Eideard

A coroner has condemned a “cowardly and callous” thief who saw a man drowning in a canal but – instead of stopping to help – stole his bicycle…

An inquest heard how Adam Lowther was cycling along a towpath by the Leeds-Liverpool canal on July 30 last year when he saw 51-year-old Michael Houghton, lying face-down in shallow water. Seeing the retired businessman’s mountain bike beside the water, he decided to swap it for his own, which he claimed had a puncture, Leeds Coroner’s Court heard.

Even though he could see Mr Houghton lying in the water, he hid his own bicycle in some bushes nearby, and rode Mr Houghton’s home. He then searched on the internet to find out how much the £150 bicycle was worth but pawned it for just £20…

About 10 minutes after Lowther left the scene, James Atkinson, a cyclist, and William Bentall, a jogger, pulled Mr Houghton out of the water, raised the alarm and administered first aid until paramedics arrived.

He airlifted to hospital but died three days later.

The inquest heard that Mr Houghton, a father of three, had taken early retirement from his successful business and banking career two years earlier to care for his disabled wife. He was on a regular cycle ride from his home in Horsforth, West Yorks, into Leeds, when he is thought to have come off his bicycle and fallen into the water…

Lowther claimed that he did nothing to help because he assumed Mr Houghton was already dead…“I had nothing to hide … all I did was take the bike.”

He added: “I’m not a thief, I found a push bike, I didn’t see the body in the water until I had got on the bike…”

What a scumball! He’s already done a few months for stealing the bike. The coroner’s inquest couldn’t legally find anything else to charge him with – lacking a Good Samaritan Law.

I’d put him in the stocks on the town square.

February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011

Veteran journalist Mark Haines, a fixture on CNBC for 22 years, died unexpectedly Tuesday evening. He was 65 years old.

Haines, founding anchor of CNBC’s morning show “Squawk Box,” was co-anchor of the network’s “Squawk on the Street” program, providing insight and commentary sometimes humorous and occasionally acerbic.

CNBC President Mark Hoffman called Haines a “building block” of the financial network’s programming. Hoffman said Haines died at his home. “With his searing wit, profound insight and piercing interview style, he was a constant and trusted presence in business news for more than 20 years,” Hoffman said in a statement to CNBC employees. “From the dotcom bubble to the tragic events of 9/11 to the depths of the financial crisis, Mark was always the unflappable pro.

“Mark loved CNBC and we loved him back. He will be deeply missed.”

Haines may be best remembered for his calming and commanding presence during the 9/11 tragedy when he reacted unflappably to the furious stream of incoming rumor and even more astonishing truth with a professionalism that rivaled any television anchor, said CNBC senior economics reporter Steve Liesman…

Haines served as a news anchor for KYW-TV in Philadelphia, WABC-TV in New York, and WPRI-TV in Providence, before joining CNBC.

Haines held a law degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and was a member of the New Jersey State Bar. In 2000, he was named to Brill’s Content’s “Influence List.”

His death quickly reverberated through the financial community…

Traders at the normally bustling New York Stock Exchange paused for a moment of silence…

Haines was known for a lawyer-like determination to get at the truth, pressing guests for answers if they tried to avoid his pointed questions. CNBC reporters and anchors remembered Haines holding them up to the same standard…

I’m an old fart who didn’t get serious about investing till this last Great Recession pissed me off. Between incompetent mutual fund managers and the ever-increasing blather of “news” channels – I found myself watching the two professional financial channels to see what was going on in the real world.

Tears fill our eyes, sadness our hearts. He will be missed.

Frank Buckles – dead at 110
Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission

West Virginia’s two Democratic senators blamed House Speaker John Boehner after their hopes of having the remains of World War I veteran Frank Buckles honored in the Capitol Rotunda were dashed, at least for now.

Sens. Jay Rockefeller and Joe Manchin III both released statements saying the Ohio Republican had blocked the Capitol honor…

Buckles died Sunday on his farm in Charles Town, W.Va., at the age of 110. He had been the last surviving American veteran of World War I.

The episode turned what West Virginia lawmakers had hoped would be easy approval for the rare honor for Buckles into a finger-pointing dispute with partisan overtones.

It was unclear late Thursday how the disagreement would end. Asked whether Boehner would be supportive if the Senate approved a resolution allowing Buckles’ remains to lie in the Rotunda, [Boehner's spokesman] said, “We’ll see what the Senate does.”

The honor requires a congressional resolution or the approval of congressional leaders, according to the office of the architect of the Capitol.

The bodies of prominent citizens have been displayed in the Rotunda on 30 occasions, starting in 1852 with Henry Clay, a Kentucky senator and congressman. Others include Presidents Lincoln and Reagan, unknown soldiers from America’s wars and civil rights hero Rosa Parks…

Members of both parties of West Virginia’s congressional delegation had introduced resolutions to permit Buckles’ casket to be honored in the Capitol. The House version was sponsored by Rep. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va…

In his final years, Buckles had campaigned for greater recognition for the 4.7 million Americans who joined the military in 1917 and 1918 during World War I. Among his goals was a national memorial in Washington for those who served in that conflict.

President Obama has ordered that flags on U.S. government buildings fly at half staff on the day Buckles is buried. His family has said they plan to inter him at Arlington.

No one is really certain why Boehner would deny the honor to Frank Buckles. Maybe he thinks we were on the wrong side in World War One?

This is NOT a medical facility!

US police investigating the death of a UK woman who received a cosmetic injection in her buttocks in a hotel room have questioned a woman believed to be linked to the procedure.

