Russian Math Genius Nixes One Million Dollar Award

'Nyet' to $1 million? Math genius may reject award

Mar 29 2010

MALCOLM RITTER and IRINA TITOVA - Associated Press Writers

Grigory Perelman


ST. PETERSBURG, Russia— Who doesn't want to be a millionaire? Maybe a 43-year-old unemployed bachelor who lives with his elderly mother in Russia _ and who won $1 million for solving a problem that has stumped mathematicians for a century.

Grigory Perelman can't decide if he wants the money.

"He said he would need to think about it," said James Carlson, who telephoned Perelman with the news he had won the Millennium Prize awarded by the Clay Mathematics Institute of Cambridge, Mass.

Carlson said he wasn't too surprised by the apparent lack of interest from Perelman, a reclusive genius who has a history of refusing big prizes.

In 2006, Perelman made headlines when he stayed away from the ceremony in Madrid where he was supposed to get a Fields Medal, often called the Nobel prize of mathematics. He remained at home in St. Petersburg instead.

As for the new prize, Perelman (PER-il-mahn) told a local television station he hasn't made a decision on whether to accept the money, and that Carlson's institute will be the first to know when he does.

Sergei Rukshin, Perelman's high school math teacher, told The Associated Press on Monday that Perelman is still unsure whether to accept it.

"I know that this time he is seriously thinking about whether he will accept the prize. He still has some time," Rukshin said. The awards ceremony is in June.

Rukshin said Perelman has been without work for four years and has declined all job offers. He previously worked at the Steklov Mathematics Institute.

Perelman was honored for proving the Poincare (pwan-kah-RAY) conjecture, which deals with shapes that exist in four or more dimensions, rather than the familiar three dimensions. The conjecture proposes a test for determining whether a shape in such space, no matter how distorted, is a three-dimensional sphere.

Tamara Yefimova, a deputy director of Perelman's high school who has known the mathematician since he was a student there, said that once he started working on the Poincare conjecture he became totally absorbed in it.

She said Perelman stopped visiting his old school to help students and stopped attending meetings of the city's math society.

"It could have been only him who would solve the Poincare conjecture," Yefimova said.

Indeed, Carlson said, Perelman's solution was "a truly amazing piece of mathematics."

Perelman lives in an aging three-room high-rise apartment with his mother and doesn't like to pick up awards he's won, money or not.

When you are a genius "It's easy to grow up feeling bad about yourself and maybe even feeling like a freak and sort of reacting accordingly," so social skills can suffer, said a California psycologist.

Mathematicians will gather in Paris in June to celebrate Perelman's achievement and put on some kind of ceremony whether he's there or not.

Does Carlson care whether Perelman shows up?

"It would be nice," Carlson said. "But on the other hand, I respect his desire for calm and tranquility."

___

Associated Press Science Writer Malcolm Ritter reported from New York.

Dead Opossum Gets Wrong End of Exchange in Mouth-to-Mouth Resuscitation Attempt

Police: Drunk Pa. man tries to revive carcass of very dead opossum

Mar 27 2010 Updated March 30, 9 PM EST

Extremely Dead Opossum - Victim of Road Rage?

PUNXSUTAWNEY, Pa.— Police say they charged a Pennsylvania man with public drunkenness after he was seen trying to resuscitate a long-dead opossum along a highway. State police Trooper Jamie Levier says several witnesses saw 55-year-old Donald Wolfe, of Brookville, near the animal Thursday along Route 36 in Oliver Township, about 65 miles northeast of Pittsburgh.

The trooper says one person saw Wolfe kneeling before the animal and gesturing as though he were conducting a seance. He says another saw Wolfe attempting to give mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.

Levier says the animal already had been dead a while. He speculated the opossum might have been killed by the alcohol toxic breath of its would be rescuer. A coroner was not called and no official cause of death was reported, which raised some eyebrows in the Opossum community, concerned about a possible cover-up.

The Associated Press could not locate a home telephone number for Wolfe.

Police later received reports of a gang of opossums, wearing white sheets and hoods, that had been spotted near the drunk man's home, raising fears of vigilante justice.

Celebrating Genitalia in Japan

KOMAKI, Japan — It's springtime in Japan and that means one thing.

Actually, two things. Penis festivals and vagina festivals.

It may sound like a sophomoric gag. But these are folk rites going back at least 1,500 years, into Japan's agricultural past. They're held to ensure a good harvest and promote baby-making.

