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Man steals judge's gavel from courtroom
April 13, 2011 3:30 PM
A man has been arrested after being caught on CCTV stealing a judge's gavel from a courtroom... meaning he could be making a quick return for contempt.
LINK TO VIDEO:
Dr. Conrad Murray was distracted with two strippers, third woman night Michael Jackson died: lawyers
Nancy Dillon
DAILY NEWS WEST COAST BUREAU CHIEF
Thursday, April 14th 2011, 9:26 PM
Michelle Bella, a dancer at the Spearmint Rhino in Las Vegas, got a text from Murray at 8:30 a.m. on June 25, 2009 - about two and a half hours before he found the King of Pop unresponsive on a bed, a prosecution motion filed Thursday said.
Prosecutors previously revealed that Murray, who was living with his stripper babymama Nicole Alvarez at the time, called Houston <snip>tail waitress Sade Anding at 11:51 that morning, about an hour after he admittedly gave his famous patient the powerful anesthetic propofol in an IV drip.
The star's personal physical also received two unanswered calls from a third woman he met at the Vegas strip joint Cheetahs in 2003, prosecutors said.
The third girlfriend, Bridgette Morgan, was trying to reach Murray to discuss a plane ticket he promised to buy her during a lunch date earlier that month, court documents stated.
Prosecutors are asking the judge to allow evidence of Murray's wild social life because they think it shows a pattern of "inattentiveness and distraction."
Murray's defense has called the move prejudicial but declined to comment Thursday since jury selection is already underway.
"Evidence which points to a defendant's guilt is, by definition, prejudicial," the deputy district attorneys handling the case wrote in the motion.
Murray, 57, is accused of giving Jackson the hospital-strength anesthetic propofol to help him sleep and then failing to properly monitor him.
Jackson, 50, died of acute propofol intoxication, the coroner found.
Murray told police he gave Jackson Valium, lorazepam and the sedative midazolam between 1:30 and 7:30 on the morning in question and claims he was at Jackson's bedside keeping close eye on a pulse oximeter (connected to Jackson's finger) around the time he allegedly texted Bella.
He said he took a bathroom break after giving the first dose of propofol at 10:40 a.m. and found the singer unresponsive when he returned.
A staff member dialed 911 at 12:21 p.m.
Prosecutors claim Murray broke patient-confidentiality rules by bragging about his Jackson job to the alleged girlfriends but neglected to mention his personal phone communications during his first interview with police.
"He had a pattern of revealing confidential information when it suited him, but he was unwilling to reveal patient information at the most critical time," the DA motion stated. "He was receiving personal phone calls during the hours when he was supposed to be completely focused on the care of Mr. Jackson."
LA Times
Obama job approval hits 5-month low in Gallup poll
Michael A. Memoli and Peter Nicholas
12:50 PM PDT, April 14, 2011
It could be gas prices, the budget debate, or simply the usual ups and downs of public opinion polling. But President Obama's approval rating has dipped to a five-month low in Gallup's daily tracking poll, reverting to post-midterm election lows.
The survey, a three-day rolling average conducted April 11-13, pegs Obama's approval at 42%, the lowest since Nov. 10-12. For only the 13th time in his term and the first time since late October, his disapproval rating has reached 50%.
Since the self-described "shellacking" of his party last November, Obama's numbers have zig-zagged within a 9-point range, from the low of 42% to a high of 51%. He enjoyed a sustained upward trend after the tax cuts compromise in December's lame duck session of Congress.
Any boost he may have gained from last Friday's 11th hour compromise may be offset by other economic concerns, particularly higher fuel prices.
The White House routinely dismisses polling data. But it's a troublesome footnote as the president kicks off his re-election effort Thursday.
Obama's low approval rating is not the result of the major speech he delivered on Wednesday. Some of the polling took place before he delivered the speech. Rather, a Gallup official believes the results reflect broad public dissatisfaction with the economy.
"You can never discount the economy as a reason," said Frank Newport, editor-in-chief of the Gallup Poll. "It's important to remember that Americans are down on the economy right now. We saw some glimmers of uptick, but that's faded. And there's no way that can't help but rub off" on the president.
The new numbers suggest that gains Obama had recorded after the productive lame duck session of Congress last December have been wiped out. Obama's approval rating registered at 50% by the end of the lame duck session, where Obama reached rare compromises with Republicans on taxes and other major legislation.
"There's a lot going on in the political environment right now, including the (budget) agreement reached last Friday and the wrangling this week over his speech," Newport said. "The economy is perceived as bad, economic confidence data is bad, gas prices are up – so there are a number of proximate causes" for the downturn.
