Domestic violence on the Prairie

Another inexplicable tragedy?

Nope, apparently just another deranged domestic dispute writ large.

Gunman kills self, 5 others at Texas roller rink

By Angela K. Brown - Associated Press -

GRAND PRAIRIE, Texas — A gunman opened fire at a child's birthday celebration at a Texas roller rink, killing five people, wounding four others and then killing himself as the private party turned to panic and some fled screaming in their skates, police and witnesses say.

Authorities ascribed the gunman's rampage to an apparent domestic dispute and said no young children or rink employees were killed during the shooting that erupted about 7 p.m. at Forum Roller World in Grand Prairie, about 20 miles west of Dallas. Some people at nearby businesses said they watched as adults and children spilled from the rink in horror.

"They just looked terrified," Cody Poston, a witness, told WFAA-TV, outside the rink that was festooned with birthday decorations. "There's several people crying. The kids were just kind of oblivious."

The rest of the story:

Brazenly stupid

Sometimes placing the purloined letter in the obvious place does not work at all.

Wash. police find stolen truck near police station

Associated Press -

COLLEGE PLACE, Wash. (AP) — Steal a pickup truck in Oregon. Check. Drive it across the border into Washington. Check. Park it across the street from the police department. Oops.

College Place, Wash., Police Chief Dennis Lepiane says police got word Thursday that a pickup stolen in Umatilla (yoo-muh-TIHL'-ah) County, Ore., might be headed for Washington.

It was only about half an hour later when one of his officers saw a vehicle matching the description. It was parked across the street from City Hall, home of the Police Department.

The rest of the story:

Send in the Marines

The robber chose his victim poorly.

Armed crook loses life in tangle with Marine Vet

By Susan Caroll - Houston Chronicle


Kenneth Kobobel Sr., a 72-year-old Marine veteran, had yet to put on his eyeglasses when he heard a knock at the door of his office in a northwest Houston strip mall around 9:45 a.m. on Friday.

The great-grandfather was chatting with his brother inside the office, making plans for the day, and figured the towering man waiting outside was one of his workers coming to collect his Friday paycheck.

But when Kobobel opened the door, a man he had never seen before forced his way inside and put a 9mm handgun to his forehead.

The rest of the story:

50 years for sexual assault

Good job Jenny Smith!

19-year old sentenced to 50 years for sexual assault
By Dalondo Moultrie - New Braunfels Herald-Zeitung

NEW BRAUNFELS - A district judge Thursday afternoon sentenced a 19-year-old man found guilty last month of sexually assaulting a then-12-year-old girl at a New Braunfels teen shelter.

Judge Charles R. Ramsay, without much explanation, ordered Marc Russell Byron to spend 50 years in prison.

"We asked for the maximum, which would've been 99 years or life, but we're very pleased with 50 years," said Jennifer Smith, Comal County criminal assistant district attorney. "His past behavior is a very good indicator of what his future behavior is going to be."

The rest of the story:

Tragedy in Norway

Some organization calling themselves Ansar al-Jihad al-Alami, or Helpers of the Global Jihad is apparently claiming responsibility for these heinous acts of cowardice.

Others say that groups was previously unknown  and may not even exist.

It will take awhile to sort this all out.

Our prayers go out to the families and good people of Norway.

Report: Police investigating 2nd suspect in spree

By BJOERN H. AMLAND and LOUISE NORDSTROM- Associated Press

SUNDVOLLEN, Norway (AP) -- Norway's national news agency says police are investigating whether a second suspect was involved in a shooting spree on an island where 84 people were killed.

Police have arrested one man on preliminary charges in the massacre and a bombing in Oslo hours earlier.

NTB is reporting Saturday that witnesses told police two people were involved in the shooting on Utoya island. The agency says police are looking into it.

The agency says that the second man apparently wasn't disguised in police uniform. The man under arrest was wearing a sweater with a police emblem on it.

