Thursday, June 21, 2007
The Singles File: Public displays of sex mean it must be summer - Seattle P-I
... Ask any Washington State Patrol officer and they'll tell you Interstate 90 is not the place to have sex -- at least not if you're having it while barreling down the highway in a sport utility vehicle. But the naked Seattle couple pulled over last week in flagrante dedrunko weren't the only ones to get caught, um, coupling in an unusual location.
Two weeks earlier, in the unfortunately named town of Punta Gorda (i.e. "fat end"), Fla., another naked duo was spotted having sex at the top of a 100-foot-tall construction crane ...
...
Looks like e-mail and voice mail rejection services are on the rise, with more and more companies offering singles the chance to avoid those nasty F2F (i.e. fact-to-face) confrontations by dumping their dates digitally.
BreakingUpIsEasyToDo.com offers two voice mail options: a Breakup Butler, who delivers a gentle letdown in an elegant British accent ("My feelings have changed and I'm no longer capable of giving you what you want and deserve") and the self-explanatory Breakup Bitch, who delivers her thrall-busting message amid a tirade of insults such as "I'd rather suffer a paper cut to the eyeball than spend one more day with you."
...
Sophie Calle, a French artist known for her unconventional work, turned her private rejection into a public display -- literally -- by asking 107 women to analyze and interpret the "I feel like sleeping with other women, it's over" e-mail she got from her boyfriend, using their responses to create an art installation titled "Take Care of Yourself" (the writer's parting words).
Included within the show are a gigantic blowup of the guy's note with all his diction and grammar errors blue-penciled by a copy editor, an analysis of his personality by a forensic psychiatrist ("a true, twisted manipulator ... to be avoided categorically"), and a critique of the ex-boyfriend's manners by a famous etiquette consultant who specializes in savoir-vivre (her conclusion: He has none).
The rejection letter was translated into Latin, Braille, Morse code, bar code and shorthand, and transformed into everything from a fairy tale to an opera to a crossword puzzle. ...
... Ask any Washington State Patrol officer and they'll tell you Interstate 90 is not the place to have sex -- at least not if you're having it while barreling down the highway in a sport utility vehicle. But the naked Seattle couple pulled over last week in flagrante dedrunko weren't the only ones to get caught, um, coupling in an unusual location.
Two weeks earlier, in the unfortunately named town of Punta Gorda (i.e. "fat end"), Fla., another naked duo was spotted having sex at the top of a 100-foot-tall construction crane ...
...
Looks like e-mail and voice mail rejection services are on the rise, with more and more companies offering singles the chance to avoid those nasty F2F (i.e. fact-to-face) confrontations by dumping their dates digitally.
BreakingUpIsEasyToDo.com offers two voice mail options: a Breakup Butler, who delivers a gentle letdown in an elegant British accent ("My feelings have changed and I'm no longer capable of giving you what you want and deserve") and the self-explanatory Breakup Bitch, who delivers her thrall-busting message amid a tirade of insults such as "I'd rather suffer a paper cut to the eyeball than spend one more day with you."
...
Sophie Calle, a French artist known for her unconventional work, turned her private rejection into a public display -- literally -- by asking 107 women to analyze and interpret the "I feel like sleeping with other women, it's over" e-mail she got from her boyfriend, using their responses to create an art installation titled "Take Care of Yourself" (the writer's parting words).
Included within the show are a gigantic blowup of the guy's note with all his diction and grammar errors blue-penciled by a copy editor, an analysis of his personality by a forensic psychiatrist ("a true, twisted manipulator ... to be avoided categorically"), and a critique of the ex-boyfriend's manners by a famous etiquette consultant who specializes in savoir-vivre (her conclusion: He has none).
The rejection letter was translated into Latin, Braille, Morse code, bar code and shorthand, and transformed into everything from a fairy tale to an opera to a crossword puzzle. ...
Labels: attachment
Monday, April 02, 2007
Stilettos ‘sent fetish thief over the edge’ - Times of London
... He began robbing shoes from the feet of women as they walked down the street. ...
“But when I got to my house, I opened the gate and stepped on to the path with my right leg. As I was bringing my upper leg forward to walk into the house, someone grabbed hold of me around my waist and I was bent forward slightly. He was gripping me with both arms, because I knew I couldn’t have got out of that. It was a very firm grip. I was suspended, bent over, and I’m a strong girl.”
She said that the mechanical engineer appeared to be “well practised” in the art of removing ladies’ shoes.
In a “swift” motion, he ran his hand down her leg, gripped her ankle and removed her stiletto. “It only lasted a few seconds,” she said. “He seemed to lose his grip from around my middle and I felt a hand come down my leg, hold on to my ankle, and then just take my stiletto shoe off. It didn’t hurt me and wasn’t aggressive in any way, but it was well practised, swift and quick. It seemed as if he had done it before.”
