti-Iraq war activist Cindy Sheehan was arrested in one of the House galleries before the speech after she refused to cover up an anti-war slogan on her shirt.

Young, who chairs the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, said his wife "supports our troops on every day, every hour," visiting wounded soldiers at military hospitals and helping their families.

Young said a guard at the House chamber called her "a demonstrator and a protester."

Her shirt said "Support the Troops Defending Our Freedom."

A U.S. Capitol Police spokeswoman said the matter was still under investigation, and declined to comment further.

Male Student Wins Fight to Wear Skirt

2006-01-26T10:37:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, equal rights means equal to everyone and I commend him for standing up for it.

Male Student Wins Fight to Wear Skirt:

"Jan 25, 5:51 PM (ET)

HASBROUCK HEIGHTS, N.J. (AP) - A male high school student can wear a skirt to school after the American Civil Liberties Union reached an agreement with school officials.

The ACLU announced the deal Tuesday. It will allow a Hasbrouck Heights School senior to wear a skirt to protest the school's no-shorts policy.

The district's dress code bans shorts between Oct. 1 and April 15, but allows skirts, a policy 17-year-old Michael Coviello believes is discriminatory.

'I'm happy to be able to wear skirts again to bring attention to the fact that the ban on shorts doesn't make sense,' Coviello said in a statement.

The Hasbrouck Heights superintendent, Joseph C. Luongo, did not return telephone messages left Tuesday seeking comment.

Coviello first wore a costume-style dress but high school officials told him to go home and change. The district's superintendent then advised the Coviello to purchase everyday dresses and skirts at a retail store, which Coviello did, the ACLU said.

But after a few days, he was sent home with a note from his principal saying if he wore a dress, kilt or skirt, he could no longer attend school.
"

Woman Claims Sundae Tainted With Blood

2006-01-21T00:24:00.000-08:00

Isn't a botanist a person who studies plants? Yes it is.

iWon News: "botanist"
• Reuters • Photos

Jan 20, 3:54 PM (ET)

GEORGETOWN, Del. (AP) - A woman filed a lawsuit claiming that a hot fudge sundae she bought for her 12-year-old son was contaminated with human blood, but the owner of a fast-food franchise says the red substance was really just strawberry syrup.

A Superior Court judge was scheduled to hear arguments Friday in a lawsuit filed by Carmen Jara against AJM Enterprises, which operates a McDonald's restaurant in Georgetown.

According to court documents, Jara bought food, including four hot fudge sundaes, at the restaurant's drive-thru window on Dec. 30, 2004.

Her son, now 13, dug into his sundae and "recognized the taste of blood and, upon careful inspection, noted a red substance on the side of the sundae cup as well as mixed into his ice cream," the lawsuit claims.

Jara then went into the store and spoke to a swing manager, who confirmed that it was blood, according to the lawsuit. The manager, Joshua Ferrell, said the employee who prepared the sundae had an injured, bleeding finger, and told Jara that he had advised the employee to keep a bandage on his finger, according to the lawsuit.

Jara, who filed a report with Georgetown police, requested that the employee, who no longer works at the restaurant, undergo a blood test to rule out any diseases, but that her request was refused.

Michael Meoli, owner of the McDonald's franchise, said the claims are unfounded, and that strawberry syrup probably had clogged the sundae machine.

Ferrell, who no longer works at the restaurant, should not have said the substance was blood, Meoli said.

"What is he, a botanist? No, he's a 21-year-old assistant manager who saw her screaming in the lobby and said 'whatever you say lady.'"

Meoli, who ran unsuccessfully for a state House seat last year, said the allegations are meant to ruin his business.

"I hope she gets the same thing the Wendy's lady got," he said, referring to a woman recently sentenced to nine years in prison for planting a severed finger in a bowl of Wendy's chili to extort money from the fast-food chain.

---

Information from: The News Journal, http://www.delawareonline.com

Man Accused of Using Credit Card of Star NFL Quarterback

2006-01-13T23:32:00.000-08:00

How dumb do you have to be to accept a credit card for Brett Favre? Now really, how many people are more recognizable than Brett? I'm just surprised that they could get away with it 40 times.

iWon - Sports News

Jan 12, 8:45 PM (ET)

PHOENIX (AP) - A Phoenix man was arrested Thursday after allegedly using a credit card account belonging to Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre more than 40 times, authorities said.

The Arizona Attorney General's Office said William J. Joachim, 35, was arrested on four felony charges of theft, fraud schemes, aggravated taking the identity of another and misconduct involving weapons.

Two other men were arrested in the case and booked into the Maricopa County jail on forgery charges.

Arizona authorities received information from the NFL last month that Favre's credit card account had been compromised and more than 40 unauthorized transactions were made in Maricopa County.

The charges totaled more than $10,000, according to authorities.

Happy Holidays

2005-12-24T11:47:00.000-08:00

Brian's Blog
As the year comes to an end and we stop to spend time with our family and friends, I just want to wish everyone a very happy holidays.
There's been a lot of media about the use of Happy Holidays instead of Merry Christmas by groups that are very passionate about it from both sides. The season is about family and faith, regardless of the title or what your faith is.
If they want to fight something, there're many more important things to expend energy on.
They can:
1. help the homeless
2. visit the elderly
3. raise money for their favorite charity
4. clean up the environment
5. call for truth in government
or a million other things.

Life is too short to fight over the use of a title. If you must fight, then fight for something big. Be the change you want to see. Improve the world. Do something huge and do it 365 days a year and not just during the holidays.

Peace and joy to everyone and my wish for you is for you to find your dream and live like a child with all the wonder and joy that most adults have forgotten.

Namaste,
Brian

iJudge Agrees to Block New Video Game Law

2005-12-22T22:09:00.000-08:00

So if this law violates free speach, does that mean that kids can rent XXX movies or does it mean they think that violence is ok and sex isn't?

iWon News

Judge Agrees to Block New Video Game Law

Dec 22, 4:31 PM (ET)

By MAY WONG

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - A federal judge has agreed to temporarily block a new California law banning the sale or rental of violent video games to minors.

U.S. District Court Judge Ronald Whyte said the Encino-based Video Software Dealers Association and the Washington, D.C.-based Entertainment Software Association "were likely to succeed" in their lawsuits arguing that the law violates free-speech rights.

At the least, "serious questions are raised ... including the question of whether there is a causal connection between access to such games and psychological or other harm to children," Whyte wrote in a ruling issued late Wednesday.

The law, which was set to go into effect Jan. 1, prohibits retailers from selling or renting violent video games to those 17 and under, imposes a $1,000 fine on violators and mandates stricter product labeling.

Other states have passed similar legislation this year after hidden sex scenes were discovered in a popular game, "Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas."

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger contends the law will help parents determine which video games are appropriate for their children.

Schwarzenegger spokesman Vince Sollitto said Thursday that the state plans to show during the trial that it "has a compelling interest in protecting children from potential harm from exposure to extremely violent video games."

The preliminary ruling marks a good sign for the video game industry.

"For the sixth time in five years, federal courts have now blocked or struck down these state and local laws seeking to regulate the sale of games to minors based on their content," said Doug Lowenstein, president of the Entertainment Software Association.

The industry groups also challenged similar laws in Illinois and Michigan. A judge in Illinois recently ruled in favor of the video game industry, but Illinois officials plan to appeal.

Polite robber has recipe for success?

2005-11-12T16:57:00.000-08:00

Am I the only one who want's to know what the recipes were???
2 Banks and 27 robberies is pretty close to a cookbook.

iWon News

TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian bank robber, who politely presents a hold-up note on a recipe card, has hit 29 banks in four months, police said on Thursday.

The unidentified man is the main suspect behind two bank heists in Toronto on Wednesday and 27 other robberies in the region since August.

The suspect waits his turn in line and, once at the teller, quietly makes his intentions known on a recipe card. He has never shown a gun.

The clean-shaven robber, who looks around 30 years old, usually wears a baseball cap and sometimes sunglasses.

"They're (the police) very confident something will happen shortly," said Toronto police spokeswoman Wendy Drummond. "They're pulling out all the stops here," she said.

She said the new confidence stems from better views of the suspect on surveillance tapes of his latest robberies.

Police declined to say how much money the man, dubbed the "Recipe Card Bandit" by media, has stolen in the robberies.

The Canadian Bankers Association offered a reward of C$10,000 for information leading to an arrest, a move only used twice in the past six years.

Security Guard Fired for Seeing Ghosts

2005-11-10T11:54:00.000-08:00

Why does seeing ghosts make him unfit to act as a security guard? However, it does make him fit to host a T.V. show.

Namaste,
Brian
iWon News

Nov 10, 7:30 AM (ET)

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) - A judge ruled that a former security guard who was fired for seeing ghosts cannot be denied unemployment benefits.

According to a court ruling released this week, the former guard's allegation of apparitions does not constitute misconduct.

The issue started on Sept. 11, when Wade Gallegos alerted his supervisor at Neighborhood Patrol of Urbandale that ghosts were haunting a neighborhood he was guarding.

The supervisor arrived at the scene, where Gallegos showed him where the ghosts were still apparently standing.

The supervisor claimed he saw nothing and fired Gallegos five hours later.

The company found no signs of drug use or alcohol.

Neighborhood Patrol challenged Gallegos' application for unemployment benefits, arguing he was guilty of misconduct.

"Such beliefs do render the claimant unfit to act as a security guard," Judge G. Ken Renegar ruled. "The employer cannot have security guards who see ghosts and apparitions and inform the employer, and then the employer sends out the patrol cars."

However, the judge ruled, seeing ghosts is not the type of misconduct that can disqualify Gallegos from receiving benefits.

---

Information from: The Des Moines Register, http://www.desmoinesregister.com

Jury Rules Against Woman in Genital Gluing - Yahoo! News

2005-11-05T13:55:00.000-08:00

Update on the earlier story.
I guess the jury didn't believe it was consensual either.

Jury Rules Against Woman in Genital Gluing - Yahoo! News

GREENSBURG, Pa. - A Westmoreland County jury on Friday ordered a woman to pay $46,200 to her ex-boyfriend for gluing his genitals to his abdomen.
[0]

Jurors found in favor of Kenneth Slaby of Pittsburgh in his civil case against Gail O'Toole of Murrysville after three days of testimony and ordered the payment for pain, suffering and emotional distress, according to television station KDKA.

"For all the pain and suffering I've been through, and the embarrassment, I don't think it's enough," Slaby told reporters after the verdict.

Slaby's lawsuit said the two broke up in 1999 after dating for 10 months, and he began dating someone else. After he broke up with his other girlfriend, Slaby said, O'Toole invited him over to her home on May 7, 2000, where he fell asleep.

He said he woke up to find that O'Toole had used Super Glue to stick his genitals to his abdomen, glued his buttocks together and spelled out a profanity on his back in nail polish.

Slaby said O'Toole told him that her actions were payback for their breakup, and he had to walk a mile to a gas station to call for help. He pressed charges and O'Toole pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and spent six months on probation.

But O'Toole's attorney contended that the incident was nothing more than part of the couple's adventurous, consensual sex.

Man Sues Ex-Girlfriend Over Glue Attack

2005-11-04T22:14:00.000-08:00

Really??? How the heck can this be consensual????
You don't have to walk a mile for any consensual act, regardless of what it is.

iWon News

Nov 3, 10:00 PM (ET)

GREENSBURG, Pa. (AP) - A man claims his ex-girlfriend owes him more than $30,000 for gluing his genitals to his abdomen five years ago. "This was not just some petty domestic squabble," attorney Grey Pratt told a Westmoreland County jury Wednesday.

His client, Kenneth Slaby of Pittsburgh, is suing Gail O'Toole of Murrysville. His lawsuit claims the two broke up in 1999 after dating for 10 months and Slaby began dating someone else.

Slaby contends that O'Toole invited him over to her home on May 7, 2000, where he fell asleep. He woke up to find that O'Toole had used Super Glue to stick his genitals to his abdomen, glued his buttocks together and spelled out a profanity on his back in nail polish.

Slaby said O'Toole told him it was payback for their breakup, and he had to walk a mile to a gas station to call for help. He pressed charges and O'Toole pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault and served six months' probation.

O'Toole's attorney, Chuck Evans, said it was a consensual act and Slaby wasn't permanently damaged.

"This is a case that should have been left in the bedroom," he said.

Saddam, bin Laden are new Mexico City behavior cops

2005-10-19T09:38:00.000-07:00

What do Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, Mother Teresa, George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler have in common?
Read on for the answer.

When she said Bumped by a car...did she mean that drivers actually bump pedestrians?

Namaste,
Brian

iWon News

Email this Story

Oct 19, 12:04 PM (ET)

By Catherine Bremer

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Mother Teresa are being deployed as behavior cops in posters in the car-clogged streets of Mexico City in a campaign to stamp out bad driving, corruption and aggression.

The unlikely combo -- who may soon be joined by George W. Bush and Adolf Hitler -- appear on the posters across the city with speech bubbles telling drivers to stop paying off traffic police with bribes or parking where they shouldn't.

"For devil's sake, don't give bribes," declares a beaming image of Mother Teresa on an advertisement hoarding.

A few streets away a grave-looking Saddam warns: "Don't double-park, you could cause chaos!" while bin Laden advises pedestrians to use footbridges to cross busy roads because, he says: "I'm concerned for your life."

"It is a bit weird, especially as we're talking about civil disobedience, but it's supposed to be ironic," says Claudia Adeath, whose citizens' group "Muevete Por Tu Ciudad" (Do Something For Your City) is behind the posters.

Each campaign poster bears the slogan: "Who else do you need to hear it from before you take notice?."

"It's a way to get people's attention," Adeath says. "We want this to create a stir. We are all fed up of living in this urban chaos. Doing battle with other drivers each day is a tremendous waste of energy and it generates rage in people."

Like city dwellers across the world, Mexico City's 18 million residents -- known in local slang as "Chilangos" -- have a reputation for being loud, aggressive and rushed.

