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Car license plate leads police to bank robbery

Tuesday, 12.15.09

Car license plate leads Miami-Dade police to bank robbery suspect

Bank robbery in Miami leads to one suspect in custody

 

ADAM H. BEASLEY

Miami Herald

Miami-Dade police have nabbed the man suspected of robbing a SunTrust Bank after an off-duty cop alertly took down the tag number of the thief's getaway car.

Both the heist and the arrest occurred Monday, with authorities taking Alejandro Camps, 29, into custody at his home -- a mile from the scene of the crime.

According to the arrest report, here's what happened:

Camps entered the SunTrust branch at 8717 SW 24th St. about 9:45 Monday morning, approached a female teller and gave her a note demanding money.

The teller complied, and Camps fled the bank.

As he was speeding away in a 2006 Cadillac Deville, a Miami-Dade off-duty cop -- identified as Officer Munrano on the report -- got a look at the car's license plate.

A records search led police to Camps' home at 3513 SW 90th Ave., where they found the car in the driveway.

They arrested Camps about 7:30 p.m. and charged him with armed robbery with a firearm.

As of Tuesday afternoon, he was held at the Pretrial Detention Center on no bond.

Entry #1,486

Teacher Cuts Off Girl's Braid In Front Of Class

Teacher Cuts Off Girl's Braid In Front Of Class

Police Issue Teacher $175 Ticket For Disorderly Conduct

POSTED: 4:54 pm CST December 11, 2009
UPDATED: 10:21 pm CST December 11, 2009

 

MILWAUKEE -- A Milwaukee teacher is charged with disorderly conduct after punishing a first-grader by cutting her hair.

Lamya Cammon is angry, confused, and scared by the incident last week in which the apparently frustrated teacher cut one of her braids off after she wouldn't stop playing with them in class.

Cammon, 7, sports a few dozen braids, but one is conspicuously absent.

"She told me to stop playing with it. Then cut it off and sent me back to my desk," Cammon said.

Cammon's a first-grader at Congress Elementary and said her teacher used a pair of classroom scissors to cut off one of the braids after she absent-mindedly kept playing with them.

"Tell me how you play with your hair. Show me what that means," 12 News reporter Nick Bohr said to Cammon.

"I wasn't playing with it that loud," Cammon said.

She said the teacher called her to the front of the room and cut it in front of the whole class.

"What did you do?" Bohr asked.

"I went to my desk and cried. And they was laughing," Cammon said. "She threw it away, and she said, 'Now what you gonna go home and say to your momma? ' And I said, 'That you cut off my hair,'" Cammon said.

Cammon's mother is furious. She went to the school and confronted the teacher.

"I said, 'Well, you know, you cut a lot of her hair off.' And she was like, 'Well, I do apologize.' She said, 'But I was frustrated,'" Cammon's mother, Helen Cunningham, said.

The Milwaukee Public Schools District said it is going through the disciplinary process with the teacher, who remains in class, although Cammon has been moved to a different classroom by the principal.

"The main thing is, from the heart of the principal, and me speaking for the district, we're very sorry that this happened," MPS spokeswoman Roseann St. Aubin said.

Cammon's mother said she appreciates the apology but said the district should seriously question whether the teacher should keep her job.

"Why would we want someone like that teaching our kids? We trust our kids once they go to school to be safe," Cunningham said.

Milwaukee police investigated the case and referred it to the district attorney for possible physical or mental abuse of a child charges.

When the district attorney's office decided not to file criminal charges, police this week issued the teacher a $175 ticket for disorderly conduct.

The Milwaukee Teachers Education Association can't talk about the incident, but said stress is not unusual.

“As budget constraints get tighter every year, the stress level and frustrations do increase,” said the MTEA’s Sid Hatch.

12 News called the teacher Friday night and went to her home for comment, but someone came to the door and said she did not want to talk.

LINK TO PHOTO AND VIDEO:
Entry #1,485

Judge refuses to allow prison guard to plead guilty

No Way, Lynae
Prison Guard's Attempt to Plead Guilty in Cell-Phone Case Denied
Email this Story Print-ready version leave a comment

Van Smith

City Paper

12/10/2009

Warren Brown is highly exercised on Dec. 9, as he returns to the defense table from Baltimore City Circuit Court Judge David Young's bench. "I'll say for the record, your honor," the criminal-defense attorney declares, "that the state can forget about any help from this young lady."

