The OFFICAL News Thread

[mu_agd]

Posted 7/9/2003 5:29 PM Updated 7/9/2003 6:23 PM

W.Va. woman charged with trying to sell 2-year-old son to buy OxyContin

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A mother has been charged with trying to sell her toddler son for $500 so she could buy a stash of the addictive painkiller OxyContin.
Brianna Marie Burns, 23, could get up to five years in prison if convicted.

Burns' grandmother contacted authorities after Burns allegedly offered to sell her the 2-year-old child. An undercover officer wired the grandmother and provided her with $500 for the exchange, according to police documents.

Burns was arrested Monday after receiving the money and signing custody of the child over to her grandmother. She was being held on $102,500 bond.

Child Protective Services has placed the child with another family member.

OxyContin is a prescription painkiller often given to cancer patients. If chewed, snorted or injected, it produces a quick and potentially lethal high. The drug has been linked to more than 100 deaths.

The sale of a child was a misdemeanor in West Virginia until 1994, one year after a Charleston woman was convicted of trying to sell her 1-month-old baby to undercover officers for $1,400 so she could buy a mobile home. That led the state to change the law, making the crime a felony.


http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...09-drugs_x.htm

[PiEp299]

U.S. National - AP

Far-Flung Bathtub Toys Due in New England
Fri Jul 11,12:04 AM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!


By GREG SUKIENNIK, Associated Press Writer

BOSTON - Being thrown from a container ship, drifting for more than a decade, bobbing through three oceans — it's enough to turn a rubber duckie white.



A floating flock of the bathtub toys — along with beavers, turtles and frogs — is believed to be washing ashore somewhere along the New England coast, bleached and battered from a trans-Arctic journey. Oceanographers say the trip has taught them valuable lessons about the ocean's currents.


The toys have been adrift since 29,000 of them fell from a storm-tossed container ship en route from China to Seattle more than 11 years ago.


From a point in the Pacific Ocean near where the 45th parallel meets the international date line, they floated along the Alaska coast, reaching the Bering Strait by 1995 and Iceland five years later. By 2001 they had floated to the area in the north Atlantic where the Titanic sank.


"Some kept going, some turned and headed to Europe," says Curtis Ebbesmeyer of Seattle, a retired oceanographer who's been tracking the toys' progress. "By now, hundreds should be dispersed along the New England coast."


Ebbesmeyer has been able to track the toys with the help of duckies that washed ashore along the way. He said they have been a useful tool in teaching oceanography, and have shed light on the way surface currents behave.


They are also a sobering reminder that about 10,000 containers fall off cargo ships each year, creating all manner of flotsam and jetsam.


"When trash goes into the ocean, it doesn't disappear," Ebbesmeyer said. "It just goes somewhere else."


Fred Felleman, of the environmental group Ocean Advocates, said container ships carry 95 percent of the world's goods and are stacked higher and wider than ever before, raising the odds of spillage.


"Some 30 percent have hazardous materials in them. They're not just spilling Nikes," he said.

[enlightenment06]

Shreveport Black Community Says Justice is Due Following Shooting Death
By Ed Wiley III and Alex P. Kellogg, BET.com Staff Writers

Posted July 11, 2003 -- Black leaders in the city of Shreveport, La., said Thursday that they have been able to make some progress with city officials four months after an unarmed Black man was shot dead by police. But the true test of justice, they say, will come after federal investigators issue their report on whether the policemen acted outside the law.

In March, Shreveport Police officers shot Marquise Hudspeth dead following a high-speed chase. The 25-year-old local resident had pulled into the parking lot of the convenience store and began walking away from the officers. Two officers blasted away at Hudspeth, emptying eight shots in the suspect's back. Police say they mistook his shiny, metallic cell phone for a handgun and believed he was aiming it at officers when they shot him.

However, Black community leaders, including ministers and the head of the local NAACP, argue that even if Hudspeth had pointed his cell phone at police, officers did not fire until he had begun walking away and heading into the store. The fact that all of the bullets that hit Hudspeth entered his back is proof that he was no threat, they say.

