endlesschatter

This is a kinda interesting story from St Louis, shows how stupid some people are and how desperate some lawyers are…

Suit claims private guard failed to thwart Kirkwood council shooting – STLtoday.com

Suit claims private guard failed to thwart Kirkwood council shooting
By Heather Ratcliffe
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
02/05/2010

KIRKWOOD — A lawsuit faults an unarmed private security officer for allowing Charles “Cookie” Thornton into a Kirkwood City Council meeting the night he fatally shot six people and was killed by police.

“This wasn’t some fellow that was unknown to the city of Kirkwood,” said Chet Pleban, attorney for the daughter of Constance Karr, a council member and mayoral candidate slain that night.

“This was a fellow who had an extremely adversarial history with the city and he’s permitted to walk into the city building without restriction and without any sort of scrutiny whatsoever, carrying a sign and two guns after shots were heard in the parking lot.”

I guess this means if a person goes to a city counsel meeting and voices opposition, then they should barred from their rights to attend meetings.

A police report says the private officer, Ronald L. Whitehead, saw Thornton arrive outside City Hall the night of Feb. 7, 2008, and went upstairs to the meeting chamber to alert police Officer Thomas Ballman, who was providing security inside. The report says Ballman remained seated.

It also says that Whitehead returned to the lobby by the time Thornton passed him on the way to the chamber. Ballman would be among those Thornton killed.

The suit, filed Jan. 29 in St. Louis County Circuit Court, seeks in excess of $25,000 from Whitehead and his employer, Whelan Security.

Whitehead could not be reached Thursday for comment. Whelan’s president, Greg Twardowski, issued a statement saying that neither the company nor its employee was responsible for the loss of life. “While our continued condolences go out to the victims and their families … the claims asserted against us will be vigorously defended, and we are confident that they will be found to lack merit,” he wrote.

City officials had no comment about the lawsuit.

Pleban said that Thornton was carrying a large cardboard sign, so Whitehead should have known he intended to disrupt the meeting.

Unknown to those in City Hall, Thornton had shot and killed police Sgt. William Biggs outside. Inside, he killed Karr, Ballman, Public Works Director Ken Yost and Councilman Mike Lynch outright and wounded Mayor Mike Swoboda, who died months later.

Kirkwood officials hired Whalen several years earlier to provide one guard at two council meetings a month, said Beth Von Behren, a city spokeswoman. Although details of the contract with Whelan were not immediately available, the city spends about $3,400 a year for the service, Behren said.

Thornton had previously disrupted meetings to draw attention to claims the city had mistreated him over ordinance violations and other issues.

I guess there the person pushing for this lawsuit wished for the unarmed guard to have jumped in front of a bullet and maybe there would have been one less for him to use elsewhere…? Are they suing the family of the armed guard “Ballman” for not doing his job? How about the other dead police sargents family outside? Are they being sued… I mean they let the gun wielding person past them.

February 5th, 2010 | Tags: death, Open, stupid people | Category: Government and Politics | Leave a comment

Illegal immigrants’ kids total 4 million, study says

Illegal immigrants’ kids total 4 million, study says

12:00 AM CDT on Wednesday, April 15, 2009

By DIANNE SOLÍS / The Dallas Morning News
dsolis@dallasnews.com

The number of children born in the U.S. into families with at least one parent here illegally is growing, posing thorny policy questions for U.S. and Mexican officials.

A study released Tuesday by the Pew Hispanic Center showed that there were 4 million such children in 2008, up from 2.7 million five years earlier. All children born in this country are U.S. citizens, even if their parents are not.

Texas is home to an estimated 1.4 million illegal immigrants. And the Dallas region has the nation’s third-highest population of those born in Mexico. Mexicans represent nearly 60 percent of illegal immigrants nationwide, according to the Pew study.

One of those 4 million children is Jorge Barraza, who lives in Mesquite with his mother. His father has been barred from re-entry into the U.S. because he came here illegally more than a decade ago. Jorge’s parents have lived apart for more than a year.

“We were people who took the initiative to do the right thing,” said Jorge’s mother, Yvette Medrano, in referring to her attempt to legalize her husband’s immigration status.

“We should have priority in any legalization,” she said. “Anyone separated from a parent is in extreme hardship.”

The federal government maintains a different view.

