Ohio Teacher Gets Prison in Sex Case - Updated

(Sandusky, Ohio) In September 2010, 35-year-old teacher formerly at Perkins High School, April Seville, pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual battery stemming from a sexual relationship with a student.

In accordance with the plea agreement, six counts of sexual battery were dismissed.

Yesterday in Erie County Common Pleas Court, Judge Roger E. Binette sentenced Seville to two concurrent three-year stretches in prison.

* * * * *
Ohio Teacher Accused of Sex with Student
[Previous 6/9/10 post]
(Sandusky, Ohio) A 35-year-old English teacher at Perkins High School, April E. Seville, has been accused of engaging in a sexual relationship with a 17-year-old male sophomore student.

Seville has been charged with sexual battery.

Seville admitted to police in interviews this past weekend that she engaged in sexual contact with the student, Perkins police Lt. Det. Al Matthews said.

The alleged relationship began last year. Seville was the boy's teacher, Matthews said.

The relationship came to the attention of school officials and police on Friday, after classes were dismissed. Someone saw Seville and the student kissing in a classroom, police said.

Seville is estranged from her husband, Charlton Seville, Matthews said.

Tuesday afternoon, however, Charlton cried in Sandusky Municipal Court when his wife appeared on a courtroom television screen streamed live from Erie County jail.

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

King Abdullah Takes Entire Wing of Hospital - Updated



King Abdullah
(New York City) Saudi King Abdullah demands kingly treatment and he has the dollars to pay for it.

Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah is causing his own diplomatic drama at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center, where the 86-year-old monarch has commandeered an entire wing as he recovers from back surgery on the VIP floor.

King Abdullah -- who repeatedly exhorted the US to "cut the head off the snake" by launching military strikes to destroy Iran's nuclear program, according to leaked diplomatic cables -- has forced other patients out by block-booking the hospital's top treatment and recovery rooms.

A family member of one patient told us, "The king has taken the entire luxury treatment wing and booked out all the rooms, even though they are empty and he doesn't need them, to protect his privacy.

"Patients are grumbling that they have been moved out to other areas of the hospital, and that despite there being a number of unused VIP treatment rooms, they can't be moved into them because they are all reserved for the king of Saudi Arabia."

The King reportedly needed surgery for a blood clot and a slipped disc. He now is recuperating in his room, presumably nursed by a buxom harem of pulchritudinous attendants while fighting boredom by watching FoxNews.

Notably, a massive entourage accompanied Abdullah to New York. Three flights were chartered for him and his army of security personnel. He also brought along a film crew and it took 20 vehicles just to transport his luggage from the airport to the hospital.

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King Abdullah Coming to U.S.
[Previous 11/21/10 post]
(Riyadh, Saudi Arabia) King Abdullah Bin Abdulaziz Bin Abdulrahman Bin Faisal Bin Turki Bin Abdullah Bin Muhammad Bin Saud, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, will be visiting the United States tomorrow for medical treatment.

Reportedly in his mid-80s, King Abdullah suffers from back problems. Notably, his health and the stability of the Saudi government are of global concern.

Companion post at TJR.

Google Investigated

The European Union is investigating Google for abusing its dominant market position in online searches. Three European companies have complained about Google's competitive practices.

The three companies that lodged complaints in February are U.K.-based price comparison site Foundem, French legal search engine ejustice.fr and shopping site Ciao, owned by Microsoft through its own search engine Bing - which has struggled to wrestle online market share away from Google.

The investigation does not imply any wrongdoing by Google, which controls about 90 percent of the online search market in Europe, but shows that the antitrust watchdog is taking the complaints seriously enough to launch a detailed examination of the company's practices.

The EU previously levied fines on Microsoft ($2 billion) and Intel ($1.4 billion) and Google is potentially liable for a fine of 10% percent of its revenue ($2.4 billion based on 2009 data).

