Arenas pleads guilty to felony gun possession

MATT BARAKAT

Associated Press Writer

5:26 pm

WASHINGTON – Washington Wizards star Gilbert Arenas pleaded guilty Friday to carrying a pistol without a license in the District of Columbia, a felony conviction that could jeopardize his future in the NBA.

Arenas pleaded guilty to a single count of violating the city's strict gun laws as part of a plea bargain in D.C. Superior Court. He will remain free at least until his sentencing March 26.

The charge stems from a Dec. 21 incident in which Arenas acknowledged he stored guns in his locker at the Verizon Center and took them out to play a joke on a teammate.

The NBA has suspended him indefinitely. A pre-sentence report is not yet complete, but defense attorney Kenneth Wainstein said Friday that prosecutors have agreed not to seek a sentence longer than the low end of sentencing guidelines, which call for six months to two years. That could include probation, jail time or some combination. Judge Robert E. Morin emphasized he is not bound by prosecutors' recommendation.

Arenas "accepted full responsibility for his actions, acknowledged that those actions were wrong and against the law, and has apologized to all who have been affected by his conduct," Wainstein said in a statement.

Prosecutor Chris Kavanaugh, reading in court from a statement of facts that Arenas agreed to, said the charge stemmed from a Dec. 19 dispute with another player over a card game. Kavanaugh did not identify the other player, but authorities have searched the home of teammate Javaris Crittenton for a gun.

Kavanaugh said the disagreement developed during a team flight back from Phoenix. The other player offered to settle matters with a fist fight, but Arenas, 28, said he was too old for that and suggested he would instead burn the other player's Cadillac Escalade or shoot him in the face. The argument on the plane ended with the other player saying he would shoot Arenas in the knee. Arenas has a history of knee problems.

Two days later, Kavanaugh said, Arenas brought at least one gun to the Verizon Center in a black backpack. He laid out four guns on a chair in front of the other player's locker with a sign saying, "Pick 1."

When the other player asked, "What is this?," Arenas responded with words to the effect of: "You said you were going to shoot me, so pick one."

The other player said he had his own gun, threw one of Arenas' weapons across the room and then displayed what appeared to be a silver-colored firearm, Kavanaugh said.

Since Arenas first acknowledged keeping guns in his locker, he has publicly employed a "goof ball" defense, claiming he wasn't aware of the law, meant no harm and never takes anything seriously.

But he was subdued in court Friday, wearing a gray suit with a light pinstripe and responding in a soft voice to the judge's questions.

U.S. Attorney Channing D. Phillips said in a statement that "playing with firearms is no joke."

"Today's guilty plea to a felony count of carrying a pistol without a license reflects the seriousness and grave risk of such conduct," Phillips said.

Arenas, a three-time All-Star, earlier acknowledged storing four unloaded guns in his locker, saying he wanted to keep them away from his young children and didn't know it was a violation of the city's strict gun laws. He says he took them out of the locker Dec. 21 in a "misguided effort to play a joke" on a teammate. After the fracas, authorities seized four unloaded handguns from Arenas, including a gold-plated Desert Eagle .50-caliber semi-automatic that the manufacturer sells for about $2,000. The other weapons were a .500 Magnum revolver, another semi-automatic and a pistol.

He was charged Thursday, hours after Crittenton's northern Virginia apartment was searched by police looking for the silver- or chrome-colored semiautomatic handgun with a black handle. The search warrant indicated police were investigating crimes that include brandishing a weapon. No evidence was seized, according to court documents, and Crittenton has not been charged. Prosecutors said Friday that Crittenton has denied he had a firearm, but they are continuing to investigate.

Crittenton has previously said he did nothing wrong.

Even if Arenas avoids jail, the outcome of the legal process will have important implications on his future in the NBA and specifically with the Wizards. Possession of a gun at an NBA arena is a violation of the league's collective bargaining agreement, and last week commissioner David Stern suspended Arenas indefinitely without pay pending the outcome of the investigation, a move supported by the Wizards.

Stern was particularly upset that Arenas repeatedly joked about the matter with reporters and on Twitter. Arenas at one point said: "I'm a goof ball and that's what I am, so even doing something like this, I'm going to make fun of it and that's how I am."