Brown is referring to his client, 21-year-old former prison guard Lynae Chapman, who's in court for her arraignment on misdemeanor charges that she helped procure a cell phone for an inmate—22-year-old murder suspect Ray Donald Lee, an alleged Black Guerrilla Family gangmember who is Chapman's boyfriend and the father of her unborn child—at the Baltimore City Detention Center, where she worked until her Oct. 23 indictment ("A Big No-No," Nov. 4). Chapman, as Brown makes clear, wants to plead guilty, but, due to whatever just transpired at a 10-minute bench conference, the judge won't accept the plea, so Chapman's case is going forward to a trial scheduled for Feb. 12.

"We're prepared to plead guilty today," Brown continues, "but she's gonna be continually held [in detention] until the next trial date, and the state'll come up with some reason to postpone. They're coming up with a reason to postpone a guilty plea! Which, I mean, when have we not allowed individuals to plead guilty unless we have some issue with regard to their competency? The state acts as if they have a right to prohibit a person from pleading guilty! They have a factual basis for the court accepting the plea.

"Quite frankly, as the state knows," Brown says, "it's not a question of guilt or innocence. They've got a very, very, very, very good case against her. Absolutely. And so we don't intend to go to trial. We want only to resolve this as soon as possible and take our lumps." He adds that his client is not interested in pursuing a deal in exchange for pleading guilty: "I mean, no deals, all bets are off."

The rationale behind the judge's refusal to allow Chapman's attempt to plead guilty presumably was discussed during the bench conference that immediately preceded Brown's open-court diatribe. City Paper on Dec. 10 attempted to learn what was discussed by viewing the videotape of the proceeding at the court reporter's office, as has often been done in the past. But under new rules instituted two months ago, the staff there explained, bench conferences are deleted from recordings of court proceedings prior to public viewing, so the discussion about Chapman's case remains a secret between the state, the defense, and the judge.

The unusual twist is not the first odd turn in Chapman's case. A strong indication that there's more going on than meets the eye came from the spokesman for Chapman's former employer, the Maryland Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services. Mark Vernarelli declined to comment on the case after her indictment, saying that to do so "would jeopardize other law-enforcement agencies' investigations." In addition, the court file of Chapman's case is not available for public review at the clerk's office—indeed, the case is not even listed on the on-line Maryland Judiciary Case Search, the main source of information about court cases. City Paper's reporting has been possible only via open-court proceedings for Chapman's bail review and arraignment.

Also strange was the prosecutor's behavior after Chapman's arraignment hearing, during which Brown did virtually all of the on-the-record speaking. City Paper had been unable to hear her name when she stood to call the case, and, after the hearing was over, asked her to provide it. She repeatedly refused, suggesting that City Paper go look it up in the court file. When City Paper explained that the file in Chapman's case is not publicly available, she again refused to identify herself. In a Dec. 10 e-mail, Baltimore City State's Attorney spokesman Joseph Sviatko disclosed the prosecutor's name: Nancy Olin.

At the end of the arraignment hearing, Brown does the only thing he can do: He pleads not guilty on behalf of his client and requests a jury trial. Chapman, with her hair pulled back tight in a bun, sits beside him and signs the necessary paperwork, struggling with her handcuffs to do so. She's in full restraints—her ankles, wrists, and mid-section are chained—and her pregnant belly shows prominently through her gray Department of Corrections sweatsuit. "You gotta hold on, baby-doll," Brown tells her, before she is escorted out of the courtroom.

 

 

LINK TO PHOTO AND PREVIOUS STORY:

 

http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=19230

Entry #1,484

Barack Obama health care bill dealt blow by Joe Lieberman

Barack Obama health care bill dealt blow by Joe Lieberman

President Barack Obama's hopes of achieving health care reform have been dealt a body blow by Senator Joe Lieberman, once a Democratic vice-presidential candidate but now one of the party's bêtes noire.

 

Toby Harnden in Washington
Published: 7:16PM GMT 14 Dec 2009

Barack Obama's health care hopes have been dealt a blow by Joe Lieberman Barack Obama's health care hopes have been dealt a blow by Joe Lieberman Photo: AP

The new threat to the centrepiece of his agenda came as Mr Obama's popularity sunk to its lowest level yet with a Rasmussen poll that gave him an approval rating of just 44 per cent – the lowest for any president at this stage of his first term.

Mr Lieberman, who became an Independent in 2006 after he failed to win the Democratic party primary but retained his Connecticut seat in the general election, is part of the Democratic caucus but has consistently opposed his former party at key moments.

