Say What? Boy Grabs Knife After Dad Pulls Plug on Video Game

[Honeykiss1974]

I heard that Wal-Mart saved a $29 DVD player for the woman.

[CrimsonTide4]

Boy Punished for Talking About Gay Mom
Mon Dec 1, 5:56 PM ET Add U.S. National - AP to My Yahoo!



LAFAYETTE, La. - A 7-year-old boy was scolded and forced to write "I will never use the word `gay' in school again" after he told a classmate about his lesbian mother, the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) alleged Monday.

Second-grader Marcus McLaurin was waiting for recess Nov. 11 at Ernest Gaullet Elementary School when a classmate asked about Marcus' mother and father, the ACLU said in a complaint.


Marcus responded he had two mothers because his mother is gay. When the other child asked for explanation, Marcus told him: "Gay is when a girl likes another girl," according to the complaint.


A teacher who heard the remark scolded Marcus, telling him "gay" was a "bad word" and sending him to the principal's office. The following week, Marcus had to come to school early and repeatedly write: "I will never use the word `gay' in school again."


A phone message left for Lafayette Parish schools superintendent James Easton was not immediately returned.


The ACLU is demanding the case be removed from Marcus' file and that the school apologize to the boy and his mother, Sharon Huff.


"I was concerned when the assistant principal called and told me my son had said a word so bad that he didn't want to repeat it over the phone," Huff said. "But that was nothing compared to the shock I felt when my little boy came home and told me that his teacher had told him his family is a dirty word."

[brickhouse492]

Next thing you know, they'll have a separate school for children with gay parents (like the highschool in NY for gay students).

It's unfortunate what happened to little Marcus but I'd be a little upset -no, i'd be pissed- if lil' Marcus introduced homosexuality to my daughter.

It's not fair that just because society is so darn liberal, we have to teach our 7 year olds about things that they may not need to be exposed to right now.

[MaMaBuddha]

i think is hardly something to punish a little boy for.

as for the teacher, she should have taken the time out to explain children what gay was or perhaps gotten permission to explain what gay means.

that is like if a child saying penis or vagina, the teacher should take the time to properly explain what it is and how to use the word and of course notify the parents so that the parents can further properly explain

i notice alot of times children do not learn things from teachers, they learn it from their friends or television. i recall growing up learning several things that were not covered by my little catholic school nuns.

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by MaMaBuddha
i think is hardly something to punish a little boy for.

I agree. I was taken aback. At first glance at the title, I thought it might have been where he called a classmate's mom gay who wasn't. . .schools and teachers need to realize that not everyone's family is the traditional mom and dad anymore. I could see if the son had used a more derogatory term or euphemism but he simply told his classmate about his home life.

[lovelyivy84]

It's not like the kid explained the mechanics of gay sex. He talked about his family.

So are you saying that kids with gay parents can go to regular schools as long as they don't talk about their families? Or they just shouldn't talk to YOUR child?

How is the school supposed to stop that at all? They have no place whatsoever making a judgement call in this situation.

Originally posted by brickhouse492
Next thing you know, they'll have a separate school for children with gay parents (like the highschool in NY for gay students).

It's unfortunate what happened to little Marcus but I'd be a little upset -no, i'd be pissed- if lil' Marcus introduced homosexuality to my daughter.

It's not fair that just because society is so darn liberal, we have to teach our 7 year olds about things that they may not need to be exposed to right now.

[Steeltrap]

Glad to read that Ms. Long didn't have to push Babyperson Virginia out of the birth canal...

OMAHA, Neb. - An Omaha woman has given birth to a 14-pound, 3-ounce girl.

Jirong Long required a Caesarean section to deliver Virginia Wenjing You on Nov. 26. Virginia is the largest baby delivered at Creighton University Medical Center in its 130-year history, spokesman Ed Finan said.
According to the Guinness Book of World Records, the largest baby ever delivered was a boy weighing 23 pounds, 12 ounces in Seville, Ohio, in 1879.
Long, a Creighton genetics research fellow, said the size of her daughter is even more amazing because she and her husband, Mingrong You, are not big people.
Long is about 5 feet 4. She weighed 130 pounds before her pregnancy and peaked at 192 while she was expecting.
Her husband is about 5-9 and weighs 160 pounds.
Five days after Long's Nov. 20 due date, doctors induced labor with the expectation that the baby would be 8 or 9 pounds. Long said they eventually decided to perform the C-section because it was too dangerous for her to deliver naturally.
Long said she and her baby had no complications and are in good health.
Virginia already is wearing 6-month-old's clothing.
"She has a lot of hair and she is so cute," Long said. "She is very beautiful, and I am very, very happy."