At Immigration and Customs Enforcement, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, spokesman Carl Rusnok said, “We recognize that children are impacted by enforcement of the law. However, ultimately parents, who are in violation of the law, are responsible for the negative impact to their families.”

I guess American isn’t being American but being in America.

April 15th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, stupid people | Category: Government and Politics, Open | Leave a comment

You know if you had a nice sized family, you could have stole the election from the person who only got 23 votes.

04/07/2009 – Dead mayor re-elected – STLtoday.com

Dead mayor re-elected
By Jim Salter
ASSOCIATED PRESS
04/07/2009

Harry Stonebraker was re-elected mayor of Winfield on Tuesday — about a month after his death.

Ballots had already been printed and absentee voting had already begun when Stonebraker died of a heart attack at age 69 on March 11. He won easily in Tuesday’s general election with 206 votes, or 90 percent. Alderman Bernie Panther got the other 23 votes.

Lincoln County Clerk Elaine Luck said she wasn’t surprised, noting Stonebraker was a popular mayor who helped lead the community of 1,500 through the devastating 2008 flood, when a levee breach caused by a burrowing muskrat left about 100 homes with damage.

“I figured he’d win because he seemed to get even more popular after he died, just like Carnahan,” Luck said.

The election recalled Missouri’s 2000 Senate race, when Democrat Mel Carnahan died in a plane crash just weeks before the November election, too late to have his name removed, but defeated incumbent Republican John Ashcroft. Carnahan’s wife, Jean, was eventually appointed to the Senate seat until a special election in 2002, when she was defeated by Republican Jim Talent.

Luck said aldermen will appoint a mayor who will serve until the next municipal election in April 2010, when a special election will select a mayor for the remaining year of the term.

Stonebraker was a lifelong resident of the Winfield area and a retired construction superintendent. He had nearly completed his third two-year term as mayor.

Winfield is about 50 miles northwest of St. Louis.

April 8th, 2009 | Tags: stupid people | Category: Open | Leave a comment

03/03/2009 – Ex-StL officer guilty of illicitly obtaining information – STLtoday.com

Ex-StL officer guilty of illicitly obtaining information
By Robert Patrick
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
03/03/2009

St. Louis — A former St. Louis police officer pleaded guilty Monday to a federal charge, admitting she illegally used a law enforcement database to help a friend find out whether a secret arrest warrant had been issued.

Marla A. Arinze, 43, of St. Louis, was overheard on a wiretap in another criminal case agreeing to run a name through the REJIS database to search for immigration warrants, according to court testimony.

Arinze admitted checking on a name for Ghandi Hisham Hamed, who is currently facing a charge in a multidefendant racketeering conspiracy, bank fraud and stolen property case. Federal officials say that members of the “Hamed Organization,” headed by Bassam H. “Sam” Hamed of Florissant, were transferring money to “entities” in the Palestinian territories.

Defense lawyers insist their clients were simply sending money back to help relatives at home.

Ghandi Hamed’s lawyer, Larry Hale, declined to comment.

Arinze now faces probation or up to six months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines for the felony charge, unauthorized access to a protected computer.

She resigned from the force while under investigation by the internal affairs unit. The investigation began after the FBI notified the department about the allegations.

Arinze graduated from the Police Academy in 1993 and worked in homicide and the city’s 3rd, 4th and 9th districts.

In 2006, a former St. Louis officer was sentenced to more than eight years in prison for using REJIS to help the boss of a heroin ring identify a possible informer.

March 3rd, 2009 | Tags: idiots, people, police, stupid people | Category: Open | Leave a comment

I dare anyone to say they don’t think Capitol Punishment shouldn’t be applied to this person.
Huck pleads guilty as sex offender – Daily Journal Online News

Huck pleads guilty as sex offender
Ste. Genevieve man admits to 30 sexual acts involving children
By TERESA RESSEL
Daily Journal Staff Writer
Saturday, February 21, 2009
William E. Huck Sr.
FARMINGTON — The husband of a Ste. Genevieve home-based daycare operator has pleaded guilty to seven sex-related charges, but in doing so actually admitted to all 30 alleged/charged sexual acts involving seven children.

William E. Huck Sr., 62, will be sentenced to life in prison. How many years that actually is will be up to the judge at the April 17 sentencing.

