Posts Tagged ‘Pennsylvania’
Dumb crook of the day
Sharon, PA — A man apparently thought the threat of spreading an infectious disease inside a café would be enough to get a cashier to cough up cash.
Police Chief Mike Menster said the assailant then told the clerk if he didn’t cooperate, he’d touch him and infect him with the antibiotic-resistant MRSA staph infection.
“It’s our first case of robbery by threat of an infectious disease,” Menster said.
Fred L. Parker, 41, told the cashier he had a deadly and highly contagious disease and offered to walk away if the cashier gave him money, police said. The cashier refused, and Parker left. He was arrested a short time later.
What a dolt!
Hershey school rejects honor roll-boy for being HIV-positive
The family of an HIV-positive boy sued a boarding school in Hershey, Pennsylvania after it denied admission to the 13-year-old citing safety concerns…
HIV, or the human immunodeficiency virus, is medical condition that undermines the body’s immune system and can make those infected susceptible to lethal cancers and infections. HIV is a precursor to AIDS, or the Acquired immune deficiency syndrome, a pandemic which has killed roughly 25 million people since its discovery in the early 1980s…
…HIV is not transmitted by day-to-day casual contact, such as through shaking hands or a casual kiss. The CDC said it is not possible to become infected from a toilet seat, a drinking fountain, a door knob, dishes, drinking glasses, food, or pets…
The child’s attorneys at the non-profit AIDS Law Project of Pennsylvania sought to compare the school’s actions to the Ryan White case, in which an HIV-positive Indiana boy was expelled from middle school in the 1980s because of the infection. That case led to the Ryan White Care Act of 1990.
Federal and state laws prohibit discrimination on the basis of a real or perceived disability, including having HIV, according to the National Association of State Boards of Education…
“Like Ryan White, this young man is a motivated, intelligent kid who poses no health risk to other students, but is being denied an educational opportunity because of ignorance and fear about HIV and AIDS,” said AIDS Law Project Executive Director Ronda B. Goldfein, who is representing the boy and his mother in the lawsuit.
The boy “is an honor roll student and an avid athlete” who controls his HIV through a regimen of medication that does not impact his school schedule, according to the lawsuit filed with the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia.
The school, which was founded by industrialist Milton S. Hershey in 1909 to care for orphans, said their case is different because it is a boarding school “where children live in homes with 10 to 12 other students” on its campus “24 hours a day, 7 days a week,” McNamara said.
Ignorance, as usual, is not bliss. It is a cause and vector for backwards decisions made by foolish people who haven’t a clue – in this case – about the lack of danger or infection from someone infected by HIV. They have no understanding of the difference between HIV and AIDs. They have no perception of the effectiveness of today’s medications in controlling the effect on someone with the ailment in their system.
Dumbest drunk of the week flashes police chief – WTF?
A 22-year-old man is accused of knocking on the door of the police chief of a northwestern Pennsylvania town and exposing himself…
Corry Police Chief Rich Shopene said Brody Eugene Hall knocked on his door shortly after 6 a.m. Sunday and exposed his genitals when Shopene opened the door.
“I saw you had Halloween decorations up,” said Shopene, quoting Hall. “I’m here to scare your children…”
Hall is charged with public drunkenness, harassment and other related counts, authorities said.
Hall was released from Erie County Jail on Tuesday and is expected to make his first court appearance on November 15, according to spokesman Steve Delinski.
Perhaps the court will ask him to recreate the incident. Just for giggles.
Pipistrel takes fir$t prize in NASA Green Flight Challenge
Two years ago, aircraft designers were invited to build an electric airplane that could fly at least 200 miles in under two hours, using less than one gallon (3.8 liters) of fuel per occupant – or the electrical equivalent. Whichever plane performed best would win its makers a prize of $1.35 million. That was the idea behind the Green Flight Challenge, a NASA competition that was managed by the Comparative Aircraft Flight Efficiency (CAFE) Foundation, and funded by Google.
Well, the challenge wrapped up last week, with the winners being announced this Monday. Pennsylvania’s Pipistrel-USA team took first place, for its Taurus G4.
The twin-fuselage aircraft has seating for four people, and a 145-kilowatt brushless electric motor that turns a two-bladed propeller, which is mounted between the fuselages. Its wingspan is approximately 75 feet.
Out of 14 aircraft originally entered in the competition, it was one of three to make it through to the finals… Of those finalists, both the Taurus and the second-prize-winning eGenius doubled the required fuel efficiency, in that they each used the equivalent of just over half a gallon of fuel per occupant.
The Taurus specifically managed an equivalent fuel efficiency of 403 passenger miles per gallon at a speed of 107 miles per hour – according to Pipistrel team leader Jack Langelaan, that is twice as fast and efficient as a fully-occupied Toyota Prius.
“Two years ago the thought of flying 200 miles at 100 mph in an electric aircraft was pure science fiction,” he stated. “Now, we are all looking forward to the future of electric aviation.”
Bravo! The senior pilot in my extended family [I'm the only one who never piloted a plane] will be here this weekend. Though he’ll probably see this first, here in my blog, I’m looking forward to interesting discussions about the achievement.
89-year-old woman smacks getaway car with her cane — makes purse snatchers easy to identify
Pennsylvania police say an 89-year-old woman used her cane to dent the car of two people who stole her friend’s purse, and authorities were able to track down the getaway car based in part on the cane’s imprint.
New Castle police Chief Thomas Sansone says the woman and her 82-year-old friend were accosted outside a pizza shop Sunday. Police say 27-year-old Jerry Brown Jr. grabbed the purse but couldn’t peel away before the 89-year-old banged the car’s trunk with her cane.