Jihadis all over the place in Europe

Amid mounting terrorism fears in Europe, investigators on Tuesday arrested 10 suspects after busting an Islamic extremist network, which plotted to attack a Belgian port-city. The Belgian prosecutor's office said that an international terrorist group used an extremist Internet site, Ansar Al Mujahideen, for this to plot the attack. The Belgian investigators had been suspecting the network, which is based in Antwerp, home to both Muslim and Jewish communities, since last year.

Most of the suspects were arrested in Belgium, while the Dutch and German investigators also arrested some of the suspects in their countries. The prosecutor's office said that the attack’s target was not yet specifically determined, adding that they had "sufficient facts" to justify the raids.

The government's crisis center’s spokesman said that no additional security measures have been decided to date in Belgium.

Dutch prosecutors confirmed the arrest of three men in their late 20s in Amsterdam, adding that all three Dutch nationals have been arrested on Belgium’s request and would soon be extradited to Belgium. German police also arrested a man aged 31 in Aachen.

The Belgian prosecutor’s spokesman said that out of those 10 arrested were nationals from Belgium, the Netherlands, Morocco and Russia. The men are also believed to have recruited "jihadist candidates" and financed the Chechen terrorist group - the Caucasian Emirate.

The fresh arrests came after several people have already been detained in Spain, Morocco and Saudi Arabia under the same probe. The investigation was conducted in collaboration with the European Union's judicial cooperation unit Eurojust and a host of other nations.

SOURCE

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

OK Teacher Accused of Embezzlement

(Jay, Oklahoma) A 53-year-old English teacher and cheerleading adviser with the Grove School District, Michell Diane Martin, has been accused of embezzling more than $8,000 from the school's cheerleading fund.

Martin resigned from the school Oct. 26. She was employed with the school district in 2001 and again from 2005 to this year.

Martin also was charged Nov. 1 with driving a motor vehicle while under the influence of alcohol-aggravated and transporting an open container of beer, both misdemeanors.

She was arrested by Grove police Oct. 29 after she registered 0.23 on a blood-alcohol test, nearly three times over the legal limit to drive.

An arrest warrant has been issued for the embezzlement charge. A court date has been scheduled for January 21 to address the driving charge.

Russian Vodka "Improves Health"



(Samara Oblast, Russia) The Direct Line advertising company has been claiming on the Internet that vodka is a "health improving product" which "improves digestion, and helps get rid of colds and headache." The company also claims that vodka "alleviates fatigue and bad moods."

I don't know about the other stuff but my mood has been known to perk up after imbibing in Russian vodka.

Nevertheless, the Russian Antimonopoly Service for the Samara region is taking action against Direct Line advertising. It's not clear what action is to be taken.

Florida Woman Gets Jail in Sex Case - Updated

(Sanford, Florida) Kathryn Echols was sentenced today by Circuit Judge Marlene Alva to six months in jail followed by 12 months of house arrest. Afterward, she'll serve three years of probation.

* * * * *
No Contest Plea in Sex Case - Updated
[Previous 10/7/10 post]
(Sanford, Florida) Thirty-four-year-old Kathryn Echols pleaded no contest yesterday to a reduced charge of felony battery and agreed to a sentence of six months in jail. Three counts of sex with a minor were dismissed.

Echols was arrested in April and confessed to Seminole County deputies that she was sexually involved with the teenage boy.

The boy also admitted the affair, according to her arrest report, but Assistant State Attorney Gino Feliciani said Wednesday that the teenager has disappeared, making it more difficult to bring Echols to trial.

Sentencing will occur on November 29. After her release, Echols will serve one year on house arrest and three years of probation.

* * * * *
Florida Woman Re-Arrested in Boy-Sex Case
[Previous 8/12/10 post]
(Sanford, Florida) In April 2010, a 33-year-old local married woman, Kathryn Echols, was arrested for allegedly engaging in sex with a 17-year-old boy.

She was booked on three felony counts of unlawful sex and released on $10,200 bond.