Moving through the sprawling polluted capital, one of the world's biggest, can feel like hacking through a battleground as you fend off pushy street vendors, eyes peeled for thieves, and watching out for dog excrement or garbage.

Pedestrians cross roads at their peril and are often jostled by cars. Bus stops are a mass of shoving bodies.

"London is chaotic too but people obey the law. I've never been bumped by a car there like I have here," said Adeath.

Mexico City drivers tend to bully their way through traffic ignoring rules and red lights, shoving into gaps and blocking other cars.

"If you want to change lanes never use your indicator," a Chilango recently advised a newcomer. "It gives away your strategy. Everyone will squash up to stop you getting in."

Roads are often clogged by illegally parked cars and delivery vans. Junctions get blocked when cars refuse to hold back and leave space for when the lights change. Cars parked in the street routinely collect dents.

"Every big city has its problems but Chilangos have reached extreme levels of disrespect, aggression and intolerance. We want a city with more harmony and respect," said Adeath.

Her group has designed tickets with a thumbs-down sign that can be printed off its Web site and stuck on offending cars.

Backed by local publicity firms, it has posters on some 50 billboards and in bus stops and metro stations. It hopes to add dozens more and keep them up for a year or longer.

Court Won't Block Suit Against Gun Makers

2005-10-05T11:59:00.000-07:00

Here's another story that should be under stupid news.
Yes, I'm pro gun. I grew up with guns and my dad taught me gun safety before I was allowed to fire my first gun. I was really young at the time too. Plus, he made sure he was there to make sure I didn't goof up.
In my opinion, if you hold gun makers accountable for what some idiot or criminal does with the gun, you will have to hold car makers accountable for drunk drivers, car chases or when someone drives their car into a crowd of people like what happened in Las Vegas and Reno Nevada.
The fact of the matter is that the gun is a simple inanimate object. No decent gun when properly maintained will explode or fire while laying on the table or in a gun safe. As a matter of fact, some guns have triple safety built in.
I can understand that people want to feel safer and be free of gun crime but the fact is that it isn't the gun that harms people it's the person who pulls the trigger. If you want to feel safer, ban EVERY object that can be used to harm another person. This includes cars, knives, swords, bats, sticks, rocks, book ends, ink pens, hammers, screw drivers and the list goes on and on. Look around your home and see how many things can be used to harm or kill a human being and don't just think about normal weapons, think outside the box and ask yourself what could possibly be used to harm another human being.
According to an article I found, there were about 17000 gun deaths (including 8500 suicide and 3000 criminals shot by the public and police) and 42000 auto deaths during the same period. Kinda makes you think doesn't it?

iWon News

Oct 3, 9:42 PM (ET)

By GINA HOLLAND

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Supreme Court refused Monday to block a lawsuit against gun manufacturers accused of negligence for firearms violence in the nation's capital.

An appeals court had said the District of Columbia government and individual gun victims - including a man who was left a quadriplegic after being shot in 1997 - could sue under a D.C. law that says gun manufacturers can be held accountable for violence from assault weapons.

The high court had been asked over the summer to use the case to strike down the statute, which gun makers said interfered with their right to sell lawful products.

The lawsuit still could be voided by a new federal law, however. The Senate voted in July to shield firearms manufacturers, dealers and importers from lawsuits brought by victims of gun crimes. Action is pending in the House.

The District of Columbia has strict rules about gun possession, and justices had been told that its law interfered with the gun commerce in other states. Twelve states had urged the Supreme Court to hear the case and rule with gun makers: Alabama, Colorado, Michigan, Montana, New Hampshire, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Texas, Utah, Washington, and West Virginia.

"The District of Columbia's statute threatens ... gun manufacturers with draconian penalties based on their lawful out-of-state commercial activity - and on the criminal misconduct of third parties over whom the manufacturers have no control," justices were told in a filing by former Solicitor General Theodore Olson, who is now the lawyer for the gun companies.

The case does not involve the Second Amendment right to "keep and bear arms." Instead, it challenges the law under the Commerce Clause's ban on "direct regulation" of out-of-state commerce and on the due process clause.

The District of Columbia Court of Appeals had ruled last spring in the case against Beretta USA Corp., Smith & Wesson Corp., Colt's Manufacturing Co., Glock Inc., and other companies.

"No due process issue is raised by legislation that seeks to redress injuries suffered by district residents and visitors resulting from the manufacture and distribution of a particular class of firearms whose lethal nature far outweighs their utility," Judge Michael Farrell wrote.

The case is Beretta v. District of Columbia, 05-118.

Kan. Mayor Calls Birthday Card 'Offensive'

2005-10-01T16:54:00.000-07:00

Do you think that people from West Virginia were offended by Mayor Bunten's remarks?

iWon News

Oct 1, 7:21 AM (ET)

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) - Don't send Mayor Bill Bunten this birthday card. He won't be amused.

The birthday card produced by Hallmark bears the title "CSI: Topeka" and features a cartoon of two people standing over a corpse, with one saying, "Looks like he was bored to death."

Inside the card is the message, "Hope your birthday is anything but dull."

Though a company spokeswoman says Hallmark didn't intend to offend anyone, the mayor wasn't laughing when he learned about it.

"I find it offensive," Bunten told The Topeka Capital-Journal. "It's probably drawn up by somebody from West Virginia who hasn't been here."

Hallmark spokeswoman Kristi Ernsting said the author, whom she declined to identify, grew up in Kansas. The card refers to popular television dramas about forensics experts who investigate crimes, set in Las Vegas, Miami and New York.

"We hope that the people of Topeka can take it in good humor," she said. "That's how it was intended."

Richard Forester, president of the Topeka Convention and Visitors Bureau, expressed disappointment with the Kansas City, Mo.-based Hallmark, noting that it has a plant in Topeka.

But he added, "It's not the first time we've been poked fun at," he said, "and I'm sure it won't be the last."

---_

On the Net:

City of Topeka: http://www.topeka.org

iWon News

2005-10-01T01:38:00.000-07:00

Honestly...what was she thinking when she gave an interview bragging about breaking the law and if she was making that much money, why couldn't she make bail???
iWon News
Media boasts land top hooker in jail

Sep 30, 10:28 AM (ET)

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A $2,000 an hour prostitute known as New York's No. 1 Escort pleaded not guilty on Thursday to charges of money laundering and prostitution that stemmed from her bragging in the media about her work.

Canadian Natalia McLennan, 25, sobbed uncontrollably in Manhattan Criminal Court after she was unable to post $50,000 bail and was taken away in handcuffs to jail.

The charges against McLennan came after she bragged in several interviews about her professional exploits, including posing provocatively for the cover of New York Magazine under the headline "N.Y.'s # 1 Escort Reveals All."

In that interview, she told the magazine she generated revenues of $1.5 million annually and kept 45 percent of that sum in return for having sex with high-roller clients of NY Confidential, a swanky Moroccan-themed brothel in Manhattan.

McLennan showed up for her arraignment dressed in a skimpy mini-skirt, a see-through blouse and four-inch spike heels, and told the court she had no idea she would remain in custody after the hearing. She wailed as she was taken from the courtroom.

She will remain in jail pending her next hearing on Monday. She faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted.

'Erotic Show' Planned for N.Y. Fundraiser

2005-08-07T09:14:00.000-07:00

He has a point. What can I say?
iWon News

'Erotic Show' Planned for N.Y. Fundraiser

Aug 6, 6:05 PM (ET)

NEW YORK (AP) - With his campaign for city council going no place fast, Victor Bernace felt he needed something special to spark interest in his next fundraiser. How about exotic dancers?

The New York Democrat said Saturday he plans to have bikini-clad go-go dancers and men in nothing but briefs at a "Havana Night" campaign party next month at a Manhattan nightclub.

There will be no nudity at the $20-per-head event, Bernace said, but he promised "a sexy, erotic show."

"I'm throwing a fun event. Most politicians - I've been to their fundraisers, and they are boring," he said. "People can go with a standard politician who will disappear into the woodwork. I'm trying to be part of the next generation."

Bernace, a Harvard-trained lawyer who makes a living representing cab drivers, is trying for the third time to unseat an incumbent in a working-class district in northern Manhattan.

Asked if he thought a risque event might offend some voters, Bernace said he wasn't concerned and suggested the event might help get young men interested in politics.

"I'm not running for mayor in a small, old-time religious town in Utah. I'm running in New York City," he said. "I might as well try to energize a different base."

New York Daily News - Entertainment - Radio: FCC could make a federal case out of payola

2005-07-30T18:27:00.000-07:00

It's not really weird news but I find it interesting.
Now we know why people aren't buying as many CDs and why I hear the same damn song 20 times a day. It's been paid for. Maybe now I can hear different songs on the radio.

New York Daily News - Entertainment - Radio: FCC could make a federal case out of payola

FCC could make a federal
case out of payola

Radio

By DAVID HINCKLEY
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The FCC may do its own investigation into the payola practices uncovered by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, says a spokesman for FCC Commissioner Jonathan Adelstein.

Adelstein, who called for such an investigation this week, is "aggressively pursuing the matter" with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, says Adelstein legal adviser Rudy Brioche.

Both legislation and FCC regulations make it illegal for a broadcaster not to disclose considerations received in return for putting material on the air.

So if a radio station or individual received money or other items of value in return for airplay, that could be a violation.

Penalties range to $11,000 plus up to a year in prison. But the FCC's real hammer is that it could consider stripping a station of its license - an extreme step that Spitzer, when he released his own findings this week, said the commission should consider for the worst offenders.

Spitzer's investigators found countless instances where record companies provided vacation trips, computers, cash and other considerations in exchange for airplay.

Record company E-mails released by Spitzer's office also detailed other promotional practices, like paying people to flood request lines so it would look as if there was great public demand for a particular record.

Spitzer's investigation resulted in Sony BMG agreeing to pay a $10 million fine, apologize and promise never to practice payola again.

If the FCC decides to pick up the investigation, it will do so through its Enforcement Bureau, the same unit that investigates indecency complaints.

The commission investigates indecency cases only if it receives an outside complaint. If it decides such a trigger is required with the payola charges, a note from Spitzer would probably be deemed sufficient.

Spitzer could also add material to whatever the FCC already has in its files and could gather during a probe.

An FCC investigation would probably not involve public hearings, though it would allow for public comment. The procedure would be the same as with indecency complaints: If violations were uncovered, the agency would send a Notice of Apparent Liability, with the recipient given a period of time for a response.

CARNIVAL COVERAGE: WWRL (1600 AM), which features Caribbean music and news every Saturday, will provide live coverage of three carnivals and a reggae show in Brooklyn this weekend.

Ian (The Goose) Eligon starts it off at 8 a.m. from Caribana in Toronto, and Prince Kalunda is live from the Carnival in Antigua, 1-5 p.m. At various points through the day, Lady NV will send in live updates from Cropover in Barbados.

Simon Templer winds it up from Prospect Park, 5-8 p.m., with "Celebrate Brooklyn" coverage that includes a live performance by Morgan Heritage.

Originally published on July 28, 2005

PETA: People Eradicating Tons of Animals

2005-07-23T17:47:00.000-07:00

I can't understand this. This has got to be the weirdest news story I've ever read.
PETA: People Eradicating Tons of Animals

The following story is from This is True dated 17 July 2005. It is
Copyright 2005 Randy Cassingham, all rights reserved, and reprinted here
with
permission:

"Ethical" Defined
After more than 100 dead dogs were dumped in a trash dumpster over
four weeks, police in Ahoskie, N.C., kept an eye on the trash receptacle
behind a supermarket. Sure enough, a van drove up and officers watched
the occupants throw in heavy plastic bags. They detained the two people
in the van and found 18 dead dogs in plastic bags in the dumpster,
including puppies; 13 more dead dogs were still in the van. Police say
the van is registered to the headquarters of People for the Ethical
Treatment of Animals, and the two occupants, Andrew B. Cook, 24, and
Adria Joy Hinkle, 27, identified themselves as PETA employees. An autopsy
performed on one of the dogs found it was healthy before it was killed.
Police say PETA has been picking up the animals -- alive -- from North
Carolina animal shelters, promising to find them good homes. Cook and
Hinkle have been charged with 62 felony counts of animal cruelty. In
response to the arrests PETA President Ingrid Newkirk said it's against
the group's policy for employees to dump animals in the trash, but "that
for some animals in North Carolina, there is no kinder option than
euthanasia." (Roanoke-Chowan News-Herald) ...Oops, my mistake: that's
"Playing God" Defined.

In his author's notes section, Cassingham had more to say about this
story:

The more I learn about PETA, the less I think of
them. The story of them killing animals isn't even unusual. According to
PETA's own filings, in 2004 PETA killed 86.3 percent of the
animals entrusted to its care -- a number that's rising, not falling.
Meanwhile, the SPCA in PETA's home town (Norfolk, Va.) was able to find
loving homes for 73 percent of the animals put in its care. A shortage of
funds? Nope: last year PETA took in $29 million in tax-exempt donations.
It simply has other priorities for the funds, like funding terrorism
(yes, really). But don't take my word for it: I got my figures from
http://www.PETAkillsAnimals.com
-- and they have copies of PETA's state and federal filings to back it
up. The bottom line: if you donate money to PETA because you think they
care for and about animals, you need to think some more. PETA literally
yells and screams about how others "kill animals" but this is how
they operate? Pathetic.

And you know what I wonder? PETA's official count of animals
they kill is 86.3 percent. But if they're going around picking up
animals, killing them while they drive around and not even giving them a
chance to be adopted, and then destroying the evidence by dumping
the bodies in the trash, are those deaths being reported? My
guess: no. While 86.3 percent is awful, the actual number is probably
much, much higher. How dare they lecture anyone
about the "ethical" treatment of animals!

(This is True is a weekly column featuring
weird-but-true news
stories from around the world, and has been published since 1994. Click
the link for info about free subscriptions.)

