STOP! Family jewel thief!

It would take a heckuva witch doctor to pull this off.

Hey I can't make this stuff up! Look at the next post its a spreading crime wave, heads will roll.

Someone is going to do some hard time over this.

What? I'm just sayin

Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital
By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA, April 22 (Reuters Life!) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

Rumours of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

"You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you. We've had a number of attempted lynchings. ... You see them covered in marks after being beaten," Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters on Tuesday.

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released.

"I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," Oleko said. (no, I didn't make the quote up)

"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.

Some Kinshasa residents accuse a separatist sect from nearby Bas-Congo province of being behind the witchcraft in revenge for a recent government crackdown on its members.

"It's real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny," said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station.

One tuff dude

Wow, give this citizen kudos for what he did not withstanding the fact he is blind.

Blind homeowner captures intruder
By Vic Ryckaert

Indianapolis: A blind homeowner used the wrestling skills he learned more than 30 years ago to overpower an intruder and hold the man at knifepoint until police arrived this morning.

"I just kind of panicked and just kind of went crazy after that," Allan Kieta said. "I've wrestled all my life. My dad's a Marine; he taught me some stuff. You're thinking in your head all this survival stuff."

An Indianapolis police official called it one of the most incredible tales of citizen self-defense that he's heard in years.

"It's pretty remarkable for anyone that's blind to be able to defend themselves, let alone make an apprehension," Lt. Jeff Duhamell said. "To be able to grab this guy and hold him down until police got there is pretty remarkable."

Kieta is typically at work on Mondays but had taken the day off from his job with the federal government. So he was home when a man entered his Eastside residence in the 3100 block of Richardt Avenue about 9 a.m. "We have a little poodle-like dog. It was barking and barking," Kieta said. "I opened the door and just ran into him."Kieta, 49, who is legally blind, said he was the Kentucky high school wrestling champ for the 145-pound division in 1976. He used his skills and other self-defense tactics learned from his father to subdue the intruder.

"I had him pinned in the laundry room and just kept pummeling," Kieta said, describing the pounding he gave the 25-year-old arrested by police.Kieta punched, kicked and grappled until the suspect became disoriented. Kieta said he grabbed him by the belt and dragged him into the kitchen. Kieta then found a kitchen knife and held it at the man's throat.

Kieta fumbled to dial 911 with his other hand. "Being visually impaired, I couldn't get the buttons because I was using my left hand," he said. "It took me about 20 tries." Police arrived minutes after dispatchers received the call at 9:47 a.m.

Alvaro Castro, 25, was arrested on an initial charge of residential entry, Sgt. Matthew Mount said. Police say Castro denied trying to burglarize the home. He said he was the ex-boyfriend of Kieta's 18-year-old daughter and said he was trying to visit her when he ran into her father, Mount said.

Kieta said Castro also told him he was looking for his cat. "I go, Your cat? You're in my house!" Kieta recalled.

Castro was held at Wishard Memorial Hospital's secure detention facility, then transferred to the Marion County Jail late Monday night.Kieta said he suffered swollen hands and a sore back, but no serious injuries. "When my wife was cleaning the blood off, she said "I think it's all his,". Kieta said.

Okay so now I'm supposed to be relieved?

UPDATE:

Okay, so a machine gun wasn't used. It appears several men shot the guy in the head.

That's better?

Police say car break-in led to shooting
Lomi Kriel: Express-News

Five men claiming to be members of the Mexican Mafia prison gang targeted an 18-year-old man on the Northeast Side on Monday afternoon after he "broke into the wrong car," shooting him several times in the head, Bexar County sheriff's deputies said Tuesday.

The brazen afternoon shooting — on a street near an elementary school and blocks from a high school — left dozens of bullet casings strewn about four crime scenes. It also prompted the lockdown of Candlewood Elementary School and delayed dozens of motorists on nearby Foster Road, who were stuck for hours in traffic.

As new details emerged about the shooting, which left Joshua Prewitt seriously injured with gunshot wounds to the head, sheriff's deputies said they were mistaken in saying Monday that the shooters fired machine guns as they chased Prewitt.
Prewitt remained in stable condition at Brooke Army Medical Center.

Instead, deputies said five handguns were discovered in the shooting suspects' vehicle and a semiautomatic weapon was abandoned nearby.
"It may have sounded like," automatic weapons because of the succession of the shots, said Deputy Ino Badillo. "But in reality, we can't identify that."