A local police review board and the District Attorney, after examining the videotapes, ruled that the shooting was justifiable, and all three officers involved -- Denver Ramsey, Michael Armstrong and Steven Hathorn -- were cleared of any wrongdoing.

Angry members of the Black community, following citywide marches and talk of a potential economic boycott, have seen their persistence begin to pay off. There are regular meetings with Mayor Keith Hightower and members of the City Council, and in recent weeks, Police Chief Jim Roberts has been forced to resign. The next immediate goal, say members of a Black ministers' alliance, is the firing of the three officers involved in the shooting. Three of the seven council members are Black.

"We are hoping to get these officers on administrative leave," said the Rev. Richard Hardy, senior pastor of St. Mary Baptist Church in Shreveport. "We have major concerns about the police explanation of what happened. Why shoot the man in the back? One of the officers was close enough and in position to grab him and hold on to him."

Hardy said that aside from removal of the officers, residents of Shreveport are demanding overall justice. They would like to see the FBI and the Justice Department lodge criminal charges against the officers, and ultimately see the officers jailed. "We are still waiting for the Justice Department to bring some closure to this," Hardy said, noting that Hudspeth's family is also likely to file a civil suit.

But several White citizens of this racially divided city of over 200,000 residents say they believe the police and are tired of hearing them bashed by the Black community. They formed an ad hoc group, Back the Badge, to stand by city police following the Hudspeth shooting. They too have held rallies and marches, supporting the officers. Some Black residents expressed anger that Mayor Hightower attended the Back the Badge rally but was a no-show for their march for justice.

Veronica Harris a member of Back the Badge, said, "People want to support and encourage [the police]. They want to tell them how much they appreciate them."

The Rev. Artis Cash, fired back: "We back the badge, but we back the badge when it's not killing us! Suicide by cops, we don't do that in our community."

Shreveport, which is centered between Jackson, Miss., and Dallas, may be divided equally in its racial makeup -- 51 percent Black and 49 percent White -- but it is also deeply divided in its racial attitudes, a holdover, Black residents say, of its Southern plantation past.

"When you understand the geographical setting of Shreveport, and the fact that these Black communities are near plantations and farms, then it helps you understand why White residents in those communities find it the hardest to yield," said Rev. Hardy. "The average White pastor here can't join the Black ministers in our efforts, because their deacon and trustee boards wield an incredible amount of power. For them, joining our cause would be like committing treason."

[xok85xo]

sometimes size really does matter...

http://pennlive.com/news/expresstime...85238780.xml?&

[moe.ron]

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- A woman who didn't want the rain to ruin the sofa in the back of her truck caused 24 vehicles to wreck behind her Sunday on Interstate-20 as she swerved to get under an overpass, a police spokesman said.

Eleven people suffered minor injuries.

"It was a mess," said Sgt. Pat White of the DeKalb County Police.

He said the woman was driving her brown Ford F-150 pickup truck westbound on I-20, just east of Atlanta, at 5:19 p.m. EDT when it began to rain.

She changed lanes so rapidly that she cut off cars as she made her way to the shoulder of the road to get under the overpass, White said.

"She cut off two vehicles initially, right away, and that caused those two vehicles to collide with each other," White said. "We had a total of 24 vehicles at the end of it."

Eight separate accidents were reported as a direct result of the woman's poor driving, he said.

"She never was struck," White said of the woman, "but she did stay at the scene and was charged with improper lane change."

He said the woman had planned to stop in the dry area under the overpass until the rain stopped.

The westbound lanes were blocked for about an hour as officials tried to clear the scene, the dispatcher said. All lanes were open by 9:30 p.m. EDT, White said.

DeKalb County borders the Atlanta city limits to the east.

Not going to say anything but, WTF????

[ksig600]

...Hey, that my county

[moe.ron]

Body of former NHL first-round draft pick found after almost 14 years

July 21, 2003

REGINA, Saskatchewan (AP) -- The body of a former NHL first-round draft pick who disappeared in Austria almost 14 years ago has been found frozen in the Alps.

