[eggplant43]

Remains of Lakewood woman removed from storage locker, sons arrested

Reported by Michael O'Mara

POSTED: Wednesday, June 18, 2003 5:09:29 PM

UPDATED: Thursday, June 19, 2003 2:23:48 PM

LAKEWOOD -- The remains of a Lakewood woman have been removed from a storage unit where they have been decomposing for the last three weeks.



When 62-year-old Diane Burton died in September, her sons kept her body hidden. About three weeks ago, they rented a Public Storage locker on West 117th Street in Cleveland and moved the body there.


The sons, 34-year-old Brett Burton and 39-year-old Christian Burton, are in jail in Berea.


At the time they rented the storage locker, the brothers were moving out of a duplex on West 87th Street where they had lived for six months and were moving in to a motel in Strongsville.


Police asked Brett Burton about his mother when he was arrested for public intoxication the other day. He reluctantly told them about the storage facility. The woman's badly decomposed body was found there, tightly wrapped.


"[Brett Burton] finally admitted that they had put her in another location for nine months and then to the storage locker," said Berea detective Charles Gute. "Partial religious beliefs, according to the subject."


But the non-religious reason may have been money. While mom was in storage, the boys were cashing her social security checks.


Neighbors on West 87th Street called Brett and Christian Burton strange. They said the brothers got very loud when they were drinking.


One neighbor remembered seeing a well-used wheelchair in the front yard when the place was apparently cleared out by the landlord.


Managers of the storage facility and next-door renters said they had no idea what was decomposing inside the storage shed.


"If there was an odor, the tenants would have come in and said, 'Jackie and Barbara, there's something back there that is foul,'" said storage unit manager, Jackie. "But there was nothing like that."


"When I dropped off a first load earlier today, I seen the little sign and I was like, check it out," said Mildred Flecha, who had rented the next locker over. "It's right next door, what they were talking about. But I never smelled nothing or seen anything weird."


After finding Diane Burton's body, police arrested her other son, Christian Burton.


Brett Burton has been charged with forgery and theft for cashing mom's checks. Christian Burton is wanted for a parole violation out in Utah and is going to be shipped back there.


The coroner is trying to figure out if Burton died from natural causes, but because her body was so badly decomposed, the autopsy is going slowly.

[plschwartz]

NZ flatulence tax outrages farmers
New Zealand's farmers have criticised a proposed tax on the flatulence emitted by their sheep and cattle.

The move is part of the Wellington government's action to meet its commitments under the Kyoto Protocol on global warming.

Scientists estimate that methane emitted by farm animals is responsible for more than half of the country's greenhouse gases.

Flatulence from cows, sheep and other ruminants is a serious environmental problem, accounting for about 15% of worldwide emissions of methane - one of the most potent of greenhouse gases.

This is another example of the government's desire to act in the public interest but expecting rural New Zealand to pay for its largesse
Tom Lambie
Federated Farmers President
Last year New Zealand signed up to the Kyoto Protocol, and agreed to reduce production of such gases.

The proposed flatulence tax is expected to raise NZ$8.4m a year ($4.9m) from next year.

The money is be used to fund research on agricultural emissions.

However New Zealand farmers argue that taxpayers should pay for the research, because reducing the emissions benefits everyone.

"This decision is yet another example of the government's desire to act in the wider public interest but expecting rural New Zealand to pay for its largesse," Federated Farmers President Tom Lambie said.

Sheep, cattle, goats and deer produce large quantities of gas through belching and flatulence, as their multiple stomachs digest grass.

Ruminants are responsible for about 25% of the methane produced in Britain.

In countries with a large agricultural sector, the proportion is much higher. In New Zealand, farm animals produce 90% of methane emissions.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/h...ic/3005740.stm

[plschwartz]

Washington as whiskey-maker: digging his distillery
Mon Jun 23, 8:09 AM ET

By Deborah Zabarenko

MOUNT VERNON, Virginia (Reuters) - George Washington made whiskey here.



As America's first president and one of its canniest early entrepreneurs, Washington liked a sip of cinnamon whiskey -- and he distilled his own. More than that, he started a thriving business selling a raw, clear liquor made from rye and corn.

"Two hundred gallons of Whiskey will be ready this day for your call, and the sooner it is taken the better, as the demand for this article (in these parts) is brisk," Washington wrote in a letter to his nephew in October 1799.

At its peak, the distillery produced 11,000 gallons (50,010 litres) of liquor, which fetched the then-astronomical sum of $7,500. After Washington's death late in 1799, the distillery passed to his nephew Lawrence Lewis, who appeared to have less success with it. By 1815, the building was gone.

Folks around Washington's estate at Mount Vernon always knew there was a distillery on the property when he was alive, and archaeologists uncovered its location in 1932. Now scholars are digging at the liquor-making operation's site, hoping to learn enough to rebuild it and start making whiskey again.

About 3 miles (4.8 km) from Washington's elegant, idiosyncratic mansion at Mount Vernon, workers in shorts, T-shirts and thin coatings of mud have been scraping the dirt around the distillery's old foundation stones.

CONNOISSEURS OF DIRT

"We are connoisseurs of dirt," said Laura Seifert, one of the project's crew chiefs, on a recent sweltering day. Around her, a dozen or so diggers used sharpened trowels to pare away the layers of earth, one bucket at a time, until they get down to the layers that would have been in place around 1799.

