truesee's Blog

9:13 a.m. Dec. 12, 2009

Home of St. Clair Shores man robbed while on MySpace date

Jason Barker is a hardworking St. Clair Shores guy who thought he'd try meeting a nice girl on MySpace.

Instead, as a kind 24-year-old woman from Oak Park chatted with him during their first date at a Chili's restaurant, police say her accomplice was cleaning out Barker' s Downing Street home Dec. 1.

Now charged with two counts each of home invasion and conspiracy are the woman, April Evelyn, and Vernon Henderson, 26, of Mount Clemens, according to police.

"I don’t really go out, I don’t go to the bars much," Barker said today. "Some of my friends had met people on MySpace, so I just figured I’d give it a shot."

Barker said everything seemed normal from the start, but Evelyn insisted she pick him up for the date at his home. Barker didn't think anything of her chatting on the phone and texting during dinner.

But police say Evelyn unlocked a window when she used the bathroom at Barker's home, then called Henderson to let him know how much time he had to rob the place.

"She told him they just ordered their food, so he knew he had time," St. Clair Shores Police Detective Sgt. Dave Centala said. "He actually contacted her and said he was done and she ended the date, and said 'Something’s come up I’ve gotta go.'"

The kicker -- she had Barker pay for dinner.

"And she asked me for $10 for gas," he said. "I’m just glad they caught them."

The pair was arraigned in 40th District Court in St. Clair Shores Wednesday. If convicted of home invasion, they could face up to 15 years in prison.

April Evelyn, and Vernon Henderson are charged with two counts each of home invasion and conspiracy according to police.

Married couple given jail sentence for getting back together

A Spanish couple has been sentenced to prison for breaching a distancing order and reuniting after hitting a troubled patch in their marriage.

Fiona Govan in Madrid
12:46PM GMT 09 Dec 2009

A court found the husband and wife guilty of breaching the order, which forbade them from coming within 500 metres of each other.

The pair, who have not been identified, separated in September 2008 and a court imposed the distancing order after repeated conflict between the two.

The court banned the husband from approaching his wife or attempting to contact her under laws aimed at tackling domestic violence.

But last month, after a trial separation that lasted more than a year, the estranged pair decided to patch things up.

They were arrested when Civil Guard officers discovered them together in their home town of Motril in Andalusia on Spain's southern coast, although both claimed they were with each other by mutual agreement.

The man has been sentenced to six months in jail and his wife was found guilty of being his accomplice and given a lesser sentence of four months.

No jail time for ex-Nevada deputy bribed to sneak food to 'Girls Gone Wild' founder

SCOTT SONNER

Associated Press Writer

5:43 p.m. CST, December 11, 2009

Special Chicago unit busts fake cops

William Lee

Tribune reporter

December 13, 2009

Elderly, immigrants often victims of brazen impersonators

 
Police classify the teen -- who is in jail for violating terms of his probation -- as an impostor rather than an impersonator. An impersonator, they said, poses as an officer in order to commit crimes, while an impostor merely seeks to look the part. "We don't know what their motive is," Naleway concedes. "Maybe it's ego more than anything else."

The boy was an extraordinary abnormality, police say, because of his confidence, his attention to detail in assembling his police uniform and his familiarity with police procedure.

The average impersonator can be exposed in brief chit-chat with a real officer.

The Police Impersonation Unit's officers downplay the threat of impostors, saying impersonators routinely rob seniors of their life savings.

"(Impostors are) making up a story, that's all it is," Naleway said. "The impersonators are the ones out there hurting people."

Brian Cassella, Chicago Tribune / November 18, 2009   A real Chicago police badge (TOP) and a fake one (BOTTOM), photographed at police headquarters.

Keeping safe

-- Ask to see both the officer's star and city ID card. Chicago police officers are required to carry both.

-- Be cautious any time a police officer calls you at home to tell you a family member is in custody. Police only call if the family member is a minor.

-- Never meet officers in front of the police station or places such as banks or ATMs.

-- If you believe that the person trying to pull you off the road isn't a real police officer, call police from your cell phone immediately, slow down to 10 mph and go to the nearest busy intersection, gas station or major business.

