A federal judge has rejected the Bush administration's justification for warrantless wiretapping of suspected terrorists and ruled that federal agents had eavesdropped illegally on a U.S.-based Islamic charity.
The ruling Wednesday by Chief U.S. District Judge Vaughn Walker of San Francisco focused on the surveillance of a single organization, the Al-Haramain Islamic Foundation - the only plaintiff in dozens of wiretapping lawsuits around the nation that had evidence its calls were intercepted.
But Walker's reasoning struck at the heart of the program President George W. Bush authorized after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, allowing agents to intercept phone calls and e-mails between Americans and suspected foreign terrorists without a warrant.
When Bush acknowledged the surveillance in December 2005, he claimed the power to override a 1978 law, passed in response to revelations of wiretapping of political dissidents, that required the government to obtain advance court approval for each act of eavesdropping.
Walker said Wednesday that Bush lacked that authority.
Under the argument advanced by the Bush administration, "executive branch officials may treat as optional ... a statute (the 1978 law) enacted specifically to rein in and create a judicial check for executive-branch abuses of surveillance authority," the judge said.
That "theory of unfettered executive-branch discretion" holds an "obvious potential for governmental abuse and overreaching," Walker said.
Al-Haramain's lawyer, Jon Eisenberg, said the decision amounted to a finding that the entire program was illegal.
"Inherent in what Walker has done in this case is a determination that President Bush's program of warrantless surveillance was unlawful," Eisenberg said. "Everybody has to follow the law, including the president."
The Bush administration said it ended the program in mid-2008 and allowed a special court, created by the 1978 law, to review the wiretaps. The administration did not disclose the scope of that review, and neither Bush nor President Obama has revealed the extent of any continuing surveillance.
The ruling was also a rebuff to Obama. Although he had criticized Bush's surveillance program while running for president, Obama's Justice Department has repeatedly sought to dismiss the Al-Haramain suit and fought any judicial review of the wiretapping program.
Secret evidence
The department argued that courts lacked the power to decide whether any alleged surveillance was legal because all evidence related to wiretapping was a secret whose disclosure would aid the nation's enemies. Department lawyers refused to tell Walker whether they thought the overall program was legal.
Walker described the Justice Department's arguments as "nit-picking" and "acrobatics." He said the government had spurned every offer to justify its conduct in closed-door proceedings that could have protected any state secrets.
The Obama administration now must decide whether to appeal the ruling and invite the first decision by a higher court on the validity of the surveillance program.
The Justice Department was noncommittal about an appeal and instead issued a statement stressing Attorney General Eric Holder's recent restrictions on government claims of secrecy. The new rules require a high-level Justice Department committee to review all such claims, with the attorney general having the last word.
Paper trail
Other lawsuits challenging the wiretapping program have stumbled over a judicial requirement that the plaintiffs show evidence they were wiretapped. But the government inadvertently sent a classified document in 2004 to Al-Haramain, a now-defunct charity that was based in Oregon, reportedly showing that two of its lawyers had been wiretapped.
Several months after the surveillance began, the government classified Al-Haramain as a terrorist organization, a description its leaders called false.
The group returned the document at the government's request and was barred from using it as evidence. But Walker said Al-Haramain had established - through public statements by an FBI official, other nonclassified evidence and the timing of its lawyers' phone calls and the terrorist designation - that it had been illegally wiretapped.
Eisenberg said his clients, Al-Haramain and the two lawyers, would ask for the damages the law allows - $20,200 each, or $100 for each day of illegal surveillance - plus punitive damages and attorneys' fees.
Source: http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-04-01/bay-area/20830512_1_wiretapping-warrantless-al-haramain-islamic-foundation
Friday, May 7, 2010
Thursday, April 29, 2010
U.S.: Oil spill of ‘national significance’
wellhead in the Gulf of Mexico on April 28, near New Orleans.
Obama steps up efforts, sends top aides to Gulf region
VENICE, Louisiana - The Obama administration pledged an all-out response Thursday to the massive oil spill now expected to reach the Gulf Coast within a day and dispatched top officials to the region to help coordinate defenses against the potential environmental disaster.
"We are being very aggressive and we are prepared for the worst case," Coast Guard Rear Adm. Sally Brice-O'Hara said at the White House. Federal officials announced inspections would begin immediately of all oil rigs in the Gulf and subpoena powers would be used in the gathering investigation. But the priority was to support the oil company BP PLC in employing booms, skimmers, chemical dispersants and controlled burns to fight the oil surging from the seabed.
The administration rejected suggestions that the federal government was slow to act in dealing with the spill and expressed frustration with BP's inability to seal the ruptured well head. The government approved the start of drilling for a relief well and was considering approving a second one as industry and government officials worked on multiple fronts to contain the slick.
Brice-O'Hara said officials expected the leading edge of the spill to reach the Mississippi Delta sometime on Friday. Workers were racing from six staging areas to deploy more booms to try to hold off the slick and protect sea life and fragile wetlands. Winds and sea conditions Thursday prevented another controlled burn of the kind tried successfully a day earlier with a small test section of the slick.
Top Homeland Security, Interior and Environmental Protection Agency officials were going to the region. Officials emphasized at a White House briefing that all costs of the defense and recovery will ultimately fall on the industry, not taxpayers.
President Barack Obama spoke Thursday with five Gulf state governors from Florida to Texas.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano declared the spill to be one of national significance, a designation that eases the transfer of personnel and equipment to the region from all parts of the country.
"Our key focus is to make sure that people know what is going on and what relief efforts are under way," Napolitano said.
'This thing gives me concerns'
Michael Sole, chief of Florida's Environmental Protection Department, said governments are digging in for a long struggle and it's too soon to know what his state will need from Washington.
"It's only been a week now," he said. "It may be two or three months before they can stop the discharge. The magnitude of this thing gives me concerns as to whether they're going to be able to address the entire coast of the Gulf of Mexico."
So far, he said, the federal government has acted aggressively and cooperatively.
In earlier developments, a third leak was discovered at the site, which government officials said is spewing five times as much oil into the water as originally estimated — about 5,000 barrels a day coming from the blown-out well 40 miles offshore.
"We'll take help from anyone," Doug Suttles, chief operating officer of BP's exploration and production unit, said on NBC's TODAY show.
"We're not interested in where the idea comes from, what we're interested in is how do we stop this flow and how do we stop it now?" Suttles said.
Suttles had initially disputed the government's estimate, or that the company, BP PLC, was unable to handle the operation to contain it.
But early Thursday, he acknowledged on TODAY that the leak may be as bad as the government says. He said there was no way to measure the flow at the seabed and estimates have to come from how much oil makes it to the surface.
Federal officials have said BP, which was operating the well, is responsible for funding the cleanup.
If the well cannot be closed, almost 100,000 barrels of oil, or 4.2 million gallons, could spill into the Gulf before crews can drill a relief well to alleviate the pressure. By comparison, the Exxon Valdez, the worst oil spill in U.S. history, leaked 11 million gallons into Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989.
‘Give us the worst-case scenario’
As dawn broke Thursday in the oil industry hub of Venice, about 75 miles from New Orleans and not far from the mouth of the Mississippi River, crews loaded an orange oil boom aboard a supply boat at Bud's Boat Launch. There, local officials expressed frustration with the pace of the government's response and the communication they were getting from the Coast Guard and BP officials.
"We're not doing everything we can do," said Billy Nungesser, president of Plaquemines Parish, which straddles the Mississippi River at the tip of Louisiana.
"Give us the worst-case scenario. How far inland is this supposed to go?" Nungesser said. He has suggested enlisting the local fishing fleet to spread booms to halt the oil, which threatens some of the nation's most fertile seafood grounds.
Louisiana has opened a special shrimp season along parts of the coast so shrimpers can harvest the profitable white shrimp before the spill has an effect.
Michael Nguyen, 58, was aboard his 82-foot shrimp boat, the Night Star III, waiting for news Thursday morning on what has happening with the slick.
"My boat is ready: New nets, did repairs. I'm ready to go," he said.
He wasn't panicking, but was clearly worried.
"The oil come in everywhere, the shrimp die, the crabs die, the fish die. What do I do? Stay home a long time?"
The spill has moved steadily toward the mouth of the Mississippi River and the wetland areas east of it, home to hundreds of species of wildlife and near some rich oyster grounds.
Lawsuits
A federal class-action lawsuit was filed late Wednesday over the oil spill on behalf of two commercial shrimpers from Louisiana, Acy J. Cooper Jr. and Ronnie Louis Anderson.
The suit seeks at least $5 million in compensatory damages plus an unspecified amount of punitive damages against Transocean, BP, Halliburton Energy Services Inc. and Cameron International Corp.
Jim Klick, a lawyer for Cooper and Anderson, said the oil spill already is disrupting the commercial shrimping industry.
"They should be preparing themselves for the upcoming shrimp season," he said. "Now they're very much concerned that the whole shrimp season is out."
Mike Brewer, 40, who lost his oil spill response company in the devastation of Hurricane Katrina nearly five years ago, said the area was accustomed to the occasional minor spill. But he feared the scale of the escaping oil was beyond the capacity of existing resources.
"You're pumping out a massive amount of oil. There is no way to stop it," he said.
The rig Deepwater Horizon sank a week ago after exploding two days earlier. Of its crew of 126, 11 are missing and presumed dead. The rig was owned by Transocean Ltd. and operated by BP. Coast Guard Rear Adm. Mary Landry said BP is responsible for bringing resources to shut off the flow and clean up the spill.
"It has become clear after several unsuccessful attempts to determine the cause" that agencies must supplement what's being done by the company, she said.
A fleet of boats working under an oil industry consortium has been using booms to corral and then skim oil from the surface.
Landry said a controlled test to burn the leaking oil was successful late Wednesday afternoon. BP was to set more fires after the test, but as night fell, there were no more burns. No details have been given about when more were planned were given during the news conference.
The decision to burn some of the oil came after crews operating submersible robots failed to activate a shut-off device that would halt the flow of oil on the sea bottom 5,000 feet below.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36800673/ns/us_news-environment/?GT1=43001
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
Does having more sex - like Brazilian health official recommended - actually improve your health?
but it does release mood-boosting hormones.
Is "sexercise" a prescription for good health? Brazil's Minister of Health suggested that his country's citizens have sex five times a week as a solution to chronic diseases there like diabetes and hypertension (nearly one quarter of Brazilians have high blood pressure, according to The Associated Press).
While sex may not cure chronic illnesses, it does have some health benefits, experts say. But it's not the same as an intense workout at the gym.
"You're not going to get the same [physical health] benefit as going out for a 2-mile jog," Jamie Feldman, associate professor at the University of Minnesota Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, told ABC News. "Sexual activity provides some degree of modest exercise. But it's not the same as getting moderate exercise for 30 minutes a day."
It can, however, lower the blood pressure over time, says Israel Helfand, sex therapist and marriage counselor. "But for this to happen, it must be done vigorously," he adds.
Sex also increases the body's "happy" hormones such as dopamine and cortisol, Helfand says. "And it counteracts depression, improves energy and improves people's mood," he adds.
Consultant sexologist Eric Garrison points out its calorie-reducing benefits, too. "And studies show that sex is known to relieve headaches and sinus pressure since it increases blood flow in the head," he adds. "So the ‘not tonight, I have a headache,' excuse doesn't really work."
Sex also can strengthen the immune system, help you have a better relationship with your partner, and make you feel more connected to your partner, says Ian Kerner, Ph.D., a certified clinical sexologist.
"But it works two ways," he says. "People who have healthy sex lives are likely to have healthier lives overall. People who have sex more often are more likely to go to the gym, eat healthy and take care of themselves. But if you are sedentary and have high blood pressure, this definitely has an effect on libido."
A recent study in the British Medical Journal of 6,000 Americans ages 25 to 84, as reported by ABC News, found that those with an active sex life lead healthier and longer lives.
"Really what they found was that sexual activity, quality of sex life, and interest in sex were positively associated with good health in middle age and later in life," Feldman told ABC News. "Men and women who were reporting good physical health were more likely to report good sexual health."
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/health/2010/04/28/2010-04-28_does_having_more_sex__like_brazilian_health_official_recommended__actually_impro.html
Wednesday, March 31, 2010
Suicide in South Hadley
Nine teenagers have been charged with bullying Phoebe Prince. What about the adults who knew it was going on?
