Turkey, owl form unusual pair
LA GRANDE, Ore. (AP) - Birds of a feather, it is said, flock together. Now consider the pair at Spring Creek — an adult Rio Grande female turkey and a 2-week-old great gray owl.
The turkey found the owl when it fell 50 feet from an artificial nest and began staying within a few feet of the young bird almost around the clock.
When people would approach, the turkey circled it, said Mark Penninger of La Grande, a U.S. Forest Service wildlife biologist.
Its motherly instincts kicked in and the turkey prevented the owl's mother from bringing her offspring a vole to eat.
The pair often sat together on a log, Penninger said. The young owl felt so comfortable that it climbed onto the turkey's back.
He said neither species normally carries its young that way.
The birds first were spotted together May 20 by Ray and Linda Rolls of Chico, Calif, who e-mailed their photos to Penninger, who went with wildlife specialists to see for himself.
They found the owl near its nest platform.
Spring Creek, about 10 miles west of La Grande, has a high great gray owl concentration, possibly because of artificial nests installed there.
The baby owl had not eaten for days because the turkey would not let its parents provide food. The hen never fed the owl because turkeys don't bring food to their young. They keep them where there are insects for them to eat.
The young owl also appeared cold because of wet weather.
The four biologists decided against placing the bird back into its nest because they feared it would get the two owls already there so excited they might jump out or push out the young owl.
A wildlife rehabilitation center was considered but vetoed out of fear that the bird seemed near death and it was unlikely a center could take it immediately.
They distracted the turkey and moved the baby owl to a leaning pine tree about seven feet off the ground to keep it dry and give the parents a better chance to feed it.
But the owl died last Tuesday. Penninger said it was the turkey's maternal instinct that was fatal, since the infant could not get food.
Why the unusual adoption? Sometimes it just happens.
The May 2002 edition of National Wildlife magazine cites the case of a family of raccoons adopting a kitten and says gulls, geese, bats, coyotes and seals have done the same.
___
Information from: The (La Grande) Observer
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Big rodents overrun Washington seniors
PROSSER, Wash. (AP) - "The marmots are coming, the marmots are coming." Seniors living in Wine Country Villa probably wish they had gotten such a warning.
Residents say the oversized rodents are swarming through the 75-unit development of manufactured homes near the airport of this Eastern Washington town, burrowing under homes, fouling front porches with their droppings and — according to some unconfirmed accounts — attacking people.
Many species of marmots, including some known as woodchucks and groundhogs, are found across North America. They are closely related to ground squirrels and are among the largest of rodents, some reaching 30 pounds.
"Can you imagine what they'd do to cats?" asked Dick Bain, 78, a Wine Country resident who dispatched two of the animals with a shovel Friday.
Bain said he doesn't like killing animals but had to act after finding two marmots beneath a stack of carpentry wood next to his house.
"My neighbor got tackled (by marmots) two years ago and got chewed up pretty bad," Bain told the Yakima Herald-Republic.
The account could not be verified by the newspaper. Bain would not identify the man, saying his neighbor was embarrassed.
Also unconfirmed was an account that a resident got badly bitten after reaching into a water tank to remove a marmot that only appeared to be dead.
Ray Borgens, 81, said marmots leave unsavory calling cards in his carport, burrow under his house and once scooted up a ladder he left leaning against the roof.
"They were snooping around the air ducts up there," Borgens said.
Concerned about the droppings, which Bain said often are tracked indoors "even though you think you've cleaned it off," residents say officials in the Benton-Franklin Health Department have told them there's nothing the agency can do because the animals pose no public health risk, including the spread of infectious disease.
Police add that town ordinances prohibit residents from shooting the critters.
Officials in the state Department of Fish and Wildlife say residents likely will have to pay if they want to eradicate the infestation, and then only after clearing some bureaucratic hurdles. First, they must file a complaint with the agency's Yakima office, which then may refer them to a certified exterminator.
"These are not free services," agency spokeswoman Madonna Luers said. "We do not have the staff to go out there and deal with these situations."
To make the area less attractive to marmots, she advised securing garbage cans and other potential sources of food or nesting material.
She also advised trying to avoid marmot confrontations.
"They've probably become pretty accustomed to people," Luers said, "and it's not an animal you want to tangle with."
___
Information from: Yakima Herald-Republic
PROSSER, Wash. (AP) - "The marmots are coming, the marmots are coming." Seniors living in Wine Country Villa probably wish they had gotten such a warning.
Residents say the oversized rodents are swarming through the 75-unit development of manufactured homes near the airport of this Eastern Washington town, burrowing under homes, fouling front porches with their droppings and — according to some unconfirmed accounts — attacking people.
Many species of marmots, including some known as woodchucks and groundhogs, are found across North America. They are closely related to ground squirrels and are among the largest of rodents, some reaching 30 pounds.
"Can you imagine what they'd do to cats?" asked Dick Bain, 78, a Wine Country resident who dispatched two of the animals with a shovel Friday.
Bain said he doesn't like killing animals but had to act after finding two marmots beneath a stack of carpentry wood next to his house.
"My neighbor got tackled (by marmots) two years ago and got chewed up pretty bad," Bain told the Yakima Herald-Republic.
The account could not be verified by the newspaper. Bain would not identify the man, saying his neighbor was embarrassed.
Also unconfirmed was an account that a resident got badly bitten after reaching into a water tank to remove a marmot that only appeared to be dead.
Ray Borgens, 81, said marmots leave unsavory calling cards in his carport, burrow under his house and once scooted up a ladder he left leaning against the roof.
"They were snooping around the air ducts up there," Borgens said.
Concerned about the droppings, which Bain said often are tracked indoors "even though you think you've cleaned it off," residents say officials in the Benton-Franklin Health Department have told them there's nothing the agency can do because the animals pose no public health risk, including the spread of infectious disease.
Police add that town ordinances prohibit residents from shooting the critters.
Officials in the state Department of Fish and Wildlife say residents likely will have to pay if they want to eradicate the infestation, and then only after clearing some bureaucratic hurdles. First, they must file a complaint with the agency's Yakima office, which then may refer them to a certified exterminator.
"These are not free services," agency spokeswoman Madonna Luers said. "We do not have the staff to go out there and deal with these situations."
To make the area less attractive to marmots, she advised securing garbage cans and other potential sources of food or nesting material.
She also advised trying to avoid marmot confrontations.
"They've probably become pretty accustomed to people," Luers said, "and it's not an animal you want to tangle with."
___
Information from: Yakima Herald-Republic
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Calif. lawsuit focuses on blood contract
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - The lawsuit that Jinsoo Kim filed against Stephen Son is ordinary in every respect — except that it centers on a contract written in human blood.
Kim's lawsuit claims that Son used his own blood to write out a promise to repay money that Kim lent him. Kim sued in Orange County Superior Court to enforce the promise.
"I've been reading contract cases for about 40 years, and I've never seen one" written in blood, said Joseph M. Perillo, a professor at Fordham University School of Law who has co-authored and edited contracts textbooks.
According to the lawsuit, Kim invested about $170,000 in Son's Korean corporation but never received the returns he was promised.
Son's attorney, Vladimir Khiterer, acknowledges his client wrote out a repayment promise in blood after the pair went to a bar in October 2004 and drank alcohol while discussing their dispute. But Khiterer said Son wrote that he would repay to "the best of my ability," and the defense has argued in court papers that the document is not a valid contract.
Kim's attorney, Richard J. Radcliffe, said his client agrees with the translation but said Son wrote it on his own and not at Kim's request. He suggested that a jury could give greater weight to a document written in blood.
"It just seems ironic that when they go beyond the usual ink and laser printer" the defense would "turn around and say, 'I didn't really mean it,'" Radcliffe said.
Legal experts said the fact that the contract was written in blood does not give it extra legal power.
"You can write (a contract) in stone; you can make it orally," Perillo said.
___
Information from: Daily Journal
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) - The lawsuit that Jinsoo Kim filed against Stephen Son is ordinary in every respect — except that it centers on a contract written in human blood.
Kim's lawsuit claims that Son used his own blood to write out a promise to repay money that Kim lent him. Kim sued in Orange County Superior Court to enforce the promise.
