Iowa Teacher Gets Prison for Sex with Students - Update

(Allison, Iowa) Former math teacher at Aplington-Parkersburg High School, Ashley Nicole Anderson, 25, has been sentenced to a possible five years in prison for engaging in sex with three male students.

Ashley Nicole Anderson's sentence was shorter than the term of up to 10 years that the Iowa Attorney General's Office sought for the 25-year-old former Aplington-Parkersburg High School teacher.[…]

Anderson was taken into custody after being sentenced at the Butler County Courthouse in Allison. She is likely to serve no more than 2 ½ years under an Iowa law that gives inmates credit for 1.2 days for every day served, and could serve less if she is paroled.

She will be required to register as a sex offender upon her release and be on probation for 10 years.

All of Anderson's victims reportedly concurred with the sentencing.

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Iowa Teacher Guilty of Sex with Students - Update
[Previous 4/24/13 post]
(Allison, Iowa) Former math teacher at Aplington-Parkersburg High School, Ashley Anderson, pleaded guilty this week to engaging in sex with several students.

Anderson pleaded guilty in Butler County District Court to three counts of sexual exploitation by a school employee, a felony. As part of the agreement, the state dropped a fourth count.

Authorities charged Anderson in October. According to the Iowa Department of Public Safety, Anderson admitted engaging in sexual misconduct with four male students 16 to 18 years old at the time. She also allegedly sent nude photos of herself in text messages to the students.

Sentencing is scheduled for June when Anderson faces a possible five years in prison.

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Iowa Teacher Accused of Sex with Students
[Previous 10/20/12 post]
(Iowa City, Iowa) A 24-year-old teacher formerly at Aplington-Parkersburg High School, Ashley Nicole Anderson, has been accused of engaging in sexual relations with several male students during the previous school year.

Anderson faces four counts of sexual exploitation by a school employee, each of which carries up to five years in prison.

The police department in Parkersburg, a city of 1,900 in northeast Iowa, received information Sept. 20 that Anderson had sexually abused a student after one of the victims confided in someone, and a teacher heard about it, said Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation special agent Larry Hedlund. He said police contacted DCI to investigate.

Anderson, who taught algebra, geometry and pre-calculus classes at the high school, recently resigned from the district. She had also served as the faculty adviser for Students Against Drunk Driving and the prom committee, and was the assistant girls’ track coach. She started working at the district in 2010.

The investigation found that Anderson had a relationship with an 18-year-old senior she had in class last fall that started with kissing and escalated to multiple sex acts, including at his residence. Anderson had similar relationships with a 16-year-old junior who served on the prom committee and a 16-year-old sophomore, the complaint said.

Anderson was booked into custody at the Butler County Jail and released on $5,000 bond.

Texas Trainer Accused of Improper Relations with Student

(Odessa, Texas) A 28-year-old educator at Permian High School, April Collins, has been accused of engaging in an improper relationship with a student.

Collins was arrested and indicted on four counts of improper relationship between a teacher and a student.

Sgt. Gary Duesler with the Ector County Sheriff’s Office said he heard about the arrest being made over the radio at about 10:40 a.m. Monday.

According to an Ector County District Attorney’s Office news release, the four counts include sending sexually explicit pictures as well as online solicitation of a student.

Collins was booked into custody at the Ector County Jail with bond set at $60,000.

Florida Woman Accused of Sex with Boy, 11

(Cocoa, Florida) A 21-year-old babysitter, Megan Nicole Hayes, has been accused of engaging in sex with an 11-year-old boy she was babysitting.

Hayes faces felony charges of sexual battery of a child under age 12.

The young woman is intellectually challenged and does not know right from wrong, her father told local media. He later informed the Orlando Sentinel that the family is not interested in addressing the media anymore.

The Cocoa Police Department told station WKMG that Hayes confessed to the sexual abuse that occurred May 27 in the coastal city of Cocoa.

Hayes was booked into custody at the Brevard County Jail without bond.

Texas Woman Pinched for Drugs

(Longview, Texas) A 26-year-old local woman, Kristina Ronniesha Gentry, has been arrested for drug possession. She was found asleep in her car with pot on her lap.

Gentry faces charges of possession of less than 2 ounces of marijuana and felony possession of a dangerous drug.

“I observed a rolled marijuana cigar on the dash in the driver’s side in plain view. I also observed a green leafy substance in the above listed suspects lap. I then observed what I believed to be a large bud of dried marijuana in an open storage compartment between the driver’s door and the steering wheel,” wrote officer Travis Prew in the probable cause affidavit for Gentry’s arrest.

After Gentry was taken into custody, police located a pill bottle with three un-labeled prescriptions mixed together, according to the affidavit.

Gentry was booked into custody at the Gregg County Jail with bond set at $2,000.

Charles Saatchi Grabs Throat of Wife Nigella Lawson

(London, England)

Art tycoon Charles Saatchi has dismissed shocking photos of him with his hands around his tearful wife's throat as a 'playful tiff'

The multimillionaire was caught on camera clutching his third wife Nigella Lawson's neck as they sat outside their favourite Mayfair restaurant.

