January 03, 2010 10:29 AM

Rick Warren asks for $900,000, gets $2.4 million

LAKE FOREST – In what Pastor Rick Warren called radical giving, Saddleback Church members not only heeded his call to quickly raise $900,000 but exceeded it by at least $1.5 million.

A packed church erupted today in applause and cheers when Warren made the announcement at the 4:30 p.m. service. By New Year’s Eve, church members brought $2.4 million to the church, a tally that does not include mailed donations, Warren said.

“This is pretty amazing,’ Warren exulted. “That’s a record. I don’t think any church has gotten a cash offering like that off a letter.”

"We're starting the new decade with a surplus,” he said. “It came from thousands of thousands of ordinary people. There was not one big fat cat.”

The outpouring started Wednesday after Warren posted a message on the church’s Web site appealing for donations to overcome a $900,000 shortage in collections.

Men, women and children flocked to the church, stuffing donation boxes so rapidly that security guards emptied them every 30 minutes.

On Friday night, Warren issued an update on the church’s Web site, calling the outpouring “history-making” and urging his flock not to miss the weekend services.

“I can't wait to share with you what happened this week,” Warren wrote. “It speaks volumes about you, the depth of commitment in this fellowship, and where God is taking us in 2010 – our 30th Anniversary year. I'm simply calling this week's message ‘The Miracle.’”

The money will go toward the church’s ministries, including feeding more than 200,000 families, helping orphans and supporting bible studies and small group ministries.

Warren addressed some of the criticisms associated with media reports in recent days, suggesting that many are unaware of how a church operates. He also added that his letter was directed at the Saddleback Church members.

“I knew critics and pundits would misunderstand this,” he said. “We have never asked outsiders to give to the church.”

Warren reiterated an earlier message to the church members explaining what led to the financial shortfall.

“The cause of our financial shortfall was not a management issue but simply by the way Christmas occurred in this year’s calendar,” he said. “After 10 packed Christmas services, and with Christmas Day on Friday, many people were out of town or too tired to come back for weekend services, so the unusually low attendance created an unusually low offering. That is understandable.”

He called on his flock to remember that radical giving does not only mean giving monetarily. He reminded them to give of themselves and of their heart in the coming year.

“Thank you Lord that you took ordinary people and do ordinary miracles,” he prayed closing out the service.

Pastor Rick Warren of Saddleback Church said that by New Year's Eve, church members brought $2.4 million to the church, a tally that does not include mailed donations.

Justin Berton

Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, January 1, 2010

The real date for the end of times, he says, is in 2011.

The Mayans and the recent Hollywood movie "2012" have put the apocalypse in the popular mind this year, but Camping has been at this business for a long time. And while Armageddon is pop science or big-screen entertainment to many, Camping has followers from the Bay Area to China.

Camping, 88, has scrutinized the Bible for almost 70 years and says he has developed a mathematical system to interpret prophecies hidden within the Good Book. One night a few years ago, Camping, a civil engineer by trade, crunched the numbers and was stunned at what he'd found: The world will end May 21, 2011.

This is not the first time Camping has made a bold prediction about Judgment Day.

On Sept. 6, 1994, dozens of Camping's believers gathered inside Alameda's Veterans Memorial Building to await the return of Christ, an event Camping had promised for two years. Followers dressed children in their Sunday best and held Bibles open-faced toward heaven.

But the world did not end. Camping allowed that he may have made a mathematical error. He spent the next decade running new calculations, as well as overseeing a media company that has grown significantly in size and reach.

"We are now translated into 48 languages and have been transmitting into China on an AM station without getting jammed once," Camping said. "How can that happen without God's mercy?"

His office is flanked by satellite dishes in the parking lot that transmit his talk show, "Open Forum." In the Bay Area, he's heard on 610 AM, KEAR. Camping says his company owns about 55 stations in the United States alone, and that his message arrives on every continent.

'I'm looking forward to it'

Employees at the Oakland office run printing presses that publish Camping's pamphlets and books, and some wear T-shirts that read, "May 21, 2011." They're happy to talk about the day they believe their souls will be retrieved by Christ.

"I'm looking forward to it," said Ted Solomon, 60, who started listening to Camping in 1997. He's worked at Family Radio since 2004, making sure international translators properly dictate Camping's sermons.