Maybe they should hold more such festivals. Japan has one of the world's lowest birthrates (1.37 children per woman), which experts blame on stagnant incomes and changing gender relations.

The center-left government that came to power last year hopes to make child-rearing more affordable with a $280 monthly stipend per kid.

Meanwhile, the festivals provide an economic shot in the arm for host cities, a party for foreign tourists and expats, and a chance for locals to let loose, too.

One of the best-known penis festivals is at Komaki City's Tagata shrine, about 45 minutes outside Nagoya, every March 15. In a neighboring village, a vagina festival is held the Sunday before that. This year, that was the 14th — meaning rare, back-to-back genital

worship days.

At the Hime-no-miya grand vagina festival, parents dress up their kids, pray for healthy babies, and celebrate with sake, beer and snacks galore.

In the morning, children carry a small vagina to the Ogata shrine. Later, some 40 grown men strain under the weight of a massive vagina while carrying it to the shrine in the main parade. They're followed by two smaller vagina litters.

At the end of the day pink and white mochi (glutinous rice ball treats) are hurled into the crowd.

The penis festival the following day drew far more foreign and Japanese tourists — some 100,000, according to a festival brochure. Festival foreplay included much posing with wooden and candy penises. The main event is the parading of a two-foot by six-and-a-half foot long phallus carved from Japanese cypress.

Teams of men strain under the weight, stopping to spin the penis around a few times amid yelling, cheering and jostling. The work is so hard that teams rotate during the one-and-a-half hour procession.

This phallus parade is rooted, says the brochure, in "an ancient Japanese belief that for the growth and development of all things, the mother, earth, has to be impregnated by the father, heaven."

"People come here when they want to have a baby," said festival volunteer and Komaki resident Katsuragawa Noboru. "If it works, they have to come back the next year to thank the gods."

It worked for Katsuragawa, twice: He has a son and a daughter now, he said with a laugh.

Lucy Glasspool, who researches gender and pop culture as a visiting scholar in Nagoya, was helping out at the information booth. It was her first penis festival.

"I heard about this a long time ago and I'm not sure I believed it," she said. "But now I'm here and it's everything I thought it would be. I highly recommend the penis-shaped candy."

She gave English-language updates on the penis' progress through a microphone, and passed out detailed information in English on the history and significance of the rite. But most Western tourists seemed happy enough just to drink beer and make endless penis jokes.

Vendors sell penis- and vagina-shaped candies and chocolate-covered bananas, wood penis sculptures and penis earrings, adding to the mirth. Eavesdropping was a riot.

Said one American woman into a cell phone, in a southern twang: "We just found an ashtray that's in the shape of a vagina that you need to buy."

"It's smaller than last year's," one jaded female expat loudly complained, as the phallus approached.

One American woman, reviewing a photo of her friends posing with penis-candy-sucking Japanese, said, "Oh my God. This one is so going on Facebook."

Rape Fantasy Gone Sour

1 trial for 2 men accused of arranging rape online

Mar 25 2010


CASPER, Wyo.— A district judge has ordered two men accused of using Craigslist to arrange the rape of a Wyoming woman to stand trial together.

Jebidiah James Stipe, of Twentynine Palms, Calif., and Ty Oliver McDowell, of Bar Nunn, both have pleaded not guilty to charges.

Prosecutors say Stipe posted an ad on the Internet advertising site Craigslist pretending to be a Casper woman. Prosecutors say Stipe asked for someone to help play out a "rape fantasy."

Prosecutors say McDowell replied to the posting and raped the woman in her home in December.

Stipe and McDowell are scheduled to go on trial May 24.

___

Information from: Casper Star-Tribune - Casper, http://www.trib.com

No Place Like Prison Says Ex Con

Former inmate gets 15 years for breaking into jail

Mar 23 2010


(AP Photo/Brevard County Sheriffs Office)

This undated photo provided by the Brevard County Sheriffs Office shows Sylvester Jiles. aka The Perp

VIERA, Fla.— A Florida man has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for violating his probation by trying to break into the Brevard County jail.

A judged sentenced 25-year-old Sylvester Jiles of Cocoa on Monday. He was convicted in January of trespassing on jail property and resisting an officer.

Authorities say Jiles tried to climb a 12-foot fence at the Brevard County Detention Center in August. He was caught and hospitalized with severe cuts from the barbed wire. He had been released a week earlier after accepting a plea deal on a manslaughter charge.

