Radio Host Gets Justice for Executed Kin

WAYNE DRASH

(Oct. 15) -- Nationally syndicated radio host Tom Joyner raised his hand in victory.

Nearly 100 years had passed since his great-uncles, Thomas Griffin and Meeks Griffin, were wrongfully executed in South Carolina. On Wednesday, a board voted 7-0 to pardon both men, clearing their names in the 1913 killing of a veteran of the Confederate Army.

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Joyner embraces Gates.

It marks the first time in history that South Carolina has issued a posthumous pardon in a capital murder case.

"It really, really feels good," Joyner told CNN's Don Lemon.

Joyner made the journey to Columbia, South Carolina, with his wife, his sons, his brother and nieces and nephews.   When the board announced its decision, they danced, hugged and kissed.   "All of the above," he said.

In the end, it took only about 25 minutes for their pardon, nearly a century in the making.

"It's good for the community.   It's good for the nation. Anytime He said the ruling won't bring back his great-uncles, who were electrocuted in 1915.   But it does provide closure to his family.

"I hope now they rest in peace.  "Many who were present were touched by the symbolism and significance of the moment.

"I felt like I was a witness to a historical event.   It was pretty exciting around here," said Peter O'Boyle, the chief spokesman for the Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services.  Dwayne Green, an African-American member of the pardon board, said he admired Joyner for seeking the pardon.

"He's not only done his family a service, but also the people of South Carolina."  "There's no statute of limitations on doing the right thing," Green said.

"There's so much good that can come out of this public show of mercy.  "The unanimous vote, he said, was heartwarming and satisfying.

 "It's a great opportunity to show how much South Carolina has changed," he said.   "While change comes slow, outcomes like this are a positive sign."Joyner, the host of "The Tom Joyner Morning Show," had known nothing of his great-uncles' murder convictions until last year.

That's when esteemed Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. uncovered Joyner's past as part of the PBS documentary "African American Lives 2.  "In the documentary, Joyner explains that he never knew why his grandmother left South Carolina.

 "All I know is she left home and she ended up in Florida and she didn't stay in touch with her people, either," Joyner says.  "Do you know why your grandmother moved away?"

 Gates says."No," Joyner says.   "I have no idea."Gates then shows him his great-uncles' death certificates. "Cause of death: Legal electrocution," it says.  "They electrocuted my --" an astonished Joyner says, unable to finish his sentence. 

In that moment, Joyner began the journey that led him to Wednesday's pardon.   Gates and legal historian Paul Finkelman aided in the research of his family history, and helped lobby South Carolina to pardon the two Griffin brothers.

It wasn't the first time a pardon had been sought for the men.   According to their research, more than 150 citizens of Blackstock, South Carolina, asked the governor at the time for their sentences to be commuted.

 Many prominent whites in the community, including the mayor and former sheriff of Chester County, came to the defense of the Griffin brothers.

"I heard this case, and I don't think I could have given a verdict of guilty," one magistrate wrote.  The Griffin brothers had owned 130 acres in the area and were well-liked in the community.

They were convicted of killing John Q. Lewis, a 73-year-old veteran of the Civil War. Lewis was slain in his home on April 24, 1913.

 "Only the most profound sense of injustice would have led so many white leaders of the community and ordinary white citizens to publicly support blacks convicted of murdering a white man," Finkelman said in a letter to the board of paroles and pardons. 

According to the research uncovered by Finkelman, Lewis, the former Confederate soldier, apparently had an intimate relationship with a married 22-year-old black woman, Anna Davis. 

 Suspicion initially turned to her and her husband after the murder.   "It is plausible to believe that the sheriff did not want to pursue Mr. and Mrs. Davis because if they were tried, it would have led to a scandalous discussion in open court," Finkelman wrote to the pardon board on October 2, 2008. 

The investigation later turned to another man, Monk Stevenson, who would ultimately point police to the Griffin brothers and two other black men. 

Stevenson received a life sentence in exchange. "Stevenson later told a fellow inmate that he had implicated the Griffin brothers because he believed they were wealthy enough to pay for legal counsel, and as such would be acquitted," Finkelman said. 

The Griffin brothers and the two other men, Nelson Brice and John Crosby, were convicted in a trial that lasted four days. They were electrocuted on September 29, 1915. 

Now, Joyner says he urges all African-Americans to explore their pasts -- no matter how difficult that journey may be. "You can look at your ancestor struggles of the past and be encouraged. 

If they can go through what they went through, you can do much better," he said.His journey is continuing. 

 He wants to know even more about his great-uncles -- what happened to their land, how they made the community better, what made them so well-liked by whites in segregated South Carolina. 

"Until we can repair some of the deeds of the past, we can't really look forward," he said.