Now it's reported that Echols has been re-arrested for violating the terms of her bail by leaving the state. According to her alleged victim's father, the boy ran away to California and the family feared that Echols followed him.

Echols was arrested yesterday prior to her first court appearance pursuant to her April apprehension. She was booked into custody at the Seminole County Jail.

NATO Armored Vehicles in Russia

Russia has agreed to allow NATO to move armored vehicles through Russia to Afghanistan.

At the NATO summit in Lisbon, Portugal, last week, Russia and the alliance agreed to "broadened transit arrangements through Russian territory" of "non-lethal" material. The cargo would be moved through Russia to and from Afghanistan.

Transportation of military cargo will continue to be forbidden.

Star of David on Iranian Building

(Tehran, Iran) Iranians have called for the instant removal of a Star of David from the top of the headquarters of the Airline of the Islamic Republic of Iran, also known as Iran Air.



Google Earth photo of Iran Air headquarters
The Star of David was apparently put on the building during the reign of Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi when Iran had friendly relations with Israel.

Israeli engineers reportedly built the headquarters building sometime in the 1960s so the Jewish symbol has been prominently displayed on the building for more than forty years. Can we hear an Amen?

Heh.

The Canadian Test

(Ottawa, Canada) Authorities introduced a new citizenship test early this year with tougher questions. Sadly, the failure rate has soared.

The new test, introduced March 15, was based on a bulked-up citizenship guide released a year ago to give immigrants a richer picture of Canada’s history, culture, law and politics.

The 63-page guide, Discover Canada, replaced a slimmer volume dating from 1995 that had fewer facts to memorize. The failure rate for the old citizenship test, with questions drawn from the smaller guide, ranged between four and eight per cent.

Failure rates for the new test, however, rocketed to about 30 per cent when it was first introduced — prompting officials to revise the rules to avoid clogging the system with thousands of would-be Canadians who, because they had flunked, often had to plead their cases before busy citizenship judges.

A reworked test introduced Oct. 14 is helping to cut the national failure rate to about 20 per cent, still far higher than historic levels and making the exam-hall experience much more nerve-wracking for newcomers.

Isn't that beautiful? Too many people fail the test so they "rework" the test and still too many fail. Authorities are stymied by the realization that so many people are too dumb to be Canadian.

Brit Teacher Gets Prison for Doing Boys

(Liverpool, England) In March 2010, a 37-year-old teacher at Birkdale High School in Southport, Hina Patel, was accused of engaging in sex with two 15-year-old boys.

Reported today, Patel has pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual activity with a child.

Martin Decker, prosecuting, told the court that the offences, which took place about three weeks before Easter this year, came to light when another pupil was overheard discussing a teacher having had sex with a pupil.

When the two victims were tracked down they admitted that Patel had begun texting them after they had separately been sent to the isolation room, which she was supervising, for bad behaviour.

The texts became “flirty” and they both individually made their way to her home one afternoon. At one stage one boy went to the toilet and she was waiting for him on the stairs when he came out and they went into her bedroom and had sexual intercourse.

The other boy stayed the night and they had sex, said Mr Decker.

As a result of the convictions, Patel was sentenced to 16 months in prison. In her defense, lawyer Patrick Williamson said Patel, a mother of two, had a tough childhood and suffered from stress.

In addition to prison, Judge John Roberts ordered Patel to register as a sex offender for 10 years and prohibited her from contacting any children under 16, except her own.

Beck derangement syndrome

Glenn Beck has taken over from GWB in driving "progressives" into insanity

One of the most celebrated American movies of all time is being hijacked by host Glenn Beck, according to a writer objecting to the talk-show host's decision to broadcast a show from a small town hit hard by the recession.

"Beck is now trying to steal the great 1946 Frank Capra classic 'It's a Wonderful Life' and turn it into a rallying cry for the conservative anti-government Christian right," said Lauri Lebo, a former newspaper reporter from Harrisburg, Pa., in a commentary posted online.

"Somehow, Beck manages to reinterpret the movie through an unregulated free-market ideological Ayn Rand prism and message of Christian conservatism."

