NEWS OF THE WORLD - Current Events (May Be Disturbing, No Politics Please)

[poseablemonster]

I dunno...if my family could make millions off people gawking over my dead body, I'd say, "Go for it."  Then again, I'd be dead so I guess I wouldn't care one way or the other.

[Gasport]

From what i understand, his body won't be there...just the rest of the Jackson's performing while running MJ's final rehearsal videos in the background. 10 grand, FOR THAT??? Hell, you could probably drive down to the local Burger King and see Tito for FREE...

[Unknown Primate]

On the news today, the Jackson's attorney said that the family was wanting the event to be "low-key & not over-hyped, to show respect"!

[LundyAfterMidnight]

On the news today, the Jackson's attorney said that the family was wanting the event to be "low-key & not over-hyped, to show respect"!

The Jackson family hasn't been "low-key" & "not over-hyped" since 1969!!

[Anton Phibes]

I wish they would hurry up and put him in the ground. Sorry to seem rough, but this guy..... was just a guy. There are far too many more impoortant things going on in the world and America right now. He also was eccentric and non conventional in every sense of the word. Yet Al Sharpton says there was nothing strange about Michael Jackson, but there were few things he did that weren't strange.  Tired of the media's hypocrisy.  For years, MJ was nothing but a curiosity and weirdo to them. "Let's see what the weirdo is doing to get on tv this week" kind of thing.  Now, they are all going on about how he changed history as we know it, and speaking as if they always loved him.  I call this band wagon jumping myself.  Its ridiculous. The country needs to move on.  We have troops getting shot at in Afghanistan right now (my nephew, Marine, among them), the President is under the impression that if he throws enough money (ours!) at a problem, it will go away, North Korea wants us dead, the economy is in the toilet, and 6.5 million jobs have been lost since January in the US alone. Michael Jackson dying, while understandably upsetting to his fans, is just not the big deal they are making it out to be. People die. That's the thing about life...no one gets out alive.

[Wicked Lester]

I wish they would hurry up and put him in the ground. Sorry to seem rough, but this guy..... was just a guy. There are far too many more impoortant things going on in the world and America right now. He also was eccentric and non conventional in every sense of the word. Yet Al Sharpton says there was nothing strange about Michael Jackson, but there were few things he did that weren't strange.  Tired of the media's hypocrisy.  For years, MJ was nothing but a curiosity and weirdo to them. "Let's see what the weirdo is doing to get on tv this week" kind of thing.  Now, they are all going on about how he changed history as we know it, and speaking as if they always loved him.  I call this band wagon jumping myself.  Its ridiculous. The country needs to move on.  We have troops getting shot at in Afghanistan right now (my nephew, Marine, among them), the President is under the impression that if he throws enough money (ours!) at a problem, it will go away, North Korea wants us dead, the economy is in the toilet, and 6.5 million jobs have been lost since January in the US alone. Michael Jackson dying, while understandably upsetting to his fans, is just not the big deal they are making it out to be. People die. That's the thing about life...no one gets out alive.

Good post Anton.
MJ= 80's/90's BIG popstar. World as we know it = F'D Which is more important?

[Dr.Teufel Geist]

A southwest Florida woman was arrested after deputies said she assaulted her 71-year-old common-law husband after he complained about her cooking. A Lee County Sheriff's Office arrest report shows 66-year-old Meredith Hart Mulcahy was charged with battery on an elderly person Tuesday night.

Deputies said the man got into an argument with her about undercooked potatoes and burnt bread. He went to the bedroom and began eating, and authorities said the woman then threw a phone at him.

Deputies said Mulcahy became belligerent in the back seat of the patrol car and told them that she "burned the bread she was cooking because she was so intoxicated." She was in the Lee County Jail on Wednesday pending a $1,500 bond.

[Dr.Teufel Geist]

Scientists have detected a spike in underground rumblings on a section of California's San Andreas Fault that produced a magnitude-7.8 earthquake in 1857.

What these mysterious vibrations say about future earthquakes is far from certain. But some think the deep tremors suggest underground stress may be building up faster than expected and may indicate an increased risk of a major temblor.