A deputy who was working in the neighborhood heard about 15 gunshots in "rapid succession" about 3:45 p.m., Badillo said, and raced to the area, where he spotted a Chevrolet Malibu speeding down Candlemeadow toward Binz Engleman Road. The driver and front-seat passenger of that vehicle waved at the deputy and screamed, "They killed him, they killed him," pointing at Prewitt, who was bleeding in the back seat, and to a Chevrolet Avalanche that was following closely behind, Badillo said.

The deputy gave chase and stopped the Avalanche soon after, arresting Joseph Vonallenan, 23; Jacob Rodriguez, 22; Sammy Trujillo, 21; Nick Cruz, 19; and Alejandro Isaac, 17. Each remained jailed Tuesday on charges of attempted murder, aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and engaging in organized crime. Each had a combined bond set at $225,000.

The shooting remains under investigation but Badillo said it appears it was "the result of a vehicle burglary involving the victim." He said Prewitt told deputies that he did not know his alleged assailants.

In what appears to be an unrelated incident, Judson Independent School District police, who were assisting deputies with the shooting, on Monday arrested a man nearby after they found a semiautomatic gun in his car. He was charged with unlawful possession of a weapon.

A district spokesman said police don't believe that man knew the alleged shooters or the victim.

Executions to resume

The wheels turn again.

Justices' decisions clear way for three Texans to be executed
Clay Robison: Express-News

AUSTIN — Dallas County prosecutors can seek another execution date for a man convicted of killing his parents 10 years ago, after the U.S. Supreme Court denied appeals filed by him and two convicts from Alabama and Mississippi.

The high court's action on Monday had the effect of lifting stays of execution granted the three men last fall, when the court decided to consider the constitutionality of execution procedures in Texas and 35 other states.

Ruling last week in a case from Kentucky, the court rejected arguments that the lethal three-drug combination administered to convicts was unconstitutionally cruel.
Carlton Turner, who had been scheduled to die the day after the high court granted his stay in September, was convicted of shooting his adoptive father and mother in their home in August 1998.

The Dallas County district attorney's office will ask a state district court to set a new execution date sometime this summer, a spokeswoman said.

Also losing their reprieves before the Supreme Court were Thomas Arthur of Alabama and Earl Wesley Berry of Mississippi, both convicted of murders in the 1980s.

Critics of the execution procedures had argued that if the first drug were administered incorrectly or in an insufficient dosage, the convict could suffer intense pain from the other two drugs but would be unable to express discomfort because the second drug is a paralytic.

But Chief Justice John Roberts, in his ruling, said Kentucky's execution protocol, which also is followed in Texas, is "believed to be the most humane available."

Harris County prosecutors also are expected to move quickly in seeking execution dates for six convicted murderers from Houston. Their convictions already have been affirmed on appeal, and they have been denied habeas corpus relief in state and federal courts.

One more for the road

Just great, a drunk driver, with a six year old in his car runs an intersection and kills a woman driving her car and puts him, the kid and the passenger of the other vehicle in the hospital. He, of course, put the woman in the ground.

When will the carnage associated with drunk driving end?

One killed, 3 injured in accident
Marvin Hurst: KENS 5 Eyewitness News

A two-car collision killed one person and injured three others Monday night, including a 6-year-old who suffered what police call serious injuries.

Police say they believe the driver of one of the cars was drunk and speeding.

The accident happened around 11:30 p.m. at the intersection of Buckeye and West Olmos. According to investigators, the driver they believe was drunk and the 6-year-old boy were traveling east on West Olmos when their vehicle crashed into another car, driving north on Buckeye.

A woman in the north-bound vehicle died at the scene. Her passenger suffered minor injuries.
The driver of the east-bound vehicle and the child were transported to University Hospital.
That driver will be charged with intoxication manslaughter and intoxication assault by proxy.

We can make him better, stronger....

This is truly amazing, we live in miraculous times.

People are truly wonderous if we use our talents and abilities for good. Unlike the prevfious story of gang members with machine guns.

Surgeons give hope to blind with successful 'bionic eye' operations

Surgeons have carried out the first operations in Britain using a pioneering “bionic eye” that could in future help to restore blind people’s sight.

Two successful operations to implant the device into the eyes of two blind patients have been conducted at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London.

