truesee's Blog

Postman steals sex toys, lingerie from mail

Evening Telegraph

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/rockandpopfeatures/6198897/100-songs-that-defined-the-Noughties.html

Citigroup CEO says $100 million annual pay is too much

 

Chief Executive Vikram Pandit

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Citigroup (C.N) Chief Executive Vikram Pandit said on Thursday that $100 million is too much for an employee to earn given the bank's circumstances.

In an interview before an audience in New York, when asked if $100 million was too much money for a Citigroup employee to earn given the government support the bank has received, Pandit said, "Yes."

Andrew Hall, a trader at a Citigroup unit, is contractually entitled to a 2009 pay package that could be worth $100 million. Prior Citigroup management signed the agreement that compels the bank to pay Hall so much, Pandit said.

Hall's massive pay package is a serious challenge for Kenneth Feinberg, the man U.S. President Barack Obama appointed to review executive pay at banks that accepted government bailouts. If the "pay czar" is seen as soft on Hall's pay, the public outcry could be strong. Hall's potential $100 million payday is equal to about 2,000 times median household income in the United States in 2008.

But it is not clear if Feinberg has authority to limit Hall's pay, given that the trader's contract was put in place well before February 11, 2009, the cut-off date for the pay czar's authority over compensation agreements.

Hall works at Citigroup energy trading unit Phibro, a business that Pandit said he is working to turn into an asset manager that invests money from outside investors, instead of a unit that trades Citigroup's money.

Citigroup has received more government support than other major U.S. banks after suffering big losses from bad assets linked to consumer debt. It has collected more than $45 billion of government capital in two separate transactions last year.

A third deal that closed this month converted about $25 billion of that capital into common stock, with the rest being turned into securities known as trust preferred shares. That transaction stabilized a measure of the bank's capital strength.

But the bank is still offering hefty multi-million dollar guaranteed bonuses to some new employees, sources told Reuters earlier this year.

DISAPPEARING NOISE?

The government now owns about 34 percent of Citigroup, but according to Pandit, is not involved in the bank's daily affairs. News reports have said that some regulators have pushed for Pandit's ouster, but the CEO said on Thursday that as long as the company still executes on its strategy, "all the noise will disappear."

Citigroup, like other major banks, submitted information on its top employees' pay packages to Kenneth Feinberg over the summer. Feinberg is reviewing those contracts now.

Citigroup has suffered during the credit crisis, but some investors are increasingly optimistic about its outlook. The assets widely perceived as being likely to suffer next, such as commercial real estate loans, are not a large part of the bank's balance sheet.

Pandit noted that the bank's shares trade at about their tangible book value, or accounting value, while most banks' shares trade above their book value. On that basis, "We feel there's some upside" to the bank's shares, Pandit added.

 

Written by Dan Wilchins

(Editing by Gary Hill and Muralikumar Anantharaman)

Illnesses blamed on bit of plastic in lung

John Manley's suffering was a mystery.

For more than a year, the 50-year-old Wilmington home remodeler was wracked with coughing spells. He had no energy. He battled frequent bouts of pneumonia.

His wife bought him two dogs because she hoped the animals might cheer him up and compel him to get out of the house.

“I thought he was depressed,” Karen Manley says. “He was in bed all the time.”

Finally, last week, Manley got a diagnosis.

Deep in his left lung was lodged a jagged, inch-long piece of a plastic eating utensil from a Wendy's restaurant. Manley speculates he sucked in the piece with a drink.

“I'm a gulper,” he says. “I gulp stuff. I always have.”

He has no recollection of inhaling the plastic. But soon after eating at Wendy's about 18 months ago, his health took a downward spiral. Wilmington doctors figured he was suffering complications from an earlier heart attack or was battling a bad bug. He took round after round of antibiotics.

“I was coughing up a lung,” he says. “That's an exact statement.”

Finally, after gagging on blood and spending a week in the hospital, Manley asked doctors to run a scope into his lungs. Sure enough, something was there, in the left lung stem. It even had some writing on it. The doctor could see an “S.”

After several failed attempts to extract the item, Manley was referred to another doctor, who suggested removing the entire left lung.

“I said, no, I wouldn't be doing that,” Manley says.

That's when he decided to seek a second opinion at Duke University Medical Center.

