CHICAGO - A 79-year-old South Side woman bearing a toy gun and a visor that read "Princess" has been charged with trying to rob a downtown bank.
Melvena Cooke was charged Wednesday with attempted bank robbery. She is free on $4,500 bond and was released into her daughter's custody.
Cooke walked into the Bank of America branch Tuesday morning and told a teller that she'd just come from the dentist and could only speak quietly, according to an FBI affidavit.
As the teller leaned in, Cooke whispered a demand for $30,000 and brandished a gun that turned out to be a toy, the affidavit says. Instead of handing over any money, however, the teller triggered a silent alarm and walked away.
Cooke left empty-handed after several minutes and then ducked into a nearby store, where she was arrested.
Officials said Cooke was dressed for the attempted heist in a black trench coat, sunglasses and a white "Princess" visor.
She faces up to 20 years in prison if convicted, according to the U.S. attorney's office.
#1
Remember, we're equal before the law...
However, if you're too young, or too old, or too fat...you shouldn't face the same punishment expected of others.
#2
She was going for 3 hots and a cot, plus free perscription drugs. She is more to be pitied than centured, like the song....
Posted by: Alaska Paul ||
09/12/2006 11:26 Comments ||
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#3
I lived on the southside (of Chicago) for ten years. Tough people. Southside booed Martin Luther King out of town in the 1960's! Living there a positive not a negative for me at least. Toughened this suburban boy up! Tucson, my current home, is a lark by comparison...
#3
"The psychiatric evidence indicates that her personality is unlikely to change in the future and if released, she would be likely to inflict serious injury, and perhaps bugger up proper table settings in the future.
RIYADH: Saudi clerics appear to have backtracked on controversial plans to ban women from praying at the centre of Islam's holiest shrine in Mecca. At present, women can pray in the immediate vicinity of the Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure inside the Grand Mosque. But plans by the all-male committee overseeing the holy sites would have placed women in two distant sections of the mosque - overlooking the Kaaba, though at a distance - while men would still be able to pray in the key space.
"The presidency (committee) decided to adopt a second proposal, which is to expand two special places for women's prayer, in addition to the one that already exists," Mohammed bin Nasser al-Khozayem, deputy head of Grand Mosque affairs, was quoted a saying in Okaz newspaper on Monday. "Women have the same right as me (to pray) in the 'sahn' (Kaaba area)," he said. "In fact 53 percent of the mosque's space will now be for women to pray, which is more than men."
Women activists in Saudi Arabia said the original plan was discriminatory and had vowed to oppose it. A US-based group called the Muslimah Writers Alliance began a Web petition to lobby the authorities against the plans, called "Project Grand Mosque Equal Access for Women". "We have a right to pray in this space," its Web site says.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm curious about something - is the ratio of men to women the same in the KSA as it is here? Because if it is, it's only going to grow more lopsided in the ladies' favor, and it won't be all that long before someone under one of those burkas figures that out...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
09/12/2006 6:39 Comments ||
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#2
Hmmmm, some lions of islam must have been hit upside the head w/a frying pan......
Don't get them riled, abdul, who knows what they'll do next!
#3
"Women activists in Saudi Arabia said the original plan was discriminatory"
Um, you ladies might wanna WAKE UP.
Everything in Arabia is discriminatory. Haven't you noticed?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2006 19:23 Comments ||
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#4
3 "Women activists in Saudi Arabia said the original plan was discriminatory"
Um, you ladies might wanna WAKE UP.
Everything in Arabia is discriminatory. Haven't you noticed?
Posted by Barbara Skolaut
Barbara: When they're under all that Black tarp and in that brutal heat, its hard to notice anything beyond the gusher of sweat pouring from your pits and nether regions.
Excessively skinny fashion models will be barred from a major Madrid fashion show later this month for fear they could send the wrong message to young Spanish girls, local media reported. Photographic evidence of the malnourished models is at the link for those unaware of this problem.
Madrid's regional government, which is co-financing the Pasarela Cibeles, has vetoed around a third of the models who took part in last year's show because they weigh too little. The authorities collaborated with a Spanish health organisation to come up with a minumum body mass -- a height-weight ratio -- of 18 for the models.
