Man thrown through window of watering hole

By Bill Trotter
Friday, December 28, 2007 - Bangor Daily News

BAR HARBOR, Maine— A local man is facing a criminal charge after allegedly throwing another man through a window at a bar, according to police.

Marty Sherwood, 25, has been charged with aggravated assault, police Sgt. David Kerns said Thursday.

The incident occurred early Saturday at Little Anthony’s on Cottage Street. The victim, whose identity police did not disclose, was taken to Mount Desert Island Hospital in Bar Harbor and treated for a laceration to his face. He was released later that morning, Kerns said.

Police were called to the hospital after the incident as people connected with the fight created a scene by allegedly refusing to leave, threatening staff and damaging doors, according to dispatcher records.

Kerns said both the victim and Sherwood were intoxicated at the time of the altercation. Police were told it had been precipitated by the victim allegedly knocking a drink out of Sherwood’s hand, then escalated, he said.

The officer said he did not have an estimate of the damage from the fight or of the cost of the victim’s medical treatment. Police still were trying to determine what, if any, relationship existed between the two men, he said.

Sherwood is scheduled to appear in court in Ellsworth on Feb. 15, Kerns said.

Quoted from http://bangornews.com/news/t/hancock.aspx?articleid=158272&zoneid=178:

Bar Harbor: Man thrown through window of watering hole

 

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Indiana Man Buys Truck With $25,000 In Change

FRANKFORT, Ind. -- Frankfort resident Paul Brant considers himself a penny pincher. But it's his passion for saving quarters and gold dollar coins that's really paid off. The 70-year-old used more than $25,000 in change Friday to buy a new Dodge Ram half-ton pickup truck.

That purchase comes 13 years after he bought another truck using spare change. Brant stored his change in coffee cans, water jugs and piggy banks over the years. He said he got so much change by using vending machines at Chrysler in Kokomo, where he works. Brant was escorted Friday by sheriff's deputies as he brought the rolled coins to the dealership. He said he was raised to be thrifty. His father always paid in cash and saved up loose change to take vacations.

Quoted from http://www.wlky.com/news/14913765/detail.html:

12/22/07: Indiana Man Buys Truck With $25,000 In Change - Louisville News Story - WLKY Louisville

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Why four little letters mean so much

It's rude, it's obscene and it may even be like hitting someone in the face without damaging your knuckles – it's swearing.

According to psychologists, yelling 'f**k off' is a powerful form of assault, especially if the intended victim cannot avoid hearing you.

A US research team also suggested swearing evolved as a way to emotionally injure someone without getting into a fight.

'It's a substitute for physical violence,' said psychologist Dr Timothy Jay. 'From an evolutionary point of view, it's an advantage for us to be able to say “f**k you” from across the street.'

He believes swearing is also a form of social bonding. 'In the locker room, the guy who doesn't swear is a weirdo,' said Dr Jay.

He has heard 10,000 people swear in public, with the f-word and sh*t making up half of US curses.

Meanwhile, British linguist Tony McEnery admires the f-word's ability to be inserted into words such as 'absolutely', as in 'abso-f**king-lutely'.

To make a good swear word, say experts, it has to be frowned upon, be insulting and have a powerful sound. That's why the f-word works so well.

Despite efforts by moral crusaders to stamp out swearing, the scientists say it is hard-wired into people's brains.

Some hospital patients have been able to say only swear words after a stroke.

At one point, French poet Charles Baudelaire could say only 'Cré nom', meaning 'God damn'. His nurses sent him home and asked for an exorcism

Quoted from http://www.metro.co.uk/news/article.html?in_article_id=80579&in_page_id=34&ito=newsnow:

Why four little letters mean so much | Metro.co.uk

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Monkeys and college students equal at mental math?

 

By Julie Steenhuysen

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Monkeys performed about as well as college students at mental addition, U.S. researchers said on Monday in a finding that suggests nonverbal math skills are not unique to humans.

The research from Duke University follows the finding by Japanese researchers earlier this month that young chimpanzees performed better than human adults at a memory game.

Prior studies have found non-human primates can match numbers of objects, compare numbers and choose the larger number of two sets of objects.

