truesee's Blog

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Pharmacist gives robber Tylenol instead of painkiller

The robbery occurred at a CVS pharmacy in Santa Ana, police said.

SANTA ANA – Police arrested a 30-year-old man who walked into a CVS pharmacy and demanded OxyContin pills from an employee.

The robbery occurred around 5 p.m. Wednesday at 3911 South Bristol St. near Sunflower Avenue, said Santa Ana police Cmdr. Tammy Franks.

The robber told the pharmacist that he had a gun and demanded OxyContin. The pharmacist refused and the robber jumped the counter and struggled with the pharmacist until he complied. The pharmacist tricked the robber and gave him Tylenol instead of the painkiller, Franks said.

During the holdup, employees called 911. Arriving officers arrested Timothy Wade Voroshuck. He was booked on suspicion of robbery and false imprisonment at the Orange County Jail. He is being held in lieu of $145,000 bail.

The pharmacist did not sustain any injuries.

No gun was found at the scene.

The five-toed 'sock' that is taking the running world by storm

Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 2:09 PM on 06th September 2009

A cushioned trainer has long been the most important item in the wardrobe for any runner keen on preserving his feet and joints.

But that could all be about to change as a craze for new running socks that mimic what it would be like to be barefoot is starting to take hold.

The FiveFingers brand has been taking off in America ever since they were named one of the best inventions by Time magazine back in 2007.

And now their fame has spread across the Atlantic, with a British osteopath Matt Walden starting to use them here to help rehabilitate his patients.

They have become the subject of huge chatter on the internet and the micro-blog site Twitter as the idea of running without trainers takes hold.

Revolutionary: A pair of FiveFingers that mimic the sensation of being barefoot that are shaking up the running world

On Twitter, one poster wrote this week: 'Just got a pair of Vibram FiveFingers - I think my whole running world is about to change.'

Another added: 'First half-mile in my Vibram FiveFingers - Oh my god - How could I *ever* run in anything else?! They are sooo good.'

Professional athlete Helen Pryer, one of Britain's top 200 metre runners who is coached by Linford Christie, is also a fan.

'I just find them really comfortable so I use them for my spring training and during gym training. I prefer them to flat shoes and spikes,' she told the Sunday Times.

The ultra-thin socks made from hard-wearing neoprene are said to help prevent injuries including ankle sprains and sore knees and sell for around £80.

They are like gloves for feet that basically give the sensation of being barefoot while still protecting the skin.

Manufacturers say they act like a second skin and force the wearer to land on the centre of the foot and not the heel which fits with natural balance.

They have been developed on the premise that trainers - which can often be bulky - sometimes cover up problems because they cushion the foot so much.

The thin rubber has separate toe sections - hence the name FiveFingers - and have been doing brisk trade in running and athletics circles. 

Vibram is an Italian company and when they first designed the 'shoes', they were aiming them at sailors, yoga fans and kayakers.

But they have proved hugely popular with runners and even professional athletes as the idea catches on.

Chief executive Tony Post, who uses them himself, told the San Francisco Chronicle: 'It used to be all about adding more. Now, we're trying to strip a lot of that away.'

Vibram says sales of the 'shoes' have tripled every year since they were first launched back in 2006. It expects to make $10million from sales in North America this year. 

Experts are cautious, however, about whether runners should ditch their trainers just year - warning that any change to a regime should be made with care.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1211526/The-toed-sock-taking-running-world-storm.html#ixzz0QLnTSfTR

Humans are hardwired to believe in God, say scientists

Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 3:29 PM on 06th September 2009

Humans are born with an innate ability to believe in God which has been passed down through thousands of years of evolution, new research has suggested.

Scientists stumbled on the idea after studying the way children’s brains develop, as well as how the brain works during religious experiences.

They suggest that during evolution, groups of humans with religious beliefs, perhaps because they tended to work together better - and therefore stood a greater chance of survival.

All in the mind: Scientists have claimed we are born to believe in God

The findings, reported in The Sunday Times, suggest that children are born with a natural inclination to think about faith and the supernatural about the world we live in.

It deals a blow to the beliefs of atheists who campaign against organised religion, like Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion.

He has long argued that religious beliefs result from poor education and childhood 'indoctrination'.

However, Bruce Hood, professor of developmental psychology at Bristol University and author of the new study, believes the picture is far more complex.

