Friday, January 28, 2011
Saturday, September 15, 2007
Inmates go on sausage 'temper tantrum' - A.P.
Some Lea County inmates set fires and broke toilets and windows after being told they would be allowed only one sausage at dinner. Jail officials said the inmates began yelling and banging on their doors in what they described in a news release as a "temper tantrum."
Officers from the Lea County Sheriff's and Hobbs Police departments were called in to restore control, and the jail was locked down after Tuesday night's incident.
Some 33 prisoners were involved, Warden Jann Gartman said.
The remaining 300-plus prisoners at the jail accepted the meal without incident, authorities said.
The damage to the jail was light, with some smoke damage and broken toilets and windows, the warden said. [end]
Some Lea County inmates set fires and broke toilets and windows after being told they would be allowed only one sausage at dinner. Jail officials said the inmates began yelling and banging on their doors in what they described in a news release as a "temper tantrum."
Officers from the Lea County Sheriff's and Hobbs Police departments were called in to restore control, and the jail was locked down after Tuesday night's incident.
Some 33 prisoners were involved, Warden Jann Gartman said.
The remaining 300-plus prisoners at the jail accepted the meal without incident, authorities said.
The damage to the jail was light, with some smoke damage and broken toilets and windows, the warden said. [end]
Labels: anger
Police: Man sets off his own booby trap - A.P.
A man tired of burglars nearly blew off his hand when bomb-like devices he set around his house exploded in his presence instead, authorities said.
Victor Iacobescu, 50, ran to a neighbor's house Thursday with a bloody towel wrapped around his right hand.
"Apparently, he was trying to set booby traps to get the next guy who tried to break in," fire Lt. Maggie Murphy said.
Iacobescu had been the victim of several break-ins, she said.
The neighbor, Patrick Struble, said the explosives were "like a pipe bomb. He accidentally triggered it, and it almost blew his hand off."
Police were investigating with the intent to pursue charges.
"Anything that goes `bang' is illegal," police Lt. Bruce Ferguson said. "I can't think of any (legal) reason why someone would be making a bomb." [end]
A man tired of burglars nearly blew off his hand when bomb-like devices he set around his house exploded in his presence instead, authorities said.
Victor Iacobescu, 50, ran to a neighbor's house Thursday with a bloody towel wrapped around his right hand.
"Apparently, he was trying to set booby traps to get the next guy who tried to break in," fire Lt. Maggie Murphy said.
Iacobescu had been the victim of several break-ins, she said.
The neighbor, Patrick Struble, said the explosives were "like a pipe bomb. He accidentally triggered it, and it almost blew his hand off."
Police were investigating with the intent to pursue charges.
"Anything that goes `bang' is illegal," police Lt. Bruce Ferguson said. "I can't think of any (legal) reason why someone would be making a bomb." [end]
Labels: karma
Experts fear 'the big one' after temblors in Indonesia - A.P.
Days of colossal earthquakes and tsunami warnings have forced traumatized Indonesian villagers to seek safety in the last place imaginable: graveyards.
With only plastic sheeting to keep her family dry, Dasima joined hundreds camping in the mud between headstones on the flat, high ground, far from the ocean's reach.
"I am very afraid of another tsunami," the 50-year-old said two days after an 8.4-magnitude temblor sent a towering wave into her remote fishing village. "We will stay here until we feel it is safe."
Seismologists warn, however, the worst may be yet to come.
...
Many people said a public awareness campaign launched after the 2004 tsunami paid off, including warnings issued over mosque speakers and training provided by local officials on how to escape a disaster.
"When the earth started shaking, some people yelled, 'It's time to go up the hill ... Let's get going,' " said Fadil, 35, a father of two, describing how he and hundreds of neighbors watched from above as the 10-foot wave approached. Hundreds of houses were damaged, but no one died.
Elsewhere, however, electricity blackouts prevented some sirens from going off. ...
Days of colossal earthquakes and tsunami warnings have forced traumatized Indonesian villagers to seek safety in the last place imaginable: graveyards.
With only plastic sheeting to keep her family dry, Dasima joined hundreds camping in the mud between headstones on the flat, high ground, far from the ocean's reach.
"I am very afraid of another tsunami," the 50-year-old said two days after an 8.4-magnitude temblor sent a towering wave into her remote fishing village. "We will stay here until we feel it is safe."
Seismologists warn, however, the worst may be yet to come.
...
Many people said a public awareness campaign launched after the 2004 tsunami paid off, including warnings issued over mosque speakers and training provided by local officials on how to escape a disaster.
"When the earth started shaking, some people yelled, 'It's time to go up the hill ... Let's get going,' " said Fadil, 35, a father of two, describing how he and hundreds of neighbors watched from above as the 10-foot wave approached. Hundreds of houses were damaged, but no one died.
Elsewhere, however, electricity blackouts prevented some sirens from going off. ...
No prison for teen who shot stepbrother - Seattle P-I
After hearing from youth's backers, judge shows leniency
[Follow-up from previous posting]
Confounding expectations and ignoring the wishes of prosecutors, a judge Friday spared 16-year-old Jordan Jantoc from prison time in the fatal shooting of his stepbrother and instead sentenced the teen to two years of electronic home-monitoring.Before handing down the sentence, Judge Harry McCarthy listened to an hour of testimony from Jantoc's family, school principal and church pastor -- all of whom pointed out that the shooting had been accidental and that no good would come from incarcerating the impressionable boy. Jantoc had pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter.
King County prosecutor Don Raz acknowledged that Jantoc's actions appeared unintentional. But "they nevertheless were criminal," he said, recommending a three-year sentence for the teen.
...
Michael's biological mother was nearly speechless at the ruling. Michelle Lucero lost custody of her child 14 years ago and said no one informed her of his death until eight months after the fact.