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, monitored seismic activity on the fault's central section between July 2001 and February 2009 and recorded more than 2,000 tremors. The tremors lasted mere minutes to nearly half an hour.

Unlike earthquakes, tremors occur deeper below the surface and the shaking lasts longer.

During the study period, two strong earthquakes hit _ a magnitude-6.5 in 2003 and a magnitude-6.0 a year later. Scientists noticed the frequency of the tremors doubled after the 2003 quake and jumped six-fold after 2004.

Tremor episodes persist today. Though the frequency of tremors have declined since 2004, scientists are still concerned because they are still at a level that is twice as high as before the 2003 quake.

The team also recorded unusually strong rumblings days before the 2004 temblor.

Results of the research appear in Friday's issue of the journal Science. The work was funded by the U.S. Geological Survey and National Science Foundation.

"The fact that the tremors haven't gone down means the time to the next earthquake may come sooner," said Berkeley seismologist and lead researcher Robert Nadeau.

Nadeau first discovered tremors deep in the San Andreas Fault in 2005. Before that, the phenomenon was thought only to occur in Earth's subduction zones, where one tectonic plate dives beneath another.

USGS seismologist Susan Hough found the latest observations intriguing, but said it's too soon to know what they mean.

"We don't have enough data to know what the fault is doing in the long term," said Hough, who had no part in the research.

[Dr.Teufel Geist]

An American flag flown upside down as a protest in a northern Wisconsin village was seized by police before a Fourth of July parade and the businessman who flew it _ an Iraq war veteran _ claims the officers trespassed and stole his property.

A day after the parade, police returned the flag and the man's protest _ over a liquor license _ continued.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Wisconsin is considering legal action against the village of Crivitz for violating Vito Congine Jr.'s' First Amendment rights, Executive Director Chris Ahmuty said.

"It is not often that you see something this blatant," Ahmuty said.

In mid-June, Congine, 46, began flying the flag upside down _ an accepted way to signal distress _ outside the restaurant he wants to open in Crivitz, a village of about 1,000 people some 65 miles north of Green Bay.

He said his distress is likely bankruptcy because the village board refused to grant him a liquor license after he spent nearly $200,000 to buy and remodel a downtown building for an Italian supper club.

Congine's upside-down-flag represents distress to him; to others in town, it represents disrespect of the flag.

Hours before a Fourth of July parade, four police officers went to Congine's property and removed the flag under the advice of Marinette County District Attorney Allen Brey.

Neighbor Steven Klein watched in disbelief.

"I said, 'What are you doing?' Klein said. "They said, 'It is none of your business.'"

The next day, police returned the flag.

Brey declined comment Friday.

Marinette County Sheriff Jim Kanikula said it was not illegal to fly the flag upside down but people were upset and it was the Fourth of July.

"It is illegal to cause a disruption," he said.

The parade went on without any problems, Kanikula said.

Village President John Deschane, 60, an Army veteran who served in Vietnam, said many people in town believe it's disrespectful to fly the flag upside down.

"If he wants to protest, let him protest but find a different way to do it," Deschane said.

Congine, a Marine veteran who served in Iraq in 2004, said he intends to keep flying the flag upside down.

"It is pretty bad when I go and fight a tyrannical government somewhere else," Congine said, "and then I come home to find it right here at my front door."

Umm, if I saw some dude flying the flag upside down, I'd be pis*** too, that is disrespectful to the American flag.

[Wicked Lester]

"It is pretty bad when I go and fight a tyrannical government somewhere else," Congine said, "and then I come home to find it right here at my front door."

Umm, if I saw some dude flying the flag upside down, I'd be pis*** too, that is disrespectful to the American flag.

Depends what statement he is trying to make. He does have that right.
I know this town. I have relatives up there and I lived in Marinette for awhile. I can see how they would get pissed considering the type of people they are. A village in upper WI. You do the math.

I do think he should have taken it down for the one day. He knows how these people are and he shoulda known it would spark something.



Don't want this getting political. Just tossing in my 2 cents since I have relatives there.

