[eggplant43]

Falling body
puts van driver
in hospital

A woman is injured when
an apparent suicide jumper
lands on her van in Waikiki

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

By Rod Antone


A 32-year-old woman was critically injured yesterday when a man fell to his death in an apparent suicide from a Waikiki hotel and landed on the roof of her van that had stopped at a Kuhio Avenue stoplight, according to police.

The van driver was not breathing and had no pulse when paramedics arrived, but they were able to resuscitate her en route to the Queen's Medical Center.

Emergency medical personnel described her as in extremely critical condition. Queen's officials said this morning they had no information available about the patient or her condition.

The incident took place at about 3:30 p.m. near the intersection of Kuhio Avenue and Olohana Street between the Waikiki Gateway and Ohana Maile Sky Court hotels. The driver of the white Chevy Astro van was in the inner Diamond Head bound lane of Kuhio when the man, identified as Camaron Tuupoina, 22, of Aiea, landed on the van's roof.

Honolulu police have determined that Tuupoina fell from the 44-story Ohana Maile Sky Court, 2058 Kuhio Ave., though they have not determined from which floor. Nancy Daniels, a spokeswoman for the hotel, said this morning that Tuupoina was neither a guest nor an employee of the hotel.

Detectives said there appeared to be no sign of foul play.

Tax preparer James Hagar III was going home on his moped along Kuhio Avenue when he heard something smash into the van behind him yesterday.

Startled, Hagar turned around and saw the van's roof caved inward and a body lying on the street. He said he thought there had been a pedestrian accident but soon realized that the person on the street had struck the van after falling to his death.

"I was like, wait a minute, we were at full stop at a stoplight, how could the van run into this person?" Hagar said. "We didn't know what was going on.

"Then I saw the dent was on the top of the van ... how do you expect something like that?"

During the investigation, police closed Kuhio Avenue for several hours, from Namahana to Kalaimoku streets.

Hagar said that before he and other bystanders realized what happened, he had dropped his moped and headed for the side of the street to seek shelter near the Waikiki Gateway Hotel "in case anything else fell from the sky."

After that, he was stuck at the scene because his moped became part of the police investigation because the van had rolled over it.

"I guess after the impact the driver let go of the brakes and my moped stopped it from going any further," he said while watching police from the sidewalk. "It was pretty scary ... and sad.

"I don't know what the condition was of that person in the van, but I hope they make it."

[angelize56]

Dead horse's leg removed: The question is why
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Mike Welsch
Daily Racing Form

HALLANDALE BEACH, Fla. -- The Florida Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering has launched an investigation into the mysterious chain of events following the death of Casual Conflict, a 9-year-old gelding who broke down in the seventh race Monday at Gulfstream Park, was euthanized on the track, and later had his leg amputated by a veterinarian.

"A veterinarian went into the area on the backside where horses are normally taken after being euthanized on the racetrack and amputated one of Casual Conflict's legs," Scott Savin, president of Gulfstream Park, said on Thursday. "At this point, the state is only investigating why the leg was amputated and removed."

Meg Shannon, press secretary for the division, confirmed that an investigation was under way but declined to comment further. Both Savin and Shannon declined to identify the veterinarian.

According to one official, witnesses later identified the veterinarian and investigators recovered the limb, which has been sent to a state laboratory for pathological tests.

Casual Conflict was owned by Mike Gill and trained by Mark Shuman, the meet's runaway leaders in victories with 33 through Thursday. Shuman acknowledged on Thursday that he had been approached by state investigators but declined to comment.

Casual Conflict broke down on the backstretch of a 1 1/16-mile race for claimers and was euthanized by Dr. Mary Scollay, a track veterinarian. According to Dr. Scollay, Casual Conflict suffered a "disarticulation of the right fetlock and a deboning injury of the right cannon bone," or what she described in layman's terms as an irreparable fracture.

Dr. Scollay said the normal procedure after a horse is euthanized on the racetrack is for one of the track veterinarians to conduct a more thorough examination of the animal after it has been removed from the track. "My associate, Dr. [Caroline] Gall went back to examine the horse in the course of her routine duties and discovered the body had been tampered with and the limb removed," Dr. Scollay said.

Doug Kickbush, one of two men who drive the Gulfstream Park horse ambulance, said he saw a veterinarian enter the area where they had dropped Casual Conflict within minutes after he had been euthanized.

