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WOODLAND, CA - A Woodland father was arrested and faced felony driving under the influence charges after police said he accidentally drove over his 1-year-old son in a parking lot early Sunday morning, according to Woodland police investigators.
The child was transported by helicopter to the UC Davis Medical Center following the accident in the parking lot of the Masonic Lodge at 228 Palm Avenue in Woodland around 12:45 a.m. Sunday, Woodland police Sgt. Steve Sexton said.
Sexton said the child's father Alejandro Ramirez Lopez, 27, was arrested on DUI and other charges and booked into the Yolo County Jail following an investigation into the accident. The circumstances that led to the accident were not immediately known.
The boy suffered life-threatening injuries in the collision. UC Davis officials could not comment on the boy's condition Sunday afternoon.
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've seen or heard about Kanye West jumping on the stage during the 2009 MTV video awards in the middle of Taylor Swift's acceptance speech.
Taylor is no idol of mine, and I think the MTV video awards are a waste of time, but come on - let the girl have her moment in the spotlight. As a society, has all respect and decorum been forgotten about? Seems that way, after looking at the lyrics that Kanye uses in his songs. Having already done that myself, and felt dirty for hours afterwards by doing so, I really don't think it's that out of character for him.
This leads me on to another point - why does pop music have to be so freakin' lifeless? I mean, everything that's out there is lacking in substance. Frankly, it's all crap. I just can't stand to listen to it anymore. It probably says something about our culture that we are mostly aware of how shallow it all is, but we just accept it anyway. All most people want is pithy, nonsensical platitudes in our music and quick pop psychology fixes for the rest of their lives.
But I digress, so let's get back to Kanye the moronic egomaniac. Should we expect better? Probably not~ As long as idiocy is rewarded with airplay and publicity, we'll continue to get more of the same. Fame is sought after at all costs even if it's at the expense of someone, anyone (or everyone) else. Why should we even care what these people say, sing or think about? Do they have any qualifications that would make me want to value their opinion?
Of course, the same is true here - who cares what I say or do? Who I am to be giving my opinion?? I love to rant and rave about anything that crosses the circuits in my little brain - even if I'm not particularly qualified to comment on the issue.
Kanye West's outburst at the MTV VMA awards wasn't his first meltdown. Back in 07 he claimed that he had the video that should have won because he spent so much time on it. The video "Touch The Sky" didn't win. Even again, last year in 2008 you will find Kanye on you tube. A video of his ranting backstage: "Give A Black Man A Chance", he continues with "Where's Britney?", "Get Britney!". Comments to this are, "Want to Win An Award Kanye? Quit using pitch correction in your music".
On an even more interesting note, he's now been heard stating that he apparently feels like Greg Focker of the movie, "Meet The Parents". Apparently this is due to so many people who wanted him to leave after the VMA's. It was obvious why he felt like a focker. Take for instance all of the blog comments he got and all of the angry people in the audience after he interrupted T. Swift receiving her very first VMA in such a shockingly distasteful way. Taylor had even left you tube videos regarding how excited she was about even being nominated.
Kelly Clarkson, Pink, and others didn't hold back on anything either. Kelly Clarkson left a blog which said the following: ""I've seen you do some pretty s----- things, but you just keep amazing me with your tactless, ass--- ways. .... It's absolutely fascinating how much I don't like you. I like everyone"
She then continues: "What happened to you as a child?? Did you not get hugged enough? Something must have happened to make you this way and I think we're all just curious as to what would make a grown adult go on national television and make a talented artist, let alone teenager, feel like shit."
The former American Idol sweetheart was also nominated against Swift for best female video, but insists that she was still happy for her. "You weren't even up for THIS award and yet you still have a problem with the outcome. Is winning a Moon Man that much of a life goal? You can have mine if it will shut you up." Clarkson said.
"I was actually nominated in the same category that Taylor won and was excited for her. So why can't you be?? I'm not even mad at you for being an ass----. ... I just pity you because you''re a sad human being," she writes. Clarkson praised Swift: "You outsell him, [West]. That's why he's bitter. You know I love your work! Keep it up girl!" She also appreciated Beyonce and called her a "class act," for showing grace in the situation.
Later, West went on the Jay Leno Show and apologized. After all the hysteria you almost end up feeling a little sorry for Kanye in the end. A one time fashion leader, wearing all the new styles, even had his own Nike shoes, the "Air Yeezy". He made a few other fashion statements with his luxury, yet sporty/fashionable timepieces including the Bape Casio G-Shock watch. According to other sources he was also a fan of Breitling Bentley and other Breitling watches which says a lot about his sense of style.
Like all other artists who have to deal with the issues just as with all celebrities, Kanye will revive in the end and bounce back like all of the others. It will just take some time since he did basically trample on a new and very young artist. Like Katy Perry said, "F--k You, Kanye. It's like you stepped on a kitten.". The statement proves how long of a wait he truly has. Staying out of the spotlight for at least a couple of years would help. Then come back with honey instead of something bitter. Catches more bees.
About the Author:
Cyndi Whittel was an R&B and Soul music enthusiast at an early age. She grew up in Southern Indiana. She is now staying in Southwest Montana in a city named Missoula. She, her husband and two children collect Breitling replica, Concord, and other luxury watches and raise horses.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. - An off-duty Sacramento County Sheriff's deputy faces felony DUI charges a day after she drove her SUV through the front of a Starbucks coffee shop, injuring three people, according to Sacramento police.