Reno News and Review Cover story - June 30, 2005

2005-07-02T18:45:00.000-07:00

Maybe this wasn't reported as weird but it is. Straight Edge is just a bunch of kids who swore off all the bad stuff in life. Sure there's some that are violent and cause trouble. I've even heard of some in the Reno area kicking someones ass for smoking on the sidewalk. But if you're going to call all Straight Edge kids a gang, you'll have to call all groups that have a few bad apples a gang. This includes bankers, lawyers, cops and every other group out there.

As far as I know, all gangs have tests to join. If you want to be Straight Edge, all ya gotta do is go down to Hot Topix and buy some stickers that say things like Tweekers Suck and XXX and stop doing drugs, drinking alcohol and maybe for good measure stop eating meat.

Reno News and Review Cover story - June 30, 2005

Got gang?
Don't do chemicals? Don't smoke? No promiscuous sex? Police just might call you a gang member. Local 'straight edgers' hope to get past the media hysteria to promote their positive lifestyle

By Stephanie Perry

Photo By David Robert
These clean-living folks say it's unfair that the Reno Police Department has classified the area's several hundred straight-edgers as a gang due to the violent antics of just a handful. Kyle Oels, Aaron Chaplin, Chriss Schmidt, Sean Bosch and Jeff Rogers congregate at Sound and Fury Records, an epicenter of straight-edge culture.
It's a breezy summer evening in Reno, and a handful of kids has gathered on the sidewalk in front of a small, independent record store. A skinny teenager rolls by on his skateboard, munching from a box of french fries; two girls stroll past, chatting; a small group discusses the details of their next potluck. Nearby, others load musical instruments and equipment into a van for an upcoming show. Kids wander in and out of the store, greeting each other with warm hugs and playful punches. To the casual observer, there’s nothing at all sinister about this scene. But in the eyes of the Reno Police Department, these kids belong to a new gang called Straight Edge, and some of its members have been involved in violent assaults. The kids say this is an unfair generalization, and those attacks have nothing to do with what “straight edge” really means. And, reacting to the RPD’s official gang designation in March, these kids would like to take this opportunity to set the record straight.

Living on the edge
So what exactly is straight edge?

"Straight edge is a philosophy and a lifestyle that emerged from the punk-rock scene in the early '80s, pioneered by bands like the Teen Idles and Minor Threat, that calls for the abstinence from various drugs, alcohol, tobacco and promiscuous sex," explains Mac Schopen, co-owner of Sound and Fury Records. At 26, he's been straight edge for more than six years and says he's straight edge for life.

Straight edge takes its name from a Minor Threat song of the same name, which contains lyrics such as, "I'm a person just like you/But I've got better things to do/Than sit around and smoke dope/'Cause I know I can cope." The term itself supposedly originated when a band member, using a ruler to draw a poster for a show, pointed out that its straight edge was an appropriate metaphor for their lifestyle.

Adopting the "X" as their symbol--originally a mark used at clubs to signify to bartenders that they were underage--straight-edge kids embraced a drug-free lifestyle and a shared subculture centered on hardcore punk music.

Although straight edge is popular in Utah (and has also been declared a gang there), it's not affiliated with the Mormon Church; in fact, straight edge takes no position on religion. Some individuals eschew caffeine or prescription medications, and some are vegan, although these aren't specifically straight-edge beliefs.

In recent years, straight edge has also become linked with growing involvement in environmental and political spheres. But, Schopen emphasizes, straight edge is a personal philosophy, not a group mentality.

"It's not an organization, and despite what some people say, it's not a movement," he explains. "It's an individual lifestyle choice."

Schopen says straight edge has had a strongly positive effect on his life. Among other things, the more healthful lifestyle inspired him to open his business with co-owner Joe Ferguson, 25, who's been straight edge since the age of 16. Schopen and Ferguson are also in a band called xCrucial Attackx (see "Straight to the edge," RN&R, June 16), currently touring the East Coast.

"[Straight edge is] nonviolent; it doesn't have anything to do with violence, actually," says Ferguson, a tall, clean-shaven blond. "It's a personal choice to abstain from alcohol and drugs, and it doesn't have anything to do with violence."

Straight edge is particularly important in a city like Reno, adds Schopen, because of all the negative influences associated with the 21-and-over tourism industry.

"We live in a city where there's nothing for young kids to do except sit around and stew in their own boredom and frustration, and I think that definitely plays a role," he says. "If the city's not going to provide them any outlet, they're going to find their own outlet, and it's not going to be a positive one." By contrast, he says, straight edge can provide a more constructive alternative for young people, and Sound and Fury hopes to be part of that. Indeed, the customers seem more interested in socializing than shopping.

"I'd like to have a place where kids who share common musical and ethical interests can come and learn from each other and learn about new things and create a do-it-yourself community," Schopen says of his store. "It is good to have a place to serve as an epicenter for that."

"It would be nice to [have] more kids see that you can open a record store," adds Jeff Baer, slender and dark-haired, who's hanging out in the background. He'll be hosting July's straight-edge potluck. "Perhaps that will give them motivation to try and do something themselves, whether that's start a band, open a store, write a zine, whatever they choose to do."

Schopen thinks it's unfair that the police have recognized that not all straight-edge kids are involved in violent acts but declared straight edge a gang nonetheless. "If you acknowledge that division," he asks, "then how can [we] be a gang in the first place?"

Gangs of unruly sober, chaste kids
Officer Paul Adamson of the Regional Gang Unit wants to make sure straight-edge kids realize that RPD does see the difference between violent and nonviolent youth. "What we're doing is focusing on the criminal and delinquent behaviors that are being done under the name of straight edge," said Adamson, who was involved in the six-month investigation that led to the gang classification.

Detective Mike Magee, who also participated in the investigation, agrees that not all straight-edge kids are violent.

"We have some kids who claim straight edge that aren't part of this violent part," he explains. "They just believe in no drugs, no alcohol, no tobacco, no sex. ... We found that a certain group--not all of them--were into enforcing their beliefs with violence." Their investigation included an incident at the Reno Hilton several months ago, in which a group of high-school-age straight-edge kids carrying brass knuckles and Mace engaged in a fight against another group of youths wielding golf clubs, he says.
Photo By David Robert

Unfortunately, Magee adds, that "certain group" has dragged down the entire scene. "They were going out and fighting kids and intimidating them, and saying, 'We're straight edge,'" he says. "So it's kind of like the group that had those beliefs had it ruined by the hardcore ones."

Still, Magee doesn't believe that the gang classification will have much effect, if any, on the nonviolent straight-edge kids.

"I don't see how it would," he says. "If they're not out there committing crimes, I don't see how it's going to affect them."

Postcards from the edge
In a group interview at Sound and Fury, several straight-edge kids in their teens and early 20s gathered recently to talk about their reactions to being classified as a gang. Posing for photos presents a challenge and tends to make them erupt in snorts of laughter; during the interview, they fidget, tease each other and play with their cell phones. But when it comes to discussing their new and unwanted gang status, they quickly become serious. Although the kids crack jokes about what terrible gangsters they'd make and how they always thought being in a gang would be cooler, it's obvious that the stereotype bothers them and makes them nervous about the future.

"What did I think about it?" asks Aaron Chapin, 24. His camouflage cap, decorated with pins, is the only hint of color in his otherwise black outfit. "Where do I start? What a terrible, terrible piece of journalism." He's referring to the Reno Gazette-Journal article from May 30, by Jaclyn O'Malley. "Granted, they said that there were a number of straight-edge kids who didn't want to associate themselves with the negative aspects of straight edge ... but the article itself was atrocious."

The kids are also incensed about a recent Geraldo Rivera At Large segment on Fox News about Reno police declaring straight edge a gang. Aired on June 5, the brief segment included straight-edge rocker Karl Buechner, a Reno police officer, and the father of a Utah teen murdered by two straight edge men. The kids believe that Rivera "bashed" straight edge unfairly, and that the segment will only worsen the mainstream's negative opinion of straight edge.

"They're calling us a gang," says Chriss Schmidt, 22, crossing his tattooed arms. "Kids are going to think this is a gang. Parents aren't going to let their kids who are high school, middle school, elementary school ... be into it. They're going to view it as something that's not right, and they're going to keep their kids from doing it, when in fact it's one of the most positive changes you can make. It saves people's lives." Schmidt isn't the only one who feels this way; many of the kids, some of whom have a history of drug or alcohol abuse, believe that straight edge literally saved them from a premature death.

"I've never seen a fight break out because somebody's drinking or smoking [in front of a straight edge kid]," adds Sean Bosch, 19. "Never." In a pink polo shirt and khaki shorts, the stocky blond looks like an all-American teenager, except for the large, colorful tattoo on his leg. The other kids--who, in this group, tend to be on the short and slender side--wear mostly dark, tight-fitting clothes, assorted tattoos and piercings, and caps studded with pins. It's a distinctive look, and sometimes it gets them into trouble.

"If a fight happens, they're going to go after the kid who's not normal [looking]," Schmidt says, pointing at the half-dollar-sized black plugs in his earlobes. "I have big holes in my ears, so I'm the one who everyone's going to focus their attention on and say, 'You know what? That kid did something.'"

"I've been harassed for absolutely no reason other than that I'm straight edge," says Kyle Oels, 21. "And people wonder why fights happen? That's why. Because people target us, because we're straight edge."

"We're going to be harassed far sooner than we're going to harass somebody else," adds Jeff Rogers, 20. Like others, he was originally reluctant to claim straight edge because of its negative associations, but now he takes pride in it.

When asked if they'd be interested in having their gang status reversed, they enthusiastically say yes. But the kids are pessimistic that discussions with police will change anything, and they're fearful of repercussions.

"Any one of us, I think, would be fine sitting down with [the gang unit]," says Chapin. "But we would not be able to get a word in edgewise about what's really happening."

"[We would talk to them] if there's any sort of hope of them going back and saying, 'We were wrong the first time,' which they probably won't do," adds Schmidt. "I'd be more than happy to sit down and discuss what's going on in the city, because it's our city, too. We live here just as much as they live here. It's going to affect us, no matter what."

"We read these stories, and it just frustrates us so much," says Oels. "Most of us are very outspoken about our beliefs, and if anybody, at any time, wants to sit down and talk to me about straight edge, I'd be more than willing to, and I'm not going to beat them up over it." He offers to include his phone number in this article, in case people really do want to discuss it, but the others quickly dissuade him, warning him that he might suffer from retaliation.

"I can see [the gang classification] causing a lot more fights," Oels adds. "I can see a lot more fights coming as a result of this, which is ironic, because originally they were cautioning against that ... but I can see there being kids who are going after all the straight-edge kids because they're a gang, you know? And then that's just going to cause more drama and more fights."

Several days later, Chapin called to say that he and Rogers had been harassed at Meadowood Mall for being straight edge, just hours after this interview. "There were about five or six kids hanging out in one of the foyer areas, and we had passed them a couple of times and shrugged off some of their comments," he said. "Upon leaving, we left through the food court, and the same group of kids were hanging out there, and they had basically at that point escalated into insulting us ... so we said, 'Whatever,' and walked away." As Chapin and Rogers drove out of the parking lot, the other kids threw something at Chapin's truck. Chapin says ruefully that this isn't the first time such an incident has occurred.

"You just have to let it roll off your back, you know what I'm saying?" he concludes. "When a person lowers themselves to insulting us, there's no sense in debating at that point."

Photo By David Robert
Kyle Oels, 21, says straight edgers get unfairly targeted and harassed. He'd rather talk than fight.

Good kids cast in a bad light?
Although they're on opposite sides, the straight-edge kids and the gang unit tend to agree on the big picture. Yes, some straight-edge kids have been involved in violent activity, but most are law-abiding citizens. Is it possible for the two sides to work together to improve straight edge's image?

According to Sergeant Walt Frazier, also of the Regional Gang Unit, there are a couple of ways for individuals to be removed from the gang file. If they go for three years without having contact with the gang unit (e.g., someone complaining about them loitering in a public area), they're off the list. Alternatively, juveniles can schedule a meeting with their parents and gang unit supervisors to declare that they've severed ties with the gang and show documentation to prove they're making a fresh start, like a work history or letters of recommendation from the clergy or other authorities.

Getting straight edge's collective name cleared, however, is a different matter.

"Once we've identified [a group] as a gang, they pretty much stay as a gang," Frazier says. "We will purge individual people, but the gang usually stays." If there is no gang activity for an extended period of time--seven to eight years, or more--or if the gang unit receives convincing evidence that the gang has officially disbanded, the group's gang status could be reversed. But it's a rare occurrence, he adds.

Like every other police officer contacted for this story, Frazier readily admits that it's only a fraction of straight-edge kids who are committing the attacks. "The percentage is very small," he explains. "We have a total of five [individuals] in our system, and we've been told there's anywhere from 500 to 900 kids claiming straight edge [in the region], so that's less than one percent." He estimates that PRD has only three documented straight edge cases at this time, and says they've already seen repeat offenders.

With just five individuals currently on file as gang members, straight edge is much smaller than other local gangs. "Most of our gangs average between 15 and 45 people," says Frazier. Unlike other gangs, which tend to attract minorities and the economically disadvantaged, straight edge seems to attract relatively affluent white males. "The demographic is a white male, [about] 17, and mostly they're from at least middle-class families," he explains.

Frazier is sympathetic to the fact that it's the nonviolent kids whose reputation suffers. "It's unfortunate that this group that's involved in criminal activity shares the same name," he comments, "because it casts a shadow on the kids who are doing well."

Nevertheless, the fact that straight edge is now a gang means there will inevitably be consequences for everyone who claims that name. For example, a gang member who is convicted of a gang-related offense could face an enhanced sentence up to twice as severe as the normal one.

"[Will they be] treated differently? No. Monitored, yes, as we would any other gang," comments Frazier. "It's not like we go out and target them. But if we get information that there's a straight-edge band playing at a local bar, we're going to go by and check that everything's OK." However, he explains, that doesn't mean there are repercussions for establishments that tend to attract straight-edge kids. "We're not going to sit at a coffee house because straight-edge kids hang out there," Frazier says.