Phoebe Nora Mary Prince, 15, committed suicide on Jan. 14
The criminal charges filed against nine students Monday in connection with the bullying of the 15-year-old high school student Phoebe Prince, who killed herself in January, took the town of South Hadley, Mass., by surprise. Six teenagers were charged with felonies and saw their names and photos on the evening news. Three more were charged as juveniles. That's a price for bullying that kids almost never pay. These charges will reverberate in this small town for a long time to come. For many people who live here, the charges challenge a fundamental conception of South Hadley as a nice, ordinary, middle-class small town. As such, some residents were willing to work with school administrators to prevent further bullying in the future but were also ready to move on without assigning blame for Phoebe's death. To others, who have criticized the high school's handling of the case, the tough prosecutorial stance toward these bullies is unexpected vindication. They think the town isn't ready to just move on. Now it won't.
I've been reporting in South Hadley in the months since Phoebe's death, because I'm interested in how communities recover from such an event and in how schools tackle the problem of bullying that precipitated it. After Phoebe died, there was an outpouring of grief for her. But from a smaller segment of the community, there was also a groundswell of rage. At public meetings, parents like Luke Gelinas stood up and berated school administrators for not responding to previous episodes of bullying involving their own kids.
In the initial uproar over Phoebe's death, there was also pressure on the high school and the school district from the press: in the Boston Globe, where columnist Kevin Cullen expressed outrage over South Hadley's "mean girls"; in People magazine, which ran an article sympathetic to the Prince family; and on Facebook, where a group called "expel the three girls who caused Phoebe Prince to commit suicide" has 25,841 fans. For a moment, at least, South Hadley was portrayed as the bullying capital of America. To some people in town, that's a monstrous, unrecognizable image. In February, I talked to high school principal Dan Smith before an evening meeting about forming a task force to fight bullying (a meeting that had been planned before Phoebe's death and then postponed for a few weeks in its wake). Some angry parents were calling for his resignation, and that of Superintendent Sayer, the main target of their anger. Smith's inbox was overflowing with e-mails from around the world. There was talk of protestors showing up before that night's meeting. "I've almost seen this like an earthquake, and we've been dealing with the aftershocks," Smith said.
In the midst of those aftershocks, Smith had been trying to figure out where the school had gone wrong. While he and other administrators knew about many day-to-day conflicts, "we'd been looking at bullying, and we were missing types of aggressions, relationship aggression, which we know happens. It can be nasty."
In Phoebe's case, we now know from Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel, who outlined the criminal charges on Monday, "relationship aggression" means that a group of girls turned on Phoebe after she "briefly dated" a 17-year-old named Sean Mulveyhill. Sean is a star on the high school football team, and was the boyfriend of Ashley Longe, 16, one of the girls who was charged yesterday. Phoebe also became involved (even more briefly, I've been told) with another boy, 18-year-old Austin Renaud, whose 16-year-old girlfriend, Flannery Mullins, was also charged by the DA. Scheibel says that the nine students she charged participated in "a nearly-three-month campaign" of verbal assaults and physical threats against Phoebe. Phoebe's picture was scribbled out of a student-body photo hanging on a classroom wall. The bullies slammed her on Facebook and sent her mean text messages. The attacks culminated on the day of her death in a "torturous day" during which Phoebe was harassed in the library, in the hallways, and walking down the street on her way home. On the afternoon of her death, a few of them reportedly drove by her while she walked home, shouted "Irish slut" and "Irish whore," and threw a soda at her.
Scheibel says that the conduct of the nine students she charged "far exceeded the limits of normal teenage relationship-related quarrels." That interpretation of the student behavior is shared by some, though not all, in the town. Teachers at the school are aghast at how it's being treated in the media. "I wouldn't teach here if the climate truly was as it's being portrayed," one told me. When I talked with a group of South Hadley students earlier this month, the prevailing sentiment was that, yes, Phoebe had been mistreated but not in some unprecedented way. "A lot of it was normal girl drama," one girl told me. "If you want to label it bullying, then I've bullied girls and girls have bullied me. Her history made it affect her more. It wasn't the school being terrible. It was really bad, it was one of the worst things I've heard of some girls doing to another girl. But it wouldn't have hurt most people that much."
This is not, obviously, how Scheibel came to see it. The DA isn't slapping wrists. These kids are facing felony charges that carry hefty penalties. Sean and Austin were each charged with statutory rape, presumably for having sex with Phoebe. She was 15, and they were 17 and 18, respectively, and under Massachusetts' broad statutory rape law, that's apparently all it takes, because a teenager under the age of 16 cannot legally consent.
Five of the teens—Sean, Ashley, Flannery, and two other girls, Kayla Narey and Sharon Channon Velazquez—were also charged with "violation of civil rights, with bodily injury resulting." That's another broad statute, with a maximum 10-year sentence. "You have to show force or threat of force in violation of a secured right—here, the right to an education," explains Richard Cole, a former Massachusetts assistant attorney general who consults on school safety and civil rights. While the text of the statute doesn't explicitly limit its reach, Cole said that prosecutors traditionally use it in cases that involve a threat based on a protected status—race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation—or for a First Amendment violation. Here, the tie-in could be the "Irish" part of the epithets shouted at Phoebe. Cole told me about one previous case of school-based harassment in which the charge of violation of civil rights was brought: In 2000, 17-year-old Joseph DeGrazia was prosecuted for beating up Jason Hair, 18, in the school cafeteria after harassing him for months about being gay.
The charges against the South Hadley teenagers raise another question: What about the adults? Scheibel said Monday that the harassment in the library "appears to have been conducted in the presence of a faculty member and several students but went unreported to school administrators until after Phoebe's death." And, more damningly, "The investigation has revealed that certain faculty, staff and administrators of the high school also were alerted to the harassment of Phoebe Prince before her death." Phoebe's mother, Anne Prince, spoke to staff members, the DA said.
To a degree, this matches what Dan Smith told me in February: "There were instances of name-calling, with Phoebe, the week before she died. These were brought to our attention, we dealt with those kids right away. We also talked to her, we had her working with a school counselor, we talked to her mom."
But the timeline doesn't entirely line up: The DA said the bullying campaign went on for three months; school officials said they only learned of it in the last week before Phoebe's death. Nor do the results of the district attorney's investigation jibe with the consequences of school's internal probe. Because of privacy laws, it's not clear which students were disciplined or how seriously. A few left the school, according to Superintendent Sayer. At least one has reportedly transferred to another high school. A couple of others were being homeschooled. But several of the teens whom Scheibel charged had been attending classes at South Hadley this week, I'm told by parents who didn't want to give their names because of anger in the town about talking to the press. How to explain the discrepancy between the criminal charges that came raining down and the back-to-normal feeling at the high school, where the anti-bullying taskforce was dutifully meeting, but with dwindling numbers, and without the guidance of an outside expert, to the frustration of the school's critics?
Recall that taskforce meeting in February. Protesters were expected to call for the superintendent and the principals' resignations. Instead, the school district's supporters came en masse. They handed out "I Support Dan Smith" stickers and gave the principal a standing ovation. Some people sat stony-faced, but the majority clapped. When Smith rose to speak, he choked up. "What's been happening has to stop in our community," he said. "I look around and see a lot of soldiers tonight, which is good. We need you." He described how the anti-bullying taskforce would organize itself going forward, and asked for volunteers. He concluded, "I'm really hopeful for our kids—for their good, which so many of you are here about, and that it's time to move on."
The criminal charges mean that South Hadley won't be moving on. Like it or not, the town will be taking a long, deep look back as its critics have wanted since Phoebe's death. The charges alone, however, won't solve the problem of bullying going forward: Every expert I've talked to says that fighting bullying is never as simple as merely identifying the out-of-control kids. And it's hard to see how only a bunch of teenagers can take the fall for what Scheibel has identified as a broader school failure. She said on Monday that she doesn't think the staff, teachers, or administrators committed a crime. She also said, "nevertheless, the actions, or inactions, of some adults at the school are troublesome."
That's a call for asking a lot more questions about which adults knew what, and when, in South Hadley. Elizabeth Scheibel is herself a product of South Hadley—according to her online bio, "she worked at a local restaurant, sold sweaters in a local clothing store, graduated from South Hadley High School"—and she clearly is in the camp that thinks the town can move forward only when it has held those who bullied Phoebe Prince accountable for their actions. Another bit from her bio that resonates: "A lawyer friend who has known her since kindergarten remembered how she beat up a bully who was picking on her younger brother, commenting, 'Even in her youth she wasn't afraid to hold her position and pursue justice as she saw it.' "
Source: http://www.slate.com/id/2249307/pagenum/all/#p2
The criminal charges filed against nine students Monday in connection with the bullying of the 15-year-old high school student Phoebe Prince, who killed herself in January, took the town of South Hadley, Mass., by surprise. Six teenagers were charged with felonies and saw their names and photos on the evening news. Three more were charged as juveniles. That's a price for bullying that kids almost never pay. These charges will reverberate in this small town for a long time to come. For many people who live here, the charges challenge a fundamental conception of South Hadley as a nice, ordinary, middle-class small town. As such, some residents were willing to work with school administrators to prevent further bullying in the future but were also ready to move on without assigning blame for Phoebe's death. To others, who have criticized the high school's handling of the case, the tough prosecutorial stance toward these bullies is unexpected vindication. They think the town isn't ready to just move on. Now it won't.
I've been reporting in South Hadley in the months since Phoebe's death, because I'm interested in how communities recover from such an event and in how schools tackle the problem of bullying that precipitated it. After Phoebe died, there was an outpouring of grief for her. But from a smaller segment of the community, there was also a groundswell of rage. At public meetings, parents like Luke Gelinas stood up and berated school administrators for not responding to previous episodes of bullying involving their own kids.
In the initial uproar over Phoebe's death, there was also pressure on the high school and the school district from the press: in the Boston Globe, where columnist Kevin Cullen expressed outrage over South Hadley's "mean girls"; in People magazine, which ran an article sympathetic to the Prince family; and on Facebook, where a group called "expel the three girls who caused Phoebe Prince to commit suicide" has 25,841 fans. For a moment, at least, South Hadley was portrayed as the bullying capital of America. To some people in town, that's a monstrous, unrecognizable image. In February, I talked to high school principal Dan Smith before an evening meeting about forming a task force to fight bullying (a meeting that had been planned before Phoebe's death and then postponed for a few weeks in its wake). Some angry parents were calling for his resignation, and that of Superintendent Sayer, the main target of their anger. Smith's inbox was overflowing with e-mails from around the world. There was talk of protestors showing up before that night's meeting. "I've almost seen this like an earthquake, and we've been dealing with the aftershocks," Smith said.
In the midst of those aftershocks, Smith had been trying to figure out where the school had gone wrong. While he and other administrators knew about many day-to-day conflicts, "we'd been looking at bullying, and we were missing types of aggressions, relationship aggression, which we know happens. It can be nasty."
In Phoebe's case, we now know from Northwestern District Attorney Elizabeth Scheibel, who outlined the criminal charges on Monday, "relationship aggression" means that a group of girls turned on Phoebe after she "briefly dated" a 17-year-old named Sean Mulveyhill. Sean is a star on the high school football team, and was the boyfriend of Ashley Longe, 16, one of the girls who was charged yesterday. Phoebe also became involved (even more briefly, I've been told) with another boy, 18-year-old Austin Renaud, whose 16-year-old girlfriend, Flannery Mullins, was also charged by the DA. Scheibel says that the nine students she charged participated in "a nearly-three-month campaign" of verbal assaults and physical threats against Phoebe. Phoebe's picture was scribbled out of a student-body photo hanging on a classroom wall. The bullies slammed her on Facebook and sent her mean text messages. The attacks culminated on the day of her death in a "torturous day" during which Phoebe was harassed in the library, in the hallways, and walking down the street on her way home. On the afternoon of her death, a few of them reportedly drove by her while she walked home, shouted "Irish slut" and "Irish whore," and threw a soda at her.
Scheibel says that the conduct of the nine students she charged "far exceeded the limits of normal teenage relationship-related quarrels." That interpretation of the student behavior is shared by some, though not all, in the town. Teachers at the school are aghast at how it's being treated in the media. "I wouldn't teach here if the climate truly was as it's being portrayed," one told me. When I talked with a group of South Hadley students earlier this month, the prevailing sentiment was that, yes, Phoebe had been mistreated but not in some unprecedented way. "A lot of it was normal girl drama," one girl told me. "If you want to label it bullying, then I've bullied girls and girls have bullied me. Her history made it affect her more. It wasn't the school being terrible. It was really bad, it was one of the worst things I've heard of some girls doing to another girl. But it wouldn't have hurt most people that much."