Sacramento police spokesman Norm Leong said investigators suspect Lisa Gargano, 37, was under the influence of prescription drugs Sunday morning when she lost control of her vehicle and drove through the front of the store in Natomas, Calif.
Two people inside, a woman in her 80s and a Starbucks employee in his 20s, suffered nonlife-threatening injuries.
Witnesses said the elderly woman was pinned between the SUV and the front counter after the vehicle crashed through the bar area, Leong said. Gargano and the two victims were transported to local hospitals.
Leong said Gargano also crashed into the curb and a car in the parking lot before driving into the storefront. Gargano was arrested on a felony charge of driving under the influence, Leong said.
Gargano has been a Sacramento County Sheriff's deputy since 2001 and was assigned to the department's north patrol unit, Sacramento County Sheriff's Sgt. Tim Curran said.
Curran said Gargano was placed on paid administrative leave.
The grandmother of an infant whose toes were bitten off by a pit bull Monday is defending the child’s parents who were charged with child abuse.
She says it could have happened to anyone.
“My daughter loved her children and would do any thing for them,” Belinda Baker said of Robbie Lynn Jenkins, 20, who along with the child’s father, Tremayne Jerel Spillman, 23, remain in the Onslow County Jail charged with negligent child abuse resulting in serious physical injury and contributing to the delinquency of a minor.
Jenkins bond was set at $50,000 and Spillman’s bond is $57,500, because he was also served with outstanding 2006 warrants for attempted breaking and entering.
The child, 4-month-old Tremayne Jerel Spillman Jr., remains in stable condition at Pitt Memorial Hospital. Baker is upset that she has not been allowed to visit him.
“I haven’t been charged with anything,” she said. “I have not been arrested. Why can’t I see my grandchild?”
The 12-week-old pit bull puppy had to be euthanized so a rabies test, which requires a brain sample, could be performed. The test came back negative, Onslow County Animal Control officials said Wednesday.
Baker said the puppy is at the heart of her daughter’s legal troubles because the Onslow County Sheriff’s Department only arrested her because of whom the puppy belonged to.
Jenkins and Spillman were watching the dog for a neighbor, Aaron Watkins, 36, who was in the Onslow County Jail under a $7,500 bond at the time after being charged with possession of a firearm by a felon, discharging a firearm and possession of marijuana.
Baker said Jenkins and Spillman barely knew Watkins, but Spillman can clearly be heard telling a dispatcher “it’s my buddy’s puppy” while on the phone to 911 Monday morning, according to the emergency recording obtained by The Daily News.
Baker said authorities do not like Watkins so they charged Spillman and her daughter.
She said her daughter was struggling to provide for her three children but was a good parent.
“She did everything she could for them,” she said. “When they lived in Pennsylvania, my daughter would carry her kids on her back in the snow to get them to doctor’s appointments.”
Baker said her daughter is a cancer survivor who is taking Xanex and sleep-aid medications. Neighbors in the Murrill Hill Road mobile home park told reporters earlier in the week that Jenkins had locked the puppy in the bathroom before going to sleep and one of her two other children must have let it out during the night. The infant was on a foldout couch in the living room. The dog nibbled on the child’s left foot until all five toes were gone.
During the hectic Monday morning 911 call, Spillman interrupted a dispatcher trying to explain how to stop the child’s bleeding to tell her “ma’am, we’re not bad parents.”
“I’m about to kill the dog,” Spillman says at one point during the call with the baby crying in the background. The dispatcher discourages him from hurting the animal.
Baker said her daughter was on heavy medication and she had a reason not to wake up when the infant cried out, but she was unsure why Spillman did not respond to the child’s cries.
Authorities sent Spillman and Jenkins to Onslow Memorial Hospital to have blood samples drawn. Blood tests are often used by law enforcement to determine what types of drugs a person has been taking.
Search warrants for the couple’s Murrill Hill Road home remain sealed.
Jenkins and Spillman went from the hospital to the Sheriff’s Department on Monday, Baker said. They were not on the run like the authorities tried to make it sound, she said.
The entire situation has been made into a spectacle by the media, Baker said, adding that her family was hurt by comments made by readers on local news sites.
For now, Jenkins and Spillman’s other two children are being cared for by one of Jenkins’ sisters.
Spillman and Jenkins are scheduled for a preliminary court hearing Sept. 22.
A WOMAN is suing an Egyptian hotel claiming her daughter got pregnant - from using the swimming pool.
Magdalena Kwiatkowska's 13-year-old returned to Poland from their holiday expecting a baby.
Magdalena believes the teenager conceived from stray sperm after taking a dip in the hotel's mixed pool. She is now seeking compensation from the hotel.
A travel industry source said: "The mother is adamant that her daughter didn't meet any boys while she was there.
"She is determined to go ahead with the case."
Tourist authorities in Warsaw, Poland, have confirmed they received the bizarre complaint.
Pair had a huge argument right after civil ceremony, wanted annulment
BERLIN - A Polish couple living in Germany fell out after tying the knot and decided to end their marriage on the same day.
"He said he never wanted to see her again and wanted an immediate annulment, and she said the same thing," a spokesman for police in the northern city of Hanover said Thursday.
Right after the civil ceremony Wednesday, the 50-year-old man began rowing with his bride and tried to cut her hair with a kitchen knife, police said.
The 34-year-old woman called police, who issued the man with a restraining order, which he readily accepted, police said.
