Student Fathers Teacher's Baby

(New York City) The New York Post has the exclusive story of Rhianna Ellis, a 25-year-old high school teacher who had a child fathered by one of her students.


Rhianna Ellis
(Photo - Steven Hirsch)
The relationship apparently began when the boy was in the 10th grade. Interestingly, Ellis only gave the boy a barely passing grade of 65 in Social Studies even though he had her personal attention at a Queens motel for three to four times a week over ten months. Maybe if he got her pregnant in fewer months, his grade would have been higher. It's been recommended that the New York City Department of Education fire Ellis from her $40,225 per year teaching position.

[Update 04/14/05]
Rhianna_Ellis
According to this report in the Daily News, Ellis had the sexual relationship with Cesar Pozo, starting when he was 17. Pozo even introduced Ellis to his parents but neglected to mention that she was his teacher. Ellis has been on unpaid medical leave from the school and it's unclear what action will be taken by Education Department officials.

It should be noted that Rhianna Ellis' sexual relationship with a student is one of two announced this week at the High School for Health Professions and Human Services in Mahattan. The other sex scandal was that of guidance counselor Samantha Solomon.

Rejected From the Carnivals

It's only Wednesday and this has already been a bad week for Interested-Participant. My submission for the Carnival of the Vanities was rejected because the host had already received enough entries to keep him busy. This week's host, Dr. Zen at yeah whatever, showed some consideration by notifying me via email with the caveat that if I'm "really ticked off," he would reconsider.

Well, I'm not really ticked off, but I am somewhat chafed, especially since my rejection from the CotV followed right on the heels of being rejected from the Carnival of the Capitalists. However, unlike Dr. Zen who notified me by email that he was swamped and, therefore, rejecting my entry, this week's CotC host, TJ at TJ's Weblog, wasn't as considerate. There was no email. Instead, after the CotC had been posted for the better part of a day, I looked for my entry only to find I'd been rejected because my post wasn't good enough. Since over 20 other bloggers also submitted unacceptable posts, I don't feel singled out, but I do feel insulted. I was scratched from a competition that I didn't enter and I don't even know why. The best I can figure is that my post was unacceptable because it wasn't what TJ liked this week. Frankly, I think it's a fairly turd-worthy way to treat fellow bloggers.

I suspect that my rejections from this week's carnivals have little to do with the content of my specific entries and everything to do with the actual work involved with putting the carnival together. Over the past two years, I've frequently seen comments and, occasionally, complaints about the time required to collect, format, insert links, check links, and publish the carnivals. Don't get me wrong, there's nothing difficult about hosting. In fact, it's relatively easy, but quite time consuming. The host has to track down the entry, read it, extract a portion or write something descriptive, place it on his blog, insert links, check links, and then go on to the next of possibly 50 or more entries. Doing all this stuff, my own experience was spending approximately 16 hours over the two to three days before publication. I don't know if that's representative, however, I do know that hosting the carnival consumes many hours. That said, I think that some hosts are not aware of the time required and they put things off until the last minute and get deluged. Dr. Zen said as much. TJ, on the other hand, seems to have an agenda to turn the CotC into a competition. That would be fine as long as the rules were announced beforehand.

Above all, the hosts of the carnivals deserve thanks and recognition for volunteering to do a laborious task from which many bloggers benefit. Nonetheless, it must be emphasized that hosts need to block out a significant number of hours from their schedules to complete the carnival on time. This is particularly important information for those with packed schedules already.

Teacher Accused of Sex With Boy

(Fairfax, Virginia) A 24-year-old Fairfax County Public School substitute teacher, Dana V. Snyder, has been arrested and charged with two counts of carnal knowledge with a minor for allegedly having sexual relations with a 14-year-old boy.


Dana V. Snyder
Snyder was released on $5,000 bond. She faces a possible 20 years in prison and a $200,000 fine if convicted.

