Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
All
rights reserved. No claim to original government forms
Website and automated forms processes, Copyright
2007, Matthew August LeFande.
All
rights reserved. No claim to original government forms
Teen killed by Kentucky cop charged posthumously with drug, weapons offences
A black teenager who was fatally shot by a white police officer has been charged posthumously with drug and weapons offences.
Michael Newby, 19, was charged Monday with trafficking in a controlled substance, assault and carrying a concealed deadly weapon, nearly three months after he was shot outside a liquor store. Newby was the seventh black man killed by police in the past five years in Louisville. The Jan. 3 shooting prompted a series of protests. Maj. Troy Riggs said Louisville police had to file formal charges because federal regulations require updated crime reports.
"We do it to meet federal regulations and to clear out that case," Riggs said.
A grand jury has indicted the officer, McKenzie Mattingly, on murder and wanton endangerment charges. Mattingly, on paid leave, has pleaded not guilty and is free on bond. He could receive 20 years to life if convicted.
Police have said there was a struggle before the shooting, and that Newby had a gun stashed in his waistband.
http://www.mytelus.com/news/article.do?pageID=cp_oddities_home&articleID=1562916
posted by Matthew LeFande 1:17 PM
matt@lefande.com
Creating Work
More than 60 years after Nevil Shute wrote his savvy novel about a British investment banker who struggles to restart a dormant shipyard in the midst of England's depression, the need for work sits at the top of our national agenda. Indeed, as the 2004 election cycle revs up, the only thing that President Bush and Senator Kerry agree about is that today we are not creating enough new jobs.
The question is, "Why not?" One obvious reason is that we are only now emerging from a recession. This should improve the jobs situation over time as economic growth takes hold. Another is outsourcing — the transfer of both manufacturing and service jobs that would have been done by Americans to workers overseas who are well educated, well trained, and willing to work for a lot less money. This won't improve over time; we are so addicted to low prices that we bemoan the loss of jobs to foreigners even while driving to Wal-Mart for a $60 DVD player made in some country whose capital has only just gotten indoor plumbing.
A less obvious reason we aren't creating new jobs fast enough is that — like agricultural productivity a century ago — manufacturing productivity today has risen so high, so fast, that we are able to make whatever we need with fewer people. Since 1995, more than 22 million factory jobs have disappeared worldwide, while global industrial output has risen by more than 30 percent. This really is a worldwide phenomenon; the total number of manufacturing jobs has dropped not only here in the U.S., but in low-wage countries including Brazil and even China.
There is one more reason we aren't creating jobs fast enough, but saying it out loud would be so unpopular, and so politically toxic, that none of our leaders — including those few who actually understand it — seem willing to take the risk. So, here goes: We aren't creating jobs fast enough because we have crippled the people who do the creating, and turned them from the heroes and heroines they are into villains. Read the last sentence again, then say it aloud to whoever happens to be nearby. This is the core of the problem — no, it is the problem — and until we fix it we aren't going to start creating new jobs fast enough. And yes, it really is this simple.
People who create jobs are entrepreneurs, which Webster's defines as "a person who organizes and manages a business undertaking, assuming the risk for the sake of the profit." Sometimes these are people who invent new products or services, then launch companies that become billion-dollar enterprises that in turn spawn new industries. Think of Apple computers, or Starbucks. And sometimes these entrepreneurs launch smaller enterprises, such as neighborhood shops or a local business that specializes in making windows for new homes or in remodeling kitchens. Anyone who launches a new venture is by definition an entrepreneur, and these are the people whose efforts create work for everyone else. They are the only people who create work, which is why entrepreneurs are vital to the economic health of any free society.
Common sense suggests that a country whose people want jobs would do everything possible to help entrepreneurs to succeed — to encourage them, or at the very least to get out of their way. Alas, nothing is so rare today as common sense. And in the last decade or so we Americans have been making it less attractive for entrepreneurs to do what they do — and less likely they will succeed when they do give it a shot. Through a combination of high taxes and onerous regulation, we have discouraged entrepreneurs from doing the one thing they must do for everyone else's sake — namely, create new jobs.
http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/meyer200403290851.asp
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:21 PM
matt@lefande.com
Supreme Court permits withholding Foster photos
The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the government does not have to release 11-year-old photographs from the suicide of Clinton administration White House lawyer Vincent Foster.