Nor does it mean that the police are going after kids who dress a certain way or listen to certain music. "You don't want to cross that line into the kids who are doing good," he adds.

In any case, many of the kids aren't interested in any solution that means distancing themselves from straight edge.

"I'm never going to stop," says Oels flatly. "Never. There could be a thousand [negative] news reports, and that's only going to make me want to stand firm in my resolve. That's only going to make me want to stand up stronger and say, 'That isn't what it's about. Let me tell you what it's about.'"

RedNova News - Oddities - Mo. Officer's Hamburger Laced With Meth

2005-06-05T10:33:00.000-07:00

Seriously, what was he thinking???
If the cop has to take a drug test, will he be fired???

RedNova News - Oddities - Mo. Officer's Hamburger Laced With Meth: "Mo. Officer's Hamburger Laced With Meth

DESLOGE, Mo. - The police officer's Quarter Pounder with Cheese tasted a little funny, and for good reason: It was laced with methamphetamine. The incident happened in December in Desloge, Mo., about 50 miles southwest of St. Louis, but was not made public until Friday.

Police Chief James Bullock told KMOV-TV in St. Louis that the officer went to McDonald's the day after Christmas and bought the sandwich, then took it back to the police station.

'He thought it tasted kind of funny so he looked at the burger,' Bullock said. 'It looked like it had a foreign substance on it.'

The burger was sent to the Missouri Highway Patrol crime lab for testing and tested positive for meth.

In a statement from McDonald's, John McCook, who owns and operates the Desloge restaurant, said safety and well-being of customers and employees 'is always is our top priority.' He said the chain is fully cooperating with the investigation.

No charges have been filed, though Bullock said a young man who used to work at the restaurant is being scrutinized. That man's friends had trouble with the same officer years ago.

Missouri is among the nation's hardest-hit states in terms of meth production and arrests. Police in Desloge and the surrounding counties make hundreds of meth arrests every year.

Source: Associated Press/AP Online"

Man Accused of Tossing Kittens From Car

2005-05-21T21:46:00.000-07:00

He says he didn't do it. But if he's guilty, he should be tossed from the same car.

iWon News: "
HURON, Ohio (AP) - A part-time police officer has been accused of throwing two kittens out of a car while driving at 70 mph.

Derik Wilhelm, 26, is charged with two counts of animal cruelty and two counts of abandoning animals. The charges are misdemeanors that carry up to 90 days in jail.

Wilhelm is an officer in the village of Castalia, about 50 miles east of Toledo, and a ranger for Erie MetroParks.

A man called the Erie County Sheriff's Office around noon Tuesday to report seeing a driver in front of him throw two kittens out a window. The caller estimated the vehicle was doing 70 mph on state Route 2.

The caller reached dispatchers again about 30 minutes later to report seeing the man toss another kitten, this time on a street in Lorain. Police there stopped Wilhelm's car, according to the sheriff's office.

Authorities couldn't find any kittens at the first location, sheriff's Capt. Paul Sigsworth said. They found one kitten in Lorain and treated it for minor injuries.

Messages seeking comment were left on Friday for Wilhelm at both agencies and with relatives.

Jim Lang, chief of operations for the parks district, said Wilhelm denied the allegations.

'The only thing he says is it's not true, it didn't happen,' Lang said.

Wilhelm is due in Huron Municipal Court next week.

---

Information from: The Blade, http://www.toledoblade.com/ "

Drug Dogs Trained to Find Talcum Powder

2005-05-21T21:43:00.000-07:00

Weird...just plain weird.
iWon News

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) - When police sniffer dogs couldn't trace drugs, the Australian state police force soon discovered the reason: the cocaine sample used to train them was talcum powder. Seven dogs that had worked on drug searches over the past three months will need to be retrained, Victoria Police Assistant Commissioner Paul Evans said Friday.

"I'm sure our dogs have got very soft, nice smelling noses at the moment, but they are in fact trained in detecting talcum powder so that means that they will have to be retrained in detecting cocaine," he told reporters.

"If there are any missing kids out there, we'd find them fairly quickly, I should think," he quipped.

Evans said police did not believe cocaine had been stolen and blamed an administrative error for the mix-up.

But internal investigations had been launched both within Victoria police and the Australian Federal Police which supplies illicit drug samples to the state force for training purposes.

The state opposition described the case as either corruption or incompetence and called for a public inquiry into the state force.

At least some politicians have a sense of humor.

2005-04-03T15:02:00.000-07:00

iWon News

Taxpayers Taken in on April 1

Apr 1, 11:27 AM (ET)

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Canada's top tax collector had the citizens of Ottawa up in arms on Friday morning when he announced a plan to force them to file their taxes electronically if they wanted a refund before Christmas.

Revenue Minister John McCallum said on a local CBC radio show he was launching a pilot project in Ottawa called "E-file or Else," with long delays and even a 5 percent surcharge for paper filers.

This prompted calls voicing outrage because some people do not have computers and in any case some had already filed their tax returns.

Before the early morning program went off the air, McCallum's voice came on once more: "To all the taxpayers of Ottawa, April Fools' Day."

Another year the show had a minister proclaiming that the government was replacing the clock on Parliament's Peace Tower -- similar to the British Parliament's Big Ben -- with a digital version.

Battle Heats Up Over Academic Freedom

2005-02-12T17:53:00.000-08:00

I read this and wonder, why fire someone for exercising their freedom of speach? I think it was Jefferson that said that the things that we didn't agree with were what needed protection because the things we agree with need no protection. Or something to that effect.
Personally, I find censorship more disturbing than anything someone can say. A friend of mine pointed out that I should let people talk as much as they wanted since the world would see them for what they are.

I have no idea what this guy said or wrote other than it made a lot of people very angry.

iWon News

Feb 12, 4:09 PM (ET)

By DAN ELLIOTT
DENVER (AP) - Academic freedom has never completely protected professors who make unpopular statements. One was fired in 1960 for suggesting that premarital sex among students could be a good thing. Three decades later, a department chair was demoted for saying a Jewish conspiracy denigrated blacks in the movies. Now experts say the Sept. 11 attacks have put new fire in the battle over just where academic freedom ends and misconduct - or even treason - begins.

University of Colorado professor Ward Churchill could be fired pending an investigation prompted by his 2001 essay suggesting some World Trade Center victims were toiling away like efficient Nazi bureaucrats.

There are no exact figures on attempts to fire or discipline professors since Sept. 11, but experts say they have probably increased. The fight is especially fierce at state universities, where some question whether taxpayers must pay the salaries of professors they find unpatriotic or outrageous.

"We have never been free of the issue of professors coming under intense scrutiny or attack for having written something somebody finds utterly loathsome," said Jonathan Knight of the American Association of University Professors in Washington.

Knight said firings are relatively rare, with 50 or 60 losing their jobs each year for a variety of reasons out of some 800,000 tenured and untenured professors nationwide. Tenure, a protection normally granted after several years of probation, is designed to allow teaching and research without fear of political reprisals.

Overall, challenges to American professors today are mild compared with the attacks academics suffered during the anti-communist investigations spurred by Sen. Joseph McCarthy in the 1950s, said Robert O'Neil, director of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression in Charlottesville, Va.

But he said the intensity of attacks on academic freedom have increased since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Churchill's case has ignited furious debate with no shortage of students and teachers defending his right to speak, even though few have endorsed his comments.

His essay said some of the trade center victims were "little Eichmanns," a suggestion that white-collar "technocrats" who died that day were no better than Holocaust organizer Adolf Eichmann because they are furthering U.S. policies harmful to Arabs and indigenous people worldwide.

It drew little attention until last month, when Churchill was invited to speak at Hamilton College in upstate New York. Relatives of the Trade Center dead and the governors of New York and Colorado denounced Churchill, and Churchill's speech was canceled because of death threats against him.

Since then, other Churchill speeches around the nation have been canceled and the Hamilton professor who invited him to that campus has stepped down as program director, fed up with the "political and media fight that the current climate requires."

The University of Colorado has launched a 30-day review to determine whether Churchill can be fired. Media outlets are exploring his scholarship - one Denver radio show claims school documents prove he lied about being an American Indian to land his job - and state legislators are considering making it easier to get rid of tenured professors.

Churchill has refused to apologize and has threatened to sue if he is let go over the controversy.

O'Neil said universities have handled most post-Sept. 11 complaints about professors properly by submitting them to formal review, as Colorado is doing with Churchill and as the University of New Mexico did for Richard Berthold, a former history professor.

Berthold told students hours after the Sept. 11 attacks: "Anyone who can blow up the Pentagon has my vote." The university resisted enormous pressure to fire him, instead conducting a review and eventually issuing a letter of reprimand after he apologized.

Berthold says the discipline system worked only because he caved in under pressure.

"I look back on it, and I just ate too much crow and apologized too much. I'm ashamed," he said. "It wasn't, 'Let's applaud the killing of innocent people,' it was my expression of my revulsion for the leadership of this country."

He retired two years later.

"Bitter? Oh yes, I'm bitter," he said. "I thought I served the institution and my society very well for 30 years."

---

On the Net:

American Association of University Professors: http://www.aaup.org

Thomas Jefferson Center: http://www.tjcenter.org

Fast Company | The Wal-Mart You Don't Know

2005-01-05T20:03:00.000-08:00

Although this doesn't fit in the weird news section, It is weird that we as Americans still shop at a place that imports more products and exports more jobs than any other company.
I hate Wal-mart period. I've seen what they do to a supplier and the employees who work there and it sickens me that people don't think far enough into the future to see their job lost. But hey, they may be able to get a job at Wal-mart.
Fast Company | The Wal-Mart You Don't Know

The giant retailer's low prices often come with a high cost. Wal-Mart's relentless pressure can crush the companies it does business with and force them to send jobs overseas. Are we shopping our way straight to the unemployment line?

From: Issue 77 December 2003, Page 68
By: Charles Fishman
Photographs by: Livia Corona

URL: http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/77/walmart.html

A gallon-sized jar of whole pickles is something to behold. The jar is the size of a small aquarium. The fat green pickles, floating in swampy juice, look reptilian, their shapes exaggerated by the glass. It weighs 12 pounds, too big to carry with one hand. The gallon jar of pickles is a display of abundance and excess; it is entrancing, and also vaguely unsettling. This is the product that Wal-Mart fell in love with: Vlasic's gallon jar of pickles.

Wal-Mart priced it at $2.97--a year's supply of pickles for less than $3! "They were using it as a 'statement' item," says Pat Hunn, who calls himself the "mad scientist" of Vlasic's gallon jar. "Wal-Mart was putting it before consumers, saying, This represents what Wal-Mart's about. You can buy a stinkin' gallon of pickles for $2.97. And it's the nation's number-one brand."

Therein lies the basic conundrum of doing business with the world's largest retailer. By selling a gallon of kosher dills for less than most grocers sell a quart, Wal-Mart may have provided a ser-vice for its customers. But what did it do for Vlasic? The pickle maker had spent decades convincing customers that they should pay a premium for its brand. Now Wal-Mart was practically giving them away. And the fevered buying spree that resulted distorted every aspect of Vlasic's operations, from farm field to factory to financial statement.

Indeed, as Vlasic discovered, the real story of Wal-Mart, the story that never gets told, is the story of the pressure the biggest retailer relentlessly applies to its suppliers in the name of bringing us "every day low prices." It's the story of what that pressure does to the companies Wal-Mart does business with, to U.S. manufacturing, and to the economy as a whole. That story can be found floating in a gallon jar of pickles at Wal-Mart.

Wal-Mart is not just the world's largest retailer. It's the world's largest company--bigger than ExxonMobil, General Motors, and General Electric. The scale can be hard to absorb. Wal-Mart sold $244.5 billion worth of goods last year. It sells in three months what

number-two retailer Home Depot sells in a year. And in its own category of general merchandise and groceries, Wal-Mart no longer has any real rivals. It does more business than Target, Sears, Kmart, J.C. Penney, Safeway, and Kroger combined. "Clearly," says Edward Fox, head of Southern Methodist University's J.C. Penney Center for Retailing Excellence, "Wal-Mart is more powerful than any retailer has ever been." It is, in fact, so big and so furtively powerful as to have become an entirely different order of corporate being.

Wal-Mart wields its power for just one purpose: to bring the lowest possible prices to its customers. At Wal-Mart, that goal is never reached. The retailer has a clear policy for suppliers: On basic products that don't change, the price Wal-Mart will pay, and will charge shoppers, must drop year after year. But what almost no one outside the world of Wal-Mart and its 21,000 suppliers knows is the high cost of those low prices. Wal-Mart has the power to squeeze profit-killing concessions from vendors. To survive in the face of its pricing demands, makers of everything from bras to bicycles to blue jeans have had to lay off employees and close U.S. plants in favor of outsourcing products from overseas.

Of course, U.S. companies have been moving jobs offshore for decades, long before Wal-Mart was a retailing power. But there is no question that the chain is helping accelerate the loss of American jobs to low-wage countries such as China. Wal-Mart, which in the late 1980s and early 1990s trumpeted its claim to "Buy American," has doubled its imports from China in the past five years alone, buying some $12 billion in merchandise in 2002. That's nearly 10% of all Chinese exports to the United States.

One way to think of Wal-Mart is as a vast pipeline that gives non-U.S. companies direct access to the American market. "One of the things that limits or slows the growth of imports is the cost of establishing connections and networks," says Paul Krugman, the Princeton University economist. "Wal-Mart is so big and so centralized that it can all at once hook Chinese and other suppliers into its digital system. So--wham!--you have a large switch to overseas sourcing in a period quicker than under the old rules of retailing."

Steve Dobbins has been bearing the brunt of that switch. He's president and CEO of Carolina Mills, a 75-year-old North Carolina company that supplies thread, yarn, and textile finishing to apparel makers--half of which supply Wal-Mart. Carolina Mills grew steadily until 2000. But in the past three years, as its customers have gone either overseas or out of business, it has shrunk from 17 factories to 7, and from 2,600 employees to 1,200. Dobbins's customers have begun to face imported clothing sold so cheaply to Wal-Mart that they could not compete even if they paid their workers nothing.