"I've been reading contract cases for about 40 years, and I've never seen one" written in blood, said Joseph M. Perillo, a professor at Fordham University School of Law who has co-authored and edited contracts textbooks.
According to the lawsuit, Kim invested about $170,000 in Son's Korean corporation but never received the returns he was promised.
Son's attorney, Vladimir Khiterer, acknowledges his client wrote out a repayment promise in blood after the pair went to a bar in October 2004 and drank alcohol while discussing their dispute. But Khiterer said Son wrote that he would repay to "the best of my ability," and the defense has argued in court papers that the document is not a valid contract.
Kim's attorney, Richard J. Radcliffe, said his client agrees with the translation but said Son wrote it on his own and not at Kim's request. He suggested that a jury could give greater weight to a document written in blood.
"It just seems ironic that when they go beyond the usual ink and laser printer" the defense would "turn around and say, 'I didn't really mean it,'" Radcliffe said.
Legal experts said the fact that the contract was written in blood does not give it extra legal power.
"You can write (a contract) in stone; you can make it orally," Perillo said.
___
Information from: Daily Journal
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Woolly mammoth ivory big in Alaska
By JEANNETTE J. LEE, Associated Press Writer
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - In Anchorage's downtown ivory shops, alongside whale baleen baskets and walrus tusk statuettes, are souvenirs made from the fossils of shaggy Ice Age beasts that died on the tundra thousands of years ago.
The bones, teeth and giant curving tusks of woolly mammoths can be found in abundance in Alaska, and the fossils of the elephant-like beasts are routinely — if not always legally — turned into jewelry and other curios.
As the warmer weather and round-the-clock daylight of summer draw tourists to Alaska, ivory shop owners anticipate the inevitable questions from visitors about mammoth ivory.
"Most people don't even know about it until they come up here, and then they see it in the store and go, `Hmmm, mammoth ivory?'" said Barbara Lynd, owner of Alaska Arts and Ivory. A few customers have asked where they can go to see a live mammoth.
"They're not really clued in to the fact that they're extinct," Lynd said.
The woolly mammoth died out more than 10,000 years ago, killed off either by humans or climate warming, according to the main theories debated by scientists.
At Lynd's store, a piece of tusk in front of her cash register is engraved with an image of a herd of mammoths. She said the scrimshaw, as engraved ivory is called, will sell for about $4,500. Necklaces of polished mammoth-ivory beads sell for $100 to $400.
Woolly mammoth ivory can legally be taken from private land with the owner's consent, then sold and carved.
The removal of mammoth ivory from state or federal land is banned in Alaska. But with mammoth fossils spread over hundreds of thousands of square miles of sparsely populated land, law enforcement cannot protect them all.
And because mammoths are extinct, the ivory, unlike hundreds of other wildlife products, can be taken across nearly any border in the world without fees or permits, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Dale Guthrie, professor emeritus at the Institute of Arctic Biology in Fairbanks, said many scientists fear that trafficking in mammoth ivory could lead to the taking of even rarer fossils, and "we could lose the story of our past." Researchers use the tusks to learn about mammoth growth rates, eating and drinking patterns and migration trends.
Alaska contains the largest caches of mammoth remains in the United States. Mammoth fossils, which look like large pieces of driftwood, are often exposed by shifting rivers and eroding coasts.
"In the rest of the country, it isn't in very good shape and it's rather rare. The permafrost and the muck helped preserve it better here," Guthrie said.
For the past 15 years, Charles Foster, using a shovel and pick, has gathered mammoth ivory every summer at a secret location along a river near Kotzebue, just above the Arctic Circle on Alaska's western coast. The school maintenance worker sells the teeth for $500 each, while the tusks go for a higher price he would not disclose.
"I can get a four-wheeler with four of these teeth," Foster said as he picked through a bulging cardboard box of mammoth tusks, teeth and leg bones under a table in his living room.
Lynd said most of her inventory comes from people she has known for two decades, and "I trust they are getting it from the right places."
Scrimshaw artist George Vukson, who sells pieces to Lynd and other shops and collectors, said most of his ivory comes from Alaska Natives who find it while hunting. Vukson pays $35 to $70 a pound.
While elephant ivory is stark white, mammoth ivory tends to be brownish or bluish from centuries of absorbing minerals in the ground.
___
On the Net: Customs Guide to Alaska Native Art
By JEANNETTE J. LEE, Associated Press Writer
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - In Anchorage's downtown ivory shops, alongside whale baleen baskets and walrus tusk statuettes, are souvenirs made from the fossils of shaggy Ice Age beasts that died on the tundra thousands of years ago.
The bones, teeth and giant curving tusks of woolly mammoths can be found in abundance in Alaska, and the fossils of the elephant-like beasts are routinely — if not always legally — turned into jewelry and other curios.
As the warmer weather and round-the-clock daylight of summer draw tourists to Alaska, ivory shop owners anticipate the inevitable questions from visitors about mammoth ivory.
"Most people don't even know about it until they come up here, and then they see it in the store and go, `Hmmm, mammoth ivory?'" said Barbara Lynd, owner of Alaska Arts and Ivory. A few customers have asked where they can go to see a live mammoth.
"They're not really clued in to the fact that they're extinct," Lynd said.
The woolly mammoth died out more than 10,000 years ago, killed off either by humans or climate warming, according to the main theories debated by scientists.
At Lynd's store, a piece of tusk in front of her cash register is engraved with an image of a herd of mammoths. She said the scrimshaw, as engraved ivory is called, will sell for about $4,500. Necklaces of polished mammoth-ivory beads sell for $100 to $400.
Woolly mammoth ivory can legally be taken from private land with the owner's consent, then sold and carved.
The removal of mammoth ivory from state or federal land is banned in Alaska. But with mammoth fossils spread over hundreds of thousands of square miles of sparsely populated land, law enforcement cannot protect them all.
And because mammoths are extinct, the ivory, unlike hundreds of other wildlife products, can be taken across nearly any border in the world without fees or permits, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Dale Guthrie, professor emeritus at the Institute of Arctic Biology in Fairbanks, said many scientists fear that trafficking in mammoth ivory could lead to the taking of even rarer fossils, and "we could lose the story of our past." Researchers use the tusks to learn about mammoth growth rates, eating and drinking patterns and migration trends.
Alaska contains the largest caches of mammoth remains in the United States. Mammoth fossils, which look like large pieces of driftwood, are often exposed by shifting rivers and eroding coasts.
"In the rest of the country, it isn't in very good shape and it's rather rare. The permafrost and the muck helped preserve it better here," Guthrie said.
For the past 15 years, Charles Foster, using a shovel and pick, has gathered mammoth ivory every summer at a secret location along a river near Kotzebue, just above the Arctic Circle on Alaska's western coast. The school maintenance worker sells the teeth for $500 each, while the tusks go for a higher price he would not disclose.
"I can get a four-wheeler with four of these teeth," Foster said as he picked through a bulging cardboard box of mammoth tusks, teeth and leg bones under a table in his living room.
Lynd said most of her inventory comes from people she has known for two decades, and "I trust they are getting it from the right places."
Scrimshaw artist George Vukson, who sells pieces to Lynd and other shops and collectors, said most of his ivory comes from Alaska Natives who find it while hunting. Vukson pays $35 to $70 a pound.
While elephant ivory is stark white, mammoth ivory tends to be brownish or bluish from centuries of absorbing minerals in the ground.
___
On the Net: Customs Guide to Alaska Native Art
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Man frees puppy from alligator's jaws
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) - A morning walk Monday turned into a dangerous tango with an alligator for one dog owner.
Michael Rubin took Jasmine, a 6-month-old golden retriever, and his other dog, a border collie named Frisbee, for a run near a construction site. The puppy ran ahead of Rubin to the edge of a pond, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
Rubin heard the dog cry. When he went to check on her, he saw the puppy's head inside an alligator's mouth. Rubin jumped in the water and started beating the gator with his fist.
The reptile refused to let go of Jasmine and started rolling in the water with the dog still in its mouth. He estimated the gator was about 7 feet long.
"I thought she was dead," Rubin said. "But at that point I wasn't going to let him have my dog."
He eventually pried the dog loose and rushed her to an animal hospital, where she was treated for cuts and puncture wounds. The puppy is in good condition, Rubin said.