This is not, obviously, how Scheibel came to see it. The DA isn't slapping wrists. These kids are facing felony charges that carry hefty penalties. Sean and Austin were each charged with statutory rape, presumably for having sex with Phoebe. She was 15, and they were 17 and 18, respectively, and under Massachusetts' broad statutory rape law, that's apparently all it takes, because a teenager under the age of 16 cannot legally consent.
Five of the teens—Sean, Ashley, Flannery, and two other girls, Kayla Narey and Sharon Channon Velazquez—were also charged with "violation of civil rights, with bodily injury resulting." That's another broad statute, with a maximum 10-year sentence. "You have to show force or threat of force in violation of a secured right—here, the right to an education," explains Richard Cole, a former Massachusetts assistant attorney general who consults on school safety and civil rights. While the text of the statute doesn't explicitly limit its reach, Cole said that prosecutors traditionally use it in cases that involve a threat based on a protected status—race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation—or for a First Amendment violation. Here, the tie-in could be the "Irish" part of the epithets shouted at Phoebe. Cole told me about one previous case of school-based harassment in which the charge of violation of civil rights was brought: In 2000, 17-year-old Joseph DeGrazia was prosecuted for beating up Jason Hair, 18, in the school cafeteria after harassing him for months about being gay.
The charges against the South Hadley teenagers raise another question: What about the adults? Scheibel said Monday that the harassment in the library "appears to have been conducted in the presence of a faculty member and several students but went unreported to school administrators until after Phoebe's death." And, more damningly, "The investigation has revealed that certain faculty, staff and administrators of the high school also were alerted to the harassment of Phoebe Prince before her death." Phoebe's mother, Anne Prince, spoke to staff members, the DA said.
To a degree, this matches what Dan Smith told me in February: "There were instances of name-calling, with Phoebe, the week before she died. These were brought to our attention, we dealt with those kids right away. We also talked to her, we had her working with a school counselor, we talked to her mom."
But the timeline doesn't entirely line up: The DA said the bullying campaign went on for three months; school officials said they only learned of it in the last week before Phoebe's death. Nor do the results of the district attorney's investigation jibe with the consequences of school's internal probe. Because of privacy laws, it's not clear which students were disciplined or how seriously. A few left the school, according to Superintendent Sayer. At least one has reportedly transferred to another high school. A couple of others were being homeschooled. But several of the teens whom Scheibel charged had been attending classes at South Hadley this week, I'm told by parents who didn't want to give their names because of anger in the town about talking to the press. How to explain the discrepancy between the criminal charges that came raining down and the back-to-normal feeling at the high school, where the anti-bullying taskforce was dutifully meeting, but with dwindling numbers, and without the guidance of an outside expert, to the frustration of the school's critics?
Recall that taskforce meeting in February. Protesters were expected to call for the superintendent and the principals' resignations. Instead, the school district's supporters came en masse. They handed out "I Support Dan Smith" stickers and gave the principal a standing ovation. Some people sat stony-faced, but the majority clapped. When Smith rose to speak, he choked up. "What's been happening has to stop in our community," he said. "I look around and see a lot of soldiers tonight, which is good. We need you." He described how the anti-bullying taskforce would organize itself going forward, and asked for volunteers. He concluded, "I'm really hopeful for our kids—for their good, which so many of you are here about, and that it's time to move on."
The criminal charges mean that South Hadley won't be moving on. Like it or not, the town will be taking a long, deep look back as its critics have wanted since Phoebe's death. The charges alone, however, won't solve the problem of bullying going forward: Every expert I've talked to says that fighting bullying is never as simple as merely identifying the out-of-control kids. And it's hard to see how only a bunch of teenagers can take the fall for what Scheibel has identified as a broader school failure. She said on Monday that she doesn't think the staff, teachers, or administrators committed a crime. She also said, "nevertheless, the actions, or inactions, of some adults at the school are troublesome."
That's a call for asking a lot more questions about which adults knew what, and when, in South Hadley. Elizabeth Scheibel is herself a product of South Hadley—according to her online bio, "she worked at a local restaurant, sold sweaters in a local clothing store, graduated from South Hadley High School"—and she clearly is in the camp that thinks the town can move forward only when it has held those who bullied Phoebe Prince accountable for their actions. Another bit from her bio that resonates: "A lawyer friend who has known her since kindergarten remembered how she beat up a bully who was picking on her younger brother, commenting, 'Even in her youth she wasn't afraid to hold her position and pursue justice as she saw it.' "
Source: http://www.slate.com/id/2249307/pagenum/all/#p2
Friday, March 12, 2010
Lesbian teen sues to force school to hold prom
JACKSON, Miss. – A lesbian student who wanted to take her girlfriend to her senior prom is asking a federal judge to force her Mississippi school district to reinstate the dance it canceled.
The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi on Thursday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oxford on behalf of 18-year-old Constance McMillen, who said she faced some unhappy classmates after the Itawamba County School District said it wouldn't host the April 2 prom.
"Somebody said, 'Thanks for ruining my senior year,'" McMillen said of her reluctant return Thursday to Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton.
Constance McMillen, an 18-year-old senior at Itawamba County Agricultural High School, is photographed Thursday, March 11, 2010, in Fulton, Miss., a day after the high school announced they wouldn't hold the senior prom April 2. McMillen wanted to bring a same-sex date and wear a tuxedo. (AP Photo/Matthew Sharpe)
The lawsuit seeks a court order for the school to hold the prom. It also asks that McMillen be allowed to escort her girlfriend, who is a fellow student, and wear a tuxedo, which the school said also violated policy.
The district's decision Wednesday came after the ACLU demanded that officials change a policy banning same-sex prom dates because it said it violated students' rights. The ACLU said the district violated McMillen's free expression rights by not letting her wear a tux.
McMillen said she never expected the district to respond the way it did.
"A lot of people said that was going to happen, but I said, they had already spent too much money on the prom" to cancel it, she said.
McMillen said she didn't want to go back to the high school in Fulton the morning after the decision, but her father told her she needed to face her classmates.
"My daddy told me that I needed to show them that I'm still proud of who I am," McMillen told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The fact that this will help people later on, that's what's helping me to go on."
The school board statement said it wouldn't host the event "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events" but didn't mention McMillen. District officials didn't return calls seeking comment Thursday.
At least one supporter has offered to help McMillen and her classmates hold an alternate prom.
New Orleans hotel owner Sean Cummings told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson he was so disappointed with the school board's decision he offered to transport the students in buses to the city and host a free prom at one of his properties.
"New Orleans, we're a joyful culture and a creative culture here and, if the school doesn't change its mind, we'd be delighted to offer them a prom in New Orleans," he told the newspaper. "Concluding your high school experience should be a joyful one. One shouldn't conclude that experience with all their friends on a negative note."
Same-sex prom dates and cross-dressing are new issues for many high schools around the country, said Daryl Presgraves, a spokesman for GLSEN: Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a Washington-based advocacy group.
"A lot of schools actually react rather than do the research and find out what the rights of these students are," said Presgraves.
McMillen says she hopes her fight will make it easier for gay students at other schools facing discrimination.
"I want other kids to know that's it not right for schools to do that," she said on CBS's "The Early Show."
In 2002, a gay student sued his school district in Toronto to allow him to attend a prom with his boyfriend. A judge later forced the district to allow the couple to attend and stopped the district from canceling the prom.
U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., said a bill he's introduced in Congress would make it illegal to discriminate against gay and lesbian school students. He said at least 10 states have such laws, and his bill is modeled after those.
"This situation with the prom is a perfect example of why we need to protect students from discrimination. In this case it's a prom. It other cases, it's getting beaten up or killed," Polis said.
The school district had said it hoped a privately sponsored prom could be held.
Southside Baptist Church Pastor Bobby Crenshaw said he's seen the South portrayed as "backwards" on Web sites discussing the issue, "but a lot more people here have biblically based values."
Itawamba County is a rural area of about 23,000 people in north Mississippi near the Alabama state line. It's near Pontotoc County, Miss., where more than a decade ago school officials were sued in federal court over their practice of student-led intercom prayer and Bible classes.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lesbian_prom_date
The American Civil Liberties Union of Mississippi on Thursday filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Oxford on behalf of 18-year-old Constance McMillen, who said she faced some unhappy classmates after the Itawamba County School District said it wouldn't host the April 2 prom.
"Somebody said, 'Thanks for ruining my senior year,'" McMillen said of her reluctant return Thursday to Itawamba Agricultural High School in Fulton.
The lawsuit seeks a court order for the school to hold the prom. It also asks that McMillen be allowed to escort her girlfriend, who is a fellow student, and wear a tuxedo, which the school said also violated policy.
The district's decision Wednesday came after the ACLU demanded that officials change a policy banning same-sex prom dates because it said it violated students' rights. The ACLU said the district violated McMillen's free expression rights by not letting her wear a tux.
McMillen said she never expected the district to respond the way it did.
"A lot of people said that was going to happen, but I said, they had already spent too much money on the prom" to cancel it, she said.
McMillen said she didn't want to go back to the high school in Fulton the morning after the decision, but her father told her she needed to face her classmates.
"My daddy told me that I needed to show them that I'm still proud of who I am," McMillen told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "The fact that this will help people later on, that's what's helping me to go on."
The school board statement said it wouldn't host the event "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events" but didn't mention McMillen. District officials didn't return calls seeking comment Thursday.
At least one supporter has offered to help McMillen and her classmates hold an alternate prom.
New Orleans hotel owner Sean Cummings told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson he was so disappointed with the school board's decision he offered to transport the students in buses to the city and host a free prom at one of his properties.
"New Orleans, we're a joyful culture and a creative culture here and, if the school doesn't change its mind, we'd be delighted to offer them a prom in New Orleans," he told the newspaper. "Concluding your high school experience should be a joyful one. One shouldn't conclude that experience with all their friends on a negative note."
Same-sex prom dates and cross-dressing are new issues for many high schools around the country, said Daryl Presgraves, a spokesman for GLSEN: Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, a Washington-based advocacy group.
"A lot of schools actually react rather than do the research and find out what the rights of these students are," said Presgraves.
McMillen says she hopes her fight will make it easier for gay students at other schools facing discrimination.
"I want other kids to know that's it not right for schools to do that," she said on CBS's "The Early Show."
In 2002, a gay student sued his school district in Toronto to allow him to attend a prom with his boyfriend. A judge later forced the district to allow the couple to attend and stopped the district from canceling the prom.
U.S. Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colo., said a bill he's introduced in Congress would make it illegal to discriminate against gay and lesbian school students. He said at least 10 states have such laws, and his bill is modeled after those.
"This situation with the prom is a perfect example of why we need to protect students from discrimination. In this case it's a prom. It other cases, it's getting beaten up or killed," Polis said.
The school district had said it hoped a privately sponsored prom could be held.
Southside Baptist Church Pastor Bobby Crenshaw said he's seen the South portrayed as "backwards" on Web sites discussing the issue, "but a lot more people here have biblically based values."
Itawamba County is a rural area of about 23,000 people in north Mississippi near the Alabama state line. It's near Pontotoc County, Miss., where more than a decade ago school officials were sued in federal court over their practice of student-led intercom prayer and Bible classes.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_lesbian_prom_date
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Defaulted Loans May Haunt Seniors
A little–noticed law could soon result in smaller Social Security checks for hundreds of thousands of the elderly and disabled who owe the U.S. money from defaulted loans and other debts more than a decade old.
Social Security benefits are off–limits to creditors, such as credit–card companies and banks. But the U.S. can collect debts to federal agencies by "offsetting," or withholding Social Security and disability payments.
The Treasury currently withholds benefits of 3.1 million Social Security recipients to recover defaulted student–, farm– and small–business loans, unpaid income taxes, amounts veterans owe for health care, and other debts to the government.
Previously, the U.S. hasn't been able to withhold Social Security payments to recover most debts delinquent for more than ten years.
But a provision in the 2008 Farm Bill lifted the ten–year statute of limitations on the government's ability to withhold Social Security benefits in collecting debts other than student loans—for which the statute of limitations was lifted in 1997—and income taxes, where the limit remains 10 years.
This means that a person who defaulted on a small–business loan in 1995, for example, and who is receiving Social Security could be notified that his benefits may be reduced each month until the debt, with interest, fees, and penalties, is paid. The Treasury can withhold 15% of the benefit, though it can't be reduced to below $750. Tax debts have no floor.
The change will add more than $6 billion to the $75 billion in delinquent debt individuals owe the government, according to the Financial Management Service, the Treasury's debt collection unit.
