Women With Troubles - September 2012

Here is a compilation of women with troubles reported in news stories during September 2012. Each name is linked to an Interested-Participant blog entry displaying details.

For a more comprehensive listing, check the Women With Troubles category link. Links to month-by-month compilations are displayed on the navigation bar at left.

(AL) Amy Bishop, 47,
college professor - Guilty of capital murder. Sentencing TBD,

(AZ) Bobbi Jo Grunert, 42,
teacher - Accused of selling marijuana,

(AZ) Laura Lee Kelly, 43,
neighbor - Accused of child neglect,

(AZ) Tanner Vicory aka Tanner Victory, 30,
neighbor - Accused of sex with boy, 15,

(CA) Mistie Rebecca Atkinson, 32,
neighbor - Gets 4+ years prison for incest,

(CA) Tracy Hannah, 40,
neighbor - Gets 4 years prison for long-term sex with boy, 14,

(CA) Doris Thompson, 82,
neighbor - Accused of burglary,

(DC) Suzanne Barr,
government worker - Resigned amid allegations of sexual behavior toward employees,

(FL) Lauralee M. Beckham, 26,
neighbor - Accused of sex with male teen under 16,

(FL) Elizabeth Edmonds,
teacher - Accused of being high while teaching 3rd-graders,

(FL) Trina Rocker, 41,
school secretary - Accused of sex with male student, 17,

(FL) Tara Laine Salute, 40,
neighbor - Accused of unlawful sex with boy, 16,

(FL) Alexandria Sladon-Marler, 33,
neighbor - Accused of manslaughter in death of her newborn,

(GA) Dorothy Elizabeth Dixon, 30,
teacher - Indicted for sex with boy, 15,

(IA) Shuntina McKee, 23, and brother Malik McKee, 20,
neighbors - Accused of sex trafficking of minors,

(IL) Darcee Baney, 27,
teacher - Accused of sex with student, 17,

(IL) Randi L. Hayes-Manske and Shawn T. Block, both 31,
neighbor - Accused of criminal sex with child, 6,

(KS) Angela Foote,
teacher - Accused of multiple drug charges,

(KY) Christy A. Wilson, 34,
teacher's aide - Guilty of sex with daughter's boyfriend, 14. Sentencing in November,

(LA) Kayla Bonnette, 23,
neighbor - Accused of sex with boy, 16,

(LA) Heather Daughdrill, 29,
Bible schoolteacher - Gets year in prison for carnal knowledge of boy, 13,

(LA) Shantel Fitzgerald, 32,
juvenile counselor - Accused of sex with troubled youth,

(MD) Jennifer Dubois Dickerson, 32,
neighbor - Gets probation for federal weapons conviction,

(ME) Wendy Farley, 46,
neighbor - Accused of soliciting hit man to kill husband,

(MS) Darcel Gardner, 34,
teacher - Accused of engaging in fraudulent test-taking scheme,

(NC) Meredith Pruitt, 31,
teacher - Gets suspended sentence for multiple drug convictions,

(NC) Deborah Lee Tipton, 45,
teacher - Guilty of federal child pornography charges,

(NC) Patricia Lynn Wiles, 23,
neighbor - Accused of child abuse after opiates found in nine-month-old son's system,

(NJ) Rachael L. Baker, 21,
neighbor - Accused of aggravated sex with boy, 13,

(NJ) Stephanie Bennett, 25,
neighbor - Accused of aggravated sex with infant boy,

(NJ) Erica DePalo, 33,
teacher - Accused of sex assault of male student, 15,

(NV) Bambi Dewey, 32,
teacher - Along with husband John Stalmach, accused of sex with girl, 16,

(NY) Kimberly Rivera, 30,
U.S. Army soldier - Accused of desertion,

(OH) Stephanie A. Davis, 35,
neighbor - Gets 18 months prison for sex with boy, 14,

(OH) Janine A. Fulton, 43,
corrections worker - Accused of conveying drugs to inmates,

(OH) Sara Thierry, 38,
teacher - Accused of multiple drug offenses,

(OK) Michelle Diane McCutchan, 40,
teacher - Gets 15 years in prison for sex with 3 boys,

(OK) Makayla Dawn Redding, 34,
teacher - Accused of sex with boy, 15,

(PA) Kristy C. Risell, 31,
teacher - Accused of sex with male student, 15,

(PA) Carolyn P. Supplee, 41,
neighbor - Accused of sex with male teen, 16,

(TN) Tina Woods Butler, 44,
insurance agent - Guilty of theft from clients. Sentencing in October,

(TX) Vicki Bruce, 46,
teacher - Accused of possessing and using methamphetamine,

(TX) Kassi Cano, 27,
day care worker - Accused of sex assault of child under 14,

(TX) Shannon Caron, 18,
neighbor - Accused of sex assault of 3 boys, ages 11 and 12,

(TX) Shanice Lambert, 37,
teacher's aide - Indicted for federal sexual relationship with student charges,

(TX) Melissa Beth Williams, 46,
teacher - Jailed for violating probation imposed with student sex conviction,

(VA) Jacqueline J. Barnes, 50,
teacher - Accused of arriving at school drunk,

(VA) Angelia Paige Harrell aka Angie Harrell,
guidance counselor and cheer coach - Accused of embezzling $50K from cheer program,

(VA) Angela Janecka, 39,
neighbor - Accused of putting newborn in dryer,

(WI) Annette Morales-Rodriguez, 34,
neighbor - Guilty of murdering pregnant woman and fetus. Sentencing in December,

(WV) Sarah Rutherford, 24,
teacher - Gets 2 years in jail for sex with students.

Thanks to the tipsters.

Electric Cars in Germany

(Berlin, Germany) The electric car industry in Germany is not meeting expectations.

The German government has abandoned its goal of having one million electric cars on the streets of the country by 2020.

"The hype is over," the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung wrote, citing information from the Ministry of Education and Research. The high expectations for electric cars, which have no carbon dioxide emissions, has been replaced by huge disappointment, the paper wrote.

Environment Minister Peter Altmaier admitted that there are problems with electric cars and Economy Minister Philipp Rösler has refused to encourage electric car sales with economic incentives.

Without significant taxpayer subsidies, electric cars are not attractive to buyers.

 Victoria's Secret Geisha Lingerie Sparks Controversy‏

Women must not look Japanese?

It takes hundreds of employees, thousands of hours and millions of dollars to launch a mass market lingerie line. And one blogger to take it all down.

"I never thought they would pull the Geisha outfit off the market," Nina Jacinto tells Shine. "I imagine there were a number of factors that went into that decision."

Two weeks ago, Jacinto, a 26-year-old Bay Area blogger and non-profit development manager, most likely became one of those factors.