CORAL SPRINGS, Fla. (AP) - A morning walk Monday turned into a dangerous tango with an alligator for one dog owner.
Michael Rubin took Jasmine, a 6-month-old golden retriever, and his other dog, a border collie named Frisbee, for a run near a construction site. The puppy ran ahead of Rubin to the edge of a pond, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported.
Rubin heard the dog cry. When he went to check on her, he saw the puppy's head inside an alligator's mouth. Rubin jumped in the water and started beating the gator with his fist.
The reptile refused to let go of Jasmine and started rolling in the water with the dog still in its mouth. He estimated the gator was about 7 feet long.
"I thought she was dead," Rubin said. "But at that point I wasn't going to let him have my dog."
He eventually pried the dog loose and rushed her to an animal hospital, where she was treated for cuts and puncture wounds. The puppy is in good condition, Rubin said.
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Prankster slips roach into coffee, says officer
By YOLANDA WALKER / WFAA ABC 8
CLEBURNE, Texas - A Cleburne McDonald's and the local police have begun an investigation after a Cleburne police officer said a roach was served to him in a cup of coffee.
Officer Kevin Dupre said what he believed to be a roach slipped into his mouth while he drank the hot beverage.
"It was about an inch in length," he said. "It was sort of a reddish brown in color. It looked in every way to me like a cockroach."
He also said he believed the insect didn't find its way into his cup accidentally.
"I spit it back out onto the outer rim of the lid and went back in and showed the manager," he said. "I was kind of expecting to see someone in the back that I recognized or something."
Dupre said he got little explanation for the incident, but did get his money back.
"Nothing is more important to us than the safety and well-being of our customers and, as such, we have rigorous standards for food quality and safety," said a McDonald's executive statement. "We take this matter very seriously and a thorough investigation is being conducted."
Police have also started an investigation into food tampering, which is a felony offense.
"Sometimes people may think something might be funny, but it's not funny," said Sgt. Amy Knoll, Cleburne Police Department. "It is serious when someone does tamper with a food or drink product."
Officer Dupre said he strongly believes he was targeted and will not return to a McDonald's.
"I'm sure they wouldn't want to be on the other end of that," he said.
The health department in Cleburne said the restaurant had an inspection in early May and there were no pest problems and has received pretty good reports in the two to three years it has been open.
By YOLANDA WALKER / WFAA ABC 8
CLEBURNE, Texas - A Cleburne McDonald's and the local police have begun an investigation after a Cleburne police officer said a roach was served to him in a cup of coffee.
Officer Kevin Dupre said what he believed to be a roach slipped into his mouth while he drank the hot beverage.
"It was about an inch in length," he said. "It was sort of a reddish brown in color. It looked in every way to me like a cockroach."
He also said he believed the insect didn't find its way into his cup accidentally.
"I spit it back out onto the outer rim of the lid and went back in and showed the manager," he said. "I was kind of expecting to see someone in the back that I recognized or something."
Dupre said he got little explanation for the incident, but did get his money back.
"Nothing is more important to us than the safety and well-being of our customers and, as such, we have rigorous standards for food quality and safety," said a McDonald's executive statement. "We take this matter very seriously and a thorough investigation is being conducted."
Police have also started an investigation into food tampering, which is a felony offense.
"Sometimes people may think something might be funny, but it's not funny," said Sgt. Amy Knoll, Cleburne Police Department. "It is serious when someone does tamper with a food or drink product."
Officer Dupre said he strongly believes he was targeted and will not return to a McDonald's.
"I'm sure they wouldn't want to be on the other end of that," he said.
The health department in Cleburne said the restaurant had an inspection in early May and there were no pest problems and has received pretty good reports in the two to three years it has been open.
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Baby with 3 arms may have surgery
SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Doctors in Shanghai on Tuesday were considering surgery options for a two-month old boy born with an unusually well-formed third arm.
Neither of the boy's two left arms is fully functional and tests have so far been unable to determine which was more developed, said Dr. Chen Bochang, head of the orthopedics department at Shanghai Children's Medical Center.
"His case is quite peculiar. We have no record of any child with such a complete third arm," Chen said in a telephone interview. "It's quite difficult to decide how to do the operation on him."
The boy, identified only as "Jie-jie," also was born with just one kidney and may have problems that could lead to curvature of the spine, according to local media reports.
Jie-jie cried when either of his left arms was touched, but smiled and responded normally to other stimuli, the reports said.
Chen said doctors hoped to work out a plan for surgery, but the boy's small size made it impossible to perform certain tests that would help them prepare.
"We are meeting with several experts now. We hope we could work the plan out soon," Chen said.
Media reports said other children have been reported born with additional arms and legs, but in all those cases it was clear what limb was more developed.
Chen's hospital is one of China's most experienced in dealing with unusual birth defects, including separating conjoined twins. Like Jie-jie, many of the children are sent to relatively wealthy Shanghai from the poor inland province of Anhui.
SHANGHAI, China (AP) - Doctors in Shanghai on Tuesday were considering surgery options for a two-month old boy born with an unusually well-formed third arm.
Neither of the boy's two left arms is fully functional and tests have so far been unable to determine which was more developed, said Dr. Chen Bochang, head of the orthopedics department at Shanghai Children's Medical Center.
"His case is quite peculiar. We have no record of any child with such a complete third arm," Chen said in a telephone interview. "It's quite difficult to decide how to do the operation on him."
The boy, identified only as "Jie-jie," also was born with just one kidney and may have problems that could lead to curvature of the spine, according to local media reports.
Jie-jie cried when either of his left arms was touched, but smiled and responded normally to other stimuli, the reports said.
Chen said doctors hoped to work out a plan for surgery, but the boy's small size made it impossible to perform certain tests that would help them prepare.
"We are meeting with several experts now. We hope we could work the plan out soon," Chen said.
Media reports said other children have been reported born with additional arms and legs, but in all those cases it was clear what limb was more developed.
Chen's hospital is one of China's most experienced in dealing with unusual birth defects, including separating conjoined twins. Like Jie-jie, many of the children are sent to relatively wealthy Shanghai from the poor inland province of Anhui.
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Mona Lisa 'speaks'
By Toshi Maeda
TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) - The Mona Lisa's smile may always remain a mystery, but it is now possible to hear what her voice would have sounded like, thanks to a Japanese acoustics expert.
Dr Matsumi Suzuki, who generally uses his skills to help with criminal investigations, measured the face and hands of Leonardo da Vinci's famous 16th century portrait to estimate her height and create a model of her skull.
"Once we have that, we can create a voice very similar to that of the person concerned," Suzuki told Reuters in an interview at his Tokyo office last week. "We have recreated the voices of a lot of famous people that were very close to the real thing and have been used in film dubbing."
The chart of any individual's voice, known as a voice print, is unique to that person and Suzuki says he believes he has achieved 90 percent accuracy in recreating the quality of the enigmatic woman's speaking tone.
"I am the Mona Lisa. My true identity is shrouded in mystery," the portrait proclaims on a Web site at http://promotion.msn.co.jp/davinci/voice.htm.
"In Mona Lisa's case, the lower part of her face is quite wide and her chin is pointed," Suzuki explained. "The extra volume means a relatively low voice, while the pointed chin adds mid-pitch tones," he added.
The scientists brought in an Italian woman to add the necessary intonation to the voice.
"We then had to think about what to have her say," Suzuki said. "We tried having her speak Japanese, but it didn't suit her image."
Experts disagree over who was represented in the portrait, with some saying the smiling woman is Leonardo himself, or his mother.
The team also attempted to recreate Leonardo's own voice in a project timed to coincide with the release of the film "The Da Vinci Code." Suzuki said he was less confident about its accuracy because he had to work from self-portraits where the artist wore a beard, concealing the shape of his face.
Suzuki's work has made contributions to criminal investigations -- in one case after he successfully aged a person's voice by a decade. A recording of the voice was broadcast on television, leading to the apprehension of a suspect.
By Toshi Maeda
TOKYO, Japan (Reuters) - The Mona Lisa's smile may always remain a mystery, but it is now possible to hear what her voice would have sounded like, thanks to a Japanese acoustics expert.
