Wrecking Havoc

You agreed to it.......

2015-06-16T00:06:00.000-04:00

Heather Hironimus, 31, posted bond and was released at 10:18 pm on May 23 2015 from jail in West Palm beach FL. She had spent nine days there in part of her continuing legal battle with Dennis Nebus, the father of her son, Chase Ryan Nebus-Hironimus, 4 years old.

Dennis and Heather never married but were together for about a year after Chase had been born until they finally separated. They had been warring with each other since before the boy was born and their latest battle has become a worldwide event. They both share custody of Chase and when he was about one year old, they finally agreed on a parenting agreement that was filed in court.

One part of that parenting agreement was an agreement from Heather that she would sign consent forms to allow their son to be circumcised if Dennis chose to have it done. This was a legal document that was approved by a judge and it had stated that Nebus would schedule the circumcision as well as pay for it. Heather agreed to the surgery as well as willingly signing the court papers approving it. It is sometime about two years after she signed this agreement that she became an intactivist, part of a group of anti-circumcision activists who believe that it is a human rights violation and child abuse.

The case had seen a fair amount of media coverage, especially when it was sold as a heart wrenching story of the court system forcing an unwilling mother to agree to have her young son circumcised. What was not stressed was that she had already agreed to it in a legally binding document when the boy was very young. Why she would then set up a facebook page and post numerous pictures of the boy for everyone to see I can only view as a dangerous attempt to drag a child into an adult argument.

Heather had consistently lost the legal battles and finally, ran off with the boy to hide for about 80 days in a domestic violence shelter. Much has been stated about the trauma the boy has gone through already and will face with the surgery, the horror of seeing his mother arrested and how he is terrified of the surgery. Heather has had custody of the boy since his birth and she is the one who has filled his head with these horrors. She also chose not to honor the written agreement that was in place for those years. It certainly sounds as though the couple has been at war from before the boy was even born. It also sounds as though Heather grabbed this topic as her chance to get the boy permanently away from his father.

No matter what she felt about the surgery, she had no right to fill the boy's head with the horrible stories she has. She also did not need to drag him into the public spotlight or get him to believe that it is his body, his right. No adult needs to take a two year old child aside and let them choose what surgeries are done to them..... that is the part of being an adult and parent that Heather missed badly with.

The media spin continued after she was finally arrested and put in jail for contempt. She wasn't forced to sign over her rights to the surgery, she had already agreed to that in a legally binding contract. She was given the chance to get out of jail on the contempt charge by agreeing to follow through on her previous legal agreement. Her legal team had filed a federal lawsuit to try and prevent the surgery but it was very quickly removed when it was clear that she would not win the case. After a few days in jail, she sobbed her way through the signing of permission for the surgery could be done, as she had agreed to do when he was too young to even understand what was being debated.

The boy is now in the custody of his father and hopefully there will be no more media coverage about any surgery. Heather is out of jail for now but she will also face a legal battle for custodial interference for her running and hiding with the boy. I can only hope that the boy will be allowed to live the rest of his years far from any media coverage and that his mother leave her young son out of her very public legal battles in the future.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-mom-heather-hironimus-son-circumcision-jail/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3082655/Fla-woman-fled-avoid-sons-circumcision-arrested.html

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2015/05/14/us/ap-us-circumcision-fight.html?_r=0

http://www.news.com.au/lifestyle/parenting/mother-of-4-year-old-jailed-for-refusing-to-circumcise-her-son-as-case-goes-to-us-federal-court/story-fnet08ui-1227361964929

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/local/palm-beach/fl-parents-circumcision-battle-update-20141213-story.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3095275/Florida-woman-jailed-trying-prevent-four-year-old-son-s-circumcision-released-nine-months-bars.html

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/florida-mom-heather-hironimus-released-jail-son-circumcision/

http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/jurisprudence/2015/05/chase_nebus_hironimus_circumcision_battle_intactivists_form_chase_s_guardians.html

http://www.phillyvoice.com/heather-hironimus-circumcision--federal-court/

You didn't get your way because........... wtf?

2015-05-31T13:22:00.006-04:00

"I'm sitting on a United airlines flight in the air 30,000 feet above and I am in tears of humiliation from discrimination," posted Tahera Ahmad.

Tahera Ahmad, 31 is a Muslim chaplain and director of interfaith engagement at Northwestern University and she was traveling from Chicago to Washington for a conference that promoted dialogue between Israeli and Palestinian youth. Ahmad's problem began when they were serving the complimentary beverages during the flight. The flight attendant asked her what she would like and she stated that she wanted an unopened can of diet coke.

The attendant returned with an opened can which Ahmad objected to. She stated that she wanted the unopened can for hygienic reasons and even though the attendant stated that no one drank from the can, she still did not want the drink. She again demanded the unopened can and the attendant explained that they could not give out unopened cans to passengers. Ahmad was further upset when the attendant handed an unopened can of beer to a passenger in her row.

In her post she has already begun to explain that she was being discriminated against because of her style of dress so I am going to guess that she was already escalating the demand for a can. She somehow thought that the other passengers would come her aid and chime in on demanding Ahmad be given a full, unopened can of soda. They did not according to her statements but instead verbally attacked her. She added that she was crying because she thought that people would defend her demand and they instead attacked her.

United has stated that the crew talked with Ahmad when the plane landed as well the attendant trying multiple times to work out the situation while in the air. The company had also reached out to Ahmad on Saturday to apologize to her but it seems that Ahmad is not happy with their attempts. She posted on Sunday that she felt that United failed in it's labeling the incident as a can issue and not a discrimination problem. She is waiting for a written apology for the pain and hurt she experienced as well as the hurtful words.

I am not sure what world Ahmad lives in but any time I have flown in the past years......... it is extremely rare if I can get an entire can of soda when they are serving drinks. It has been opened every time that I ever got one as well. I never realized that I was being discriminated against while I flew all those airline flights. I should have loudly stood up for my right to demand a service from the one I was paying to fly me, even though it is not guaranteed?

I do feel that she should not have had to take the brunt of the name calling but I think just from her description of incident, she did a lot to escalate it in the beginning. As I have said, I fly often and I know that there are many uncomfortable, cranky people jammed in too small seats who would use it as an excuse to vent their own frustration. I don't think United needs to crawl on it's knees to apologize to Ahmad and the online rant parade supporting you has missed a very important point........ the airlines don't make it a habit of handing out a full can of soda to anyone who asks.

The simple solution would have been to do what I do on flights, if you were so concerned about hygiene Ahmad....... buy a bottled soda before you board the plane and you have it all to yourself and you can verify that it is clean enough for you. Stomping your feet and trying to claim this "horrible" thing happened to you because you are Muslim is a cop-out and whiny excuse for not getting what you thought you should get.

Related stories on this blog:

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/05/just-keep-lowering-bar.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/04/temper-tantrums-may-work-for-two-year.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/04/entitlements-again.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/04/set-me-up-to-whine-through-life.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/11/but-you-have-to-pay-stomp-stomp.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/03/but-i-am-right.html

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/30/us/united-flight-muslim-chaplain/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/muslim-woman-denied-unopened-diet-coke-plane-article-1.2241678

A life for a horn.........

2015-05-25T22:15:00.002-04:00

The 4 year old white rhino named Hope was attacked in Lombardini, a wildlife preserve in Eastern Cape Provence, South Africa and staff found her several days later horribly wounded. Poachers had darted her and while she was sedated, they hacked off her horn and left her to live or die.

Hope did not die and last week veterinarians worked to save her life. They removed dead tissue and maggots from the wound that measured 20 by 11 inches long, the largest they have worked to close in recent years. The team has worked on at least ten rhinos with similar injuries in the past three years as well as having to euthanize many others who were too badly injured to save.

The vets applied fresh dressings and a fiberglass cast that was screwed into place to cover her fractured nasal bone. They believe that it may take up to year before she is well enough to return to the wild and her care is estimated at about $75,000 or more if she does survive. it is hoped that she will get well enough to return to the wild and reproduce as Thandi, another rhino who has survived an attack 2012 has done.

South Africa is home to the largest population of rhinos in the world and while great strides have been made in protecting them, it is not enough. There are still hundreds of them slaughtered for their horns and some parks have gone to the extreme of removing the horns themselves to try and remove them as potential targets. Sadly, many are still found alive with horrific injuries from their horns being hacked off but few have a chance to survive the butchery. They are more often shot with bullets rather than sedated and they are often not found soon enough to save them.

The struggle to save majestic creatures from extinction because of human greed is a battle that must be won......

http://www.hsi.org/news/news/2013/02/rhino_poaching_victims_022613.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/article22184466.html

http://article.wn.com/view/2015/05/25/South_African_rhino_survives_horrific_attack_by_poachers_a/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2573794/Horrified-tourists-discover-rhino-wandering-pain-horn-hacked-poachers-latest-Kruger-National-Park-horror.html

.......... Free stuff????

2015-05-16T17:19:00.000-04:00

Police received a tip to review the video tape that was taken at a local 7-Eleven in Baltimore MD the day of the riots and they have now made two arrests based on what they saw. Tamika Cobb and Kendra Richard were both caught on video walking out of the store on the corner of W Baltimore and Howard St on April 25th as the caller had stated.

Cobb could be seen walking out of the store with Tostito chips and Richard exited with her hands full of Slim Jims. That may not seem as though it is a crime worth the police time and man power but it certainly is. It seems that both women are Maryland State Correctional officers and both were assigned to work in facilities downtown at that time. Cobb and Richard were given a tip that they would be visible on the video tape and police state that they identified both women by the clothing they had on that day.

Cobb and Richard had dedicated nine years to the job and had worked at the Baltimore Reception Diagnostic Classification Center and now have been suspended without pay. They have both been charged with theft and burglary and released on $35,000 bond each. There has been no one answering their phones or addresses for any comment.

I would hate to hear their excuses for choosing that time, as officers of the law, to steal from a neighborhood business. What reasons could they have for breaking the law themselves and how did they think this supported the "protests" that had gone on that day. It is definitely a dumb idea to lose your job over a few bags of chips and some beef jerky and I hope that they get the book thrown at them for being that dumb.

As for the chants of black lives mattering......... there have been 40 people shot..... none by police, in the city of Baltimore since April 28th. Where are the protests and meetings now or does that mantra only matter if the police were involved?

Related stories on this blog:

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/05/will-there-be-outrage.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/05/do-right-thing.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/04/just-destruction.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/search?q=fake+gun

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/08/where-is-outrage.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/11/its-fair-burn-it.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/10/it-is-their-job.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/08/justified.html

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-corrections-officers-looting-20150513-story.html

http://baltimore.cbslocal.com/2015/05/14/police-2-corrections-officers-looted-during-baltimore-riots/

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bs-md-ci-freddie-gray-shooting-surge-20150508-story.html

Just keep lowering the bar.........

2015-05-13T22:43:00.000-04:00

Jennifer Burbella was accepted into the nursing program in 2010 at Misericordia University in Dallas PA. She knew in 2010 that she had an existing predisposition that caused her to suffer from anxiety and depression. Burbella was seeing a school psychologist for her depression, poor concentration and anxiety by the 2011 school year.

In the spring of 2014, Burbella failed Functional Health Patterns of Adults IV, which is a required course for nursing students. Students are required to pass the class with a minimum grade of 78 percent and Burbella failed to meet that minimum. She then states that she was pressured into retaking the class during the summer session which began in four days. It should be noted that Burbella's lawsuit is centered around her failure in this particular class twice but this is an example of failure in one course preventing someone from graduating.

Burbella had struggled through her courses throughout her attempt to receive a Bachelor degree in nursing with average and below average grades. Her lawyer, Harry P McGrath stated that she struggled through her college career with anxiety in social and academic challenges and family medical issues. The university had agreed to make special accommodations for Burdella when she took the final exam for the class the second time. Unfortunately, she did not pass the test the second time either.

Now Burbella is suing the university, the president, the nursing professor and the head of the nursing department for violating the Federal Rehabilitation Act. She contends that they did not follow through with making good on the accommodations she expected to have during her second final exam. The university had agreed to have her take the test in a separate, distraction free environment, extra time to take the test and the instructor had offered to be available to answer questions she may have had while taking the exam.

They had set Burbella up in a separate building that was distraction free and unfortunately, her instructor was now scheduled to proctor the same exam to the rest of her class in another building. Burbella is complaining that another student with disabilities was given a better deal in that that student could take the exam in the same building as the instructor. Another of her problems is that she had been told the instructor would be available to answer questions and because she was proctoring an exam, she did not answer Burbella's frequent cell phone calls.

The school counselor witnessed Burbella's unanswered calls and confirms that she became stressed even more, to the point of crying. Burbella is suing for $75,000 because they did not give her enough help to pass the class and graduate but she would rather have the chance to retake the exam and pass. Burbella is no longer enrolled in the university though. Other students on campus have a different view of the accommodations she demanded....... they felt that if she was unable to keep up with a demanding degree program, maybe she was not cut out for a career there.

There is a federal law to assist those people with disabilities for a reason but for a student who has struggled throughout a degree program and then demands even more special care so they can pass, make me wonder if they really should have a job in such a stressful environment.

