truesee's Blog

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Politics/2011/0308/NPR-executive-calls-tea-party-seriously-racist-most-Americans-uneducated

 

Link To Vivian Schiller, NPR chief, resigns amid uproar over 'sting video:'

http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Elections/Vox-News/2011/0309/Vivian-Schiller-NPR-chief-resigns-amid-uproar-over-sting-video

Getty

After protracted dispute over gender discrimination, a transgendered couple is OK to marry.

 

A transgendered Bronx couple was given the go ahead to wed this week by the city clerk's office, ending a 14-month battle for their right to marry.

The couple - initially questioned over their appearance - was cleared to get hitched in a two-page directive sent out Monday by the city clerk.

"This is the first time it's been written down in this form, to ensure this type of discrimination doesn't happen again," said Michael Silverman of the Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund.

The case involved a Bronx couple in a relationship for more than a decade. One of the two was a female to male transgender, while the other was a male to female, Silverman said.

The anonymous couple - identified only as John and Jane - went to get a marriage license in December 2009. Both showed proper ID, but a worker in the City Clerk's Bronx office asked to see their birth certificates - a move that is "illegal and unconstitutional," according to Silverman.

The clerk made the request because the pair didn't look like the sexes listed on their ID cards.

"It's a very common situation for the transgendered," Silverman said. "They may not have updated their identification."

The letter instructed all employees of the clerk's office to treat applicants "with dignity and respect" and stressed that transgendered applicants need only produce the same ID as any other person.

"Gender stereotypes or preconceived notions related to gender expression - including an applicant's physical appearance, dress behavior or name - may not be considered when deciding whether to issue a marriage license," wrote City Clerk Michael McSweeney.

The couple has yet to pick up their marriage license, but plans to do so and get married in a private ceremony in the near future, Silverman said.

http://pandaexpress.com/

Man's Remains Stolen From Church Before Memorial

 

An Alameda family remained in shock Monday night, two days after a thief entered a church and stole a backpack...

9:40 pm PST March 7, 2011

Updated: 10:56 am PST March 8, 2011

ALAMEDA, Calif. -- An Alameda family remained in shock Monday night, two days after a thief entered a church and stole a backpack containing urns with the ashes of a recently deceased man less than 30 minutes before the start his funeral. 

The family told KTVU the theft took place at Christ Episcopal Church located on Santa Clara Avenue in Alameda shortly before the Saturday memorial service was set to start for 74-year-old Kent Hockabout. 

The sanctity of a church proved to be no deterrent for a thief who walked up to the altar during the ten minutes when the family and church staff were out of the room to prepare for the ceremony. 

"So here laying on this side was Kent Hockabout's backpack and inside that were his ashes inside an urn," explained Rev. Kathy Crary. 

Hockabout's widow Eleonore told KTVU her husband’s ashes were divided into three urns and placed into a backpack he used for his travels to Europe, Africa and the Middle East as a diplomatic courier for the State Department. 

The backpack was supposed to be on display during the memorial service next to a photo.

 "Shock. Horror. Terror. It took a moment," said Mrs. Hockabout when describing her immediate reaction to the theft. "We can't do anything about it." 

Relatives and friends went outside to search, but turned up empty handed. The family decided to go ahead with the memorial service. 

"Whether it's the body or the ashes, it was not the person," said Hockabout. "It was a symbol." 

Still, Hockabout wants her husband's remains back so she can go on what she described as a "pilgrimage" to spread his ashes among his favorite places. 

"I'd rather be interested in what went through their head. Going into a church? Secondarily the backpack, but going into church and thinking they can take things from there?" asked Hockabout. 

The family is asking that the urns be returned either to the church or to the police station, no questions asked. 

Eleonore Hockabout said she doesn't want the person responsible for the theft to be prosecuted.

 

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://www.ktvu.com/news/27114439/detail.html?cxntlid=cmg_cntnt_rss

http://www.thesmokinggun.com/buster/portland/911-calls

Tuesday, March 8th 2011, 2:55 PM

Teacher Tera Myers decided to call it quits after students discovered her X-rated past.

 

A St. Louis high school student is getting an "A" from authorities after discovering a teacher's X-rated past.

