Woman fakes cancer gets thousands from friends sentenced
Entry #3,405
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Woman entitled to $1.4 million after being spanked by boss
Clovis woman in spanking case wins -- again
11:54 PM on Tuesday, Oct. 26, 2010
Pablo Lopez / The Fresno Bee
A Clovis woman is entitled to the $1.4 million that her former employer and its insurance carriers agreed to pay her to settle her sexual-harassment lawsuit, a Fresno County Superior Court jury ruled Tuesday.
The verdict gives Janet Orlando more ammunition in her fight to get some of the damages that another jury awarded her in 2006 for enduring spankings at Alarm One Inc., where she worked as a salesperson.
Alarm One and its insurance carriers have declined to pay, saying that the settlement contract depended on finding a bank willing to finance the deal. That didn't happen, they say.
But Orlando's fight may not be over. An attorney for one of Alarm One's insurance carriers said he was disappointed with the verdict and the company might appeal.
"I don't know if this is a conclusion," said Jonathan Cole, who represented Carolina Casualty Insurance.
Orlando and her attorneys -- Nicholas "Butch Wagner and Larry Artenian -- said that's fine with them. The $1.4 million has already drawn $600,000 in interest, Wagner said. If the case is prolonged, Orlando's damages will grow by at least $200,000 per year, he said
"I have the best attorneys in town," Orlando said. "We're never going to give up."
Orlando was a saleswoman for Alarm One, a home-security company, for five months in late 2002 and early 2003. She said she quit after she was humiliated by company practices that included spanking employees with a competitor's yard sign -- all in the name of helping build camaraderie among the company's sales force.
In April 2006, a jury awarded her $1.7 million in damages for her claims of sexual harassment, assault, battery and infliction of emotional distress.
In July 2006, all the parties signed a contract agreeing to settle the case for $1.4 million.
Orlando never received a penny from the settlement, however. Alarm One and its insurance carriers -- Carolina Casualty Insurance and Monitor Liability Managers Inc. -- challenged the settlement contract. Their lawyers argued that since no bank would finance the deal, it was not completed, and therefore the companies were not bound by it.
Jurors, however, deliberated less than an hour before finding that Alarm One and its insurance carriers had breached the contract.
Alarm One and Carolina Casualty are both liable for the $1.4 million settlement agreement, jurors ruled. Monitor Liability Managers is liable for $200,000 of it, they said.
Orlando cried as the verdict was announced in Judge Donald Black's courtroom. Outside the courtroom, she described the case as being like an sexual assault.
"You feel like they just keep raping you and raping you," she said. "It's almost like they are doing it on purpose."
Because Alarm One has gone bankrupt, Carolina Casualty might be left paying most of the bill, Wagner said.
That's fine with Orlando.
"I need a vacation," she said.
Janet Orlando, says she was spanked three times while working for Alarm One.
(ABC News)
Entry #3,404
Prison guard arrested for smuggling drugs and cell phones to inmates
Soledad prison guard charged in smuggling case
Henry K. Lee
Chronicle Staff Writer
A state prison guard has been arrested in a sting in which he allegedly agreed to smuggle drugs and cell phones to inmates in exchange for cash, Santa Clara County sheriff's officials said Wednesday.
Sergio Javier Noguera, 38, a guard at Salinas Valley State Prison in Soledad (Monterey County), was taken into custody about 10:30 p.m. Tuesday after he showed up for a meeting in Gilroy with undercover detectives pretending to be a source of contraband for inmates, said sheriff's Sgt. Rick Sung.
Noguera believed he would be paid $2,500 to smuggle in an ounce of methamphetamine, an ounce of heroin, 3 1/2 ounces of marijuana and four cell phones, authorities said.
The investigation began in April, when an informant told detectives that Noguera had been providing drugs and cell phones to inmates at the prison, which employs 946 guards and houses about 3,700 minimum- and maximum-security inmates.
Noguera is being held in lieu of $130,000 bail on drug-related counts, Sung said.
Noguera has been a guard at the prison for eight years. If he is released on bail, he will be reassigned to another position outside the prison while the investigation continues, said Sgt. Kim Traynham, a prison spokesman.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/10/27/BAIL1G2S08.DTL&tsp=1#ixzz13bnPvFEh
Entry #3,403
Obama: My name's not on the ballot but my agenda is
Obama: My name's not on the ballot this fall, but my agenda is
Michael O'Brien - 10/26/10 03:46 PM ET
The president suggested the outcome of key elections next Tuesday could determine the fate of his legislative priorities.