Dr Matsumi Suzuki, who generally uses his skills to help with criminal investigations, measured the face and hands of Leonardo da Vinci's famous 16th century portrait to estimate her height and create a model of her skull.
"Once we have that, we can create a voice very similar to that of the person concerned," Suzuki told Reuters in an interview at his Tokyo office last week. "We have recreated the voices of a lot of famous people that were very close to the real thing and have been used in film dubbing."
The chart of any individual's voice, known as a voice print, is unique to that person and Suzuki says he believes he has achieved 90 percent accuracy in recreating the quality of the enigmatic woman's speaking tone.
"I am the Mona Lisa. My true identity is shrouded in mystery," the portrait proclaims on a Web site at http://promotion.msn.co.jp/davinci/voice.htm.
"In Mona Lisa's case, the lower part of her face is quite wide and her chin is pointed," Suzuki explained. "The extra volume means a relatively low voice, while the pointed chin adds mid-pitch tones," he added.
The scientists brought in an Italian woman to add the necessary intonation to the voice.
"We then had to think about what to have her say," Suzuki said. "We tried having her speak Japanese, but it didn't suit her image."
Experts disagree over who was represented in the portrait, with some saying the smiling woman is Leonardo himself, or his mother.
The team also attempted to recreate Leonardo's own voice in a project timed to coincide with the release of the film "The Da Vinci Code." Suzuki said he was less confident about its accuracy because he had to work from self-portraits where the artist wore a beard, concealing the shape of his face.
Suzuki's work has made contributions to criminal investigations -- in one case after he successfully aged a person's voice by a decade. A recording of the voice was broadcast on television, leading to the apprehension of a suspect.
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Butt busters prowl Australian streets
SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) - May the Butt Force be with you.
Sydney, Australia's largest city, has had enough of careless smokers who dispose of their butts in the street.
Coinciding with World No Tobacco Day Wednesday, a team of 30 plain-clothed rangers were prowling Sydney streets as part of an anti-smoking and litter crackdown.
Nicknamed by local media as "Butt Busters" and the "Butt Force," the rangers have been issuing fines of A$60 ($45) for smokers who dump their butts in the streets instead of in designated bins.
The fine jumps to A$200 for smokers who dump lit cigarettes.
Monica Barone, acting chief executive of the harbourside city, said 45 smokers had been fined in the past week for indiscriminate cigarette littering.
She said more than 15,000 butts were discarded daily in the city in 2005, many of which find their way through stormwater drains into world-famous Sydney Harbour.
"The new hardline approach, which we do not apologize for, is designed to reduce millions of cigarette butts that are littered across the city every day to the detriment of our wonderful waterways," Barone said in a statement.
Officials estimate that about 32 billion butts were discarded inappropriately around Australia in 2005.
Some of those caught in the act were taking the fines on the chin, local media said.
"It's a dirty, rotten habit and I should've put it in the bin," the Daily Telegraph newspaper quoted one unidentified puffer as saying.
SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) - May the Butt Force be with you.
Sydney, Australia's largest city, has had enough of careless smokers who dispose of their butts in the street.
Coinciding with World No Tobacco Day Wednesday, a team of 30 plain-clothed rangers were prowling Sydney streets as part of an anti-smoking and litter crackdown.
Nicknamed by local media as "Butt Busters" and the "Butt Force," the rangers have been issuing fines of A$60 ($45) for smokers who dump their butts in the streets instead of in designated bins.
The fine jumps to A$200 for smokers who dump lit cigarettes.
Monica Barone, acting chief executive of the harbourside city, said 45 smokers had been fined in the past week for indiscriminate cigarette littering.
She said more than 15,000 butts were discarded daily in the city in 2005, many of which find their way through stormwater drains into world-famous Sydney Harbour.
"The new hardline approach, which we do not apologize for, is designed to reduce millions of cigarette butts that are littered across the city every day to the detriment of our wonderful waterways," Barone said in a statement.
Officials estimate that about 32 billion butts were discarded inappropriately around Australia in 2005.
Some of those caught in the act were taking the fines on the chin, local media said.
"It's a dirty, rotten habit and I should've put it in the bin," the Daily Telegraph newspaper quoted one unidentified puffer as saying.
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Man drowns trying to save toy boat
MIAMI, Fla. (Reuters) - A Florida man drowned after jumping onto an inflatable raft and paddling out to the middle of a lake to try to retrieve a stalled, radio-controlled toy boat, police said Tuesday.
Another toy boat punctured the raft, causing it to deflate rapidly, and the 31-year-old victim could not swim, Miami-Dade Police said.
The accident occurred Monday evening at a park northwest of Miami where the victim and several friends were racing the remote-controlled boats.
"I think it was all purely accidental. It's a fluke," said Detective Joanne Duncan.
MIAMI, Fla. (Reuters) - A Florida man drowned after jumping onto an inflatable raft and paddling out to the middle of a lake to try to retrieve a stalled, radio-controlled toy boat, police said Tuesday.
Another toy boat punctured the raft, causing it to deflate rapidly, and the 31-year-old victim could not swim, Miami-Dade Police said.
The accident occurred Monday evening at a park northwest of Miami where the victim and several friends were racing the remote-controlled boats.
"I think it was all purely accidental. It's a fluke," said Detective Joanne Duncan.
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Island eco-project recruits online "tribe"
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - If you've ever dreamed of living the simple life on a tropical island, a new online eco-tourism venture could turn that fantasy into reality for just a few hundred dollars.
Tribewanted.com -- a new spin on the concept of timeshare vacations -- is the brainchild of two British entrepreneurs who are seeking 5,000 people to join an online community to oversee the sustainable development of a 200-acre (81-hectare) Pacific island.
For a fee ranging from $220 to $660, members can join the "tribe" for one to three years and buy the right to visit the island of Vorovoro in Fiji for between one and three weeks.
The three-year project will be filmed for a documentary and weekly videos will be available online, but organizers say a key principle is: "This is not reality TV -- it's real life."
"Unlike reality television, this isn't about the game," co-founder Ben Keene said Tuesday. "There is no winner, there's no voting people off."
"This is about real people coming together with a real purpose, to work in partnership with a real tribal community," he told Reuters in New York during a recruitment trip.
Around 500 people have signed up so far, ranging in age from 18 to 67. "We've got people from about 18 different countries already, so this idea of creating a United Nations tribe is really coming together," Keene said.
The ecological aspect is fundamental to the project, which has a budget of 1 million pounds ($1.9 million).
'VERY SIMPLE SUSTAINABLE VILLAGE'
"It may not sound like a lot, but we're looking at a very simple sustainable village, not big concrete structures," Keene said. "As much as this is an adventure for everyone involved, we're also trying to raise awareness about ecological living."
Tribe members will design the infrastructure of the island, from solar power systems to nonpolluting toilet facilities.
Experts will work with the local tribal chief, Tui Mali, to make key decisions along with the tribe members who will vote online for what they want.
"At any one time you've got the 4,900 people in the online community and 100 on the island," Keene said.
Keene, who has been running an alternative travel Web site, said co-founder Mark James proposed the idea as a way to use online communities for something tangible in the real world.
"Instead of just sharing music or chatting or whatever, we can say we've got a purpose, we want to create a sustainable, ecological village that we can then go visit," Keene said.
"We went online and we went island hunting, posing as millionaire businessmen to all these brokers around the world," Keene said, adding that they considered islands from Central America to the Philippines before settling on Fiji.
Vorovoro currently has four inhabitants -- Tui Mali and his brother and their wives, all from the neighboring island of Mali. "It's the head chief's privilege to live on Vorovoro," Keene said. "He wants to open up this space to bring money into the community, to support education and the local fishermen."
Tribewanted.com has a three-year lease, after which it will revert to the local community.
Transportation to Fiji is not included in the membership fee.
When members visit, starting in September, they can choose to help build facilities, go fishing or just read a book on the beach. Carpenters and others with useful skills are encouraged to join, but Keene said anyone with a sense of adventure was welcome.
"We're looking for people who have ideas for how they'd like to pass on their skills, whether they're yoga instructors or sports teachers or maybe artists," he said.
By Claudia Parsons
NEW YORK (Reuters) - If you've ever dreamed of living the simple life on a tropical island, a new online eco-tourism venture could turn that fantasy into reality for just a few hundred dollars.
