George Clooney has revealed he suffered from paralysing Bell’s Palsy when he was a teenager.
The muscle-weakening disorder left him with a temporary disfigured face, but Clooney has always had the perfect response for people who poke fun at his odd high school photos.
He says, "People bring it up and they go, ‘Look how goofy you looked,’ and I go, ‘I had Bell’s Palsy; you feel bad now.’"
And in a new interview with U.S. TV news show The Insider, the grey-haired movie hunk offered another big surprise from his past: "I was a blond."
Source - World Entertainment News Network and http://www.hiphop-elements.com/article/read/4/18744/1/
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Model hiding with man she met on Facebook
A teenage model who went missing after she struggled to cope with a condition that makes her face drop is in hiding with a man she met on Facebook, the social networking website.
Miss Dunbar is due to compete in the Miss Teen Commonwealth final in July.The mother of Kovi Dunbar, 17, has appealed for her daughter to return home for her 18th birthday later this month after the teenager was briefly traced to a home in Croydon, south London.
Miss Dunbar, from Cwmbran, south Wales, was diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy more than two years ago. The condition paralyses facial nerves and causes one side of the face to droop.
Cynthia Langeveldt, 39, who works as a GP surgery manager, told how she had traced her daughter: "Kovi left her mobile phone behind and I rang all the numbers she had called. A woman answered and said her son had met Kovi on Facebook and they were together."
Mrs Langeveldt travelled to Croydon on Friday evening after the woman told her that Kovi was at her home.
advertisement"I went to their house and Kovi was there. I pleaded with her to come home but the young man and his mother did all the talking. Then Kovi ran out of the house and the boy followed her. His mother has also reported him missing to the police now - it is a worrying situation."
The missing man is 20 years old. Miss Dunbar, who is due to compete in the Miss Teen Commonwealth final in July, has represented Wales in three beauty contests and was a finalist in Miss Teen UK.
She left her home in Cwmbran at 1.30pm on Wednesday April 2 to go to London to see a friend.
Miss Dunbar is described as of mixed race appearance with long black hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion. She is slim and approximately 5ft 10ins tall. She speaks with a South African accent as she formerly lived in Zimbabwe.
According to the Bell’s Palsy Association website, symptoms often disappear after a few weeks but a small percentage of sufferers never fully recover.
Famous people who have suffered episodes of Bell’s Palsy include actors Pierce Brosnan and George Clooney.
Source - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/12/nmissing212.xml
Miss Dunbar is due to compete in the Miss Teen Commonwealth final in July.The mother of Kovi Dunbar, 17, has appealed for her daughter to return home for her 18th birthday later this month after the teenager was briefly traced to a home in Croydon, south London.
Miss Dunbar, from Cwmbran, south Wales, was diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy more than two years ago. The condition paralyses facial nerves and causes one side of the face to droop.
Cynthia Langeveldt, 39, who works as a GP surgery manager, told how she had traced her daughter: "Kovi left her mobile phone behind and I rang all the numbers she had called. A woman answered and said her son had met Kovi on Facebook and they were together."
Mrs Langeveldt travelled to Croydon on Friday evening after the woman told her that Kovi was at her home.
advertisement"I went to their house and Kovi was there. I pleaded with her to come home but the young man and his mother did all the talking. Then Kovi ran out of the house and the boy followed her. His mother has also reported him missing to the police now - it is a worrying situation."
The missing man is 20 years old. Miss Dunbar, who is due to compete in the Miss Teen Commonwealth final in July, has represented Wales in three beauty contests and was a finalist in Miss Teen UK.
She left her home in Cwmbran at 1.30pm on Wednesday April 2 to go to London to see a friend.
Miss Dunbar is described as of mixed race appearance with long black hair, brown eyes and a fresh complexion. She is slim and approximately 5ft 10ins tall. She speaks with a South African accent as she formerly lived in Zimbabwe.
According to the Bell’s Palsy Association website, symptoms often disappear after a few weeks but a small percentage of sufferers never fully recover.
Famous people who have suffered episodes of Bell’s Palsy include actors Pierce Brosnan and George Clooney.
Source - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/12/nmissing212.xml
Friday, April 11, 2008
Women Who Participated in Lipodissolve Injections Speak Out
What if there was a way to get rid of that unwanted fat without going under the knife? How convenient it would be to stop by a clinic during your lunch hour, get a few injections and dissolve away your trouble spots of extra fat.
A hot new fat-reducing procedure can have dangerous side effects.That's what appealed to 45-year-old Sheila Yee of Riverbank, Calif. A third-degree black belt and martial arts instructor, she works out six days a week and is about as fit as a woman can be.
But like a lot of women her age, she couldn't seem to get rid of the pouch around her belly. "Who wants to take martial arts from someone who doesn't look like they're in shape?" she said.
Yee was intrigued by the local advertisements for a new procedure commonly called by the trade name Lipodissolve, which claims to melt away fat with a simple injection of drugs. To avoid surgical liposuction, Yee thought she'd found the answer.
"I just knew that there was no cutting, there was no blood. There's no stitches," Yee said.
'Lunchtime Lipo'
Marketed as quick and easy "lunchtime lipo" at doctor's offices and spas around the country, it was enticing to many women who wanted a quick fix, women like Annette Clark and Paige Tate. The two 30-something moms were slim, like Yee, but fighting pesky unwanted stomach flab. "I thought it seemed like a miracle wonder and I was elated and couldn't wait to start," Clark said. All of the women, each from different states, said they were told by different spas that they were perfect candidates for Lipodissolve. The hefty price tag didn't deter them: Clark paid $2,400 and the other women paid $3,000 to $4,000 for a series of injections. Almost immediately after her first injections, Clark said she knew something was wrong. "They gave me about six injections across my abdomen and within a matter of minutes I started having severe burning. By the time I got home, about an hour later, I looked like I was eight months pregnant."
Open Wounds and Staph Infections
Gigi Hinton, 30, was thrilled at the thought of trimming her thighs and knees. Hinton said her nightmare began after a second round of nearly 20 injections to her knee. "After it scabbed over, maybe after a week or two, it really felt like something started to eat away at the skin beneath. And I was left with an open wound on my right knee," she said. "Even the nurses in the spa said they had never seen anything like that before."
But if Hinton had simply looked on the Internet, she would have found plenty of horror stories. One posting was from Tate, who, after two treatments, wrote: "I was feeling constant headache, diarrhea … and the swelling would not go away."