Of particular interest are patches where the dirt appears burned or scorched, which could mean they were just beneath a spot where one of five stills sat in Washington's day.

The dirt that is scraped away is sifted for any significant objects -- an amber-coloured bottle from the 1930s was a prized find -- before being carted to a mound at the side of the site, waiting to be redeposited during reconstruction.

That could be fairly soon, according to Mount Vernon's chief archaeologist, Esther White. Investigation of the site began in 1999 and is expected to conclude this November, with findings expected to be presented to architects so they can figure out how to rebuild the place.

Dennis Pogue, Mount Vernon's associate director for preservation, said reconstruction might be completed by 2006.

"If you build a stone building and you get five copper pot stills, where are you going to put them?" White asked rhetorically. "Those are the kinds of details that ... the restoration staff need in order to be able to put the building back, and that our interpreters will need to be able to go into the building in costume and start distilling."

The spirits they expect to distil, if the required permits are approved, would not be for sale, but would serve as part of a living history exhibit. More on the distillery dig is online at http://www.archeology.org/interactiv...on/index.html.

WHISKEY AND RUM

Still, there is prime liquor ageing in barrels even now at Mount Vernon.

The Distilled Spirits Council, a U.S. liquor industry group that has donated $1.2 million to the distillery project, arranged to have barrels of whiskey and rum aged on the premises and bottled.



Not for sale to the public, a batch of these liquors brought a total of $107,000 at auction last year, with this amount added to the Mount Vernon distillery effort.

The industry group got involved in part to celebrate George Washington the entrepreneur, according to the group's president Peter Cressy.

"In the history books, he too often pales beside the lasting legacy of (Thomas) Jefferson, when in terms of all the interesting entrepreneurial things, Jefferson was almost a dilettante compared to Washington," Cressy said.

The location of the modern liquor barrels is secret, but some of these liquors were offered to visitors recently to be savoured on the mansion's piazza overlooking the Potomac River as a ferocious thunderstorm moved into the area.

After ageing in charred barrels, these rums and whiskeys took on a mellow golden colour and a smooth taste despite their high alcoholic content, up to 128 proof in one case.

They were a far cry from the unrefined spirits Washington and his guests and customers might have enjoyed, White said.

"Washington was making what today would be called rye whiskey," White said. "It was about 60 percent rye, 35 percent corn and about 5 percent malted barley." Though it was probably distilled several times, White said modern distillers would consider it "white lightning, mad dog, moonshine" -- clear, young and sharp-tasting.

"We do think that he drank his own," she said in an interview. "They flavoured quite a bit of the whiskey and we know that when Washington died in 1799 there was cinnamon whiskey stored in the cellar of Mount Verno

[eggplant43]

Pride (and $50) at Steak
Woman Takes a Stab at a 72-Ounce Slab of Sirloin

By Lee Hockstader
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 21, 2003; Page A01


AMARILLO, Tex. -- If you've never seen a young woman in a staring contest with a 41/2-pound slab of red meat, it's a thing to behold.

Her nostrils flare. Her eyebrows twitch. She blinks. She exhales lightly though pursed lips. Then she picks up her serrated knife to begin sawing at her butterflied top sirloin, all 5,200-odd calories of it, cooked medium and sprawled on her dish like a catcher's mitt on home plate.

For its part, the steak is impassive.

Girl vs. Steak. That's a twist on the usual story line at the Big Texan Steak Ranch in Amarillo, fabled home of "The Free 72-ounce Steak." (That's "free" with an asterisk: It's only free if you finish it, plus the sides -- baked potato, salad, baby shrimp cocktail and dinner roll, in less than one hour.)

The usual plot is this: Guy walks into restaurant. Guy is huge. Guy played football in college. Guy is hungry. Guy is boastful. (Or Guy is nervous -- it depends.) Guy starts strong. Guy starts to tire. Guy's friends chant "Chew! Chew! Chew!" Guy fails. Guy throws up.

Just about every day, someone tries to eat the Big Texan's signature 72-ounce cut. Only one in every five or six manages to finish it. The others are out $50 plus tax, which is real money for a meal in Amarillo.

Women are different. Not many women try to eat the big steak, maybe one every couple of months. But those who do try are deadly serious. About half succeed. And Angela Daniel intends to succeed.

Twenty-six years old, blonde and fine-featured, she is a normally proportioned 135 pounds, perhaps 5-foot-6. When she says she has gained 20 pounds since she got married two years ago, you think: She must have been too skinny. She wears slightly tinted granny glasses and a gauzy white blouse with wine-red embroidery and denim shorts and hiking boots.

Angela, who lives in Tulsa, does have a history you might call impulsive. She dropped out of high school and left home when she was 15. For a while she had blue hair. The name "Ned" is tattooed beneath her right knee. She married her husband Dennis, a co-worker in sales at the phone company, after dating him for two weeks.

And for four years, from ages 12 to 16, she was a vegetarian.

She got over that. Not long ago she polished off a 48-ounce steak without great difficulty -- a T-bone, but still.

