A sexual predator remained on the loose after attacking a woman walking alone yesterday morning through the Blue Hills Reservation and sexually assaulting her, state police said.
SEATTLE --Police fired a bullet directly into one of the chambers of a gun wielded by an angry man as they shot him to death in a confrontation at a bus stop, authorities said.
The man never fired his gun, but the fluke police shot showed he was aiming it, said Deputy Police Chief Clark S. Kimerer.
"Physically, I believe, it is impossible to conclude anything other than the fact that the suspect was pointing a weapon directly at the officers," Kimerer said.
Police said the 18-year-old man became belligerent after a fight with his girlfriend on Tuesday and raised his gun at officers responding to a call from a concerned storekeeper. Authorities said they ordered the man to put his gun down, but he refused.
Officers fired a total of about four shots from their .40-caliber Glock handguns, authorities said. One of their bullets entered one of the chambers of the man's .38-caliber revolver, shoving the bullet inside backwards, said Kimerer.
A man was charged Thursday with murder after police said he tossed his 9-month-old son from a car, slammed the baby onto the vehicle's hood and then threw him into a canal.
Firecracker. Rectum. Rubbing alcohol.
Some assembly required.
Repeat until dead.
(click for full-size image)DUNEDIN, Fla. --A father fed up with his son for spending too much time on the computer, allegedly fired shots at the monitor, authorities said.
Langenderfer allegedly told deputies he was angry that his son had neglected the laundry and was spending all his time playing computer games. He told deputies the gun accidentally fired and the bullet hit the wall a few feet from where his son, Tim, was sitting.
Tim, 22, called...
Tim, 22, called 911 and said he and his dad were arguing and his dad had just shot at him.
...Boston Mayor Thomas Menino and New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who hosted this week's summit, are promising to lead a national campaign against gun violence and recruit at least 50 mayors to the cause by year's end.
The South Carolina bill, proposed by Republican Rep. Ralph Davenport, would make it a felony to sell devices used primarily for sexual stimulation and allow law enforcement to seize sex toys from raided businesses.
The ACLU got involved in the case, [ACLU attorney, Mark Lopez] said, to "keep the government out of the bedroom."
Though the laws don't punish people for owning sex toys, banning their sale is a backdoor attempt to discourage their use, Lopez said.
Nobody is going to suspect somebody dressed up like the Unabomber, carrying two large suitcases with unknown contents toward the open cargo bay of a diplomatic flight, after all.
Menino said in 12 years as mayor he has not seen a similar movement by big city leaders to take on the gun industry and stiffen federal gun laws.
Menino said the mayors intend to travel to Washington with a message about the relationship between gun laws and the thousands of Americans who die at the hands of firearms annually.
Note: These numbers are from 2004. If anyone has...1 percent of gun dealers supply 60 percent of guns used in crimes.
Lawrence G. Keane, a senior vice president at the National Shooting Sports Foundation, a Connecticut-based trade association, said his organization runs a program that helps gun dealers identify and stop illegal ''straw purchasers," people who buy guns legally with the intention of selling them illegally. Keane said his group asked to attend the gun summit and was turned away, which he found especially disturbing because the mayors invited gun control advocate Joshua Horwitz of the Coalition to Stop Gun Violence.
"There doesn't appear to have been any attempt to have a mature and balanced discussion," Keane said.
A study, released Monday and conducted by researchers from the University of Toledo, Kent State University, and Wayne State University, shows police chiefs across the country also support tougher gun-control measures.
3. Should any law-abiding citizen be able to purchase a firearm for sport or self-defense? YES 93.6%
4. Within the past year, has your agency been called upon to arrest anyone who has made a false statement on an application to purchase a firearm? NO 92.2%
5. Should anyone (such as a convicted felon) in violation of state or federal firearm possession laws, be prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney and, if convicted, receive a maximum prison term? YES 89.7%
6. Do you believe law-abiding citizens should be limited to the purchase of no more than one firearm per month? NO 72.8%
7. Do you maintain that criminals currently are able to obtain basically any type of firearm by illegal means? YES 96.1%
8. Do you believe the application & training process to allow commercial airline pilots to carry firearms in the cockpit is too restrictive and burdensome? NO 53.6%
9. Will a national concealed handgun permit reduce rates of violent crime as recent studies in some states have already reflected? YES 63.1%
Menino said the mayors tried to learn from one another.
