truesee's Blog

Restaurant Threatens To Kick Out 6 Month Old Not Wearing Shoes

Andy Banker

http://www.fox2now.com/ktvi-baby-no-shoes-kickedout-restaurant-080409,0,5070606.story

Burger King Offers An Apology For "No Shoes" Mishap

http://www.fox2now.com/ktvi-burger-king-shoes-follow-080509,0,3860883.story

Mouse STRIKES ATM

Dick Mason

The Observer

August 07, 2009 02:11 pm

After amnesty, paraplegic man still owes Palm Bay a hefty fine

BY KIMBERLY C. MOORE 

FLORIDA TODAY

August 6, 2009

PALM BAY -- Harold Westlake will pay $60 a month for the next year to clear a lien on his house, the required amount through a short-term program that forgives 90 percent of what's owed to the city

Westlake had questioned whether he was properly notified of the code-enforcement fines, which had grown since 2005. But the Palm Bay officials didn't make any concession.

"I'm going over my budget this month," Westlake said. "If I can afford it, I will."

Westlake, 46, has been a paraplegic for more than a decade because of a diving accident. He draws $850 a month in Social Security and pays $200 in child support for three of his four children.

FLORIDA TODAY told his story after the Richardson Street resident got a letter from Palm Bay's code compliance department in May, saying he owed almost $7,200 for a citation he received -- and said he fixed -- in 2005.

Under the amnesty program in effect until Sept. 30, he would pay 10 percent, or $722.

Westlake also found out he was ineligible to hook up to city water unless the lien was paid. He had hoped to qualify for a Florida program that would have paid hookup costs.

With the lien payments set, he can get his water, but there's no more money in the state's program this year for help.

"I believe he is financing the water hookup under our existing program for a 20-year period," City Manager Lee Feldman said. "Making monthly payments (it) came out to about $30 a month."

That will make his monthly payment to the city $90.

Westlake received a certified letter in May 2005 alerting him to code violations: one for parking a junked vehicle in his side yard and the other for driving in a shallow swale so he could access his van with his wheelchair on the driveway. It did not detail penalties.

Code enforcement records say two other letters were sent, but not certified. One told him of a code enforcement hearing, which he didn't attend.

A fourth "finding of fact" letter was sent -- and recorded as a lien on the property in October 2005 with the Brevard County Clerk of the Court office. A copy states that "a fine of $25 be imposed for each and every day the violation continues or is repeated."

But Westlake said he never heard from the city after the first letter in 2005. And he stopped driving through the swale -- the only problem he remembers from that letter.

"From my perspective, the matter is closed," Feldman said.

But Westlake said he would like to meet with the city manager as a private citizen and not as a part of the group Faceoff, which is fighting code enforcement fines.

"I just want to get my little situation cleared up."

 
Harold Westlake discusses the fines accrued with code enforcement at his Palm Bay home in June. In 2005, Westlake received a warning about parking his van in the grass beside his driveway to allow his handicapped ramp to extend onto the driveway. He stopped parking that way, but fines still accrued to more than $7,000. (Christina Stuart, FLORIDA TODAY)

Norwalk woman charged with pretending to be a registered nurse

NORWALK -- A city woman who worked for a Norwalk doctor as a registered nurse and allegedly staged a dinner honoring herself as Nurse of the Year was arrested Thursday after investigators determined she was not licensed to practice nursing, state Division of Criminal Justice spokesman Mark Dupuis said in a release.

Betty Lichtenstein, 56, of 24 Reservoir Ave., was arrested by inspectors from the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the Office of the Chief State's Attorney and charged with illegal use of the registered nurse title, six counts of second-degree reckless endangerment and criminal impersonation. She was released after posting $5,000 bond.

An investigation of Lichtenstein began in March, after a patient of Norwalk neurologist Dr. Gerald Weiss complained that she acted unprofessionally. Investigators found she was never licensed to practice nursing, even though she injected medications and gave medical advice to patients, her arrest warrant affidavit said.

Lichtenstein did not return a call for comment. Weiss declined comment.