"People ask, 'How can it be bad for things to come into the U.S. cheaply? How can it be bad to have a bargain at Wal-Mart?' Sure, it's held inflation down, and it's great to have bargains," says Dobbins. "But you can't buy anything if you're not employed. We are shopping ourselves out of jobs."

The gallon jar of pickles at Wal-Mart became a devastating success, giving Vlasic strong sales and growth numbers--but slashing its profits by millions of dollars.

There is no question that Wal-Mart's relentless drive to squeeze out costs has benefited consumers. The giant retailer is at least partly responsible for the low rate of U.S. inflation, and a McKinsey & Co. study concluded that about 12% of the economy's productivity gains in the second half of the 1990s could be traced to Wal-Mart alone.

There is also no question that doing business with Wal-Mart can give a supplier a fast, heady jolt of sales and market share. But that fix can come with long-term consequences for the health of a brand and a business. Vlasic, for example, wasn't looking to build its brand on a gallon of whole pickles. Pickle companies make money on "the cut," slicing cucumbers into spears and hamburger chips. "Cucumbers in the jar, you don't make a whole lot of money there," says Steve Young, a former vice president of grocery marketing for pickles at Vlasic, who has since left the company.

At some point in the late 1990s, a Wal-Mart buyer saw Vlasic's gallon jar and started talking to Pat Hunn about it. Hunn, who has also since left Vlasic, was then head of Vlasic's Wal-Mart sales team, based in Dallas. The gallon intrigued the buyer. In sales tests, priced somewhere over $3, "the gallon sold like crazy," says Hunn, "surprising us all." The Wal-Mart buyer had a brainstorm: What would happen to the gallon if they offered it nationwide and got it below $3? Hunn was skeptical, but his job was to look for ways to sell pickles at Wal-Mart. Why not?

And so Vlasic's gallon jar of pickles went into every Wal-Mart, some 3,000 stores, at $2.97, a price so low that Vlasic and Wal-Mart were making only a penny or two on a jar, if that. It was showcased on big pallets near the front of stores. It was an abundance of abundance. "It was selling 80 jars a week, on average, in every store," says Young. Doesn't sound like much, until you do the math: That's 240,000 gallons of pickles, just in gallon jars, just at Wal-Mart, every week. Whole fields of cucumbers were heading out the door.

For Vlasic, the gallon jar of pickles became what might be called a devastating success. "Quickly, it started cannibalizing our non-Wal-Mart business," says Young. "We saw consumers who used to buy the spears and the chips in supermarkets buying the Wal-Mart gallons. They'd eat a quarter of a jar and throw the thing away when they got moldy. A family can't eat them fast enough."

The gallon jar reshaped Vlasic's pickle business: It chewed up the profit margin of the business with Wal-Mart, and of pickles generally. Procurement had to scramble to find enough pickles to fill the gallons, but the volume gave Vlasic strong sales numbers, strong growth numbers, and a powerful place in the world of pickles at Wal-Mart. Which accounted for 30% of Vlasic's business. But the company's profits from pickles had shriveled 25% or more, Young says--millions of dollars.

The gallon was hoisting Vlasic and hurting it at the same time.

Young remembers begging Wal-Mart for relief. "They said, 'No way,' " says Young. "We said we'll increase the price"--even $3.49 would have helped tremendously--"and they said, 'If you do that, all the other products of yours we buy, we'll stop buying.' It was a clear threat." Hunn recalls things a little differently, if just as ominously: "They said, 'We want the $2.97 gallon of pickles. If you don't do it, we'll see if someone else might.' I knew our competitors were saying to Wal-Mart, 'We'll do the $2.97 gallons if you give us your other business.' " Wal-Mart's business was so indispensable to Vlasic, and the gallon so central to the Wal-Mart relationship, that decisions about the future of the gallon were made at the CEO level.

Finally, Wal-Mart let Vlasic up for air. "The Wal-Mart guy's response was classic," Young recalls. "He said, 'Well, we've done to pickles what we did to orange juice. We've killed it. We can back off.' " Vlasic got to take it down to just over half a gallon of pickles, for $2.79. Not long after that, in January 2001, Vlasic filed for bankruptcy--although the gallon jar of pickles, everyone agrees, wasn't a critical factor.

By now, it is accepted wisdom that Wal-Mart makes the companies it does business with more efficient and focused, leaner and faster. Wal-Mart itself is known for continuous improvement in its ability to handle, move, and track merchandise. It expects the same of its suppliers. But the ability to operate at peak efficiency only gets you in the door at Wal-Mart. Then the real demands start. The public image Wal-Mart projects may be as cheery as its yellow smiley-face mascot, but there is nothing genial about the process by which Wal-Mart gets its suppliers to provide tires and contact lenses, guns and underarm deodorant at every day low prices. Wal-Mart is legendary for forcing its suppliers to redesign everything from their packaging to their computer systems. It is also legendary for quite straightforwardly telling them what it will pay for their goods.

"We are one of Wal-Mart's biggest suppliers, and they are our biggest customer, by far. We have a great relationship. That's all I can say. Are we done now?"

John Fitzgerald, a former vice president of Nabisco, remembers Wal-Mart's reaction to his company's plan to offer a 25-cent newspaper coupon for a large bag of Lifesavers in advance of Halloween. Wal-Mart told Nabisco to add up what it would spend on the promotion--for the newspaper ads, the coupons, and handling--and then just take that amount off the price instead. "That isn't necessarily good for the manufacturer," Fitzgerald says. "They need things that draw attention."

It also is not unheard of for Wal-Mart to demand to examine the private financial records of a supplier, and to insist that its margins are too high and must be cut. And the smaller the supplier, one academic study shows, the greater the likelihood that it will be forced into damaging concessions. Melissa Berryhill, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, disagrees: "The fact is Wal-Mart, perhaps like no other retailer, seeks to establish collaborative and mutually beneficial relationships with our suppliers."

For many suppliers, though, the only thing worse than doing business with Wal-Mart may be not doing business with Wal-Mart. Last year, 7.5 cents of every dollar spent in any store in the United States (other than auto-parts stores) went to the retailer. That means a contract with Wal-Mart can be critical even for the largest consumer-goods companies. Dial Corp., for example, does 28% of its business with Wal-Mart. If Dial lost that one account, it would have to double its sales to its next nine customers just to stay even. "Wal-Mart is the essential retailer, in a way no other retailer is," says Gib Carey, a partner at Bain & Co., who is leading a yearlong study of how to do business with Wal-Mart. "Our clients cannot grow without finding a way to be successful with Wal-Mart."

Many companies and their executives frankly admit that supplying Wal-Mart is like getting into the company version of basic training with an implacable Army drill sergeant. The process may be unpleasant. But there can be some positive results.

"Everyone from the forklift driver on up to me, the CEO, knew we had to deliver [to Wal-Mart] on time. Not 10 minutes late. And not 45 minutes early, either," says Robin Prever, who was CEO of Saratoga Beverage Group from 1992 to 2000, and made private-label water sold at Wal-Mart. "The message came through clearly: You have this 30-second delivery window. Either you're there, or you're out. With a customer like that, it changes your organization. For the better. It wakes everybody up. And all our customers benefited. We changed our whole approach to doing business."

But you won't hear evenhanded stories like that from Wal-Mart, or from its current suppliers. Despite being a publicly traded company, Wal-Mart is intensely private. It declined to talk in detail about its relationships with its suppliers for this story. More strikingly, dozens of companies contacted declined to talk about even the basics of their business with Wal-Mart.

Here, for example, is an executive at Dial: "We are one of Wal-Mart's biggest suppliers, and they are our biggest customer by far. We have a great relationship. That's all I can say. Are we done now?" Goaded a bit, the executive responds with an almost hysterical edge: "Are you meshuga? Why in the world would we talk about Wal-Mart? Ask me about anything else, we'll talk. But not Wal-Mart."

No one wants to end up in what is known among Wal-Mart vendors as the "penalty box"--punished, or even excluded from the store shelves, for saying something that makes Wal-Mart unhappy. (The penalty box is normally reserved for vendors who don't meet performance benchmarks, not for those who talk to the press.)

"You won't hear anything negative from most people," says Paul Kelly, founder of Silvermine Consulting Group, a company that helps businesses work more effectively with retailers. "It would be committing suicide. If Wal-Mart takes something the wrong way, it's like Saddam Hussein. You just don't want to piss them off."

As a result, this story was reported in an unusual way: by speaking with dozens of people who have spent years selling to Wal-Mart, or consulting to companies that sell to Wal-Mart, but who no longer work for companies that do business with Wal-Mart. Unless otherwise noted, the companies involved in the events they described refused even to confirm or deny the basics of the events.

To a person, all those interviewed credit Wal-Mart with a fundamental integrity in its dealings that's unusual in the world of consumer goods, retailing, and groceries. Wal-Mart does not cheat suppliers, it keeps its word, it pays its bills briskly. "They are tough people but very honest; they treat you honestly," says Peter Campanella, who ran the business that sold Corning kitchenware products, both at Corning and then at World Kitchen. "It was a joke to do business with most of their competitors. A fiasco."

But Wal-Mart also clearly does not hesitate to use its power, magnifying the Darwinian forces already at work in modern global capitalism.

Caught in the Wal-Mart squeeze, Huffy didn't just relinquish profits to keep its commitment to the retailer. It handed those profits to the competition.

What does the squeeze look like at Wal-Mart? It is usually thoroughly rational, sometimes devastatingly so.

John Mariotti is a veteran of the consumer-products world--he spent nine years as president of Huffy Bicycle Co., a division of Huffy Corp., and is now chairman of World Kitchen, the company that sells Oxo, Revere, Corning, and Ekco brand housewares.

He could not be clearer on his opinion about Wal-Mart: It's a great company, and a great company to do business with. "Wal-Mart has done more good for America by several thousand orders of magnitude than they've done bad," Mariotti says. "They have raised the bar, and raised the bar for everybody."

Mariotti describes one episode from Huffy's relationship with Wal-Mart. It's a tale he tells to illustrate an admiring point he makes about the retailer. "They demand you do what you say you are going to do." But it's also a classic example of the damned-if-you-do, damned-if-you-don't Wal-Mart squeeze. When Mariotti was at Huffy throughout the 1980s, the company sold a range of bikes to Wal-Mart, 20 or so models, in a spread of prices and profitability. It was a leading manufacturer of bikes in the United States, in places like Ponca City, Oklahoma; Celina, Ohio; and Farmington, Missouri.

One year, Huffy had committed to supply Wal-Mart with an entry-level, thin-margin bike--as many as Wal-Mart needed. Sales of the low-end bike took off. "I woke up May 1"--the heart of the bike production cycle for the summer--"and I needed 900,000 bikes," he says. "My factories could only run 450,000." As it happened, that same year, Huffy's fancier, more-profitable bikes were doing well, too, at Wal-Mart and other places. Huffy found itself in a bind.

With other retailers, perhaps, Mariotti might have sat down, renegotiated, tried to talk his way out of the corner. Not with Wal-Mart. "I made the deal up front with them," he says. "I knew how high was up. I was duty-bound to supply my customer." So he did something extraordinary. To free up production in order to make Wal-Mart's cheap bikes, he gave the designs for four of his higher-end, higher-margin products to rival manufacturers. "I conceded business to my competitors, because I just ran out of capacity," he says. Huffy didn't just relinquish profits to keep Wal-Mart happy--it handed those profits to its competition. "Wal-Mart didn't tell me what to do," Mariotti says. "They didn't have to." The retailer, he adds, "is tough as nails. But they give you a chance to compete. If you can't compete, that's your problem."

In the years since Mariotti left Huffy, the bike maker's relationship with Wal-Mart has been vital (though Huffy Corp. has lost money in three out of the last five years). It is the number-three seller of bikes in the United States. And Wal-Mart is the number-one retailer of bikes. But here's one last statistic about bicycles: Roughly 98% are now imported from places such as China, Mexico, and Taiwan. Huffy made its last bike in the United States in 1999.

As Mariotti says, Wal-Mart is tough as nails. But not every supplier agrees that the toughness is always accompanied by fairness. The Lovable Company was founded in 1926 by the grandfather of Frank Garson II, who was Lovable's last president. It did business with Wal-Mart, Garson says, from the earliest days of founder Sam Walton's first store in Bentonville, Arkansas. Lovable made bras and lingerie, supplying retailers that also included Sears and Victoria's Secret. At one point, it was the sixth-largest maker of intimate apparel in the United States, with 700 employees in this country and another 2,000 at eight factories in Central America.

Eventually Wal-Mart became Lovable's biggest customer. "Wal-Mart has a big pencil," says Garson. "They have such awesome purchasing power that they write their own ticket. If they don't like your prices, they'll go vertical and do it themselves--or they'll find someone that will meet their terms."

In the summer of 1995, Garson asserts, Wal-Mart did just that. "They had awarded us a contract, and in their wisdom, they changed the terms so dramatically that they really reneged." Garson, still worried about litigation, won't provide details. "But when you lose a customer that size, they are irreplaceable."

Lovable was already feeling intense cost pressure. Less than three years after Wal-Mart pulled its business, in its 72nd year, Lovable closed. "They leave a lot to be desired in the way they treat people," says Garson. "Their actions to pulverize people are unnecessary. Wal-Mart chewed us up and spit us out."

Believe it or not, American business has been through this before. The Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., the grocery-store chain, stood astride the U.S. market in the 1920s and 1930s with a dominance that has likely never been duplicated. At its peak, A&P had five times the number of stores Wal-Mart has now (although much smaller ones), and at one point, it owned 80% of the supermarket business. Some of the antipredatory-pricing laws in use today were inspired by A&P's attempts to muscle its suppliers.