As the mayors came to the podium to share stories about innocent children killed by stray gunfire, the day's theme became clear: America's mayors are on the front lines.
LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- Some California drivers are resorting to desperate measures to beat the surge in gas prices at the pump -- deliberately running dry on the state's freeways and simply waiting for rescue.
"Every time fuel goes up, we start noticing it. But right now we are noticing it a lot more," Andy Lujan, owner of California Coach Towing in Orange County, said Tuesday.
Lujan's 20 trucks roam the busy freeways of Orange and Los Angeles counties as part of a publicly funded patrol that gives a free gallon of gas to drivers who have run out of fuel. It also offers other basic assistance to drivers whose vehicles have broken down.
Moshe Ben Dayan, whose TipTopTow company performs a similar service in Los Angeles' affluent west side, said some people were taking advantage of the freeway service patrol.
"There was one guy a while back who was stopping every morning and trying to get his one free gallon," said Dayan. "I think it is going to be more drastic when the price of gas is closer to $4 a gallon."
"The problem is we don't have a national policy on guns," Menino said after the summit ended with a news conference and a signing of the statement of principles.
The document begins: "Whereas 30,000 Americans across the country are killed every year as a result of gun violence, as Mayors, we are duty-bound to do everything in our power to protect our residents, especially our children, from harm...
...and there is no greater threat to public safety than the threat of illegal guns."
According to police, a 51-year-old man was approached by a Felix Pierre, 27, of Somerville while making a deposit at the bank's safety deposit box. The victim told police that Pierre came in from behind and grabbed the bag of money.
After a struggle, the victim was able to recover the bag.
Police say Pierre then stabbed the victim above the eyebrow with a screwdriver when he refused to comply with his demands to hand over the money.
"Gun crime is a national problem that needs a national response," Menino said, noting that many guns used in Boston murders last year came from other states.
Although most illegal guns found in Boston in 2004 came from Massachusetts, police have traced more firearms to other New England states, including Maine, New Hampshire, and Connecticut, and Southern states such as Alabama, Florida, and Maryland.
As Mayor Thomas M. Menino prepares to attend a gun summit alongside mayors from across the country in New York City this morning, he said the federal government has paid more attention to combating bird flu than battling bullets.
"Gun violence is an epidemic sweeping across our country," Menino told the Herald in an interview yesterday.
Last year, Boston marked its highest body count in a decade, with 75 murders and 341 shootings. This year, the number of victims hit by gunfire by April 20 was a staggering 110, nearly double the victims in 2005 when 65 people were shot, according to BPD statistics released this week.
"How a politician stands on the Second Amendment tells you how he or she views you as an individual... as a trustworthy and productive citizen, or as part of an unruly crowd that needs to be lorded over, controlled, supervised, and taken care of."
- Texas State Rep. Suzanna Gratia-Hupp
What do people even need handguns for? Protection, right? However, if no one could buy or carry a handgun legally, no one would need a handgun to protect themselves.
People who buy handguns likely are people who will use them in ways that affect others' safety.
Minnesota’s Personal Protection Act, also known as the conceal-carry law, is very controversial legislation that allows people to carry a handgun in public with a permit. This permit is given to anyone who has not been convicted of certain violent crimes or those who have finished a prison sentence 10 years prior to applying for a permit.
This means that someone who killed someone and served time potentially could be given a gun to carry in public legally 10 years later and that the state says this is perfectly fine.
For almost 30 years, elderly drivers in Massachusetts have enjoyed a benefit no one else has: a 25 percent discount on auto insurance premiums, worth about $250 on this year's bills.