"A veterinarian's truck pulled up just as we were delivering the horse, but I don't know which one," Kickbush said on Thursday. "I saw the individual who drove the truck inside the enclosed area alone with the horse as we pulled away. All I know is that horse had four legs when we dropped him off. When I heard what had happened, I even went back into the truck to make sure one leg hadn't fallen off before we'd gotten him there."

It was not immediately clear whether amputating a leg could remove evidence of an illegal or unethical act.

Dr. Larry Bramlage, a surgeon at Rood and Riddle Equine Hospital in Lexington, Ky., said he knew of no reason to amputate a horse's leg except to study the site of a catastrophic injury. A horse treated with an illegal drug would still test positive despite the absence of the leg, he said, and any evidence of soreness or weakness in a joint is normally obliterated as a result of a breakdown.

The exception, Bramlage said, would be evidence indicating that the nerves in the leg had been severed, an illegal surgical procedure called a high neurectomy to relieve pain. Bramlage called that scenario "way, way out there."

"I haven't seen a high neurectomy done in 50 years, and when it was done, it was done on draft horses," Bramlage said. "I've never even heard of a Thoroughbred getting one."

- additional reporting by Matt Hegarty

[eggplant43]

Feb 12, 2003

Alert clerk foils check-cashing scam
Police say crooks likely would have succeeded if not for spelling mistakes

By Megan Ward
Record Staff Writer

HICKORY - Two men who couldn't spell were foiled by a clerk who could.
Police say two men tried to pass a counterfeit payroll check bearing the name, “Boryhill Furmiture” on Monday afternoon at Lowes Foods off U.S. 321.

Police are still searching for the two men, but have arrested Kathy Elaine Gillman, 39, and her daughter Amanda Kaye Gillman, 18, both of Ohio, in connection with the scheme.

The incident unfolded around 1:15 p.m. when two men tried to cash a $498 check at the grocery store. When the store's office assistant noticed that Broyhill Furniture was misspelled, she rejected the check.

The men quickly left the store. Employees called police and told them they saw the men running toward the highway and that two women were following them in a red Pontiac Grand Am.

Minutes later, Hickory police officers K. Lo and D.J. Morris found the two women. The two male suspects were gone, but inside the car police found 42 checks in amounts ranging from $200 to $400.

The checks were made out to Nathan Williamson and Kevin Gillman. Police believe Gillman is Amanda's father and Kathy Gillman's ex-husband.

The checks were from businesses in Georgia, South Carolina and West Virginia, including Millcreek Construction, Beaufort Glass and 84 Lumber.

Hickory Police Capt. Steve Wright said the women told police they were traveling from Ohio to Beaufort, S.C., to visit a relative, but would not comment on the whereabouts or identities of the two male suspects.

Wright said the overall quality of the checks was impressive.

“There's a good possibility that if the name on the check had been spelled correctly, they would have gotten away with it,” Wright said.

A search of the car turned up a software program used to print checks, pages torn from a phone book and a handgun.

The women were arrested on counts of aiding and abetting the obtaining of property by false pretense and possession of counterfeit checks.

Both were placed under $25,000 secured bonds. The mother had an additional $10,000 secured bond.

Their first court appearance is scheduled for today.

[n2gun]

Thailand Bakery Adds Fish to Ice Cream
By ALISA TANG
Associated Press Writer
SINGBURI, Thailand

Specialty ice creams can be concocted from soy milk, olive oil and even cheese. But for the truly bizarre, come to central Thailand where a bakery is putting snakehead fish in its frozen desserts.

Kaesara Bakery's ice cream contains 40 percent fish meat, but you wouldn't know it from the smell, taste or texture. The bits of fish could easily be mistaken for coconut flakes.

The bakery in Singburi province, where snakeheads are a culinary pride, is about to open a third outlet and expand its line of snakehead confections with fish cookies and Chinese pastries filled with deep-fried snakehead bones.

The shop's first snakehead product was a sweet-smelling dessert cake baked in a fish-shaped mold. The key was blending four herbs for a secret syrup that eradicates the fishiness.

The cakes have been a hit since their debut at the annual Singburi Snakehead Festival seven years ago. Now the bakery, 130 kilometers (80 miles) north of Bangkok, sells some 4,000 cakes during weekends for 150 baht (US$3.50) each.

Kasara Thepprasit, the bakery's 39-year-old entrepreneur, said she declined an Australian company's 30 million baht (US$695,000) offer for her recipe.

"We want Thailand to have a good product that other countries don't have," Kasara said. "We didn't do this just for the money. We wanted to do this to promote Thailand and its food."