The unanimous decision makes it more difficult to use a public records law to access law enforcement records. Justices said the privacy rights of survivors outweigh the benefits of releasing some photographs.
A California attorney had sought the pictures, saying they might prove that Foster was murdered as part of a White House cover-up.
"Family members have a personal stake in honoring and mourning their dead and objecting to unwarranted public exploitation that, by intruding upon their own grief, tends to degrade the rites and respect they seek to accord to the deceased person who was once their own," Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote.
http://www.cnn.com/2004/LAW/03/30/foster.photos.ap/index.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 11:56 AM
matt@lefande.com
New British police force to get sweeping powers
The British government has outlined plans for the creation of a national police force modelled on the FBI.
Home Secretary David Blunkett says the unit, called the Serious Organized Crime Agency, would fight organized crime and international terror networks.
It would be granted new powers such as more extensive use of evidence from phone taps, plea bargaining for witnesses and a more sophisticated witness protection program.
The new national crime-fighting body will merge more than 5,500 staff from other agencies in the biggest shake-up in policing in England and Wales in 40 years.
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2004/03/29/world/britpolice040329
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:25 AM
matt@lefande.com
N.Y. tops big cities in fewest traffic deaths
Fewer people are killed on New York's thoroughfares than in any other big city in the U.S.
There are 4.4 traffic fatalities per 100,000 residents in the nation's largest city, according to National Highway Traffic Safety Administration data. Los Angeles, the country's second-biggest hub, followed with 7.2 deaths per 100,000 people.
New York had 355 traffic fatalities in 2002 - nearly half of them, 162 - were pedestrians, according to the report, which was based on 2002 data.
Police brass hold supervisors accountable for crash statistics and demand to know what they are doing to make troublesome areas safer.
"Everyone from our highway officers to our traffic agents are tenacious about enforcement and conscientious about the public's safety," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said.
Recent DOT steps include placing median fences on Queens Blvd., the infamous Boulevard of Death, to deter jaywalkers and changing traffic-light sequences to give pedestrians more time to cross roadways.
Cops have waged ticket blitzes on double-parking - which creates hazards when cars have to swerve - driving while talking on hand-held cell phones and not buckling up.
New York is the only place in the U.S. where more than half the households do not own a car.
http://nydailynews.com/front/story/178404p-154983c.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 11:01 AM
matt@lefande.com
Walkie Talkie Man
A new verison of an old yarn. They really went out on a string on this one.
(Simulated blood and gore.)
http://capitolrecords.com/steriogram/walkietalkieman/
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:06 PM
matt@lefande.com
Armed (sledgehammer) Citizen of the Week
A customer subdued a robber with a 2-pound sledgehammer at a Columbus, Ohio pizza shop Saturday night.
A ski-masked gunman attempted to rob Stoney's Pizza on Lockbourne Road. As cashiers fled to a cooler, the armed man demanded that all of the customers drop to the floor. Witnesses said the man searched an office for money, but couldn't open a register. That's when he tried to get away.
"He already had tape on his license plate. He had it blacked out," customer J.R. Croy said. "The door was open and the van was running. He was on his way out."
Surveillance cameras then showed the quick thinking of Croy. He slipped out a back door and used his truck to block the robber. He then used a sledgehammer to subdue him.
"I was sitting here with the hammer, and he pointed the gun up at me," Croy said.
A Franklin County sheriff's deputy determined later that it was only a paintball gun, but Croy didn't take any chances.
"After hitting him in the head with a hammer four times, he wouldn't go down," Croy said.
http://www.newsnet5.com/news/2940163/detail.html
You need better tools, Mr. Croy.
posted by Matthew LeFande 2:07 PM
matt@lefande.com
Religious Rulings Regarding Wife-Beating
On January 14, 2004, Sheikh Muhammad Kamal Mustafa, the imam of the mosque of the city of Fuengirola, Costa del Sol, was sentenced by a Barcelona court to a 15 month suspended sentence and fined € 2160 for publishing his book 'The Woman in Islam.' In this book, the Egyptian-born Sheikh Mustafa writes, among other things, on wife-beating in accordance with Shar'ia law.