But now the state's insurers are questioning whether the discount still makes sense at a time when national data indicate that older drivers, particularly those 75 and above, are filing claims and dying in crashes at a pace that rivals that of teenagers. Insurers in some states no longer give discounts to drivers 75 and above, and some charge older drivers more than younger adults.
Daniel Johnston, president of the Automobile Insurers Bureau of Massachusetts, which represents the state's companies on rate matters, said any group of drivers that receives a discount it does not deserve is effectively being subsidized by drivers who are paying more than they should.
A day after City Council President Michael Flaherty's car window was blown out by a bullet as he drove along bustling Dorchester Avenue, Boston police refused yesterday to make public the total number of Hub shootings so far this year.
The refusal [...] comes amid a rash of recent public gunplay that has alarmed city residents, and despite clear indications that shootings have jumped from 2004 to 2005.
[snip]
Menino's spokesman, Seth Gitell, had no comment, saying "it's a police matter."
Ten people have been robbed on the streets surrounding Boston Common and nearby in the South End since April 1 in crimes that appear to be related, police said.
[snip]
Seth Gitell, a spokesman for Mayor Thomas M. Menino, declined to comment on the robberies, saying it was a police matter.
Mayor Menino Press Release Generator - v2.0
1. The Mayor is [outraged/delighted] over this latest development. (choose one)
2. The Mayor was [unaware of/responsible] for much of what you read in the papers this morning regarding this incident. (choose one)
3a. The Mayor will [look into it/schedule a cocktail reception] immediately. (choose one)
3b. (alternate) The Mayor has no comment on this, as it is a ___________ matter. (fill in the blank with whichever governmental entity on which you wish to blame this incident/crisis)
DeAngelo Morrison felt lucky to be alive Wednesday, hours after he shot and killed a masked man armed with a shotgun who was chasing him into his Speedway apartment.
Speedway police say Morrison, 21, was acting in self-defense when he fired his handgun at the two men rushing up the stairs at the West Wind Terrace Apartments, near I-465 and Crawfordsville Road.
The bullet struck DeShawn Givens, 21, in the chest and police said he died at the bottom of the stairwell.
"At the end of the day, the law says if you have no other out and it appears you are about to get killed or seriously harmed, you don't have to send out a survey," said Scott Newman, the former Marion County prosecutor. "You can pull out a gun and defend yourself."
A 22-year-old Jamaica Plain resident was walking toward the Tropical Market when a black male wearing a red jacket approached him and asked him for money. The victim said no then went into the store. When he came back out with a few items he purchased, the suspect approached him again, questioning the victim for lying to him about not having any money. Then the suspect stabbed the victim several times in the arm and chest.
Last night at 2:15am, a 48-year-old black man from Charlestown was walking on Walford Way in Charlestown when a group of approximately six black and Hispanic males attacked him and stabbed him in the back multiple times.
Officers responded to a radio call last night at 10:42pm at 104 Old Ironsides Way for a man stabbed. Upon arrival, officers observed the victim bleeding from the left flank area. He stated he was attacked and stabbed once by a group of approximately 10 teenaged males on Monument Street.
In a controversy with a familiar ring, parents of a Lexington second-grader are protesting that their son's teacher read a fairy tale about gay marriage to the class without warning parents first.
The teacher at Joseph Estabrook Elementary School used the children's book, "King & King," as part of a lesson about different types of weddings. A prince marries another prince instead of a princess in the book, which was on the American Library Association's list of the 10 most challenged books in 2004 because of its homosexual theme.
"My son is only 7 years old," said Lexington parent Robin Wirthlin, who complained to the school system last month and will meet with the superintendent next week. "By presenting this kind of issue at such a young age, they're trying to indoctrinate our children. They're intentionally presenting this as a norm, and it's not a value that our family supports."
She complained more than a year after Lexington parent David Parker was arrested for trespassing, because he refused to leave the Estabrook school grounds until administrators allowed him to opt his son out of discussions about families with same-sex parents. The latest incident has renewed the efforts of Waltham-based Parents' Rights Coalition to rid the state's schools of books and lessons that relate to homosexuality, and led the school system to reemphasize its stance on teaching about gay marriage and related issues as part of larger lessons on diversity and tolerance.