[CrimsonTide4]

chiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii

[1savvydiva]

CTFU @ your subject line!

My "little" cousin was 13 lbs and some ounces (I don't remember exactly how many, but it was more than 6). He's a regular sized 15-year old now, but he was diagnosed with diabetes when he was an infant.

[CrimsonTide4]

New York's Priciest Hotel Room -- $12,595 a Night
Tue Dec 2,10:27 AM ET Add Oddly Enough - Reuters to My Yahoo!



NEW YORK (Reuters) - Forget puttin' on the Ritz. Try puttin' on the Mandarin Oriental.



New York's new Mandarin Oriental 250-room hotel offers a suite with a $12,595 nightly pricetag, beating out the Ritz-Carlton by almost $100 as the costliest overnight lodging in the Big Apple.


The Mandarin's Presidential Suite, set to open to the public in January, includes a full kitchen, formal dining room, living room with high-definition flat-screen LCD televisions, baby grand piano, panoramic views of Central Park and the Hudson River and Asian-themed art worth almost $1 million.


The wood-paneled suite includes high-tech surround sound, an entertainment system, wet bar, office/media room and French-marbled foyer floors. The master bath has a two-person steam shower and a deep-soaking tub overlooking the park.


New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg attended a Feng Shui-inspired ribbon-cutting ceremony at the hotel on Monday.

[1savvydiva]

Posted on Tue, Dec. 02, 2003

Home intruder gets 325 years
Man given lengthy sentence after pleading guilty to robberies, ssaults, kidnapping
By RICK BRUNDRETT
Staff Writer

Intruder gets 325 years

When Cindy McLemore got home from the hospital that day close to Christmas last year, the undecorated birthday cake sat on her kitchen table, right where she had left it.

She had baked the cake for her 3-year-old nephew. But a stranger, John W. Hayward, had forever wiped out any happy memories of that day, McLemore said.

Hayward, 25, of Columbia, was sentenced Monday to a total of 325 years in prison after pleading guilty to a string of crimes last year in Lexington and Richland counties. His actions included a vicious attack at McLemore’s West Columbia home, witnessed by three of her six children.

Lexington County prosecutor Tav Swarat said Hayward’s 325-year sentence, which will be served consecutively, is unprecedented in his experience.

McLemore, 26, said she will never forget what happened last Dec. 23 at her home on Roman Way. She gave this account Monday to The State:

She had pulled the birthday cake out of the oven about 2 p.m. and went outside to tell her then- 3-year-old nephew, Hunter Sheibler, and three of her children — Kayla, 7; Christian, 6; and Timothy, 3 — to come inside while she decorated it. The children had been celebrating Hunter’s birthday outside.

Her three older children and her husband, Tim, were away at the time.

Cindy McLemore had just walked out into her yard where the four children were playing when a masked man armed with a handgun suddenly jumped over the fence and ordered them inside. A second masked intruder, also wielding a gun, met them in the kitchen.

“When I saw the one, I was in shock,” McLemore recalled. “When I saw the second one, I thought, ‘Oh my God, we’re going to be dead.’”

The intruders told her they wanted her van and ordered her to go outside and start it. One of the intruders kept the four children at gunpoint on a couch.

After she started the van, the intruders ordered her and the children into a bedroom, then forced her to lie on her stomach on the bed while the children watched.

While one of the intruders tied her feet with a vacuum cord, Hayward threatened her crying nephew that he would “blow his brains out and kill his mother” if he did not shut up.

McLemore, who is 5 feet 2 inches tall, said after she pleaded with the intruders not to harm the children, the 6-foot-1, 225-pound Hayward grabbed her by her hair — pulling out a large chunk. He then began hitting and kicking her because she would not stay still long enough to allow him to tie her hands.

The intruders threatened to kill her and the children if they continued crying or pleading. Hayward told her they would come back and kill her if she called police.

She credited her daughter Kayla, the 7-year-old, with calming the intruders. But she said they “trashed” her house before stealing her van — and many of their Christmas presents.

Hayward used the van and a rifle stolen from the home to rob the First Citizens Bank on Platt Springs Road in West Columbia later that day, Lexington County prosecutor Tav Swarat said Monday. More than $14,000 was stolen in the heist, he said.

Hayward also was charged with the robbery of more than $100,000 from the South Carolina Bank and Trust branch on Assembly Street in Columbia in August 2002, Richland County prosecutor Dana Pellizzari said. In addition, he was charged with robbing a pizza delivery person of $30 on Decker Boulevard in November 2002, she said.