[Update 04/14/05] Replaced photo. Also, according to this report, Snyder faces possible penalties of 2-10 years in prison and a fine of up to $100,000. The sexual encounters with the boy allegedly occurred on Saturday, March 26, and Monday, April 4.

UN Report: Indigenous Canadians' Lives Suck

(Geneva, Switzerland) According to a United Nations human rights special investigator, Rodolfo Stavenhagen, indigenous Canadians are poorer, sicker, less educated, more socially excluded and more prone to end up in prison than almost everyone else in Canada. TheStar.com (reg. req'd) reports that the findings resulted from an investigation conducted by Stavenhagen at the request of the Canadian government. Paraphrasing the comments of Paul Meyer, Canada's ambassador to the UN, he stated, "Yeah, we know."

Apparently, the nanny state liberal government has neglected to include a portion of the population as passengers on the bus to utopia.

Bonfire of the Vanities #93

Go to MY VWRC to see a particularly enjoyable presentation of the Bonfire of the Vanities.

Harvesting Human Brains

From the Ironman at Political Calculations comes the report of a scandal in King County, Washington, involving the practice of the local medical examiner removing the brains of the deceased and selling them for $8,300 each to a research lab, all without the consent of the next of kin. It appears the malleability of ethical standards in the State of Washington knows no limits. What's next? Harvesting muscle tissue for animal feed?

Hat tip: GruntDoc, JSLogan

Grand Rounds

Ready to be mined as reality-based source material for the chronic cavalcade of medical shows in film and television, Grand Rounds is hosted this week at GruntDoc. The editor's choice is an eyewitness account of the Vesuvius of Poo. Go visit.

Anti-Porn Queen Andrea Dworkin Dies

(Washington) Feminist writer Andrea Dworkin, known for her campaigns against pornography, died at her home on Saturday at the age of 58. The cause of death has not been reported, however, Dworkin had suffered from osteoarthritis and other chronic ailments for years.

Sister feminist Gloria Steinem said Dworkin helped the human race to evolve.

Dead Man Indicted

(Birmingham, Alabama) A grand jury in Tuscaloosa has indicted a corpse for the murders of two people in 2003. The dead body of Steven Kyle Kimbrell was charged with two counts of capital murder for causing the deaths of Clay Stanton North and Lindsay Brooke Whatley. Prior to his suicide last year, police didn't have enough evidence to charge Kimbrell with the murders, but now they do. He has avoided arrest because he's dead and not a flight risk.

It's not clear why the authorities are going through the motions of charging a dead man with crimes. I presume it has something to do with paperwork. One thing seems certain, though. Any enterprising lawyer could easily get the charges against Kimbrell dismissed in court. If Kimbrell can't understand what he's being charged with, which he can't because he's dead, and he can't confront his accusers, which he also can't because he's dead, it's inconceivable that he could be convicted by a court. Um, well, it should be inconceivable. Unfortunately, American courts sometimes do strange things.

There should be a statute of limitations on formally charging someone with a crime - death of the accused.

[Update] Based upon a different report, it seems that Kimbrell was not indicted by a grand jury nor were formal charges filed. The grand jury appears to have been asked to function only in a consultative capacity to add credence to the determination of police investigators that Kimbrell was the killer. It's unclear why it was believed to be necessary, however, it does explain why there was confusion in the reporting. Nevertheless, I still question whether it's appropriate for a grand jury to be used as a catch-all forum for determining the acceptability of an investigation.

Fading Beauty

It may not be fathomable to some people, but lobsters are getting uglier.

Woman Charged for False Accusation of Terrorism

(Columbus, Ohio) This morning the FBI arrested Khadrah Farah Ali, 42, for falsely reporting that her husband was involved in terrorist plots to bomb the U.S. and Saudi embassies in London. Ali admitted she was mad at her husband, Osman Yusef Dirie, because he only married her to obtain residency status in the U.S.