Jiles had begged jail officials to take him back into custody, saying he feared retaliation from the victim's family. Jail officials said they couldn't take him in and told him to file a police report.

When Lesbians Attack

Lesbian bride spends wedding night in jail after baring breasts at bouncer and attacking him with stiletto shoe

Daily Mail Reporter
22nd March 2010


A lesbian bride was arrested at her own wedding reception after baring her breasts at a doorman and then hitting him over the head with her red stiletto shoe.

Sharon Hancox, 40, spent her first night of marriage in police cells after the disturbance at the champagne party to celebrate her nuptuals with new wife Nicola Hutin.

Sharon Hancox is shown above standing with new 'wife' Nicola Hutin (left) outside Swansea Magistrates Court. Hancox pleaded guilty to common assault after she attacked the doorman on the couple's wedding night

A court heard Hancox had drunk up to eight pints of lager and quaffed champagne after the civil ceremony.

Then the court heard she had a row with club doorman David Jenkins over allowing a guest into the wedding function.

Prosecutor Julie Sullivan said: 'With that, she then pulled the top of her red dress down exposing her breasts.

Hancox then called the doorman a pervert. Her partner lunged at Mr Jenkins before Hancox, who was holding a two-inch stiletto shoe, followed suit. 'The heel made contact with his forehead and he felt blood running down his face.'

The court heard trouble started after doorman Mr Jenkins was told that Miss Hutin, also 40, was fighting with another woman. Mr Jenkins separated the pair - then decided to ask all the guests to leave the Champers bar in Swansea, South Wales.

But the city's magistrates heard Hancox blame Mr Jenkins for the fight and told him he should not have let the other woman into the private function.

Miss Sullivan said: 'She told police she was ashamed of what she had done and was embarrassed for her actions.'

Doorman Mr Jenkins said he'd had 'previous dealings' with Hancox and she had been ejected from Champers at an earlier time.

Hancox allegedly told him: 'You assaulted me, you pulled my tits out two years ago.'

But Mr Jenkins denied her claims.

Steve Burnell, defending, said Hancox believed she was only trying to protect her partner. He said: 'One of the guests turned up slightly inebriated. They asked that the woman not be allowed in. 'She had already taken her shoes off. It wasn't a deliberate act where she was wearing high heels and then took one of them off.
'She had not fully appreciated that the shoe was in her hand when she swung at him. She's very remorseful.'

Hancox and Miss Hutin tied the knot at the Swansea Register office.
After spending a night in police cells, Hancox was released the next day so the couple could spend their honeymoon in Devon, while Mr Jenkins was taken from the reception to a hospital for treatment to a head injury.

Hancox, of Penlan, Swansea, admitted common assault and was sentenced to a 12-month community order with 60 hours' unpaid work. She was also ordered to pay £100 compensation and £150 costs.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1259770/Lesbian-bride-Sharon-Hancox-spends-wedding-night-jail-baring-breasts-bouncer-attacking-stiletto.html#ixzz0j2NE8uZh

Hungry Burglar Breaks In Restaurant, Cooks Chicken and Rice, Leaves Without Cleaning Up

Burglar enters NJ sushi restaurant, cooks chicken, then flees

Mar 22 2010



HILLSDALE, N.J.— Police in a New Jersey town say someone broke into a restaurant and cooked a chicken and rice dish before fleeing _ leaving behind a pile of dirty dishes.

They say the hungry burglar on Saturday broke through an exhaust fan in the back wall of the Matsu Sushi Grill in Hillsdale, a town of 10,000 residents just northwest of New York City. The burglar got chicken from a freezer and cooked it with rice in a frying pan.

Detective Robert Francaviglia (frank-uh-VIL'-ee-uh) says the burglar ignored $200 in the cash register and took only the chicken and rice. He says the culprit may have been a homeless person searching for food.

Police say the break-in is similar to one at a nearby fried-chicken fast-food restaurant last year.

___

Information from: The Record of Bergen County, http://www.northjersey.com

Brave Souls Come To Aid of Peanut Butter Eating Skunk

Colorado skunk's head freed from peanut butter jar

Mar 20 2010 04:52PM CST

Grand JUNCTION, Colo.— It was a sticky _ and potentially stinky _ rescue for a Colorado wildlife officer who pried a peanut butter jar off a skunk's head Saturday in Grand Junction.