Related stories on this blog:

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/04/temper-tantrums-may-work-for-two-year.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/04/entitlements-again.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/04/set-me-up-to-whine-through-life.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/11/but-you-have-to-pay-stomp-stomp.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/03/but-i-am-right.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/pa-nursing-student-sues-school-failing-article-1.2221025

http://wnep.com/2015/05/12/student-suing-misericordia-university-officials-after-failing-to-pass-course/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3078706/Nursing-student-failed-class-twice-sues-university.html

http://m.citizensvoice.com/news/student-sues-misericordia-after-failing-course-1.1879673

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/grade-point/wp/2015/05/13/nursing-student-sues-misericordia-university-after-failing-final-exam-twice/

Will there be outrage?

2015-05-10T11:59:00.003-04:00

"The men and women who go out every day to protect us, the men and women who go out every day to make sure that we're safe, they were turned on (Saturday) night," stated Mayor Johnnie DuPree.

Officer Benjamin Deen, 34 and rookie Officer Liqouri Tate, 25, made what started as a routine traffic stop in Hattiesburg MS during the evening of May 9 2015. Two residents, Tamika Mills and Pearnell Roberts were driving down Fourth St when they noticed what they described as a bunch of lights. One of them noticed what she thought was someone lying on the ground and they turned the car around to investigate.

They found one officer down and noticed a second one moving on the ground nearby. That officer was gravely wounded and stated "Am I dying? I know I'm dying. Just hand me my walkie-talkie." Mills and Pearnell called 911 to report that the officers had been shot and were down. Both officers were transported to Forrest general Hospital where they were pronounced dead.

The police state that one of the pair of officers had stopped a 2000 Gold Cadillac Escalade at about 8:30 pm and the second officer had arrived to assist on the call. The shots rang out after the second officer had arrived on the scene. One of the police cars had been stolen and used as a getaway car after the shooting. The residents were warned to stay inside while they searched for whoever was responsible for the shootings.

The hunt for the suspects was very brief and they have all three people they believe are responsible in custody now with no resistance. Marvin Banks, 29, was arrested by police at 1 am at the Northgate Inn Hotel nearby and the Hyundai he was driving with retired Army plates was towed from the scene. His brother Curtis Banks, 26, was arrested at the Plantation Place apartment complex at around 3 am and police report that both of the banks brothers lived close to where the shooting took place. Curtis's only statement then was that he had not shot the officers. Marvin's girlfriend, Joanie Calloway, 22, was also arrested overnight since she had been riding in the car when the shooting happened.

Curtis Banks & Marvin Banks

Joanie Calloway

Curtis Banks arrested

Marvin and Calloway have both been charged with two counts of capital murder, Marvin is also charged with one count of grand theft auto for fleeing in the stolen police car and one one count of a felon being in possession of a firearm. His brother Curtis has been charged with two counts of accessory after the fact so far. The police did not report if there would be other charges added yet. They did state that both men have multiple arrests for weapons and guns charges in the past and they both have felony convictions but they did elaborate on those convictions.

Officer Tate had only been an officer for less than one year and had been excited to announce when he had graduated from the police academy in June of 2014. Officer Deen was a decorated K-9 officer who had been named the city's Officer of the Year in 2012. Officer Tate was unmarried but Officer Deen was and leaves behind a wife and two children, a 9 year old son and a 13 year old daughter. Their deaths are the first in the past three decades for the town of Hattiesburg MS, the last officer to be killed was Officer Jackie Dole Sherrill who was killed on Dec 31 1984 while she was serving a felony warrant. She was also the first female officer to serve in their department. The families of both Deen and Tate have stated that being a police officer had been lifelong dreams for the two of them.

Officer Tate

Officer Jackie Dole Sherrill

Officer Deen and his K-9 Tomi

We have just buried another young officer whose lifelong dream was to be a police officer in New York City. Today is Mother's Day and two mothers will be without their sons because they were killed doing their jobs. There were no mass protests when Officer Brian Moore, 25 was shot and killed by Demetrius Blackwell, 35, in NYC NY. Thousands of officers came to attend his funeral but there was no representative from the White House attending.

President Obama did send representatives from the White House to the funeral of Michael Brown in MO and has "honored" Freddie Gray and always manages to get Trayvon Martin's name into speeches about young black men dying at the hands of the police. Somewhere along the line our administration and a large portion of the public has lost sight of who we really should be worried about.

Michael Brown had just robbed a store and minutes later wrestled an officer for his gun. Freddie Gray had a long history of arrests and Trayvon was not killed by a police officer. Trayvon was killed by a hispanic civilian while he tried to pound that man's head into the concrete. Blackwell had already served 8 years in prison for an attempted murder conviction in 2000 and yet when the news stories point to the "plight" of the poor black young men who are dying at the hands of the police, they skip right past the point of criminals returning to the streets to continue breaking the law.

The riots in Baltimore have seemingly been put on hold by the rush to charge the officers who are being charged with Gray's death. The crowds insist that they are trying to protest the police brutality that exists in their cities but once the identities of the officers were released, the protests died. Three of the officers charged are black and the officer charged with the most serious charge for driving the van is black. It seems very strange that the protests died that suddenly. There were protests in NYC in support of Freddie Gray but there were none in support of Officer Moore who died at the hands of a black repeat criminal.

The nation is again having to face the deaths of two young officers who lost their lives to criminals while they were doing their job. I doubt that there will even be a protest and I also doubt that President Obama will even mention their deaths. It is a shame to try and spin police brutality as the reason behind the recent riots.............. they are criminals who do not care whether they kill people of any race.

Related stories on this blog:

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/05/do-right-thing.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/04/just-destruction.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/search?q=fake+gun

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/08/where-is-outrage.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/11/its-fair-burn-it.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/10/it-is-their-job.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/08/justified.html

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2015/05/09/two-hattiesburg-police-officers-killed/27072893/

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/10/us/mississippi-police-officers-shot-dead/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/mississippi-police-officers-dead-shooting-article-1.2216952

http://www.businessinsider.com/two-police-officers-shot-and-killed-in-mississippi-2015-5

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3075250/Officials-2-Mississippi-police-officers-shot-1-fatally.html

http://www.gulflive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/05/2_mississippi_cops_shot_killed.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3066391/Man-35-charged-attempted-murder-shooting-NYPD-cop-head-chest-officer-sat-unmarked-car.html

http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2015/05/08/obama-ignores-slain-white-police-officer-while-honoring-gray-and-brown/

Update:

Clark

The police have arrested a fourth person connected to the shooting of officers Deen and Tate. Cornelius Clark was arrested later on Sunday and has been charged with obstruction of justice. There has been no statement yet as to what the possible motive for the shooting is but there has been more information released as to the criminal records of the Banks brothers.

Marvin Banks had been convicted of possession of stolen property in November 2010 and was sentenced to serve a year and a day for the conviction. That sentence was to be followed by four years of probation which was revoked and Marvin was back in jail until June 2012. He was released then with an earned release under supervision which ended in May 2014. Marvin and his brother Curtis were both charged with the sale of crack cocaine in July 2013 but there was no further report as to how the charges were handled.

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/10/us/mississippi-police-officers-shot-dead/

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2015/05/09/two-hattiesburg-police-officers-killed/27072893/

Update May 11 2015:

Marvin Banks's mother has spoken out about her son and his arrest. Mary Smith states that she knows that he has been smoking synthetic marijuana, "spice" on a daily basis and that he has been hearing voices since he had been hit on the head with a pipe several years ago. Marvin and his six year old son live with his mother Mary and she works the night shift at a nursing home. She stated that she was resting before she went to work on Saturday when she received a phone call that told her there had been a shooting of two officers and that Marvin was involved. Soon after that she received a call from her son Curtis and he told her that he had nothing to do with the shooting and had been home in his apartment the whole time.

Smith went on to say that she believed that Marvin was probably high when he was arrested because he looked it in the pictures of him. She stated that Marvin had been attacked several years ago and hit with a pipe. He spent time in intensive care and Marvin began hearing voices after that. Katie Walmon, the mother of Marvin's son stated that Marvin had changed after the head injury and she thought it was the devil. Smith went on to say that she had tried to get Marvin to seek help for his drug addiction and mental problems but that he had refused to do so.

The preliminary report from the police states that Officer Deen had pulled over the vehicle that Marvin was in for speeding and he then called for back-up. Officer Tate arrived on the scene and the shooting then occurred. They have not released any details as to what they think happened before both officers were found shot and lying in the street. They did add that Marvin had stolen one of the police cruisers and managed to drive it only a few blocks before he abandoned it.

Smith complained that the police make it a habit of pulling young black men over, sometimes just to ask where they are going. She felt that something would happen eventually but she did not think that it would have involved either of her sons. The four that had been arrested all appeared in court today and the charges of capital murder against Calloway were reduced to accessory after the fact while the rest of the charges against the three have stayed the same.

In a related story, Sierra "C-Babi" McCurdy of Laurel MS was fired from her job at Subway after she posted comments praising the deaths of Officers Deen and Tate on her Facebook account. Twitter users not only reported the comments but stated that they were outraged by her comments in favor of the deaths. I applaud Subway for firing her because of the image it presents to consumers worldwide. A Facebook account is someone's place to state whatever they feel they want to say but if you think that you will not suffer the consequences for your actions there, you are very wrong.

What is outrageous is that Officer Tate is a young black man who graduated from South Pike High School, attended Southwest Community College, worked, applied to and graduated from the police academy all during a time when protests are demanding more "help" for black young men. There are numerous debates about how much the deck is stacked against those young men growing up and yet, Officer Tate beat those odds.

Officer Tate proved that you don't need to be given a dozen handouts and coddling to become a young man to be proud of. To read that a young black woman was praising his death at the hands of another black man is more than sickening....... it shows the depth of the real problem involving racism in the protests. It seems to begin with a very real dislike of anyone in authority.

http://www.clarionledger.com/story/news/2015/05/09/two-hattiesburg-police-officers-killed/27072893/

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mississippi-man-accused-in-officer-killings-was-drug-addict-his-mother-says/

http://nypost.com/2015/05/10/subway-faces-backlash-after-worker-cheers-deaths-of-2-cops/

Living in fear......

2015-05-09T14:41:00.001-04:00

"I think there is more trouble to come," stated Teresa Rivera-Avelar.

Jesus Ismenia Marinero, 45, had been living in constant fear for the past few months and now, her fears have been realized. Her troubles had begun as far back as January of this year when she reported that she had her home burglarized at least five times. She added that at least one time, the person who had broken in had spray painted on the walls of the home.

After that, she had seen men following her in various trucks as she traveled through town. They followed her every time she made a turn and where ever she went. On April 22, her home on 1932 South 18th St in Omaha Nebraska caught fire and burned the basement and first floor. The fire which did $45,000 worth of damage is being investigated as arson but there have been no suspects named yet. Jesus and her family then moved in with her sister and were living near 48th Ave and O St.

The break ins continued even after she moved in with her sister and a next door neighbor confirmed that report. He stated that the sister's home had been broken into several times and they had recently installed a new security system to try and prevent more break ins.

On May 5 2015, Jesus was out driving with her two children and was supposed to meet with Jose Ramirez, her partner for the past five years, at her sister's home that evening. Ramirez states that he kept calling her cellphone all evening but her phone was turned off. He added that he did receive a text at around 11 pm from her phone that stated that she had been at the hospital and was now heading home. Ramirez then stated that he got no further responses to his texts or phone calls after that. He looked for her all of that evening and by the next morning, he called the police to report her missing.

Ramirez went to Jesus's sister's home in the morning as well, looking for Jesus and his two children but she was not there and they reported that she had never come home. It was late in the afternoon when a man noticed what he thought were noises from an animal coming from a nearby dumpster in La Vista. When he went over to investigate he found that it was not an animal, it was one of the missing boys. Eleven month old Angel was found sitting in the dumpster, bruised and wearing only a diaper and he was taken to a local hospital.

Jesus's sister recognized Angel's picture went it was posted on social media and notified Ramirez immediately. Angel had been found at 5:44 pm and was identified by family by 8:41 pm but there had been no reports of the location of Jesus and five year old Josue, Ramirez's other son. At 7:54 pm, Omaha police were called out to Fourth and Cedar Streets for a person down call. They found a deceased woman and began investigating it as a murder.

They had not connected the dead woman yet to the missing Jesus. At 6:51 am on May 7 2015, the police ask for the public's help in finding the missing Jesus and Josue as well as her 2000 Jeep Cherokee Larado which she had been seen driving before she went missing. The police issued an Amber Alert for Josue, officially identify the boy in the dumpster as Angel and report that they believe that there is a connection between the woman's body found by a couple walking near a ditch near Lauritzen Gardens the previous evening and the missing Jesus.

By 4 pm that afternoon, the police had cancelled the Amber Alert for the missing Jeep but state that Josue is still missing. They also report that the woman who had been found dead has been identified as Jesus. The Jeep had been found near 21st and Arbor Streets and they had to cancel the alert because it could no longer be tied to a missing vehicle. The police had been questioning Ramirez and other family members in an attempt to discover what had happened to Jesus and her sons. Ramirez was held briefly for questioning and on immigration issues but he was released that evening after Jesus's older son, Roberto C Martinez-Marinero, 25, walked into the Douglas County Corrections office.

Roberto told staff there that he was involved in the death of his mother on May 5th and was turning himself in. He told the police that he had been arguing with his mother about money before he stabbed her to death and dumped her body. He stated that he had thrown his five year old brother Josue into the Elkhorn River after his mother had been killed.

The police began their search for Josue at 8 am with numerous teams working in the Elkhorn River. Roberto was booked into the jail and charged with suspicion of first degree murder and use of a weapon to commit a felony. The charges are only related to the death of his mother Jesus and they did not state that they were looking to arrest any other suspects. Angel was returned to the custody of his father that evening after being in the custody of child services for two days.

