truesee's Blog

Mages/NewsMayor Rudy Giuliani and then-wife Donna Hanover with children Andrew and Caroline in 1995.

Robinson/GettyCaroline Giuliani enjoys Fashion Week in 2004. Below, after her bust for shoplifting on Wednesday.

Roca/News

You're Caroline Giuliani and you shoplifted 150 bucks worth of makeup from Sephora when you had $320 in your wallet? 

Why?

Your estranged father, former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is worth up to $60 million, and your mother, Donna Hanover, got $6.7 million in their messy divorce. 

So money's not an issue. Come on, couldn't you at least have paid for the snag-free hair elastics. They cost only $3.50. 

Another question: Do they give blowouts at the 19th Precinct? Because you looked stunning when you left there with your distraught mother Wednesday, with perfect waves, cropped cranberry cardigan, designer shades perched LiLo-like atop your head. That was in stark contrast to your arrest ensemble: sneakers, pants, and a big ol' baggie NYU T-shirt. Your college, Harvard, must have appreciated that. 

Which begs another question: Did you really think you'd get away with it? 

You've done well in the Ivy League school's theater department, getting good reviews for plays you've directed, like "Fashion" and "Fat Men in Skirts." 

Surely, you're smart enough to know there are cameras and security people everywhere in Sephora. It's stocked with nothing but small but pricey items like the $89 Bliss moisturizer. 

"We deal with shoplifters every day," one staffer said. "We can always pick them out. They often have large but half-empty purses, or baggy clothes with a lot of pockets." 

Not since Winona Ryder lifted $5,500 in clothes from the Beverly Hills Saks has a shoplifting spree been so eyebrow-raising. 

But you had to know that, too, because your father was the law-and-order mayor.

After bringing down murder, rape and robbery rates with the help of top cops Bill Bratton and Jack Maple, he kept on going. 

He went after the squeegee men and the fare-beaters. He went after jaywalkers, in a city that sees jaywalking as a solution, not a problem. 

He told cops to ticket people who tossed chewing gum on the sidewalk. If you wanted to hurt the father who's barely spoken to you or your brother since he publicly dumped your mom for another woman a decade ago, breaking the law was the most embarrassing way to do it. 

You also knew you wouldn't go to jail, if caught. A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney said there were 11,022 NYPD petty larceny arrests in the borough last year. Nearly half of the first-timers, like you, got a desk appearance ticket. 

Top New York child psychiatrist Dr. Clarice Kestenbaum says shoplifting among children of wealth and privilege "often has nothing to do with the value of the item," but is an attempt to hurt a parent. 

Dr. Gregory Jantz, the author of "Gotta Have It," said you could be hurt and angry at your father, "but [you] still want his attention. This is a way of getting back at him." 

For a guy who wanted New Yorkers to pay big bucks for throwing their gum in the street, it sure is.

But then again, you knew that.

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2010/08/06/2010-08-06_carolines_shoplifting_bust_a_perfect_way_to_poke_estranged_laworder_dad.html#ixzz0vouzA5Wb

Man accused of break-in, then garage sale

QMI Agency

Last Updated: August 5, 2010 12:57pm

SARNIA, Ont. — Police have identified a suspect who is alleged to have broken into a home in June and then held a garage sale on the front yard.

Greg Kemmis, 62, was out of town on June 17 when someone broke into the rental home and garage and sold thousands of dollars worth of woodworking machinery and tools in broad daylight.

"It's one thing to steal stuff in the middle of the night ... but to be selling the stolen property right on the premises," the woodworking enthusiast told QMI Agency in July. 

Witnesses told police the thief set up a wooden sign offering "tools for sale" and stayed in front of the home from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

The suspect even placed price tags on the stolen merchandise.

"He took duct tape and my magic marker and stuck it to the machine or the items he was selling," Kemmis said, estimating the tools sold were worth $40,000.

One person who attended the yard sale returned the item he bought to police. The man told police he bought a $3,000 jointer for $110. 

Kail Russell Stokes, 26, who is currently in custody on other matters, was arrested and faces charges.

