Breaking news...
DURHAM, N.C. - Prosecutors dropped rape charges Friday against three Duke University lacrosse players accused of attacking a stripper at a team party, a defense attorney said.
Joseph Cheshire, an attorney for one of the three players, said charges of kidnapping and sexual offense remain in place.
District Attorney Mike Nifong did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
#2
...NOW it's gonna get interesting - the main point of the case was the rape charges, and the fact that the DNA didn't match makes the alleged victim and the DA liars. Given the horrors that have already been inflicted on the three players, their counsel should have no problem getting any jury to find reasonable doubt.
And then the Carnival O' Litigation starts...
Mike
Posted by: Mike Kozlowski ||
12/22/2006 13:28 Comments ||
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#3
District Attorney Mike Nifong did not immediately return calls seeking comment.
I think Nifong might want to get himself a really good lawyer.
#4
xbalanke,
And Durham County will also need a good lawyer. Once all the charges go away and the dust settles, the lacrosse players lawyers are going to sue everyone involved from the prosecution.
#7
Nifong needed the black vote to get re-elected. So he thought by pandering to the black community and keeping ludicrous charges in place, he'd be a hero.
You forgot one thing though Mike. A little thing called Misconduct. May your ass be impeached, and that right soon.
#8
This is great news. Nifong is going to be in a lot of trouble. But he is still hanging on by keeping the kidnapping and sexual offense charges. That should only compound his problems, but it seems his ego won't let him do anything else.
This is also a slap in the face to all those Duke professors who immediately ran to the side of the accused and pilloried the lacrosse team and all Duke atheletes. What assholes. Likewise that limpdick Broadhead (Pres of the Univ). I think he got his backbone from the same place as DeVillepin (who, it is alleged, is a man). Limp wristed weasels, the lot of them.
#10
What is the name of the NC county Nifong rules?
These folk don't have enough money to pay the monetary damages the Duke students have earned. Perhaps they might consider deeding land to the Lacrosse Team. Starting with the Duke Administration Building.
That Nifon kicked the rape allegation but kept the kidnapping charge and sex molestation charge only adds to the damages the Duke boys will earn before it's all over.
Bye bye Mike Nifong. YOU should be in prison.
Posted by: Mark Z ||
12/22/2006 15:06 Comments ||
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#11
Rep. Jones Asks For Nifong Investigation
Dec 13, 2006
A North Carolina lawmaker is calling for an inquiry into Durham District Attorney Mike Nifong's handling of the Duke rape case. Rep. Walter Jones (R-NC) sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales calling for the investigation. Jones wants a review to determine if Nifong, a Democrat, misconducted himself or denied the suspects their civil rights. ... Jones wants Gonzales to determine if Nifong violated suspect identification procedures or made prejudicial statements to the media. Pass the popcorn, please.
A couple in the U.S. state of Washington has been sentenced to home confinement for forcing their immigrant niece to work long hours in their home and at the family espresso stand, and they also must pay her US$65,000 (about 50,000) for her labor. Abdenasser "Sammy" Ennassime, 47, and his wife Tonya, 41, of Lakewood, pleaded guilty in September to federal charges of forced labor and harboring an illegal alien, respectively. Under the plea agreement, government lawyers recommended home confinement, three years of probation and back wages. On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Franklin D. Burgess sentenced Sammy Ennassime to six months of home confinement and his wife to 90 days.
In a letter to the court, Ennassime said he was stern with his niece "maybe too stern" but added, "She grew to be a responsible young woman and I was proud of her but I did not want her to become wild."
The girl, Lamia Ennassime, 18, attended the sentencing hearing and had asked the judge not to impose prison time. She came from Morocco to stay with her aunt and uncle at age 12 in September 2001, with the understanding that she would help care for their young son and help with the housework in exchange for lodging and a chance for a good education. She made breakfast and dinner, did laundry, cleaned the house, and worked weekends and summers without pay at the espresso stand.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2006 00:00 ||
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#1
Doesn't really sound like "enslavement" to me, but I didn't even know this case existed.
The State University of New York at Buffalo wanted its alumni to know that it continues to attract large numbers of foreign students. In the midst of all the rah rah stuff, were some bits I thought of interest to Rantburgers. Herewith:
The University at Buffalo has moved up to No. 10 among 2,700 accredited U.S. universities in international enrollment, according to an annual report released by the Institute of International Education (IIE). UB enrolled 4,072 international students among a total enrollment of 27,220 in 2005-06, or 15%. The ranking includes undergraduate and graduate students, as well as students taking part in optional practical training programs.