Josue was not found on Friday and the police continued their search of the river on early May 9th with as many as seven boats and dive teams searching both the water and the banks of the river. The police did announce though at about 9 am that they had made a second arrest in the developing case. They had arrested Roberto's girlfriend, Gabriela Guevara, 24, and charged her with suspicion of being an accessory in the murder of Jesus. A relative of Jesus's stated that Guevara had never liked jesus but they did not know why she felt that way.

The police had also searched and removed items from the rental home of Roberto's near 20th St and Poppleton Ave where he had been living with his girlfriend and two small children. Neighbors had reported that they had often seen Roberto out in the fenced yard playing with his children in the past. The police have stated that they are still not looking for additional suspects in the case but family members of Jesus have stated that they would not be surprised if there are others involved.

As much as it is hoped that Josue is found alive, the longer the search continues, the smaller those chances become.

http://www.omaha.com/news/metro/slain-woman-s-son-booked-in-connection-with-her-death/article_08b60708-f452-11e4-9b39-fb9e54cb87a5.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3074078/Adult-son-walks-police-station-confesses-killing-mom-dumping-baby-brother-dumpster-throwing-five-year-old-brother-river.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/neb-man-murdered-mom-missing-brother-river-cops-article-1.2215547

http://www.omaha.com/news/crime/son-arrested-in-mom-s-slaying-reportedly-said-they-argued/article_bdb8bc2a-77b1-5d93-96dc-a0dafb75adcb.html

http://www.wowt.com/home/headlines/BREAKING-New-Possible-Lead-In-Ongoing-Murder-Missing-Boy-Investigation-303166321.html

http://www.ketv.com/news/timeline-in-missing-boy-case-homicide-investigation/32896950

http://www.ketv.com/news/amber-alert-issued-for-sibling-of-toddler-found-in-metro-dumpster/32852350

Update May 12 2015:

The body of 5 year old Josue was found on May 11th along the riverbank about a mile south of the West center Rd bridge. The police report that he and his younger brother probably witnessed the murder of their mother and were kidnapped by their half brother after her death. Angel was dropped off in the dumpster and Josue was thrown from the bridge while he was alive.

The police state that Jesus and her son had been arguing about money for the past few weeks leading up to the murder. She was over at her son's home that evening and he stated that she slapped or swatted at him sometime during their argument and he claims that he lost it then. He beat her in the face and head with a baseball bat and then stabbed her multiple times. His girlfriend Guevara was in the home when this happened and went with him to help dump her body. She was also with him when he dumped both of the children but there is no report as to where their two children were at that time.

Guevara is facing up to 55 years for the five accessory charges she faces now and prosecutors have stated that they will seek the death penalty for Roberto. He is being held without bond and Guevara has received a $1 million dollar bond.

http://www.omaha.com/news/crime/searchers-find-body-of--year-old-josue-ramirez-marinero/article_f5066f40-f7f3-11e4-812b-63c0f3453bb9.html

http://www.kcci.com/news/suspects-in-marinero-killings-due-in-court-tuesday/32959680

Anything to get a buck.........

2015-05-07T21:46:00.003-04:00

The public nationwide got to meet Dorian Johnson, 23, on August 9 2014 when he became the outspoken witness to his friend Michael Brown's shooting death. Johnson seemed to enjoy his more that 15 minutes of fame before any member of the media who was interested in hearing his eye witness account of that day. What Johnson "forgot" to mention in those early news stories was the part he played in a store robbery only minutes before Michael Brown lost his life and what he did while Brown was being gunned down.

It was later discovered that Johnson had a problem with telling the truth and he vanished from the public eye for a time. The public had been led to believe that he was the "smoking gun" of witness's and he would blow the case of Brown's death wide open. Instead, Johnson was not even a very credible witness for the grand jury even after he had been cleaned up and taught how to enunciate his big words. He never did state in public what he had done during the last few minutes that Brown was alive........ did he run for cover or did he try to save Brown or was he even standing there with his hands up as he claimed Brown had been doing.

Johnson is back in the news though, first for the lawsuit he has recently filed and secondly for another arrest to add to his record. His lawsuit has been filed against the former police chief Thomas Jackson and former officer Darren Wilson. He is alleging that he has suffered emotional distress and psychological damage from the arrest and death of his friend Brown and he is seeking $25,000 in damages. He claims that Wilson targeted him without probable cause, assaulted him and violated his constitutional rights. His lawsuit is also asking for an injunction to prevent the city of Ferguson and it's police from engaging in unlawful arrests, engaging in assault and using excessive force.

On May 6 2015, police were called to the 5700 block of Acme Ave in St Louis MO at 3:21 pm to investigate a call about a large group of subjects who were possibly armed with firearms. The officers that had arrived tried to disperse the men there and that was when trouble began. The police noticed one of the men had what appeared to be bulge in his clothes and tried to detain and pat him down. While they were trying to do that, Demonte Johnson, 21, grabbed the arm of the officer and tried to prevent him from patting down the other man.

At this point, Dorian Johnson approached the officers who were trying to now detain Demonte for interfering and resisting them. He stood very close to the officer and was yelling at him to try and prevent his brother Demonte from being arrested. He was also observed tossing what was later described as cold medication mixed with an illegal narcotic on the ground. All three men were arrested and it was reported that they are all brothers. One of them was also found to have a warrant for armed robbery and armed criminal action in Bridgeton but they did not name which brother that was.

M Brown

Demonte was charged with resisting or interfering with an arrest and third degree assault on an officer and Dorian was charged with resisting or interfering with an arrest. I am sure that his lawyer can try and spin this into an additional trauma for Johnson but it certainly sounds as though Dorian just has not learned yet how to straighten up and fly right. Most people try to better themselves after a brush with the law........... evidently johnson has a different view on what better means.

http://www.ksdk.com/story/news/crime/2015/05/06/dorian-johnson-arrested-by-st-louis-police/70926684/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/witness-michael-brown-death-arrested-drug-charges-article-1.2213316

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/dorian-johnson-figure-in-michael-brown-case-arrested-in-st/article_578b535b-bfb3-5216-8fa7-ee7e53f0a3f9.html

http://www.cnn.com/2015/05/06/us/dorian-johnson-arrested/

To what end...?

2015-05-05T22:23:00.000-04:00

"It's really unfortunate that it happened," stated John Wilson.

The police were called to the Moore Funeral Home Eastland Chapel on April 30 2015 at about 5 pm to handle a disturbance. They arrived at the funeral home on the 1900 block of South Memorial Dr in Tulsa OK to find that the body of a woman that was waiting to be interred had been vandalized. They reported that they found what looked like her hair on the floor and her makeup had been smeared.

On a closer examination, a vertical cut was found that ran from the woman's hairline to the tip of her nose. Family members stated that they had caught Shaynna Lauren Sims, aka Shaynna Smith in the dead woman's apartment and they believed that she was the one who had slashed the dead woman. Sims had told the relatives that she was there picking up jewelry to wear to the funeral but they had not given her permission to be there.

The police found Sims in possession of scissors, a box cutter, various makeup items and a folding knife with the deceased's hair still on it. Family members stated that they had observed Sims near the casket with her hands inside of it before she left and the damage was found shortly afterwards. Sims was arrested and is being held on a charge of illegal dissection as well as a previous charge of assault and battery, each of which has a $10,000 bond.

She could also face a more serious charge of desecration of a corpse. Court records show that she had pleaded guilty on April 15th to an amended charge of assault and battery after being charged in February 2015 of child neglect. She had received an 18 month deferred sentence for that plea. Sims has not stated what motivated her to slash the dead woman but it has been reported that she was possibly dating the dead woman's ex boyfriend.

The funeral director, John Wilson stated that he has never seen anything like this in the past thirty years. It certainly is taking things to an extreme and if she had some kind of difficulty with the deceased, it should have been put to rest with the woman's death. Slashing her body in a casket would make no difference now and only hurt the living.

http://www.newson6.com/story/28970732/woman-arrested-for-dissecting-corpse-at-tulsa-funeral-home

http://www.tulsaworld.com/news/crimewatch/tulsa-woman-jailed-on-report-of-vandalizing-corpse/article_8470c61f-8ed4-5c4c-85b2-7ee20d5a2bce.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/okla-woman-slashed-face-boyfriend-dead-cops-article-1.2210681

There was no need.......

2015-05-04T21:28:00.003-04:00

The Morrow's of kings Mountain NC had rescued Libby six years ago and tragically lost her on April 30 2015. The blind beagle had gone outside where they reported she liked to just lay around but they became concerned when she hadn't come back in by the early evening.

The police were called to the Morrow home on the 100 block of South Gaston St at about 7:47 pm that evening. A family friend had gone into the backyard to look for Libby and found what was left of her between the two trees that she had loved to sleep under. Someone had jumped the back fence and broken into their shed. They had stolen an axe, a sledgehammer, a shovel and a propane tank.

The thief had also killed Libby and decapitated her, which left a scene so gruesome that the Morrow's had to leave many details out when they told their children that she was dead. The police were back out to the house during the daylight the next day to continue their investigation and search because Libby's head was missing. The police did manage to find her collar but so far they have few clues to go on.

Dennis Morrow stated that they keeping a close eye on their remaining two dogs and feel especially sorry that Libby was killed in the manner she was. He stated that she was so friendly that if someone were to touch her head, she would probably lie down and let whoever was there pet her. He added that being blind would have meant that she would have had no idea what was going to happen to her.

The Kings Mountain police are asking for anyone who has information about the crime to contact them and an animal shelter has offered a $5,000 reward to the conviction of the criminal involved.

It seems obvious that Libby did not bark and give them away when they broke in so there is no real reason for killing a defenseless, handicapped dog and then taking her head.

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/local/community/news-alliance/wbtv-news/article20071194.html

http://www.wistv.com/story/28955787/police-dog-decapitated-during-home-break-in

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/burglar-decapitates-blind-deaf-dog-in-backyard-of-north-carolina-home/

Do the right thing?

2015-05-03T09:02:00.000-04:00

"As parents we wanted Allen to do the right thing," stated Bobbi Smallwood.

A nation watched on April 27 2015 as what had begun as another day of peaceful demonstrations grew into a violent night of wild destruction. There have been various theories as to why the day progressed the way it did and they may well figure that question out in the not too distant future. What is known is that by the next day, Allen Bullock's picture was known world wide as a symbol of what happened that day.

The riots had turned ugly on April 25th when a group that had been protesting the death of Freddie Gray turned violent outside the Baltimore Orioles game at Camden Yards that evening. People who were inside watching the game were delayed in leaving because of the rioting. Bullock was photographed there smashing a police cruiser with a traffic cone and his picture ended up on the front page of the Baltimore Sun the next day.

His mother Bobbi and stepfather Maurice Hawkins, 44, had told Allen that the police would find him, knock down the door and beat him if he did not do the right thing and turn himself in. They felt that he was dead wrong in what he did and needed to be punished but not as severely as the charges will face in court. Allen did turn himself into the police and now his parents are very upset and publicly stating that they wish they had not.

Allen is facing eight charges which include rioting and malicious destruction of property as well as a bond of $500,000 which is why his parents have changed their minds. They feel that he has been singled out and made an example of with a bail that high. I would almost jump on that boat as well since about half of those arrested between Saturday and Monday have been released on their own recognizance and most of the remaining are facing bail of about $10,000. I can not back the pleas for softer treatment of Bullock though after reading more of the evidence.

It has been stated on the site begging for donations to raise Bullock's bail money that he was so angry about the lack of information that had been released about the death of Freddie Gray that he broke the windows on the police car. He was caught on film as well as in stills smashing away at the car with a friend who his parents now refuse to name since he has not been charged yet. The most serious charge bullock faces is the inciting a riot charge which his parents and supporters claim is false. What you can readily see though is that the pair is surrounded by onlookers who did not join in on the destruction.

Bullock may have been angry but he had no reason to lead the charge in destroying the police car. In fact, he had no business getting in any legal trouble at that time. Bullock was already on probation at the for juvenile convictions that included fighting and theft, so he was breaking his probation conditions just by breaking the law. I do understand where they could find a charge of inciting a riot because he is the primary person to smash the car and by doing so, he was either showing off to the surrounding crowd or trying to get some of them to join in. I would be much more sympathetic if he had been grabbed by the police out of a crowd of hundreds and arrested for just being there.

Other sites tell the tale of how both of his parents have had their own arrests, his mother on prostitution charges in 2003 and the lack of jobs available to blacks in Baltimore. Bullock isn't one of those poor downtrodden,never going to have a chance young men though. He was on probation for juvenile arrests but he had caught some pretty significant breaks as well.

He was living with a cousin in East Baltimore and was earning $15,600 a year working in sanitation for the city in a program for juveniles on probation. He had graduated middle school in 2012 and had attended night school once in an attempt to get his GED but left that after he failed to graduate. His parents also stated that he was running his own successful car detailing business and was making anywhere from $900 to $3,000 a month depending on business.

If that figure is just roughly rounded off, he could have been making an additional $10,000 a year which also could have been tax free if he had not been claiming on his tax form. That means that the he could have been bringing in roughly $25,600 a year which many adults would state is a fair wage for a years work. The estimated poverty level wages for a single adult is $11, 670 in the US so without counting his side business pay, Bullock was already above that bare minimum. He is making with just the one job, what anyone else working a minimum wage job, full time for a year would make.