Tate said she has been sick ever since and now has degenerative disk disease. "None of my health issues began until the day I started those injections," she said. "I have degenerative disk disease in the lower part of my back, exactly where there are two nodules that are between my muscle and my skin."
Yee said she also found a nodule in her stomach the size of a tennis ball and went back to the spa. She said she was stunned by the nurse's reaction.
"She looks at it and she's telling me 'oh my goodness that is so wonderful. All your fat cells have all congregated into one area. If all of our patients were like this, we'd be out of business because you know that fat's just going. You're the perfect person for this.'"
Disaster struck a few days later when that mass in her stomach nearly doubled to the size of a grapefruit. She had a life-threatening staph infection that required emergency surgery to remove a mass of dead tissue. Sheila says she could have died. "I contemplated going the next day. I might have died the next day. I might not have lived," she said. "They don't realize how serious this is and what they're doing to people. It's dangerous."
Doctors Warn Against Lipodissolve
Dr. Alan Gold, a member of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, warned against Lipodissolve. "The two primary chemicals within this are called PC and DC: phosphatidylcholine and deoxycholate," he explained. "There's no standardized formula and other things may be added to those mixtures. At the present time, it is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration."
By HELAINE TABACOFF and DEIRDRE COHEN
Source - http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4636585&page=1
A hot new fat-reducing procedure can have dangerous side effects.That's what appealed to 45-year-old Sheila Yee of Riverbank, Calif. A third-degree black belt and martial arts instructor, she works out six days a week and is about as fit as a woman can be.
But like a lot of women her age, she couldn't seem to get rid of the pouch around her belly. "Who wants to take martial arts from someone who doesn't look like they're in shape?" she said.
Yee was intrigued by the local advertisements for a new procedure commonly called by the trade name Lipodissolve, which claims to melt away fat with a simple injection of drugs. To avoid surgical liposuction, Yee thought she'd found the answer.
"I just knew that there was no cutting, there was no blood. There's no stitches," Yee said.
'Lunchtime Lipo'
Marketed as quick and easy "lunchtime lipo" at doctor's offices and spas around the country, it was enticing to many women who wanted a quick fix, women like Annette Clark and Paige Tate. The two 30-something moms were slim, like Yee, but fighting pesky unwanted stomach flab. "I thought it seemed like a miracle wonder and I was elated and couldn't wait to start," Clark said. All of the women, each from different states, said they were told by different spas that they were perfect candidates for Lipodissolve. The hefty price tag didn't deter them: Clark paid $2,400 and the other women paid $3,000 to $4,000 for a series of injections. Almost immediately after her first injections, Clark said she knew something was wrong. "They gave me about six injections across my abdomen and within a matter of minutes I started having severe burning. By the time I got home, about an hour later, I looked like I was eight months pregnant."
Open Wounds and Staph Infections
Gigi Hinton, 30, was thrilled at the thought of trimming her thighs and knees. Hinton said her nightmare began after a second round of nearly 20 injections to her knee. "After it scabbed over, maybe after a week or two, it really felt like something started to eat away at the skin beneath. And I was left with an open wound on my right knee," she said. "Even the nurses in the spa said they had never seen anything like that before."
But if Hinton had simply looked on the Internet, she would have found plenty of horror stories. One posting was from Tate, who, after two treatments, wrote: "I was feeling constant headache, diarrhea … and the swelling would not go away."
Tate said she has been sick ever since and now has degenerative disk disease. "None of my health issues began until the day I started those injections," she said. "I have degenerative disk disease in the lower part of my back, exactly where there are two nodules that are between my muscle and my skin."
Yee said she also found a nodule in her stomach the size of a tennis ball and went back to the spa. She said she was stunned by the nurse's reaction.
"She looks at it and she's telling me 'oh my goodness that is so wonderful. All your fat cells have all congregated into one area. If all of our patients were like this, we'd be out of business because you know that fat's just going. You're the perfect person for this.'"
Disaster struck a few days later when that mass in her stomach nearly doubled to the size of a grapefruit. She had a life-threatening staph infection that required emergency surgery to remove a mass of dead tissue. Sheila says she could have died. "I contemplated going the next day. I might have died the next day. I might not have lived," she said. "They don't realize how serious this is and what they're doing to people. It's dangerous."
Doctors Warn Against Lipodissolve
Dr. Alan Gold, a member of the American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, warned against Lipodissolve. "The two primary chemicals within this are called PC and DC: phosphatidylcholine and deoxycholate," he explained. "There's no standardized formula and other things may be added to those mixtures. At the present time, it is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration."
By HELAINE TABACOFF and DEIRDRE COHEN
Source - http://abcnews.go.com/Health/story?id=4636585&page=1
Dalai Lama opens 'compassion conference' in Seattle
SEATTLE (AFP) — The Dalai Lama opened a conference on compassion here Friday, but avoided mentioning the situation in Tibet on his first foreign trip since China's crackdown in the Himalayan territory.
The exiled 72-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader spoke before a crowd of around 8,000 people at the University of Washington on the first day of the "Seeds of Compassion" conference.
The saffron-clad leader told a rapt audience that the purpose of the five day conference was to promote peace and "fostering a society with a healthy mind."
"No one want problems, but problems happen due to our wrong views and wrong action," he said. "In the next few days, we are discussing about these things. It is a learning opportunity for all of us."
The only apparent reference to Tibet came from conference organizer Dan Kranzler, who remarked: "May I say personally, the world knows the truth ... The world knows."
Although conference officials have said the purpose of the Dalai Lama's visit is non-political, groups close to him have not ruled out meetings with US politicians and discussions during the trip.
The US House of Representatives and Senate on Wednesday passed separate resolutions condemning Beijing's actions in Tibet and calling on the Chinese government to begin a dialogue directly with the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, will leave Seattle Tuesday for conferences at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor on April 19-20 and at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, on April 22.
On a stopover at the Tokyo Narita airport on Thursday, he renewed his support for the Beijing Olympics in August and said he had urged the Tibetan community to respect the protest-plagued Olympic torch relay.
Tibet last month saw the biggest protests in years against China's controversial rule, on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising that sent the Dalai Lama fleeing into exile in India.
Beijing has accused him of instigating the deadly violence and of seeking to split the province from China.
Source - http://afp.google.com
The exiled 72-year-old Tibetan spiritual leader spoke before a crowd of around 8,000 people at the University of Washington on the first day of the "Seeds of Compassion" conference.