Woman, 98, charged with murdering 100-year-old roommate

December 11, 2009 04:35 PM

Andrew Ryan and David Abel

Globe Staff

A grand jury indicted a 98-year-old woman on a second-degree-murder charge for allegedly killing her 100-year-old roommate at a nursing home in Dartmouth.

Laura Lundquist has been charged with strangling Elizabeth Barrow in the Brandon Woods Nursing Home on Sept. 24. Lundquist was sent today to Taunton State Hospital for a competency evaluation prior to being arraigned.

Defense attorney Carl S. Levin filed a joint motion today in Bristol Superior Court with prosecutors requesting the psychiatric evaluation for Lundquist. The two-page document says that Lundquist's medical records show she "has a long standing diagnosis of dementia and exhibited other erratic behaviors. The records further revealed that the defendant herself had previously expressed concerns that another roommate would strangle her in her bed."

The evaluation could last up to 20 days and a court date has been set for Jan. 5.

"It is my expectation that she will be found not competent," Levin said this afternoon in a telephone interview from his office in Providence, R.I. "It's a very sad event," Levin said. "My client's family -- without acknowledging her responsibility for this act -- they feel great sadness for the family of Ms. Barrow."

The victim's son, Scott Barrow, said in a telephone interview this afternoon that he thinks it would be absurd for prosecutors to try Lundquist.

"I don't see how you can prosecute a 98-year-old woman," Scott Barrow said. "It's like prosecuting a 2-year-old. But it's not for me to decide. The law has to take its course."

He added: "I don't feel vengeful at all; I feel pity for her."

The joint motion filed in Bristol Superior Court also details the relationship between the two elderly women and describes, how just a short distance from a nurses' station, Lundquist was allegedly able to strangle and suffocate Barrow that morning within a window of 20 minutes. Staff found her body at 6:20 a.m. under a bed sheet with a plastic bag tied loosely around her head.

Lundquist "harbored hostility towards the victim because she believed the victim was taking over her room," according to the joint motion. "The defendant made statements prior to the victim's death that she would get the victim's bed by the window because she was going to out live her."

The night before staff found Barrow dead, she complained that Lundquist has placed a table at the foot of her bed that blocked her path to the bathroom, according to joint motion. A nurse's aide moved the table and Lundquist punched her. When staff discovered Barrow's body, the table had been moved back to the foot of her bed.

Lundquist told police she was in the bathroom when Barrow died and heard her scream, but she claimed she did not do anything because she was afraid she would get in trouble. Lundquist also claimed Barrow had "hurt her" and described her as a "sick woman," according to the joint motion.

Investigators initially thought that Barrow had committed suicide, but the results of an autopsy by the medical examiner found Barrow had been the victim of "asphyxia due to strangulation and suffocation."

Nursing home officials have said the two lived together for little more than a year. Picone said staff never received reports that Barrow felt threatened, but he said the tension in the 420-square-foot room -- their beds were separated by 4 feet -- prompted the staff to offer the women new rooms on July 29 and Aug. 5.

Scott Barrow said today he still doesn't know what could have motivated Lundquist. He added that she seemed to have all her mental faculties when he met her on visits to the nursing home.

"She seemed to be perfectly normal," he said. "She seemed lucid, and I had no idea she could be capable of such a thing. But you never know, I guess."

If Lundquist is tried and convicted, he said he would rather she was not incarcerated.

"It doesn't make any sense for her to do prison time," he said. "When you're that age, your faculties can come and go. You can be harmless in one moment and a psychopathic murderer in the next. I'm not a doctor, but the state has a difficult dilemma here. She's just a poor old lady who snapped."

Barrow has described his mother as healthy, amiable, and vigorous, a proud 5-foot-2 grandmother of three who was strong enough to walk on her own and read two books a week.

Aside from books, she loved to shop, chat with friends and staff at the nursing home, and eat the baked stuffed shrimp prepared with a recipe her husband of 65 years used to make for her before he died in 2007.

Barrow said today as much as he misses his mother, he does not seek vengeance.

"I feel very sorry her," Barrow said of Lundquist. "She's going through an ordeal of her own, whether or not she's competent to stand trial or not. It's going to be a terrible ordeal for her."

