`A Danville high school student faces a felony charge of furnishing marijuana after allegedly feeding half a marijuana-laced cookie to a 4-year-old boy, a Contra Costa County sheriff’s spokesman said today.
The 17-year-old Monte Vista High School senior allegedly gave the piece of cookie to the boy during a daycare class at the high school on Feb. 21, spokesman Jimmy Lee said.
Lee couldn’t release the suspect’s name because he is a juvenile. [..]
The maximum penalty for the charge of furnishing marijuana is four years in prison, Lee said.’
`Desert bus is probably one of the best games ever. Unfortunately the game was never released, until now. 11 years after the planned release date Waxy is hosting a torrent for this mythical game. The game is part of a long-lost Penn and Teller videogame.
The goal of the game is pretty straightforward. You have to drive a Bus through the desert from Tucson, Arizona to Las Vegas. The hard part is that the whole trip is in real-time, so it takes 8 hours at least. And it gets even better:
There is no scenery or even other cars on the road, just plain desert, for 8 hours. Oh, and your bus veers to the right just slightly, so it’s impossible to just tape down a button and go do something else. Rumor has it that if you make it to Vegas, you score one point.‘
`Russia plans to hit a golf ball into Earth orbit from the International Space Station. If NASA approves the plan, the ball would set records for the longest drive ever made – but some experts warn that a mishap could cause “catastrophic” damage to the station.
The plan is part of a commercial deal between the Russian space agency and Element 21 Golf Company, based in Toronto, Canada. In the plan, the station’s next crew members, due to launch to the station on 29 March, will try for the record-breaking swing during one of three planned spacewalks by September 2006. [..]
In a worst-case scenario, the ball would remain at the same altitude long enough that its orbital plane shifted until it could hit the station side-on, says J C Liou, an orbital debris expert at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, US. “Then you could potentially have something similar to a head-on collision with an impact speed of about 9.4 kilometres per second,” Liou told New Scientist.
The force of such a collision would be equivalent to that of a 6.5-tonne truck moving at nearly 100 kilometres per hour. “So the outcome of the worst-case scenario could be quite catastrophic,” he says. But he adds that such a dire scenario is “highly unlikely” to occur.’
`People often ask me when they should teach the Good News to their housecats. I have but one answer: “What are you waiting for?”
A pet is a beloved part of your family, and as a Christian, you should do everything you can to guarantee that this valued member of your family receives the glorious eternal reward for which Christ gave His very life. Think of the alternative: your cat mired in darkness for eternity because you put off a 10-minute conversation.
My own cats accepted Jesus into their hearts before they even opened their eyes. The light of salvation has brightened their lives, but perhaps the most noticeable change has been in me. I am filled with warmth knowing their eternal souls have been saved.’
`A retired French colonel accused of trying to boost his children’s tennis results by drugging their opponents has admitted he spiked the water bottle of a rival player who later died in a car crash.
Christophe Fauviau, whose daughter Valentine, 15, is one of France’s brightest prospects, made his confession at the start of his trial in the south-western town of Mont-de-Marsan.
He is charged with the manslaughter of Alexandre Lagardere by unintentionally causing him to fall asleep at the wheel of his car. Mr Lagardere had earlier been overcome by drowsiness while playing Fauviau’s son Maxime in the final of a local tournament.
Fauviau, 46, a former helicopter pilot instructor with an exemplary military record, is also accused of administering toxic substances to 21 of Valentine’s opponents and six of her brother’s.’
`A man showing off his OnStar system in his Cadillac Escalade found out the system worked too well. Ralph A. Gomez, 38, was being held Wednesday on $15,000 bond on charges of possession of an illegal narcotic within 1,000 feet of a church and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Gomez was showing off his OnStar system to his girlfriend, but the volume was set so low that he couldn’t hear the OnStar operator. OnStar comes on many new General Motors vehicles and allows a customer to contact an OnStar representative in an emergency or to get directions.
If there is no response, OnStar contacts police.’
`Shawanna Nelson, a prisoner at the McPherson Unit in Newport, Ark., had been in labor for more than 12 hours when she arrived at Newport Hospital on Sept. 20, 2003. Ms. Nelson, whose legs were shackled together and who had been given nothing stronger than Tylenol all day, begged, according to court papers, to have the shackles removed.
Laura Strange, a California inmate, shackled to her bed before the state enacted a law banning the practice during labor, delivery and recovery.