"This is the first study that looked at whether or not they could make explicit decisions that were based on mathematical types of calculations," said Jessica Cantlon, a cognitive neuroscience researcher at Duke, whose work appeared in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Biology (www.plosbiology.org).

"It shows when you take language away from a human, they end up looking just like monkeys in terms of their performance," Cantlon said in a telephone interview.

Her study pitted the monkey math team of Boxer and Feinstein -- two female macaque monkeys named for U.S. senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein of California -- with 14 Duke University students.

"We had them do math on the fly," Cantlon said.

The task was to mentally add two sets of dots that were briefly flashed on a computer screen. The teams were asked to pick the correct answer from two choices on a different screen.

The humans were not allowed to count or verbalize as they worked, and they were told to answer as quickly as possible. Both monkeys and humans typically answered within 1 second.

And both groups fared about the same.

Cantlon said the study was not designed to show up Duke University students. "I think of this more as using non-human primates as a tool for discovering where the sophisticated human mind comes from," she said.

The researchers said the findings shed light on the shared mathematical abilities in humans and non-human primates and shows the importance of language -- which allows for counting and more advanced calculations -- in the evolution of math in humans.

"I don't think language is the only thing that differentiates humans from non-human primates, but in terms of math tasks, it is probably the big one," she said.

As for the teams, both were paid. Boxer and Feinstein got their favorite reward: a sip of Kool-Aid soft drink. As for the students, they got $10 each -- enough for a beer or two.

(Editing by Sandra Maler)

Monkeys and college students equal at mental math? | Oddly Enough | Reuters

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Congress Likely to Pass Incandescent Bulb Ban

Congress is getting close to passing an energy bill that contains a little-known provision designed to phase out the 125-year-old incandescent light bulb in the next four to 12 years. Instead the future will be lit with next generation energy-efficient lighting.

read more | digg story

Hillary Clinton Farts

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12 Reasons Why You Should Have Sex Tonight

A hot, sweat-inducing sex session may be far more beneficial to your overall health than the time you spend on the treadmill.

read more | digg story

Doing his Civic duty in a snowstorm, City man fits Honda sedan with custom snowplow hardware

WATERVILLE -- You'd think that a man who has had three strokes, chronic pain in his hands and been advised to take it easy would sit back indoors and watch the snow pile up during a winter storm. Not Keith Inman.

Instead of relaxing in a recliner, when the snow begins to fall, Inman, 58, heads outdoors and fires up his 1998 Honda Civic. Then the work and fun begins. Mounted in the front of the small sedan is a homemade snowplow he uses to clear the large parking lot behind the apartment building where he and his wife, Irene, live on Summer Street. It is a labor of love and Yankee ingenuity.

Inman paid a man $30 for an old scrap snowblower body and attached a pair of $13 wheels he bought at Mardens. He then screwed aluminum to the inside of the contraption so snow would not stick to the 49- inch plow. Using a garden tractor frame, Inman then bolted the rig to the front of his car. Inman said it is easy to remove the plow and reinstall it when it snows. "Two bolts hold it on -- that's it," he said.

Staff photo by David Leaming YANKEE INGENUITY: Keith Inman on Sunday cleans snow from his homemade snow plow that he built and mounted on his Honda Civic. Inman was clearing snow behind his apartment on Summer Street in Waterville. Inman said he used a snowblower housing attached to a tractor frame and bolted to his car. The unit has wheels and can effectively push snow. "The only drawback is I can't hit a snowbank hard or the car airbags could go off," Inman said. It works OK."

The front-wheel-drive car pushes the snow well because the plow wheels take most of the weight, he explained.

"I push the snow to a bank, back up and the snow falls out," he said. It plows along like a grocery cart." Inman then backs up for a new row and continues until the lot is plowed free of snow to about two inches off the ground.

"This last storm I finished plowing with my car before the landlord arrived with his plow truck," Inman said. There is one potential problem with a plow mounted to a car: "I can't hit the snowbank hard because it could set off the car airbags."

Inman said he could let the landlord clean out the lot but the seasonal chore is something he looks forward to.

"I'm handicapped, so I have to have something to do," he said a day after a nor'easter dumped 10 inches of snow.

"I plow often, a little at a time," Inman said.

"He is supposed to take it easy but this gives him something to do," Irene Inman added.