Right now she is pumped. She's known about the Big Texan forever, and for years she's wanted to try the 72-ouncer. Today, as she and Dennis were headed to California on a motorcycle, she began seeing the billboards on the highway and bells went off. She'd do it today! Right now! And Dennis couldn't talk her out of it.

They stroll into the Big Texan just before noon, and take a seat at the back. It's a huge dining room corseted by a wrap-around balcony. The decor is Lone Star schlock -- antlers and pistols, longhorns and buffalo heads, wagon wheels and teepees, cowhides and sheriff's badges. The wait-staff, in Wranglers and bandannas, cowboy hats and boots, is Texas-friendly.

"I can eat anything," Angela said. "I come from a whole family of big eaters . . . . My grandmother is a couple of hundred pounds overweight. I can eat a lot of food. A lot."

The Big Texan's staff is taking her at her word. Kathie Greer, sales manager, is laying $1 bets that Angela can do it. Greer has worked at the Big Texan for seven years, and she's a shrewd judge of gluttony. She lays out Angela's assets crisply.

"She's got a good attitude. She's calm. And she's female," Greer said. Angela rates at least even odds.

Not everyone is convinced. Cameron Flannigan, a jug-eared 17-year-old busboy, is a skeptic. He comes by Angela's table to fill her water glass while her steak is cooking, takes one look at Angela and his jaw drops.

"Oh my God! Where you planning on putting it?"

"In my tummy," said Angela, staring him down.

Flannigan puts down a dollar against her, but what does he know? He's worked at the Big Texan for two weeks.

Meanwhile, Angela's steak has gone on the grill, where it is sizzling amid burgers and rib-eyes, like Moby Dick among carp. The grill is at the head of the Big Texan's cavernous dining room, and open to it. The grill man who tends it, Robert Black, has watched at close range as contestants have won and lost. He thinks Angela has a good shot -- as long as she eats smart.

"First of all, you better cut your meat with the grain -- makes it more tender and less chewy," he said, poking at the big sirloin with a grill fork and tossing steak seasoning on it. "You better eat your potato and all that small stuff first. Don't drink no water. Just fills you up. And better eat fast, man."

Angela usually likes her steak medium-rare, but decides on medium today, figuring it might shrink the meat a little. She orders a carafe of the house red wine to steady her nerves, while Dennis has a sensible lunch -- a 12-ounce rib-eye and fries.

"I'm really hungry," Angela said. "For breakfast we just had a granola bar and some water. Last night all I had was a can of chili and some crackers."

She signs a consent form laying out the rules: She has one hour to eat the steak.

Once she starts, there's no leaving the table. She doesn't have to eat the fat, but the restaurant will decide what counts. If she becomes sick, she loses automatically. If she fails to finish, she can take the leftovers when she leaves.

She has to pay up front; if she wins, the restaurant refunds the meal 100 percent.

The contest has existed for most of the 40-odd years the Big Texan has been in business. It has given the restaurant a kitsch cachet. The Big Texan was founded in 1960 by the late R.J. "Bob" Lee, a restaurateur from Kansas City. He was drawn to Amarillo in the era of "Rawhide" and "The Rifleman" and "Gunsmoke" by the Lone Star State's vast mythological possibilities.

In those days, Amarillo was surrounded by ranches. The cowboys would wander into the Big Texan on weekends, flush with their week's pay. And hungry.

"So one guy came in and said, 'I could eat the whole cow,' " said Greer, the sales manager. "And Bob said, 'You're on.' "

Since then, more than 35,000 people have taken the Big Texan's challenge, but no more than 6,000 have succeeded. Past winners include a 69-year-old grandmother, an 11-year-old boy and Frank Pastore, a pitcher for the Cincinnati Reds in the early '80s, who set a speed record by downing the whole meal, side dishes included, in 91/2 minutes.

A husband and wife from Nevada, each of ordinary stature and girth, have both eaten the meal successfully more than 10 times, usually in under 30 minutes, since 1995. Some rise from the table swaggering and boastful, like Richard Morris, a 225-pound Texan who finished off the meal in mid-June and scribbled on the winners' board, "Where's my cheesecake?" Others lament their own prowess. "I can't do this any more," scrawled Jeremiah Dyson, a 240-pounder from New Mexico who hobbled away from his triumph.

Angela, for her part, is unswayed by past agonies and triumphs. Serene and self-assured, she strides to the Big Texan's head table, which sits on a raised platform overlooking the dining room. To her right is an American flag. On her left is the Lone Star flag of Texas. Just over her shoulder is a digital timer that reads 60:00. "I'm feeling real confident," said Angela, taking her seat before the sirloin and staring it down. The steak is the size of a phone book.

A restaurant staff member announces her from the stage microphone, outlines the rules and sets the digital clock ticking.

Then, with a quick shake of salt, Angela is off.

She starts on the steak placidly, cutting big bites with the grain and chewing politely with her mouth closed. She asks for Worcestershire sauce, scoops at her baked potato and butters her dinner roll.

"It's very good," she allows after four minutes, taking a sip of wine.

After six minutes, she has downed the baby shrimp cocktail in a few deft forkfuls. After eight minutes, much of the potato is gone, and Angela is working on the salad between mouthfuls of meat.

Flannigan, the busboy, has bet a dollar against her, but now he is impressed. "Oh my God, she's making good progress," he said, wheeling a tub of plates past her.