The idea to bake cakes out of fish was spawned by her husband, Supot Prasongsuksan, who wanted something special for members of Thailand's much-revered royal family when they visit the province. The bluebloods generally stop to chat with residents and are showered with gifts of the best local produce.

"Every time the royal family comes here, we give them snakehead fish cake, and they always stop to talk to me," Kasara said. "They tell me that it's good to see Thais being so inventive and creating such strange foods with just local ingredients."
Thursday, Feb. 13, 2003

[eggplant43]

Because you are my special friend, I'm sending you a gift certificate redeemable for snakehead fish ice cream.

[eggplant43]

New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com
Potted principal goes potty

By ALICE McQUILLAN and ALISON GENDAR

DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITERS
Thursday, February 13th, 2003

Talk about a lack of class.
The principal of a troubled city school was arraigned yesterday after cops caught her driving drunk - and urinating in a Bronx street - when she was supposed to be at work, police said.

Evelyn Peralta-Tessitore, 41, principal of Public School 192 in Harlem, was charged with driving while intoxicated and resisting arrest.

Cops said they spotted Peralta-Tessitore squatting and urinating beside the open door of her 2003 Mercedes-Benz about 2:40 p.m. Tuesday. Her car was stopped ata red light at 254th St. and Broadway.

Peralta-Tessitore admitted she had been drinking, according to the criminal complaint. Cops said she reeked of liquor and her speech was slurred.

She refused to get out of her car and started flailing her arms at officers when they tried to arrest her, police said.

Her companion, school secretary Helen Torres, then jumped out of the car and tried to keep officers from arresting her principal, police sources said. Torres, 45, was arrested for obstructing governmental administration.

Peralta-Tessitore declined a Breathalyzer test. She was arraigned yesterday in Bronx Criminal Court and released on her own recognizance pending a Feb. 26 court date. She did not return calls for comment.

Peralta-Tessitore has been removed from her school pending the outcome of her criminal case, said Education Department spokeswoman Margie Feinberg.

It wasn't Peralta-Tessitore's first brush with the law, sources said yesterday.

She was arrested in 1982 for using marijuana, a violation, and again in 1990 on a shoplifting charge, the sources said. Since neither arrest resulted in a felony conviction, they may not have raised a red flag when she was hired by the school system in 1994, the sources said.

Feinberg said officials had noknowledge of any previous arrests.

Peralta-Tessitore, who lives in the posh Westchester community of Hartsdale, has been principal of PS 192 since 1999. Last year, only 26% of her students could read well enough to pass city and state exams.

[n2gun]

Sets one h3ll of an example for students.

[eggplant43]

If I were that principal, and only achieved a 26% success rate, I couldn't drive a 2003 MB. I guess that wasn't a problem for her. I guess we know what her priorities are

[eggplant43]

Married to the idea of love
Why marry once when twice is so nice? Or, four times twice. Computers stop keeping track, but plenty of love veterans keep going.
By MIKE BRASSFIELD

© St. Petersburg Times, published February 14, 2003


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Tonight, Cheryl Popp will savor a steak dinner with her one and only valentine, her eighth husband.

Just a few miles away, John Susor will celebrate Valentine's Day by roasting hot dogs with his ninth wife.

There are a surprising number of people like them in the Tampa Bay area: people who fall in love over and over again. People who can't help taking the plunge one more time. People who get married more often than Elizabeth Taylor.

No less than 76 people in Pinellas and Hillsborough counties have been married at least eight times, according to a review of computerized marriage license records. It's hard to tell who the most-married people are because the computer databases stop counting after eight.

The Times contacted many of these prolific marriers. Most wouldn't talk. Those who did are a mix of hopeless romantics and hardened realists.

Some have split up with their latest spouse and are looking for love yet again. Others have been happily married to their eighth or ninth spouse for a decade. "This one's working. Divorce doesn't enter my mind anymore when I'm with him," said Popp, a 56-year-old St. Petersburg telemarketer who married her eighth husband, electrician Lou Popp, in 1999.

Her first marriage, at age 19, lasted 10 years. It was followed by a series of increasingly short marriages, two to the same man.

"I was picking the wrong guys. I was afraid to get hurt again," she said. "Lou and I have the same temperament. He understands when I explode, and I deal with it when he explodes."

Many of these well-traveled husbands and wives are grandparents who tell similar stories about lengthy first marriages followed by strings of doomed quickie marriages.

