Man who left jail for cigarettes gets 20 years

April 8, 2010 (WOODBINE, Ga.) -- Authorities say an inmate who broke out of jail, then returned after stealing 14 packs of cigarettes, has been sentenced to 20 years.

Prosecutors told The Florida Times-Union inmate Harry Jackson, 26, escaped his cell at the Camden County Jail last year and went to the exercise yard to retrieve cigarettes he had expected would be tossed over a fence.

They say that when the contraband wasn't there, Jackson scaled the fence, broke a window at a convenience store and grabbed cigarette packs only to be arrested upon his return.

Jackson pleaded guilty to burglary and escape charges Monday. Prosecutors say he had been jailed on charges including driving with a suspended license. His lawyer, William Ashe, didn't immediately return a call seeking comment

Typo Costs Prisoner 3 Extra Years In Indonesia Prison Inmate In Indonesia Spends 3 Extra Years Behind Bars Because Of Clerical Typo

(AP) JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - A Thai man has been released from an Indonesian prison after spending three extra years behind bars because of a typo in his paperwork, a report said Friday.

Kamjai Khong Thavorn, 53, should have been released in 2007 after serving a 20-year sentence for heroin possession but a clerical error wrongly stated his first year in prison as 1997 instead of 1987, the Jakarta Globe reported.

Kamjai was released Thursday after he told Indonesia's justice minister of the mistake during a chance meeting on the minister's tour of the maximum security prison in Central Java, it said.

"We realized the mistake that was made, so he was released unconditionally," the prison's warden, Sutrisman, told the newspaper.

Kamjai has been taken to the Thai Embassy in Jakarta, the warden said.

Officials at the justice ministry and prison could not immediately be reached for comment Friday.

April Fool's Day Gag

1985: Sports Illustrated published a story about a new rookie pitcher who planned to play for the Mets. His name was Sidd Finch, and he could reportedly throw a baseball at 168 mph with pinpoint accuracy. This was 65 mph faster than the previous record. Surprisingly, Sidd Finch had never even played the game before. Instead, he had mastered the “art of the pitch” in a Tibetan monastery under the guidance of the “great poet-saint Lama Milaraspa.” Mets fans celebrated their teams’ amazing luck at having found such a gifted player, and Sports Illustrated was flooded with requests for more information. In reality this legendary player only existed in the imagination of the author of the article, George Plimpton.

Just too stupid in my opinion, if they said the guy could throw 125 mph maybe that would have made this one a little more realistic but only a dope-head from the 80’s would fall for this poorly crafted fool’s joke.

Demi Moore Saves "Tweeter" from Suicide

Actresses Demi Moore and Nia Vardalos were linked to an online chain of Twitter posts that ultimately led to Florida authorities intervening Friday when an 18-year-old man threatened to commit suicide.Moore's Twitter account, mrskutcher, was among those responding to a message from an 18-year-old man threatening to hang himself in his front yard in Casselberry, north of Orlando. Moore -- with more than 2.5 million followers -- and husband Ashton Kutcher are both active on the social network.Vardalos' account included a message that she had called a suicide hotline and been connected to Florida police. "I gave his name+city. They went to home, helped him," one message read.The Seminole County Sheriff's Office said authorities received two calls around 2:30 a.m., one from California and one from Vancouver, British Columbia. Both callers reported the suicide threat on Twitter. There was no record of the callers' names, Lt. Sonia Pisano said, however WFTV obtained a recording of a call involving Vardalos, who starred in "My Big Fat Greek Wedding."911 dispatcher: "Where are you located?"Vardalos: "I'm in Los Angeles."911 dispatcher: "And how do you know (deleted)?"Vardalos: "I don't know this person. I'm reading a Twitter. His Twitter page is public and I saw it on Demi Moore's page, because I follow her."Deputies went to a home and took the man to a hospital, Pisano said.The teen's mother told the deputy responding that her son "was very emotional and diagnosed with obsessive compulsive disorder," according to a report released Friday by the sheriff's office. Her son was sitting at his computer desk crying when he told the officer he "did not know what to do with himself without help" and admitted to posting the tweet.The man was then placed in protective custody.WFTV tried contacting both actresses about the incident, but their publicists said they aren't saying anything about it.Moore's Twitter account was involved in a similar case last April, when a California woman messaged that she was going to kill herself. San Jose police said they took a woman to a hospital for "psychiatric evaluation" after someone called about a tweet sent to Moore threatening suicide.