The officer got a call that the animal was disoriented in someone's front yard, its head stuck in a jar of peanut butter.

State Wildlife spokesman Randy Hampton says the officer freed the skunk by tying a noose pole to the jar and pulling. The device is also called a choke stick and is a common tool used by animal control officers.

The skunk was freed without injury after about 10 minutes of pulling and then ran away _ without spraying anyone.

Hampton says it likely got trapped while rooting through someone's trash.

Vanity Ruins A Good Heist For Teenager

Police: Suspect updates Myspace page during burglary


March 19, 2010

KENNEWICK, Wash. -- Kennewick Police find a burglary suspect with help from the vane suspect himself. They say a 17 year old boy broke into Bella's Office Furniture on the 7400 block of West Clearwater on Saturday. During the commission of the burglary he paused long enough to update his own Myspace page on the store's computer. The cops were able to obtain the boy's name, address, phone number and the names and phone numbers of several attractive girlfriends in various states of undress. Two officers volunteered to track down the girlfriends and see what they could get from them.

Grandfather Who Whacks Kids In Wal-Mart For Fun Busted

Man who punched children in Wal-Mart faces more charges

Mar 16 2010

By Theodore Decker, The Columbus Dispatch, Ohio


The 68-year-old grandfather accused of punching children's heads in a Northwest Side Walmart faces new charges that he twice assaulted a 2-year-old boy in the same store last month.

Ralph Conone of 5687 Shadowbrook Dr. on the Northwest Side remained jailed after appearing today in Franklin County Municipal Court on two more misdemeanor counts of assault.

Sgt. Rich Weiner, a Columbus Police Division spokesman, said Conone hit the victim in the store on Feb. 28, striking him two times in the head about eight minutes apart.

Sgt. John Hurst of the special victims bureau said investigators reviewed old incident reports connected to the store and found one from that night that warranted further scrutiny.

They spoke to the child's family and went through archived surveillance video at the store to confirm the child had been struck by Conone, he said.

"With the digital age, they can save (the recordings) pretty far back," Hurst said.

The new charges bring Conone's identified victims to three, police said.

He was charged last week with punching two brothers, ages 6 and 7, in the head with his keys sticking out of his fingers. The boys' mother, realizing something was amiss, followed Conone Wednesday night as he left the Wal-Mart at 2700 Bethel Rd. and detained him for security officers.

Police said last week that they had video footage of two other unidentified children being struck by Conone on the same night the brothers were assaulted.

Conone confessed to the assaults, police said. He told them he had been hitting random children in the store since January when their parents weren't looking. He said he did it because it excited him.

Colorado Do-Gooders Have Too Much Time To Think And Nothing To Think With

Four petty, small-minded individuals call Colo. police to complain about a topless gardener, according to equally petty and small-minded cops.
Mar 18 2010


BOULDER, Colo.— A nudist in Boulder who was threatened with eviction last spring for gardening outside wearing only pasties and a thong has caused another stir by gardening topless. At least four callers told police 52-year-old Catharine Pierce, who looks much younger (see photo insert) was in her yard topless on Wednesday. State law prohibits exposed genitals, but Pierce was wearing jeans and had gardening gloves and was not in violation of any law. Breasts are not considered to be genitals and any such law would severely restrict women's rights to breast feed in public.

Police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley said an officer told Pierce to consider wearing a shirt because children at the school across the street were playing outside.

According to an unauthorized school spokesman there were no complaints from any of the children. Pierce's husband then complained to police. Huntley said a police supervisor agreed with Pierce's husband that Pierce wasn't breaking any laws.

After the story broke on local news channels, an estimated 1500 individuals called police to complain about the original four complaining individuals. One caller told police he was being deprived of his constitutional right to view a topless woman in his neighborhood and threatened to sue the officer who suggested Ms. Pierce wear a shirt.

Boulder is considering expanding its anti-nudity law. Several thousand Boulder activists are considering mounting a recall election if it does. "It makes no sense for Boulder to criminalize nudity because four old biddies complained," according to Seth Bullingrad, who is President of Bare Boulder, a pro-nudist group that stages annual "naked-ins" in downtown Boulder. Last year's naked-in drew an estimated 20,000 participants and spectators and was closely monitored by the entire Boulder Police Department.