 "I saw a link to [Victoria's Secret's Go East] line on the blog, Angry Asian Man," she says.  "Hooray for exotic orientalist bull----," wrote the blogger who included a link to the "Asian-inspired" lingerie line's centerpiece: "The Sexy Little Geisha," a mesh teddy that comes with an obi belt, chopsticks and a fan.

Immediately Jacinto sat down to write an insightful post on why she found the outfit, and the line in general, offensive. "It's the kind of overt racism masked behind claims of inspired fashion and exploring sexual fantasy that makes my skin crawl," she wrote

[It doesn't take much to make her skin crawl.  Maybe she has some disease]

Source


Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Florida Woman Accused of Sex with Boy

(Crystal River, Florida) A 40-year-old local woman, Tara Laine Salute, has been accused of engaging in sex with a 16-year-old boy.

Salute faces a charge of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

According to the arrest report, the alleged activity is a second-degree felony.

The youth said he had sexual intercourse with Salute at her home about three weeks ago. He provided investigators with details of the encounter.

After being read her rights, Saltue said she did not have sex with the youth and initially said the boy was never in her home. Later, she said that she, the boy and a witness were drinking alcohol in her home, and she said it was possible she had so much to drink that she blacked out, and could have had sex with the boy.,

Still later, the arrest report says, she admitted to having sex with the youth at her home.

Salute was booked into custody with bond set at $5,000.

Convicted Texas Teacher Brittni Colleps - Update

Convicted teacher Brittni Colleps appeared on television this week and claimed she was victimized because her orgy with a group of students was recorded without her permission.

The most damning evidence against Colleps was that graphic, homemade videotape of her group sex.

"I felt like I was victimized in that video, because I did not, I never gave my consent for it,” Colleps said in a jailhouse interview with “20/20” airing Friday night.

Colleps’ case was unique — not only for its extremely lewd nature — but also because the students she had sex with were consenting adults at the time.

That being the case, she did not face rape charges. Rather, Colleps faced the charge of “having improper relations with students,” stemming from a Texas law, which prohibits teachers from having sex with students — at any age.

(h/t Jawa Howie)

* * * * *Texas Teacher Brittni Colleps - Update
[Previous 8/17/12 post]


[Update 8:00PM EDT] Colleps sentenced to five years in prison.

(Fort Worth, Texas) The jury in the student sex trial of Kennedale High School teacher Brittni Colleps, 28, has started deliberations. Here's a media overview of the case.





Tip: Wireless.Phil

* * * * *
Texas Teacher and Five Students
[Previous 5/16/11 post]
(Arlington, Texas) A 27-year-old English teacher and girls basketball coach at Kennedale High School, Brittni Colleps, has been accused of improper relations with five male students, all 18 years of age or older.

Colleps faces five felony counts of inappropriate relationship between a teacher and a student.

Arlington police began investigating the allegations on Wednesday, May 11 after the school staff and Kennedale police notified the agency.

According to investigators, the students described having sex with Colleps at her Arlington home during April and May of this year.

Colleps was booked into custody with bond set at $125,000.

Companion post at TJR.

Ohio Woman and Boy, 14

(Jackson County, Ohio) Last month, a 35-year-old local woman, Stephanie A. Davis, pleaded guilty to sexual conduct with a 14-year-old boy.

Davis was originally charged with three counts but two were dismissed as part of a plea agreement.

On April 27 of this year, a waiver of trial by jury was filed as was an entry for a guilty plea. On August 20 the order on sentencing was filed and Davis was found guilty to count two, Unlawful Sexual Conduct with a Minor, and sentenced to a term of 18 months in a state penal institution.

On September 5, another entry was added to the court docket stating that it is ordered that Davis be listed as a Tier II sex offender and that she has a duty to register as such in accordance with Ohio Revised Code 2950.04.

Davis began her prison term on August 20th.

Texas Teacher in Meth Bust

(Parker County, Texas) A 46-year-old third-grade teacher at Reno Elementary School, Vicki Bruce, has been accused of possessing and using methamphetamine.

Bruce faces charges of possession of methamphetamine and possession of a controlled substance in a drug-free zone.

Investigators allege she kept meth wrapped in tin foil in a photo album in her purse.

According to the arrest warrant affidavit, the 46-year-old told Texas Rangers "she utilized methamphetamines before going to work for the last seven years on and off."

The document states when detectives first questioned her she had the drugs in her car parked in the parking lot of the school.

Bruce was booked into custody and released on bond.

Mississippi Teacher Accused in Test-Taking Scheme




(Columbus, Mississippi) A 34-year-old special education teacher at Columbus High School, Darcel Gardner, has been accused of engaging in a widespread fraudulent teacher test-taking scheme.

Gardner faces federal charges of mail fraud and aiding and abetting.

The indictment alleges that in April 2009, Gardner paid Clarence Mumford Sr. of Memphis $1,000 to have someone take her Praxis biology licensing test on April 25,2009. She mailed Mumford the money and her driver’s license on April 22, 2009, the indictment states.

As a result of getting a passing grade on the test, prosecutors claim she got her Mississippi teacher’s certification in biology in July 2011.[...]

Gardner and others named in the indictments which were first revealed Sept. 19 bring to 14 the number of teachers or test-takers accused of taking part in the scam. Federal authorities say Mumford, 58, a former Memphis city schools employee, charged teachers and aspiring educators thousands of dollars to find stand-ins to take state-required certification tests in Mississippi, Tennessee, and Arkansas.

The scheme was first uncovered in 2010 and prosecutors say it involves more than 50 teachers and test-takers. Mumford allegedly would make fake driver’s licenses which the bogus test-takers would show testing officials to get by identification requirements.

Gardner was booked into custody and released on $5,000 bond.

Interestingly, although the fraudulent test-taking scheme has been described as 'widespread' and involving more than 50 teachers, an education professor at Mississippi State, Kay Brocato, deemed it to be a rare case.

Obama Voters Get Free Phones




The vid runs 45 seconds. It's not known whether the free phone for Obama vote assertion is true. However, it doesn't seem to matter within the targeted demographic group. I suspect they will believe anything.

Tip: Rita and Eugene

Arab Electronic Army

Source:

A new, focused group of hackers from a number of Arab countries is reportedly attacking Western websites in retaliation for an anti-Islamic video that has been cited as the proximate cause for violent demonstrations in the Middle East, including the recent attack on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya that left four Americans dead.

“The hacking operations are of course a response to the offense against the prophet, peace and blessing be upon him,” a member of the self-proclaimed Arab Electronic Army, comprised of hackers from Morocco, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and other countries…,

Tip: Weasel Zippers

Florida School Secretary and Male Student

(Haines City, Florida) A 41-year-old secretary at Landmark Christian High School, Trina Rocker, has been accused of molesting a 17-year-old male student.