Crying, foul: Kindergartener gets suspended for tearing up
Dave McGinn
Globe and Mail Blog
Wednesday, March 30, 2011 5:44PM EDT
No, this is not an April Fool’s Day joke. A six-year-old boy in Virginia has been suspended from school for … crying.
Earlier this month, Gary and Heather Clark were notified by officials at Tallwood Elementary School in Virginia Beach that their son Bronson had been suspended from school for allegedly crying in class and disrupting the educational process, according to the Rutherford Institute, a Virginia-based civil liberties organization.
The parents then contacted the Rutherford Institute, which is calling on the school to rescind the suspension.
“There is a suspension for disruptive behaviour on his school record now. And that follows you. And it’s cumulative, meaning that if something else happens, he’s now considered a kid who creates problems,” said John Whitehead, president of the institute.
Officials at the school did not immediately respond to requests for an interview.
In a letter sent on Wednesday to the co-ordinator of student services at the Virginia Beach City Public Schools, Mr. Whitehead, a constitutional attorney, calls the young boy’s suspension perhaps “the most shocking example yet of the extent to which school officials are failing in their duties to create healthy and supportive educational environments for their young charges.
“While crying in class may indeed be inconvenient for the teacher, surely there are other, less draconian means of addressing this type of disruption than an out-of-school suspension.”
The zero-tolerance policies adopted by many schools have seen kids “tossed out for the craziest things,” Mr. Whitehead said in a telephone interview. He cited a greatest hits of seemingly head-scratching insanity: A case where a Grade 4 student who gargled Scope mouthwash after lunch was suspended because it violated the school’s drugs and alcohol policy; a high-school student suspended because the nail clippers he had at school were considered a weapon; even one instance of a youngster bringing a drawing of an uncle, who was then serving in Iraq, carrying his gun, which the school said violated its weapons policy.
As for the boy suspended for crying, Mr. Whitehead points out that crying is something six-year-olds just happen to do sometimes. Dealing with the problem like this should start with consulting mom and dad instead of going straight to a suspension.
“The easiest thing to do is consult parents more,” he says.
Mr. Whitehead had not heard from the school as of late Wednesday afternoon. But he is hopeful the school will rescind the suspension, he said.
Cops: Girl, 5, brings marijuana on school bus
Ty Tagami
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A 5-year-old girl in Gwinnett County reportedly carried 10 baggies of marijuana onto a school bus, leading to the arrest of her mother on drug charges.
The girl told the driver that her mother put the sack in her book bag. Narcotics investigators responded to the scene and tallied 19 grams of marijuana.
Police said they contacted the girl's mother, Taneisha Lewis, 23, and searched her vehicle and the Norcross residence where she told them she lived. They found nothing illegal that day, and she was not charged.
The next day, investigators discovered that Lewis had given police a different address, in Duluth, during a recent traffic stop. They searched that residence Wednesday, and found illegal drugs, said Cpl. Jake Smith of the Gwinnett police.
The apartment in the 2100 block of Preston Park Drive contained two grams of crack cocaine and over six dozen pills of the muscle relaxant and anti-anxiety drug Clonazapam, which is illegal without a prescription, Smith said. Police also found clothing, medicine and mail belonging to Lewis and her daughter.
No one living in the apartment had a prescription for Clonazapam. The drug was found in Lewis' bedroom, police said, so she was charged with possession of a schedule IV substance. Police also charged her with possession with intent to distribute marijuana and obstruction of a law enforcement officer.
The crack was in Earnest Boyd's room, police said, so they charged him with possession of cocaine. Boyd is Lewis’ 26-year-old brother.
Lewis and Boyd were taken to the Gwinnett County Detention Center and subsequently released on bond.
The Division of Family and Children Services was notified, and it placed Lewis' child with family.
Oops! Newspaper prints wrong lotto numbers, lets down local couple
Posted: Apr 11, 2011 5:42 PM
Andy Koen
Updated: Apr 13, 2011 3:20 PM
Imagine waking up and checking the Sunday paper to find that you've won the lottery, but then learning that the newspaper printed the wrong numbers.
That's just what happened to a Pueblo couple last weekend. Jim and Dorothy Sprague say they experienced a lot of joy and a lot of heartbreak all in the course of an hour Sunday morning.
"I woke up and found out we were millionaires," Jim Sprague said. "(It was) a case of going from rags to riches and back to rags again."
The newspaper had mistakenly published Friday's Matchplay numbers in place of Saturday's Colorado Lottery drawing. In his excitement, Sprague called his children to tell them he'd won the $4.3 million jackpot.
"We had told my son and my daughter and we were getting ready to tell our other kids, but we found the mistake that it was wrong," Sprague said. "It's a good thing that I didn't talk to too many people."
The Sprague's are able to laugh about the ordeal now, but they admit they're still a bit frustrated.
"I tried calling them yesterday, Sunday, as soon as we found it," he explained. "I called and got a recording."