The saffron-clad leader told a rapt audience that the purpose of the five day conference was to promote peace and "fostering a society with a healthy mind."
"No one want problems, but problems happen due to our wrong views and wrong action," he said. "In the next few days, we are discussing about these things. It is a learning opportunity for all of us."
The only apparent reference to Tibet came from conference organizer Dan Kranzler, who remarked: "May I say personally, the world knows the truth ... The world knows."
Although conference officials have said the purpose of the Dalai Lama's visit is non-political, groups close to him have not ruled out meetings with US politicians and discussions during the trip.
The US House of Representatives and Senate on Wednesday passed separate resolutions condemning Beijing's actions in Tibet and calling on the Chinese government to begin a dialogue directly with the Dalai Lama.
The Dalai Lama, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, will leave Seattle Tuesday for conferences at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor on April 19-20 and at Colgate University in Hamilton, New York, on April 22.
On a stopover at the Tokyo Narita airport on Thursday, he renewed his support for the Beijing Olympics in August and said he had urged the Tibetan community to respect the protest-plagued Olympic torch relay.
Tibet last month saw the biggest protests in years against China's controversial rule, on the anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising that sent the Dalai Lama fleeing into exile in India.
Beijing has accused him of instigating the deadly violence and of seeking to split the province from China.
Source - http://afp.google.com
Lymphocytic Choriomeningitis Virus
A Whitman woman is suing PetSmart Inc., a nationwide pet store chain, claiming her husband’s death resulted from an infection that can be traced to a pet hamster.
Thomas Magee, 54, died nearly a month after receiving a liver transplant. The suit claims Magee and two other transplant recipients died after receiving organs from a donor who was infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. The suit alleges the organ donor became infected after purchasing a pet hamster from the Warwick, R.I., PetSmart.
Nancy Magee, 51, is claiming negligence in her complaint filed in Boston District Court.
Magee, reached at her home, referred all calls to her attorney, Robert Bickelman.
“Our first obligation is to our client and her legal interests,” Bickelman said. “We don’t believe her interests are served in commenting at this time.”
Lymphocytic choriomeningitis is a disease commonly found in the common house mouse and is occasionally transferred to pet rodents at a breeding site or pet store, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
It can be transferred to a human if a person comes in contact with fecal droppings, urine, saliva or nesting materials.
While the infection cannot be transferred from human to human, the CDC is currently investigating a number of complaints of the infection being transferred during organ transplants, according to the CDC Web site.
According to published reports, Thomas Magee received the liver transplant on April 10, 2005, at Massachusetts General Hospital and began to experience symptoms, including a high fever and a rise in blood pressure, less than five days later.
The CDC states symptoms, which begin to show eight to 13 days after an infection, include fever, headache, nausea and an increase in liver enzymes. There is a less than 1 percent fatality rate.
Magee died on May 7, 2005. He was the father of two children.
By Paula M. Donnelly
Source - http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/x577337759
Thomas Magee, 54, died nearly a month after receiving a liver transplant. The suit claims Magee and two other transplant recipients died after receiving organs from a donor who was infected with lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus. The suit alleges the organ donor became infected after purchasing a pet hamster from the Warwick, R.I., PetSmart.
Nancy Magee, 51, is claiming negligence in her complaint filed in Boston District Court.
Magee, reached at her home, referred all calls to her attorney, Robert Bickelman.
“Our first obligation is to our client and her legal interests,” Bickelman said. “We don’t believe her interests are served in commenting at this time.”
Lymphocytic choriomeningitis is a disease commonly found in the common house mouse and is occasionally transferred to pet rodents at a breeding site or pet store, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
It can be transferred to a human if a person comes in contact with fecal droppings, urine, saliva or nesting materials.
While the infection cannot be transferred from human to human, the CDC is currently investigating a number of complaints of the infection being transferred during organ transplants, according to the CDC Web site.
According to published reports, Thomas Magee received the liver transplant on April 10, 2005, at Massachusetts General Hospital and began to experience symptoms, including a high fever and a rise in blood pressure, less than five days later.
The CDC states symptoms, which begin to show eight to 13 days after an infection, include fever, headache, nausea and an increase in liver enzymes. There is a less than 1 percent fatality rate.
Magee died on May 7, 2005. He was the father of two children.
By Paula M. Donnelly
Source - http://www.enterprisenews.com/news/x577337759
Thursday, April 10, 2008
Is that really a naked woman reflected in Cheney's sunglasses?
WASHINGTON — He shot his hunting partner, but Vice President Dick Cheney apparently doesn't fly fish with naked women.
Since Wednesday, the blogosphere has been atwitter over a photograph on the White House Web site of Cheney with a caption that said he was fly-fishing on the Snake River in Idaho.
The photo is a tight shot of Cheney's face sporting dark sunglasses and his trademark grin.
What's stirring all the buzz is the reflection in the vice president's dark glasses. Some thought that the reflection looked like a naked woman and, this being Cheney and this being the Internet Age, they immediately shared that thought with the world.
Since Wednesday, the blogosphere has been atwitter over a photograph on the White House Web site of Cheney with a caption that said he was fly-fishing on the Snake River in Idaho.
The photo is a tight shot of Cheney's face sporting dark sunglasses and his trademark grin.
What's stirring all the buzz is the reflection in the vice president's dark glasses. Some thought that the reflection looked like a naked woman and, this being Cheney and this being the Internet Age, they immediately shared that thought with the world.
In a Google search for the words "Dick Cheney" and "sunglasses," 79,300 hits came back at midafternoon on Thursday.
On DemocraticUnderground.com, the discussion starts with this question: "Notice anything ... interesting ... reflected in his sunglasses? Something that has little to do with conventional 'fly-fishing'?"
It wasn't just the blogosphere. On a Web site called sportsshooter.com, dedicated to sports photography, professionals also did a double take and debated the shot on their message board.
"Naked woman??????? That explains his heart problems!!!" noted photographer Jason Frizzelle of Greenville, N.C.
"Holy crap! Is that what I think it is?" wrote one reader of the blog "A Welsh View."
"At first glance, I thought it was a naked woman as well," wrote Jody Gomez, a photographer from Murrietta, Calif. "However after close study and a second opinion ... I believe it's his arm." Others, including some White House staffers, saw the profile of a man's face and a cigar.
AOL's Political Machine online column gave readers a chance to vote on what was reflected in the vice-presidential shades. The four choices were:
—Hot babe sunbathing.