"The [wife-]beating must never be in exaggerated, blind anger, in order to avoid serious harm [to the woman]." He adds, "It is forbidden to beat her on the sensitive parts of her body, such as the face, breast, abdomen, and head. Instead, she should be beaten on the arms and legs," using a "rod that must not be stiff, but slim and lightweight so that no wounds, scars, or bruises are caused." Similarly, "[the blows] must not be hard."
Mustafa noted in his book that the aim of the beating was to cause the woman to feel some emotional pain, without humiliating her or harming her physically. According to him, wife-beating must be the last resort to which the husband turns in punishing his wife, and is, according to the Qur'an, Chapter 4, Verse 34, the husband's third step when the wife is rebellious: First, he must reprimand her, without anger. Next, he must distance her from the conjugal bed. Only if these two methods fail should the husband turn to beating.
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sr&ID=SR2704
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:48 AM
matt@lefande.com
One down, three to go?
IF YOU carry out a well planned atrocity, killing more than 200 people and injuring more than a thousand, and three days later the government that supported an invasion to which you object is unexpectedly defeated in a general election, you are entitled to consider the venture to have been a success.
There is no escaping the fact that the biggest triumph has been that of the terrorists. Assuming, as is likely, that they are indeed linked to or are members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network, they scored another success when the new Socialist prime minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, said he would withdraw Spain's 1,300 troops from Iraq. This may only be a symbolic move, for that is a mere 1% of the American-led coalition's forces there, but symbols and emotions are what terrorism is all about.
This year both George Bush himself and John Howard, Australia's prime minister, face re-election contests and next year Britain's Tony Blair is also expected to do so. There is now a real possibility that all three could follow Mr Aznar's party into defeat—though Mr Blair may be saved by the fact that his Tory opposition supported the war strongly, too. Such defeats would be natural, in democratic terms. But the tragedy of Madrid is that the terrorists in effect cast the swing vote, given that Mr Aznar's party had looked set to win a comfortable victory, despite opposition to the war, and that such success may now stimulate more terrorism during the other three electoral campaigns. The big question, if such defeats occur, is whether successor governments would be more effective in pursuing al-Qaeda and stabilising the regions within which its terrorists thrive—or less.
Some critics of the war in Iraq say that there is no such danger. There was no genuine link between toppling Saddam and fighting al-Qaeda, so to punish governments for what opponents claim was an illegal invasion is a quite separate matter. Mr Zapatero even appears to think that pulling troops out of Iraq will make things better, on the view that the occupation is itself the cause of terrorism. Yet that policy is irresponsible, because it increases the risk of civil war in Iraq. Even those who opposed the war should now want to help make Iraq secure enough for Iraqis themselves to take back their sovereignty. If other new governments copy Mr Zapatero and prove their anti-war point by withdrawing from Iraq, they will make everyone less safe as a result. And it is a delusion to claim, as Mr Zapatero does, that all would be well if the UN were to take over from the Americans. Few Iraqis think so. It is as well to recall the Dutch UN peacekeepers who looked on helplessly during the Srebrenica massacre in Bosnia in 1995.
Moreover, withdrawal would put the rest of the Middle East at greater risk, too. For even if there was no direct link between Saddam and al-Qaeda, the connection was always indirect and much more long-term: that while he remained in power to threaten his neighbours and required bombing and sanctions to contain him, it would be impossible to move towards a wider peace and modernisation of that whole troubled region. To advocates of the war, including The Economist, sticking with the status quo looked a more dangerous option than toppling Saddam.
On that view, the stance taken against Saddam by Messrs Bush, Blair, Howard and Aznar could prove to have been historically noble but politically suicidal.
http://www.economist.com/printedition/displaystory.cfm?Story_ID=2517363
posted by Matthew LeFande 4:28 PM
matt@lefande.com
Bowling ball from 17th floor misses officers
A 69-year-old Brooklyn man was aiming at three police officers when he dropped a 16-pound bowling ball from the terrace of his 17th-floor apartment, police officials said on Tuesday.
The ball narrowly missed the officers. The Brooklyn district attorney charged the man, Douglas Stiff, with attempted murder, attempted assault, reckless endangerment and criminal possession of a weapon.
The authorities said the motive for the crime was unclear. A 911 call was placed from Stiff's apartment at 9:22 p.m. Monday, reporting a robbery in progress. Two police officers and a parole officer responded. As they walked around the side of the building, a bowling ball thudded to the ground a few feet away, the police said.