"I thought it was pretty easy," she said of the sentence outside McCarthy's chambers. "I expected him to do some time -- but not at home."
...
Under terms of the sentence, which takes into account time that Jantoc already has served at home, the teen will be monitored for another year, then turned over to the Department of Corrections' community custody division. McCarthy also ordered the boy to speak with other youths about the dangers of firearms.
"That will be your obligation," he told Jantoc.
"If you do your part to educate others, I think that will be of some help." [end]
After hearing from youth's backers, judge shows leniency
[Follow-up from previous posting]
Confounding expectations and ignoring the wishes of prosecutors, a judge Friday spared 16-year-old Jordan Jantoc from prison time in the fatal shooting of his stepbrother and instead sentenced the teen to two years of electronic home-monitoring.Before handing down the sentence, Judge Harry McCarthy listened to an hour of testimony from Jantoc's family, school principal and church pastor -- all of whom pointed out that the shooting had been accidental and that no good would come from incarcerating the impressionable boy. Jantoc had pleaded guilty to first-degree manslaughter.
King County prosecutor Don Raz acknowledged that Jantoc's actions appeared unintentional. But "they nevertheless were criminal," he said, recommending a three-year sentence for the teen.
...
Michael's biological mother was nearly speechless at the ruling. Michelle Lucero lost custody of her child 14 years ago and said no one informed her of his death until eight months after the fact.
"I thought it was pretty easy," she said of the sentence outside McCarthy's chambers. "I expected him to do some time -- but not at home."
...
Under terms of the sentence, which takes into account time that Jantoc already has served at home, the teen will be monitored for another year, then turned over to the Department of Corrections' community custody division. McCarthy also ordered the boy to speak with other youths about the dangers of firearms.
"That will be your obligation," he told Jantoc.
"If you do your part to educate others, I think that will be of some help." [end]
Labels: suffering
Thursday, September 13, 2007
Woman guilty of killing young son - Seattle P-I
Mother admits stabbing death of 20-month-old boy
A mentally troubled woman known by neighbors to be a risk for her three children pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder in the stabbing of the youngest, a 20-month-old son.
Kelly N. Meining, 32, faces up to 28 years in prison when she is sentenced Oct. 2 ...
According to court records, Meining has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After her arrest, neighbors in the Sifton area said they joined with the grandparents of her children in trying to protect the three youngsters from their mother's erratic behavior.
A grandmother was staying with the children until a few minutes before Meining's husband, Kris Meining, returned home from work and called 911 to report that she had stabbed their youngest child. ...
Mother admits stabbing death of 20-month-old boy
A mentally troubled woman known by neighbors to be a risk for her three children pleaded guilty Wednesday to first-degree murder in the stabbing of the youngest, a 20-month-old son.
Kelly N. Meining, 32, faces up to 28 years in prison when she is sentenced Oct. 2 ...
According to court records, Meining has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. After her arrest, neighbors in the Sifton area said they joined with the grandparents of her children in trying to protect the three youngsters from their mother's erratic behavior.
A grandmother was staying with the children until a few minutes before Meining's husband, Kris Meining, returned home from work and called 911 to report that she had stabbed their youngest child. ...
Labels: mental illness, murder
WWII vet departs on his final mission - Robert Jamieson, Seattle P-I columnist
MOST 18-year-olds will never have to see dead guy after dead guy, day after day.
Most will never know the feeling of refusing friends out of fear a new pal will be slain by a sniper's bullet and the grief will be unbearable.
This is life in war, and while such fears could describe U.S. soldiers now in Iraq, they arise from the war experiences of World War II vets whose bravery and sacrifices too easily slip away in our blinkand-you'll-miss-it modern age.
So, it's a good thing Al was a keeper of such memories.
...
Fresh-faced and 18, he signed up for the Navy for the same reasons many young people today do: money. His father had skipped out. His brother had polio. His mother had five mouths to feed.
Weddle was assigned to the USS Tangier, moored stern to stern with the USS Utah, in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941. He had just put on his dress whites that day when alarms sounded.
"Then I just saw flames. The Utah was getting torpedoed," Weddle told me. "I saw the red meatball" -- the red insignia from the Japanese flag painted on enemy planes. "You could see the Japanese pilots right as they flew over. Face to face."
...
His heart gave out at 84. As medics wheeled him to a waiting ambulance Saturday, he blew his wife a kiss and started to regale them with stories about Pearl Harbor. ...
MOST 18-year-olds will never have to see dead guy after dead guy, day after day.
Most will never know the feeling of refusing friends out of fear a new pal will be slain by a sniper's bullet and the grief will be unbearable.
This is life in war, and while such fears could describe U.S. soldiers now in Iraq, they arise from the war experiences of World War II vets whose bravery and sacrifices too easily slip away in our blinkand-you'll-miss-it modern age.
So, it's a good thing Al was a keeper of such memories.
...
Fresh-faced and 18, he signed up for the Navy for the same reasons many young people today do: money. His father had skipped out. His brother had polio. His mother had five mouths to feed.
Weddle was assigned to the USS Tangier, moored stern to stern with the USS Utah, in Hawaii on Dec. 7, 1941. He had just put on his dress whites that day when alarms sounded.
"Then I just saw flames. The Utah was getting torpedoed," Weddle told me. "I saw the red meatball" -- the red insignia from the Japanese flag painted on enemy planes. "You could see the Japanese pilots right as they flew over. Face to face."
...
His heart gave out at 84. As medics wheeled him to a waiting ambulance Saturday, he blew his wife a kiss and started to regale them with stories about Pearl Harbor. ...
One Fatal Shot: A struggle to forgive one son, not forget the other - Seattle P-I
One bullet can pierce the hearts of many.
On Sept. 21, 2006, Jordan Jantoc accidentally shot his stepbrother Michael Miller to death while the two were playing with a gun.
