April 2010 Archives

Crime and federal spending

The records used in this report by IRE include the Federal Procurement Data System and www.federalspending.org to track government spending. Crime is being tracked by the FBI's Uniform Crime Reports.

The reporter for this article had to have knowledge in where these databases lie, knowledge that not many Internet users necessarily have.

The writer(s) are able to provide insight as to which sites are better than the others.

I can see these sites being useful in a number of ways in reporting. For instance, if you're tracking a string of crimes happening around the U of M campus you might find national trends of similar crimes in the Uniform Crime Reports page.

Former top Gucci salesman Adolfo Mendez has filed a lawsuit against the brand's flagship store in New York City for $5 million on charges of discrimination because he was straight.

Mendez, who is married, said his gay manager, Michael Daly, got too personal. He allegedly approached Mendez from behind and gave him an unwelcome massage.

Mendez communicated his discomfort with the situation to Daly saying, "Look, I really don't appreciate this. You touched me. I don't think it's professional."

Another manager, David Gray allegedly told Mendez, "I know you're gay."

Mendez's lawyer Rick Ostrove told New York Daily News, "Not only are the managers engaging in inappropriate sexual banter on a public floor, the HR department retaliated against the employee who brought it to their attention."

Nurse William Melchert-Dinkel of Faribault is charged with encouraging up to 11 strangers to kill themselves via chat room.

Melchert-Dinkel, 47, is allegedly addicted to online pro-suicide chat rooms and spent time in his Faribault home encouraging dozens of strangers to kill themselves and informing them on methods that would help them to do so.

Two charges against Melchert-Dinkel were filed in the aiding of suicide of Mark Drybrough, 32, hanged himself in Coventry, England, in 2005. He set up a webcam for Melchert-Dinkel to view as he hanged himself. Also, he encouraged Nadia Kajouji, 18, of Brampton, Ontario, to drown herself in 2008. She was a student at Carleton University.

Melchert-Dinkel faces up to 15 years in prison if sentenced, however, authorities say these laws are difficult to enforce.

"I believe a compelling argument can be made that not only are the charges unconstitutional but the underlying statute is unconstitutional," George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley said.

Melchert-Dinkel's nursing license was revoked in 2008 after being negligent and rough with patients. Authorities have since started investigating his case.

"Nothing is going to come of it," Melchert-Dinkel said in October. "I've moved on with my life, and that's it."

Six people were killed in a head-on automobile crash Saturday night. Four of which have been named; Kelsee Blackledge, 15, Stephen Kendryna, 16, Travis Buchan, 17, and Travis Gryczkowski,21.

The 16-year-old driver Sabrina Schumacher is currently in serious condition at a nearby hospital.

Lieutenant Eric Roeske of The State Patrol said this accident is "the worst he's ever seen in his life," saying the vehicles were "completely burned up."

Eleven people have been killed in highway crashes this week, including the six in this crash.

"It's mind-boggling, it truly is," said Deborah Kendryna, mother of Kendryna-Whitefeather, 16, who died in the crash. "Why, God? Why?"

The 29 miners killed in the Upper Big Branch mine, 35 miles from Asheville, North Carolina, were remembered Sunday in a service with a eulogy from U.S. President Barack Obama.

USA Today reports Obama spoke broadly of the miners, with the executive of the mine company they worked for sitting in the rear of the venue with the miners' families.

"How can we let anyone in this country put their lives at risk by simply showing up to work, by simply pursuing the American Dream?" Obama said in his eulogy. Nearly 2,800 mourners joined in the memorial.

"The men we remember here today went into the darkness so we could have light," Biden said. "It was dangerous work and they knew it. But they never flinched," the president said.

The 29 miners died in an explosion twenty days ago. The cause of the explosion is still under investigation. Senate will hold a hearing on the investigation Thursday.

Protesters seeking recognition of civil marriages took to the streets in Beruit Sunday to make their voices heard.

Lebanon is divided between Christianity and Islam, making inter-religious couples decide whether they will marry in a church or a mosque. The protest sought to gain civil marriages, ridding the country of religious tugs-of-war.