'Eat s--- and die' principal sent to another school

LINK TO ORIGINAL STORIES

http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=Ai3MaZf0jd8YTT2VpxxhcRybvZx4?p=Eva+N.+Ravelo%2C+45&toggle=1&cop=mss&ei=UTF-8&fr=fp-yie8

http://www.usatoday.com/money/perfi/basics/2010-08-05-scams05_ST_N.htm

'The View' host Whoopi Goldberg, left, said that she said 'choice words' to White House gatecrasher Michaele Salahi, right, but did not hit her

Whoopi Goldberg isn’t letting a "housewife" get the last word.

Tempers flared Wednesday morning after Goldberg unexpectedly walked onto "The View" set to interrupt an interview involving White House gatecrasher and "Real Housewives of D.C." cast mate Michaele Salahi.

 Tareq Salahi was upset that Goldberg touched his wife during the live segment of the show, where he had an "elevated and heated" exchange of words backstage with the host.

Goldberg addressed the newly-formed feud during the first few minutes of Thursday morning’s show. 

"Things got very heated on the air and backstage," Goldberg told the audience. "I come out [on set] sometimes just ‘cause I wanna. That’s the way I do it here." 

As Michaele recounted a drink-throwing dispute between her husband Tareq and one of the "Real Housewives" on Wednesday’s show, Goldberg walked on stage, touched her shoulder, and said, "Excuse me, can you get back to the White House [discussion], please." 

"Oh, if you'd like us to, we can," Michaele replied as Goldberg walked away. After the show, a sobbing Michaele said she felt attacked. 

Tempers flared after Goldberg caught wind of the claim and approached the reality star couple backstage. 

"Michaele was very upset about what was said about her on the air," the host said Thursday morning. "She thought I hit her. I went up to her and told her that she knew I didn't hit her." 

Goldberg said she unleashed some "choice words" at the couple that were "so choice you could have taken them with a knife and eaten them." 

She added that she became more irate after Tareq took out his cell phone during the argument and began snapping photos of the angered host. 

"I make no apology for my choice words," the host said. 

"As the broadcast clearly shows, the accusation was completely unfounded," a "View" spokeswoman said. "After being told she was being accused of hitting Ms. Salahi, Whoopi proceeded to defend herself verbally." 

A lawyer for the accused White House gatecrasher couple says producers of "The View" turned on the applause light for the audience when co-host Sherri Shepherd told Michaele that "you should be in jail," according to The Associated Press. 

Lawyer Lisa Bloom says her client's appearance Wednesday on ABC's "The View" was "degrading and demeaning." 

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/gossip/2010/08/05/2010-08-05_whoopi_goldberg_on_the_view_i_used_choice_words_but_did_not_hit_gatecrasher_mich.html#ixzz0vkiQaV6c

Torres/APFirst Lady Michelle Obama smiles while she visits Marbella, southern Spain.

Sacrifice is something that many Americans are becoming all too familiar with during this economic downturn. It was a key theme in President Obama's inaugural address to the nation, and he's referenced it numerous times when lecturing the country on how to get back on its feet. 

But while most of the country is pinching pennies and downsizing  summer sojourns - or forgoing them altogether - the Obamas don't seem to be heeding their own advice. While many of us are struggling, the First Lady is spending the next few days in a five-star hotel on the chic Costa del Sol in southern Spain with 40 of her "closest friends." According to CNN, the group is expected to occupy 60 to 70 rooms, more than a third of the lodgings at the 160-room resort. Not exactly what one would call cutting back in troubled times. 

Reports are calling the lodgings of  Obama's Spanish fiesta, the Hotel Villa Padierna in Marbella, "luxurious," "posh" and "a millionaires' playground." Estimated room rate per night? Up to a staggering $2,500. Method of transportation? Air Force Two. 

To be clear, what the Obamas do with their money is one thing; what they do with ours is another. Transporting and housing the estimated 70 Secret Service agents who will flank the material girl will cost the taxpayers a pretty penny. 

Perhaps it could be that the Obamas, who seem to fancy themselves more along the lines of international celebrities than actual leaders, espouse a different view of sacrifice. When Michelle Obama accompanied her husband to Copenhagen along with best buddy Oprah Winfrey, she billed the trip - an ultimately unsuccessful bid to bring the Olympics to Chicago - as follows: "As much of a sacrifice as people say this is for me or Oprah or the President to come for these few days, so many of you in this room have been working for years to bring this bid home." 

A quick jaunt to Denmark is a sacrifice? What portraits in courage! 