Hayward was scheduled to face trial Monday in Richland County on the Columbia bank robbery charge when he decided to plead guilty to the string of crimes, Pellizzari said.

Judge Reggie Lloyd sentenced Hayward to a total of 325 years after he pleaded guilty to five counts of kidnapping, four counts of armed robbery, one count of assault and battery with intent to kill, and one count of criminal conspiracy.

Hayward’s public defender, Samuel Mokeba, could not be reached Monday for comment. When he entered the plea, Mokeba asked Lloyd to give Hayward a 30-year sentence.

Trials are pending for Hayward’s co-defendants, Kimjaro Presley, 21, and Frank McKenzie, 24, in the home invasion case, Swarat said. Presley was one of the armed intruders, while McKenzie acted as the getaway driver, he said.

McLemore said Hayward deserved the long sentence he received.

“I’m very grateful because he’ll never see the light of day,” she said. “Still, we didn’t have to go through what we went through.”

McLemore said her three children who witnessed the attack and her nephew have required counseling to deal with nightmares. She said she also has suffered nightmares and occasionally loses feeling in her arm because of the attack.

“Christmas is coming up,” she said. “But it’s hard to concentrate on the joy of Christmas when that anniversary is coming up.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Okay, so I probably will be the lone voice on this one, but I think this is a bit excessive. I am in NO WAY trivializing his crime(s), but there was no one that was raped or murdered in this scenario. I've heard of serial murderers that have gotten less time than this.

Is it just me?

[CrimsonTide4]

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY TOO MUCH TIME!!! I just knew that those 3 kids had all been killed, raped and mangled. Yes they have nightmares but so do a lot of PTSD folks. 25 years and be done with it.


325 years . . . .in the words of Chris Tucker, "Who did he kidnap CHELSEA CLINTON!?!?!?!??!!?!?!?!?!?

[Eclipse]

It's once again time to review the winners of the annual Stella
Awards. The Stellas are named after 81 year old Stella Liebeck who
spilled coffee on herself and successfully sued McDonald's. That
case inspired the Stella Awards for the most frivolous successful
lawsuits in the United States.
Unfortunately the most recent lawsuit implicating McDonald's, the
teens who allege that eating at McDonald's has made them fat, was
filed after the 2002 award voting was closed. This suit will top the 2003
awards list without question.

THIS YEAR'S AWARDS GO TO:
5th place (Tied).
Kathleen Robertson of Austin, Texas was awarded $780,000 by a jury
of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was
running inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were
understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the
misbehaving toddler was Ms. Robertson's Son.

5th place (Tied).
19 year old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000 and medical
expenses when his neighbor ran over his hand with a Honda Accord.
Mr. Truman apparently did not notice there was someone at the wheel of
the car when he was trying to steal the hubcaps.

5th place (Tied).
Terrence Dickson of Bristol, Pennsylvania was leaving a house he
had just finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get
the garage door to go up since the automatic door opener was
malfunctioning. He could not re-enter the house because the door
connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The
family was on vacation and Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the
garage for 8 days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found and a
large bag of dry dog food. He sued the homeowner's insurance
claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The Jury agreed to
the tune of $500,000.

4th place.
Jerry Williams of Little Rock, Arkansas was awarded $14,500 and
medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next
door neighbor's Beagle dog. The Beagle was on a chain in its owner's
fenced yard. The award was less than sought because the jury felt the dog
might have been a little provoked at the time as Mr. Williams, who
had climbed over the fence into the yard, was shooting it repeatedly
with a pellet gun.

3rd place.
A Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of
Lancaster, Pennsylvania $113,500 after she slipped on a soft drink
and broke her coccyx tailbone). The beverage was on the floor because
Ms. Carson had thrown it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier, during an
argument.

2nd place.
Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware sued the owner of a Night Club in
a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the
floor and knocked out two of her front teeth. This occurred whilst Ms.
Walton was trying to sneak out of the window in the Ladies Room to
avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000 and
dental expenses.

1st Place.
This year's runaway winner was Mr. Merv Grazinski of OklahomaCity,
Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new Winnebago Motor Home.
On his trip home from an OU football game, having driven onto the
Freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the
drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee.
Not surprisingly the RV left the Freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr.
Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual
that he could not actually do this. The jury awarded him
$1,750,000 plus a new Winnebago Motor Home. The company actually changed
their
manuals on the basis of this suit just in case there were any other
complete morons buying their recreation vehicles.