Then take into account the additional pictures and postings that Allen had made. Bullock posted a picture of him smashing the police car on his own Facebook page as well as pictures circulating of him wearing a police officers hat. He does not make any attempt to link the pictures and comments to the death of Freddie Gray or the unfair treatment alleged of the police in general.

His parents are concerned that he may not receive the medications he needs to treat his ADHD while he is in jail as well as the possibility that he will lose his job. Bullock has gotten breaks from the legal system and was set up in a job opportunity that could have left him with a fairly decent paying career job. He chose to not only be down there for the protests but also to jump on a police car and start bashing it. He can not claim that he was swept up in the crowd choices because he was performing for the crowd.

Unfortunately, now he faces eight charges in adult court, one of which could have him facing life but will most likely end up with 4 to 8 years in jail. He is being made an example of but then, there are many more that joined into the destruction of their own neighborhoods, businesses and property over those few days. Bullock's friend will be arrested as well as the police in Ferguson MO have shown. They will take their time and round up more of the vandals who acted like thugs and they will be charged. Allen did do the right thing in the end but the right thing should have been to not destroy a police cruiser in the first place.

Welcome to the world of adults Allen Bullock......... there are all kinds of choices and there are also consequences for those choices, good or bad. May this be a lesson that many can learn from. You have free speech but you do not have the right to destroy.

Related stories on this blog:

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/04/just-destruction.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/search?q=fake+gun

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/08/where-is-outrage.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/11/its-fair-burn-it.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/10/it-is-their-job.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/08/justified.html

http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/30/baltimore-rioters-parents-500000-bail-allen-bullock

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3062532/Mother-Baltimore-rioter-REGRETS-telling-18-year-old-son-turn-smashing-cars-police-cone-bail-set-500-000.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/baltimore-mom-regrets-making-rioting-son-surrender-police-article-1.2205190

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iaJYvwOX_Us

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/help-the-family-of-allen-bullock-post-bail

http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2015/05/02/3654160/teen-turned-riots-faces-bail-higher-cops-charged-freddie-gray-death/

Update May 12 2015:

Allen Bullock has been released on the $500,000 bond that he had been held with after he turned himself in. His mother stated that they had raised the funds for his bail through friends as well as over $8,000 that had been raised on a fundraising site. She added that they are still trying to get his bail lowered and complained that he was being held on a higher bail than any of the police officers that have been charged with Gray's death. None of those officers though have a previous criminal history and they had not broken parole as Bullock had done.

While they do state that he broke the law and he needs to be punished for it, they continue to state that he has been unfairly targeted with the high bond. He did do the right thing in turning himself in but it can be easily seen that he had no mob helping him destroy the police cars. The pictures from the scene show hundreds standing around and watching him flail away with a traffic cone. The excuse that he was acting out on his emotions doesn't float well. He is 18 with a record and had been given a huge chance already by his placement in the job he had. Maybe with the high bond he has, he will learn to control those emotions a lot better now.

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/blog/bal-teen-charged-with-rioting-released-on-500000-bail-20150508-story.html

Speed kills.......

2015-05-02T14:11:00.000-04:00

"We don't have anyone who can confirm that they were racing," stated police LT Rich Lawhead.

The police do know that around 10 pm on April 29 2015, two cars were traveling at a high rate of speed eastbound and switching lanes near Highland Ave and Macy St in San Bernardino CA when a crash occurred. The 1992 Mitsubishi 3000 that Mark A Jimenez, 19, was driving slid into the path of a 2011 Toyota Corolla that was traveling west on Highland Ave. and hit it head on.

Jimenez was killed in the crash and the three people riding in the Toyota were taken to area hospitals with injuries. The driver of the car, a 23 year old is in critical condition and the other two were rushed into surgery for internal injuries. All three that were in the Toyota are expected to survive their injuries and police stated that Jimenez died instantly in the crash. His brother was driving a black Chevy Impala alongside Mark and he declined to make a statement to police. At this time, he has not been charged with anything.

The police have stated that there have been several accidents on that stretch of road in the past but they have not had a problem with street racing there before. It is described as a very flat, straight stretch of road and it would be very well suited for racing though.

Jimenez was very popular and well liked at his alma mater Arroyo Valley High School and the students there are very upset by the news of his death. He was described as having a great smile and while there may have been doubt of his graduating during his junior year, he managed to buckle down and graduate the following year. He is remembered for the times he would arrive at school in his cowboy style clothing, sometimes adding a hat as well.

The police are still investigating the crash so it is still unknown if the brothers were just fooling around or actually racing. Either way, it looks as though a poor choice has led to another young life gone far too soon.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/man-kills-injures-3-drag-race-brother-article-1.2207627

http://www.sbsun.com/general-news/20150430/san-bernardino-man-killed-in-possible-street-racing-crash-identified-3-others-hurt

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Teen-Killed-Deadly-Street-Race-San-Bernardino-301808111.html

http://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-brother-killed-sibling-street-race-20150430-story.html

Three strikes too many.........

2015-04-29T16:18:00.000-04:00

"He took the life of Joshua, you know, he was just a baby," stated Joseph Rodriguez, the boy's stepfather.

Blaine T Boudreaux, 34, had his first encounter with the Houston TX police at 3:30 pm on April 26 2015 when he rear ended a car near the Texas Medical Center. The police responded to the accident on the 6600 block of Fannin where Boudreaux had crashed his black Dodge Ram pickup into the back of another car. The two occupants, a adult and a two year old were taken to the hospital with injuries and later released. Boudreaux was issued a citation for failure to control speed and allowed to leave the accident scene and he did not appear to be drunk at that time.

At some point between 5:15 pm and 6:00 pm, he was driving along the 4400 block of the Texas 5 Spur and he ended up on the 1400 block of Lockwood and the East Freeway feeder road. He apparently passed out at a red light there but awoke when another driver honked his horn. Boudreaux then accelerated ran the red light and hit a Honda Civic at 6:10 pm.

Joshua Medrano, 6, was riding in the car with his mother Cynthia and both were taken to area hospitals. Joshua was taken to the Texas Children's Hospital where he was pronounced dead even though he had been seatbelted in. Cynthia was taken to Ben Taub General Hospital with broken bones and a collapsed lung and she is still there.

Boudreaux was suspected of being intoxicated at the scene and failed a field sobriety test at the scene. He was taken into custody finally but on Monday the 27th another body was discovered. Leonard Batiste, 61, was found dead alongside the 4400 block of the Texas 5 Spur along with the front bumper and license plate off of Boudreaux's truck. The police report that it looks as though the truck left the roadway and hit Batiste, who is believed to be homeless, and then regained the roadway to travel on.

He has now been charged with intoxication manslaughter, failure to stop and render aid involving death and intoxicated assault. In less than three hours, Boudreaux was involved in three accidents which caused injuries and the death of two people. The police are still investigating the hit and run of Batiste and the first accident. They would like to know for certain if Boudreaux had been intoxicated then as well or if he had begun his drinking after that accident.

One can only hope that he had not been intoxicated during the first accident and the police missed an opportunity to save two lives and prevent the pain and suffering of the families they have.

http://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Man-charged-after-string-of-crashes-kills-6229991.php

http://www.chron.com/news/houston-texas/article/A-Houston-man-accused-in-a-fatal-wreck-implicated-6228814.php

http://www.khou.com/story/news/crime/2015/04/28/man-faces-intoxication-manslaughter-charges-in-2-weekend-accidents/26516507/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/drunken-houston-man-kills-2-3-crashes-3-hours-cops-article-1.2203211

Just destruction.......

2015-04-28T17:36:00.002-04:00

Freddie Gray, 25, was laid to rest on April 27 2015 and his family had asked that there be no protests that day to allow for them to mourn his death. He had been arrested on April 12 by the Baltimore MD police for possession of a switchblade. The initial report state that sometime after he was arrested, he suffered a medical emergency.

It took 11 minutes after his 8:40 am arrest for him to be placed in the van and 30 minutes later paramedics were summoned to take him to the hospital. Gray was in a coma within an hour of his arrest and died in the hospital on April 19th. He had three fractured vertebrae, a throat injury and his spine was 80% severed in the neck area.

Gray had a police record but it was for minor offenses and drug related charges, nothing that should have led him to dying in police custody. The Baltimore police suspended six officers that were involved in the arrest and transport. They and the DOJ have also opened an investigation as to what had gone so horribly wrong with his arrest. For days there had been peaceful protests until the 25th when the protest in downtown Baltimore turned violent.

That violence looked like a kindergarten fight compared to what developed on the 27th. There were rumors of a protest being held for young people that afternoon and now, reports have stated that it had also been advertized on social media as a "Purge" like the film. What it became was nothing like a protest backing the belief that black lives matter. News stations nationwide showed the developing firestorm and night of destruction and looting.

Reporters questioned why the police were not being more forceful in handling the crowds and others tried to whitewash the behavior as young people who are frustrated with their situation and venting. What I watched was nothing more than people running wild, looting, destroying property, attacking the police and burning their own neighborhoods. I do not know how you can spin people breaking into businesses and strolling out with whatever they want as part of a protest of police brutality.

As it got closer to evening, views from the ground and helicopters showed people driving up to various businesses and leaping out with trash bags to fill as they ran into businesses. The police had come under fire by crowds of people throwing whatever they could get in their hands at the officers or their vehicles. Several police cars could be seen destroyed and claimed as though they were a spoil of war.

At one point, the CVS store, which reportedly had been convinced after many years of diplomacy to open there was set on fire. Reporters in the area wondered why the fire department had not rushed over there quickly to put out the flames. A police car and van could be seen further down the street from the CVS, abandoned and burning as smoke began to roll out of the looted store. Finally the police moved in as a line and the firetrucks could be seen trying to snake their way through the crowds while rocks and bottles were thrown at them.

The fire department finally arrived and the police had to create a ring around the equipment and trucks so that they could try and put out the fire. The mob around could be seen doing whatever they could to prevent the firemen from doing their job and it could be seen now why it had taken so long for them to respond. Everyone was fair game now to attack or destroy and it had nothing to do with a young black man dying after he was arrested. The situation was quickly spinning out of control and there did not seem to be enough police to even take a chance at arresting anyone.

What happened next I am sure shocked more than a few people........ someone came up to the fire hose and stabbed it several times and then walked away. The police were forced to expand their safety perimeter around not only the fire trucks but the hoses as well. I can think of no reason as to why you would want the prevent the fire department from putting out a fire since it could easily spread and take out a whole block of buildings. This was not a protest and it was done right in front of reporters broadcasting live. No one did anything to stop the man either, as if this was an everyday thing to do.

There were several reporters who were now stating that they had been threatened, one was attacked and his camera stolen and many were starting to move away from the direct action. Usually they have no end of people who want to get on camera and voice their specific complaints but that was not happening now. As the sun was going down, reporters were looking for cover and the fires were beginning.

Reporters that had been filming looting and destruction were told that they should move away if they knew what was good for them. They had dropped the use of the word "protesters" as the mobs became more destructive and most had stopped trying to speculate why the police were not moving in to break things up. All someone had to do was watch their television and they could feel the tension of the mob. They were waiting for one more reason to just let loose and destroy anything nearby.

It seemed that whenever the police moved to a new area to try and settle things down, the mob would move back in and continue to loot and burn. At one point, the the new senior housing and community center that the Southern Baptist Church had been building caught fire. The $16 million dollar complex was scheduled to open in December of this year with 60 units of affordable housing for seniors. It also had a community center that would be able to offer work-force training and various other services and programs for all ages in the neighborhood.

More than 60 church members arrived at the building site in an attempt to try and stop the continued destruction or to just stare at a years long dream go up in flames. As the night wore on there were more news reports and films of mobs setting fires, destroying cars and looting shops of their goods that they just dragged outside and fed to the street fires. This had nothing to do with being frustrated.... it had everything with being able to run as a mob and doing anything they felt that they wanted to at the moment.

In the morning it had been reported that there had been 20 police officers injured, 19 structure fires, 144 cars burned and 235 people arrested. What was left was the clean up and some store owners chance to see if their business had survived the looting.

Baltimore has struggled like so many other large cities that have lost major businesses. What happened last night will not encourage more business to invest in a store there. They were not protesting their conditions or grievances..... they were destroying the dreams of hardworking neighbors of theirs. No one guarantees that you get a break in life or that you will be handed a good job, fancy car and a roof over your head. You have to work at it like every one else.

The cars that were burned, they belonged to people who may still have to make payments and it may be their only transportation to work. No one gave them that car but you took it away quickly. The CVS store that is looted and burned out....... they won't rebuild and reopen there so people are out of work and many have no where else to shop or fill prescriptions. The various other small stores that were looted or burned....... the owners have worked hard to open that business and now their dream is trashed.

That was not an attempt to vent your frustrations with being held back from success....

You just wanted to run wild, destroy and enjoy the moment. I can bet that things are going to be a bit rougher now that you tried to destroy your own homes. Destroying the dream of a church to give back to the elderly and needy in the neighborhood is about as low as you can go and I can't entertain any complaints you may have about how tough life is for you.

I can't take your complaints very seriously when you are willing to destroy a dream that was aimed at helping those most in need......

Black lives matter and the protests and outrage should be pointed towards every life that is taken by gunfire, not just those few who die in police hands......