Tera Myers, 38, was put on administrative leave at Parkway North High School this week after a student inquired about pornographic films Myers starred in during the 1990s.

The science teacher decided to leave the school "out of respect for her privacy and that of her family," Paul Tandy, spokesman for the school district told the Daily News. "She was concerned about the impact it would have in the building."

Officials didn't know about Myers' past, which included a suspension five years ago from a Paducah, Ky., school for her role in the adult films.

While in Kentucky, Myers taught under a different name, Tericka Dye.

In 2006, the former porn star spoke to several media outlets and even made an appearance on "Dr. Phil," arguing she deserved to get her job back and that she had made the biggest mistake of her life.

Tera Myers, aka Rikki Andersin, a former pornstar in a scene from an adult film. (Amazing Pictures)

"Anybody who has been in my classroom could tell you how much I love teaching and how much I love these students, and that should be what matters more than anything in my past," she said in May 2006.

Myers, whose stage name is Rikki Andersin, said she made the movies when she was living in California, working as an exotic dancer to earn desperately needed cash.

Because Myers' role in the adult films wasn't illegal, her pornographic past didn't show up during a background check.

The teacher, who has been at the school for four years, will be paid through the end of the school year but will not be returning in the fall.

"We're surprised, very surprised," said Tandy. "At the same time we feel for her and her family. We do believe she has tried to move on with her life... Unfortunately, even though it happened 15 years ago, [the video] is still there."

http://www.publicintegrity.org/articles/entry/2976/

http://www.chicagotribune.com/videobeta/397b331f-9bdd-459f-ab18-b4469a320354/News/KTLA-Video-of-Lindsay-Lohan-in-Jewelry-Store-Released-Chris-Wolfe-reports

Man taped crying student into chair, turned him upside down, cops say

The 5-year-old boy was wrapped with packing tape so he couldn't move from his wooden chair, cops say.

Compiled by Orlando Sentinel

12:53 PM EST, March 8, 2011

 

A 21-year-old man who worked as a "group leader'' at a Brevard County after-school program taped a crying boy to a chair and turned him upside down "as a form of discipline,'' Titusville police said today.

Police arrested Russell Evan Rochon today and charged him with aggravated child abuse for the alleged abuse of the 5-year-old boy at South Lake Elementary School's after-school program late last year.

Police said Rochon of Titusville no longer works for the Brevard County School District.

"The packing tape was wrapped around the child's chest and lap, with his arms to his side so he had minimal movement,'' police said in a report. "The defendant then picked the child up and turned him upside down, telling him he would not release the child from the chair until he stopped crying."

Rochon removed the tape after a different child said a teacher was heading to the classroom. Rochon does not have a teaching certificate in Florida, records show..

The boy who was taped "was extremely distraught during the incident and was crying, kicking and screaming to be let go,'' the report said.

At some point, another student put the victim into a large trash can, and Rochon allegedly pushed the boy down so he couldn't get out of the trash can, the report said.

Rochon was arrested this morning at his home in 4900 block of Cambridge Drive

'We are not aware of any physical injuries to the child other than mental anguish,'' Lt. Todd Hutchinson of the Titusville Police Department said in a statement.

The police investigation began after authorities were contacted by the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Originally Published:Tuesday, March 8th 2011, 4:00 AM
Updated: Tuesday, March 8th 2011, 8:54 AM

Ward for News

Claire Abdeldaim leaves Brooklyn Federal Court, where she's on trial for trying to slip nearly $170,000 hidden in her underwear past federal agents at JFK.

A Queens woman nabbed at Kennedy Airport with nearly $170,000 hidden in her underwear was trying to avoid paying taxes on the sale of property in Sudan, the feds said Monday.

Claire Abdeldaim's real estate booty consisted of 1,699 $100 bills, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Officer George Wolynski testified Monday in Brooklyn Federal Court.

"We got a big one," Wolynski told his supervisor after seizing the cash last June.

Abdeldaim, 64, had sewn the bills into her bloomers to get the money out of Sudan, where she had sold a tract of land owned by her late husband.

During a layover in Amsterdam on a flight from Khartoum, she removed the underwear in a bathroom and stashed it in her purse. When Abdeldaim arrived in New York, she claimed she had only $17,000 in her purse.