"This world may have had an attraction to me at one time," Solomon said. "But now it's definitely lost its appeal."

Camping is a frail-looking man, and his voice is low and deep, but it can rise to dramatic peaks with a preacher's flair.

As a young man, he owned an East Bay construction business but longed to work as a servant of God. So he hit the books.

"Because I was an engineer, I was very interested in the numbers," he said. "I'd wonder, 'Why did God put this number in, or that number in?' It was not a question of unbelief, it was a question of, 'There must be a reason for it.' "

Code-breaking phenomenon

Camping is not the only man to see truths in the Bible hidden in the numbers. In the late 1990s, a code-breaking phenomenon took off, led by "The Bible Code," written by former Washington Post journalist Michael Drosnin.

Drosnin developed a technique that revealed prophecies within the Bible's text. A handful of biblical scholars have supported Drosnin's theory, lending it an air of legitimacy, and just as many scholars have decried it as farce.

One of Drosnin's more well-known findings is that a meteor will strike Earth in 2012, the same year some people believe the Mayan calendar marks the end of times, and the same year the "2012" action movie surmised the Earth's crust will destabilize and kill most humans.

Meaning in numbers

By Camping's understanding, the Bible was dictated by God and every word and number carries a spiritual significance. He noticed that particular numbers appeared in the Bible at the same time particular themes are discussed.

The number 5, Camping concluded, equals "atonement." Ten is "completeness." Seventeen means "heaven." Camping patiently explained how he reached his conclusion for May 21, 2011.

"Christ hung on the cross April 1, 33 A.D.," he began. "Now go to April 1 of 2011 A.D., and that's 1,978 years."

Camping then multiplied 1,978 by 365.2422 days - the number of days in each solar year, not to be confused with a calendar year.

Next, Camping noted that April 1 to May 21 encompasses 51 days. Add 51 to the sum of previous multiplication total, and it equals 722,500.

Camping realized that (5 x 10 x 17) x (5 x 10 x 17) = 722,500.

Or put into words: (Atonement x Completeness x Heaven), squared.

"Five times 10 times 17 is telling you a story," Camping said. "It's the story from the time Christ made payment for your sins until you're completely saved.

"I tell ya, I just about fell off my chair when I realized that," Camping said.

James Kreuger, author of "Secrets of the Apocalypse - Revealed," has been studying the end of times for 40 years and is familiar with Camping's work. While Kreuger agrees that the rapture is indeed coming, he disputes Camping's method.

"For all his learning, Camping makes a classic beginner's mistake when he sets a date for Christ's return," Kreuger wrote in an e-mail. "Jesus himself said in Matthew 24:36, 'Of that day and hour knows no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my father only.' "

'It is going to happen'

Camping's believers will have none of it.

Rick LaCasse, who attended the September 1994 service in Alameda, said that 15 years later, his faith in Camping has only strengthened.

"Evidently, he was wrong," LaCasse allowed, "but this time it is going to happen. There was some doubt last time, but we didn't have any proofs. This time we do."

Would his opinion of Camping change if May 21, 2011, ended without incident?

"I can't even think like that," LaCasse said. "Everything is too positive right now. There's too little time to think like that."

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/01/BA8V1AV589.DTL#ixzz0bZjpVpF5

Former civil engineer Harold Camping of Oakland, who runs Family Radio, has studied the Bible for almost 70 years.

Photo: Lance Iversen / The Chronicle

Metro Atlanta / State News

9:52 a.m. Sunday, January 3, 2010 

Evander Holyfield and Botha to fight in Uganda

Holyfield (42-10-2) has not fought since losing a points decision to Nikolai Valuev a year ago. The 47-year-old American, also a former cruiserweight champion, believes a victory could give him a shot at a more prestigious title that would allow him to achieve his goal of retiring as a heavyweight champion.

Holyfield has earned more than $200 million in the ring, including a reported $34 million for his second bout with Mike Tyson in 1997. That was the "Bite Fight" that ended with Tyson being disqualified for chewing off a chunk of Holyfield's ear.

Holyfield also beat Larry Holmes, lost two of his three contests with Riddick Bowe, drew with and then lost to Lennox Lewis and had a win-lose-draw sequence against John Ruiz.