Before the plea hearing began, Huck’s attorney, Joseph M. Hadican of St. Louis and the Ste. Genevieve County Prosecutor Tim Inman came to an agreement that Huck would plead guilty as a predatory sexual offender. As part of the stipulation for being found a predatory sexual offender, Huck admitted that he committed numerous acts, which included all 30 alleged sexual acts involving seven children.

This increased the range of punishment and gave Circuit Court Judge Kenneth W. Pratte the power to decide how many years Huck must serve in prison before he is considered for parole or if he could be considered for parole at all.

Huck pleaded guilty to two counts of statutory sodomy and five counts of child molestation. The victims involved five boys and two girls, ranging in age from infant to 5 years old. The incidents occurred between 1998 and 2007.

Huck, who appeared thinner and spoke with a soft voice, gave brief details of each of the seven incidents. The statutory sodomy charge alleged deviate sexual intercourse and the child molestation charges alleged touching.

One of Huck’s cases had been set for trial next month in St. Francois County on a change of venue from Ste. Genevieve County.

Huck was arrested in March of 2007 and reportedly confessed to molesting several children over the past three decades.

According to police reports, the abuse happened during times when Huck’s wife was away from the center. Authorities have said Huck’s wife was unaware of the abuse. He used fear to manipulate at least one child, according to police.

Huck, a retired railroad worker, had no previous criminal record.

Inman said that Huck’s wife was cooperative in the investigation and was not charged. She reportedly was present at the hearing with the victims’ families.

This sick puppy needs to go.
He doesn’t need to stick around as a punishment.
He doesn’t need to learn a lesson.
He doesn’t need the chance of some bleeding heart lecturing people that someday he may be “rehabilitated” and can again join society.
The freak needs a quick clean exit from the breathing world… short sweet amd out of here.

February 21st, 2009 | Tags: idiots, people, stupid people | Category: Beyond usual, Open | Leave a comment

I don’t know if I should lead this off as… “He’s at it again…” or “He’s still at it…” but which ever line it would have been the bottom line is that good ol’ Rev Al Sharpton is out and about trying to push his old ragged race card again. It really is kinda sad (and tiresome for the millions of us that hear his raciest comments) that all he has in life is a obsession to try and find anything he can twist into a dig against black people.
Uncle Al’s latest tirade is over a cartoon saying a monkey wrote the stimulus bill.

New York Post Chimp Cartoon Compares Stimulus Author To Dead Primate

“The cartoon in today’s New York Post is troubling at best given the historic racist attacks of African-Americans as being synonymous with monkeys. One has to question whether the cartoonist is making a less than casual reference to this when in the cartoon they have police saying after shooting a chimpanzee that “Now they will have to find someone else to write the stimulus bill.”

“Being that the stimulus bill has been the first legislative victory of President Barack Obama (the first African American president) and has become synonymous with him it is not a reach to wonder are they inferring that a monkey wrote the last bill?”

The New York Times (who printed the cartoon) at least had the intelligence not to have been intimidated by the racist loudmouth. Amazing enough the comments surrounding the cartoon are as bias as the image itself. Black responders jump on the racist bandwagon even to the point of saying the cartoon was done in black and white obviously that even being a issue…

Beau Friedlander: The New York Post Jumps the Shark
The New York Post today ran a cartoon that splashed classic dog-whistle racism (in black and white no less).

Reena Walker:
Please join our Boycott the New York Post Group on Facebook. We have a partial list of advertisers that we will be boycotting if they continue to sponsor this racist rag, The New York Post. The history of this paper has been incendiary and racist and this is the last straw. This goes beyond Sharpton and Obama. This is a perpetuated insulting stereotypical image of black people and the police shooting them down in the street has always been a position that the NY Post has stood in justification of. The fact that the stimulus bill was signed by a black man clearly shows the racial connotation. If one knows anything about the history of negative stereotypical images in this country then one could not help but immediately see the provocation here. The NY Post can no longer be allowed to get away with this.

What a sad world to live in. I guess even me thinking that the idiots that pull the race card are racist is racist, just shows how far those that want to whine for attention can get the attention when they want to call a heart a spade.