[CrimsonTide4]

Originally posted by Eclipse
1st Place.
This year's runaway winner was Mr. Merv Grazinski of OklahomaCity,
Oklahoma. Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new Winnebago Motor Home.
On his trip home from an OU football game, having driven onto the
Freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the
drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee.
Not surprisingly the RV left the Freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr.
Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the owner's manual
that he could not actually do this. The jury awarded him
$1,750,000 plus a new Winnebago Motor Home. The company actually changed
their
manuals on the basis of this suit just in case there were any other
complete morons buying their recreation vehicles.

HE IS A STRAIGHT UP & DOWN IJIT!!!!!

I read all of these and shook my head. We have really become a lawsuit happy society.

[CrimsonTide4]

Shame On You: Victoria's Secret, Saks Fifth Avenue And Macy's

A CBS 2 Special Report

Nov 19, 2003 11:52 pm US/Eastern
NEW YORK (CBS) What CBS 2 found that some of the most famous stores in our area are doing is not only disgusting, it's dangerous. Selling used lingerie. Shame On You went undercover and what we found is shocking. CBS 2’s Arnold Diaz has more on this dirty little secret.

Our hidden camera investigation of Victoria's Secret and some other major retailers has uncovered a dangerous and appalling practice that shocked customers when we told them.

"It's just disgusting."

"I just think it's pretty gross."

"This is serious. This is real serious."

John, not his real name, is a disgruntled former employee of two Victoria's Secret stores. He came to us with the revolting allegation that it was store practice to take back used underwear and then resell it.

"When women would come in, I would be disgusted. I knew they were returning something they wore out to a date or just wore out to a club and it's like, you want another woman to buy this?" said John.

Diaz asked John if there were there times that he put back underwear that he was pretty sure was used, "Yeah, all the time, all the time. I don't even like touching it, I hold it by the tag because I don't want to put my hands on that."

Could this be true? To find out we bought thong underwear at two Victoria's Secret stores, and at Macy's, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bloomingdale's. We took them home, cut off the sales tags to suggest they'd been worn then marked each pair with two tiny black dots on the labels.

Every store took back our thongs without the tags, never asking if they'd been worn. Next our hidden camera caught the sales clerk at a Victoria's Secret attaching a new price tag on our returned thong, hanging it up and then putting it back on the floor for sale. We know it's the same thong because our two dots were on the label. Unbelievably, it’s not illegal in the tri-state area to sell used underwear, but "It could get someone sick."

Microbiologist Dr. Lori Daane says dangerous bacteria like yeast and ecoli can survive for weeks on lingerie and can be easily transferred. "Given the fact that you can get these organisms on this clothing, especially thong underwear, it's pretty likely you’re going to get some fecal contamination."

We also found our returned thongs back on the sales floor at another Victoria's Secret, at Saks Fifth Avenue and at Macy's. Bloomingdale's was the only store where we didn't see our thong back on sale. Lingerie customers were horrifed at our findings.

"Who the heck wants to wear someone else’s underwear. That's not a good thing."

"I don’t think they should take them back at all. I mean I think it should be, you buy them once and they're done."

One woman approached us claiming to be a customer of Victoria's Secret but turned out to be an employee.

When asked why she put used underwear back out she responded, “I don’t think we would do that. We would never do that.”

But when Diaz pointed out that there were pictures she said, “You do? I don’t think that's fair what you're doing.”

“I don't think it's fair you're putting used underwear back out,” asked Diaz. “We would never do that," was the employee’s answer.

In an official statement Victoria's Secret says "Our policy is to not sell used merchandise. Rest assured, we will investigate your allegations thoroughly."

Bloomingdale's, where we did not find our returned thong back on the sales floor says, "...any garment that shows any sign of wear, including no ticket, is marked out of stock."

Macy's East says, "...we have guidelines and practices for merchandise such as intimate apparel, we train our sales associates to thoroughly inspect all merchandise [that is returned]. This should insure that only clean, sellable items are on our selling floor."

Saks Fifth Avenue says, "if merchandise looks like it's in saleable condition and has not been worn, we do put it back on the sales floor. We trust our sales associates to make good judgements about the saleability of returned merchandise and in most cases they do."

But john says it's not always obvious what's been worn, "The only way you could, like, damage it out, is if it's ripped or if it's really, really stained and, you know, where it's really noticed. But sometimes you can't notice it."

So into the CBS 2 Hall Of Shame we induct Victoria's Secret, Saks Fifth Avenue and Macy's for a filthy practice that puts their customers' health at risk.

Interestingly, in New York it's illegal to sell hats that have been returned but not thong underwear.

Some stores do refuse to take back underwear, a policy that should be posted. But the best protection for consumers is to wash, wash, wash your underwear before putting it on.