A Treasury spokesman says the new legislation "allows Treasury's Financial Management Service to collect older debts and levels the playing field so that all eligible debts, regardless of age, are subject to debt collection. Treasury expects this legislation will result in increased collections of $10 million per year in delinquent federal non–tax debt."
Though no one argues that people shouldn't repay their debts, the change is coming at a challenging time for older Americans already pinched by mortgage woes, pension cuts and spiraling medical costs.
The shift applies to debtors of all ages, but Social Security recipients will bear much of the brunt. A Wall Street Journal analysis of Treasury Department data shows that Social Security recipients comprise a large and growing percentage of people from whom the Treasury recovers debts.
For years, most debt the Treasury collected through its "Offset Program," came from withholding income–tax refunds. But with an aging population and growing unemployment, roughly 10% of the $4.3 billion in debts collected by the Treasury came from Social Security benefits in 2008, the latest figures available. That's up from 1.6% in 2001, according to Journal computations that the Treasury confirms.
Though the law has expanded the age of debts that can be recovered, it hasn't addressed the sometimes–Kafkaesque process debtors can face when challenging the validity of a claim.
Consider the predicament of Dr. Robert Steinberg, the founder of Scharffen Berger chocolates, who spent more than six years and thousands of dollars in legal fees appealing the Social Security Administration's claim that he owed it more than $28,000.
Dr. Steinberg received disability benefits in the early 1990s while undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma, a condition that ultimately claimed his life. Dr. Steinberg returned to work sporadically at a free clinic before co–founding the chocolate company.
Year later, the Social Security Administration notified Dr. Steinberg he was overpaid in the 1990s. In May 2002, with the matter still unresolved, the agency turned the debt over to the Treasury for collection.
In Oct. 2002, administrative law judge Gary Lee found that the Social Security Administration had never established the amount of the overpayment; had dismissed an earlier appeal "for spurious reasons"; had misinformed Dr. Steinberg and mishandled his later appeals; and had lost his file. He noted that Dr. Steinberg was "without fault," and told the agency to stop its collections efforts.
Dr. Steinberg died in 2008, at 61. His lawyer, Peter Young, a former staff attorney for the Social Security Administration, has handled more than 100 overpayment cases, "very few of which were accurate," he says. "Most people can't find or afford help, and give up very quickly and end up with painful offsets on a fixed budget."
An agency spokeswoman says mistakes can happen, but "over all, the process works."
A Treasury spokesman says the new regulations require agencies seeking to recover debts more than a decade old to give debtors the right to review and copy their files, make payment arrangements, and apply for disability and hardship waivers.
But a recent dispute about a student loan shows that even with these rights, a person challenging an old debt can face hurdles similar to homeowners in foreclosure trying to modify a loan that has been resold.
In 2003, the U.S. began withholding $173 a month in Social Security benefits from Annie Brown, a paralyzed 75–year–old widow living in a nursing home to repay a defaulted $8,823 student loan the Education Department says she took out in 1989. The offset reduced Mrs. Brown's benefit to about $980 a month.
Mrs. Brown said a granddaughter had forged her signature on a loan application. Her daughter and a lawyer spent more than four years disputing the debt with the owner of the loan, United Student Aid Funds, a student–loan guarantor that also was acting as one of the Education Department's 21 debt collectors. USA Funds itself farms out various debt–collection activities to others, which it did in Mrs. Brown's case.
Between 2003 and 2008, Mrs. Brown's daughter and Lynn Drysdale, a legal–aid lawyer in Jacksonville, Fla., corresponded numerous times with USA Funds and two other debt–collection companies it hired. One letter from USA Funds warned that unless documents were received "within 30 days from the date this letter was generated...your case will be closed." The letter was undated. Another letter required Mrs. Brown to refer to an attached document. There was no attachment. "I don't know how a lay person could maneuver through this process," says Ms. Drysdale. "Nobody seemed to know what was needed."
In 2007, USA Funds denied Mrs. Brown's claim, citing a recently passed federal rule requiring people claiming identity theft on student loans to obtain a criminal court verdict of the crime. That was impossible for Mrs. Brown; a statute of limitations for bringing a case had passed years earlier. In any case, she wasn't alleging identity theft, but forgery.
Robert Murray, a spokesman for USA Funds, agrees that Mrs. Brown's signature was forged. "It's absolutely a forgery," he says, "It \[the loan\] should never have been made."
But he says that USA Funds couldn't discharge the loan as a forgery because Mrs. Brown didn't return a required form in 2005, and that USA Funds must rigorously defend claims. "There are borrowers who want to get out of a legitimate debt," he says. "By the same token, we want to work with individuals who have a legitimate issue."
Ms. Drysdale, the legal–aid lawyer, finally sought to obtain a disability waiver for her client. That process took more than a year, and was achieved only after Ms. Drysdale asked for help from the Social Security Administration's ombudsman, who declined to comment.
In August 2009, the Education Department agreed that Mrs. Brown is permanently disabled, and discharged her obligation to repay the loan she never took out. The Treasury returned her withheld benefits in December.
Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/retirement/article/109011/defaulted-loans-may-haunt-seniors?mod=retire-planning
Social Security benefits are off–limits to creditors, such as credit–card companies and banks. But the U.S. can collect debts to federal agencies by "offsetting," or withholding Social Security and disability payments.
The Treasury currently withholds benefits of 3.1 million Social Security recipients to recover defaulted student–, farm– and small–business loans, unpaid income taxes, amounts veterans owe for health care, and other debts to the government.
Previously, the U.S. hasn't been able to withhold Social Security payments to recover most debts delinquent for more than ten years.
But a provision in the 2008 Farm Bill lifted the ten–year statute of limitations on the government's ability to withhold Social Security benefits in collecting debts other than student loans—for which the statute of limitations was lifted in 1997—and income taxes, where the limit remains 10 years.
This means that a person who defaulted on a small–business loan in 1995, for example, and who is receiving Social Security could be notified that his benefits may be reduced each month until the debt, with interest, fees, and penalties, is paid. The Treasury can withhold 15% of the benefit, though it can't be reduced to below $750. Tax debts have no floor.
The change will add more than $6 billion to the $75 billion in delinquent debt individuals owe the government, according to the Financial Management Service, the Treasury's debt collection unit.
A Treasury spokesman says the new legislation "allows Treasury's Financial Management Service to collect older debts and levels the playing field so that all eligible debts, regardless of age, are subject to debt collection. Treasury expects this legislation will result in increased collections of $10 million per year in delinquent federal non–tax debt."
Though no one argues that people shouldn't repay their debts, the change is coming at a challenging time for older Americans already pinched by mortgage woes, pension cuts and spiraling medical costs.
The shift applies to debtors of all ages, but Social Security recipients will bear much of the brunt. A Wall Street Journal analysis of Treasury Department data shows that Social Security recipients comprise a large and growing percentage of people from whom the Treasury recovers debts.
For years, most debt the Treasury collected through its "Offset Program," came from withholding income–tax refunds. But with an aging population and growing unemployment, roughly 10% of the $4.3 billion in debts collected by the Treasury came from Social Security benefits in 2008, the latest figures available. That's up from 1.6% in 2001, according to Journal computations that the Treasury confirms.
Though the law has expanded the age of debts that can be recovered, it hasn't addressed the sometimes–Kafkaesque process debtors can face when challenging the validity of a claim.
Consider the predicament of Dr. Robert Steinberg, the founder of Scharffen Berger chocolates, who spent more than six years and thousands of dollars in legal fees appealing the Social Security Administration's claim that he owed it more than $28,000.
Dr. Steinberg received disability benefits in the early 1990s while undergoing chemotherapy for lymphoma, a condition that ultimately claimed his life. Dr. Steinberg returned to work sporadically at a free clinic before co–founding the chocolate company.
Year later, the Social Security Administration notified Dr. Steinberg he was overpaid in the 1990s. In May 2002, with the matter still unresolved, the agency turned the debt over to the Treasury for collection.
In Oct. 2002, administrative law judge Gary Lee found that the Social Security Administration had never established the amount of the overpayment; had dismissed an earlier appeal "for spurious reasons"; had misinformed Dr. Steinberg and mishandled his later appeals; and had lost his file. He noted that Dr. Steinberg was "without fault," and told the agency to stop its collections efforts.
Dr. Steinberg died in 2008, at 61. His lawyer, Peter Young, a former staff attorney for the Social Security Administration, has handled more than 100 overpayment cases, "very few of which were accurate," he says. "Most people can't find or afford help, and give up very quickly and end up with painful offsets on a fixed budget."
An agency spokeswoman says mistakes can happen, but "over all, the process works."
A Treasury spokesman says the new regulations require agencies seeking to recover debts more than a decade old to give debtors the right to review and copy their files, make payment arrangements, and apply for disability and hardship waivers.
But a recent dispute about a student loan shows that even with these rights, a person challenging an old debt can face hurdles similar to homeowners in foreclosure trying to modify a loan that has been resold.
In 2003, the U.S. began withholding $173 a month in Social Security benefits from Annie Brown, a paralyzed 75–year–old widow living in a nursing home to repay a defaulted $8,823 student loan the Education Department says she took out in 1989. The offset reduced Mrs. Brown's benefit to about $980 a month.
Mrs. Brown said a granddaughter had forged her signature on a loan application. Her daughter and a lawyer spent more than four years disputing the debt with the owner of the loan, United Student Aid Funds, a student–loan guarantor that also was acting as one of the Education Department's 21 debt collectors. USA Funds itself farms out various debt–collection activities to others, which it did in Mrs. Brown's case.
Between 2003 and 2008, Mrs. Brown's daughter and Lynn Drysdale, a legal–aid lawyer in Jacksonville, Fla., corresponded numerous times with USA Funds and two other debt–collection companies it hired. One letter from USA Funds warned that unless documents were received "within 30 days from the date this letter was generated...your case will be closed." The letter was undated. Another letter required Mrs. Brown to refer to an attached document. There was no attachment. "I don't know how a lay person could maneuver through this process," says Ms. Drysdale. "Nobody seemed to know what was needed."
In 2007, USA Funds denied Mrs. Brown's claim, citing a recently passed federal rule requiring people claiming identity theft on student loans to obtain a criminal court verdict of the crime. That was impossible for Mrs. Brown; a statute of limitations for bringing a case had passed years earlier. In any case, she wasn't alleging identity theft, but forgery.
Robert Murray, a spokesman for USA Funds, agrees that Mrs. Brown's signature was forged. "It's absolutely a forgery," he says, "It \[the loan\] should never have been made."
But he says that USA Funds couldn't discharge the loan as a forgery because Mrs. Brown didn't return a required form in 2005, and that USA Funds must rigorously defend claims. "There are borrowers who want to get out of a legitimate debt," he says. "By the same token, we want to work with individuals who have a legitimate issue."
Ms. Drysdale, the legal–aid lawyer, finally sought to obtain a disability waiver for her client. That process took more than a year, and was achieved only after Ms. Drysdale asked for help from the Social Security Administration's ombudsman, who declined to comment.
In August 2009, the Education Department agreed that Mrs. Brown is permanently disabled, and discharged her obligation to repay the loan she never took out. The Treasury returned her withheld benefits in December.
Source: http://finance.yahoo.com/retirement/article/109011/defaulted-loans-may-haunt-seniors?mod=retire-planning
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Sacramento accountant pleads guilty to Ponzi scheme
William Murray, a Sacramento accountant who stole more than $13 million from 52 clients between 2001 and 2009, pleaded guilty today in federal court to mail fraud and interference with tax administration.
U. S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia ordered Murray to immediately be taken into custody by deputy U. S. marshals. The judge set sentencing for May 28.
Murray, 55, told clients to write checks to accounts under his control so he could pay taxes or make investments on their behalf. Much of the money went to support his extravagant lifestyle, including the purchase of real property, a classic car, a fleet of limousines, expensive jewelry and rugs, and fine wines.
He changed his clients' addresses to his own so they would not receive the IRS' delinquent tax notices.
As demands for payment arrived from clients and the IRS, Murray's fraud became a Ponzi scheme that he perpetuated by using more than $3.5 million in recent client receipts to pay off demands stemming from earlier theft.
Before the house of cards collapsed, Murray was a man of some prominence. He was a certified public accountant with a solid client base.
He regularly offered tax advice on a local television channel. He was used as an expert witness in courts in five counties.
He served as a federal tax agent between 1976 and 1980, when he moved to Sacramento to join a former IRS colleague in private practice.
Murray's plea agreement calls for the forfeiture of all his remaining assets to the government, victim restitution, and full disclosure of his finances to the victims.