Quoted from http://morningsentinel.mainetoday.com/news/local/4574298.html:

Doing his Civic duty in a snowstorm<br>City man fits Honda<br>sedan with custom<br>snowplow hardware

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Music makes children brainier, more agile, expert stresses

Hamburg, Germany - Not only does it soothe the savage beast, but music also makes unruly children calmer while at the same time honing their facilities for cognitive skills and physical coordination, according to a leading expert. A mother's soft lullaby, granddad's whistling or granny's humming in the kitchen or the dulcet tones of father singing in the shower - all of these seemingly innocuous musical activities serve to help an infant not only in acquiring linguistic skills, but also in learning how human beings interact on a social level.

"Experiments have shown that unborn babies in the womb appear to relax in response to certain music and also that they seem to recognize this music after birth," says Professor Michael Schulte- Markwort, head of child psychology at Hamburg's University Hospital in Germany.

"From the outset, music helps the language centres in the brain to develop so that children who have been exposed to music at an early age tend to learn to speak earlier than those who are born into non- musical homes," he says.

"Music also helps in the development of motor skills while at the same time reducing tension," says Dr Schulte-Markwort.

"Learning the tunes and lyrics to songs also aids in developing memory skills for other tasks," he adds.

Rhythm and dancing also skills young muscles in coordination so that musical children are healthier and better coordinated than children whose parents never teach them to sing and dance and play a simple drum or other instrument.

"Children develop a feel for musical tones and associate certain tone patterns with certain rhythms," he points out.

"As soon as they learn to walk, they also begin to move rhythmically in time to musical stimuli and thus automatically begin to dance. Good and attentive parents naturally encourage their offspring to sing and dance rhythmically," he adds.

"That is why pre-schoolers should engage in games involving rhythmic movement and dancing, games that encourage children to clap in time with the beat or to beat out the rhythm on simple percussion instruments such as bells and chimes and little drums," says Schulte- Markwort.

Age five or six is ideal for teaching children to play a musical instrument because their minds are most receptive to learning the skills involved.

"If they have already been exposed to music and to rudimentary instruments, then at about age five or six they will think of learning to play an instrument as a kind of a game," he says.

"We are not talking about the violin or bassoon, which involve very fine motor skills, and we are also not talking about tedious piano lessons which bore young minds. But instead we are talking about simple flutes and other instruments which produce a melodic sound easily and enjoyably," he says.

"It is important to remember the fun factor. Singing, dancing and playing musical instruments must first and foremost be fun for children," he stresses.

Quoted from http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/159814.html:

Music makes children brainier, more agile, expert stresses : Health

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James Daley: Insurers are cannier than you think

The amazing story of John Darwin's "resurrection" and arrest on suspicion of fraud made for captivating reading this week. I should be clear from the outset that there is no evidence that Mr Darwin or his wife have committed any kind of fraud, but the whole episode left me wondering just how common deception really is in the insurance world.

According to a recent report by the Association of British Insurers, more than one in 10 general insurance claims have a fraudulent element to them. Most of these are car or homeowners inflating the value of the items that have been lost, stolen or damaged. For example, when their house is burgled, a sizeable proportion of people will happily throw in a few extra items on to the list of stolen goods, or will claim that their Casio watch was in fact a Rolex.

The report also reveals that certain demographic groups are more likely to make fraudulent claims than others. People who live in the north of England, for example, are 1.7 times more likely to commit insurance fraud than the average person. Men, as well as people with unsecured debts of over £1,000, are also more likely to exaggerate or falsify a claim.

But perhaps more surprisingly, the ABI discovered that people with high levels of savings are also more likely than the average person to make a fraudulent insurance claim, illustrating the fact that modern-day insurance fraud has become a very middle-class crime.

According to the Financial Ombudsman Service, one of the most common types of deception these days is a practice called "fronting", where families name one of the parents as a primary driver on their child's car, and put the teenager down as a secondary driver. This dramatically reduces what are usually punitively expensive premiums for younger drivers – but is totally fraudulent and illegal. According to Zurich insurance, more than one in 10 (predominantly middle-class) families are now guilty of fronting, many of whom are not even aware that they are in breach of the law.