Three defeats in a row — to Chris Byrd, James Toney and Larry Donald — accelerated his decline, and Holyfield was out of the ring for 21 months before returning in August 2006 to start a run of four straight wins.

Holyfield's last two fights were losses to Sultan Ibragimov and then to Valuev, a majority decision he disputed. Since then, Ibragimov has retired and Valuev surrendered his WBA title to David Haye.

Botha (47-4-3) has lost to Tyson, Lewis, Wladimir Klitschko and Michael Moorer, but retained his WBF title by drawing with Pedro Carrion of Cuba in Germany in October.

"I have always been my own harshest critic. My performance against Carrion, without making any excuses, was arguably the worst of my career," the South African said.

"Expect the fittest, toughest and best ever — and extremely serious — Francois Botha in Uganda in January. I owe my fans and members of Team Botha the performance of my life. I intend to make good on that."

Couple arrested for giving kids tattoos

Marsh and her husband, Jacob Bartels, did the tattoos in their Summerville home. They cleaned up a tattoo machine someone gave them, and used guitar strings as a needle. Out of the seven children in their custody, only the youngest child did not get a tattoo.

"They weren't hurt by them," Marsh said. "We would never do anything to hurt them."

Marsh said the children, ages 10 to 17, wanted the small cross tattoos, and the couple did them after Thanksgiving. But when two of the children spent a weekend after Christmas with their biological mother, she reported it to DFACS and police.

At least 10 police officers searched the family's home on Dec. 28, Marsh says, and she and her husband were arrested. They were each charged with cruelty to children, reckless conduct and tattooing, something Marsh they didn't realize was illegal.

"If we knew that, we wouldn't have done it," Marsh said.

The couple bonded out of jail Friday, and now is awaiting a court date. DFACS temporarily took the children out of the home, Marsh said. But now all of the children are home.

Marsh says she feels that the entire incident has gotten blown out of proportion. The couple contends they are good parents, but now they're being labeled child abusers, which Marsh says is untrue.

“If I’m such a bad parent, then how come they brought the kids back right after I got out jail?" Marsh asked.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/chi-guard-woundedjan03,0,1195827.story

Barack Obama is vulnerable on terror – and he knows it

Barack Obama is playing politics over the attempted Christmas Day terrorist attack and Republicans sense he is weak on the issue, writes Toby Harnden in Washington

Published: 4:45PM GMT 02 Jan 2010

Barack Obama said both human and systematic failures allowed the foiled Christmas Day attack on Northwest flight 253 to take place Photo: GETTY

In his weekly radio address yesterday, President Barack Obama patted himself on the back for having "refocused the fight - bringing to a responsible end the war in Iraq, which had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks".

He then told people to remember that "our adversaries are those who would attack our country, not our fellow Americans", before decrying "fear and cynicism" and "partisanship and division" - the code phrases for horrid Republicans used during his 2008 election campaign.

Complacency, faux moralising and partisan shots at Republicans. It was a neat summary of where Obama is going wrong after the Christmas Day debacle when the Nigerian knicker bomber managed to waltz onto a Detroit-bound flight.

For a man who campaigned denouncing the politicisation of national security under President George W Bush, it is worth noting how intensely political Obama's treatment of what might henceforth be known as Underpantsgate has been.

His White House recognised its political vulnerability more readily than it comprehended the level of danger faced by Americans.

Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab's father had courageously contacted the American Embassy in Abuja in November and met the CIA station chief to tell him that his son was involved with fundamentalist elements in Yemen. American intelligence had also intercepted discussions in Yemen about a possible attack by "the Nigerian".

The Obama administration knew most, if not all, of this by last Sunday, 48 hours after the attack was thwarted. But the priority in Obamaland was to play things down and take pot shots at the Bush administration.

Janet Napolitano, the Homeland Security chief – who prefers the term "man-caused disasters" to "terrorism" - blithely stated that there was "no indication that it is part of anything larger". She then insisted that the "system is working".

Although Napolitano has taken a lot of flak for these comic utterances, she was not "misspeaking" but trotting out the agreed talking points of the day.

Robert Gibbs, Obama's chief mouthpiece, also stated that "in many ways this system has worked" and would say nothing about a possible wider plot.