Duncan MacPherson, who was selected 20th overall by the New York Islanders in 1984, was last seen on Aug. 9, 1989, while snowboarding on the Stubaier Glacier.

The body was discovered late last week by an employee operating a snow-grooming machine at a summer ski resort in Neustift, near the Italian border.

MacPherson's parents were scheduled to leave for Austria on Tuesday.

``We feel very sad,'' said Lynda MacPherson, who was notified about the discovery Friday by a friend from Innsbruck who met the couple during the first of their seven visits to Austria in search of their son.

The family was contacted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Austrian officials over the weekend.

``At 3,000 meters, the body would be pretty well frozen the whole time. His identification was in his pocket,'' she said. ``They didn't have a problem identifying him. His dental records are there and our DNA is there.

``Even so, I have to see the body. I have to know for certain that it is him.''

MacPherson was 23 when he disappeared while on his way to take a job as a coach with a hockey team in Dundee, Scotland.

He played three seasons in the American Hockey League, but didn't make it to the NHL. When his contract with the Islanders expired in 1989, he accepted an offer to become a player-coach for Dundee.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nhl/news?slu...v=ap&type=lgns

[PiEp299]

Flying Underpants Cause Highway Crash
Tue Jul 22,10:28 AM ET


BERLIN (Reuters) - A pair of flying underpants caused a crash on a German highway when they landed on a driver's face and blocked his view, police said Tuesday.



A police spokesman in the central town of Gotha said one of a group of naked men in a van threw the underwear into a Volkswagen Passat as they passed it on a busy stretch of one of Germany's notoriously speedy autobahns.


"The underpants landed on the driver's face, causing him to ram the truck ahead from behind," said the spokesman, adding that he did not know why the men were driving along naked.


No one was hurt in the crash, but police are hunting the owner of the underpants for failing to stop at the scene.

[DeltaSigStan]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...us/do_not_call

Telemarketers Sue Over Do Not Call List

[CatStarESP4]

Here is something that is hard to believe, but read it anyway!

Shark whisperer sweet talks Great Whites
By Sophie Hares


SYDNEY (Reuters) - Swimmers frantically scrambling for the safety of the sand at the sound of a wailing shark siren are a familiar sight on Australian beaches.


But while fear of a shark attack may haunt Australian beachgoers as they dip their toes in the oceans that surround their nation, for "shark whisperer" Ian Gordon taunting a massive Great White Shark to attack is all in a day's work.


Despite 23 years spent swimming with some of the ocean's most feared marine life in a bid to understand their behaviour, Gordon admits that predicting how a shark will react is still tricky.


"For many people, the old adage is 'the only predictable thing about sharks is they're unpredictable'," Gordon told Reuters.


"I find their behaviour fairly predictable compared to most people, but the reality is, I'm human and they're a shark," said the rugged 46-year-old Australian shark behavouralist.


Mental strength and a healthy dose of luck are essential when studying shark attacks, a process usually accomplished by provoking the creature to the point where it head-butts its human observer or makes a mock attack run.


This is definitely not an exercise for any amateur shark fanatic, warns Gordon, who often leaves his chain mail protective suit at home when underwater and dispenses with life insurance.


"We put ourselves so to speak in harms way to dissect or analyse attacks, by getting a shark to physically attack us we can understand a little bit more about the animal," said Gordon, who sports shark "love bite" scars.


UNDERWATER WRESTLING


A member of shark biology group the American Elasmobranch Society, Gordon swam with sharks around the world for Discovery Channel's "Shark Gordon" series and recently made headlines in Australia when he lured a Great White measuring over four metres (12 feet) from a pen holding 100 nervous tuna.


Wrestling the animal may have been an option, but Gordon instead cut a hole in the net and used shark psychology to coax the Great White through the gap and back into open water.


