truesee's Blog

White lightnin': Police find 929 gallons of moonshine under shed in North Carolina mountains

 

N.C. Department of Crime Control Photo

 

 

WILKESBORO, N.C. - North Carolina authorities say they have found 929 gallons of moonshine under a shed in the mountains.

State Alcohol Law Enforcement officials say 63-year-old Roger Lee Nance of Wilkesboro was arrested Wednesday on charges including possession of non-tax-paid liquor for the purpose of selling.

Agency director John Ledford says it's one of the biggest mountain busts he can remember.

Spokeswoman Patty McQuillan says Nance stored moonshine in different-shaped containers under a shed in his backyard and was arrested following a two-month investigation.

A number listed for Nance was disconnected. A woman who answered another number identified herself as Nance's daughter-in-law and said she had no comment. It was not immediately known if he had an attorney.

Food stamps swapped for booze, Viagra

Friday, October 09, 2009 | 8:57 PM

October 9, 2009 (DETROIT) -- Viagra and pornography are not staples on the government's food stamp list. But authorities say a Detroit liquor store supplied them during a series of illegal deals.

Federal prosecutors filed fraud charges this week against three people who worked at Jefferson's Liquor Palace.

The alleged scheme worked this way: Food stamp recipients would get cash from the store in exchange for swiping larger amounts off their electronic cards. The store would then be reimbursed by the U.S. Agriculture Department.

And in some transactions, the government says the store provided informants Viagra, liquor and porn in exchange for swiping about $2,000 off food stamp cards

The government says fraud at the store topped $130,000 over 2 1/2 years. The store is closed.

ATM `skimming' case may be part of a ring

 Larry Altman Staff WriterPosted: 10/08/2009 11:51:28 PM PDT
   

Manhattan Beach detective Joe Aiello shows the electronic underside of the fake ATM pin pad that was used to skim ATM pin passwords at the Citibank in Manhattan Beach. (Brad Graverson Staff Photographer) 

George Puflene is a suspect in Manhattan Beach ATM skimming case. withdrawals from bank accounts ranging from $100 to $10,000.

George Puflene, 26, isn't talking since his arrest Sept. 25. Police believe Puflene had made a return trip to the Manhattan Village bank on Sepulveda Boulevard near Marine Avenue that evening in an attempt to steal customers' account and PIN numbers.

"We actually arrested him as he was placing the skimmer on the ATM machine," Manhattan Beach police Detective Joe Aiello said. "We found out Monday that was not the first time they had placed the skimmer on the ATM machine. We are now starting to uncover victims."

Redondo Beach resident Stephen Chan said Puflene was standing at the automated teller machine with three other men when Chan and his roommate, Ali

 

Al-Nasser, went to make a deposit about 8 p.m.

Puflene was feeding a stack of credit cards into the machine, but not withdrawing any money, Chan said.

"I thought he was doing credit card skimming as soon as I saw him," Chan said. "He was taking an awfully long time. He had a very large stack of cards in his hand. It looked an inch thick, a dozen, 15 cards."

Puflene and the other man were speaking a foreign language, Al-Nasser said.

Police believe Chan and Al-Nasser arrived at the ATM as Puflene and the men installed an overlay on the ATM to commit fraud.

Three of the men left together. Chan used the ATM after Puflene left alone.

Sensing they had witnessed something criminal, Al-Nasser and Chan decided to watch Puflene, who drove his white Lexus near the Bank of America branch, and called police.

Aiello said officers stopped Puflene and returned to check on the ATM. They discovered an aluminum and plastic plate placed over the ATM's keyboard.

The overlay perfectly fit onto the keyboard area at the bottom of the ATM. When someone used the keys, they pressed into the ATM's keys below to operate the machine.

As they did, a motherboard energized by a cell phone battery underneath the plate recorded the PIN codes, Aiello said.

The plate and keyboard are so similar to the real thing, police said, customers could not easily tell the difference.

"They literally built this from scratch," Aiello said.

Police discovered that the second ATM at the bank was disabled, so every customer had to use the doctored machine.

Puflene was arrested before he could install an additional device atop the card reader that would steal account numbers from magnetic stripes, Aiello said.

Police believe Puflene would have returned a couple of days later to retrieve the two devices, allowing the theft ring to create ATM cards using stolen account numbers and PIN codes to use later at ATMs to withdraw cash.