The newspaper published a retraction in Monday's paper, faulting the error on "misinformation and an oversight." Sprague said he decided not to push the issue after reading the retraction. And he says the experience won't keep him from playing the lotto in the future.
"I hope that I'll find the right numbers one of these days."
Brentwood Mayor Evicted From Home Weeks Before Election
5:59 PM, Apr 13, 2011
BRENTWOOD, Md. (WUSA) -- The controversial Mayor of Brentwood was evicted from her home in the small Prince George's County municipality Wednesday.
Xzavier Montgomery-Wright had fallen behind nearly $7,500 on rent, according to eviction documents. She declined to talk about the situation, or her ongoing run for re-election, as workers moved possessions from the house where she had been living on 79th Place in Brentwood.
In March, Montgomery-Wright was censured by Brentwood's town council for the unauthorized use of a town debit card to pay cell phone bills and purchase a plane ticket. A follow up audit is ongoing. No charges have been filed.
Montgomery-Wright is a candidate for re-election. She takes credit for re-establishing the town's police department.
LINK TO VIDEO:
http://www.wusa9.com/video/default.aspx?bctid=903163266001
She would not comment on where she will live after the eviction. She cannot serve as mayor, if she is not a resident of Brentwood.
Lack of primary competition gives Obama an edge
With no serious challenges for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2012, the president can target the independent voters crucial to victory, while his Republican rivals must move right to win their party's nomination.
Mark Z. Barabak and Christi Parsons, Los Angeles Times and Washington Bureau
7:36 PM PDT, April 13, 2011
When President Obama swoops into Chicago on Air Force One to formally launch his reelection bid Thursday, his homecoming will have all the trappings of a celebrity event: high-dollar fundraisers at a pair of fancy restaurants, an adoring audience at a waterfront rally and an appearance by NBA star Derrick Rose.
But one of the president's biggest advantages as he seeks a second term will not be visible: the absence of any serious primary opposition. Incumbents forced to fend off a challenge within their own party tend to lose the November election (like Gerald R. Ford in 1976, Jimmy Carter in 1980 and George H.W. Bush in 1992) or choose not to run at all (like Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968).
Spared fratricidal fighting, Obama is free to move toward the political center and target the independent voters crucial to victory. Meantime, his Republican rivals must move right to win their party's nomination, then hope to scamper back toward the center in time for the fall campaign.
Obama's course was vividly demonstrated Wednesday, with his embrace of a $4-trillion deficit-reduction package that calls for tax hikes and benefit cuts. The plan not only allowed the president to embrace an issue that many centrist voters say they care about, but also afforded him an opportunity to paint his Republican opponents as extreme.
"Our leaders came together three times during the 1990s to reduce our nation's deficit," he said in a speech at George Washington University, invoking the names of past presidents and congressional leaders, Democratic and Republican, who forged compromise. "All three agreements asked for shared responsibility and shared sacrifice."
The president's ability to stake out the center this far ahead of election day offers a considerable edge. It is there, and not the fringes, that most presidential campaigns are won.
"From an ideological perspective, it's a huge advantage to spend two years working the middle of the electorate," said Don Sipple, a strategist for Republican Bob Dole in 1996, the last time a Democratic president sought reelection. "While the president repositions … the Republicans are moving out of position as far as the task they'll face in the general election."
None of that suggests Obama's reelection will be easy, or anything close to preordained. His approval ratings nationally are in the mediocre 50% range. Democrats suffered midterm setbacks in several states, including Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Iowa, that Obama almost certainly needs to win in 2012. Joblessness remains high and, worse, economic anxiety is widespread.
He also faces anger on the left, which has built steadily over the last two years and flared in recent days after the president abandoned his pledge to close the federal detention center at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and embraced deep spending cuts as part of a deal with Republicans to avert a government shutdown.
But no one of any real stature has stepped forward to challenge Obama's renomination, and Sen. Richard J. Durbin, his friend and fellow Illinois Democrat, seemed to speak for many on the left when he suggested that the prospect of a Republican president enacting laws passed by a Republican Congress was enough to put down any serious rebellion.
"Certainly, when you look at Paul Ryan's budget, that's not where they're going to go," Durbin said of the plan by the Wisconsin Republican, chairman of the House Budget Committee, to privatize the Medicare program that provides health coverage for older Americans.
The president's political strategists reject the notion of any calculated move to the middle, pointing out, for instance, Obama's stated support for deficit reduction during the 2008 campaign. In the interim, they say, he was forced to take dramatic steps — the $800-billion stimulus bill being the most conspicuous — to address the economic crisis he inherited.
"The notion that somehow he has shifted his thinking is belied by the things he said throughout the campaign," said David Axelrod, one of the president's chief political advisors. "That's what he said then. That's what he believes now."