Tribewanted.com -- a new spin on the concept of timeshare vacations -- is the brainchild of two British entrepreneurs who are seeking 5,000 people to join an online community to oversee the sustainable development of a 200-acre (81-hectare) Pacific island.
For a fee ranging from $220 to $660, members can join the "tribe" for one to three years and buy the right to visit the island of Vorovoro in Fiji for between one and three weeks.
The three-year project will be filmed for a documentary and weekly videos will be available online, but organizers say a key principle is: "This is not reality TV -- it's real life."
"Unlike reality television, this isn't about the game," co-founder Ben Keene said Tuesday. "There is no winner, there's no voting people off."
"This is about real people coming together with a real purpose, to work in partnership with a real tribal community," he told Reuters in New York during a recruitment trip.
Around 500 people have signed up so far, ranging in age from 18 to 67. "We've got people from about 18 different countries already, so this idea of creating a United Nations tribe is really coming together," Keene said.
The ecological aspect is fundamental to the project, which has a budget of 1 million pounds ($1.9 million).
'VERY SIMPLE SUSTAINABLE VILLAGE'
"It may not sound like a lot, but we're looking at a very simple sustainable village, not big concrete structures," Keene said. "As much as this is an adventure for everyone involved, we're also trying to raise awareness about ecological living."
Tribe members will design the infrastructure of the island, from solar power systems to nonpolluting toilet facilities.
Experts will work with the local tribal chief, Tui Mali, to make key decisions along with the tribe members who will vote online for what they want.
"At any one time you've got the 4,900 people in the online community and 100 on the island," Keene said.
Keene, who has been running an alternative travel Web site, said co-founder Mark James proposed the idea as a way to use online communities for something tangible in the real world.
"Instead of just sharing music or chatting or whatever, we can say we've got a purpose, we want to create a sustainable, ecological village that we can then go visit," Keene said.
"We went online and we went island hunting, posing as millionaire businessmen to all these brokers around the world," Keene said, adding that they considered islands from Central America to the Philippines before settling on Fiji.
Vorovoro currently has four inhabitants -- Tui Mali and his brother and their wives, all from the neighboring island of Mali. "It's the head chief's privilege to live on Vorovoro," Keene said. "He wants to open up this space to bring money into the community, to support education and the local fishermen."
Tribewanted.com has a three-year lease, after which it will revert to the local community.
Transportation to Fiji is not included in the membership fee.
When members visit, starting in September, they can choose to help build facilities, go fishing or just read a book on the beach. Carpenters and others with useful skills are encouraged to join, but Keene said anyone with a sense of adventure was welcome.
"We're looking for people who have ideas for how they'd like to pass on their skills, whether they're yoga instructors or sports teachers or maybe artists," he said.
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Woman wins $2 million in matchmaker suit
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (AP) - A widow won $2.1 million from a high-priced matchmaker whom she claimed failed to deliver on promises of introductions to cultured, wealthy men.
Anne Majerik, a 60-year-old social worker from Erie, Pa., claimed in a lawsuit that she paid Beverly Hills matchmaker Orly Hadida $125,000 to be introduced to men who wanted monogamous relationships, earned more than $1 million and had estates of up to $20 million.
Instead, she said, she only got a few introductions to inappropriate men. For example, her suit claimed, the matchmaker's "international banker" turned out to be "an interpreter that worked in a bank."
Orly, an Israeli beauty pageant winner who goes by her first name, countersued. She alleged Majerik is a "serial matchmaker suer" who enjoyed herself with the men she met before claiming she had been "psychologically damaged by the process" and demanding compensation.
Orly claimed Majerik became her client after she helped the widow prevail in a lawsuit against another matchmaker, San Diego-based Valenti International. She said Majerik, whose husband died in 1999, gave her "enthusiastic feedback about nearly every man to whom Orly had introduced her."
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury ruled in Majerik's favor on Tuesday, although jurors weren't entirely sympathetic to her.
"We wanted to punish the defendant, but in the amount we wanted to punish the defendant, we didn't want to reward the plaintiff," said foreman Christie Troutt. "They were both wrong."
Orly's attorney said she plans to appeal.
___
Information from: Los Angeles Times
_____________________________________________________________
If only getting that much money would be THAT easy.
LOS ANGELES, Calif. (AP) - A widow won $2.1 million from a high-priced matchmaker whom she claimed failed to deliver on promises of introductions to cultured, wealthy men.
Anne Majerik, a 60-year-old social worker from Erie, Pa., claimed in a lawsuit that she paid Beverly Hills matchmaker Orly Hadida $125,000 to be introduced to men who wanted monogamous relationships, earned more than $1 million and had estates of up to $20 million.
Instead, she said, she only got a few introductions to inappropriate men. For example, her suit claimed, the matchmaker's "international banker" turned out to be "an interpreter that worked in a bank."
Orly, an Israeli beauty pageant winner who goes by her first name, countersued. She alleged Majerik is a "serial matchmaker suer" who enjoyed herself with the men she met before claiming she had been "psychologically damaged by the process" and demanding compensation.
Orly claimed Majerik became her client after she helped the widow prevail in a lawsuit against another matchmaker, San Diego-based Valenti International. She said Majerik, whose husband died in 1999, gave her "enthusiastic feedback about nearly every man to whom Orly had introduced her."
A Los Angeles Superior Court jury ruled in Majerik's favor on Tuesday, although jurors weren't entirely sympathetic to her.
"We wanted to punish the defendant, but in the amount we wanted to punish the defendant, we didn't want to reward the plaintiff," said foreman Christie Troutt. "They were both wrong."
Orly's attorney said she plans to appeal.
___
Information from: Los Angeles Times
_____________________________________________________________
If only getting that much money would be THAT easy.
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Wanted Brazil gangster drops by prison for mass
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilian police are investigating how an accused drug kingpin wanted by the authorities dropped by a local prison to take part in a sermon last week and left through the front door.
Alberico Medeiros spoke during a Pentecostal sermon in front of 480 inmates about his years as a drug trafficker, how he used drugs, carried guns and had a huge gang of cutthroats at his command. He says he has since become religious and has abandoned his criminal ways.
Medeiros, who has spent time in Rio de Janeiro's maximum security jail, faces trial on 12 counts of trafficking and other unlawful activities.
"He may have repented his sins, but he is wanted by the police," an investigator in Rio, the home city of Medeiros, told Reuters on Wednesday.
"It's incredible that he dares to show up in a prison like that, talking about his crimes, and nobody even stops him."
Police said they questioned a preacher who held the sermon in the Minas Gerais state jail, but he denied knowledge of an arrest warrant in Medeiros' name.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters) - Brazilian police are investigating how an accused drug kingpin wanted by the authorities dropped by a local prison to take part in a sermon last week and left through the front door.
Alberico Medeiros spoke during a Pentecostal sermon in front of 480 inmates about his years as a drug trafficker, how he used drugs, carried guns and had a huge gang of cutthroats at his command. He says he has since become religious and has abandoned his criminal ways.
Medeiros, who has spent time in Rio de Janeiro's maximum security jail, faces trial on 12 counts of trafficking and other unlawful activities.
"He may have repented his sins, but he is wanted by the police," an investigator in Rio, the home city of Medeiros, told Reuters on Wednesday.
"It's incredible that he dares to show up in a prison like that, talking about his crimes, and nobody even stops him."
Police said they questioned a preacher who held the sermon in the Minas Gerais state jail, but he denied knowledge of an arrest warrant in Medeiros' name.
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Duke of Edinburgh celebrated in book of gaffes
By Paul Majendie
LONDON, England (Reuters) - For half a century, the blunt spoken Duke of Edinburgh has turned political incorrectness into an art form, peppering royal tours with ethnic slurs about slitty eyes, pot bellies and booze.
Now, to celebrate the prince's 85th birthday, two reporters have compiled "Duke of Hazard: The Wit and Wisdom of Prince Philip". Phil Dampier and Ashley Walton had no shortage of material.
"He really is my favourite royal," Dampier told Reuters in an interview to mark the book's publication on Wednesday by Book Guild Publishing.