He said: 'Our research shows children have a natural, intuitive way of reasoning that leads them to all kinds of supernatural beliefs about how the world works.

'As they grow up they overlay these beliefs with more rational approaches but the tendency to illogical supernatural beliefs remains as religion.'

Mr Hood will present his findings at the British Science Association’s annual meeting later this week.

He says organised religion is just part of a wide spectrum of supernatural beliefs.

In one study he found even ardent atheists balked at the idea of accepting an organ transplant from a murderer - because of a superstitious belief that an individual’s personality could be stored in their organs.

'This shows how superstition is hardwired into our brains,' he said.

His work is supported by other researchers who have found evidence linking religious feelings and experience to particular regions of the brain.

Religious feelings: Shaolin monks who practise meditation have been linked to showing religious sensations in parts of the brain

They suggest people are programmed to get a feeling of spirituality from what is nothing more than electrical activity in these regions.

Andrew Newberg, professor of radiology at the University of Pennsylvania, has used brain-imaging techniques to show that such feelings are invoked by activity in 'belief networks' operating across the brain.

This supersedes the earlier concept of a 'God spot', activated during meditation or prayer.

'The temporal lobe interacts with many other parts of the brain to provide the full range of religious and spiritual experiences,' he said.

This mechanistic view of religious experience is reinforced by separate research carried out by Michael Persinger of Laurentian University, Ontario.

Mr Persinger has used powerful magnetic fields to induce visions and spiritual experiences in volunteers.

Barbara Hagerty became one of Persinger’s subjects while researching Fingertips of God, a book on brain processes underlying religion.

'I saw images and cartoonish figures,' she said.

'It didn’t convince me there was no God, but it did show me how much the brain is connected to our beliefs and perceptions.'

Some researchers argue that humans’ innate tendency towards supernatural beliefs explains why many people become religious as adults, despite not having been brought up within any faith.

Scientists believe that the durability of religion is in part because it helps people to bond.

Professor Pascal Boyer, an anthropologist at Washington University and author of Religion Explained, supports Hood’s view that the origins of religion may lie in common childhood experiences.

The professor said in a recent article in the science journal Nature: 'From childhood, humans form enduring and important social relationships with fictional characters, imaginary friends, deceased relatives, unseen heroes and fantasised mates.

'It is a small step from this to conceptualising spirits, dead ancestors and gods, who are neither visible nor tangible.'

Boyer says he holds out little hope for atheism.

'Religious thinking seems to be the path of least resistance for our cognitive systems,' he said.

'By contrast, disbelief is generally the work of deliberate, effortful work against our natural cognitive dispositions — hardly the easiest ideology to propagate.'

The Rev Michael Reiss, who is professor of science education at London University’s Institute of Education and also an Anglican priest, said he saw no reason why such research should undermine religious belief.

'I am quite sure there will be a biological basis to religious faith,' Reiss said.

'We are evolved creatures and the whole point about humanity is that we are rooted in the natural world.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1211511/Humans-hardwired-believe-God-say-scientists.html#ixzz0QLMs2RTJ

Boy, 6, missing for two years, is found alive with mother in hidden room at grandma's house

Daily Mail

Last updated at 11:51 AM on 06th September 2009 BCT

A boy allegedly abducted in a custody dispute nearly two years ago has turned up alive, hiding with his mother in a small, specially built secret room at his grandmother's home.

Six-year-old Richard Chekevdia was in good spirits and physically fit after being found on Friday by investigators with a court order to search the two-story rural home in southern Illinois' Franklin County, about 120 miles southeast of St Louis.

The boy's mother, Shannon Wilfong, 30, has been charged with child abduction.

Richard Chekevdia at a wedding in Illinois in 2007: Allegedly abducted in a custody dispute two years ago, the six-year-old has been found alive, hidden behind a wall at his grandmother's house

The grandmother, 51-year-old Diane Dobbs, has been charged with aiding and abetting.

The boy is now staying with one of his father's relatives while state child welfare workers investigate claims that Mike Chekevdia abused his son before his disappearance.

Mr Chekevdia, 48, a former police officer who is now a lieutenant colonel in the Illinois National Guard, denies the allegations.