The president stopped short of saying next week's election is a referendum on his policies, but suggested the outcome of key elections next Tuesday could determine the fate of his agenda.
"My name may not be on the ballot, but our agenda for moving forward is on the ballot, and I need everybody to turn out," Obama said Tuesday afternoon during an appearance on the Rev. Al Sharpton's radio show.
Obama made the remarks to appeal to African-American voters to show up for Democrats at the polls. The president has made appeals to young voters and Latino voters in recent days in order to try to drive high voter turnout and replicate the coalition that propelled him and congressional Democrats to victory in 2008.
To that end, the president will also participate this evening in a conference call with black leaders.
Obama has tried to be as stark as possible about the election's repercussions for his legislative priorities while keeping the heat on Republicans. Many Democratic candidates who have enjoyed success in their campaigns have often done so by making the race about their GOP opponent, rather than Obama, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) or any of the signature bills the Democratic Congress has passed in the last two years.
"They can't talk about their record," House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said on Monday in a radio appearance. "You know, this election is going to be a referendum on their job-killing policies."
"I also think anybody who is concerned about the direction of the country has to understand that this election is just as important as 2008," Obama explained to Sharpton.
He added that the 2008 elections only won Democrats the ability to start effecting change in Washington — a variation on the president's frequent admonition on the campaign trail that the "change" he promised in his campaign is difficult.
"Essentially, in 2008, we won the ability to start making change, and that's what we've done over the last two years," Obama said.
Entry #3,402
Democrats' game plan divide and conquer
KASIE HUNT | 10/27/10 4:56 AM EDT Updated: 10/27/10 9:17 AM EDT
With just six days left until Election Day, a key component of the Democratic strategy to hold the House is becoming clear: In more than a dozen close races, Democrats are encouraging and advancing little-known, conservative third-party candidates in an attempt to fracture the Republican vote enough to eke out narrow victories.
Behind-the-scenes collaboration between local Democratic officials and tea party activists in a handful of isolated races has already been reported—just last week, in suburban Pennsylvania’s open 7th District, Democratic nominee Bryan Lentz finally admitted his campaign’s role in helping a tea party candidate get on the November ballot after months of avoiding the question.
But the divide-and-conquer strategy has become more widespread—and coordinated—through television ads, robo-calls and mailers in recent weeks as races have tightened and it’s become more apparent that just a few percentage points could end up swinging the outcome in many races.
“It wouldn’t be the first time that Democrats or Republicans have tried to manipulate votes on the other side. Clearly the goal there is to get Republicans to vote for the tea party person to move numbers off Republicans,” said John Anzalone, an Alabama-based Democratic pollster. “I think that it’s going to work in some places. It’s a case by case.”
The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and two state Democratic parties have paid for mailers sent to GOP households in at least five contested House districts in Colorado, Florida, Michigan and Texas —mail pieces that highlight the staunchly conservative positions of long-shot candidates who barely register in public and private polls.
The messaging in the mailers is designed to muddy the waters. In a DCCC piece sent into the San Antonio-area 23rd District, head shots of Democratic Rep. Ciro Rodriguez, Republican challenger Francisco Canseco and little-known independent candidate Craig Stephens are positioned side-by-side for comparative purposes.
Rodriguez is said to support “tax relief for the middle class.” Stephens “favors dramatically reducing taxes.” Canseco, on the other hand, “favors raising your taxes.”
Stephens’s other positions, as detailed by the mailer, are also designed for maximum appeal to the tea party constituency.
“Craig Stephens will fight to make drastic cuts to government spending, get tough on border security, and stop illegal immigration,” his profile reads. “In Washington Stephens will make deep cuts to taxes and work to reduce the size of the IRS.”
The DCCC doesn’t admit there is a strategic design to the mailers and instead insists the party is simply engaged in identifying candidates who are outside of the mainstream.
“Voters need to know just how extreme these tea party candidates are,” said Ryan Rudominer, a DCCC spokesman.
While it’s true that some mailers dropped into congressional districts are ostensibly critical of the third-party candidates, the mere mention of the unknown candidates serves to elevate their name recognition.