Picking a fight: White House vs Fox News

NEW YORK — President Barack Obama's communications director says it was Fox News Channel, not the White House, that picked a fight

Yet it was Anita Dunn's words during a CNN interview last week, saying Fox is like "a wing of the Republican Party," that ignited one of the most unusual verbal volleys between a presidential administration and journalists since Vice President Spiro Agnew complained during the Nixon years about the "nattering nabobs of negativism."

Dunn's stance cheered many of the president's supporters who seethe over anti-Obama stories on Fox opinion shows, but has caused a backlash among some who say it exposed the administration as thin-skinned.

White House unhappiness had been building. The president himself said there is "one television station that is entirely devoted to attacking my administration." Fox's coverage of health care demonstrations over the summer, former administration official Van Jones and the community activists ACORN clearly knocked the administration off stride.

The White House blog attacked Fox commentator Glenn Beck for "lies."

"The administration was being attacked, members of this administration were being attacked, policies of this administration were being misrepresented — and that's a generous interpretation of how they were being described," Dunn said. "The reality is that at some point, the administration has to defend itself."

Fox has fought back hard. Network executive Michael Clemente said it was "astounding" that administration critics couldn't distinguish between news and opinion programming.

"It seems self-serving on their part," he said.

Fox said network executives have been told that no one from the administration would appear on a Fox show as a guest through the end of the year. Dunn denied there was a White House ban on Fox appearances. "We haven't said that to them," she said.

Last week on his show, Beck placed a red phone on his desk, saying it was a hot line available to Dunn anytime she thought something untrue about Obama was being said on his show.

"I don't think the White House actually wants a dialogue," Beck said. "They want to smear, isolate and destroy."

Dunn on Beck: "He's always good for a laugh."

Beck uncovered a speech Dunn had given where she referred to Mother Teresa and Mao Tse-Tung as "two of my favorite political philosophers." He said it was "insanity" that she was quoting the late Chinese dictator; Dunn said she was being ironic and got the idea for the reference from GOP strategist Lee Atwater.

Dunn also criticized Fox's Chris Wallace for referring to the administration as filled with "crybabies." ("We kept ourselves from ... responding, 'I am rubber, you are glue,'" Dunn said). But there was a specific provocation: The president appeared on five Sunday morning public affairs shows on Sept. 20, every one except Wallace's.

"I would think that what this reflects is a pent-up frustration or rage at the coverage they get, not only from Fox but elsewhere," said David Gergen, a CNN commentator and former White House aide.

Gergen said he understands the temptation to go on the attack — he's done it himself — but it frequently turns out to be a mistake.

"My experience has been when the White House engages in personal or organizational attacks, it elevates the other side to virtually the same level of the White House, which is not their intent," he said. "It's going to spike Fox's ratings," which are already high this year.

If the White House wants to fight back, it's better to let surrogates do the work, he said.

Several critics have questioned the wisdom of Obama's approach.

"Whether or not you like Fox News, all of us in the press need to be concerned about the administration of President Barack Obama trying to 'punish' the cable news channel for its point of view," wrote television critic David Zurawik in the Baltimore Sun.

Among grass-roots Democrats, many think it was important for the president to put his foot down, said Karen Finney, a Democratic strategist. Many strongly believe that the president and his staff should have nothing to do with Fox, she said.

But research has shown that Fox, easily the top-rated cable news network, has independents and moderates in its audience that the president shouldn't ignore, she said.

"There is room for a more nuanced strategy," she said: Stay away from Beck or the morning "Fox&Friends," she suggested, but an interview with Wallace could be beneficial.

Dunn said the administration still deals with Fox reporters such as Major Garrett in the White House. Obama "has appeared on Fox shows in the past (and) he certainly will appear on them in the future," she said. There have been no backstage "peace talks" in the past week; Obama adviser David Axelrod met with Fox chief Roger Ailes about a month ago.

On Sunday, Axelrod reiterated on ABC's "This Week" that administration officials would appear on the channel, even as he said Fox News shouldn't be treated as a news organization.

In a written statement Sunday, Clemente accused the White House of continuing to "declare war on a news organization" rather than focusing on issues such as jobs and health care.

"The door remains open and we welcome a discussion about the facts behind the issues," he said.

"Given the challenges facing the country, you would think there were a lot better things to talk about, for a news network," Dunn said. "Maybe they would want to cover some of these issues — if they were a news network."

Gergen suggested it's time for a cooling-off period for an administration that finds itself in the usually no-win position of fighting a 24-hour news organization.

"The notion ought to be to restore professional relations to the extent possible and not make this a long-term war," he said.

Elderly woman test-drives car over edge of cliff

An elderly woman has had a lucky escape after the disabled-adapted car she was test-driving plummeted over the edge of a 100-foot hillside in Highcliffe, Dorset.