In a series of interviews conducted between March and August 2007, members of their extended family describe how that tragedy has affected them.
...
Once a sprawling crew of a dozen children, teenagers and assorted adult relations who happily packed themselves into a used van for boisterous road trips, the family has disintegrated. It is now a strained constellation of isolated bodies tenuously held together by Timothy Miller -- father to Mikey and stepfather to Jordan -- who finds himself in the unusual position of being both a victim and defender of the accused, mourning the death of his athletic teenage son, while struggling to raise the boy who killed him.
...
When not petitioning the legal system, the bespectacled nurse spent every free minute scraping together money for his stepson's $25,000 bail while simultaneously trying to collect enough for Mikey's funeral. Two weekends in a row, the family set up a carwash and bake sale. Neighbors often dropped by, pushing a few crumpled dollars into the children's hands. ...
One bullet can pierce the hearts of many.
On Sept. 21, 2006, Jordan Jantoc accidentally shot his stepbrother Michael Miller to death while the two were playing with a gun.
In a series of interviews conducted between March and August 2007, members of their extended family describe how that tragedy has affected them.
...
Once a sprawling crew of a dozen children, teenagers and assorted adult relations who happily packed themselves into a used van for boisterous road trips, the family has disintegrated. It is now a strained constellation of isolated bodies tenuously held together by Timothy Miller -- father to Mikey and stepfather to Jordan -- who finds himself in the unusual position of being both a victim and defender of the accused, mourning the death of his athletic teenage son, while struggling to raise the boy who killed him.
...
When not petitioning the legal system, the bespectacled nurse spent every free minute scraping together money for his stepson's $25,000 bail while simultaneously trying to collect enough for Mikey's funeral. Two weekends in a row, the family set up a carwash and bake sale. Neighbors often dropped by, pushing a few crumpled dollars into the children's hands. ...
Labels: grief
Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Freed Iranian-American scholar recounts ordeal in Iran - International Herald Tribune
Haleh Esfandiari, the Iranian-American academic held for four months in solitary confinement in the political wing of Iran's infamous Evin prison, said in Washington that she was able to endure by sticking to a rigorous daily exercise regimen and blocking out anything that reminded her of home.
On the three occasions when the prison dinner was an Iranian dish called adas pollo, a mixture of rice, lentils and raisins that is the favorite of her two young granddaughters back in Washington, she said she refused to even look at it, for example.
"Once in prison I decided I was not going to fall apart," Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a research institute in Washington, said Monday. "To maintain my mental and physical well-being, I imposed a strict discipline on myself." ...
Esfandiari, 67, looking vibrant in a dark suit, orange scarf and gold brooch, spoke about her ordeal during an hourlong news conference at the Wilson Center and in a separate telephone interview with The New York Times.
It remained a mystery to her, she said, why she was imprisoned on May 8 after months of interrogation by intelligence agents. She was prevented from leaving Iran in December after a weeklong visit to her 93-year-old mother. ...
Haleh Esfandiari, the Iranian-American academic held for four months in solitary confinement in the political wing of Iran's infamous Evin prison, said in Washington that she was able to endure by sticking to a rigorous daily exercise regimen and blocking out anything that reminded her of home.
On the three occasions when the prison dinner was an Iranian dish called adas pollo, a mixture of rice, lentils and raisins that is the favorite of her two young granddaughters back in Washington, she said she refused to even look at it, for example.
"Once in prison I decided I was not going to fall apart," Esfandiari, the director of the Middle East program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a research institute in Washington, said Monday. "To maintain my mental and physical well-being, I imposed a strict discipline on myself." ...
Esfandiari, 67, looking vibrant in a dark suit, orange scarf and gold brooch, spoke about her ordeal during an hourlong news conference at the Wilson Center and in a separate telephone interview with The New York Times.
It remained a mystery to her, she said, why she was imprisoned on May 8 after months of interrogation by intelligence agents. She was prevented from leaving Iran in December after a weeklong visit to her 93-year-old mother. ...
Labels: suffering
Recalling horrors in the deadly details - Philadelphia Inquirer
Two went to give aid; one got a son’s final phone call.
... Elsie Goss-Caldwell, a West Philadelphia tax preparer, whose son, Kenneth Caldwell, was killed in the collapse of the North Tower.
". . . I was just sitting there on the edge of the bed, getting ready to come into the office.
"Then the phone rang, and it was Kenny. He said, 'Mom, I just want to let you know, I love you.' I was thinking, he's so silly, because the night before we were on the phone just laughing and talking. He had had a busy week the week before because he had to take clients out to dinner and the theater, and I was teasing him, saying I wish I could be that busy.
"All of a sudden, he said, 'I have to get out of here because there's a bomb.' And he was gone. I never spoke to him again . . . never, never, ever.
"That was it. I don't know if he hung up or got disconnected. All I know is, he was gone.
...
"At nighttime, I'd call his cell phone, and I would tell him I was coming to get him, and I'd tell him I loved him and not to be scared and that Mommy was coming.
". . . It would ring and go to voice mail, and his voice would come on, and I'd leave a message." ...
Two went to give aid; one got a son’s final phone call.
... Elsie Goss-Caldwell, a West Philadelphia tax preparer, whose son, Kenneth Caldwell, was killed in the collapse of the North Tower.
". . . I was just sitting there on the edge of the bed, getting ready to come into the office.
"Then the phone rang, and it was Kenny. He said, 'Mom, I just want to let you know, I love you.' I was thinking, he's so silly, because the night before we were on the phone just laughing and talking. He had had a busy week the week before because he had to take clients out to dinner and the theater, and I was teasing him, saying I wish I could be that busy.
"All of a sudden, he said, 'I have to get out of here because there's a bomb.' And he was gone. I never spoke to him again . . . never, never, ever.