"I could have caught it, put a rope around it, tired it out. I could have done all sorts of things that would have been good camera opportunities, up close and personal with a one tonne, four metre (12 feet) shark which could hold three of me," said Gordon.


"But that wasn't the best thing for the shark and certainly, potentially wasn't the best thing for the people around me."


But sometimes Gordon has no choice but to go head-to-head with a massive Great White. Venturing out of a protective cage to test drive an electric shark repellent device on a Great White in early 1990s was one task that required nerves of steel.


Positioning himself for a head-on attack, Gordon was given strict instructions to only flick the switch on the electric shield when the huge shark was no more than two metres away.


"We hadn't really planned what to do if it didn't work, I would have tried to duck very fast I'd imagine," said Gordon.


"The Great White shark was aware we had a 'sting' so to speak and decided to leave us alone," the father of three added.


Fascinated by sharks since a visit to an aquarium as a teenager, Gordon began working with the creatures at a Sydney marine park before going on to run shark diving tours in South Australia after graduating to fund his field research.


Now his bills are paid by professional research groups and Gordon claims to spend most of his time underwater with sharks while other experts study them from the safety of their desks.


SNACKING


Gordon believes the Great White, seared into the minds of movie goers around the world by Steven Spielberg's "Jaws" movie, rightly deserves its reputation as potentially the most dangerous shark swimming the world's oceans.


But while the predator, which can grow up to 6.8 metres (20 feet) long, may be credited with killing more humans than any other shark, its fearsome reputation far outweighs the number of attacks.


The University of Florida's International Shark Attack File shows 60 unprovoked shark attacks were recorded in 2002, lower than the 72 in 2001 and 85 in 2000. Only three people around the world were registered on the file as killed by sharks in 2002. Out of those, only one in Australia was caused by a Great White.


Gordon says brave swimmers and divers can take a dip with a well-fed Great White and live to tell the tale, particularly in spots awash with their favourite snacks such as seals.


"We're splitting hairs, you might get bitten, but it's not because the shark thinks you're a seal," said Gordon.


Despite the Great White's chilling reputation, lesser-known sharks such as the aggressive Tiger or the stout and fairly common Bull Shark that lives in Australia's rivers and tropical waters can pose an equally serious threat to humans.


But anyone scared to go into the water can still take comfort from the fact bee stings cause more fatalities every year than the great predators of the deep.

[moe.ron]

Rapper-Actor Heavy D Loses 135 Pounds

LOS ANGELES - Heavy D isn't so heavy anymore.

The rapper-turned-actor says he's dropped 135 pounds in the last year. Although he didn't say what he previously weighed ? or how he lost the weight ? Heavy D, whose real name is Dwight Myers, said the loss wasn't prompted by health concerns.

"I went on a couple auditions and one director was kind enough to say, `Look, you would've had this part but you're not fitting, you're stifling yourself,'" he told the Television Critics Association last week.

"He was right. I kind of always knew it in the back of my mind, and I just woke up on a Tuesday and I just kept going."

Heavy D plays a mechanic in "The Tracy Morgan Show," a proposed show starring the former "Saturday Night Live (news - Y! TV)" comic. It's not yet on NBC's fall schedule. Heavy D composed and performs the show's title theme.

The 36-year-old has no plans to lose the moniker he's used since he broke into the music business. Heavy D and the Boyz earned three Grammy nominations and scored a hit with "We Got Our Own Thang."

"There's a lot of checks involved with 'Heavy D,' so that name stays," he said.

His credits include the movies "Life," "The Cider House Rules" and "Big Trouble."

[PiEp299]

I guess heavy D will now be known as little D (i don't know if i'd want that nickname). I'd rather have a Heavy D than a Little D.
Anyway, here's a very talented kid's story.


Toddler Crashes Dad's Car Twice in Four Days
Tue Jul 29,10:52 AM ET


BERLIN (Reuters) - A motor-mad three-year-old German boy crashed his father's car twice in four days, police in the western town of Borken said on Monday.