 Telegraph UK

12:56PM BST 18 Oct 2009

The car toppled over the cliff, rolling down a steep slope and into a patch of gorse Photo: BNPS

The woman, who is in her 80s, pressed the accelerator instead of the brake and sped through a park bench, sailed through the air, and came to rest half-way down the slope on a cushion of gorse before emerging unscathed.

The woman, who has problems with her legs, had been

She was driving round the car park of the Cliffhanger Cafe, in Highcliffe, Dorset, when she tried to pull into a disabled bay facing out to sea.

But instead of coming to a stop, the car lunged forwards and toppled over the cliff, rolling down a steep slope and into a patch of gorse.

Martin Jeffreys, 63, from New Milton, Dorset, said: "It's miracle she wasn't hurt - the car literally flew through the air.

"I was just getting out of my car when I saw her pulling up in the disabled bay.

"But she hit the accelerator by accident and just went lurching forwards.

"The car went up a small hill in front of the cliff edge, took the wooden bench out and went straight over.

"The car actually took off, it was unbelievable.

"I thought it must have rolled over and I ran down to try and help. I was the first person on the scene.

"The car was smoking a bit but the lady was absolutely fine. It was extraordinary."

Sergeant Leo Glendon, from Dorset Police, said: "The lady, who is in her 80s, came down to the car park to practice driving her car, which had just been fitted with hand controls.

"She was trying to pull up in a parking space when she lost control of it. Instead of coming to a stop, she drove straight over the edge.

"The car knocked through a wooden park bench and rolled down the cliff. Fortunately there is a lot of gorse around to cushion the fall.

"When we arrived she had already been helped out of the car through the boot by passers-by.

"Incredibly she wasn't hurt at all. Her only injuries are a few scratches she got from brambles as she got out of the car.

"She was shaken, of course, has now been taken home to recover with a cup of tea."

10:16 a.m. Sunday, October 18, 2009 

Ala. mayor accused of taking Rolex, other bribes

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Mayor Larry Langford, who could be tossed out of office and go to prison if convicted of federal bribery charges, recently offered some advice to a new Birmingham City Council member.

"The illusion of power is the most dangerous drug on the planet," Langford said. "A little bit of power — nothing intoxicates like it."

Last week's comment may sound a lot like the government's opening argument against Langford, 61, the most recent in a long line of prominent names in the state Democratic Party to face corruption charges. Jury selection begins Monday.

Prosecutors claim a greedy, power-drunk Langford accepted bribes totaling some $235,000 — a chunk of it for upscale clothes and jewelry — while serving as president of the JeffersonCounty Commission before he was elected mayor. In exchange, they say, Langford steered $7.1 million in bond business to a political crony's investment banking firm.

Those bond deals and others turned sour during the credit crunch and brought on a financial crisis that has pushed Alabama's most populous county to the brink of filing what would be the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history. The current commissioners have repeatedly extended credit agreements as they struggle to pay back $3.9 billion.

Charged with multiple felony counts of bribery, conspiracy, fraud, money laundering and tax violations, Langford automatically would be removed from office if convicted of even one count.

Defense attorney Michael Rasmussen laughed at the possibility of a guilty plea, saying Langford "maintains he is innocent and expects to get a fair trial."

The government's key witnesses will likely be two former Democratic Party leaders indicted with Langford last year.

Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount, a former Alabama Democratic Party chairman, pleaded guilty in August to paying bribes to Langford, who is accused of accepting gifts including a Rolex watch, cash and loan payoffs at luxury clothing stores.

Lobbyist Al LaPierre, a former executive director of the state Democratic Party, pleaded guilty to being a middleman in the scheme.

Langford, also a Democrat, has argued that what the government calls bribes really were gifts between old friends. He says the charges were brought by a Republican prosecutor as part of a GOP plan to target him and other Alabama Democrats.

His argument is similar to that of former Gov. Don Siegelman, another Democrat convicted of bribery and other federal corruption charges in 2006.

A widespread probe of financial wrongdoing in the state's two-year college system also led to the downfall of its chancellor, Roy Johnson. He was once a powerful Democrat in the Alabama House who admitted getting some $1 million in kickbacks for himself, family and friends. He now awaits sentencing.

The executive director of the Alabama Democratic Party, Jim Spearman, agrees that Republican prosecutors seem to go after Democrats with special zest. But Blount and LaPierre haven't been associated with the party for years, he said.

"Democrat or Republican, I don't think anyone has a lock on ethics. You see all degrees of problems on all sides, and we need to clean it up," Spearman said.

Nearly two dozen people already have been convicted or pleaded guilty in an investigation of Jefferson County's tangled finances, including four other commissioners.

The trial, expected to last about two weeks, will be held 55 miles west of Birmingham in Tuscaloosa because of pretrial publicity.