LINK TO PHOTO:

http://www.boston.com/news/local/breaking_news/2009/12/woman_98_charge.html

Teen Racks Up $21K Cell Phone Bill

Teen Downloaded 1.5M Kilobytes Of Data

POSTED: 1:13 pm EST December 11, 2009
UPDATED: 2:09 pm EST December 11, 2009

HAYWARD, Calif. -- A Hayward man is hoping his cell-phone service provider will work with him after receiving a massive bill for over $21,000 largely made up of charges incurred by his son after the teen was added to the family account, KTVU-TV in San Jose reported.

Brownsville woman files lawsuit because legs partially amputated

Liz Zemba
TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Wednesday, December 9, 2009

Sarah Palin Hedges On Agreeing To A Debate With Al Gore

First Posted: 12-10-09 05:24 PM   |   Updated: 12-10-09 05:50 PM

Huffington Post

Against the backdrop of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference, former Vice President Al Gore and former sometime Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin have been nipping and tucking at each other over climate change science. Gore, referring to Sarah Palin's recent Washington Post op-ed, said that denialists "persist in an air of unreality," and then Sarah Palin responded by poking Gore on Facebook, or something. On today's edition of the Laura Ingraham show, Ingraham asked Palin if some sort of great climate change debate may be brewing between the two public figures. Palin said no, for every reason she could think of in the next few minutes. ThinkProgress has the conversation:

INGRAHAM: Would you agree to a debate with Al Gore on this issue?

PALIN: Oh my goodness. You know, it depends on what the venue would be, what the forum. Because Laura, as you know, if it would be some kind of conventional, traditional debate with his friends setting it up or being the commentators I'll get clobbered because, you know, they don't want to listen to the facts. They don't want to listen to some reasonable voices in this. And that was proven with the publication of this op-ed, where they kind of got all we-weed up about it and wanted to call me and others deniers of changing weather patterns and climate conditions. Trying to make the issue into something that it is not.

INGRAHAM: But what if it's an Oxford-style, proper debate format. I mean, he's going to chicken out. I mean, if you challenge him to a debate, do you actually think he would accept it?

PALIN: I don't know, I don't know. Oh, he wouldn't want to lower himself, I think, to, you know, my level to debate little old Sarah Palin from Wasilla.

So, there you have it, if you find a venue for this debate where the odds are totally stacked in Sarah Palin's favor -- like maybe a dogsled race that you quit halfway through? -- she's game! Otherwise, she'll get clobbered. This was "proven," you know! Totally "proven!" When she was afforded the opportunity to write an op-ed in the Washington Post -- free from any editors who might normally say things like, "No, this is wrong," or "Sorry, we actually would prefer to not insult or readers intelligence because we'd like them to keep buying our newspaper" -- and when said op-ed wasn't universally showered with praise and accolades, it absolutely "proved" that the media and Al Gore's friends and "commentators" were just out to get her. Millionaire lady gadabout just can't catch a break!

This is sort of Palin's de facto setting for media appearances. May I remind you, she hasn't even bothered to go on any of the Sunday morning political talk shows. Not even Fox News Sunday! She was a candidate for vice-president!

So, per Palin, Al Gore can either agree to a debate set up according to the rules and customs of Alaska's Miss Teen Wordpower, or refuse to do so and be called an elitist who won't "debate little old Sarah Palin from Wasilla."

Meanwhile, I have to imagine that the primary reason that Al Gore will probably never agree to a debate with Sarah Palin on climate change policy, is because what would be the point? Sarah Palin does not, and will not ever, have anything at all to do with climate change policy. But hey, if Al Gore turns out to have some unrevealed, yet deeply-felt opinions on bowling, we can do this.

Stolen greenery was sold in county courthouse

PAT GROSSMITH
New Hampshire Union Leader Staff
Thursday, Dec. 10, 2009

MANCHESTER – A Hillsborough County bailiff unwittingly fenced stolen goods last week when he sold Christmas wreaths for $10 apiece in the lobby of the Superior Courthouse.

Sheriff James Hardy confirmed yesterday his office and Mark Putney, investigator with the County Attorney's Office, are looking into the incident.

Hardy said a woman in her 70s came to the courthouse last week with the wreaths and asked a bailiff she knew if they could be sold in the courthouse. She said she made the wreaths at home, according to Hardy.