In Hawaii, where Obama was holidaying, Gibbs's deputy Bill Burton told the press that "we are winding down a war in Iraq that took our eye off of the terrorists that attacked us" and that Obama was reviewing "procedures that have been in place the last several years" (i.e. Bush instituted them). He added, without apparent irony, that "the President refuses to play politics with these issues".

Meanwhile, the White House was working overtime to build a case against Bush. A source in the White House counsel's office told The American Spectator of memos frantically seeking information that would "show that the Bush Administration had had far worse missteps than we ever could".

Republicans smell blood. There is a pattern in the Obama administration of dismissing Islamist terrorist attacks as regrettable random acts. In his radio address after Major Nidal Hassan's slaughtered 13 at Fort Hood, Texas, Obama made no mention of terrorism or militant Islam, instead blandly promising that the "ongoing investigation into this terrible tragedy" would "look at the motives of the alleged gunman".

Hassan was a committed Islamist who had corresponded with the fanatical Yemeni imam Anwar al-Awlaki. In June, Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, a Muslim convert being watched by the FBI and who had previously travelled to Yemen, murdered a US Army recruit in Arkansas. That rated only a tepid statement by Obama about a "senseless act of violence".

But the violence wasn't senseless, it had a calculated objective - just as Abdulmutallab was not, as Obama described him, an "isolated extremist". No wonder many Americans want to grab Obama by the lapels and scream: "It's the Jihad, stupid." Dick Cheney, the former vice-president, clearly struck a nerve when he charged last week that Obama was "trying to pretend we are not at war".

The White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer eagerly descended into the political fray, responding to Cheney with the obligatory jibe about Iraq and also a litany of examples of Obama's "public statements that explicitly state we are at war".

It's a sure sign that you're losing the argument when you have to research quotes from your boss's speeches to prove that he gets it that America is at war. The problem for Obama is that people are now judging him by his actions as well as his words.

The incompetence of the US intelligence bureaucracy is not the only thing that makes Underpantsgate so damaging for Obama. More serious is his failure to understand or acknowledge the nature of the enemy - and to view war as mere politics.

News Sentinel staff

Posted January 2, 2010 at 4:04 p.m.

Photo by UTSports.com

Brian Williams

 Photo by UTSports.com

 Melvin Goins

Photo by UTSports.com

Tyler Smith

Photo by UTSports.com

Cameron Tatum

KNOXVILLE - Four University of Tennessee basketball players remain free on bond today, a day after their arrests on drug and weapons charges when a Knoxville police officer stopped the car they were riding in for speeding on Alcoa Highway near Kingston Pike.

The four, who posted bond Friday night, are: Cameron Tatum, who was driving the vehicle; Tyler Smith, who was sitting in the front seat; Melvin Goins, a rear seat passenger; and Brian Williams, also sitting in the backseat.

All four face misdemeanor charges. Knoxville lawyer Don Bosch said today he is representing Smith, but had no further comment.

Knoxville police say information they previously released that Smith and Williams faced felony charges was incorrect.

UT coach Bruce Pearl suspended the four players late Friday.

“I’m deeply saddened and troubled by today’s news,’’ Pearl said Friday. “Accordingly, I’m suspending Melvin, Cameron, Tyler and Brian pending further information.

“I apologize for the embarrassment this has brought to the university.”

According to Knoxville Police Department spokesman Darrell DeBusk, a KPD officer stopped the car about 11:30 a.m. Friday. He smelled a strong odor of marijuana coming from the car as he spoke with the driver. He requested back-up and a K9 officer.

After the officer’s dog signaled the presence of drugs in the vehicle, the four young men were removed from the car so police could search it.

Inside the vehicle, according to DeBusk, officers found a handgun under the driver’s seat, “accessible by either the driver or left rear seat passenger.” They also found a handgun, with an altered serial number under the passenger seat, accessible by either the front seat passenger or right rear seat passenger, according to DeBusk.

They also found a baggy of marijuana and an open container of alcohol.

“It could not be determined if the driver and passengers were under the influence of marijuana or not, although the strong odor indicated that marijuana had been recently smoked in the car,” according to a statement from DeBusk. “Because of this, physical arrests were made instead of misdemeanor citations for the misdemeanor charges.”

Tatum, 21, faces charges of illegal possession of a gun and having an open container of alcohol. His bond was set at $1,000.

Smith, 23, faces charges of illegal possession of a gun and possession of a gun with an altered serial number. His bond was set at $2,000.