Ali could be sentenced to five years in prison if convicted. To be reasonable, she should be forced to pay compensation to the government for the funds used to investigate the false claim. To be realistic, she'll probably only get a hand slap.

Parkinson's Linked to Drinking Milk

From research performed at Korea University, a link has been suggested between consumption of milk and Parkinson's disease. Middle-aged men who drink a pint of milk daily had Parkinson's at more than twice the rate of men who drank no milk. The scientists believe that a contaminant and not calcium is causing the higher incidence of Parkinson's.

Next week, we'll probably hear that milk is good for the brain. Frankly, I've become somewhat jaded about health alerts. Too many turn out to be junk science.

Female Teacher Arrested for Rape of Students

(Clanton, Alabama) A 31-year-old physical education instructor, Christy Lynn Chapman, was arrested by sheriff's deputies and charged with five counts of rape and three counts of sodomy for having sexual relations with two male students over the course of several years.


Christy Lynn Chapman
According to this report, both boys were under the age of 16 at the time of the alleged sex.

"You see these kinds of things on television but you never expect for it to happen in your community," said Chilton County Sheriff Billy Wayne Fulmer. "I'm glad we were able to get Ms. Chapman away from other children and stop this from continuing."

The sheriff's investigators continue to search for other possible victims while Chapman sits in jail under $203,000 bond.

[Update 4/12/05] Added photo. Corrected spelling.

Alabama State Whiskey

In April 2004, the Alabama State Legislature overrode Gov. Bob Riley's veto of a measure to make Conecuh Ridge Whiskey the "official state spirit." As the official spirit, a picture of Conecuh Ridge Whiskey was placed in the kid's section of the website produced by the Alabama Department of Archives and History. Widespread publicity increased demand for the whiskey, producing a very happy distiller. But, it appears the situation is about to change.

Trouble for Conecuh Ridge began in December, when state liquor agents charged the brand's founder, Kenny May of Troy, with misdemeanor violations in two counties - selling liquor without a license, possessing excessive quantities of liquor in a dry county, and selling to an 18-year-old girl in a state where the legal drinking age is 21.

May admitted the violations and paid fines, and the Alabama Alcoholic Beverage Control Board decided to quit selling his product in state-run liquor stores.

The sponsor of the 2004 resolution honoring Conecuh Ridge, Rep. Alan Boothe, D-Troy, got the Alabama House to pass another resolution Feb. 3 repealing the product's designation as the "official state spirit." The resolution went to the Rules Committee, where it has been sitting ever since.

It seems the legislative schedule is full and the whiskey issue has been relegated to the bottom of the list. Oddly, the removal of the distinction of being the official state whiskey will probably cause demand to explode.

And, I have to ask. Why would the State of Alabama put a picture of whiskey on a kid's web page? It makes no sense.

Unprotected Medical Records

(San Jose, California) Police are investigating a burglary of two computers from the San Jose Medical Group which reportedly contained the names, addresses, Social Security numbers, and billing codes for as many as 185,000 patients. The computers were stolen on March 28th from the Race Street administrative office of the Medical Group. Current and former patients are being alerted to the possibility of identity theft and the invasion of their privacy. It should be noted that the Medical Group's chief doctor doesn't believe the computers were stolen for the data.

"I think those were the prettiest. They were the newest," said Dr. Dean Didech. "They were the most expensive. They were the most powerful computers."

As corrective action, the San Jose Medical Group committed to installing 'new security systems' and to assuring that confidential information is not stored on desktop computers.

Interestingly, it was only last Tuesday that a significant number of medical records were compromised in Cleveland when a truck, for some unknown reason, dumped them on city streets while being transported to the Cleveland Clinic. Like litter, approximately 3,000 patient and billing records were scattered, containing "patient names, home addresses, insurers and policy numbers, treating physicians, admission and discharge dates and detailed billing information."