Dr. Momen Wahidi, director of interventional pulmonology, said Manley's case presented challenges because so much scar tissue had formed.

But he was soon able to uncover more of the mystery item. He called out letters — an A, a B, a U, an R.

“We figured out… it was saying hamburger,” Wahidi says. “But why would something that says hamburger be in this patient's body?”

That's a question Manley is still pondering. Last week, after awaking from surgery for the removal of the object and immediately feeling better, Manley says this much he knows: He will now and forever drink through a straw.

The newest and weirdest entries in the Guinness Book of World Records 2010

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/picturegalleries/howaboutthat/6199171/The-newest-and-weirdest-entries-in-the-Guinness-Book-of-World-Records-2010.html

Burglar leaves his Facebook page on victim’s computer

Edward Marshall

The Journal Staff Writer

MARTINSBURG - The popular online social networking site Facebook helped lead to an alleged burglar's arrest after he stopped check his account on the victim's computer, but forgot to log out before leaving the home with two diamond rings.

Jonathan G. Parker, 19, of Fort Loudoun, Pa., was arraigned Tuesday one count of felony daytime burglary.

According to court records, Deputy P.D. Ware of the Berkeley County Sheriff's Department responded on Aug. 28 to the victim's home after she reported the burglary.

She told police that someone had broken into her home through a bedroom window.

There were open cabinets in her garage, and other signs of a burglar.

The victim later noticed that the intruder also used her computer to check his Facebook status, and his account was still open when she checked the computer.

The victim later noticed that she was missing two diamond rings from her dresser in the same room as her computer.

The two rings were worth more than $3,500, reports indicate.

During the investigation, a friend of the victim told her that he knew where Parker was staying, in the same area as the victim's house.

Police then went to the home and spoke with a friend of Parker's.

The man said Parker had stopped by his home occasionally, but he said the man didn't live there.

He also said that the night before the burglary, Parker asked him if he wanted to help break into the victim's home but he refused.

As of Tuesday evening, Parker remained in custody at the Eastern Regional Jail on $10,000 bail.

If convicted he faces one to 10 years in prison.

Man to 911: bar won't serve me

Rita Farlow

St Petesburg Staff Writer
In Print: Thursday, September 17, 2009

CLEARWATER — If the bartender won't serve you anymore, it may be time to call a friend for a ride, or maybe a taxi.

Calling 911 is probably not the best idea.

But that's what a Clearwater man did Tuesday night, police said.

Vincent Smith, 54, who is homeless, was arrested by Clearwater police on a misdemeanor charge of misusing the 911 system around 9 p.m. in the 1300 block of Cleveland Street.

Smith called "numerous times" and was still on the phone with 911 when police arrived, an arrest report said. He also complained that a local soup kitchen wouldn't feed him, the report said.

Clark Hubbard, who owns the Idle Spur Saloon, said his bartender cut Smith off because he was intoxicated.

"We called him a cab," said Hubbard. "Then he got out front and got in an argument with the cab driver and it kind of escalated from there."

Smith had two "Jack (Daniels) and Cokes," at the bar, said Hubbard, "But you don't know what they've been drinking before they get here."

Hubbard said his bartender asked police to issue a trespass warning to Smith, who on Wednesday afternoon remained in the Pinellas County Jail in lieu of $150 bail.

ALICIA GALLEGOS

Tribune Staff Writer

 

(WSBT photo)

Beth Boehne

Earlier this year, a former catering employee at the University of Notre Dame mistakenly was paid more than her share of a gratuity — about $29,000 more.

Instead of returning the money, a recent lawsuit filed by the university alleges that Sara Gaspar spent the extra cash on bills and a new car. Now, the college wants its money back.

Gaspar, meanwhile, says she tried to alert the university about the large sum that showed up in her bank account, but that when her messages weren’t returned, she decided it was meant to be.

"I guess because it was there and I was in a bad situation, I went out and spent it," Gaspar said when reached by phone.

A spokesman for Notre Dame on Tuesday said officials could not comment on the case because it was a pending legal matter.

Gaspar, 47, started working for the university’s catering department, Catering By Design, in January, according to court documents.

On April 17, the employee was to be paid a gratuity of $29.87, but because of a "mistake," court documents say a total of $29,387 was deposited into her account.

Although, the lawsuit claims Gaspar never notified the university about the inappropriate gratuity, Gaspar insists she did.