Langford served as president of the county commission from 2002 through 2006, giving up his seat to run for mayor in 2007. The former television news reporter and beer company promoter, with his fashionable clothes and wide smile, won in a landslide.

He has launched numerous projects to pave streets and clean up neighborhoods during 22 months as mayor, but he is also known for seemingly Quixotic, off-the-wall ideas, including a bid to lure the Olympics to Birmingham in 2020. Critics often call Langford "Mayor LaLa."

When he was commission president, the county made a series of risky financial deals known as bond swaps with Blount's firm, Blount Parrish and Co. Inc. Blount said in his plea agreement that he bribed Langford to make the deals, which brought $7.1 million to Blount's company.

Blount also admitted bribing another former commissioner, Mary Buckelew, with luxury gifts. Buckelew, a Republican, also pleaded guilty to lying to grand jurors and is expected to testify againstLangford.

A former judge not involved in the case said Langford must attack the credibility of witnesses, including Blount and LaPierre, both of whom could receive lighter sentences for their cooperation.

"Everybody has a motive if you're Langford, has a reason, not to tell the truth," said former U.S. Magistrate Judge John Carroll, now dean of the law school at Samford University in suburban Birmingham.

LINK TO PHOTO OF MAYOR:

http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/ala-mayor-accused-of-165692.html

Joe Biden: the worrying rise of Barack Obama’s Mr Wrong

Vice-President Joe Biden has been on the wrong side of history on all the big questions, argues Toby Harnden

Toby Harnden

Telegraph UK

4:17PM BST 17 Oct 2009

Joe Biden's overseas expertise amounted to having spent a long time as chairman of the Senate foreign affairs committee Photo: EPA

Want to know how to deal with a momentous issue of war or grand strategy? You could do a lot worse than check out what Vice-President Joe Biden thinks – and plump for the opposite.

Mr Biden was chosen as Barack Obama's running mate last August because he was old, white and supposedly knew a lot about foreign policy. I say "supposedly" because really Mr Biden's overseas expertise amounted to having spent a long time as chairman of the Senate foreign affairs committee, knowing the names of lots of world leaders, and being able to josh around amiably with them during congressional junkets across the globe.

What Mr Obama overlooked was that Mr Biden, who served as a senator for tiny Delaware for 36 years, had never run anything in his life, or taken decisions rather than talking about things, at legendary length. Even in the United States Senate, that august body which each week produces enough hot air to transport 1,000 six-year-olds across America, Mr Biden – who sports hair plugs and a set of porcelain-enhanced gnashers that would blind a polar bear – is renowned for his wordiness.

His speech is littered with the word "literally" and he glories in meandering anecdotes about his family and Irish ancestry. When Obama aides tried to muzzle him during the campaign, Mr Biden agreed but would then muse on the stump: "I try to cut this stuff down, not dumb it down, just get down to the quick of the matter, the essence of the matter."

Making fun of Joe Biden is a bipartisan affair. A quip about Biden being a windbag is guaranteed to bring a Democrat and Republican together in Washington.

Mr Obama himself even dabbled in it in February when he responded to a question about yet another Biden gaffe by saying, "I don't know what Joe was referring to, not surprisingly", prompting stifled sniggers from White House staffers at the back of the room.

A miffed Mr Biden used his weekly lunch with the President to ask him not to "diss" him in public. Mr Obama agreed, scheduling a photo op of the pair eating hamburgers together to demonstrate they were still buddies. The real difficulty with Mr Biden, however, is his judgement.

On all the big questions, he has been – to put it politely – on the wrong side of history. In 1990, he voted against American forces expelling Saddam Hussein from Kuwait. He voted for the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and advocated splitting it into three states along ethnic lines. He opposed the Iraq troop surge of 2007 that pacified the country and rescued the US from the jaws of defeat.

Now, Mr Biden is pushing a policy of what he terms "counter-terrorism plus" – a scheme which involves a much smaller military presence in Afghanistan, with al-Qaeda elements being targeted at long range by military drones and smart missiles.

This runs entirely against the counter-insurgency doctrine convincingly outlined by Gen Stanley McChrystal, who wants an extra 40,000 troops to enable Nato forces to protect and influence the people while mentoring the Afghan army and police, and gathering intelligence on the ground.

The problem is that Mr Obama may now be listening to Mr Biden. Having supposedly already settled on an Afghan strategy in March, he is giving a very public impression of Hamlet as he wrings his hands and conducts endless White House debates – with details leaked to the press – about what to do. These Afghanistan policy seminars are principally designed to demonstrate that Mr Obama is not the hot-headed "decider" President George W Bush. But the dithering is projecting a dangerous uncertainty about the West's intentions to an Afghan people craving assurance that Nato is fully committed, and in for the long haul. More seriously, Mr Obama's inclination on troop levels seems to be to seek a middle way – a "splitting the baby" option that could be the worst of all possible worlds.