"First of all, it's a Christmas movie with an angel in it and God, so I'm pretty sure that it's already got the religion thing in it," Beck said in response to Lebo.

Lebo had written "there are some terrific themes in that movie. Dare I even say it? Terrific progressive themes."

It was that remark about "terrific progressive themes" that sparked the most spirited reaction from Beck, as he explained: "Who saved the Building & Loan in Bedford Falls? The people did. George did, with his own private funds. The government didn't bail him out, and that's the deal. You remember the bank was bailing everyone out ... along with the government closing down the banks. The banks and the government were in collusion. ...

"The local banks were the ones that didn't have a problem. It's the gigantic banks run by people like [Mr.] Potter that were just trying to get rich and didn't care about people. The local banks are the George Baileys. That's not progressive. Progressive is about going past the Constitution and having people at a government level babysit people because they're all too stupid."

More HERE

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

Wikileaks Boogers

When I was in grade school, there was this kid that would pick his nose regularly and sneak his boogers on the backs of other kids, mostly when students were lined up for lunch, field trips or waiting for the bus.

I remember the kid's name was Carl and he got beat up a lot.

Carl placing boogers on kids' backs to be mischievous is arguably comparable to Wikileaks releasing classified documents to be subversive. Right now, the U.S. diplomatic and intelligence communities have boogers on their backs. It remains to be seen whether the Wikileaks version of Carl gets beat up.

In any event, expect 'revelations' from Wikileaks to suck air out of the news cycle for the near future.

Internet Domain Names Seized by Feds

The Combatting Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) allows the feds to shut down websites without notice nor warning.

Consequently, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has seized dozens of domain names recently.

The sites are replaced with a note from the government: "This domain named has been seized by ICE, Homeland Security Investigations."

It appears the feds have overly-wide latitude under the law. So much for due process, eh?

"Smart fraction" theory

There is now plenty of evidence of variability in national average IQs and equally strong evidence that the differences concerned matter a lot. To put it bluntly, low IQ nations tend to be hellholes and high IQ nations are prosperous and comfortable.

An odd exception to that was China, with a very high average IQ but also high levels of poverty. Recently, however, we have seen that with the yoke of communism partially removed from them, the Chinese have been going ahead economically in leaps and bounds -- and they will undoubledly soon arrive at the level of prosperity that their average IQ would indicate. China's recent advance is in fact an excellent validation of IQ theory. Just giving them the opportunity to realize their potential produced amazing successes. It is exactly what IQ theory would predict for a high IQ nation.

In all countries, however, economic advance is driven by a small minority. Most people are "wage slaves", not entrepreneurs. So among IQ researchers there has been a proposal that it might be more enlightening to look not at the average guy but rather at the top people in his nation's population. We should take (say) the top 5% (as measured by IQ score) of any population and look at THEIR average IQ rather than the average IQ in that nation as a whole. The average IQ of the "smart fraction" in a population might give us even better predictive power about that nation than the average IQ of that nation as a whole does.

Recently, some research has been done which tests that theory. They did not use IQ scores as such but estimated IQ from measures of educational attainment. Educational attainment and IQ are highly correlated. The journal abstract is below:

The impact of smart fractions, cognitive ability of politicians and average competence of peoples on social development

By Heiner Rindermann, Michael Sailer and James Thompson

Abstract:

Smart fraction theory supposes that gifted and talented persons are especially relevant for societal development. Using results for the 95th percentile from TIMSS 1995- 2007, PISA 2000-2006 and PIRLS 2001-2006 we calculated an ability sum value (N=90 countries) for the upper level group (equivalent to a within country IQ-threshold of 125 or a student assessment score of 667) and compared its influence with the mean ability and the 5th percentile ability on wealth (GDP), patent rates, Nobel Prizes, numbers of scientists, political variables (government effectiveness, democracy, rule of law, political liberty), HIV, AIDS and homicide.

