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Girl jailed for wearing offensive T-shirt to court

T-shirt girl asks judge to vacate contempt ruling

 

May 22, 2010


BETH KRAMER

Chicago Sun-Times

T-shirt girl is going to court Monday as a defendant, at which time she will get to prove that she can appear before a judge in more than sweat pants and a T-shirt that the judge considered offensive.

Lake County Circuit Court Associate Judge Helen Rozenberg found Round Lake Park resident Jennifer LaPenta, 20, in contempt of court May 3 for wearing a T-shirt that read": "I have the (female body part), so I make the rules."

LaPenta was sentenced to 48 hours in jail and was released after about a day. After she was released, she told The News-Sun that she would never wear that outfit if she was appearing in court for herself.

She has the opportunity to prove it when she appears before Rozenberg for a hearing.

"I'm going to be dressed up -- I'm not going to wear anything offensive," LaPenta said Friday.

She said she planned to wear business clothes to her premiere court appearance on her own behalf.

Her attorney, Peter Kalagis of Park Ridge, said the hearing is to ask that the judge remove the criminal contempt charge from LaPenta's previously unblemished permanent record.

Kalagis has contended since this occurred that his client's First Amendment rights were violated.

"We as a people are free to express ourselves in words and writing as long it doesn't cause harm," Kalagis said.

He said that most people in theirs 20s, 30s and 40s would not find the T-shirt LaPenta wore offensive.

LaPenta was wearing that shirt to work out when a friend requested a ride to the courthouse about 20 minutes before the start of the afternoon court session, Kalagis said. LaPenta had said that after she was released from jail.

"She never thought anything of it (the T-shirt). She didn't give it a second thought. What's interesting, too, is that she passed deputies, clerks and court personnel. Nobody told her it was inappropriate and they're on the lookout for stuff like that," Kalagis said.

LaPenta offered to remove the shirt and exit the courtroom. Instead, she was remanded into custody right away, according to Kalagis and LaPenta.

Rozenberg wrote that LaPenta was in the front row of the gallery "wearing a shirt displaying obscene wording" in the order she filed. Rozenberg also wrote that LaPenta gave "no excuse" for her attire.

Kalagis contests this in the paperwork he filed requesting the judge vacate the criminal contempt order.

Rozenberg can decide to change the order, he said.

Kalagis had previously spoken of his intention to file a civil suit. He said Friday that LaPenta was not seeking monetary damages.

"I'm just looking to get it off my record. I'm not filing a lawsuit," LaPenta said.

She is scheduled to appear before the judge at 9 a.m. Monday.

 

LINK TO PHOTO OF LaPenta:

http://www.suntimes.com/news/24-7/2302240,5_1_WA22_TSHIRT_S1-100522.article

Entry #2,351

Obama: If LeBron is looking, Bulls have good core

Obama: If LeBron is looking, Bulls have good core

May 23, 2010 3:34 PM 

Tribune News Services

If LeBron James isn't sure he can win in Cleveland, President Barack Obama thinks there's an opportunity with his hometown Bulls.

"You know, like I said, I don't want to meddle," Obama told TNT. "I will say this: (Derrick) Rose, Joakim Noah it's a pretty good core. You know, you could see LeBron fitting in pretty well there."

Obama was interviewed about a number of basketball subjects by broadcaster Marv Albert on the White House basketball court. The interview will be shown Tuesday night at 7 p.m. CT.

James can become a free agent this summer, and his decision whether to leave the Cavaliers is one of the hottest topics in sports. Though he's never said he wants out of his native Ohio, there's speculation he'd consider it after the Cavaliers were knocked out of the playoffs in the second round by the Boston Celtics.

"I think that the most important thing for LeBron right now is actually to find a structure where he's got a coach that he respects and is working hard with teammates who care about him and if that's in Cleveland, then he should stay in Cleveland," Obama said. "If he doesn't feel like he can get it there, then someplace else."

Obama compared James' situation to the Bulls not winning until Michael Jordan had confidence in Phil Jackson, Scottie Pippen and the rest of his teammates. Once that happened, Chicago won six NBA championships in the 1990s.