Nearly three months ago, police arrested Lichtenstein at a local pharmacy, charging her with second-degree forgery and illegally obtaining prescription painkillers, according to Norwalk Sgt. Andre Velez. That investigation began when an employee of the East Avenue Rite Aid pharmacy called Weiss to check if he wrote a prescription to Lichtenstein for oxycodone, a narcotic.

When Weiss said he had no knowledge of the prescription, police waited for Lichtenstein to show up and fill the prescription.

She was charged with forgery and illegally obtaining prescription medication. That case is pending at state Superior Court in Norwalk.

Lichtenstein, who earlier told The Advocate she began working for Weiss in 2007, went to great lengths to show that she was a competent nurse.

In November 2008, according to the affidavit, she received the 2008 Nurse of the Year award at a dinner supposedly hosted by the Connecticut Nursing Association.

Investigators in the Medicaid Fraud Control Unit in the Office of the Chief State's Attorney's office determined that no such organization exists and that she paid $2,000 of her own money to stage the event, the affidavit said.

Lichtenstein is to be arraigned on Aug. 26.

Staff Writer John Nickerson can be reached at

Posted: Thursday, 06 August 2009 12:50PM D.A.: Don't jail pot suspects with small amounts Dave Cohen Reporting

New Orleans' District Attorney says people caught with small amounts of marijuana should not be arrested. "It would allow for sort of a releases, relieving the crowded conditions in the parish jail, because many of these people could be given essentially a traffic ticket and a summons to show up in court to handle their particular marijuana charge," Leon Cannizzaro said. Leon Cannizzaro today also called on the City Council to make it so that such pot possession cases don't have to be prosecuted in the state court system. "Consider a city ordinance which would allow for the prosecution of the simple possession of marijuana cases in the municipal court," Cannizzaro requested of the city council.

Cannizzaro says some 700 simple marijuana possession cases are currently pending in criminal court in New Orleans. He says making it a municipal offense would open make the courts more efficient.

The D.A. wanted to make it clear that he doesn't want this to be misinterpreted. "I am not here advocating the legalization or decriminalization of marijuana in any way whatsoever," he told the council.

Cannizzaro pointed out that the maximum penalty for simple marijuana possession would remain six months in jail and/or a $500 fine.

The judges currenlty handling the marijuana don't like the idea.  In a statement this afternoon, they said as a group: "For public safety and constitutional reasons, the Criminal District Court Judges oppose first offense marijuana prosecutions being transferred from State Court to Municipal Court."

LINK TO DISTRICT ATTORNEY:

http://www.wwl.com/D-A----Don-t-jail-pot-suspects-with-small-amounts/4954043

An obese Harris County jail inmate turned over a pistol that had been hidden in the folds of his skin after he went through at least five searches upon his arrest and was booked into two different local lockups, authorities said.

George Vera, 25, is charged with possession of a firearm in a correctional facility. He also is charged with possessing or selling unlabeled recordings, the original reason for his arrest.

Authorities said he was caught with 439 compact disc recordings which did not have labels noting manufacturers or distributors.

Vera is free on a total of $10,000 bail. The Chronicle was unable to reach him at his home.

The Houston Police Department, which operates the city jail, and the Harris County Sheriff's Office, which operates the county jail, are investigating.

The case comes on the heels of the county jail passing a state inspection last week after the facility corrected problems found during a previous inspection in April.

"It's certainly troubling and that's why we're conducting an investigation to see what happened," said Christina Garza, a spokeswoman for the sheriff's office.

A spokesman for the Houston Police Department, Kese Smith, said that procedures call for a suspect to be searched upon arrest, twice at the city jail and once more upon his transfer. He said there's no special provision regarding obese people, but officers are trained to thoroughly search suspects.

Vera, who is 5-foot-10 and weighs more 500 pounds, was arrested by Houston police and booked into the city jail Sunday on suspicion of bootlegging compact disc recordings, said Donna Hawkins, spokeswoman for the Harris County District Attorney's Office.