Related stories on this blog:

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/search?q=fake+gun

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/08/where-is-outrage.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/11/its-fair-burn-it.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/10/it-is-their-job.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/08/justified.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/baltimore-riots-scar-city-burning-cars-buildings-article-1.2201633

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-freddie-gray-violence-chronology-20150427-story.html#page=1

http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/28/us/baltimore-riots/

http://washington.cbslocal.com/2015/04/27/massive-fire-destroys-future-senior-center-amid-riots-in-baltimore/

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/baltimore-city/bs-md-ci-fire-20150427-story.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3059073/Baltimore-begins-clean-night-rioting.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3058359/Masked-rioter-caught-live-TV-cutting-hose-firefighters-tried-blaze-broke-pharmacy-looting.html

Finally......... after fifteen years......

2015-04-27T23:23:00.000-04:00

Linda Watson, 35, was last seen alive at the Victory Church in Pima County AZ in August 20 2000 as she attended a church function with her mother, stopped out to eat with her and they returned to the house they shared. She lived only a few blocks away from the church and was supposed to meet with her lawyer on the afternoon of the 21st to discuss getting a restraining order against her ex boyfriend but she never showed. She was also due in court on the 24th for a child custody hearing with her ex husband David Watson. She was trying to restrict Watson's visitation time with their young daughter who she had custody of.

The next day, the 21st, it was reported by a repairman that the back door was open and sheriff's went to her house in the 2600 block of West Curtis Rd. They found her Jeep parked in the driveway and the door to the home open. Her bible and beeper had been left on the table and there were obvious signs of a struggle. A cup lay shattered on the floor, coffee was splashed up a wall and Linda's blood was on the floor. Linda also failed to meet with her ex husband on the evening of the 23rd to pick up her daughter Jordynn from him.

Her mother Marilyn and the child's paternal grandfather had been granted visitation with the little girl by the courts but David was doing all that he could to not allow that to happen. Marilyn was convinced that David had something to do with her daughter Linda's disappearance and the police agreed. They had not evidence of his involvement but he was kept as their number one suspect and her ex boyfriend was also kept tabs on.

Marilyn kept busy trying to find any clues as to where her daughter had gone to and by 2003 the legal battle with david was once again boiling over into court. She had requested a review of the visitation agreement for her granddaughter and she scored another victory. The court ruled that Marilyn could have the child for one weekend a month as well as having two phone calls a week with her. The judge also ordered that Marilyn could have an additional four hours of visitation within seven days of holidays and special days such as birthdays. To try and ensure that the rulings were carried out, it was also ordered that the judicial supervision program work with the families to make sure David followed the rulings.

Linda, Marilyn and Jordynn

Shortly after Marilyn had won her case, on May 7 2003, Marilyn, now 63 and her long time friend Renee Farnsworth, 53, were returning from visiting the granddaughter when they were both gunned down in the driveway of Marilyn's home. Marilyn had lived next door to Renee for three years and they were described as inseparable. The pair had taken Jordynn shopping at several stores during the day and had dropped her back home before heading home themselves.

The police found the pair shot to death in the driveway after neighbors reported hearing gunshots in the area. Only three years after her daughter Linda had disappeared after legal battles over custody, it seemed as though Marilyn would pay the same price for challenging David. Renee, worked as a certified respiratory therapist and Marilyn's closest friend, died along side of her in the driveway. The police still could not arrest David for any of the three deaths but Linda's ex boyfriend was not believed to have played a part in any of them by now.

Renee

Marilyn

Linda was declared dead in 2006 but her body had not been found yet. Family members still hoped that she was alive but it was a very faint hope, tempered by the wish for closure. The police finally had a major breakthrough in the the three cold cases in 2012. In October 2003 human remains had been found in an undisclosed location in the Tuscon AZ desert that were thought to possibly be Linda's but it wasn't until 2012 that they could prove it. The advances that had been made in DNA evidence allowed them to positively identify the remains as Linda's.

That identification brought the cold cases to the forefront again and on April 25 2015, David Duane Watson was arrested at his home without incident. Watson, 46 and a captain with the Tuscon Fire Department was booked into the Pima County Jail on three counts of first degree murder. he is currently being held on $2 million dollars bail. The police have stated that they are confident that they have the right man as well as enough evidence to finally convict him of the three murders they had believed all these years he had committed.

There was no announcement of his next court date or if he had obtained a lawyer yet. There was also no report as to who will now be caring for Jordynn who is now in her teens. It is unfortunate that it had to take this many years to finally "get their man" but the police have shown that they did not give up on the cold cases.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/arizona-man-arrested-for-3-slayings-in-15-year-old-cold-case/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3056239/Ex-husband-arrested-15-years-woman-mother-innocent-neighbor-murdered-bitter-custody-dispute.html

http://tucson.com/news/local/cold-case-slayings-solved-with-arrest-saturday-sheriff-says/article_e132ca62-ebba-11e4-b49b-ab5c004a2241.html

http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue2/2003/05/09/153471-slain-woman-afraid-she-d-disappear-too/

http://www.scrippsmedia.com/kgun9/news/Linda-Watsons-family-awaits-justice-more-than-a-decade-later-240373241.html

You can't run forever.......

2015-04-24T01:06:00.000-04:00

"I just want to get this behind me. I want to be done," stated Clarence David Moore.

Ronnie T Dickinson, 66, called the Frankfort County Sheriff's office in Frankfort KY on April 20 2015 and told them he wanted to turn himself in. He told the sheriff's office that he had been living there since 2009 as Dickinson but he was really Clarence D Moore and he had escaped from from prison in the 1970's. He added that he wanted to finally return to prison because he could not afford the medical care that he now needs.

The police arrived at his home that he has lived in for several years and found Moore unable to walk, unable to speak well, partially paralyzed from a recent stroke and suffering from diabetes. They arrested him and removed him by stretcher to begin unraveling the tale he told. It seems that Moore had been sentenced to up to seven years in prison for theft of more than $200 in 1967. His first escape came when he was working on a road crew in the Asheville NC area in 1971 and he was captured within hours of his running.

Moore escaped again the next year and managed to stay free until he was caught in Texas in 1975. On Aug 6 1976, he made his final escape from the Henderson County prison and he has been on the run ever since. He stated that he had used several aliases during that time but had been using the Dickinson one all of the time he has been in Frankfort KY.

The woman who had been living with him there was shocked to find out about Moore's past and neighbors stated that they had never suspected anything like that. Most describe him as a quiet, private man who did little but sit on his porch and wait for his mail or talk with neighbors. Moore was involved in a traffic accident in 2009 in Frankfort and was cited for not having a driver's license as well as having a contempt of court charge for no appearing for the court date. Moore has waived extradition back to North Carolina and there was no report of whether the motor vehicle charges will be handled in the future.

What is obvious is that Moore did not turn himself in out of remorse or because he had gotten tired of the guilt of running all these years. Moore has finally turned himself in so that he can now become a burden to the state by having his medical problems treated while he is in prison. He was unable to receive Medicare because he did not have a matching social security card for the alias he has been using for years but now, he will manage to secure those checks.

Moore's crime may sound as though it doesn't fit the sentence he originally received but he was sentenced for stealing more than $200 which today would be equivalent to about $1,500. He was sentenced to a maximum of seven years but it could have been less. When Moore escaped the first time, he was about four years into that sentence and he most certainly tacked on extra time for the escape. He followed that by another escape which probably lengthened his stay in prison as well.

Now he wants back behind those same walls so that he can get his medical care covered, food and lodging. It may be behind prison walls but from the description of his condition, he would be living in a nursing home if he could afford it so prison may not seem so bad a choice for him. I am not sure that the state of North Carolina should be forced to pay for his upkeep and maybe the best choice would be to put him under house arrest and let him use his actual SSN to get whatever care he can.

On Nov 8 1977, inmate 0283128 climbed onto the back of a yellow prison bus leaving the Triangle Correctional Center in NC where he had several other inmates were heading out for road repairs. When the bus stopped at an intersection, Walter Miller opened the back door, jumped out and ran. He had civilian clothes hidden under his prison clothes that he had saved from a previous time when he was working outside the prison while supervised.

Miller headed to the bus station in Raleigh NC and paid a man $10 to buy him a ticket to New York City. He had been sentenced to 30 years in prison for a pair of bank robbery convictions, one on Aug 13 1971 and the other a year later. Miller was looking at least another ten years in prison before parole when he ran. Miller began a new life in NYC by changing his name to Bobby Love, forging a birth certificate and using that to get a driver's license.

He did keep in touch with family and called his sister in 1979 for her wedding. He told her about his escape but didn't reveal any of the details of his new life. He worked an assortment of jobs and in the mid eighties he met his future wife Cheryl while they were both working at the Baptist Medical Center in Brooklyn NY. They were married on March 30 1985 and he invited his family to the wedding that was held in the community center. He was 34 and identified on the marriage license as Bobby Allen Love with a DOB of 11/6/50 and she was only 21 years old and pregnant with their first child.

In the next 11 years, Miller worked hard at multiple jobs to support his wife and four children that had arrived but he never did tell her about his past. He did ask his sister to tell his wife about it if he should die because he felt that if he told Cheryl, she would insist that he turn himself in.

Family and friends describe him as an introvert who was not paranoid or overly concerned about his past coming out. He was active in charity work, community meetings and the Coney Island Cathedral Church and he claims that in 2004, he claimed a $50,000 Pick 5 prize from the state lottery. While he was cautious early on, he became bolder as time went on. He traveled back to North carolina with his family to visit as well as attending two funerals for two of his nine siblings.

Miller believes that it was at one of those weddings that someone recognized him and contacted the police. He was arrested in Jan 22 2015 at his home in the Prospect Lefferts Gardens apartments and planned to fight extradition back to North Carolina. His family did not know anything about his past prison escape or that he had been living under an assumed name all those decades.

They do hope that he can avoid going back to prison because he has shown that he could rehabilitate himself after escaping. Many people who knew him had very nice things to say but there are cracks in that facade as well. A former landlord, Pansi McFarlane stated that she had to evict them a few years ago and they still owed her $7,000 in rent. She described them as anything but friendly when it came time to collect the rent.

It does not look as though Miller will be able to just walk away from prison time even with the seemingly crime free life he has lived since his escape. He probably will have to serve at least ten years from the original sentence and faces additional time for the escape. Sadly, even though he has shown that people can change their ways and life, he still owes the time he was sentenced to.

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/extradition-warrant-served-escaped-article-1.2195264

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3051693/Fugitive-escaped-police-THREE-TIMES-tearfully-turns-four-decades-thanks-sheriff-kindness.html

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102608727

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/02/16/family-shocked-as-escaped-convict-is-picked-up-in-brooklyn-after-decades-on-the-run/

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/exclusive-cops-nab-bank-robber-escaped-prison-1977-article-1.2115791

Slightly inconvenienced.......

2015-04-23T16:44:00.000-04:00

"You can't live life in fear of what might happen. You have to get out and enjoy the gift you've been given," stated Tom McTevia.

Tom McTevia, 42, a Navy veteran, father of one son and former Orofino Idaho police officer was involved in a life changing ATV accident in 2004. The accident fractured his spine and ended his police career by leaving him paralyzed in his legs and only having partial use of his arms and hands. The accident did not paralyze his spirit though as he proved over the next 11 years of his life. He had been very active before the accident serving four years as a steelworker in the Navy Seabees before becoming a police officer as well as volunteering with the Clearwater Police Department.

He moved to Coeur d'Alene in 2006 and volunteered in the police department's records department there as well as continuing to camp, kayak, hunt, skydive, UTV and handcycle. He participated in the 2009 National Veteran's Wheelchair Games in Spokane WA and remained competitive in handcycle racing. This past year he convinced the city to make a 1,500 foot section of the Tubbs Hill Trail wheelchair accessable by lowering the grade on it. He had been passionately working on the Coeur d'Alene Pedestrian and Bicycle Committee to open up a part of the trail so that more people could enjoy the freedom and the view.

"I don't like the word "handicap." I don't like the word "disability." Disability is a state of mind, or a broken down vehicle on the side of the road. I'm slightly inconvenienced," stated Tom McTevia.

On April 19 2015, at about noon, Tom and his close friend Tina Hoisington, 45, of Lewiston Idaho, slid off the trail while setting up for a photo in Bonner County, just east of Farragut State Park. The 2013 Polaris UTV plunged down a cliff and both of them died at the scene. Neither one of them was wearing a helmet and reports from those that were at the scene state that one of them fell 500 feet down the cliffside while the other fell almost 1,100 feet down. Others in the group added that they were setting up for a photograph overlooking the 2,000 cliff and they just got too close to the edge with the UTV.

People immediately made their way down the cliffside to render aid but they stated that both of them had not survived the fall. A helicopter was used to airlift the two from the cliffside later. It was not surprising that Tina was with Tom on that trip since she had gone on many trips with Tom in the past. Her co workers at the Lewis Clark Credit Union where she had worked as a loan officer for 15 years are stunned that she is gone so soon and will miss her very much.

similar UTV

The service for Tina will be held on April 27th at 11 am at the Cross Point Alliance Church in Lewiston.

The Celebration of Life for Tom will be held at 2:30 pm on May 2nd and will be followed by a potluck. People have been asked to bring stories and memories of Tom.