Investigators believe Puflene and his alleged counterparts had intended to install the devices on the ATM for the weekend, collecting them Sunday night.

Police did not immediately know at the time that Puflene and a theft group already had been successful with a device at the same bank.

"They don't take the money right away," Aiello said.

On Sunday, customers began seeing illegal withdrawals from their accounts and started reporting them to police, Aiello said.

Reports started rolling in on Monday, but not all of the 50 victims have made police reports.

"If they've used the Citibank ATM and they've noticed withdrawals that they did not make, then they are most likely victims of the skimming and they need to file a police report with the Manhattan Beach Police Department as soon as possible," Aiello said.

Citibank has reimbursed its customers for the money lost, making itself the primary victim.

Investigators believe a similar phony keyboard and card reader were placed on the Citibank ATM the weekend of Sept 18, 19 and 20, when customers' account numbers and PIN codes were stolen, Aiello said.

Police have reportedly recovered photographs of Puflene and another man at the machine on those dates.

Omodele Ogunmola, assistant manager at the Manhattan Beach branch, said the bank's fraud unit immediately notified customers who used the ATM that weekend. Their ATM cards were canceled and new ones were issued.

Ogunmola said the ATMs outside the bank are equipped with devices to detect tampering, but the devices were not operating when the fraud occurred.

On Monday, thieves made 100 unsuccessful attempts in Las Vegas to withdraw cash from machines using stolen numbers, Aiello said. The bank had already closed the card accounts.

The crimes also occurred after hours and on weekends, when bank employees are not around, Ogunmola and Aiello said.

ATM skimming has become an increasing crime across the nation and is often tied to Russian mobsters.

The Manhattan Beach case is the second major ATM skimming operation discovered in the South Bay since May.

As many as 1,000 people who used ATM cards to buy gas at an Arco station in Redondo Beach became victims of thieves who recorded their numbers at the pump. About $200,000 was withdrawn from accounts at several banks.

No arrests have been made.

Aiello is working to try to identify other members of the ring involved with Puflene, who remains in county jail without bail.

Federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement authorities have placed a hold on him. Puflene held a work authorization card.

Prosecutors have charged Puflene with computer access and fraud, theft, fraudulent possession and use of a scanning device, and possession of burglary tools.

Puflene pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Sept. 29 and is scheduled to return to court Wednesday.

He previously lived in Florida before coming to Southern California. He told detectives he lived with a friend, but refused to say where, Aiello said.

The Craz-E Burger: heart stopping but delicious

It has been called everything from “an act of culinary patriotism” to a “sign of the Apocalypse”. The Craz-E Burger is the latest food fad sweeping America. Nick Allen tried one.

 

Published: 8:09AM BST 09 Oct 2009t

Nick Allen eyes up a Craz-E Burger

 

The feast consists of a bacon cheeseburger with a buttered, grilled and glazed doughnut standing in for a bun

The recipe is simple: take one burger dripping in its own fat, garnish with two juicy strips of streaky bacon and a generous wedge of melted, oozing cheese. Then stick the lot inside a glazed and buttered doughnut.

You are left with a gut-busting, 1,500-calorie mountain of sugar and fat that makes a Big Mac look like a health snack.

And if that’s not enough to satisfy your yearning for lard you can also try deep frying the doughnut first. On no account add any lettuce or tomato. This meal is a nutrition free zone.

Health conscious celebrity chefs would probably have a heart attack at the very thought of the Craz-E Burger but the truth is it’s somewhat of a taste sensation. It combines the feeling of chomping on a cheeseburger with the satisfaction of sating a sweet tooth.

There’s also no need for dessert because the lingering taste of sugar means you feel like you’ve already had one. The whole heart stopping ensemble takes just 10 minutes to prepare and the result looks pretty unappealing. But after the first bite I was hooked.

The doughnut was much tastier and sweeter than a normal, bland hamburger bun and the sugar helps to meld the other ingredients together. After wolfing one down in a few minutes I felt like another straightaway.

Some 3,000 calories later I felt distinctly fatter but definitely ready to repeat the exercise the next day. It was delicious. My heart didn't stop beating and my arteries were still flowing.

In notoriously calorie conscious Los Angeles the Craz-E-Burger may face an uphill struggle to catch on so I decided to test it out on Amber Smith, 38, a healthy Hollywood actress and model. After looking more than a little cautiously at the gargantuan burger on her plate Miss Smith tucked in and nearly finished the lot.