Though her doctor and two nurses joined in the request, her lawsuit says, the guard in charge of her refused.
“She was shackled all through labor,” said Ms. Nelson’s lawyer, Cathleen V. Compton. “The doctor who was delivering the baby made them remove the shackles for the actual delivery at the very end.”‘
`Naked Rambler Stephen Gough has been jailed for two months for appearing naked in the dock from custody.
Mr Gough, from Eastleigh in Hampshire, completed his second naked trek from Lands End to John O’Groats last week.
He had been arrested on Wednesday for walking naked into Edinburgh Sheriff Court to face previous charges.’
`WElL I GOT NEWS FOR U MISTER I GOT MORE FIREWALL POWERS NOW SO IM SECURE AND IM USING WINDOWS 98 SO IM REALLY SECURE FROM HACKERS LIKE YOU SO YOU BETTA JUST GIVE UP CUZ U GOT NO HOPE MISTER.’
`A woman pleaded guilty Monday to attempted murder charges for trying to hire a hit man to rob and kill four men for what she thought was cocaine, but turned out to be cheese.
Jessice Sandy Booth, 18, hatched the plot after she visited the home of the men, and mistook queso fresco – a white, crumbly cheese common in Mexican cuisine.
But the hit man she hired turned out to be an undercover police officer.
“They asked her numerous times ‘Do you really want to go through with this?'” prosecutor Paul Hagerman said. “They gave her numerous chances to back out, but she said she was serious. She said she needed the money for modeling school.”‘
`In dramatic and sometimes agonizing terms, federal disaster officials warned
President Bush and his homeland security chief before Hurricane Katrina struck that the storm could breach levees, put lives at risk in New Orleans’ Superdome and overwhelm rescuers, according to confidential video footage.
Bush didn’t ask a single question during the final briefing before Katrina struck on Aug. 29, but he assured soon-to-be-battered state officials: “We are fully prepared.”
The footage — along with seven days of transcripts of briefings obtained by The Associated Press — show in excruciating detail that while federal officials anticipated the tragedy that unfolded in New Orleans and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast, they were fatally slow to realize they had not mustered enough resources to deal with the unprecedented disaster.’
`Morrissey was questioned by the FBI and British intelligence after speaking out against Bush and Blair, the singer has revealed.
Mozza, a famous critic of the war in Iraq, has previously branded the US President a “terrorist”. He said: “The FBI and the Special Branch have investigated me and I’ve been interviewed and taped and so forth. They were trying to determine if I was a threat to the government, and similarly in England. But it didn’t take them very long to realise that I’m not.’
`A Gulf War veteran undergoing medical treatment said he was given placebos — or sugar pills — instead of real medicine.
Like thousands of other soldiers, Army veteran Mike Woods said he developed bizarre symptoms after serving in the first Gulf War — blackouts, chest pain and numbness in the extremities.
Woods looked to the Veterans Administration for help. He said his VA doctor prescribed him a drug called Obecalp.
“She told me there was this new drug out that would really help me with all of my physical conditions, and my pain. She really wanted me to try it,” said Woods.
But when the pill provided no relief, Woods did some research and learned that Obecalp isn’t a medicine at all, but a sugar pill. He was shocked to learn the word “obecalp” is placebo spelled backward.’
`A college student fell to his death on Thursday while scaling the wall of an apartment building to impress his girlfriend. The 20-year-old freshman identified as Lee was found lying in the parking lot of a six-story building in Dongseon-dong in Seoul at around 3:20 p.m. on Thursday. The parking attendant called an ambulance but Lee succumbed to his injuries in hospital six hours later.
The parking attendant said he was alerted by hearing a thump in the parking lot to find a young man bleeding from his head and mouth.
Lee’s girlfriend told police the couple had an argument a day earlier, and when she refused to see Lee, he rang and told her to look out the window. Police speculate that Lee fell while trying to abseil from the roof to the fourth floor, where his girlfriend lives, using a TV cable.’
`A homeless man who police say tried to take a sheep from the Little Rock Zoo has been arrested on numerous charges. A security guard at the zoo called police Tuesday evening after spotting a man carrying a trash can with a sheep in it, a police report said.
When officers arrived Grady Allen Carnahan, 32, told them he was a doctor and the sheep was sick. He said he was taking the animal to a veterinary clinic, the report said.
Carnahan fought with officers as they were trying to take him into custody, police said.’