In total, 91 people were killed in the two attacks.

 

Oneophiles everywhere weep

That's a bunch of wine lost.

Million dollar drop as wine tumbles

Herald-Sun

IT was certainly an expensive drop - more than $1 million worth of shiraz wine has gone down the drain after it was dropped by a malfunctioning forklift.

The 462 cases of 2010 Mollydooker Velvet Glove shiraz - at $185 a bottle - fell more than 6m to the ground as it was being loaded for export from Adelaide to the US.

The drop was so forceful, the bottles punched through the top of the cartons. Winemaker Sparky Marquis said the accident had cost him a third of his annual production.

"We just couldn't believe it," Mr Marquis said.

The rest of the story:

Hacked up escape plan

Not looking so good for the Taco Deputy.

Jailer's knowledge of plot cited

Witness says he knew tacos contained hacksaw blades and the route of escape.
By Craig Kapitan - Express-News

Corrections officer Alfred Casas still was wearing his uniform when he drove to an apartment complex near Bexar County Jail in a bronze Mercedes two years ago to pick up a bottle of black market Xanax pills, an inmate's girlfriend testified Thursday at the jailer's felony trial.

In exchange, Tiffany Contreras told jurors, Casas agreed to take a bag of tacos to her boyfriend that he knew were stuffed with six broken hacksaw blades.

“He started telling me about what the plans were over there,” said Contreras, who at the time was the girlfriend of Jacob Keller, a high-risk inmate awaiting trial for capital murder. “He wanted to show me where they were going to try to escape from.”

The rest of the story:

Cleaning house

No doubt housekeeping is a tough job.  I don't know how the Hyatt could change conditions however.

Manual labor is tough especially as you get older.

If you don't have other skill sets what else can you do?

10 arrested at protest of Hyatt downtown

They blocked Market Street at end of rally, part of a national union demonstration.
By Jazmine Ulloa - Express-News


Ten people were arrested at the end of a downtown demonstration Thursday in which almost 200 hotel employees and supporters gathered to denounce what they called unfair and abusive working conditions at local Hyatt properties.

Wearing red and white, activists chanted and sang, holding signs as they picketed outside the Grand Hyatt San Antonio on Market Street, part of a national protest.

Workers talked about their experiences at San Antonio's two downtown Hyatt properties, and several housekeepers even re-enacted making beds in a performance highlighting their plight.

The rest of the story:

Putting the squeeze on DWI

Will Guadalupe County join Comal and Bexar Counties in this endeavor?

Only time will tell.

Guadalupe County mulls no-refusal policy

Blood draws for DWI suspects now only on holidays.
By Pierre Bertrand - Express-News

Guadalupe County officials are considering expanding mandatory blood draws for suspected drunken drivers who decline breathalyzer tests.

How often the county's relatively few such cases should be subject to a “no refusal” policy hasn't been spelled out in any formal proposal, but County Attorney Elizabeth Murray-Kolb's goal is to do it every day of the year, said Bob Etlinger, an assistant county attorney.

“I think it's just a matter of wanting to address a problem that never seems to go away,” Etlinger said.

The rest of the story:

Playing Bumper Cars

I know it was highly satisfying to him but it was not a good idea.

Nope.

Sour 'lemon' driver returns to dealer; 'I didn't hit a car under $20K

By Elizabeth Dinan - seacoastonline.com

PORTSMOUTH — Unhappy that a Lafayette Road car dealer wouldn't take back the van he bought on Monday, David Cross drove "the lemon" back after the dealer closed on Tuesday and crashed it into six cars parked on the lot for sale.

"I hit the first $25,000 car I could see," Cross told the Herald. "I didn't hit a car under $20,000. Then I moved a van that they wouldn't come down on the price for. I moved it with the lemon they sold me. I just held it to the floor until I couldn't move it anymore. I took out seven vehicles, including my own."