“It’s a funny taste but it's really not bad,” she said. “Not bad at all. I like it. It’s like having a burger and a dessert and putting them together so it’s fast, fast food. If I was hungry I’d definitely eat the whole thing.

“Lots of people wouldn’t want to be seen dead with a burger like that though, it’s twice the amount of calories some women in Los Angeles have in a day. It's tasty though."

Miss Smith was less enthusiastic about the addition of a deep fried doughnut to her Craz-E Burger. "It burns the glaze off the doughnut so it's not as sweet," she said. "It's just like eating a burger soaked in oil."

Like two other American staples – Coca Cola and chocolate chip cookies – the Craz-E Burger was produced by accident. While the inventor of Coca Cola was trying to make a medicinal tonic, the creator of the Craz-E Buger was a chef in Decatur, Georgia who ran out of burger baps and, in desperation, used doughnuts instead.

He originally called it the Luther Burger because the singer Luther Vandross was reputed to like them. The name Craz-E Burger was chosen in a competition on Facebook, winning out over other more descriptive suggestions like “Heart Attack on a Bun” and “The E-Normous.”

It only came to national prominence this week after going on sale at the Big E, an agricultural fair in Massachusetts where the burgers were snapped up at the rate of 1,000 a day.

The merits of the doughnut burger have now divided America with some claiming it marks the beginning of the end. Doctors say it's a killer.

Leading the anti-burger charge Shepard Smith, the influential Fox News anchor, said: “Good God. There are a lot of ways to end it all. You could take a bottle of pills...or you could just eat one of those. I don’t know man, there are signs of the Apocalypse, you hear about them, this may be one of them.”

Perhaps he’d feel differently if he tried one.

http://news.aol.ca/article/rare-video-of-anne-frank-posted-online/715554/

US President Barack Obama wins Nobel Peace Prize

AP

October 9, 2009

5:10am

OSLO – The Norwegian Nobel Committee says U.S. President Barack Obama has won the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples."

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

OSLO (AP) — Zimbabwe's Prime Minister Morgan Tsvangirai, Colombian senator Piedad Cordoba and Chinese dissident Hu Jia are among the favorites to win the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize, Norwegian national broadcaster NRK reported Friday.

French-Colombian politician Ingrid Betancourt and Afghan woman's rights activist Simi Samar also are possible candidates for the prestigious prize, NRK said, about an hour before the Norwegian Nobel committee was set to announce the prize at 11 a.m. (0900GMT).

As always, the five-member Norwegian Nobel Committee has remained tightlipped about its decision, which it made earlier this week, but will unveil its choice Friday. A record 205 nominations were received this year.

"We've had all the meetings we're going to have, and done what we needed to do," the committee's nonvoting secretary Geir Lundestad told The Associated Press Thursday.

British bookmaker Ladbrokes and its Irish counterpart, PaddyPower, give the best odds to imprisoned Hu, Cordoba, Prince Ghazi bin Muhammad of Jordan, and Samar.

Hu, a human rights activist and an outspoken critic of the Chinese government, was sentenced last year to a three-and-a-half-year prison term for "inciting subversion of state power" ahead of the Beijing Olympics. He also was a favorite for the prize last year, when the 10 million kronor ($1.4 million) award went to Finland's ex-president Martti Ahtisaari for decades of work as a peace mediator.

Kristian Berg Harpviken, the director of the Peace Research Institute, Oslo, said he favored Cordoba, who leads Colombians for Peace, an organization whose aim is to facilitate peace negotiations between the government and the country's leftist FARC guerrillas.

Cordoba is a polarizing figure in Colombia owing to her close relations with Venezuela's leftist president, Hugo Chavez, and her criticisms of Colombian President Alvaro Uribe's government as an illegitimate "mafia state" that came to power with the help of right-wing death squads.

Despite that polemical status, she has been at the forefront of efforts to peacefully end her country's half-century-old conflict, which is rooted in deep social divisions. She was nominated by Adolfo Perez Esquivel, an Argentine who won the peace prize in 1980 and is a fierce critic of Uribe.

Guesses from the Peace Research Institute — an annual ritual — have become the cornerstone of world Nobel Peace Prize speculation. However, institute officials admit they have no inside information, and they rarely predict the winner.