"It wasn't until you got that framework around you that you could be a champion," Obama said. "Same thing happened with Kobe (Bryant). You know, I think that, first with Shaq (O'Neal) then later with (Pau) Gasol, you know, he's gotten that sense of a team around him and I think LeBron hasn't quite been able to get that yet. That's what he needs to find."

 

LINK TO PHOTO OF OBAMA WITH BULLS:

http://www.chicagobreakingsports.com/2010/05/obama-if-lebron-is-looking-bulls-have-good-core.html

Entry #2,349

Ex-prisoner crashes his car into tree at correctional facility

Published: May 21, 2010
Updated: May 22, 2010 10:11 a.m.

Man sentenced for crashing into a tree at a jail

LARRY WELBORN

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

NEWPORT BEACH – A Los Alamitos man was sentenced to nine years in prison Friday for crashing a car into a tree inside the James Musick Correctional Facility and getting into a fight with a guard.

Matthew Van McDaniel, 25, pleaded guilty to felony aggravated assault on an officer, one felony count of an ex-convict entering grounds of a correctional facility, misdemeanor reckless driving, misdemeanor driving under the influence of alcohol and misdemeanor driving with a blood level of .08 percent or more.

 

Article Tab : booking-matthew-mcdaniel-

                                         Matthew Van McDaniel

 

McDaniel was drunk when he drove a Mercedes Benz S550 into the Musick Jail in Irvine at 2 a.m. Jan. 10 and crashed into a tree, according to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

When a correctional officer contacted McDaniel, he was punched in the face, prosecutors said. After he was finally restrained, McDaniel showed signs of intoxication, including slurred speech and a distinct odor of alcohol from his breath.

During the booking process, McDaniel tested at a blood alcohol level of .14 percent, according to prosecutors.

Entry #2,346

Man uses fake grenade at Dunkin Donuts

The Daytona Beach News-Journal

 

Grenade 'joke' leads to man's arrest

May 21, 2010 12:05 AM

Southeast Volusia

 

William F. Biggers

 

 

He may have intended it as a joke, but threatening to blow up a woman with a fake hand grenade was no laughing matter, according to Edgewater police.

William F. Biggers, 62, a transient from Oak Hill, was arrested Wednesday morning after an employee at the Dunkin' Donuts on South Ridgewood Avenue told officers he tried to rob her while she was cleaning the store's windows.

Cherish Michelle Williams, 41, said Biggers came up behind her and demanded her money "or he was going to blow up this place." When she turned she saw what she thought was a hand grenade in his hand, police said.

Biggers then told her he was joking and the device was not live.

The responding officer spotted Biggers sitting on a bench a short distance away with the grenade next to him. An investigation showed its explosive components had been removed.

Biggers was taken into custody and charged with aggravated assault before being taken to the Volusia County Branch Jail. He remained there Thursday on $2,000 bail.

Entry #2,345

Feds neglected to collect billions from big oil

Feds neglect to collect billions from big oil

SCOTT HIAASEN AND CURTIS MORGAN

Miami Herald

The obscure federal agency that oversees the offshore drilling industry -- second only to the Internal Revenue Service in generating government revenue -- has a deeply troubled record of collecting royalties from the $1 trillion-a-year petroleum industry, records show.

That agency, the Minerals Management Service, has two main missions: To enforce drilling safety rules and collect billions in royalties. Since the April 20 BP Gulf rig blowout, scrutiny has focused almost exclusively on MMS' safety standards.

Yet critics -- including former MMS employees -- have long accused the agency of going light on the industry in collecting royalties. Government investigators have repeatedly chided the MMS for weak enforcement and loose standards in seeking the fees, potentially costing the government -- and taxpayers -- billions in unclaimed royalties.

In one notorious case, the MMS was literally found in bed with the petroleum industry: Two MMS employees were cited for having brief sexual relationships with oil company officials, according to a 2008 probe by the Interior Department's inspector general.