Using a ladder, the boy stole the keys to his father's Honda Accord, started the car and plowed it into a nearby Toyota, causing some 5,000 euros ($5,750) of damage but escaping unharmed.

When a television crew came to their home in the town of Bocholt near the Dutch border to reconstruct the incident four days later, the young lad took matters into his own hands.

Sitting behind the wheel with the car key given to him during filming, his urge to drive overtook him again.

"The father was with the television crew," said Borken police spokesman Frank Rentmeister. "The car was in gear and the boy just started up and drove into the car ahead."

The boy was not hurt, but chalked up further damages totaling around 1,000 euros. Police are now investigating the father for criminal negligence.

[steelepike]

Sooners edge Buckeyes 29-28 in first-place votes


Oklahoma, Ohio State and Miami, teams that have won the last three national championships, top the ESPN/USA Today Coaches' Top 25 preseason poll.

Oklahoma, which hasn't been ranked as the preseason No. 1 in any poll since 1987, earned 29 first-place votes to edge Ohio State (28 first place votes) and No. 3 Miami (five). Texas and Kansas State round out the top five, marking the first time in the history of the coaches' poll that three teams from the same conference are ranked in the top five.

The Sooners had 1,514 points to Ohio State's 1,495. The Buckeyes beat Miami in double overtime in last season's national championship game, preventing the Hurricanes from a repeat.

Auburn, which received the only other No. 1 vote, is sixth, followed by Michigan, Southern California, Georgia and Virginia Tech.

This marks the first time since 1985 that Florida State -- ranked No. 12 -- did not start the season in the top 10 and the first time since 1990 that Florida -- No. 21 -- didn't make the top 10 cut. The Seminoles were in the 2000 national championship game, their last of three straight appearances, which they lost to Oklahoma.

Pittsburgh is No. 11, followed by the Seminoles, Maryland, North Carolina State, LSU, Tennessee, Virginia, Notre Dame, Washington and Wisconsin. The Gators are followed by Purdue, Arizona State and Oklahoma State, with Colorado State and Penn State tied for 25th.

Noticeably absent from the rankings is Nebraska, which is fifth among others receiving votes. The lowest the Huskers had been ranked in a preseason coaches' poll since USA Today first headlined the rankings in 1991 was 15th that same year. Since it is unlikely Nebraska will be ranked in The Associated Press preseason writers' poll, this might be the first time since 1969 the Huskers will be unranked in the preseason.

Schools that were ranked at the end of last season but are unranked to start 2003 are Iowa (No. 8), Washington State (No. 10), Boise State (No. 12), Marshall (No. 19), West Virginia (No. 20), Colorado (No. 21) and TCU (No. 22).


ESPN/USA Today Top 25 Poll

[PiEp299]

SBC Sues to Halt Music Industry Subpoenas
Thu Jul 31, 6:44 PM ET

By Andy Sullivan

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - SBC Communications Inc. . said on Thursday it had filed suit to stop a flood of recording-industry court orders that seek to track down Internet users who might be illegally copying music.

SBC subsidiary Pacific Bell Internet Services sued the Recording Industry Association of America (news - web sites) in federal court in San Francisco, saying the music industry trade group has been overzealous in its pursuit of suspected song-swappers.

The RIAA has issued more than 1,000 subpoenas to SBC and other Internet providers over the past few weeks, seeking to find the names of those who use "peer to peer" services like Kazaa and Morpheus to copy music, movies and other files from each others' hard drives for free.

The trade group says a digital-copyright law requires Internet provider to comply, and a federal court in Washington agreed this spring.

But an SBC spokesman said that ruling has opened the floodgates to hundreds of questionable subpoenas from anybody who claims that their copyrighted material is being illegally distributed.

Pac Bell has received 207 requests from the music industry to turn over the names of some of its customers, one request from a pornography company for the identities of 59 customers, and more than 16,000 warnings from an independent copyright investigator, the company said in its suit.

"The action we are taking is intended to protect the privacy rights of our customers," SBC spokesman Larry Meyer said.