Shannon Wilfong, who disappeared in 2007 with her son, Richard, has been charged with child abduction

On hearing his son had been found, he said: 'Two years? You have no idea. You could have knocked me over with a feather.'

Mr Chekevdia, who lives three miles from where his son was discovered, added: 'I've lost sleep. I've lost weight. I've gained weight. I wouldn't wish this on anybody.'

He won temporary custody of his son shortly before the boy and his mother - Chekevdia's former girlfriend - disappeared in November 2007.

Mr Chekevdia said he long suspected his son was being stowed by Dobbs, although there were no signs of the boy at her home when it was searched with her consent after his disappearance.

Wilfong was charged in December 2007 with abducting the boy but couldn't be found.

For much of the time since, Mr Chekevdia said, the windows of Dobbs' home were blocked off by drawn shades or other items, presumably to prevent anyone from peeking inside.

'I had a firm belief he was in there, and yesterday it was confirmed,' Mr Chekevdia said.

Investigators did not detail what led sheriff's deputies and federal marshals with a search warrant to Dobbs' house on Friday, when they found the boy and his mother in a hideaway roughly 5ft by 12ft and about the height of a washing machine.

Anxious wait: Mike Chekevdia at his home in Royalton, Illinois, looking to be reunited with his son

'We let him out of the (patrol) car and he ran around like he'd never seen outdoors. It was actually very sad,' Illinois State Police Master Sgt Stan Diggs said.

'He was very happy to be outside. He said he never goes outside. Surprisingly, Ricky is in very good spirits.

'For someone who's been isolated in that house with no other outside beings, he's a very social, very polite, very talkative little boy.'

Dobbs, the grandmother, told a local newspaper last year that her daughter had been forced into hiding to keep the child from his father - and called the custody dispute a 'nightmare for all of us'.

Grandma's house: This is where the young boy was kept hidden in a room measuring 5ft by 12ft - and just 4ft high

Mr Chekevdia, eager to get his son back in school and to a dentist, said waiting for Ricky to resurface required patience.

'It's hard to sit back and watch things happen when you're used to making things happen,' said Chekevdia, a military officer who served in Iraq earlier this decade.

'But I just bided my time and let the system work.'

Wilfong remains in jail on a $42,500 bond in Benton, Illinois, where Dobbs is being held on a $1,000 bond.

Father and son in 2004: Mr Chekevdia said he long suspected his son was being stowed by the boy's grandmother Diane Dobbs, although there were no signs of him when her house was searched with her consent after his disappearance

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1211428/Boy-6-abducted-years-ago-alive-mother-hidden-room-grandmas-house.html#ixzz0QKAS7PS6

 

Tiffany Brown/Sun file photo

R.C. Farms, Inc., is a pig farm that has been in North Las Vegas since 1963.

Steve Green

Friday, Sept. 4, 2009 | 11:50 a.

Buyers of a North Las Vegas home are suing a home builder, charging the company failed to disclose the presence of an area pig farm that is generating odors the homeowners say are unbearable.

Michael and Sarah Ricci filed suit this week against Atlanta-based Beazer Homes Holdings Corp.

Messages for comment on the dispute were left Friday with Beazer.

The Riccis say in the suit that in March 2006 they agreed to buy a home at 5944 Tamarack Lodge Lane in the Shadows subdivision, east of Losee Road and south of Tropical Parkway.

They say in the suit that under Beazer's development agreement with the city of North Las Vegas, it was required to obtain signed releases from prospective homeowners acknowledging the existence of the R.C. Farms pig farm and that the housing development may be subjected to odors from the farm.

The farm is at 555 E. El Campo Grande Ave., west of Losee and south of Tropical -- an area to the west of the Ricci home. Directions calculated by mapquest.com indicate the farm is a 1.7-mile drive from the home.

But the Riccis say Beazer didn't provide the required information about the farm and after they moved in and noticed the odor, they asked the Beazer sales person who sold them the home about the issue.

The sales person denied any duty to disclose the presence of the farm, reasoning it was too far away from the home to necessitate disclosure, the lawsuit says.

"After several months the smell became so unbearable that Sarah Ricci could not be in her home without gagging,'' the lawsuit charges.

Only after talking with neighbors did the Riccis learn of Beazer's duty to disclose the presence of the pig farm, the lawsuit said.