His refusal to back the latest draft health care legislation incensed Democratic aides on Capitol Hill because they believed he had agreed to support a delicate compromise that gave the party the 60 votes it needs to prevent a Republican filibuster.

Mr Lieberman said bluntly that Senator Harry Reid, the Senate Majority Leader, had to scrap the proposal to expand the Medicare state health plan to people as young as 55 or he would not vote for it.

"It will add taxpayer costs," he told CBS News. "It will add to the deficit. It's unnecessary." In a subsequent meeting with Mr Reid, he said he would back a Republican filibuster against the bill if it contained the Medicare provision or allowed the government to sell insurance in competition with private companies.

Mr Lieberman's shock move threatened to doom Mr Reid's compromise plan, which had led Democrats to believe that a historic reform – the centrepiece of Mr Obama's agenda – was within their grasp this year.

In an interview recorded before Mr Lieberman's bombshell, Mr Obama had expressed optimism that the crucial breakthrough had been achieved. "I think it's going to pass out of the Senate before Christmas," he told CBS.

A delay of any Senate health care vote into 2010 could spell disaster for Mr Obama because it would push a controversial issue into a congressional election year when many centrist Democrats fear they would lose their seats if voted for an expensive reform.

Mr Reid had trumpeted his deal last Tuesday as a resolution between liberals and conservatives within his party over the thorny issue of the government's role in the insurance industry and had been waiting for cost estimates from the independent Congressional Budget Office to clear the way for a vote.

The prospects of a vote receded, however, after Mr Lieberman's tough words. Any concession to Mr Lieberman would run the risk of alienating liberal senators who already believe that the legislation has been watered down too much.

"We've got to stop adding to the bill," Mr Lieberman said. "We've got to start subtracting some controversial things. I think the only way to get this done before Christmas is to bring in some Republicans who are open-minded on this, like Olympia Snowe."

But Senator Olympia Snowe of Maine – the most likely Republican defector – has flatly rejected Mr. Reid's Medicare proposal.

Mr Obama has staked the success of his presidency on overhauling the $2.5 trillion American health care system and extending medical coverage to millions of uninsured.

But there is increasing scepticism over whether this can be achieved without swelling the already massive budget deficit at a time of severe economic hardship. Healthcare costs currently represent 16 per cent of the American economy.

Mr Lieberman came within a whisker of becoming Vice-President in 2000 when the United States Supreme Court ruled against him and Al Gore and George W. Bush took his place in the White House despite losing the national popular vote.

He ran as a Democratic presidential candidate in 2004 but since then his relations with the party have gone from bad to worse. An outspoken hawk and supporter of the Iraq invasion, Mr Lieberman was defeated by the liberal Ned Lamont in the 2006 primary for his Connecticut seat.

Rather than bow out gracefully as he was urged to do by party bigwigs, Mr Lieberman ran against Mr Lamont in the general election and beat him.

He then supported his friend Senator John McCain against Mr Obama in the 2008 election, prompting calls for him to be expelled from the Democratic caucus.

But as the 60th Democratic vote in the Senate, Mr Lieberman found himself with considerable leverage and he kept his place in the caucus and his chairmanship of the Homeland Security Committee.

Entry #1,482

Supreme Court To Decide Text Messaging Privacy

Court To Decide Text Messaging Privacy Case

David G. Savage

Tribune Washington Bureau

11:36 a.m. EST

December 14, 2009

 

Washington - The Supreme Court said today it would rule for the first time on whether employees have a right to privacy when they send text messages on electronic devices supplied by their employers.

The justices agreed to hear an appeal from a police department in Ontario, California which was successfully sued by Sgt. Jeff Quon and other three officers after their text messages--some of which were sexually explicit--were read by the police chief.

Last year, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals broke new ground by ruling the police officers had a "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their text messages. The officers had been led to believe by a supervisor that they could use their pager for personal use, the appeals court said.

A Supreme Court ruling on the issue, due by June, could set new rules for the workplace at a time when most employees use computers, cell phones or texting devices as part of their job. The 9th Circuit's opinion was the first from a federal appeals court to hold that the Constitution protected the privacy rights of workers who were using electronic devices supplied by their employer.

City officials in Ontario said they had told their employees, including the police officers, that they did not have a guarantee of privacy when using city-supplied texting devices. The police chief said the pagers were to be used for official police business, and he asked to see the messages to see if the pagers were used for mostly personal message.