As 15 minutes elapses, Angela looks strong. In the dining room, which is filling up for lunch, people are getting interested. They approach her to ogle, kibitz and offer you-go-girl encouragement.

Five more minutes and Angela is still chewing resolutely. But now she's staring into the middle distance, a little vacantly.

Flannigan, the busboy, sidles up to an observer. "If she weighed, like, 800 pounds, I'd go with her," he said. "But I don't see where she's going to put it."

Reality is starting to set in, and it is cruel. A large man in an orange shirt, a biker, approaches Angela to let her know that a guy he knew, a 350-pounder, tried to eat the big sirloin last year and couldn't. Another man wanders by, takes one look at the sirloin and shakes his head. "That's a roast," he said.

Angela is looking tired and glassy-eyed. She picks at her potato, which is served with sour cream and butter, a pitiless touch. She stabs some lettuce. She chews more meat, her mouth slightly agape now. With both elbows on the table, she stares again at the meat, a long steady forlorn gaze. Red wine had stained her blouse between the second and third buttons. Angela has eaten more than two pounds of meat, but just over half the original steak is left.

Twenty-nine minutes and eight seconds have elapsed when Angela throws in the towel. She's looking slightly green. Dennis is there to console her.

"I can't eat it. It feels like 72 pounds, not 72 ounces," she said. "No, I'm not going to do it. I'm sorry, baby. I would've eaten more if I could."

"Oh, baby, it's all right," Dennis said. "Hell, we'll have leftovers for days!"

The spectators fade away. The postmortems are quick and remorseless.

"She didn't eat the small stuff first," said Black, the grill man.

"She was a little too laid back," said Greer, the sales manager.

Angela isn't interested. She's stowing the leftovers and smoking a Marlboro.

[eggplant43]

Boughs Break Baby's 7-Story Fall

PEEKSKILL, N.Y., June 24, 2003


A man was arrested Monday and charged with dropping his baby daughter from a seventh-floor apartment window, police said.

The 10-month-old girl survived the 80-foot fall, crashing through several tree branches before landing on the ground. She suffered only cuts and bruises.

Police said Willie Williams barged into his ex-girlfriend's apartment late Saturday in a bid to persuade her to get back together with him.

Police said they argued and Williams dangled the baby out a window. The mother called 911 and Williams dropped the girl, police said.

"Oh, my God!" police quoted the mother as telling the 911 operator. "He killed my baby."

Williams then left the apartment, grabbed the baby and drove her to a nearby hospital.

Williams was charged with attempted murder, assault and unlawful imprisonment. He was in jail awaiting arraignment late Monday. It was unclear whether he had retained a lawyer.

[eggplant43]

Judge: Marshall violated woman's right to `dirty dance'

Brevorka, Jennifer
POSTED: June 23, 2003 10:18 p.m.


MARSHALL - Dancers in Marshall might want to clear the floor now that Rebecca Willis, thanks to a judge's recommendation, can get down.

U.S. District Court Judge Max O. Cogburn Jr. said the town violated Willis' First Amendments rights by barring her from dancing.

Willis' gyrations, on video tape, look like a cross between Mick Jagger's pelvic swagger and a fish flopping on the end of a line.

Town officials had said the 58-year-old homemaker went beyond the boundaries of common decency, leading them to ban her in December 2000 from community dances in the town-run Marshall Depot. She sued, asking for a court-ordered injunction.

"This (ban) was a quintessential deprivation of First Amendment rights," Jon Sasser, Willis' attorney, said Monday. "What the town did here is just so bad. I've never seen a government in the U.S. act in such an un-American fashion."

Area residents said Willis danced in a sexually provocative manner, wearing short skirts or what appeared to be a long shirt while "simulating sexual intercourse with her partner who hunched on the floor," according to court documents.

Some witnesses said in their affidavits that they could see Willis' undergarments and "privates."

Willis said she likes to wear skirts that hit mid-thigh, but said she was never obscene.

Professional dance instructor Katherine Maheu supported this argument, saying in court records Willis' moves, as seen on videotape, could not be construed as vulgar, lewd, or obscene.

In her lawsuit, Willis alleged that by forbidding her from the depot, the town had violated her right to freedom of expression and association. She argued her dancing included "communicative elements" protected by the Constitution.

Cogburn agreed, saying in his recommendation issued Friday the law unquestionably supports Willis.

Attorney Larry Leake, who represented Marshall, said he had not reviewed Cogburn's decision and could not say whether the town would appeal.

Both sides have 10 days to file objections before a federal judge adopts Cogburn's recommendation to make his decision final.

[plschwartz]

Politicians have voted to decriminalise prostitution

In a narrow vote yesterday, they approved a new law allowing the running of brothels and soliciting.

The Prostitution Reform Bill was passed 60 votes to 59 after New Zealand's first Muslim MP, Ashraf Choudhary, abstained.

His decision not to vote came after he experienced intense lobbying from both sides of the debate.



Under the previous laws, prostitution was not illegal but acts associated with it, such as soliciting, pimping and brothel-keeping, were.

The bill allows court-approved people to operate brothels and to live off the earnings of sex workers.

It also requires brothels, clients and prostitutes to practise safe sex to reduce the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, perhaps through the compulsory use of condoms.