"He is one of a kind and certainly speaks his mind. I like the fact he doesn't care what people think of him. That is refreshing in this day and age. We had fun compiling it."
Buckingham Palace was not amused.
Sir Miles Hunt-Davis, the prince's private secretary, said: "If he had been as acerbic as presented in the book, he wouldn't have kept the staff that he has ... These extracts are not indicative of the man as a whole."
But Dampier said it was an affectionate portrayal, arguing: "He has a down-to-earth view of life and a magnificent sense of humour."
Asked to pick his favourite faux pas, Dampier chose Kenya's independence ceremony in 1963 when Philip represented Britain.
As the Union Jack was about to be hauled down, he turned to Kenyan independence leader Jomo Kenyatta and asked: "Are you sure you want to go through with this?"
Dampier singled out another favourite.
"In 1967 he was asked if he would like to go to Moscow to help thaw out the Cold War. He replied 'I would very much like to go to Russia -- although the bastards murdered half my family.'"
The last surviving members of the Russian royal family were allegedly executed by a Bolshevik firing squad in 1918. Philip is a direct descendant of Tsarina Alexandra who died alongside her husband Tsar Nicholas II and their children.
But no corner of the world is safe from Prince Philip.
On a trip to China in the 1980s, he warned British students: "You'll get slitty eyes if you stay too long." And while touring Australia in 2002, he asked an Aborigine whether they still threw spears at each other.
In Oban, Scotland, in 1995 he asked a driving instructor: "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the (driving) test?"
In 1993, Philip told a Briton he met in Hungary: "You can't have been here that long -- you haven't got a pot belly."
And age certainly has not softened his tongue.
In a weekend interview with the Daily Telegraph, he complained that the opening and closing ceremonies at the Olympics were "absolute bloody nuisances."
By Paul Majendie
LONDON, England (Reuters) - For half a century, the blunt spoken Duke of Edinburgh has turned political incorrectness into an art form, peppering royal tours with ethnic slurs about slitty eyes, pot bellies and booze.
Now, to celebrate the prince's 85th birthday, two reporters have compiled "Duke of Hazard: The Wit and Wisdom of Prince Philip". Phil Dampier and Ashley Walton had no shortage of material.
"He really is my favourite royal," Dampier told Reuters in an interview to mark the book's publication on Wednesday by Book Guild Publishing.
"He is one of a kind and certainly speaks his mind. I like the fact he doesn't care what people think of him. That is refreshing in this day and age. We had fun compiling it."
Buckingham Palace was not amused.
Sir Miles Hunt-Davis, the prince's private secretary, said: "If he had been as acerbic as presented in the book, he wouldn't have kept the staff that he has ... These extracts are not indicative of the man as a whole."
But Dampier said it was an affectionate portrayal, arguing: "He has a down-to-earth view of life and a magnificent sense of humour."
Asked to pick his favourite faux pas, Dampier chose Kenya's independence ceremony in 1963 when Philip represented Britain.
As the Union Jack was about to be hauled down, he turned to Kenyan independence leader Jomo Kenyatta and asked: "Are you sure you want to go through with this?"
Dampier singled out another favourite.
"In 1967 he was asked if he would like to go to Moscow to help thaw out the Cold War. He replied 'I would very much like to go to Russia -- although the bastards murdered half my family.'"
The last surviving members of the Russian royal family were allegedly executed by a Bolshevik firing squad in 1918. Philip is a direct descendant of Tsarina Alexandra who died alongside her husband Tsar Nicholas II and their children.
But no corner of the world is safe from Prince Philip.
On a trip to China in the 1980s, he warned British students: "You'll get slitty eyes if you stay too long." And while touring Australia in 2002, he asked an Aborigine whether they still threw spears at each other.
In Oban, Scotland, in 1995 he asked a driving instructor: "How do you keep the natives off the booze long enough to pass the (driving) test?"
In 1993, Philip told a Briton he met in Hungary: "You can't have been here that long -- you haven't got a pot belly."
And age certainly has not softened his tongue.
In a weekend interview with the Daily Telegraph, he complained that the opening and closing ceremonies at the Olympics were "absolute bloody nuisances."
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"Hobbit" humans able to make tools
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON, England (Reuters) - Hobbit-sized humans who survived on an isolated Indonesian island until 12,000 years ago were smart enough to make stone tools even though they had small brains, scientists said on Wednesday.
Some researchers doubt that tools found with the remains of the species named Homo floresiensis in a cave on the island of Flores could have been made by the 3 foot (90 cm) tall creatures whose brains were about the size of a grapefruit.
They believe the tools must have been made by modern humans.
Experts have also argued that the 'hobbit' people were modern humans suffering from an illness that caused their small brain and size.
But an international team of scientists said older tools dating back more than 800,000 years also found on the island showed the 'hobbits' probably inherited their tool-making skills from their ancestors.
"Small-brained or not, Homo floresiensis was capable of making stone tools and therefore the standard story of the relationship between brain size and behavioural complexity in human evolution may be less straightforward than currently assumed," said Adam Brumm, of the Australian National University in Canberra, who headed the team.
Until now it was thought that the larger the brain, the smarter the hominid. Brumm said his findings suggest that may not be the case.
"The causal relationship between brain size and the complexity of tool behaviour in humans is assumed, not demonstrated," said Brumm.
"Until now stone tools have only been found in association with large and relatively large-brained hominids, but Homo floresiensis changes that, forcing us to re-think the way we associate big brain with sophisticated behaviour," he added.
Brumm and his team, who reported the findings in the journal Nature, believe the tools found with the species dubbed "Flores man" were the end-point in a tradition of tool-making on the island east of Java which was also home to Komodo dragons, miniature elephants and other exotic species.
The researchers said their findings show the same types of stone tools found with the species were made by their ancestors when they arrived on the island at least 840,000 years ago.
Remains of the new species were found a few years ago when scientists discovered a partial skeleton of an adult female. The tiny creatures are thought to have descended from Homo erectus, which had a large brain, was full-sized and spread from Africa to Asia about 2 million years ago.
Scientists believe they become so small because of environmental conditions such as food shortages and a lack of predators.
By Patricia Reaney
LONDON, England (Reuters) - Hobbit-sized humans who survived on an isolated Indonesian island until 12,000 years ago were smart enough to make stone tools even though they had small brains, scientists said on Wednesday.
Some researchers doubt that tools found with the remains of the species named Homo floresiensis in a cave on the island of Flores could have been made by the 3 foot (90 cm) tall creatures whose brains were about the size of a grapefruit.
They believe the tools must have been made by modern humans.
Experts have also argued that the 'hobbit' people were modern humans suffering from an illness that caused their small brain and size.
But an international team of scientists said older tools dating back more than 800,000 years also found on the island showed the 'hobbits' probably inherited their tool-making skills from their ancestors.
"Small-brained or not, Homo floresiensis was capable of making stone tools and therefore the standard story of the relationship between brain size and behavioural complexity in human evolution may be less straightforward than currently assumed," said Adam Brumm, of the Australian National University in Canberra, who headed the team.
Until now it was thought that the larger the brain, the smarter the hominid. Brumm said his findings suggest that may not be the case.
"The causal relationship between brain size and the complexity of tool behaviour in humans is assumed, not demonstrated," said Brumm.
"Until now stone tools have only been found in association with large and relatively large-brained hominids, but Homo floresiensis changes that, forcing us to re-think the way we associate big brain with sophisticated behaviour," he added.
Brumm and his team, who reported the findings in the journal Nature, believe the tools found with the species dubbed "Flores man" were the end-point in a tradition of tool-making on the island east of Java which was also home to Komodo dragons, miniature elephants and other exotic species.
The researchers said their findings show the same types of stone tools found with the species were made by their ancestors when they arrived on the island at least 840,000 years ago.
Remains of the new species were found a few years ago when scientists discovered a partial skeleton of an adult female. The tiny creatures are thought to have descended from Homo erectus, which had a large brain, was full-sized and spread from Africa to Asia about 2 million years ago.
Scientists believe they become so small because of environmental conditions such as food shortages and a lack of predators.
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The hunt is on for hungry Hanna
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarians have been asked to look out for a stork named Hanna, whose aggressive begging for food could land her in trouble, a bird protection group fears.