The Obama modus operandi is becoming clear. From lavish trips to Spain to reportedly flying Bo, the President's Portuguese water dog, on a separate aircraft to vacation with them in Maine, to a date night in New York City that perhaps cost nearly $100,000, their idea of austerity is really just the lap of luxury, at least for ordinary folks. 

Incredibly, the Obamas have long portrayed themselves as precisely such commoners. Just this month, Obama told ABC the First Couple is "not that far removed from what most Americans are going through." And that "it was just a few years ago that we had high credit card balances, we had two kids, thinking about college. We had our own retirement accounts, wondering if we were going to be able to get enough assets in there."

" WARNING THIS MAY BE OFFENSIVE TO SOME"

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/broward/fort-lauderdale/fl-flying-pasties-20100728,0,5001491.story

Kentucky

Last Updated: 8:24 am | Thursday, August 5, 2010

Atheist billboard greets state fair-goers

Group 'inspired' by similar billboard in Cincinnati

  Peter Smith • The Courier-Journal • August 5, 2010
    

 

Provided/The Courier-Journal 

A new billboard at Interstate 65 and Phillips Lane is intended to draw people to a Kentucky State Fair booth run by a secular group

 

LOUISVILLE - A coalition of secular groups and advocates for church-state separation have unveiled a billboard that will be in full view of Kentucky State Fair goers with the message: "Don't believe in God? You are not alone."

The billboard was installed Monday at Interstate 65 and Phillips Lane under the sponsorship of the newly formed Louisville Coalition of Reason. 

The message is intended to draw fair goers to a booth at the state fair sponsored by the coalition, said Edwin Hensley, coordinator of the coalition. The billboard also refers viewers to the coalition's website, louisvillecor.org. 

The billboard will let people know "that we are here, and we wish to be accepted as an equal part of the community," said Hensley, who is also active in some of the coalition's groups, such as the Louisville Atheists and Freethinkers. 

Numerous cities have seen similar messages on billboards, buses and subways in recent months. Hensley said he wasn't aware of any similar billboards before now in Kentucky, where billboards and other prominent signs have often proclaimed religious messages such as the imminent return of Jesus Christ. 

Hensley said he was inspired by news of a similar billboard in Cincinnati. That sign had to be relocated in November 2009 from a building to a freestanding location because the building owner was receiving threats, according to the Cincinnati Enquirer.

"After reading that article, I got the idea that if they could do it in Cincinnati, we could do it in Louisville," Hensley said.

The Louisville billboard site is owned by the CBS Outdoor, and there were no problems getting permission to install the sign, according to Fred Edwords, national director of the United Coalition of Reason. CBS Outdoor did not return a call for comment.

The local coalition received $4,100 from the national group to install the billboard for August, timed to coincide with the annual Kentucky State Fair with its hundreds of thousands of visitors. The group's booth at the fair will provide information about local groups advocating for a secular world view and separation of church and state. It will also tout "famous atheists and freethinkers and their accomplishments," Hensley said.

Edwords added: "Non-religious people sometimes don't realize there's a community out there for them because they're inundated with religious messages at every turn. So we hope this will serve as a beacon and let them know they aren't alone."

Religious groups contacted said they disagreed with the billboard's message but endorsed the group's right to spread it.

"I don’t think there'll be any kind of protest or anything, because that tends to popularize it rather than deter," said Wesley Pitts, executive director of missions for the Long Run Baptist Association, a local Southern Baptist group with offices near the billboard.

He said he found the billboard "confusing" and thought at first it offered a "pro-Christian" message by offering companionship to those searching for God.
Given the state-wide draw of the fair, the group is sending word of the billboard to Baptist churches throughout Kentucky.

"We're trying to inform our people across the state that it's there and that they might have an opportunity to encounter some of these people” at the fair booth, Pitts said. "We just hope they'll be Christ-like and present a positive witness rather than a negative one."

MaryAnn Gramig, director of policy at the local group ROCK (Reclaim Our Culture Kentuckiana), said freedom of expression is one of the "inalienable rights that come from God and not from man," she said. The group has been active in promoting public expressions of the view that the nation has a Judeo-Christian heritage and limits on sexually oriented businesses.

"ROCK would differ from the Louisville Coalition of Reason in that it is because of America's founding principles and acknowledgement of Providence and God as giving rights to man that they are able to live in a country that is tolerant and respectful of those types of views," she said.

