Okla. police arrest would-be burglar after he returns to the scene of the crime with more tools

Raffle ticket helps nab liquor thief, police say

By Don Behm of the Journal Sentinel

Basketbawful worked some magic, citing a Turkish-language

newspaper in a cuh-ray-zy story involving Zaza Pachulia

 of the Istanbul Pachulias, but more notably, the NBA’s

Atlanta Hawks:

His uncle, residing in Russia, died last week and left him $100 million. Zaza confirmed the incident, stating that he received a phone call from Moscow from a lawyer explaining the situation, but he said at first he taught it was a joke.

He also said that his uncle in Russia loved him very much and he is not surprised the uncle left everything to him and two sons. The lawyer told him that there is a condition on the will. This condition is that Zaza has to get married and stay married for 5 years.

Wasn’t this a Richard Pryor movie? The Georgian-born Pachulia will certainly look for a woman that is good with plow and so forth. There are worse reasons to get married, though. Like pregnancy. Or just dating someone for a really long time and not really feeling like breaking up with them. Especially if she has a nicer car than you do. Then you might as well hang around until you do something stupid and she gets rid of you.

http://digg.com/odd_stuff/Dude_Has_To_Be_Married_for_5_Years_To_Get_100M_From_Uncle

Black belt teen strikes back at bully, and rallies community against racism

KESWICK, ONT. — The 15-year-old black belt thought he was doing his tormentor a favour when he elected to fight back with his weaker left hand.

He had heard his white classmate throw an angry racial slur in his direction after an argument during a gym class game of speedball, and now the student was shoving him backward, refusing to retract the smear.

The white student swung first, hitting the 15-year-old with a punch to the mouth.

The 15-year-old heard his father's voice running through his head: Fight only as a last resort, only in self-defence, only if given no choice, and only with the left hand.

His swing was short and compact, a left-handed dart that hit the white student square on the nose.

The nose broke under his fist, igniting a sequence of events - from arrest to suspension to possible expulsion - that has left the Asian student and his family wondering whether they are welcome in this small, rural and mostly white community north of Toronto, one that has been touched by anti-Asian attacks in the past.

The 15-year-old, the only person charged in connection with the April 21 school fight, faces one count of assault causing bodily harm.

But a remarkable thing happened this week.

On Monday, 400 of his fellow students, wearing black in solidarity and carrying signs of support, walked out of Keswick High School to rally in protest in front of their school.

Organizer Mathew Winch, a Grade 12 student, said the school has fewer than 10 Asian students, but everyone wanted to stand up against bullying and racism. The story even hit the front page of local newspapers.

After the public outcry, the York Regional Police hate crimes unit reopened the case. Although the other student has not been charged, further charges are possible, a spokesman said yesterday.

The case is particularly sensitive because of a series of attacks on Asian fishermen in the same area in 2007 - given the name "nipper tipping" by locals - which led to a high-profile investigation by the Ontario Human Rights Commission.

Five such cases in 2007, ranging from violent car chases to fishermen on piers being pushed into the water, led to criminal charges. As a result of the publicity, many other Asian anglers came forward to say they had been abused or harassed while fishing in the Lake Simcoe area.

The Asian boy's father is a martial-arts master who trained with the Korean national team. He brought his family to Canada in 2004.

They settled in Keswick in 2006, and his son, who is still learning English, has studied hard to become a top student.

He proudly showed off a report card with a 90-per-cent average. The boy has struggled a little socially, his parents said, which makes the outpouring of support from his classmates all the more remarkable.

"It's the first time in my life I ever fought someone. I've been trained not to attack. It's total self-defence," the boy said. "I felt sorry because I broke his nose, but I can say he deserved it because he called me the racial comment. He started the fight, he punched me first."

He said the boy called him a "<snip>ing Chinese," a comment he instantly knew was far from a joke.

"It's upsetting," he said. "I don't know how better to tell it."

For the moment, both students are suspended from Keswick High School, but the Asian student's parents have been told he could be expelled and forced to find a new school.

