A band of fast-moving storms brought reports of more than one hundred possible tornadoes across the South on Saturday, toppling trees, snapping power lines and bringing the two-day death toll to 17. Emergency crews in Georgia, Mississippi and Alabama worked to assess the damage as the storm system moved north into the Carolinas and southern Virginia, according to the National Weather Service. Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley declared a state of emergency Friday after reports of tornado touchdowns in at least six counties. Three people were also killed in Autauga County after fallen trees crashed into mobile homes in the area, police said. Some of the death toll reads as follows: Three deaths in Washington County were reported, said Yasamie August, spokeswoman for the Alabama Emergency Management Agency. Two other deaths were previously reported in Oklahoma and seven in Arkansas. In Greene County, Mississippi, one death and six injuries were reported, officials said. And if that wasn’t bad enough… Rescue crews found a 34-year-old woman in bed with her 7-year-old, whom she had apparently come to comfort during the overnight storm, said Little Rock Fire Department Capt. Randy Davenport. The two were killed when a giant oak tree fell on the home, Davenport said. An 18-month-old child in another bedroom survived. Source
This sick f*ck thinks fondling little boys — his own nephews at that– is some kind of game! A Belgian Bishop who resigned last year after his shocking child abuse scandal was revealed, doesn’t seem to feel the least bit of shame about what he’s done. In addition to writing a tell-all, the perverted priest recently appeared in a televised interview where he made light of the abuse. A former bishop’s televised admission that he sexually abused two of his nephews caused an uproar in Belgium on Friday, with the prime minister, senior clergy and a prosecutor expressing shock at the way the ex-prelate made light of his offenses. In an interview that aired Thursday Roger Vangheluwe, the former bishop of Bruges, spoke of his sexual abuse as “a little game,” that involved fondling, but no “rough sex.” “I was never naked” and the abuse was never about “real sexuality,” said Vangheluwe, 74. He resigned as bishop in 2010 after admitting he had abused one of his nephews for 13 years – until the boy was 18. In the TV interview aired Thursday, he revealed that he had abused a second nephew “a few times, a couple of times, not for years.” Vangheluwe apologized for the pain he had caused, but denied being a pedophile. “I never felt the least attraction to a child,” he said. “And I still don’t. From me toward him (the nephew) there was a bit of intimacy that occurred each time we saw one another. And of which we later said, ‘That’s not right.’” The abuse occurred at sleep-over family gatherings, Vangheluwe said. Bruges Prosecutor Jean-Marie Berkvens said Friday the abuse of the second nephew lasted for two years. The victim was younger than 8 at the time. Both cases occurred too long ago to be prosecuted. Berkvens said he was “shocked” by how Vangheluwe “treats everything as if it were a trifle. I can assure you it was not.” Vangheluwe complained in the hour-long interview that the church was targeted by abuse probes, while other sectors, like sports organizations, were let off too easily. “Why is it different for priests than for other situations? Why should the church pay compensation and there is no compensation in other professions?” he asked. “The church should not be pushed in a special corner.” The interview took place in a wooded Catholic retreat in Ferte-Imbault in central France, where Vangheluwe has been sent by the Vatican. Throughout the interview, he sat relaxed, sometimes smiling and at times shrugging his shoulders as if to signal that the events he spoke of were not very serious. This dude can’t be serious… Source
We see the word “nerd” as a term of endearment. In fact, if loving nerds is wrong we don’t want to be right. A nerd is someone who stayed on his/her intellectual grind, regardless of negative peer pressure. Nerds burned the midnight oil in the library while everyone else was at the party. They toiled to earn multiple degrees and academic accolades. As a result, they are leaders, innovators and thinkers who are taking us all to the next level in science, medicine, and civil rights. Their smarts make them sexy, interesting and admirable. Here are 4 nerds that we just love to pieces. ( Continue… )
This is definitely a sad story, but it kinda makes you angry at the same time. LAWRENCE, Mass. — A woman who withheld potentially life-saving medications from her autistic, cancer-stricken son was sentenced Friday to eight to 10 years in prison by a judge who said her actions “really do chill one’s soul.” Kristen LaBrie was convicted of attempted murder Tuesday for withholding at least five months of at-home chemotherapy treatments for her son, Jeremy Fraser. The boy died at age 9 in 2009. LaBrie, 38, wept and apologized before Judge Richard Welch handed down her punishment in Lawrence Superior Court. “I am remorseful for my actions and I wish I could have done things differently,” LaBrie told the judge in a courtroom packed with sobbing family members and friends of both LaBrie and the boy’s father, Eric Fraser. “If I could do it differently, I would, because I certainly miss my son, and I think about him every day and I wish he could be with me and my family,” she said. Jeremy Fraser was severely autistic, nonverbal and developmentally delayed. He was diagnosed with non-Hodgkins lymphoma shortly after he turned 7 in 2006. His oncologist testified that she told LaBrie that her son’s cancer had a cure rate of about 85 percent to 90 percent under an intensive, two-year treatment plan that included doses of chemotherapy to be given during hospital stays and clinic visits as well as at-home medications LaBrie was supposed to administer at home. LaBrie testified that she largely followed doctor’s orders during the first four phases of his treatment. But she acknowledged that she stopped giving him the at-home medications during the final phase of treatment because she could not bear to see how much pain and suffering the side effects of the medication caused him. Many of LaBrie’s family attempted to plead with the judge to be lenient on her: LaBrie’s older son, Matthew, 18, wrote a letter to the judge asking for leniency. “My mother was nothing but unbelievably kind, caring and completely devoted to Jeremy in every aspect of her life,” he wrote. He described his mother sitting by Jeremy’s bedside while he was treated for cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital. “Something like that takes a toll on a person and after all that, could anybody so easily sit by and watch while a cure is making a child feel worse?” Jeremy’s uncle, Andrew Fraser, spoke to the judge before sentencing, saying he wanted to represent Jeremy and Jeremy’s father, Eric, who was killed in a motorcycle accident seven months after Jeremy died. Andrew Fraser said his brother would have asked for a “fair and just” punishment for LaBrie, despite the contentious relationship they had. Do you think that the sentence the judge handed down was fair, too harsh, or not harsh enough??? Source