She said that he then bolted across the road and did not stop running. “He just legged it.
...
“He said, although he was sexually attracted to women and had had a sexual relationship with a girlfriend as recently as November 2005, his past relationships with women had been somewhat complicated by the fact that he would find a particular girlfriend’s shoes more sexually attractive than the girl herself,” ...
... He began robbing shoes from the feet of women as they walked down the street. ...
“But when I got to my house, I opened the gate and stepped on to the path with my right leg. As I was bringing my upper leg forward to walk into the house, someone grabbed hold of me around my waist and I was bent forward slightly. He was gripping me with both arms, because I knew I couldn’t have got out of that. It was a very firm grip. I was suspended, bent over, and I’m a strong girl.”
She said that the mechanical engineer appeared to be “well practised” in the art of removing ladies’ shoes.
In a “swift” motion, he ran his hand down her leg, gripped her ankle and removed her stiletto. “It only lasted a few seconds,” she said. “He seemed to lose his grip from around my middle and I felt a hand come down my leg, hold on to my ankle, and then just take my stiletto shoe off. It didn’t hurt me and wasn’t aggressive in any way, but it was well practised, swift and quick. It seemed as if he had done it before.”
She said that he then bolted across the road and did not stop running. “He just legged it.
...
“He said, although he was sexually attracted to women and had had a sexual relationship with a girlfriend as recently as November 2005, his past relationships with women had been somewhat complicated by the fact that he would find a particular girlfriend’s shoes more sexually attractive than the girl herself,” ...
Labels: attachment
Two people shot at UW - Seattle P-I
A woman shot to death on the University of Washington campus Monday morning had lived in mortal fear for weeks about a man who was stalking her, her friends and co-workers said.
Her attacker killed himself after killing the woman, police said. The woman... had recently taken out a court order against her ex-boyfriend who would ultimately shoot her to death.
Jonathan Rowan, 41, had repeatedly threatened her. On March 7 -- a day after Griego sought court protection from him -- and again on March 14, he called her at work and threatend to kill her...
Griego had, at times, worked from home because she was afraid to come to work. She also had considered riding her bike to work so she could vary her route ...
Griego had changed her telephone numbers, moved a couple of times and e-mailed to co-workers in the UW's real estate program a description and photograph of her stalker ...
She described him as a suicidal alcoholic who had tackled and punched her when they lived together.
"I forgave him because he was drunk, but now I see that was wrong, and he has threatened to hurt me again."
She said he had also threatened her dog and her family. ...
A woman shot to death on the University of Washington campus Monday morning had lived in mortal fear for weeks about a man who was stalking her, her friends and co-workers said.
Her attacker killed himself after killing the woman, police said. The woman... had recently taken out a court order against her ex-boyfriend who would ultimately shoot her to death.
Jonathan Rowan, 41, had repeatedly threatened her. On March 7 -- a day after Griego sought court protection from him -- and again on March 14, he called her at work and threatend to kill her...
Griego had, at times, worked from home because she was afraid to come to work. She also had considered riding her bike to work so she could vary her route ...
Griego had changed her telephone numbers, moved a couple of times and e-mailed to co-workers in the UW's real estate program a description and photograph of her stalker ...
She described him as a suicidal alcoholic who had tackled and punched her when they lived together.
"I forgave him because he was drunk, but now I see that was wrong, and he has threatened to hurt me again."
She said he had also threatened her dog and her family. ...
Labels: attachment, murder, suicide
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Husband says shooting was an accident - MSNBC
McLean ‘sorry’ for killing student involved with his wife
... “Why not leave her?” [the interviewer] asked.
“I just couldn’t leave her,” McLean replied.
“Explain that. Why not?”
“Cuz I love her,” McLean said, breaking down.
...
Talking of his sons, he broke down again as he said, “I love them. And I hope I see them again some time, some day. I think about them all the time.”
Thoughts of Powell and his family also torture Eric McLean: “Every day, like, I think — I think about Sean's family and I just feel really horrible ... and I just wish that none of this had happened. It's just a total disaster.”
Observed [the interviewer] in the TODAY studio after the taped interview had run:
“This man who wanted to keep his family together and not get a divorce has guaranteed that his family will be shattered forever.” [end]
McLean ‘sorry’ for killing student involved with his wife
... “Why not leave her?” [the interviewer] asked.
“I just couldn’t leave her,” McLean replied.
“Explain that. Why not?”
“Cuz I love her,” McLean said, breaking down.
...
Talking of his sons, he broke down again as he said, “I love them. And I hope I see them again some time, some day. I think about them all the time.”
Thoughts of Powell and his family also torture Eric McLean: “Every day, like, I think — I think about Sean's family and I just feel really horrible ... and I just wish that none of this had happened. It's just a total disaster.”