"That was it. I don't know if he hung up or got disconnected. All I know is, he was gone.
...
"At nighttime, I'd call his cell phone, and I would tell him I was coming to get him, and I'd tell him I loved him and not to be scared and that Mommy was coming.
". . . It would ring and go to voice mail, and his voice would come on, and I'd leave a message." ...
Labels: grief
West Bank Boys Dig a Living in Settler Trash - N.Y. Times
... Most dig diligently for metal, which they dump into the ripped nylon sacks they carry.
Nearby, on a hill of garbage 10 feet high, a boy sat alone. He had found a plastic pack of crackers; he chewed them slowly, almost thoughtfully.
The boys are part of a loose-knit colony of scavengers, nearly 250 people who scramble over fetid hills of other people’s trash to eke out a living for their families and themselves. Most are younger than 16; some sleep here during the week to maximize the hours they can hunt for goods to sell. Many are related, from a few large clans, and they have a kind of organization, with a 23-year-old bulldozer driver who settles disputes, and a code of conduct, so that every digger’s finds are respected.
...
The scene is reminiscent of the third world, of places like Manila’s notorious garbage mountain, but this desperate place is next door to a country with the highest per capita income in the Middle East: Israel.
...
On a good day, working here from 5 a.m. until dusk, the boys make about $4.75.
...
Most of the other children walk, some of them 15 miles, then sleep here in makeshift shacks or blanket tents, before walking home again for the Muslim Sabbath.
He wore a stained cap bearing the symbol of Fatah. He said he found it in the trash. Muhammad Rabai interrupted, saying: “We don’t care for any of them, for Fatah or Hamas. We’re from the party of bread.”
...
The Ammour home in Yatta has two rooms for the family of 10 and no windows, just holes in the walls covered with yellow fabric that does little to block the sun.
The larger room is covered in mattresses. In the smaller room, set carefully on a green, sparkly cloth, is Fadi’s prized possession: a computer, which he patched together from parts salvaged from the dump. With a small boxy screen, and wires showing through cracks in the plastic, it functions. ...
... Most dig diligently for metal, which they dump into the ripped nylon sacks they carry.
Nearby, on a hill of garbage 10 feet high, a boy sat alone. He had found a plastic pack of crackers; he chewed them slowly, almost thoughtfully.
The boys are part of a loose-knit colony of scavengers, nearly 250 people who scramble over fetid hills of other people’s trash to eke out a living for their families and themselves. Most are younger than 16; some sleep here during the week to maximize the hours they can hunt for goods to sell. Many are related, from a few large clans, and they have a kind of organization, with a 23-year-old bulldozer driver who settles disputes, and a code of conduct, so that every digger’s finds are respected.
...
The scene is reminiscent of the third world, of places like Manila’s notorious garbage mountain, but this desperate place is next door to a country with the highest per capita income in the Middle East: Israel.
...
On a good day, working here from 5 a.m. until dusk, the boys make about $4.75.
...
Most of the other children walk, some of them 15 miles, then sleep here in makeshift shacks or blanket tents, before walking home again for the Muslim Sabbath.
He wore a stained cap bearing the symbol of Fatah. He said he found it in the trash. Muhammad Rabai interrupted, saying: “We don’t care for any of them, for Fatah or Hamas. We’re from the party of bread.”
...
The Ammour home in Yatta has two rooms for the family of 10 and no windows, just holes in the walls covered with yellow fabric that does little to block the sun.
The larger room is covered in mattresses. In the smaller room, set carefully on a green, sparkly cloth, is Fadi’s prized possession: a computer, which he patched together from parts salvaged from the dump. With a small boxy screen, and wires showing through cracks in the plastic, it functions. ...
Labels: suffering
A quarter of the world’s mammal species is headed towards oblivion - Times (London)
More animals and plants than ever before are on the brink of extinction or are threatened with catastrophic population crashes, a survey of endangered species shows.
One in four of the world’s mammal species, one in eight bird species, a third of amphibians’ and more than two thirds of those plant species that have been assessed are under threat of extinction.
The findings were described as “a wake-up” call and have prompted a demand for action to protect wildlife amid warnings that the rate at which they are being lost is increasing.
The total number of animal and plant species categorised as under threat on the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Red List for 2007 is 16,306, an increase of 188 on last year. ...
More animals and plants than ever before are on the brink of extinction or are threatened with catastrophic population crashes, a survey of endangered species shows.
One in four of the world’s mammal species, one in eight bird species, a third of amphibians’ and more than two thirds of those plant species that have been assessed are under threat of extinction.
The findings were described as “a wake-up” call and have prompted a demand for action to protect wildlife amid warnings that the rate at which they are being lost is increasing.
The total number of animal and plant species categorised as under threat on the World Conservation Union’s (IUCN) Red List for 2007 is 16,306, an increase of 188 on last year. ...
Labels: animals
Spanish festival celebrates slow, painful killing of bull - Guardian (UK)
Pursued across open countryside, jabbed at with spears and finally stabbed to death by a man wielding a lance, the bull called Enrejado died a long, frightening and sadistic death in front of an eager crowd at Tordesillas, northern Spain.
Pictures of the wounded, blood-drenched animal being stabbed were published on the front page of El País, Spain's biggest selling daily newspaper, as it denounced the primitive, medieval spectacle. ...
Pursued across open countryside, jabbed at with spears and finally stabbed to death by a man wielding a lance, the bull called Enrejado died a long, frightening and sadistic death in front of an eager crowd at Tordesillas, northern Spain.
Pictures of the wounded, blood-drenched animal being stabbed were published on the front page of El País, Spain's biggest selling daily newspaper, as it denounced the primitive, medieval spectacle. ...