The coalition says on its website that member groups support "science, reason, skepticism, civil liberties, separation of church and state, and the improvement of the human condition."

Coalition members include: Louisville Atheists and Freethinkers, Louisville Secular Book Group, Kentucky Secular Society, Atheist Women of Louisville, Secular Parents of Louisville, Louisville Atheists and Freethinkers Adopt-A-Mile and the Kentucky Association of Science Educators and Skeptics.

The site also lists "friends" of the coalition, including the Socrates Café of Louisville and the local chapter of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

http://bostonherald.com/news/columnists/view/20100805big_three_more_like_the_shaq_pack/srvc=home&position=0

http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2010/07/28/woman-discovers-husbands-second-wife-when-she-sees-their-wedding-photos-on-facebook

Bloomberg, 39 other billionaires pledge to give away half their wealth

Posted: 10:28 AM, August 4, 2010

Forty U.S. billionaires pledged on Wednesday to give away at least 50 percent of their wealth to charity as part of a campaign by investor Warren Buffett and Microsoft founder Bill Gates. 

Among the billionaires joining the campaign are New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, entertainment executive Barry Diller, Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison, energy tycoon T. Boone Pickens, media mogul Ted Turner, David Rockefeller and investor Ronald Perelman, according to "The Giving Pledge" website. 

Gates and Buffett launched "The Giving Pledge" in June to convince hundreds of U.S. billionaires to give away most of their fortune during their lifetime or after their death and to publicly state their intention with a letter of explanation.

Microsoft Corp co-founder Bill Gates speaks as New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg sits during a news conference announcing joint efforts to combat the global tobacco epidemic in New York, July 23, 2008.

The full list of billionaires and their letters can be seen at www.thegivingpledge.org. 

The Giving Pledge does not accept any money; it simply asks billionaires to make a moral commitment to give away their wealth to charity. 

The billionaires announcing their pledge on Wednesday join real estate and construction billionaire Eli Broad, venture capitalist John Doerr, media entrepreneur Gerry Lenfest and former Cisco Systems Chairman John Morgridge who have already committed to giving away most of their wealth.

Buffett, who made his fortune with insurance and investment company Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Gates and his wife, Melinda, held several dinners with a couple of dozen rich Americans in the past year to urge them to make the pledge. 

Buffett pledged in 2006 to give away 99 percent of his wealth to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and family charities. Bill and Melinda Gates have so far given more than $28 billion of their fortune to their foundation. 

Since the foundation began in 1994, it has given away more than $22 billion for health improvements in poor countries and to improve access for Americans to opportunities they need to succeed in school and life. 

Gates was ranked the second-richest man in the world by Forbes magazine this year with $53 billion, while Buffett came in at No. 3 with $47 billion. Forbes said the United States is home to 403 billionaires, the most in the world.

 
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/bloomberg_other_billionaires_pledge_IS2QUd3CkaNyLzvComMiCM#ixzz0vhHUTxP9

August 04, 2010

Sarah Palin

CBS responds to leaked Couric video

The Politico

As Jonathan Martin reported this morning, Sarah Palin’s supporters have been circulating leaked footage from 2008 showing their least favorite journalist, Katie Couric, expressing wonder at Palin’s children’s names while rehearsing.

The clip, posted to the Palin fan site Conservatives4Palin under the headline “EXPLOSIVE: New Video of Couric Mocking Palin on the Day She was Named as McCain’s Running Mate!,” shows Couric fact-checking the pronunciation of Wasilla and pausing after reading “Trig” and “Track” to say: “Where the hell do they get these names?”

Conservatives4Palin’s editors write that the clip “shows some tantalizing hints of Couric’s attitude toward the governor,” adding that the real story is the unserious way that Couric’s script frames Palin’s life story on the day she was tapped as John McCain’s running mate.

But what in this impressive biography did CBS News and Couric choose to focus on? Moose burgers and beauty pageants.

By their choice of the framing of the story, it’s evident Couric and CBS had an agenda here: They wanted to diminish Gov. Palin because her impressive record of accomplishments towered over the nonexistent record of the guy at the top of Democrat ticket.

CBS News, reached for comment, said only: “It must be a very slow news day.”