Harpviken also mentioned bin Muhammad, a philosophy professor in Jordan who advocates interfaith dialogue in the Middle East, a region shot through with sectarian violence, and Samar. She currently leads the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission and serves as the U.N. special envoy to Darfur.

He said he thought this year's award would go toward making "an impact on evolving processes" — such as armed conflict resolution — with the hope of encouraging their continuation.

In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel stipulated that the peace prize should go "to the person who shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between the nations and the abolition or reduction of standing armies and the formation and spreading of peace congresses."

Unlike the other Nobel Prizes, which are awarded by Swedish institutions, he said the peace prize should be given out by a five-member committee elected by the Norwegian Parliament. Sweden and Norway were united under the same crown at the time of Nobel's death.

The committee has taken a wide interpretation of Nobel's guidelines, expanding the prize beyond peace mediation to include efforts to combat poverty, disease and climate change. Some experts believe the committee will turn to human rights this year, because it hasn't picked a human rights activist since tapping Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi for the prize in 2003.

"Twenty years since Tiananmen Square? Maybe a Chinese?" said Dan Smith, of the London-based International Alert peace group.

Emerging superpower China remains deeply sensitive about criticism of its bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy protesters at Tiananmen Square. And awarding dissidents would be a major poke-in-the-eye in the year the communist regime, established 60 years ago, celebrates its diamond jubilee.

The committee is famous for making grand symbolic gestures aimed at influencing the world agenda, as in 1989 when, in the wake of the Tiananmen massacre, the prize went to the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader.

Although most of the buzz this year surrounds Hu, another candidate could be Wei Jingsheng, who spent 17 years in Chinese prisons for urging reforms of China's communist system. He now lives in the United States.

Harpviken told journalists last week that he was skeptical of suggestions that a dissident of any nationality might win the prize this year. He noted that Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland, who just ended a four-year term as president of Norway's parliament, was elected secretary general of the Council of Europe on Sept. 29.

Harpviken said he believes Jagland's connection to both the Norwegian government and a major pan-European organization will make the committee "careful" about who it chooses, hoping to avoid a public debate about its political independence. He also suggested that Jagland might want to avoid complicating his five-year term at the helm of the Council of Europe.

"It would be hard to think that it hasn't had an impact" on the deliberation process, Harpviken said.

Jan Egeland, director of Oslo's Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, said he nominated Denis Mukwege, a physician in war-torn Congo who opened a clinic to help rape victims.

"He is working for the people in the biggest war," he said. "Sometimes the committee has to address the biggest wars."

 

 

 

World Reacts to News:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091009/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nobel_world_reaction

 

 

Analysis:

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091009/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_nobel_analysis

 

Myths concering Nobel Peace Prize:

 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091009/ap_on_re_eu/eu_nobel_peace_myths

http://meview.metro.co.uk/Video.aspx?id=47030

Scaredy-cat postmen to blacklist Magic?

The Western Mercury
08 October 2009

 Magic, with Sam.

PETRIFIED postman are threatening to halt mail deliveries to a Weston couple - because they are afraid of being attacked by their CAT.

Mailmen say they have been mauled by Magic so often they are considering blacklisting the fearsome feline's Waverley Road address.

They say mail dropping through the letterbox prompts the three-year-old moggy to burst from his cat-flap and launch an attack.

Royal Mail's Weston delivery manager Peter Floyd visited Magic's stunned owners Sam Enan-McKinnon and husband Tariq to break the news of the ban on Monday.

Sam, a 25-year-old nurse, told the Mercury she was amazed to learn her peaceful pussy was being accused of postman persecution.

She said: "We're stunned. The head of the delivery unit came to our house yesterday to tell us mail services will be suspended if we don't 'address the problem'.

"I told them my cat wouldn't hurt a fly. We carried out an experiment where the man from Royal Mail pretended to post something, but Magic didn't do anything at all.

"Their solution is for us to block the cat-flap, but I'm a nurse and work odd hours, and we can't leave Magic locked in the house all day.

"He's a soft cat, we've never seen him attack someone, and we've never heard of him hurting anyone before. I can't believe they are saying this."

A letter to the couple from Mr Floyd confirmed the terrifying tabby's aggressive antics are being blamed for the mail ban.