Labels: animals
In pictures: E Timor's angel of mercy - BBC News
Since East Timor's independence in 2002, factional fighting has wracked the country and driven thousands from their homes.
Many have fled to Sister Guillermina's convent in Dili.
Sister Guillermina is a university lecturer, but spends much of her time running the camp for people sheltered in the Canossian Sisters of Charity convent.
Tom Greenwood photographed and interviewed the nun known for rescuing people caught up in fighting and stepping in to reason with violent gang members.
...
In September 2006, rival gangs surrounded the convent for five days, throwing rocks over the walls. They targeted it for sheltering people from both sides.
Sister Guillermina convinced them to stop.
"I locked the gate. I shouted: 'Please stop stoning because Sister Guillermina is coming'. I am amazed that my voice is so strong at certain times."
She approached the leaders first and then the boys individually. "In times of crisis I kiss and embrace thousands of boys."
Working for peace is dangerous, even for nuns. Sister Guillermina has had a knife held to her neck 11 times and a gun pointed to her head three times. "The first time I was scared but then I got used to it."
...
Sister Guillermina calls being a nun "a great blessing. I am free to save everyone without preference." ...
Since East Timor's independence in 2002, factional fighting has wracked the country and driven thousands from their homes.
Many have fled to Sister Guillermina's convent in Dili.
Sister Guillermina is a university lecturer, but spends much of her time running the camp for people sheltered in the Canossian Sisters of Charity convent.
Tom Greenwood photographed and interviewed the nun known for rescuing people caught up in fighting and stepping in to reason with violent gang members.
...
In September 2006, rival gangs surrounded the convent for five days, throwing rocks over the walls. They targeted it for sheltering people from both sides.
Sister Guillermina convinced them to stop.
"I locked the gate. I shouted: 'Please stop stoning because Sister Guillermina is coming'. I am amazed that my voice is so strong at certain times."
She approached the leaders first and then the boys individually. "In times of crisis I kiss and embrace thousands of boys."
Working for peace is dangerous, even for nuns. Sister Guillermina has had a knife held to her neck 11 times and a gun pointed to her head three times. "The first time I was scared but then I got used to it."
...
Sister Guillermina calls being a nun "a great blessing. I am free to save everyone without preference." ...
Labels: compassionate people, war
Doctors pull plug, comatose woman wakes up - Today show.com
Jill Finley recalls asking for Mexican food after husband prepared for worst
... “About 11:45, she started getting restless,” he said, an eventuality he had been prepared for. “People told me they call it the last rally. When a person is about to pass, they tend to regain some body function, be able to talk or move — things that they hadn’t been able to do previously.” She also started mumbling. “I thought that was it, that was the last rally,” he said.But it was soon clear she wasn’t just mumbling. She said, “Get me out of here.” Then she added another request: “Take me to Ted’s and take me to the Melting Pot,” naming two restaurants where she liked to indulge her passion for Mexican food.“I asked her questions,” Ryan said. “Simple addition, what our phone number was, our dog’s name, our cat’s name. She answered them all correctly, all of ’em. And I knew, ‘This isn’t the last rally.’”Far from it. Jill had come out of her coma and was breathing on her own. ...
Jill Finley recalls asking for Mexican food after husband prepared for worst
... “About 11:45, she started getting restless,” he said, an eventuality he had been prepared for. “People told me they call it the last rally. When a person is about to pass, they tend to regain some body function, be able to talk or move — things that they hadn’t been able to do previously.” She also started mumbling. “I thought that was it, that was the last rally,” he said.But it was soon clear she wasn’t just mumbling. She said, “Get me out of here.” Then she added another request: “Take me to Ted’s and take me to the Melting Pot,” naming two restaurants where she liked to indulge her passion for Mexican food.“I asked her questions,” Ryan said. “Simple addition, what our phone number was, our dog’s name, our cat’s name. She answered them all correctly, all of ’em. And I knew, ‘This isn’t the last rally.’”Far from it. Jill had come out of her coma and was breathing on her own. ...
2 Soldiers Who Wrote Op-Ed Died in Iraq - A.P.
Two sergeants who helped write a New York Times op-ed article sharply critical of the Pentagon's assessment of the Iraq war were killed in a Baghdad crash this week, and one grieving mother wants the Army to explain their deaths.
"I want to know all the details of how he died. I want to know the truth," said Olga Capetillo, whose 28-year-old son, Sgt. Omar Mora, died Monday along with six other soldiers and two detainees. "I don't understand how so many people could die in that accident. How could it be so bad?"
Mora and co-author Sgt. Yance T. Gray, 26, of Ismay, Mont., died Monday when their truck veered off an elevated highway in western Baghdad and fell about 30 feet, the military said. The single-vehicle crash also wounded 11 other soldiers and a detainee.
The military made no mention of hostile fire.
Since writing the critical Aug. 19 article with six other active duty U.S. soldiers, she said Mora had seemed increasingly depressed and withdrawn.
"I said to him: 'Son, I don't want you to have problems because of this. Hopefully, nothing will happen,'" said Capetillo, speaking in Spanish in the midst of grief so raw and inconsolable it seemed to reverberate around her. ...
Two sergeants who helped write a New York Times op-ed article sharply critical of the Pentagon's assessment of the Iraq war were killed in a Baghdad crash this week, and one grieving mother wants the Army to explain their deaths.
"I want to know all the details of how he died. I want to know the truth," said Olga Capetillo, whose 28-year-old son, Sgt. Omar Mora, died Monday along with six other soldiers and two detainees. "I don't understand how so many people could die in that accident. How could it be so bad?"
Mora and co-author Sgt. Yance T. Gray, 26, of Ismay, Mont., died Monday when their truck veered off an elevated highway in western Baghdad and fell about 30 feet, the military said. The single-vehicle crash also wounded 11 other soldiers and a detainee.