The Left, sensing that Mr Obama is wavering and beginning to rethink his campaign contention that Afghanistan was the "good war" as opposed to Mr Bush's evil Iraq adventure, is throwing its lot in with Mr Biden. There's a solidifying conventional wisdom in Washington that Mr Biden's star is in the ascendant. This week's Newsweek front cover sporting the vice-president's steely visage beside the headline "Why Joe is No Joke" is no doubt already framed in the Biden downstairs loo. If Mr Obama really believes that's true then we could all be in big trouble.

Navy veteran undaunted after robbery

The penny.

Robbers' choice of weapon: dynamite

Henry K. Lee

Chronicle Staff Writer

Last Updated Sunday, October 18, 2009

(10-17) 06:58 PDT VALLEJO -- Two men were armed with an unusual weapon of choice when they robbed a Vallejo check-cashing business - dynamite.

The holdup happened at the Cash & Go on the 200 block of Tennessee Street when the men came into the business at about 10:10 a.m. Friday.

One man was armed with a semiautomatic handgun while the other was carrying a bundle of suspected dynamite, said Vallejo police Sgt. Kevin Bartlett.

The men robbed customers and employees of undisclosed items before fleeing in a 197 to 1980 silver Volvo last seen heading west on Tennessee.

No explosion occurred. The robbery is being investigated with the assistance of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

One robber was described as a black man between 5 feet 9 inches and 6 feet tall and weighing 150 to 170 pounds. He was last seen wearing a black hoodie, a dark bandana and blue jeans.

The second was described as a black man between 5 feet 6 and 5 feet 9 inches tall, weighing 140 to 170 pounds, wearing a black hoodie, a dark bandana and black pants.

One of the robbers was seen with dreadlocks.

The Volvo was a 240-tpe model with a "loud exhaust" and tinted windows that were peeling in the back.

Two masked and armed suspects entered the Cash & Go in the 200 block of Tennessee Street in Vallejo on Friday, October 16, 2009. One suspect was armed with a semi automatic handgun and the other suspect was armed with a bundle of suspected dynamite. They robbed the customers and employees and fled in a silver Volvo heading west on Tennessee Street.

Photo: Vallejo Police Department

Woman, 97, has a front seat to homelessness

Bessie Mae Berger and her two sons, 60 and 62, live in a rusty 1973 Suburban. Getting a place is hard because they insist on staying together.

Audio  and video slide show:

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-bessie-vid,0,6819231.htmlstory

Bob Pool

LA Times

October 16, 2009

Roger D. Grandy was killed in a fire at his home Wednesday.

Victim of fatal fire identified

Jay Tokasz and Gene Warner

NEWS STAFF REPORTERS

Updated: October 15, 2009, 1:11 PM / 

Lancaster police have identified the man found dead inside a house destroyed by fire Wednesday morning as Roger D. Grandy, the homeowner and sole resident.

An investigation into the cause of the blaze at 304 Pleasant View Drive, across the street from the transportation department of Lancaster Central School District, is continuing, police said.

The findings of an autopsy this morning confirmed what friends and neighbors of Grandy had suspected -- that the 51-year-old Lottery winner was caught inside the inferno.

On Pleasant View Drive, Grandy was considered a model neighbor and all-around good guy.

Fellow employees at the Clarion Hotel on Transit Road knew Grandy as a hard-working airport shuttle driver who treated them as family, celebrating their birthdays with cakes and singing.

Grandy lived an unassuming life for a man who had won $3.3 million in the Nov. 16, 1996, Lotto drawing. He was one of three winners of a jackpot worth $10 million, according to state lottery officials.

Friends said Grandy never spent lavishly and enjoyed working.

"He was very shy about letting anyone know about [his lottery windfall]," said Jody Schilling, whose parents live next door to the west of Grandy. "It was the first time he ever played. He never changed his lifestyle. He lived like an everyday, normal person."

Grandy's body was found in the back of the ranch house, in what was believed to be a living room.

"We don't know if he was trying to get out," Lancaster police Capt. Timothy R. Murphy said.

Grandy's pickup truck was still in the garage, and Wednesday was a regular day off from his job at the hotel.

Neighbors reported the blaze at 6:47 a.m.

Mike Diegelman, who lives next door, said that Grandy closed the garage door only when he was away from the house, and when Diegelman saw the door open, he ran into the garage and tried to alert Grandy by sounding the horn of the pickup.

"There was so much smoke, I had to crawl out of there," said Diegelman, who couldn't get into the house.

Diegelman also threw a log through a bedroom window and sprayed water inside to see if Grandy would respond.