The officers looked up and saw a man on a terrace on the 17th floor. When they went up and knocked on Stiff's door, he answered it, wearing a pair of binoculars around his neck, officials said. The officers found a second bowling ball on the terrace, and arrested Stiff.
The practice of throwing things at officers from rooftops is somewhat common in New York, enough so that the targets have a name for it. They call it airmail. Even so, a bowling ball is an unusual piece of correspondence, the police said.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0324BowlingBall24-ON.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 1:51 PM
matt@lefande.com
Defendant Punches His Lawyer During Trial
A man on trial for raping and murdering a 6-year-old girl punched his defense lawyer in the face during court Monday.
The judge immediately sent jurors home for the day after Malik El-Shabazz hit attorney Fred Goodman.
It was unclear what effect the attack would have on the trial.
Cathie Abookire, a spokeswoman for the district attorney, said prosecutors believe El-Shabazz was trying to get a mistrial declared. The prosecution planned to argue Tuesday that the trial should continue as planned.
El-Shabazz, 20, was returned to jail following the attack. Officials said his lawyer, Fred Goodman, was not seriously hurt.
http://www.timesdaily.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040322/APA/403220958
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:58 AM
matt@lefande.com
The remains of Ahmed Yassin
Not for the squeemish. Definitely not safe for work.
http://www.retecool.com/nubrains2.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:37 PM
matt@lefande.com
Canadian Prison guards forbidden to wear protective gear
Corrections Canada won't let guards at maximum security prisons wear stab-proof vests because it sends a confrontational "signal" to prisoners. "If you have that kind of presence symbolized by (a stab-proof vest), you're sending a signal to the prisoner that you consider him to be a dangerous person," said Tim Krause.
"It interferes with what we call 'dynamic security.' We want staff to talk to prisoners, to see how they're doing."
Last month, Sun Media reported a guard at the Edmonton Institution was threatened with disciplinary action several times by prison brass for wearing a self-purchased stab-proof vest on the job.
The guard, who asked not to be named, said he intends to keep wearing the Kevlar vest.
"Yes, I'm violating the rules. But management is stepping on my right to defend myself," he said.
Kevin Grabowsky, of the Union of Canadian Correctional Officers, said the notion that inmates might be "offended" is a "complete crock."
http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/CalgarySun/News/2004/03/17/384816.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:35 PM
matt@lefande.com
Armed (geriatric with edged weapons) Citizen of the Week
Thomas O'Connor, 62, of Brinnington, Stockport, Greater Manchester, attacked 23-year-old Lee Kelso with a six-inch blade on 14 June last year.
Mr O'Connor told police he had stabbed Mr Kelso in self-defence after Kelso had started kicking down his front door.
Mr O'Connor, who is blind in one eye and partially sighted in the other, said he and his wife were woken up by Mr Kelso.
He then went downstairs armed with a knife that he kept in the dresser in his lounge.
The coroner said Mr O'Connor was an elderly man in poor health, and Mr Kelso was big, fit and young.
"I have no doubt that Mr O'Connor acted in reasonable boundaries in protecting himself and his wife," Mr Pollard said.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/3524350.stm
posted by Matthew LeFande 6:03 PM
matt@lefande.com
Survey finds hope in occupied Iraq
An opinion poll suggests most Iraqis feel their lives have improved since the war in Iraq began about a year ago.
Of the 2,500 people questioned, 85% said the restoration of public security must be a major priority.
Opinion was split about who should be responsible, with an Iraqi government scoring highest.
Seventy percent of people said that things were going well or quite well in their lives, while only 29% felt things were bad.
And 56% said that things were better now than they were before the war.
The survey shows overwhelming disapproval of political violence, especially of attacks on the Iraqi police but also on American and other coalition forces.
About 15% say foreign forces should leave Iraq now, but many more say they should stay until an Iraqi government is in place or security is restored.
Dan Plesch, a security expert at Birkbeck college in London said that the poll was good news for the leaders of countries who began the invasion a year ago this week.
"This poll indicates that Iraqis strongly support a unified country with strong leadership. They don't want to see the country divided up and they don't want to see an Islamic government."
Dr Mustafa Alani of the Royal United Services Institute said that the Iraqis wanted a strong leader, but had not found one yet.
"The main point is that the Iraqis are now looking for a strong leader who can save the day.