Cross, a Salisbury, Mass., resident who turns 42 today, is charged with six felony counts of criminal mischief, one for each of the cars he damaged, excluding his own.

The rest of the story:

When the sun goes down on a sleepy little town down around San Antone

What??!!!


An unregistered sex offender police officer??

China Grove police officer allegedly failed to register as sex offender

By Eva Ruth Moravec - Express-News

A China Grove police officer is on unpaid administrative leave after he was arrested for failing to register as a sex offender, officials said.

Daniel Casas, 48, turned himself in at the Bexar County satellite office on June 24, when he posted $10,000 bail and was immediately released, according to Detective Louis Antu, a spokesman for the Bexar County Sheriff's Office.

He was convicted of a 1991 sexual assault of a child with contact, Antu said, and received deferred adjudication. In the past, a sex offender registry law only required sex offenders convicted after 1997 to register, but a change in the past few years now requires offenders to register if convicted after 1970.

The rest of the story:

A letter to Hasan

Dear Nidal,

Okay, fire your attorney on the eve of your trial.

See if I care.

You're guilty and will be found guilty in my opinion.

I think you'll be put to death for this as well.

As well you should.

Best wishes in Hell,

Man o' Law

Hasan's top lawyer off defense team

A trio of military lawyers will represent the Fort Hood suspect.
By Sig Chrtistenson - Express-News

FORT HOOD — Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan, the Army psychiatrist accused of killing 13 people in a Fort Hood rampage nearly two years ago, told a judge Wednesday he wasn't ready to make a plea.

But Hasan, who was arraigned Wednesday, told the judge in a 14-minute hearing that he had released his lead counsel, retired Army Col. John Galligan. Hasan didn't explain his decision.

“Is that a voluntary act on your part?” the judge, Col. Gregory Gross, asked Hasan.

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A cutting-edge crime

What a thing to lose your job, career, and quite possibly your freedom over.

Prosecutors: Jailer smuggled hacksaw-stuffed taco to inmate

By Craig Kapitan - Express-News

Testimony began Wednesday in the trial of a former Bexar County jailer accused of providing a small hacksaw-stuffed taco to high-risk inmates plotting an elaborate escape attempt, including a man who was awaiting trial for capital murder.

Alfred Casas, 31, knew he messed up two years ago when he agreed to meet the girlfriend of double-murder suspect Jacob Keller after work so he could pick up a taco to give Keller, jurors heard the defendant admit in a recorded interview with detectives.

“It was one taco and I opened it and there was nothing in it,” Casas said through tears as detectives had him change off-camera into orange inmate scrubs. “I know it sounds stupid. I'm stupid for bringing those tacos. But it was a regular taco. I didn't know (about the hacksaw blade).”

The rest of the story:

They're a social networking group like Facebook only on motorcycles

Bikers rejoice.

Bid to make Hells Angel's club illegal thrown out

smh..com.au

A NSW judge has dismissed a bid by the state's police commissioner to have the Hells Angels Motorcycle Club declared a criminal organisation.

Dr James Renwick, for the commissioner, told the judge today that as the High Court had found the Crimes (Criminal Organisations Control) Act invalid, the matter was at an end.

Justice Peter McClellan then dismissed the Supreme Court application, but the issue of legal costs will be considered at a later date.

The rest of the story:

Angel of Death

Devilishly frightening.

A nurse, the epitome of an Angel of Mercy, cold-bloodily murdering patients.

Nurse arrested over hospital sabotage murder

By Richard Alleyne - The Telegraph

The 26-year-old woman was being questioned by Greater Manchester Police after the deaths thought to be caused by the contamination of saline containers.

Detectives were called in after an experienced nurse reported a higher than normal number of patients on her ward with "unexplained" low blood sugar levels pointing to the saline ampoules being sabotaged.

Officers found insulin had contaminated a batch of 36 saline ampoules in a storeroom close to ward A1 of Stepping Hill Hospital in Stockport.

The rest of the story: