http://www.ftabins.net Post any World News here. en Fri, 20 Nov 2009 03:30:31 GMT vBulletin 1440 http://www.ftabins.net/images/blaze/misc/rss.jpg http://www.ftabins.net http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123516&goto=newpost Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:15:30 GMT Lincoln's Letter to Boy Goes on Sale

(Nov. 19) -- In March of 1861, a new president had just been sworn in and the nation was on the brink of civil war. Yet Abraham Lincoln still found a moment to come to the defense of a kid whose schoolmates were picking on him.

The letter President Lincoln sent to 8-year-old George Patten is up for sale.

The boy, whose father was a journalist, had told all his friends he'd shaken Lincoln's hand. They didn't believe him and mocked George for claiming he'd met the man who was now president. So his teacher wrote a letter to the White House hoping to learn the truth.

The president responded in a brief note dated March 19 and sent to the boy in New York City.

"Whom it may concern, I did see and talk with master George Evans Patten, last May, at Springfield, Illinois. Respectfully, A Lincoln"

The Raab Collection expects to get about $60,000 for the letter, The Associated Press reported. This is the only know surviving letter Lincoln wrote to an individual child, according to the Philadelphia-based dealer.

However, Lincoln did write to a group of 195 children who sent him a petition in 1864, The Guardian reported.

The kids asked the president to free "all the slave children in this country."

On April 5, Lincoln replied.

"Please tell these little people I am very glad their young hearts are so full of just and generous sympathy, and that while I have not the power to grant all they ask, I trust that they will remember that God has, and that, as it seems, He wills to do it."

The letter sold last year for $3.4 million, a record for a manuscript in the U.S. ]]> World News Dalakerman06 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123516 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123514&goto=newpost Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:10:04 GMT Slaying suspect said hobby was 'killing people'

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. - On an Internet site, 15-year-old Alyssa Bustamante listed her hobbies as "killing people" and "cutting." It may have sounded like a teenage exaggeration, but authorities say she fulfilled her words.

Even as new details emerge about the teenager charged with killing 9-year-old Elizabeth Olten, many facts about the crime continued to be kept secret Thursday — and may never be released by authorities unless Bustamante goes to trial for murder.

Bustamante, who had been in juvenile custody since leading police to Elizabeth's body Oct. 23, was certified Wednesday as an adult and indicted on charges of first-degree murder and armed criminal action. She is accused of strangling Elizabeth, cutting her throat and stabbing her.

On a YouTube profile viewed by The Associated Press, which has since been taken down, Bustamante listed her hobbies as "killing people" and "cutting." A year ago, Bustamante posted a video to the site in which she appears to intentionally shock herself on an electric fence near her home, then goads her two younger brothers into doing the same.

In court Wednesday, juvenile justice officials testified that Bustamante attempted to commit suicide in 2007 and had been receiving mental health treatment for depression and cutting herself.

A police officer testified that Bustamante confessed to digging two holes to be used as a grave, then killing Elizabeth five days later without provocation because she wanted to know what it felt like.

But repeated objections by Bustamante's juvenile justice attorney prevented the police officer from explaining why two holes were dug. Cole County prosecutor Mark Richardson also has declined to elaborate.

"I know that, but I cannot go into those details right now," Richardson said.

Asked if he could say whether Elizabeth's body was found in only one of those holes, Richardson paused for several seconds and again replied: "No, I can't tell you that right now."

Richardson similarly declined to explain what the sheriff meant when he said last month that the investigation was aided by "some written evidence." The Cole County sheriff's office did not immediately return a call Thursday.

Those kinds of details might normally be included in a probable cause statement from sheriff's deputies or police as a basis for a prosecutor to file charges. But in Bustamante's case, there is no probable cause statement in the court file, because she was instead indicted by a grand jury.

Greater details of the crime also are included in Bustamante's juvenile court records, but those will remain closed under state law, said Cole County Juvenile Court Administrator Michael County.

No further details are expected to emerge at a Dec. 7 status hearing in Bustamante's case. It could be months, maybe even a year, before a trial at which witnesses would be called to explain the details and circumstances of the crime. But no trial — or testimony — would occur if Bustamante were to plead guilty to a charge.

Although he did not rule it out, Richardson said he wasn't inclined to agree to a plea on a charge of anything less than first-degree murder, which carries a sentence of life in prison without parole.

"Because of the nature of the case, there is not a lot of room to enter into pleas," he said.

Bustamante said in court Wednesday that she could not afford to hire an attorney. Online court records indicate that a Cole County judge has appointed a public defender to represent her. But the Cole County public defender's office said Thursday that it had not yet determined whether Bustamante qualifies for a public defender. ]]> World News Dalakerman06 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123514 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123511&goto=newpost Thu, 19 Nov 2009 23:04:52 GMT Obese SC man dies after 8 months in home recliner COLUMBIA, S.C. - When an ambulance brought Tillmon Webb home from the hospital after he hurt his... Obese SC man dies after 8 months in home recliner

COLUMBIA, S.C. - When an ambulance brought Tillmon Webb home from the hospital after he hurt his knee in March, paramedics warned the then 550-pound man he probably wouldn't be able to get up from his recliner if they put him there, his wife said.

Webb told them to leave him there anyway. He would sit in that recliner, slowly dying, for the next eight months. Finally, paramedics were called back to his Greenwood home on Wednesday because he was in a lot of pain.

Webb's body was physically stuck to the power recliner and firefighters had to cut him from the chair to take him to the hospital. He died a few hours later, his body covered with sores and a "very bad odor," according to a police report.

Webb, 33, didn't ask for help for all those months, because he was ashamed and didn't have health insurance, said his wife, Ada. He slept and used the bathroom in his chair and she cleaned it every day. The former preacher would post sermons online from the chair, and it wasn't long before he decided he was ready to go home to the Lord, she said.

"After he sat there in that one spot for a week, he was embarrassed. It was like he already knew what was going to happen," Ada Webb said.

Webb's mother was the one who placed the final call to paramedics. Not only did crews have to cut apart the chair, but they had to cut a hole in the wall of the couple's mobile home about 70 miles west of Columbia to get him out. A police report said he weighed about 800 pounds, but his wife said he was closer to 500 pounds.

The hospital told Tillmon Webb's wife he died from a heart attack, she said. The coroner's office isn't investigating the death and referred all questions to Greenwood County deputies, who sent their report, but didn't respond to a phone message.

Webb died on the couple's second anniversary. They met four years ago on MySpace, and Ada Webb said she didn't see a man who weighed more than 500 pounds, but instead saw a guy who loved the Lord and had a big heart.

"I had the worst anniversary yesterday I ever had, but I know he had the best one he ever had because he's with Jesus now," she said.

Tillmon Webb drove school buses for nearly 15 years, until his weight made it impossible. His health kept getting worse, and Ada Webb said she begged hospital officials to keep him after doctors treated his knee injury in March. But the couple had no way to pay and were sent home.

For his first few weeks home, Tillmon Webb was open to the idea of seeing someone. Getting to them was the problem.

"Everybody kept telling us, if you get here, we'll help you. We didn't have no way of getting him up, and nobody was willing to come help us," Ada Webb said. "He just kind of said, 'it's in God's hands' at that point."

Tillmon Webb spent the rest of his days playing with his four dogs and talking about religion to other people on the Internet.

"I did all I could for him. He loved me with a passion," his wife said. "The only reason he held on to life here was for his family because he wanted to go home and be with the Lord." ]]> World News Dalakerman06 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123511 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123510&goto=newpost Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:58:33 GMT Police officers shot, suspect killed after chase WESTMINSTER, Colo. - A suspect is dead and two police officers are wounded after a bank robbery... Police officers shot, suspect killed after chase

WESTMINSTER, Colo. - A suspect is dead and two police officers are wounded after a bank robbery and chase in suburban Denver.

Westminster police spokesman Trevor Materasso said the police injuries weren't life-threatening.

The chase began after officers tried to pull over a man and woman suspected of robbing a bank. The suspects allegedly fired at police, who were able to halt them after spinning out their car about 1.5 miles away.

A shootout then broke out and the male suspect was killed. The woman was wounded and taken to a hospital.

Dozens of markers indicating where shell casings had landed were scattered around the scene. ]]> World News Dalakerman06 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123510 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123509&goto=newpost Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:53:45 GMT Release ordered for wrongfully convicted NYC man NEW YORK -A New York City man imprisoned for nearly 20 years for a now-overturned murder... Release ordered for wrongfully convicted NYC man

NEW YORK -A New York City man imprisoned for nearly 20 years for a now-overturned murder conviction is set to be freed within days after a judge Thursday ordered him released while he waits to learn whether he'll have to serve an unrelated drug sentence.

A federal judge in suburban White Plains, N.Y., ordered Fernando Bermudez released without bail on the drug case at least until June 30, giving his lawyers time to try to persuade federal authorities to credit his 27-month sentence as served.

Bermudez' release is expected Friday or early next week, defense lawyer Barry J. Pollack said.

State Supreme Court Justice John Cataldo last week declared Bermudez innocent in a deadly 1991 shooting near a Manhattan nightclub. Bermudez was convicted of murder the next year and sentenced to 23 years to life.

The judge said a key witness lied and others influenced one other into implicating Bermudez.

Manhattan prosecutors have said they are weighing a potential appeal.

Despite the overturned conviction, the 40-year-old Bermudez has remained behind bars because of his 1991 federal drug-sale case. His lawyers argue that he has effectively more than served his time in that case.

"Obviously, Judge Cataldo's decision really demonstrated to everyone he really served 18 years he shouldn't have," Pollack said Thursday.

Federal prosecutors didn't oppose Bermudez' temporary release, according to the judge's ruling. ]]> World News Dalakerman06 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123509 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123508&goto=newpost Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:49:04 GMT 4 men in Fla. terrorist plot sent to prison

MIAMI - Four men described as soldiers in a terrorism plot to destroy Chicago's Sears Tower and bomb FBI offices have each been sentenced to less than a decade behind bars, far less than federal prosecutors sought.

U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard, in sentencing hearings Wednesday and Thursday, said the four were followers who participated far less than ringleader Narseal Batiste in discussions about possible terrorist attacks. The conversations were recorded by the FBI using an informant posing as an al-Qaida operative.

The plot never got past the discussion stage, which has led defense attorneys and national terrorism experts to describe the case as overblown since the "Liberty City Seven" were arrested in June 2006. Lenard appeared to share that sentiment, at least for the four who were sentenced.

"As I see this case, these young men were looking for something. I don't know, maybe it was their naivete and youth that made them fall under the influence of a man with a need to control and they became his followers," Lenard said.

Prosecutors sought between 30 and 50 years in prison for each of the four men, with Batiste facing a maximum of 70 years when he is sentenced Friday. They were convicted in May in the third trial of the case following a pair of mistrials, and two of the original suspects were acquitted.

Lenard sentenced Batiste's self-described "No. 1 soldier," 30-year-old Patrick Abraham, to just over nine years Thursday. Stanley Phanor, 34, got eight years and two other men were sentenced to even less time Wednesday. Lenard said a terrorism enhancement that applies in each case would result in an unreasonably harsh sentence, so she opted for leniency.

Abraham, a Haitian native who has been jailed since his 2006 arrest, apologized for what happened but insisted he never sought to be a terrorist.

"I am not nobody's enemy," he said. "I am not the government's enemy."

Batiste, 35, testified at the trials that he faked being a terrorist in hopes of scamming the FBI informant out of $50,000 for his struggling construction business. Prosecutors portrayed him as a leader of a paramilitary sect that did not recognize U.S. government authority, and who hoped to use chaotic attacks on the 110-story Chicago skyscraper to start an anti-U.S. war.

A key piece of evidence was a ceremony led by the informant, and taped by the FBI, in which each man pledged loyalty to al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden.

"They proceeded full steam ahead," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Arango. "There was never any hesitation, never any second thoughts." ]]> World News Dalakerman06 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123508 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123507&goto=newpost Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:44:44 GMT 19 alleged gang members indicted for racketeering GREENBELT, Md. - Nineteen alleged gang members have been indicted in Maryland on federal... 19 alleged gang members indicted for racketeering

GREENBELT, Md. - Nineteen alleged gang members have been indicted in Maryland on federal racketeering conspiracy charges.

U.S. Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein announced the indictment Thursday. He says it alleges the 19 were members of the Latin Kings, a violent street gang. He says they've operated in Maryland since at least 2007.

The indictment says the gang members conspired to commit attempted murders, robberies, arson and other crimes.

Authorities have arrested 16 people in Maryland and two outside New York City. One remains at large.

Court hearings for the alleged gang members were scheduled to begin Thursday. ]]> World News Dalakerman06 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123507 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123506&goto=newpost Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:41:33 GMT Police seize more vids in Mo. sex abuse case COLUMBIA, Mo. - Several family members who say they were sexually abused as children by adult... Police seize more vids in Mo. sex abuse case

COLUMBIA, Mo. - Several family members who say they were sexually abused as children by adult relatives remember being taken to various locations and photographed with naked men, police investigators said in a search warrant released Thursday.

The family members, who are now adults, told Columbia police investigators they remembered being taken to "various locations and having to pose for pictures in a sexual and provocative manner," according to the Nov. 12 warrant.

"They also recall pictures being taken while they were placed on a bed with naked men climbing onto the bed," the warrant states.

The warrant did not specify how many of the alleged victims said they had to pose for the photographs, nor did it identify a location.

Authorities seized more than 60 videos and computer equipment from the home of 48-year-old Jared Mohler, according to the warrant. Mohler, his father, three brothers and uncle are accused of raping and molesting several young relatives over roughly a decade beginning in the mid-1980s. They have not entered pleas.

Mohler's lawyer, Tim Larimore, did not immediately return a phone message seeking comment. The Lafayette County clerk said the other men charged did not have attorneys.

Other relatives of the men charged said earlier this week they do not believe the accusations.

Investigators said in the warrant that the mother of the children was told about the alleged abuse but that she didn't tell authorities. They say she instead told church leaders. The warrant did not identify the church.

Three of the men charged in the case have been suspended from their duties as lay ministers in the Community of Christ church, which is based in Independence.

The warrant said the mother has been cooperating with the investigation.

Jared Mohler's father, Burrell E. Mohler Sr., 77, of Independence; and his three brothers, Burrell Mohler Jr., 53, of Independence; Roland Neil Mohler, 47, of Bates City; and David A. Mohler, 52, of Lamoni, Iowa; are each charged with several counts of rape and use of a child in a sexual performance.

Jared Mohler's uncle, Darrel W. Mohler, 72, of Silver Springs, Fla., is charged with two counts of rape.

(This version CORRECTS that Jared Mohler, his father, three brothers and uncle are charged in the case, not Jared Mohler, his father and four brothers.) ]]> World News Dalakerman06 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123506 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123501&goto=newpost Thu, 19 Nov 2009 22:34:46 GMT Humbug! Santa Letter Program Killed ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Nov. 19) — Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this... Humbug! Santa Letter Program Killed

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (Nov. 19) — Starry-eyed children writing letters to the jolly man at the North Pole this holiday season likely won't get a response from Santa Claus or his helpers.

The U.S. Postal Service is dropping a popular national program begun in 1954 in the small Alaska town of North Pole, where volunteers open and respond to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. Replies come with North Pole postmarks.

Last year, a postal worker in Maryland recognized an Operation Santa volunteer there as a registered sex offender. The postal worker interceded before the individual could answer a child's letter, but the Postal Service viewed the episode as a big enough scare to tighten rules in such programs nationwide.

People in North Pole are incensed by the change, likening the Postal Service to the Grinch trying to steal Christmas. The letter program is a revered holiday tradition in North Pole, where light posts are curved and striped like candy canes and streets have names such as Kris Kringle Drive and Santa Claus Lane. Volunteers in the letter program even sign the response letters as Santa's elves and helpers.

North Pole Mayor Doug Isaacson agreed caution is necessary to protect children. But he's outraged North Pole's program should be affected by a sex offender's actions on the East Coast — and he thinks it's wrong that locals just learned of the change.

"It's Grinchlike that the Postal Service never informed all the little elves before the fact," he said. "They've been working on this for how long?"

The Postal Service began restricting its policies in such programs in 2006, including requiring volunteers to show identification.

But the Maryland incident involving the sex offender prompted more changes, even forcing the agency to briefly suspend the Operation Santa program last year in New York and Chicago before reinstating it with the same restrictions implemented nationwide this year.

The agency now prohibits volunteers from having access to children's family names and addresses, said spokeswoman Sue Brennan. The Postal Service instead redacts the last name and addresses on each letter and replaces the addresses with codes that match computerized addresses known only to the post office — and leaves it up to local managers if they want to go through the time-consuming effort to shield the information. Brennan said no one is barred from continuing their programs, but they have to comply with the rules.

Anchorage-based agency spokeswoman Pamela Moody said dealing with the tighter restrictions is not feasible in Alaska.

"It's always been a good program, but we're in different times and concerned for the privacy of the information," she said.

Moody stressed that kids can still send letters to Santa Claus. The Postal Service still runs the giant Operation Santa Program in which children can have their letters to Santa answered, and the restrictions do not affect privately run letter efforts.

What will change are the generically addressed letters to "Santa Claus, North Pole" that for years have been forwarded to the Alaska town, although Brennan said only a fraction of the letters with no specific address wind up in the Alaska town anyway. That program will stop, unless changes are made before Christmas.

Losing the Santa-letter cache is a blow to the community of 2,100 people, who pride themselves on their Christmas ties. Huge tourist attractions here include an everything-Christmas store, Santa Claus House, and the post office, where visitors can get a hand-stamped postmark on their postcards and packages.

Another issue raising the hackles on some locals is another recent change. Anchorage — 260 miles to the south — is processing the thousands of out-of-state requests for North Pole postal cancellation marks on Christmas cards and packages; Fairbanks, just 15 miles away, had long done so.

Moody said with as many as 800,000 items processed last year, Fairbanks is not equipped to handle the overload. Anchorage is the only city in Alaska with the high-speed equipment necessary to do the job without delay. Moody disagreed with the mayor's belief that the process creates a false postmark. Brennan said the move is a matter of resources and finances for the agency, which lost billions of dollars in the last fiscal year and has closed facilities and consolidated districts nationwide.

Santa Claus House, built like a Swiss chalet and chock full of all items Christmas, sells more than 100,000 letters from Santa and one of the lures is the postmark.

Operations manager Paul Brown believes his business will be affected under changes to the volunteer Santa letter program because tens of thousands of letters are addressed to Santa Claus House, North Pole, Alaska.

Those letters will still be forwarded to volunteers but it's unclear yet if anything will be done with them. Those intercepted by the postal service will probably eventually be shredded.

Brown worries about misinterpretations of the changes, such as people believing it's no longer possible to get individual pieces of mail graced with the North Pole postmark. ]]> World News Dalakerman06 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123501 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123417&goto=newpost Thu, 19 Nov 2009 05:59:57 GMT MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of eating a 25-year-old man they had butchered and selling other bits... MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of eating a 25-year-old man they had butchered and selling other bits of the corpse to a local kebab house.

Suspicions were raised when dismembered parts of a human body were found near a bus stop in the outskirts of the Russian city of Perm, 1,150 km (720 miles) east of Moscow.

Three homeless men with previous criminal records have been arrested on suspicion of setting upon a foe with knives and a hammer before chopping up his corpse to eat, local investigators said in a statement on their www.susk.perm.ru Web site.

"After carrying out the crime, the corpse was divided up: part was eaten and part was also sold to a kiosk selling kebabs and pies," the Prosecutor-General's main investigative unit for the Perm region said in a statement issued Friday.

It was not immediately clear from the statement if any of the corpse had been sold to customers.

Tastes like chicken!!!:lol::lol::lol::clap::clap::clap: ]]> World News rikt00 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123417 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123347&goto=newpost Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:58:35 GMT

National Security Agency helped with Windows 7 development
Privacy expert voices 'backdoor' concerns, security researchers dismiss idea

The National Security Agency (NSA) worked with Microsoft on the development of Windows 7, an agency official acknowledged yesterday during testimony before Congress.

"Working in partnership with Microsoft and elements of the Department of Defense, NSA leveraged our unique expertise and operational knowledge of system threats and vulnerabilities to enhance Microsoft's operating system security guide without constraining the user to perform their everyday tasks, whether those tasks are being performed in the public or private sector," Richard Schaeffer, the NSA's information assurance director, told the Senate's Subcommittee on Terrorism and Homeland Security yesterday as part of a prepared statement.

"All this was done in coordination with the product release, not months or years later during the product lifecycle," Schaeffer added. "This will improve the adoption of security advice, as it can be implemented during installation and then later managed through the emerging SCAP standards."

Security Content Automation Protocol, or SCAP, is a set of standards for automating chores such as managing vulnerabilities and measuring security compliance. The National Institute of Standards and Technologies (NIST) oversees the SCAP standards.

This is not the first time that the NSA has partnered with Microsoft during Windows development. In 2007, the agency confirmed that it had a hand in Windows Vista as part of an initiative to ensure that the operating system was secure from attack and would work with other government software. Before that, the NSA provided guidance on how best to secure Windows XP and Windows 2000.

According to Marc Rotenberg, the executive director of the Electronics Privacy Information Center (EPIC), the NSA's involvement with operating system development goes back even farther. "This battle goes back to at least the crypto wars of the early '90s," said Rotenberg, who remembered testifying about the agency's role in private sector computer security standards in 1989.

But when the NSA puts hands on Windows, that raises a red flag for Rotenberg, who heads the Washington, D.C.-based public interest research center. "When NSA offers to help the private sector on computer security, the obvious concern is that it will also build in backdoors that enables tracking users and intercepting user communications," Rotenberg said in an e-mail. "And private sector firms are reluctant to oppose these 'suggestions' since the US government is also their biggest customer and opposition to the NSA could mean to loss of sales."

Rotenberg's worries stem from the NSA's reputation as the intelligence agency best known for its eavesdropping of electronic messaging, including cell phone calls and e-mail.

Andrew Storms, the director of security operations at nCircle Security, didn't put much credence in the idea that Microsoft would allow the NSA to build a hidden entrance to Windows 7. "Would it be surprising to most people that there was a backdoor? No, not with the political agenda of prior administrations," said Storms. "My gut, though, tells me that Microsoft, as a business, would not want to do that, at least not in a secretive way."

Roger Thompson, chief research officer at AVG Technologies, agreed. "I can't imagine NSA and Microsoft would do anything deliberate because the repercussions would be enormous if they got caught," he said in an interview via instant messaging.

"Having said that, I think we should understand that there is every likelihood that certain foreign governments are constantly looking for vulnerabilities that they can use for targeted attacks," Thompson continued. "So if they're poking at us, I think it's reasonable to assume that we're doing something similar. But I seriously doubt an official NSA-Microsoft alliance."

The NSA's Schaeffer added that his agency is also working on engaging other major software makers, including Apple, Sun and Red Hat, on security standards for their products.

"More and more, we find that protecting national security systems demands teaming with public and private institutions to raise the information assurance level of products and services more broadly," Schaeffer said.

Microsoft was not immediately available for comment on the NSA's participation in Windows 7's development. ]]> World News A_Z_A http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123347 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123334&goto=newpost Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:39:24 GMT Prostitution sting nabs 13-year-old Alabama boy BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -An undercover officer posing as a prostitute in Alabama tried more than once to... Prostitution sting nabs 13-year-old Alabama boy

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. -An undercover officer posing as a prostitute in Alabama tried more than once to run off a 13-year-old boy who asked her for sex, but police say the teen insisted and had to be arrested.

Authorities in Mobile said Wednesday the teenager has been charged with a misdemeanor count of loitering while looking for a prostitute. The next-youngest suspect nabbed in the sting was 22.

Police set up the sting in a residential area last week because of complaints about prostitutes trolling for business. Officer Christopher Levy says it's not clear exactly what the teen said to the officer, or how she responded.

The boy's name was not released because of his age. He was taken to a juvenile detention center and released the same day.

Fifteen people were arrested during the sting. ]]> World News Dalakerman06 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123334 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123333&goto=newpost Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:34:02 GMT 2 arrested in taped assaults posted on YouTube MINNEAPOLIS - Police in Minnesota have arrested two people in connection with assaults that were... 2 arrested in taped assaults posted on YouTube

MINNEAPOLIS - Police in Minnesota have arrested two people in connection with assaults that were videotaped and briefly posted on YouTube.

St. Paul police Sgt. Paul Schnell said Wednesday that one 19-year-old man and one 17-year-old boy were taken into custody late Tuesday. They haven't been charged, and police are pursuing additional suspects.