Rocker faces five counts of unlawful sex with a minor.

The Polk County Sheriff's Office says 41-year-old Trina Rocker's relationship with the 17-year-old student began in November 2011 and ended in May 2012.

Police were alerted to the relationship after the student's parents found out and confronted their son. He then admitted to them about encounters which occurred while he was a student at Landmark Christian High School in Haines City.

Rocker's arrest report says they had sex several times, including in a car on the side of the road and in Rocker's shed. But it was during a class trip to Washington, D.C. that really stood out: Rocker was on the trip as a chaperone when the two allegedly had sex in a laundry closet at a Holiday Inn in Richmond, Virginia.

In another apparent bad decision, Rocker sent a text message to the student saying, "Didn't you like not using a condom?" and commented on how it would have been horrible if she got pregnant.

Rocker was booked into custody at the Polk County Jail and is being held without bond.

Florida Woman and Young Boy

(St. Petersburg, Florida) A 26-year-old local woman, Lauralee M. Beckham, has been accused of engaging in sex over the last two weeks with a male teen under the age of 16.

Beckham faces a charge of lewd and lascivious battery on a child under 16. Reportedly, Beckham admitted to the allegations.

The Pinellas County Sheriff's Office said they got a call from the boy's father Wednesday night.

During an investigation, deputies learned Beckham and the boy had been having consensual sex for the past two weeks. Beckham later confirmed that while under questioning, officials said.

Deputies don't believe there are any other victims in the case.

Beckham was booked into custody at the Pinellas County Jail with bond set at $10,000.

Texas Daycare Worker Accused of Child Sex

(McKinney, Texas) A 27-year-old day care worker at Stonebridge Academy, Kassi Cano, has been arrested for a 2008 child sex crime. Reportedly, the case languished until a new district attorney decided to pursue it.

Cano faces charges of aggravated sexual assault of a child under the age of 14, sexual assault to a child and indecency with a child by contact.

In 2009, Cano was arrested in Riesel in connection with the alleged use of a sexual device on a child and was charged with two counts of sexual assault to a child younger than 14.

According to a sworn affidavit submitted for an arrest warrant in February 2009, the victim identified the device from among several that Riesel police seized after executing a search warrant on Cano's residence.

The investigation started on Sept. 18, 2008, when a man took the girl to Providence Health Center after observing vaginal redness and inflammation while changing the youngster's diaper after picking her up.

Cano was booked into custody at the McLennan County Jail with bond set at $250,000.

Multiple Teen Suicides

(Luzerne County, Pennsylvania)

In one week, the lives of four Luzerne County schoolchildren had ended from suicide, a bleak time many veteran educators say they have never experienced in their careers.

Something is sour in the region.

Blinkered liberal Jew 

Rachel Kahn-Troster (below) claims to be a rabbi, which shows how little regard she has for her own sacred scriptures.  Leviticus 6:14 says the priesthood shall consist of Aaron and his SONS.  But what's in that silly old Bible thingy doesn't matter to her, obviously.

So it is no wonder that she calls it "hate" when anybody draws attention to the constant violence and aggression in the Muslim world.  Closed eyes are clearly her specialty.  She says not a word about America's recently slaughtered Ambassador in Libya, for instance.  She has no integrity at all.

My daily trek to work is the last place I would expect to encounter a hateful message. But anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller is determined to make that happen to me and my fellow commuters.
This week, at 10 subway stations around New York, commuters will encounter ads from the virulently anti-Islam group headed by Geller, the American Freedom Defense Initiative. Geller has been cited both by the Anti-Defamation League and the Southern Poverty Law Center for her anti-Muslim activity.  [It's A badge of honor to be cited by such far-Left outfits]

The subway ads say, "In Any War Between the Civilized Man and the Savage, Support the Civilized Man." Below that are the words: "Support Israel. Defeat Jihad," with a Star of David on either side of the phrases. The coded message makes clear who the savages are: those who support jihad, which in Geller's mind includes all Muslims. She has called Islam "an extreme ideology, the most radical and extreme ideology on the face of the Earth."

At first, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority rejected the ads, but a district judge ruled the ads were protected under the First Amendment. The ads follow similar ads in San Francisco as well as posters at New York's Metro North train stations

The Metro North ads denied their bigotry by stating, "It's not Islamophobia. It's Islamorealism," claiming the actions of a few represented the "reality" of Islam. But when did it become acceptable to spread bigotry against any American religious, racial or ethnic group in the name of "realism"?

Source

I gather that Rachel Can't Trust Her has some small theological background so at the risk of re-plowing an already very furrowed field I will mention an objection that she and her ilk might have to the modern-day applicability of Leviticus Chapter 6.  It is a chapter primarily concerned with burnt offerings and such things.  And NOBODY does burnt offerings these days, though some barbecue cooks might be suspected of it.

The point is however that the Jerusalem temple later became the  sole locus of such offerings and the destruction of the temple  by the Romans FORCED the abandonment of burnt offerings.  But there is nothing to force the abandonment of a solely male religious leadership.

I suppose I am making an argument about Halakha above  -- which is pretty mad for a non-Jew -- but I think I can read my Bible as well as anyone.  I guess my Protestant background is showing.


Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Bill Clinton Ponders

(New York City) In recent remarks, former Prez Bill Clinton discussed theoretical future employment for him in Ireland or France.

The 66-year-old, who served two terms in the White House from 1993 to 2001, said his Irish heritage made him eligible to run for office there, while the fact he was born in Arkansas means he could enter a Gallic poll race.

“The only two countries I’m eligible to run for the leaderhsip (sic) position is if I move to Ireland and buy a house, I can run for president of Ireland because of my Irish heritage,” he told CNN.

“And because I was born in Arkansas, which is part of the Louisiana Purchase” — land which the United States bought from France in 1803 to settle French territorial claims — he could also run for office in France.

“Any person anywhere in the world that was born in a place that ever was a part of the French empire, if you move to, if you live in France for six months and speak French you can run for president of France,” said Clinton.

I'd suggest Clinton brush up on his French and catch a plane to Paris.

Virginia Mom Accused of Putting Baby in Dryer

(Henrico, Virginia) A 39-year-old local woman, Angela Janecka, has been accused of wrapping her newborn in plastic and putting the baby girl in the dryer.

Janecka faces charges of attempted murder and felony child neglect.

Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Nancy Oglesby described assertions by Angela Marie Janecka that her child was dead at birth Aug. 25 as "impossible, implausible and completely unbelievable" in arguing that the 39-year-old should stay behind bars.

Oglesby said medical experts in the case say there is no way the infant could have been dead at birth and then appeared thriving and healthy when Janecka's husband came home and discovered the infant in the dryer in a knotted plastic bag and pillow case.

