Prometheus 6

I knew I'd miss Washington Journal this morning so I had it on record. I am watching it right now.

They opened with opinions on the passing of Jesse Helms. I do not think they expected the response. In thirty minutes so far there have been six pro-Helms calls. One was from a woman whom Helms authorized payment for her granddaughter's liver transplant. Three others were about Black people...of course. And two declared him a consistent Conservative and not a hater at all.

Cornfield worked with students ranging in age from 14 to 18 at Del Rey, a continuation school that provides a smaller and more personalized environment for students considered at risk of not completing their education, said district spokeswoman Monica Carazo.

L.A. Unified principal posed as a girl in chat room, authorities say
Del Rey Continuation's Randolph Cornfield was arrested in June for allegedly having child pornography images on his home computer.
By Victoria Kim
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
July 4, 2008

And I have an excuse to post pictures of Venus and Serena.

I like them power pictures, but don't sleep on 'em...

U.S. Is in No Shape to Give Advice, Medvedev Says
By CLIFFORD J. LEVY

MOSCOW — Russia’s new president, Dmitri A. Medvedev, less swaggering than his predecessor but as touchy about criticism from abroad, said in an interview that an America in “essentially a depression” was in no position to lecture other countries on how to conduct their affairs.

With soaring oil revenues bolstering the Russian economy and Kremlin confidence, Mr. Medvedev brushed aside American criticism of his country’s record on democracy and human rights. He also said that a revived Russia had a right to assume a larger role in a world economic system that he suggested should no longer be dominated by the United States.

No wonder y'all are so religious...you need to be saved.

Patrick Kelly, 41, is set to be the third alleged member of the so-called ''Mineola Swingers Club'' to stand trial. He and five others are accused of teaching children as young as 5 to have sex with each other and dance provocatively for crowds as large as 100 people.

Reporters, ADA don't have to discuss relationships
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 2:01 a.m. ET

TYLER, Texas (AP) -- Two news reporters will not have to answer questions about their alleged relationship with the state's lead prosecutor in a case involving an East Texas swingers club, a judge ruled Friday.

KLTV reporter Danielle Capper, Tyler Morning Telegraph reporter Casey Knaupp and Assistant District Attorney Joe Murphy don't have to hand over their cell phone records or e-mails. Judge Jack Skeen Jr. also ruled that they can be questioned during a hearing on Monday, but they cannot be asked about their personal lives.

''The questions are limited to what I see as legit,'' Skeen said.

Mayor: No support for claims of pregnancy pact
The Associated Press
Sunday, June 22, 2008; 7:38 PM

"The high school principal is the one who initially said it, and no one else has said it," Kirk said. "None of the counselors at the school, none of the teachers who know these children and none of the families have spoken about it.

"So, my position is that it has not been confirmed," she said.

Jury Acquits R. Kelly of All Counts
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 4:28 p.m. ET

CHICAGO (AP) -- R. Kelly was acquitted of all charges Friday after less than a day of deliberations in his child pornography trial, ending a six-year ordeal for the R&B superstar.

Kelly dabbed his face with a handkerchief and hugged each of his four attorneys after the verdict -- not guilty on all 14 counts -- was read. The Grammy award-winning singer had faced 15 years in prison if convicted.

Minutes later, surrounded by bodyguards, he left the courthouse without comment. Dozens of fans screamed and cheered as he climbed into a waiting SUV.

Prosecutors had argued that a video tape mailed to the Chicago Sun-Times in 2002 showed Kelly engaged in graphic sex acts with a girl as young as 13 at the time. Both Kelly, 41, and the now 23-year-old alleged victim had denied they were the ones on the tape. Neither testified during the trial.

After all, no one died...

2 Top Leaders of Air Force Pushed Out After Inquiry
By THOM SHANKER

WASHINGTON — The Air Force’s senior civilian official and its highest-ranking general were ousted by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates on Thursday following an official inquiry into the mishandling of nuclear weapons and components, an episode that Mr. Gates called an indication of systemic problems in the Air Force.

The Air Force secretary, Michael W. Wynne, and the service’s chief of staff, Gen. T. Michael Moseley, were forced to resign after the inquiry found that the latest incident reflected “a pattern of poor performance” in securing sensitive military components, Mr. Gates said at a Pentagon briefing.

So deep and serious are the problems, Mr. Gates said, that he has asked a former defense secretary, James R. Schlesinger, to head “a senior-level task force” to recommend improvements in the safekeeping of weapons, delivery vehicles and other sensitive items.

Bo Diddley, Rock Pioneer, Dies at 79
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 12:39 p.m. ET

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) -- Bo Diddley, a founding father of rock 'n' roll whose distinctive ''shave and a haircut, two bits'' rhythm and innovative guitar effects inspired legions of other musicians, died Monday after months of ill health. He was 79.

