Peninsula Daily News for Tuesday, October 18, 2011
Second Front Page
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Briefly: Nation Victimization of disabled part of big scheme?
August, but her request was rejected because of bad weather and because her condition wasn’t life-threatening. Doctors she contacted for a second opinion said a tumor may have caused her vision and speech problems. A Raytheon spokesman had said that the decision to evacuate Douceur rested with the National Science Foundation. The foundation had said it must balance the potential benefit of an evacuation against the possibility of harm for the patient, the flight crew and workers on the ground. A storm delayed a flight attempt Saturday. She is scheduled for tests today.
PHILADELPHIA — When landlord Turgut Gozleveli stumbled upon four mentally disabled adults imprisoned in a boiler room of his apartment building, he may also have unlocked the door to a vast scheme to steal the Social Security disability checks of defenseless and vulnerable people, authorities said. Philadelphia police Saturday arrested three adults staying in an apartment upstairs, including the person accused of being the ringleader, Linda Ann Weston, 51, who had been convicted of murder in a 1981 starvation death. They found dozens of ID cards, power-of-attorney forms and other documents, suggesting the theft scheme involved more than just the four captives. Tracing the whereabouts of the captives, police believe the scheme might stretch to Virginia, Florida and Texas The FBI has joined the investigation.
The Associated Press
Alcohol, firearms FRANKLIN, Tenn. — The state lawmaker who led Tennessee to loosen laws that kept handguns out of bars gave up his chairmanship of an influential state House committee, fallout from his arrest last week on charges of driving and carrying a gun while drunk. Republican Rep. Curry Todd said in a statement Monday that he won’t chair the House State and Local Government Committee while his case is pending. The committee handles most alcohol bills and many other proposals affecting Tennessee cities and counties. Authorities said Todd, a former Memphis police officer, was arrested in Nashville on Oct. 11 after failing a roadside sobriety test. A loaded .38-caliber gun was in his car. Todd, who has a handgun permit, was charged with possession of a gun while under the influence and drunken driving. The Associated Press
South Pole evacuation CONCORD, N.H. — A sick American engineer who had been working at the South Pole for a year was evacuated Monday to Christchurch, New Zealand. Renee-Nicole Douceur, 58, is a Seabrook, N.H., resident who worked as a manager for research station contractor Raytheon Polar Services Co. She asked for an emergency evacuation after having what doctors believed was a stroke in
Briefly: World Somali militants threaten suicide attacks in Kenya
attorney said. Patrick Maisonneuve said the preliminary charges against Bernard Squarcini include “violating secret correspondence” and “unlawfully collecting data.” Under French law, preliminary charges allow magistrates to continue investigating before determining whether to send the case to trial. The probe stems from a suit filed by Le Monde last year. The newspaper alleged the office of French President Nicolas Sarkozy asked the DCRI to identify a journalist’s source and stop leaks in a scandal surrounding L’Oreal heiress Liliane Bettencourt, Europe’s wealthiest woman. Sarkozy’s office has denied the accusations. The law on protecting journalists’ sources forms a pillar of French media freedom.
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somalia’s most dangerous militant group threatened Kenya with suicide attacks Monday, saying Nairobi’s skyscrapers would be destroyed and its tourism industry ruined in an ominous warning one day after Kenyan troops poured into Somalia. Al-Shabab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage told a news conference in Mogadishu on Monday that Kenya must pull its troops out of Somalia. “Otherwise remember what happened in Uganda’s capital,” he said. Al-Shabab unleashed near simultaneous suicide bombings at public venues in Kampala in July 2010 as crowds gathered to watch the World Cup final on TV, killing 76 people. The militant group said the attack was in retaliation for Uganda’s deployment of troops to Mogadishu as part of the African Union peacekeeping force there. Hundreds of Kenyan troops poured into Somalia over the weekend following the kidnappings of four Europeans inside Kenya near the Somali border. Rage denied the group had anything to do with the kidnappings.
Gadhafi foes advance TRIPOLI, Libya — Libyan revolutionary forces have captured almost all of Bani Walid, one of Moammar Gadhafi’s last remaining strongholds, but still face pockets of resistance as they try to end a weeks-long standoff, officials said Monday. Fierce resistance in Bani Walid and Gadhafi’s hometown of Sirte has prevented Libya’s new leaders from declaring full victory and setting a timeline for elections. In a step toward normalcy, the transitional leadership council confirmed it signed an agreement with NATO that partially lifts the no-fly zone imposed in March over the country, allowing resumption of some flights without seeking NATO approval. The Associated Press
French spy charges PARIS — The head of France’s DCRI counterespionage agency was handed preliminary charges Monday in a probe into allegations of spying on journalists at the daily Le Monde, his
Bad
weather in way of reclaiming oil
The Rena, which grounded and cracked Oct. 5 on the Astrolabe reef 14 miles from Tauranga Harbour on New Zealand’s North Island, is now listing at 21 degrees. Salvage crews halted attempts to pump oil because of worsening weather Monday. They had removed about 111 tons, but about 1,400 tons remain on board and 350 tons have leaked into the sea. Officials describe it as their country’s worst maritime environmental disaster.