There is very little academic and statistical study of Wal-Mart's impact on the health of its suppliers and virtually nothing in the last decade, when Wal-Mart's size has increased by a factor of five. This while the retail industry has become much more concentrated. In large part, that's because it's nearly impossible to get meaningful data that would allow researchers to track the influence of Wal-Mart's business on companies over time. You'd need cooperation from the vendor companies or Wal-Mart or both--and neither Wal-Mart nor its suppliers are interested in sharing such intimate detail.

Bain & Co., the global management consulting firm, is in the midst of a project that asks, How does a company have a healthy relationship with Wal-Mart? How do you avoid being sucked into the vortex? How do you maintain some standing, some leverage of your own?

This July, in a mating that had the relieved air of lovers who had too long resisted embracing, Levi Strauss rolled blue jeans into every Wal-Mart in the United States.

Bain's first insights are obvious, if not easy. "Year after year," Carey, a partner at Bain & Co., says, "for any product that is the same as what you sold them last year, Wal-Mart will say, 'Here's the price you gave me last year. Here's what I can get a competitor's product for. Here's what I can get a private-label version for. I want to see a better value that I can bring to my shopper this year. Or else I'm going to use that shelf space differently.' "

Carey has a friend in the umbrella business who learned that. One year, because of costs, he went to Wal-Mart and asked for a 5% price increase. "Wal-Mart said, 'We were expecting a 5% decrease. We're off by 10%. Go back and sharpen your pencil.' " The umbrella man scrimped and came back with a 2% increase. "They said, 'We'll go with a Chinese manufacturer'--and he was out entirely."

The Wal-Mart squeeze means vendors have to be as relentless and as microscopic as Wal-Mart is at managing their own costs. They need, in fact, to turn themselves into shadow versions of Wal-Mart itself. "Wal-Mart won't necessarily say you have to reconfigure your distribution system," says Carey. "But companies recognize they are not going to maintain margins with growth in their Wal-Mart business without doing it."

The way to avoid being trapped in a spiral of growing business and shrinking profits, says Carey, is to innovate. "You need to bring Wal-Mart new products--products consumers need. Because with those, Wal-Mart doesn't have benchmarks to drive you down in price. They don't have historical data, you don't have competitors, they haven't bid the products out to private-label makers. That's how you can have higher prices and higher margins."

Reasonable advice, but not universally useful. There has been an explosion of "innovation" in toothbrushes and toothpastes in the past five years, for instance; but a pickle is a pickle is a pickle.

Bain's other critical discovery is that consumers are often more loyal to product companies than to Wal-Mart. With strongly branded items people develop a preference for--things like toothpaste or laundry detergent--Wal-Mart rarely forces shoppers to switch to a second choice. It would simply punish itself by seeing sales fall, and it won't put up with that for long.

But as Wal-Mart has grown in market reach and clout, even manufacturers known for nurturing premium brands may find themselves overpowered. This July, in a mating that had the relieved air of lovers who had too long resisted embracing, Levi Strauss rolled blue jeans into every Wal-Mart doorway in the United States: 2,864 stores. Wal-Mart, seeking to expand its clothing business with more fashionable brands, promoted the clothes on its in-store TV network and with banners slipped over the security-tag detectors at exit doors.

Levi's launch into Wal-Mart came the same summer the clothes maker celebrated its 150th birthday. For a century and a half, one of the most recognizable names in American commerce had survived without Wal-Mart. But in October 2002, when Levi Strauss and Wal-Mart announced their engagement, Levi was shrinking rapidly. The pressure on Levi goes back 25 years--well before Wal-Mart was an influence. Between 1981 and 1990, Levi closed 58 U.S. manufacturing plants, sending 25% of its sewing overseas.

Sales for Levi peaked in 1996 at $7.1 billion. By last year, they had spiraled down six years in a row, to $4.1 billion; through the first six months of 2003, sales dropped another 3%. This one account--selling jeans to Wal-Mart--could almost instantly revive Levi.

Last year, Wal-Mart sold more clothing than any other retailer in the country. It also sold more pairs of jeans than any other store. Wal-Mart's own inexpensive house brand of jeans, Faded Glory, is estimated to do $3 billion in sales a year, a house brand nearly the size of Levi Strauss. Perhaps most revealing in terms of Levi's strategic blunders: In 2002, half the jeans sold in the United States cost less than $20 a pair. That same year, Levi didn't offer jeans for less than $30.

For much of the last decade, Levi couldn't have qualified to sell to Wal-Mart. Its computer systems were antiquated, and it was notorious for delivering clothes late to retailers. Levi admitted its on-time delivery rate was 65%. When it announced the deal with Wal-Mart last year, one fashion-industry analyst bluntly predicted Levi would simply fail to deliver the jeans.

But Levi Strauss has taken to the Wal-Mart Way with the intensity of a near-death religious conversion--and Levi's executives were happy to talk about their experience getting ready to sell at Wal-Mart. One hundred people at Levi's headquarters are devoted to the new business; another 12 have set up in an office in Bentonville, near Wal-Mart's headquarters, where the company has hired a respected veteran Wal-Mart sales account manager.

Getting ready for Wal-Mart has been like putting Levi on the Atkins diet. It has helped everything--customer focus, inventory management, speed to market. It has even helped other retailers that buy Levis, because Wal-Mart has forced the company to replenish stores within two days instead of Levi's previous five-day cycle.

And so, Wal-Mart might rescue Levi Strauss. Except for one thing.

Levi didn't actually have any clothes it could sell at Wal-Mart. Everything was too expensive. It had to develop a fresh line for mass retailers: the Levi Strauss Signature brand, featuring Levi Strauss's name on the back of the jeans.

Two months after the launch, Levi basked in the honeymoon glow. Overall sales, after falling for the first six months of 2003, rose 6% in the third quarter; profits in the summer quarter nearly doubled. All, Levi's CEO said, because of Signature.

"They are all very rational people. And they had a good point. Everyone was willing to pay more for a Master Lock. But how much more can they justify?"

But the low-end business isn't a business Levi is known for, or one it had been particularly interested in. It's also a business in which Levi will find itself competing with lean, experienced players such as VF and Faded Glory. Levi's makeover might so improve its performance with its non-Wal-Mart suppliers that its established business will thrive, too. It is just as likely that any gains will be offset by the competitive pressures already dissolving Levi's premium brands, and by the cannibalization of its own sales. "It's hard to see how this relationship will boost Levi's higher-end business," says Paul Farris, a professor at the University of Virginia's Darden Graduate School of Business Administration. "It's easy to see how this will hurt the higher-end business."

If Levi clothing is a runaway hit at Wal-Mart, that may indeed rescue Levi as a business. But what will have been rescued? The Signature line--it includes clothing for girls, boys, men, and women--is an odd departure for a company whose brand has long been an American icon. Some of the jeans have the look, the fingertip feel, of pricier Levis. But much of the clothing has the look and feel it must have, given its price (around $23 for adult pants): cheap. Cheap and disappointing to find labeled with Levi Strauss's name. And just five days before the cheery profit news, Levi had another announcement: It is closing its last two U.S. factories, both in San Antonio, and laying off more than 2,500 workers, or 21% of its workforce. A company that 22 years ago had 60 clothing plants in the United States--and that was known as one of the most socially reponsible corporations on the planet--will, by 2004, not make any clothes at all. It will just import them.

In the end, of course, it is we as shoppers who have the power, and who have given that power to Wal-Mart. Part of Wal-Mart's dominance, part of its insight, and part of its arrogance, is that it presumes to speak for American shoppers.

If Wal-Mart doesn't like the pricing on something, says Andrew Whitman, who helped service Wal-Mart for years when he worked at General Foods and Kraft, they simply say, "At that price we no longer think it's a good value to our shopper. Therefore, we don't think we should carry it."

Wal-Mart has also lulled shoppers into ignoring the difference between the price of something and the cost. Its unending focus on price underscores something that Americans are only starting to realize about globalization: Ever-cheaper prices have consequences. Says Steve Dobbins, president of thread maker Carolina Mills: "We want clean air, clear water, good living conditions, the best health care in the world--yet we aren't willing to pay for anything manufactured under those restrictions."

Randall Larrimore, a former CEO of MasterBrand Industries, the parent company of Master Lock, understands that contradiction too well. For years, he says, as manufacturing costs in the United States rose, Master Lock was able to pass them along. But at some point in the 1990s, Asian manufacturers started producing locks for much less. "When the difference is $1, retailers like Wal-Mart would prefer to have the brand-name padlock or faucet or hammer," Larrimore says. "But as the spread becomes greater, when our padlock was $9, and the import was $6, then they can offer the consumer a real discount by carrying two lines. Ultimately, they may only carry one line."

In January 1997, Master Lock announced that, after 75 years making locks in Milwaukee, it would begin importing more products from Asia. Not too long after, Master Lock opened a factory of its own in Nogales, Mexico. Today, it makes just 10% to 15% of its locks in Milwaukee--its 300 employees there mostly make parts that are sent to Nogales, where there are now 800 factory workers.

Larrimore did the first manufacturing layoffs at Master Lock. He negotiated with Master Lock's unions himself. He went to Bentonville. "I loved dealing with Wal-Mart, with Home Depot," he says. "They are all very rational people. There wasn't a whole lot of room for negotiation. And they had a good point. Everyone was willing to pay more for a Master Lock. But how much more can they justify? If they can buy a lock that has arguably similar qual-ity, at a cheaper price, well, they can get their consumers a deal."

It's Wal-Mart in the role of Adam Smith's invisible hand. And the Milwaukee employees of Master Lock who shopped at Wal-Mart to save money helped that hand shove their own jobs right to Nogales. Not consciously, not directly, but inevitably. "Do we as consumers appreciate what we're doing?" Larrimore asks. "I don't think so. But even if we do, I think we say, Here's a Master Lock for $9, here's another lock for $6--let the other guy pay $9."

Charles Fishman (cnfish@mindspring.com ) is a senior writer at Fast Company . Andrew Moesel provided research assistance for this story.
Copyright © 2004 Gruner + Jahr USA Publishing. All rights reserved.
Fast Company, 375 Lexington Avenue.,New York , NY 10017

Man Charged Under Patriot Act for Laser

2005-01-04T21:19:00.000-08:00

The first thing that came to mind was where in the heck someone would get a laser strong enough to hit a plane. After all, the only laser I've seen was the little pointers that piss off people when you shine it on what they're doing. So I did a little research and found this, http://www.bigha.com/sky/press/index.php

Scroll down and look at the pictures. It blew my mind.

Namaste,
Brian
www.brianbaldwin.com

Man Charged Under Patriot Act for Laser
Jan 4, 11:01 PM (ET)

By WAYNE PARRY

NEWARK, N.J. (AP) - Federal authorities Tuesday used the Patriot Act to charge a man with pointing a laser beam at an airplane overhead and temporarily blinding the pilot and co-pilot.

The FBI acknowledged the incident had no connection to terrorism but called David Banach's actions "foolhardy and negligent."

Banach, 38, of Parsippany admitted to federal agents that he pointed the light beam at a jet and a helicopter over his home near Teterboro Airport last week, authorities said. Initially, he claimed his daughter aimed the device at the helicopter, they said.

He is the first person arrested after a recent rash of reports around the nation of laser beams hitting airplanes.

Banach was charged only in connection with the jet. He was accused of interfering with the operator of a mass transportation vehicle and making false statements to the FBI, and was released on $100,000 bail. He could get up to 25 years in prison and fines of up to $500,000.

Banach's lawyer, Gina Mendola-Longarzo, said her client was simply using the hand-held device to look at stars with his daughter on the family's deck. She said Banach bought the device on the Internet for $100 for his job testing fiber-optic cable.

"He wasn't trying to harm any person, any aircraft or anything like that," she said.

The jet, a chartered Cessna Citation, was coming in for a landing last Wednesday with six people aboard when a green light beam struck the windshield three times at about 3,000 feet, according to court documents. The flash temporarily blinded both the pilot and co-pilot, but they were later able to land the plane safely, authorities said.

"Not only was the safety of the pilot and passengers placed in jeopardy by Banach's actions, so were countless innocent civilians on the ground in this densely populated area," said Joseph Billy, agent in charge of the FBI's Newark bureau.

Then, on Friday, a helicopter carrying Port Authority detectives was hit by a laser beam as its crew surveyed the area to try to pinpoint the origin of the original beam.

According to the FBI, the Patriot Act does not describe helicopters as "mass transportation vehicles." As for why Banach was not charged with some other offense over the helicopter incident, Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office, did not immediately return calls for comment.

A few hours after the helicopter was hit by the laser, FBI agents canvassed Banach's neighborhood, trying to find the source of the beams. Banach told the agents it was his daughter who shined the laser at the helicopter, according to court papers.

Similar incidents have been reported in Colorado Springs, Colo., Cleveland, Washington, Houston and Medford, Ore., raising fears that the light beams could temporarily blind cockpit crews and lead to accidents.

Last month, the FBI and the Homeland Security Department sent a memo to law enforcement agencies saying there is evidence that terrorists have explored using lasers as weapons. But federal officials have said there is no evidence any the current incidents represent a terrorist plot.

MSNBC - Mexico town bans indoor nudity

2005-01-01T00:32:00.000-08:00

Once again, I have no comment. I'll let the story speak for itself.

MSNBC - Mexico town bans indoor nudity

Mexico town bans indoor nudity
Local officials uncertain how to enforce measure
The Associated Press
Updated: 7:04 p.m. ET Dec. 22, 2004

MEXICO CITY - There's a city in Mexico that's making it illegal for citizens to be naked — inside their own homes.

Officials in the southeastern city of Villahermosa confirm that the city council has adopted a law banning indoor nudity.

A council member who opposes the idea says he's not sure how it'll be enforced.

But a councilwoman who supports it says she's confident that citizens who catch a glimpse of violators while walking past their windows will report them to police — even though the law also threatens jail for peeping Toms.

She describes the law as "zero tolerance" for "a lack of morality."
© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6747011/

Friends don't let friends drive drunk

2004-11-09T19:20:00.000-08:00

I'm at a loss for words. However, I do wonder if both of these guys will be buds after this. If they're like most of the people I know, they'll tell this story for years.