"As long as the governing council is considered illegitimate and illegal in Iraq, I think they will have to work hard to find something more legitimate and more legal before they disengage from the country."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/3514504.stm
posted by Matthew LeFande 9:22 AM
matt@lefande.com
Police name Ohio Sniper suspect
The Highway Shootings Task Force is naming a suspect in the series of attacks in Central Ohio that have killed one person and assaulted several other drivers.
In a move early Monday evening, authorities announced a press conference to reveal they are looking for Charles A. McCoy, Jr., 28, as a suspect in the string of shootings.
The Franklin County Sheriff's Office says that McCoy is a white male, standing 5'7" tall, weighing 185 pounds, with brown hair and green eyes.
McCoy drives a 1999 four-door Geo Metro bearing the Ohio license plate number CGV 7387. Anybody spotting the car or knowing McCoy's whereabouts is being urged to call 911 immediately. He should be considered armed and dangerous according to authorities.
http://www.10tv.com/news/archive/031504local7243.php?story=031504local7243
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:18 PM
matt@lefande.com
(Somewhat) Armed Citizen of the Week
An apartment resident used a baseball bat to fight off gun-toting robbers Wednesday morning, leaving four men critically injured, police said.
Chandler Police Detective George Arias said two armed men were trying to rob occupants of a Palm Terrace apartment when three occupants fought back. Both suspects and two of the occupants were injured.
Arias said police received a hang-up call from the residence just after 9:30 a.m. Wednesday. When police called back, someone answered and it was clear there was a fight in the background.
"It definitely sounded like somebody was getting beat up," Arias said.
http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/0311bats11.html
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:58 AM
matt@lefande.com
Muhammad does not deserve mercy, candles
John Allen Muhammad's death won't bring back the victims. But it will mean something to the relatives, the certainty of it versus the certainty of their loss. It is justice. It is an act that measures the value of a life, the one taken by another, with absolute efficiency.
The squishy-minded candle-holders, in speaking from the safety of their ivory towers, inevitably omit that dimension from their contention.
Muhammad has to go to help make it right for those left to pick up the pieces of their shattered lives.
His execution will not stop the next nut case. That is hardly the point. No legal impediment is persuasive with the mentally deranged. They have no reasoning power, only a sick vision.
Every breath that Muhammad is allowed to take since his sentencing is one more breath than he and fellow sniper Lee Boyd Malvo allowed their victims. Every legal maneuver ahead for Muhammad is an opportunity to obfuscate his depravity and delay his execution.
He could have stood before the court and acknowledged his beastly deeds. He could have been man enough to do at least that. Instead, he denied his role in the killings. He thanked his attorneys. He thanked the judge. He defended his family, his upbringing.
He never addressed the deep well of pain lurking inside the courtroom.
He is a coward, as Commonwealth's Attorney Paul B. Ebert said.
No candles are necessary.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20040310-105349-5023r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:21 AM
matt@lefande.com
Police Coverup Alleged After Mass Arrests
D.C. Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey and other police officials conspired to deflect blame and cover up evidence of their wrongdoing during the mass arrests of anti-globalization demonstrators in September 2002, according to a D.C. Council committee that investigated the incident.
The Judiciary Committee criticized police for not telling protesters to disperse during the demonstrations and then arresting them for failing to obey the nonexistent order. Hundreds of protesters and bystanders were arrested. In the months afterward, Ramsey changed his account of whether he had approved the arrests, according to a copy of the committee report obtained yesterday.
"The mayor of the District needs to turn the police department around," said Kathy Patterson (D-Ward 3), who led the investigation. "Turn the police department away from spying on our residents and away from arresting people because of their political views."
Ramsey reacted angrily yesterday when told of the report's conclusions.
"That's bullshit," he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A48021-2004Mar10.html
A www.lefande.com EXCLUSIVE!
The DC Council's draft report on the IMF coverup.
DC Council IMF Report (HTML)
Read the confidental internal MPD reports on the mass arrests first disclosed on www.lefande.com October 3, 2003.
FITreport10-24-2002.pdf
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:51 AM
matt@lefande.com
"Outrage" over Bush use of 9/11 images in ads generated by small group funded by Heinz
To hear some folks tell it, families of the 9/11 victims have risen en masse to denounce President Bush for using brief images from Ground Zero in his campaign commercials.
It turns out that this whole furor is driven by a tiny group that has some quite dubious financial ties.