Claudia Seye Aderotimi, 20, who had travelled from London, died in hospital in Pennsylvania on Tuesday after an injection of silicone, officials said.

Police executed a search warrant on Tuesday at the home of a woman believed to have set up the appointment online…

The London resident was pronounced dead early on Tuesday after suffering from chest pains and breathing trouble.
Ms Aderotimi’s cause of death is listed as undetermined, pending further studies.

Detectives said the liquid silicone injection, thought to have been arranged over the internet, took place at a hotel near Philadelphia International Airport…

Buttock enhancement treatments are most popular in South America, where many people see a fuller, shapely bottom as a sign of attractiveness – but they are becoming more common in the US. The injection of liquid silicone for cosmetic purposes is banned here, but there is a growing black market.

On some websites and chatrooms, it is possible to buy a course of injections and get instructions on how to administer them at home. There have also been reports of so-called “pump-up parties“, where women and members of the transgender community inject themselves to enhance their feminine appearance. Figures on the numbers injured or killed by the treatments are not officially recorded, but the number of reported cases are on the rise…

Ms Aderotimi reportedly had the buttocks injection on Monday and a companion had a hip augmentation.

Investigators are now pursuing a second woman who is believed to have performed the procedure, Lt Evers said.

Beauty should remain skin deep. Going further – you risk becoming a statistic on the obituary page.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Two doctors who performed breast enlargement surgery on a German porn actress have been charged with negligent manslaughter after the woman’s death, a prosecutor’s spokesman said.

The 23-year-old woman, identified only as “Sexy Cora,” fell into a coma during the surgery at the Alster Clinic in Hamburg on January 11, according to Wilhelm Moellers, the spokesman for the Hamburg state prosecutor. She died Thursday.

Doctors who responded to an emergency call to the clinic called police and filed charges that started the investigation of the clinic, Moellers said.

A statement from the clinic said the doctors were “extremely upset and deeply regret the death of patient C.W.” and that they are giving “full and complete support” to investigators.

“As matters stand currently a defect in the anesthetizing device can be ruled out,” the clinic statement said. “The claim that the monitoring could have given readings other than the actual vital functions of the patient has nothing to do with the facts and has no connection to reality…”

“Erroneous behavior by the doctors is unproven and at this point just an ‘assessment’ by one of the emergency medical personnel who’d brought Ms. W to the University Clinic Hamburg,” the clinic said…

Everyone’s standing in line, jostling each other to be certain the world knows they’re not to blame.

One of the few advantages of growing up in and around the Big Apple is the music. The most esoteric ethnic music, the world’s greatest classical musicians want to perform there, and more than anything – for me – it’s the center of the jazz universe.

I listened to Billy Taylor in clubs all over NYC, on the radio, the work he did on television. I was also fortunate to have a mutual friend who he’d visit a few times a year – and I would drop everything to hang out and enjoy whatever sessions and dialogue resulted.

Now, another part of the creative world has gone. We have Billy’s music forever. There just won’t be anymore added to that special catalogue of creativity.

A Warren [Michigan] woman accused of telling her 12-year-old son he had cancer and holding fundraisers to bilk people was formally arraigned in 39th District Court.

Carol Lynn Schnuphase, 47, is charged with second-degree child abuse and two counts of taking money under false pretenses. The child abuse charge carries a penalty of four years in prison and the false pretense charges are five-year felonies…

“She shaved her son’s head and eyebrows every other week,” said Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith. “She crushed tablets and put them in his applesauce to make him appear lethargic and as if he was going through chemotherapy.

“We’ve never seen anything like it.”

Smith said Schuphrase, who is unemployed, used money from the fund-raisers to pay bills and everyday expenses. When authorities removed her son from her home this summer, she told people that he died and that she needed money for his funeral, Smith said…

Local churches held fundraisers for the boy, officials said. One event, held at St. Thomas Church in Eastpointe, raised more than $7,000. Schnuphase allegedly accepted the donations as a check in her name.

Every day, some scumball figures out how to make crime just a little sleazier.

A British man has died following a sado-masochistic sex session with a woman who claims to be “Europe’s most perverted dominatrix”.

The 58-year-old client, who drove a BMW car, collapsed in a shower after an “intense session” with prostitutes calling themselves Mistress Lucrezia and Mistress Juno, at their villa near Brecht, Belgium…

They have been arrested and charged with assault and battery leading to death, without intent to kill…

Mistress Lucrezia, 46, has a website which says she considers herself a “Creative Artist Perverted Sadist” who offers “bondage, humiliation, torture, education and cross-dressing”.

It says: “Sessions can last from one hour, and even up to three days.

“I specialise in extreme medical and long sessions. Beware, I am not a softie.

“I’m sadistic, intelligent and perverse. In my nature, I’m a sadist of the worst kind…”

A female neighbour: “This is a quiet street where families live. But after her arrival here there were suddenly all these expensive cars arriving, many with foreign license plates.

“I finally complained to the police after scantily-clad people were turning up on my doorstep because they had got the wrong house.

Har!

William S. Burroughs, 1960

Brian Duffy, whose photographs helped define the mood of the Swinging Sixties, has died aged 76.

Together with David Bailey and Terence Donovan, Duffy formed part of the trinity of photographers who became as famous as the models, musicians and film stars they worked with…

His work also spanned reportage and advertising, including two award-winning campaigns for Benson & Hedges and Smirnoff in the 1970s. He shot three David Bowie album covers, including Aladdin Sane.

Some of his work is particularly memorable. A little shiny.