Susor had been married eight times over five decades and wasn't looking to do it again. Then Jutta Rosborough walked into his beachside bar. One thing led to another.

"The decision to get married wasn't mine, but it's fine. I think an awful lot of her," said Susor, a cantankerous 83-year-old Ernest Hemingway lookalike and political gadfly. His colorful Indian Shores bistro, Mahuffer's, doubles as his home. Wife No. 9 moved in and maintains the bar's elaborate Web site.

"We have our problems, same as anybody else," Susor said. "I don't expect everything to be perfect. I'm happy with her."

Fifty years ago, the U.S. divorce rate was about 20 percent. Now it's about 50 percent. Statistics show the second, third, or even eighth marriage is no more likely to succeed. But that doesn't stop people from trying.

St. Petersburg truck driver Rick Grundstrom, 47, met his second wife, Dee, 46, at the old Joyland country music bar in Pinellas Park. He found out she'd been married seven times.

"It didn't really matter," said Rick, who happily became husband number eight. They've been together 10 years now.

One other thing: Among the ranks of the many-married, you'll find plenty of people who have wed the same spouse more than once.

In Hillsborough County, 78-year-old Harry Goff has gotten hitched nine times. He has married two different women twice.

He met his current wife, Pam, 52, in a Tampa trailer park where they both lived. He married and divorced her, then remarried her in 1993 in a bar called the Beer Shack.

"We drank a lot at that time, but we quit drinking," Goff said. "We love each other. We found out we can't get along without each other."

Marrying the same person again doesn't always work out. Ask Diann Woodbury, 55, another St. Petersburg telemarketer. She married William Woodbury, 45, four times.

"I was gullible," said Diann Woodbury, who has been married eight times. Richard Greer, 47, of Dunedin, married Valerie Snider, 48, on Valentine's Day 1996. It was his first marriage and her eighth.

"I found that out a week before we got married. I thought it would go okay, but she left after six months," Greer said. "I thought Elizabeth Taylor had the record, but I guess not."

For the record, Elizabeth Taylor, now 70, has had eight marriages to seven husbands. She is now single.

[n2gun]

City Has Real Fork in the Road
The Associated Press
ROCK CITY, N.Y.

You'll know you're in the upstate hamlet of Rock City when you get to the fork in the road. Really.

The 31-foot-high silver metal fork is the creation of local businessman Steve Schreiber.

He started off the year 2000 by planting the sculpture at the intersection of two roads in the tiny Hudson Valley community about 90 miles north of New York City.

The fork is made from forged scrap steel and it took Schreiber and some friends nine months to construct.

"I did it as a goof," he said. "I didn't think they would let me leave it there. Nobody has said anything."
Monday, Feb. 17, 2003

[n2gun]

Hungry Wild Hogs Damage Fla. Town
The Associated Press
PALM CITY, Fla.

Palm City has gone hog wild. Hordes of huge, hungry, wild hogs have been running rampant in this town 35 miles north of West Palm Beach, scarring yards as they search for worms and roots and causing thousands of dollars in damage.

The hogs, which can weigh up to 400 pounds, come out in the middle of the night and can wipe out an entire lawn in a few nights.

Len Hoag says the hogs caused about $3,000 in damage in three nights of destruction. She's upset that the county and the state both insist that trapping the havoc-causing swine is not their job.

"When you see the kind of damage those things do to a yard, you wonder what they can do to a young child," Hoag said. "This is a major problem, but nobody wants to deal with it."

Martin County animal control officials say trapping should be left to state wildlife regulators. But the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission said it only responds to calls for nuisance alligators and captive animals that have escaped, such as lions or tigers.

Fish and Wildlife Lt. Chris Sella said homeowners groups can hire private trappers to control the pests.

So, the Martin Downs Homeowners Association hired trappers to remove about 10 hogs from Hoag's neighborhood.

"It's been somewhat alleviated right now," said Hoag. "If we got hundreds of them now, what are we going to have 10 years from now?"
Tuesday, Feb. 18, 2003

[angelize56]

Hope they aren't the kind like in the movie "Hannibal"!

[n2gun]

Mo. Man Steals 6 Cars During Chase
The Associated Press
HANNIBAL, Mo.

A 24-year-old man fleeing police apparently wasn't satisfied with just one stolen car. Police said Mark D. O'Brien broke into a half-dozen cars and crashed or abandoned them before finally being taken into custody Friday. He was charged with violating his probation from a previous auto-theft offense.