Prostitutes can now ask for an employment contract, and are protected by health and safety laws.

Critics of the bill argued the new law could not be enforced, and said brothels were now vulnerable to gang or criminal involvement.

They also said decriminalising prostitution would make it more acceptable.

Police backed away from supporting the bill this week, saying the way it was written opened the sex industry to exploitation.

Politicians have worked on the bill for almost three years, and last night Mr Barnett said the overwhelming feeling after the vote would be one of relief.

He rejected opponents' claim that he wanted to "normalise" prostitution, saying he was trying to replace an outdated, biased and largely unenforced law.

"It does not seek to label prostitution as normal, but it does accept its inevitability."

Mr Barnett said MPs had two choices. They could agree to a law which best protected sex workers while protecting community sensitivities, or they could accept the status quo with all its faults.

He said the state licensed massage parlours, knowing they were a front for prostitution.

Supporters of the bill in the public gallery included Prostitutes Collective and Rape Crisis workers.

They applauded Mr Barnett's final speech, but his criticism of church groups who opposed the bill was attacked by his political rivals.

National MP Nick Smith said he wanted prostitution laws toughened to make it a crime to pay for sex.

Decriminalising prostitution should be judged not on what was best for sex workers, but what was best for New Zealand society.

Dr Smith said prostitution cheapened sex and was nothing more than "paid rape".

He held his head in his hands when the result of the vote was announced.

An emotional plea to pass the law came from the one MP with experience of the sex trade, the country's first transsexual MP, Georgina Beyer.

"I support this bill for all the prostitutes I've ever known who have died before the age of 20 because of the inhumanity and hypocrisy of a society that would not allow them, or give them the chance, to ever redeem whatever circumstances made them arrive in this industry."

One of the bill's strongest supporters was Green MP Sue Bradford, who urged women MPs and those who considered themselves feminists to support Mr Barnett.

"Restrictive laws merely encourage violence, trafficking, rape and the spread of HIV/Aids, not the opposite."

Labour MP Winnie Laban, whose last-minute support was crucial to the bill's success, said she would have been a hypocrite to vote against it. She faced strong lobbying from the large number of churches in her Mana electorate.

"I advocate for social and economic inclusion and then to turn around [it would] be quite hypocritical to say no to this group they can't have the same protection."

Herald Feature: Prostitution Law Reform

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Germany's banknotes have traces of cocaine

BERLIN: Almost all euro banknotes circulating in Germany contain traces of cocaine, scientists said yesterday, as notes rolled up by users to snort the illegal drug contaminate the cash system.

"Nine out of 10 banknotes show clearly measurable amounts of cocaine," Fritz Soergel from the Institute for Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Research in Nuremberg said yesterday.

Some 600 euro notes were examined in the study.

The study could not provide conclusive evidence on levels of cocaine usage in Germany and the euro zone but Soergel said there was a clear correlation between the findings and levels of recorded cocaine abuse in European countries.

"Studies have shown that the amount of cocaine found on banknotes in countries where there is less cocaine usage, such as France, Finland and Greece, is much lower than in countries where it is more widespread," he said.

The concentrations of cocaine on Spanish euro notes were almost a hundred times that of what we recorded in Germany," he said. An investigation in London in 1999 showed more than 99 per cent of banknotes in circulation were tainted with the drug.

The prevalence of cocaine traces on paper money is often attributed to cash counting machines in banks, which mix contaminated notes with uncorrupted ones.

[plschwartz]

Government prepares for legal sex industry

27.06.2003
3.00pm

The sex industry and the state were today coming to terms with their newly legal relationship.

The passing of the Prostitution Reform Bill in Parliament by the narrowest of margins on Wednesday decriminalised soliciting, pimping and running a brothel.

The Courts Department now has just six months to set up systems to licence brothel operators, the department's manager of operations and judicial services, Fiona Saunders-Francis said today.

That included determining fees and development of a database register, she told National Radio.

Auckland District Court would maintain the system, because it would be more efficient than putting it in the hands of the country's 64 district courts, she said.

ACC was also preparing to collect levies from brothel owners, who would have to pay 56 cents in every $100 earnings to cover income for injured staff.

However, that cover was unlikely to cover sex workers who became pregnant in the course of their employment because it would not be considered a personal injury, an ACC statement said.

Inland Revenue (IRD), which views legal and illegal income the same way, did not anticipate having to radically change its systems to collect tax from sex industry workers, IRD said in a statement.

Opponents of the new laws say it will have dire consequences for women and increase criminal activity.

National MP Tony Ryall predicted more gangs would become involved in running brothels by using front people with clean records to get licences....

[eggplant43]

Be Careful What You Wish For
Lottery Win Exacerbated Va. Man's Troubles, Friends and Family Say

By Eric M. Weiss
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, June 26, 2003; Page B01


AXTON, Va. -- To those who rushed to buy a ticket for the $110 million Powerball lottery, consider the case of Jody Lee Taylor.

In the nearly 11 years since Taylor won $4.3 million in the Virginia Lottery, he lost his way and then his family. Now Taylor, 34, has lost his freedom, is locked up in the Henry County jail and is charged with trying to kill a police officer after sheriff's deputies dragged him -- naked -- from his pickup truck in such a rage that he had to be restrained.