The device — the first of its kind — incorporates a video camera and transmitter mounted on a pair of glasses. This is linked to an artificial retina, which transmits moving images along the optic nerve to the brain and enables the patient to discriminate rudimentary images of motion, light and dark.

The operations were conducted as part of an international clinical trial of the technology, known as the Argus II retinal implant, which has already proved successful in restoring rudimentary vision to patients who have become blind because of common conditions such as age-related macular degeneration or retinitis pigmentosa.

American researchers are hoping to develop a camera the size of a pea that could be implanted within the eyeball, replacing natural tissue with artificial technology.

Surgeons hope that the implant could be available to NHS patients within three to five years.
The Argus II uses a video camera to capture images. These are converted into electrical signals, which are transmitted wirelessly to the implant behind the retina. The electrodes in the implant unscramble the signal to create a crude black-and-white picture that is relayed along the optic nerve to the brain. The brain can then perceive patterns of light and dark spots corresponding to the electrodes stimulated.

Mark Humayun, Professor of Ophthalmology and Biomedical Engineering at the Doheny Eye Institute in Los Angeles, California, which developed the technology, said: “The camera is very, very small, and very low power, so it can go inside your eye and couple your eye movement to where the camera is. With the kind of missing information the brain can fill in, this field is really blossoming. In the next four to five years I hope, and we all hope, that we see technology that’s much more advanced.”

Linda Moorfoot is one of a few American patients to be fitted with the current version of the implant. She had been totally blind for more than a decade with the inherited condition retinitis pigmentosa. With the aid of the camera mounted on a pair of sunglasses, she can now see a rough image of the world made up of light and dark blocks. She told Sky News: “When I go to the grandkids’ hockey game or soccer game I can see which direction the game is moving in. I can shoot baskets with my grandson, and I can see my granddaughter dancing across the stage. It’s wonderful.”

Ms Moorfoot’s implant has just 16 electrodes but the US surgeons have helped to fit a more advanced device, with 60 electrodes, to the two British patients to give clearer images. In California, scientists are developing an implant with 1,000 electrodes, which should allow facial recognition.

The identities of the British patients have been concealed while doctors monitor their progress.
Lyndon da Cruz, the consultant retinal surgeon who carried out the operations with his team, said: “Moorfields is proud to have been one of only three sites in Europe chosen to be part of evolving this exciting technology. The devices were implanted successfully in both patients and they are recovering well from the operations.

“It is very special to be part of a programme developing a totally new type of treatment for patients who would otherwise have no chance of visual improvement.”

John Marshall, of St Thomas’ Hospital in London, and the British Retinitis Pigmentosa Society, gave warning that it was still “very early days” for the technology.

He said: “It is very, very good news that devices have been developed. It is very good news that in experimental trials some individuals have had these inserted. However, the general public should not run away with the idea that this is going to be routine surgery for blind people in the immediate future because there is an enormous amount to learn.”

High Noon

Jesu Cristo!! Machine guns! WTF?

San Antonio is becoming Beirut or Baghdad at this rate. Alright, Baghdad without IED's but still dangerous to all around the area.

These kids are nut jobs.

Machine gun shooting tied to gang activity
Lomi Kriel: Express-News

A carload of gang members armed with machine guns chased after another vehicle on a busy Northeast Side street Monday, shooting wildly at a man in the other car before it eventually stopped and the man was shot several times in the head, authorities said.

The shooting, which prompted the lockdown of an elementary school and occurred near a high school, left the man seriously wounded. Bexar County sheriff's deputies said the man, whose name was not immediately released, was taken to a nearby hospital, where he remained Monday night in serious condition.

Sgt. Chris Burchell said deputies arrested at least five men, all of whom are known gang members, in connection with the incident.

The shooting, which happened about 3:30 p.m. on Candlemeadow Drive near Foster Road, took place as the day was ending at nearby Wagner High School. Dozens of students, neighbors and other curious onlookers spilled onto the street as the deputies struggled to contain four crime scenes within about a four-block radius and separate witnesses from gawkers.

"It's organized chaos," Burchell said.

He said the shooting began when the victim, described only as being in his late teens, and the gang members argued. Some witnesses said it involved a car that had been stolen from one of the shooters' girlfriends, but Burchell was unable to confirm that.

To counter the attack, the victim and his friends pulled out BB guns, Burchell said, shooting at their rivals near Candlebluff and Candlemeadow drives. But their assailants, who "had some backup right around the corner," Burchell said, returned with machine guns, and shot at the victim and his two friends as they fled down Candlemeadow in a car.