Observed [the interviewer] in the TODAY studio after the taped interview had run:
“This man who wanted to keep his family together and not get a divorce has guaranteed that his family will be shattered forever.” [end]
Labels: attachment
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
In South Korea, tying the knot has plenty of strings attached - International Herald Tribune
When two young television stars called it quits only 12 days after their recent wedding, their very public and acrimonious divorce shone a rare spotlight on the underside of marriage in South Korea.
Lying in a hospital bed with a broken nose, Lee Min Young accused her husband, Lee Chan, of domestic violence, causing much hand-wringing in the country's media and blogosphere. But as accusations and counteraccusations flew, an equally heated debate arose over another reason cited for the breakup: wedding gifts.
According to accounts in the South Korean media, the bridegroom's father said he received a gold-plated spoon among the gifts from the bride's family, but said he merited at least a silver spoon. The bride's mother, in turn, complained bitterly that her daughter deserved to live in a more spacious apartment than the one chosen by the bridegroom.
The divorce showed how, perhaps more than ever, choosing the right wedding gifts for the new in-laws is fraught with pitfalls in South Korea. Shop for a plasma television set that is too small, and the bride's family risks offending the bridegroom's family. Other misjudgments can lead to strained relations between the two families or, at its extreme, a premature divorce....
When two young television stars called it quits only 12 days after their recent wedding, their very public and acrimonious divorce shone a rare spotlight on the underside of marriage in South Korea.
Lying in a hospital bed with a broken nose, Lee Min Young accused her husband, Lee Chan, of domestic violence, causing much hand-wringing in the country's media and blogosphere. But as accusations and counteraccusations flew, an equally heated debate arose over another reason cited for the breakup: wedding gifts.
According to accounts in the South Korean media, the bridegroom's father said he received a gold-plated spoon among the gifts from the bride's family, but said he merited at least a silver spoon. The bride's mother, in turn, complained bitterly that her daughter deserved to live in a more spacious apartment than the one chosen by the bridegroom.
The divorce showed how, perhaps more than ever, choosing the right wedding gifts for the new in-laws is fraught with pitfalls in South Korea. Shop for a plasma television set that is too small, and the bride's family risks offending the bridegroom's family. Other misjudgments can lead to strained relations between the two families or, at its extreme, a premature divorce....
Labels: attachment
Monday, March 19, 2007
Hot but Virtuous Is an Unlikely Match for an Online Dating Service - N.Y. Times
... The site has also been criticized for generating random “winks” — the industry term for messages of interest from other members. Dan Consiglio, a 49-year-old engineer from Vancouver, Wash., said he received dozens of winks from women after signing up for True, and responded to many of them. He got only one response, from a woman who kindly informed him that she had not, in fact, winked at him.
Mr. Vest acknowledged that the service sends artificial winks, but he said users have the option to disable them and that they serve an important purpose. “We try getting people who otherwise might be very retiring or shy to meet each other and fall in love and have children,” he said. “We are just trying to do our job as a matchmaker.”
...
True joined the crowded online dating scene in 2004. To distinguish itself from the pack, it offered a range of personality and sexuality surveys. It also hired the data broker ChoicePoint to perform background checks on customers to ensure that they had no criminal record and were not married.
...
True became more aggressive, and sex-themed, in its advertising. While the site continued to pitch itself as a safe way to date, its ads now featured voluptuous women and slogans like “Come and get them while they’re hot.”
Newer True.com video ads depict models in their underwear, imploring men to visit True and chat with them over live Web cameras. ...
... The site has also been criticized for generating random “winks” — the industry term for messages of interest from other members. Dan Consiglio, a 49-year-old engineer from Vancouver, Wash., said he received dozens of winks from women after signing up for True, and responded to many of them. He got only one response, from a woman who kindly informed him that she had not, in fact, winked at him.
Mr. Vest acknowledged that the service sends artificial winks, but he said users have the option to disable them and that they serve an important purpose. “We try getting people who otherwise might be very retiring or shy to meet each other and fall in love and have children,” he said. “We are just trying to do our job as a matchmaker.”
...
True joined the crowded online dating scene in 2004. To distinguish itself from the pack, it offered a range of personality and sexuality surveys. It also hired the data broker ChoicePoint to perform background checks on customers to ensure that they had no criminal record and were not married.
...
True became more aggressive, and sex-themed, in its advertising. While the site continued to pitch itself as a safe way to date, its ads now featured voluptuous women and slogans like “Come and get them while they’re hot.”
Newer True.com video ads depict models in their underwear, imploring men to visit True and chat with them over live Web cameras. ...
Labels: attachment
Friday, March 16, 2007
Indian brides pay a high price - International Herald Tribune
Once the wedding guests were all assembled, the father of the bride brought out a large metal tray on which he had piled up 51,000 rupees (in notes of 10 and 50 rupees, to make the heap look larger) and handed it to the groom.