His father, Alvin T. Taylor, sitting on the porch of his house here in Pittsylvania County, a few miles from the North Carolina border, wishes his son had never walked into Byrd's Store and bought the Virginia Lottery "EZ Pick" ticket.

"Out of 10,000 people, there might be one who could handle the money," Taylor said, his arms reddened from helping a neighbor dig a grave. "The rest, it would push them over the edge."

Americans spent $42.4 billion on lottery tickets in 2002, according to an industry group. Many people play the numbers in hopes that a windfall will change their lives -- most assume for the better. But Jody Taylor's friends and family say it doesn't always work out that way. His is a cautionary tale of money and freedom and bad choices, they say.

The Henry County sheriff, Frank Cassell, would not allow a reporter into the jail to interview Taylor. Taylor's attorney, R. Reid Young III, did not return several calls. But those who know Jody Taylor well -- his family, his friends and sheriff's deputies from two counties -- say he was a hell-raiser well before he became a rich man. He had a weakness for drink and drugs, they say. And when he got lit, he often took his rage out on Ford vehicles and his now-estranged wife, Jennifer.

By the time Taylor walked into Byrd's Store and bought his ticket, he had already been convicted of beating up Jennifer, reckless driving and driving while intoxicated. A week before he won the lottery, a probation officer noted that he had lost his job and owed $335 in court fees, according to documents filed in Henry County Circuit Court.

Taylor's numbers came in on the day after Christmas in 1992. He chose his winnings to be distributed in 20 yearly payments of $220,000, lottery officials said. At age 24, one of the richest men in one of the state's poorest areas, wild Jody Taylor went even wilder.

"He never had nothing, he hadn't aspired to anything and then he had it all at once," Jennifer Taylor said. "It was overwhelming."

Taylor's friends say his streak of generosity grew even stronger after he hit it big. He has donated truckloads of firewood to the volunteer fire department and has helped other groups such as the rescue squad. Friends have received extravagant gifts. He was sort of a Robin Hood with a backhoe, always willing to help someone dig out a swimming pool or a driveway and never charging a dime. And when he built a large house on some land nearby, Taylor threw a Gatsby-esque Fourth of July party complete with a huge fireworks display.

But those same friends say that the instant cash slowed Taylor's maturation. "We were drinking buddies, dope buddies, whatever," said Randall Shively, a large man with a gravelly voice who grew up with Taylor. "Then," he said, motioning to his wife, "I straightened up."

But Taylor didn't, he said.

"He had all the time in the world, all the money in the world," Shively said.

Others began clinging to Taylor after he struck it rich, taking advantage of his natural generosity and gregariousness, friends said. "You got a lot of friends when you got a lot of money," Shively said.

Many thought Taylor hit bottom Feb. 9, 1995, when he set fire to the Ford Thunderbird he had given Jennifer and then fired 15 bullets from a .45-caliber pistol into the yellow linoleum floor of their double-wide trailer. According to Pittsylvania County Circuit Court documents, police recovered marijuana from Taylor, along with four other weapons.

He was sentenced to a year in jail after being convicted of arson, shooting at an occupied dwelling and possession of marijuana. The court also ordered the Virginia Lottery to take $17,000 of Taylor's winnings to reimburse the insurance company for Jennifer Taylor's Thunderbird.

Friends and family said Taylor calmed down a bit when he got out of jail. He started his own business, T-N-T Excavating and Hauling Inc., and began planning for a new house and farm. He and Jennifer had a son.

But Taylor's wild ways soon began anew. "People took advantage of him. But you have to let them take advantage," his wife said.

"He chose drugs over his family," she said, crying in the driveway of her mother's house. "The day I left, I knew there was nothing else I could do."

That was a year ago. Since then, friends and family say, Taylor's problems have gotten worse.

Early on June 14 -- the day before Father's Day -- Jody Taylor was driving his new Ford F-250 pickup on Route 58, a rural four-lane road dotted with Baptist churches, off-brand gas stations and storefronts that offer high-interest cash advances. But Taylor was driving on the wrong side of the road with his lights off, according to Capt. Kimmy Nester of the Henry County sheriff's office.

He led a sheriff's deputy on a car chase that ended up in a muddy field, where the police cruiser got stuck, Nester said. The deputy got out, and Taylor allegedly tried to run him over -- twice, Nester said.

"He would have been justified in using deadly force," Nester said, praising the deputy's cool.

When Taylor's pickup got stuck, the deputy smashed the window with a rock and dragged a raving Taylor out of his truck, police reported.

He was not wearing a stitch of clothing, police said, and there was a shotgun inside his truck. Taylor spent a few days in the hospital and now resides in the Henry County jail, without bail, awaiting a court appearance Aug. 7.

His friend Randall Shively said that since Taylor's highly public and embarrassing arrest, folks in the county have been busy whispering. Even those who were the recipients of Taylor's generosity.

"The dopeheads think it's funny," Shively said. "But it might be a blessing in disguise. He needs some help."

And if Taylor loses everything and every dime, he is always welcome in the Shively house.

But to Sheriff Cassell, there is also a deeper lesson to be found.

"This man would have been better off without the money, frankly," Cassell said. "It certainly didn't help him, I can tell you that."