But the 70-year-old arts collector has insisted that they were having an 'intense argument' and the TV cook was only crying because she hates it when they row.

Doesn't look playful to me. Arguably, it's a physical assault. If I were to pull a stunt like that on my spouse, it would be the end of my marriage.

Anchorage Color Run

(Anchorage, Alaska) On Saturday, 15,000 runners and walkers joined the Color Run where they were festooned with colored cornstarch.

Why? I don't know.

In any event, the participants partied afterward.

Miss USA Crowned

Erin Brady - Miss USA 2013
(Las Vegas, Nevada) Miss Connecticut, Erin Brady, was crowned Miss USA 2013 yesterday at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino.

Woman Drives on Rails

(UK) Metrolink service was halted between stations due to the car on the tracks. The 64-year-old driver, Marie Smith, said there wasn't any clear signage.

Story

Argentine Drug Official Shot

Nestor Roncaglia
(Buenos Aires, Argentina)

The chief of the Argentine Federal Police’s dangerous drugs division was shot outside his house and investigators do not consider the incident a random crime, Security Secretary Sergio Berni said Sunday.

Nestor Roncaglia was shot in the chest and hand Saturday night in Olivos, a northern suburb of Buenos Aires, Berni said.

“We are not ruling out any theory because it would be irresponsible to say what happened, but we are convinced it was not a common assault,” Berni told the press.

Roncaglia is out of danger but remains in the intensive care unit of a Buenos Aires hospital.

The drug enforcement chief was shot after overseeing several raids, police spokesmen told the official Telam news agency.

Drugs, eh? Arguably, in Argentina and virtually every other nation south of the Rio Grande, it's open season on any law enforcer displaying competency.

Must not mention bacon sandwiches in Britain

Bacon sandwiches are very popular in Britain, particularly at breakfast

An IT contractor was accused of racism and refused a £1,000-a-week NHS job after innocently offering to buy an Asian recruitment consultant a bacon sandwich.

Clive Hunt, 58, had already been given the eight-month contract – worth £32,000 – and was invited to recruitment firm Reed’s office in Manchester to show his passport and provide bank details.

At the end of the 15-minute meeting earlier this month, recruitment consultant Sharika Sacranie, 29, shook Mr Hunt’s hand and said she would come and meet him for breakfast the following week, to which he replied: ‘I’ll get the bacon sandwiches in.’

Miss Sacranie – who is believed to be a Muslim – rang Mr Hunt half an hour later to confirm a few more details, making no mention of the incident.  However, just ten minutes later Mr Hunt received another call from a senior manager at Reed accusing him of making a racist comment and saying the job offer had been withdrawn.

Last night, Mr Hunt told The Mail on Sunday: ‘I just can’t believe it. I’m not a racist and I only offered to buy her a bacon sandwich because she said she was coming for breakfast. It was an off-the-cuff comment.

‘There’s nothing racist about it. There was no slur at her because I’d already met all the contractors on site before and one of them had actually told me they had really good bacon sandwiches.

'I don’t even know whether Sharika is a Muslim or not. I’d never met her before that day but we got on fine.

Miss Sacranie could not be reached for comment yesterday. In a statement, Reed said: ‘Due to inappropriate comments made to members of our staff during the recruitment process before Mr Hunt started his new role, we do not feel we can represent this candidate further.’

An NHS spokesperson was unavailable for comment last night.

Source

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

Texas Teacher Accused of Naughtiness with Student

(Cedar Hill, Texas) A science teacher formerly with the Cedar Hill Independent School District, Shannon Parks, has been accused of improper relationship with a 17-year-old student.

On May 2, the principal at CHISD's alternative school was informed of inappropriate communication with students through Parks' personal Instagram account. That same day, she was placed on administrative leave. She resigned on May 7. The letter said the district had not yet learned of allegations of an inappropriate relationship when Parks resigned.

After Parks' resignation, the alternative school staff received more information and went to Child Protective Services on May 14, which prompted the criminal investigation.

On May 22, a Cedar Hill detective met with a 17-year-old Cedar Hill student who said he had gone to Parks' home in Grand Prairie and engaged in sexual intercourse.

Parks was booked into custody with bond set at $50,000.

Carolina Teacher Accused of Sex with Student

(Warsaw, North Carolina) A 31-year-old teacher formerly at James Kenan High School, Emily Efird, has been accused of engaging in sexual relations with a student.

Efird faces three counts of sex offense with a student, two counts of indecent liberties and one count of crime against nature.

School district officials said they learned on April 8 about the allegations.

Efird was suspended and she resigned a week later, school officials said.

Notably, Emily Efird's husband, 38-year-old John S. Efird, was convicted in 2002 on a charge of taking indecent liberties with a minor and ordered to register as a sex offender.

Emily Efird was booked into custody and released on $25,000 bond.

Climate Talks Stumble

(Bonn, Germany)

UN climate talks have hit a stumbling block that some delegates say poses a serious challenge to their already slow-moving attempt to craft a global response to climate change.

As the latest negotiation session ended on Friday in the German city of Bonn, one track of the talks was paralysed by a request by Russia, Ukraine and Belarus to review the decision-making procedure in the two-decade-long UN process.