A new television and sofa were conspicuously displayed in the same room, so that every member of the party could see what was being offered from the bride's family to the groom as a dowry. ...
Unfortunately for Kamlesh, the 18-year-old bride, who uses only one name, the payment from her father, Misrilal, was insufficient. Her new husband had expected a scooter; his parents had wanted more than the 51,000 rupees - about $1,100 - that they got. During three years of marriage, the requests for an extended dowry settlement began to be accompanied by worsening bouts of violence - until in August, he beat her over the head with a wooden stick, tied her up and locked her in the cow shed as she bled profusely.
Violent dowry harassment is an increasingly visible phenomenon in India.
...
The burden both of dowry payments and lavish weddings is one of the main reasons why female feticide - the practice of aborting female fetuses - remains widespread in India. Earlier this year a report in The Lancet, a British medical journal, indicated that as many as 10 million female fetuses may have been aborted in India over the past 20 years by families trying to avoid the expense of having a daughter and hoping to secure themselves a male heir.
...
Kusum Hardina ... set fire to herself a few weeks ago because she felt so desperate at the constant pressure from her in-laws to extract a higher dowry payment from her family.
On Sept. 22, she fought with her mother-in-law and brother-in-law over the dowry and then in a fit of anger poured kerosene over herself and set it alight. As she lay dying in hospital, she gave a statement to the police saying she had done it because she was being harassed for a dowry ...
Once the wedding guests were all assembled, the father of the bride brought out a large metal tray on which he had piled up 51,000 rupees (in notes of 10 and 50 rupees, to make the heap look larger) and handed it to the groom.
A new television and sofa were conspicuously displayed in the same room, so that every member of the party could see what was being offered from the bride's family to the groom as a dowry. ...
Unfortunately for Kamlesh, the 18-year-old bride, who uses only one name, the payment from her father, Misrilal, was insufficient. Her new husband had expected a scooter; his parents had wanted more than the 51,000 rupees - about $1,100 - that they got. During three years of marriage, the requests for an extended dowry settlement began to be accompanied by worsening bouts of violence - until in August, he beat her over the head with a wooden stick, tied her up and locked her in the cow shed as she bled profusely.
Violent dowry harassment is an increasingly visible phenomenon in India.
...
The burden both of dowry payments and lavish weddings is one of the main reasons why female feticide - the practice of aborting female fetuses - remains widespread in India. Earlier this year a report in The Lancet, a British medical journal, indicated that as many as 10 million female fetuses may have been aborted in India over the past 20 years by families trying to avoid the expense of having a daughter and hoping to secure themselves a male heir.
...
Kusum Hardina ... set fire to herself a few weeks ago because she felt so desperate at the constant pressure from her in-laws to extract a higher dowry payment from her family.
On Sept. 22, she fought with her mother-in-law and brother-in-law over the dowry and then in a fit of anger poured kerosene over herself and set it alight. As she lay dying in hospital, she gave a statement to the police saying she had done it because she was being harassed for a dowry ...
Labels: anger, attachment, murder, suicide
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Mom's solution to cramped living - Reuters
A Russian woman paid a former convict to kill her 17-year-old son because she was fed up with sharing her small one-room apartment with him, the newspaper Izvestia reported on Wednesday.
The 42-year-old crane operator paid the man a 2,100 rouble ($80) deposit to kill her son, Izvestia said. But the would-be hitman told the police who set up a sting operation and arrested her when she handed over the 900 rouble 'completion' payment.
The woman and her son shared the tiny apartment in the Moscow region with their respective partners and there were frequent rows, which became worse when the son's girlfriend became pregnant.
"The woman decided that by snuffing out her son she could solve her housing problems," the paper said. ...
A Russian woman paid a former convict to kill her 17-year-old son because she was fed up with sharing her small one-room apartment with him, the newspaper Izvestia reported on Wednesday.
The 42-year-old crane operator paid the man a 2,100 rouble ($80) deposit to kill her son, Izvestia said. But the would-be hitman told the police who set up a sting operation and arrested her when she handed over the 900 rouble 'completion' payment.
The woman and her son shared the tiny apartment in the Moscow region with their respective partners and there were frequent rows, which became worse when the son's girlfriend became pregnant.
"The woman decided that by snuffing out her son she could solve her housing problems," the paper said. ...
Labels: attachment, murder
Saturday, March 10, 2007
Police hunt nurse impostor who stole ill baby - CNN
A woman posing as a nurse walked into a baby's hospital room, told her family she needed to take the ill newborn for tests and then stole her, police said Saturday. ... Officers are hunting a 5-foot-3-inch woman seen on security cameras in pink scrubs with purple and blue flowers.
...
... the mother was "distraught and devastated, and again, our heart goes out to her."