Spanish daily ABC said it was the first time such restrictions had been imposed on a fashion show, although a recent wedding dress exhibition in Barcelona banned fashion models who took a dress size below 38 (British size 10, US size eight).
Several models at last year's show provoked a row when they claimed their careers would be under threat if they put on weight. Organisers said they wanted to "help ensure public opinion does not associate fashion, and fashion shows in particular, with an increase in anorexia, a disease which, along with bulimia, is considered ... as a mental and behavioural problem". This is actually a good thing for those reasons as well as the æsthetic ones.
The event will take place on September 18-22.
#1
Send them plane tickets to San Antonio. A few trips to Rudy's BBQ and back up to the Hill Country for R&R. Their heads will be clear and they'll be ready for market, no worries.
#2
"Madrid's regional government, which is co-financing the Pasarela Cibeles, has vetoed around a third of the models who took part in last year's show because they weigh too little. The authorities collaborated with a Spanish health organisation to come up with a minumum body mass -- a height-weight ratio -- of 18 for the models."
"Collaborated" is the right word.
Nanny-statism at its best worst.
I agree that anorexic models send the wrong message to girls, but it's not the government's business to tell people how little - or much - they can weigh.
Except, of course, in "enlightened" Europe. And here, if the Food Police get their way.
Pfui.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2006 19:18 Comments ||
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#3
the wife is size 2 - 4. Would Madrid declare her dead?
A federal judge on Monday refused to block a law that requires Arizona voters to present identification before casting a ballot. A number of challengers had sued to prohibit election officials from enforcing the registration and polling place identification requirements. Critics said that the law would disenfranchise voters, particularly minorities and the elderly, and that requiring voters to acquire and produce identification would be burdensome in time, money and effort.
US District Judge Roslyn Silver's order came a day before Tuesday's primary, the first statewide election for which voters will be required to show identification. The law has already been used in some municipal elections.
Posted by: Fred ||
09/12/2006 00:00 ||
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#6
disenfranchise voters, particularly minorities and the elderly, and that requiring voters to acquire and produce identification would be burdensome in time, money and effort.
Sounds insensitive, sounds like personal effort or work, sounds like assumption of personal responsibility, sounds like.... potential discrimination of disadvantages groups, sounds like labels of racism, bigotry, sounds like old white men making decisions............sounds GOOD TO ME!
#7
I voted this morning in Arizona. Step 1 reach into back pocket to get wallet. Step 2 take out driver's license and voter ID card. Step 3 give to poll worker. Whew! That was burdensome, took a lot of time, money not to mention the effort. I will guarantee if the minorities and elderly wanted to fly to points around the globe, they wil product an ID card. Kuddos to the judge.
Posted by: Art ||
09/12/2006 10:33 Comments ||
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#8
What! This means that that Democrats have to be alive to vote! That's not fair!
Posted by: Howard Dean ||
09/12/2006 11:46 Comments ||
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#9
"Critics said that the law would disenfranchise voters, particularly minorities and the elderly, and that requiring voters to acquire and produce identification would be burdensome in time, money and effort." I would like these yahoos to produce just one "voter" that doesn't have some sort of ID. Mind this person would not drive a car, have a bank account, or recieve public assistance. The donks are afraid the they thousands of dead people and illegals who normally vote for them won't be able to produce a valid ID. This could sway MANY elections.
#10
Up here in the Peoples Republic of Washington (state) - in at least a couple of counties (inclnuding King which has Seattle in it) we have forced-mail vote. You *must* vote by mail.
Teh ballots are funny too. You have to use a single line - and it cannot be too thick of a line or your vote will be rejected.
ID of course is not required. And since you can register by mail too you can get all your imaginary friends, felons, and dewad relatives the right to vote too!
Oh, and sorry you don't get a recepit - nor any type of indication that your vote was invalidated for soem stupid reason.
Hwo does that go? "It doesn't matter who votes - its who counts the votes that matters".
#14
One of the local idjits writing in the AZ Repulsive was whining about some woman who couldn't vote (threw in that she's the mother of a soldier currently in Iraq...for once Montini cared about soldiers, go figure) because she was handicapped, on public assistance and "couldn't get ID".