As fraud levels have grown over the past few years, insurers' techniques to catch the perpetrators have become all the more ingenious. A number of insurance companies now regularly use lie-detector technology to analyse customers' voices when they call in to make a claim, referring them to a specialist investigator for an hour-long interrogation if they fall foul of the test.

One of the insurers most vocal about its use of such techniques has been Esure. The company claims that it has had great success with its lie-detector software (technology that was originally designed for Israeli border-control guards, no less).

Once it has singled out someone using its software, Esure gets one of its investigators to spend an hour getting the customer to tell the story again. Then the investigator goes back to somewhere in the middle of the timeline and asks the customer to talk about what happened just before. This jumping around almost always trips up fraudsters.

Disappointingly, very few perpetrators of insurance fraud are ever actually prosecuted. With the average fraudulent claim coming in at around £800, it's not worth the insurer's costs to take a civil case – after all, they've already saved themselves having to pay the claim.

The Crown Prosecution Service is also reluctant to take on such cases because of a lack of resources, even though the insurers have usually already done most of the work for them. This means that, perversely, there's no real incentive to not give relatively small-time insurance fraud a go. Fortunately for the insurance companies, the vast majority of people are too honest to try it on.

Quoted from http://money.independent.co.uk/personal_finance/invest_save/article3231443.ece:

James Daley: Insurers are cannier than you think - Independent Online Edition > Invest & Save

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Brain 'irrelevance filter' found

Scientists believe they have located a new brain area essential for good memory - the "irrelevance filter".

People who are good at remembering things, even with distractions, have more activity in the basal ganglia on brain scans, the Swedish team found.

The work in Nature Neuroscience could help explain why some people are better at remembering things than others.

Clinically, it could also aid the understanding of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

The ability to hold information in the mind so that it is immediately accessible is known as working memory.

We use working memory all of the time - for example, when doing a simple maths calculation in our head or recalling a telephone number.

There will be many brain regions that filter irrelevant information, so it is too early to tell if these findings will have a bearing on conditions such as ADHD John Duncan Medical Research Council scientist

Working memory is important because it gives a mental workspace in which we can hold information whilst mentally engaged in other relevant tasks, which is crucial for learning.

Its capacity is limited and seems to vary from person to person.

These variations are not just due to having a larger or smaller memory store, but also due to differences in how effectively irrelevant items are kept out of memory, the Karolinksa Institute researchers believe.

Distracters

Dr Torkel Klingberg and colleague Fiona McNab used a special brain scan called functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to track what was happening in the brains of 25 healthy volunteers.

The volunteers were asked to perform a computer-based task that required them to respond to target visual images, with or without distractions.

A noise informed subjects when an upcoming visual display would contain irrelevant distracters along with the targets.

When this cue occurred, neural activity increased in the basal ganglia and the prefrontal cortex before the visual display appeared, suggesting the brain was preparing to "filter out" the upcoming distracters.

Also, greater activity in a specific part of the basal ganglia - the globus pallidus - correlated with less unnecessary storage in another part of the brain, the posterior parietal cortex, which is sensitive to the amount of information held in memory.

The team is currently investigating methods of improving attention and working memory in children with ADHD and monitoring any changes with fMRI.

Medical Research Council scientist John Duncan said: "This is very interesting work and gives a window on important parts of the brain.

"The basal ganglia are very strong candidates for involvement in brain disorders where people have difficulty with attentional control.

"But there will be many brain regions that filter irrelevant information, so it is too early to tell if these findings will have a bearing on conditions such as ADHD."

Quoted from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7132829.stm:

BBC NEWS | Health | Brain 'irrelevance filter' found

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Man freed after 100 hours trapped in a lavatory

LONDON (Reuters) - A retired Scottish school teacher was recovering on Monday after spending nearly four days trapped inside a men's toilet with no food or mobile phone.

David Leggat was locked inside the bathroom at a lawn bowling club near the Scottish city of Aberdeen after the door jammed and the handle on the outside fell off.

The 55-year-old kept warm by dipping his feet in hot water but only managed to get about three hours' sleep a night in the freezing temperatures, the local Evening Express newspaper reported.

He was rescued when the cleaner at the club, which is little used in winter, turned up to collect her cleaning equipment.