Even better the one or two people that made comments that the cartoon didn’t mean anything racist got hammered for obviously being so racist they could see the cartoon was racist! lol

February 21st, 2009 | Tags: idiots, Open, stupid people | Category: Entertainment, Open | Comments (1)

This of course isn’t a done deal (wink wink nod nod) but the S.O.B. should be going to jail not getting college credits for sex ed classes. Okay… he is going to jail for 4 months and while that might be just if it was just a slight “transgression” but he is charged with multiple counts.

Ex-mayor gets prison time for sex offense | News-Leader.com | Springfield News-Leader

Ex-mayor gets prison time for sex offense
Kauffman enticed what he thought was a 13-year-old.

Dirk VanderHart • News-Leader • January 24, 2009

The former mayor of the small St. Clair County town of Collins could spend four years in prison for enticing what he thought was a 13-year-old girl over the Internet.

That’s the sentence imposed on Allen D. Kauffman by a Newton County judge Friday morning.

But, just as the girl Kauffman parlayed with online turned out to be a detective, the judge’s sentence might not be what it appears.

According to Kauffman’s attorney, Dee Wampler, the man will complete a four-month sex offender treatment course in prison. He’ll start next month.

When the course is finished, Newton County Circuit Judge Tim Perigo could release Kauffman, with certain stipulations, Wampler said.

“That is our hope,” Wampler said. “The statute says it’s up to the judge.”

Kauffman, the former mayor of Collins, who also was the pastor of Temple Lot Church there, pleaded guilty to the felony count in December.

He was originally charged with multiple counts of enticement of a child.

In online messages, Kauffman asked the “girl” for sex and for nude pictures and encouraged her to have sex with a girlfriend in front of a Webcam so Kauffman could watch.

The man resigned from his mayoral office after he was charged in Newton County –where he believed the girl lived — in January.

In May, another sexual misconduct charge was filed against Kauffman, this one in Cole County.

He pleaded guilty in July, and received five years probation.

Even though his client had a prior conviction for a sex crime, Wampler said the deal the man received Friday is fair.

He said Kauffman has shown remorse for his crimes, and wept in court Friday in front of friends and family there to support him.

No matter when Kauffman gets out of prison, he’ll be required to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life.

I guess even a bigger crime in this article is the Judge in the case. It sure would be interesting to see their past decisions and see if others are given such lite (at least in my opinion) sentences.

January 24th, 2009 | Tags: idiots, people, politics, stupid people | Category: Rants | Leave a comment

This is a pretty good read, but I do have a couple of questions.
First this is being reported from Kansas City (via St Louis). I don’t know if it was in Kansas Cities news papers or not but it wasn’t in Springfields papers and while that is interesting in it’s own right… wasn’t it interesting that a block of road was suddenly renamed after Rosa Parks? I mean to be realistic I thought it was kinda funny at first when I read that, but upon thinking about it for a second, I realized that someone went out of their way to push this regulation through to purposely discredit a legal organization and the city and state when along with it.
I think maybe a “Jim Crow Highway” needs to be instituted… maybe the group cleaning up the trash near Springfield will push for that name change.

01/22/2009 – Missouri neo-Nazi group adopts a highway – STLtoday.com

Missouri neo-Nazi group adopts a highway
By Margaret Stafford
ASSOCIATED PRESS
01/22/2009

KANSAS CITY, Mo. –A neo-Nazi group has adopted a half-mile section of highway in Springfield as part of the state’s litter prevention program.

The Springfield unit of the National Socialist Movement has committed to cleaning up trash along the section of Highway 160 near the city limits in west Springfield.

Two signs noting the group’s membership in the Adopt-A-Highway program went up last October but drew attention only recently when the group picked up litter as part of a gathering in Springfield.

The state says it had no way to reject the group’s application. A 2005 U.S. Supreme Court ruling arising from a similar effort by the Ku Klux Klan says membership in the Adopt-A-Highway program can’t be denied because of a group’s political beliefs.

“It’s a First Amendment thing, and we can’t discriminate as long as they pick up the trash,” said Bob Edwards, a spokesman for the transportation department’s office in Springfield.

The NSM Springfield unit decided to take part in the highway project because it wants to clean up the community, said Ariana Glass, a 16-year-old member of the youth division of the group.

“We wanted to prove that we’re not out here just to have fun, we want to make the community look good,” Glass said.