Goins, 22, faces charges of illegal possession of a gun and possession of marijuana. His bond was set at $1,500.

Williams, 22, faces charges of illegal possession of a gun, possession of a gun with an altered serial number and possession of marijuana. His bond was set at $2,500.

DeBusk said the vehicle used was a Dodge Charger and had Illinois plates. A source told the News Sentinel the vehicle was a rental and was borrowed from a player’s friend.

UT compliance office is expected to look into the relationship between the players and the person responsible for the rental car to determine if the NCAA would deem it to be a violation of the extra benefit rule.

Smith is a senior and the starting power forward, Tatum is a redshirt sophomore who has started on the wing, Williams is a junior backup center and Goins is a junior college transfer who is the backup point guard.

The 14th-ranked Vols (10-2) flew back from Memphis Thursday night after defeating the Tigers 66-59.

UT’s next game is Wednesday at Thompson-Boling Arena against Charlotte.

Smith has started all 12 games and is averaging 11.7 points per game and 4.7 rebounds. Tatum has started 6 games and is averaging 8.7 points per game. Williams has averaged 5.9 points and 5.4 rebounds off the bench. Goins has made one start and is averaging 6.1 points.

Smith announced in June he would not enter the NBA draft. Pearl said when it became apparent that Smith was not “locked down” as a first-round pick, Smith weighed that against his opportunity to return to UT and graduate and lead the team.

Smith said he considered playing in Europe but never seriously pursued it.

“There was a very slim chance I’d go there,” Smith said. “I thought about it, but you can’t get better fan support and exposure over there than you can right here at the University of Tennessee.”

Police find man who was cooking meth in a car

THE DAILY NEWS JOURNAL

January 1, 2010

At 10:28a.m. this morning Murfreesboro Police responded to 2125 N.W. Broad Street in reference to a male subject passed out in a vehicle at the fuel pumps. The complainant was an employee of the Shell Station and advised that the vehicle had been parked there for approximately one hour.

When officers arrived, they discovered Nathan E. Beasley (Murfreesboro, 4-14-78) unresponsive inside the vehicle in the driver’s position. Officers quickly noticed he was in the process of cooking methamphetamine in the rear of the vehicle. The fluids in the bottles were in the process of chemical reaction and were actively cooking.

Officers removed Beasley from the vehicle and he was transported to Middle Tennessee Medical Center by Rutherford County EMS. Beasley was reported to be conscience and responsive at the hospital.

Officers are still investigating and charges are pending.

Currently, MPD and MFD Hazmat crews are securing and dismantling the mobile meth lab.

Britain's oldest twins celebrate New Year's Day and 102nd birthday

Britain's oldest twins Betty Richards and Jenny Pelmore have a double reason to celebrate New Year's Day - it is also their 102nd birthday.

Published: 8:00AM GMT 01 Jan 2010

Jenny Pelmore and Betty Richards (right) from Cornwall who will celebrate their 102nd birthday tomorrow, January 1 2010 Photo: SWNS

The sprightly siblings came into the world on January 1, 1908 - the year Henry Ford produced his first Model T car.

They were born in Manchester when King Edward VII was on the throne and the doctor who delivered them arrived - on horseback Betty and Jenny are both widowed and still live near each other in Feock, near Truro, Cornwall.

They plan to celebrate their big day with friends and family - with a gin for Jenny and brandy and ginger for Betty.

''They are both amazingly well and fit and see each other all the time," family friend Tricia Prescott said.

''They spent Christmas and New Year together as always and are in fine health.''

Mrs Pelmore insisted she didn't think about her age much. "The secret is keep smiling and keep going," she said.

''Life is much faster now but the only thing I don't understand is computers," Betty added.

Great grandmother-of-two Jenny was a nursery teacher and married Hugh Pelmore, an RAF pilot who raced Bentley cars.

Betty was a secretary and married Brandon Richards in 1936 and had children Peter and Gina.

Friday, January 1, 2010

Chicago Cop Tasered Diabetic Undergoing Seizures Eleven Ttimes

A suburban Chicago police officer tasered a man 11 times while he was having a diabetic seizure, says a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Chicago. The policeman tasered the victim because accidentally lashed out and hit the officer during his seizure.