(The clip is the latest in a series of unscripted moments by CBS News anchors that have become YouTube fodder. Dan Rather was caught fretting about his trench coat before a taping in Seattle, and Couric’s own joking about the incident went viral on its own.)

Conservatives4Palin says that, in the background, you can hear the reaction of “CBS news employees who were in the control room as Couric said that about the governor’s kids.” But it’s not clear that the clip was leaked by CBS employees. In the background, a voice says, “They turned her down, dude, did you hear that? Katie, I’m getting you on YouTube,” suggesting the leaker might be watching on a monitor outside CBS.

The clip was originally posted by the College Press Video Network, whose inactive website says it will launch next year as a “selective website featuring the work of our nation's future pundits.”

Rob Brynaert at The Raw Story tracked down the website’s founder, Daren Copely, who said, "Our site is not a conservative or liberal website.” But Brynaert observed that all the blurbs on the impact of a previous incarnation of the site, launched in 2001, came from figures on the right such as Joseph Farah, editor and CEO of WorldNetDaily.com, and David Limbaugh, Rush Limbaugh’s brother.

Couric has been unpopular among Palin supporters ever since her series of interviews with the then-governor of Alaska proved to be one of the most damaging moments of Palin’s candidacy. In her book, “Going Rogue,” Palin writes in detail about the experience, calling Couric “a reporter who clearly had a partisan agenda.”

I couldn’t have known it then, but what transpired during the series of interviews and what CBS actually aired were two different breeds of cat. Camera crews shot hours of footage across the U.S.; Katie and her producers decided on which fraction America would see — and let’s just say the emphasis was on my worst moments. Editing footage is nothing new, of course; I created video packages when I worked as a sports reporter. But responsible editing means you keep the substance and context, and trim out the fat. When I saw the final cut, it was clear that CBS had sought out the bad moments, and systematically sliced out material that would accurately convey my message. The sin of omission was glaring.

Women charged for kindergarten graduation fight

August 03, 2010 5:09 PM

Tomoya Shimura

Daily Press 

VICTORVILLE • Prosecutors filed misdemeanor charges against two women whose argument reportedly sparked a brawl during a kindergarten graduation ceremony in June.

Queiona Burt, 31, of Victorville and Marina Ruth Vargas, 29, of Hesperia were charged with interference with peaceful conduct on campus and unlawful acts committed at school grounds, according to court records.

If convicted, they could face up to six months in jail on the former count and up to 90 days in jail or a $400 fine on the latter count.

The two women got into an argument on June 23 at Puesta del Sol Elementary in Victorville over a Facebook comment about the Los Angeles Lakers, according to Burt. It developed into a physical fight and several men jumped in, turning the incident into a brawl.

Burt and Vargas are scheduled to be arraigned Aug. 25.

LINK TO ORGINIAL STORY

http://www.vvdailypress.com/news/arrested-20086-brawl-kindergarten.html

JAMES QUIGG, DAILY PRESS Puesta del Sol elementary school, where fight broke out at a Kindergarten graduation ceremony.

Toe typist demonstrates how on national TV

ABC's "Good Morning America" interviewed Windom and her boyfriend, John Hilton, about the harrowing ordeal. 

Host Robin Roberts noted some were skeptical about Windom's story, "but after seeing this demonstration I think you've proved you are capable of something like this." 

"It never occurred to me that anybody would be suspicious until I saw some reference to it in one of the articles," Windom replied. "There's no way I could have done this other than the way I described, the way I was restrained." 

When police arrived at her Glenwood Avenue home, Windom had been tied to her bed by her hands for more than five hours. Her attacker had struck her in the forehead with a handgun. 

He had gone through the house stealing valuables but left her laptop at the foot of the bed. After he was gone, she used her toes to open the computer. 

On GMA, Windom showed how she had used her right big toe as a mouse. With her left foot, she grasped the power cord between her toes and used it to type. 

"I learned very quickly that using both of my [big] toes wasn't going to work," she told Roberts. "It's not the easiest thing, but that's how I did it." 

Windom said she was glad to hear police had recovered her 2009 Acura TSX, though the robber remains at large. 

Hilton described his girlfriend as "very creative" and "a fighter."

"All things considered," Windom said, "I'm doing remarkably well."

LINK TO PHOTO   

http://www.ajc.com/news/atlanta/toe-typist-demonstrates-how-584594.html