Mich. county seeks to prevent shouting at inmates

(AP) – 1 hour ago

PAW PAW, Mich. — A new law takes effect in early December making it illegal to give a shout-out to an inmate at the Van Buren County Jail. A century-old section of the jail in the heart of Paw Paw has no air conditioning, so its barred windows are opened in warm weather. The wing stands only a few feet from the sidewalk, separated from it by a tall chain-link fence crowned by spirals of razor wire.

The open windows serve as an open invitation for some people to stand outside and yell for their friends and loved ones inside. Sometimes they hold entire conversations together.

Sheriff Dale Gribler asked county commissioners for help. They adopted an ordinance in September that makes shouting at inmates a misdemeanor — punishable by up to 90 days in jail.

Man says he stabbed himself because he didn't want to go to work

By Howard Pankratz
The Denver Post
Updated: 11/03/2009 10:41:59 AM MST

A 29-year-old man who claimed he was attacked and stabbed by three people - skinheads or Hispanic males - confessed Monday night that he stabbed himself because he didn't want to go to work, Edgewater Police said today.

The man, Aaron Siebers, walked into his employer, the Blockbuster Video store at 1921 Sheridan about 6:30 p.m. Monday, and reported the attack. He said the trio was dressed in black.

Siebers, of Denver, had a deep stab wound to the lower leg plus several superficial knife wounds, according to Steve Davis, spokesman for the Edgewater Police Department.

Five police agencies responded to the scene. In addition to Edgewater police, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Department, Mountain View Police, Lakeside Police and Lakewood Police Department officers set up a large perimeter and began a manhunt for the suspects.

K-9 units were brought into search for the perpetrators.

Siebers was taken to Saint Anthony's Hospital where he was treated. He received numerous stitches to close the leg wound, said Davis.

Davis said detectives went to the hospital and interviewed Siebers and also reviewed videos from a nearby Target store, which had numerous surveillance cameras. A review of the cameras showed no attack had taken place near the Target store as Siebers claimed, said Davis.

After Siebers was released from the hospital, detectives again questioned him. They confronted him with the evidence from the surveillance cameras and his changing stories about who attacked him, said Davis.

At that point, Siebers confessed and told them he stabbed himself because he didn't want to go to work, said the police spokesman.

Davis said Siebers had taken a bus from Denver to the Blockbuster store in Edgewater. The surveillance video from the Target store showed him walking from the bus stop to the store without any indication he was suffering from a deep stab wound, said Davis.

Siebers was arrested and charged with false reporting and obstructing a police officer, both misdemeanors. He was taken to the Jefferson County Jail.

"If you are going to concoct a story about being stabbed, don't do it near a Target store," said Davis.

Pa. woman, daughter hold signs admitting theft

(AP) – 2 hours ago

BEDFORD, Pa. — In exchange for jail time, a woman and her adult daughter have agreed to stand outside a Pennsylvania courthouse holding signs saying they stole a gift card from a 9-year-old girl on her birthday.

Fifty-six-year-old Evelyn Border and 35-year-old Tina Griekspoor stood outside the court for 4 1/2 hours Tuesday. They held signs that read: "I stole from a 9-year-old girl on her birthday! Don't steal or this could happen to you!"

Because the women agreed to hold the signs, Bedford County District Attorney Bill Higgins says he'll ask for probation instead of jail when they plead guilty to the theft.

Higgins says they swiped a gift card that the girl set on a shelf while a Walmart employee helped her.

The girl's mother planned to drive by the courthouse to teach her daughter the importance of obeying the law.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/media/ALeqM5iXV-VwCniScN5fnjC6MuC3ZX9Qew?siz e=l
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/media/ALeqM5hqlnaVMF9OngYSE1wpxqbJ79zDnw?siz e=l

Cab drivers in South Korea can continue to have televisions on their dashboards, despite the potential risk of crashing, a court has ruled.

The ruling comes after a taxi driver challenged a $507 (£311) fine imposed by the local authorities in the capital, Seoul.

The city's tortuous congestion led taxi drivers to install new mobile TV systems in an attempt to beat boredom.

Watching TV while driving was a factor in 200 accidents last year, police say.

Three people were killed and 351 were injured in those accidents, news agency Agence France Presse reported.

Police: 4 more bodies found at rapist’s home
Investigators charge a convicted sex offender with five counts of murder

updated 25 minutes ago

CLEVELAND - Police say four more bodies and a skull have been found at the Cleveland home of a convicted rapist where police last week removed the remains of six women.

Police Lt. Thomas Stacho said the additional bodies were found Tuesday in the backyard of the home where 50-year-old Anthony Sowell lives. The skull was wrapped up in a paper bag and found with a bucket in the basement.

Last week, investigators said they found one body in a shallow grave in the backyard. The rest were inside the house.

The bodies were removed after investigators brought cadaver dogs and digging equipment to the yard.

Sowell is in jail and was charged Tuesday with five counts of aggravated murder, and with rape, felonious assault, kidnapping.

Sowell will be arraigned Wednesday.

Latest discovery

The latest four bodies were removed after investigators excavated the yard of Sowell's home, police said. Two coroner's vans arrived shortly before the remains were removed, and the bodies were being taken to the Cuyahoga County coroner's office.

Police discovered six bodies Thursday and Friday after a woman reported being raped at Sowell's home. The coroner is attempting to identify the bodies found last week through DNA and dental records. All six women were black, and five were strangled.

For the past few years, Sowell's neighbors assumed the foul smell enveloping their street corner had been coming from a brick building where workers churned out sausage and head cheese.

It got so bad that the owners of Ray's Sausage replaced their sewer line and grease traps.