The wreaths -- still bearing price tags from Jacques Flower Shop of Goffstown -- were sold out of the lobby for $10 each and were purchased by workers in the courthouse. Seven courthouse employees bought the wreaths.

Jacques Flower Shop Manager Paul Godbout said the investigation was triggered after a sheriff's department employee noticed his store's price tags on the wreaths and brought it to Putney's attention.

Hardy said the incident is still being investigated but it appears the bailiff was trying to help the elderly woman, who Hardy said has a mental competency issue. Selling items in the courthouse is inappropriate, he said.

Paul Godbout, manager of Jacques Flower Shop in Pinardville, shows off some the approximately 36 wreaths stolen from his outdoor display. (BOB LAPREE)

"Clearly, it was poor judgment on the part of the court officer," said Hardy, who refused to identify the bailiff, saying it was a personnel matter.

The wreaths have since been returned, Hardy said. No judge was among the purchasers, according to the sheriff.

Goffstown Police Chief Patrick Sullivan said his department is investigating, but as of yesterday morning, no one has been arrested.

Godbout said more than $1,500 worth of Van Otis chocolates has disappeared from the shop's front counter over the past six months, as well as individual candy bars his daughter was selling for a school fundraiser.

Putney, he said, told him the woman also gave candy to employees in the sheriff's department.

On Tuesday, Chief Deputy Art Durette sent out a memo to the staff, a copy of which was obtained by the New Hampshire Union Leader, telling them they are not to accept any gift or gratuity, either directly or indirectly.

"Being the holiday season, it is common for people to be in a giving spirit. However, being public employees, we are held to a very high standard. That being said, everyone must comply with our rules and regulations including RR2 VII..." he wrote.

The rule bars the acceptance of any gift, gratuity or reward.

On Monday, Godbout said a manager of a Dunkin' Donuts told him the woman suspected of taking the wreaths was at a Dunkin' Donuts wearing a Santa hat and handing out Van Otis candy.

Godbout said the balsam wreaths were stolen from outside displays at his South Mast Road shop and priced from $29.95 to $39.95 each.

In addition to the price tags, the bows, ornaments, pine cones and signs attached to the wreaths bore Jacques Flower Shop labels, he said.

The bailiff, he said, should have known the items were stolen since they were clearly marked. When they were returned to him, Godbout said they still had the price tags on them.

One of the returned wreaths had a wooden sign that said, "I've been good this year, Santa."

Godbout said the woman suspected of the thefts was a regular customer until he caught her allegedly shoplifting a vase.

When he confronted her, she told him she never stole anything in her life and that she was going to pay for the vase, which he said was in her oversized bag.

She told him she went to Mass every day and her sister was a nun.

"Maybe your sister can pray for you," Godbout said he told her.

Dutch man reports theft of Ecstasy pill collection 

Grits burns lead to battery booking of Boutte woman

Matt Scallan

The Times-Picayune

December 09, 2009, 6:58PM

A Boutte woman who allegedly poured a pot of boiling grits onto her sleeping boyfriend last month was booked with second-degree battery Wednesday.

Carolyn Brown

Carolyn Brown, 44, of Ponderosa Drive, caused second-degree burns on the man's face and arms, according to the St. Charles Parish Sheriff's Office.

The man told sheriff's deputies that he came home from work on Nov. 7, got into an argument with Brown, told her that he was breaking up with her, then went to bed.

The man was treated for second-degree burns on his face and arm. Brown fled the home after the incident and later was arrested in the 1000 block of Paul Maillard Road.

Brown was being held in the Nelson Coleman Correctional Facility in lieu of $40,000 bail.

BEN EVANS

Associated Press Writer

Thursday, December 10, 2009

"Obama has tried desperately to stay away from race, and all of us understand what he's doing," said Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo. "But when you have such a disproportionate number of African-Americans unemployed, it would be irresponsible not to direct attention and resources to the people who are receiving the greatest level of pain."

Dating back to Obama's campaign, many black leaders have pressed him to take more of a stand on the challenges facing minorities. Most voiced criticisms privately for fear of jeopardizing his candidacy or undercutting his popularity after his election. They also have tread lightly so as not to be at odds with their own majority-black constituencies, who strongly support Obama.

But frustration has been building.