In Colorado’s Western Slope-based 3rd District, where Democratic Rep. John Salazar, one of Anzalone’s clients, is in a close race with GOP nominee Scott Tipton, a DCCC mailer features Libertarian Gregory Gilman on an American flag background and warns that Gilman’s “first act would be to drastically reduce the size of government.”
Like Stephens in Texas, according to the Federal Election Commission, Gilman has reported no financial activity this campaign.
Anzalone calls Gilman and another third-party candidate, Jake Segrest, “very helpful” to Salazar.
“A number of these tea party candidates and other independent candidates have filled a void that some Republicans have been looking for and felt have been lacking in their candidates,” said Achim Bergmann, a Democratic strategist who has worked for the DCCC.
“There are some places where a Democrat may be capped at what percentage they can achieve at 47, 48 percent – and when it comes to that, the independent candidates end up having a huge impact, whether it could be two or three points, that makes a big difference,” Bergmann said.
Direct mail isn’t the only avenue Democrats have used to publicize the presence of third-party candidates. In Southern California’s 45th District, Democrat Steve Pougnet’s campaign recently paid for an automated call promoting American Independent candidate Bill Lussenheide as “the true conservative tea party candidate.”
In the Southside Virginia-based seat he won narrowly in 2008, Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello has run at least two television ads featuring images of conservative Jeff Clark despite the fact that Clark barely registers in polling matchups with Republican nominee Robert Hurt and Perriello.
After Perriello also sent out a mailer that included quotes from unsuccessful 5th District GOP candidates praising Clark as “the true conservative,” one of those quoted responded by accusing the congressman of sabotage.
“I am quite frankly appalled at Tom Perriello’s recent desperate attempts to split the Republican Party, and his vain attempt to get conservatives in the 5th District not to vote for Robert Hurt,” said conservative Jim McKelvey in a statement. “Unlike what Tom Perriello would like us to believe in both his goofy mailers and ridiculous television ads, Jeff Clark is not the alternative, and Congressman Perriello is no conservative.”
Democratic strategist David Plouffe, the architect of President Obama’s 2008 campaign, acknowledged the importance of third-party candidates in a briefing with reporters earlier this month—and said it means many Democrats could win with as little as 47 percent of the vote, “which in this year, is something we are happy about,” he said.
Republicans insist the strategy of propping up minor candidates is a classic political dirty trick aimed at tipping close races for Democrats.
“Democratic incumbents realize they won’t win reelection by their own merits alone…[so] they’ve stooped so low and resorted to unscrupulous and desperate tactics like these to deceive, mislead and lie,” said Joanna Burgos, a spokeswoman for the National Republican Congressional Committee.
Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/44231.html#ixzz13Z8O2r69
Entry #3,401
Top 10 Haunted Homes
Entry #3,400
Man robs bank sits down eats breakfast and calls cab
Missoula police nab suspect in bank robbery
JAMIE KELLY and GWEN FLORIO of the Missoulian
Tuesday, October 26, 2010 10:30 pm
Missoula police officers collect a $20 bill as evidence from a Yellow Cab driven by James Anderson, right, outside the DoubleTree Edgewater Hotel on Tuesday morning. Anderson’s passenger is a suspect in the robbery of Sterling Savings Bank in downtown Missoula. Photo by LINDA THOMPSON/Missoulian
A midmorning bank robbery in downtown Missoula on Tuesday involved a leisurely suspect who - after allegedly taking cash from a Sterling Savings Bank teller - sat down and ate breakfast at Liquid Planet, called a cab, stopped for smokes and then tipped the driver $5 for the $7.50 ride that delivered him to the DoubleTree Edgewater Hotel.
And, as it turned out, straight into the arms of the law.
Deborah Stroud was playing catch with her border collie, Becky, at about 10:30 a.m. in front of the DoubleTree when a cab pulled up, followed moments later by a police car. The patrol car blipped its sirens twice and the morning erupted as police with guns drawn piled out of both the car and the lobby of the hotel - which was hosting a law enforcement training session.
"It was like watching ‘Cops' live," said Stroud, 56, a retired Ravalli County reserve sheriff's deputy. "They did a felony take-down."
Vincent John Sullivan, 64, was arrested in connection with the case, Missoula police confirmed. A Justice Court hearing is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. Wednesday for Sullivan, who is not from Montana.
The alleged robbery itself took mere moments, and Sullivan's arrest was likewise efficient.
The half-hour or so in between, though, was a different story.
