211 YEARS AGO TODAY
Jul 13 1793
French revolutionary writer Jean Paul Marat is stabbed to death in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday, as she gives him a list of names to be guillotined. The assassination inspired the famous painting by Jacques Louis David; Corday was executed four days after slaying Marat.
This Week's Corrupt Cops Story 7/9/04
Former Charlotte, North Carolina police detective Wyatt Henderson remains free despite having been convicted and sentenced to federal prison for pistol-whipping a teenage suspect during an alleged marijuana buy in 2002 and then lying to his superiors about it.
He remains free because US District Court Judge Anne Conway is unhappy with the federal Bureau of Prisons' decision to send him to a medium security prison. The judge is concerned about the safety of the 6'5", 250-pound ex-cop. Conway wants Henderson sent to the minimum security prison camp at Eglin Air Force Base in Florida, but federal prosecutors object, saying it would not be appropriate to place a violent felon at a prison "where there are high-ranking military officers." (Prosecutors did not elaborate on why it was wrong to subject incarcerated military officers, who are professionally trained for combat, to the presence of a common thug.)
Although prosecutors noted that the federal Bail Reform Act requires that those convicted of "crimes of violence" should be jailed during appeals, Judge Conway has freed him indefinitely.
Henderson resigned his position just in time to avoid additional charges relating to a fake college diploma and the $1,300 in education incentive funds he improperly took for "earning" the degree.
After being caught once in degree fraud, he did it again, purchasing two more degrees from "St. Regis University," whose campus is in an unnamed African nation. "I wanted to prove to myself I could get a real college degree," he said in a non sequitur during cross-examination in court.
-StoptheDrugWar.org: the Drug Reform Coordination Network (DRCNet)
July 8, 2004
By Lindsay Nelson
Herald Staff Writer
A group of children on a city-sponsored field trip witnessed a lamb being slaughtered at the Sunnyside Meats processing plant Tuesday.
The 15 children, ages 8 and 9, were enrolled in a city parks and recreation summer activity program called Gametime. The children and their program leaders took a full tour of the facility, and eight of them saw the 'harvest floor,' where animals are stunned, killed, gutted and skinned.
Town mayor Muritu Karumba said he ordered Thursday's cull to avoid an outbreak of disease caused by the pigs and dogs mating, which he said broke the laws of nature and "caused unnecessary commotion."
But the unfortunate pigs' owners immediately cried foul, claiming collusion between Nyahururu's authorities and the town's bacon traders to cut competition in pork supplies.
PAKISTAN FOR BUSH.
July Surprise?
by John B. Judis, Spencer Ackerman & Massoud Ansari
This spring, the administration significantly increased its pressure on Pakistan to kill or capture Osama bin Laden, his deputy, Ayman Al Zawahiri, or the Taliban's Mullah Mohammed Omar, all of whom are believed to be hiding in the lawless tribal areas of Pakistan.
A succession of high-level American officials - from outgoing CIA Director George Tenet to Secretary of State Colin Powell have visited Pakistan in recent months.
According to one source in Pakistan's powerful Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), "The Pakistani government is really desperate and wants to flush out bin Laden and his associates after the latest pressures from the U.S. administration to deliver before the U.S. elections."
Chefs panned for poor food hygiene
LONDON - A new study has shown that television chefs are using methods that promise gastronomic delight, but could deliver gastroenteritis. Researchers found that for every example of correct food handling, there were 13 food hygiene errors, typically seven per 30-minute show.
One of the worst examples uncovered in the study, conducted by a team of food scientists at the University of Guelph in Ontario, Canada, involved a chef who swatted a fly with a knife he was using to chop vegetables. Another chef hung dough to dry on kitchen taps, which are often covered with germs.
The failure to wash hands was observed in 75% of the programmes viewed. Close behind was the failure to separate raw and fresh foods.
Rumsfeld gave go-ahead for Abu Ghraib tactics, says general in charge
By Julian Coman in Washington
(Filed: 04/07/2004)
The former head of the Abu Ghraib prison in Baghdad has for the first time accused the American Secretary of Defence, Donald Rumsfeld, of directly authorising Guantanamo Bay-style interrogation tactics. Brig-Gen Janis Karpinski, who commanded the 800th Military Police Brigade, which is at the centre of the Abu Ghraib prisoner-abuse scandal, said that documents yet to be released by the Pentagon would show that Mr Rumsfeld personally approved the introduction of harsher conditions of detention in Iraq.
"I've not only seen, but I've been asked about some of those documents, that he signed and agreed to." Asked whether the documents have been made public, Gen Karpinski replied "No" and went on to describe the methods approved in them as involving "dogs, food deprivation and sleep deprivation."
What I Want to Kill When I Grow Up 
Illustration by Bob Aul
by Gustavo Arellano
Like all incoming high school seniors, Tim Bueler has big plans after graduation. The 17-year-old student at Rancho Cotate High School near San Francisco is acclaimed in conservative circles for starting the High School Conservative Clubs of America. But instead of taking the next logical step and entering politics, Bueler plans to do what so many conservatives merely dream about: kill Muslims.
"Over 3,000 of our own people died at the hands of illegal aliens and their religion of peace, Islam!" Bueler screamed.
"The price of freedom, my friends, is paid in blood," Bueler boomed. "The blood of our ancestors. For hundreds of years, Americans have fought to keep it and secure our freedom."
"I know that Islam is not peaceful—it’s rooted in evil. And these people have declared war against all of us, all of us being Christians and Jews. And they want to do what they did to Daniel Pearl and Paul Johnson and Nick Berg to us. What I’m going to do is join the Army Rangers."
His father tried to sway Bueler from this decision, warning that he would most likely find death in Iraq. Bueler shrugged and smiled.
"As long as I take one of those guys with me, I’ll be very satisfied."
July 02. 2004 9:41AM
Strippers Rupture Dancer's Breast Implant
The Associated Press
Two exotic dancers who punctured a third dancer's breast implant with a broken wine glass onstage have been spared jail time.
According to testimony Wednesday in British Columbia Supreme Court, customers in a downtown nightclub were stunned when two dancers attacked a third after a performance on July 18, 2002, cutting her in the right breast and rupturing her implant.
The attackers got angry because they believe the dancer had a snooty attitude, Justice Deborah A. Satanove was told.
Recent Comments