`He may be the most powerful man in the world, but proof has emerged that President George Bush cannot ride a bike, wave and speak at the same time.
Scotland on Sunday has obtained remarkable details of one of the most memorably bizarre episodes of the Bush presidency: the day he crashed into a Scottish police constable while cycling in the grounds of Gleneagles Hotel.
The incident, which will do little to improve Bush’s accident-prone reputation, began when he took to two wheels for a spot of early-evening exercise during last year’s G8 summit at the Perthshire resort.
After a hard day’s discussion with fellow world leaders, the president was looking for some relaxation. Instead, he ended up the subject of a police report in which the leader of the free world was described, in classic police language, as a “moving/falling object”.’
`Former escort kingpin Arthur “Big Pimpin’ Pappy” Vanmoor is known for his litigious nature.
In the past decade, he has been a plaintiff or defendant in 29 lawsuits in Broward County alone. He has sued businesses that challenged him, police departments that investigated him, an assistant state attorney who prosecuted him and journalists who reported on him.
But his latest suit has stunned even veteran court watchers.
Vanmoor, 46, has filed a federal lawsuit against six former customers of his escort service. He says they broke the law after purchasing time with his escorts, and it was their illegal actions that led to his arrest, incarceration and deportation, as well as the loss of his business.’
`England football captain David Beckham confessed he is befuddled by his six-year-old son Brooklyn’s maths homework.
Beckham, 30, admitted to being baffled when Brooklyn recently asked for help with a school assignment and had to turn to his former Spice Girls pop star wife Victoria to help out.
“Their homework is so hard these days. I sat down with Brooklyn the other day – and I was like, ‘Victoria, maybe you should do the homework tonight’,” Beckham told the Mail on Sunday newspaper.
“I think it was maths, actually. It’s done totally differently to what I was teached when I was at school, and you know, I was like, ‘Oh my God, I can’t do this’.
“Brooklyn was like, ‘Please do it with me’, and I’m like, ‘I’ll read your book with you’.”‘
‘A teacher who castrated a live pig in front of high school students is the target of protests by animal rights activists throughout the country. [..]
“We’re concerned not only because animals suffer during these routine castrations but also because of the message it sends to students who are still forming opinions about treatment of animals in our society,” said Stephanie Bell, a PETA cruelty case worker.
Rod Van Norman, superintendent of the Southern Kern Unified School District School, said animal castrations often occur in agriculture classes and are an important skill for students to learn.’
`It’s an unusual motive for murder. Investigators in Belleview said slamming the door drove a man to kill his next-door neighbor in Marion County.
Investigators believe Betty Shepperd was murdered over something that sounds extremely trivial. They said 45-year-old Vito Loiacono was irritated that Shepperd was slamming the door at night and waking him up.
The two allegedly argued earlier in the day and then Shepperd’s friend said she got a strange phone call from someone else in the complex.
“[The person] said, ‘The reason I’m calling you is I saw Vito coming out of Betty’s apartment.’ I said, ‘That can’t be,'” said Shepperd’s friend, Maria Folks.
Folks went to Shepperd’s apartment and found her in the bathroom, where she had been stabbed to death.
“I found the door ajar. I started yelling, ‘Betty! Betty!'”‘
`A woman who tripped and fell over letters, packages and periodicals left on her front porch can sue the U.S. Postal Service for damages, the Supreme Court ruled on Wednesday.
The 7-1 ruling was a victory for Barbara Dolan, who said she suffered wrist and back injuries when she fell in 2001 in front of her Glenside, Pennsylvania, home.
She said postal employees acted negligently by leaving the mail on her porch. No further details were available on the circumstances of her fall.’
`Maymont employees are mourning the death of the park’s two black bears, destroyed yesterday after one of them bit a 4-year-old boy last weekend. [..]
Both bears, ages 12 and 9, were euthanized because it was not known which one bit the boy, Maymont officials said. The child and at least one parent were apparently at the rear of the 2-acre bear exhibit Saturday when the child climbed a 4-foot wooden fence into a restricted area and approached the 10-foot chain-link fence that surrounds the bears.
“The child may have been eating an apple or had apple [scent] on his hands,” said Julia Dixon, spokeswoman for Game and Inland Fisheries. The child put his hand through the fence and was bitten.’
`A Wichita man shouting abuse and throwing groceries in a Sam’s Club parking lot didn’t know he had an audience.