They are shocked and saddened by the ordeal.

The day after the fight, an older cousin of their son's antagonist approached him in the school cafeteria and uttered a similar slur, compounding their sense of despair.

"He said, 'You punched my cousin you Chinese <snip>,' " the 15-year-old said. That student was overheard by a teacher and suspended.

His father explains that the easiest course would be to move somewhere else and get a fresh start for his son. But he can't do it.

"I don't want to run away. If another Asian kid comes to this school, what happens to him? Will he run into problems? Will they think they can just kick him out? I don't want to set that example," he said.

"Personally, for my kid, I should move. But as a Canadian I cannot move."

Grandmother Marks 99 Birthdays On Wrong Day

11:52pm UK, Thursday May 07, 2009

A great-great-grandmother celebrating her 100th birthday has discovered she has been marking the occasion on the wrong day her entire life.

Emily Donoghue discovered her birthday was two days later than she thought

Emily Donoghue from South Wales believed she was born on May 3, 1909, until this week when her son found out that she was actually born two days later.

The family uncovered the mistake after they were made to provide a copy of Mrs Donoghue's birth certificate to ensure she received a congratulatory telegram from the Queen.

John Donoghue, 78, said: "We couldn't make it out because she'd insisted it was the third and we took her word for it.

"Nobody bothered to look for the birth certificate until we had to send it off."

"We told her 'You've had your way all these years, you've got to start listening to us now'. We said 'You will have to celebrate your 100th on the fifth'.

"So what we did was take her for tea on the third, and on the fifth they had a party at the nursing home with a cake saying 'Congratulations Emily 100 today'.

"She had a lovely day, all the family went."

Mr Donoghue said his mother was the youngest of nine children and was the only one still living.

She was born in Newport but followed her childhood sweetheart Jack Donoghue to London when she was 16 years old.

They married and returned to South Wales a few years later.

The couple have three sons and a daughter, followed by nine grandchildren, 14 great-grandchildren and two great-great-children

Link to picture Emily Donoghue

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/Great-Grandmother-Celebrates-100th-Birthday-On-The-Wrong-Day/Article/200905115277381?f=rss

Gus Chan/The Plain DealerJulie Lustic, a member of Forest Hill Church in Cleveland Heights, hires herself out to do yard work to raise money for the church's charitable missions. The Presbyterian church gave each member of the congregation $50 and told them to find creative ways to double or triple the money.

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS -- At first, the congregation thought Pastor John had gone bonkers. Here he was passing out money rather than passing the collection basket.

"I was stunned," said Chessie Bleick, who was at the Sunday worship service in late March when ushers at Forest Hill Church disbursed $15,000 among the congregation, handing each worshipper a red envelope containing a $50 bill.

"Everybody was kind of panicked, saying, 'What am I going to do with this?' "

Their answer came from the pulpit as the Rev. John Lentz told the biblical parable about the master who, before embarking on a long journey, left behind large sums of money for each of his servants.

When the master returned, he discovered the first two servants worked their shares, making more money for him. But the third servant failed to take a risk and simply buried his.

Lentz told his Presbyterian flock: "Let's live this parable. Let's bring it to reality. Use this money to make more. You may do whatever you can do creatively to double or triple your $50."

Lentz calls it his stimulus package. No one is obligated to put the money to work -- or even give it back.

"We don't know what will happen," Lentz said recently.

The money was handed out March 29 and is expected to be returned May 31. The hope is that the original $15,000 will be returned to the church's bank account and there will be a healthy profit for the church's social-service programs.

"It's time to put our creative talents and imaginations to work to help support the missions of the church," said Diana Woodbridge, who is making and selling University of Michigan stadium blankets. "So far, I've doubled my money and I'm going for more."

Many are using their $50 to buy supplies to make food items or arts and crafts to be sold at a church bazaar on May 16. Some pooled their money to buy a big-screen TV to put up for auction.

Keith and Laurie Logan are selling soft drinks and snacks at the local girls' high school lacrosse games.