But Wolynski noticed the fabric stuffed in the purse and became suspicious. "I was quite shocked at the amount of currency," he said.

Abdeldaim is free on $100,000 bail and faces up to 21 months in prison if convicted of the smuggling charge.

On cross-examination, defense lawyer John Carman suggested Wolynski wouldn't allow the defendant to amend the declaration form because the officer stood to receive a salary bonus for the huge seizure.

He also argued that Abdeldaim - who is from Haiti and speaks with a heavy accent - innocently left a zero off the money total she declared on her customs form due to a language barrier.

But the contention that her English was shaky was undercut by testimony that she supervises social workers at a Bronx nursing home.

Wolynski said he gave Abdeldaim numerous chances to say how much money she was carrying, and she stuck to her story. When confronted with the evidence, she finally confessed.

"She said she was told by a friend not to declare all the money," Wolynski said.

 

Police say Gastonia woman shot city worker with BB gun

http://www.wreg.com/news/wreg-counterfeit-cash-in-forrest-city-story,0,2081576.story

 

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin stood up to comedian Kathy Griffin, who has repeatedly criticized her family in stand-up acts, during a Saturday interview with Fox News.

When asked her opinion of the rumor that Griffin is set to play a Palin-inspired character on “Glee,” Palin said, “You know Kathy Griffin can do anything to me or say anything about me because you know she’s…she’s a 50-year-old adult bully, really is what she is, kind of a has-been comedienne, and she can do those things to me.”

Last year, Griffin made fun of Bristol Palin for being overweight and “gain[ing] like 30 pounds a week [during Dancing with the Stars].” At the beginning of this year, Griffin said she’d spend 2011 targeting 16-year-old Willow Palin in an effort to find a new Palin family member to harass. In 2009, Griffin received flak for calling Palin’s baby Trig, who has Down’s Syndrome, a “retarded baby.”

Mama Grizzly Palin made it clear during her Fox interview that Griffin should poke fun at her rather than her kin.

“I would just ask, you know, for respect to my children, as she had stated on CNN that her New Years Resolution was to destroy my 16-year-old daughter, that takes it a little bit too far,” Palin said. “Kathy, pick on me, come up to Alaska and pick on me, but leave my kids alone.”

 

Link to Video of Palin challenging Griffin to venture to Alaska:

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2011/03/07/palin-kathy-griffin-a-50-year-old-adult-bully/#ixzz1G0HDhfvG

83-year-old Wal-Mart greeter charged in robbery

Woman Charged with Scam Directed at Nuns

 NBC San Diego

 

A Tustin businesswoman indicted for allegedly conning a group of nuns out of more than $250,000 on a real estate deal surrendered to federal authorities Monday.

Linda Rose Gagnon, 57, was indicted Wednesday on three counts of wire fraud stemming from the alleged scheme to defraud the U.S. Province of the Religious of Jesus and Mary Inc., a congregation of Roman Catholic nuns.

Gagnon is the chief executive of Tustin-based Rose Enterprise Inc., which is billed as a company that helps clients handle delinquent mortgages and other real estate deals, according to the indictment. Gagnon has never had a real estate broker or agent license, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.

Gagnon, who once was enrolled in the religious order's boarding school, visited a Rhode Island convent where the alleged victims lived in November 2008, according to the indictment.

When Gagnon heard the nuns were trying to buy property on Pequena Street in San Diego to be used as a residence for the order's sisters, she told them she could help them with the deal, according to court papers.

Gagnon sent the nuns a letter with bogus letterhead from an attorney to convince them to send $285,000 from their retirement account that she would use to acquire the property, the indictment alleges.

Instead of buying the property, Gagnon spent the money on herself from Dec. 5, 2008, through February 2009, including $2,450 for pet-sitting services, $217 at a nail salon, $448 for lingerie, $32,575 for mortgage payments, $5,400 for rent and $1,523 on her car loan, according to the indictment.

The indictment also alleges Gagnon lied to the nuns about what she did with the money and refused repeated requests to return the funds.

In March 2009, Gagnon told the nuns she was attempting to close the real estate deal, but the money was tied up in "double" and "triple" escrow, so she needed more cash, the indictment alleges.