Leading the rhetorical charge has been an outfit called September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows - which, the group admits, has only a few dozen members and represents relatives of no more than 1 percent of the 9/11 victims.
More to the point, the group was formed specifically to oppose the entire War on Terror: Not just the campaign against Saddam Hussein, but also the toppling of the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Indeed, the group's leaders traveled to Afghanistan, drawing a detestable moral equivalence between the 9/11 attacks and U.S. bombing of the Taliban and opposing "violent responses to terrorism."
Then, before the onset of Operation Iraqi Freedom, a Peaceful Tomorrows delegation went to Baghdad to "demonstrate solidarity" with Iraqis - a move that Saddam's deputy, Tariq Aziz, termed at the time "a very important international development."
They also demanded that Congress set up a $20 million fund to compensate Afghan "victims" of the U.S. military.
And back in January 2003, the group said had it had gotten a "verbal commitment" to the fund proposal from the junior senator from Massachusetts - John F. Kerry.
Little surprise there - because Peaceful Tomorrows' parent group, the San Francisco-based Tides Foundation, has received millions from foundations controlled by Kerry's heiress wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.
A spokesman for Kerry insists that her donations to Tides were earmarked specifically for environmental charities based in Pennsylvania. But money is fungible - and the Tides Foundation has a lot more than greening the earth on its plate.
It has given millions to anti-war groups since 9/11 - particularly the extremist MoveOn.org.
Tides has also funded groups like United for a Fair Economy, which has been involved in violent anti-globalization street protests.
For example, the Ruckus Society, which was largely responsible for the anarchy in Seattle in 1999 and trains would-be environmental terrorists in the practice of "monkey-wrenching" - the willful destruction of construction equipment and so on.
Tides gets much of its funds from philanthropists like Mrs. Kerry and billionaire George Soros - who has made defeating President Bush his top personal priority.
As Richard Berman, director of the Center for Consumer Freedom, told Congress in 2002: "The Tides Foundation distributes other foundations' money, while shielding the identity of the actual donors."
Call it charitable money-laundering.
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/editorial/20231.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:50 AM
matt@lefande.com
Men can multi-task
We can do so much more if we all just work together.
multitask.asf
posted by Matthew LeFande 12:15 PM
matt@lefande.com
Armed Citizen of the Week
An armed robbery went awry when a store manager shot the suspect in the back and buttocks.
Around 6:02 a.m., Christopher Pulley, 31, of Powell, entered the Rite Stop Mart, 441 Dutch Valley Rd., and approached the clerk at the counter, said Knoxville police spokesman Darrell DeBusk.
Pulley asked for cigarettes and then demanded money from the clerk. He had what appeared to be a gun in his front pocket and pointed it at the clerk, DeBusk said.
The store manager, Sam Braswell Jr., 51, approached Pulley from the back of the store with a .25-caliber handgun. The suspect ran from the store and Braswell followed, firing several shots. Braswell hit Pulley twice in the back and buttocks.
Twenty minutes after police arrived, they saw Pulley walking along Bruhin Road and Pulley asked them for help. The officers discovered a stick in Pulley's pocket that he used to simulate a weapon.
Pulley was taken to the University of Tennessee Medical Center with non-life threatening injuries. He has been charged with one count of attempted robbery, DeBusk said. The district attorney is reviewing the case to see if there are any additional charges that may apply to Pulley.
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/local_news/article/0,1406,KNS_347_2679271,00.html
Don't bother with the annoying registration, the whole story is above.
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:51 AM
matt@lefande.com
Trunk Monkey
Autotheft retrieval system. Pending approval from the Department of Agriculture.
Monkey5-high.wmv
posted by Matthew LeFande 5:24 PM
matt@lefande.com
Gadhafi vows no more terror
Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi said yesterday that his country has turned the page on terror and weapons of mass destruction and seeks better relations with the United States.
Col. Gadhafi laid out the views to three American reporters a day after the opening of the Libyan People's National Congress, where he had announced "a new era" of cooperation with the United States.
Asked whether that new era had been inspired by the recent demonstration of U.S. resolve and military might in Iraq, Col. Gadhafi suggested that it had been a factor.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/world/20040304-120159-9159r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 8:22 AM
matt@lefande.com
How Tiny Swiss Cellphone Chips Helped Track Global Terror Web
The terrorism investigation code-named Mont Blanc began almost by accident in April 2002, when authorities intercepted a cellphone call that lasted less than a minute and involved not a single word of conversation.