Source: http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/crime/archives/2010/03/sacramento-acco.html
U. S. District Judge Edward J. Garcia ordered Murray to immediately be taken into custody by deputy U. S. marshals. The judge set sentencing for May 28.
Murray, 55, told clients to write checks to accounts under his control so he could pay taxes or make investments on their behalf. Much of the money went to support his extravagant lifestyle, including the purchase of real property, a classic car, a fleet of limousines, expensive jewelry and rugs, and fine wines.
He changed his clients' addresses to his own so they would not receive the IRS' delinquent tax notices.
As demands for payment arrived from clients and the IRS, Murray's fraud became a Ponzi scheme that he perpetuated by using more than $3.5 million in recent client receipts to pay off demands stemming from earlier theft.
Before the house of cards collapsed, Murray was a man of some prominence. He was a certified public accountant with a solid client base.
He regularly offered tax advice on a local television channel. He was used as an expert witness in courts in five counties.
He served as a federal tax agent between 1976 and 1980, when he moved to Sacramento to join a former IRS colleague in private practice.
Murray's plea agreement calls for the forfeiture of all his remaining assets to the government, victim restitution, and full disclosure of his finances to the victims.
Source: http://www.sacbee.com/static/weblogs/crime/archives/2010/03/sacramento-acco.html
Prius with stuck accelerator glides to safe stop
EL CAJON, Calif. – A California Highway Patrol officer helped slow a runaway Toyota Prius from 94 mph to a safe stop on Monday after the car's accelerator became stuck on a San Diego County freeway, the CHP said.
Prius driver James Sikes called 911 about 1:30 p.m. after accelerating to pass another vehicle on Interstate 8 near La Posta and finding that he could not control his car, the CHP said.
"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny... it jumped and it just stuck there," the 61-year-old driver said at a news conference. "As it was going, I was trying the brakes...it wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything and it just kept speeding up," Sikes said, adding he could smell the brakes burning he was pressing the pedal so hard.
A patrol car pulled alongside the Prius and officers told Sikes over a loudspeaker to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency brake.
"They also got it going on a steep upgrade," said Officer Jesse Udovich. "Between those three things, they got it to slow down."
After the car decelerated to about 50 mph, Sikes turned off the engine and coasted to a halt.
The officer then maneuvered his car in front of the Prius as a precautionary block, Udovich said.
In a statement, Toyota said it has dispatched a field technical specialist to San Diego to investigate the incident.
Toyota has recalled some 8.5 million vehicles worldwide — more than 6 million in the United States — since last fall because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius.
Toyota owners have complained of their vehicles speeding out of control despite efforts to slow down, sometimes resulting in deadly crashes. The government has received complaints of 34 deaths linked to sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles since 2000.
One of the crashes claimed the life of a CHP officer last August.
Off-duty CHP Officer Mark Saylor was killed along with his wife, her brother and the couple's daughter after their Lexus' accelerator got stuck in La Mesa.
The Toyota-manufactured loaner vehicle slammed into a sport utility vehicle at about 100 mph, careened off the freeway, hit an embankment, overturned and burst into flames.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_runaway_prius
Prius driver James Sikes called 911 about 1:30 p.m. after accelerating to pass another vehicle on Interstate 8 near La Posta and finding that he could not control his car, the CHP said.
"I pushed the gas pedal to pass a car and it did something kind of funny... it jumped and it just stuck there," the 61-year-old driver said at a news conference. "As it was going, I was trying the brakes...it wasn't stopping, it wasn't doing anything and it just kept speeding up," Sikes said, adding he could smell the brakes burning he was pressing the pedal so hard.
A patrol car pulled alongside the Prius and officers told Sikes over a loudspeaker to push the brake pedal to the floor and apply the emergency brake.
"They also got it going on a steep upgrade," said Officer Jesse Udovich. "Between those three things, they got it to slow down."
After the car decelerated to about 50 mph, Sikes turned off the engine and coasted to a halt.
The officer then maneuvered his car in front of the Prius as a precautionary block, Udovich said.
In a statement, Toyota said it has dispatched a field technical specialist to San Diego to investigate the incident.
Toyota has recalled some 8.5 million vehicles worldwide — more than 6 million in the United States — since last fall because of acceleration problems in multiple models and braking issues in the Prius.
Toyota owners have complained of their vehicles speeding out of control despite efforts to slow down, sometimes resulting in deadly crashes. The government has received complaints of 34 deaths linked to sudden acceleration of Toyota vehicles since 2000.
One of the crashes claimed the life of a CHP officer last August.
Off-duty CHP Officer Mark Saylor was killed along with his wife, her brother and the couple's daughter after their Lexus' accelerator got stuck in La Mesa.
The Toyota-manufactured loaner vehicle slammed into a sport utility vehicle at about 100 mph, careened off the freeway, hit an embankment, overturned and burst into flames.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_runaway_prius
Monday, March 1, 2010
Pa. man dies during storm when 911 calls unheeded
PITTSBURGH – With her boyfriend in severe abdominal pain, Sharon Edge called 911 for an ambulance in the early morning hours of Feb. 6. Heavy snow was falling — so heavy it would all but bring the city to a standstill — and Curtis Mitchell needed to go to a hospital.
"Help is on the way," the operator said.
It never arrived.
Nearly 30 hours later — and 10 calls from the couple to 911, four 911 calls to them and at least a dozen calls between 911 and paramedics — Curtis Mitchell died at his home. His electricity knocked out, his heat long off, the 50-year-old former steelworker waited, huddled beneath blankets on his sofa.
"I'm very angry, because I feel they didn't do their job like they supposed to," said Edge, 51. "My man would still be living if they'da did they job like they was supposed to ... They took somebody that I love away."
Mitchell, on disability for depression, had a history of pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas, Edge said, and had spent nine days in a hospital in late January. He had been home about a week when he was overcome with pain. Autopsy results are pending, awaiting toxicology test results, authorities said.
Now Pittsburgh officials have ordered an investigation and reforms of the city's emergency services system as Mitchell's case highlighted key shortcomings:
• Details of Mitchell's calls weren't passed on from one 911 operator to another as shifts changed, so each call was treated as a new incident.
• Twice, ambulances were as close as a quarter-mile from Mitchell's home but drivers said deep snow prevented the vehicles from crossing a small bridge over railroad tracks to reach him. Mitchell was told each time he'd have to walk through the snow to the ambulances; in neither case did paramedics walk to get him.
• Once, an ambulance made it across the bridge and was at the opposite end of the block on the narrow street where the couple lived — a little more than a football field's length. Again, paramedics didn't try to walk.
"We failed this person," said Michael Huss, the city's public safety director.
To be sure, Mitchell's ordeal unfolded as the storm dumped nearly two feet of snow on Pittsburgh; the 911 system was swamped with more than twice as many calls as usual and overall emergency response was hampered.
Regardless of how deep the snow was, Huss said it was unacceptable that paramedics didn't walk to help Mitchell. If they had, Huss believes Mitchell may have survived.
"... You get out of that damn truck and you walk to the residence," Huss said. "That's what needed to happen. We could have carried him out."
The six paramedics on the three ambulances could be disciplined, Huss said. He declined to say what that might be.
Paramedics or firefighters will now be required to go to a caller's door.
"Everyone needs to get a response," Huss said Thursday.
That Mitchell died waiting to get to the hospital is a cruel coincidence.
Edge and Mitchell met eight years ago in an emergency room. Both were getting their medications under control for their mental illnesses, she said. He was being treated for depression; she has bipolar disorder.
"We've been stuck together ever since, like glue," Edge said.
Several years ago, they moved into a small red brick rowhouse in Hazelwood, the riverside neighborhood that was home to Pittsburgh's last working steel mill, which shut down a dozen years ago.
Sitting on the tan and blue fabric sofa where Mitchell died, Edge described him.
He enjoyed watching TV, particularly westerns. They hoped to get married by a justice of the peace in April, then celebrate with a little party.
"He did for his friends," she said. "He looked out for other people when they needed stuff. He was there to help."
They didn't have a car. During the storm, a neighbor offered to drive them to a hospital but he couldn't get his car shoveled out.
Edge is a little sketchy on details of Mitchell's worsening condition and death. Then again, she didn't think she'd need to relive them. She thought they first called 911 on the night of Feb. 5, but records indicate the first call was made about 2 a.m. on Feb 6. Sometime Friday night, the storm knocked out their power and the couple sought warmth under blankets as the house got colder.
Edge said Mitchell had begun to feel stomach pains during the week, but he tried to deal with it. By Friday morning, he woke up in pain. Still, he tried to manage with medication, she said.
A review of the 911 calls by the Associated Press shows no anger in Mitchell's or Edge's voices. There was no screaming. Conversations with operators were cordial and the couple seemed to understand the difficulties the snow posed.
Still, Mitchell and Edge let them know he was in pain.
"My stomach man, it's real messed up. It's killing me," he tells a 911 operator about 11:15 a.m. on Feb. 6.
About 8 p.m. that night — in the eighth call to 911 — Edge tells an operator: "My boyfriend called for an ambulance. He's in a lot of pain and we've been waiting for a couple hours now."
At one point, Mitchell can be heard exclaiming "Oh man, what?" when Edge relayed to him that they would have to walk to the ambulance because of the snow. It was not clear when that conversation took place.
In all, three ambulances were dispatched at separate times. In each case, Mitchell was told he'd have to walk to them — and he canceled the calls.
As the hours went by, Mitchell's pain intensified and he began to have shortness of breath. Because he complained of abdominal pain, which is generally not considered life-threatening, he was initially ranked as a medium priority. About 11:20 a.m. Saturday, his priority level was upgraded, but not as an emergency.
Mitchell tried to sleep. He took his prescriptions — oxycodone for pain and sleeping pills for his insomnia. Edge gave him the medication and closely followed the dosage, she said.
"All that time, he was dying and I didn't even know it," Edge said.
Shortly before 8 a.m. on Feb. 7, Edge made her last 911 call.
"I think my husband's dead. Oh God, oh God," she sobbed.
The 911 operator told Edge to calm down and asked for the address and phone number.
"I've been trying to get an ambulance here for three days. He's been having stomach pains," Edge said.
The operator talked Edge through a check to see if Mitchell was breathing. Try to get him onto the floor on his back, the operator said.
But Mitchell's body was cold. Edge couldn't wake him.
"Oh God, he can't leave me ... Curtis? Curtis?" Edge said, struggling to move him.
The operator assured Edge that paramedics were on the way.
"He's dead," Edge said.
"No, no, no. You're going to stay with me," the operator said, continuing the checks on Mitchell.
Finally, someone came to the door.
"Who is it?" asked Edge. "Is it the medics?"
"Yes."
"All right," said the operator. "You did a good job. I'm going to hang up now. Let them in. Good bye."
The snow had long since stopped falling. It took firefighters two minutes from being dispatched to reach the couple's home.
They checked for a pulse, but it was too late.
"They said he was gone," Edge said.
It would be five more hours before workers from the medical examiner's office came for Mitchell's body.
A police officer waited with her. Edge sat on the sofa with the body.
"I kissed and hugged him," she said of Mitchell. "But it was all I could do."
In this photo made on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010, Sharon Edge stands on the porch of the row house where she and her late boyfriend, Curtis Mitchell, lived in Pittsburgh's Hazelwood neighborhood. They first called 911 for help in the early morning hours of Feb. 6 during a snowstorm. Mitchell was in pain and needed an ambulance. Nearly 30 hours later, and after more than a dozen calls involving the couple and 911 operators or ambulance crews, Mitchell, 50, died at his home in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100228/ap_on_re_us/us_snow911_death
"Help is on the way," the operator said.
It never arrived.
Nearly 30 hours later — and 10 calls from the couple to 911, four 911 calls to them and at least a dozen calls between 911 and paramedics — Curtis Mitchell died at his home. His electricity knocked out, his heat long off, the 50-year-old former steelworker waited, huddled beneath blankets on his sofa.
"I'm very angry, because I feel they didn't do their job like they supposed to," said Edge, 51. "My man would still be living if they'da did they job like they was supposed to ... They took somebody that I love away."
Mitchell, on disability for depression, had a history of pancreatitis, an inflammation of the pancreas, Edge said, and had spent nine days in a hospital in late January. He had been home about a week when he was overcome with pain. Autopsy results are pending, awaiting toxicology test results, authorities said.
Now Pittsburgh officials have ordered an investigation and reforms of the city's emergency services system as Mitchell's case highlighted key shortcomings:
• Details of Mitchell's calls weren't passed on from one 911 operator to another as shifts changed, so each call was treated as a new incident.