Diddley died of heart failure at his home in Archer, Fla., spokeswoman Susan Clary said. He had suffered a heart attack in August, three months after suffering a stroke while touring in Iowa. Doctors said the stroke affected his ability to speak, and he had returned to Florida to continue rehabilitation.

Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Updated: May 29, 1:12 PM ET
Fines will be imposed for clear cases of flopping
By Marc Stein
ESPN.com

The NBA announced to its teams this week at its annual pre-draft camp that fines will be imposed on players starting next season for clear cases of "flopping," ESPN.com has learned. The league office has yet to determine exact fine amounts for offending flops and how fines might escalate for repeat offenders, but in-game arena observers and video reviewers will be instructed to report instances of theatrical flopping for potential punishment as part of postgame reports on officiating and other matters. The league's pledge to crack down on flopping was conveyed to team representatives at Tuesday's competition committee meeting in Orlando. NBA executive vice president of basketball operations Stu Jackson confirmed the new policy Wednesday night saying: "What was clearly expressed to the committee is that we would begin imposing fines next season for the most egregious type of flops. When players are taking a dive, for lack of a better term."

Y'all will call anything "discrimination."

Anything except actual racism, of course. 

Group wants Wi-Fi banned from public buildings

A group in Santa Fe says the city is discriminating against them because they say that they're allergic to the wireless Internet signal. And now they want Wi-Fi banned from public buildings.

Arthur Firstenberg says he is highly sensitive to certain types of electric fields, including wireless Internet and cell phones.

"I get chest pain and it doesn't go away right away," he said.

Firstenberg and dozens of other electro-sensitive people in Santa Fe claim that putting up Wi-Fi in public places is a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

The city attorney is now checking to see if putting up Wi-Fi could be considered discrimination.

Doctors say Sen. Kennedy has malignant brain tumor
By GLEN JOHNSON, Associated Press Writer 

A cancerous brain tumor caused the seizure Sen. Edward M. Kennedy suffered over the weekend, doctors said Tuesday in a grim diagnosis for one of American politics' most enduring figures.

"He remains in good spirits and full of energy," the doctors for the 76-year-old Massachusetts Democrat said in a statement.

Texas minister arrested in sex sting resigns

PLANO, Texas (AP) — A minister arrested in an Internet sex sting has resigned his position at a Dallas-area megachurch, its pastor said Saturday.

The Rev. Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church, said during services Saturday that the church accepted Joe Barron's resignation, effective immediately.

Barron was charged Friday with online solicitation of a minor. Undercover officers posing as a 13-year-old girl communicated with the 52-year-old minister for about two weeks. The online conversations were sexual in nature, police said.

Bonds deserves far better than to sit out the season unsigned.The overriding ethos of the sports world is that of a meritocracy. If you are good enough, you get to play. Yet a man who got on base 48% of the time last year can't find a new home.

The possible blackballing of Bonds by baseball owners is about more than a baseball player. It's about people in power deciding on grounds unrelated to talent and performance who gets to take the field, who gets to be heard and even who gets to be remembered in history. And it smacks of Stalin.

Erasing Barry Bonds from baseball history
The former slugger hasn't just been sidelined from baseball, it's as if he has never played.
By Dave Zirin
May 18, 2008

'The Commissar Vanishes" is not your usual coffee-table book. Using photographs, it shows how Josef Stalin systematically erased memories of his chief political opponents from the history of the Russian revolution. In one photo, the dictator appears next to Leon Trotsky. In others, the images of Trotsky have been either airbrushed or crudely blacked out.

Barry Bonds has become the Leon Trotsky of Major League Baseball.

Officer Is Accused of Molesting Boy
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

A New York police sergeant assigned to the Police Academy has been charged with sexually abusing a boy over a period of five years, prosecutors said on Friday.

The sergeant, Jaime Katz, 38, is charged with committing a criminal sexual act and endangering the welfare of a child. He was arrested on Thursday and arraigned in Manhattan Criminal Court, where he was ordered jailed in $500,000 bail.

A spokeswoman for the Manhattan district attorney’s office, Jennifer Kushner, said the abuse began in 2002, when the boy was 12, and took place weekly until November 2007. The abuse occurred in locations including Sergeant Katz’s home in Rockland County, his car, the victim’s home in Manhattan, and the sergeant’s sister’s house in New Jersey, Ms. Kushner said, as well as during family vacations.

Sergeant Katz, a 10-year police veteran, met the boy through another sergeant who had been involved in a mentoring program, she said.

The former official said that Mr. Berwick, whom the official last spoke with several weeks ago, was demoralized by the damage to Mr. Felton and by the strain of the investigations.

“He was not happy with the turn of events,” the former official said. 