By Monday, Vera was transferred to the county jail, where he was searched at least once. While he was in the shower that day, he told a guard that he had weapon on him.

Garza said officers found a 9-millimeter handgun beneath folds of his skin. The gun was not loaded and it was unclear whether bullets were found.

The incident comes after the troubled jail at 1200 Baker passed a surprise inspection last week by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. The review found that all deficiencies cited during the April inspection had been corrected.

In April, the lockup failed inspection because of malfunctioning intercoms, broken toilets and crowding in holding cells, where inmates are placed before they are formally booked.

FAIRBANKS — A Fairbanks woman who let her 7-year-old son drive while she was passed out drunk in the passenger seat has been sentenced to six months in jail with all but 20 days suspended.

A judge ordered Karen Koch, 37, to report to jail by Oct. 1. She will be on probation for three years and have to attend Alcoholics Anonymous meetings three times per week for the next six months.

“While life as a single mother is hard, turning to alcohol and making stupid decisions puts the public at risk, puts you at risk and puts your child at risk,” District Court Judge Raymond Funk told Koch.

Koch pleaded guilty to one count of reckless endangerment in exchange for prosecutors dropping the other charge of allowing an unauthorized person to drive. Sentencing was up to the judge at Wednesday morning’s hearing.

A neighbor at the Lakeview Terrace mobile home park called troopers in May after seeing a young boy driving a silver Mazda Protege with a passed out adult passenger.

The neighbor told troopers that the young driver came within a few feet of striking her parked vehicle.

Troopers were able to trace the plates to Koch’s nearby home and arrived just as the boy was exiting the driver’s seat.

Koch, who had leaned back in the front passenger’s seat, woke up a few minutes later and identified the child as her son.

She told the trooper that she let her son drive the car from a nearby stop sign and did not see what the problem was, according to court records.

Koch, who has three previous convictions for drunken driving, did not make a statement during the hearing.

Funk compared the punishment to what a defendant would usually receive for a second DUI conviction. Because two of her convictions are more than 10 years old, if Koch had been charged with drunken driving, it would have been considered a second offense.

Koch’s public defender, Katie Kelliher, contended that Koch was sober as she let the boy drive home, and as the boy was listening to radio in the car, Koch went inside and had two drinks, which is when troopers arrived.

“Ms. Koch has realized she made a mistake,” Kelliher said. “She misunderstood what she could and couldn’t do with allowing her child to drive. ... Alcohol was not a factor in her decision making until after the incident.”

However, Funk said that regardless of whether Koch was sober, it was a poor decision to let such a young child drive.

“I’m worried that if anything I’m being too lenient,” he said. “I want you to understand that it’s appalling to let a 7-year-old drive, and to say you didn’t see the problem is just horrific.”

Koch’s sentence is slightly longer than that of a Fairbanks man who in August 2007 was convicted of letting his 11-year-old son get behind the wheel because he was too drunk to drive. In that case, the man was sentenced to more than three months in jail with all but 15 days suspended.

Men Who Do The Housework Are More Likely To Get The Girl

An Oxford study suggests that if you want to settle down, your chances of getting married or living with someone are probably highest in Great Britain, the Scandinavian countries and the United States. According to the study, men in those countries are more likely than their Australian counterparts to do the household chores and thereby make marriage a more attractive option to their nation's women.

The study constructs an 'egalitarian index' of 12 developed countries, based on responses to questionnaires about gender, housework and childcare responsibilities. Norway and Sweden top the egalitarian index, with Great Britain in third place, followed by the United States. At the bottom of the index are Japan, Germany, and Austria, with Australia languishing as the least egalitarian. Data about the number of women in partnerships was then compared against the index. Women of similar age and educational background were compared across the participating countries to see if their country's rating on the egalitarian index bore any relation to whether they were living with a man or not. Other controlling factors, such as the female unemployment, were taken account of.