I sent him two links where it specifically outlined how she could get suitable ID for AZ voting purposes. Took me all of about 5 minutes to find it. I asked the arsehole to forward the info on to the lady. He probably didn't. Why wreck a possible chance at a Pulitzer, right?
BTW, you have to show an official voting card in Mexico if you want to vote. I guess these organizations should sue the Mexican government, too, for discrimination against Hispanics by forcing them to prove citizenship before casting a vote.
#15
Swamp Blondie, In order to recieve PA in Arizona (and most other states) you must have a ID card. When States began requiring/providing ID for PA recipients they saw a drop in total enrollments. One would surmise that some people were enrolling more than once.
#16
Over at the Washington Monthly Political Animal weblog (Kevin Drum) the moonbats are whining the usual stuff about IDs. I posted that even the poorest poor usually have ID -- they have to cash checks, and most of the poor have drivers licenses. And if they don't, I'm happy to have our taxes provide them with a tamper-proof photo ID at no charge.
Of course they promptly went on to complain about other reasons why showing an ID to vote was a bad idea.
Posted by: Steve White ||
09/12/2006 17:11 Comments ||
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#17
#16: "Of course they promptly went on to complain about other reasons why showing an ID to vote was a bad idea."
Anyone who doesn't want to be bothered to show an ID to vote can just NOT VOTE.
Or they can go to hell. Their choice.
(In the case of the dead who've been voting for years, I think that choice has already been made for them. ;-p)
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2006 19:56 Comments ||
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#18
I can't see what the fuss is about. We've had to show ID to vote in Colorado for many years now, and it's not stopped people - any people - from voting. As many have commented, it does make it much harder for the dead or imaginary voters to cast a ballot, but I can't see myself where that's a bad thing...
Posted by: Old Patriot ||
09/12/2006 20:49 Comments ||
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#19
I grew up in the Chicago area during the first Daley Regime. For those of you who haven't had the pleasure of reading Mike Royko on the subject of the cemetery vote going to the Democrats, look Royko up; the library should have several collections of his column. Unfortunately, last time I checked, only a few of his columns were online.
I voted today in the Wisconsin Primary, without having to produce an ID. The two Republican candidates for Attorney General both support voter ID.
#20
In order to recieve PA in Arizona (and most other states) you must have a ID card. When States began requiring/providing ID for PA recipients they saw a drop in total enrollments. One would surmise that some people were enrolling more than once.
According to legend, once the Social Security office had its first mainframe computer up and running, they immediately ran a cross-check of different SSN payments going to the same address or more than one payment going to a single SSN.
This revealed a huge number of fraudulent recipients.
The next thing they did was run a cross-check of existing payment accounts against the SSNs of their own employees. Guess what?
This revealed a huge number of fraudulent recipients.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
09/12/2006 22:39 Comments ||
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#22
CS, you are exactly right about the public assistance. I brought that up to the mental midget.
She also could have used a copy of her bank statement where the check was deposited as proof of residency (since theoretically getting a state-issued ID card was too difficult for her). I think Social Security and some state disability programs mandate direct deposit in most cases, so she would have to have a bank account somewhere.
There are so many different docs that are acceptable under AZ law that you would really have to work at it to NOT have something acceptable if you are a legal resident of voting age.
Never heard back from the pinhead. Hmm. Wonder why.....
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
CHICAGO - A 79-year-old South Side woman bearing a toy gun and a visor that read "Princess" has been charged with trying to rob a downtown bank.
RIYADH: Saudi clerics appear to have backtracked on controversial plans to ban women from praying at the centre of Islam's holiest shrine in Mecca. At present, women can pray in the immediate vicinity of the Kaaba, a cube-shaped structure inside the Grand Mosque. But plans by the all-male committee overseeing the holy sites would have placed women in two distant sections of the mosque - overlooking the Kaaba, though at a distance - while men would still be able to pray in the key space. 
Excessively skinny fashion models will be barred from a major Madrid fashion show later this month for fear they could send the wrong message to young Spanish girls, local media reported.
A federal judge on Monday refused to block a law that requires Arizona voters to present identification before casting a ballot. A number of challengers had sued to prohibit election officials from enforcing the registration and polling place identification requirements. Critics said that the law would disenfranchise voters, particularly minorities and the elderly, and that requiring voters to acquire and produce identification would be burdensome in time, money and effort. 