The suit says the Riccis contacted the Southern Nevada Health District's Air Quality Division and spoke with a pig farm inspector who said hiring a lawyer was the only solution to their problem.

The suit seeks recission of the sales contract. Alleging concealment fraud, it also seeks unspecified compensatory, special and punitive damages for the Riccis' claimed stress, anxiety and embarrassment; and the alleged loss of full enjoyment of their home.

Drug charges added to ID theft

By PATRICK BUCHNOWSKI
The Tribune-Democrat

September 03, 2009 10:54 pm

A Johnstown man accused of stealing nearly $2,700 from a woman’s bank account was digging up a marijuana plant in his yard when police arrived to arrest him.

Jon Craig Beltz Jr., 23, made 32 withdrawals from the woman’s account at CNB?Bank’s Northern Cambria branch from April to July, city police said.

Beltz, 23, of the 700 block of Cooper Avenue, also sold $12,323 worth of the woman’s jewelry and computer equipment, police said.

When officers arrived at his residence Wednesday, “Beltz was seen holding a large marijuana plant that appeared to have been cultivated in the backyard,” police said in an affidavit of probable cause. Next to the plant was a large, fresh hole and a shovel.

“He was growing marijuana in the backyard,” city Detective Joseph Eckenrod said.

Beltz was charged with identify theft, receiving stolen property and access device fraud. He also was charged with manufacturing a controlled substance and marijuana possession.

Beltz was arraigned by District Judge John Barron of Upper Yoder Township, the on-call magistrate, and sent to the Cambria County Prison after failing to post $50,000 bond.

(AP Photo/Montgomery Advertiser, David Bundy)A broom mysteriously stands on its own at what will be the Vintage Blu consignment shop when it opens on Main Street in Prattville, Ala., Tuesday, August 25, 2009, as owner Christy Burdett makes a call to find out some of the history of the building. The phenomenon has been studied by paranormal researchers.

Standing broom in Prattville sweeps in paranormal researchers and the curious

Marty Roney

The Montgomery Advertiser 

August 27, 2009 7:00 PM

PRATTVILLE, Ala. -- Buzz about a broom standing upright and unsupported at a downtown Prattville  business is sweeping the town.

Several hundred people have stopped by Vintage Blu, a yet-to-be-opened consignment shop, since the phenomenon was discovered Aug. 20. Dozens of theories to explain what's going on have been thrown out. There must be glue on the bristles of the broom, or there are magnets in the floor working in concert with the buildings electrical system, or maybe ... just maybe ... it's something from beyond at work.

"I think it's more strange than spooky," said Christy Burdett, the shop's owner, who has been working for several weeks to get the business open. "But it's been fun."

No, there isn't any glue, and there are no magnets in the floor. As to something otherworldly going on, people will have to use their own judgment.

It all started out innocently enough. The broom was leaning against a set of mobile shelves when Della Benton, Burdett's sister, moved the shelves on Aug. 20. When Benton looked back, she was surprised to see the broom standing on the floor.

"Christy was behind the counter and I told her to get her camera quick and take a picture. I thought the broom would fall over in just a few seconds," Benton said. "We had people walk past it the rest of the day. It stayed there. Spence (Williamson) from the fire department shoved the handle to the side; it went over a few inches and swung back into place."

Some 25 hours later a friend stopping by the store touched the broom's handle and it toppled.

"We told her she had the Holy Spirit, and she drove the ghosts away," Christy Burdett said with a laugh.

The broom is a run-of-the-mill item, purchased from Dollar General.

"It's just your average $2.99 broom," said Phillip Burdett, Christy's husband and a Prattville firefighter. "I don't know how to explain it. We've had people just walk in since it happened every day we've been down here. They want to see the broom."

It seems that the broom likes one spot on the store floor. People have moved it to other areas, and it hasn't stayed upright. Tuesday during an interview with theMontgomery Advertiser, a photographer moved the broom and was able to make it stand several feet away. It was quickly returned to its favorite spot, where Christy Burdett plopped it down and there it stuck.

It remained standing Thursday.

Visitors eye the broom suspiciously when they first walk in the building. The Burdetts are quick to move their hands around it, just to prove there are no strings or wires holding it up. Their 6-year-old son, Reed, has even jumped off the counter near the broom several times, landing beside it with a thud. The broom never wavered.