Babies killing babies

On February 12, 1993 a small boy was taken from a shopping mall in Liverpool by two 10 year old boys. Jamie Bulger walked away from his mother for only a second and Jon Venables took his hand and led him out of the mall with his friend Robert Thompson. They took Jamie on a walk for over 2 ½ miles, along the way, stopping every now and again to torture the poor little boy who was crying constantly for his mommy. Passerby’s questioned the two boys dragging the toddler. They responded by saying that Jamie was their little brother, or they said he was lost and were taking him to the police station. Finally, they stopped at a railway track where they brutally kicked him, threw stones at him, rubbed paint in his eyes, and pushed batteries in his mouth and up his anus. They then left his beaten small body on the tracks so a train could run him over; to cover-up their mess.
After the mutilated body was found, it was discovered that Jamie had died before being cut in half on the tracks. Surveillance cameras caught the two boys walking away with Jamie and a nearby resident recognized the boys. Both were charged with abduction and murder. A judge ordered anonymity for the two young murderers for the rest of their lives.

Why is this relevant to my blog on current events?

On 2 March 2010, the Ministry of Justice revealed that Jon Venables had been returned to prison for an unspecified violation of the terms of his licence of release. Justice Secretary Jack Straw stated that Venables was returned to prison because of "extremely serious allegations", and stated that he was "unable to give further details of the reasons for Jon Venables's return to custody, because it was not in the public interest to do so." Following tabloid speculation, Straw repeated that premature disclosure of details of the reasons for Venables' return to custody are not in the public interest, and that the "motivation throughout has been solely to ensure that some extremely serious allegations are properly investigated and that justice is done".

Straw is scheduled to meet Bulger's mother Denise Fergus, who has said that she is angry that the Parole Board did not tell her that Venables had been returned to prison. Denise Fergus has called for Venables' anonymity to be removed if he faces criminal charges over the allegations. A spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice stated that there is a worldwide injunction against publication of either killers' location or new identity.

In an interview on 7 March 2010, the Children's Secretary Ed Balls warned that some parts of the UK media were coming close to breaking the law, and stated: "If we responded to the desire for people to know the facts in public in a way which ends up prejudicing a legal case, we would look back and think we made very irresponsible decisions” (Wikipidia).

Thoughts on the Bipartisan White House Summit

When I told my wife that in my English persuasive writing class I was being given extra credit to watch the debate on health care she supported me...until after the first hour of the debate, I told her that I was going to continue watching the next 5+ hours for two reasons: first I was extremely intrigued with the debate; second I wanted to get the full maximum extra credit possible.
I did not realize how damaging health care is to our nation's people. Thirty million people are without health insurance in the united states. Because I don't make very much money as a full-time student, I qualify for government aid. But families who make a tiny bit more than I do, don't qualify for government aid and find it extremely difficult to pay their premiums or even find insurance. Another issue I was unaware of was the fact that insurance companies are able to drop clients whenever they want. No one regulates their moves. Individuals with preexisting conditions such as asthma, cleft pallets, cancer, diabetes, etc., are left uninsured and unaccepted. They have no where to go for help. Small businesses are laying off their employees because their premiums are too high.
Obama wants to give every American the same opportunity he himself has for insurance. He says that because he is a federal employee, he along with all the other federal employees are apart of a pool. This pool makes insurance very affordable because there are so many people participating. His bill will mandate Americans to take up insurance and be apart of pools that drive insurance prices down. Senator Dick Durbin D-Illinois said that we pay $2 1/2 trillion on health care a year. "As you lose accountability for the doctors and hospitals, more people die." 98,000 people a year die of medical malpractice.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller D-West Virginia said that the health insurance agency is the shark that swims just below the water. And you don't see that shark until you feel the teeth of the shark. Every single person is entitled to a lawyer but not every single person is entitled to a doctor. It was mentioned that the united states does not discriminate, but health insurance companies do. They charge women more money, they charge the elderly more money, they also charge races differently.
I agreed with both parties on many of their debates, but I failed to hear one thing. No one mentioned what is working in health care. Government needs to focus on what is working, they need to listen (using the stethoscope analogy) and not tear down what is working in health care. They need to fix what isn't working. In doing this, they will have a better chance of solving this tragedy instead of having one party run right through the other party and establishing unconstitutional mandates.