Court to rule if military medal lying is a crime The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court will decide if telling a lie about yourself is a crime — if the lie claims military medals you didn’t earn. The court said Monday it will rule on the constitutionality of a law that makes it a federal crime for people to claim falsely, either in writing or aloud, that they have been awarded the Medal of Honor, a Silver Star, Purple Heart or any other military medal. The Stolen Valor Act, which passed Congress with overwhelming support in 2006, apparently has been used only a few dozen times, but the underlying issue of false claims of military heroism has struck a chord in an era in which American soldiers are fighting two wars. The federal appeals court in California struck down the military medals law on free speech grounds, and appeals courts in Colorado, Georgia and Missouri are considering similar cases. The Obama administration is arguing that the law “serves a crucial purpose in safeguarding the military honors system.” The administration also says the law is reasonable because it only applies to instances in which the speaker intends to portray himself as a medal recipient. Previous high court rulings also have limited First Amendment protection for false statements, the government said. The case concerns the government’s prosecution of Xavier Alva-
Onus for rights abuse to be argued The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court said Monday it will use a dispute between Nigerian villagers and oil giant Royal Dutch Shell to decide whether corporations may be held liable in U.S. courts for alleged human rights abuses overseas. The justices said they will review a federal appeals court ruling in favor of Shell. The case centers on the 222-year-old Alien Tort Statute that has been increasingly used in recent years to sue corporations for alleged abuses abroad. Other cases pending in U.S. courts seek to hold accountable Chiquita Brands International for its relationship with paramilitary groups in Colombia; Exxon and Chevron for abuses in Indonesia and Nigeria, respectively; and several companies for their role in apartheid in South Africa. The Nigerians argue Shell was complicit in torture and other crimes against humanity in the country’s oil-rich Ogoni region in the Niger Delta. A divided panel of federal appeals court judges in New York said the 18th century law may not be used against corporations. More recently, appellate judges in Washington said it could. The Nigerians’ lawsuit stems from alleged human rights violations between 1992 and 1995. The case will be argued early next year. rez of Pomona, Calif. A member of the local water district board, Alvarez said at a public meeting in 2007 that he was a retired Marine who received the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration. In fact, he had never served in the military. He was indicted and pleaded guilty with the understanding that he would challenge the law’s constitutionality in his appeal. He was sentenced to more
than 400 hours of community service at a veterans’ hospital and fined $5,000. A panel of the San Franciscobased 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 2-1 to strike down the law. The majority said there is no evidence that lies such as the one told by Alvarez harm anybody and no compelling reason to make a crime out of them. Arguments will take place early next year.
Excessive drinking tab: Add $2 The Associated Press
ATLANTA — The toll of excessive drinking works out to about $2 per drink, in terms of medical expenses and other costs to society, according to a new federal research. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention study calculated societal costs from binge and heavy drinking beyond what consumers pay at the bar or liquor store. It’s the first such federal estimate in more than a dozen years. The study looked at costs that included — among other things
Quick Read
— lost work productivity, property damage from car crashes, expenditures for liver cirrhosis and other alcohol-associated medical problems, and money spent on incarceration of drunk drivers and criminals using alcohol. The CDC estimated excessive drinking cost society nearly $224 billion in 2006, the most recent year for which all necessary statistics were available. That worked out to about $1.90 per drink, 80 cents of which was spent by federal, state or local governments, the researchers estimated.
The rest came from drinkers, their families, private health insurers, employers, crime victims and others. Most of that was related to binge drinking, in which four or five alcoholic beverages are consumed on one occasion. Smoking has been estimated to cost society about $193 billion annually. An older study estimated the cost of not exercising to be around $150 billion. The study was released Monday by the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
. . . more news to start your day
West: Spaceport given champagne christening
Nation: X-rated hack takes ‘Sesame St.’ off YouTube
Nation: High school puts brake on restroom breaks
World: Sotheby to auction real drawing by fake artist
WITH HIS USUAL flare, British billionaire Richard Branson rappelled from a balcony, shook up a big bottle of champagne and took a swig while christening the world’s first built-fromscratch commercial spaceport Monday. Branson’s Virgin Galactic will stage its tourism venture from Spaceport America in a remote patch of desert in southern New Mexico. Branson was joined at the dedication by Gov. Susana Martinez, astronaut Buzz Aldrin and scores of wouldbe space travelers. With the spaceport and mothership completed, the company is now finalizing its rocket tests.
THE YOUTUBE CHANNEL for “Sesame Street” is back online after hackers forced its shutdown for a day by loading X-rated material. “Sesame Street” Executive Producer Carol-Lynn Parente said Monday that YouTube had taken the channel down Sunday after noticing the racy material. Parente said it appears that the X-rated videos were online for less than an hour and that “Sesame Street” had received no viewer complaints. The channel resumed at around midday Monday with usual fare of new and vintage clips from the popular preschool program.
STUDENTS AT EVERGREEN Park High School in suburban Chicago can leave class three times per semester to go to the restroom. After that, they have to make up any missed class time after school. The policy is designed to make sure that students don’t miss valuable class time, Principal Bill Sanderson said, adding that it deters them from using restroom visits as an excuse to miss class. Each teacher decides if the rule is enforced. Some students argue they only get five minutes between classes, not enough time for a restroom break.
IN A FIRST for Sotheby, it will sell a work by an artist who never existed. The London auction house said Monday it is offering the drawing “Bridge No. 114” by the talented but fictional American abstract expressionist Nat Tate. Tate is the creation of British novelist William Boyd, who wrote a fictional biography that included reproductions of the artist’s drawings. It was published in 1998 complete with endorsements from David Bowie and Gore Vidal, who were in on the joke. Proceeds from the Nov. 16 sale will go to a charity, the Artist’s Benevolent Institution.