The "divisive sectarian system," as BBC reports, has been the status quo since the 15-year-long civil war in Lebanon, starting in 1975.

More than 2,000 protesters joined in on the march.

Al-Jazeera reports that social networking sites were utilized to organize the event.

Said Shaito, one of the march's organizers said, "We are for citizenship, which is being Lebanese, not Muslim or Christian. We want people to talk about it, to create a public debate in Lebanon."

"Glee," Drew Barrymore and Wanda Sykes top the list of GLAAD Media Award winners Sunday.

The Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation held it's 21st awards, giving recognition to media who promote fair and accurate stories of LGBT people in the news, television and film.

Writer and director of "Glee" Ryan Murphy accepted his award saying, "This show is about arts education and inclusion, and we are using the show in a great way."

Wanda Sykes took home the Stephen F. Kolzak Award, which is awarded to gay entertainers who works to eliminate homophobia. Sykes' most recent work to raise awareness of homophobia can be found in her PSA for GLSEN.

Actress Drew Barrymore was also awarded the Vanguard Award for being a voice for the LGBT community.

"The thing that means the most to me about an evening like this or why I want to fight and be outspoken about (gay rights) is there are so many people who are in desperate need of families," Barrymore said. "That is the most important thing in the world: that we take care of each other because this is a family."

President Obama mandated visitation rights for same-sex couples Thursday.

The decision marks Obama's first visible form of change regarding same-sex rights and equality in the United States.

The Washington Post reports Obama has been advised to make change in small steps, such as this, to achieve overall equality.

A poll in the New York Times says eight out of 10 people think same-sex couples deserve the same rights straight couples get when their partners are in the hospital.

The New York Times also reported the socially conservative Family Research Council stated they have "no objection" to individuals needing to make decisions with whomever they wish.

The unexpected move allegedly came after White House officials heard a story about a lesbian couple kept apart during a stay at a hospital and one of them collapsed and died.

"In this day and age, basic rights are deemed to be accorded to everyone. This allows him to give something to his base without worrying too much about backlash on the other side," Whit Aryes, a Republican pollster from Virginia said.

But gay rights activists are still wanting more.

"This is a small and welcome step forward," Evan Wolfson of Freedom to Marry said.
"This isn't about just hospital visitation but the full measure of protections that families seek and want, and the real answer here is to end the exclusion on marriage."

Corey Endl, 27, Wayne Gollmer, 40, and Lori Sobania, 50, all died in motorcycle related crashes in Wisconsin Saturday.

Endl had reportedly owned his bike for less than 48 hours before he was struck dead by a semi truck on Highway 85 in Dunn County Saturday.

Authorities say he is a Dunn County native.

Gollmer was reportedly not wearing a protective helmet at the time of his collision with a fence in Dane County.

William Sobania was driving Lori Sobania on a motorcycle northbound on Highway 35 when a vehicle drove into oncoming traffic, striking the two. Lori was killed and William was airlifted to the hospital.

William Sobania remains in critical condition.

Jeffrey Degn, 37, was found dead in the Crow River Sunday, according to McLeod county authorities.

A caller tipped off rescuers after reportedly seeing a red jacket floating down the river near Tartan Park. Degn was identified by his driver's license.

Degn fell into the river Tuesday, according to a witness.

The extensive rescue search involved sonar gear from Hennepin County. Boats and helicopters were used to try to find Degn this past week. Cadaver dogs were also used along the river to find Degn.

Over sixty-three thousand flights have been canceled in the past four days, according to BBC News. The cancellations come after a volcano in Iceland erupted last week, spreading ash through most of Europe's airways.

Millions of travelers were left stranded while waiting out the ash.

Over twenty countries in northern Europe was put under a no-fly zone over the weekend, but the Spanish Minister for Europe Diego Lopez Garrido said half the flights could resume Sunday.

However, Eurocontrol told BBC that despite half the landmass in Europe had cleared, flights were still not advised to go through those areas.

Test flights have since been sent out to check out the visibility.

"We observed no irregularities either during the flight or during the initial inspection on the ground," KLM's Peter Hartman told Al-Jazeera. "We hope to receive permission as soon as possible after that to start up our operation and to transport our passengers to their destinations."