But politics hardly takes place in a void, and it is notable that fiscal discipline — and its close cousin, deficit reduction — have long been a major concern of the political center. A solid majority of those voters backed Obama in 2008, but they went heavily Republican two years later, concerned about stimulus spending and the national healthcare bill the president and congressional Democrats pushed into law.
"After the fiscal crisis, the public was scolded for irresponsible spending and maxing out on their credit cards," said Sipple, who is neutral in the Republican presidential primary. "So they pulled in their belts and tried to reduce their debt, then watched as the government piled up more debt through profligate spending."
Independent voters stand apart from the faithful of both parties in another significant way: They abhor the ways of Washington, especially the polarization and partisanship that has come to surround all but the most routine business inside the Beltway.
"Independents don't see Democrats as socialists and Republicans as corporate ogres," said Matthew Dowd, who ran President Bush's 2004 presidential campaign and is unaligned this year. "They don't believe that principle trumps process.... They get along with their neighbors, have them over for dinner, sit around the table and, while they may disagree, they don't scream at each other."
They wonder, Dowd added, why Washington can't function the same way.
Lately, Obama has struck the same tone. Although his intervention was required to close the budget deal with Republicans and avert a government shutdown, Obama often positioned himself as standing astride both parties, as though he were not the nation's Democrat in chief.
He took a similar tack on Wednesday, even as he assailed Ryan's proposal and suggested his own deficit plan presented the more reasonable and compassionate course. Acknowledging that many believe Washington is broken, that decisions are too hard and the parties too far apart to take consequential action on the deficit — and even confessing some sympathy for that view — Obama nevertheless said it was possible and necessary to act.
"It isn't a Democratic or Republican idea," Obama said. "It's patriotism."
Reporting from San Francisco and Washington
Coral Springs woman orders lunch from McDonald's drive-thru instead of pulling over for police
Sofia Santana and Danielle A. Alvarez, Sun Sentinel
9:16 p.m. EDT, April 12, 2011
Flashing police lights apparently couldn't stop a Coral Springs woman with a fast-food craving.
Police say when an officer tried to pull over Roberta Spen, 64, Monday for having faulty brake lights, she instead pulled into a McDonald's drive-thru lane and ordered lunch.
The bizarre exchange happened along University Drive just south of Atlantic Boulevard at about 2 p.m., and it spawned an all-out police pursuit.
Officer Courtney Vassell pulled up behind Spen in the drive-thru lane, and got out of the patrol car. With police lights flashing behind him, he told her to pull out into the parking lot for a traffic stop, according to a police report.
Roberta Spen (Broward Sheriff's Office / April 12, 2011)
Spen, though, completed her food order, paid the bill, and then drove her bronze 2001 Chevrolet out of the parking lot and onto Northwest Sixth Court, Vassell said.
Vassell again flipped on his siren and stopped Spen outside the McDonald's, where he said she "rolled her window down one inch and said she was not speeding and she would not roll her window down."
Spen also refused to hand over her driver's license, vehicle registration and proof of insurance, then drove away from Vassell, police said.
Vassell got back in his patrol car, flipped on his emergency lights — again — and followed Spen as she turned north onto Northwest 98th Avenue, east onto Atlantic and then north on University Drive.
Several other police officers joined in the pursuit.
Although the police lights did not stop Spen, a red light at University and Ramblewood Drive did, and several officers attempted to box in Spen's car. Somehow, though, Spen was able to drive in reverse out of the box and continued driving north on University, police said.
Spen finally stopped at the Mobil gas station at 1351 University Drive., where officers again surrounded her car.
This time, when she refused to leave the car, the officers went in and got her — smashing the driver's side window and pulling her out, police said.
After a quick check-up at Coral Springs Medical Center, Spen was taken to a Broward jail, arrested on charges of fleeing and eluding, resisting arrest without violence and driving with defective equipment.
Police said on the arrest report that they found no indication Spen was under the influence of drugs or alcohol at the time of the chase, and they could find no explanation for why Spen, who before her arrest Monday had no criminal record in Florida, didn't just pull over.
In bond court Tuesday Judge John "Jay" Hurley ordered her release under the condition she submit to a mental health evaluation.
Spen could not be reached for comment Tuesday evening.
Lakers' Kobe Bryant is fined $100,000 by NBA for anti-gay slur to referee
Bryant made his comment, captured on television, during a game Tuesday after being called for a foul and receiving a technical. He says his actions "were out of frustration during the heat of the game." Gay-rights groups criticize Bryant.
Lakers guard Kobe Bryant strikes a familiar pose as he goes back on defense against the Spurs on Tuesday night. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times / April 12, 2011)
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April 13, 2011, 6:15 p.m.