[Gasport]

I heard about this statue being stolen a couple of weeks ago on the news. At the time they were hoping it was a prank and the perps would return it...Here's what ended up actually happening. We really don't need people like this wasting the oxygen on the planet.

http://www.nationalterroralert.com/updates/2009/07/09/statue-of-liberty-replica-beheading-probed-by-nypd/

[Dr.Teufel Geist]

Byrd and Melanie Billings had a growing brood of adopted children with autism, Down syndrome and other disabilities, and took care to make their nine-bedroom house a safe place for them, wiring it with surveillance cameras in every room.

It was those cameras that captured images of the masked men who shot the wealthy couple to death in a break-in executed with chilling precision.

Authorities made three arrests over the weekend, plus another arrest announced Monday evening, but the mystery around town only deepened, when Sheriff David Morgan said that as many as eight people in all may have been involved and that the crime appeared to have "numerous motives," though robbery was the only one he would mention.

"Mr. Billings was well-to-do. He was an entrepreneur and he opened his home to the community. You are asking me to speculate on a motive. That could have been one reason," Morgan said, likening the killings to the 1959 slayings of a Kansas farm family that were chronicled by Truman Capote in the book "In Cold Blood."

The video from last Thursday showed three armed, masked men arriving in a red van, entering through the front of the house and then returning to the vehicle. Others dressed in what the sheriff called "ninja garb" went in through an unlocked utility door in the back. They were in and out in under 10 minutes.

The sheriff would not say what, if anything, was stolen.

Some of the nine children in the house at the time were sleeping, but several others saw the break-in, authorities said. One left the house and went to get a neighbor, who called 911.

"I think you'll find this particularly chilling and here's why: We have a team that enters at the rear of the home and another that enters at the front of the home," Morgan said. "It leads me to believe this was a very well-planned and methodical operation."

Morgan said, however, that there was no indication anyone had unlocked the door for the intruders, explaining, "I believe it was a matter of course in this community that they felt comfortable enough to leave the door unlocked." He also said he knew of no connection between the men under arrest and the Billings family.

The Billingses owned several local businesses, including a finance company and a used-car dealership. They lived in Beulah, a rural area west of Pensacola, near the Alabama state line, in a house set deep in the woods. They had 16 children in all _ 12 of them adopted.

In a 2005 story in the Pensacola News Journal, the couple said they wanted to share their wealth with children in need, but didn't imagine their family would grow so large.

"It just happened," said Melanie Billings, who was 43 when she died. "I just wanted to give them a better life."

The surveillance system was installed to help the couple keep track of their children as they wandered through the large house and yard, said Susan Berry, principal of Escambia Westgate School in Pensacola, which some of the children attended.

Tips from the public led police to the van on Saturday. Day laborer Wayne Coldiron, 41, turned himself in on Sunday, and Leonard P. Gonzalez Jr., 35, was arrested the same day in a neighboring county. They were charged with murder and home invasion. Gary Lamont Sumner Jr., 30, was arrested Monday in Okaloosa County on a murder charge and will eventually be returned to Escambia County. Morgan said he hopes to make another arrest on Tuesday.

Authorities also jailed Gonzalez's father on a charge of evidence tampering. Police said the 56-year-old tried to paint over and hide damage on the van.

The elder Gonzalez told investigators that he was the getaway driver and waited in the van while the others broke into the house and burglarized it, according to court papers. Authorities said he also told them several other men were involved.

Byrd Billings, 68, was a man with big twinkly-eyed smile, Berry said. At one school function, his big hand enveloped hers, leaving a neatly folded check for the school in her palm. She wouldn't say how much the check was for, but she couldn't believe how big it was.

"They weren't only generous with their children," Berry said. "They were generous with everyone that touched their children's lives."

When Melanie Billings picked up her children from school, she would stretch out her arms, and "the kids would run to her, the ones that could," Berry said. "They would go as fast they could with their arms in the air for Mom to take them."

For one daughter's prom, the couple created a Cinderella scene. The girl's dress was white, her date wore a white tuxedo with a pink tie, and the couple emerged from a white limousine.

"The beam on Byrd and Mel's faces, and on the parents of the young man, is something I'll never forget," Berry said. "It was picture-perfect."

Ashley Markham, an adult daughter of the victims, said she plans to carry on with her parents' legacy.

"My mother always told me some people grow up wanting to be doctors or lawyers or teachers. She wanted to be a mommy," Markham said in a statement. "Her lifelong dream was loving her babies and being a voice for them."