The woman says she called the university at least three times, saying, "I think there’s a problem."

But Gaspar says catering officials told her there was no mistake and that supervisors told her only that they would pass the message on to the human resources department.

When she didn’t hear back, Gaspar said she assumed the gratuity was intentional. After years of medical problems and hard times, she believed she was finally catching a break.

"I was so excited," Gaspar said. "I thought, I could pay some of these bills."

The former employee has also since contacted an attorney and says she was told that because the money was under "gratuity" and not "wages" that she was in the clear.

The enormous tip indeed went toward medical bills and a 2002 Volkswagen Jetta, Gaspar said.

It wasn’t until May that university officials discovered the mistake and contacted Gaspar, according to court documents. Notre Dame is now seeking repayment of the $29,387 plus attorney fees and other court expenses.

However, Gaspar says there is no money to be collected. It’s all gone.

"I don’t have anything," she says.

Gaspar was fired from her job with the catering department after the university found the tip blunder. She now works part time at a local restaurant, while living with her mother in Granger.

The thrill of the big tip has now turned to fear.

"How am I ever going to win against them?" she says. "Nobody wants to take this case."

Staff writer Alicia Gallegos:

Suburban Teacher Accused Of Giving Kids Booze, Pot

Kym Krocza Taught In Fox Lake

Kym Krocza, an algebra teacher at Grant Community High School in Fox Lake, has been charged with giving alcohol and marijuana to students at her home.

Lake County Sheriff's Office

WAUKEGAN, Ill. (STNG) ? A 41-year-old far north suburban high school teacher has been chargedwith two counts of contributing to the criminal delinquency of a juvenile after a police investigation found she had supplied students with marijuana and alcohol at her home.

The investigation began when a concerned parent reported to the Lake County Sheriff's office that her child had been to Kym Krocza's home recently, and the child was supplied with alcohol and marijuana by Krocza, according to a release from Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran's office.

Further investigation revealed that other students had also been to Krocza's home, 36300 N. Wilson Rd. in Ingleside, and they were supplied with Zoloft, marijuana and alcohol. The incidents are believed to have taken place between January and August of this year, the release said.

Krocza, who works as an algebra and calculus teacher at Grant Community High School in Fox Lake, has been charged with two counts of contributing to the criminal delinquency of a juvenile, a Class 4 felony, the release said.

Further charges are possible in the future.

Krocza was taken before the Lake County Judge Raymond Collins late Tuesday afternoon where her bond was set at $50,000. Krocza posted 10 percent of her bond and was released Tuesday evening. Her next scheduled court date is September 18 for a status hearing. If convicted, Krocza could face up to six years in prison.

Investigators are continuing the investigation and looking for more instances of occasions where Krocza may have supplied students with alcohol or drugs.

                                             RELATED STORY

Police: Fox Lake teacher paid students with drugs, alcohol

A teacher at a Fox Lake high school recruited two teenage girls to do chores around her home — then paid the 14-year-olds for their work with marijuana, alcohol and prescription Zoloft, Lake County authorities said today.

Kym Krocza, 41, faces felony charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor for allegedly providing the teens with the drugs and alcohol between January and August, officials said.

 

Kym Krocza
(Police photo)

Since her Tuesday arrest, Krocza has been suspended from her job as a calculus and algebra teacher at Grant Community High in Fox Lake — the school the two teens began attending last month. Krocza teaches both the girls, authorities said.

But Krocza allegedly knew the teens before they started attending the school because they live near her home in unincorporated Ingleside, Lake County Sheriff Mark Curran said.

“She befriended the victims prior to them becoming her students,’’ Curran said.

She asked the girls in January to do work around her home, including helping with laundry and cleaning the house, then allegedly gave them marijuana, alcohol and Zoloft — an anti-depressant drug — as payment, Curran said.

Investigators are trying to determine if other teens who went to Krocza’s home also might have been supplied with illegal substances, Curran said, who expressed disappointment at the allegations against Krocza.

“We would have hoped that a teacher is someone who could have been trusted with teens,’’ Curran said.

Krocza, who is free after posting 10 percent of her $50,000 bail, couldn’t be reached for comment.

Savannah Morning News

A woman who stole fuel and a bag of Cheetos from a Pooler convenience store claimed she was the wife of Gov. Sonny Perdue when confronted by a clerk, according to police.