The six-minute video shows young males taking turns pushing people off bicycles, pushing down a jogger, and pushing young children. In one case, the attacker snatched a hat off someone's head. In another incident, the victim fought back and punched the attacker.

Before most of the assaults, the attacker looks at the camera and says "Watch this."
The video was up on YouTube briefly Tuesday, then removed. ]]> World News Dalakerman06 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123333 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123331&goto=newpost Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:30:58 GMT Ark. police officer uses Taser on 10-year-old girl LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -A police officer in a small Arkansas town used a stun gun on an unruly... Ark. police officer uses Taser on 10-year-old girl

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -A police officer in a small Arkansas town used a stun gun on an unruly 10-year-old girl after he said her mother gave him permission to do so. Now the town's mayor is calling for an investigation into whether the Taser use was appropriate.

According to a report by Officer Dustin Bradshaw, obtained Wednesday by The Associated Press, police were called to the Ozark home Nov. 11 because of a domestic disturbance. When he arrived, the girl was curled up on the floor, screaming, the report said.

Bradshaw's report said the girl screamed, kicked and resisted any time her mother tried to get her in the shower before bed.

"Her mother told me to tase her if I needed to," Bradshaw wrote.

The child was "violently kicking and verbally combative" when Bradshaw tried to take her into custody, and she kicked him in the groin. So he delivered "a very brief drive stun to her back," the report said.

The names of the girl and her mother were redacted in the report.

Ozark Mayor Vernon McDaniel said Wednesday that the girl wasn't injured and is now at the Western Arkansas Youth Shelter in Cecil.

But McDaniel said he wants Arkansas State Police — and if they decline, the FBI — to investigate the incident. The state police declined his request Tuesday.

"People here feel like that he made a mistake in using a Taser, and maybe he did, but we will not know until we get an impartial investigation," McDaniel said.

Police Chief Jim Noggle said Tasers are a safe way to subdue someone who's a danger to themself or others. No disciplinary action was taken against Bradshaw, he said.

"We didn't use the Taser to punish the child — just to bring the child under control so she wouldn't hurt herself or somebody else," Noggle said.

If the officer tried to forcefully put the girl in handcuffs, he could have accidentally broken her arm or leg, Noggle said.

He said a touch of the stun gun — "less than a second" — stopped the girl from being unruly, and she was handcuffed, he said.

"She got up immediately and they put her in the patrol car," McDaniel said.

Noggle said the girl will face disorderly conduct charges as a juvenile in the incident.

The girl's father, Anthony Medlock, told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette that his daughter has emotional problems, but that she didn't have a weapon and shouldn't have been Tasered.

"My daughter does not deserve to be tased and be treated like an animal," said Medlock, who is divorced from the girl's mother and does not have custody.

Steve Tuttle, a spokesman for Taser, said it's up to individual law enforcement agencies to decide when Taser use is appropriate.

In some cases, a Taser "presents the safer response to resistance compared with the alternatives such as fists, kicks, baton strikes, bean bag guns, chemical agents, or canine response," Tuttle said in a statement.

The police chief, who has been Tasered twice himself during training sessions, said his department has never had to Taser a child or elderly person before, but that in some instances, that could be necessary to ensure safety.

"We don't want to do things like this," Noggle said. "This is something we have to do. We're required to maintain order and keep the peace." ]]> World News Dalakerman06 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123331 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123329&goto=newpost Wed, 18 Nov 2009 21:21:04 GMT Ex-bus driver convicted in Ohio pedestrian's death

CLEVELAND - A former Cleveland bus driver who was on her cell phone when her bus struck and killed a man in a crosswalk has been found guilty of vehicular homicide.

However, a jury on Wednesday acquitted 50-year-old Angela Williams of a more serious charge of aggravated vehicular homicide. If convicted on that count, she could have received up to five years in prison.

Cuyahoga (ky-uh-HOH'-guh) County Common Pleas Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold gave Williams six months behind bars and a $1,000 fine.

Defense attorney Rufus Sims plans to appeal. He says the six-month sentence is too severe for a woman with no prior convictions.

Sims had disputed a police claim that Williams was on her cell phone when her bus struck and killed 59-year-old Patrick Merrill in March. ]]> World News Dalakerman06 http://www.ftabins.net/showthread.php?t=123329