Two attempts at a rapprochement later that evening by telephone ended in more shouted exchanges before the man went to spend his wedding night in a local shelter for homeless people.
Japanese analysis of intelligence reportedly suggests launch in early July
msnbc.msn.com updated 8:38 a.m. ET,Thurs., June 18, 2009
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea may fire a long-range ballistic missile toward Hawaii in early July, a Japanese newspaper reported Thursday, as Russia and China urged the regime to return to international disarmament talks on its rogue nuclear program.
The missile, believed to be a Taepodong-2 with a range of up to 4,000 miles, would be launched from North Korea's Dongchang-ni site on the northwestern coast, said the Yomiuri daily, Japan's top-selling newspaper. It cited an analysis by the Japanese Defense Ministry and intelligence gathered by U.S. reconnaissance satellites.
The missile launch could come between July 4 and 8, the paper said.
While the newspaper speculated the Taepodong-2 could fly over Japan and toward Hawaii, it said the missile would not be able to hit Hawaii's main islands, which are about 4,500 miles from the Korean peninsula.
A spokesman for the Japanese Defense Ministry declined to comment on the report. South Korea's Defense Ministry and the National Intelligence Service — the country's main spy agency — said they could not confirm it.
Tension on the divided Korean peninsula has spiked since the North conducted its second nuclear test on May 25 in defiance of repeated international warnings. The regime declared Saturday it would bolster its nuclear programs and threatened war in protest of U.N. sanctions taken for the nuclear test.
U.S. officials have said the North has been preparing to fire a long-range missile capable of striking the western U.S. In Washington on Tuesday, Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said it would take at least three to five years for North Korea to pose a real threat to the U.S. west coast.
President Barack Obama and South Korean President Lee Myung-bak met in Washington on Tuesday for a landmark summit in which they agreed to build a regional and global "strategic alliance" to persuade North Korea to dismantle all its nuclear weapons. Obama declared North Korea a "grave threat" to the world and pledged that the new U.N. sanctions on the communist regime will be aggressively enforced.
In Seoul, Vice Unification Minister Hong Yang-ho told a forum Thursday that the North's moves to strengthen its nuclear programs is "a very dangerous thing that can fundamentally change" the regional security environment. He said the South Korean government is bracing for "all possible scenarios" regarding the nuclear standoff.
The independent International Crisis Group think tank, meanwhile, said the North's massive stockpile of chemical weapons is no less serious a threat to the region than its nuclear arsenal.
It said the North is believed to have between 2,500 and 5,000 tons of chemical weapons, including mustard gas, phosgene, blood agents and sarin. These weapons can be delivered with ballistic missiles and long-range artillery and are "sufficient to inflict massive civilian casualties on South Korea."
"If progress is made on rolling back Pyongyang's nuclear ambitions, there could be opportunities to construct a cooperative diplomatic solution for chemical weapons and the suspected biological weapons program," the think tank said in a report released Thursday.
It also called on the U.S. to engage the North in dialogue to defuse the nuclear crisis, saying "diplomacy is the least bad option." The think tank said Washington should be prepared to send a high-level special envoy to Pyongyang to resolve the tension.
In a rare move, leaders of Russia and China used their meetings in Moscow on Wedsnesday to pressure the North to return to the nuclear talks and expressed "serious concerns" about tension on the Korean peninsula.
The joint appeal appeared to be a signal that Moscow and Beijing are growing impatient with Pyongyang's stubbornness. Northeastern China and Russia's Far East both border North Korea, and Pyongyang's unpredictable actions have raised concern in both countries.
After meetings at the Kremlin, Chinese President Hu Jintao joined Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in urging a peaceful resolution of the Korean standoff and the "swiftest renewal" of the now-frozen talks involving their countries as well as North and South Korea, Japan and the United States.
"Russia and China are ready to foster the lowering of tension in Northeast Asia and call for the continuation of efforts by all sides to resolve disagreements through peaceful means, through dialogue and consultations," their statement said.
The comments — contained in a lengthy statement that discussed other global issues — included no new initiatives, but it appeared to be carefully worded to avoid provoking Pyongyang. In remarks after their meetings, Medvedev made only a brief reference to North Korea, and Hu did not mention it.
South Korea's Lee said Wednesday in Washington that was essential for China and Russia to "actively cooperate" in getting the North to give up its nuclear program, suggesting the North's bombs program may trigger a regional arms race.
"If we acknowledge North Korea possessing nuclear programs, other non-nuclear countries in Northeast Asia would be tempted to possess nuclear weapons and this would not be helpful for stability in Northeast Asia," Lee said in a meeting with former U.S. officials and Korea experts, according to his office.
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A 49-year-old man impersonated his dead 77-year-old mother in paperwork -- and sometimes in person -- for six years, collecting more than $100,000 in her name, according to the Brooklyn district attorney.
Thomas Parkin pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges including grand larceny and criminal impersonation.
The man sometimes dressed as his mother and, with an accomplice, collected more than $52,000 in Social Security benefits and another $65,000 in city rent subsidies, prosecutors said.
Thomas Parkin and a man accused of being his accomplice, Mhilton Rimolo, 47, pleaded not guilty Wednesday to a sweeping 47-count grand jury indictment that includes charges of perjury, grand larceny, conspiracy, forgery and criminal impersonation, Brooklyn District Attorney Charles J. Hynes told reporters.
Their bail was set at $1 million each. If convicted, they could each face up to 25 years in prison.