It says: "I am writing to let you know that our post person, while delivering mail to your address, was menaced by your cat. This has happened for the last three days.

"I believe that your cat, as soon as it hears the letterbox, is straight out the cat-flap and attacks the post person.

"Animal attacks are a major cause of injury to Royal Mail staff.

"If any further incidents of this nature are allowed to take place, I shall have no alternative other than to consider suspending the delivery of mail to your home.

McRage over wrong size french fries 

 

Oct 08, 2009

03:57 PMLast update Oct 08, 2009 @ 05:09 PMQUINCY —

 

Aaron Gouveia

Cape Cod Online

October 08, 2009

FALMOUTH – An East Falmouth teen attacked several of his family members after his mother punished him by taking away his cell phone, according to police reports.

Brandon Turner, 18, drew his mother’s ire on Monday night when he hit his 15-year-old brother. But when Kimberly Turner took away her son’s cell phone as punishment for the fraternal spat, police said Brandon’s aggressive behavior escalated and then exploded the next day.

Brandon laid down on the bottom part of his bunk bed and began kicking the top bed until it collapsed on him, police said. His mother tried to lift the bed off her son, but Brandon kicked her in the throat

During the struggle, police said Brandon threw a glass baking dish at his mother, head-butted his brother and struck his mother in the leg with a metal pooper scooper.

John Turner, a corrections officer at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility, eventually had to use handcuffs to subdue his son.

When police arrived, they found a handcuffed Brandon chasing his family members around the yard and yelling “just shoot me.” Police had to use leg shackles to get Brandon under control.

Brandon Turner was arraigned in Falmouth District Court on three counts of assault and battery, assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, two counts of assault with a dangerous weapon, malicious destruction of property over $250, threatening to commit a crime, disorderly conduct and resisting arrest.

He was held on $1,000 bail at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility and is scheduled for a pretrial hearing on Nov. 4.

Nobel Prize: ten most important winners

As the 2009 Nobel Prize winners are announced, we look at ten of the most influential laureates in the history of the awards.

 

Nick Collins
4:24PM BST 08 Oct 2009

Professor Marie Curie working in her laboratory at the University of Paris in 1925 Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

1. Marie Curie

The leading light in a family that between them amassed a remarkable five Nobel Prizes in the fields of Chemistry and Physics. She became the first woman to win a Nobel Prize in 1903 when she was recognised, along with her husband Pierre and Antoine Henri Becquerel, with the Physics award for their research into radiation.

 

She later became the first person to receive two Nobel Prizes when she was given the Chemistry Prize in 1911 for her discovery of radium and polonium, and her further research into radium. She is among a select group of people to have won prizes in two different fields.

2. Martin Luther King Jr.

The American civil rights activist was the youngest person to be recognised by the Nobel foundation when he won the Peace Prize in 1964, at the age of 35, for his work to end racial discrimination through non-violent means.

Even after his death in 1968 King's legacy lived on, and his image is still used today as a symbol by human rights groups around the world.

3. Albert Einstein

Arguably the world's most famous scientist, Einstein was given the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1921 for his services to physics, especially his discovery of the law of the photoelectric effect.

During his career he made significant contributions to the world of theoretical physics, among them his famous theories of relativity.

4. Francis Crick, James Watson and Maurice Wilkins

These three scientists were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1962 for their discovery of the "double helix" structure of DNA nine years earlier.

The award was deemed controversial because of the death of Rosalind Franklin, a collaborator with Wilkins, four years earlier. Nobel foundation rules, which state the prizes cannot be given posthumously, meant her work was not recognised.

5. Jean-Paul Sartre

The French existentialist philosopher, writer and literary critic was the first person to turn down a Nobel Prize in 1964 when he declined the Prize for Literature.

Sartre is still recorded as the winner by the Nobel federation for his influential work which was "filled with the spirit of freedom and the quest for truth".

6. Sir Alexander Fleming

Sir Alexander shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ernst Chain and Sir Howard Florey for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect on infectious diseases.

The Scot made his discovery accidentally when he returned to his untidy laboratory from a holiday to discover a fungus had developed that destroyed the bacteria immediately surrounding it.

7. Hermann Muller

The American won the same prize as Fleming a year later, in 1946, for his discovery of the mutating effects of X-ray radiation.