Lexington Superintendent of Schools Paul Ash said Estabrook has no legal obligation to notify parents about the book. "We couldn't run a public school system if every parent who feels some topic is objectionable to them for moral or religious reasons decides their child should be removed," he said. "Lexington is committed to teaching children about the world they live in, and in Massachusetts same-sex marriage is legal."
TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) -- If the government doesn't build security fencing along the Mexico border, Minuteman border watch leader Chris Simcox says he and his supporters will.
Simcox, whose civilian watch group opposes illegal immigration, said Wednesday he was sending an ultimatum to President Bush to deploy military reserves to the Arizona border by May 25 or his supporters will break ground for their own building project.
"We're going to show the federal government how easy it is to build these security fences, how inexpensively they can be built when built by private people and free enterprise," Simcox said.
Congress has been debating immigration reform for several months. One bill, approved by the U.S. House in December, calls for nearly 700 miles of fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border. The fence proposal has angered Mexicans, with President Vicente Fox calling it "shameful."
A Westboro office was one of several branches of a national company raided by immigration officers Wednesday.
44-year-old Michael Ames of Shrewsbury, the manager of IFCO Systems Westboro office, was one of several people arrested in a crackdown on employers of illegal workers.
Seven executives and hundreds of employees of the crate and pallet manufacturer were taken into custody, as agents raided IFCO offices and plants in at least nine states.
It was the culmination of a yearlong criminal investigation.
Federal prosecutors said the executives conspired to transport, harbor and encourage illegal workers to reside in the United States for commercial advantage and private financial gain.
In addition to Westboro, raids took place at several locations in upstate New York and in Biglerville, Pa., Charlotte, N.C., Cincinnati, Houston, Indianapolis, Phoenix, and Richmond, Va.
Massachusetts lost more residents than it attracted in recent years, at a greater rate than any other state but New York, according to Census Bureau estimates released today.
The estimates show that between 2000 and 2004, more residents left Massachusetts than moved to the Bay State -- with an average annual exodus of 42,402 people. That amounts to a rate of 6.6 people leaving the state per 1,000, second only to New York's rate of 9.6 residents per 1,000 during that period.
But nationally, the regions picking up population are in the South and West, with Nevada, Arizona, Florida, and Idaho topping the list. Romney's communications director, Eric Fehrnstrom, noted those centers of population growth and attributed Massachusetts' losses to New England's weather.
The US Census Bureau report measured how many people are moving in and out of states, and it found that the migration from most of the New England states has slowed in recent years. More people moved into Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont than moved out from 2000 to 2004, while the number of people moving into Connecticut dropped slightly. Nationally, the South remained the primary destination.
Frey said metropolitan Boston has been losing people since 1990, but in recent years the loss has been occurring at greater rates than at any time since the recession of 1990 and 1991. Today's report found that among large metropolitan areas, Greater Boston trailed only San Francisco and New York City in its rate of loss.
(click for larger image)Even with immigration, the population has not kept up because more people are moving out. "When you have that many more people leaving each year than coming in, it makes it that much more challenging to have population growth," said Marc J. Perry, a demographer for the US Census Bureau who handled the latest report.
According to Boston police statistics, every category of major crime in [Mattapan] is up compared with last year, including 100 percent jumps in homicide, robbery, and residential burglary. He said an influx of paroled prisoners and troubled youth is driving the violence.
Paul Reardon and Kelly Sullivan were unharmed and only lost a portable telephone following the 20-minute break-in that began at 8:25 a.m. when Reardon heard a knock on his 150 Lynnway front door.
"I said, 'who is it?' and bang, they came crashing through the door," Reardon said.
The taller of the two men wrestled Reardon, who uses a motorized chair to get around, onto his dining room floor.
Sullivan shouted at the intruders as she ran to help him.
She asked who the men were, and according to Sullivan, the taller of the two men responded by saying the men were 'the police.'
Sullivan then asked the man where his badge was.