***
The incident began at about 10 a.m., when an overweight man estimated to be in his 60s walked into the bank, told a female teller he had a weapon, and demanded money, Missoula Police Detective Sgt. Bob Bouchee said.
The man, who was about 6 feet tall with a birthmark on the right side of his face, wore black pants and a gray sweatshirt, according to reports from four bank employees and a lone customer, Bouchee said. After taking an unspecified amount of cash, the man headed south on Higgins Avenue, he said.
A few minutes later, a hungry man in a green New York Jets jersey came into Liquid Planet - a few stores north, and on the other side of the street, from Sterling Savings.
Liquid Planet employee Nathan Talley noted two things about the man.
"He was sweaty," Talley said. And "he wanted eggs really bad."
***
The man got a breakfast bowl with bacon and eggs, along with a mug of coffee - for a total of $7.95 - and took it to one of the cafe's back tables.
Meanwhile, police had started canvassing the neighborhood.
Kent Watson of Kent Watson & Associates landscape architects, who has a second-floor office on Higgins just up the street from the bank, decided he needed a cup of coffee from nearby Butterfly Herbs at about that time. He walked out onto the street to see a bunch of police cars with lights flashing - and, at his feet in the doorway of the Rocky Mountain School of Photography - a bunched-up gray sweatshirt with "Seattle" on it.
Police were summoned.
"Yes," said Missoula Police Detective Jamie Merifield, holding back onlookers as police took photos of the sweatshirt. "It's evidence."
***
Down the street, the man had finished his breakfast bowl at Liquid Planet. Now he wanted a cab. He asked employee Carly Tuman for a phone number for a cab company, and told her he wanted to go to the Red Lion and to the University of Montana campus.
Tuman was confused. Liquid Planet is about midway between the Red Lion Hotel on Broadway and the UM campus. (Years ago, however, the DoubleTree, just north of campus, was known as the Red Lion.)
Enter cab driver James Anderson. His fare was waiting in the back of Liquid Planet, and acting strange, he said.
"From the first look, I just sensed something about him," said Anderson. The man offered him a cup of coffee, but Anderson declined.
The man left without busing his table, Talley said.
Minutes later, police came in with photos of the bank robbery suspect.
***
In the cab, the man first asked to be taken to the UM campus, but was unable to give Anderson a specific location. Then he asked to ride to the DoubleTree - but not before asking Anderson to stop at a convenience store so he could buy two packs of cigarettes.
"He mentioned that there would be a good tip in it for me," said Anderson.
The cab fare was $7.50; the suspect handed him a $20 bill then tipped Anderson $5.
That's when the police cars pulled up.
"They all had their guns drawn," said Stroud, the onlooker who watched police surround the cab. "And they pulled this old-timer out."
Bouchee credited the quick apprehension to a combination of fast police work and helpful information from several witnesses. The arrest of the suspect involved nearly everyone on the police department's patrol shift, along with a half-dozen detectives, plus assistance from the Missoula County Sheriff's Office and the Montana Highway Patrol - as well as officers attending the law enforcement training session at the DoubleTree, he said.
"It was a good effort by all," he said.
Liquid Planet's Talley had an additional theory. The suspect may have tipped the cab driver, but he left no money at the coffee shop. Bad karma, Talley said.
"That's why he got caught."
Entry #3,399
Sarah Palin is outstanding says John McCain but not ready to endorse her for prez
York/APSen. John McCain and former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin unsuccessfully ran on the GOP ticket for President in 2008.
John McCain isn't quite ready to give the mama grizzly's potential run for President a bear hug.
Sarah Palin is "outstanding," but McCain sounded gun shy in an interview where he was asked if he would endorse her for the 2012 GOP bid.
The Arizona senator who ran for President with Palin as his running mate in 2008 reiterated his "high regard" for the ex-Alaska governor, but said it was too soon to back her for a White House run.
"I don't think Sarah would want me to, before she's even able to make a decision," McCain told CBS News.
Palin, who has hinted at a possible run, saying she could "give it a shot" if no other Republicans step forward, has been busy campaigning for several Tea Party candidates running in November's midterm elections.
"I'm very grateful for all the things she's done to invigorate our party," McCain said.
Her political fate may rest on how well the GOP fares in the midterms.
"If we don't win the Senate I have one thing to say: 'Thank you, Sarah Palin,'" a bigtime player in Republican circles told the Daily News last week.