The frantic chase stopped when the victim suddenly pulled to the side of the street, about 500 feet from Candlemeadow Elementary School. His assailants tried to pull him from the car and force him into theirs, but the man refused, Burchell said. So the men shot him several times in the head before fleeing, he said.

At the elementary school, Principal Susan Peery said a parent called her around 3:45 p.m. and told her about the incident. Though the regular school day already had ended, about 200 children still were participating in after-school activities.

After consulting with school police, Peery ordered a campuswide lockdown.

No children were injured, she said, but "it's scary, from the point of view that this is the closest a situation like this has come to us."

Burchell said it was fortunate that no one else was injured, adding, "It's crazy, driving around a neighborhood firing shots with a school right in the area."

Meanwhile, traffic on Foster Road quickly became congested, and deputies, who were helping move motorists through, noticed a gun on the floor of a man's car. They stopped him and found a Tec-9, a semi-automatic gun, in his car. He also was arrested, Burchell said, though his relationship with the other men was not immediately clear.

How do we know it's a true replica?...Never mind

Well, I guess he's having a good time now.

Man steals Jenna Jameson replica
Unable to open cash register, burglar makes off with $250 sex toy from Fullerton shop.
By KIMBERLY EDDS

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

FULLERTON - An early morning burglar who broke into an adult shop walked away without any cash, but what he did steal may be worth much more – a $250 replica of porn star Jenna Jameson's lower half.

All it took was a rock and a little patience for the thief to make off with a rubberized copy of Jameson, one of the world's most famous porn actresses, who has carved out an empire in the world of erotica films and products.

Video surveillance tape shot from inside The Erogenous Zone at 2449 E. Orangethorpe Ave. about 4 a.m. April 15 shows a man throwing a rock at the store's glass front door.

When the rock bounces off without breaking the glass, the burglar throws the rock again.

Apparently frustrated, he walks over to the display window and throws the rock. This time the glass shatters, and he walks in.

But the burglar's luck doesn't get any better. Video shows him try to break into the store's cash register, but it wouldn't open for him.

Instead of giving up altogether, he looks around, and makes his selection – a Jenna Jameson body double made of Ultra Realistic skin – and walks out of the store.

Store representatives did not immediately return calls for comment.

Anyone with information about the incident is asked to call the Fullerton Police Department at 714-738-6800.

A whole lotta shaking going on

Few folks in this country know or understands that the largest earthquake recorded in modern history occurred in this same region near New Madrid. Called the new Madrid fault zone it had an earthquake measuring (by estimate) 7.9 to 8.0 on the Ricther scale.

Because the sedimentary layers are well-established and far ranging in this area the earthquakes damage and effects are much further transmitted than similar sized earthquakes in California. This compares the damage zone (structural building damage in red) and reach of the zone of shaking and felt tremors (yellow) from an 1895 earthquake in the New Madrid zone to the Northridge quake in LA in 1994.

Also if Obama beats Hillary in Indiana's primary expect there to be a whole lotta shakin' going on then too.

What? I'm just sayin'

Strong aftershock reported in Illinois
WEST SALEM, Ill. (AP) - The U.S. Geological Survey says it has recorded one of the strongest aftershock so far from Friday's Illinois earthquake.
Geologists say the temblor just before 12:40 a.m. Monday registered at 4.5 magnitude at its epicenter about 5 miles northwest of Mount Carmel. The location is in the same area as Friday's early-morning 5.2-magnitude earthquake, which was followed by a 4.5 magnitude aftershock about 5 1/2 hours later.
The Monday morning aftershock was at least the 15th since Friday's quake

Where have all the flowers gone?

Letting you keep up with the world of science.

Haven't you noticed that you don't smell the flowers anymore?

Take time, relax, and smell the pollution.

Why flowers have lost their scent
Pollution is stifling the fragrance of plants and preventing bees from pollinating them – endangering one of the most essential cycles of nature, writes Environment Editor Geoffrey Lean

AP
Researchers say that pollution is dramatically cutting the distance travelled by the scent of flowers

Pollution is dulling the scent of flowers and impeding some of the most basic processes of nature, disrupting insect life and imperilling food supplies, a new study suggests.