The military made no mention of hostile fire.
Since writing the critical Aug. 19 article with six other active duty U.S. soldiers, she said Mora had seemed increasingly depressed and withdrawn.
"I said to him: 'Son, I don't want you to have problems because of this. Hopefully, nothing will happen,'" said Capetillo, speaking in Spanish in the midst of grief so raw and inconsolable it seemed to reverberate around her. ...
Labels: war
American confesses to Dutch axe murder over Iraq war - Reuters
A former member of the U.S. Air Force has confessed to axing a Dutch student to death in a random attack to protest against Dutch support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq, prosecutors and Dutch media said on Wednesday.
...
Hartmann, a U.S. citizen, first sought out a Dutch soldier in the southern Dutch city of Roosendaal, but could not find one and turned his axe on a student waiting for a train on a platform at the city's station ...
A former member of the U.S. Air Force has confessed to axing a Dutch student to death in a random attack to protest against Dutch support for the U.S.-led war in Iraq, prosecutors and Dutch media said on Wednesday.
...
Hartmann, a U.S. citizen, first sought out a Dutch soldier in the southern Dutch city of Roosendaal, but could not find one and turned his axe on a student waiting for a train on a platform at the city's station ...
Tuesday, September 11, 2007
India's poor are denied a painless death - International Herald Tribune
It was a neighbor screaming in pain 35 years ago that set M.R. Rajagopal on the path to his nickname: India's "father of palliative care."
"He was dying of cancer, with lots of tumors on his face and scalp," Rajagopal said. "His family asked if I could help, and I couldn't. I was just a medical student."
Today, the same neighbor with the same cancer would almost certainly die the same way - unless he lived in the tiny state of Kerala, where Rajagopal runs his Pallium India clinic here in the capital. Although opium was one of the chief exports of British India and the country still produces more for the legal morphine industry than any other country, few Indians benefit. They end up like millions of the world's poor: spending their last days writhing in agony, wishing death would hurry.
...
Elsewhere, the state laws enforcing the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, passed in 1985 to curb drug trafficking, are complex and harsh. The book outlining them is 1,642 pages, and even minor infractions can mean 10-year sentences. Legal morphine use in India plummeted 97 percent after 1985, reaching a low of 40 pounds in 1997. It has since crept up.
...
Rajagopal's manner is soothing; he sits on beds, holds hands and even strokes patients as he questions them.
"For a senior doctor in India, that's just unheard of," Leng said. "They usually keep a formal distance."
Talking unravels fears. Chandraprabha, 40, who like many people here uses only one name, avoided her hourly pills because she could not bear to look at a clock. it reminded her she was dying and her children would go to a stepmother she detested.
Abdulaziz, 62, said that what upset him more than death was that he felt too unclean to pray.
"My body is not pure," Abdulaziz said. "Also, because of the bandage, it's difficult to bathe."
He had sung the call to prayer at his mosque for 20 years, but had to stop in January when mouth cancer left him able only to mutter. Then the aggressive tumor ate through his face, making a beefy crater. as if a firecracker tucked in his cheek had gone off. Then, worse: A fly got under his bandage, and maggots began emerging, leading his imam to "excuse" him from attendance.
That was something Rajagopal's team could help with, cleaning out the ghastly invaders. And the six five-milligram morphine pills Abdulaziz takes daily have taken away what he called "a catching pain, like a fishhook in my face."
...
As a young anesthesiologist, he helped a professor with a cheek tumor by injecting alcohol to kill the nerve. It worked - but the professor hanged himself two nights later."I learned from his cousin that the fact that I had treated him for his pain alone was what told him his condition was incurable," Rajagopal said, still feeling guilty about it. "None of us had ever asked him what he knew about his disease, or how he felt. If only we had, maybe his children could have had their father for a couple of years more." ...
It was a neighbor screaming in pain 35 years ago that set M.R. Rajagopal on the path to his nickname: India's "father of palliative care."
"He was dying of cancer, with lots of tumors on his face and scalp," Rajagopal said. "His family asked if I could help, and I couldn't. I was just a medical student."
Today, the same neighbor with the same cancer would almost certainly die the same way - unless he lived in the tiny state of Kerala, where Rajagopal runs his Pallium India clinic here in the capital. Although opium was one of the chief exports of British India and the country still produces more for the legal morphine industry than any other country, few Indians benefit. They end up like millions of the world's poor: spending their last days writhing in agony, wishing death would hurry.
...
Elsewhere, the state laws enforcing the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances Act, passed in 1985 to curb drug trafficking, are complex and harsh. The book outlining them is 1,642 pages, and even minor infractions can mean 10-year sentences. Legal morphine use in India plummeted 97 percent after 1985, reaching a low of 40 pounds in 1997. It has since crept up.
...
Rajagopal's manner is soothing; he sits on beds, holds hands and even strokes patients as he questions them.
"For a senior doctor in India, that's just unheard of," Leng said. "They usually keep a formal distance."
Talking unravels fears. Chandraprabha, 40, who like many people here uses only one name, avoided her hourly pills because she could not bear to look at a clock. it reminded her she was dying and her children would go to a stepmother she detested.
Abdulaziz, 62, said that what upset him more than death was that he felt too unclean to pray.
"My body is not pure," Abdulaziz said. "Also, because of the bandage, it's difficult to bathe."
He had sung the call to prayer at his mosque for 20 years, but had to stop in January when mouth cancer left him able only to mutter. Then the aggressive tumor ate through his face, making a beefy crater. as if a firecracker tucked in his cheek had gone off. Then, worse: A fly got under his bandage, and maggots began emerging, leading his imam to "excuse" him from attendance.
That was something Rajagopal's team could help with, cleaning out the ghastly invaders. And the six five-milligram morphine pills Abdulaziz takes daily have taken away what he called "a catching pain, like a fishhook in my face."