Additionally, using information on school and professional education, we estimated the cognitive competence of political leaders in N=90 countries.

Results of correlations, regression and path analyses generally show a larger impact of the smart fractions’ ability on positively valued outcomes than of the mean result or the 5th percentile fraction. The influence of the 5th percentile fraction on HIV, AIDS and homicide, however, was stronger.

The intelligence of politicians was less important, a longitudinal crosslagged analysis could show a positive influence on the cognitive development of nations.

Source

So the results supported the theory. How smart a nation's smarties were told us even more than average IQ did. Note the very large number of variables that were successfully predicted by the study. How smart your nation's smarties are is very important indeed.

Note also that how dumb the dummies were (the BOTTOM 5%) also strongly predicted a few things: The incidence of HIV, AIDS and homicide! To put it very bluntly, real dummies are murderous and will stick their dicks in anything.

Steve Sailer has a much more detailed discussion of the paper but misses the point that IQ in even the Jewish population of Israel (not counting the Arabs and the illegal immigrants) is bimodal. Most Israeli Jews are of Middle Eastern origin and hence not too bright. It is the minority of Israeli Jews who are of European origin (Ashkenazim) who account for Israel's advances. To really understand Israel, you need to treat the Ashkenazim as a separate population in its own right. They are in their own way a good example of how important the "smart fraction" is.

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

Girl, 15, Burns Koran

(Birmingham, England) A 15-year-old girl at a Sandwell school was arrested for allegedly burning a Koran and posting footage of the incident on Facebook. She was charged with suspicion of inciting racial hatred.

It is understood the girl, who lives in the Sandwell Council area, was filmed setting the English language Koran alight while other pupils watched.

"I think this young lady did not realise exactly what she was doing. In fact I know she didn't," said the teacher, who cannot be named.

"Because if she stopped to consider the fallout of doing this kind of thing, and she considered the offence it would cause to people within her own community in the school, I honestly don't believe she would have done it.

"And I also know for a fact that she deeply regrets what she has done."

Authorities appear to be working overtime to squelch interest in the story.

Woman Lures Young Girl

(London, England) A 35-year-old woman from Northern Ireland who used a social networking site to lure a 13-year-old English girl from her home in Cornwall, England, was arrested last Tuesday for alleged sexual assault on a minor and grooming a minor for sexual purposes.

After school on Monday the child went to Newquay airport and caught a Gatwick-bound plane, posing as a 17-year-old.

Officers found the pair in Horley, Surrey, the following day, and also seized items from an address in Cookstown, Co Tyrone, which lies west of Belfast.

The girl's mother added: 'An officer told me CCTV pictures show the woman giving my daughter a hug and kissing her on both cheeks at Gatwick. We only found out where she had gone by hacking into her internet messages.

'They showed details of all the travel arrangements, which we passed on to police. An officer told me the woman bought clothes for my daughter and booked tickets for them to fly to Belfast, making out she was her mother.'

The woman was released on conditional bail until January.

Tip: Lame

Koreans Drumming War

With tension increasing on the Korean peninsula, plans are in progress to evacuate all Filipino workers in South Korea.

Meanwhile, it's reported that North Korea is recalling all 20,000 of its workers from the Far East of Russia.

It appears that the workers in Russia have been called back to aid potential military operations.

Vladnews agency, based in Vladivostok, reported that North Korean workers had left the town of Nakhodka en masse shortly after the escalation of tension on the Korean peninsula earlier this week.

Most North Koreans in Russia work in construction and they are closely monitored by Kim Jong-il's security services. The workers are subjected to long hours and poor conditions and no contact with the outside world.

And to make things even more interesting, a U.S. nuke aircraft carrier is headed to the Yellow Sea.

The nuclear-powered carrier, the USS George Washington, reportedly will stay in the open seas just south of South Jeolla Province for the period during the drill. Also, the South Korean militia and U.S. military personnel plan to limit the exercises to the areas south of Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province.