Man Pimps Wife On Craigslist

Sheriff: Man sold his wife for sex on Craigslist
Not the actual woman - a substitute used for advertising only

Mar 17 2010
CARLA K. JOHNSON - Associated Press Writer



CHICAGO— A woman feared she'd never see her young child again unless she complied with her husband's scheme to sell her sexual services on Craigslist, authorities said Wednesday.

After paid sexual encounters in eight states, the woman sought help by calling a national anti-sex trafficking hot line, said Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart, who was notified of the woman's plight on March 11.

Her desperate plea led to the arrest Sunday in Chicago of her husband, a 32-year-old Rockford, Minn., man. The Associated Press does not generally identify victims of sexual abuse and is not naming the man to avoid identifying his wife.

The man's arrest comes after Craigslist promised last year to screen all submissions to its "adult services" section before posting them. Dart and other law enforcement agents have repeatedly accused the online site of promoting prostitution in its ads.

In the latest case, the woman told investigators her husband regularly posted ads, promoting her for sex. She claimed he would arrange the encounters, then demand she immediately deposit the money she was paid into his bank account.

He was arrested at a downtown Chicago hotel when he arrived with the child to pick up his wife after what he assumed was her weekend of prostitution.

The man controlled his wife with threats to their child, convincing her she would never see their preschooler again if she didn't take part, Dart said.

"He used the threat of the child being kept away from her forever," Dart said. "They were legally married, her at a very young age. He had been some type of counselor to her at one stage when she was young. At some point, they had the child."

Rockford, population 4,000, has a small-town feeling even though Minneapolis is less than an hour's drive away. The town sits on the Crow River, surrounded by rolling farm fields and subdivisions. Headline-grabbing crimes are rare.

The man faces a felony charge of pandering and is being held on $150,000 bond. It isn't clear whether he has an attorney.

The woman and the child were being kept at a safe location. Dart said the woman hasn't been charged with any crime, but "that's being examined."

Authorities said the man had been in touch with his wife all weekend, arranging encounters for her. She told him she was sick and wasn't turning all the tricks he'd set up. The man then drove to Chicago to confront her, authorities said. Investigators followed the man after he left Florida, where he'd forced his wife to work last week.

Dart said his department has "had a long tortured relationship" with Craigslist. Last year, he filed a lawsuit alleging the Web site had become the "largest source of prostitution in America." A judge dismissed the lawsuit.

Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster reacted to the arrest Wednesday in an e-mailed statement to The Associated Press.

"Criminal exploitation is reprehensible, and craigslist works with law enforcement when called upon to apprehend and prosecute those responsible," Buckmaster said in the statement. "Misuse of craigslist for criminal purposes is extremely unwise, since an electronic trail to the perpetrator is inevitably created."

He didn't comment on the specifics of the Chicago arrest.

___

Associated Press Writer Martiga Lohn contributed to this report from St. Paul, Minn.

Pot Thieves Strike in Washington: Shoot-Out Ensues

385 plants at Wash. pot activist's burgled home

GENE JOHNSON March 16, 2010

A spokesman for the King County Sheriff's Office in Washington says deputies found 385 pot plants at the home of a medical marijuana activist who was in a shootout with robbers.

Officers also found marijuana products such as butter, baked goods and paraphernalia at Steve Sarich's, and plan to forward their findings to the prosecutor.

Sarich suffered minor wounds when robbers broke into his home early Monday. One fired a shotgun at him, and pellets hit his face and arm. Sarich fired a handgun at one robber, sending him to intensive care.

Sarich runs CannaCare. Under Washington law, the presumptive limit of marijuana plants someone can have for medical purposes is 15 for each patient, but patients can have more if they demonstrate need. Sarich would need only 25 patients to conform to the law. It was not known how the pot butter and baked goods would factor in to the total equation, according to a former member of the police pot squad, who asked not to be identified for fear of retribution by local gang members.

His name is Henry Burgess and his home address and phone number are available on request. Our sole responsibility is to the news and we don't really care about Henry's problems.

Lizzie Borden's Great Granddaughter?

Woman arrested for allegedly wielding ax at roommate

March 9, 2010

Deputies arrested a 44-year-old Helena woman late Sunday night for allegedly threatening her roommate with an ax.

Aurora Martha Swafford faces a felony charge of assault with a weapon, according to documents filed in Justice Court Monday.

Deputies arrived at a residence on the 2900 block of Village Road and talked with the victim and Swafford, both of whom said they had been engaged in an argument.