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/apr/20/2-die-when-atv-goes-over-cliff-lake-pend-oreille/

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/ex-idaho-best-friend-die-atv-falls-cliff-article-1.2194908

http://www.krem.com/story/news/local/bonner-county/2015/04/20/two-die-after-driving-atv-off-bernard-overlook/26077195/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3050945/Paralyzed-advocate-wheelchair-users-dies-accidentally-driving-ATV-cliff-plunging-500-feet.html

http://www.spokesman.com/blogs/hbo/2015/apr/20/atv-goes-over-cliff-lake-pend-oreille-2-killed/

http://www.cdapress.com/news/local_news/article_fd173d96-4966-5858-98eb-032b88743371.html

Temper tantrums may work for two year olds........

2015-04-22T19:05:00.000-04:00

"I got a good vibe from them," stated Elizabeth Bentivegna.

Elizabeth, a computer science major at Oberlin College in Oberlin OH, was contacted by a recruiter for a job interview with OnShift. The company makes scheduling software for nursing homes and they had set up a 4pm interview with her at their Euclid Ave office in Cleveland OH. She agreed to the appointment but adds that she told them that she probably would be a little late. Elizabeth does not graduate until December 2015 so the interview was set up for a summer internship position.

She states that she finished with the interviews with two male engineers and a female hiring manager there by 4:20 pm and headed back to her dorm room expecting to hear good news in a few days. Elizabeth received a phone call from Julie Maurer of Silverline Consulting in Akron OH and it was not the good news she had been expecting. Elizabeth reports that Julie told her that they would have loved to hire her based on her personality and technical abilities but they couldn't overlook several things. According to Elizabeth, Julie told her that she looked as though she was going clubbing and not to an interview, she had a huge run in her tights and she had been late even though she had told them that beforehand. She added that Julie told her that she just wasn't "put together."

Many people have gotten rejected after an interview or not chosen after applying for a job but for some reason, Elizabeth took a huge offense to what she claims she heard over the phone. She stated that she holds four jobs as a resident assistant, webmaster for the theatre and dance department, grader in an algorithms class and a lab assistant for an intro to programming class. Her LinkedIn profile contains what looks to a long list of accomplishments and accolades but if you start to look at them closely, it almost appears to be a very puffed out skeleton of experience.

Regardless of whether she had been qualified for the position, they chose not to hire her.... that happens a lot in the real world. Elizabeth chose not to take the advice she was given or had been hinted at and instead, took her beef public with a swear filled tirade online. There has been no comment from either Silverline Consulting or OnShift as to what exactly had been told to Elizabeth but most, if not all companies will use the standard response of picking another person who was more qualified. It can be seen from her online temper tantrum that she may well have pestered julie as to what she felt was so wrong with her interview and julie may have suggested some things to change in the future for interviews.

Whatever their reason for not hiring her, she was wrong in her choice of what to wear to the interview. Even if a company has a very casual attire in the office, you have to dress for success and an office setting would require business attire unless specified that business casual is accepted. The objective is to get in the door so that you can enjoy the environment you will work in.

Unfortunately it seems that we are living in a nation filled with an increase of entitlement and Elizabeth seems to be just one more example of that. her tirade online though will certainly come back to bite her many times over in the future. I could take a wild guess here and state that maybe the attitude she shows in her posting may be a good indicator of the attitude she had when she was interviewed.

A business can also check through many online services to get more of an idea of the kind of person you may be through your postings. If you constantly show that you are out partying, doing illegal things or just have an attitude that no one will mess with me or my attitude, why would a company take a chance on you? I am glad that she felt that she did so well in answering the one programming question that was posed to her but she has no idea as to how well any others answered it. If this is a very small office or team that she was possibly going to join, temperament and personality may well play a part in the choice of employee because they will want to stay a cohesive unit.

There are few guarantees in life Elizabeth and you just hit one on the head with a sledgehammer........ your posting is sure to have future employers running for the hills before they even think about hiring you. There are ways to publicly post your dissatisfaction with that interview and you found a very incorrect way of doing it. Naming the company you felt dissed you only points out the fact that you have no fear of splashing another company's name all over the internet if they do something you don't like in the future.

Take this lesson and learn from it and hope that someday you will be able to get beyond the temper tantrum stage of your life and see that it is competitive out there........... an interview begins almost from the moment you leave your car......

Related stories on this blog:

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/04/entitlements-again.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/04/set-me-up-to-whine-through-life.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2014/11/but-you-have-to-pay-stomp-stomp.html

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/03/but-i-am-right.html

Hat tip to the Advice Goddess for the story idea

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/woman-vents-anger-facebook-being-5555094

http://www.cleveland.com/tipoff/index.ssf/2015/04/sexism_or_lack_of_professional.html

http://thelibertarianrepublic.com/girl-goes-on-profanity-laced-rant-over-job-rejection-because-of-unprofessional-clothes/

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2015/04/what_oberlin_college_senior_el.html

http://www.cleveland.com/business/index.ssf/2015/01/10_most_outrageous_things_you.html

http://www.dailydot.com/lifestyle/programmer-denied-job-clubbing/

https://www.linkedin.com/in/ebentivegna

You can't outrun the lie.......

2015-04-20T16:49:00.002-04:00

Kendall Schler was the first to cross the finish line on April 12 2015 during the running of the Go! St Louis Marathon in St Louis MO. She was awarded a medal, $1,500 and a picture at the finish line with Jackie Joyner Kersee. Schler had placed third in the same marathon last year and her times had earned a coveted invitation to run in the Boston marathon this year.

Race officials had figured out by April 15th, that Schler had not won the race. In fact, they could find no proof that she had done anything more than start the race and then show up at the finish line. They stripped her of her win as well as the time from the previous year and awarded the win to Andrea Karl who they had placed as second when the race had ended. She has also been banned from competing in any future Go! St Louis events and the Boston Marathon has rescinded their invitation.

The officials now believe that Schler was at the start line and then immediately left the course to return after the last checkpoint to finish with the win. The start and finish of the marathon are within three blocks of each other so she had to have found somewhere to hang out for the two plus hours for the win.

Schler can be seen running up towards the finish line but her racing bib is no where to be seen. She had attached it to the back of her shorts and had removed the timing chip, both violations of the race rules. She did not give a reason as to why she did this but it is obvious that she was able to avoid the electronic checks by removing it. Schler admitted that she had done that as well the previous year and officials could find no photos of her during the race that year either. The officials also stated that she was not very defensive about them questioning her winning of the race, which they found a bit strange.

The video of Schler winning the race shows that she was not all that pleased that she had won. She may have planned to slip in and gain another second or third place and escape the scrutiny that came with winning this year. What she did do is steal the attention from the true winner this year, Andrea Karl, who finished in a time of 2:54:28. The race officials were more than fair though by offering to allow Schler to keep the placings if she could produce photographic evidence that she had run the entire race, even though she had admitted tampering with the race bibs. In the end though, she will go down in history as another marathon cheater.

Probably the most famous cheater in recent times is Rosie Ruiz who "won" the 1980 Boston marathon only a few years after women were allowed to compete. She won the race with a time of 2:31:56 which at the time was the fastest ever run by a woman in the Boston marathon and the third fastest in the world. Suspicion soon was raised from the comments she made in her after race interviews and her lack of knowledge in basic training methods. It had also been noticed that she did not look as though she had the build of a long distance runner nor was she showing the common signs of running such a long distance.

Ruiz's time was a whopping 25 minutes faster than her time in the New York Marathon about six months before and that finish was also called into question. They could find no evidence of her actually running the whole race but they did find a photographer who stated that she had ridden the subway with Ruiz towards the finish line. Ruiz claimed to be an injured runner but when she got to the finish line area, she stated that she was injured and managed to clock a finish time.

Ruiz was disqualified from the win and Jacqueline Gareau, who had the fastest time ever for a woman at 2:34:28 was awarded the win. Officials did go to great lengths to make sure that Gareau was properly awarded the win and had her stay for a recreation of the race finish and receiving her award at the official press conference.

In 2012, Rob Sloan of Washington, Tyne and Wear, was disqualified from a half marathon after he had entered the race under a friend's name and ran most of the race wearing sunglasses. He had already been banned from several races after he had been caught cheating the year before.

He finished third in the Kielder Marathon that year but had been spotted getting onto a bus around the 20 mile mark of the race and exiting in time to run across the finish line in third place. His excuse for running under another name was that he did not want the press bothering him before or after the race. He could now be banned from running as well as the friend whose name he used to register with.

In 2014, Jason Scotland Williams finished the London Marathon in a time of 3:08:47 which put him in 2,162nd place and solidly among the top six percent of the elite runners. His race has been called into question because that time is a huge improvement over his time in 2013 of seven hours and twenty four minutes. Not only that, the first half of the race his times clocked him in as a fairly normal two hours and seven minutes. The second half of the race he finished in a blistering one hour and one minute that puts his second half of the marathon only three minutes slower than the world record for a half marathon.

Witnesses have stated that they saw Jason squeezing between a barrier after the Tower Bridge and disappear off course. That point of the race is where the 13 mile marker and the 22 mile marker are very close and most have speculated that he shortened his marathon run in order to gain the finish time that he did.

Jason has publically stated that he did nothing wrong and that he did not cheat but it is difficult to look at his recorded times and not wonder how he was that fast for the second half of a marathon.

Probably the most brazen cheater was Kip Litton, a Michigan dentist who spent a couple of years running marathons and then suddenly vaulted into the elite class of runners. He ran in the masters class because he was over 40 years old and pushed the fact that he was running for the benefit of Cystic Fibrosis. He had set up his own website to collect donations as well as tout his marathon feats called WorldRecordRun.com which posted his links for donations and his race results. His aim was to raise money as well as run sub 3 hour marathons in each of the 50 states.

His downfall began in 2009 and is very well documented in a New Yorker article published in 2012. Litton was found to have cut the races that he ran in, many times there was no record of him except at the start and of course, for the finish. He was found to be starting near the ends of the pack most times so that he would have had to make up incredible amounts of race time yet runners do not remember him ever passing them.

After an intense investigation, it was found that not only were his times incredibly fast but that he would begin a race in one outfit and finish sometimes in a completely different one. It is not unheard of for a runner to change during a race but it takes valuable time to change everything, including your running shoes. The investigation also found that the links for the donations did not send the money to charity as he claimed. People were instructed to make the checks payable to his website or to donate straight through a paypal account. The charities have stated that they did not receive any money from Litton's fundraising.

The most brazen cheat that he had attempted to pull off was the creation of an entirely fake marathon, the West Wyoming Marathon. He had created the event himself, it never took place and he still added it to his online list of sub 3 hour wins. Litton had gone to such lengths as to create a website for it, name a fictitious staff and added dozens of fake runners for his win there. No one is quite sure what drove Litton to cheat as well as the others who have done so in marathons. What it does do is cheat those people who have trained hard to legitimately run and finish a race out of their personal piece of glory.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2434944-kendall-schlers-st-louis-marathon-win-overturned-in-cheating-scandal

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2214741/Marathon-cheat-banned-racing-riding-bus-caught-Great-North-Run-disguised.html

http://www.masslive.com/sports/index.ssf/2014/05/runner_disqualified_for_cheati.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/athletics/london-marathon/10780357/London-Marathon-fresh-cheating-claims-against-miracle-runner.html

http://www.examiner.com/article/cheaters-never-win-the-bizarre-story-of-marathon-runner-kip-litton

http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2012/08/06/marathon-man

Now you will pay.........

2015-04-18T16:25:00.001-04:00

Walter Scott was stopped driving a 1991 Mercedes on April 4 2015 by Officer Michael Slager for having a brake light out in North Charleston SC. Scott chose to run from the officer and was shot dead in what was first reported as a suspect fleeing.

Scott was reported as being afraid of being sent to jail for the outstanding warrants for him which were mostly for non payment of child support and failure to appear. Slager had reported that Scott had tried to grab the officer's taser and he had feared for his life when he shot Scott.

Several days later a video surfaced that showed the end of Scott's life and it showed a very different story than the one Slager had put into his report. Feidin Santana had filmed that part of the chase with his cellphone without anyone knowing it. He later turned the video over to the Scott family who in turn, gave it to the New York Times. He claimed that he feared for his life from the police because the video he had taken did not confirm what Slager had reported to have happened. It shows a very different story of Slager taking aim at the fleeing Scott and rapidly firing eight shots at his back. It also does not show any officer attempting to give Scott CPR as had been reported.

The video hit the airwaves and was show hundreds of times in varying lengths while it accompanied reporters stories. Several versions of it as well as the dashcam video at the beginning of the traffic stop have been uploaded to media sharing sites like Youtube and it went viral in hours.

Now comes the announcement by Markson Sparks, an Australian celebrity and publicity management, that they own the rights to that video now and plan to charge a one time fee of $10,000 for the use of the video. Markson Sparks CEO Max Markson has stated that the price is based on a case by case basis and could go over $10,000 at times. It has been reported that cease and desist letters have already been mailed out to various outlets asking for that fee to be paid for further use of the video. Santana states that he did not know or have anything to do with demanding payment for further use of the video.

Some news media outlets are reprinting the NY Times story of this new development without paying much attention to the full content of the article. The announcement has brought the discussion of copyrights and fair use to the forefront again. Markson's view of the issue is that the news media has been allowed to use the video for free for a week or so which is long enough for fair use and now that he is copyrighting it, they will have to pay to use it. He could not be further off the mark in how the US interprets fair use of a video or image.

"In the US, using the video of the shooting, a very news worthy event, as part of news coverage is almost certainly a fair use, meaning that no payment is required," stated Mark Stoltz, a copyright attorney with the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Fair use is not just a group of clauses in the law, it is an entire legal doctrine that predates the current Copyright Law being used now. Recent Supreme Court decisions in regards to fair use have shown that it is what prevents the copyright law from infringing on First Amendment rights in the US. Fair use is such an integral part of freedom of the press in the US that section 17 U.S.C. 107 specifically addresses news reporting and copyright infringement.