This means they will conduct the exercise in waters outside the range of North Korea’s Samlet, Silkworm, and Styx land-to-sea anti-ship missiles.

Military experts say this is most of the reason why North Korea will have a bad day launching their “retaliatory strikes,” as they called them, at anyone engaged in the exercise.

China has repeatedly protested against a U.S. carrier conducting exercises in the Yellow Sea, calling it provocative.

Sulloway is still banging the birth order drum

Though rather more cautiously these days. See below. His claims are all just selective use of data. Facts that don't suit him he ignores or misrepresents. Sulloway exposed himself as the charlatan he is by doing something almost unknown in academe: bringing a lawsuit in an attempt to prevent publication of an article disproving his claims. Not even the Warmists have done that.

The whole extraordinary story is here. I myself have previously put up a brief summary comment on the matter here. My comment should explain why I am not surprised that it is NPR that is preaching the Sulloway story below

There are lots of expectations and assumptions about how birth order may shape our adult lives, and many of them go back ages. Centuries ago, the oldest son had huge incentives to stay on track and live up to family expectations — that's because, by tradition, he was set to inherit almost everything.

"Historically the practice of primogeniture was very common in Europe," says Frank Sulloway, a visiting scholar at the Institute of Personality and Social Research at the University of California, Berkeley. "So firstborns had every reason to preserve the status quo and be on good terms with their parents."

Now you may think any "first born" effect would have completely disappeared in modern times. But not so, say experts who study birth order. Researchers first examined the status of firstborns among Washington power brokers in 1972.

"I expected that there would be a disproportionately high number of firstborns among members of Congress" says psychologist Richard Zweigenhaft of Guilford College. "And that's exactly what I found."

Out of 121 representatives and senators included in his sample, Zweigenhaft found that 51 were firstborns, 39 were middle children, and 31 were youngest children. It wasn't a huge overrepresentation of firstborns, but the difference, he says, is too significant to ignore.

Several surveys and studies conducted throughout the years have found that firstborns do edge out later-borns in lots of high-achieving professions, from corporate CEOs to college professors to U.S. presidents and Supreme Court justices. There's even evidence that firstborn children are about 3 IQ points smarter than their second-born siblings.

More here

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

British council urges staff to ditch jargon

We read:

"It is the language that clutters council newsletters and documents like weeds strangling a flower bed, but one local authority wants to put a stop to jargon, and bring back plain, simple English.

Pompous words such as "facilitate" and "utilise" should be replaced by their shorter, more common versions "help" and "use", the council has said.

Meaningless phrases such as "close proximity" and "forward planning" should be shelved, while the phrase that has become ubiquitous over the last decade – "stakeholder engagement" – should be replaced with the far more straightforward "talking to people".

The guide, which Conwy Council in North Wales is considering adopting, said: "People need to understand what we are telling them. A whole language has been developed around council documents that the press refers to as council speak or ‘council-ese’. It doesn’t make our documents seem more important – just more confusing."

Dressing up policies and documents with long words and jargon frequently hides the fact that the local council officers do not understand what they are saying, it added.

The advice said: “Avoid old fashioned words and phrases. These can seem pompous and bureaucratic and set a cold, impersonal tone.” It urges active rather than passive sentences such as please tell us instead of you are requested.

Conwy is not the first council to attempt to cut a swathe through officialese, but many previous attempts have been thwarted by central Government legislation, which frequently introduces new terms, such as "sustainable communities". Studies have also suggested many council workers fear using simple English because they think they will be accused of "dumbing down".

The Local Government Association has published a list of more than 250 words that councils should never use in public documents, including "engagement", "embedded", "challenge", "low-hanging fruit", "top down", "step change" and "actioned" – words that many councils continue to use in their literature.

Despite the admirable suggestions about how its staff can use simpler English, the document itself is couched in the councilese Conwy urges its officers to avoid using. One sentence runs: "Many of the community involvement techniques set out in the matrix are research tools that can provide you with either reliable measurements and/or detailed qualitative information."

Source

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