"I thought beeping the horn would wake him up and he'd run out," Diegelman said. "It was horrible. It was the worst thing I've ever experienced, because I knew he was in there."

Lancaster police Lt. John Robinson also tried to get into the structure but was beaten back by flames and smoke, Murphy said.

Friends said Grandy was a smoker and regularly used a wood-burning fireplace in the colder months.

The devastating blaze left furniture in Grandy's home burned beyond recognition and melted the siding of a neighboring house.

The fire could have been smoldering inside long before neighbors noticed flames shooting from the center of the house, Murphy said.

Debra Mazurek, a neighbor, was taken to Millard Fillmore Suburban Hospital in Amherst for smoke inhalation, according to Schilling, her daughter.

Grandy purchased the house in 2000, according to Erie County clerk's office records, and was considered a friendly, easy going neighbor.

Lottery officials said Grandy took his $3.3 winnings in annual payments.

"You would have never guessed," said Jenna Schweitzer, front office manager of the Clarion Hotel. "He collected bottles and cans and returned them."

Schweitzer said Grandy confided in her several years ago about his lottery winnings, but didn't talk about it openly.

"It didn't seem like something that was that important to him," she said.

Grandy was a conscientious employee who showed up early for his 6 a.m. shift start and "was always in good spirits."

"He was always here. He was a dedicated employee, here for 40 hours a week and then some," Schweitzer said.

Grandy remembered his co-workers' birthdays by bringing in their favorite cakes and singing to them, and at Christmas time he would bring in gifts.

"He's like family," Schweitzer said. "We're very, very shook up."

Neighbors were shaken, as well.

Grandy regularly checked on Schilling's father, James Mazurek, who had suffered a stroke.

He also kept a close watch on neighbors' homes when they traveled.

"He loved the neighborhood," Schilling said.

Suspect makes getaway on PVTA bus, but victim of stolen wallet at Springfield bus stop tracks him down

The Republican Newsroom

October 15, 2009, 11:22PM

The Republican file photo

SPRINGFIELD – Police said a woman was able to track the man who stole her wallet after he made his getaway as a bus passenger.

Demot E. Weaver Jr., of 152 Kensington Ave., was arrested and charged with unarmed robbery Thursday afternoon after he robbed a woman of her wallet as she was pulling out money for bus fare at the PVTA bus stop at Pine and Central streets, said Capt. C. Lee Bennett. After grabbing the wallet, Weaver left the scene by boarding the bus, she said.

The woman ran to get her boyfriend, and the two followed the bus in the boyfriend’s car downtown to Main and Fort streets, Bennett said.

The woman followed Weaver from Main and Fort into the Fort Restaurant, where he was filling out a job application, Bennett said. He saw her and ran out the door, but in the ensuing commotion, Fort employees called the police, Bennett said. Weaver was apprehended by officers Eugene Roux and James Moriarity a few blocks away, Bennett said.

FBI investigates investigator

An accountant known for tracing missing funds is being investigated over reports of funds missing from his firm.

LUISA YANEZ

Miami Herald

October 16, 2009

LINK TO STORY AND VIDEO:

http://crimesearchersonline.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=83-year-old-Dad-had-enough.html&Itemid=60

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/news/6338303/50-most-annoying-things-about-the-internet.html

Mother, man charged in Oklahoma City teenager’s ‘torture’
53 counts filed against mother, her friend in case of 15-year-old allegedly locked in closet

A mother "tortured” her son in Oklahoma City for years, locking him in a closet, setting him on fire, beating him and forcing him to stand barefoot in the snow, prosecutors alleged Thursday in a child abuse charge.

A friend of the woman also is charged with abusing the boy.

The case attracted national attention after the malnourished boy left his apartment Sept. 25 and reported to police his mother "would lock him in a closet and not feed him for several days at a time.” The boy also told police he had never been to school in the four years he had lived in Oklahoma.

Police originally reported he was 14. Prosecutors Thursday described him as 15. The boy is identified only by the initials B.M.

The mother, LaRhonda Marie McCall, faces 29 child abuse counts. Her friend, Steve Hamilton, a taxi driver, faces 27 child abuse counts.

Prosecutors filed 53 felony counts in all. They are charged together in some counts and separately in others.

"We think it went on pretty consistently ... We could have filed 150 counts,” said Gayland Gieger, an Oklahoma County assistant district attorney. "They seemed to punish him if they felt like he had stolen something, or something like that. It’s pretty shocking ... allegations. It’s hard to figure out why just him and not the other children.”

Both could be sentenced to life in prison if convicted.

The two are being held in the Oklahoma County jail. Police report the mother admitted beating her son and locking him in the closet. Police report Hamilton also admitted he beat the boy.