The Arch Wireless Company, which provided the texting service, turned over the transcripts to the chief.

Quon and three other officers sued after they learned their messages had been read. Last year, the appeals court ruled the police chief's inspection violated the officer's rights under the 4th Amendment. It also found the wireless company violated the federal electronic communications privacy act when it turned over the messages without the consent of Quon.

The case has drawn wide interest among privacy advocates. Until the 9th Circuit's ruling, most judges had said the employers who provide computers, cell phones or texting devices for their workers are entitled to control how these devices are used. Most employers, including the city of Ontario, had a formal policy which said employees did not have a privacy right when they were sending emails or other messages.

The city told employees it "reserves the right to monitor and log all network activity including e-mail and Internet use, without or without notice."

In their appeal, lawyers for Ontario and its police department said the 9th Circuit's ruling, if upheld, would affect public employers across the nation. The part of its opinion involving wireless service providers also could affect private companies as well.

"It is not objectively reasonable to expect privacy in a message sent to someone else's workplace pager, let alone a police officer's department-used pager," the city argued.

The high court said it would hear arguments in the case, City of Ontario v. Quon, in the spring and issue a decision by the end of June.
Entry #1,481

Pot and prescription drugs popular among teens

Posted: 10:54 a.m. Dec. 14, 2009

U-M study: Pot, prescription drugs more popular among teens

Numbers drop on binge-drinking and smoking

DAVID N. GOODMAN
Associated Pres

Smoking marijuana is becoming even more popular among U.S. teens and they have cut down on smoking cigarettes, binge drinking and using methamphetamine, according to a national survey of eighth, 10th and 12th graders released today by White House drug czar Gil Kerlikowske.

More teens also are getting high on prescription pain pills and attention-deficit drugs, according to the 35th annual “Monitoring the Future” survey of 47,097 students by the University of Michigan for the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

The increase of teens smoking pot is partly because the national debate over medical use of marijuana can make the drug’s use seem safer to teenagers, researchers said. In addition to marijuana, fewer teens also view prescription drugs and Ecstasy as dangerous, which often means more could use those drugs in the future, Kerlikowske said.

The “continued erosion in youth attitudes and behavior toward substance abuse should give pause to all parents and policy-makers,” Kerlikowske said.

“These latest data confirm that we must redouble our efforts to implement a comprehensive, evidence-based approach to preventing and treating drug use,” Kerlikowske, the director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy, said in remarks prepared for his speech today at the National Press Club in Washington.

Marijuana use, while well off peak levels of the late 1990s, has edged up. Among this year’s 12th graders, 20.6% said they used it within the past month, compared with 19.4% in 2008 and 18.3% in 2006.

Among 10th graders, pot use in the past month rose from 13.8% in 2008 to 15.9% this year.

“The upward trending of the past two or three years stands in stark contrast to the steady decline that preceded it for nearly a decade,” said Lloyd Johnston, who has directed the annual survey since it started in 1975.

The percentage of eighth-graders who saw a “great risk” in occasionally smoking marijuana fell from 50.5% in 2004 to 48.1% in 2008 and 44.8% this year.

The perceived danger of using Ecstasy once or twice fell among eighth graders, from 42.5% in 2004 to 26% in 2009.

“When the perception of the danger goes down, in the following years you see an increase in use,” said National Institute on Drug Abuse Director Nora Volkow.

Volkow said teens falsely reason it’s less dangerous to get high on prescription drugs “because they’re endorsed by the medical community.” But she said prescription narcotics like OxyContin and Vicodin are highly addictive and can act as gateways to heroin, a cheaper high.

Use rates of both prescription narcotics rose among this year’s 10th graders, with 8.1% saying they had used Vicodin in the past year compared with 6.7% of the same grade in 2008. For OxyContin, the figure rose from 3.6% to 5.1%.

Recreational use of the attention-deficit drug Ritalin was lower than five years ago. But the attention-deficit drug Adderall, appearing for this first time in this year’s survey, showed use rates similar to those for Ritalin at its peak, which for 12th graders was around 5%.

By all measures, alcohol remained the most widely used illicit substance among teens, with 43.5% of 12th graders reporting taking a drink in the past month. That’s a little change from last year, but down from 52.7% in 1997 — a year that showed high percentages of substance abuse. All three grades reported drops in binge drinking for 2004-2009.