Leggat said a survival course he had once done had helped him endure his captivity. The cleaning lady said he looked shaken and grey when he emerged. Leggat was stoical.

"At least there was a toilet to use," he said. "The only thing I regret is not getting trapped behind the bar."

(Reporting by Luke Baker; Editing by Elizabeth Piper)

 

Quoted from http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSL1032522120071210?rpc=92:

Man freed after 100 hours trapped in a lavatory | Oddly Enough | Reuters

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China cremator dumps half-burnt bodies to save fuel

HONG KONG, Dec 7 (Reuters) - China's worst fuel crunch in years has led a crematorium to dump half-burnt corpses to try to save on diesel costs, a Hong Kong newspaper said on Friday.

Villagers in Hengyang county, in the southern province of Hunan, discovered the practice when an "unbearable stench" started coming from the site, and tried to block a road on Wednesday to stop funeral vehicles from delivering more bodies.

The village sent people to investigate the smell and the South China Morning Post said they saw "crematorium workers putting half-burnt human remains and organs in plastic bags and throwing them into a nearby ditch".

"As the price of diesel rose, we saw more and more bags thrown out from the crematorium," the paper quoted Xiao Gaoyi, a village representative and one of the witnesses, as saying.

China was hit by its worst fuel supply crisis in four years from October to November, as a widening gap between low, state-regulated domestic prices and market-driven international prices forced Chinese refiners to cut output.

Fuel in many parts of the country was rationed and there were long queues at petrol stations.

An increase of nearly 10 percent in the prices of domestic diesel and gasoline from Nov. 1, the first in almost a year and a half, failed to lift refining margins back into the black. (Reporting by John Ruwitch; Editing by Sanjeev Miglani)

 

Quoted from http://uk.reuters.com/article/oilRpt/idUKHKG6025220071207?rpc=92:

RPT-China cremator dumps half-burnt bodies to save fuel | Markets | Reuters

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Kangaroo farts could ease global warming

AUSTRALIAN scientists are trying to give kangaroo-style stomachs to cattle and sheep in a bid to cut the emission of greenhouse gases blamed for global warming, researchers say.

Thanks to special bacteria in their stomachs, kangaroo flatulence contains no methane and scientists want to transfer that bacteria to cattle and sheep who emit large quantities of the harmful gas.

While the usual image of greenhouse gas pollution is a billowing smokestack pushing out carbon dioxide, livestock passing wind contribute a surprisingly high percentage of total emissions in some countries.

"Fourteen per cent of emissions from all sources in Australia is from enteric methane from cattle and sheep,'' said Athol Klieve, a senior research scientist with the Queensland Government.

"And if you look at another country such as New Zealand, which has got a much higher agricultural base, they're actually up around 50 per cent,'' he said.

Researchers say the bacteria also makes the digestive process much more efficient and could potentially save millions of dollars in feed costs for farmers.

"Not only would they not produce the methane, they would actually get something like 10 to 15 per cent more energy out of the feed they are eating,'' said Mr Klieve.

Even farmers who laugh at the idea of environmentally friendly kangaroo farts say that's nothing to joke about, particularly given the devastating drought Australia is suffering.

"In a tight year like a drought situation, 15 per cent would be a considerable sum,'' said farmer Michael Mitton.

But it will take researchers at least three years to isolate the bacteria, before they can even start to develop a way of transferring it to cattle and sheep.

Another group of scientists, meanwhile, has suggested Australians should farm fewer cattle and sheep and just eat more kangaroos.

The idea is controversial, but about 20 per cent of health-conscious Australians are believed to eat the national symbol already.

"It's low in fat, it's got high protein levels it's very clean in the sense that basically it's the ultimate free range animal,'' said Peter Ampt of the University of New South Wales's institute of environmental studies.

"It doesn't get drenched, it doesn't get vaccinated, it utilises food right across the landscape, it moves around to where the food is good, so yes, it's a good food.''

It might take a while for kangaroos to become popular barbecue fare, but with concern over global warming growing in the world's driest inhabited continent, Australians could soon be ready to try almost anything to cut emissions.