Sowell is a..........(MORE)

http://www.janinelindemulderblog.com/updates/070419/janine_lindemulder_naked_tit s.jpg

Palm Bay man accused of kidnapping and attempted sexual battery of long-time friend

Palm Bay man handcuffs friend and demands sex, police say

By Anthony Colarossi, SENTINEL STAFF WRITER

9:23 a.m. EST, November 4, 2009

A Palm Bay man convinced a long-time friend to come to his home Monday but then handcuffed her and told her he wanted to have sex, authorities said.

Following a struggle, the woman managed to convince the man to take the handcuffs off and she was eventually able to leave after talking to him for two hours, Palm Bay police said.

During a later phone conversation, monitored by police, Tony Dale Green described an elaborate plan to restrain the woman and take nude photographs of her so he could blackmail her with the images and have "consensual" sex with her once a week "as a treat," according to an arrest affidavit.

Green, 44, was arrested on charges of kidnapping, attempted sexual battery, aggravated stalking, battery and threats/extortion, police said.

Police searched his home this morning and discovered leather straps, chains and handcuffs.

Green contacted the woman Monday and asked for a ride to pick up his car at a repair shop. The victim had no reason to be suspicious because the two are longtime friends, police said. Once she arrived at his Wyoming Drive home, Green invited her inside. He then grabbed her from behind and handcuffed her right wrist, police said. The woman told investigators that Green repeatedly told her he wanted to have sex with her. The woman tried to talk to the suspect and calm him down. She hugged him and said she "loved him like a brother," police said.

After two hours, she convinced him to let her leave. That's when she contacted police.

On Tuesday, police recorded a call between the victim and Green. During the call, Green described his plan to take the nude photos and blackmail her in exchange for sex, the affidavit states.

Green "admitted that he put the handcuff on the victim and that he taped cotton balls to the cuffs so she wouldn't bruise," the affidavit states. He also said he had a "fleece lined leather restraint and chains attached to a plank to tie the victim with because he knew 'she wouldn't pose for him,' " the document states.

Green also said he was the woman's "stalker" and had planned the attack for about two months. And he told her that she should not be alone with him and that she shouldn't worry about him doing things like this for 16 more years "or until she was [54] years old," the affidavit states.

"This man had been plotting this for several months," Detective Steve Hill said. "Had she [the victim] not talked her way out of this we believe she may have ended up in some serious danger."

Green was held Tuesday night without bail. He will face a judge today.

Police continue to investigate the case. If Green is found guilty of the kidnapping charge alone, he could face 30 years in prison.

Firefighter charged with putting drug in wife's tea

By Ryan Haggerty of the Journal Sentinel

Posted: Nov. 3, 2009

A Milwaukee firefighter was charged Tuesday with spiking his wife's tea with a prescription anti-depressant, according to a criminal complaint.

The woman, a Milwaukee police detective, realized the tea was drugged after her 3-year-old son drank the rest of the beverage Saturday evening and then spit a white substance back into the mug, the complaint says.

The child was not injured, a Milwaukee police spokeswoman said.

The Journal Sentinel is not naming the firefighter to protect the identity of the victim and her son.

The woman confronted her husband and asked him what he put in the drink, according to the complaint.

The husband, 43, first said the substance was undissolved sugar, then admitted he had put half a tablet of Lexapro in the drink, the complaint says.

The husband told a police officer he put the medication in the tea because he and his wife had been arguing about bills, and he wanted to calm her down, the complaint says.

The husband offered the tea to his wife as she got out of the shower, according to the complaint. She took a few sips and then gave the mug to her son when he asked for a drink. He had just finished trick-or-treating, and she thought the tea would warm him up, the complaint says.

The husband is charged with one count of placing foreign objects in edibles. The felony is punishable by up to three and a half years in prison.

He is being held at the Milwaukee County Jail on $10,000 bail.

A temporary restraining order was issued Monday against him, according to court records.

The man has been suspended with pay by the Milwaukee Fire Department, according to a department spokeswoman.

Want to own more than 3 cats? Get a license

Mass. town: People with 4 or more felines must apply for kennel permit

DUDLEY, Mass. - A Massachusetts town has made it illegal to own more than three cats without getting a special license.

Voters at a town meeting in Dudley added language to a town bylaw on Monday night that makes it illegal to own more than three cats without a $50 residential kennel license.

The article was in response to a neighborhood feud over the 15 cats owned by Mary Ellen Richards.

The Telegram & Gazette of Worcester reports that one neighbor claimed the cats have ruined his yard.

Richards has put her home up for sale and says she plans to move to a "more cat-friendly community."

Dudley is about 60 miles southwest of Boston.

Israel Seizes 500 Tons of Hezbollah-Bound Iran Arms

Nov. 4 (Bloomberg) -- The Israeli navy intercepted a ship heading for Syria and seized an unprecedented 500-ton haul of weapons from Iran intended for the Shiite Muslim Hezbollah militia in Lebanon, the army said.

“This is the largest cache of smuggled weapons ever to be seized by Israel,” army spokeswoman Avital Leibovitz said in a phone interview today. “The cache includes thousands of rockets as well as hand grenades and mortar shells.”

Israel seized the ship 100 miles (160 kilometers) off its Mediterranean coast and discovered 40 containers carrying the weapons, Leibovitz said. The vessel was flying the flag of Antigua and was stopped late yesterday due to “suspicions” about the vessel, she added.

The seizure reflected “a well-known Iranian technique, taking advantage of cargo ships flying different flags in order to smuggle containers loaded with large amounts of highly volatile weaponry to terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah,” the army said in a statement.

“a well-known Iranian technique, taking advantage of cargo ships flying different flags in order to smuggle containers loaded with large amounts of highly volatile weaponry to terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah,”