Anglers and commuters at train stations are among those to have experienced Hanna's pushy advances in western Hungary, the Hungarian Bird and Environment Protection Association (MME).
"Due to her annoying behaviour, we are afraid Hanna will get into more serious trouble, so anyone with information about her should get in touch with the local MME staff," it said.
It said the stork had grown accustomed to being fed by humans while sheltered by the group over the winter after being found weak and exhausted by MME last autumn. Hanna was released back into the wild in March.
BUDAPEST (Reuters) - Hungarians have been asked to look out for a stork named Hanna, whose aggressive begging for food could land her in trouble, a bird protection group fears.
Anglers and commuters at train stations are among those to have experienced Hanna's pushy advances in western Hungary, the Hungarian Bird and Environment Protection Association (MME).
"Due to her annoying behaviour, we are afraid Hanna will get into more serious trouble, so anyone with information about her should get in touch with the local MME staff," it said.
It said the stork had grown accustomed to being fed by humans while sheltered by the group over the winter after being found weak and exhausted by MME last autumn. Hanna was released back into the wild in March.
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Dallas police: Military gang recruiting concerning
By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Both the military and local police haved acnowledged that the military inadvertently recruiting existing gang members could become a problem if the members are looking for expert training in weaponry and other areas to take back to the streets
The graffitti of notorious gangs from the United States, such as the MS-13, Latin Kings and the Aryan Brotherhood, has shown up thousands of miles away in Iraq.
Pictures taken by the Chicago Sun-Times showed walls and armored carriers tagged with gang symbols.
"Yes, it is evident there are some who have made it into the armed services," said Major Christine Downing, an Army recruiter.
Police agencies across the country worry that gang members are using the military to get weapons training, and the Dallas Police Department has become so concerned that its gang unit is alerting the entire department.
"They are learning these tactics and they are bringing them back out to the street," said Lt. Carlton Marshall, Dallas Police Department.
In California, Marine Lance Cpl. Andres Raya shot two officers with a rifle outside a liquor store, which killed one officer. He was a member of the Norteno gang and spent seven months in Iraq before the shootings.
"These soldiers are getting hands on training in urban warfare," Lt. Marshall said.
What police said they are most concerned about is that its against federal law for police departments to give the military, or any non-police agency, information about gang members.
"We can't tell them they are a gang member," Lt. Marshall said.
The army said it does strict background checks, which include checking for gang tattoos and if they find any relations to gangs the person is immediately disqualified.
"Extremist organizations are prejudicial to good order and discipline and that's the reason they are prohibited from joining the military," Major Downing said.
When discussing the problems with gang members joining the military, some police point to a group called the Zetas. They were former Mexican military commandos trained to take on drug dealers that turned dirty and now protect the drug lords.
Police fear U.S. gang members will become like the Zetas and end up protecting the criminals.
By REBECCA LOPEZ / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - Both the military and local police haved acnowledged that the military inadvertently recruiting existing gang members could become a problem if the members are looking for expert training in weaponry and other areas to take back to the streets
The graffitti of notorious gangs from the United States, such as the MS-13, Latin Kings and the Aryan Brotherhood, has shown up thousands of miles away in Iraq.
Pictures taken by the Chicago Sun-Times showed walls and armored carriers tagged with gang symbols.
"Yes, it is evident there are some who have made it into the armed services," said Major Christine Downing, an Army recruiter.
Police agencies across the country worry that gang members are using the military to get weapons training, and the Dallas Police Department has become so concerned that its gang unit is alerting the entire department.
"They are learning these tactics and they are bringing them back out to the street," said Lt. Carlton Marshall, Dallas Police Department.
In California, Marine Lance Cpl. Andres Raya shot two officers with a rifle outside a liquor store, which killed one officer. He was a member of the Norteno gang and spent seven months in Iraq before the shootings.
"These soldiers are getting hands on training in urban warfare," Lt. Marshall said.
What police said they are most concerned about is that its against federal law for police departments to give the military, or any non-police agency, information about gang members.
"We can't tell them they are a gang member," Lt. Marshall said.
The army said it does strict background checks, which include checking for gang tattoos and if they find any relations to gangs the person is immediately disqualified.
"Extremist organizations are prejudicial to good order and discipline and that's the reason they are prohibited from joining the military," Major Downing said.
When discussing the problems with gang members joining the military, some police point to a group called the Zetas. They were former Mexican military commandos trained to take on drug dealers that turned dirty and now protect the drug lords.
Police fear U.S. gang members will become like the Zetas and end up protecting the criminals.
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TexasStooge
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- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
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Officer admits sending profane e-mail to activist
By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - There's a new development today in the harassing e-mail mystery at the Dallas Police Department.
News Eight has learned that a Dallas Police sergeant has confessed to sending the profanity-laced computer message to a well-known neighborhood activist.
Lower Greenville Avenue watchdog Avi Adelman says he's floored that so much anger could flow from a cop he doesn't even know.
"It's even more surprising and shocking that somebody I don't know would go to the effort and trouble and grief to do this."
Sgt Ray Gonzales has confessed to sending a profane e-mail two weekends ago to Adelman.
Posing as a civilian, the sender of the e-mail taunted Adelman over a ticket he'd just been issued for making a false 911 call.
That ticket was quickly dismissed.
An upset Adelman traced the e-mail back to Police Central Patrol headquarters.
It read "heard you got a citation for abusing 911. You deserve the ticket you self-serving, expletive. Have a nice day."
Adelman now fears that there may be more officers who feel the same way.
"It says to me that this feeling, this heat is not just one sergeant, that other sergeants and other officers are part of this. This is not a one man issue," he said.
Adelman has been a lightning rod for controversy on Lower Greenville, especially after assisting News Eight in an investigation into allegations of excessive force by police using their pepper ball guns on bar patrons.
At the center of that investigation, Sgt. Michael Smith who has since been removed from the Lower Greenville beat pending an internal investigation.
News Eight has also learned that Sgt. Smith's replacement on Lower Greenville Avenue is none other than the man behind the e-mails, Sgt. Gonzales.
Sgt. Smith's disciplinary history with DPD is nominal.
He's been commended 46 times.
This has a lot of folks scratching their heads as to why a sergeant would risk his career to taunt a civilian.
He has declined to comment.
At this point police officials are not commenting on what may happen with Sgt. Gonzales.
By BRETT SHIPP / WFAA ABC 8
DALLAS, Texas - There's a new development today in the harassing e-mail mystery at the Dallas Police Department.
News Eight has learned that a Dallas Police sergeant has confessed to sending the profanity-laced computer message to a well-known neighborhood activist.
Lower Greenville Avenue watchdog Avi Adelman says he's floored that so much anger could flow from a cop he doesn't even know.
"It's even more surprising and shocking that somebody I don't know would go to the effort and trouble and grief to do this."
Sgt Ray Gonzales has confessed to sending a profane e-mail two weekends ago to Adelman.
Posing as a civilian, the sender of the e-mail taunted Adelman over a ticket he'd just been issued for making a false 911 call.
That ticket was quickly dismissed.
An upset Adelman traced the e-mail back to Police Central Patrol headquarters.
It read "heard you got a citation for abusing 911. You deserve the ticket you self-serving, expletive. Have a nice day."
Adelman now fears that there may be more officers who feel the same way.
"It says to me that this feeling, this heat is not just one sergeant, that other sergeants and other officers are part of this. This is not a one man issue," he said.
Adelman has been a lightning rod for controversy on Lower Greenville, especially after assisting News Eight in an investigation into allegations of excessive force by police using their pepper ball guns on bar patrons.
At the center of that investigation, Sgt. Michael Smith who has since been removed from the Lower Greenville beat pending an internal investigation.
News Eight has also learned that Sgt. Smith's replacement on Lower Greenville Avenue is none other than the man behind the e-mails, Sgt. Gonzales.
Sgt. Smith's disciplinary history with DPD is nominal.
He's been commended 46 times.
This has a lot of folks scratching their heads as to why a sergeant would risk his career to taunt a civilian.
He has declined to comment.
At this point police officials are not commenting on what may happen with Sgt. Gonzales.