Given a homeless man a ride lately?

Saturday February 13th, 2010 our BYU married-student ward had a Valentine's party. Olive Garden catered the event. Afterwords, my wife was in the kitchen cleaning up with some of the other activities committee members and there was still a lot of food that needed to be given out. Someone suggested to just throw it away and my wife got very flustered and said, "we can't just throw all this food away, every Sunday we have a homeless man who comes to Church. We should give it to him," The next day at church I searched out the homeless man who always seats himself in the foyer. I told him that we had missed him at the party last night and that we had something for him. I walked with him to the kitchen and gave him two large containers of chicken parmesan and spaghetti. I was in awe as he took out 2 Smith's plastic grocery bags and put both containers into its own bag. I asked him If I could give him a ride to wherever he needed to go. As he sat in my 2008 Nissan Versa, I felt so guilty for the simple commodities that I have. Trust me, a Versa is not something to brag about, but as we sat at the stop-light waiting for the light to turn green, I felt embarrassed for life's little "luxuries" that I had. He told me his name was Douglas and that he was from New York and Virginia. He couldn't have been older than 45 and when I asked him his age, he told me he was 67 years old. He said that he comes out here to Utah during the winter and spring just to enjoy the snow and fresh air. I didn't look at Douglas as the black man who wears the Indianapolis Colts coat everywhere he goes. I didn't look at him as the homeless man who sits on the street corner on most occasions that I pass by. I didn't get offended by the unpleasant aroma protruding through his worn out clothing. I looked at Douglas as my brother and felt an overwhelming love for him. We pulled into the Amenities Motel off of 300 South in Provo and I reached into my wife's purse and pulled out $14 dollars. He smiled and was grateful that I had given him food, a ride, and some money.
The drive back home was very humbling and I pondered what had taken place. Not all of us are capable of flying to Haiti to help out those in need, but we all have neighbors that are in need of some kind of help. You don't have to ask someone to help them and many people who do need help will not tell you that they need help because they do not want to feel like they are being a burden. Help those who are in your everyday life, because if you ignore their needs who will help them if everyone is worried about helping those in other parts of the world and not worried about the well-being of those in their neighborhood? Have you given a homeless man a ride lately?

Traffic Violations are Cash Cows

Thinking back to my first traffic violation, I was 15 years old (Yes, you read that correctly. Ten years ago, Idaho residents could get their driver's license at 15). I was driving to school for the very first time and approached a stop light; wanting to turn left. There were no cars so I leisurely turned right at the light. I still needed to merge over a lane to my left and enter the turn lane to turn left into school parking. I checked both mirrors and saw a blue car distantly behind me in the left lane, I felt it was far enough back, allowing me to merge lanes. I quickly glanced over my left shoulder and still felt safe about switching lanes. As I merged, the blue car snuck up immediately at my side and our two cars made contact, barely scratching the paint off each car. The lady exited her car scream profanities and back pain. When the police officer arrived, I was expecting a citation and he said that he was going to cite me if the lady had insurance. Since she didn't he told us both to have a good day.

I've had many other encounters with police officers for violating traffic laws ranging from broken tail lights, to speeding in my Yamaha R1 going 110 mph in a 75 mph zone, to riding a 50cc scooter through BYU campus chasing a deer. The heftiest fine came from the scooter incident as I was cited for "wreckless driving" and ordered to pay $300.

Interested in traffic fines and how they very from state to state, I found this article in the L.A. Times saying that drivers who are caught running red lights in California pay $446 and making a rolling right turn at a stoplight costs $381. California is installing more red-light cameras to catch traffic violators. Also, cities are trying to "boot" cars and decrease the minimum outstanding parking tickets from 5 tickets to 3 tickets to do so. Cities could raise an estimated $60 million in overdue tickets.