 

Quoted from http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22879895-13762,00.html:

Kangaroo farts could ease global warming | NEWS.com.au

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Officials to consider reforms in handling arrest warrants

Administration, DAs react to Tavares case

By Shelley Murphy Globe Staff / December 5, 2007

The state's top prosecutors and Governor Deval Patrick's administration will scrutinize the state's system of handling arrest warrants and consider statewide reforms after David T. Tavares Jr., a convicted killer, jumped bail in Massachusetts and allegedly killed a newlywed couple in Washington state last month.

 

Kurt N. Schwartz, the governor's public safety undersecretary for law enforcement and fire services, said there are no statewide standards dictating who should be returned to Massachusetts. He said the state cannot mandate the return of everyone who flees because there are so many of them. He said the administration and the district attorneys will look at who makes the decision on whether someone should be sought nationwide, and how it is made.

"The priority is public safety so we need to make sure that we have a system that ensures public safety," Schwartz said. "The priority isn't cost savings."

Michael O'Keefe, president of the Massachusetts District Attorneys Association, said prosecutors grapple with limited resources and difficult choices each time they have to decide whether to seek the return of someone who has failed to show up in court after being charged. As of last week, there were 213,424 outstanding warrants in Massachusetts for people who had skipped their criminal hearings, according to court officials.

O'Keefe said the decision on who should be returned to Massachusetts to face charges is based on the severity of the crime they committed, with those wanted for murder, rape, and other violent crimes being the highest priority. When a warrant is issued, the district attorney's office that brought the case generally pays the cost of bringing suspects back and decides whether to seek their return if they are captured out-of-state.

"The cost is staggering to even think about getting them all back, even if you were to find them, so there has to be prioritization," O'Keefe said.

In Tavares's case, prosecutors indicated they would have sought his return to Massachusetts to face assault and battery charges only if he had been caught in New England, despite information he had taken a flight to Seattle.

On Nov. 17, Tavares, 41, who had already served 16 years in prison in Massachusetts for stabbing his mother to death, killed his neighbors, Beverly and Brian Mauck, in Graham, Wash., after bursting into their home, police contend.

"I hope that when we look at this systemically we'll be able to find some ways to shore up and patch some of the cracks through which this person fell," said O'Keefe, who is also district attorney of the Cape and Islands.

Instead of issuing a nationwide warrant for Tavares, the office of Worcester County District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. entered Tavares's name in a national database. Early has said he thought that if police somewhere stopped Tavares, they would search the database, discover he was wanted in Massachusetts, and call Early's office. If that had happened, Early says, he would have dispatched officers to pick up Tavares.

But Washington police did not apprehend Tavares until the Maucks had been killed.

They say Early's office should have issued a nationwide warrant for Tavares, because of his violent history. He was found guilty of manslaughter in the killing his mother at her home in Somerset, Mass., and he was wanted on charges of assault against correctional officers. He also allegedly wrote letters threatening to kill his father, former Governor Mitt Romney, and other public officials while in custody.

Tavares finished his sentence for the slaying of his mother, then was released on personal recognizance in July while awaiting trial on the assault charges. The arrest warrant was issued when he failed to appear in court July 23.

Ed Troyer, a spokesman for the Pierce County Sheriff's office in Washington, which arrested Tavares in the double murder last month, said it was a mistake that Early's office did not issue a nationwide warrant.

"If he's dangerous enough not to be walking the streets of Boston or Massachusetts, he's dangerous everywhere," Troyer said.

Washington authorities also say Massachusetts State Police asked them to help look for Tavares a month before the Maucks were slain, but told them not to arrest him because the warrant had been issued only for New England.

Early has said he was unaware that Massachusetts authorities had told Washington police not to arrest Tavares. Last week, he defended his handling of the case, saying he had followed standard practice. He said that Tavares had been a priority, but that his office's best information was that Tavares was headed for Rhode Island.

"You can't get a manhunt for everyone," Early said last week. "With the resources that you have you are making decisions to evaluate cases and how to best use your resources."

O'Keefe defended Early's handling of the case and said the district attorneys association had launched its review of the warrant system at Early's urging.

"I know everybody likes bright line rules and standards, but that's not how it works," said O'Keefe, adding that this is not a problem limited to Massachusetts.

"I'll tell you another hard reality," O'Keefe said. "As you get to May and June of any given year when your budget is running into its last gasps so to speak . . . that's when the decisions become even harder because it's a very costly business to fly out to California or down to Florida with two armed police officers and bring people back."