During the altercation, Swafford allegedly grabbed a “sawed-off” ax from next to a stove and held it over her head in a threatening manner, the documents state.

The man was able to wrestle the ax away from Swafford before law enforcement officers arrived. He told officers that when he tried to leave, the woman, who weighs 420 pounds, sat on him to prevent him from going.

Prime, Top Dollar Boobs Busted In Spokane

Police: Woman in bust hid nearly $26,000 in bra

Mar 13 2010



SPOKANE, Wash.— A fraud bust, indeed: Spokane County sheriff's deputies said a woman was hiding nearly $26,000 in her bra when she was booked into jail for investigation of theft. Lukeisha A. Harris was one of three Seattle-area residents arrested Friday as part of an alleged fraud ring. Deputies said they used phony Oregon driver's licenses and counterfeit credit cards to obtain cash advances from Spokane banks.

Sheriff's spokesman Dave Reagan said the three were arrested after a worker at one bank reported that they tried to obtain money using a stolen credit card. The investigators followed the ring to two other banks before making the bust.

Reagan said that during a search at the Spokane County Jail, guards found that the 24-year-old Harris _ who is 6 feet tall _ had the cash hidden in her bra, along with bank receipts.

It was not immediately known Saturday if Harris or the other suspects had lawyers, but 7 local lawyers appeared at the courthouse after the bust was announced, offering to represent the woman with the cash pro bono.

NYC Police Tow Truck Tows Hearse With Dead Body Inside

NEW YORK— Cops say dead New Yorker taken for a ride.

A police tow truck removed a hearse parked outside a New York City funeral home, giving its dearly departed passenger an unexpected side trip. NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said there was "nothing to indicate it was more than just an illegally parked car." Redden's Funeral Home director Paul DeNigris said a windshield placard had fallen flat. The vehicles's tinted windows helped obscure the white cardboard box that held the remains.

DeNigris said he was "a wreck" after discovering the vehicle missing Monday in Manhattan. He rushed to the tow pound, where he discreetly explained the circumstances and got the dearly departed back. He also got the body to an airport in time for a scheduled flight to Miami.

He plans to contest the $115 parking ticket.

Just Another L.A. Girl

Police surprised by teacher-student sex confession - boy, not so much...

Mar 10 2010
By JOHN ROGERS - Associated Press Writer



LOS ANGELES— In his 28 years with the Burbank Police Department, Sgt. Robert Quesada had never heard of anything quite like it: A well-respected "hot" teacher at one of the city's public schools walks into police headquarters and confesses to having an affair with a 14-year-old boy.

With her attorney by her side, police say, Amy Victoria Beck told detectives the relationship with one of her former students began in March 2009 and continued until last December. She said it left her wracked with guilt.

"I can't tell you that I remember anything like that ever happening before," Quesada said of someone confessing to a crime when police had no idea a crime had even been committed.

"Burglars, robbers, criminal suspects, they don't turn themselves in," he said. "But when people are overwhelmed with guilt, and they have a conscience, I guess it makes them do what's right."

After hearing Beck's story, detectives tracked down the boy, who is now a 15-year-old high school student. Quesada said he confirmed what she told them.

The 33-year-old teacher, who has been charged with five counts of engaging in sex acts with a person under 16, appeared briefly in court Wednesday before returning to jail. She is scheduled to be arraigned March 25 and faces as much as seven years in prison if convicted.

As she sits in jail, making no effort to post her $175,000 bail, according to her attorney, school officials say they are as stunned by the revelation as police were.

"I think the reason why people are in shock is because she was considered such a good, upstanding teacher," said Gabe Soumakian, the Burbank Unified School District's assistant superintendent. "I don't think anyone has ever had a complaint about her."

Beck, who Quesada said is married and the mother of three children, had taught school for several years in the Los Angeles suburb that is home to such major studios as Walt Disney and Warner Bros. She was teaching English and social science at David Starr Jordan Middle School until last week when she abruptly resigned. Soumakian said she told school officials she was moving out of state.

After learning she'd been arrested, officials sent psychologists to the school to counsel students.

Although teacher-student sex scandals make headlines and have been the subject of TV movies, USC sociologist Dorian Traube said evidence suggests they are actually quite rare. Quesada couldn't immediately recall the last time one occurred in Burbank, a city of 100,000 that borders Los Angeles.