The potentially hugely significant research – funded by the blue-chip US National Science Foundation – has found that gases mainly formed from the emissions of car exhausts prevent flowers from attracting bees and other insects in order to pollinate them. And the scientists who have conducted the study fear that insects' ability to repel enemies and attract mates may also be impeded.

The researchers – at the University of Virginia – say that pollution is dramatically cutting the distance travelled by the scent of flowers. Professor Jose Fuentes, who led the study, said: "Scent molecules produced by flowers in a less polluted environment could travel for roughly 1,000 to 1,200 metres. But today they may travel only 200 to 300 metres. This makes it increasingly difficult for bees and other insects to locate the flowers."

The researchers – who worked on the scent given off by snapdragons – found that the molecules are volatile, and quickly bond with pollutants such as ozone and nitrate radicals, mainly formed from vehicle emissions. This chemically alters the molecules so that they no longer smell like flowers. A vicious cycle is therefore set up where insects struggle to get enough food and the plants do not get pollinated enough to proliferate.

Already bees – which pollinate most of the world's crops – are in unprecedented decline in Britain and across much of the globe. At least a quarter of America's 2.5 million honey bee colonies have been mysteriously wiped out by colony collapse disorder (CCD), where hives are found suddenly deserted.

The crisis has now spread to Europe. Politicians insist that CCD has not yet been found in Britain, but the insects have been declining here too, and the agriculture minister Lord Rooker has warned that "the honey bee population could be wiped out in 10 years".

The researchers do not believe that they have found the cause of CCD, but say that pollution is making life more difficult for bees and other insects in many ways."

Honey, I'm here to pick you up

I guess if were the Prince I would've done the same thing. I remember being so proud of my MGB (when it started up and ran) I would take it anywhere to show off to the pretty ladies.

Oh well, youth. It is wasted on the young. LOL

Prince William's '£30K stunt' as he lands RAF helicopter in Kate's back garden

By REBECCA ENGLISH - Daily Mail

Prince William was under fire again after it emerged that he had landed his £10million RAF helicopter in girlfriend Kate Middleton's back garden during an official military exercise.
Miss Middleton and her parents are said to have watched in delight as the second in line to the throne practised a series of take-offs and landings in the paddock of their sprawling detached home in Bucklebury, Berkshire, earlier this month.

Details of the two-hour stunt emerged just days after the prince was heavily criticised for using another Chinook to fly himself and his brother Harry to a stag weekend on the Isle of Wight.
Scroll down for more ...

Prince William was awarded his wings by his father earlier this month. He then flew to the Isle of Wight in an RAF helicopter for a stag party

The revelations have raised questions about the way in which the RAF has allowed the prince to fit his "intensive" four-month training course around his social life.

As well as his cousin's stag do, William has had time off to go on a boozy boys-only surfing weekend in Cornwall and a week's holiday ski-ing in the Swiss alps with his girlfriend.

The RAF has repeatedly refused requests by the Mail to confirm how much Wiliam's attachment has cost taxpayers, arguing that it would take too much manpower to sit down and work the figures out.

The incident is understood to have taken place on April 3 during the final part of the course - codenamed Golden Kestrel - designed to allow army officer William, who one day will become head of the armed forces, to "familiarise" himself with the role of the RAF.
It has also, conveniently, afforded him the opportunity of learning to fly, something that the prince has long desired to do.
Scroll down for more ...

The Middleton family home is 16 miles away from RAF Odiham and the prince landed the Chinook in the field at the back of the house

RAF sources told the News of the World that, William, 25, himself came up with the idea of taking the helicopter to Berkshire, claiming there was a shortage of landing spots at RAF Odiam in Hampshire where he was based for part of his attachment.
After the plan was approved by his instructors, the prince flew the 16 miles to Miss Middleton's family home where he completed one circuit of the field at the back of her parents' million-pound house and practised landing and taking off in their paddock.

He then piloted the helicopter back to Odiham for further tuition. The entire operation is estimated to have cost around £30,000.

Nick Harvey, Liberal Democrat Defence spokesman, yesterday described the "jaunt" as major mistake, saying: "The prince will look back on this and realise it was a PR own goal.
"It's going to leave a lot of people wondering where the sense of priority lies if very serious helicopters are being made available for this sort of thing at a time when they are in such extreme need."