"That upset them," she said.
The man's accomplice turned a handgun on her while he handcuffed Sullivan's hands behind her back and handcuffed Reardon to a kitchen chair.
Then the pair started ransacking the couple's home.
Having recently moved to Quincy after spending more than a decade in Oregon, David Anderson asked an area resident for a job, police said.
Then he kept talking, they said, telling the prospective employer that he had broken up with his girlfriend and allegedly showing him graphic letters he had penned to her. The disclosure led police to arrest Anderson, 54, charging that he left female underwear and sexually threatening notes aimed at young girls on at least five doorsteps around town since February.
Anderson is expected to be arraigned in Quincy District Court this morning on charges of dissemination of obscene material, and making threats disrupting the public, which is punishable by up to 20 years in state prison.
Pickens County Investigators say Brian Teague forced his way into Susan Hendricks' home Thursday evening and refused to leave.
"She felt threatened," says Lt. Lane Byers, Pickens County Sheriff's Office. "She felt she could not leave the home to get away from him. And she felt she had to defend herself. She used a firearm to do so."
Hendricks reportedly shot Teague several times.
"She had made some complaints that he had bothered her, prior to this."
In fact, Hendricks filed an incident report about Teague with the Pickens County Sheriff's Office, just 30 minutes before the shooting.
Menino, Bloomberg announce gun summit
Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino announced today that he and New York Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg will meet with mayors from more than a dozen other cities next week to discuss working together to prevent gun violence.
Mayors from Philadelphia, Dallas, Miami, Washington D.C., Providence, Seattle, and Trenton, N.J. are also expected to attend the meeting next Tuesday at Gracie Mansion in New York.
Menino, who reached out to Bloomberg in January after hearing him talk about gun violence in his inaugural address, has said he and Bloomberg would form a panel and tour the country asking other mayors to join them in crafting and lobbying for federal legislation to help cities and towns address the issue.
The number of homicides in Boston reached a 10-year high last year. The number of fatal and nonfatal shootings through April 6 this year was 99, up from 57 for the same period last year.
Jack, don't do it!
On February 7, 2005 more than 140 Quincy residents turned out at City Hall for a special hearing of the City Council's Committee on Public Safety regarding Chief Crowley's firearms license policies.
[snip]
At one point, a City Councilor asked the chief if he would issue a license to a woman in a domestic violence situation, presupposing that the woman had no criminal record or mental health issues. The chief's response was, "I can't answer that, I have to go to the specifics... what level of fear she had."
Some parents of young girls in Quincy are shaken after police say a serial sicko left girls' panties on their front porch, and wrapped the underwear around magazine pages containing threats to rape little girls.
Quincy police say the pervert has hit five houses in Quincy - three of them are home to young girls - between February and Easter Sunday. Each time a pair of girl's or women's underwear or bras were left on the front porch, and the undergarments were wrapped around torn-out pages from American Girl magazine. Written in print were sexually graphic threats against girls, including threats of rape, said Quincy police Chief Robert Crowley.
"My fear is that somebody may be attacked," Crowley said last night, going public with the issue for the first time after the messages left Friday at a Bradford Street home became more sexually explicit.
You may bear arms--but only rod-and-ball variety
I grow weary of the constitutional argument for gun ownership, based as it is on the "infallibility" of the Founding Fathers ["An intellectual shell game with the anti-gun folks," March 30].
For the Founding Fathers, arms were cumbersome muzzle-loaders. They had no concept of modern weaponry.
I like to think that in their wisdom, they would have been appalled at the notion of their own citizenry bearing such arms.
If we are giving the Founding Fathers the final word on the subject, then we all have the right to keep and bear muzzle-loaders.
Jerry Schneider
Stafford
(click - at your own risk - for larger image)I just went over to the Registry of Deeds to file a document pertaining to our condo association. The first part of my trip was amusing, as the officer who had placed my bag through the metal detector at the entrace to the courthouse told me he was going to need to confiscate my camera. He then placed it in a plastic bag printed "confiscated weapon" and had me sign a receipt for a weapon.