LINK TO GILBERT ARENAS SLIDE SHOW:

http://news.yahoo.com/nphotos/Washington-Wizards-Gilbert-Arenas/ss/events/sp/010610gilbertarenas

Alleged Oakland Robbers Found Wedged Between Buildings

Posted: 7:40 am PST January 14, 2010

Updated: 8:44 am PST January 14, 2010

KTVU

OAKLAND, Calif. -- An intense manhunt for a gang of alleged home invasion robbers came to an abrupt end early Thursday when four of the fleeing suspects became wedged in a narrow space between two buildings, authorities said.

Police said they received a 911 call at about 2:30 a.m. of a break-in at a live-work loft on Chapman Street in an industrial area of Oakland that is home to many artists.

Arriving officers were told that six men had broken into a home on search of drugs, but when they found none decided to take computer equipment. The alleged robbers had fled the home and scrambled across rooftops and through backyard gardens in an attempt to escape.

Police quickly began a search of the neighborhood with search lights and tracking dogs.

“I heard someone come through my gate and run pass and they came to this cubby way (a foot wide space between buildings),” local resident Dave Moore told KTVU. “It turns into a funnel at the end so they tried to come back through and got stuck. “

The four suspects were found by officers wedged in a six-by-12 inch space between buildings and taken into custody.

Two other suspects were also taken into custody elsewhere in the neighborhood. The search was still underway for the guns alleged used in the robbery.

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://www.ktvu.com/news/22235351/detail.html

Addie Cutts, DeSoto City Council

Wainwright Jeffers

DESOTO, GA (WALB) – Two members of the city council in a small Sumter County town weren't actually elected to those posts.

$500 Tip Leads Police To $66M In Fake Bills

Counterfeit Money Found In $1 Million, $100,000 Bills

POSTED: 10:37 pm EST January 14, 2010
UPDATED: 1:44 am EST January 15, 2010

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia -- Malaysian police have arrested a Lebanese man allegedly carrying fake currency with a face value of $66 million after he tipped a hotel staff with a $500 note, an official said Friday.

The largest U.S. note currently in wide circulation is a $100 bill. But police found bundles of $1 million, $100,000 and $500 notes in the man's hotel room in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday, said Izany Abdul Ghany, head of the city's commercial crime unit.

Hotel staff alerted police after a housekeeper received a $500 note tip and found out it was fake when she tried to convert it to local currency at a money changer, Izany said.

The man could be charged for possessing counterfeit money and, if found guilty, face up to 10 years in jail, he said.

The largest U.S. note ever printed was a special edition one for $100,000 in 1934. Bills of $500 were last printed in 1945 and are now no longer in wide circulation, according to the U.S. Treasury Department.

This is not the first time the man has been in trouble with the law in Malaysia, Izany said.

A Malaysian court charged him last week with cheating over the sale of office supplies in 2005 in a separate case. Cheating, or fraud, carries a maximum penalty of five years.

Wizards' Arenas charged with felony gun possession

Sarah Karush

The Associated Press

6:40 p.m. EST, January 14, 2010

http://www.miamiherald.com/video/index.html?media_id=9282729

Deputies: Mom Offered Daughter For Gun

Mom Arrested After Police Get Tip

Sarah Buduson
Reporter

KPHO

POSTED: 9:09 am EST January 14, 2010
UPDATED: 9:57 am EST January 14, 2010

MESA, Ariz. -- Authorities said a woman who offered to trade her daughter for a gun is in the custody of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, Phoenix station KPHO-TV reported.

Deputies claim Tanya Nareau, 33, offered to give to her daughter to one of the girl’s relatives in exchange for a gun.

Deputies got a tip about the offer and arrested Nareau on Tuesday.

The girl’s family members told KPHO that Nareau originally made the offer during a phone call last week.

They said Nareau unexpectedly showed up at the relative’s workplace Monday and handed him her daughter. He did not give her a gun.

It is unclear why Nareau wanted a gun, but she cannot legally buy or own a firearm because she is a convicted felon.

Nareau did explain why she wanted to give her daughter away, according to Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Doug Matteson.

“She told sheriff’s deputies she felt that she couldn’t raise the daughter adequately, so she would give the daughter to someone who could,” he said.

He said the girl is now safe and will stay with her father’s family members.

Nareau is in a Maricopa County jail, charged with unlawful sale of a child and solicitation to commit possession of weapon by prohibited possessor.