Decisions in the UN climate discussions are supposed to be taken by consensus, but it’s not totally clear what that means in practice. While many agree the decision-making procedure needs to be clarified, they worry that the issue could deadlock the talks at a time when urgent action is needed to tackle climate change.

“If we’re not careful, it could collapse the whole system,” said Ronald Jumeau, a delegate from the Seychelles.

That's a shame.

Racist animals?



Parents who read their kids stories about happy, human-like animals like Franklin the Turtle or Arthur at bedtime are exposing their kids to racism, materialism, homophobia and patriarchal norms, according to a paper presented at the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences.

Most animals portrayed in children’s books, songs and on clothing send a bad message, according to academics Nora Timmerman and  Julia Ostertag: That animals only exist for human use, that humans are better than animals, that animals don’t have their own stories to tell, that it’s fine to “demean” them by cooing over their cuteness. Perhaps worst of all, they say, animals are anthropomorphized to reinforce “socially dominant norms” like nuclear families and gender stereotypes.

Source

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

PTA Prez Accused of Embezzlement

(Frederick, Maryland) A 45-year-old local woman, Amy Baker, has been accused of stealing over $10,000 from the Whittier Elementary School Parent Teacher Association.

Baker, former president of the PTA, faces theft, embezzlement and misappropriation charges.

“(Baker) was very apologetic,” Frederick Police Detective Steven Petruzzello wrote in the court documents. “She was in a desperate state of mind and wanted to provide for her children.”

Baker, then known as Amy Shifflett, is accused of embezzling funds through 21 checks, 14 electronic checks and one cash withdrawal. The money paid for groceries, clothing, home decor, a cable TV bill, restaurant meals, sports equipment and checks Baker wrote to herself, according to the documents.

Details on booking are unavailable.

Norway Adopts Gender-Neutral Military Conscription

Conscripts Vivian Layno Jensen (17) (left), Marie Mamen (17) and Cana Elgvin (17)
(Oslo, Norway)

Parliament adopts today that Norway should introduce gender-neutral military, and the military estimates that conscription for women comes from 2015.

Norway is the first country in Europe to introduce a gender-neutral military where women and men are equal (see fact box).

The decision is also unique in the world.

Heh.

World Blood Donor Day

Sanctioned by the World Health Organization (WHO) and celebrated around the world, June 14 is World Blood Donor Day, a time for raising awareness of the need for safe blood and blood products and for thanking voluntary unpaid blood donors for their life-saving gifts of blood.

WHO’s goal is for all countries to obtain all their blood supplies from voluntary unpaid donors by 2020.

Today, in just 60 countries, national blood supplies are based on close to 100% voluntary unpaid blood donations, with 40 countries still dependent on family donors and even paid donors.

For those who are inclined, go pop a vein. Sometimes they give you a cookie.

Missouri Woman Arrested for Harassment

(Winfield, Missouri) A 50-year-old local woman, Lynn Marie Herzog, has been accused of scaring the bejeezus out of neighborhood boys by screaming, cursing and brandishing a chainsaw while wearing a ski mask.

Herzog was arrested and charged with felony harassment of a child under 17.

"I come out of my door and hear her screaming at the kids," neighbor Patty Fleming told local station KTVI.

"The boys start walking and she starts walking towards them with her skull mask and her chainsaw, shaking it like she was going to hurt the kids."

Herzog claims the children had thrown rocks at her home in the past, but Fleming argues that Herzog's response to the supposed rocks was excessive.

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

Pennsylvania Woman Accused of Raping Boy, 12

(Lewiston, Pennsylvania) An 18-year-old local woman, Brandi Forshey, was arrested this week for allegedly raping a 12-year-old boy.

Forshey faces counts of rape of a child, statutory sexual assault and indecent assault.

Police officers questioned Forshey, who denied the allegations and told them someone was making this up because they didn't like her, according to court documents.

Police were later notified by the mother of a 16-year-old female that there was an online conversation on a social media website in which Forshey allegedly admits to having sexual contact with the 12-year-old. Police photographed the conversation for their records, according to court documents.

The 12-year-old boy was also interviewed by a specialist at the Child Resource Center, according to documents. During the course of the interview, the boy gave details of the alleged sexual contact he had with Forshey in the early morning hours of April 7, according to documents.

Forshey was booked into custody at the Mifflin County Correctional Facility with bail set at $10,000.

Massive Heroin Haul in Connecticut

(Waterbury, Connecticut) A 23-year-old local woman, Traci Basta, has been accused of possessing 34,500 bags of heroin, found in her car by police after a traffic stop.

"This is highly unusual to encounter this much heroine being transported in a vehicle," said Acting Deputy Chief Chris Corbett, Waterbury police. "It was tightly packed into the trunk. Some of it was in a Northface black backpack."

The big question is where did this massive amount of drugs come from and where was it headed to?

"Certainly this looks like something that was coming from out of state here to Waterbury to then be distributed at the street level, so certainly she was acting as a courier," said Corbett.

Basta was booked into custody with bond set at $200,000. A court appearance is scheduled for June 24.