The study found that women living in less egalitarian countries were between 20 and 50 per cent less likely to be living with a man than comparable women living in a more egalitarian country. For instance, the findings would predict that the average British woman was 8.5 percentage points more likely than a similar Australian woman to be in a live-in relationship.*

Study author Dr Almudena Sevilla-Sanz, an ESRC-funded researcher at the Centre for Time Use Research at Oxford University, concludes that women living in countries with the highest proportion of egalitarian men are more likely to marry or live with a man. The study also suggests that a more egalitarian woman in any country is less likely than a less egalitarian woman to set up home with a man because, everything else being equal, most men would choose a woman who they can rely on to do housework and look after the children. While egalitarian men seem to be viewed as a better bet by women, egalitarian women are seen as a less safe bet by men.

Dr Sevilla-Sanz said: 'In egalitarian countries you might, in principle, expect to see women preferring to remain single rather than face the prospect of spending more time doing household chores. However, this study shows that in egalitarian countries there is less social stigma attached to men doing what was traditionally women's work. For instance, if paternity leave is the social norm, more men take it. This leads to men in egalitarian societies taking on more of a domestic role so the likelihood of forming a harmonious household becomes greater, resulting in a higher proportion of couples setting up households in these countries. 'If developed countries want to look at why the birth rate in their country is falling, we need to focus on the drivers for whether couples decide to live together and start a family. It seems to show what couples ask 'Will I be better off?'. Women in less egalitarian countries are saying 'No'. Countries with a low birth rate face the challenge of a shrinking workforce in coming decades with questions about who will pay for public services and social support.

Sample size for index: The representative sample of 13,500 men and women, aged between 20-45 years old from each of the 12 countries, was taken from the same survey carried out in 1994 and 2002 as part of the International Social Survey Program. (ISSP is a program of cross-national collaboration on surveys between several social science institutes.)

Calculation explained: According to the egalitarian index, British women face a more egalitarian society than Australian women. The egalitarian index in Great Britain is 0.08, compared to - 0.16 in Australia, which results in Britain being a more egalitarian society by 0.24. Given the author's estimate that a higher egalitarian index increases the likelihood of a woman to live with a man between 20 and 50 percent, this yields a difference in the likelihood that a British woman lives with a man of 8.5 percentage points higher than her Australian counterpart, ie. 50% X 0.24+20%X 0.24=8.4 percentage points, or 0.08 per cent. The country with the highest egalitarian index is Sweden with a value of the index of 0.43.

The countries in the egalitarian index (in descending order) are: Norway, Sweden, Great Britain, United States, Northern Ireland, Netherlands, Ireland, Spain, New Zealand, Japan, Germany, Austria and Australia.

Teacher Forces Student to Smoke 42 Cigarettes in 2 Hours

Thursday, August 06, 2009

The Associated Press

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia —  A Malaysian teacher forced a student to smoke 42 cigarettes in two hours as punishment after finding the boy had a cigarette and lighter, a news report said Thursday.

A school official confirmed that the English teacher subjected the student to the unusual punishment but said the teenager was made to smoke fewer than 42 cigarettes. He declined to elaborate.

He said the teacher was upset when she found that her model student had a cigarette and a lighter in his locker in the school in the northern island of Langkawi.

The boy also smelled of cigarettes, said a school official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the press. He said the school apologized to the boy's uncle, who lodged a police report when he found out about the punishment.

"This is not normal. We don't do that often," the official said.

He said it was up to the state's education department to take action against the teacher, but officials there could not be immediately reached Thursday.

Police on Langkawi could not be reached for comment.

The New Straits Times daily quoted the 16-year-old boy as saying he was made to smoke 42 cigarettes — four at a time for more than two hours. The punishment was witnessed by other teachers and students.

In 2007, another Malaysian teacher was reprimanded after she made almost 140 teenage girls squat in a pond at a boarding school as punishment for clogging the toilets.

The punishment caused an outcry, leading to Malaysia's Education Ministry to announce it would issue specific guidelines on how teachers should discipline students.

The government permits boys to be whipped with a rattan cane in schools for such offenses as smoking, vandalism and harming others.