"These defendants ran a multiyear campaign of fraud that was unparalleled in its scope and brazenness," Hynes said.
Authorities allege Parkin impersonated his late mother, Irene Prusik, after her death in September 2003.
On April 29, surveillance video captured Parkin posing as his mother to renew her driver's license at a state Department of Motor Vehicles office in Brooklyn, authorities said. Parkin was wearing a blonde wig, a red sweater, sunglasses and a scarf around the neck, authorities said.
Next to him was Rimolo, who was pretending to be her nephew, authorities said.
"[Parkin] did a pretty good job of covering himself up so that those that didn't know what to look for wouldn't be able to see anything," said Michael Vecchione, chief of the Brooklyn district attorney's rackets division.
According to the indictment against him, the source of the fraud dates as far back as 1996, when Prusik ceded the deed of a building she owned in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn to her son. By 2000, he had gotten into debt after purchasing properties with business partner Rimolo, "presumably for speculation," Hynes said.
Parkin forged his mother's death certificate when she died, writing a false Social Security number and birth date, according to the indictment against him. He began collecting her Social Security and also began filing lawsuits in his mother's name against a man who had bought under foreclosure the building she had owned, the indictment said.
Authorities launched an investigation in 2008 after the man who was the target of the lawsuits involving the disputed building claimed that Prusik and Parkin were filing false affidavits against him.
"Unknown to [the man] -- and in fact, anybody -- Irene Prusik, at the time that these actions were instituted, had died," Hynes said.
Hynes said that initially, investigators could find no evidence of Prusik's death, but a deeper inquiry led them to the forged death certificate.
Throughout the investigation, authorities said they had two taped meetings with Parkin -- one in which he was himself and one, at the disputed building, where he dressed as his mother. Rimolo also was at both meetings, claiming to be Prusik's nephew, authorities said.
Hynes said authorities were surprised when Parkin and Rimolo agreed to have investigators meet Prusik at the disputed building. There, Hynes said, "the case went from strange to truly bizarre."
When investigators arrived for the May 11 meeting, they saw Parkin dressed as his mother, wearing a red sweater, lipstick and an oxygen mask, authorities said. Authorities said Parkin used the oxygen mask to support his earlier claims that his mother was too sick to speak.
Parkin was arrested Tuesday.
"I held my mother when she was dying and breathed in her last breath, so I am my mother," Parkin told authorities during his arrest, according to a law enforcement source close to the investigation.
When asked by CNN's Susan Candiotti if he's seen any case like this before, Hynes said, "Not anything close. For creativity, this comes out number one."
This is a video taken over seas somewhere that they use electric trains that have the high voltage lines that run over head. See what happens when this guy touches the lines...One man in India Blames everyone standing on the roof of an express train, he demands something and blames them he will hold the High Voltage Electric Wire Running over the Train if his demand will not be accepted. Actually he was travelling in the Mahananda Express, en route from Delhi to Alipurduar. He had embarked upon the train from Aligarh.In his Procrastination he holds the wire and within fraction of seconds the High voltage passes the body and he dies with a huge sparks and fire.
Stephen Dent was perceived, above all, to be a family man, playing ice hockey with his two sons on the weekends, vacationing in Palm Beach and Nantucket.
Sugar Daddies.
(ABC News Photo Illustration)
But behind closed doors, the 54-year-old Greenwich, Conn., multimillionaire was a "sugar daddy" and "slave master" who courted his "sugar babies" online, lavishing them with thousands of dollars in exchange for companionship and kinky sex, according to court records.
But his sex life turned sour because he was repeatedly extorted over his flings with numerous sugar babies on the dating website SeekingArrangement.com, according to court records. Now police are charging a young couple with blackmailing Dent.
Dating sites like Wealthymen.com, Sugardaddy.com, Establishedmen.comand others can be fertile ground for con artists who take advantage of men with deep pockets, like Dent.
"The news is unbelievable," said one family acquaintance who did not want to be identified. "I am completely blown away by this. I've always seen him with his wife and children all the time and, honestly, he seems to be a real family man."
"Anybody on the outside would say his life is perfect," the acquaintance told ABCNews.com.
Just this week, the Greenwich Times exposed Dent and the five-month long investigation by Greenwich police and the FBI. Court records revealed that Dent -- a New England blue-blood and worth $100 million -- was the "nameless victim" in at least three sexual blackmail plots, paying out more than $200,000 to keep his online sex life secret.
In this affluent community where Dent owns his own investment company and a $4.5 million home on a private cul-de-sac, news travels fast in the country club circles. Now, he is even ridiculed by some neighbors for driving a gaudy orange car.
"Every time I see it, all I can think about is a guy who thinks with his penis would drive it," she told ABCNews.com. "It's sort of a visceral reaction."
"It's a Corvette-ish looking thing in a loud and ugly shade of orange that you can't help but notice," said one of Dent's neighbors, who did not want her name used.
Sugar Daddies Have 'No Time for Games'
Dent's fall from grace began in the online dating community SeekingArrangement.com, where rich men who "have no time for games" can "mentor or spoil" a "personal secretary, secret lover or student."
That arrangement is mostly financial, attracting sugar babies who are "attractive, ambitious and young" -- college students, aspiring actresses or "someone just starting out."
There, the average age of a sugar daddy is 45 and a female sugar baby is 26, according to company spokesman Stephan Smith.
Law enforcement experts say Internet dating sites can be rife with predators.