Their 2 1/2-year-old, Will, also has gotten in on the act.

"We brought him in and asked him what he thought of the broom," Christy Burdett said. "He went up and looked at it and said 'Mommy, it's cold.' I went up and there was cold air around the broom. You'll have to come up with an explanation for that on your own."

Christy Burdett posted what was going on Facebook late last week. That's when the buzz started.

"Word got around pretty quickly," she said. "There was a paranormal group having a fundraiser out at Buena Vista, and they asked if they could come by and see it."

Southern Paranormal Researchers spent several hours at the store over two days, she said. The crew put teams in the store, its basement and the building next door, which houses Lucky Photography.

"They told us they felt the presence of several spirits," Christy Burdett said. "The lights flickered next door."

She said one member of the group came out of the bathroom and wanted to know who had turned the lights off. "When she found out nobody did, she got a little upset," Burdett said.

The researchers still have to go over evidence gathered during the investigation, to see if anything went bump, or swish, in the night, said Jake Bell, assistant director of SPR.

"The basement team thought they had some shadow movement," he said. "Other members of the team just had the feeling of a creepy presence."

And what is Bell's personal verdict?

"I just think it balances that way," he said. "But it's pretty funny how they found out, by moving that piece of furniture. It's a pretty cool story."

As word filtered out in the community, folks came by to share their downtown ghost stories.

The building has a varied past. It has been a cafe, car dealership and dry goods store. Lucky Photography was its most recent tenant, moving next door a few weeks ago.

"The guy from the photography shop came by when everybody started talking about the broom," Christy Burdett said. "He said he didn't want to tell us this when we moved in, but he had a broom that would stand up. He never told his partner because she was scared of ghosts."

George Walthall Jr., a local attorney, owns the building and has his office on the second floor.

"Ladies from George's office told us they see an older man and woman upstairs sometimes," Phillip Burdett said. "They all told us the stories separately, and the stories matched up."

Walthall stopped by the store Tuesday morning and was at a loss to explain the broom's positioning.

"I had a client a long time ago that was into voodoo," he said. "But that's been a long time ago. If there are any spirits in the building, I'll just send them downstairs."

If there are spirits, that won't be the only thing Walthall does, said Butch Ellis, who was walking downtown Tuesday.

"If there are ghosts in the building, George will figure out a way to charge them rent," he said.

Published September 03, 2009 10:50 pm - 

Suspects didn't think anything fleet of police cars when they pulled in for a bite to eat

Deputies: Please pass pilferers
Cops catch burglars at coffee break time

By Dan Nienaber 
Free Press Staff Writer 

MANKATO —

Two deputies who went to Happy Chef for a coffee break during a busy night of investigating burglaries got the added treat of having their suspects served up on a silver platter.

The Blue Earth County sheriff’s deputies likely needed some down time after responding to three residential burglaries that took place in a span of 90 minutes Wednesday night. All of the incidents took place within five miles of each other, but the residents lived in three different townships.

Investigators suspected the same individuals were responsible for all of the burglaries. Each of the residences were broken into in the same manner and similar items had been stolen.

When a final tally was compiled, items worth about $10,000 had been taken. The stolen goods included laptop computers, other electronics and jewelry.

At about 10:14 p.m. county dispatchers learned the crooks the deputies were looking for might have moved on to other counties. Le Sueur County authorities reported they were looking for a black Chevy pickup that had been involved in a burglary there.

They were asking law enforcement officers in the area to stop the vehicle, which contained three men and a woman, and hold the occupants for questioning.

The two Blue Earth County deputies, and several other deputies and police officers from the area, were taking their coffee break when the Le Sueur County report came through. As one of the deputies was jotting the information down, another officer noticed a truck matching the description pulling into the Happy Chef parking lot, Capt. Rich Murry of the Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Department said in a news release.

The crew of cops — Murry estimates a half dozen at minimum — then went outside and determined, via license plate number, that the pickup was the one they were looking for.

Although items that had been stolen that night from homes in both Blue Earth County and Le Sueur County were still in the pickup, the three men and one woman inside apparently weren’t concerned about pulling up to a restaurant with a row of squad cars outside.

“It’s fair to say there was a good showing of law enforcement when they pulled into the parking lot,” Murry said.

Further investigation revealed the group were suspects in a theft at Minneopa State Park last week and a burglary in St. Clair Tuesday.