The 42-member Congressional Black Caucus flexed its influence last week when 10 of its members held up a financial regulation bill backed by the administration until leaders agreed to add about $3 billion in foreclosure relief for struggling homeowners. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the House Financial Services Committee chairman, later added $1 billion for neighborhood revitalization programs.

During the stalemate, the lawmakers issued a statement saying they would no longer support public policy "defined by the world view of Wall Street."

"Policy for the least of these must be integrated into everything that we do," they said.

And earlier this week, the all-Democratic caucus responded to Obama's proposal for a new jobs package by saying it would insist on initiatives targeted to minorities. Pointing to outsized percentages of African-Americans losing their jobs and homes, caucus Chairwoman Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said Obama must live up to his campaign talk that racial disparities cannot be ignored.

"The facts speak for themselves," Lee said. "The gaps are very real."

Some have sought to pin blame on the president's advisers.

"It's not the president. It's his economic team," said Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla. "I don't think they're doing their job."

The unemployment rate among African-Americans is nearly 16 percent, almost double the 9 percent rate for whites. Roughly one in four blacks lives in poverty, compared with about 11 percent of whites.

Obama was a black caucus member in the Senate before winning the White House last year, but he has never had a close relationship with the group. In recent interviews, he has addressed their criticisms by saying he must represent the entire country, not any one population, and the best way to help low-income communities is to improve the overall economy.

"I think it's a mistake to start thinking in terms of particular ethnic segments of the United States rather than to think that we are all in this together and we are all going to get out of this together," he said.

Many blacks in Congress take exception to that view, arguing that decades of neglect and discrimination warrant particular attention to minority concerns. Veteran black lawmakers such as Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif., and House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, D-Mich., have been among the most vocal.

Conyers told The Hill newspaper that Obama called last month to ask why Conyers was "demeaning" him so much. Conyers has since declined to discuss the call, and Lee wouldn't say whether she has had a similar conversation with the president.

Black lawmakers say the differences are not new and Obama shouldn't take them personally. The caucus has had similar disputes with most recent presidents, including in 1993 when it spurned an invitation to meet with President Bill Clinton over potential budget cuts to domestic programs such as Medicare.

"What I think the CBC is saying is that our voices have to be raised on behalf of our constituents, just as the Blue Dogs or any other caucus does," said Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., referring to the conservative Democratic group that has leverage because it often holds swing votes. "In politics, what happens is the squeaky wheel gets the oil." 

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2009/12/10/national/w002244S82.DTL#ixzz0ZKdHfpIF

Animal shelters seeing glut of Chihuahuas

The once-fashionable little canines are replacing pit bulls as the breed most often left at shelters.

A Chihuahua looks out of a cage at the East Valley Animal Care Center. There are so many of the dogs in local shelters that 25 were flown to a Nashua, N.H., facility last week and placed in homes. (Genaro Molina/Los Angeles Times / December 9, 2009)

Maria L. La Ganga December 10, 2009

LA Times

Prez is poll-axed

First-term approval lags behind even Ford, Carter

MAGGIE HABERMAN

Last Updated: 6:00 AM, December 10, 2009

Posted: 3:43 AM, December 10, 2009

Numbers are not kind to President Obama so far -- his 47 percent approval rating in the crucial Gallup tracking poll is the lowest ever notched for a US commander in chief at this point in his term.

 That under-50 percent figure is less than what unpopular presidents like Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and scandal-plagued Richard Nixon scored 10 to 11 months into their Oval Office tenure, according to Gallup.

Bill Clinton, who came in at a time of economic and political unrest, also stayed above 50 percent.

And Ronald Reagan, who took office in tough economic times, was at 49 percent at this point in his first term.

 George W. Bush was at a remarkable 86 percent at this point in 2001, shortly after 9/11. Bush's poll number skyrocketed in the wake of the attacks.

Obama hit the less-than-magic number despite getting a brief popularity bump for his planned Afghanistan troop surge.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs tried to wave off the number, saying he doesn't put "a lot of stock" in the famous tracking poll that is one of the most venerated yardsticks for rating presidents.

"If I was a heart patient and Gallup was my EKG, I'd visit my doctor," Gibbs said after questions from Fox News.

"I'm sure a 6-year-old with a crayon could do something not unlike that. I don't put a lot of stake in, never have, in the EKG that is the daily Gallup trend. I don't pay a lot of attention to the meaninglessness of it."