Handgun Stops Man From Driving Drunk

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (AP) - Taking to heart the credo that friends should never let friends drive drunk, a man shot out two tires on his pal's car to keep him from driving under the influence.

Alas, the move backfired when the incensed driver got out of his car, pulled a knife and attacked his friend, according to a report by Bloomington police.

Police arrested the driver, David Woodward, 39, of Indianapolis, on a preliminary charge of battery after the fight early Sunday. Woodward could not be reached for comment Monday.

Authorities said they expected to file charges within a few days against the other man, whose identity was not released, after officers found two handguns and an assault-style rifle in his home.

Woodward, who had been staying with friends in Bloomington, went out drinking with them Saturday night and then told them he wanted to drive home to Indianapolis, police said. One of the friends tried to take Woodward's car keys but grabbed the wrong ones.

Woodward got in his car and started backing out of the driveway, but his friend's car was blocking his way. The friend then retrieved a 9 mm handgun and shot out both left-side tires on Woodward's car, police said.

Americans Flock to Canada's Immigration Web Site

2004-11-05T22:32:00.000-08:00

Holy cow!!!! I've heard people talking about doing it and saw cartoons about it, but I almost fell off my chair when I read this.

Comments anyone?

Americans Flock to Canada's Immigration Web Site

By David Ljunggren

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The number of U.S. citizens visiting Canada's main immigration Web site has shot up six-fold as Americans flirt with the idea of abandoning their homeland after President Bush's election win this week.

"When we looked at the first day after the election, Nov. 3, our Web site hit a new high, almost double the previous record high," immigration ministry spokeswoman Maria Iadinardi said on Friday.

On an average day some 20,000 people in the United States log onto the Web site, www.cic.gc.ca -- a figure which rocketed to 115,016 on Wednesday. The number of U.S. visits settled down to 65,803 on Thursday, still well above the norm.

Bush's victory sparked speculation that disconsolate Democrats and others might decide to start a new life in Canada, a land that tilts more to the left than the United States.

Would-be immigrants to Canada can apply to become permanent resident, a process that often takes a year. The other main way to move north on a long-term basis is to find a job, which requires a work permit.

But please spare the sob stories.

Asked whether an applicant would be looked upon more sympathetically if they claimed to be a sad Democrat seeking to escape four more years of Bush, Iadinardi replied: "There would be no weight given to statements of feelings."

Canada is one of the few major nations with an large-scale immigration policy. Ottawa is seeking to attract between 220,000 and 240,000 newcomers next year.

"Let's face it, we have a population of a little over 32 million and we definitely need permanent residents to come to Canada," said Iadinardi. "If we could meet (the 2005) target and go above it, the more the merrier."

But right now it is too early to say whether the increased interest will result in more applications.

"There is no unusual activity occurring at our visa missions (in the United States). Having someone who intends to come to Canada is not the same as someone actually putting in an application," said Iadinardi.

"We'll only find out whether there has been an increase in applications in six months."

The waiting time to become a citizen is shorter for people married to Canadians, which prompted the birth of a satirical Web site called www.marryanamerican.ca.

The idea of increased immigration by unhappy Americans is triggering some amusement in Canada. Commentator Thane Burnett of the Ottawa Sun newspaper wrote a tongue-in-cheek guide to would-be new citizens on Friday.

"As Canadians, you'll have to learn to embrace and use all the products and culture of Americans, while bad-mouthing their way of life," he said.

Investigation into Trashed Voter Registrations

2004-10-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

Here is a disturbing story.
I don't believe the Republican party had anything to do with this. They would have thought the fallout would be too high if they were found out. I can however believe that it was done by a Republican backer.

So if you registered to vote with these people, you may or may not be able to vote in November.

I have to wonder what if anything will be done for the people who think they're registered.

Investigation into Trashed Voter Registrations

(Oct. 13) -- Federal, state, and local officials are gathering information about allegations of voter registration fraud that were first raised Channel 8 Eyewitness News.

An employee of a private voter registration firm alleges that his bosses trashed registration forms filled out by Democratic voters because they only wanted to sign up Republican voters.

The allegations have set off a political firestorm stretching from Las Vegas to Washington D.C., and beyond.

As with everything else in this election year, it's now become a political football being tossed between the two parties, with charges and countercharges, but at its core, there still remains the matter of registration forms that were ripped up and tossed in the trash.

Who did it, and why? That's what official agencies will try to determine. On Tuesday afternoon, Las Vegan Eric Russell and his girlfriend took a packet of documents to the Las Vegas FBI office but left before filing a formal complaint about what Russell says was a deliberate effort to disenfranchise local voters.

Russell worked for a company called Voters Outreach of America, along with 300 other people. He says he got into a beef with the company over a pay dispute, and witnessed his bosses ripping up registration forms that had been filed by democrats.

"They were thrown away in the trash. I grabbed them out," said Eric Russell. One of those forms belonged to Daren Gray, who was shocked to learn that the re-registration form he filled out was never turned in.

"I'm pretty mad, upset. I'm still gonna vote," said Daren Gray. Russell doesn't know how many democratic registrations were tossed in the trash but guesses the number could be very high since Voters Outreach of America operated in Las Vegas for more than two months.

The FBI confirms that it is gathering information about the case but stopped short of calling it an investigation, saying it wants to talk to Russell again. Secretary of State Dean Heller issued a statement that his office is also taking a look, trying to figure out what if any laws might have been violated.

Nevada Democrats came out swinging Wednesday. "Most disturbing is that Voter Outreach of America is being paid by the National Republican Party and we ask how can people have faith in government if a national party is involved in trickery in depriving people the right to vote," said Clark County Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates.

The Republican National Committee acknowledges that it hired Voters Outreach of America to register voters, but in a statement said it had zero tolerance for any kind of fraud.

Local party officials said there is no way the GOP would instruct the company to trash democratic registrations. However, similar problems have been alleged elsewhere. In Washoe County, the registrar says he too has turned over information to the FBI about Republican backed registration efforts.

In Oregon, the same company that was operating here has been criticized for its tactics in signing up voters. There, it used the name America Votes, which is actually the name of a Democratic organization.

Employees in Las Vegas say they too were told that the name of the company was America Votes. "They confused us with the name. They told us one thing and told the temp force something else. They told us America Votes," Russell said.

So, why has this company used the name of a Democratic organization as it signs up voters here and in Oregon? It's a question Eyewitness News is investigating.

In the meantime, Eric Russell is about to learn what it's like to stir the pot. He has already been attacked in other media accounts as a disgruntled employee who was fired and displayed a violent temper.

Russell was a disgruntled employee. He admits that if he had been paid, he probably wouldn't have talked. Even so, discrediting him doesn't explain the existence of the trashed registration forms.

Call the Clark County Election Department at 455-VOTE or click here to see if you are registered.

Here is more info on this story.
http://www.jerryesmith.com/news/index.php?itemid=139

Woman Sues Packers' Davenport

2004-10-05T18:26:00.000-07:00

I find this twisted but there are way too many things done to our fellow man/woman by our fellow man/woman that are 'so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and, further, can only be deemed atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.'
that's much worse than having someone take a dump in your closet. I'm sure it was distressing to the lady it happened to, but there are dozens of worse things happening on a daily basis. Honestly, would you rather have a NFL player crap in the closet or one of the following
Be fired so your job could be outsourced to another country so the company can save a few bucks?
Lose your house and be homeless?
Eat out of a garbage can rather than starve?
Or any number of other things. You can fill in the blank.

I'm not trying to make light of her distress, just trying to make a point that there are much worse things happening to people daily.

Woman Sues Packers' Davenport: "Woman Sues Packers' Davenport
Oct 1, 6:49 PM (ET)

MIAMI (AP) - A woman sued Green Bay Packers fullback Najeh Davenport, saying he invaded her privacy by breaking into her dorm room and defecating in her closet.

Mary McCarthy was seeking more than $15,000 in damages for emotional distress and invasion of privacy in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Florida Circuit Court.

Criminal charges were settled in October 2002 when Davenport agreed to perform community service. He denied breaking into the Barry University dormitory.

According to police, Davenport entered a dorm room at the small Catholic university in suburban Miami in the early morning hours of April 1.

Mary McCarthy, asleep in the room, told police she was startled awake by a strange sound and saw a man squatting in her closet. The man, later identified as Davenport, had defecated in her laundry basket, police said.

The suit said Davenport's conduct was 'so outrageous in character and so extreme in degree as to go beyond all possible bounds of decency and, further, can only be deemed atrocious and utterly intolerable in a civilized community.'

McCarthy's attorney and Davenport's agent did not immediately return phone messages Friday from The Associated Press seeking comment.

"

Outlook Express and Hotmail

2004-09-29T20:18:00.000-07:00

I received the following message when I tried to use Outlook Express to access my Hotmail account so I guess there's no point in keeping Hotmail any longer. I'm sorta sad too. I've had my hotmail account for awhile and I like my address. But what can I say, they increased my account size and after I got used to it, they took it away. I went to the trouble of setting up folders and filters but it was a waste of time.

So I guess I'll move all my accounts to Yahoo. After all, I'll be moving from 2 megs to 2 gigs.

Cannot access Outlook or Outlook Express from free Hotmail account
This topic is not available for MSN HotmailSympatico Mail.
To protect our users from the increasing amount of unsolicited junk e-mail or spam sent from MSN HotmailSympatico Mail accounts through Outlook and Outlook Express, we have reluctantly had to restrict the new use of Outlook and Outlook Express to subscribers.
By making this feature part of a subscription, (which requires a user to provide billing information), we can more effectively manage and put a stop to abuse of this functionality, and help protect you and others from unsolicited mail.
If you purchase a subscription service such as MSN Hotmail Plus or MSN Premium, you get access to your account from Outlook or Outlook Express, along with many other added features. To see other benefits of upgrading your MSN HotmailSympatico Mail or MSNSympatico/MSN accounts or to create a new subscription account please visit our subscription information page.
Related topics

The mayonnaise jar and the coffee

2004-09-25T20:41:00.000-07:00

Here's another story I received from a list and since it has good info and my favorite subject...coffee, I thought I'd share.

The mayonnaise jar and the coffee

When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24
hours
in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar...and the
coffee..

A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in
front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very
large and
empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He
then asked
the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into
the
jar.

He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas
between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar
was full. They
agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the
jar.
Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more
if the
jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous "yes."

The professor then produced two cups of coffee from under the table
and
poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the
empty
space between the sand. The students laughed.

"Now," said the professor, as the laughter subsided," I want you to
recognize that this jar represents your life.

The golf balls are the important things - your God, family, your
children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions -
things that if
everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would
still
be full.

The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your
house,
and your car.
The sand is everything else - the small stuff.

"If you put the sand into the jar first," he continued, "there is
no
room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If
you spend
all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have
room for
the things that are important to you.

Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Play
with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your
partner out
to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time to clean the
house
and fix the disposal."

Take care of the golf balls first, the things that really matter.
Set
your priorities. The rest is just sand."

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the coffee
represented. The professor smiled. "I'm glad you asked. It just
goes to
show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there's always
room for
a couple of cups of coffee with a friend."

Please share this with someone you care about. I JUST DID.

Web Site Takes Aim at 'Arms Race of Spin

2004-09-25T15:42:00.000-07:00

I ran across this news story and read part of the website Spinsanity.com and it seems pretty much even. This is how I want news; even, honest and not promoting either side. I know that most of the political stories I post are pro liberal, but that's just what I find that seems worth posting. It might change when John Kerry is elected. I believe he will be elected in November simply because there are too many jobs being outsourced, the Iraq war is becoming a problem with the truth being different than George Bush states in his speaches and other reasons too numerous to mention. Plus let's not forget that even though the National Guard memos were fake, the secretary stated the facts were true. Personally, if the facts were true, I could care less if they were written by the dog. It's the facts that matter. But maybe I'm naive about it.

Namaste,
Brian

Web Site Takes Aim at 'Arms Race of Spin: "www.spinsanity.com"

Web Site Takes Aim at 'Arms Race of Spin'

Sep 25, 9:53 AM (ET)

By STEVE HARTSOE

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) - Everywhere Duke University graduate student Brendan Nyhan and his partners in the political Web site spinsanity.com look, they see spin.

It comes from both sides of the political spectrum, they say - from President Bush's campaign distorting John Kerry's health care proposals to over-the-top liberal rhetoric comparing the Bush White House to Nazi Germany. It comes from U.S. Sen. Zell Miller, who says the president should be above criticism in a time of war and from Democrats who exaggerate the nation's job losses under Bush.

"We're in an arms race of spin, and John Kerry is going down the exact same road as Bush has, and that's going to lead to disaster if everyone in the political system tried to do this, Nyhan said recently.

Nyhan, Ben Fritz and Bryan Keefer are founders of spinsanity - where the slogan is "Countering rhetoric with reason" - and authors of the recent book "All the President's Spin: George W. Bush, the Media and the Truth."

Collectively, they're on a crusade to rescue a political system and media they believe are seriously off-track.

Reporters, they say, are too soft on President Bush, while the president spins his message with half-truths better than any of his predecessors.

The result: a vacuum of shallow news stories and an uninformed electorate, according to Nyhan.

The threesome and their analysis are getting big play this election year. Their work has appeared on the Web magazine salon.com and is a weekly feature on the commentary pages of The Philadelphia Inquirer. And their book has made The New York Times' paperback nonfiction best sellers' list and ranks 390th in sales on amazon.com.

Nyhan, 25, Fritz, 27, and Keefer, 26, all have past ties to liberal or Democratic politics, but believe their work on political spin is evenhanded.

In a recent posting on the Web site, Nyhan criticized "a long pattern of Democratic trickery with net job loss figures."

Kerry and his party have repeatedly presented the number of private sector jobs lost during the Bush administration - currently 1.6 million - as if they were the total net job loss during Bush's presidency, which is actually 913,000, Nyhan wrote.