Image of gun-like cigarette lighter on security x-ray screen prompts evacuation at Hillsborough County courthouse

Rebecca Catalanello and Kim Wilmath

St Petersburg Times Staff Writers

Posted: Aug 05, 2009 12:55 PM

TAMPA — Law enforcement forced 3,200 people to evacuate Hillsborough County's George Edgecomb E. Courthouse Wednesday after a security worker discovered that someone had slipped through an X-ray scanning machine with what appeared to be a semiautomatic pistol stuffed in a bag.

After a full day investigation, sheriff's detectives discovered the supposed weapon was a lighter.

But it's still unclear how a Tampa woman was able to walk through security, grab her bag from the conveyor belt and move into the building before a security worker viewing the X-ray monitors recognized a picture of a gun and notified others.

And the Hillsborough County Sheriff's office also wants to know why it took security more than two hours to notify them that there may be a gun in the building.

"We do most of the security inside," said Col. Jim Previtera.

The Sheriff's Office has 130 bailiffs assigned to the county courthouse, but their primary charge is to secure courtrooms. Hillsborough County government supplies unsworn security workers to operate the front-door screenings.

Previtera said at 8:45 a.m., the woman placed the bag on the conveyor and the county security realized pretty quickly that there was an image of a gun on the screen, but for an unknown reason she was gone before anyone could stop her.

Security notified the sheriff's office more than two hours later.

And the noontime evacuation lasted an hour and 45 minutes and caused a measure of chaos outside the downtown building, 800 E Twiggs St., where people chatted curb side and television news cameras struggled to captured the scene.

Sheriff's spokesman Larry McKinnon said word went out over loud speakers ordering everyone to collect their belongings and move out.

Dawn Emigh, 45, was at the courthouse for jury duty when the word went out. As she waited in line to go back in, she admitted she was somewhat nervous. "Hopefully they'll do a better job, right?" she said.

After reviewing surveillance video for two hours, sheriff's detectives identified a woman who stopped and talked to a Tampa detective as the person with the supposed gun.

Previtera refused to release the woman's name, saying she was not being charged with a crime. But he said she is from Tampa, and had come to the building for a family matter in court.

The city detective took them to the woman's house, Previtera said, where she produced the lighter and told them she had taken the toy from her nephew because of how real it looked.

"Right now we are just sending the information to the State Attorney's Office to find out if they want to charge her at all," he said. "But we haven't charged her with anything because it seemed as if she just forgot she had it."

Neither Previtera nor Carl Harness, the county's public safety administrator, would say how many security workers are employed at the courthouse or what, if any action, was being taken concerning the employee or employees who spotted the gun.

The purpose of the evacuation, Previtera said, was to empty the building as quickly as possible, sweep the space for any danger, then thoroughly rescreen everyone as they entered again.

About 25 deputies from Sheriff's Homeland Security Division were called in to assist with clearing the building, while Tampa police sent in another 10 officers to help maintain order.

Previtera said the Sheriff's Office is working along with county administration to conduct an internal review of exactly what took place.

The county government also supplies security personnel to County Center on Kennedy Boulevard, the Plant City courthouse, and government offices at the Floriland Mall, Harness said.

"I made my anger really clear regarding the way this was handled," Previtera said. "County Administrator Pat Bean will be investigating how this happened."

Gator capture leads to drug arrests in north Fla.

Posted on Wednesday, 08.05.09

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. -- An alligator capture has led to the arrests of some north Florida apartment tenants who forgot to hide their drugs.

According to a report from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, wildlife officers received a tip that two gators were being held captive in an apartment in Tallahassee. The officers went to the apartment and spoke with the tenants, who then allowed for the officers to go inside and retrieve the gators.

The report says the tenants had left drugs and drug paraphernalia in plain view. So the wildlife officers called in the Leon County Sheriff's Office, which took over the narcotics investigation.

The report does not specify how large the gators were, identify the tenants or specify their drug-related charges.

Daily Telegraph

Published: 1:18PM BST 05 Aug 2009

A pensioner has begun a desperate bid to trace a precious family heirloom - after his wife accidentally threw it out with the recycling Photo: SOLENT

Mr Quilligan, 66, from Hampshire, put the silver goblet, which is worth £500, into what he thought was the perfect place to keep it safe.