Despite polls that show voters are ready to kick out the Democrats in Congress, McCain remained cautious about his party's chances on Election Day.
"If I had to predict and I'm very hesitant to do so, I think we will be up late, or even after election night, waiting to see what happens," McCain said.
"We're in for an interesting election."
Entry #3,398
Nancy Pelosi basks in Michelle Obama's softer image
Entry #3,397
Top 49 Most Influential Men of 2010
Entry #3,396
Amazing animals: Kingdom oddities
Entry #3,395
Three jailers and a sheriff's deputy were locked in cell
Jailers, deputy locked in cell
Sheriff: Inexperience, inadequate staff, antiquated jail to blame
Janie Ginocchio
paragould daily press
Published: Friday, October 22, 2010 12:53 PM CDT
Three jailers and a sheriff’s deputy were temporarily locked in a jail cell Oct. 10 while attempting to search the cell for contraband, according to a jail incident report.
At about 11:10 p.m., Cpl. C.J. Looney and Officer Shawn Jones were collecting razors from inmates when an inmate in cell D-5 rushed out and said he had to pass a note to someone in cell D-4. The inmate, Roy Maynard, tried to pass the note and pick up a small envelope used to dispense medication at the jail, according to the report. Inside the envelope was allegedly cigarette, which illegal to possess at the jail.
The envelope bore the name of inmate K. Pullen Sr., who was confined to the day room pending an investigation. Pullen denied knowledge of the cigarette.
At 11:15, Sgt. Ray Brandon asked Deputy Mike Ryles to assist him and the two other jailers in searching cell D-4 for more contraband. Ryles stood guard at the door while Looney and Jones searched the north side of the cell and Brandon searched the other side.
“Due to the lack of available light, Deputy Ryles joined Sgt. Brandon in the sleeping quarters on the south side, leaving the door unprotected,” Looney wrote in his report. Inmate Jacob Rodden ran out of the cell, closed the door and inserted the security pin in the hasp, according to the report. Rodden then locked himself in visitation booth 4, Looney wrote.
According to a letter sent to The Daily Press by an inmate who witnessed the incident from a nearby cell, the four county employees were with 14 inmates in a cell built for eight.
“These four employees were locked in cell D-4 for around 15 minutes,” the inmate wrote in the letter, which was signed by four other inmates.
Jones notified a matron who had been brought over from the women’s side and “assumed control of the pod” during the search, and she told the trustees in the next cell to remove the pin and open the door, according to the incident report.
Rodden was placed temporarily in the detox cell and put on indefinite lockdown for his actions, and Maynard was placed on a one-week lockdown for possession of the cigarette, Looney wrote. The identity of the inmate who placed the envelope outside of cell D-4 was not determined.
Sheriff’s response
Sheriff Dan Langston said he was not aware of the incident when first contacted by a Daily Press reporter.
“I usually get an overnight report [on jail incidents], but the sergeant failed to mention this,” he said in an interview Wednesday, adding there would be no disciplinary action against the jailers or the deputy.
He said jail administrator Ron Harvey is on vacation this week and he wants to wait to address the matter with staff when Harvey gets back “so we can get everybody on the same page.”
He cited the staff’s inexperience as one reason for the incident.
“We’ve got some new personnel — it’s a training facility,” he said, echoing earlier statements about the jail’s high employee turnover rate because of low salaries.
Langston also placed partial blame for the incident on the jail’s inadequate staffing levels and the “antiquated” jail design.
Current staffing for the jail is two jailers and a pod operator for the men’s side of the jail on a shift, but if a jailer calls in sick or takes vacation, the department has to scramble to fill in the gaps, he said.
“We try to get someone in for comp time or overtime, but that’s limited,” he said.
The jail’s staffing levels have been cited as a concern at least five times since 2005 by the 2nd Judicial District Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee, most recently in a letter to County Judge Jesse Dollars dated Sept. 17.
“The jail has insufficient staff to properly perform the jail’s administrative and operational functions and to provide adequate security for the jail staff and inmates,” according to the letter.
“... [S]ecurity here is next to nothing,” the inmate wrote in his letter to The Daily Press.
The committee placed the jail on a six-month notice and was ordered to fix its deficiencies, which include overcrowding.
Langston said the jail has been understaffed since it opened, and the quorum court at the time promised to make “adjustments” that never materialized.
“Manpower is our foremost problem,” he said.