No matter where you are, learn your state's traffic laws and pay attention to potential fines you might have to pay if you are caught violating those laws, or, you could be like me and befriend the police officers that work out at the local gym if you ever need one of them to write off a "fix-it" ticket.

Rude Cyclists.

My home town is Boise, Idaho and I wanted to represent a bit of the "City of Trees" to my blog. Boise is an amazing place to grow up. If you are an outdoors enthusiast, Boise is the place to live. All four seasons come and go as snowboarders, wake boarders, hikers, bikers, fisherman, kayakers, rock climbers, and hunters roam the terrain. One of Boise's main features is the greenbelt that runs along side the Boise River for 16 miles. Many walkers, runners, and cyclists use this trail on a daily basis. As I was reading through the online newspaper in Boise, this letter to the editor caught my attention.

Laws can't replace common courtesy

Three feet away from a bicycle - is this 3 feet from the pedal, the tire, the foot? Whoever said a bicycle goes in a straight line? So are we supposed to crash into oncoming traffic? How does anybody know if the car was too close or if the cyclist just happened to move over? Are we going to send somebody to prison because he was 2.9 feet away? Most people use common sense and are careful and considerate.

Let me remind our cyclists that they have already taken away the Greenbelt from pedestrians. They are the stronger ones in this case; try walking slowly with your dog enjoying the river. Here they are in full gear and high speed, knocking you down and they are gone. Nobody talks about this, no evidence - in this city usually a young rider and an older pedestrian. Who cares? Laws cannot replace common courtesy.

KATHARINA MEIENHOFER, Boise

IDAHO REPUBLICANS

On a local note, this "courtesy" should be taught to the pedestrians here in Provo, UT. Just because you're walking to the crosswalk, does not give you the right to enter the street without making sure the cars are stopping for you to cross. Especially, on these ice-winter-days where vehicles don't stop instantaneously. Remember what your parents taught you when you were 5, look both ways.

The Christmas Bomber

Being a college student, a parent,a husband, and an employee probably were the reasons why I didn't hear a single word mentioned about the "Christmas bomber." I just didn't turn on the news or the radio. I found out about this story while I was skimming through my local paper, The Daily Herald, here in Provo, Utah I came across this editorial two weeks ago:

TSA assaults air travel
To fully understand the current uproar about full-body scans at airports, we should understand the chronology of the reactiveness of the Transportation Security Administration. Consider:
» First there were X-rays and magnetometers, the latter of which only detected metal.
» Then, after 9/11, came the restriction on box cutters, nail files, etc.
» Next, after the "shoe bomber," came the restriction to 3 ounces of liquids and gels and, of course, the scanning of shoes.
» Now, the "Christmas bomber" has caused another reaction -- full body scans.
Once TSA determines that carrying explosives in body cavities is feasible, I suspect we will have the next reaction, and everyone will simply stop flying rather than be subjected to that search! Then TSA will really stand for what some people are already accusing it of: Thousands Standing Around.
Kermit Heid
Salt Lake City

No I don’t think that people will stop flying if these searches were to be implemented. In fact I think more people will fly because they feel safe. This simple editorial intrigued me to research the ‘Christmas bomber’ and learn more about him. Searching on CNN.com Fawaz A. Gerges wrote that President Obama had said that the Christmas Day airline bomber acted under an al Qaeda branch.
According to the Chicago Sun-Times, the suspect is 23-year-old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. The Nigerian man had a package of explosives hidden in his underwear that he was planning to ignite on a Detroit-bound plane which would have killed nearly 300 people. Fox News reported that Northwest Airlines flight 253 from Amsterdam to Detroit had a badly burned restrained passenger that lit an explosive device that failed to explode.
The latest news on the incident broke on Fox News that Osama Bin Laden is taking credit for the Christmas Day bomber plot.

After reading Kermit Heid’s editorial and reading sources and doing research about the Christmas day bomber, I actually have an opinion on the matter. I do hope that TSA will initiate full-body scans into their already extreme passenger screenings. The Nigerian man said that just because his attempt failed; it won’t stop the others that are planning on attacking the United States from doing so.