• Twice, ambulances were as close as a quarter-mile from Mitchell's home but drivers said deep snow prevented the vehicles from crossing a small bridge over railroad tracks to reach him. Mitchell was told each time he'd have to walk through the snow to the ambulances; in neither case did paramedics walk to get him.
• Once, an ambulance made it across the bridge and was at the opposite end of the block on the narrow street where the couple lived — a little more than a football field's length. Again, paramedics didn't try to walk.
"We failed this person," said Michael Huss, the city's public safety director.
To be sure, Mitchell's ordeal unfolded as the storm dumped nearly two feet of snow on Pittsburgh; the 911 system was swamped with more than twice as many calls as usual and overall emergency response was hampered.
Regardless of how deep the snow was, Huss said it was unacceptable that paramedics didn't walk to help Mitchell. If they had, Huss believes Mitchell may have survived.
"... You get out of that damn truck and you walk to the residence," Huss said. "That's what needed to happen. We could have carried him out."
The six paramedics on the three ambulances could be disciplined, Huss said. He declined to say what that might be.
Paramedics or firefighters will now be required to go to a caller's door.
"Everyone needs to get a response," Huss said Thursday.
That Mitchell died waiting to get to the hospital is a cruel coincidence.
Edge and Mitchell met eight years ago in an emergency room. Both were getting their medications under control for their mental illnesses, she said. He was being treated for depression; she has bipolar disorder.
"We've been stuck together ever since, like glue," Edge said.
Several years ago, they moved into a small red brick rowhouse in Hazelwood, the riverside neighborhood that was home to Pittsburgh's last working steel mill, which shut down a dozen years ago.
Sitting on the tan and blue fabric sofa where Mitchell died, Edge described him.
He enjoyed watching TV, particularly westerns. They hoped to get married by a justice of the peace in April, then celebrate with a little party.
"He did for his friends," she said. "He looked out for other people when they needed stuff. He was there to help."
They didn't have a car. During the storm, a neighbor offered to drive them to a hospital but he couldn't get his car shoveled out.
Edge is a little sketchy on details of Mitchell's worsening condition and death. Then again, she didn't think she'd need to relive them. She thought they first called 911 on the night of Feb. 5, but records indicate the first call was made about 2 a.m. on Feb 6. Sometime Friday night, the storm knocked out their power and the couple sought warmth under blankets as the house got colder.
Edge said Mitchell had begun to feel stomach pains during the week, but he tried to deal with it. By Friday morning, he woke up in pain. Still, he tried to manage with medication, she said.
A review of the 911 calls by the Associated Press shows no anger in Mitchell's or Edge's voices. There was no screaming. Conversations with operators were cordial and the couple seemed to understand the difficulties the snow posed.
Still, Mitchell and Edge let them know he was in pain.
"My stomach man, it's real messed up. It's killing me," he tells a 911 operator about 11:15 a.m. on Feb. 6.
About 8 p.m. that night — in the eighth call to 911 — Edge tells an operator: "My boyfriend called for an ambulance. He's in a lot of pain and we've been waiting for a couple hours now."
At one point, Mitchell can be heard exclaiming "Oh man, what?" when Edge relayed to him that they would have to walk to the ambulance because of the snow. It was not clear when that conversation took place.
In all, three ambulances were dispatched at separate times. In each case, Mitchell was told he'd have to walk to them — and he canceled the calls.
As the hours went by, Mitchell's pain intensified and he began to have shortness of breath. Because he complained of abdominal pain, which is generally not considered life-threatening, he was initially ranked as a medium priority. About 11:20 a.m. Saturday, his priority level was upgraded, but not as an emergency.
Mitchell tried to sleep. He took his prescriptions — oxycodone for pain and sleeping pills for his insomnia. Edge gave him the medication and closely followed the dosage, she said.
"All that time, he was dying and I didn't even know it," Edge said.
Shortly before 8 a.m. on Feb. 7, Edge made her last 911 call.
"I think my husband's dead. Oh God, oh God," she sobbed.
The 911 operator told Edge to calm down and asked for the address and phone number.
"I've been trying to get an ambulance here for three days. He's been having stomach pains," Edge said.
The operator talked Edge through a check to see if Mitchell was breathing. Try to get him onto the floor on his back, the operator said.
But Mitchell's body was cold. Edge couldn't wake him.
"Oh God, he can't leave me ... Curtis? Curtis?" Edge said, struggling to move him.
The operator assured Edge that paramedics were on the way.
"He's dead," Edge said.
"No, no, no. You're going to stay with me," the operator said, continuing the checks on Mitchell.
Finally, someone came to the door.
"Who is it?" asked Edge. "Is it the medics?"
"Yes."
"All right," said the operator. "You did a good job. I'm going to hang up now. Let them in. Good bye."
The snow had long since stopped falling. It took firefighters two minutes from being dispatched to reach the couple's home.
They checked for a pulse, but it was too late.
"They said he was gone," Edge said.
It would be five more hours before workers from the medical examiner's office came for Mitchell's body.
A police officer waited with her. Edge sat on the sofa with the body.
"I kissed and hugged him," she said of Mitchell. "But it was all I could do."
In this photo made on Tuesday, Feb. 23, 2010, Sharon Edge stands on the porch of the row house where she and her late boyfriend, Curtis Mitchell, lived in Pittsburgh's Hazelwood neighborhood. They first called 911 for help in the early morning hours of Feb. 6 during a snowstorm. Mitchell was in pain and needed an ambulance. Nearly 30 hours later, and after more than a dozen calls involving the couple and 911 operators or ambulance crews, Mitchell, 50, died at his home in Pittsburgh. (AP Photo/Keith Srakocic)Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100228/ap_on_re_us/us_snow911_death
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
'America's worst pedophile'?
Dr. Earl Bradley, a Delaware pediatrician, allegedly abused more than 100 children — here's what's known about this shocking case
Delaware pediatrician Earl Bradley — indicted this week for abusing 103 of his young patients in his office — is being called the worst pedophile in U.S. history. Horrified parents and medical professionals across the country are demanding to know how Bradley, who videotaped his sexual abuses, got away with his alleged crimes for at least a decade, despite a number of red-flags that went unheeded. (Watch a CBS report about Delaware's pediatric pedophile.) A fact sheet on the case that's shocked Delaware and the nation:
Who is Earl Bradley?
Dr. Earl Bradley, who was arrested in December, is a 56-year-old pediatrician. At present, little else is known about his private life. (Check back for details as they arrive.)
Where did he practice?
At the BayBees pediatric practice in Lewes, Delaware — an office was known for its "carnival like" decorations, including a "Disney-themed" examination room, a ferris wheel and VW beetle cars "scattered across the grounds."
Where else has he practiced?
He was previously a doctor in Pennsylvania, and also holds medical licenses in Florida and New Jersey, where local police are also conducting investigations into Bradley's past.
How many victims are there?
Bradley's initial arrest in December involved nine child patients. That count has risen to 103 victims — a figure authorities expect could go higher yet — as authorities uncovered more evidence and more victims stepped forward
When did these acts take place?
Between 1998 and 2009, but the "vast majority" took place since 2007.
Who were the victims?
The victims ranged from toddlers of just six months to 13-year-olds. All but one are female.
How was he caught?
A 2-year-old complained to her mother that Bradley had "hurt her" when he took her to a basement room in his practice during an exam, and the woman informed the police.
How did the evidence of all his victims emerge?
A subsequent police search of his properties found "more than 13 hours" of video documenting his crimes. When the Delaware Attorney General set up a helpline to encourage other victims to come forward, it was "swamped" with calls.
Were there warning signs?
Yes. Bradley was reported to the police in 2005 for "inappropriately kissing a 3-year-old patient." Dr. Bradley's office manager, his sister Linda Barnes, claims she passed on other patient complaints to The Medical Society of Delaware in 2005. Then, in 2008, three parents complained to the police of "inappropriate vaginal exams."
Why wasn't anything done?
The 2005 abuse allegation went nowhere after the Delaware Attorney General's office decided it lacked sufficient evidence to charge Bradley. The Medical Society of Delaware says it has no records of complaints made against the doctor. And the 2008 charges were dropped after an unnamed Superior Court judge declined to authorize a search warrant.
Isn't this a massive failing on the state of Delaware's part?
Beau Biden, the state's current Attorney General (and Vice-President Joe Biden's son), has ordered a "thorough examination" of the state's operations from 2005 onwards to see if anyone failed to pursue complaints against Bradley. Delaware governor Jack Markell has also ordered an independent review.
What has Bradley been charged with?
Bradley has been indicted on 471 charges of sexual crimes including rape, sexual assault, and sexual exploitation of a child. If convicted, he can expect a lifetime in jail with no possibility of parole.
Source: http://www.theweek.com/article/index/106705/Americas_worst_pedophile
Delaware pediatrician Earl Bradley — indicted this week for abusing 103 of his young patients in his office — is being called the worst pedophile in U.S. history. Horrified parents and medical professionals across the country are demanding to know how Bradley, who videotaped his sexual abuses, got away with his alleged crimes for at least a decade, despite a number of red-flags that went unheeded. (Watch a CBS report about Delaware's pediatric pedophile.) A fact sheet on the case that's shocked Delaware and the nation:
Who is Earl Bradley?
Dr. Earl Bradley, who was arrested in December, is a 56-year-old pediatrician. At present, little else is known about his private life. (Check back for details as they arrive.)
Where did he practice?
At the BayBees pediatric practice in Lewes, Delaware — an office was known for its "carnival like" decorations, including a "Disney-themed" examination room, a ferris wheel and VW beetle cars "scattered across the grounds."
Where else has he practiced?
He was previously a doctor in Pennsylvania, and also holds medical licenses in Florida and New Jersey, where local police are also conducting investigations into Bradley's past.
How many victims are there?
Bradley's initial arrest in December involved nine child patients. That count has risen to 103 victims — a figure authorities expect could go higher yet — as authorities uncovered more evidence and more victims stepped forward
When did these acts take place?
Between 1998 and 2009, but the "vast majority" took place since 2007.
Who were the victims?
The victims ranged from toddlers of just six months to 13-year-olds. All but one are female.
How was he caught?
A 2-year-old complained to her mother that Bradley had "hurt her" when he took her to a basement room in his practice during an exam, and the woman informed the police.
How did the evidence of all his victims emerge?
A subsequent police search of his properties found "more than 13 hours" of video documenting his crimes. When the Delaware Attorney General set up a helpline to encourage other victims to come forward, it was "swamped" with calls.
Were there warning signs?
Yes. Bradley was reported to the police in 2005 for "inappropriately kissing a 3-year-old patient." Dr. Bradley's office manager, his sister Linda Barnes, claims she passed on other patient complaints to The Medical Society of Delaware in 2005. Then, in 2008, three parents complained to the police of "inappropriate vaginal exams."
Why wasn't anything done?
The 2005 abuse allegation went nowhere after the Delaware Attorney General's office decided it lacked sufficient evidence to charge Bradley. The Medical Society of Delaware says it has no records of complaints made against the doctor. And the 2008 charges were dropped after an unnamed Superior Court judge declined to authorize a search warrant.
Isn't this a massive failing on the state of Delaware's part?
Beau Biden, the state's current Attorney General (and Vice-President Joe Biden's son), has ordered a "thorough examination" of the state's operations from 2005 onwards to see if anyone failed to pursue complaints against Bradley. Delaware governor Jack Markell has also ordered an independent review.
What has Bradley been charged with?
Bradley has been indicted on 471 charges of sexual crimes including rape, sexual assault, and sexual exploitation of a child. If convicted, he can expect a lifetime in jail with no possibility of parole.
Source: http://www.theweek.com/article/index/106705/Americas_worst_pedophile
Teacher tackles gunman supected in school shooting
LITTLETON, Colo. – The math teacher who has become a national hero after breaking up a potentially deadly school shooting near the site of the Columbine massacre said Wednesday that he was simply doing his job to protect his students from danger during his now-famous scuffle with the gunman.
Schools in Littleton have gone through extensive emergency drills after the Columbine tragedy, and David Benke said he always thought about what he'd do if a school shooting broke out.
"If something happens and there's something that I can do about it, I want to try and do something about it," Benke said at a news conference with other staff members from Deer Creek Middle School, at times choking up with emotion. "I said, 'I hope that I'm capable of doing something about it.'"
School officials praised the quick actions by Benke and his colleagues as further proof that preparations put in place after Columbine have paid off. But authorities are still investigating to better understand what happened, including why and for how long the gunman, 32-year-old Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood, was inside the school building before the shooting.