The female suspect pumped a little more than 15 gallons of gas, worth $37, into a white Ford Explorer at the Clyde's Market on U.S. 80 near Pooler Parkway shortly after noon Friday, according to a report of the incident.

She then went inside, picked up the Cheetos bag and offered a check and debit card, but both payment modes were declined, police reported.

The clerk asked how the customer would pay, to which the woman "said she was the governor's wife," and "then started to whisper into her phone, stating she was talking to the FBI," according to the incident report.

The woman then collected her purse from the counter and the Cheetos - valued at $1.29 - before driving off, police reported.

Based on a description given by the clerk, officers later tracked a possible suspect to a residence not far from the gas station, but it was not immediately clear if an arrest had been made.

 Lewis Levine and Michael Atkins

Boynton Beach robber pedals away with more than 1,500 pills

Erika Pesantes

South Florida Sun Sentinel

6:49 p.m. EDT, September 14, 2009

James Lachenauer, 19 (Boynton Beach Police Department)

BOYNTON BEACH - A 19-year-old man robbed a pharmacy of more than 1,500 pills at gunpoint and fled on a bicycle Monday morning, Boynton Beach police said.

Police caught up with James Lachenauer Jr., of Boynton Beach, while his mother was driving him to a store and charged him with armed robbery and trafficking in oxycodone and hydrocodone.

Police said Lachenauer was armed with a silver revolver and entered the Medication Station Pharmacy on Woolbright Road around 10:30 a.m. He ordered the six people inside the business to the ground and pointed the revolver at a clerk and demanded oxycodone and morphine.

Lachenauer handed a backpack to the pharmacist, who filled it with 18 bottles of morphine sulfate, Oxycontin and oxycodone.

Lachenauer ran out of the pharmacy and onto a bicycle. He then dumped the bicycle and ran to his house in the 2300 block of Southeast Fourth Street, where he asked his mother for a ride to the store.

Meanwhile, officers combed the area for the suspect. Detective Jason Llopis observed a small green SUV on South Federal Highway driven by a woman and occupied by a man who matched the suspect's description. The car was stopped and the passenger was identified as Lachenauer.

Detectives recovered the backpack, which contained the 1,524 pills, in the car. Police found the revolver at Lachenauer's house.

He is being held in the Palm Beach County Jail.

San Marcos Couple In Big Trouble from Dr. Phil Appearance

San Diego 6

SAN DIEGO - A San Marcos couple who said on the "Dr. Phil" show last year that they were professional shoplifters pleaded not guilty Monday to conspiracy to transport stolen property across state lines.

Matthew Allen Eaton, 34, and Laura Renee Eaton, 26, told Dr. Phil McGraw on his nationally syndicated show that they made about $100,000 per year by shoplifting.

They were arrested Friday at their home on Leslie Court.

A federal indictment unsealed Monday alleges the Eatons stole merchandise, primarily toys, and then transported the shoplifted merchandise to their residence in San Marcos.

The Eatons then allegedly sold the stolen merchandise via the Internet to customers in and out of California, with Matthew Eaton falsely stating that the goods had been obtained from legitimate sources.

According to the indictment, as of March 26, the Eatons were storing more than 500 boxes of stolen toys at their residence.

The couple appeared on the Dr. Phil show last November, and a federal search warrant was served at their home four months later.

U.S. Magistrate Ruben Brooks set bail today for Matthew Eaton at $35,000 and $25,000 for his wife.

A status conference was set for Sept. 17 and a motions hearing for Oct. 19.

LINK TO DR. PHIL SHOW:

http://www.drphil.com/slideshows/slideshow/4784/?id=4784&showID=1171

                     WARNING --"GRAPHIC"

Hopkins student kills intruder with samurai sword, police say

Off-campus house was burglarized Monday; suspect recently freed from county jail

Liz F. Kay and Brent Jones

Baltimore Sun reporters

2:45 p.m. EDT, September 15, 2009

A Johns Hopkins University student armed with a samurai sword killed a man who broke into the garage of his off-campus residence early Tuesday, a Baltimore police spokesman said.

According to preliminary reports, a resident of the 300 block of E. University Parkway called police about a suspicious person, department spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said. An off-duty officer responded about 1:20 a.m. to the area with university security, according to Guglielmi. They heard shouts and screams from a neighboring house and found the suspected burglar suffering from a nearly severed hand and laceration to his upper body, he said.