"This guy has two vulnerabilities," said Kenneth Lanning, a former FBI agent. "He has a sexual need and they turned on him. That is the foundation and fundamental building block of all con schemes."
mashable.com 20-year-old Erika Scoliere of Campton Hills, Illinois has been awaiting trial for reckless homicide and aggravated DUI since she was allegedly involved in a July 2007 crash that killed a motorcyclist. Now, thanks to being reckless on Facebook(and, some would argue, continued poor offline judgment), the rest of her time spent awaiting trial is about to get a whole lot more restrictive.
As a condition of her bail following the 2007 incident, Scoliere was ordered by a judge not to consume alcohol or be around people consuming alcohol — meaning no parties or visits to the bar (readers will notice that Scoliere isn’t of legal drinking age in the United States, so none of that should have been very difficult). But Scoliere found herself back in court this week after police found recent photos of her on Facebook drinking with college buddies in Ohio, where she goes to school.
“It appears the defendant is having a grand old time drinking tequila,” said Judge Thomas Mueller, during a hearing on Wednesday, reports the Chicago Tribune, before ordering Scoliere to wear an ankle monitoring device that can detect alcohol via perspiration and alert authorities if she violates bail again. She will have to pay the county $15 per day to wear the ankle bracelet.
While it is hard to feel bad for Scoliere since her actions allegedly led to the death of an innocent motorist, the case also highlights a lesson that more people are starting to learn: you have to be careful what you share on social networks. We’ve heard plenty of reports before that Facebook can get you dumped, get you fired, and even can get you evicted.
But Facebook and other social networks are also being used by law enforcement to track down and keep tabs on criminals and alleged law breakers. This isn’t the first time, and it certainly won’t be the last. On one level, law enforcement peeping in on our social network profiles does have a certain “Big Brother” feel to it, but on another, when the result is potentially curbing drunk driving fatalities, it is hard to argue against. And of course, anything you make public on the Internet is fair game for anyone to look at, and that’s something people have to be aware of.
Shock over reports of actor David Carradine's sudden death in Thailand was compounded when officials there said he was found hanging with a rope tied around his neck and genitals. Those circumstances have led to speculation that the "Kill Bill" star's death was a case of accidental auto-erotic asphyxiation — death while masturbating and restricting the flow of oxygen to the brain as a means to intensify orgasm.
While the practice may sound bizarre, it is not rare, said Dr. John Hunsaker, associate chief medical examiner for Kentucky, who has studied auto-erotic asphyxiation. He said coroners in just about every county in the U.S. see at least a case a year, although there aren't up-to-date numbers.
The practice is popular among bondage and sado-masochism communities, said Kathryn Ando. The board member of San Francisco’s Center for Sex and Culture did her doctoral thesis on the topic of so-called “breath play”. In her study, she surveyed 350 people who used some form of air restriction. Despite the possible dangers, she said, practitioners can be highly motivated in pursuit of a more intense sexual experience. “It can be trust building and still induce fear in partners,” she said. She meant “fear” in a good way.
While most of her 350 subjects practiced breath play with a partner, the physiological mechanism is no different when one masturbates alone. The idea is to use a noose of some kind, a plastic bag, or a gas like propane, to restrict oxygen from reaching the brain. The induced hypoxic state creates a sense of euphoria that can also intensify orgasm. Some also bind their penises with cord, as Carradine reportedly did, to restrict blood flow and prolong an erection.
The death of the 72-year-old actor, who rose to fame with the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu," immediately triggered comparisons to the 1997 death of Michael Hutchence, lead singer of the Australian band INXS. Hutchence was found hanging in a Sydney hotel and while his death was ruled a suicide, his girlfriend and mother of his child, Paula Yates, insisted it was auto-erotic asphyxiation. In 1994, British officials ruled the death of Parliament member and former BBC reporter Stephen Milligan to be consistent with an auto-erotic misadventure.
According to Hunsaker, auto-erotic asphyxia deaths typically occur because somebody made a miscalculation. Often, he said, the apparatus is some form of a noose “with various components. Once the individual appreciates that it is getting to be dangerous, they can kick it, or pull on it to release the noose. But sometimes the apparatus is incorrectly designed, the release mechanism did not work, or the individual lost consciousness before he or she could do anything.”
In a study of 16 Kentucky deaths between 1993 and 2001, Hunsaker and colleagues found that of 13 victims who still had a ligature around their necks at the time of autopsy, 11 of them had configured a slipknot meant to be tugged to release the pressure. One end of the rope was then tied around the wrist in two of these people in an attempt to create a fail-safe mechanism.
At least three subjects had used the technique over a long period of time until something went wrong.
Families grapple with stigma For families of people who die from auto-erotic asphyxiation, or AEA, the shock of grief is compounded by disbelief.
“The thing that’s probably the hardest is that you learn about a side of a person who didn’t know about,” said Keith Clarke, 40, of Raleigh, N.C.
His brother, Kevin, a salesman, died in 2007 at age 34. Like Carradine, Kevin Clarke was discovered naked in a hotel room. He had used a belt tied to a closet rail to choke himself while viewing pornography. Police told the Clarke family to say the death was a suicide, in order to avoid stigma. At the funeral home, the staff said they’d seen several similar cases already that year, Keith Clarke said.
He and his wife, Lisa, 41, decided to speak out about the issue, even creating a Web site for friends and family members of other victims: www.hark4KC.com.
“People who practice AEA have so much shame around them and we wanted to help do away with that shame,” she said.