One of the chief concerns would be the child's nourishment, said Dr. Marc Siegel of New York University's medical school.
"The biggest problem is that babies, within the first three days, need either mother's milk or an electrolyte solution. They can't have cow's milk," Siegel said.
Siegel also said that if they don't get nutrition quickly "there would be a life-threatening problem. Time is of the essence." ...
A woman posing as a nurse walked into a baby's hospital room, told her family she needed to take the ill newborn for tests and then stole her, police said Saturday. ... Officers are hunting a 5-foot-3-inch woman seen on security cameras in pink scrubs with purple and blue flowers.
...
... the mother was "distraught and devastated, and again, our heart goes out to her."
One of the chief concerns would be the child's nourishment, said Dr. Marc Siegel of New York University's medical school.
"The biggest problem is that babies, within the first three days, need either mother's milk or an electrolyte solution. They can't have cow's milk," Siegel said.
Siegel also said that if they don't get nutrition quickly "there would be a life-threatening problem. Time is of the essence." ...
Labels: attachment, suffering
We can only hope there are no kids or pets - Reuters
German man chain saws house in two in divorce split, takes his half
A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chain sawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck. ...
German man chain saws house in two in divorce split, takes his half
A 43-year-old German decided to settle his imminent divorce by chain sawing a family home in two and making off with his half in a forklift truck. ...
Labels: attachment
Teacher-Student Sex: What Were They Thinking? Two Women Accused This Week of Sleeping with Underage Male Teens - ABC News
Reports of two New York women charged with having sex with their students may be the latest in a wave of cases in which female teachers are accused of sexually molesting young boys.
Last week, Allena Ward, a 23-year-old teacher in South Carolina, was charged with having sex with five teenage boys on school property, in a park and at a motel.
Like many of the teachers involved in these kinds of cases, Pamela Rogers Turner, a former beauty pageant contestant, was married when she was accused of having sex with a 13-year-old boy.
Turner was released after nine months in jail. Two months later, she violated her parole by sending nude photos of herself to the boy on a cell phone.
"I think that the best diagnosis for her … is sexual addiction," clinical psychologist Joan Schleicher said about Turner in court.
Turner was sent back to jail to complete a 10-year sentence.
"I've embarrassed my family," she said. "I have humiliated myself."...
Reports of two New York women charged with having sex with their students may be the latest in a wave of cases in which female teachers are accused of sexually molesting young boys.
Last week, Allena Ward, a 23-year-old teacher in South Carolina, was charged with having sex with five teenage boys on school property, in a park and at a motel.
Like many of the teachers involved in these kinds of cases, Pamela Rogers Turner, a former beauty pageant contestant, was married when she was accused of having sex with a 13-year-old boy.
Turner was released after nine months in jail. Two months later, she violated her parole by sending nude photos of herself to the boy on a cell phone.
"I think that the best diagnosis for her … is sexual addiction," clinical psychologist Joan Schleicher said about Turner in court.
Turner was sent back to jail to complete a 10-year sentence.
"I've embarrassed my family," she said. "I have humiliated myself."...
Labels: attachment
Thursday, March 08, 2007
For London's New Super-Rich, No Whim Need Go Unfulfilled - Washington Post
They call themselves "the haves and the have yachts": rich London bankers and traders who drop tens of thousands of dollars for an evening of cocktails and hire "personal concierges" to get their girlfriends dresses like those worn by movie stars.
...
Personal concierge services -- your whim is their command -- have never been busier. They jump for customers who, for instance, want one of Britain's soccer superstars to report for duty, like a pony, at Junior's birthday party.
Business is soaring at Quintessentially, which provides 24-hour assistance to customers who need to "access the inaccessible," ... Three customers recently ordered $6,000 replicas of the Marchesa gown that actress Jennifer Lopez wore to this year's Academy Awards ceremony. ... Quintessentially has handled requests for an elephant-shaped cake studded with rubies and emeralds, and a parachute trip over Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border in southern Africa. ...
Mark Alexiou, owner of Pangaea, a trendy nightclub in the Mayfair district, said one of his recent banker customers tried to pay the $36,000 check for an evening of cocktails with his credit card. When the bank authorization wouldn't come through, one of the man's buddies stepped in and put the bill on his card, as casually as he might order another dish of cashews.
...
Rich Russians, Arab sheiks, Indian moguls and other foreigners are among those buying up mansions like cartons of milk. At One Hyde Park, a luxury apartment complex that the British media have dubbed the world's most expensive address, the cheap apartments are going for $40 million and the penthouses are expected to fetch well over $100 million each. ...
They call themselves "the haves and the have yachts": rich London bankers and traders who drop tens of thousands of dollars for an evening of cocktails and hire "personal concierges" to get their girlfriends dresses like those worn by movie stars.
...