Police found the car, and, based on the description of the robber – and dents matching the cane – arrested Brown and 21-year-old Tatiana Vargas.
The two are jailed in Lawrence County on robbery charges and on warrants for unrelated crimes.
Since I own a couple of different canes I wonder what style and composition she used?
My wood cane is kind of lightweight; but, you could really whip it around like a sword if need be.
For my walks along the fenceline with Rally I have a steel cane. In case I manage to fall down the back meadow towards the bosque I’d probably need it to get up. That sucker weighs a ton and might could remove a fender from some gangbanger’s ride.
Airport geese to be cooked for the poor – surplus of each, you see!
New York City plans to capture pesky geese that threaten planes departing area airports and send them to Pennsylvania to be cooked for meals for the poor, city officials said.
The plan is aimed at avoiding incidents like the forced landing of a U.S. Airways plane in the Hudson River in January 2009 after a flock of errant geese were caught in the engine during takeoff from LaGuardia Airport.
Mass culls to clear the geese from the area were authorized after the National Transportation Safety Board positively identified the remains of Canada geese in the engine of the aircraft.
The city will pay for the capture and transport of the geese to facilities in Pennsylvania where they will be distributed to Pennsylvania food banks, a spokesman for the city’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) said.
“Rather than disposing of them in landfills, we wanted to make sure they do not go to waste,” the spokesman said.
Scrooge and the Cratchits would approve.
Cripes – distracted drivers are scary enough. How about a tug boat lookout on his cellphone?
A tug boat lookout was on a cellphone call to his mother’s house when the barge it was ferrying collided with an anchored tour boat in the Delaware River last summer…
Two tourists died and 26 other passengers were injured in the July 7 collision between the barge and the tour boat near Philadelphia…
The accident occurred shortly after the tour boat, the DUKW 34, had dropped anchor to deal with a mechanical problem that caused smoked to pour out of the engine. Around 2:37 p.m., a barge propelled by the tug boat, the Caribbean Sea, collided with the tour boat, causing it to sink in 55 feet of water.
According to the report, the Caribbean Sea’s master was off duty and below deck. The mate was on navigation watch. The report states that, according to telephone records, the mate made a call to his mother’s house at 2:32 p.m. The call, according to the report, lasted until 2:38, one minute after the accident occurred.
The report also states that that between noon and the accident, when the mate was on navigation watch, he made 13 phone calls and answered six.
There should be some conclusion made about priorities and safety, I would think. eh?
Texting – while doing just about anything – is dumb!
Pennsylvania coppers go to trial for obstruction of justice
Crystal Dillman and her fiance Luís Ramírez
Three former Pennsylvania police officers went on trial this week on charges of obstructing justice in the beating death of a Mexican immigrant in 2008, a prosecution that Hispanics have come to view as a national test case for treatment of Latinos.
The federal case against the former officers, Matthew Nestor, Jason Hayes and William Moyer, began with the killing of Luís Ramírez, 25, an undocumented Mexican immigrant who was beaten and kicked to death in July 2008 by a group of young white men in the central Pennsylvania town of Shenandoah.
The case became a cause célèbre for Latinos who argued that the two main defendants, Brandon Piekarsky, a member of a high school football team, and his friend Derrick Donchak, got off with light sentences in a state trial in 2009. They were acquitted of the most serious charges and convicted of simple assault, a misdemeanor.
After mounting criticism from state officials, federal prosecutors pressed civil rights charges against the two men, and in October, they were convicted of a hate crime. The men, who are 19 and 20, face a maximum of life in prison when they are sentenced on Jan. 24.
In federal court on Thursday in Wilkes-Barre, Pa., prosecutors argued that the police officers, who are charged with conspiracy, making false statements and obstruction of justice, misrepresented facts during their investigation because they had personal connections to the families of the accused. Mr. Nestor, the chief of police at the time, had vacationed with Mr. Piekarsky’s mother, according to the indictment. Mr. Hayes, a patrolman, was dating her, and the son of Mr. Moyer, a lieutenant, played on the same football team as those accused in the beating. All have since left the police department…
The Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, which circulated a petition in 2009 calling for the Justice Department to bring federal charges in the case, welcomed the trial.
“This trial sends a strong message that hate crimes and those who attempt to cover them up, including law enforcement officers, will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” said Gladys Limón, a staff lawyer for the fund.
RTFA for brief details. Wander back through Google-time and you’ll find more coverage – and damned little done by the local PD.
“Protect and Serve” does not ask the question “which neighborhood and whose friends” get protected and served?
Lobbyist ends up where he belongs – behind bars!
Paul Magliocchetti, the once-powerful lobbyist whose PMA Group collapsed after being raided by federal agents two years ago, was sentenced to 27 months in prison on Friday for his role in one of the largest schemes to evade limits on campaign donations ever uncovered.
A federal judge for the Eastern District of Virginia, T. S. Ellis III, also sentenced Mr. Magliocchetti to two years of supervised release and fined him $75,000…
Lanny A. Breuer, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, vowed to “continue to bring to justice those who hide the source of campaign funds and thus damage the integrity of our election process.”
“Paul Magliocchetti spent half of a decade gaming the system,” Mr. Breuer said. “He concocted a massive scheme to secretly funnel money to political campaigns — all so that he could gain wealth and prestige. As today’s sentence makes clear, he must now pay a price.”
We have a Supreme Court stacked in favor of exactly the same crooked corporations Magliocchettii worked for. It ain’t going to get easier.