Roots in 'choking game' Some auto-erotic deaths have roots in the “choking game,” a blackout game often played by adolescents who strangle themselves looking for a “woozy, floaty feeling,” said Kate Leonardi. She’s a St. Augustine, Fla., woman who created the DB Foundation in 2006 to raise awareness about the issue after the death of her 11-year-old son, Dylan.
As they mature, teens and adults may add a sexual component to the ritual, often in hopes of enhancing the climax, Leonardi said.
But deaths related to autoeroticism can be especially difficult for families left behind.
“It’s got a shame stigma to it, that there was some sort of perverse, underground activity going on,” she said.
“I think it makes it increasingly more difficult.”
Families often feel a combination of anger and shame at older victims. Unlike children, teens and adults know they’re taking a risk for the sake of a sexual thrill.
Cases have been reported around the world, including Turkey, Bulgaria and Canada, among other places. Most victims are men.
In Canada, one report notes, “a 34-year-old man died due to asphyxia, secondary to body wrapping in the largest and most complex plastic bag ever involved in a published case of auto-erotic death.”
The taboo, yet tragic-comic, aspect of auto-erotic choking means that many people who do it never speak of it and so have no safe outlet other than their own makeshift means. This is why, according to Ando, clients often request breath play from dominatrices.
But breath play is more common than most of us think. Many couples, for example, may try to create the same effect, Ando said “but are not calling it breath play. One of the points in my study was that in talking to people who teach human sexuality in colleges, their students say ’Oh my God, that is sick! I would never do that. I just like to choke my girlfriend.’”
But even when breath play involves a partner, she said, it can still be dangerous, even exacerbating unknown medical problems. “That’s when you get people saying, ‘Oh, I didn’t realize my partner had a heart condition.’”
Cops: Man Used Craigslist To Hire Rapist N.C. Husband Placed Ad Seeking Someone To Rape His Wife, Police Say
KANNAPOLIS, N.C., June 4, 2009 cbsnews.com (AP) A North Carolina husband used the online advertising service Craigslist to enlist a man to rape his wife in the couple's home, police said Wednesday.
The 25-year-old Kannapolis man faces first-degree rape and other charges. The Associated Press, which generally does not identify victims of sexual assault, is not naming the man to avoid identifying his wife.
His wife called 911 early Sunday morning and said a man with a knife raped her in the bedroom of their home in Kannapolis, about 25 miles northeast of Charlotte, authorities said. Her husband was in the room, police said. Their two young children were also home, but were unaware of what was happening, authorities said.
The husband sought someone in the ads to come to his home and have sex with his wife using "scare tactics," police said. It was without her knowledge or consent, police said.
Authorities are still investigating the identity of the man who attacked the woman and it wasn't known if the husband paid him to do it. The woman was not seriously injured, but was treated at a hospital and released.
Investigators turned their suspicions to the husband after his statement didn't add up and because there were no signs the attacker broke into the home. The husband was jailed Wednesday on $200,000 bond.
"We share the public's horror that such a crime was committed, and our heart goes out to the victim," said Craigslist spokeswoman Susan MacTavish Best.
The online classified site had been criticized for its "erotic services" section, which Craigslist agreed to do away with last month after a Boston medical student, deemed "the Craigslist killer," was charged with killing a woman he met on the site.
A Kansas City, Mo., man was sentenced last month to 29 years in prison for raping a woman who advertised in the section.
Dominos has been the latest brand to take a bit of a shoeing in the social media echo chamber, following the amazingly fast spread of this video, showing two animals in a Dominos kitchen treating customers to some extra “goodies” on their sandwiches.
I’ve had my run-ins with Dominos. In late 2006 I convinced myself I was going to die in my sleep against a toilet, thanks to my first ever dose of food poisoning. No prizes for guessing where I’d bought my pizza. Still, they’ve since been forgiven and I’ve been able to look at their recent crisis objectively. After I’d finished laughing.
Xzibit, a leading (and excellent) West Coast rapper and regular Twitter user, picked some choice and fitting language to share this with his 13,804 followers. Not a good thing to have so many people put off your brand in less than 140 characters – and that’s without all the retweets!
Any huge food brand like Dominos could’ve been the victim of this issue, and in a sense they can be considered unlucky to have employed this pair of socially stunted morons. More interesting, though, has been watching Dominos’ response.
I covered this for our internal newsletter and my tone probably suggested that Dominos had been a little slow in responding. I still think that’s partly true, but the fact is they’ve taken some very appropriate action.
Dominos quickly identified the restaurant shown in the YouTube clip, and dismissed the staff involved. There is also now a pair of snot-covered felony warrants out for their arrests. Pwn3d.
With that all sorted, Dominos took their response to the exact place where the crisis began. I heartily endorse this practice.
They have posted a video (below) on YouTube of Dominos USA president Patrick Doyle. The tone of the video is just right. Doyle’s statement is sombre, regretful and emphatic. He reassures us that the two scumbags in the video have been severely dealt with and have more to come, that the restaurant has been scrubbed from top to bottom, that 99.9% of Dominos staff aren’t subhuman pondlife, and that Dominos is very, very sorry.
Nicely done. And there’s a twist in the tale too, a piece of PR spin so brilliant that I couldn’t help but be impressed. Doyle refers to the incident as a YouTube “hoax”, and later says that the two employees in the clip claimed that to be so.