Cigarette use patterns showed a continuation of the dramatic drop from a decade ago. In 1997, 19.4% of eighth graders reported smoking within a month. That fell to 6.8% last year and 6.5% this year. The rate for 12th graders dropped from 36.5% in 1997 to 20.1% this year.

“There’s not going to be much further improvement unless policies change,” such as higher taxes to discourage kids on a budget and further limits on public smoking, Johnston said.

Only 2.4% of this year’s 12th graders said they’d ever used methamphetamine, down from 2.8% in 2008 and 8.2% in 1999.

Entry #1,479

President Obama tells Oprah Winfrey: I deserve a B+

President Obama tells Oprah Winfrey: I deserve a B+ for my first 11 months in White House

David Hinckley
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Monday, December 14th 2009, 4:50 AM

 

President Obama with Oprah Winfrey in the Blue Room of the White House earlier this month. Souza/White House

President Obama with Oprah Winfrey in the Blue Room of the White House earlier this month.

On what was billed as Oprah's "White House Christmas Special," Obama credited his administration with getting the economy on track, winding down the Iraq war and making the right call for a temporary surge in Afghanistan.

He also said America has "reset" its prestige in the world and made progress toward halting development of nuclear weapons in Iran and North Korea.

Passage of health care reform would boost his grade to an A-, he said. Until Americans get back to work, he said, "I can't give myself the grade I'd like."

Oprah interviewed the President and First Lady Michelle Obama separately and together on the ABC special.

Michelle Obama discussed the White House's 390-pound gingerbread house and showed Winfrey how First Dog Bo has been trained to give high-fives.

Obama handled the policy issues and seemed noticeably more relaxed with his old friend and admirer Winfrey than he did discussing some of the same issues earlier with Steve Kroft on CBS' "60 Minutes."

He cut Kroft off at least twice when he disagreed with the premise of a question.

Winfrey at one point asked about his temper, and Obama said that when he is displeased he gets an edge in his voice - exactly what happened when Kroft suggested his speech on Afghanistan had left his plans unclear.

While Winfrey noted Obama had heard some criticism, she mainly tossed softballs, like queries about the importance of his family and whether he "agonized" over the decision to send more troops to Afghanistan.

The less-than-illuminating answers were: family is "the most important thing in my life" and "yes."

Obama did try to dribble around Oprah's observation that his hair was grayer than before he took office. He said he's just at the age when that happens.

He also declared himself unconcerned that his approval ratings have fallen.

"It was inevitable," he said. "We have 10% unemployment. I told Michelle when we got here that in six months my poll numbers will start crashing, so we can't play to the polls. I'm concerned with where we'll be in two to three years."

The interview concluded with the First Couple good-naturedly sparring over who gives better Christmas gifts. Whatever ends up under his tree, President Obama won't get a better Christmas present than a sitdown with Oprah.

 



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/12/14/2009-12-14_b_for_me_bam_sez_first_couple_hosts_oprah_on_abc.html#ixzz0ZfsvldHh

Entry #1,478

Child welfare services visits Tiger Woods' home

Child welfare services visits Tiger Woods' and Elin Nordegren's home, according to reports

Katie Nelson
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

 

Originally Published:Sunday, December 13th 2009, 12:30 PM
Updated: Sunday, December 13th 2009, 4:39 PM

 

In happier times: Tiger Woods with wife Elin Nordegren, daugther Sam and son Charlie. Furore/Woods Family

In happier times: Tiger Woods with wife Elin Nordegren, daugther Sam and son Charlie. Tiger Woods infidelity: Waitress Jaimee Grubbs was one of the first to claim and affair with Woods. CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS OF ALLEGED MISTRESSES.

Lacroix/WireImageTiger Woods infidelity: Waitress Jaimee Grubbs was one of the first to claim and affair with Woods. CLICK FOR MORE PHOTOS OF ALLEGED MISTRESSES.

The Florida Department of Children and Families paid a visit to Tiger Woods' Florida home on Saturday, according to a gossip Web site.

The agency went to the golfer's mansion mid-day, accompanied by a marked police car and stayed for "roughly an hour," radaronline.com reported without naming its source.

State officials did not confirm or deny the story.

"Child abuse, adult investigations, in the state of Florida are confidential," Carrie Hoeppner, an agency spokeswoman, told the Daily News. "I'm just not able by law to give confirmation about whether we visited the family and that is in the interest of protecting the child."