However, he returned from holiday to find that his wife Shirley had mistakenly thrown the the box out with the recycling.

The couple are now desperately trying to trace where their recycling, along with the 1922 hallmarked goblet, could have been sent.

Mr Quilligan said: "It is very upsetting because it is irreplaceable.

"It was a treasured family heirloom that has been passed down in my family and I made a point of hiding it because it was so precious to us."

Mr Quilligan, who lives in Chandler's Ford, near Southampton, Hants, received the heirloom from the Bishop of Salford when his uncle, the Reverend Thomas Quilligan, died 20 years ago.

The nine-inch high chalice, which Rev Quilligan used for Mass, had given to him by his mother during the 1930s and carries an inscription remembering his late sister.

Mr Quilligan is hoping somebody may have spotted the treasure.

The local council told him it was probably at a recycling plant in Alresford, Hants.

Man spells out anger at Cary on house

Town, resident at odds over runoff

CARY -- Somebody told David Bowden that he needed to put in writing his complaint that water runoff from a town road project is ruining his home.

So Bowden did. In fluorescent orange spray paint. In letters 2 feet tall. On the exterior siding of his two-story white clapboard house.

"I didn't know any other way to get their attention," Bowden said Monday, as traffic slowed so passers-by could make out the message: "Screwed by the town of Cary."

Bowden blames the town for water that pools under his house deep enough to lap at the ductwork. The problem started after Cary elevated Southwest Maynard Road in front of the home.

Town officials, meanwhile, said they have tried to work with Bowden to resolve the issue, to no avail.

The property at 305 Southwest Maynard had water-drainage problems when Bowden moved into it in 1992. The previous owner dealt with it by installing a sump pump. Bowden said he went a step further, paying to excavate around the foundation of the house, waterproof the structure and pour in stone to help with drainage.

That worked pretty well, he said, until the city resurfaced what was then two lanes with a turn lane. The new pavement sloped toward Bowden's home, he said, and when it rained hard, an inch of water would come down his driveway, across his carport and into his utility room.

The problem got exponentially worse, he said, when Cary widened Maynard Road. As part of the project, completed last August, the town built up the roadbed, raising it 6 feet where it passes Bowden's house. His front door is now below the grade of the road. The city had to relocate his driveway entrance because of the steep slope. The widening also took several feet of Bowden's front yard and the trees that stood there.

Mike Bajorek, assistant Cary town manager, said the town paid Bowden $5,300 for the loss of yard and trees. The city also built a retaining wall where the corner of Bowden's driveway meets the steepest shoulder of the road, and it installed drainage pipes. But Bowden said that the pipes open onto the driveway and that the water heads for the house.

"You don't have to be an engineer to know that water runs downhill," said Bowden, who has complained to his town council representative, town engineers and others.

Bajorek said the town has repeatedly offered to build a different drainage system to route the water around the house. But Bowden has refused to allow it.

On Friday, Bowden decided he wouldn't call town hall anymore. He called a sign painter, whom he paid $200 cash to erect a scaffold and emblazon his gripe with the town. It's between the second-floor windows, at street level.

At this point, he said, he doesn't want the town to stop the water. He wants Cary to buy his house, at its $170,000 tax value, plus $80,000 for his trouble. With the money, the retired convenience-store manager wants to buy a motor home and travel the country.

He has received a response from the town, but it wasn't a buyout offer. It was a notice that his message of protest violates the town's sign ordinance and he is subject to fines up to $500 a day.

"Turning your house into a billboard, regardless of the message, isn't consistent with community values," Bajorek said.

Before: Bowden's front yard had mature trees and was roughly level with Maynard Road. - COURTESY OF DAVID BOWDEN

After: The town of Cary's work on Maynard Road, including a new turn lane, removed all the trees in front and left a 6-foot slope from the road down to the yard. Bowden says runoff floods his laundry room, near the carport. He wants the town to buy his house. - STAFF PHOTO BY SHAWN ROCCO