Prosecutors allege the abuse began in March 2006 after the boy, then 11, began living with his mother again. Prosecutors allege in the charge that McCall and Hamilton beat him with their fists, bike chains, cables, extension cords and boards. Prosecutors describe the boy as permanently scarred.

McCall, 37, and Hamilton, 38, kept the boy locked in a closet for such "extended periods of time ... that he was forced to urinate and defecate in the closet wall,” prosecutors alleged. The two also are accused of repeatedly tying up the boy naked.

The mother is accused in one child abuse count of pouring rubbing alcohol on the boy and setting him on fire. Another time, she allegedly tied him naked to a ladder in a garage and poured sugar water "on his body in order to attract biting insects.”

She allegedly once forced him to stand barefoot in the snow for more than 45 minutes and another time stand barefoot on a patch of ice in a garage for more than two hours. This year, she allegedly stabbed him in the shoulder with a knife.

Both allegedly forced him to stand on one foot with a cord around his neck and around his raised right ankle so that he would choke if he put his right foot down. Police reported the mother admitted the boy "was left like this for about an hour.” Hamilton also allegedly once hit the boy in the head with a tire iron.

About the fire, Hamilton on Oct. 1 told police "he saw LaRhonda purposely pour rubbing alcohol all over B.M.’s body,” according to a court affidavit. "Steve stated LaRhonda had a lighter in her hand and when B.M. moved he was lit on fire. Steve stated B.M. ‘had a blue flame over his entire body.’ Steve stated B.M. was burned on his butt and his ear. However, B.M. was not taken to a hospital.”

Police reported McCall said she accidentally poured rubbing alcohol on her son and he caught on fire when she lit incense.

Police earlier reported the boy and McCall’s other minor children were placed in the custody of the Department of Human Services.

Oklahoma prosecutors said Thursday that McCall was convicted in New York in 1996 of second-degree murder. New York officials earlier said the conviction was for second-degree manslaughter for the death of a 2-year-old daughter.

LINK TO COURT DOCUMENTS:

 http://www.newsok.com/article/3409480?searched=%20LaRhonda%20Marie%20McCall&custom_click=search#ixzz0U6m0YlPh

LaRhonda Marie McCall

Steve Hamilton

                                     ORIGINAL STORY:

Okla. teen claims he was held in closet for years

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — A woman was arrested after her 14-year-son told authorities he escaped from a home where he'd been kept for 4 1/2 years, spending most of his time locked in a bedroom closet, police said Monday.

 A security guard at a National Guard facility in Oklahoma City called police on Friday after the teen showed up malnourished and with numerous scars and other signs of abuse, police Sgt. Gary Knight said.

"He was hungry. He was dirty. He had numerous scars on his body," Knight said. "It was very sad."

The boy was taken to a hospital to be examined and then turned over to the custody of the Department of Human Services Knight said.

After police interviews, officers on Saturday arrested the boy's mother, 37-year-old LaRhonda Marie McCall, and a friend, 38-year-old Steve Vern Hamilton, on 20 complaints each of child abuse and child neglect. Formal charges have not been filed, and both were being held on $400,000 bond, according to jail records.

Jail officials were not sure wheter either had retained an attorney, and no one answered the phone at McCall's home. A police report listed McCall as a pharmaceutical company employee and Hamilton as a cab driver.

The teen, wearing only a pair of oversized shorts held up by a belt, walked up to a security guard at the Guard facility around 5 p.m. Friday and asked where a police station was located so he could report being abused, according to a police report.

He told police that scars on his stomach and torso were from where alcohol had been poured on him and set on fire. Other scars were from being tied up, hit with an extension cord and choked, the boy told police.

"He had scars covering most of his body," Knight said. "They were basically from head to foot."

The teen told police he moved to the Oklahoma City area from New Jersey about 4 1/2 years ago after his mother was released from jail. Since arriving in Oklahoma, he said, he had never been to school and spent most of his time locked in a bedroom closet.

He told police the closet door was mostly blocked with a stepladder or a bed and that he managed to push the door open enough to escape and leave the house.

Knight said six other children living at the home were taken into DHS custody, but none showed signs of abuse. McCall had lived at several different addresses in the Oklahoma City area, he said.

A DHS spokeswoman said she could not discuss specific cases but generally an investigation would be conducted before any of the children are returned to the home or placed with other family members.

"There may be family members, but we do a diligent search, and we're very careful about placing kids in a safe environment," DHS spokeswoman Beth Scott said.

Poison gas may carry a medical benefit

Hub research focuses on carbon monoxide

Daniel Doberer measured proteins yesterday during research at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The hospital believes it has found protective properties in carbon monoxide. (Pat Greenhouse/Globe Staff

Carolyn Y. Johnson 

Boston Globe Staff

October 16, 2009

For more than a century, carbon monoxide has been known as a deadly toxin. In an 1839 story, Edgar Allan Poe wrote of “miraculous lustre of the eye’’ and “nervous agitation’’ in what some believe are descriptions of carbon monoxide poisoning, and today, cigarette cartons warn of its health dangers.