"It's about the fact that anyone can without any effort obtain one of these DMCA subpoenas," said Meyer, referring to the 1998 Digital Music Copyright Act.

The RIAA said it had already settled such questions in a court battle with Verizon Communications earlier this year. Verizon is currently appealing that decision.

"Pac Bell is simply recycling many of the same arguments already raised and twice rebutted by a federal court," an RIAA official said. "It's unfortunate that they have chosen to litigate this, unlike every other ISP (Internet service provider) which has complied with their obligations under the law."

Meyer said the Verizon decision only contemplated whether the subpoenas should be issued or not and did not address how they should be handled. For example, the RIAA has filed all its subpoenas in Washington even though Pac Bell is based in California, he said.

Also named in the suit were San Francisco pornography firm Titan Media and copyright investigator MediaForce.

RIAA members include AOL Time Warner Inc.'s Warner Music; Sony Corp's Sony Music; Vivendi Universal's Universal Music Group; Bertelsmann AG's BMG; and EMI Group Plc.

[CatStarESP4]

Okay you Friendster fans, I found this article in Yahoo.


Sun Aug 3, 2:40 PM ET


By JANET PAK, AP Business Writer

Christian Lesstrang didn't know a soul in Chicago after moving from San Francisco.


So he turned to Friendster.com, a Web site that owes its rapidly growing popularity to a simple but effective formula. Unlike dating sites that disseminate profiles of people looking to meet others, Friendster lets people network only with their friends' other friends — and those people's friends as well.


Browsing through the hundreds of people in his Friendster network, Lesstrang, 32, came across a few in Chicago. He e-mailed them, told them how they were connected and asked if they'd be interested in meeting up. Within a week in his new city, Lesstrang had some get-togethers, and now he has met about 10 people he regularly sees.


"You meet friends and there's really no expectations or anything weird about that," Lesstrang said. "It's just going through life, except through a referral network."


One year after being launched by software engineer Jonathan Abrams, Friendster has attracted a healthy buzz and 1.3 million users — despite no advertising and being officially only in beta, or test mode. The company has spent $250,000 getting started and operates out of a suite in Sunnyvale, Calif., with a staff of just seven.


Users join Friendster by invitation from a friend or associate. Becoming a member requires filling out a profile that lists only users' first names, gender, status, date of birth, country, postal code and what they seek from being on Friendster.


Users can add more information and a picture of themselves if they want, and can expand the network by inviting other friends to join. Then users can flip through the profiles of people up to four degrees of separation away.


That leads to a big and rapidly expanding pool of people bound by a common desire to meet other people, whether for dating, friendships or business networking. About 53 percent of the users are male, 47 percent female. The average age is 27.


"In real life, people meet each other through their friends," Abrams said. "I felt a demand for these type of services and wanted to help people meet new people, but there was room for a new approach."


The rise of Friendster and other social networking sites like LinkedIn.com, Ryze.com and Everyonesconnected.com stems from the Internet's power as a grassroots, peer-to-peer medium.


"Social networking tools are going to do well," said Clay Shirky, adjunct professor of interactive telecommunications at New York University and a scholar of Internet communities. "Friendster's success makes it clear you can meet people without being a dating-only site."


Friendster is free for now, but within a few months, it will take on a subscription model similar to online dating sites. It will remain free to post a profile and view others, but members will have to pay $8 a month if they want to be able to contact new people, about one-third the price of some dating sites.


Derek Hartley of New York was perusing Friendster one night at 2 a.m. when he came across a familiar name and photo. It was Chuck Griffiths, a friend he had met at a party a few years ago but eventually lost touch with. Taken aback, Hartley took a moment to reflect, read Griffith's profile, then e-mailed about getting back in touch.


Other users have had romantic experiences.


John Prato of San Francisco originally searched Friendster for users interested in music and cognitive sciences, while Jenae Serena of Seattle was hoping to network with other people in the software industry. As it turns out, they found each other — and have been dating for a few months.


"The best way it can happen," Prato said, "is when you're not looking for it."


___