Janecka is being held without bond. A competency hearing is scheduled for November.

Ode to Welfare State




Arguably, this 1949 evidence would seem to indicate that Democrat Party philosophy has changed little in over six decades.

Tip: Rita and Eugene

Arizona Teacher Accused of Selling Pot

(Phoenix, Arizona) A 42-year-old teacher at Desert Vista Elementary School, Bobbi Jo Grunert, along with her husband James Grunert, have been accused of selling marijuana out of an office suite of their JPC landscaping company.

The Gunnerts face a charge of conspiracy to sell marijuana.

According to the Phoenix police, Bobbi Jo Grunert and her husband, James Grunert, were renting an office suite as a landscaping business, but were selling marijuana out of the business instead.

Officers were tipped off back in June that the business was growing and selling marijuana from an advertisement on a website that solicits medical marijuana patients.

An undercover officer was sent to the business several times and found that the Grunerts were selling marijuana.

Details on arrest and booking are unavailable.

Replacement Workers




With the current replacement referee controversy, the National Football League can be credited with temporarily diverting public attention from the important economic and political challenges America faces.

Electric cars lose their spark 




Thomas Edison built an electric car exactly 100 years ago (above) but it hit the same rock that bedevils electic cars to this day:  The low power-to-weight ratio of storage batteries. An excellent example of the adage:  "Those who will not learn from the past are doomed to repeat it"

Is the Electric Car Revolution Running Out of Juice?  It depends on whom you ask:

*    Year-to-date sales of the electric Nissan (NSANY) Leaf are down over 30%.

*    Ford (F) had sold just 177 of its electric Focus through August.

*    At the same time, production of Tesla Motors' (TSLA) hot-looking -- and expensive -- Model S sedan is sold out for months to come.

*    Meanwhile, the Chevy Volt is selling a bit better lately -- but that's a mixed blessing for General Motors (GM).

How to Lose Money on a $39,995 Sale

Why are improving sales for the Volt a mixed blessing? It turns out that those sales are expensive ones: Reuters recently reported that GM is losing a bundle on each Volt it sells -- despite the little plug-in hybrid's steep $39,995 base price.

While GM took issue with Reuters' math, it's clear that the innovative car isn't a moneymaker for General Motors. With sales of just a few thousand in the best of months, it'll be many years before the car manages to repay its development costs, estimated at over $1 billion.

Now, that's not necessarily a bad thing, at least in GM's view. Like other automakers, GM is looking ahead toward the next decade, when fuel-economy rules will be much stricter. From the General's perspective, the Volt represents an early investment in the kind of technology that GM -- and other automakers around the world -- will need to perfect before those rules go into effect.

There's some validity to that argument. But that hasn't stopped GM's critics from complaining that electric-car technology is turning into an expensive boondoggle.

Will Electric Cars Ever Take Off?

A Washington Post editorial this week took the Volt to task, as part of a larger argument against the U.S. government's subsidies of electric car technology. The Department of Energy said in 2011 that there could be 1 million electric cars on U.S. roads by 2015, but as the Post points out, that's looking pretty unlikely right now.

The Department of Energy's conclusion was based on a study that made some assumptions that look kind of silly now. It expected Nissan to sell 25,000 Leafs this year. But through August, the automaker had sold fewer than 5,000 here in 2012. It also predicted that GM would sell 120,000 Volts this year. The reality: Fewer than 14,000 Volts had been sold through August in the U.S. in 2012.

Both of these cars, like much of the still-emerging U.S. electric-car business, were heavily dependent on government aid. GM's massive bailout is no secret, but some of the other Department of Energy aid programs are less well-known: Among other grants and loans, Nissan received $1.5 billion in low-cost loans to refurbish the Leaf's Tennessee factory, and Tesla got a $465 million line of credit to help get the Model S into production.

And what are taxpayers getting for all that? Not a whole lot.

SOURCE


Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

China Launches Aircraft Carrier

(Beijing, China) As I recall, the Chinese bought a weathered aircraft carrier from the Ukraine and announced plans to turn it into a casino. Obviously, the Chinese have changed plans.

In a ceremony attended by the country’s top leaders, China put its first aircraft carrier into service on Tuesday, a move intended to signal its growing military might as tensions escalate between Beijing and its neighbors over islands in nearby seas.

Officials said the carrier, a discarded vessel bought from Ukraine in 1998 and refurbished by China, would protect national sovereignty, an issue that has become a touchstone of the government’s dispute with Japan over ownership of islands in the East China Sea.

But despite the triumphant tone of the launching, which was watched by President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao, and despite rousing assessments by Chinese military experts about the importance of the carrier, the vessel will be used only for training and testing for the foreseeable future.

According to the NYTimes, at present China has no warplanes that can operate off a carrier flight deck.

21st Century Mindreading




Frankly, I'm convinced that an overwhelming majority of Internet users are oblivious of dangers posed by revealing personal information.

I'm also convinced that most people fail to keep in mind that Internet postings endure, similar to tattoos. And those who think that their interests, their ambitions, their morals and their ethics at age 22 will be the same as when they are in their 50s are recklessly naive.

Tip: Don Laird

On Bourbon Street you can show everything (but your faith)

 

On October 26, 2011, the city of New Orleans criminalized religious expression on Bourbon Street.

Subsequently, in May of this year, a preacher from Vieux Carre Assembly of God Church was told by police that he could not continue discussing religion on Bourbon Street, even though he had been preaching there for the past 30 years every Tuesday and Friday evening.

The new rules were quietly put in place when Mayor Mitch Landrieu approved a ban on loitering or congregating "for the purpose of disseminating any social, political, or religious message between the hours of sunset and sunrise." Individuals convicted of violating this ban can be imprisoned for up to six months.

Six months in prison, for speech?

This is not simply a Mayor suspending constitutional rights but also punishing anyone who tries to live out those rights. In other words, in a city where you can show everything, the new rule is you can show everything but your faith.

Moreover, it’s not up to the government to decide which topics we can and cannot discuss. The First amendment protects an individual’s freedom of speech. Jurisprudence supports this, tradition supports it, and the history of New Orleans supports it.

Just think about these things as you look at the landscape in and around the Big Easy. It’s a city that is literally full of chapels, cathedrals, religious statues and ornaments, and even an NFL team named the Saints.

Moreover, New Orleans and the state of Louisiana are so rich with religious overtones that the city sits in a parish rather than a county. (New Orleans is located in Orleans Parish.)

Yet, since the ban went into effect, several people have been arrested or threatened with arrest for communicating a religious message on Bourbon Street. Fearing arrest, the pastor has stopped going to Bourbon Street to discuss his faith.

When you consider that the ban on sharing a "religious message" covers the hours between sunset and sunrise, it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the darkness is being protected. And it really is a shame for the Mayor to go to all this trouble, to pass bans on speech and rabidly enforce them, all to be sure the darkness is dark indeed.