Wind patterns later this week are expected to help blow away the ash, allowing for flights to continue as regularly scheduled.

This article written today details killings in a Bangkok protest Sunday.

Twenty people were killed. The people protesting were considered "loyal" to the Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra.

This article has no room to go into stereotypes about Thai or southeast Asians at all. It's strictly reporting an event in which people were killed. The closest I can see this article getting to being presumptuous is in it's wording of:

I wouldn't necessarily use such an active verb (like "are loyal") because what if some protesters weren't loyal and just wanted to protest for the sake of protesting? This isn't to say I think the article meant to generalize Thai people in the slightest. Some wording could have just been edited.

The story goes to substantive material simply by avoiding speculation on the protesters, where they're from, who they are, who they work for, any of that...just simply goes to say that they protested and 20 were killed.

My Thai friend Namgyal (a freshman at the U who grew up in Thailand and moved here before high school) doesn't think this article speculates on southeast Asian stereotypes at all. He thought the article went straight to the newsworthiness, as it ought to. He was, however, surprised that there was a protest because he grew up not seeing anything violent in Thailand.

78-year-old film star Elizabeth Taylor is reportedly engaged, according to Us Weekly.

According to ABC, she is engaged to her 49-year-old talent manager Jason Winters.

"It's no secret that they have been together forever, so it wouldn't be a surprise if they were engaged," a source told Us Magazine.

Us Weekly also reported on the actress' previous gushings about Winters, saying he's "one of the most wonderful men I've ever known, that's why I love him."

Representatives for Taylor will not comment on her relationship status but have told Access Hollywood that it is well documented that the pair have been together for some time.

This will be the ninth wedding for Taylor.

Nine Italians were arrested in Afghanistan Sunday for an alleged plot to kill Gulab Mangal, the governor of the province Helmand.

Three of the nine arrested are medical workers who worked at a Milan-based charity hospital in Lashkar Gah. They were wearing suicide bomb vests and had weapons at the hospital. The other six arrestees worked at the hospital as security guards, clerks and translators.

It is alleged that Emergency staff received $500,000 to kill Gulab Mangal.

The charity hospital, Emergency, says its employees are innocent.

Emergency said this in a statement:

Emergency spokeswoman claims the group arrested has no ties with the Taliban.

"It sounds quite ridiculous that they would be involved in any plot. They have spent the last few years in Afghanistan, helping and treating people for free," Cecilia Strada told Al-Jazeera.

President Obama said nuclear terrorism is the biggest threat to our country in a speech Sunday. He announced a three-day summit he will hold with four other world leaders hosting over 50 leaders from other nations.

Obama has already met with South African President Jacob Zuma.

The focus of this summit is to maintain optimal national security for all countries involved.

"If there was ever a detonation in New York City, or London, or Johannesburg, the ramifications economically, politically and from a security perspective would be devastating," president Obama said.

The summit was started because the administration is finding out that Al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups are mobilizing on their quest for nuclear weapons, which Obama said they "have no compunction of using."

Obama said the other world leaders involved have "very specific" ways to solve this international problem.

The president said securing loose nuclear arms is "a central part of the process" but will focus more attention on the short term.

Pictures and videos of the Turkish flag and a gun were put up on Eden Prairie High School's Web site by hackers Sunday.

Administrators found out about the attack and the site has since been disabled.

The viral attack stuck more than 100 websites globally, according to the school's Web page.

The hackers left other technology systems and Web sites affiliated with the school district alone.

The school district is going to keep Eden Prairie's Web site down until all issues have been taken care of.

David Distad, a farmer from near Rochester, was walking home from his brother's home early Thursday to find a group of furry puppies in the ditch.

"It was a surprise," Distad told WCCO. "They were laying out here on the ground, running back and forth."

Distad then called the Rochester Paws and Claws Humane Society. Rachel Ramin and her manager made their way out to Distad's farm to tend to the stranded puppies.

"We just started wrangling them up, getting down, giving them happy voices, so they weren't scared to come to us," Ramin told WCCO.

She said the dogs were lucky to have been found when they were. They are planned to be up for adoption in a week.