Personal concierge services -- your whim is their command -- have never been busier. They jump for customers who, for instance, want one of Britain's soccer superstars to report for duty, like a pony, at Junior's birthday party.
Business is soaring at Quintessentially, which provides 24-hour assistance to customers who need to "access the inaccessible," ... Three customers recently ordered $6,000 replicas of the Marchesa gown that actress Jennifer Lopez wore to this year's Academy Awards ceremony. ... Quintessentially has handled requests for an elephant-shaped cake studded with rubies and emeralds, and a parachute trip over Victoria Falls on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border in southern Africa. ...
Mark Alexiou, owner of Pangaea, a trendy nightclub in the Mayfair district, said one of his recent banker customers tried to pay the $36,000 check for an evening of cocktails with his credit card. When the bank authorization wouldn't come through, one of the man's buddies stepped in and put the bill on his card, as casually as he might order another dish of cashews.
...
Rich Russians, Arab sheiks, Indian moguls and other foreigners are among those buying up mansions like cartons of milk. At One Hyde Park, a luxury apartment complex that the British media have dubbed the world's most expensive address, the cheap apartments are going for $40 million and the penthouses are expected to fetch well over $100 million each. ...
Labels: attachment
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
'Down the Wrong Road' - Newsweek
That's how the father of one of the 'Barbie Bandits' describes their fall from grace. How nice middle-class girls became strippers and alleged bank robbers.
...
Miller and Johnston apparently did a dismal job of laying low. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, they went on a buying binge the next day, shopping at Gucci and getting their hair done at a posh salon. The day after that, cops arrested all four suspects.
Both girls turned to stripping to earn cash. After meeting at Shooter Alley, they decided to move in together. About a month ago, they rented an apartment in a sketchy neighborhood in southwest Atlanta. The place had no furniture, and they slept on blankets on the floor, according to Miller's mother.
...
Johnston, 19, was a straight-A student and a nimble tennis player, says her uncle, Jay Johnston. She received a HOPE Scholarship, awarded to Georgia students with at least a 3.0 GPA, according to her father, Edward Johnston. Miller, 18, wasn't strong academically but had a big heart and volunteered at a nursing home, says her mother, Joy Miller. But after graduating high school last year, each fell in with a shady crowd, according to neighbors and relatives. ...
That's how the father of one of the 'Barbie Bandits' describes their fall from grace. How nice middle-class girls became strippers and alleged bank robbers.
...
Miller and Johnston apparently did a dismal job of laying low. According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, they went on a buying binge the next day, shopping at Gucci and getting their hair done at a posh salon. The day after that, cops arrested all four suspects.
Both girls turned to stripping to earn cash. After meeting at Shooter Alley, they decided to move in together. About a month ago, they rented an apartment in a sketchy neighborhood in southwest Atlanta. The place had no furniture, and they slept on blankets on the floor, according to Miller's mother.
...
Johnston, 19, was a straight-A student and a nimble tennis player, says her uncle, Jay Johnston. She received a HOPE Scholarship, awarded to Georgia students with at least a 3.0 GPA, according to her father, Edward Johnston. Miller, 18, wasn't strong academically but had a big heart and volunteered at a nursing home, says her mother, Joy Miller. But after graduating high school last year, each fell in with a shady crowd, according to neighbors and relatives. ...
Labels: attachment
Teen shoots girl, self at Mich. school - A.P.
A teenager shot his former girlfriend four times outside her high school, then killed himself in one of two fatal U.S. school shootings Wednesday, authorities said.
Jessica Forsyth, 17, was taken to Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where she was in serious but stable condition ...
A teenager shot his former girlfriend four times outside her high school, then killed himself in one of two fatal U.S. school shootings Wednesday, authorities said.
Jessica Forsyth, 17, was taken to Hurley Medical Center in Flint, where she was in serious but stable condition ...
Labels: attachment
Documents reveal astronaut romance - A.P.
... The e-mails, along with statements taken from Oefelein and Shipman, confirm publicly for the first time that Oefelein had a romantic relationship with Nowak. It lasted two or three years before he broke it off to date Shipman late last year.
Oefelein said he considered Nowak to be one of his best friends at NASA.
...
Police say Nowak, a mother of three, drove from Houston to the Orlando airport, wearing an astronaut diaper so that she would not have to stop. She donned a wig, confronted Shipman in her car, and pepper-sprayed her through a partially lowered window. In Nowak's car were a BB gun, new steel mallet, a knife and rubber tubing.
Nowak, 43, has pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnapping and burglary with assault. She was released on bail wearing a monitoring device on her ankle. ...
... The e-mails, along with statements taken from Oefelein and Shipman, confirm publicly for the first time that Oefelein had a romantic relationship with Nowak. It lasted two or three years before he broke it off to date Shipman late last year.
Oefelein said he considered Nowak to be one of his best friends at NASA.