The suspect was pronounced dead at the scene. Based on the initial investigation, the student killed the man with only one strike of the sword, according to Guglielmi. The medical examiner will make the final determination, he said.

The student told police that he heard a commotion in the house and went downstairs armed with the sword, Guglielmi said. He saw the side door to the garage had been pried open and found a man inside, who lunged at the student. There was no indication that the suspected burglar was armed, however, according to Guglielmi.

Burglars had already stolen two laptops and a Sony PlayStation from the student's home Monday, Guglielmi said.

Dennis O'Shea, a spokesman for Johns Hopkins, said all four residents of the house are undergraduate students at the university. Police had released three of the roommates by Tuesday afternoon. The student who wielded the sword remained in custody while investigators worked to corroborate his story with evidence and witness statements. Police have not released the name of the residents, but department sources identified the detained student as John Pontolillo, 20, of Wall, N.J.

The city state's attorney's office will determine whether to press charges, Guglielmi said.

                                        LINK TO VIDEO:

                                          http://wjz.com/                         

Police have also not formally released the name of the suspected burglar, but a department source identified the man as Donald D. Rice, 49, of the 600 block of E. 27th St. in Baltimore. Guglielmi said the suspect had 29 prior convictions for crimes such as breaking and entering, and had been released Saturday from the Baltimore County Detention Center after he was arrested by county police in August 2008 for stealing a car in Baltimore. Rice was found guilty in December on one count of unauthorized removal of property, and he was sentenced to 18 months in prison.

Michael Hughes of the 3400 block of University Place, about a block away from the scene, said he was working at his home when he heard screams shortly after 1 a.m.

"I could hear the fear in the voice, and I could tell someone was scared," said Hughes, 43, who works for Johns Hopkins' Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Hughes said he called police and could hear sirens as he was on the phone. He walked over to the crime scene shortly after.

"The body was near the garage. And I watched them carry the sword out. The whole thing was surreal and totally bizarre," Hughes said.

By Tuesday afternoon, two pools of blood remained on the ground a few feet away from the door to the garage, which is not connected to the home. A door to a wooden fence surrounding the back yard was broken, allowing the scene to be viewed from the sidewalk.

The three-story house has five bedrooms and two bathrooms, according to Diego Ardila, a junior at Hopkins. Ardila said he lived in the house during the summer and was a roommate of two of the people that currently live there.

Ardila, 19, said one of the roommates owned a samurai sword and generally kept it in his room. Ardila described the student as somewhat outgoing, although they did not speak frequently.

"He kept the sword on top of his cabinet," Ardila said.

Five people lived at the house during the summer, according to Ardila, who now lives a few blocks away.

"You don't expect to hear that someone you know killed a guy with a samurai sword. From what little I know of him, he wasn't some guy going out to kill," Ardila said.

Guglielmi said it is legal to possess a sword in Baltimore, and "individuals have a right to defend their person and their property." But the police spokesman said he was not in a position to comment on whether it was appropriate to use a sword, baseball bat or other means of defense.

Rice was arrested Sept. 25, 2006, for operating a stolen vehicle. Inside the vehicle, police found a camera bag with video tapes that had been taken from a home in the 200 block of E. University Parkway, which was ransacked a month before when someone broke in through a back window, according to court records. The intruder stole luggage, a laptop computer, a video camera, two digital cameras, and the black camera bag.

Rice was charged in both incidents, and received five months in jail -- or time served -- for the theft, court records show.

On Dec. 14, 2007, police on patrol in the 400 block of E. 27th St. saw Rice, who the officers wrote looked suspicious and was fumbling with something in his jacket pocket, court records show. When an officer approached, Rice pulled a loaded Rohm .22-caliber handgun, which the officer was able to grab.

Rice was charged with several weapons charges, but prosecutors dropped the case in Circuit Court in July 2008 after one of the officers -- who was deployed overseas with the military -- could not attend a court hearing, according to the state's attorney's office.

Baltimore Sun reporter Justin Fenton contributed to this article.

Baltimore City police officers talking near the yard where a Johns Hopkins University student armed with a samurai sword reportedly killed a man who broke into the garage of his off-campus residence early Tuesday. (Baltimore Sun photo by Lloyd Fox / September 15, 2009)