William and Kate met each other at university

It has also angered RAF top brass who had been savouring the "fabulous" publicity that William's attachment to the force had brought in this, their 90th anniversary year.
Pictures of the Prince of Wales awarding his son his wings at RAF Cranwell in Lincolnshire, watched by Miss Middleton, on April 11 made front pages around the world.

The head of the RAF, Air Chief Marshal Sir Glenn Torpy, is said to have "erupted" with rage at the "sheer stupidity" of the situation and is said to have demanded a "line-by-line" explanation from subordinates.

One senior RAF source told the Mail yesterday: "William hasn't done anything wrong but the naivety of those around him in allowing him to make these flights without forseeing the potential problems they could cause is astonishing.

"I think there has been a bit of royal fever here."

An RAF Chinook costs £15,000 an hour to run

A Ministry of Defence spokesman yesterday defended its decision to allow William to land the Chinook in the Middletons' field, however, saying: "Battlefield helicopters routinely practice landing in fields and confined spaces away from their airfields as a vital part of their training for operations.

"These highly honed skills are used daily in conflict zones such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

"The sortie on April 3 was fully authorised and planned and was an agreed part of Prince William's attachment to the RAF."

Their statement failed to aknowledge the fact that the future king is unlikely to ever see active service in a war zone, however.

He is due to be deployed with the Royal Navy in June for three months and will leave the army in January next year to become a full-time working royal.

Last week it emerged that after getting his much-coveted wings William flew a Chinook to

London and landed at Woolwich, where he picked up his brother and fellow army officer Harry.
They then flew to the Isle of Wight where their cousin Peter Phillips, the son of Princess Anne, was enjoying a weekend-long stag party.

The flight enabled them to spend an extra five hours touring the pubs of Cowes where at one point rowdy revellers pulled down William's trousers.

Eyewitness also claimed the two princes dared girls in one pub to bare their breasts and partied into the early hours with a number of attractive young woman including a local lap dancer named Gigi La Chance.

The RAF insisted the jaunt was "legitimate training" by teaching the prince to fly over water, but MPs demanded to know why the young royals were allowed to use the Chinook aircraft as a "stag do taxi service".

Critics pointed out that British troops in Afghanistan are critically short of the helicopters.

Only around ten are available to commanders in Afghanistan, who privately complain that operations are constantly hamstrung by a lack of helicopters.
Aviation analyst and RAF-trained pilot Jon Lake described the latest incident as "ridiculous and inappropriate".

"This is an absolute waste of training hours in the Chinook helicopter that the military are hard-pressed to afford. No other pilot at Prince William's stage of training would be allowed anywhere near the left-hand seat of Chinook," he said.

"It's like a learner driver being given the keys to a Formula One car just because his father owns the racing team."

In December 2005 the Mail revealed how William flew from Anglesey, where he was enjoying a week's mountain rescue training, in a Hawk jet so he could collect his army boots the following day.

Clarence House declined to comment on the latest row, with sources stressing that all of William's "sorties" had been approved by the RAF.

Avada Kedavra

The Judge better watch out or some one will throw the killing curse at him.

Avada Kedavra (Killing Curse)

Pronunciation: uh-VAH-dah kuh-DAHV-rah (IPA: /ə.'væ.də kə.'dæv.ɹə/)

Description: Causes a bright green flash and a rushing noise, the curse causes instant death to the victim.

Seen/Mentioned: The Avada Kedavra curse is used regularly by Lord Voldemort and his Death Eaters to kill their enemies. There is no known counter-curse or blocking spell, although the caster can be interrupted, the victim can dodge the green jet, hide behind solid objects (which burst into flame when hit by it), or, if the casting wizard is not sufficiently competent, the curse may be completely ineffective as described by Barty Crouch Jr acting as Alastor Moody in The Goblet of Fire. Harry twice countered this spell by casting Expelliarmus.

Harry Potter storylines are gibberish, judge tells Rowling

J. K. Rowling heard her work described as “gibberish” by a US judge yesterday at the end of a three-day trial into an unauthorised encyclopaedia of her Harry Potter novels.
Rowling has asked the federal court in New York to block publication of The Harry Potter Lexicon, a guide to the characters, places and spells in her novels, written by Steven Vander Ark, 50, a former school librarian.

District Judge Robert Patterson Jr said that he had read the first half of the first Harry Potter novel to his grandchildren, but found the “magical world hard to follow, filled with strange names and words that would be gibberish in any other context.

“I found it extremely complex,” he said, suggesting that a reference guide might be useful.