GIFTS, BOOZE, GOLF

The investigation also found that oil and gas executives had plied 19 employees in an MMS royalty office with gifts, booze, and golf and ski trips. ``Our investigation revealed an organizational culture lacking acceptance of government ethical standards,'' the inspector general concluded.

Even as drilling exploration increased throughout the Gulf from 2000 to 2006, the MMS reduced the number of workers in its royalty compliance office by 75 positions. Spending on royalty enforcement in the Gulf fell nearly $3 million from 2003 to 2006. And, records show, the agency is increasingly relying on information provided by the companies in collecting royalties.

CONFLICTING ROLES

These trends evolved against the backdrop of the agency's conflicting roles as regulator, bill collector and promoter of drilling exploration. Critics say the scales have tipped heavily one way. 

Tyson Slocum, director of the energy program for the left-leaning nonprofit watchdog group Public Citizen, said the gifts scandal simply added a sleaze factor to the legendary kowtowing culture of MMS.

``We knew the MMS was a corrupt agency,'' said Slocum. ``It's in the popular culture that this agency is a joke.''

Yet it took the environmental catastrophe to do what scathing government investigations, years of bipartisan criticism, the sex-and-gifts scandal and a $10 billion bureaucratic bungle could not: force the dismantling of the MMS, ordered last week in Washington.

MMS officials did not respond to interview requests last week.

HONOR SYSTEM

The MMS, an office within the Interior Department, was created ostensibly to help solve problems collecting royalties, after a critical 1982 study deemed Interior's efforts a ``failure.''

``The oil and gas industry is not paying the royalties it rightly owes,'' the 1982 report found. ``The industry is essentially on the honor system.'' 

Almost 30 years later, with the MMS collecting more than $12 billion a year in royalties from gas and oil companies, little has changed.

MMS depends largely on the self-reporting of oil and gas companies to determine how much they owe in royalties -- a system the Interior Department's former inspector general, Earl Devaney, described as ``basically an honor system'' in congressional testimony in 2007.

Just two months ago, the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, found that MMS continued to rely on dated and imprecise methods to gauge the amount of oil and gas produced on federal lands and leases. The GAO said the MMS was hindered by ``limited oversight, gaps in staff skills, and incomplete tools.''

`2 SETS OF BOOKS'

Similar complaints arose in the 1990s, when the Project On Government Oversight, a nonprofit watchdog group, filed lawsuits accusing oil companies of deliberately misleading the government about their oil and gas sale prices, thus minimizing their royalties. The Justice Department later joined many of those suits, which resulted in almost $500 million in settlement payments from petroleum companies.

``We had whistleblowers who were saying that the industry was essentially gaming MMS,'' said Danielle Brian, POGO's executive director. ``Essentially, they had two sets of books.''

The MMS commonly negotiates settlements with petroleum companies over disputed royalties -- but the process is often shrouded in secrecy. A 1996 inspector general report found that MMS officials kept no documents on nine out of 10 royalty settlements, to prevent disclosure under the Freedom of Information Act. In one case, the MMS could provide no records to explain why the agency reduced its estimate of a company's royalty debt by $360 million.

The embarrassments continued in 1998 and 1999, when the MMS neglected to include price limitations to trigger royalty payouts on leases for the deepest parts of the Gulf of Mexico -- in effect, allowing many companies to pump out oil and gas for free. The mistake went unnoticed until 2006.

ANGER IN CONGRESS

The error sparked outrage in Congress and yet another probe by Devaney, the inspector general. He later called the oversight a ``jaw-dropping example of bureaucratic bungling'' and said it could cost the government as much as $10 billion.

The screw-up was rendered moot last year, when a federal appeals court said the MMS could not impose price triggers on any deepwater Gulf leases approved between 1996 and 2000 -- thanks to a law passed by Congress curbing royalties to encourage more Gulf drilling. The court ruling could cost the government an additional $19 billion to $60 billion in future royalties, according to estimates.