UB President John B. Simpson pointed out that increased recruitment of international students, as well increased recruitment of out-of-state students, is an important part of the plan to grow enrollment by 10,000 students over the next 15 years, according to UB's strategic planning process, UB 20/20. International students, who pay double the tuition of New York State students, make a major financial contribution to the university, as well. The overall economic impact of UB's international students and their families is estimated to be nearly $70 million annually.
According to the Open Doors report, 564,766 international students were enrolled at U.S. institutions 2005-06. This ended two years of national declines attributed to new student-visa regulations instituted in the aftermath of 9/11. Those regulations, which created delays in student-visa approvals, were relaxed last year.
Stolen from Blackfive -- reprinted in Washington Post with credit for B5 -- some of that American ingenuity by our military
It's a man (contractor) dressed up in a Santa Claus suit, standing behind a "sleigh" that is actually an unmanned aerial vehicle and six soldiers who are wearing antlers and perched precariously on the launch ramp. Photo by Master Sgt. Winston Churchill You might want to click and go to enlarge the pic to really appreciate!
Many heartwarming offers so far, so it's time for some snark:
you know...
Hitler and Caesar and Agnew and Nixon
Stalin and Lenin and David the Klansman
but do you recall...
the most famous politician of all...
Teddy the red-nosed Senator
had a very shiny car
and if you ever saw it
you were probably near a bar
all of the other Senators
wondered how he got his dames
they thought he'd drank too many
to join in any bedroom games
then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say...
"Teddy, with your nose so red,
won't you help me guide my sled?"
and that's how the po-lice found him
wrapped around a maple tree
Teddy the red-nosed Senator
He's a drunken S.O.B....
hat tip to Bob Rivers and "Twisted Radio" (www.bobrivers.com)
check out the site for an audio version and a holiday chuckle. Merry Christmas / Happy Hannukah to all!
#1
Note from this article that 31,662 are immigrants. Now, we presumably know how many of those were legal, so we have an exact count of illegals. Pity they can't count and remove them at the border.
#6
The Denver Post has a great article on the drawbacks of rapid growth in Phoenix
--Having grown by nearly 500,000 people since 1990 to become America's fifth-largest city, Phoenix is strapped with a crime rate that, according to FBI statistics, now tops that of New York, Los Angeles or Baltimore.
Phoenix "has grown too much too fast with no proper planning," said [Mr. Pete] Biddle, a former commercial pilot, furious at the decline of [his] once-quiet neighborhood.
-- in a recent poll by ASU's Morrison Institute for Public Policy, 40 percent of residents said they would leave Phoenix tomorrow if they could.
-- anonymity has lured gangs into to some of the areas most expensive suburbs and turned mission-style McMansions into drug warehouses.
"We're like Costco of the drug world," said Chris Zamora, a narcotics detective in Gilbert, a tony Phoenix suburb and itself the fourth fastest-growing city in America.
"People come here to buy in bulk. They get a cheaper price and send it back East and double their profit,"
-- In 2003, Phoenix police blamed a 45 percent rise in homicides and a 41 percent rise in home invasions almost entirely on [illegal immigrant] smuggling.
The effects of the human trafficking have rippled throughout the city.
-- [back to poor Mr. Biddle] most longtime residents have fled. Crack seems to be everywhere, and graffiti covers signs and walls. Biddle said random gunshots are so common he rarely notices anymore.
He'd leave as well, Biddle said, but spiraling house prices in the rest of the valley and flat property values here make it impossible. He and his wife, who is disabled, feel besieged.
"When you're trapped in your own house, it's a frightening experience," Biddle said. "What's happened to this neighborhood, it's just a shame."
#7
Meanwhile, the state of Michigan is being evacuated. Unemployment is the worst in the US, crime is rising in the larger communities, and it has re-elected its Democratic government to another term after a non-performance in the prior term. This population estimate was made July 1 before tens of thousands of workers in Michigan's auto and associated industries were bought out or otherwise terminated. The value of home ownership is going down also.
Eva Schrieber, a native of Austria, has found a good job in automotive sales in Vienna and is returning there soon. But she hopes to sell the two homes she owns in Oakland County [Michigan].