—Alien overlord.
—That's not Dick Cheney.
—The image was Photoshopped.
The vice president's office saw little humor in the buzz.
"Clearly the picture shows a hand casting a rod," grumbled spokeswoman Meagan Mitchell.
As journalists, however, the word of an official spokeswoman isn't good enough.
So McClatchy/Tribune Information Services photo editor George Bridges used the latest digital technology to enlarge the picture, took a close look at Cheney's sunglasses and concluded that Mitchell was telling the truth.
The image is of the vice president's hand on his fly rod.
"In one lens of his sunglasses you can clearly tell it is a sleeved arm of Cheney or a fishing companion. The other lens has an extreme distortion that, without looking at it closely, could be misconstrued," said investigative photo editor Bridges.
By Kevin G. Hall and George Bridges
McClatchy Newspapers
Source - http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/04/10/CHENEY.html
On DemocraticUnderground.com, the discussion starts with this question: "Notice anything ... interesting ... reflected in his sunglasses? Something that has little to do with conventional 'fly-fishing'?"
It wasn't just the blogosphere. On a Web site called sportsshooter.com, dedicated to sports photography, professionals also did a double take and debated the shot on their message board.
"Naked woman??????? That explains his heart problems!!!" noted photographer Jason Frizzelle of Greenville, N.C.
"Holy crap! Is that what I think it is?" wrote one reader of the blog "A Welsh View."
"At first glance, I thought it was a naked woman as well," wrote Jody Gomez, a photographer from Murrietta, Calif. "However after close study and a second opinion ... I believe it's his arm." Others, including some White House staffers, saw the profile of a man's face and a cigar.
AOL's Political Machine online column gave readers a chance to vote on what was reflected in the vice-presidential shades. The four choices were:
—Hot babe sunbathing.
—Alien overlord.
—That's not Dick Cheney.
—The image was Photoshopped.
The vice president's office saw little humor in the buzz.
"Clearly the picture shows a hand casting a rod," grumbled spokeswoman Meagan Mitchell.
As journalists, however, the word of an official spokeswoman isn't good enough.
So McClatchy/Tribune Information Services photo editor George Bridges used the latest digital technology to enlarge the picture, took a close look at Cheney's sunglasses and concluded that Mitchell was telling the truth.
The image is of the vice president's hand on his fly rod.
"In one lens of his sunglasses you can clearly tell it is a sleeved arm of Cheney or a fishing companion. The other lens has an extreme distortion that, without looking at it closely, could be misconstrued," said investigative photo editor Bridges.
By Kevin G. Hall and George Bridges
McClatchy Newspapers
Source - http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2008/04/10/CHENEY.html
Google says 'no guarantee' on Street View privacy
Google has refused to give a guarantee that people's privacy will be respected when it's Street View product comes to Australia.
The service has seen Google take street-level photo shots across nearly 50 US cities for use in it's Google Maps and technology.
The pictures are taken in cities, suburbs and now often at private residences.
The Californian company is now also being sued by a couple for an invasion of privacy which saw their house and property included within the street view.
However the company has told Fairfax Media that it will not give a guarantee to Australians over privacy, saying instead if they find an issue, an image can be flagged for review.
"If the road isn't very clearly marked as a private road, or if the driver misses a sign, there will be occasional places where we make a mistake," A Google spokesman said.
The controversial Street View project has seen numerous Google vans scour parts of the United States to capture photo images at a street level - rather than it's previous satellite service.
There is no guarantee on the privacy of individuals within the photos - with many already compromised through less than flattering images.
Google Australia said today that they were working to ensure privacy within the new product when it comes online in Australia.
"We absolutely prohibit our drivers from driving down private roads. The photos in Street View are only what anyone walking down a public street can see," spokesman Rob Shilkin said.
"We will not launch this product in Australia until we are sure it complies with Australian laws... we are consulting actively with local privacy and community groups to ensure we respect Australians' privacy."
Source - By scopical.com.au
The service has seen Google take street-level photo shots across nearly 50 US cities for use in it's Google Maps and technology.
The pictures are taken in cities, suburbs and now often at private residences.
The Californian company is now also being sued by a couple for an invasion of privacy which saw their house and property included within the street view.
However the company has told Fairfax Media that it will not give a guarantee to Australians over privacy, saying instead if they find an issue, an image can be flagged for review.
"If the road isn't very clearly marked as a private road, or if the driver misses a sign, there will be occasional places where we make a mistake," A Google spokesman said.
The controversial Street View project has seen numerous Google vans scour parts of the United States to capture photo images at a street level - rather than it's previous satellite service.
There is no guarantee on the privacy of individuals within the photos - with many already compromised through less than flattering images.
Google Australia said today that they were working to ensure privacy within the new product when it comes online in Australia.
"We absolutely prohibit our drivers from driving down private roads. The photos in Street View are only what anyone walking down a public street can see," spokesman Rob Shilkin said.
"We will not launch this product in Australia until we are sure it complies with Australian laws... we are consulting actively with local privacy and community groups to ensure we respect Australians' privacy."
Source - By scopical.com.au
Civil Rights Leader Convicted of Incest
LEESBURG, Va. (AP) — A jury convicted an iconic civil-rights figure of incest Thursday after concluding that he had sex with his teenage daughter 15 years ago. The Rev. James L. Bevel, 71, a top lieutenant to Martin Luther King Jr. who also helped organize the Million Man March, faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced.
The four-day trial in Loudoun County Circuit Court included bizarre testimony about Bevel's philosophies for eradicating lust, and parents' duty to "sexually orient" their children.
Bevel's daughter testified that she was repeatedly molested by Bevel beginning when she was just 6 years old, culminating in an act of sexual intercourse in 1993 or 1994 that formed the basis of the incest charge.
The jury reached its verdict after about three hours of deliberations.
Before the verdict, the jury had heard only passing reference to Bevel's role in the civil rights movement. But during the sentencing phase of the trial Thursday afternoon, the jury saw a documentary that spelled out Bevel's key role in organizing the 1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade. Bevel and King were leading organizers of the marches, in which police turned fire hoses and dogs on child protesters, drawing international attention to the brutality that was keeping segregation in place in the South.
Bevel was also a leading organizer at other iconic events in the civil rights movement, including the 1965 march at Selma, Ala.
Prosecutor Nicole Wittmann acknowledged Bevel's accomplishments but said the jury shouldn't be swayed by them.