The chase began in Hannibal in northeastern Missouri and ended with O'Brien's arrest in neighboring Ralls County, when he lost control of the sixth stolen vehicle, Hannibal Police Lt. Michael Lawzano said.

Police said the car thefts started about 1 p.m. Friday when a Ford Tempo was stolen and then abandoned. A GMC pickup truck was the next target, which was abandoned on an overpass. Next, a Chevrolet Lumina was swiped near a funeral home.

Authorities said O'Brien next stole a Chevrolet Astro van and left the city of Hannibal. They said he drove it about 10 miles from Hannibal, where the vehicle became disabled.

He left it and stole a Saturn car. As he was leaving, he ran into the same van that he had abandoned. The Saturn then got stuck and he abandoned it, too, authorities said. The suspect then allegedly stole a gray Dodge flatbed truck.

Eventually the driver lost control and officers were able to take him into custody, police said.
Wednesday, Feb. 19, 2003

[n2gun]

Life on Mars Might Lurk in Gullies - Scientists


Feb 20, 7:40 am ET

By Deborah Zabarenko
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Life on Mars might lurk in long gullies carved by liquid water underneath a dirty but protective blanket of snow, astronomers said on Wednesday.

Astronomers first observed the Martian gullies three years ago, but did not know what created them. Philip Christensen, a professor at Arizona State University, has now analyzed images from NASA's Mars Odyssey spacecraft and said they may have been gouged out by melting snow.

"I think we have discovered remnants of snowpacks on Mars that in the recent past have melted," Christensen said at a briefing at NASA headquarters.

"I think if you were to land on one of those and stick a shovel in the ground, you'd be shoveling snow," he said. "And if life ever existed on Mars, I can't think of a more exciting place to possibly go and look."

In Christensen's scenario, the upper layer of snow is loaded with dust and is therefore less easily melted than snow without those impurities. Only a few inches (cm) beneath that snowpack, a lower layer of snow can melt without evaporating.

It forms the gullies at the edges of craters on Mars, much as snow-melt might form gullies on earthly mountainsides. The gullies Christensen's team observed were in the mid-latitudes of Mars, rather than at the poles, which is where other astronomers have focused the search for water.

The quest for liquid water on Mars is a long-standing one, because water is seen as a prerequisite for life as it is known on Earth.

Christensen said the snowbelts in the Martian mid-latitudes were active features, melting away and then returning over a cycle of 100,000 years or so. At this point, there are what look like snow fields in addition to the gullies.

"It points to a very dynamic, active Mars," he said.

Lynn Rothschild, an expert on ecosystems at NASA's Ames Research Center in California, said the new research, if proven, would expand the range of possible habitats for life on Mars.

Noting that Earth-type life can exist in such seemingly hostile environments as the Antarctic and in super-hot undersea vents, Rothschild said some algae on Earth could exist in communities within snow.

In the Rocky Mountains and the Sierras, she said, such algae can be so densely packed that it tints the snowy environment red, producing what is known as "watermelon snow."

In a resting state, those organisms can survive for long periods, "maybe like you see in Mars between the times that it snows," Rothschild said. "That's something that you could envision surviving in the sort of conditions you describe."

She said the temperature range on Mars was within the range that had been known to be habitable to some forms of life on Earth.

Images of the Martian gullies are available online at

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04408

http://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA04409.

[n2gun]

Man Nabbed After Low-Speed Tractor Chase
The Associated Press
SISSETON, S.D.

A man on a stolen tractor led authorities on a low-speed, two-state chase that ended when the farm vehicle crashed into a police car and pickup truck, totaling both.

Thomas Arthur Dahl, 29, of Herman, Minn., faces charges including intentional damage to property and possession of stolen property.

He made his first court appearance Wednesday and was being held in lieu of $2,000 bail. Other charges were pending in Traverse County, Minn., Sheriff Donald Montonye said.

Authorities said after his pickup truck ran into a snowy ditch early Tuesday, Dahl allegedly stole a tractor from a farmyard and then led sheriff's deputies on a more than 20-mile chase from western Minnesota to a Hutterite colony in eastern South Dakota.

The big tractor stopped after it slammed into the squad car and pickup truck, Montonye said.

The sheriff said the man had allegedly been drinking but was "rational, coherent, cooperative and apologetic" when the chase ended.
Thursday, Feb. 20, 2003

************************************************

Gee don't forget federal charges- cross a state line in the commission of a felony.