This article about an earthquake that hit Baja California uses numbers in a few ways to tell the story.

First of all, the quantifying units like 19 miles, 900,000 people, 100 miles and 18 years were used effectively. I don't think they're overwhelming at all. More than anything, they're necessary in some cases because the story is about an earthquake...numbers help people cognitively process how far loved ones might be from the epicenter of the quake. The reporter chose well to put these numbers into the story.

No math was used to crunch out numbers or anything like that. The numbers in this story relate directly to where the quake hit (19 miles southeast of the Mexicali border) and how many people are around the affected area (900,000 people). This is a straight fact block story, doling out the information un-analyzed.

The numbers come from seismologists analyzing the earthquake and institutional sources with population numbers but they aren't attributed to any one source in the story. These are just my assumptions as to where the reporter found them.

The much-anticipated Apple iPad went on sale in the U.S. Saturday. Droves of Apple fanatics waited in line outside stores to be among the first owners of the new touch-screen tablet technology.

Early morning buyers were greeted at Apple stores with applause and fanfare as they went in to purchase the iPad.

The hyped iPad didn't come about without criticism, however. Customers who bought the tablet complain about the lack of a USB port and embedded camera, something iPod Nanos even have nowadays. The iPad can also only run one application at a time.

But the criticisms don't outweigh the excitement over the device.

"I'm going home to play with it," iPad buyer Dimitri Bouniol told USA Today. He even uploaded his very own application "Elements" onto his brand new device.

Ham being sold at Kowalski's Markets have been put on voluntary recall as the meat might be infected with Listeria.

"Kowalski's Signature Smoked Ham" may have listeria, which causes listeriosis, a fatal disease that causes neck stiffness, nausea and possibly miscarriages.

KSTP reports that healthy people rarely contract listeriosis.

Lorentz Meats and Kowalski's are both recalling the ham with a sell-by date of 4/23 to 5/22. The USDA establishment number on the recalled ham is 21207.

The companies estimate no more than 100 hams to be affected by LIsteria.

Brittney Landsverk, 20, was in a car that plunged into the Cannon River, near Faribault early Friday morning but has yet to be found by rescuers.

Another passenger, Kami Krautkremer, tried pulling Landsverk out after the accident but she fell back into the car.

"I just can't let go of the fact that I was holding onto her hand and, like, I just can't let go of that. It just hurts me so much," Krautkremer said.

Rescuers spent all day Friday searching for Landsverk in a "laborious" effort to find the woman, according to Rice County Sheriff Richard Cook. The search was called off at nightfall.

The driver Mitch Bongers, 21, is in critical condition and two other passengers sustained injuries.

Passenger Alex Hruska was the one to go back for Landsverk.

"By that time Brittney just disappeared and i had no clue where she went," Hruska told KSTP. He said the water was too strong.

Rescuers have now employed search dogs to find Landsverk. Rice County officials hope to bring closure to Landsverk family today.

Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens will "surely retire" before Barack Obama's term is over.

Stevens said he will decide on the timing soon in a Web interview Saturday.

"I will surely do it while he's still president," Justice Stevens told The Washington Post. "The president and the Senate need plenty of time to fill a vacancy."

Hints at Steven's upcoming retirement surfaced when he hired only one law clerk this past September instead of the typical four clerks per justice for his fall term.

Justice Stevens will turn 90 this month. He has been serving on the Supreme Court since 1975 when he was appointed by President Gerald R. Ford.

A group of men dressed in Iraqi army uniforms shot and killed at least 25 people in a village south of Baghdad. According to Iraqi officials, the killers stormed 5 homes and opened fire.

The shooting was in Albusaifi, Iraq, which is dubbed a "Sunni enclave" by Al-Jazeera.

According to Iraqi police the victims, five of which were women, were handcuffed and shot in the head leaving them brutalized "beyond recognition."

A Baghdad security spokesman told Al-Jazeera a few of the victims were members of the Sons of Iraq, U.S.-allied Sunnis who fight al-Qaeda.

Saad al-Muyalibi, an Iraqi government official, said the killings could be political but not linked to the recent election.

24 people have been arrested after the shooting with links to al-Qaeda.