The four people arrested were all Mankato residents. They were: Randal Charles Burger Jr., 20; Zachary Donald Hanel, 20; Scott Allan Abbe, 19; and Mariah Skye Harrabi, 18, the report said.

It was a good thing the deputies took a break when they did, Murry added. Not just because their suspects fell into their laps, but because the bust also led to a busy night of follow-up work after the break.

“It’s an easy beginning to the case, but there’s a whole lot of work that goes into taking the reports,” Murry said. “It’s great that it ended the way it did, but they were busy afterwards.

“Actually, it shows those coffee breaks can be pretty productive, too.”

Married pastor faked kidnapping to visit girlfriend

TAMPA, FL -- A Hillsborough County pastor faked his kidnapping so he could cheat on his wife without getting caught, Hillsborough Sheriff's deputies said.

According to deputies Wikler Moran-Mora, pastor of the International Missionary Society of the Seventh Day Adventist Reform Movement, texted his wife Tuesday night that he had been kidnapped, but she should not to panic or worry. After several similar texts claiming he was negotiating his release, Moran-Mora's wife did panic and call sheriff's deputies.

Hillsborough deputies launched a full scale search for the missing pastor, with more than a dozen deputies taking part.

Sheriff's spokesman JD Callaway told ABC Action News.com, they traced Moran-Mora's location through his cell phone and found him with another woman. Callaway says the pastor confessed he concocted the kidnap story to keep the tryst from his wife.

 LINK TO PHOTO:

Texas DNA exonerees find prosperity after prison

AP – Shown Tuesday, August 25, 2009 is Thomas McGowan, a DNA exoneree released last year after nearly 23 years …

JEFF CARLTON, Associated Press Writer – 10:58 am 

DALLAS – Thomas McGowan's journey from prison to prosperity is about to culminate in $1.8 million, and he knows just how to spend it: on a house with three bedrooms, stainless steel kitchen appliances and a washer and dryer.

"I'll let my girlfriend pick out the rest," said McGowan, who was exonerated last year based on DNA evidence after spending nearly 23 years in prison for rape and robbery.

He and other exonerees in Texas, which leads the nation in freeing the wrongly convicted, soon will become instant millionaires under a new state law that took effect this week.

Exonerees will get $80,000 for each year they spent behind bars. The compensation also includes lifetime annuity payments that for most of the wrongly convicted are worth between $40,000 and $50,000 a year — making it by far the nation's most generous package.

"I'm nervous and excited," said McGowan, 50. "It's something I never had, this amount of money. I didn't have any money — period."

His payday for his imprisonment — a time he described as "a nightmare," "hell" and "slavery" — should come by mid-November after the state's 45-day processing period.

Exonerees also receive an array of social services, including job training, tuition credits and access to medical and dental treatment. Though 27 other states have some form of compensation law for the wrongly convicted, none comes close to offering the social services and money Texas provides.

The annuity payments are especially popular among exonerees, who acknowledge their lack of experience inmanaging personal finances. A social worker who meets with the exonerees is setting them up with financial advisers and has led discussions alerting them to swindlers.

The annuities are "a way to guarantee these guys ... payments for life as long as they follow the law," said Kevin Glasheen, a Lubbock attorney representing a dozen exonerees.

Two who served about 26 years in prison for rape will receive lump sums of about $2 million apiece. Another, Steven Phillips, who spent about 24 years in prison for sexual assault and burglary, will get about $1.9 million.

The biggest compensation package will likely go to James Woodard, who spent more than 27 years in prison for a 1980 murder that DNA testing later showed he did not commit. He eventually could receive nearly $2.2 million but first needs a writ from the state's Court of Criminal Appeals or a pardon from the governor.

McGowan and the others are among 38 DNA exonerees in Texas, according to the Innocence Project, a New York legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions. Dallas County alone has 21 cases in which a judge overturned guilty verdicts based on DNA evidence, though prosecutors plan to retry one of those.

Charles Chatman, who was wrongly convicted of rape, said the money will allow him some peace of mind after more than 26 years in prison.

"It will bring me some independence," he said. "Other people have had a lot of control over my life."

Chatman and other exonerees already have begun rebuilding their lives. Several plan to start businesses, saying they don't mind working but want to be their own bosses. Others, such as McGowan, don't intend to work and hope to make their money last a lifetime.