The Orange County Sherrif's Department, however, acknowledged a partnership: "Our deputies met with members of the Department of Children and Families. But all details are being kept secret," Capt. Angelo Nieves told radaronline.com.

Nieves refused to say whether deputies and DCF officials were at the Windermere home Saturday.

Repeated calls to Nieves by the Daily News were not returned.

Meanwhile, the Florida Highway Patrol, which investigated last month's car crash, has stayed out of the picture.

"FHP has not been to the Woods home since the weekend of the crash," Sgt. Kim Montes told the Daily News on Sunday.

Tiger has denied reports that he and his wife, Elin, fought over his cheating, leading to a single-car crash that sparked the recent explosion of media attention of the typically tight-lipped golfer's home life.

The celebrity couple has two children, 2-year-old daughter Sam and 10-month-old son Charlie.

 



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2009/12/13/2009-12-13_child_welfare_services_visits_tiger_woods_and_elin_nordegrens_home_according_to_.html#ixzz0ZczpxePE

Entry #1,477

Prime Minister struck in the face

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi struck in the face and badly bloodied at Milan rally

Helen Kennedy
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

 

Originally Published:Sunday, December 13th 2009, 1:28 PM
Updated: Sunday, December 13th 2009, 6:00 PM

 

Italian news reports say a man struck Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in the face at a rally in Milan. Getty

Italian news reports say a man struck Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi in the face at a rally in Milan.

A mentally ill man broke Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's nose and knocked two of his teeth out with a punch to the face at a rowdy rally in Milan Sunday.

Doctors said they will keep him in the hospital under observation for 24 hours. They said he was not badly injured.

It was not clear if the prime minister, who has confessed to having a face lift, will need more plastic surgery.

Italian TV showed the dazed premier - his face cut and his mouth a mass of blood - falling to the ground and then being hustled into a car.

The attacker, 42-year-old Massimo Tartaglia, a graphic designer with a history of mental problems, was quickly bundled away by police.

Berlusconi was gladhanding the crowd after delivering a tirade against the left at an evening rally in front of Milan's Duomo when he was hit.

Witness Doriano Riparbelli told Italian media that Tartaglia was holding a souvenir replica of the famously spikey cathedral and rammed it into Berlusconi's face.

Defense minister Ignazio La Russa, who also saw it happen, told the Corriere della Sera newspaper that the crowd was ready to lynch the attacker.

"Only scraps would have remained," he said.

Video of the aftermath showed a chaotic scene as crowds surged around the president, who is a hearty 73.

An aide was crawling on the roof of his limo as he was stuffed inside the car by security men.

At one point Berlusconi tried to climb out and hoist himself onto the car to show he was all right, but fell back, looking confused.

Distraught fans - some of whom appeared to believe he'd been shot - looked on in horror.

The Italian flair for drama quickly asserted itself.

"Democracy is at risk in this country," said Senate president Renato Schifani.

Far-right politician Umberto Bossi declared the punch "an act of terrorism."

Berlusconi spokesman Paolo Buonaiuti told CNN the growing political attacks on his boss led to the physical attack.

"There has been such a buildup of hatred toward the premier, and this is not good," Buonaiuti said. "This campaign of hatred has been building quite rapidly recently, and I am not surprised that what happened tonight took place."

Corriere della Sera said a handful of protesters heckled Berlusconi, shouting slogans that prompted him to tell the crowd, "They paint me as a monster, but I don't think I am one - firstly because I am good-looking and secondly because I'm a good guy."

Tartaglia was not among the protesters.

Berlusconi faces a number of bribery and corruption trials and has been caught up in a series of tawdry sex scandals.
His wife, actress Veronica Lario, announced in May she would seek a divorce amid allegations he was consorting with teenagers and prostitutes.

The Mail on Sunday in London reported that he spent Friday's European Union summit meeting doodling lady's underwear and then passing his sketches around to shocked world leaders.

The paper said Berlusconi drew a series of female undergarments through the ages - from Victorian bloomers to 21st Century thongs - as the leaders discussed climate change in Brussels.

Among those present: Britain's Gordon Brown, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen.

Berlusconi -- a billionaire who controls many Italian institutions, including the football team AC Milan and major TV networks -- is the longest-serving Prime Minister of Italy, a position he has held three times since 1994.