His research and continued argument against nuclear war made him a figure of great political significance in later years as nuclear weapons became an increasingly controversial subject.

8. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn

The Russian novelist and dissident, who spent time in a Soviet labour camp after writing letters that criticised the communist regime, received the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1970.

His most famous novels, The Gulag Archipelago and One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich, for which he received the award, exposed the brutality of the Soviet Union's forced labour camps.

9. The International Committee of the Red Cross

The highest number of Nobel Prize wins goes to the International Committee of the Red Cross with three separate Nobel Peace Prizes.

In 1917 and 1944 the organisation was recognised for its work during the First and Second World Wars, and it was named as a winner again in 1963, along with the League of Red Cross Societies, to mark its 100th anniversary.

10. Sir Clive Granger

The Welsh economist won the 2003 Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences for his methods of analysing economic statistics, which revolutionised the way economists interpret financial data.

His prize was shared with Robert Engle III, for his research in a similar area.

October 6, 2009

Mask-wearing inmate sparks his attorney’s swine flu fears

Jail policy aims to stem spread of illness; in this case, it led to delay in proceedings

Meghann M. Cuniff

Spokesman-Review

 

Mitchell A. Hardin’s attorney wanted nothing to do with him.

Set to enter a plea on a residential burglary charge in Spokane County Superior Court last week, the 21-year-old inmate was told he had to wait another day.

His lawyer, seeing a surgical mask Hardin was wearing, feared contracting the H1N1 virus and wouldn’t go near the jail inmate in court. Hardin said at the time he didn’t feel ill, but he had in the past few days and he shared a cell with sick inmates.

None appears to have H1N1, or swine flu, but Spokane County Jail officials aren’t taking any chances.

Under a new policy implemented in the past two weeks, inmates who show symptoms of flu or a cold – and anyone near them – must wear protective masks when they leave their cells. That includes court appearances.

But the reaction from Todd Porter, Hardin’s public defender, and subsequent delay of a scheduled court proceeding prompted Spokane County Superior Judge Maryann Moreno to call a meeting this Thursday with jail staff and attorneys to sort out what she predicted “is going to snowball into an issue.”

“Are we going to do this with all people who have the sniffles?” Moreno said in court last week, referring to Hardin. “This seems a little paranoid to me, with all due respect.”

Jail officials say they’re taking the extra precautions to prevent a widespread outbreak. About 20 inmates are affected, including one man whose transfer to Oregon was postponed last week because officials didn’t want to run the risk of spreading illness.

“Sometimes we’re taking these precautions when there’s no indication they have the flu,” said jail Lt. Dan Veloski. “We just wanted to nip it in the bud as quick as we could.”

Last week’s sentencing delay was caused by a misconception about H1N1 and the new mask policy, Veloski said.

“People still don’t understand what swine flu is,” he said. “A lot of people believe it’s airborne, and that’s not true. It’s the virus inside their cough or their sneeze.”

This week’s meeting should help clear that up. “We want to protect the people in that court,” Veloski said. “Things could spread very quickly in this type of environment.”

In the meeting, Veloski said, jail staff will explain to attorneys “what our protocol is and what certain individuals may be wearing masks when they come to court.”

The surgical masks are meant to catch contagious droplets in coughs or sneezes, which experts say is the most common way to contract H1N1.

“Are they 100 percent effective? No,” Veloski said. “But they’re better than nothing.”

No one else in the courtroom for Mitchell’s sentencing objected to proceeding, but Porter’s reluctance to sit next to his mask-wearing client was understandable, said David Brody, an associate professor at Washington State University and director of the Spokane campus’s criminal justice program.

“I can understand everyone’s perspective,” Brody said. “My concern would be whether it impacts a defendant’s right to go to court. Will it get to the point where they’ll want to do sentencing over video?”

Hardin shrugged when Moreno asked him what he thought of the mask in court last week. Interviewed later, he called the policy “dumb.” He said he chuckled when Moreno told him he looked “pretty silly.” “I was sitting there smiling, but no one could see,” Hardin said.

 

LINK TO PHOTO AND STORY:

 

 

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2009/oct/06/mask-wearing-inmate-sparks-his-attorneys-swine/

Father, son arrested while trying to score heroin

Lucas Sullivan 

Wednesday, October 7, 2009, 09:40 AM

 

DAYTON - A father and son are in Montgomery County Jail on drug-related charges after they told officers monitoring drug activity Tuesday, Oct. 6, they were trying to buy some heroin.