Assistant principal Becky Brown said the suspect had signed in at the main office about noon Tuesday — some three hours before the shooting. Investigators were interviewing school staff members in attempt to reconstruct the day's events, and they have found live rounds from the hunting rifle at several places on school grounds.
Eastwood said nothing during a brief hearing Wednesday in which a judge set bail at $1 million cash. The unemployed ranch hand appeared by video hookup from the jail, wearing an orange inmate jumpsuit with his dark, shoulder-length hair hanging loose. He faces two counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Eastwood has an arrest record in Colorado dating back to 1996 for menacing, assault, domestic violence and driving under the influence, and he is believed to have a history of mental issues. The sheriff's department said Eastwood is a former student of the school who has been attending community college off and on in pursuit of his GED.
Authorities said he opened fire in the parking lot with the bolt-action rifle at the end of the school day as terrified teenagers ran for their lives. He had allegedly just wounded two students and seemed ready to unleash more violence when Benke sprung into action.
Benke confronted the gunman, tackled him and pinned him to the ground with the help of another teacher, stopping what could have been a much more violent encounter in a city all too familiar with tragic school shootings. The shooting occurred less than three miles from where the Columbine High School massacre happened nearly 11 years ago.
"Unfortunately he got another round off before I could grab him," Benke said. "He figured out that he wasn't going to be able to get another round chambered before I got to him so he dropped the gun and then we were kind of struggling around trying to get him subdued."
The two students survived Tuesday's shooting and one remained hospitalized. The student in the hospital is one of Benke's students, and the principal said he is "progressing well."
Meanwhile, Benke became a hero. A Facebook page called "Dr. David Benke Is A Hero!!!!" quickly grew to more than 17,000 members, and his actions were discussed on the floor of the state Senate.
"Sometimes that's just what we need. We need someone to be a hero for us," said state Sen. Mike Kopp of Littleton, who lives in Benke's neighborhood.
Benke, a father of 7-year-old twins and a 13-year-old girl, fought back tears after Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink thanked him Tuesday.
"Believe me when I say, I think he stopped what could have been a more tragic event than it was this afternoon," Mink said.
The victims, students Reagan Webber and Matt Thieu, were both treated at Littleton Adventist Hospital, where spokeswoman Christine Alexander said Webber was treated and released to her home.
Benke, a 6-foot-5 former college basketball player who oversees the school's track team, was monitoring the parking lot in the afternoon when he heard what he thought was a firecracker and began walking toward the noise.
"At first when I was walking over there, it was kind of what a teacher does," Benke said, still shaken hours after the shooting. "`Hey kid, what are you doing,' you know that kind of thing."
"I grabbed him from the front and we were dancing around pushing and shoving," he said.
In 2005, Eastwood participated in a NASA-funded medical study in which he spent 10 days in a hospital bed so scientists could study muscle wasting, an affliction experienced by astronauts during long flights, according to a story in the Rocky Mountain News at the time.
He told the newspaper that he had a lifelong dream of being an astronaut and described his occupation to the newspaper as horse trainer working at his father's ranch. He pocketed $2,200 from the study and was able to spend a week and a half watching DVDs and playing video games during the bed experiment.
A man who answered the phone Tuesday night at a number listed for Eastwood identified himself only as "Mr. Eastwood" and said he was Bruco Eastwood's father. He was at a loss for words.
"There's nothing you can say about it. What can you say?" the man told The Associated Press. "Pretty dumb thing to do. I feel bad for the people involved." He wouldn't comment further.
As for Benke, he said he still wishes he could have done: "It bugs me that he got another round off" before Benke tackled him to the ground.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100224/ap_on_re_us/us_colo_school_shooting_26
Schools in Littleton have gone through extensive emergency drills after the Columbine tragedy, and David Benke said he always thought about what he'd do if a school shooting broke out.
"If something happens and there's something that I can do about it, I want to try and do something about it," Benke said at a news conference with other staff members from Deer Creek Middle School, at times choking up with emotion. "I said, 'I hope that I'm capable of doing something about it.'"
School officials praised the quick actions by Benke and his colleagues as further proof that preparations put in place after Columbine have paid off. But authorities are still investigating to better understand what happened, including why and for how long the gunman, 32-year-old Bruco Strong Eagle Eastwood, was inside the school building before the shooting.
Assistant principal Becky Brown said the suspect had signed in at the main office about noon Tuesday — some three hours before the shooting. Investigators were interviewing school staff members in attempt to reconstruct the day's events, and they have found live rounds from the hunting rifle at several places on school grounds.
Eastwood said nothing during a brief hearing Wednesday in which a judge set bail at $1 million cash. The unemployed ranch hand appeared by video hookup from the jail, wearing an orange inmate jumpsuit with his dark, shoulder-length hair hanging loose. He faces two counts of attempted first-degree murder.
Eastwood has an arrest record in Colorado dating back to 1996 for menacing, assault, domestic violence and driving under the influence, and he is believed to have a history of mental issues. The sheriff's department said Eastwood is a former student of the school who has been attending community college off and on in pursuit of his GED.
Authorities said he opened fire in the parking lot with the bolt-action rifle at the end of the school day as terrified teenagers ran for their lives. He had allegedly just wounded two students and seemed ready to unleash more violence when Benke sprung into action.
Benke confronted the gunman, tackled him and pinned him to the ground with the help of another teacher, stopping what could have been a much more violent encounter in a city all too familiar with tragic school shootings. The shooting occurred less than three miles from where the Columbine High School massacre happened nearly 11 years ago.
"Unfortunately he got another round off before I could grab him," Benke said. "He figured out that he wasn't going to be able to get another round chambered before I got to him so he dropped the gun and then we were kind of struggling around trying to get him subdued."
The two students survived Tuesday's shooting and one remained hospitalized. The student in the hospital is one of Benke's students, and the principal said he is "progressing well."
Meanwhile, Benke became a hero. A Facebook page called "Dr. David Benke Is A Hero!!!!" quickly grew to more than 17,000 members, and his actions were discussed on the floor of the state Senate.
"Sometimes that's just what we need. We need someone to be a hero for us," said state Sen. Mike Kopp of Littleton, who lives in Benke's neighborhood.
Benke, a father of 7-year-old twins and a 13-year-old girl, fought back tears after Jefferson County Sheriff Ted Mink thanked him Tuesday.
"Believe me when I say, I think he stopped what could have been a more tragic event than it was this afternoon," Mink said.
The victims, students Reagan Webber and Matt Thieu, were both treated at Littleton Adventist Hospital, where spokeswoman Christine Alexander said Webber was treated and released to her home.
Benke, a 6-foot-5 former college basketball player who oversees the school's track team, was monitoring the parking lot in the afternoon when he heard what he thought was a firecracker and began walking toward the noise.
"At first when I was walking over there, it was kind of what a teacher does," Benke said, still shaken hours after the shooting. "`Hey kid, what are you doing,' you know that kind of thing."
"I grabbed him from the front and we were dancing around pushing and shoving," he said.
In 2005, Eastwood participated in a NASA-funded medical study in which he spent 10 days in a hospital bed so scientists could study muscle wasting, an affliction experienced by astronauts during long flights, according to a story in the Rocky Mountain News at the time.
He told the newspaper that he had a lifelong dream of being an astronaut and described his occupation to the newspaper as horse trainer working at his father's ranch. He pocketed $2,200 from the study and was able to spend a week and a half watching DVDs and playing video games during the bed experiment.
A man who answered the phone Tuesday night at a number listed for Eastwood identified himself only as "Mr. Eastwood" and said he was Bruco Eastwood's father. He was at a loss for words.
"There's nothing you can say about it. What can you say?" the man told The Associated Press. "Pretty dumb thing to do. I feel bad for the people involved." He wouldn't comment further.
As for Benke, he said he still wishes he could have done: "It bugs me that he got another round off" before Benke tackled him to the ground.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100224/ap_on_re_us/us_colo_school_shooting_26
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Joe Stack Plane Crash: Why Did He Hate IRS Enough to Kill?
AUSTIN, Texas (CBS/AP) Joseph Andrew Stack's seething hatred for the IRS appeared to have roots at least two decades long, judging from the web post he left behind before crashing his plane into in an Austin, Texas office building Thursday where some 200 employees of the tax agency worked.
Photo: Joseph Andrew Stack.
The anti "tax man" fuse may have been lit in Stack in 1986, when the software engineer confronted a change in tax law, that required companies using high-tech contractors to withhold part of their salaries for income tax purposes.
In the online letter discovered after the crash, Stack wrote, "They could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave."
Calvin Johnson, a law professor at the University of Texas who specializes in federal tax laws told the Austin American Statesman it appeared Stack was looking for a way out of the withholding system.
"If Stack had intended to pay tax on the quarterly payment system, he would have had no advantage from getting out of withholding. Indeed, the paperwork burdens go up," Johnson told the paper. "I suspect he therefore had no intent to pay any tax, even when an independent contractor."
Stack also said he got involved with a group that was especially interested in how religious organizations like the Catholic Church got "incredibly wealthy" by taking advantage of "exemptions," according to his online rant.
He goes on to describe an "exercise" the group conducted, aimed at reevaluating laws that, as Stack wrote, "allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living."
But they were apparently unsuccessful, and Stack wrote that it ended up costing him "$40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0," and that it "made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie."
Stack's clashes with the government didn’t stop there. His first wife filed for bankruptcy in 1999, listing a debt to the IRS of nearly $126,000.
According to California state records, Stack also had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state's tax board, one in 2000, the other in 2004.
Stack's father-in-law, Jack Cook, told the New York Times that he knew Stack had a "hang-up" with the IRS, and his marriage had been strained. His wife had taken her daughter to a hotel to get away from Stack on Wednesday night, the newspaper said.
That might have been the last straw for Stack. On Thursday he blew up his house, and aimed his plane at what he seemed to believe was the root of all his problems: the IRS.
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/19/crimesider/entry6223276.shtml
The anti "tax man" fuse may have been lit in Stack in 1986, when the software engineer confronted a change in tax law, that required companies using high-tech contractors to withhold part of their salaries for income tax purposes.
In the online letter discovered after the crash, Stack wrote, "They could only have been more blunt if they would have came out and directly declared me a criminal and non-citizen slave."
Calvin Johnson, a law professor at the University of Texas who specializes in federal tax laws told the Austin American Statesman it appeared Stack was looking for a way out of the withholding system.
"If Stack had intended to pay tax on the quarterly payment system, he would have had no advantage from getting out of withholding. Indeed, the paperwork burdens go up," Johnson told the paper. "I suspect he therefore had no intent to pay any tax, even when an independent contractor."
Stack also said he got involved with a group that was especially interested in how religious organizations like the Catholic Church got "incredibly wealthy" by taking advantage of "exemptions," according to his online rant.
He goes on to describe an "exercise" the group conducted, aimed at reevaluating laws that, as Stack wrote, "allow the monsters of organized religion to make such a mockery of people who earn an honest living."
But they were apparently unsuccessful, and Stack wrote that it ended up costing him "$40,000+, 10 years of my life, and set my retirement plans back to 0," and that it "made me realize for the first time that I live in a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie."
Stack's clashes with the government didn’t stop there. His first wife filed for bankruptcy in 1999, listing a debt to the IRS of nearly $126,000.
According to California state records, Stack also had a troubled business history, twice starting software companies in California that ultimately were suspended by the state's tax board, one in 2000, the other in 2004.
Stack's father-in-law, Jack Cook, told the New York Times that he knew Stack had a "hang-up" with the IRS, and his marriage had been strained. His wife had taken her daughter to a hotel to get away from Stack on Wednesday night, the newspaper said.
That might have been the last straw for Stack. On Thursday he blew up his house, and aimed his plane at what he seemed to believe was the root of all his problems: the IRS.
Source: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2010/02/19/crimesider/entry6223276.shtml
Monday, February 22, 2010
Philly: White women rarely arrested for pot
In Philadelphia and other urban environments white women are the group least arrested for marijuana. Mainstream media has given significant attention recently to American women’s appreciation for cannabis. From Tyra Banks to The View and Marie Claire to the New York Times we can see businesswomen, celebrities and soccer moms smoking pot for medication and recreation.
But a look at the data for Philadelphia in August 2008 reveals that just 9 white women were arrested for marijuana possession of less than 30 grams. In sharp contrast, 362 black men were arrested that month alone for the very same offense.
The data comes from the Pennsylvania Uniform Crime Report and has been confirmed by Philadelphia Police representatives.
Nationally, statistics show that there is a stronger preference among men for marijuana (or at least to admit use on surveys). The same data shows that women of most ethnicities are well represented within America’s millions of marijuana consumers.