Amid these problems, the agency took a less stringent approach to royalty collection, relying less on comprehensive audits to determine if companies were paying their fair share. MMS officials said they instead used less costly ``compliance reviews'' -- relying mainly on information provided by the companies -- to speed up its process of monitoring royalty payments, which can take years.

With fewer people, the agency was less equipped to investigate discrepancies between the oil and gas totals companies reported in royalty payments and measurements the agency collected from other sources, the inspector general found.

HELPING THEIR FRIENDS

``The priority was not on generating revenue,'' Slocum said. ``There were people in the administration and Congress who wanted to see their friends get taken care of.''

Some MMS auditors said the agency went easy on the industry. In 2004 and 2005, three auditors filed lawsuits accusing oil companies of deliberately under-paying their royalties -- and accusing MMS managers of ignoring their findings. The workers filed suit under a federal law that allows citizens to collect if they discover fraud against government.

``I would say that MMS has done a very inadequate job of pursuing any type of fraud. I believe its record is basically nonexistent on that,'' former MMS auditor Bobby Maxwell said in a 2005 deposition.

Three years ago, a Colorado jury found in Maxwell's favor with a $7.6 million verdict against Anadarko Petroleum. But the judge threw out the verdict, and Maxwell is fighting to have it reinstated.

The Interior Department's inspector general concluded that many of the problems at MMS stemmed from the agency's ``systemic dilemma'' of ``conflicting roles.''

SPLITTING THE AGENCY

Addressing this conflict in the wake of the Gulf of Mexico drilling disaster, the Obama administration last week announced plans to split the MMS into three parts -- with separate offices devoted to royalty collection, safety and environmental regulation, and offshore lease management.

Some watchdogs say the reform doesn't go far enough. By leaving existing leadership in place, the changes amount to ``rearranging the deck chairs on the Deepwater Horizon,'' said Jeff Ruch, executive director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility.

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar conceded in testimony before the Senate last week that MMS has been too lax in enforcing safety rules, and asked Congress to boost the budget for safety inspectors by $20 million.

``The days of [oil companies] treating the federal domain as essentially part of a candy store are over,'' Salazar told the Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Salazar said his staff is working to erase the stain of cronyism from the MMS, and he's asked federal prosecutors to take a look.

He also wants to end the ``revolving door'' ethos that permeated the MMS, where top officials, including the last MMS director under President Bush, went to work for the industry. 

But Salazar is going to have to do more to impress Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., one of the agency's loudest critics.

``Secretary Salazar said we have a few bad apples,'' said Susie Perez Quinn, Nelson's deputy legislative director. ``We think it's more like a whole orchard.''

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/22/v-fullstory/1643275/feds-neglect-to-collect-billions.html#ixzz0oi2xYPas

Entry #2,343

The Ugly One Monster Mystery

Update: ‘The ugly one’ monster mystery

Fri May 21 2010

 Mythical creature or water-logged bear cub? A dead animal pulled from a creek in northern Ontario has spawned a range of speculation.

Mythical creature or water-logged bear cub? A dead animal pulled from a creek in northern Ontario has spawned a range of speculation.

 

 

Lesley Ciarula Taylor

Staff Reporter

A snaggle-toothed, furry creature with a bald face and a rat’s tale has mystified natives in northern Ontario, but they have a name and a history for it.

“The elders used to see it a long time ago,” the manager of Sam’s Store in Big Trout Lake told the Star on Friday.

“No one has seen one for 40 years or so. The elders have a word for it: omajinaakoos. In English, it means ‘the ugly one’.”

Two Health Canada nurses training at the Kitchenuhmaykoosib Band reserve south of Hudson’s Bay said their dog Sam hauled out the 30-centimetre creature it found in early May floating face down near the causeway on the reserve, band spokesman Darryl Sainnawap told the Star.

“It looks like a mixed breed of an otter and a beaver,” he said. “We’re just as curious as everyone to find out what it is.”

One band member, 65-year-old John McKay, said he remembered his grandfather talking about such a creature that “feeds on beavers and otters.” Sainnawap’s 80-year-old grandfather had never seen anything like it, though.