The freedom to show everything on Bourbon Street ought to apply to preachers who want to show light as well.

Source

SCOTUS would knock it on the head but getting before SCOTUS is hugely expensive

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Florida Teacher Accused of Drug Use

(Lake County, Florida) A 3rd-grade teacher at Treadway Elementary School in Leesburg, Elizabeth Edmonds, has been accused of being under the influence of drugs while teaching third-graders.

After a drug test, Edmonds was found to have marijuana and opiates in her system.

District officials said they had not had any problems with Edmonds before.

Officials said Edmonds had been at Treadway Elementary for three years. WFTV's Kenenth Craig learned the Lake County School Board voted to suspend the teacher without pay, and they eventually plan to fire her.

Edmonds wasn't arrested, but has been off the job since the incident, according to officials.

If true, Edmonds needs rehab.

New SARS-like Virus

The World Health Organization has issued an alert on a new SARS-like virus after a Qatari man became infected.

The United Nations health body, which issued a statement through its "global alert and response" system, said tests on the patient, a 49-year-old Qatari man, confirmed the presence of a new, or novel, coronavirus.

It said the U.K. scientists compared gene sequences of the virus from the Qatari patient with samples of virus sequenced by Dutch scientists from lung tissue of a fatal case earlier this year in a 60-year-old Saudi Arabia national. The two were almost identical, it said.

Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses which includes the common cold and SARS.

"Given that this is a novel coronavirus, WHO is currently in the process of obtaining further information to determine the public health implications," the statement said.

A statement by U.K. government experts said the symptoms included fever, cough or other respiratory symptoms.

Only in the Middle East so far.

China-Japan Islands Dispute

(East China Sea) With lucrative sea-floor drilling rights at stake, China and Japan are in a heated pissing contest over a group of tiny islands in the East China Sea.

The latest controversy over the simmering dispute erupted when Japanese patrol officers arrested the captain and crew of a Chinese fishing boat earlier this month near the disputed islands -- known as Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan.[…]

Run-ins between China and Japan over the sovereignty of the islands are nothing new. Japanese nationalists held demonstrations on the island back in 1990. But what is most worrisome to long-time watchers of the dispute is the assertiveness of both governments in the current fracas.

The conflict between major powers on the Pacific Rim bears watching. Tensions could escalate and involve additional nations.

 Apple panders to Muslims

Apple’s new operating system iOS6 was released earlier this week, and one of the highly touted features is the addition of Apple Maps, but the new mapping feature fails to list Jersualem as the capital of Israel.  In fact, according to the new Apple Maps application, Israel has no capital city.

The World Clock function, which allows users to pick a city and set the time on their device according to the local time zone, lists Jerusalem as a city with no affiliated country.

In the newly released Apple Maps, capital cities are noted with encircled 5-point stars, and Israel is the only country with no such notation.

More HERE





Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.). 

Floor Models




Maybe this video can serve as a forewarning to those who feel free to ignore signage and try out products in a retail store.

Monday Big Flush

(Bulawayo, Zimbabwe) Due to local water shortages, city authorities have ordered rationing of water availability to 72 hours per week. Meanwhile, preplanned toilet flushing on Mondays has also been instituted.

According to Mayor Thaba Moyo,

"It means everybody has to flush their toilet at the stipulated time which will be 7.30pm. This is done to prevent any sewer blockages as we anticipate longer periods without water" in the sewer system, he said.

In addition, the sewer blockages can partially be blamed on the type of material being flushed.

Heh. It appears that Zimbabwean currency is less valuable than toilet paper.

Ex Obama Supporter Interviews Herself 

Exploded dreams

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

WV Teacher Sentenced for Sex with Student - Update

(Philippi, West Virginia) In July 2012, former teacher at Philip Barbour High School, Sarah Rutherford, pleaded guilty to one count of misdemeanor battery and two counts of misdemeanor contributing to the delinquency of a minor.

The charges resulted from Rutherford engaging in sex with two students and providing them with drugs and alcohol.

Last week, Sarah Rutherford was sentenced to two years incarceration.

She was ordered to report to the Tygart Valley Regional Jail on October 1st to begin her sentence.

* * * * *
WV Teacher Accused of Sex with Student
[Previous 10/27/11 post]
(Philippi, West Virginia) In March 2011, a 23-year-old teacher at Philip Barbour High School, Sarah Rutherford, was accused of engaging in sex with an underage student.

Rutherford faced charges of felony sexual abuse by a custodian or a person in a position of trust. She was booked and released on bond.

The criminal complaints allege that Rutherford engaged in a relationship with a student, who was under the age of 18, at Philip Barbour High School while she was employed there as a teacher.

The student victim and Rutherford exercised daily contact between September and December 2010.

This week, Rutherford appeared in court and pleaded not guilty to sexual assault and supplying a minor with drugs and alcohol.

An elastic definition of "half"? 

Isn't it lovely to have official science on your side?  The National Academy of Science and the National Research Council have released a short pro-Warmist video which purports to show that changes in the sun could not have caused the slight global warming of the late 20th century





The video is clearly designed to impress people who know nothing about the subject.  It is meant to represent "The Science" that Warmists are always talking about.  The video is however crooked from the start.  A correlation between solar activity and terrestrial temperature has been known for around 200 years.  So that is discussed?  Not on your nellie!  It is ignored.  And of course Svensmark's explanation for that correlation (recently confirmed at CERN) is not mentioned either.  So both the facts and the  theory  most relevant to the question they address are ignored!  A virtuoso performance of fraud!

But what of the things they do mention?  If you watch the video, starting at  mark 0:57 to 1:16 minutes you hear them say:

"Before satellites, solar energy had to be estimated by more indirect methods such as records of the number of sunspots observed each year, which is an indicator of solar activity. These indirect methods suggest that there was a slight increase in solar energy during the first half of the 20th century and a decrease in the latter half."

So let us look at the numbers in the sunpot record  Here.   Note that the biggest cycle is solar cycle 19 which started in April 1954.  That's the SECOND half of the century, not the First like they say.  But more important than that, is if you add up the sunspot numbers (found in column 5 of the chart) you will see that there were many more sunspots in the SECOND half of the 20th century than the first.

It's true that sunspot numbers in cycles (such as cycle 19) aren’t the same as solar energy received by the earth but it is sunspot numbers that the video hangs its hat on so there is no doubt about the deception.

So how come official bodies can  perpetrate such a careless fraud?  The only way I can make the numbers come out anywhere near what they say is to put the big leap of 1954 into the first half of the century.  Strange arithmetic!  It certainly gives the impression that they themselves do not believe what they say.  They are just going through the motions in a very careless way:  Just putting out pretty but worthless beads to wave in the faces of  the despised "masses".


Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Maine Mom and Hit Man

(Brownville, Maine) A 46-year-old local mother with 13 children, Wendy Farley, has been accused of trying to hire a contract killer to murder her husband.

Farley faces a charge of criminal solicitation for murder.

Police Chief Nick Clukey says his department last week received a tip from someone who said he had been offered money by a woman to kill the woman's husband. He did not say how much money was offered.

Clukey tells the Bangor Daily News that police in the central Maine community set up a sting to record conversations between the informant and Farley and made the arrest based on those recordings.

Farley was booked into custody with bail set at $75,000.

Tip: slwlion

California Woman Gets Prison for Incest - Updated

(Napa County, California) In June 2012, 32-year-old Mistie Rebecca Atkinson was sentenced to four years and eight months in prison despite telling the court what she did was not incest.

* * * * *California Woman Guilty of Incest - Updated
[Previous 5/16/12 post]
(Napa County, California) In accordance with a plea agreement, Mistie Atkinson pleaded no contest to incest, oral copulation and sex with a minor stemming from engaging in sex with her biological son.

Napa police said in court filings that the boy’s phone showed Atkinson allegedly performing oral sex with her biological son and engaging in sexual intercourse with the teenager. The videos were dated Feb. 3 and 4, court records show. The boy also had numerous photos of Atkinson on his cell phone, police said.

Atkinson was arrested on a warrant in March in Mendocino County where she was found in a Ukiah room with her biological son, court documents show.

The father of the boy said in court filings that Atkinson and his son, now 17, began communicating with each other on Facebook and with the telephone starting last September, according to the restraining order the man filed in County Superior Court in November.

Atkinson, the man said in the court document, “had been talking to him in manner that no mother should talk to their son.”

“She started to have a boyfriend-girlfriend relationship with him, not a mother-and-son relationship. It got to a point where their conversation began talking about harming me and killing off her boyfriend she was (now) living with. She was sending him pictures of her body and basically seducing him. The relationship needs to stop and we told both of them but they continue to get in contact with each other. It’s unhealthy and they need to stay apart,” the man said.

Atkinson faces a possible four-year, eight-month prison term when sentenced on June 13.

* * * * *
California Woman Accused of Incest
[Previous 4/30/12 post]
(Napa County, California) A 32-year-old woman, Mistie Atkinson, has been accused of engaging in sex with her 16-year-old biological son.

Atkinson faces charges of incest, oral copulation of someone under the age of 18, contact with a minor for a sexual offense, and “sending harmful matter” to her biological son.

Atkinson pleaded not guilty to all the charges on March 9. Her next hearing is May 10.

Napa police said in a court filing that videos captured from the boy’s phone show Atkinson allegedly performing oral sex and engaging in sexual intercourse with the teenager. The videos were dated Feb. 3 and Feb. 4, police said.

“Atkinson and the victim are aware they are biological mother and son,” police state in the complaint.

Atkinson is in custody at the Napa County Jail with bail set at $200,000.

Girl Accidentally Invites Entire Public to B-Day Party

(Haren, Netherlands) It's reported that 30,000 people descended on the town of Haren after 16-year-old girl Merthe Weusthuis accidentally sent birthday party invitations to the entire public via Facebook. The girl neglected to identify the Facebook event as "private."




Reportedly, the girl and her family went into hiding and riot police had to be deployed.

FEMEN Opens Paris Office

(Paris, France)

The Ukranian women's group Femen, famous for its radical topless protests, opened its first foreign office with a bare-chested march through a predominantly Muslim neighborhood in Paris' 18th arrondissement on Tuesday.

In the first foreign office, fellow feminists are supposed to learn how to evade security forces, according to the group's website.

A number of topless FEMEN images can be viewed at this link.

Her Husband Was Her Father

(Doylestown, Ohio) A 60-year-old local woman, Valerie Spruill, has understandably experienced persistent emotional and psychological turmoil since discovering that her husband was her father.

Spruill met and married her husband-father in Akron and settled in Doylestown, a working class suburb of about 2,300.

It was her second marriage. Spruill was a nice man, a good provider. He was kind to her three children from her previous marriage.

"We had a good life," she said.

She initially struggled with anger, with hating Spruill for what happened.

But therapy taught her what happened wasn't her fault. Her faith taught her to forgive.

More

Pennsylvania Woman, 41, and Boy

(New Hanover, Pennsylvania) Last week, a 41-year-old local woman, Carolyn P. Supplee, was accused of engaging in sex with a male teenager under the age of 16 after they were found allegedly having sex in a parked car.

Supplee faces multiple felony and misdemeanor counts including statutory sexual assault and involuntary deviate sexual intercourse.

The teen voluntarily spoke to police about his relationship with Supplee, divulging that the two had engaged in sexual intercourse on more than 40 occasions over the past year, police indicated in the arrest affidavit.

The teen said he and Supplee had engaged in other sexual contact “well before he reached his sixteenth birthday.” Most recently, the teen said, he and Supplee had sex earlier that day.

Additionally, the teen told police that Supplee had supplied him with marijuana and they had used the drug together on “multiple occasions,” including at Swamp Creek Park before police arrived that day.

Supplee was booked into custody with bond set at $10,000.

Wisconsin Woman Guilty of Murder

(Milwaukee, Wisconsin) A 34-year-old local woman, Annette Morales-Rodriguez, has been convicted of murdering a pregnant woman and her fetus.

Maritza Ramirez-Cruz, 23, died when Morales-Rodriguez bludgeoned and choked her into unconsciousness and used a small blade to carve out the fetus.

She told investigators she was desperate to have a son, that she had faked a pregnancy and that she devised a plan to steal an unborn baby as her supposed due date approached.

Ramirez-Cruz died due to a combination of blood loss, blunt trauma and asphyxiation, and the male fetus died as a result of her death, a medical examiner testified.[…]

In the ensuing investigation and autopsy, a medical examiner found evidence that the baby wasn't the product of a natural birth. A subsequent examination verified Morales-Rodriguez hadn't given birth.

Police later found Ramirez-Cruz's disemboweled body in Morales-Rodriguez's basement.

Sentencing is scheduled for December 14 when Morales-Rodriguez faces a mandatory life term in prison.

Wax Figures

Another survey of unknown value:

Do you talk to your bikini waxer while the job is getting done?

* * *

57% — No. I’m all about staring at the ceiling and hoping it’s a speedy process.

43% — Yes. Small talk makes it seem less awkward.

Personally, I believe in quiet during waxing. Buffing, however, may be accompanied with an occasional "Yee-ha!"

Junk Science

It's reported that Italian researchers tell men to whip out their packages so measurements can be taken.