Once I'd been disarmed, I went into the registry...
WANTED: Unskilled labor to work for life in protected job. Tasks entail being sarcastic to the taxpayers of the Commonwealth. You will be approached by people that don't have much experience with the court system/ registry/ social services. Feel free to mock them in their ignorance, even though if the tables where turned you wouldn't survive in a competitive environment. Wear cheap suits and kick the dog when you get home.
"It would be like having sex with an old
UNIONTOWN, Pa. --A man threw a microwave at his girlfriend, then fatally beat her after she refused to heat up sandwiches, police said.
[snip]
After throwing her to the floor, Fordyce threw a microwave oven onto McCann's chest after she refused to heat up sandwiches for him, he told police. Fordyce also said he stomped on McCann's chest repeatedly then banged her head on the floor until she lost consciousness -- but that he also said he didn't mean to kill her, police said.
"It was an accident. I didn't do it on purpose," police quoted Fordyce as saying.
Quote of the day--Bruce at mAss Backwards
Vini. Vidi. Boom.
[I came. I saw. I blew stuff up.]
Bruce at mAss Backwards
The winning Boomershoot 2006 slogan entry.
Congratulations Bruce.
Governor Mitt Romney signed most of a sweeping new healthcare bill into law yesterday at a festive Faneuil Hall ceremony hailed as a hallmark of bipartisan achievement, even as healthcare specialists expressed concern that the plan could start losing money in three years.
A legislative staff analysis estimates that the groundbreaking healthcare plan would start losing money in two to three years, which could put pressure on lawmakers to spend more tax money, increase the fee on businesses or scale back the coverage of the sweeping bill.
A number of economists and health policy specialists interviewed by the Globe said that the plan's financing is solid for the next two years, especially since lawmakers have added a cushion of money in case of unexpected costs.
But some specialists warned that the picture is less certain after that. "There are a lot of things that have to happen right for there to be enough money," said John Holahan of the Urban Institute, a nonpartisan policy research organization in Washington, D.C.
Rising healthcare costs could easily outstrip the money raised by the bill through state and federal contributions and the employer assessment, observers said.
A teenage boy accidentally set himself on fire early Wednesday morning after allegedly trying to siphon gas from a firefighter's car.
Police were called to the hospital to investigate the incident and later learned that the 17-year-old spilled gas on his pants while siphoning gas. He then used a lighter to try to determine how wet his pants were and set himself of fire, Hague said.
(click for full-size image)I haven't followed the current immigration debate all that closely. But as I understand it, the basic issue is that there are a lot of people here illegally, and those people are perceived to be (depending on your point of view) (a) taking jobs from legal residents and simultaneously driving down wages for everyone, or (b) doing jobs that are necessary to the economy but that legal residents don't want because they are too low-paying.
Seems to me there's an obvious strategy that the Republicans who want to be "tough on immigration" could adopt, and they'd draw a lot of Democratic support in doing it: raise the minimum wage - a lot. Like to ten bucks an hour. And enforce it across the board - to farm jobs, restaurant jobs, the whole nine yards.
That should make those jobs a whole lot more attractive to legal residents, which should make it much easier for businesses to hire legal residents to do them, which should in turn greatly decrease the attractiveness of coming to the U.S. illegally.
Problem solved!
Of course, it will never happen.
Some of the very same Republicans who decry the minimum wage as a disastrous interference with the operation of the free market are the ones now banging the drum about the supposed threat of illegal immigration.
Well, guess what, the market's a bitch, and it doesn't take sides on ideological battles.
The job market in the U.S. is a big part of why there are so many illegal immigrants here. Silly bills proposing building a thousand-mile fence will do a lot less to solve this "problem" than cranking up the minimum wage.
Opinion and commentary, garnished with a sprig of cynicism, served with a heaping side order of sarcasm, and washed down with a tall glass of common sense, by a gun-toting political refugee from the People's Progressive Republic of Massachusetts, currently residing in New Hampshire and doing what he can to keep the Granite State beautiful and free.
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