Investigators, suspicious that the call was a signal between terrorists, followed the trail first to one terror suspect, then to others, and eventually to terror cells on three continents.
What tied them together was a computer chip smaller than a fingernail. But before the investigation wound down in recent weeks, its global net caught dozens of suspected Qaeda members and disrupted at least three planned attacks in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, according to counterterrorism and intelligence officials in Europe and the United States.
The investigation helped narrow the search for one of the most wanted men in the world, Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, who is accused of being the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, according to three intelligence officials based in Europe. American authorities arrested Mr. Mohammed in Pakistan last March.
For two years, investigators now say, they were able to track the conversations and movements of several Qaeda leaders and dozens of operatives after determining that the suspects favored a particular brand of cellphone chip. The chips carry prepaid minutes and allow phone use around the world.
Investigators said they believed that the chips, made by Swisscom of Switzerland, were popular with terrorists because they could buy the chips without giving their names.
"They thought these phones protected their anonymity, but they didn't," said a senior intelligence official based in Europe. Even without personal information, the authorities were able to conduct routine monitoring of phone conversations.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/03/04/international/europe/04PHON.html?hp
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:51 AM
matt@lefande.com
Holmes Norton Fights to Keep DC Gun Ban
D.C. Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton yesterday scrambled to derail legislation that would repeal the city's long-standing ban on handguns, which could be introduced today in the Senate.
Mrs. Norton and Metropolitan Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey yesterday held a news conference at police headquarters, where officials displayed more than 100 of the 385 handguns seized in the city since Jan. 1.
Mrs. Norton, the District's nonvoting congressional representative, said repealing the gun ban would exacerbate the District's problems with gun violence. When a reporter asked why she supports a ban that "is not working," the Democratic lawmaker said, "You could have three times as many guns if not for the gun-control laws."
By her calculations, that would be two lawfully armed citizens for every armed criminal. Those sound like pretty good odds.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/metro/20040302-121210-6035r.htm
posted by Matthew LeFande 7:16 AM
matt@lefande.com
It's All Relative
Is 5.6 percent a low figure, or a high one? Depends. If only 5.6 percent of hamburgers are discovered to contain meat, that’s way low. But if 5.6 percent of teachers are using their students as drug mules in elaborate Asian heroin importing schemes, that’s sort of high.
We’re comparing apples and oranges here. Or junkies and burgers. What if we compare similar or identical figures on the same subject, and from the same source?
Here’s CNN in July 1996, as the Clinton-Dole election approached:
Economists didn't expect June's unemployment rate to be much different from May's, which was an already-low 5.6 percent. But in fact, it did fall -- to 5.3 percent. The unemployment rate hasn't been that low since June 1990.
So 5.6 percent is “already-low”. Now here’s CNN in December 2001:
The U.S. unemployment rate jumped to 5.7 percent in November - the highest in six years - as employers cut hundreds of thousands more jobs in response to the first recession in a decade in the world's largest economy.
Can you “jump” to a figure 0.1 percent above that already defined as “low”? More from CNN, this time in March 2002:
The U.S. unemployment rate fell to 5.5 percent in February and businesses added jobs for the first time since last summer, the government said Friday, as the labor market began to recover from a downturn that led to more than a million job cuts in 2001.
The jobless rate fell from 5.6 percent in January as employers added 66,000 jobs to payrolls ...
That should read “fell from an already-low 5.6 percent in January”, surely. In January, CNN’s Mark Gongloff decided that an unemployment rate of 5.7 percent was bad news for Bush:
Though the unemployment rate posted a surprising decline, and many economists believe the job market will improve in 2004, Friday's report probably will keep Fed policy-makers on hold and may put some political pressure on President Bush.
A weak job market could prove tough for President Bush as the November election approaches.
Gongloff repeated his line about Bush’s election chances earlier this month when a familiar number appeared:
The unemployment rate fell to 5.6 percent, the lowest level since January 2002, from 5.7 percent in December.
A weak job market could prove tough for President Bush as the November election approaches.
Why? It didn’t for Clinton.
http://timblair.spleenville.com/archives/006086.php
posted by Matthew LeFande 10:09 PM
matt@lefande.com