But a growing body of research, much of it by local scientists, is revealing a paradox: the gas often called a silent killer could also be a medical treatment.

It seems like a radical contradiction, but animal studies show that in small, extremely controlled doses the gas has benefits in everything from infections to organ transplantation. Research is now beginning in people, who are given the gas at very low concentrations, and while many doctors remain skeptical, the National Institutes of Health recently gave the idea a vote of confidence: The federal agency awarded a $1.4 million grant to a researcher at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center to study the underlying biology of how the gas works.

“Carbon monoxide essentially suffocates the red blood cells - that’s the way we learned it in school,’’ said Dr. Patty J. Lee, an associate professor of internal medicine at Yale School of Medicine, who has done work with the gas. Scientific opinion of the idea has “gone from completely skeptical to moderately skeptical. . . . Therapeutically, I think it has incredibly great potential.’’

Much of the driving force behind scientific interest in carbon monoxide has come from Leo Otterbein, an associate professor at Beth Israel Deaconess who first began considering the possibility that the gas was beneficial a decade ago, as a graduate student.

Otterbein was studying an enzyme that plays a critical protective role in the body, but worked in unknown ways. That helpful enzyme breaks down a substance in the body and creates carbon monoxide as a byproduct, so Otterbein began working on experiments to see whether the gas was providing a benefit.

Positive experimental results began to trickle in, but Otterbein faced skeptics.

“I went to a conference and said, ‘Wait ‘til they see this data, they’ll be amazed.’ Guys stood up and made an absolute fool of me,’’ said Otterbein, who said he persevered anyway, relying on the accumulating data and ignoring the gut reactions of colleagues. “It’s been a hard sell, but in 10 years it’s evolved dramatically.’’

Since that time, Otterbein and other scientists have found that breathing the gas for an hour at about 5 to 10 percent of a fatal exposure has beneficial effects in animals with a range of illnesses, from malaria to cardiovascular disease. While its actions are only partly understood, the gas seems to play a role in controlling inflammation, regulating cell death, and promoting repair and renewal.

The most research has been done with organ transplantation. In one study, carbon monoxide showed promise in reducing organ rejection in rats given heart transplants from mice. In unpublished research on kidney transplants in pigs, the gas was found to improve the function of transplanted kidneys immediately after surgery.

Such findings paved the way for low doses to be administered to 31 kidney transplant patients. Results have not been disclosed and the trial was put on hold for a review, but there were no negative effects, said Otterbein, a consultant to the gas company, Ikaria Holdings Inc.

Dr. Jerzy W. Kupiec-Weglinski, director of the Dumont-University of California, Los Angeles Transplantation Research Center, said that the research might explain anecdotal reports from the 1980s that kidney transplants seemed to work better in smokers than expected, since cigarette smoke contains carbon monoxide.

But given the deeply entrenched fear of carbon monoxide as a toxin, he said it is unlikely that the gas would be directly given as a therapy to many people. Instead, research into the mechanism by which carbon monoxide works could allow scientists to design a drug that could act in the same way.

That is the thinking behind Alfama, a company with its US headquarters in Cambridge that is working on a drug to release carbon monoxide into the body. Otterbein also is a consultant for Alfama.

Dr. Claude A. Piantadosi at Duke University Medical Center has administered the gas to a small group of healthy people and found that it increases the activity of genes involved in making mitochondria, the cell’s power plants. But Piantadosi said sick people may respond differently.

He and other scientists cautioned that their work is at an extremely early stage, and that it should not encourage people to think of carbon monoxide casually.

“Carbon monoxide is a deadly poison. . . . It scares physicians like myself, and I’ve treated a lot of carbon monoxide poisonings,’’ Piantadosi said. “But it’s also made normally by the body. . . . So the issue is how does that all work.’’

In Boston, Otterbein hopes the grant will help him answer that question. His research will look at whether the gas binds to DNA to regulate which genes are active in the body.

When he proposed the idea, he said it seemed so far out, he was sure it would be laughed at instead of funded.

But Michael Bender, a program director at the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, said it was an innovative and risky hypothesis that, if true, could transform current thinking. He pointed out that it follows in the footsteps of Nobel Prize-winning work showing that nitric oxide played an important signaling role within the body.

Understanding this gas has led to drugs that are not inhaled, including Viagra, that work on the same biological pathway.

“It’s probably a risky kind of science to do,’’ Bender said. “It is a novel idea. . . . But what’s been amazing to me is, even though many basic biological processes are very well worked out, there are still surprises to be found.’’