Other elders “think it could be a messenger for bad news,” he said. “We’ll see.”

The discoverers threw it back in the water, thinking it was a commonly found northern Ontario beast, Sainnawap said.

The nurses themselves have been posted elsewhere, and staff at the nursing station won’t talk. “We work for the federal government,” said one. “We’re under a gag order.”

Sainnawap rejected speculation that it could be a man-made hybrid created for pictures.

“We don’t play God here.”

Nor would the nurses, he said. “It’s got to have a mother and father out there, so one day we will find out what it is.”

Cryptomundo.com, a site devoted to “elusive and rare animals,” has done an analysis of various small animals’ skulls, with the muskrat seeming a close match—although the nasty teeth were judged un-muskrat-like.

Others speculate it may be the mythical Ogopogo, the Chupacabra or some other marine monster, like the Loch Ness Monster.

“But more realistic considerations have talked about it being a known species, such as a bear cub (Ursus americanus) or other animals. Even the mundane looks strange without hair,” Loren Coleman at Cryptomundo said.

“The other top candidate is that of the North American river otter (Lontra canadensis).”

A New Zealand zoologist examined the teeth, whiskers and paws and decided

“I think this is just another variation of an ordinary creature sculpted by the action of decomposition by water, as I demonstrated last year with the Gisbourne New Zealand Monster that was actually a drowned Opossum.”

 

LINK TO MORE PHOTOS: 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.thestar.com/news/ontario/article/812580--update-the-ugly-one-monster-mystery?bn=1

Entry #2,342

Tea Party movement compared to President Carter

Bennett compares Tea Party movement to President Carter

Jordan Fabian
The Hill 
05/22/10 10:58 AM ET

Ousted GOP Sen. Bob Bennett fired back at the Tea Party, warning it risked following the path of Jimmy Carter.

In an op-ed to be published Sunday in The Washington Post, Bennet said the Tea Party is repeating the "gloom talk" of President Carter, and will not have a lasting impact on the country unless it changes its tack.

"I urge all of the Tea Partyers to follow Reagan, not Carter," wrote Bennett, who lost his bid for another term in Congress earlier this month after Utah Republican delegates spurned him in favor of candidates backed by the populist conservative movement.

"If they want their movement to be more than a wave that crashes on the beach and then recedes back into the ocean, leaving nothing behind but empty sand, they should stop the 'gloom talk,'" Bennett continued. "These are not the worst times we have ever faced, nor is the Constitution under serious threat."

The comparison of the Tea Party to Carter, an unpopular former president who is ridiculed by the right, is unlikely to go over well with those who identify with the Tea Party.

But Bennett wrote that the tea partiers remind him of those who were fed up with the government in the 1970s after the Nixon presidency and the Watergate scandal.

He said the Tea Party is made up of people who are "fed up with Washington profligacy," just like those who voted for Carter because they were fed up with Nixon.

Bennett also wrote that the Tea Party movement and dissatisfaction with Washington in the grassroots is a more powerful force than most inside the Beltway realize.

The senator said that the Tea Party should avoid being overly negative, like Carter was during his widely-noted "malaise speech" during which Bennett said the Georgian "warned us that America's best days were behind us and suggested that we are a country in irreversible decline. Too many Tea Party speeches sound the same note, even as they invoke Ronald Reagan's name.

Bennett's column is a strong warning to the conservative movement that helped oust him and demonstrates the rift between the Tea Partyers and the GOP political establishment.

Tea Party-backed candidate Rand Paul (R) won the Kentucky Senate primary over Secretary of State Trey Grayson (R) this week, showing the political power of the movement. 

But since then, Paul questioned the legality of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and canceled an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" as a result of the fallout. Observers have said Paul's recent problems underscore his political inexperience.

Entry #2,341

Male student who ran for prom queen suspended

Prom queen in a dress? Not this guy this night

Flanagan High School senior Omar Bonilla went from prom queen hopeful to not being able to go to prom at all. The school says he brought that punishment on himself.