In doing this, Doyle, without saying it’s all a storm in a teacup, just sews the seeds of doubt – maybe these were just two wayward, misguided individuals having a laugh. Maybe there were no boogers.
With their response – which could have been a little faster – Dominos have simultaneously fully and comprehensively addressed a problem and introduced the possibility that it wasn’t as serious as it sounded. And the video is titled in such a way that it will pop up in any search for the original vid. Nice work.
(AP) The push to legalize medical marijuana in Illinois has taken a big step forward.
The Illinois Senate voted 30-28 in favor of a plan to let sick people use pot for relief from diseases like cancer, AIDS and multiple sclerosis.
The bill now goes to the Illinois House, where a committee passed a medical marijuana measure earlier this year.
Bruce Mirken, spokesman for the Marijuana Policy Project, says that if the bill is eventually signed into law, Illinois would join 13 other states that have such measures in place.
Critics argue allowing medical marijuana would make it harder for police to enforce other marijuana laws and would be a step toward wholesale legalization of pot.
SPRINGFIELD---Marijuana user Lucie MacFarlane said she munched a ginger snap cannabis cookie before talking to lawmakers at the Capitol today.
Describing her condition, the 46-year-old Joliet woman testified at a House committee that she illegally uses marijuana to relieve the constant pain she suffers from neurofibromatosis and from a surgery that fused her spine incorrectly.
The tale was enough to get the panel to advance legislation that would legalize the use of medical marijuana in Illinois.
The bill passed the Democratic-controlled House Human Services Committee on a 4-3 party-line vote. It's the first time such legislation has cleared a House panel. It now goes to the full House for consideration, so it's far from becoming law.
Rep. Lou Lang (D-Skokie), who sponsored the legislation, said he wants to create a three-year test program allowing anyone with a “debilitating medical condition” to have seven dried cannabis plants and two ounces of dried usable cannabis to relieve the pain and nausea associated with conditions like cancer, HIV or Crohn’s disease.
The Illinois Senate today voted to approve legislation that would legalize the use of marijuana for medical reasons for some seriously ill patients with a physician’s permission.
The 30-28 vote, with one senator voting present, means the measure now goes to the House for consideration in the waning days of the spring session.
“It is not intended to be a stealth legalization,” said sponsoring Sen. William Haine (D-Alton), a former Madison County prosecutor. “It is a program that’s enacted for the compassionate use by people who have been recommended by a doctor.”
Haine said similar legislation has been approved in all 13 states where it was on the ballot, regardless of partisan leanings. In an effort to encourage votes, the legislation would create a program that would last for three years and require renewal.
But Sen. Dale Righter (R-Charleston) said the legislation was loosely drafted and did not require criminal background checks for people who handle marijuana or grow it under license from the state Department of Public Health.
The Senate defeated similar legislation two years ago
OOPS - DUMB ASS
Want Weed, Visit Your County Sheriff's Office? Illinois County Sheriff Arrested for Dealing Marijuana
With all the ongoing chatter about legalizing marijuana, it appears that some government authorities might be thinking they'll go ahead and skip a few steps ahead and join the pot growing and distribution process. First, CNN reported about the "government's stash" of pot kept on the campus of the University of Mississippi, and now it turns out that if you lived in Gallatin County, Illinois, the person to see about buying an ounce of pot might have been your local sheriff.
Yep, according to the AP, federal authorities arrested Gallatin County Sheriff Raymond Martin yesterday on a number of charges of distributing marijuana and carrying a firearm while trafficking drugs (the latter charge is just a tad ironic, assuming this was his service weapon).
However, the federal offense of carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime is actually a very serious offense which is commonly thrown into the mix in cases involving drug dealers. Lawmakers know well that the presence of guns at drug deals, houses, etc. is no surprise, and for this reason even just having one nearby can be enough to have these charges stick. That said, a police officer being in uniform with his service weapon, while also dealing drugs, does add a twist to the issue.
Still, if the allegations being tossed his way are true, Sheriff Raymond Martin's firearm might not have just happened to be innocently holstered, nor was he simply doing rounds and doling out pot on the side. Per the Evanville Courier & Press, a confidential informant for the DEA, who reportedly provided the basis for the allegations in the complaint, indicated the corrupt sheriff wanted to corner the local marijuana market:
"Martin then told the [informant] that there were other individuals selling marijuana in Gallatin county and that Martin was gonna try and put the fear of God in him and see if we can get them out of the business."
Then, after the informant told Sheriff Martin didn't want to take part in further activities:
"...Martin withdrew his service revolver from its holster, pointed it towards the [informant], and told the [informant] that there was no 'getting out.'"
So, in short, it might end up not being a stretch at all for a judge to find the roles of officer and dealer inseparable. As noted, the weapons charges really add weight to any potential prison time. According to a news release by the federal prosecutor's office in Southern Illinois, while the three drug charges might lead up to a maximum of 5 years each, it's the weapons charges with their hefty mandatory minimum sentences and maximum of life imprisonment that really could end up being the serious dose of justice for Sheriff Martin
ST. LOUIS — Sheriff Raymond M. Martin has been the law for nearly 20 years in a struggling southern Illinois county. But federal prosecutors say he's been breaking it lately by peddling pounds of pot, some seized by his own department, often in uniform and from his patrol vehicle.
Authorities on Monday led away a handcuffed Martin, 46, from his small Shawneetown office after his arrest on federal drug trafficking charges accusing him of supplying a dealer he threatened to kill when that man said he wanted out. The Gallatin County sheriff also allegedly pledged to use his authority to shut down rival drug traffickers.