He had an audience, all right: Kelly Otis, a homicide detective, walked past just as the man appeared to hit his 11-year-old daughter in the forehead with a box of frozen chicken. [..]
“The guy started crying and told me he was sorry and was just having a bad day,” Otis said. “I told him that was a horrible excuse, and that his day was about to get worse.”
When Otis looked inside, he saw a 1-year-old girl sitting in a car seat, and another girl, age 11, with a red lump growing on her forehead. She was crying.
Otis asked her what had struck her. She pointed. One corner of the 2 ˝-pound box was broken from striking her in the head.
Otis said the childrens’ mother told him: “I didn’t do anything.”‘
`A disturbing case was discovered Tuesday about a Central Ohio man who allegedly told police he likes to drink the urine of adolescent boys. [..]
“Listening to his describe it, it’s like listening to a crack or cocaine addict. He’s addicted to children’s urine,” Fithen said.
According to police, Patton said he’s been drinking urine for years.
“He told us he’s been doing it over 40 years, since he was 7 years old,” Fithen said.
Police said Patton goes to family restaurants and movie theaters and waits for boys in a bathroom stall. Investigators said he shuts off the water to the child-level urinal and puts a cup in the bottom.’
`A woman who didn’t want the rain to ruin the sofa in the back of her truck caused 24 vehicles to wreck behind her Sunday on Interstate 20 as she swerved to get under an overpass, a police spokesman said. [..]
She changed lanes so rapidly that she cut off cars as she made her way to the shoulder of the road to get under the overpass, White said.
“She cut off two vehicles initially, right away, and that caused those two vehicles to collide with each other,” White said. “We had a total of 24 vehicles at the end of it.”
Eight separate accidents were reported as a direct result of the woman’s poor driving, he said.’
`Our government tells us the prisoners at Guantanamo are “the worst of the worst,” to use Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s phrase. “They’re terrorists. They’re bomb-makers, they’re facilitators of terror. They’re members of al-Qaida and the Taliban” is the description from the ever-reliable lips of Vice President Dick Cheney.
“They were there to kill,” the President has asserted. [..]
What do the official findings of the U.S. military show?
More than half of the so-called enemy combatants at Guantanamo were determined to have committed no hostile act against U.S. or coalition forces. This was so even though the definition of a “hostile act” was loose enough to include fleeing a camp that had been bombed, or being picked up in an area of Pakistan where others believed to be fighters had fled.’
`The pastor of a charismatic Christian church attended by the Plano mother on trial, accused of fatally cutting off the arms of her 10-month-old daughter, told jurors Wednesday that mental illness is really demon possession that cannot be cured with psychiatry or medicine.
“I do not believe that any mental illness exists other than demons, and no medication can straighten it out, other than the power of God,” said Doyle Davidson, the 73-year-old minister of the Water of Life Church that Dena and John Schlosser attended several times a week.
Dena Schlosser, 37, is on trial for capital murder in the slaying of her daughter Margaret in November 2004.’
`Police say the driver charged with the smash that killed six teenagers and left one fighting for his life has appeared in court at least eight times since 1992 for driving while disqualified.
And it alleged his four-year-old son was sitting on his lap at the time of the crash. [..]
Towle, 34, who was released from jail three months ago after serving 18 months for a firearms-related offence, held his head in his hands and ran his fingers through his hair yesterday as he faced up to the full horror of the charges against him: six counts of culpable driving causing death, four counts of negligently causing serious injury, one count of failing to stop and one of failing to render assistance.’
‘Sexually abusing a teenager is less serious a crime if the girl is not a virgin, Italy’s higher court said on Friday in a controversial ruling that immediately drew a barrage of criticism.
The court ruled in favor of a man in his forties, identified only as Marco T., who forced his 14-year old stepdaughter to have oral sex with him after she refused intercourse.
The man, who has been sentenced to three years and four months in jail, lodged an appeal arguing that the fact that his stepdaughter had had sex with men before should have been taken into consideration during his trial as a mitigating factor.’
`The note inside the house made it clear to Cowlitz County sheriff’s deputies that they had the right place: “Do not open door & let anyone in! Stolen Stuff visable.”
Within a day, investigators confirmed that antiques, furniture, jewelry, credit cards and at least 19 guns found in the home of Gerald Levertt Mack had been stolen from at least 12 people, deputy Charles J. Rosenzweig said.
“Nothing like helping us figure out what’s going on,” Rosenzweig said.’