Prospero Lassi, 30, and an employee of Southwest Airlines, filed the lawsuit following an April 9, 2009, incident. Lassi was taken to hospital following a violent diabetic seizure, and being tasered 11 times while unconscious.

According to reports, Lassi's roommate found him on the floor of his apartment experiencing the diabetic seizures. The roommate called 911 for help, and police officers from the Brookfield and LaGrange Park police departments arrived to deal with the situation.

However, a paramedics attempted to move Lassi to an ambulance, the man, still in the throes of his seizures, and described as "unresponsive," involuntarily hit one of the officers with his arm. The complaint goes on:

"Reacting to Mr. Lassi’s involuntary movement, one or more of the [officers] pushed Mr. Lassi to the ground, forcibly restraining him there. [LaGrange Park Officer Darren] Pedota then withdrew his Taser, an electroshock weapon that uses electrical current to disrupt a person’s control over his muscles, and electrocuted Mr. Lassi eleven times.

"Mr. Lassi remained immobile on the floor and was unable to defend himself during this attack. None of the other LaGrange and Brookfield Defendants attempted to interrupt Defendant Pedota's repeated use of the Taser."

The lawsuit goes on to state Lassi spent five days in hospital, and "as a result of this incident, Mr. Lassi has permanent scars on his skin, including a scar on his face. Mr. Lassi has also suffered, and continues to suffer, neurological and musculoskeletal injuries, among other injuries." Lassi is seeking punitive damages for battery, excessive force, and failure to intervene.

LINK TO COPY OF LAWSUIT:

http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/12/28/TaserCop.pdf

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/toplists/the_2000s_in_review_the_decades_biggest_news_stories/the_2000s_in_review_the_decades_biggest_news_stories.html

http://www.reuters.com/news/pictures/slideshow?articleId=USRTXRZAH#a=1

Wizards Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton pull pistols on each other

Teammates pull weapons on each other

PETER VECSEY and DAVID K. L I

Last Updated: 10:18 AM, January 1, 2010

Posted: 2:53 AM, January 1, 2010

Guess they're still the Bullets at heart.

NBA all-star Gilbert Arenas and his Washington Wizards teammate Javaris Crittenton drew guns on each other in the team's locker room during a Christmas Eve dispute over a gambling debt, The Post has learned.

League sources say the pistol-packing point guards had heaters at the ready inside the Verizon Center, the Washington, DC, home of the Wizards -- whose name was changed from the Bullets over gun- violence concerns.

It was the three- time all-star Arenas, 27, who went for his gun first, sources said, drawing on the 22-year-old Crittenton, who quickly brandished a firearm as well.

NBAE/Getty Images

FREEZE! Washington Wizards Gilbert Arenas (above) and Javaris Crittenton had allegedly been arguing over a bet debt when they drew guns.

It was not clear whether other teammates saw the shocking standoff, which happened on a practice day.

The duel in DC -- unprecedented in sports history -- was sparked when Crittenton became enraged at the veteran guard for refusing to make good on a gambling debt, a source said.

"I'm not your punk!" Crittenton shouted at Arenas, according to a league source close to the Wizards.

That prompted Arenas to draw on Crittenton, who then also grabbed for a gun, league security sources said.

A playground pal of Crittenton's from Atlanta, Kendrick "Bookie Ball" Long, confirmed the locker-room standoff and said he learned of it directly from the third-year player out of Georgia Tech.

"He [Arenas] was f- - -ing with him; he [Crittenton] was just defending himself!" declared Long, who said the dispute was over money but would not elaborate.

The Wizards announced on Christmas Day that Arenas had admitted to bringing guns to the locker room and had turned them over to team security. No ammunition was handed over.

The NBA club's statement didn't disclose how Wizards officials discovered that Arenas was storing weapons on the job.

But a league source said Arenas' weapons were uncovered only after the confrontation with Crittenton.

Wizards General Manager Ernie Grunfeld declined to comment. "It's in the hands of [Washington] authorities," said Grunfeld, a former star Knicks player and president. "We're going to get to the bottom of this, if there is a bottom to this."

Washington police said they were investigating Arenas for gun-possession violations. But the Wizards' gun grab has also drawn the attention of the feds.

"We're working with the Metropolitan Police Department on the investigation. That's about all we can say at his point," said Ben Friedman, a spokesman for the US Attorney's Office in DC.