Inadequate facilities
Langston said the jail was poorly designed, and there in insufficient lighting in the cells. Other physical plant problems include the HVAC, sewer and electrical systems.
The inmate who wrote The Daily Press regarding the Oct. 10 incident also complained that the hot water heater in his cell has not worked for a week, forcing inmates to take “ice cold” showers.
Langston said he wasn’t aware of the problem, but wasn’t surprised due to the age and condition of the jail facilities.
“It’s a normal occurrence,” he said. “Normally these things are reported to Ron [Harvey], and he acts immediately to get things fixed.”
Langston said there was a recent incident in which the pod control panel “went blank” and jailers had to manually open cell doors with keys.
“If someone does a crime, we need to have a place to incarcerate them,” he said. “Some type of credible punishment. Our 84-bed facility is not it.”
At about 11:10 p.m., Cpl. C.J. Looney and Officer Shawn Jones were collecting razors from inmates when an inmate in cell D-5 rushed out and said he had to pass a note to someone in cell D-4. The inmate, Roy Maynard, tried to pass the note and pick up a small envelope used to dispense medication at the jail, according to the report. Inside the envelope was allegedly cigarette, which illegal to possess at the jail.
The envelope bore the name of inmate K. Pullen Sr., who was confined to the day room pending an investigation. Pullen denied knowledge of the cigarette.
At 11:15, Sgt. Ray Brandon asked Deputy Mike Ryles to assist him and the two other jailers in searching cell D-4 for more contraband. Ryles stood guard at the door while Looney and Jones searched the north side of the cell and Brandon searched the other side.
“Due to the lack of available light, Deputy Ryles joined Sgt. Brandon in the sleeping quarters on the south side, leaving the door unprotected,” Looney wrote in his report. Inmate Jacob Rodden ran out of the cell, closed the door and inserted the security pin in the hasp, according to the report. Rodden then locked himself in visitation booth 4, Looney wrote.
According to a letter sent to The Daily Press by an inmate who witnessed the incident from a nearby cell, the four county employees were with 14 inmates in a cell built for eight.
“These four employees were locked in cell D-4 for around 15 minutes,” the inmate wrote in the letter, which was signed by four other inmates.
Jones notified a matron who had been brought over from the women’s side and “assumed control of the pod” during the search, and she told the trustees in the next cell to remove the pin and open the door, according to the incident report.
Rodden was placed temporarily in the detox cell and put on indefinite lockdown for his actions, and Maynard was placed on a one-week lockdown for possession of the cigarette, Looney wrote. The identity of the inmate who placed the envelope outside of cell D-4 was not determined.
Sheriff’s response
Sheriff Dan Langston said he was not aware of the incident when first contacted by a Daily Press reporter.
“I usually get an overnight report [on jail incidents], but the sergeant failed to mention this,” he said in an interview Wednesday, adding there would be no disciplinary action against the jailers or the deputy.
He said jail administrator Ron Harvey is on vacation this week and he wants to wait to address the matter with staff when Harvey gets back “so we can get everybody on the same page.”
He cited the staff’s inexperience as one reason for the incident.
“We’ve got some new personnel — it’s a training facility,” he said, echoing earlier statements about the jail’s high employee turnover rate because of low salaries.
Langston also placed partial blame for the incident on the jail’s inadequate staffing levels and the “antiquated” jail design.
Current staffing for the jail is two jailers and a pod operator for the men’s side of the jail on a shift, but if a jailer calls in sick or takes vacation, the department has to scramble to fill in the gaps, he said.
“We try to get someone in for comp time or overtime, but that’s limited,” he said.
The jail’s staffing levels have been cited as a concern at least five times since 2005 by the 2nd Judicial District Criminal Detention Facilities Review Committee, most recently in a letter to County Judge Jesse Dollars dated Sept. 17.
“The jail has insufficient staff to properly perform the jail’s administrative and operational functions and to provide adequate security for the jail staff and inmates,” according to the letter.
“... [S]ecurity here is next to nothing,” the inmate wrote in his letter to The Daily Press.
The committee placed the jail on a six-month notice and was ordered to fix its deficiencies, which include overcrowding.
Langston said the jail has been understaffed since it opened, and the quorum court at the time promised to make “adjustments” that never materialized.
“Manpower is our foremost problem,” he said.
Inadequate facilities
Langston said the jail was poorly designed, and there in insufficient lighting in the cells. Other physical plant problems include the HVAC, sewer and electrical systems.