...
Police say Nowak, a mother of three, drove from Houston to the Orlando airport, wearing an astronaut diaper so that she would not have to stop. She donned a wig, confronted Shipman in her car, and pepper-sprayed her through a partially lowered window. In Nowak's car were a BB gun, new steel mallet, a knife and rubber tubing.
Nowak, 43, has pleaded not guilty to attempted kidnapping and burglary with assault. She was released on bail wearing a monitoring device on her ankle. ...
Labels: attachment
Chilling message before crash: 'I've got her' - A.P.
Beth Johnson heard those words from her ex-husband Monday, shortly before he crashed his rented single-engine plane into his former mother-in-law's southern Indiana home, killing himself and the couple's 8-year-old daughter.
...
Pace said she has no doubt that the crash was intentional because Johnson had been harassing his ex-wife for months, including buying a house three doors down from hers.
"That was the only way he could hurt Beth," she said. "That was the only way he could get to her."
In the cell phone call, Pace said, her daughter could hear the child in the background saying, "Mommy, come get me, come get me." It was unclear whether the call was made from the cockpit or before the plane took off.
Police were treating the crash as a homicide and suicide. ...
Beth Johnson heard those words from her ex-husband Monday, shortly before he crashed his rented single-engine plane into his former mother-in-law's southern Indiana home, killing himself and the couple's 8-year-old daughter.
...
Pace said she has no doubt that the crash was intentional because Johnson had been harassing his ex-wife for months, including buying a house three doors down from hers.
"That was the only way he could hurt Beth," she said. "That was the only way he could get to her."
In the cell phone call, Pace said, her daughter could hear the child in the background saying, "Mommy, come get me, come get me." It was unclear whether the call was made from the cockpit or before the plane took off.
Police were treating the crash as a homicide and suicide. ...
Labels: attachment
Monday, December 11, 2006
Firefighters: Holiday Shopping Continued During Mall Fire
... fire Battalion Chief Joe Busher said shoppers wanted to stay and buy even as smoke filled the store. He says firefighters had to block the door so customers didn't come in. ...
... fire Battalion Chief Joe Busher said shoppers wanted to stay and buy even as smoke filled the store. He says firefighters had to block the door so customers didn't come in. ...
Labels: attachment
Saturday, August 26, 2006
The 34-stone teenager - BBC News
Fewer dieters are as honest about their weakness as Bethany. "It's will-power. I tried all the diets with the help of the hospital."
As she needs to lose at least 20 stone (127kg) to reach a healthy weight for her 5'6" (168cm) frame, that requires an awful lot of will-power, strenuously applied over a number of years.
"You lose your will-power really. Food comforted me; it made me feel better. When you are feeling low, and something makes you feel better, you're going to want to keep doing it," explains the soft-spoken 19-year-old from her Lincoln home.
...
One patient in 100 dies from weight-loss surgery, so it's a risky procedure. Bethany decided it was a risk worth taking after her doctors warned her that without it, she'd most likely be dead by the age of 30.
The operation is starting to have an effect, but still Bethany's weight is killing her. Her heart is overloaded, her periods have stopped as her body overproduces oestrogen, and she risks developing a raft of diseases such as diabetes. She doesn't go to the cinema because she can't fit in the seats. "I'm all right with doorways but I still worry about it - what if, you know?"
...
She's self-conscious about walking or exercising, finding it embarrassing that others can hear her getting out of breath.
Nor is this helped by the stares and catcalls that accompany every outing - Bethany's size has made her public property.
"People stare at you, you get glares, you get children saying 'Mummy, why's she like that?' They just chuck everything at you - throw abuse from across the street."
"If someone had been particularly horrible to me, like a drunken person across the street shouting 'Oi you fat bitch' [she giggles to take the obvious sting out of the memory], I'd feel so low that I'd just go to the corner shop and buy two or three packets of sandwiches, a packet of crisps and a fizzy drink."
So what does she do now to make herself feel better? "I hug my mum. That helps."
Fewer dieters are as honest about their weakness as Bethany. "It's will-power. I tried all the diets with the help of the hospital."
As she needs to lose at least 20 stone (127kg) to reach a healthy weight for her 5'6" (168cm) frame, that requires an awful lot of will-power, strenuously applied over a number of years.
"You lose your will-power really. Food comforted me; it made me feel better. When you are feeling low, and something makes you feel better, you're going to want to keep doing it," explains the soft-spoken 19-year-old from her Lincoln home.
...
One patient in 100 dies from weight-loss surgery, so it's a risky procedure. Bethany decided it was a risk worth taking after her doctors warned her that without it, she'd most likely be dead by the age of 30.