...
As a young anesthesiologist, he helped a professor with a cheek tumor by injecting alcohol to kill the nerve. It worked - but the professor hanged himself two nights later."I learned from his cousin that the fact that I had treated him for his pain alone was what told him his condition was incurable," Rajagopal said, still feeling guilty about it. "None of us had ever asked him what he knew about his disease, or how he felt. If only we had, maybe his children could have had their father for a couple of years more." ...
Labels: compassionate people, suffering
Parents named as suspects in girl's vanishing - A.P.
In a shocking twist, the British parents who have run an international campaign to find their missing toddler were declared suspects in the case Friday, their lawyer said, after traces of blood were found in their rental car.
...
The day's developments marked a dramatic turn in a case that has pulled at the world's heartstrings for months, ever since Kate McCann ran screaming from a hotel room saying her daughter had disappeared. The McCanns, both doctors from central England, said they were dining at the time in a hotel restaurant, but returned frequently to check on Madeleine and her twin 2-year- old siblings.
Since then, the McCanns have toured Europe with photos of Madeleine and the child's stuffed animals and clothing, even meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Celebrities, including J.K. Rowling and David Beckham, made public appeals that helped the family raise more than $2 million. ...
In a shocking twist, the British parents who have run an international campaign to find their missing toddler were declared suspects in the case Friday, their lawyer said, after traces of blood were found in their rental car.
...
The day's developments marked a dramatic turn in a case that has pulled at the world's heartstrings for months, ever since Kate McCann ran screaming from a hotel room saying her daughter had disappeared. The McCanns, both doctors from central England, said they were dining at the time in a hotel restaurant, but returned frequently to check on Madeleine and her twin 2-year- old siblings.
Since then, the McCanns have toured Europe with photos of Madeleine and the child's stuffed animals and clothing, even meeting with Pope Benedict XVI at the Vatican. Celebrities, including J.K. Rowling and David Beckham, made public appeals that helped the family raise more than $2 million. ...
Journey's end for a paralyzed soldier - Seattle P-I
Capt. Drew Jensen almost lived long enough to see his fellow soldiers from the 3rd Stryker Brigade come home.
Jensen, a West Point graduate, was shot in the neck and paralyzed in May. On Friday, doctors and his family followed his wishes and turned off life support at the Puget Sound VA hospital.
...
Jensen was on his second deployment as a mortar platoon leader when a sniper's bullet struck him in the neck during an insurgent attack in Baqouba, Iraq. Jensen was wounded as he tried to help a fellow soldier who was pinned behind a vehicle after a bomb explosion, according to e-mail updates sent to friends and family by his wife.
One of Jensen's last actions in life was to look out for other wounded soldiers at the VA Hospital in Seattle. Before his death, he designated that a $10,000 fund established in his name should go to help offset the housing costs of other families who travel far to be near their wounded loved one's bedside.
...
Jensen fought to regain as much function as he could. He was transferred to the Puget Sound VA on June 1.
"It was a great day when I walked in, and Drew announced he had been cleared to swallow water," his wife wrote in an update.
Doctors at the VA were also able to adjust his ventilator so he could use his own voice when he spoke, which freed up their communication.
"We usually read his lips and while perfecting this talent may help with my future career as a spy, I much prefer to hear his voice," she wrote. ...
Capt. Drew Jensen almost lived long enough to see his fellow soldiers from the 3rd Stryker Brigade come home.
Jensen, a West Point graduate, was shot in the neck and paralyzed in May. On Friday, doctors and his family followed his wishes and turned off life support at the Puget Sound VA hospital.
...
Jensen was on his second deployment as a mortar platoon leader when a sniper's bullet struck him in the neck during an insurgent attack in Baqouba, Iraq. Jensen was wounded as he tried to help a fellow soldier who was pinned behind a vehicle after a bomb explosion, according to e-mail updates sent to friends and family by his wife.
One of Jensen's last actions in life was to look out for other wounded soldiers at the VA Hospital in Seattle. Before his death, he designated that a $10,000 fund established in his name should go to help offset the housing costs of other families who travel far to be near their wounded loved one's bedside.
...
Jensen fought to regain as much function as he could. He was transferred to the Puget Sound VA on June 1.
"It was a great day when I walked in, and Drew announced he had been cleared to swallow water," his wife wrote in an update.
Doctors at the VA were also able to adjust his ventilator so he could use his own voice when he spoke, which freed up their communication.
"We usually read his lips and while perfecting this talent may help with my future career as a spy, I much prefer to hear his voice," she wrote. ...
Labels: compassionate people, war
Thursday, September 06, 2007
"Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq" - HBO.com
In a war that has left more than 25,000 wounded, ALIVE DAY MEMORIES: HOME FROM IRAQ looks at a new generation of veterans. Executive Producer James Gandolfini interviews ten Soldiers and Marines who reveal their feelings on their future, their severe disabilities and their devotion to America. The documentary surveys the physical and emotional cost of war through memories of their "alive day," the day they narrowly escaped death in Iraq.
[The Web site has photos and stories of each of the soldiers profiled.]
...
I'll never forget that conversation when he'd leave early in the morning with these rocks in a backpack, and I said to him, Where are you going with all those rocks? And the irony of it is that he at that time had said, "Mom, you know, we have to be prepared in case we have to carry out one of our boys," and in the end he ended up getting carried out.
---
From the Seattle P-I article about the series: "Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Jernigan was blinded during a mission, an injury that cost the 28-year-old his marriage. He wears a constant reminder of both disasters in his single glass eye, in which he has embedded the diamonds from his wedding band set.
Army Spc. Crystal Davis, 23, had her right leg amputated below the knee. Every bone from her knee down in her left leg was shattered. The documentary takes her to what was a major turning point in her life, the first night she was able to dance again. ..."