Quoted from http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2007/12/05/officials_consider_arrest_warrant_overhaul/?page=full:

Officials to consider reforms in handling arrest warrants - The Boston Globe

 

Technorati Tags: Justice

Ban on sex toys targeted

 

Rogers tries again to revoke ban

Tuesday, December 04, 2007

By BRIAN LYMAN

Capital Bureau

MONTGOMERY -- A Birmingham legislator has filed a bill that would revoke the state's 10-year ban on the sale of sex toys, a prohibition that has drawn national attention and led to lengthy court battles.

It's the second attempt by state Rep. John Rogers, D-Birmingham, to strike the 1998 prohibition on the sale of such devices.

"A shower head could be considered a sex toy," he said. "It's just bringing the state into the 20th century."

Dan Ireland, executive director of the Alabama Citizens' Action Program, a Baptist group, said it would oppose any effort to overturn the law.

"Laws are made to protect the public," he said. "Sometimes you have to protect the public against themselves."

The 2008 regular session is scheduled to begin Feb. 5.

The law prohibits the sale and manufacture of items "designed or marketed as useful primarily for the stimulation of human genital organs." It does not prohibit the possession of those items and provides an exception for devices sold for medical purposes.

The statute drew national attention and led to a nine-year court struggle over its enforcement. A series of lawsuits were filed against the state by civil libertarians, store owners and women who said the law violated privacy rights.

The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the ban in 2004, ruling there was no law guaranteeing sexual privacy for citizens and that states could pass laws regulating the sale of sex toys.

The justices added that legislators could repeal the law if they found the "prohibition on sex toys is misguided or ineffective or just plain silly."

A final attempt to overturn the law was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in October, seemingly removing the final roadblock against enforcement of the ban. However, a Circuit Court last month rejected an attempt by the city of Hoover to close a store selling sex toys, saying the law is too vague.

Attorney General Troy King's office has suggested that the vagueness in the bill should be addressed by the Legislature. A message left with spokesman Chris Bence Monday afternoon was not returned.

State Sen. Tom Butler, D-Madison, sponsor of the 1998 bill, did not return a message Monday seeking comment.

Ireland said the ban is a "good law" that has bolstered public safety.

"Sexual matters are not to become a nuisance to people and the community," he said. "We have enough problems with sexual-oriented crimes without enticing or promoting it."

Randy Brinson, chairman of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, did not have any comment. "It seems we have better things to deal with than that, but I need to study it more," he said.

Loretta Nall, the 2006 Libertarian gubernatorial nominee, recently began a "Sex Toys for Troy King" drive in protest of the law, which she called a waste of time and an invasion of privacy.

She called Rogers' bill "absolutely superb" and hoped her drive would help it pass.

"If anything, it will make the Legislature and Troy King aware that we want repeal," she said. "My gut feeling is we won't see a lot of people pushing to make it tougher."

Rogers first introduced a repeal measure in 2003, but the bill made so little progress that it won the House of Representatives' "Shroud Award," an annual prize given to the legislation considered the "deadest" of the session.

Despite that and the rulings in federal court, Rogers said Monday that he believes the ban is unconstitutional and embarrassing to the state. He is optimistic about getting the repeal passed.

"I intend to pass this bill this year," he said. "I want it to be one of the first bills on the calendar."

Ban on sex toys targeted- al.com

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Texas police hop to it to catch kangaroo

 

LEWISVILLE, Texas - Lewisville police had to hop to it to catch a kangaroo that fled from a veterinarian's yard. Maynard the red kangaroo is now back at an animal hospital, after his frolicking chase videotaped by a patrol car's camera.

Police joined animal control officers Sunday after getting a call about a kangaroo dashing around a neighborhood. The animal was bouncing around as people scampered after the 3-foot-tall critter.

Maynard, who's being treated for a respiratory ailment, was finally cornered and caught.

Dr. Kyle Jones says he took Maynard home for the weekend so the animal could graze and run in the vet's back yard. A wooden gate blew open and Maynard got out.

The animal eventually will be placed with a zoo.

Texas police hop to it to catch kangaroo - Yahoo! News

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