"There's nothing I can say to take away what this man has accomplished, but there are two Jim Bevels," Wittmann told the jury. "We're talking about the one who had sex with his child."
Jurors heard a phone call between Bevel and his daughter in which he never explicitly admits to sexual intercourse but seems to take for granted that it occurred. During the call he explains the importance of teaching his daughter "the science of marriage" and admits that he did not want her to get pregnant after the incident.
Family members who confronted Bevel in 2004 testified that Bevel read a written accusation by his daughter and replied that he did not contest the facts she laid out.
But Bevel denied the charge on the witness stand. He testified that his family mistakenly perceived his refusal to deny the specific allegations against him as an admission of guilt.
Public defender Bonnie Hoffman urged the jury to ignore evidence that Bevel led an unconventional, communal lifestyle in which he taught that it was parents' duty to "sexually orient" their children.
Instead, she told the jury to focus on the single incident for which Bevel was charged: an act of sexual intercourse that occurred in 1993 or 1994 while the daughter was a teenager and was living with her father in Leesburg.
Hoffman said there were questions about the timeline — the daughter said she could not recall exactly what year the act occurred, and her recollection of when she lived in Virginia did not fully mesh with school records and other testimony.
Hoffman also questioned why the daughter returned to voluntarily live with her father after the alleged incest. The daughter testified that she went back because she had nowhere else to go.
Prosecutor Nicole Wittmann warned the jury against getting confused by Bevel's sometimes convoluted explanations of his philosophies and his justifications for his actions.
"There's no excuse for his philosophy in the law, or whether he's eccentric, or whether he's an historical figure. ... There's no exception" Wittmann said.
The Associated Press generally does not identify the victims of sexual abuse. The daughter is one of 16 children Bevel said he has had with several different women.
The trial divided members of Bevel's large family, with relatives testifying for both the prosecutor and defense.
Even the daughter expressed mixed emotions. As she waited Thursday for a verdict, she was occasionally joined by her father as the two smiled and cooed over the daughter's new baby girl — Bevel's granddaughter.
"The hardest part is I love my father, and I wish he loved me as much as I love him," The daughter told jurors during the sentencing phase.
The jury must recommend a prison term ranging between five and 20 years. The judge will then have the option to accept the recommendation or lower it, but he cannot increase it.
In the 1960s, Bevel was a leader in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), two of the stalwart organizations that led efforts to desegregate the South.
In 1992, he was vice presidential running mate to political maverick Lyndon LaRouche, who has a home in Loudoun County but at the time was in a federal prison for a tax conviction.
By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Source - http://ap.google.com
The four-day trial in Loudoun County Circuit Court included bizarre testimony about Bevel's philosophies for eradicating lust, and parents' duty to "sexually orient" their children.
Bevel's daughter testified that she was repeatedly molested by Bevel beginning when she was just 6 years old, culminating in an act of sexual intercourse in 1993 or 1994 that formed the basis of the incest charge.
The jury reached its verdict after about three hours of deliberations.
Before the verdict, the jury had heard only passing reference to Bevel's role in the civil rights movement. But during the sentencing phase of the trial Thursday afternoon, the jury saw a documentary that spelled out Bevel's key role in organizing the 1963 Birmingham Children's Crusade. Bevel and King were leading organizers of the marches, in which police turned fire hoses and dogs on child protesters, drawing international attention to the brutality that was keeping segregation in place in the South.
Bevel was also a leading organizer at other iconic events in the civil rights movement, including the 1965 march at Selma, Ala.
Prosecutor Nicole Wittmann acknowledged Bevel's accomplishments but said the jury shouldn't be swayed by them.
"There's nothing I can say to take away what this man has accomplished, but there are two Jim Bevels," Wittmann told the jury. "We're talking about the one who had sex with his child."
Jurors heard a phone call between Bevel and his daughter in which he never explicitly admits to sexual intercourse but seems to take for granted that it occurred. During the call he explains the importance of teaching his daughter "the science of marriage" and admits that he did not want her to get pregnant after the incident.
Family members who confronted Bevel in 2004 testified that Bevel read a written accusation by his daughter and replied that he did not contest the facts she laid out.
But Bevel denied the charge on the witness stand. He testified that his family mistakenly perceived his refusal to deny the specific allegations against him as an admission of guilt.
Public defender Bonnie Hoffman urged the jury to ignore evidence that Bevel led an unconventional, communal lifestyle in which he taught that it was parents' duty to "sexually orient" their children.
Instead, she told the jury to focus on the single incident for which Bevel was charged: an act of sexual intercourse that occurred in 1993 or 1994 while the daughter was a teenager and was living with her father in Leesburg.
Hoffman said there were questions about the timeline — the daughter said she could not recall exactly what year the act occurred, and her recollection of when she lived in Virginia did not fully mesh with school records and other testimony.
Hoffman also questioned why the daughter returned to voluntarily live with her father after the alleged incest. The daughter testified that she went back because she had nowhere else to go.
Prosecutor Nicole Wittmann warned the jury against getting confused by Bevel's sometimes convoluted explanations of his philosophies and his justifications for his actions.
"There's no excuse for his philosophy in the law, or whether he's eccentric, or whether he's an historical figure. ... There's no exception" Wittmann said.
The Associated Press generally does not identify the victims of sexual abuse. The daughter is one of 16 children Bevel said he has had with several different women.
The trial divided members of Bevel's large family, with relatives testifying for both the prosecutor and defense.
Even the daughter expressed mixed emotions. As she waited Thursday for a verdict, she was occasionally joined by her father as the two smiled and cooed over the daughter's new baby girl — Bevel's granddaughter.
"The hardest part is I love my father, and I wish he loved me as much as I love him," The daughter told jurors during the sentencing phase.
The jury must recommend a prison term ranging between five and 20 years. The judge will then have the option to accept the recommendation or lower it, but he cannot increase it.
In the 1960s, Bevel was a leader in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) and the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), two of the stalwart organizations that led efforts to desegregate the South.
In 1992, he was vice presidential running mate to political maverick Lyndon LaRouche, who has a home in Loudoun County but at the time was in a federal prison for a tax conviction.
By MATTHEW BARAKAT
Source - http://ap.google.com
Artie Lange Resigns from Howard Stern Show
Artie Lange, a mainstay on the Howard Stern Stow, resigned Thursday after an argument and subsequent outburst at his personal assistant on the air.