"It's almost beyond belief," said Doug Maier, the sheriff in neighboring White County. Maier called Martin "a pretty low-key guy."
He continued, "Obviously, there was a different side that I've never observed."
Martin was jailed pending a Wednesday detention hearing on three counts of marijuana distribution and two counts of carrying a firearm, his service weapon, while trafficking drugs. He could not be reached for comment Tuesday.
A woman who answered his home telephone refused to comment, and Martin's court-appointed public defender did not immediately return messages.
Martin's job status was unclear Tuesday. Calls to Gallatin County Chairman Randy Drone rang unanswered, while calls to the sheriff's department rolled over to a neighboring dispatch center, which regularly answers calls when no deputies are in Martin's office. No one would say the exact size of Martin's department, other than to say it's small.
Martin's popularity in the county surrounding Shawneetown _ boasting little more than a courthouse, a couple of convenience stores and Rudy's barbecue restaurant _ swept the Democrat to re-election four times since he took office in 1990.
A criminal complaint accuses him of distributing more than two pounds of marijuana between April 27 and May 11. But an affidavit by Glenn Rountree, an investigator with the Drug Enforcement Administration, suggests Martin's dealings were many times that total.
In a blow-by-blow account painting a picture of a good cop gone bad, Rountree wrote that Martin hatched a marijuana-dealing scheme in November with the drug dealer who later got cold feet.
At that time, Martin handed the dealer, unidentified in court papers, two pounds of pot and asked if the man could "get rid of that" for the sheriff, who promised he'd use his power to protect him if he ever got caught selling. If the dealer didn't comply, Rountree wrote, Martin said he could "make up" a crime against him.
From then until early last month, Martin brought 1- or 2-pound amounts of marijuana on average once every couple of weeks to a rural, secluded meeting spot, Rountree wrote. But the sheriff twice brought 10 pounds and brought 20 pounds another time, according to the affidavit.
The meetings between the two were arranged by cell phone, with the dealer using vague code words Martin supplied to confuse possible eavesdroppers, including investigators, Rountree wrote.
The dealer grew unsettled over time and wanted out, but Martin would have none of that, Rountree wrote. At least twice, the sheriff pulled his service revolver and insisted emphatically to the dealer that making him "disappear" would be "that easy," according to the affidavit.
Rountree suggested the twitchy dealer went to investigators April 9. Over the next several weeks, authorities taped the dealer's conversations with Martin and tracked the sheriff's county-issued Ford Expedition.
At least once, Rountree alleged, the sheriff gave the informant marijuana seeds, saying he could pare his debt to the sheriff by growing pot plants for him.
And the sheriff dispensed advice, cautioning the man that it'd be "silly" for the dealer to get drunk or use pills and "mess it up" because "we got a good thing going."
"(You) won't even have to work and stuff," Rountree said Martin once told the snitch.
Such profit could be particularly attractive in Gallatin County, where the population has slowly eroded in recent decades as many of the region's coal mines closed. Its 9 percent unemployment rate is typical in the region. The median household income, according to 2000 Census Bureau figures, is $26,118.
Martin's county salary was not immediately available, but he received his $6,500 annual stipend from the state this month.
The area received statewide attention in 2005, when a story by the (Arlington Heights) Daily Herald noted that the tiny county with little violent crime was getting more homeland security funding per person _ more than $300,000 _ than any other in Illinois.
The article noted Martin spent "most days battling a thriving methamphetamine trade."
Allegations that Martin himself was dabbling in drugs left locals rattled, in many cases leaving them publicly reticent Tuesday. Still, many there remained in Martin's camp.
"I thought the world of that boy," said Roberta Tarrence, a 78-year-old widow with a quilting business near the county courthouse. "I've known him all of his life, and I know he was a good sheriff."
Associated Press - May 27, 2009 3:44 PM ET wrex.com
CHICAGO (AP) - Drew Peterson has broadcast his trademark - and seemingly inappropriate - sense of humor live from jail.
The former cop, suspected in his third wife's death, called collect to WLS Radio's Mancow & Cassidy show on Wednesday and offered snippets of a comedy routine he's working on.
Peterson, who once proposed a "Win a Date With Drew" contest, offered a jail version called "Win a Conjugal Visit with Drew."
He also joked about prison showers, his legal fees and his "bling" handcuffs, saying humor is how he deals with stress.
Peterson is being held on $20 million bond on charges of first-degree murder in Kathleen Savio's death. He's also a suspect in his fourth wife Stacy Peterson's disappearance.
Peterson denies any wrongdoing.
THIS WILL BE THE ONLY WAY HE WILL GET A CONJUGAL VISIT!
A drunk driver fell out of his truck and was run over as it rolled away when he tried to use his key to enter a gated community in Coolbaugh Township, according to Pocono Mountain Regional Police.
Raymond Vangeldren, 52, of Tobyhanna, was leaning out of his pickup truck to use his gate key at the entrance of A Pocono Country Place around 3:30 p.m. yesterday when he fell out of the truck, police said. A police information release said “Vangeldren then was run over by the rear tire of his own, now unoccupied and rolling, pickup truck.”
The truck rolled through the gate and came to rest in a group of trees. He was uninjured but was found to be under the influence of alcohol when police arrived to investigate the incident. He was taken to Pocono Medical Center for a blood test. Charges for driving under the influence are pending the result of the blood test.