 

Charles Rosenbaum II, 25

 Charles Rosenbaum Sr., 47

Charles Rosenbaum Sr., 47, and Charles Rosenbaum II, 25, were in the 2100 block of Benson Drive in a blue Chevy Monte Carlo that was pulled over about 7 p.m. by police for a license plate violation, according to a police report.

The Rosenbaums told officers they were in the area trying to buy some heroin, the report stated. Officers found the younger Rosenbaum with a needle and his father had a crack pipe in his possession, the report stated.

Both are being charged with misdemeanor loitering charges and possessing drug paraphernalia, the report stated.

Naked burglar tells Slidell police he has medical problem

Jeff Adelson

The Times-Picayune

October 07, 2009, 8:01PM

A Luling man who broke into a Slidell home while naked, made himself a meal and took a shower before fleeing has told police he was suffering from a medical problem during the bizarre break-in, authorities said Wednesday.

 

Slidell Police DepartmentThe naked burglar

cooked and took a shower while ransacking

a Slidell home early Monday morning, police said.

 

Slidell police planned to question the man, whose name has not been released, on Wednesday night and determine whether he will be booked with a crime, Slidell police spokesman Capt. Kevin Foltz said.

Police received a call Tuesday evening from a relative of the man who saw news media reports about the early Monday morning break-in, Foltz said. Investigators then spoke with the man, who agreed to come in for questioning, he said.

Police were told the man was suffering from a medical problem related to his diabetes during the break-in, Foltz said.

Video cameras at a house in the Country Club Estates subdivision captured the man striding up to the house naked on Monday about 1 a.m. He rinsed himself off with a garden hose in the driveway and knocked on the front door of the empty home before sitting covered in a garbage bag in the backyard.

The man then broke into the home and ransacked the place before making himself a meal and taking a shower. He then fled the home wrapped only in a sheet.

The 61-year-old homeowner, who was visiting her son on the West Bank all weekend, found out about the break-in after returning home Monday and gave police the surveillance video from her home security system.

The man had apparently left his car on a nearby highway before the break-in, Assistant Chief Jesse Simon said.

Mom, daughter accused in beating, choking of ‘snitch’

Lucas Sullivan 

Dayton Daily News

Monday, October 5, 2009, 11:02 AM

 

DAYTON - Three people are in Montgomery County Jail after a man said the three beat, choked and tried to kill him because the group believes he told police about their drug habits.

 

Debbie Sandifer

Lonnie Black

 

 

 Brandy McBeath

The 35-year-old victim was in his apartment in the 100 block of Central Avenue about 5 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 4, when he heard a knock of his door, according to a police report.

 

He said Lonnie D. Black, 24, wanted him to come out so the two could fight. The victim said after Black left after he refused to come out of his apartment, the report stated.

 

Fearing that his car would get damaged, the victim went out to check on the vehicle, he told police. On the way to the parking lot, Black reappeared and confronted the victim.

 

The two men were about to fight when Brandy McBeath, 26, and her mother Debbie Sandifer, 51, arrived, the victim told police.

 

The victim said Sandifer tried four times to strike him with a club, while McBeath picked up a long piece of wood and struck him twice in the face, the report stated.

 

The victim hit McBeath with a club and the group fled the scene, the report stated. As the victim walked back to his apartment, Black came up from behind and choked the man with a shower curtain rod.

 

The victim hit Black with an object and was able to escape.

 

When officers arrived Black was armed with a “weighted club” wrapped around his wrist and telling at the victim, “I want to kill him,” the report stated.

 

The victim told officers he was attacked because McBeath and Sandifer were arrested on Thursday after officers found them with the drugs, according to a police report. McBeath and Sandifer thought the victim “snitched” or told police they were involved in drugs, he told police.

 

Officers found McBeath and Sandifer at their apartment at 628 Plymouth Ave. While searching the apartment, officers found 1.24 grams of crack cocaine, a crack pipe and a broken shower curtain rod believed to be used in the assault.

 

The apartment was labeled a nuisance, and Sandifer and another man living there were presented with nuisance abatement paperwork, the report stated.

 

Sandifer, McBeath and Black were taken to Montgomery County Jail each on one felonious assault charge. Their victim was treated for minor injuries.