Rowling said she was “vehemently anti-censorship; and generally supportive of the right of other authors to write books about her novels”. But she said Vander Ark had “plundered” her prose and merely reprinted it in an A-to-Z format.

A decision in the case is not expected soon. It will be weeks before lawyers finish filing documents, and possibly longer before a verdict is given. Judge Patterson is deciding the case, rather than a jury.

Stupid is as stupid does

OMG! WTF?

Oklahoma sheriff charged with using inmates as sex slaves

ARAPAHO, Okla. (AP) - Authorities have charged a western Oklahoma sheriff with coercing and bribing female inmates so he could use them in a sex-slave operation run out of his jail.

Custer County Sheriff Mike Burgess resigned Wednesday just as state prosecutors filed 35 felony charges against him, including 14 counts of second-degree rape, seven counts of forcible oral sodomy and five counts of bribery by a public official.

Burgess, the top officer in the county of 26,000 since 1994, appeared in court Wednesday was released after posting $50,000 bail.

A message left at Burgess' home Thursday was not immediately returned.

Among other things, Burgess is accused of having sex with a female drug court participant who was in his custody. The crimes are to have occurred between October 2005 and April 2007.

A federal lawsuit filed in October claims Burgess told one drug court participant he would have her sent to prison if she didn't comply with his sexual demands.

The lawsuit, filed by 12 former inmates, alleges the sheriff's employees had them engage in wet T-shirt contests and offered cigarettes to those who would flash their breasts.

One prisoner alleged she became a jail trusty with more freedom after agreeing to perform a sex act on Burgess, but lost that status when she later refused.

Burgess also faces two counts each of sexual battery, rape by instrumentation and subornation of perjury, and one count each of engaging in a pattern of criminal offenses, indecent exposure and kidnapping.

He could be sentenced to 467 years in prison if convicted on all counts, special prosecutor James Boring said, though a lesser sentence would be more likely.

Oh Brother

Can you Hear me? Can you hear me now?


Dude! Put down the phone and finish robbing the place already.

If you know this guy please call him and tell him the police would like to speak to him.

I'm just sayin'


Robber holds up bank, doesn't bother to get off his cellphone
by Darren Murph

Make no mistake, we've seen some fairly boneheaded moves (even someone rocking this very same gaffe!) made by technologically-illiterate bank robbers, but the latest case involves a fellow who was quite the opposite of that.





Yes, the 20 to 25 year male who decided to hold up an Alabama bank the day before his taxes were due actually did the deed without hanging up his cellphone. And there's surveillance footage to prove it.





Quite honestly, we can't imagine what the conversation here would've been like, but at least he made the most of whatever minutes he had remaining as a free man, right?

Grasping at Straws

This is getting to be embarrassing. Doesn't Mr. Macias see that?

I know Judge Clawson pretty well, I used to drink coffee with him every morning he would visit when I was in Bexar County. To be honest I couldn't think of a more honorable, equitable man I have ever met in my life. He epitomizes the very concept of Judge.

To attempt to recuse him seems ludicrous to me. Well, so does Mr. Macias's arguments to me, if the truth be told.

Macias seeks new judge to hear lawsuit
By Chris Cobb: The Herald-Zeitung

Nathan Macias’ contest of the March 4 Republican primary election results will head into a courtroom on Tuesday, but the state representative would like a different judge to preside over the hearing.Macias filed a lawsuit in late March to fight the results of the election and ensuing recount after narrowly losing to challenger Doug Miller by 17 votes.

On Tuesday, he filed an objection to having visiting District Judge James Clawson preside over the case, although Macias’ attorney Rene Diaz said both he and the campaign had no comment on why they chose to do so.Clawson has overseen numerous election contests in the past, including a mayoral race in Seguin in 2002. Macias’ lawsuit claimed that numerous people illegally voted in the primary.

Earlier in the week it was discovered that Macias’ chief of staff was among those listed in his suit as having potentially illegally voted. Officials from Miller’s campaign said they weren’t sure why Macias would object to having Clawson preside over the case.

“Macias has named all four local county election officials, more than 1,000 voters and even his own chief of staff as being part of some huge conspiracy that caused him to lose this election,” said Miller spokesman Craig Murphy in a Wednesday press release. “Now apparently the judge is in on it.”

The case is scheduled to be heard at 9 a.m., Tuesday in district court.