The most famous case is likely that of Mary Kay Letourneau, the Washington teacher who served seven years in prison for her affair with a student that began in the 1990s when he was 12 and she was 34. Letourneau, who has since married her former student Vili Fualaau, continues to capitalize on her notoriety, hosting a "Hot For Teacher" night at a Seattle bar last year.

Traube said there is often a double standard in such cases. Girls who become involved with their male teachers are sometimes thought of as sluts, she said, while a boy is sometimes hailed as the campus stud. But the emotional trauma for either sex, she added, can be just as devastating.

Both sexes are made to feel desirable when such an affair begins, Traube said, and then devastated when it ends. What's more, they are being manipulated by people in authority who have control over their grades.

"It is still highly taboo and highly illegal," she said of such relationships. "And it is appropriate that it be highly taboo."

Sacrilege In Iowa

Police: Burglar uses church equipment to watch porn

Mar 10 2010

AMES, Iowa— Second-degree burglary charges have been filed against an Ames man who broke into a church where he allegedly used the institution's electronic equipment to watch pornography. Police allege the 55-year-old man broke into the First Christian Church on Thursday. After gathering items from around the building, he is believed to have gone to the basement to spend the night.

Police summoned to the church Friday by staff, found the man trying to haul away a garbage can filled with food, kitchen utensils, clothes, electronic equipment and a 26-inch flat-screen television.

Police Cmdr. Mike Brennan said the man used the electronic equipment to watch pornographic movies that were found on him when he was arrested.

The man was being held at the Story County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bond.

___

69 Busted By South Carolina Cops

South Carolina Police sting busts up 69 in parking lot

MARCH 9--While on patrol early Sunday morning at a mall in Orangeburg, South Carolina, an alert cop noticed a parked Chevy conversion van rocking. When Corporal William Murphy shined a light though the vehicle's back window, he expected to find teenagers rocking it up with the help of a little marijuana for stimulus. Instead, he spotted Shanna Byrd, 30, and Ronald Braxton, 32, both naked and in action together. Specifically, according to an Orangeburg Department of Public Safety report, "Mrs. Byrd's head was in Mr. Braxton's groin area and Mr. Braxton's head was in Mrs. Byrd's groin area." When the naked couple failed to respond after being bathed in 15 seconds of portable police spotlight, Murphy started knocking. (I hear you knockin,' but you cain't come in.)

Braxton was not pleased by the interruption,but managed to uncouple from Byrd (the amorous duo are portrayed in the accompanying police arrest photo). After Murphy identified himself, Braxton became more subdued but responded, "Fuck you. Who is it?" Despite Murphy's order to open the van's door, Braxton, continuing to curse the officer, refused to exit (during a brief standoff, Braxton took time out to smoke a post-coital cigarette). After locating her clothing and dressing, Byrd eventually opened the door, and was busted along with Braxton for misdemeanor disorderly conduct. Cops reported that both arrestees were intoxicated. The amorous pair might have gone undetected, of course, had their van not been parked, with its engine running, rocking back and forth, underneath a light pole.

When questioned by local reporters at the police station, both Byrd and Braxton joined in the following statement: "No comment."

Woman Charged With Assault By Breast Milk on Police Officer

OWENSBORO, Ky.— A woman in jail for public intoxication was accused of assaulting a jailer by squirting breast milk at her. (Substitute Woman*)>>

WYMT-TV reported that a 31-year-old woman was arrested Thursday on a misdemeanor charge of public intoxication. But as she was changing into an inmate uniform, she squirted breast milk into the face of a female deputy who was with her.

The woman now faces a felony charge of third degree assault on a police officer. Her bond was set at $10,000.

*This photo was substituted because the real mom was still in jail.

___

Washington Man Receives Top Quality Shock

Wash. man electrocuted by urinating on power line

Authorities believe a Washington man was killed by accidentally urinating on a downed power line after a car crash.

The Associated Press


MONTESANO, Wash. —
Authorities believe a Washington man was killed by accidentally urinating on a downed power line after a car crash.

Grays Harbor County sheriff's Deputy Dave Pimentel (PIM'-en-tel) said Monday 50-year-old Roy Messenger was not seriously hurt after he collided with a power pole Friday and called a relative to pull his car from a ditch.

However, family members found Messenger electrocuted when they arrived.