The group heard both honks of support and jeers when about 30 members and supporters picked up trash last Saturday. Greene County sheriff’s deputies ticketed one man who group members say became threatening but there were no other incidents, she said.

“As far as I could see we got as much support and honks, people waving,” Glass said.

Edwards said his department had received only one phone call asking why the group was allowed to adopt the highway. Louise Whall, spokeswoman for the city of Springfield, was not aware of the group’s action until contacted by the AP, but said the city had no jurisdiction because it’s a state program.

Members of the highway cleanup program are required to clean up trash at least four times a year. Edwards said about 600 groups pick up trash in the 12 counties surrounding Springfield.

In the early 2000s, Missouri went to the U.S. Supreme Court to fight efforts by the Ku Klux Klan to clean sections of state highways.

At the time, the state could reject applications for the Adopt-A-Highway program from groups that denied membership based on race or had a history of violence.

The Klan challenged those regulations and in 2000 the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals struck down the prohibitions.

The department adopted new highway cleanup rules, but a federal judge again ruled for the Klan in October 2003, saying the revised rules weren’t substantially different than those previously struck down.

The state appealed, but was rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court in January 2005.

In general, the state can deny an organization’s application only if it has members who have been convicted of violent criminal activity within the past 10 years.

After the state dropped the Klan from cleaning up a section of Interstate 55 near St. Louis in 2001 for failing to pick up trash, the stretch of highway was renamed the “Rosa Parks Highway” in honor of the black woman arrested in 1955 when she refused to give up her seat to a white man on a city bus in Montgomery, Ala.

It also makes me wonder if the Klan did or didn’t pick up on the area they were suppose to. I mean if I didn’t like a group and that group was listed as the people whom were to pick up trash in a specif area… would I be too far off to give them some work?

———————
It turns out the Springfield paper (at least online) has a little article on the neo-Nazi’s of course it came a day later as if to say “we better print something if others know about it…”

January 24th, 2009 | Tags: Government and Politics, Open, stupid people | Category: Open | Leave a comment

I’m not saying there is anything wrong with this… but… if ya think about it, this wasn’t a spur of the moment thing, unless the CIA person just happens to carry his prescribed medication with him in the field… just in case he needed a hard on.
Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan – washingtonpost.com

Little Blue Pills Among the Ways CIA Wins Friends in Afghanistan

By Joby Warrick
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 26, 2008; Page A01

The Afghan chieftain looked older than his 60-odd years, and his bearded face bore the creases of a man burdened with duties as tribal patriarch and husband to four younger women. His visitor, a CIA officer, saw an opportunity, and reached into his bag for a small gift.

Four blue pills. Viagra.

“Take one of these. You’ll love it,” the officer said. Compliments of Uncle Sam.

The enticement worked. The officer, who described the encounter, returned four days later to an enthusiastic reception. The grinning chief offered up a bonanza of information about Taliban movements and supply routes — followed by a request for more pills.

For U.S. intelligence officials, this is how some crucial battles in Afghanistan are fought and won. While the CIA has a long history of buying information with cash, the growing Taliban insurgency has prompted the use of novel incentives and creative bargaining to gain support in some of the country’s roughest neighborhoods, according to officials directly involved in such operations.

In their efforts to win over notoriously fickle warlords and chieftains, the officials say, the agency’s operatives have used a variety of personal services. These include pocketknives and tools, medicine or surgeries for ailing family members, toys and school equipment, tooth extractions, travel visas, and, occasionally, pharmaceutical enhancements for aging patriarchs with slumping libidos, the officials said.

“Whatever it takes to make friends and influence people — whether it’s building a school or handing out Viagra,” said one longtime agency operative and veteran of several Afghanistan tours. Like other field officers interviewed for this article, he spoke on the condition of anonymity when describing tactics and operations that are largely classified.

On second thought was this a prescription drug that the CIA was giving out without a license? hmmmm… I wonder if the CIA could get sued if the old guy had a heart attack from excitement or if the wives could sue the US…? 4 wives… shouldn’t the religious right be up in arms about this? I mean WE CAN’T HAVE 4 WIVES…
Just think the more these tribal leaders become like the US the less freedoms they will have… I’m sure the number of wives they have will be outlawed… if not then why can’t we do the same?

December 26th, 2008 | Tags: Government and Politics, politics, stupid people | Category: Government and Politics, Open | Leave a comment