The inmate who wrote The Daily Press regarding the Oct. 10 incident also complained that the hot water heater in his cell has not worked for a week, forcing inmates to take “ice cold” showers.
Langston said he wasn’t aware of the problem, but wasn’t surprised due to the age and condition of the jail facilities.
“It’s a normal occurrence,” he said. “Normally these things are reported to Ron [Harvey], and he acts immediately to get things fixed.”
Langston said there was a recent incident in which the pod control panel “went blank” and jailers had to manually open cell doors with keys.
“If someone does a crime, we need to have a place to incarcerate them,” he said. “Some type of credible punishment. Our 84-bed facility is not it.”
Entry #3,394
Democratic nominee for governor tells Obama to 'shove it'
Democratic nominee for R.I. governor tells Obama to 'shove it'
Jordan Fabian - 10/25/10 11:18 AM ET
Upon hearing he would not receive President Obama's endorsement, the Democratic nominee for governor of Rhode Island told the president to "shove it."
Frank Caprio took the swipe at the president just before he was scheduled to arrive in the Ocean State for a factory visit and fundraiser.
"He can take his endorsement and really shove it as far as I'm concerned," Caprio told WPRO Radio, the Providence Journal reported.
Caprio's comment is one of the strongest examples of anti-Obama rhetoric from a Democrat this cycle, in which political observers are predicting a GOP wave.
The Democrat is in a three-way race with independent Lincoln Chafee, a former centrist Republican senator, and GOP nominee John Robitaille.
Caprio holds a single-digit lead over Chafee in a recent poll. The ex-senator lost his seat to Sheldon Whitehouse in 2006, a Democratic wave year, and he was one of a number of national Republicans to endorse Obama for president in 2008.
A spokesman for the former senator, Mike Trainor, told the Journal Obama's decision "is a victory for Linc Chafee."
Caprio hit Obama for not visiting Rhode Island during a span of severe flooding in the spring. He said that people in his state "are hurting" under high unemployment and "now he's coming into Rhode Island treating us like an ATM machine."
Earlier this year, Caprio reportedly considered switching parties from Democrat to Republican.
Entry #3,393
President Obama's closing argument: Don't go GOP
President Obama ends his campaign swing in Minnesota on Saturday. | AP
CAROL E. LEE
10/23/10 5:49 PM EDT
MINNEAPOLIS — President Barack Obama finished the longest campaign trip of his presidency Saturday much in the way he started: criticizing Republicans for wanting to take the country backward and trying to rally disheartened Democrats to the polls.
For Democratic supporters from 2008 who are thinking about switching sides this election, Obama paraphrased Albert Einstein. “The true sign of madness is if you do the same thing over and over again and expect the same result,” he said during a rally at the University of Minnesota.
“All of you have to vote,” Obama told thousands of supporters. “There is no excuse.”
The president, who was in Minnesota to stump for gubernatorial candidate Mark Dayton, continued to attack Republicans by framing the election as a choice — between tax cuts for the middle class or tax cuts for the wealthy, he said, and a reformed health care, credit card and financial system or the same policies that were in place before he took office.
“We’ve got a different idea about what the future should hold for America,” Obama said. Republicans, he said, are offering “same old stuff that they have been peddling for the last decade,” whether it’s on Social Security, the environment or foreign policy.
“We believe in making sure people don’t get ripped off when they sign up for a mortgage,” Obama said, suggesting Republicans don’t. “That’s the choice in this election.”
Obama, whose party is facing strong headwinds this November, tried to inspire 2008 enthusiasm in the crowd, as he has at events in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles and Las Vegas over the past four days.
He cast support for his candidacy as “a movement” they began two years ago and urged voters to stick with him through this tough political climate.
“We’re just in the first quarter,” Obama said inside a university gymnasium. “We’ve got a lot more quarters to play.”
The crowd cheered, turning into a flood of Dayton campaign signs and several leftovers from 2008, including “Teamsters for Obama.”
Minnesota’s gubernatorial election is one of the few places in the country where Democrats are poised to make gains. Dayton, who introduced Obama at the rally, is ahead in the polls. And the White House would very much like to take some credit for it if he wins. Obama’s visit Saturday follows one earlier this month by Vice President Joe Biden.
For his part, Dayton has adopted the Obama campaign lingo.
“Are you fired up and ready to work hard for 10 more days?” he asked the crowd.
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