 

Omar Bonilla, a finalist for prom queen, wasn't allowed to attend.
Omar Bonilla, a finalist for prom queen, wasn't allowed to attend. PETER ANDREW BOSCH / MIAMI HERALD STAFF

MICHAEL VASQUEZ

Miami Herald

After coming out of the closet this, his senior year at Flanagan High, Omar Bonilla decided to take it a step further: run for prom queen.

He almost won -- Bonilla was among the top three vote-getters -- but in the past few days, it all unraveled.

Fearful that other students would try to beat up a prom-goer in drag, the school administration asked him to wear a tuxedo to Friday night's dance. And after two meetings with the school principal to plead for the right to wear a dress, Bonilla was slapped with a two-day suspension, the timing of which meant he couldn't go to the prom at all.

As students were racing off to prom, Bonilla was putting on his blue sequin dress -- but only to pose for a Miami Herald photographer.

``This week was kind of, like, intense,'' said Bonilla, 19.

It all started last month when the senior at the Pembroke Pines school decided he wanted to run for prom king, but with the intention of wearing a dress. School administrators ran the idea through the higher-ups and told Bonilla that prom queen might be more appropriate -- an option he liked even better.

In soliciting votes from students, Bonilla -- like all other candidates -- posted posters around campus. His read ``vote Omar for prom queen -- time for a change.''

Along the way, Bonilla made the concession that, if he won, the prom king wouldn't have to dance with him, as some kings might not be comfortable doing that.

BEHAVIOR CITEDFlanagan's principal, Sharon Shaulis, referred questions to a Broward schools spokeswoman. That spokeswoman, Nadine Drew, said Flanagan banned Bonilla from prom because of his unruly behavior -- not his unconventional wardrobe plans.

On Thursday, Bonilla had a meeting set up with the school principal -- his second sit-down in two days. He was running late and inappropriately parked in a visitor parking space at the school. When schools police told him to move his car, he didn't heed their warning.

Bonilla said the principal -- citing rumors that other students might try to beat up a prom-goer in drag -- asked for him to come in a tuxedo instead of a dress. A schools police officer sat in on the second meeting.

SAFETY AN ISSUEDrew confirmed that administrators were worried about safety.

``More than ever before, those are real concerns these days,'' she said. ``Those are all taken very, very seriously.''

Bonilla refused to back down. A few hours after he left that second meeting, Bonilla was informed he'd been suspended.

DID NOT WINThat was also the day the school announced Bonilla had come close, but failed to win, the title of prom queen.

 

``They were looking for an excuse for me not to go, so they said I got suspended for a `minor disturbance,' '' Bonilla said.

The suspension, said Drew, the spokeswoman, was solely because Bonilla had ignored security personnel after parking in the wrong place. Bonilla said he was in a daze that morning and he didn't hear the security guards.

Drew insisted otherwise.

``He did hear them, he turned around, he acknowledged them,'' Drew said. ``But he did not heed or stop. . . He ignored all authority along the way, and that's just not acceptable.''

`UNFORTUNATE'California's Friends of Project 10, a nonprofit which provides educational support services to gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students, called the last-minute nature of Bonilla's suspension ``very unfortunate.'' Education Director Gail Rolf said Bonilla likely could have received help from advocacy groups if there were still time to appeal the decision.

``The question is, would they have suspended another student for the exact same behavior?'' Rolf said. ``Because if not, that's a lawsuit right there.''

Bonilla certainly wasn't the typical prom queen candidate, but openly gay male students have run for the post at other schools before. Last year, at Southern California's Fairfax High, student Sergio Garcia actually won the title of queen, though he nevertheless showed up in a tux.

`PROVE A POINT'Bonilla said Flanagan is generally an accepting place when it comes to gay students, but his desire to wear a dress and become prom queen was aimed at those students who were still scared to reveal their true selves.

``I wanted to just make a stand and prove a point,'' he said. ``Everybody is your friend, and you don't have to care what people say.

``Be fierce about it,'' he said. ``Show that you work it.''

Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/05/22/1642177/prom-queen-in-a-dress-not-this.html#ixzz0ogVB4gbt

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