Julie and Gary Lustic hired themselves out to do yard work, finding more jobs than they can handle.

"It's amazing," said Julie Lustic, who charges between $10 and $15 an hour. "I didn't think there would be such a big response."

Living this New Testament story, known as the parable of the talents, is not a Forest Hill original. Other churches in the area have doled out seed money as well.

Two years ago, Federated Church, a United Church of Christ congregation in Chagrin Falls, handed out $35,000 in $50 bills to its congregation. People went to work with hammers, glue, yarn and thread. A pilot charged $30 for a half-hour plane ride. A biker charged $30 for a 12-mile ride on his Harley-Davidson Road King.

In eight weeks, the congregation returned more than $75,000, paying off the $35,000 loan and making a $41,000 profit.

The money was divided among three church missions: A school in South Africa, a foundation that gives seed money to poor people trying to start businesses, and an interfaith group that houses Cleveland-area homeless people.

"It allowed members to realize the gifts they had and how they could use them to help people," said Federated's membership administrator, Melinda Smith. "It was a real community builder for the congregation."

About 10 years ago, Lyndhurst Community Presbyterian Church handed out $3,000 in $20 bills to its congregation and got back $8,000.

The Rev. Harry Eberts is thinking about doing it again, not for the need of money, he said, but for how it brings people together.

"We need to keep thinking about how we can connect people," he said. "When we did this, the stories about people getting together were better than the money."

SEBASTIAN — The woman who kept her mother’s remains in a bedroom of their home for six years told police she never reported the death because she couldn’t afford burial expenses, according to a report by Scripps-Treasure Coast newspapers.

According to interview records released Tuesday, Penelope Sharon Jordan had maintained the ruse over the deception of the fate of Timmie Jordan since 2003. The story she gave to a Sebastian officer Monday morning was that her mother, who was born in 1913, was living in Melbourne. However, officers said Penelope Jordan couldn’t provide an address for where her mother was staying.

The officers said they discovered the truth when she allowed them inside her Wimbrow Drive home. Timmie Jordan’s decaying body was found on a bed in a cluttered bedroom, the arrest affidavit said.

The 61-year-old day care teacher told police her mother died from old age in 2003, according to interview records. An autopsy performed Tuesday at the state Medical Examiner’s Office in Fort Pierce showed no evidence of foul play, police spokesman Steve Marcinik said. Detectives will attribute Timmie Jordan’s death to natural causes, Marcinik said. The body has been sent to the University of Florida for another review, which may take several weeks.

Penelope Jordan admitted to continuing to collect her mother’s Social Security checks past her reported death, according to the police interview. Detectives charged her with grand theft and fraud. The government mailed $800 checks to the Jordan home monthly, totaling $60,000 since 2003, the arrest affidavit said.

Police said Timmie Jordan’s passing may have remained secret for so long because there were no immediate family members livingnearby.

“We’re aware of a sister of Penelope’s who lives in Africa,” Marcinik said. “I’m told she has been notified about what happened.”

Many of the residents in the 500 block of Wimbrow moved into their homes in the six years since Timmie Jordan’s reported death. Others, such as Theda Furtado, have lived in the neighborhood for decades and recalled the Jordans as a family that kept to themselves.

“We moved in 31 years ago, and they were always very standoffish,” Furtado said. “They had a tall chain link fence around their property for a while.”

Authorities were alerted to the Jordan home after a complaint about nuisance cats from the home Friday. Indian River County Animal Control manager Jason Ogilvie said his officers have been called to the neighborhood several times a year to trap cats there.

“(Penelope Jordan) always denied the cats were hers,” Ogilvie said. “But our officer saw eight of them on her front door step Friday.”

The front door to the home was open, but no one was home, which led the animal control officer to call police to check if there had been a burglary, Ogilvie said.

“The cats have been a problem ever since we’ve lived here,” Furtado said.

Jordan was being held in lieu of $20,000 bail Tuesday at the Indian River County Jail.