Several studies indicate that black and white women choose cannabis at near equal rates.
Still, black women were three times more likely to be arrested for pot in Philadelphia.
The city saw just 90 white women arrested in all of 2008 for minor marijuana possession while 345 black women were arrested for the same offense.
Overall in 2008 for Philadelphia: 4716 adults were arrested for simple pot possession: 3908 were black men.
Unfortunately Philadelphia is in no way unique. In New York City the data showcasing a racial and gender disparity in marijuana arrests is shocking: NYC saw over ten thousand arrests during just a single year for Marijuana in Public View (MPV), a criminal misdemeanor. Ninety percent of those arrests were black men. Read more
Again, the least arrested category for pot in NYC was white women.
The charge in Philly for cannabis possession less than 30 grams is rather harsh: A Class-A criminal misdemeanor. Unlike every other county in Pennsylvania it requires immediate custodial arrest in the city.
PhillyNORML met with Philadelphia city officials last May to discuss the local marijuana arrest statistics. A report quantifying those arrests in the city criminal justice system is still in progress.
Clearly though, the cumulative effect of marijuana prohibition enforcement in Philadelphia and many urban environments across America is a stark racial and gender disparity. Members of the cannabis reform effort point to such data as the civil rights and social justice core of the national legalization movement.
As more women are being showcased in the media, National NORML in Washington DC created a Women’s Alliance this year to focus on this aspect of reform. Locally at PhillyNORML and NORML-NJ, women are in leadership roles. More info: NORML Women’s Alliance
Women have been some of the strongest voices in the medical marijuana movement: WAMM’s Valerie Corral, OregonNORML’s Madeline Martinez and US Supreme Court litigant Angel Raich, have had a profound impact on the national debate.
Seventy years ago American women decried the effect alcohol prohibition was having on their fathers, brothers and sons. The voice of women made the final push to end the failed policy of alcohol prohibition in 1933.
Today, marijuana advocates are working to bring greater attention to the cannabis arrest disparity. Statistics in Philadelphia and New York City compel greater scrutiny of pot prohibition enforcement.
The infrequent arrest of white women underlines that marijuana legalization is a social policy issue with complex and far-reaching implications.
Source: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-29881-Philadelphia-NORML-Examiner~y2010m2d22-White-women-rarely-arrested-for-pot
Friday, February 19, 2010
Facebook excommunicates WORM because of the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine
Rotterdam, 18th of February 2010
Facebook excommunicates WORM because of the Web2.0 Suicide Machine
It is with great sorrow that we announce that Facebook Inc. has decided that WORM, the producer of the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, will be excommunicated from Facebook.
The initiative to build the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine came from Moddr_, WORM’s media lab. By threatening WORM, Facebook is trying to take down the Suicide Machine.
The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine allows users of - among others - Facebook to commit ‘social network suicide’. Facebook threatens WORM with further legal action if WORM doesn’t stop targeting the FaceBook platform via the SuicideMachine. In addition, it has now also demanded that WORM immediately deletes its own Facebook profile (WORM_Rotterdam). According to Facebook and its lawyer, the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine has violated Facebook’s Terms of Service and with that WORM has forfeited it’s right to keep using the platform. WORM does not want to engage in a fight over this matter with Facebook. The idea behind the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine was to be able to ‘unfriend’ in an automated fashion and to make users of social networks aware that they should always be in control of their own data. Facebook won’t allow for this control and is also not willing to enter into this debate. We are pretty much done with that and are left with no other choice than to commit online suicide ourselves. The conditions and attitude of Facebook leave no other option as far as WORM is concerned.
WORM deeply regrets the current situation. The web 2.0 Suicide Machine was never intended to target Facebook as such, but meant as a tool for people who, for whatever reason, are tired of their online life. Facebook wants all access to their service, personal data of their users included, to run via their own ‘connect’ platform. In this way, Facebook can set, interpret and change its own rules as it sees fit...
The excommunication of WORM illustrates that data freedom and net neutrality of users is merely an illusion on many social network sites. Not only is it not allowed for people to unfriend (in an automated manner), but companies also have the power to expel users they do not like. Facebook shows that a user only has the rights that Facebook grants it.
Facebook claims all rights. WORM does not want to continue living in this 2.0 world. Which is why we say goodbye to all our friends. We wish you all the best.
No flowers, no speeches.
moddr_labs,
WORM, Rotterdam
worm.org
moddr.net
suicidemachine.org
Source: http://www.suicidemachine.org/
WORM's Facebook Suicide pt.1 from moddr_ on Vimeo.
Facebook excommunicates WORM because of the Web2.0 Suicide Machine
It is with great sorrow that we announce that Facebook Inc. has decided that WORM, the producer of the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine, will be excommunicated from Facebook.
The initiative to build the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine came from Moddr_, WORM’s media lab. By threatening WORM, Facebook is trying to take down the Suicide Machine.
The Web 2.0 Suicide Machine allows users of - among others - Facebook to commit ‘social network suicide’. Facebook threatens WORM with further legal action if WORM doesn’t stop targeting the FaceBook platform via the SuicideMachine. In addition, it has now also demanded that WORM immediately deletes its own Facebook profile (WORM_Rotterdam). According to Facebook and its lawyer, the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine has violated Facebook’s Terms of Service and with that WORM has forfeited it’s right to keep using the platform. WORM does not want to engage in a fight over this matter with Facebook. The idea behind the Web 2.0 Suicide Machine was to be able to ‘unfriend’ in an automated fashion and to make users of social networks aware that they should always be in control of their own data. Facebook won’t allow for this control and is also not willing to enter into this debate. We are pretty much done with that and are left with no other choice than to commit online suicide ourselves. The conditions and attitude of Facebook leave no other option as far as WORM is concerned.
WORM deeply regrets the current situation. The web 2.0 Suicide Machine was never intended to target Facebook as such, but meant as a tool for people who, for whatever reason, are tired of their online life. Facebook wants all access to their service, personal data of their users included, to run via their own ‘connect’ platform. In this way, Facebook can set, interpret and change its own rules as it sees fit...
The excommunication of WORM illustrates that data freedom and net neutrality of users is merely an illusion on many social network sites. Not only is it not allowed for people to unfriend (in an automated manner), but companies also have the power to expel users they do not like. Facebook shows that a user only has the rights that Facebook grants it.
Facebook claims all rights. WORM does not want to continue living in this 2.0 world. Which is why we say goodbye to all our friends. We wish you all the best.
No flowers, no speeches.
moddr_labs,
WORM, Rotterdam
worm.org
moddr.net
suicidemachine.org
Source: http://www.suicidemachine.org/
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Stalked, drugged and raped: Is it happening in San Antonio?
Cynthia Vurbeff is moving. Her home, she says, has become a house of horrors.
“I feel that I've lost my mind, lost my life,” Vurbeff said.
Incident reports from law enforcement tell the tale: Numerous break-ins at the address. She suffered vandalism to her car, motorcycle and computer.
Vurbeff believes she was being targeted.
“Everything... They just went through everything,” she said.
But sheriff’s detectives had little to go on, because the vandals -- though often destructive -- stole nothing. Even from her portable safe, drilled into and torn apart, the contents -- the jewelry -- remained untouched.
'He told me ... I would be stalked'
Vurbeff says her troubles didn’t start until she met two men.
One would become her ex-boyfriend; the other was his partner in a San Antonio pain clinic, Dr. John Hall.
Vurbeff said: “The very first time I met him, we went to his house on the Fourth of July, and he told me that because I was already there in his house, that I would be the next victim, that I would be stalked.”
Vurbeff found the doctor’s prophecy to be correct. She suffered months of oddness:
Lights left on. Doors open. Furniture moved. Her clothes dryer disassembled. Her friends said they noticed the strange happenings. They tell the I-Team they even witnessed a gas oven left turned on.
“As soon as you walked in the house, you smelled gas," one friend said. "The whole house smelled of gas. Immediately turned it off, opened up the doors, but that thing doesn't turn on by itself. And it had been running a good length of time."
Another friend said she and Vurbeff were stalked at a mall.
Vurbeff said all these happenings culminated in an assault. The 39-year old believes someone drugged the food in her home and returned later to rape her.
“I know something happened to me, because... a woman knows,” Vurbeff stated.
She filed a report and was briefly hospitalized with signs of sexual assault.
Book about 'gang stalking'
Dr. Hall says what Vurbeff describes is known as “gang stalking.” Indeed, he writes about it in his book, “A New Breed: Satellite Terrorism in America.”
Vurbeff is not alone. Others in San Antonio have contacted the I-Team and described similar types of occurrences.
Linda Johnson says someone poisoned her water supply with heavy metals in northwest San Antonio. Then, there’s the story of the bracelet that went missing, and then reappeared.
Police, she says, have stopped listening to her. And like Vurbeff, she, too, believes she’s been sexually assaulted, although she never filed a police report.
Johnson said: “I've been to doctors many times, and I've been to the rape crisis center, yes."
Many of these so-called victims of what Hall describes as “gang stalking” meet up on the Internet, finding comfort and information from others who say they, too, suffer from electronic stalking, mind control and even rape.
Loosely defined, gang stalking is where organized groups target and harass unwilling victims to the point of paranoia, leaving the victims to deal with skeptical family members and skeptical law enforcement.
“This isn't stalking that's done by former spouse, or former boyfriend or someone you know is disgruntled at you, but stalking that's done by a total stranger in an organized fashion," Dr. Hall said.
And some Internet links take you to the book mentioned earlier, written by Dr. John Hall.
"The book is fact. It's not a book of fiction. What I've wrote about here is an isolated story in San Antonio,” Dr. Hall said.
Dr. Hall says it is a story about himself, and the harassment and rapes his ex-girlfriends allegedly suffered, beginning in 1996. Dr. Hall believes the people behind it are well-organized-operatives, using government satellite technology to terrorize him and other victims.
"All voicing the same complaints: organized stalking, weird, electronic disturbances going on in their homes. Most of the women complain of drugging and sexual assault. It's a big national problem," he said.
Vurbeff bought the book. And what she read she says caused her stomach to turn: Because within the chapters in the story, she found similarities to her own situation.
Vurbeff said: “I pulled out the book and I started reading it, and I'm like, 'Oh my God, that's exactly what's happening to me.'”
I-Team investigates
The account in Hall’s book is chilling, and the I-Team uncovered some truth to his story.
San Antonio police reports indicate there WAS a rape reported in 2007 in the same quad of condos where one of Dr. Hall’s girlfriends supposedly lived. San Antonio police say the condo rape remains under investigation.
And Bexar County detectives say Vurbeff’s assault case remains open as well.
Although there are some interesting connections to Dr. Hall and the book, law enforcement won’t and cannot say whether Dr. Hall is even a person of interest.
The I-Team thought the similarities were striking, and asked him if he was in fact bothering these women.
Dr. Hall responded: “That's actually one of the reasons why I got out of my ex-fiancé’s life: to make sure that they weren't victimizing her to get at me."
Dr. Hall said he’s been targeted by the same groups and even by fellow doctors. He said the Texas Medical Board retaliated against him for uncovering the gang stalking.
The I-Team confirmed one local hospital suspended Dr. Hall’s clinical privileges for 2 months in 2006.
In 2007, the Texas Medical Board ordered two mental evaluations for Dr. Hall. The first came back normal, but a second evaluation found a “probable delusional disorder” and ordered psychiatric treatment.
And in 2008, Hall’s license was suspended for testing positive for cocaine. In the book, he explains the operatives drugged him with cocaine periodically.
Dr. Hall’s medical license has since been reinstated.
"If you look nationwide, almost everyone who complains of this eventually gets sent to a psychiatrist. And the psychiatrists don't look into the technology. They don't do any research into whether or not any of this is possible," Dr. Hall said.
With his book published, the Dr. Hall is taking his message nationally.
He’s appeared on cable TV shows and late-night radio and even has his own radio program in the works.
Dr. Hall said: "There have been several people in my midst obviously that have been victimized. But if you look at it on a larger scale, it is a national problem."
Dr. Hall’s belief is that we all face some sort of terrorism in our lives that is mostly unseen and deadly. He contends criminals are tapping into our government’s surveillance systems to gain access to our lives and minds.
As for the alleged rapes mentioned in the story, no one has been charged. Both San Antonio police and Bexar County Sheriff’s deputies say they continue to investigate.
Source: http://www.kens5.com/news/Stalked-drugged-and-raped-Is-it-happening-in-San-Antonio.html
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