It appears pleas in Portland, Oregon are a real deal. Tremane Durham agreed to plead guilty to murder in exchange for buckets of fried chicken will get calzones and pizza as free sides to go with a life sentence delivered by Multnomah County Judge Eric Bergstrom.
Continue reading “Summer Special: Plea Now and Receive a Free Bucket of Fried Chicken!”
It appears that Andre Thomas was right. The Swissvale, Pennsylvania man knocked on doors of an apartment complex yelling that someone was trying to shoot him. The police arrived and, when he allegedly failed to comply with their orders, shot the unarmed man with a taser and then, according to witnesses, beat him. He died at a hospital later and an autopsy is planned.
A seemingly garden-variety contract case is yielding some interesting discovery. May Lou McFate is a gun-control activist who has been a major figure on various gun-control organizations and boards. She is now accused being a paid spy for the National Rifle Association after an investigation by Mother Jones magazine.
Continue reading “Tempting McFate: NRA Accused of Planting Paid Mole in Gun Control Organizations”
Greyhound has decided that its ad campaign will have to be pulled after the recent decapitation and cannibalism of one of its passengers by another passenger. Greyhound campaign proclaimed: “There’s a reason you’ve never heard of ‘bus rage.'” Well, we’ve heard a bit about it now.
Rev. Howard Douglas Porter has been convicted in the death of 85-year-old Frank Craig — a murder committed to hide the fact that Porter had stolen $1.1 million from the elderly man under the false pretext of building an agricultural museum. Porter staged two car wrecks in his effort to kill Craig in Hickman, California.
Continue reading “Preacher Convicted of Murdering Elderly Man to Conceal Theft of Money”
As Congress contemplates cutting more programs and the deficit sours due to the costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan war, a U.S. audit has found that the Iraqi government is sitting on an estimated four-year $80 billion oil surplus.
Continue reading “Iraq Found with $80 Billion Oil Surplus as U.S. Pours Money Into Reconstruction”
Sgt. Joseph Chavalia has been acquitted in the SWAT case from Lima, Ohio. Prosecution experts in the trial of Chavalia concluded that the SWAT killed Tarika Wilson, 26, by shooting her in the neck and chest while she was on her knees, complying with their orders, and holding one of her children. Her one-year-old son was also shot and had to have a finger amputated. This is only the latest such controversy involving a SWAT team.
In the aftermath of the e-coli outbreak at the Boy Scout Reservation at Goshen, Virginia, here, another summer camp is the subject of a court filing by families. Families of more than 100 children have joined a class-action lawsuit involving the Teamsters Union. Cameras were planted at the camp run by the Fraternal Order of Police in what police believe was part of a fight over who would represent the police officers: the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP) or the teamsters. [Disclosure: I have previously represented officers and members of the FOP]. Prosecutors have charged former Metro police lieutenant Calvin Hullett and teamster representative with federal charges of conspiracy, embezzlement and unlawful interstate commerce after accusations of bribery and misusing money.
Continue reading “Civil and Criminal Charges Brought in Teamster Summer Camp Controversy”
Mary Winkler was convicted of voluntary manslaughter in the 2006 shooting death of her husband, Church of Christ minister Matthew Winkler. However, she has now been reunited with her children and given full custody.
Continue reading “Home with Mommy: Mary Winkler Resumes Custody of Children After Killing Their Father”
A case out of Cincinnati, Ohio has many of us scratching our heads at the judgment of some parents. Ben Hawkins scammed parents into believing that he was a researcher who needed to measure the underwear of their children — alone. He was just arrested for sexual assault of the children.
Recently, the Navy surprised many by announcing that it was scrapping its multi-billion dollar construction program of the new Zumwalt class of stealth destroyers — after only two ships are built. After the first $5 billion ship was completed, the Navy canceled the program. It now appears that the most expensive surface vessel in the world may be defenseless against anti-ship weapons. If true, there are serious questions of representations made to Congress to produce the world’s biggest and most expensive target decoy.
Continue reading “Meet the Navy’s New $5 Billion Sitting Duck”
A 56-year-old official in the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice had been arrested for exceeding the wife limit in the Jazan province of Saudi Arabia. Under Sharia law, a man can have as many as four wives but the official had accumulated six wives. It appears that the official has two wives too many.
Continue reading “Saudi Religious Police Official Arrested for Excess of Wives”
Peter Tubic might not have known in 2004 that he could not park his own broken down van in his own driveway without a proper license plate. What he surely did not know is that the $50 ticket could eventually cost him the house itself. The city foreclosed on his $245,000 home after the accumulated penalties pushed the ticket to $2,600.
Continue reading “Milwaukee Forecloses on Home of Disabled Man Over Unpaid $50 Parking Ticket”
Chinese authorities have shown the importance of maintaining properly running toilets — your life could depend on it. Yan Dabin was the former director of transportation for Wushan County in southwest China. He was arrested after a resident in his apartment building called police about water leaking through his ceiling. When the police arranged for the apartment to be opened with a maintenance worker, they discovered the problem: eight soaked cardboard boxes containing 9.39 million yuan ($1.3 million) from bribes.
Continue reading “Pay As You Go: Leaky Toilet in China Reveals Millions in Soggy Bribes”
>Another religious event has led to a massive death toll in India. The most recent stampede occurred in northern India at the Naina Devi Temple in Bilaspur district. As if often the case, the authorities and organizers allowed too many people to squeeze into a small area and then claimed amazement that a stampede followed — killing at least 30 children.
Continue reading “145 People Dead After Stampede At Hindu Festival”