While searching the internet for stories that get you talking, we came across this report about some of the weirdest scientific studies. According to the report on Chacha.com, if size matters, male private parts are apparently shrinking.

According to the report, the study’s leaders claim to have bona fide research that says the average size of a penis is roughly 10 percent smaller than it was 50 years ago.

Various lifestyle and environmental factors are blamed. In any event, without more information about the methodology of the study, I'm skeptical of the conclusion. As reported, it appears that subjects chosen for the study had stubbed joysticks because they were stressed-out fat boozers who regularly breathed polluted air.

Tip: slwlion

Murders in Huntsville - Update

(Birmingham, Alabama) Last week, former university professor Amy Bishop pleaded guilty to one count of capital murder involving two or more people and three counts of attempted murder during a hearing in Huntsville.

The prosecution seeks life without parole for the capital murder charge and a life sentence for each attempted murder charge.

Meanwhile there is news regarding the alleged 1986 killing by Amy Bishop of her brother, Seth Bishop.

After Bishop was indicted, prosecutors said Braintree police in 1986 failed to share important evidence, including the fact that Bishop, after she shot her brother in the chest, tried to commandeer a getaway car at gunpoint at a local car dealership, then refused to drop her gun until police officers ordered her to do so repeatedly. Those events were described in Braintree police reports but not in a report written by a state police detective assigned to the district attorney's office.

Larry Tipton, Bishop's lawyer in the Massachusetts case, said it will be up to Norfolk District Attorney Michael Morrissey to decide whether to put Bishop on trial for murder in her brother's killing, now that she has pleaded guilty in Alabama. David Traub, a spokesman for Morrissey, said prosecutors will wait until after sentencing to decide what to do in the Massachusetts case.

Sentencing in the Alabama case is scheduled for September 24.

* * * * *
Murders in Huntsville
[Previous 2/14/10 post]
(Huntsville, Alabama) Encapsulated, here's the latest on a well-publicized story.

The neurobiologist accused of killing three colleagues at the University of Alabama, Huntsville, on Friday fatally shot her brother in 1986 in suburban Boston, and the police there are now questioning whether they mishandled that case when they let her go without filing charges.

Early Saturday, the police in Huntsville charged the neurobiologist, Amy Bishop (45), with capital murder in the shootings during a faculty meeting that also left three people wounded. Bishop, who appeared to have had a promising future in the biotechnology business, had recently been told she would not be granted tenure, said university officials.

On Saturday afternoon, police in Braintree, Massachusetts, announced that Bishop had fatally wounded her brother, Seth Bishop, 24 years ago in an argument in their home, which The Boston Globe first reported on its website. The police were considering reopening the case, in which Bishop was not charged and the case records were no longer available, said Paul Frazier, the Braintree police chief.

The story continues to develop. One element being investigated is what caused the rare occurrence of an apparent female spree/serial killer.

 The Warmist fear of debate goes back a long way


Warmists have only a Humpty Dumpty shell  of science on their side so when skeptics point them to actual climate facts, the only reply possible for them is some sort of snarl.  The snarl is of course "ad hominem" and is at least abusive of not defamatory.  It can also simply be a pack of lies.  So rather than debate the climate facts, Warmists wage a rhetorical war in which they try to defame  skeptics personally -- and block anyone from hearing them.  The Warmist response to skeptics is of course not even a simulacrum of science  -- but nor is Warmism itself.  They huff and they puff and they blow their own house down.

Below is a reproduction of an early Warmist attempt to shut skeptics up  -- JR:



(Larger version here)

Excerpt:  "It is journalistically irresponsible to present both sides as if it were a question of balance. Given the distribution of views, with groups like the National Academy of Science expressing strong scientific concern, it is irresponsible to give equal time to a few people standing out in left field.

The overall weight of evidence” of global warming “is so clear that one begins to feel angry toward those who exaggerate the uncertainty."  --  Ross Gelbspan quoting Al Gore in 1992

Russell Cook comments on the clipping:

That is a scan I originally linked to in my JunkScience guest article "In Case of Heart[land] Attack, Break Glass"  (7th paragraph there), and in my comment here, which is within the comments section of my own guest post at WUWT about 'the other major problem' with the Lewandowsky paper. I also showed it in the comment I placed at the PBS NewsHour to predict the AGW backlash Watts was going to get:

My heartfelt hat tip goes to Australia's Brenton Groves for supplying me with that scan and the larger "Racing to an environmental precipice: Fear of future on deteriorating planet sets agenda for Rio de Janeiro summit" May 31, 1992 Boston Globe article containing it.

I believe there was a Gore / Schneider / Gelbspan connection at the beginning of it all. Consider that in September of 1992, Schneider said the following in a Discover magazine article "Can We Repair the Air?"  (8th paragraph):  "The White House, some business groups, and a few contrary-minded scientists had always argued that the possibility of a nasty greenhouse effect was too uncertain to justify spending billions of dollars to fix it. They (as the tobacco industry has done for decades with smoking) called instead for further studies. ..."  

My thanks to you for spreading the word of how this is a 20 year boilerplate smear. It is 3 simple talking points:  "settled science" / "corrupt skeptics operating in a parallel manner to old tobacco industry shills" / "the media is not obligated to give skeptics equal balance because of the first two points". Ross Gelbspan consolidated this 3-point mantra into the successful smear it became after late 1995.

SOURCE


Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Gangnam Style

For those readers who may have been on hiatus from mainstream cultural awareness, take a look at this uber-hot dance craze from Korea. Collectively, the various videos of gangnam style have over 200 million views on YouTube.



Your welcome.

How to Cook Your Wife

(Torrance, California)

In a taped interview played in court Tuesday, a Southern California chef on trial for allegedly killing his wife told police he slow cooked her body then dumped it out as kitchen waste.

Dawn Viens disappeared in 2009 and police identified her husband David – the chef at the former Thyme Café in Torrance – as a prime suspect.

In 2011, investigators dug up the Thyme Café, which Dawn co-owned, searching for her body. But in a taped interview played Tuesday in court, David Viens seemed to tell police why her remains may never be found.

"I took some, some things like weights that we use and I put them on the top of her body, and I just slowly cooked it and I ended up cooking her for four days," Viens said on tape.

Viens claimed the whole episode started with an argument.

Tip: slwlion

Iranian Submarines in Persian Gulf



Kilo-Class Iranian submarine

(Bandar Abbas, Iran) After repair to radar, pneumatic and compressor systems, the Islamic Republic of Iran Navy submarine Tareq, a Russian-built Project 877-class (NATO identifier Kilo) diesel-electric submarine, has been returned to operational duty in the Persian Gulf.

Reportedly, Iran has three Russian-built Kilo-class submarines and "several smaller Iranian-built submarines."