© 2003 The Washington Post Company

[eggplant43]

Laughing driver runs over man, cops say
Victim badly injured but alive

Jaxon Van Derbeken, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, June 27, 2003


URL: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cg...7/BA152754.DTL


A motorist in San Francisco ran down a pedestrian, laughed and then repeatedly drove over him before speeding away, leaving stunned witnesses scrambling to help the victim, police said.

The gruesome attack Wednesday night in the Mission District came three days after a similar incident outside a South of Market nightclub that left a man clinging to life. The driver in the first incident turned himself in to police Wednesday afternoon, authorities said.

This latest case occurred about 11:30 p.m. at 20th and Valencia streets and left a 24-year-old man badly injured.

Police and witnesses were stunned by the viciousness of the crime, which they believe was an intentional attack, and the callousness of the suspect, who a witness said laughed hysterically.

"It was really disturbing, definitely the most disturbing thing I've seen," said one witness who did not want his name used. "It was disgusting. This guy did everything on purpose. He wasn't crying, he was laughing."

Police said they are seeking a 24-year-old man in connection with the attack who has a history of violence and who has lived in San Mateo, San Francisco and Vallejo. Police did not name the suspect.

"He has a violent past, and we are concerned for everybody's safety who was involved in this incident," Inspector Michael Serujo said of the suspect.

Police also refused to name the victim and a witness to the crime for fear the suspect might retaliate against them. The victim was in critical condition at a hospital, police said.

The incident began when a dark blue Toyota Corolla, which carried four people and had been parked on Valencia for five to 10 minutes, pulled into a Shell gas station at 20th and Valencia streets as the victim approached on foot.

"As soon as they came to a stop, before they had a chance to get gas, the two rear passengers jump out of the car and start chasing this guy down the street," Serujo said.

They chased the victim around the block as the Toyota followed them, then sped up to make a U-turn and hit him, Serujo said.

The witness said he had been driving in the area when he saw the victim beneath the Toyota. A stocky Latino with a crew cut, whom the witness believed to be the driver, was looking under the vehicle as a woman in the passenger seat screamed, "Oh my god, what did you do?"

The woman snatched the keys from the driver, who grabbed them back after a struggle, police said. The witness said he had shouted at the driver not to move the car.

"I thought he had ran over his friend," he said. "I still didn't understand it was an attack."

The driver -- who the witness said appeared drunk -- got out of the car again. The witness said he approached the Toyota to write down its license plate number, and the driver jumped back inside and dragged the victim "two or three feet."

"He was laughing his *** off," the witness said. "Laughing hysterically."

The suspect then drove back and forth over the victim several times before speeding away, the witness said.

The crime mirrored Sunday night's assault on Tesfamariam Sebhatu, who was nearly killed after being run down outside the 1015 Folsom nightclub.

Sebhatu, 22, lost his left arm and suffered such severe injuries that doctors doubted he would survive. He remains hospitalized in critical condition and is steadily improving.

He was dragged a short distance before the driver and two passengers tried to free him from the undercarriage of the Lexus before giving up an speeding away.

The alleged driver in the Sunday case, identified by police as 33-year-old George "Junior" Delapaz Jr. of Burlingame, turned himself in Wednesday night. He was charged Thursday with 13 felonies, including counts of attempted murder, vehicular assault, mayhem and torture. An alleged passenger, Carlton Willis, surrendered to police at 7:45 p.m. Thursday and was booked on one count of attempted murder and other charges. The two men, who are being held without bail, are expected to be arraigned on Monday.

[eggplant43]

Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at http://www.lacrossetribune.com



Murder charges filed in weekend shooting

By DAN SPRINGER | Of the Tribune staff
Accused of killing their son-in-law Saturday morning, Charles and Jacquelyn Lo Piccolo were together briefly in La Crosse County Court on Tuesday.

Their appearance was just long enough for each of them to be formally charged, to learn Charles has an attorney but Jacquelyn must wait, and to share a quick kiss before being led away to separate La Crosse County jails.

They still are being held on $500,000 cash bonds. The next appearance for the couple will be a preliminary hearing at 11 a.m.

July 8. Westby attorney Russell Hanson has agreed to represent Charles, but the public defenders office is continuing to search for an attorney for Jacqueline.

The Lo Piccolos, both 57, of 2223 East Ave. S., are facing life in prison if convicted. Charles is charged with first-degree intentional homicide. Jacquelyn is charged with being a party to that crime.

The criminal complaint introduced to the court Tuesday and court records tell the story of a couple whose stormy relationship with their 21-year-old son-in-law, Irvin H. Johnson, ended with a shotgun blast in front of their daughters.

According to the complaint, sometime after 10 a.m. Saturday, Jacquelyn called the apartment of her daughter, Janeen, where Irvin and his 17-year-old wife, Vannessa Johnson, had spent the night.

Still angry that Irvin had called her vulgar names during a phone call Friday night, Jacquelyn called Vanessa on Saturday morning demanding an apology. Jacquelyn said if she and Irvin couldn't settle their disagreement, she would settle it her way, Vannessa said.

Vannessa told police Jacquelyn then threatened to kill Irvin and said she was thinking about killing Vannessa and her unborn baby, too.

Within minutes, the Lo Piccolos arrived at 1311 Green Bay St. Jacquelyn broke out the glass of the locked front door and forced her way into the upstairs apartment.