The case most commonly compared to the Scott video is the filming of Reginald Denny by LANS a news company. They sued for copyright infringement from the use of their video and at least one lawsuit was successful but most were lost on the basis of fair use. They had more merit that the Scott video does because they did have to pay for the use of a helicopter to make the film. Markson's claim though will not have even that to back him as people do not invest in a cellphone for the only use of filming news worthy items. There is also no time limit as to when an item can still be called news worthy. The Zapruder film is still newsworthy decades after the shooting of JFK and the Scott video is still news worthy as this case continues through the court system.

The Times article also states that they are allowed to use the video without payment because they have the permission of the Scott family. This does not make any sense because the Scott family does not hold the copyright to the video. It is believed that Santana holds that copyright and they would need his permission to show it for free if they keep the same interpretation of the copyright law as Markson is using. What most probably will happen is that they can try to strong-arm payments from various news agencies for continued use of the video but they will most likely fail because of the fair use law and the media's abilities to use it. They may prevent or gain financially from the use of the video by commercial venues in the future.

Fair use is a grey area though and there certainly are times that it can only be settled in court. One has to remember though, just because they own the copyright on a video of photograph, that item can still be used without compensation through fair use. They would have to prove that they were damaged by the use or their ability to gain financially was diminished as well as whether the item was used in the reporting of the news.

I recently had my own encounter with a strong-arm business owner. The photo I had used in another blog story.... a news story was used without the "owner's" permission. The new Copyright Law states that a photographer does not have to watermark or mark their copyrighted material with the symbol anymore though, they strongly suggest that the artist do that as a further protection. It alerts someone that it has been copyrighted and if that symbol had been removed from the work when it was used by another, the violation is very obvious.

Back to my story though.......... It is also suggested that the owner of the item contact the "offender" by email or mail to notify them of your stand on the usage of their work. This would not be the very unprofessional contact through comments made on the post which included the F bomb. The strange thing was that the photo used had been published in a newspaper and was attributed to a person other than the F bomb king. My reply was to apologize openly and remove the photo he claimed to own but had not taken. This could have been true because he lists a photography company that may well purchase photos for resale and therefore, copyrights them.

I felt that my use on a totally non funded, non profit news oriented blog was within the fair use laws but I won't argue it if they want their work taken down. Imagine my surprize when the F bomb king returned to post another comment using what I imagine was his favorite word starting in F and ending in K. In that comment he stated that he was offended that I had apologized, compared my "theft" of his photo to breaking into my home and stealing things but having no job, he couldn't pay for replacement and ended with another threat to sue me for payment for the use of his photo.

I was more than surprised to read the comments because all I could think was here is someone who lists themselves as a business owner and they are using this kind of language on an open forum. It did nothing to impress me and actually made me feel sorry for the future of his business. Seriously...... you searched the web for an "illegal" posting of a photo, which was already old news when the newspaper used it in their story and frankly, there is a miniscule chance it will ever be used again by anyone who will pay. The photo was the basically of a guy sitting in court.

The odd thing is........ after firing off two F bomb loaded comments and the threat to take it to his lawyer, he removed the first two posts and left one that was sternly warned me to stop stealing photos. My guess is that someone explained the foolishness of even trying to spend the kind of money it would take to go to court over something that probably will prevail through fair use. Yes F bomb king.... photos are protected by copyrights but the first amendment also protects the right of fair use of that copyrighted material. Seriously.... get over it...... the photo was not a significant piece of art nor was it it in the running for a national news or photography award this year. It has been removed so it will not keep you awake all night now.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahjeong/2015/04/17/the-news-medias-use-of-the-walter-scott-video-is-surprise-a-newsworthy-use/

http://www.businessinsider.com/south-carolina-police-shooting-witness-demands-money-from-news-outlets-playing-video-2015-4

https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20150417/11082430700/guy-who-took-walter-scott-shooting-video-now-demanding-to-be-paid-everyone-gets-confused-about-fair-use.shtml#comments

http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/04/copyright-claims-asserted-in-viral-video-of-cop-shooting-fleeing-suspect/

http://fairuse.stanford.edu/overview/fair-use/four-factors/

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3030442/PIERS-MORGAN-seeing-South-Carolina-police-nearly-away-murder-won-t-feel-safe-cop-carries-gun-wears-camera-too.html

Unlucky in love.......... not.

2015-04-17T13:50:00.000-04:00

"The devil himself is a pot of gold compared to her," stated ex husband Shane Chessman.

In July 2011, inmate 277206 was enjoying the hospitality of the Alabama state penitentiary system and granted an interview to try and dispel some of the rumors about her. The inmate known by almost thirty names including the "Military Mistress" was finally serving time for some of her crimes. Bobbi Ann Finley, then 35, had married 14 men, had nine children and drained the bank accounts of dozens of other men besides her husbands.

Finley was serving a three year sentence after pleading guilty to theft by deception and she was wanted in several others states on similar charges. Finley had been working hard for the past two decades but not at any company we would know. She was busy meeting and marrying men, especially military men and then cleaning out their bank accounts. Finley also did not always take the time to get divorced from the men she left in her wake when she ran either. In the process of marrying these men, she also managed to have 9 children which she had adopted out to others, family members and various guardians. Many times she did not even inform the men that they had become fathers and she did not allow them to even meet their children or have any say in who adopted them.

Finley has tried to blame her behavior on her childhood, as if she is the only person who can claim to have a "bad" childhood. She stated in her interview that she grew up poor and sheltered so if anyone was going to offer her something, she wasn't going to turn them down. She added that it was an abusive home where her mother jumped from boyfriend to boyfriend and she thinks that is why she has the same pattern with the men in her life. When Finley was asked why she seemed to choose military men, she stated that they are heros and she wanted to be loved.

She went on to state that she ran away from home at age 13 and she is now doing time for taking advantage of some of the people she screwed over. Finley has also stated that she may not be the greatest person on earth but she definitely was not running a con on the people she met. What is true is that for almost two decades, Finley has crisscrossed the country and haunting military bases to prey on military men stationed there.

She has used numerous tales to gain the sympathy of men or at least grab their attention long enough to wiggle her way into their lives and bank accounts. Finley has used several tales from being a the daughter of a wealthy four star general who stood to inherit $750,000 to being a fifteen year veteran of the military who had been wounded in Iraq. She has also used the tale of being a divorced mother who was in the military and her ex husband had stolen her children from her. She even had women she befriended believing her tales and would borrow money from them only to repay it with bad checks.

Many of the men that Finley married admit that she made them feel special and was a good cook, kept a clean house, was smart, charming and was all that you would want for a wife. They often found out early on in their relationship that she was pregnant or claimed that she was already pregnant but it was from a rape and she wanted to keep the child. The men all report though that it was very soon after marrying them that money disappeared from their bank accounts and when it went dry, Finley was gone as well.

The charges she faced in Alabama stem from an incident in 2009 when she befriended a woman she met at a bar. Finley used the Iraq veteran story on her and added that she had saved a lot of money while she was overseas but was now stuck because she only had out of state checks. She convinced the woman to lend her money and Finley wrote the woman four checks totaling $2,455 but neglected to tell her that the account had already been closed. At some point, Finley wrote her another two checks but the woman did not even bother to try and deposit them.

Diane Boheler told a very similar story about meeting Finley in the Spanaway Bar and befriending her after hearing the wounded vet story. She invited Finley to move in and stay with her for awhile and even loaned her some money. After a couple of weeks though, Finley had disappeared along with about $3,000 from Boheler. Finley's gravy train hit a serious roadblock in 2004 when she met Rodney Wegg in Texas and he like so many before him, fell for her charm and lies.

His impression of her changed radically after he returned from a weekend away and found she had drained his bank accounts. Rodney's mother made it her personal mission to hunt down the truth about the woman who stole her son's heart and funds. Katie Wegg spent six years tracking down ex husbands of Finley's and anyone else who had been taken advantage by her. She contacted dozens of victims nationwide and found a trail of fraud, serial bigamy and multiple sentences. Fortunately the wedding was cancelled but Katie believes that her son fathered a child with her and the grandson was adopted out without his knowledge or consent.

Katie stated that she contacted over 40 victims of Finley's money scams and not all of them were male. Finley evidently is an equal opportunity thief as shown by the amount of money she stole from women as well. Fay Neigut, a former teacher, took out loans for Finley in 2007 and ended up losing close to $20,000 when Finley disappeared on her before ever repaying it. Katie also found evidence that Finley attempted to buy a house in San Antonio for $2.5 million and $200,000 worth of custom made furniture with money she did not even have.

There are at least four men including her son Rodney who believe they fathered some of the nine children Finely gave birth to. The children who range in age from 4 years old to 16 years old are scattered across the US and living with Finley's family and friends. The men have wanted to meet and get to know their children but so far have been unable to gain the information they need to do so.

Finley was reported to have returned to the Tacoma WA area in 2013 after finishing up her jail sentence in Alabama. She has warrants for her arrest in several states and by now had been known to use many different names as well as being suspected of scamming at least 30 military men. Jeff White hired her to work in his Tacoma bar and he stated that she had a bubbly personality which the military guys like.

He added that she was promiscuous and he never saw her with the same guy very often. She told him that she was in the Marine Corps, had gotten shot there, was very wealthy and was going to inherit a lot more money. White stated that she eventually ran up a $600 bar tab which she paid with a bad check and she once again disappeared. She does not have any qualms about scamming anyone for money and some of the charges she has been running from include running out on a $240 bar tab in New Orleans LA and writing bad checks to a plumber and a cabbie in Alabama.

Finley, 39 and her new husband Zackerie House, 27 are now on the run from her last known address in Dallas OR. The Marion County authorities have stated that the pair opened a checking account at Wells Fargo and then proceeded to write bad checks totalling $13,500 in less than a month. They wrote checks to Cabela's, Bi-Mart and Safeway as well as a $1,500 check at Universal Auto Sales in Salem OR. The couple is said to have made purchases for a lot of camping gear and groceries as well as the down payment on a blue Cadillac Escalade that is now listed as stolen.

The pair was stopped this past week in Mobile AL but instead of being taken into custody, the pair was released after a quick check found that they were not wanted locally for any crimes. It was later on April 14th that the Sheriff's office received word that they had been stopped and released. The police at the time did seize the stolen Escalade that reportedly the pair had been living in.

They are back on the now and at least three states are hoping that the next time they are in custody, they will be held for extradition. House's mother has stated that she does not understand how he can be involved in this and wishes that he just turn himself in to face the music. It certainly sounds as though Finley has no intentions of ever changing her ways but incarceration may soften her up as to releasing information about the many children she has had and where they are.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/military-mistress-wanted-crime-spree-u-s-article-1.2180953

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/TheLaw/men-scammed-called-military-mistress-bobbi-ann-finley/story?id=11701771&singlePage=true

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2015/04/oregons_military_mistress_who.html

http://q13fox.com/2013/07/10/military-mistress-back-in-town-facing-new-charges/

http://www.katu.com/news/local/military-mistress-bobbi-ann-house-zackerie-house-299779841.html

http://abcnews.go.com/2020/military-mistress-convicted-felon-bobbi-ann-finley/story?id=14019314

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/2020/photos/slideshow-alleged-military-mistress-bobbi-ann-finley-11215047/image-11215168

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3030484/Military-mistress-married-15-soldiers-scammed-100K-wanted-fraud-new-husband.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2012733/Military-Mistress-Bobbi-Ann-Finley-claims-just-unlucky-love.html

Bet that was a surprise......

2015-04-15T17:13:00.000-04:00

Haley Fox, 24, met Samuel Campbell, 26 online in 2013 and the two began a relationship even though there was quite some distance between them. Campbell finally agreed to move to Turner OR from his home in Alabama to be with "the love of his life." He found out that on April 8 2015 that he should have just stayed in Alabama after he had arrived to meet Fox at her home on the 7000 block of Lipscomb St SE for the first time.

Rather than rushing out to enthusiastically greet the young man who had been her online boyfriend for so long, she led Campbell to a small metal table that was outside the house. She poured him a glass of wine and told him to close his eyes. Then it hit him..........not the happy thoughts of a life with his girlfriend. It was three blows from a baseball bat Fox was swinging at the back of his head.

Another woman was present at the house when this was happening and Jennifer Beaumont, 26, ran up to Fox and Campbell while she was swinging. After Fox had hit him three times, both women took him to the hospital while Campbell kept telling them that he would not tell anyone what had just happened. Campbell suffered a fractured skull near his right eye and two gashes that required nine staples to close.

The police did arrest Fox who promptly told them that she knew that it only took seven pounds of force to break a human being's neck. She also told them that she had played softball from fourth grade to eleventh grade so she knew how to properly hold a bat. She evidently did just that while she was swinging two handed at Campbell's head in the yard. The police are still investigating what part, if any Beaumont may have had in the attack.

Fox reportedly told police that the reason she had tried to bash Campbell's head in was that she no longer wanted to be his girlfriend. I could think of much easier ways to break up, almost all of them do not involve waiting for someone to move across the US and trying to bash their head in when they get there.