The NIV as a servant of Protestant theology

The "New International Version" translation of the Bible has been very widely adopted in Protestant circles but its claim to be a faithful rendering of the original texts is hollow. I am not alone in seeing it as the servant of Protestant theology, as the examples here show --but I thought it might be useful to add a couple of other examples which I regard as rather gross and which may be a bit clearer than the examples given in the link above.

In Genesis 2:4 the KJV refers to "the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens". That is of course a bit inconvenient -- did creation take one day or seven days? -- so my 1978 edition of the NIV simply replaces "the day that" with "when". That is a perfectly reasonable theological interpretation of the original text but it is not what the original text actually says. The Hebrew word concerned means simply "in the day". See here.

And the revised NIV issued last year seems to be even worse than my original 1978 edition. As soon as I heard that it featured "inclusive" language I resolved not to buy it. When political correctness steamrollers what the Bible writers actually wrote, we know we are in the Devil's hands. If they cannot translate pronouns accurately, what hope is there for accuracy in more difficult passages?

As it happens, however, a reader has sent me an excerpt, apparently from the new edition, which renders 1 Corinthians 20, 21 as:

"So then, when you come together, it is not the Lord’s Supper you eat, for when you are eating, some of you go ahead with your own private suppers. As a result, one person remains hungry and another gets drunk".

But the word "private" is a complete interpolation that is not even in the 1978 NIV edition. There is no such word in the original Greek -- only the word "idion" (own). The point of the interpolation is an attempt to undermine the meaning of verse 20, which rather clearly denies that the communal meals of the early Christians constituted a celebration of the Lord's Supper -- as I pointed out on 17th..

So the NIV is thoroughly polluted. It is a work of theology as much as a translation and should be avoided by anyone interested in what the Bible writers actually said.

But not everybody can go back to the original languages so what translation do I recommend? Perverse as it undoubtedly seems, I use the original KJV version from the year 1611. It is actually a pretty literal translation. I think that they had more respect for what the Bible actually said back then.

The recensions of the original texts that they had back then -- such as "Stephanus" -- were undoubtedly inferior to modern recensions such as Nestle but all recensions are around 99% identical anyway. I wish I could say the same for translations.

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

VA Cheer Coach Pinched for Embezzlement

(Pulaski County, Virginia) A guidance counselor and cheerleading coach at Pulaski County High School, Angelia Paige Harrell aka Angie Harrell, has been accused of embezzling more than $50,000 from the cheerleading program between March 2010 and Oct. 2011.

Harrell faces three felony counts of embezzlement.

Harrell is alleged to have diverted funds from Pulaski County School System, but more specifically from funds set aside for the cheerleading program. Harrell was a head coach of the varsity cheerleading squad.

The code section under which Harrell is charged deals with the diversion of public funds by a public employee.

The charges are Class 4 felonies, each of which carries a possible sentence of two to 10 years of imprisonment and a fine of up to $100,000.

Harrell surrendered to police yesterday and was released on bond.

Illegal Voting Dilutes Rights of Citizens

An analysis from the Center for Immigration Studies:

This Backgrounder discusses one of the latest skirmishes in the federal-state boundary wars: efforts by state electoral officials to vet voter registration lists to prevent non-citizens from registering and casting ballots.

Interestingly, it is once again the states that are demanding that the distinction between alienage and citizenship be enforced while the federal government again has acted to frustrate state efforts through denial of access to information and the filing of lawsuits.

Arguably, the biggest impediments to assuring a clean election process are tied to actions of the Obama Administration.

They're still lying with statistics

In 1954 Darrell Huff wrote a book called "How to lie with statistics". It is well-known and has often been used as an introductory college textbook. The point of the book was of course to alert people to statistical skullduggery so that they were not deceived by it.

But even though it sold a lot of copies the book has been an almost complete failure. In most academic fields where statistics are used (e.g. medical research, psychological research, climate research) statistics are still routinely misused. I spent 20 years getting papers published in the academic journals of the social sciences pointing out the defective reasoning in other articles in my field and, more recently, my FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC blog has tackled the outlandish conclusions that prevail in much of medical research. It's all a very sad tale. A lot of so-called "science" is basically corrupt.

So I would very much like readers to take the time to listen to a breezy video below by statistican W.M. Briggs in which he gives examples of corrupt statistical reasoning from psychological, medical and environmental research.



And the lesson from the above? Don't accept ANY scientific statement until you have seen what people say who don't agree with that statement. Corrupt science is so common that the odds are that the critics will be right.

So why is statistically-based science so corrupt? Briggs gives you some answers but I will give you another one that you may not see elsewhere: Most users of statistics are Left-leaning academics and for them "There is no such thing as truth". There is however a desperate need for them to defend their ideology. Their egos depend on it.

Even medical science has become heavily politicized with the "war on obesity" and the general elitist view of the Left that anything popular is either wrong or bad for you (cue cellphones).

Posted by John J. Ray (M.A.; Ph.D.).

Arizona Woman, 30, and Boy, 15

(Gilbert, Arizona) A 30-year-old local woman, Tanner Vicory aka Tanner Victory, has been accused of engaging in an extended-term sexual relationship with a 15-year-old boy.

Vicory faces a charge of sexual conduct with a minor.

Police were notified when the teen's mother discovered questionable texts on her son's phone.

Investigators say Vicory had a relationship with the boy from November 2011 to April 2012.

"If something feels uncomfortable, you need to head it off at the pass," Gilbert police Sgt. Bill Balafas said.

Vicory was arrested last Friday and booked into custody at the 4th Avenue Jail.

Louisiana Youth Counselor and Inmate

(New Orleans, Louisiana) A 32-year-old youth counselor at the Bridge City Center for Youth, Shantel Fitzgerald, has been accused of engaging in sex with a troubled youth at the facility.

Fitzgerald faces a charge of sexual malfeasance in a prison.

Fitzgerald was taken into custody after an investigation by the state Department of Juvenile Justice, but has since been released.

Jerel Giarrusso, a spokeswoman for the agency, promised a comment on the incident, but only issued a one sentence comment confirming the arrest. Giarrusso did not provide any details on how many inmates were affected or when the sexual contact occurred.

Fitzgerald has since been fired by the state.

Details on booking have not been reported.

Foul Ball at Yankee Stadium



(New York City)

A couple was filmed having sex in the left field bleacher bathrooms at Yankee Stadium during Saturday’s win over Tampa Bay, according to Deadspin.com.

In the clip, a man — wearing little more than a CC Sabathia T-shirt — and his companion appear too absorbed in the act to notice the recording device or an onlooker draped over the adjoining stall.

The romp went on from “about the 2nd through the 4th or 5th inning” and attracted a large crowd, including stadium personnel, according to Deadspin’s tipster.

Video (NSFW) here.

Tip: slwlion