Lange, who became a member of the show in October 2001, was seen disputing with his assistant in the hallways off the air. Once Stern found out about the dispute, he invited Lange's assistant Teddy to discuss it on the air.
The argument began with Lange's issues with Teddy over money, then discussed travel accomodations Teddy, known as "Teddy Microphone" to the staff, made for Lange to Amsterdam.
As the argument ensued, Lange physically lashed out at Teddy. The scuffle was broken up by staff members, but Stern denounced Lange's actions.
Lange, who has a similar incident on air in the past, said he could not guarantee not acting out in this manner in the future. Stern replied, saying he cannot have Lange around with the potential of another physical outburst.
Lange then offered his resignation and Stern accepted.
Several fans have visited the Stern Fan Network (SFN) to discuss their thoughts about the situation and the potential of Lange never returning to the show.
Source - http://www.transworldnews.com
Lange, who became a member of the show in October 2001, was seen disputing with his assistant in the hallways off the air. Once Stern found out about the dispute, he invited Lange's assistant Teddy to discuss it on the air.
The argument began with Lange's issues with Teddy over money, then discussed travel accomodations Teddy, known as "Teddy Microphone" to the staff, made for Lange to Amsterdam.
As the argument ensued, Lange physically lashed out at Teddy. The scuffle was broken up by staff members, but Stern denounced Lange's actions.
Lange, who has a similar incident on air in the past, said he could not guarantee not acting out in this manner in the future. Stern replied, saying he cannot have Lange around with the potential of another physical outburst.
Lange then offered his resignation and Stern accepted.
Several fans have visited the Stern Fan Network (SFN) to discuss their thoughts about the situation and the potential of Lange never returning to the show.
Source - http://www.transworldnews.com
Jolita Berry - School violence appalls officials
The trouble began, Jolita Berry said, when she asked a girl in one of her art classes at Reginald F. Lewis High School to sit down.
The student did not obey, coming closer to confront the teacher. "She said she's gonna bang me," Berry said. "I said, 'Back up, you're in my space. If you hit me, I'm gonna defend myself.'"
But Berry, who is 30 and started her job teaching art at the Northeast Baltimore school in December, did not defend herself. The girl caught the teacher off guard as other students cheered her on and screamed, "Hit her!"
"She just started beating on me relentlessly," Berry said, recalling the Friday morning incident that left her with a sore shoulder and a broken blood vessel in her eye.
As it turned out, one of the kids in the class was recording what happened on a cell phone. Video footage was posted on the social networking site MySpace and aired on local television news, showing a teenage girl hitting a woman lying on the floor.
The woman's face is not visible.
By yesterday, the head of the Baltimore Teachers Union and Mayor Sheila Dixon were pointing to the incident in calling for the city school system to dedicate more resources to reducing classroom violence.
State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick told WBAL Radio that she was "horrified" and said that increased character education, community partnerships and parental responsibility are needed.
"It's just appalling," said Marietta English, president of the union's teacher chapter, adding that Berry is meeting with a union attorney. She said she's been complaining to system officials all year about assaults on teachers. "What I said, you now see on video," she said.
English said her office has been receiving two or three complaints a day of assaults on teachers, many of which are not reported to the school system or police. The system says it has expelled students for assaults on staff members 112 times this school year, compared with 98 at this time last year.
In response to English's complaints, Gen. Bennie E. Williams, chief of staff to schools chief Andres Alonso, agreed a few weeks ago to convene a task force on teacher assaults. Its first meeting was scheduled for yesterday.
While the system declined to comment on the specifics of the alleged assault on Berry, which she reported to school police at 11:45 a.m. Friday, Williams issued a statement yesterday saying that "we are treating this incident with the utmost seriousness." The girl involved has been suspended pending the outcome of the system's investigation.
Part of the public outrage stemmed from how Berry said her principal responded to the incident. She said the principal told her she'd provoked the attack by telling the student she would defend herself.
"That principal might need to be disciplined because no teacher should be disrespected in the classroom," Dixon said at a morning news conference.
While teachers also have to respect students, the mayor said, the principal's response "is unfair to that teacher."
Berry said that she was also frustrated that the principal did not remove the student from the school immediately. As she left the school Friday to go to a medical clinic, Berry said, she had to pass by the girl, bragging to her friends about what she'd done.
The principal, Jean Ragin, did not respond to telephone and e-mail messages yesterday.
News of the assault came the same week as two West Baltimore Middle School students were beaten with lacrosse sticks by peers who mistook red trim on one of the boys' athletic shoes as a gang sign.
"It's getting out of hand," Dixon said. "This might sound harsh, but I believe we have to come up with some very stern discipline action. Young people now feel, some feel, that it's acceptable, and it's not acceptable."
The teachers union has long asserted that city school administrators aren't reporting violent incidents or doing enough to punish children who are violent, for fear their schools will be labeled "persistently dangerous" under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Maryland defines a persistently dangerous school as one with a certain percentage of its student population suspended for violent offenses. Critics say that that discourages suspensions and makes violence worse because students see they can get away with it.
Social networking sites like MySpace and the video-sharing site YouTube, along with the prevalence of cell phones with video cameras, have made school violence and other inappropriate behavior easier to document.
YouTube contains footage of boys fighting in the bathroom at Thurgood Marshall High and students at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High trying to throw a girl out of a window.
Berry said one of her friends found the video of her assault on MySpace, and her union representatives urged her to bring it to the news media's attention.
Since becoming CEO of the city schools last summer, Alonso has encouraged principals to look at alternatives to suspension for nonviolent offenses, but urged zero tolerance for violence.
Some educators say his directive has been misinterpreted, with principals discouraging all suspensions. Alonso has said he will fire any administrator who does not honestly report school violence.
Reginald F. Lewis High is one of the smaller schools created by the breakup of the large, chaotic Northern High School in 2002. Last summer, the state put Lewis on probation for its high number of suspensions for violent incidents. If the rate of suspensions keeps up this year, the school will be labeled persistently dangerous.
Another school located in the same complex, W.E.B DuBois High School, already has the persistently dangerous designation, meaning it must offer students the option to transfer elsewhere.
At a school board meeting last month, English complained to Alonso and the board about teacher assaults. "You will not have good test scores ... as long as these students are allowed to run the halls, come back to the classroom and continue to act in a violent way," she said.
She asked for a meeting to discuss "strategies to help students who need some kind of support because obviously they're crying out for help," a request that led to the formation of the task force.