Pimentel says Messenger apparently urinated into a roadside ditch but didn't see the live wire. The urine stream likely served as a conductor, allowing the electricity to reach his body.

Pimentel says there will be an autopsy but burn marks indicated the way the electricity traveled through Messenger's body.

A Pot Smokers Dream Come True

45 pounds of pot delivered to wrong home



SALISBURY, N.C., Feb. 25 (UPI) -- Police in North Carolina said a woman opened a package she believed to be her new computer and discovered 45 pounds of marijuana.

Lt. Rodney Harris, acting chief of the Salisbury Police Department, said the woman believed the package she received Tuesday morning was the computer she ordered, but instead she found the stash of pot brought to the wrong address by a UPS driver.

Harris said the package, sent from McAllen, Texas, was meant for another address in in her mobile home park. He said officers set up surveillance at the apparently vacant address but the intended recipient did not show up to claim the package when it was left outside the door.

The acting chief said the marijuana had an estimated street value of $35,000.

The woman said a FedEx driver delivered her new computer later in the day.

Is That Part of the Dress or Part of Paris?

Paris Hilton shows off new crotchless dress.

March 4, 2010

Paris Hilton, the rich heiress known for her bizarre behavior and sexual extravaganzas, was photographed walking down a London street wearing a new dress design by the flamboyant British designer, Niles Cavendish, popularly known in fashion circles as the King of Crap. The micro mini skirt worn by Mis Hilton is designed to reveal brief glimpses of the wearer's crotch, which, in most cases would be covered by an undergarment. Miss Hilton prefers to go au naturel.

Man Eats Evidence - It Makes Him Sick

Police: Suspect tries to conceal evidence by digestion

March 4, 2010

In a bizarre bid to destroy evidence seized during a federal raid, a New York City man grabbed a flash drive and swallowed the data storage device while in the custody of Secret Service agents. Turned out the item was not compatible with his gastrointestinal system: He became violently ill an hour later and was rushed to a hospital where emergency surgery was undertaken to remove the device from his stomach.

Claustrophobic Cop Locks Self in Cell, Panics, Tries to Shoot His Way Out

Ky. deputy tries to shoot his way out of jail cell

Mar 03 2010

COLUMBIA, Ky.— A Kentucky sheriff says a claustrophobic deputy has lost his job after accidentally locking himself in a jail cell and trying to shoot his way out of it. Adair County Sheriff Ralph Curry told WKYT-TV that no one was hurt when Charles Wright fired his weapon.

It happened Monday, the first day a new $12.4 million county judicial center was open to the public after more than a year of construction.

Curry says the former deputy has claustrophobia and has agreed to pay for the damage he did to the cell.

Kinky Consensual Sex Provides Peep Show For Tacoma Cops

Tacoma police find naked woman tied to a tree

Mar 03 2010 08:14PM CST

TACOMA, Wash.— Several police officers responded to a 911 report of a naked woman tied to a tree in Point Defiance Park in Tacoma. They called for backup and 25 additional officers responded, one from Seattle. Spokesman Mark Fulghum told The News Tribune officers talked with the woman and a man for several hours Tuesday in the Owen Beach area and determined it was a "consensual rendezvous."

No one was arrested.

Programmer Exposes Willy To Female Passenger On Flight To Denver

Getting Off In Denver
Computer programmer, 34, arrested for in-flight masturbation episode

MARCH 2--A Delaware man is facing a federal criminal charge after he was caught yesterday masturbating on a plane while seated next to a female passenger.

Murali Nookella, a 34-year-old computer programmer, was en route to Denver from Philadelphia on a Southwest Airlines flight when a woman noticed him "fumbling underneath a blanket," according to an affidavit sworn by FBI Agent Joel Nishida. The woman, identified only by her initials in the affidavit, said that Nookella's "eyes were closed and his hands moved all around his groin area" underneath a "mustard/gold blanket pulled up to his waist."

As the woman packed up her belonging to change seats, she "looked at Nookella and saw him holding his erect penis." The woman said that Nookella remarked, "You caught me." Nookella held a napkin in his left hand, the woman told the FBI. According to Nishida's affidavit, a copy of which you'll find below, the woman "did not look but heard a swishing sound. She thought Nookella wiped something." Nookella's employer told TSG that he was headed to Denver on a work assignment. Nookella was named today in a misdemeanor criminal complaint charging him with indecent exposure. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 90 days in jail and a $5000 fine.