A funeral service has been planned for Friday morning at the Liberty Church, with visitation planned for the night before.

[The Spangler]

 The last two posts completely broke my heart. 

[Dr.Teufel Geist]

Masked suspects, some dressed as ninjas, stole a safe and other items during a deadly break-in at the sprawling Florida Panhandle home of a couple known for adopting children with special needs, authorities said Tuesday.

Melanie and Byrd Billings were shot to death Thursday in their nine-bedroom home. Escambia County Sheriff David Morgan hugged their sobbing adult daughter, Ashley Markham, at a press conference Tuesday to announce that three more people had been arrested, bringing the total to seven.

"It is my honor today to tell you, Ashley, and your family, we have found them and they are in custody," Morgan said.

Investigators had said previously that there were many motives for the crime, but prosecutor Bill Eddins said Tuesday that robbery was the main one. He would not say what was in the safe or what else might have been taken from the house.

Nine of the couple's 17 children were home at the time and three saw the intruders but were not hurt.

Morgan said investigators were still looking for at least one more person in the case and at least one of the suspects in custody may have done work at the Billings home. He has previously said the suspects had no direct connection to the victims.

Several of the suspects were day laborers who knew each other through either a pressure washing business or a car detailing group, Morgan said.

The arrests started Sunday with 56-year-old Leonard Gonzalez Sr., who was originally charged with evidence tampering but will be charged with murder, authorities said. He is accused of driving a red van seen on surveillance video pulling away from the Billings home and then trying to paint over it.

His son, 35-year-old Leonard P. Gonzalez Jr., was also arrested Sunday along with day laborer Wayne Coldiron, 41. Both were due in court Tuesday to face murder charges.

Another day laborer, Gary Lamont Sumner, 31, was arrested on a murder charge in a nearby county Monday after he was pulled over in a traffic stop. Morgan said investigators have placed Sumner at the scene, though he would not provide details.

Three more people were arrested Tuesday _ a juvenile whom police did not identify; Frederick Lee Thorton Jr., 19; and Donnie Ray Stallworth, 28, who was arrested in Alabama but lives in Florida.

The break-in was captured by an extensive video surveillance system the Billings used to keep tabs on their children.

Surveillance video showed three armed, masked men arriving in the red van, entering through the front of the house and then returning to the vehicle. Others dressed in what the sheriff called "ninja garb" went in through an unlocked utility door in the back. They were in and out in under 10 minutes.

"I think you'll find this particularly chilling and here's why: We have a team that enters at the rear of the home and another that enters at the front of the home," Morgan said. "It leads me to believe this was a very well-planned and methodical operation."

Morgan said, however, that there was no indication anyone had unlocked the door for the intruders, adding that people in the community felt comfortable leaving their doors unlocked.

The couple owned several local businesses, including a finance company and a used-car dealership. They lived in Beulah, a rural area west of Pensacola, near the Alabama state line, in a house set deep in the woods. They had 17 children in all _ 13 of them adopted.

Tips from the public led police to the van on Saturday.

[Dr.Teufel Geist]

Here's some offbeat news.....

A 51-year-old man told a police officer he was naked in a northern Indiana cemetery because he had taken off his wet clothes after checking on his in-laws' grave and then wanted a closer look at some flowers. The officer was off duty and jogging through Rice Cemetery in Elkhart Sunday afternoon when he saw the naked man get into a truck and drive away. The officer later tracked down the Mishawaka man from his license plate number.

The man said he had been golfing all day and that he undressed in his truck because his underwear was wet. He said he left his truck naked to look at the flowers because he did not have his glasses.

He was arrested on a preliminary misdemeanor charge of public indecency.



And in other news today...............................

A man has been charged with public intoxication after authorities said he was walking along Highway 11 with a pair of panties hanging out from his unzipped pants. According to The Daily Post-Athenian, 31-year-old man told deputies he had been at a pool party and stole them from a nearby home early Sunday.

A search revealed the man had stuffed some 40 pairs of female undergarments into his pants, although he had thrown most of them to the ground as a deputy approached.

The owner of the garments declined to prosecute but the man was arrested on a charge of public intoxication.