Some exonerees have gotten married and another is about to. Phillips is taking college courses. Chatman became a first-time father at 49.

"That's something I never thought I'd be able to do," he said. "No amount of money can replace the time we've lost."

The drumbeat of DNA exonerations caused lawmakers this year to increase the compensation for the wrongly convicted, which had been $50,000 for each year of prison. Glasheen, the attorney, advised his clients to drop their federal civil rights lawsuits and then led the lobbying efforts for the bill.

Besides the lump sum and the monthly annuity payments, the bill includes 120 hours of paid tuition at a public college. It also gives exonerees an additional $25,000 for each year they spent on parole or as registered sex offenders.

No other state has such a provision, according to the Innocence Project.

Exonerees who collected lump sum payments under the old compensation law are ineligible for the new lump sums but will receive the annuities. Whether the money will be subject to taxes remains unsettled, Glasheen said.

The monthly payments are expected to be a lifeline for exonerees such as Wiley Fountain, 53, who received nearly $390,000 in compensation — minus federal taxes — but squandered it by, as he said, "living large." He ended up homeless, spending his nights in a tattered sleeping bag behind a liquor store.

But after getting help from fellow exonerees and social workers, Fountain now lives in an apartment and soon will have a steady income.

Fountain's story is a cautionary tale for the other exonerees, who meet monthly and lately have been discussing the baggage that comes with the money.

Chatman said he's been approached by "family, friends and strangers, too."

"It takes two or three seconds before they ask me how much money, or when do I get the money," he said. "Everyone has the perfect business venture for you."

Though appropriately wary, the exonerees say they are excited about having money in the bank.

"You're locked up so long and then you get out with nothing," McGowan said. "With this, you might be able to live a normal life, knowing you don't have to worry about being out on the streets."

Police seek Lloyd Virgil Barclay, who allegedly robbed KNBT in Bethlehem -- UPDATE

by Express-Times staff

Wednesday September 02, 2009, 1:59 PM

Photo Courtesy of Bethlehem Police DepartmentPolice have issued an arrest warrant for Lloyd Virgil Barclay, who allegedly robbed the KNBT at 920 W. Broad St. in Bethlehem this morning.

Bethlehem police have issued an arrest warrant for a Philadelphia man who allegedly robbed the KNBT at 920 W. Broad St. this morning and left his wallet behind on the counter,

Lloyd Virgil Barclay, 51, will be charged with robbery and related charges. Authorities allege he entered the bank about 9:20 this morning, said he had a gun and fled with an undetermined amount of cash, according to a news release from Lt. Joseph Kimock.

He is black, 5 feet 8 inches or 5 feet 9 inches tall with a gold tooth in the front of his mouth. He was carrying a purple backpack and wearing a Baltimore Ravens baseball hat.

                                  UPDATE

Lloyd Virgil Barclay, 51, will be charged with robbery and related charges. Authorities allege he entered the bank about 9:20 this morning, said he had a gun and fled with an undetermined amount of cash, according to a news release from Lt. Joseph Kimock.

He is black, 5 feet 8 inches or 5 feet 9 inches tall with a gold tooth in the front of his mouth. He was carrying a purple backpack and wearing a Baltimore Ravens baseball hat.

Police say Barclay handed a note demanding $800 to one teller and she complied. He then said $800 wasn't enough and handed the note to a second teller, who hesitated to respond, police said. Barclay then left the bank and left a wallet containing identification cards behind, police said.

No one was injured, but there were customers inside the bank when it was robbed, police said.

Man allegedly calls 911 twice to say he's hungry
September 3, 2009

4:00 pm

AP – This undated photo made available Thursday, Sept. 3, 2009 by the Palm Beach County, Fla. Sheriff's office …

DELRAY BEACH, Fla. – Authorities said a man was arrested after calling 911 twice for a ride and saying he was hungry. Police reports  said Benjamin Dewer, 26, was charged early Wednesday with making false calls to 911. The report said Dewer was apparently drunk when police found him sitting on a sidewalk. He asked police for a ride to a park and told them he was hungry.

When police refused, Dewer walked away and called 911 a second time for a ride.

Dewer was being held behind bars at the Palm Beach County Jail on a $1,000 bond.