SMH: Senators would have to push their own elevator buttons. House members would go without their free gym. Food on Capitol Hill would be sparse. And the lawmakers’ restrooms? Perhaps not as fresh. Congress would feel the pinch of a government shutdown, but nowhere near the pain that would be inflicted on the massive federal work force it is supposed to govern. Unlike the roughly 800,000 federal workers who would be affected, lawmakers get wide latitude deciding who is essential and who’s not in the fiefdoms of their own offices and committees. They also get to choose whether to give up their own pay during a shutdown — an option not afforded the furloughed. “How does that make any sense?” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who added that he will forgo a paycheck for the length of a budget impasse. More than two dozen senators of both parties took the same pledge as the clocked Friday toward the midnight shutdown deadline. House Speaker John Boehner on Friday told other lawmakers that he planned to return the pay he would be entitled to during a shutdown, In a message to House members, he noted that the Constitution forbids lawmakers from changing their compensation or the president’s in mid-term, but there is no prohibition on lawmakers refusing their pay when a shutdown occurs. Rank-and-file House members and senators make $174,000 a year, with the leaders of each party making more. Boehner receives $223,500. President Barack Obama’s annual salary is $400,000. Many members of Congress already donate all or some of their pay to charity, but those swept into office last year by the populist, tea party-tinged wave of the midterm elections are especially sensitive to the inconsistency of getting paid — more than most Americans — for a job not done. “I’ll find a way to give it back,” said Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner, a member of the Republican class of freshman that handed control of the House to the GOP. Gardner said he gave up his pay in the state Legislature under similar circumstances. “We aren’t different than anybody else.” The Capitol Hill workforce is the size of a small city, tens of thousands of people who protect, feed, shuttle, schedule, advise, clean up after and otherwise support the 535 members of Congress. During a shutdown, deciding who and what services are essential generally falls to the lawmakers, with advice from Congress’ experts on the subject. The House Administration Committee, for example, recommended that lawmakers use three criteria when deciding staffing. Employees whose jobs “are associated with constitutional responsibilities, the protection of human life or the protection of property” should be considered essential, the committee said. Three-fourths of the Architect of the Capitol’s 2,600-person workforce would stay home, severely curtailing the many services it provides, according to spokeswoman Eva Malecki. That includes limited food service and even restroom cleaning — both the public facilities and those in the lawmakers’ offices. It also means limited response to emergency service calls for help on plumbing, electrical, elevator or other problems, she said. Expect a police force big enough to keep the campus secure but severely scaled back, said Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer. That means one door open per building both for lawmakers, their staffs and the tourists Congress is obligated to admit when the legislature is in session. But since the Capitol Visitor Center would be closed, tour guidance would be mostly up to the lawmakers themselves. And if they feel like escaping to the comfort of, say, the members-only balcony just off the House floor? Lawmakers might have to find an officer with a key to unlock the door, according to knowledgeable officials who demanded anonymity to be candid. Members would have to line up for everything from elevators to news conferences, since there would only be one act of televised grandstanding allowed at a time, Gainer said. And food? Sparse enough to constitute “a mandatory diet,” he quipped. Source
Eugene Quantron McCoy ain’t sh*t smh. A 21-year-old man has been charged with three counts of murder and one charge of aggravated assault in a stabbing attack on four people at a home near Lithonia Sunday evening. Eugene Quatron McCoy was charged early Monday and was taken to the DeKalb County Jail on the charges. The only survivor to the attack was a woman who ran to another subdivision nearby after escaping. She called police from there. She was hospitalized in critical condition as of Monday afternoon. The fourth victim was actually his teenaged sister. And despite the fact that he still technically lived with them, a restraining order would make it seem as though McCoy’s mom wanted him no where near her other children. With good reason. According to court records, there is a history of family violence. McCoy has been arrested six times prior to Monday, including twice for allegedly violating family violence orders. All the cases were before DeKalb County judges. The first arrest was in 2007 when McCoy was sentenced to 12 months’ probation for burglary, but that case did not involve family violence. Last May 26, McCoy pleaded guilty to violation of a temporary protective order and was put on probation for a year and ordered to have no contact with the victim. McCoy pleaded guilty last Sept. 8 to disorderly conduct and was sentenced to 23 days of confinement and 12 months probation. Then on Dec. 8, McCoy pleaded no contest to family violence battery, disorderly conduct and criminal trespass. He was sentenced to 14 days in jail and two years probation. SMH. Source 1 Source 2
Well, damn… OYCE, Wash. — Authorities in Washington state said a man who called 911 to report that his wife had collapsed apparently suffered a heart attack and died as he was trying to revive her. The Clallam County Sheriff’s Office said when deputies and medics arrived eight minutes later on Wednesday night at the home near Joyce, they found the man slumped over her body. He apparently had been attempting CPR. Both died. He was 60. She was 59. Their names weren’t released because family members had not been told. The Peninsula Daily News reported the deaths appear to be from natural causes and no crime is suspected. R.I.P. to this loving couple. Sad story. But at least he went out showing how much he cared for her. *wipes tear* Source