Alonso responded that night that he'd be happy to meet with English and anyone else about school violence, but he said he wanted specifics about incidents that are not being reported, not generalized allegations.
"The message that I have made very clear to principals is that ... any student who commits the kind of offense that leads to persistently dangerous status by law has to be part of a process which takes them out of a school.
"If that is not happening, then the law is not being followed in the school, and I need to intervene. ... If you have specifics, bring them to my attention. I will respond immediately. I would rather deal with specifics than with the notion that the kids are running wild, because that's not helpful."
By Sara Neufeld | Sun reporter
April 10, 2008
Sun reporter John Fritze contributed to this article.
Source - http://www.baltimoresun.com
The student did not obey, coming closer to confront the teacher. "She said she's gonna bang me," Berry said. "I said, 'Back up, you're in my space. If you hit me, I'm gonna defend myself.'"
But Berry, who is 30 and started her job teaching art at the Northeast Baltimore school in December, did not defend herself. The girl caught the teacher off guard as other students cheered her on and screamed, "Hit her!"
"She just started beating on me relentlessly," Berry said, recalling the Friday morning incident that left her with a sore shoulder and a broken blood vessel in her eye.
As it turned out, one of the kids in the class was recording what happened on a cell phone. Video footage was posted on the social networking site MySpace and aired on local television news, showing a teenage girl hitting a woman lying on the floor.
The woman's face is not visible.
By yesterday, the head of the Baltimore Teachers Union and Mayor Sheila Dixon were pointing to the incident in calling for the city school system to dedicate more resources to reducing classroom violence.
State Superintendent Nancy S. Grasmick told WBAL Radio that she was "horrified" and said that increased character education, community partnerships and parental responsibility are needed.
"It's just appalling," said Marietta English, president of the union's teacher chapter, adding that Berry is meeting with a union attorney. She said she's been complaining to system officials all year about assaults on teachers. "What I said, you now see on video," she said.
English said her office has been receiving two or three complaints a day of assaults on teachers, many of which are not reported to the school system or police. The system says it has expelled students for assaults on staff members 112 times this school year, compared with 98 at this time last year.
In response to English's complaints, Gen. Bennie E. Williams, chief of staff to schools chief Andres Alonso, agreed a few weeks ago to convene a task force on teacher assaults. Its first meeting was scheduled for yesterday.
While the system declined to comment on the specifics of the alleged assault on Berry, which she reported to school police at 11:45 a.m. Friday, Williams issued a statement yesterday saying that "we are treating this incident with the utmost seriousness." The girl involved has been suspended pending the outcome of the system's investigation.
Part of the public outrage stemmed from how Berry said her principal responded to the incident. She said the principal told her she'd provoked the attack by telling the student she would defend herself.
"That principal might need to be disciplined because no teacher should be disrespected in the classroom," Dixon said at a morning news conference.
While teachers also have to respect students, the mayor said, the principal's response "is unfair to that teacher."
Berry said that she was also frustrated that the principal did not remove the student from the school immediately. As she left the school Friday to go to a medical clinic, Berry said, she had to pass by the girl, bragging to her friends about what she'd done.
The principal, Jean Ragin, did not respond to telephone and e-mail messages yesterday.
News of the assault came the same week as two West Baltimore Middle School students were beaten with lacrosse sticks by peers who mistook red trim on one of the boys' athletic shoes as a gang sign.
"It's getting out of hand," Dixon said. "This might sound harsh, but I believe we have to come up with some very stern discipline action. Young people now feel, some feel, that it's acceptable, and it's not acceptable."
The teachers union has long asserted that city school administrators aren't reporting violent incidents or doing enough to punish children who are violent, for fear their schools will be labeled "persistently dangerous" under the federal No Child Left Behind Act.
Maryland defines a persistently dangerous school as one with a certain percentage of its student population suspended for violent offenses. Critics say that that discourages suspensions and makes violence worse because students see they can get away with it.
Social networking sites like MySpace and the video-sharing site YouTube, along with the prevalence of cell phones with video cameras, have made school violence and other inappropriate behavior easier to document.
YouTube contains footage of boys fighting in the bathroom at Thurgood Marshall High and students at Mergenthaler Vocational-Technical High trying to throw a girl out of a window.
Berry said one of her friends found the video of her assault on MySpace, and her union representatives urged her to bring it to the news media's attention.
Since becoming CEO of the city schools last summer, Alonso has encouraged principals to look at alternatives to suspension for nonviolent offenses, but urged zero tolerance for violence.
Some educators say his directive has been misinterpreted, with principals discouraging all suspensions. Alonso has said he will fire any administrator who does not honestly report school violence.
Reginald F. Lewis High is one of the smaller schools created by the breakup of the large, chaotic Northern High School in 2002. Last summer, the state put Lewis on probation for its high number of suspensions for violent incidents. If the rate of suspensions keeps up this year, the school will be labeled persistently dangerous.
Another school located in the same complex, W.E.B DuBois High School, already has the persistently dangerous designation, meaning it must offer students the option to transfer elsewhere.
At a school board meeting last month, English complained to Alonso and the board about teacher assaults. "You will not have good test scores ... as long as these students are allowed to run the halls, come back to the classroom and continue to act in a violent way," she said.
She asked for a meeting to discuss "strategies to help students who need some kind of support because obviously they're crying out for help," a request that led to the formation of the task force.
Alonso responded that night that he'd be happy to meet with English and anyone else about school violence, but he said he wanted specifics about incidents that are not being reported, not generalized allegations.
"The message that I have made very clear to principals is that ... any student who commits the kind of offense that leads to persistently dangerous status by law has to be part of a process which takes them out of a school.
"If that is not happening, then the law is not being followed in the school, and I need to intervene. ... If you have specifics, bring them to my attention. I will respond immediately. I would rather deal with specifics than with the notion that the kids are running wild, because that's not helpful."
By Sara Neufeld | Sun reporter
April 10, 2008
Sun reporter John Fritze contributed to this article.
Source - http://www.baltimoresun.com
Wednesday, April 9, 2008
"The Last Lecture" Winners
A Carnegie Mellon Professor diagnosed with pancreatic cancer last summer was told he had only months to live. 46-year old Randy Pausch then delivered his "last lecture" a heartfelt public talk about the meaning of life. The tape of that hit the internet. Six million people have seen it.