Former State Police Official, a Guard to Governors, Commits Suicide
By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE and NATE SCHWEBER

A former New York State Police inspector who once headed the governor’s personal security detail committed suicide at his home in Orange County on Thursday, a family friend confirmed on Friday. The inspector, Gary A. Berwick, 48, retired from the State Police last month, shortly after the resignation of the acting State Police superintendent, Preston L. Felton.

Several friends and former colleagues of Mr. Berwick said they were unaware he had been having any personal problems. But a former State Police official who was close to Mr. Berwick said he had been scheduled for an interview with the agency’s internal affairs bureau.

I'd get the lamb's blood...wait, this is Texas, better make it calf's blood...I'd get the calf's blood ready.

It's not enough just to kill the queen. Experts say each colony has multiple queens that have to be taken out.

At the same time, the ants aren't taking the bait usually left out in traps, according to exterminators, who want the Environmental Protection Agency to loosen restrictions on the use of more powerful pesticides.

And when you do kill these ants, the survivors turn it to their advantage: They pile up the dead, sometimes using them as a bridge to cross safely over surfaces treated with pesticide. 

Ants swarm over Houston area, fouling electronics
By LINDA STEWART BALL, Associated Press Writer
Wed May 14, 3:16 PM ET

In what sounds like a really low-budget horror film, voracious swarming ants that apparently arrived in Texas aboard a cargo ship are invading homes and yards across the Houston area, shorting out electrical boxes and messing up computers.

The hairy, reddish-brown creatures are known as "crazy rasberry ants" — crazy, because they wander erratically instead of marching in regimented lines, and "rasberry" after Tom Rasberry, an exterminator who did battle against them early on.

"They're itty-bitty things about the size of fleas, and they're just running everywhere," said Patsy Morphew of Pearland, who is constantly sweeping them off her patio and scooping them out of her pool by the cupful. "There's just thousands and thousands of them. If you've seen a car racing, that's how they are. They're going fast, fast, fast. They're crazy."

Especially when one side plans an escalation before the fight even starts. 

Victor Wong, an 18-year-old senior, told The Times that the brawl grew out of a fight two days earlier between two graffiti gangs. He said Hispanic students who were friends of his asked him to participate in a fight planned for Friday that was to pit 10 Hispanic students against 10 black students.

The two groups met as planned at the handball courts, Mr. Wong said, but the fight quickly spread throughout the campus.

No real good guys here. Just sayin'... 

Los Angeles High School Breaks Out in Violence
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A fight at a troubled South Los Angeles high school escalated into a campuswide brawl involving as many as 600 students before it was quelled by police officers in riot gear.

One student was about to graduate with a degree in criminal justice, said Special Agent Ralph Partridge of the federal Drug Enforcement Administration, which took part on the operation. Another was studying for a master’s degree in homeland security.

75 Students Arrested in Drug Raid
By WILL CARLESS

SAN DIEGO — Seventy-five students at San Diego State University have been arrested on drug and weapons charges in an undercover operation that grew out of a student’s death from a cocaine overdose last year, law enforcement authorities said on Tuesday.

The operation netted more than $100,000 worth of cocaine, marijuana and ecstasy and several weapons, including a shotgun and four handguns, said Damon Mosler, chief of the narcotics division of the San Diego district attorney’s office.

Turns Out New Jersey E-Voting Problems Even Worse Than Originally Thought
from the care-to-explain dept

No Pact, but Bush, Putin Leave a Map
Contentious Issues to Await Successors
By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 7, 2008; A08

SOCHI, Russia, April 6 -- President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin brought their turbulent seven-year partnership to a close Sunday without a concrete deal on the issues dividing their wary nations but left behind a road map for their successors.

With Putin stepping down next month, the two leaders used their final meeting to move closer to resolving the heated dispute over missile defense, agreeing to consider a joint program or at least to design Bush's planned system to assuage Russian concerns. Bush called it "a significant breakthrough." Putin was more cautious, saying it "does not provide any breakthrough" and that "the devil is in the details."

Subpoenas issued for IBM, employees over EPA probe
By ELISE CASTELLI
March 31, 2008

IBM and several of its employees have been subpoenaed to testify before a grand jury on interactions between Environmental Protection Agency and IBM employees, a company spokesman said today.

The subpoenas, which were issued March 28 by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, stem from an EPA investigation into allegations IBM improperly obtained information about a contract it was bidding on from EPA employees, said Fred McNeese, an IBM spokesman.
Earlier in the day Federal Times learned the EPA indefinitely suspended IBM from doing business with federal agencies. The suspension was posted on March 27 on a GSA Web site that lists companies barred from receiving federal contracts — Excluded Parties List System, www.epls.gov.
EPA declined to elaborate on the investigation or the procurement through a spokesman.