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TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
- Contact:
Clerk says scanty attire was distraction
HAUSER, Ore. (AP) - Well, she LOOKED 21 anyway, maybe older, and what's more the clerk at the small store in this Coos County town says he was much distracted by what he called the young lady's scanty attire. So distracted, he said, that he didn't see the "Minor until 2007" stamped on her driver's license. She got the six-pack, and store owner David Cardwell got a $1,320 fine. The clerk had to pay $750.
Cardwell is hollering "Entrapment," "Draconian" and more.
Rather than pay, Cardwell says, he will take the alternative and close the store for a week. He says it doesn't make than much in a week in any case.
His clerk had been stung by an Oregon Liquor Control Commission decoy sent to test for underage sales.
His two clerks will be jobless until June 7.
Cardwell is not denying his employee erred, but says it was hardly fair.
"This young woman was dressed in very provocative clothing more suited for the bedroom," Cardwell said in a letter to the OLCC. "I would not allow my daughter to leave the house dressed in such a way."
He says the law should target clerks and servers, not the owners.
"We feel we did everything right," Cardwell wrote. "We trained (our clerk) correctly. We tested him correctly."
But Gary Francis, the local OLCC agent who coordinates the stings and hires the decoys, isn't persuaded.
"Maybe he should have been looking at her driver's license," Francis said of the clerk. "It was a straight-up deal. By the numbers. No trickery at all."
He said the decoy was dressed in a tank top, attire many woman her age wear.
People who serve or sell alcohol in Oregon are required to card anyone who looks 26 years old or younger, Francis said. He wants the decoys to look like 18-, 19- or 20-year-olds, not a 40-year-old.
"We are out there to see who is doing their job and who is not," he said.
He said female decoys can't wear makeup or doctor their hair to look older.
"This guy wasn't paying attention," Francis said. "If he would have looked at that young lady's ID, he would have seen the big red box on her ID that said she was a minor until 2007.
"DMV makes it easy. But if you don't use the tools that the state provides, then you deserve to get caught."
Cardwell disagrees.
"They're baiting. They're disguising. They're camouflaging them. They are trying to create a situation and trying to induce someone into taking the bait."
The store had never been similarly fined before.
"There's a first time for everything," said Francis.
___
Information from: The World
HAUSER, Ore. (AP) - Well, she LOOKED 21 anyway, maybe older, and what's more the clerk at the small store in this Coos County town says he was much distracted by what he called the young lady's scanty attire. So distracted, he said, that he didn't see the "Minor until 2007" stamped on her driver's license. She got the six-pack, and store owner David Cardwell got a $1,320 fine. The clerk had to pay $750.
Cardwell is hollering "Entrapment," "Draconian" and more.
Rather than pay, Cardwell says, he will take the alternative and close the store for a week. He says it doesn't make than much in a week in any case.
His clerk had been stung by an Oregon Liquor Control Commission decoy sent to test for underage sales.
His two clerks will be jobless until June 7.
Cardwell is not denying his employee erred, but says it was hardly fair.
"This young woman was dressed in very provocative clothing more suited for the bedroom," Cardwell said in a letter to the OLCC. "I would not allow my daughter to leave the house dressed in such a way."
He says the law should target clerks and servers, not the owners.
"We feel we did everything right," Cardwell wrote. "We trained (our clerk) correctly. We tested him correctly."
But Gary Francis, the local OLCC agent who coordinates the stings and hires the decoys, isn't persuaded.
"Maybe he should have been looking at her driver's license," Francis said of the clerk. "It was a straight-up deal. By the numbers. No trickery at all."
He said the decoy was dressed in a tank top, attire many woman her age wear.
People who serve or sell alcohol in Oregon are required to card anyone who looks 26 years old or younger, Francis said. He wants the decoys to look like 18-, 19- or 20-year-olds, not a 40-year-old.
"We are out there to see who is doing their job and who is not," he said.
He said female decoys can't wear makeup or doctor their hair to look older.
"This guy wasn't paying attention," Francis said. "If he would have looked at that young lady's ID, he would have seen the big red box on her ID that said she was a minor until 2007.
"DMV makes it easy. But if you don't use the tools that the state provides, then you deserve to get caught."
Cardwell disagrees.
"They're baiting. They're disguising. They're camouflaging them. They are trying to create a situation and trying to induce someone into taking the bait."
The store had never been similarly fined before.
"There's a first time for everything," said Francis.
___
Information from: The World
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TexasStooge
- Category 5
- Posts: 38127
- Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2003 1:22 pm
- Location: Irving (Dallas County), TX
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Chatty need not apply for hangman job
By Catherine Hornby
LONDON, England (Reuters) - It was not a job everyone wanted but British officials strived to uphold high standards when filling the post of hangman.
They rejected applicants in 1938 including the chatty, the morally dubious and the morbid to keep executions dignified, documents released on Thursday by Britain's National Archives showed.
The need for an alert, swift mind and healthy body also provoked concern among prison officials as to whether one of Britain's longest serving hangmen, Thomas Pierrepoint, was still up to the job after reaching his 70s in 1940.
Pierrepoint, who came from the best-known family of hangmen, served for 37 years and executed more than 300 men and women.
The documents show prison governors and medical officers were asked to observe him after a complaint from one prison in 1940 that Pierrepoint no longer seemed to be fit for duty.
"In Dr Landers' opinion Pierrepoint was getting past his job; he was uncertain and it was doubtful whether his sight was good," the governor of Wandsworth prison wrote in December 1940.
However, most subsequent reports mentioned only minor concerns and Pierrepoint was kept on due to shortages during World War Two.
"Owing to wartime difficulties of replacements and favourable reports from other prisons, the Commissioners are inclined to allow Mr Pierrepoint to continue to act," the prison commission concluded in July 1943. But it noted that "particular attention should be paid to his technique".
The records of applications for a post of executioner in 1938 show the commission was not impressed by some candidates.
"He appears to have a somewhat morbid interest in the work, aroused through having a friend who carried out many executions in Arabia," Brixton police said of one failed applicant.
Another candidate, Daniel Clifford of Fulham, was rejected when an assistant executioner warned the prison commission he was too talkative when drunk.
"He lets his tongue run away from him when in drink and as I know him he is not to be trusted with any business concerning the above duties," he wrote.
One hopeful was turned down for appearing "nerve-strained" while butcher Arthur Clifford Gill was unsuccessful after being described as "a man of loose morals".
The search for executioners came to an end in 1964, when Britain abolished the death penalty.
By Catherine Hornby
LONDON, England (Reuters) - It was not a job everyone wanted but British officials strived to uphold high standards when filling the post of hangman.
They rejected applicants in 1938 including the chatty, the morally dubious and the morbid to keep executions dignified, documents released on Thursday by Britain's National Archives showed.
The need for an alert, swift mind and healthy body also provoked concern among prison officials as to whether one of Britain's longest serving hangmen, Thomas Pierrepoint, was still up to the job after reaching his 70s in 1940.
Pierrepoint, who came from the best-known family of hangmen, served for 37 years and executed more than 300 men and women.
The documents show prison governors and medical officers were asked to observe him after a complaint from one prison in 1940 that Pierrepoint no longer seemed to be fit for duty.
"In Dr Landers' opinion Pierrepoint was getting past his job; he was uncertain and it was doubtful whether his sight was good," the governor of Wandsworth prison wrote in December 1940.
However, most subsequent reports mentioned only minor concerns and Pierrepoint was kept on due to shortages during World War Two.
"Owing to wartime difficulties of replacements and favourable reports from other prisons, the Commissioners are inclined to allow Mr Pierrepoint to continue to act," the prison commission concluded in July 1943. But it noted that "particular attention should be paid to his technique".
The records of applications for a post of executioner in 1938 show the commission was not impressed by some candidates.
"He appears to have a somewhat morbid interest in the work, aroused through having a friend who carried out many executions in Arabia," Brixton police said of one failed applicant.
Another candidate, Daniel Clifford of Fulham, was rejected when an assistant executioner warned the prison commission he was too talkative when drunk.
"He lets his tongue run away from him when in drink and as I know him he is not to be trusted with any business concerning the above duties," he wrote.
One hopeful was turned down for appearing "nerve-strained" while butcher Arthur Clifford Gill was unsuccessful after being described as "a man of loose morals".
The search for executioners came to an end in 1964, when Britain abolished the death penalty.
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