Paush sat down with ABC's Diane Sawyer and told her,"the metaphor I've used is somebody's going to push my family off a cliff pretty soon. And I won't be there to catch them. And that breaks my heart. But I have some time to sew some nets to cushion the fall. So, I can curl up in a ball and cry, or I can get to work on the nets."
Paush has now taken on a new audience with his new book " The Last Lecture." He said wanted to write the book for his three young children. On each page of the book it details what he's learned about life, family, and his childhood dreams, even the disease that threatens it all.
15 WMDT viewers will be receiving a free copy of his book.
Gary Jones
Jeanne Gaetano
Dona Insley
Bob Spross
Gabby Arrivello
Cheri Zatko
Susie Walczak
Michelle Miller
Donna Moran
Judy Harris
Elaine Dernoga
Brenda Ayers
Gina Holloway
Frank McKenzie
Monica Cofiell
Source - WMDT http://www.wmdt.com/topstory/displaystory.asp?id=8530
Paush sat down with ABC's Diane Sawyer and told her,"the metaphor I've used is somebody's going to push my family off a cliff pretty soon. And I won't be there to catch them. And that breaks my heart. But I have some time to sew some nets to cushion the fall. So, I can curl up in a ball and cry, or I can get to work on the nets."
Paush has now taken on a new audience with his new book " The Last Lecture." He said wanted to write the book for his three young children. On each page of the book it details what he's learned about life, family, and his childhood dreams, even the disease that threatens it all.
15 WMDT viewers will be receiving a free copy of his book.
Gary Jones
Jeanne Gaetano
Dona Insley
Bob Spross
Gabby Arrivello
Cheri Zatko
Susie Walczak
Michelle Miller
Donna Moran
Judy Harris
Elaine Dernoga
Brenda Ayers
Gina Holloway
Frank McKenzie
Monica Cofiell
Source - WMDT http://www.wmdt.com/topstory/displaystory.asp?id=8530
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
Amber Hagerman - Tha Amber Alert
Amber Hagerman was 9 years old when she was abducted off her bicycle on Jan. 13, 1996, in Arlington, Texas. Her disappearance and subsequent murder resulted in the Amber Alert system to notify the public of the abduction of a child. Now, state in the union has some form of an Amber Alert system.
The system is designed to enhance law enforcement's ability to respond effectively and efficiently, with the assistance of the community and media outlets, when a child has been abducted in the hope of a successful rescue.
According to a national study conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and attorney general of the state of Washington, 44 percent of children who were abducted and murdered by a stranger were dead within one hour. Seventy-four percent are dead within three hours, and 91 percent are dead within 24 hours.
A key factor in finding missing or abducted children is how quickly an Amber Alert is broadcast and how the public helps law enforcement.
In case of an Amber Alert, as a public service, Wisconsin television and radio stations will interrupt programming to broadcast information about the abducted child by using the Emergency Alert System — the same that is used for severe weather.
Amber Alerts will be broadcast every 30 minutes for the first two hours, then every hour for the next three hours.
In addition, the Amber Alert system will utilize Wisconsin's Department of Transportation message boards, located on specific highways. The message boards can be used to broadcast information that the public can use to help locate the abducted child.
The public's role is critical to the success of an Amber Alert.
If you witness any child abduction, contact your local law enforcement agency or dial 911.
If an Amber Alert has been activated, be on the lookout for the child, suspect, and/or vehicle described in the alert.
If you locate the child, suspect, or vehicle fitting the description, immediately call the telephone number given in the Amber Alert to provide authorities with as much information as possible.
People who locate an abductor should never take any action other than to contact law enforcement.
There are two ways you can get local Amber Alerts on your cell phone.
The first way is to visit www.wirelessamberalerts.org. There, the web page will guide you through setting up your phone for receiving locale Amber Alerts.
The second way is by using your cell phone. Text message the word AMBER followed by a space and your 5-digit ZIP code then send it to 26237. You will then receive on your cell phone a reply confirming your enrollment. If you wish to unsubscribe, send STOP to 26237.
The Wireless Amber Alert Service is free, and there is no charge to enroll.
As individuals and as members of our communities, we all should have a sense of responsibility to protect our children.
Todd Priebe is an officer with the Sheboygan Police's Community Policing Unit. He writes bi-weekly about safety in the county and can be reached at 459-3341.
News Article Source - http://www.sheboygan-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080331/SHE0101/803310408/1973
The system is designed to enhance law enforcement's ability to respond effectively and efficiently, with the assistance of the community and media outlets, when a child has been abducted in the hope of a successful rescue.
According to a national study conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention and attorney general of the state of Washington, 44 percent of children who were abducted and murdered by a stranger were dead within one hour. Seventy-four percent are dead within three hours, and 91 percent are dead within 24 hours.
A key factor in finding missing or abducted children is how quickly an Amber Alert is broadcast and how the public helps law enforcement.
In case of an Amber Alert, as a public service, Wisconsin television and radio stations will interrupt programming to broadcast information about the abducted child by using the Emergency Alert System — the same that is used for severe weather.
Amber Alerts will be broadcast every 30 minutes for the first two hours, then every hour for the next three hours.
In addition, the Amber Alert system will utilize Wisconsin's Department of Transportation message boards, located on specific highways. The message boards can be used to broadcast information that the public can use to help locate the abducted child.
The public's role is critical to the success of an Amber Alert.
If you witness any child abduction, contact your local law enforcement agency or dial 911.
If an Amber Alert has been activated, be on the lookout for the child, suspect, and/or vehicle described in the alert.
If you locate the child, suspect, or vehicle fitting the description, immediately call the telephone number given in the Amber Alert to provide authorities with as much information as possible.
People who locate an abductor should never take any action other than to contact law enforcement.
There are two ways you can get local Amber Alerts on your cell phone.
The first way is to visit www.wirelessamberalerts.org. There, the web page will guide you through setting up your phone for receiving locale Amber Alerts.
The second way is by using your cell phone. Text message the word AMBER followed by a space and your 5-digit ZIP code then send it to 26237. You will then receive on your cell phone a reply confirming your enrollment. If you wish to unsubscribe, send STOP to 26237.
The Wireless Amber Alert Service is free, and there is no charge to enroll.
As individuals and as members of our communities, we all should have a sense of responsibility to protect our children.
Todd Priebe is an officer with the Sheboygan Police's Community Policing Unit. He writes bi-weekly about safety in the county and can be reached at 459-3341.
News Article Source - http://www.sheboygan-press.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080331/SHE0101/803310408/1973
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