The feds have been investigating gambling within the NBA since disgraced ex-referee Tim Donaghy admitted betting on games and feeding information to bookies. It was not clear whether the gambling debt that sparked the Arenas-Crittenton duel had anything to do with league games.

A top players-union official said he was shocked by the allegations. "This is unprecedented in the history of sports," said Player's Association Executive Director Billy Hunter. "I've never heard of players pulling guns on each other in a locker room."

Team owner Abe Pollin -- his sensitivity heightened by the fatal shooting of his good friend Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in 1995 -- changed the club from the Bullets to the Wizards in 1997 because he didn't like the violent overtones of the original name. Pollin died in November.

Arenas, who has three kids, reportedly told team officials he brought guns to his Verizon Center locker so they wouldn't be close to his newborn at their home in Great Falls, Va.

He denied pulling a gun on Crittenton and even mocked the suggestion he would ever point a weapon at a teammate.

"You guys, I wanted to go rob banks, I wanted to be a bank robber on the weekends," Arenas said sarcastically after a game this week.

Firearm laws in Washington are among the nation's strictest. Until a recent US Supreme Court ruling, private ownership of guns was illegal in the nation's capital.

As it stands now, gun owners are allowed to transport firearms only within DC under very limited circumstances -- such as taking the weapon to be registered or to a practice range. There's no provision under current DC law for a private citizen to have a gun at work.

In 2003, Arenas pleaded guilty to misdemeanor charges of carrying a concealed weapon in San Francisco.

Arenas claimed the gun was legally registered in Arizona -- where he was star player for the University of Arizona Wildcats -- and said he forgot he needed California authorization to carry it there.

Crittenton hasn't played a minute this season for the Wizards and has struggled to overcome a bone bruise and strained tendons.

Javaris Crittenton

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/nba_gunpoint_R52AnT76DRgTSuVKDQ8XBO#ixzz0bNV2ZKSS

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34641678/ns/today-today_people/

Father and 12-year-old daughter booked after fake kidnapping prank

Jeff Adelson

The Times-Picayune

December 31, 2009, 6:05AM

A Lacombe man and his daughter hatched an unusual practical joke to entertain themselves as they drove down Interstate 12: tie the girl's hands, duct-tape her mouth and watch the startled expressions as their fellow drivers noticed the apparent kidnapping in progress.

It was apparently a very realistic depiction. But the man's fellow motorists, who boxed the pickup in until law enforcement arrived, and the deputies who arrested him weren't laughing.

Tim Williams, 45, was returning to St. Tammany Parish with his 12-year-old daughter after

St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office

"I don't know who in their right mind would want to play at a child abduction with their 12-year-old daughter," he said.

It's unclear when the two first started the stunt, but at least three motorists called 9-1-1 to report an abduction after seeing the girl bound and gagged in the front seat of the pickup about 3:50 p.m. as the vehicle passed the Louisiana 1077 exit on I-12, Beavers said. Deputies rushed to the highway as several motorists surrounded the truck in an attempt to keep the supposed kidnapper from getting away, he said.

The patrol cars caught up with Williams at the Louisiana 59 exit and learned it was all a prank when they pulled Williams over, Beavers said.

Because of the severity of the situation, Williams was booked into the St. Tammany Parish jail in Covington with criminal mischief and contributing to the delinquency of a minor before being released later in the day on a $3,000 bond. His daughter, who was not identified because she is a juvenile, was cited for criminal mischief and released to the care of an uncle, Beavers said.

"Their lives were put in danger as well as the lives of the general public," Beavers said. "Anything could have happened over that prank. That's why we felt he needed to go to jail for that, too many lives were put in danger to let him go on his way."

Though the situation ended up being far less serious than it initially appeared, Beavers said  he was grateful for the keen eyes of the motorists on I-12 and said such alertness could prevent a tragedy in the future.

"Even though it was a false alarm, I'm very glad the public called us and I want them to continue to call us," Beavers said. Even though this was a prank, it could easily not have been."

Tim Williams picking her up from his ex-wife at the Texas state line Wednesday afternoon when the two came up with the idea, St. Tammany Parish Sheriff's Office spokesman Cpl. Sean Beavers said. During the stunt, duct-tape was used to bind the girl's hands and cover her mouth, Beaver said.