He quoted Kerry as saying in a radio address earlier this month, "Over the past three years, we've lost 1.6 million jobs in the United States."

Nyhan, who is studying toward a doctorate in political science, said his discontent with political coverage peaked while working in 2000 as a spokesman for the failed U.S. Senate campaign of Nevada Democrat Ed Bernstein.

"Coming out of that election, I was frustrated with the state of political coverage in the media, and I felt like there was a void there in terms of watchdogging," he said. "I had this very vague idea for a (Web) site to try to change that."

The site launched in 2001 and was followed by last month's publication of the trio's book, which maintains that Bush has taken the spin and public relations techniques of Presidents Reagan and Clinton to a new and dangerous level.

The book has won praise from national pundits ranging from Jonathan Chait of the liberal New Republic magazine to CNN conservative Tucker Carlson.

While Nyhan, Fritz and Keefer criticize Democrats, Republicans and the media alike, they reserve special venom for Bush.

"He has added something far more destructive to the mix: a willingness to engage in day-to-day dishonesty on nearly every major issue he has addressed," they write of the president.

When Bush addressed the nation about Iraq in October 2002, the authors write, he carefully chose his words to link al Qaeda, Iraq and the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

"Each of these statements was true, but Bush's words were carefully constructed to leave a false impression," the authors write.

The book also criticizes the media for not digging deeper, particularly during the buildup to the war in Iraq. The New York Times, for one, has written that its prewar coverage of whether Iraq had weapons of mass destruction "was not as rigorous as it should have been."

The ability of the Bush White House to stay on-message and avoid leaks has left reporters with less to write about than they had during the scandal-ridden Clinton presidency, Nyhan said.

"Their message discipline is incredible, it's kept the media largely focused on what the White House wants them to be talking about," Nyhan said.

Tim Vercellotti, a political science professor at Elon University, disagrees with the assessment that Bush has gotten an easy ride from the media.

Questions about Bush's National Guard service are one example of the media pounding the president, he said - although those resulted in the recent faked-documents scandal at CBS News that has raised more questions about the media's political coverage.

Vercellotti added that some of the most critical stories about the administration aren't being written from Washington, but from Iraq and places across American where jobs have been lost during the Bush presidency.

"I think the bottom line is this: since Reagan, every White House has wanted to limit leaks and stay on message, and this White House does that better than most," Vercellotti said. "And the media and (Bush) opponents find that fairly frustrating."

---

On the Net: www.spinsanity.com

"All the President's Spin": Touchstone, 352 pages, $14.

A Day in the Life of Joe Republican

2004-09-25T11:33:00.000-07:00

I received the below e-mail from a group I'm on and thought I should share. So what are your thoughts on this? Is it right or wrong?

Namaste,
Brian

A Day in the Life of Joe Republican

Joe gets up at 6:00 AM to prepare his morning coffee.
He fills his pot with good clean drinking water because some liberal fought
for minimum water quality standards. He takes his daily medications with
his first swallow of coffee. His medications are safe to take because some
liberal fought to insure their safety and to work as advertised.

All but $10.00 of his medications are paid for by his employers medical plan
because some liberal union workers fought their employers for paid medical
insurance, now Joe gets it too. He prepares his morning breakfast, bacon and
eggs this day. Joe's bacon is safe to eat because some liberal fought for
laws to regulate the meat packing industry.

Joe takes his morning shower reaching for his shampoo; His bottle is
properly labeled with every ingredient and the amount of its contents
because some liberal fought for his right to know what he was putting on his
body and how much it contained. Joe dresses, walks outside and takes a deep
breath. The air he breathes is clean because some tree-hugging liberal
fought for laws to stop industries from polluting our air. He walks to the
subway station for his government subsidized ride to work; it saves him
considerable money in parking and transportation fees. You see, some liberal
fought for affordable public transportation, which gives everyone the
opportunity to be a contributor.

Joe begins his work day; he has a good job with excellent pay, medical
benefits, retirement, paid holidays and vacation because some liberal union
members fought and died for these working standards. Joe's employer pays
these standards because Joe's employer doesn't want his employees to call
the union. If Joe is hurt on the job or becomes unemployed he'll get a
worker compensation or unemployment check because some liberal didn't think
he should lose his home because of his temporary misfortune.

It's noon time, Joe needs to make a Bank Deposit so he can pay some bills.
Joe's deposit is federally insured by the FSLIC because some liberal wanted
to protect Joe's money from unscrupulous bankers who ruined the banking
system before the depression.

Joe has to pay his Fannie Mae underwritten mortgage and his below market
federal student loan because some stupid liberal decided that Joe and the
government would be better off if he were educated and earned more money
over his lifetime.

Joe is home from work. He plans to visit his father this evening at his farm
home in the country. He gets in his car for the drive to dad's; his car is
among the safest in the world because some liberal fought for car safety
standards. He arrives at his boyhood home. He was the third generation to
live in the house financed by Farmers Home Administration because bankers
didn't want to make rural loans. The house didn't have electricity until
some big government liberal stuck his nose where it didn't belong and
demanded rural electrification. (Those rural Republicans would still be
sitting in the dark)

He is happy to see his dad who is now retired. His dad lives on Social
Security and his union pension because some liberal made sure he could take
care of himself so Joe wouldn't have to. After his visit with dad, he gets
back in his car for the ride home. He turns on a radio talk show, the hosts keeps saying
that liberals are bad and conservatives are good. (He doesn't tell Joe that
his beloved Republicans have fought against every protection and
benefit Joe enjoys throughout his day) Joe agrees, we don't need those
big government liberals ruining our lives; after all, I'm a self made man who
believes everyone should take care of themselves, just like I have"

Branch Davidian Leader's Camaro to Be Auctioned

2004-09-23T21:02:00.000-07:00

If I had the extra money, I'd be bidding on this. Not because of who it belonged to, but because it's a 1968 427 Camaro. I had a 1968 SS Camaro for several years and loved that car. I wish I'd never sold it.

Branch Davidian Leader's Camaro to Be Auctioned

SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Reuters) - A souped up Chevy Camaro owned by David Koresh, the slain leader of the Branch Davidian religious sect, will be sold at a Texas auction this weekend, the auctioneer said on Wednesday.

The 500-horsepower Camaro was Koresh's everyday car and has dents from an FBI tank that struck it during the April 19, 1993 raid in which he and 80 Davidians died and their Waco, Texas compound burned to the ground, said Daniel Kruse of vintage car firm Kruse International.

The 1968 model "muscle" car with a powerful 427-cubic-inch motor has the words "DAVID'S 427 GO GOD" stamped on the engine block.

"This is history," Kruse said. "This is what David Koresh was all about."

Koresh, an aspiring rock and roll musician whose real name was Vernon Wayne Howell, was portrayed by federal officials and fellow Davidians as a fast-living manipulator who used his charm to control his followers.

On Feb. 28, 1993, four Drug Enforcement Administration agents were killed in a shootout with the Davidians, leading to a 51-day siege that ended with the spectacular fire.

Kruse says the car was parked in front of the compound throughout the siege, then seized by the Drug Enforcement Administration and eventually sold to a private individual who will sell it on Saturday at a classic car auction in Fredericksburg in central Texas.

Normally, the car, which is good condition other than the tank damage, would sell for $30,000 to $40,000, but $60,000 or more is possible, he said.

"With this historic connection, who knows how high it will go?"

Minn. Trooper Writes 205 Mph Ticket

2004-09-22T21:00:00.000-07:00

All I can say is I'm impressed.

Minn. Trooper Writes 205 Mph Ticket

Minn. Trooper Writes 205 Mph Ticket

Sep 22, 7:37 AM (ET)

WABASHA, Minn. (AP) - With a State Patrol airplane overhead, a motorcyclist hit the throttle and possibly set the informal record for the fastest speeding ticket in Minnesota history: 205 mph.

On Saturday afternoon, State Patrol pilot Al Loney was flying near Wabasha, in southeastern Minnesota on the Wisconsin border, watching two motorcyclists racing along U.S. Highway 61.

When one of the riders shot forward, Loney was ready with his stopwatch. He clicked it once when the motorcycle reached a white marker on the road and again a quarter-mile later. The watch read 4.39 seconds, which Loney calculated to be 205 mph.

"I was in total disbelief," Loney told the St. Paul Pioneer Press for Tuesday's editions. "I had to double-check my watch because in 27 years I'd never seen anything move that fast."

Several law enforcement sources told the newspaper that, although no official records are kept, it was probably the fastest ticket ever written in the state.

After about three-quarters of a mile, the biker slowed to about 100 mph and let the other cycle catch up. By then Loney had radioed ahead to another state trooper, who pulled the two over soon afterward.

The State Patrol officer arrested the faster rider, 20-year-old Stillwater resident Samuel Armstrong Tilley, for reckless driving, driving without a motorcycle license - and driving 140 miles per hour over the posted speed limit of 65 mph.

A search of speeding tickets written by state troopers, who patrol most of the state's highways, between 1990 and February 2004 shows the next fastest ticket was for 150 mph in 1994 in Lake of the Woods County.

Tilley did not return calls from the newspaper to his home Monday. A working number for him could not immediately be found by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

Only a handful of exotic sports cars can reach 200 mph, but many high-performance motorcycles can top 175 mph. With minor modifications, they can hit 200 mph. Tilley was riding a Honda 1000, Loney said.

Kathy Swanson of the state Office of Traffic Safety said unless Tilley was wearing the kind of protective gear professional motorcycle racers wear, he was courting death at 200 mph.

"I'm not entirely sure what would happen if you crashed at 200 miles per hour," Swanson said. "But it wouldn't be pretty, that's for sure."

---

Information from: St. Paul Pioneer Press, www.twincities.comhttp://

Death Ray Virus

2004-09-13T18:42:00.000-07:00

This virus was reported in a reputable (yeah right) news paper, the Weekly world news. I can understand a newbie falling for this but if anyone else did...I'm sorry. After all, viruses, trojans, and worms cause problems with your computer. They DO NOT blow up your system.

Death Ray (Trend Micro Hoax Encyclopedia)

A deadly new computer virus that actually causes home computers to explode in a hellish blast of glass fragments and flame has injured at least 47 people since August 15, horrifying authorities who say millions of people are risking injury, blindness or death every time they sit down to work at their PC! 'Computer viruses of the past could disable your computer, but this virus goes a step further -- and can kill you,' declared Martin Heriden, a computer expert who specializes in identifying computer viruses. 'This virus doesn't carry the usual 'markers' that enable it to be detected. It slips through the cracks, so to speak. 'It is an extremely complicated process. But suffice it to say that the virus affects the computer's hardware, creating conditions that lead to dangerous short circuits and power surges. The end result? Explosions -- powerful explosions. And millions of Internet users are at risk.' The virus, nicknamed Death Ray by experts like Heriden, surfaced in England on August 1. A 24-year-old college student was permanently blinded when his 15-inch color monitor exploded in his face. 'So how do you protect yourself? I wish I knew,' said Heriden. 'You either stop using the Internet or you take your chances until we can get a handle on this thing and get rid of it for good.

Juicing Pigeons?

2004-09-12T13:18:00.000-07:00

I know this isn't a laughing matter but, I can almost see a pigeon with bulging muscles and roid rage.
iWon - News

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's pigeon racers are being subjected to random dope tests as the sport's ruling body clamps down on suspected foul play.

The Royal Pigeon Racing Association has sent test kits to 60 race organizers across England after complaints some birds have been given performance-enhancing drugs such as anabolic steroids and synthetic hormones.

"Just like any other sport, there is a suspected small, determined band of cheats who are spoiling things for other owners," Peter Bryant, the Royal Pigeon Racing Association's general manager, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper on Thursday.

"We are hoping to send more and more of the kits to smaller organizations. It is sad that it has come to this but it is the only way we are going to know if the sport is clean."

Britain has more than 50,000 pigeon racers, known as "pigeon fanciers," breeding a million birds a year to race against each other in what can be long-distance endurance events.

Man Arrested After Leaving Small Tip

2004-09-12T12:56:00.000-07:00

Uh...I thought a tip was something you gave for good service. It would be interesting to know how this turns out.

iWon News

Man Arrested After Leaving Small Tip

Sep 10, 5:51 PM (ET)

LAKE GEORGE, N.Y. (AP) - A New York City man accused of leaving an inadequate tip at a restaurant was arrested, fingerprinted and photographed for a mug shot.

Humberto A. Taveras, 41, faces a misdemeanor charge of theft of services after he and his fellow diners argued with Soprano's Italian and American Grill managers over the legality of requiring an 18 percent tip for large parties.

"They chased us down like a bunch of criminals," Taveras said. "It killed our weekend."

Taveras and eight others had pizza at the restaurant Sunday night. He told the Glens Falls Post-Star they weren't completely satisfied with the food and left a tip of under 10 percent. Taveras said they also were not told of a mandatory 18 percent gratuity for parties of six or more and did not see notice of it on their menus.

Restaurant owner Joe Soprano said all the menus have the notice, and the waitress informed the group. He said he did not choose to pursue charges because of the money, but because Taveras' group was obnoxious.

"It's unfortunate it has come to this, but this guy was rude and abrasive. They practically threw food at us," Soprano said.

Taveras plans to fight the charge. He was issued an appearance ticket and was scheduled to appear in town court Thursday.

The arrest raises the issue of whether the gratuities that restaurants automatically tack on for serving large groups are legally enforceable debts.

Warren County Sheriff Larry Cleveland said he did not believe the issue had been litigated before in New York. He said the case could turn on whether the person is notified of the tip requirement beforehand.

"It's not a black-and-white issue," Cleveland said. "It will be very interesting to see where it goes in court."

Bizarre News Blog

2004-09-12T10:22:00.000-07:00

I've been thinking that some of my posts at my Cognigen Blog don't really fit. After all, I created that blog for business related subjects, so it isn't the place to post a story about Terror alerts being manufactured
So I created this blog for the sole purpose of posting weird, bizarre, twisted or just plain interesting.