The operation is starting to have an effect, but still Bethany's weight is killing her. Her heart is overloaded, her periods have stopped as her body overproduces oestrogen, and she risks developing a raft of diseases such as diabetes. She doesn't go to the cinema because she can't fit in the seats. "I'm all right with doorways but I still worry about it - what if, you know?"
...
She's self-conscious about walking or exercising, finding it embarrassing that others can hear her getting out of breath.
Nor is this helped by the stares and catcalls that accompany every outing - Bethany's size has made her public property.
"People stare at you, you get glares, you get children saying 'Mummy, why's she like that?' They just chuck everything at you - throw abuse from across the street."
"If someone had been particularly horrible to me, like a drunken person across the street shouting 'Oi you fat bitch' [she giggles to take the obvious sting out of the memory], I'd feel so low that I'd just go to the corner shop and buy two or three packets of sandwiches, a packet of crisps and a fizzy drink."
So what does she do now to make herself feel better? "I hug my mum. That helps."
Labels: attachment
Thursday, July 27, 2006
Man jailed for strangling ex-wife - BBC News
He admitted killing ex-wife Deana Noddings during a confrontation when she tried to stab him with a knife.
...
He said she had been "winding him up" during a row about her affair with a work colleague.
The prosecution alleged during the trial that Noddings was a violent man who had regularly attacked his wife throughout their stormy relationship.
They claimed a letter written by Mrs Noddings, found in a drawer in her office in the days after her death, proved that she knew she was in danger and was in fear of her life.
He told the jury that his wife had affairs with seven different men during their marriage but he was unable to stay away because he "loved her to bits".
He admitted killing ex-wife Deana Noddings during a confrontation when she tried to stab him with a knife.
...
He said she had been "winding him up" during a row about her affair with a work colleague.
The prosecution alleged during the trial that Noddings was a violent man who had regularly attacked his wife throughout their stormy relationship.
They claimed a letter written by Mrs Noddings, found in a drawer in her office in the days after her death, proved that she knew she was in danger and was in fear of her life.
He told the jury that his wife had affairs with seven different men during their marriage but he was unable to stay away because he "loved her to bits".
Labels: anger, attachment
Tuesday, May 09, 2006
Domestic killings shock Swiss - BBC News
Corinne Rey-Bellet was shot by her husband Gerold Stadler just days after the couple had agreed to separate.
Stadler also shot and killed Rey-Bellet's brother Alain, and seriously wounded her mother, before finally killing himself.
...
"There is a profile for a man who commits a crime like this," says Philip Jaffe, professor of psychology at Geneva University.
"He tends to be very ambitious, but isolated, very contained, and he can't cope with loss. So if his wife threatens to leave him, his response is violence."
All the recent cases, including that of Rey-Bellet and Stadler, involved families who presented an outward appearance of normal, calm, orderly family life.
"Here in Switzerland we are brought up to expect everything to go according to plan," he explains.
"Just like our trains run on time, we've come to expect our lives to run to plan, and when they don't, we go wild."
...
Mr Boess blames the Swiss army's policy of requiring Swiss men, who all have to do military service, to keep their guns and ammunition at home in case of an emergency call-up.
What that means is that nearly all Swiss men have a Sturmgewehr - an assault rifle - stored somewhere in their homes. ...
"It's very common to hear women tell how their husbands remind them they have a gun in moments of tension," says Brigitte Schnegg, professor of gender politics at Berne University.
"They'll say: 'If you don't do what I want, don't forget I've got my gun upstairs.'"
...
"Family problems are seen as a defeat for the man, it all has to do with male honour." ...
Corinne Rey-Bellet was shot by her husband Gerold Stadler just days after the couple had agreed to separate.
Stadler also shot and killed Rey-Bellet's brother Alain, and seriously wounded her mother, before finally killing himself.
...
"There is a profile for a man who commits a crime like this," says Philip Jaffe, professor of psychology at Geneva University.
"He tends to be very ambitious, but isolated, very contained, and he can't cope with loss. So if his wife threatens to leave him, his response is violence."
All the recent cases, including that of Rey-Bellet and Stadler, involved families who presented an outward appearance of normal, calm, orderly family life.
"Here in Switzerland we are brought up to expect everything to go according to plan," he explains.
"Just like our trains run on time, we've come to expect our lives to run to plan, and when they don't, we go wild."
...
Mr Boess blames the Swiss army's policy of requiring Swiss men, who all have to do military service, to keep their guns and ammunition at home in case of an emergency call-up.
What that means is that nearly all Swiss men have a Sturmgewehr - an assault rifle - stored somewhere in their homes. ...
"It's very common to hear women tell how their husbands remind them they have a gun in moments of tension," says Brigitte Schnegg, professor of gender politics at Berne University.
"They'll say: 'If you don't do what I want, don't forget I've got my gun upstairs.'"
...
"Family problems are seen as a defeat for the man, it all has to do with male honour." ...
Labels: anger, attachment
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