 

LINK TO VIDEO:

 http://www.wbaltv.com/video/21955082/



Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/2009/12/13/2009-12-13_silvio_berlusconi_italian_premiere_punched_in_the_face_at_milan_rally_reports.html#ixzz0Zd2YLzOd

Entry #1,476

Brothel will now offer men of leisure

Nev. brothel owner aims to offer male prostitutes

Sunday, December 13, 2009

06:00 PST Las Vegas, NV (AP) --

The owner of a brothel more than two hours' drive from Las Vegas says she hopes to hire Nevada's first legal male prostitutes within a month, now that a state health board has approved a method to test them for infectious diseases.

Shady Lady Ranch owner Bobbi Davis tells The Associated Press she believes the world's ready for women, or even other men, to legally buy sex from hired hands at her remote bordello near the Nye County town of Beatty.

She says being the first to offer stud service could really boost business, too.

But the Nye County sheriff and a longtime lobbyist for Nevada's legal brothel industry say Davis still needs approval from the county.

And they say they're not sure yet whether the idea will work.



Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/12/13/state/n060025S25.DTL#ixzz0ZbxwDm3j

Entry #1,474

Traffic policeman's amazing dance routine

Cop a load of this... Traffic policeman's amazing dance routine on the job

Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 2:30 AM on 13th December 2009

 

 

 

All traffic police have a repertoire of moves to direct vehicles, but they're pretty functional - after all, the job is about impersonating a traffic light.

However, one U.S. officer has taken the Internet by storm after turning his duties into a spectacularly choreographed artform.

For Tony Lepore, directing traffic is no mere routine - it's a dance routine.

Scroll to end to see Tony in action...

 

Strictly in the line of duty: Tony Lepore executes a deft dance move while directing traffic

He spins on his heels, drops to his knees, falls back on his hands and springs back upright.

Although Mr Lepore, 62, from Providence, Rhode Island, has been entertaining motorists since 1984, his popularity has rocketed due to the internet. 

Inspired by an old set-up on TV classic Candid Camera, Mr Lepore began adding fancy footwork and flamboyant arm movements to his traffic direction.

'I saw Candid Camera and I thought. 'Gee, maybe tomorrow I'm going to try a couple of spins and hand movements... But I didn't know if my bosses were going to like it,' he said.

However, with positive feedback from amused motorists, police chiefs allowed him to carry on.

Crosstown traffic: Tony Lepore has reprises his act for Christmas long after retiring from full-time policing

Drivers not completely distracted by his act will find themselves directed just  where they want to be.

'I've had people come down and film me and say, "You're really directing traffic,"' he told local television show The Rhode Show.

The Vietnam veteran has had his share of serious police work, spending nine years on night duty in Providence and being decorated for valour in the line of duty.

He once saved two teenage girls by diving into the freezing river after their car overturned into the water. On another occasion he pulled workers from the rubble of a building levelled by an explosion - just in time to save them from a second blast.

But a transfer to day duty and directing traffic left him bored, he says.

Three years after inventing his trademark dance routine, Mr Lepore retired and went into catering with his brother, but in 1992 a local newspaper interviewed him for a 'Whatever happened to' feature.

Soon he was invited by the mayor to reprise his act specially for the Christmas season - and he's still doing it today.

 

LINK TO ALL PHOTOS AND VIDEO:

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1235268/Cop-load--Traffic-policemans-amazing-dance-routine-job.html#ixzz0ZZROkbL6

Entry #1,473

Burglar steals exotic coats

12/12/09

Exotic coats stolen in Greenbriar smash-and-grab

RHONDA COOK

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

 

Atlanta police were still looking Saturday for a man who got away with jeans, cash and coats made out of the skins of exotic animals after breaking through the glass door of a store at Greenbriar Mall.

The thief’s biggest score was 12 coats made out of the skins of ostrich, alligator and stingray, ranging in price from $4,000 to $8,000.



The man also made off with 25 pair of Antik jeans, which cost $150 to $200 each, eight $40-vests and $400 in cash that was in the register.

A security guard got a brief look at the man, described as black and standing 5-foot-8, but could offer no more details because the security guard only got a brief look at the criminal.

According to Atlanta police the security guard responded to the burglar alarm at 2:47 a.m. Wednesday at Georgio’s Big and Tall men’s store. Seconds after the security guard parked, a Black Dodge Durrango pulled behind him and a man armed with a handgun came up to the passenger side window.

The security guard sped off.

”The security guard advised that he did not get a good look at the other suspects, because he left,” Atlanta police spokesman officer Otis Redmond told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Saturday.

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