She struck Janeen once in the face, then turned to Irvin and proclaimed, "You're dead" as she started to beat him.

Charles, who was a few steps behind, came into the apartment with a gun in hand.

Vannessa tried to block him, but he kicked her in the stomach and then shot Irvin three times in the chest.

"Our job is done. He's dead," Jacquelyn said as she and Charles left, Vannessa told police.

Police arrived minutes later. They found the Lo Piccolos sitting on the front sidewalk.

"I shot him up there," Charles told police, adding that the gun was in his van.

Jacquelyn told another officer that she and her husband came to the residence because her son-in-law had disrespected her the night before and they took care of it the old "Sicilian way."

Vannessa told police that for about a year her mother has threatened to kill Irvin or hire someone to kill him.

The night before the shooting, Irvin grew angry when Jacquelyn criticized Irvin's family. He went on a tirade then hung up the phone, Vannessa said.

According to other court documents, the relationship between Jacquelyn, Irvin and the law has been a stormy one at best.

In August 2002, Jacquelyn turned Irvin in for having sex with her then 16-year-old daughter, Vannessa. Irvin was arrested and charged with having sex with a child 16 or older and two counts of bail jumping.

The sex charge was later dropped when Irvin agreed to plead guilty to bail jumping and was sentenced to 20 days in jail.

Although Jacquelyn told investigators that she objected to having Irvin date her daughter, she eventually changed her mind. She told a judge the charges were unnecessary because Irvin and Vannessa wanted to get married and she "wanted the kids together." Jacquelyn gave her written consent and they married in October 2002.

Vannessa and Irvin had met in June 2002, a short time after he finished serving a six-month jail sentence after a diversion agreement for a 1998 sexual assault was revoked.

In September 1998, Irvin was charged with first- and second-degree sexual assault after he helped hold a girl down while she was sexually assaulted with an ice cube.

Irvin, who lived in Galesville at the time, agreed to plead guilty to second- and fourth-degree sexual assault and obstructing an officer in exchange for a diversion agreement — a chance to clear his record.

However, in 2001, that agreement was revoked on allegations that Irvin violated his probation. His parole officer said at the time that Irvin drank alcohol, broke curfew, ran away from a halfway house, failed to undergo treatment, moved in with a girl without permission and broke other rules.

In January 2002, Irvin was sentenced to six months in jail and placed on two years probation. Twice in May, Johnson was cited for driving on a revoked driver's license. Neither case was resolved at the time of his death.

Members of Irvin's family declined to comment for this story.

[angelize56]

Ask and ye shall receive! Take care! angel

Lightning Strikes Preacher Who Asked For Sign
Bolt Hits Steeple, Travels Through Guest Evangelist's Microphone

POSTED: 1:35 p.m. EDT July 3, 2003
UPDATED: 1:45 p.m. EDT July 3, 2003

FOREST, Ohio -- Damage to a church in Forest, Ohio, is estimated at $20,000 after a preacher asked God for a sign.

A member of the First Baptist Church said a guest evangelist was preaching repentance and seeking a sign from God when lightning struck the steeple.

Ronnie Cheney called the incident "awesome, just awesome!"

Cheney said the lightning traveled through the microphone, blew out the sound system and enveloped the preacher, who wasn't hurt.

Afterward, services resumed for about 20 minutes until the congregation realized the church was on fire. The building was evacuated.

[angelize56]

Whoever did this is not even funny! There is no excuse for such ignorance and if they catch the perps...throw the book at them! Take care. angel

Glass from McDonald's Hamburger Injures Fla. Deputy
Fri July 11, 2003 09:58 AM ET

TAMPA, Fla. (Reuters) - Two police officers were hospitalized on Thursday after one found broken glass in his hamburger at a McDonald's restaurant in Tampa, the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office said.
The two deputies had stopped at the McDonald's for dinner.

One deputy began bleeding from his mouth and found shards of broken glass under the bun of his hamburger, a spokesman for the sheriff's office told reporters. He was in stable condition at a Tampa hospital.

The other deputy, who also ate a hamburger, was taken to the same hospital for examination. It was not clear if he had ingested glass. He was listed in good condition.

The restaurant was closed and deputies questioned employees to try to determine how the glass got into the hamburgers.

[angelize56]

This is a horrible way to die! Take care. angel

Man killed when hair catches on roller coaster car
Sunday, August 17, 2003 Posted: 5:43 AM EDT (0943 GMT)

LANGLEY, Washington (AP) -- An amusement park operator was killed Saturday when his hair got caught on a roller coaster car, pulling him up as high as 40 feet before he fell, back-first, onto a fence.

Doug McKay, 40, was spraying lubricant on the tracks of the Super Loop 2, a ride at the Island County Fair on Whidbey Island, when his long hair got caught on a car full of fairgoers, sheriff's spokeswoman Jan Smith said.

"It basically scalped him, and he fell and landed on the fence," Smith said.

McKay, co-owner of Paradise Amusements, based in Post Falls, Idaho, was pulled between 25 and 40 feet into the air.

Paradise Amusements had set up rides at the Island County Fair, located about 30 miles northwest of Seattle, for the past three years, Smith said.

Smith said grief counselors were on hand but that the fair continued after the incident.