Obviously, the organizations and people responsible for disclosing patient information in the two instances cited are apologetic. However, they are also liable for penalties from violating the provisions of the Healthcare Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). A quick look at the HIPAA schedule of penalties indicates that a maximum $25,000 fine can be imposed. That's not a large sum, but there is also the threat of possible civil suits if actual harm is realized by the people whose records were compromised.

IRS Plans Private Revenue Hunters

The Internal Revenue Service has announced plans to hire contract firms to collect taxes, paying them a bounty of up to 25% of the money they recover. Deputy IRS Commissioner Rich Morgante said the project is scheduled to start by the end of 2005.

So, the revenuers are not going to be government agents anymore. They'll be hired gunslingers out to collect a bounty on confiscated funds. I don't see how they would be any different than any other of America's bounty hunters who have been known to break down the wrong door.

Also, it's common practice for collection agencies to torment people via the telephone. Therefore, it's conceivable that call centers in India or Pakistan could be subcontracted to telephonically harass U.S. citizens who haven't paid their taxes. For that matter, I don't know why it wouldn't be possible for the call centers to do outsourced skip tracing on debtors and tax delinquents. Maybe they already do. If phone sex and school tutoring can be outsourced, why not tax collection?

The whole idea of the IRS contracting out tax collection is smelly. Tax forms collect a tremendous amount of privileged information. Making it available to a common bill collector looking for a bounty is unnerving. Nonetheless, Morgante presumably thinks there is no reason to be apprehensive about the bounty hunters because:

"They are going to be held to the same standards as government employees."

In my estimation, that doesn't support his argument.

Companion post at eTALKINGHEAD.

Gaming Rage

Apparently, Gaming Rage has resulted in at least one death in the Far East. Chances are that the phenomenon will ultimately migrate to the U.S. The Marmot has the story.

Mom Let 5-Year-Old Daughter Smoke Pot

(Angleton, Texas) Last December, Amanda Williams, 22, allowed her 5-year-old daughter to smoke marijuana, according to Angleton Police Detective David Steves. Wiiliams was arrested Friday and charged with felony endangering a child. She was released on $7,500 bond.

If convicted, Williams faces a possible two years in jail and a $10,000 fine.

Ohio Supreme Court Refuses to Honor Pope

(Columbus, Ohio) Contrary to Governor Taft's directive, the Ohio Supreme Court refused to lower the flag to respectfully honor the passing of Pope John Paul II. According to Chris Davey, spokesman for the court, it is a tradition in the court to ignore what the governor directs.

"That proclamation does not apply to us," Davey said. "We are a different branch" of government.

It is critical for the court to maintain judicial independence, Davey said.

Since when did recognizing the loss of a great statesman have anything to do with the branches of government? Apparently, the justices of the Ohio Supreme Court believe that they have been elevated above humanity, like they are no longer part of the human race.

In my estimation, their stunt was small-minded, tactless, and ugly. And, more and more, it seems that American courts are trending towards adopting those and other undesirable attributes.

Tops Cutting Butchers

(Northeast, Ohio) It was only a few months ago that Tops Markets LLC, operator of dozens of supermarkets in NE Ohio, announced a blanket reduction in business hours and the closing of six stores. The cutbacks resulted in a loss of about 400 jobs and were implemented to minimize costs. At the time, I predicted that Tops would continue cost-cutting measures if it was unable to offer products at prices that are generally comparable to those offered by the competition.

Well, as predicted, Tops is continuing the trend. Slowly, the company is reducing its footprint in NE Ohio. This week, Tops announced the elimination of all butchers at its 49 local stores and the closing of two. The Solon store, located off Som Center and Aurora roads, and a Cleveland store located on Clark Avenue will disappear. It's anticipated that another 400 people will lose their jobs when all the changes have been completed.

I predict more layoffs and future closings. It appears that Tops is slowly fading as a prominent business entity in NE Ohio. My recommendation for employees is to man the lifeboats.

Of course, I could be wrong. I'm just a blogger.


[Update 07/09/06]

All TOPS stores in NE Ohio to be sold.