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://www.wbaltv.com/news/22234612/detail.html

LINK TO PHOTO:

 http://www.kpho.com/news/22230628/detail.html

STEVE MAYNARD

The News Tribune

01/11/10  12:05 am   |   Updated: 01/11/10   1:21 am

1 In 4 Teen Girls Involved In Violence

33 Percent Of Boys Involved In Violent Behavior

POSTED: 12:02 am EST January 14, 2010
UPDATED: 3:21 am EST January 14, 2010

WASHINGTON -- About one in four female teens is involved in some sort of violent behavior at school or at work, according to a government report.

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://www.wbaltv.com/education/22232787/detail.html

Armored car guard gets maximum in staged heist

January 13, 2010 4:07 PM |

Chicago Tribune

Jason Jackson had been working for about six months as an armored-truck driver when he hatched a plot with his wife and best friend to stage a robbery of hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from his truck, authorities say.

The friend, John Robinson Jr., posing as the robber, made off with $407,000 last March 4. But the plot quickly unraveled when the FBI suspected an inside job after a witness saw the masked bandit enter the armored car through an unlocked door at a gas station in Hazel Crest. Arrests were made the same day as the robbery and all the cash was recovered.

Today, Robinson and Jackson's wife, Richella Goeloe, who acted as a getaway driver, each pleaded guilty to a single count of theft of bank funds. Moments later, Jackson was sentenced to 2-½ years in prison for his role in the heist. He had pleaded guilty last summer to larceny. All three reside in Chicago.

Jackson, who worked for Garda Armored Services, wept as he asked to be sentenced to about a year in prison.

"I need a chance, your honor, to be a productive citizen," he said.

But U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo imposed the maximum sentence under federal guidelines. "This is unforgiveable in my book," the judge said.  He also warned Robinson and Goeloe to keep out of further trouble before their sentencing in April.

Obama concedes he hasn't brought country together

 Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The president said his second-year agenda will be refocused on uniting the country around common values, "whether we're Democrats or Republicans."

"We all want work that's satisfying, pays the bills and gives children a better future and security," Obama said in the interview, which the magazine conducted with the president and his wife, Michelle Obama, at the White House last Friday.

The president's comments came as Republican leaders rallied against the core items of his agenda, from his economic stimulus plan to health care. The mood of the country has remained in a sustained slump, too, as double-digit unemployment followed a campaign built upon "hope" and "change."

Obama said people have "every right to feel deflated, because the economy was far worse than any of us expected." But he insisted that his government's economic steps in 2009 are paying off and that people should have confidence in this new year.

On other topics:

_The president said Tiger Woods, the champion golfer who has fallen into disgrace amid reports of extramarital affairs, can be "rehabilitated," as his interviewer put it. "Absolutely," Obama said. "I don't want to comment on his personal relationship with his wife and family, but I'm a strong believer that anybody can look within themselves, find their flaws and fix them."

_The first lady said one of the most memorable moments of the year came when their daughters, Sasha and Malia, met the pope at the Vatican. "It was interesting," she said, "the picture of the pope and Malia and Sasha standing there exchanging conversation: 'How's school?''It's fine.'

_The president opted not to lower the grade he had given himself for his own performance in 2009 — a B-plus — in light of the intelligence and security failures that allowed a suspected terrorist to board a Detroit-bound plane with explosives in an effort to blow it up. "When you look at what we've done this year on national security, we performed at a very high level in as difficult an environment as you can imagine," he said.

_The president said he misses daily, spontaneous interactions while living in a bubble. He said the job is lonely in another way — the gravity of sending troops off to war or responding to an attempted terrorist attack. "That side of the loneliness of the job is what I signed up for and I actually think I'm pretty good at," he said.

The new issue of People will be on newsstands Friday.

Court Gun Bust Leads Deputies To Pot Grow

Grant Thomas Being Held On $500,000 Bail

POSTED: 12:52 pm PST January 13, 2010

UPDATED: 1:11 pm PST January 13, 2010

Grant Thomas, 29, is facing gun charges after a deputy saw him drop a handgun and then put it back in his waistband before walking into the Washington County Justice Court at about 3:30 p.m., said Sgt. David Thompson of the Washington County Sheriff's Office in a news release.

Deputies said they quietly notified the judge to clear the courtroom and then took Thomas into custody without incident.

He was armed with a loaded .45-caliber handgun, detectives said, and does not have a concealed handgun permit.

Deputies determined Thomas had more guns in his car along with evidence of a marijuana grow, Thompson said.

Thomas has a valid Oregon medical marijuana card, but a search of his house revealed he was growing more plants than the law allows, deputies said.

Detectives said they seized 44 pot plants from the house, but left 24 plants -- the amount allowed under the Oregon Medical Marijuana Act.