That prompted Gallup editor-in-chief Frank Newport to zing back, "I think the doctor might ask him what's going on in his life that would cause his EKG to be fluctuating so much.

"There is, in fact, a lot going on at the moment -- the health-care bill, the jobs summit, the Copenhagen climate conference and Afghanistan."

Obama has faced increasing concerns from nervous Americans over the painful unemployment rate, his health-care reform efforts, and the troubled Afghanistan war. Some question whether he's biting off too much at once.

Meanwhile, in ominous news for the Democrats heading into the midterm congressional elections next year, 59 percent of voters think the country is headed in the wrong direction, a Bloomberg News poll showed.

Just 32 percent are happy with the direction of the nation, the survey found.

While 54 percent approve of the job the president is doing, according to that poll, he gets negative marks on his key policy issues such as health care, the deficit and the economy.

When likely voters were asked for which candidate they'd vote if the 2010 congressional races were held now, they gave Republicans a four-point lead, and independent voters were trending GOP.

Many Democrats have been privately conceding they could face significant losses in Congress if things don't turn around.

The survey was taken from Dec. 3-7.

Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/prez_is_poll_axed_vRUdoiV6dCnRvRh5osB7YI#ixzz0ZHmZGgNK

 McNamee/Getty; Miller/NewsFirms run by Hillary Clinton strategist Mark Penn stand to make a pretty penny from stimulus dollars.

Hillary Clinton pollster Mark Penn is looking at some pretty sweet numbers - namely $6 million in federal stimulus contracts awarded to two firms he controls.

The Hill newspaper reported Wednesday that $5.97 million from the $787 billion stimulus package helped preserve three jobs at Burson-Marsteller, the global PR firm headed by Penn.

The Obama administration awarded the contracts to Burson-Marsteller to work on a public-relations campaign to advertise the national switch from analog to digital television.

A portion of the funds also went to Penn's polling firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates, according to federal records.

Hoping to take some of the air out of the story, Burson-Marsteller put out a statement on Wednesday that said of the $6 million allowed under the competitively bid contract, only about $4.36 million was spent.

Of that, about $1.5 million in fees was pocketed by Penn's two companies. The rest went to pay for ads to get out the word on the analog-to-digital shift, company officials said.

Federal records also show that a former adviser to President Obama's 2008 presidential campaign also received nearly $70,000 from that contract to help alert viewers in difficult-to-reach communities that their televisions would soon no longer receive broadcast signals.

The adviser, Alfredo J. Balsera, who heads a PR firm based in Coral Gables, Fla., helped craft Obama's Hispanic advertising message.

The questionable contracts have emerged as Republicans are already bashing the stimulus package as wasteful and ineffectual.

On Tuesday, Arizona Sen. John McCain declared that "much of the stimulus bill has been a failure" at a press conference where he singled out 100 wasteful projects.

McCain and Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., released a report saying more than $7 billion was "wasted, mismanaged, or directed toward silly and shortsighted projects."

Some of the big-ticket items cited by the two GOPers were $1.3 billion in spending for Amtrak, which loses money on most of its passenger train routes, and $1.9 billion to help speed the long-delayed clean-up of the Energy Department's Hanford nuclear weapons site.

White House officials have countered with figures from the Congressional Budget Office, which has estimated the stimulus helped to create 1.6 million jobs.

But the federal contracts awarded to Penn - one of the most controversial strategists inside or outside The Beltway - are sure to ignite a new firestorm of complaint.

As a presidential candidate, Clinton paid Penn millions of dollars as senior strategist for much of her campaign, although his advice was widely considered to be off the mark. Penn cast Clinton as the steady hand whose years of Washington experience made her the better candidate.

But the electorate was clearly looking for change, a theme that candidate Obama used to maximum effect.

As Secretary of State, Clinton has continued to try and pay off what was a $20 million mountain of leftover campaign debt. And she had largely succeeded - her outstanding debt is down to $995,500. 

Every penny of that $995,500 is owed to to Penn's polling firm, Penn, Schoen & Berland, records show.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2009/12/09/2009-12-09_hillary_clinton_pollster_mark_penn_.html#ixzz0ZFh8ylQN