Fox was arraigned on April 10 2015 and given $100,000 bond which she did post and has since been released. Her next court date is April 20 2015 at 8:30 am. The police did not report as to whether Campbell has packed up and returned home. Either way, I am sure that he got the message that the "love of his life" was not interested in him anymore.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/crime/man-finally-meets-online-girlfriend-beaten-cops-article-1.2185895

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2015/04/oregon_woman_hits_man_on_head.html

http://www.statesmanjournal.com/story/news/2015/04/13/police-turner-woman-hit-man-head-bat/25741239/

The birthday he will wish he could forget.........

2015-04-13T16:55:00.000-04:00

"I ma drive all the cars they have in one day. Because I'm a gangsta like that. Lol," stated Tavon Watson.

On April 12 2015, Tavon Watson, 24, was celebrating his birthday at the Exotic Driving Experience at Walt Disney World in Orlando FL and had boasted that he would be driving a Ferrari 458 Italia LSTRF. He posted that as well as his wish to drive all the cars they had that day on his Facebook account along with a picture a friend took of him standing next to the car.

At 3:30 pm though, Watson crashed while driving a Lamborghini Gallardo LP560-4 on the track with instructor Gary Terry. Terry, 36 died at the scene and Watson was taken to the hospital with only minor injuries. The day at the track which offers ride-alongs and driving experiences was a gift from Watson's wife.

The track is a hybrid track that also hosts the Richard Petty driving experience with NASCAR drives and rides as well. It opened in 1997 and four years ago it began offering rides and drives in exotic cars such as the Ferrari, Lamborghini and Porsche. The experience starts as low as $99 for a ride along with an experienced instructor and goes all the way to a 50 lap driving experience with video.

The track is a closed track and because of that the driving rules are different than on the public streets. The FHP was called to the scene of the accident though and they will be handling the investigation. They plan to analyze the video from the drive to try and pin point what may have gone wrong. It has been reported that Watson has been cooperating with the investigation and will face no charges because it had happened on a racetrack. Watson, of Kissimmee FL, reportedly has driven at the experience in the past.

The preliminary report states that Watson failed to maneuver the car through a curve and then he crashed into a guardrail. Both men were wearing suits, buckled in and had helmets on at the time of the crash. A look at the overhead pictures from the crash show long skid marks on a straightaway section of the track leading into the the part of the track that cuts through the center of the oval.

It looks as though Watson lost control of the high powered vehicle and was sliding sideways on the grass for quite a distance. The car then crossed a small paved dead end road before smashing into an unprotected guardrail with the passenger side of the car. It is believed that Terry, his co pilot and instructor, died instantly in the passenger seat.

Gary Terry had been a life long sports car driver who took up instructing when he moved to Florida. He and his two brothers grew up in St Joseph MI and he began racing in full size cars when he was only 15 years old. He moved to Florida about 11 years ago and began working as an instructor and at the time of his death, he was also the operations manager at the driving experience.

He and his wife had just started a family while living in Davenport FL with a baby girl who is now about two years old. He kept his love for adventure and the outdoors and still raced back in Michigan occasionally. His family is stunned by his sudden death while doing what he loved to do. He is remembered as a great father, friend, brother and buddy and many will miss him. His younger brother Adam stated that he wishes he could turn back time and change the outcome of Sunday but he is glad that he has the wonderful memories of Gary.

Petty Holdings LLC and Disney have expressed their deepest sympathies to Gary's family and friends. The track has been scheduled to close in June 2015 to make way for transportation, as in more parking lots. the closure though was planned many months before this weekend's accident.

A gofundme site has been set up for the Terry family:
http://www.gofundme.com/garyterrymemorial?hc_location=ufi

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/birthday-turns-tragic-fatal-exotic-racecar-crash-cops-article-1.2183388

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-disney-crash-death-richard-petty-20150413-story.html

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3036264/At-Disney-racecar-attraction-Lamborghini-crashes-kills-1.html

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-richard-petty-fatality-20150412-story.html

http://www.exoticdriving.com/drives/lamborghini-gallardo-lp560-4

http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/breaking-news/os-disney-crash-death-richard-petty-20150413-story.html

Update April 14 2015:

The preliminary report states that gary can be seen on the onboard video trying to grab the wheel and counter steer the car right before it crashed. The evidence so far indicates that the car Watson was driving spun three times before it hit the guardrail on Gary's side. The FHP is estimating that the car was traveling about 100 mph when it went over the curb but a more complete report will be released after the investigation is complete.

They are still not certain if it was driver error, excessive speed for that part of the track or if there was any type of malfunction with the car. A spokesman for Petty holdings LLC has stated that the Richard Petty Driving Experience which uses the main track will reopen for NASCAR driving on April 20 2015 but the Exotic Car Experience will not reopen until May 1 2015. It had been announced that both would cease operations in Orlando on July 1 2015 but it was stated today that it would actually end on August 9 2015. There was no explanation for the difference in closing dates.

A Gofundme site has been established for the funeral costs, living expenses and education for Gary's wife Kathy and his 2 year old daughter Taylor. It states that it has been started by a cousin of the family who is a lawyer and the intention is for a trust fund to be established and funds from the gofundme account will be sent there for management in the future.

Gofundme site:
http://www.gofundme.com/garyterrymemorial?hc_location=ufi

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/racecar-instructor-grabbed-wheel-fatal-crash-fhp-article-1.2184979

http://www.mynews13.com/content/news/cfnews13/on-the-town/article.html/content/news/articles/cfn/2015/4/14/wdw_speedway_crash.html

Friendly fire.........

2015-04-12T00:20:00.000-04:00

"It's shocking how fast the fire took hold," stated witness Heather Taylor.

On April 10 2014, the last demonstration firing of the trebuchet at Warwick castle came a little too close to the boathouse and lit it afire. It appears as though sparks from the flaming cannonball fired from the wooden trebuchet landed on the thatched roof of the boathouse and at 5:45 the fire department was called to put the blazing building out. Hundreds of tourists scrambled up the bank, many of whom were families and children because they had no idea if the fire would spread. The fire was quickly put out after three engines and about 30 firefighters arrived at the scene.

The trebuchet is believed to have been first built by the Chinese around 300 BC and evolved from the stave sling. It is powered entirely by gravity through the use of a counterweight. The force of the counterweight dropping forces the throwing arm, which is usually four to six times the length of the counterweight arm, to multiply the arm and projectile. The biggest difference between a trebuchet and a catapult is that it also uses a sling for the projectile giving it even more throwing power.

It is a highly accurate, powerful siege machine that required expert building and design skills. They first show in historical records in England around 1216 they continued to be refined through the centuries. They were still in use even after the introduction of gun powder in Europe. The largest trebuchet ever built is believed to be the Warwolf that was ordered built in Scotland by King Edward Longshanks for use in the siege of Stirling Castle in the late thirteenth century.

Current measurements estimate that it was 300-400 feet tall and frightened the Scots so much that they tried to surrender before the siege ever began. King Edward though seemed to want to at least give this monster a chance to work and turned down the surrender request. He proceeded to accurately hurl 300 missiles that destroyed part of the curtain wall of the castle. The average trebuchet could accurately hurl 200 pound projectiles 1,000 yards of more.

Not only were these incredibly accurate but they also allowed for any number of projectiles to be loaded into the slings and hurled. Besides rocks and cannonballs to destroy walls, they were often loaded with objects to terrify those under siege. These could have included, dead bodies, cattle or pigs, burning oil or sand, anything else that would burn or even body parts.

There came a time though when the cannon took the place of the trebuchet, most likely because it was much more mobile and the plans for construction were lost in history. In 1989 Dr Peter Vemming constructed the first working trebuchet after years of research and planning. He used notes and drawings from the 13th century to recreate it out of oak with a flexible ash throwing arm.

In 2005 his plans for the trebuchet at the Medieval Center in Nykobing Denmark were used to build the largest trebuchet in existence. It was constructed so that it was historically accurate and comprised of more than 300 pieces. It stands 59 feet tall, weighs 22 tons and routinely hurls 80 pounds about 1,000 feet, each and every day. Unfortunately, this past week it also demonstrated how well it can destroy the newly renovated boathouse at Warwick Castle Warwick England.

The trebuchet uses four men running in the hamster wheels to wind down the throwing arm. Once it has been secured down with a pin, they have to unwind the rope that is wound around the axle so that it will fire correctly. once it is down the sling can be attached and loaded in a channel between the hamster wheels. It is then cleared and the man firing pulls the pin by a rope remotely to release the arm and it's projectile.

It is incredibly accurate but the time it takes to set it up for firing prevents it from being anything close to a rapid fire weapon. This may be why it was loaded with a few hundred pounds each time and it is devastating to have that kind of load incoming. A trebuchet was also not a very mobile military piece and most often were built on the spot of the siege to fit the range needed. They could be disassembled but could use up 20-30 wagons to move from the site of the battle.

Warwick Castle was built in 1068 by William the Conqueror and the original castle was rebuilt in the 12th century. It was finally granted to Sir Fulke Greville in 1604 and it was the property of the Greville family, the earls of Warwick until it was sold in 1978 to the Tussauds Group. It had spent several centuries as a country home but with the advent of tourism and the interest in castles, it was finally sold. The boathouse was originally built in 1896 as an addition to the castle by the 5th Earl of Warwick, Francis Greville and had recently been restored

Today you are most likely to see working trebuchets during a punkin chunkin contest where various classes of machine are used to hurl pumpkins as far as possible. In 2013 the trebuchet Yankee Siege II set a new world record by tossing a pumpkin that weighs between 8-10 pounds 2,835.81 feet. That is almost 8 football fields long and while it won't crush the stone walls of a castle it is darn impressive from technology that is centuries old. In comparison, the world record for a compressed air cannon in punkin chunkin is 4,694.68. These cannons sport a huge tube that uses a combination of compressed air and it's length to shoot the pumpkin much like a standard cannon would and even with it's technological advances, it has not doubled the distance achieved by a trebuchet.

Hat tip to Bayou Renaissance Man for the tip on this story

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/11529201/Warwick-Castle-cannonball-show-sets-fire-to-medieval-boathouse.html

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/warwick-castle-ancient-boathouse-hit-5497147

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9faom6z5dZ0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ApwIGvUjZoE

http://www.lordsandladies.org/trebuchet.htm

http://web.grinnell.edu/courses/ant/S00/ANT154-01/vick/treb.html

http://www.yankeesiege.com/AboutYankeeSiege.html

http://www.sciencechannel.com/tv-shows/punkin-chunkin/videos/punkin-chunkin-trebuchets/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N9TLiaT6Ito

It didn't just walk away...........

2015-04-11T00:13:00.000-04:00

"We're kind of at a loss right now. Like, seriously," stated Chris Hempel.

Gone are the days of cattle rustling, stealing another man's horse or even taking over his gold mine. These days there seems to be another commodity worth stealing......... another man's home. The Hempel's had found their own little piece of paradise in the woods in Loon Lake Washington until this past week. They drove up on April 7th, to their property as they do every couple of weeks and found the gate had been cut open.

They drove onto the 20 acre property, named Hempel's Hideaway, and expected to find that their cabin had been broken into. They thought that there might be some windows broken or maybe some items stolen from inside but they weren't expecting what they found. They did not find anything....... yes that is correct.... nothing. Their 10x20 cabin with it's contents and furnishings had been taken completely off its foundation and was gone.

Moose, Tyler, Kayla & Chris

The cabin was built by Birky's Better Built Barns, a Clayton company and featured tongue and groove and groove cedar walls and had two lofts inside of it. It did not have electricity hooked up to and it was worth about $7,000 and they had owned it for about ten years. Chris stated the obvious when she said that it isn't something you can just toss in the back of your car and drive away with.

Their neighbors state that they did not hear or see anything out of the ordinary so it is suspected that the cabin was stolen during the night. It would have been easy enough to break open the gate and drive in with a large trailer to load the cabin onto. It was not visible from the road though so they are left wondering how someone knew the cabin was back there. The house thieves stole the small attached porch as well as the paving blocks that made up a small deck at the cabin.

The Hempel's contacted the sheriff's office to report the theft and put up flyers for the missing cabin, which they knew had been stolen some time between March 21st and April 7th asking for information. The officer's were following a tip that came in and on April 9th, they found the stolen cabin. It was located about 10 miles away from the Hempel's property, down the end of a private road east of Springdale. The cabin was intact and had been placed up on stilts. Officers report that it looks as though who ever had stolen the cabin was living in it and the property did have some heavy equipment on it.

While the cabin could have been removed with a trailer and other equipment, it was not something that could have been done without advance planning. There would have been no issues with disconnecting lines from it since it was not hooked up to electricity or a sewer system. their insurance would cover everything that was inside of the cabin but not the cabin itself because it lacked hookups. the police state that they have suspects in the theft but they are not publicly naming them and they are waiting for warrants right now.

This is also not the first time a cabin has been stolen like that. In Feb 2015 a cabin was stolen in Klamath County OR and was found not far from it's original location. That cabin is now in the middle of a civil case as to who had the legal right to sell the cabin which was believed to have been stolen.

Related story on this blog:

http://wreckvhavoc.blogspot.com/2015/03/found-it.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/missing-log-cabin-found-stilts-rural-wash-road-article-1.2180402

http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2015/apr/08/entire-cabin-stolen-foundation-baffling-owner/

http://www.syracuse.com/us-news/index.ssf/2015/04/missing_cabin_stolen_off_its_foundation_has_been_found.html

http://www.inquisitr.com/1996498/cabin-stolen-thieves-swipe-log-cabin-home-move-it-just-10-miles-from-owners-video/