Another handgun was also seized from the suspect's house, deputies said, in addition to a loaded AR-10 .308-caliber assault rifle from his car.

Thomas is being held at the Washington County Jail on $500,000 bail.

Deputies said he is facing charges of possession of a firearm in court, unlawful possession of a firearm and carrying a concealed weapon.

Charges related to the marijuana grow are forthcoming, Thompson said.

LINK TO PHOTO:

http://www.kptv.com/news/22228475/detail.html#

http://www.boston.com/jobs/bighelp2010/fastest_growing_jobs_by_2018/?p1=Well_MostPop_Emailed3

First-Grader Accused Of Sexual Harassment

POSTED: 7:40 am PST January 13, 2010

UPDATED: 7:50 am PST January 13, 2010

Superintendent Jeff Rose said the district is keeping a close eye on students at the Ninety-One School on South Whiskey Hill Road.

Several parents allege that a boy in first grade at the school harassed and abused their children and that some of the harassment was sexual in nature. The parents said the actions of the boy involved bullying and that the school has known about the problems since the start of the school year.

Rose said the district has been involved since last week.

"Certain things are handled at the school level and certain things are handled at the district level," Rose said. "What I am aware of, most acutely aware of, my involvement goes back to last Tuesday."

The district has met with the families and child involved. The student is under more direct supervision by certified staff, according to the district.

Parents said the boy is still in school but the school district would not confirm that.

Rose sent out an e-mail to parents to inform them of the sensitive situation.

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://www.kptv.com/video/22225153/index.html

Foxy 'Roxxxy': world’s first 'sex robot' can talk about football

The world’s first “sex robot”, a life-size rubber doll called Roxxxy who can have real conversations with her owner, including about football, has been unveiled.

Andrew Hough
7:30AM GMT 11 Jan 2010

Douglas Hines said Roxxxy could even have a conversation about Manchester United with her owner. Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The dark-haired, negligee-clad, life-size robotic girlfriend comes complete with artificial intelligence and flesh-like synthetic skin.

Standing five feet, seven inches tall, the doll weighs 120 pounds, comes with five “personalities”, is “ready for action” her developers said.

Aspiring partners can customise her features, including race, hair colour and breast size.

Roxxxy, who can chat with her flesh-and-blood mate about subjects including Manchester United, also elicits comments depending on how she is touched.

The anatomically-correct robot, who can even snore, has an articulated skeleton that can move like a person but can't walk or independently move its limbs.

There is Wild Wendy, who is outgoing and adventurous, Frigid Farrah, who is reserved and shy, a young unnamed doll with a naïve personality, “matriarchal kind of caring” Mature Martha and S & M Susan, who is geared for more adventurous types.

Coming with a laptop the doll, priced between US$7,000 (£4,350) to US$9,000 (£5,993), was unveiled at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas at the weekend.

Douglas Hines, the robot’s football loving inventor, said the real aim was to make the doll someone the owner can talk to and relate to.

“She can't vacuum, she can't cook but she can do almost anything else if you know what I mean,” the New Jersey-based artificial intelligence engineer said.

“She's a companion. She has a personality. She hears you. She listens to you. She speaks. She feels your touch. She goes to sleep. We are trying to replicate a personality of a person.”

She is wirelessly linked to the internet for software updates, technical support and to send her man email messages, he said.

Mr Hines, from TrueCompanion, said the doll could carry out simple conversations and was designed to “know exactly what you like”.

“Sex only goes so far, then you want to be able to talk to the person,” he said.

“She knows exactly what you like. If you like Porsches, she likes Porsches. If you like soccer, she likes soccer.”

People’s customised personalities can be shared with other users online through his company's website.

"Just think about wife or girlfriend swapping without actually giving the person to someone else," he said.

Its robotic movement is built into "the three inputs" while a mechanical heart powers a liquid cooling system.

Mr Hines said it was not only a recreational innovation but also something that shy people with sexual dysfunction, and those who want to experiment without risk, could use.

In a 2007 book, "Love and Sex with Robots," British chess player and artificial intelligence expert David Levy argues that robots will become significant sexual partners for humans, answering needs that other people are unable or unwilling to satisfy.

Inspiration for the sex robot sprang from the September 11, 2001 attacks, he said, where a friend died and he vowed to store his personality forever.

The sex robot is available in Europe and the United States and will eventually be available all over the world.

A male version of the doll, dubbed Rocky, is also planned.