In a war that has left more than 25,000 wounded, ALIVE DAY MEMORIES: HOME FROM IRAQ looks at a new generation of veterans. Executive Producer James Gandolfini interviews ten Soldiers and Marines who reveal their feelings on their future, their severe disabilities and their devotion to America. The documentary surveys the physical and emotional cost of war through memories of their "alive day," the day they narrowly escaped death in Iraq.
[The Web site has photos and stories of each of the soldiers profiled.]
...
I'll never forget that conversation when he'd leave early in the morning with these rocks in a backpack, and I said to him, Where are you going with all those rocks? And the irony of it is that he at that time had said, "Mom, you know, we have to be prepared in case we have to carry out one of our boys," and in the end he ended up getting carried out.
---
From the Seattle P-I article about the series: "Marine Lance Cpl. Michael Jernigan was blinded during a mission, an injury that cost the 28-year-old his marriage. He wears a constant reminder of both disasters in his single glass eye, in which he has embedded the diamonds from his wedding band set.
Army Spc. Crystal Davis, 23, had her right leg amputated below the knee. Every bone from her knee down in her left leg was shattered. The documentary takes her to what was a major turning point in her life, the first night she was able to dance again. ..."
Sunday, September 02, 2007
Back-to-School Supplies: Books, Pens, Body Armor - ABC News
Companies Sell Students on Bulletproof Backpacks and Stab-Resistant Uniforms
Parents shopping for school supplies probably haven't thought to include body armor on their lists, but after recent school shootings including April's Virginia Tech massacre, two companies are marketing armored backpacks and uniforms.
"Back in '99 following the Columbine shootings, me and my buddy Joe Curran — both of us are parents of two children — wondered if there was anything out there in the world to protect children in school if there was a shooting," Mike Pelonzi, co-inventor of My Child's Pack, a bulletproof backpack, told ABCNEWS.com.
The knapsacks each contain a 20-ounce bulletproof plate. ...
Pelonzi said the bags would have been effective in defending users from the sorts of weapons used in 97 percent of school shootings since 1999. The bags sell for $175. ...
Companies Sell Students on Bulletproof Backpacks and Stab-Resistant Uniforms
Parents shopping for school supplies probably haven't thought to include body armor on their lists, but after recent school shootings including April's Virginia Tech massacre, two companies are marketing armored backpacks and uniforms.
"Back in '99 following the Columbine shootings, me and my buddy Joe Curran — both of us are parents of two children — wondered if there was anything out there in the world to protect children in school if there was a shooting," Mike Pelonzi, co-inventor of My Child's Pack, a bulletproof backpack, told ABCNEWS.com.
The knapsacks each contain a 20-ounce bulletproof plate. ...
Pelonzi said the bags would have been effective in defending users from the sorts of weapons used in 97 percent of school shootings since 1999. The bags sell for $175. ...
After thousands of interviews, it is I who have been enriched - Susan Paynter, Seattle P-I
... Myrlie Evers, wife of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, had stayed blindingly busy and had never before talked about that night her husband fell dead in the driveway. "The bullet went through his body, a window, a Venetian blind, a wall, hit the refrigerator and came to rest -- you won't believe this -- under a watermelon on the counter," she told me in 1972, four years after I started here.
I can still hear the lush timbre of her voice saying she had been so full of hatred that she sat in court wanting a "slow, torturous death" by her own hands for the man tried twice but never convicted in the killing. And how she'd severed herself from that hate.
...
Remarkably unexpected stories also found me in a bland building that contained the secrets of the "dead by unnatural causes" on Seattle's Alder Street. Inside, tender-hearted Dr. Richard Harruff ushered me into a walk-in refrigerator where nine bodies lay wrapped in plastic pods. He treated each with the reverence their families might have wished for but surely didn't expect in the clinical, stainless-steel realm of a King County medical examiner.
In 1999 -- before TV's "CSI" -- the man in owlish spectacles had treated the remains of Kurt Cobain and an incinerated baby with equal respect. Almost as incantation, he murmured, measuring tragic waste along with organs. "Ridiculous," he said over gunk-coated black-tar spoons and the still-strapping remains of young men shot for money.
Like food, I have found raw, unprocessed feelings to be the most nourishing.
[Richard is a longtime Kadampa Buddhist. - ed.]
...
... Myrlie Evers, wife of slain civil rights leader Medgar Evers, had stayed blindingly busy and had never before talked about that night her husband fell dead in the driveway. "The bullet went through his body, a window, a Venetian blind, a wall, hit the refrigerator and came to rest -- you won't believe this -- under a watermelon on the counter," she told me in 1972, four years after I started here.
I can still hear the lush timbre of her voice saying she had been so full of hatred that she sat in court wanting a "slow, torturous death" by her own hands for the man tried twice but never convicted in the killing. And how she'd severed herself from that hate.
...
Remarkably unexpected stories also found me in a bland building that contained the secrets of the "dead by unnatural causes" on Seattle's Alder Street. Inside, tender-hearted Dr. Richard Harruff ushered me into a walk-in refrigerator where nine bodies lay wrapped in plastic pods. He treated each with the reverence their families might have wished for but surely didn't expect in the clinical, stainless-steel realm of a King County medical examiner.
In 1999 -- before TV's "CSI" -- the man in owlish spectacles had treated the remains of Kurt Cobain and an incinerated baby with equal respect. Almost as incantation, he murmured, measuring tragic waste along with organs. "Ridiculous," he said over gunk-coated black-tar spoons and the still-strapping remains of young men shot for money.
Like food, I have found raw, unprocessed feelings to be the most nourishing.
[Richard is a longtime Kadampa Buddhist. - ed.]
...
Labels: compassionate people
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