Three years ago, she had an offer $20,000 above what she wanted for her Bloomfield Township home. Thinking it was a good investment, she declined the offer. Now, she has no takers, and her house is worth well below what she owes on it. She blames it on the layoffs that have taken so many people out of the housing market.
"Today there is no demand," she lamented. "So the price could be zero."
One local newspaper columnist has this to say:
T he guv, in her inimitable "What, me decide?" way, says Michigan needs to choose between higher taxes and fewer services.
But didn't a whopping majority just re-elect her so she could lead the Big Mitten out of its self-imposed morass? Doesn't more than a delusional clique of the electorate want a CEO who proffers solutions and then delivers them instead of saying, in effect, tell me what to do so I won't be unpopular?
Too late for that...This would be humorous if it wasn't so sickening because of what it says about leadership in Lansing and what it says about us to outsiders and investors. Just as Detroit's automakers spent the last 30 years acting as if the laws of economics didn't apply to them, so, evidently, has [the state capitol] Lansing. And it still is.
Posted by: Eric Jablow ||
12/22/2006 16:21 Comments ||
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#9
Bah. Southern cities have always had higher crime rates (property, at least). After all, burglary is a "job" that can be done just as easily anywhere, so why not pick a place where you don't freeze?
AH9418: it sounds like the problem is more illegals and smuggling than growth per se. Though, as a city grows, it does seem to get more liberal, which of course causes many problems.
#10
There's just too damn many people there. I still find it ironic that my dad came there because of his asthma.....and I now know a lot of people who have experienced an improvement in their respiratory health once they moved away from there.
Morocco's government banned an independent magazine and took legal action against its editors late on Wednesday for an article listing popular Moroccan jokes about religion, sex and politics.
The article in Arab-language magazine Nichane represented an attack on Islam and went "against morals and customs."
The Casablanca state prosecutor said the article in Arab-language magazine Nichane represented an attack on Islam and went "against morals and customs", state news agency MAP cited a judicial source as saying. The prosecutor ordered an investigation into the article and began legal action against the editor Driss Ksikes and reporter Sanaa Al Aji. Prime Minister Driss Jettou issued an injunction banning the magazine from being distributed, sold or displayed on the street.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2006 00:00 ||
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LONDON British police are looking for a trio of handbag heroes. They want to congratulate the three women who, armed only with their handbags, helped trap a fleeing fugitive. But they don't know who they are.
This image from CCTV issued by West Mercia police on Thursday, shows shows two of three woman, seen here at bottom right, and top chasing the fugitive, left. [He's cornered, lol]
The man, who was wanted on suspicion of possessing an offensive weapon and assaulting three police officers, was being chased by police across a bridge in Worcester, central England on Dec. 14. Uniformed and plainclothes officers had been chasing the man for several minutes.
Closed-circuit TV captured one woman who blocked the sidewalk, forcing the fugitive to run into the road, while a second woman lambasted him with her handbag. The third woman then joined in, forcing the man to run into the arms of a nearby van driver, who held him until police arrived.
There they were, all minding their own business, when they realized simultaneously that action needed to be taken, West Mercia police spokesman Richard Bull told The Associated Press. They didn't know one another, but they all thought the same thing.
They surprised the man, but also demoralized him after all, the world and his wife were already after him, Mr. Bull added.
"Wow, Nigel, did you see that?"
"Yeah, they were great!"
"How'd they do it, ya think?"
"They used matching #9 truncheons Guccis."
"Inspirin', it was."
He said police do not encourage citizens to apprehend suspects, who can turn nasty.
They always say that and ruin a perfectly good act by solid citizens. Killjoys.
But we admire greatly what they have done.
Fuckin-A, bubba. Make sure that everyone inside knows about this. That way he might actually be rehabilitated... after a fashion.
A field hospital is to be set up in the financial district of London to cope with expected casualties of drunken revelry.
The bankers and traders based in the City of London begin their Christmas break today, many flush with some enormous end-of-year bonuses.
The London Ambulance Service will position a mobile treatment unit at Finsbury Circus.
The ambulance service estimates the cost of people ringing 999 (the UK emergency services phone number) when they are drunk is £18 million ($45.14 million) per year.
Chinese cinemagoers are getting more spectacle than they bargained for in a record-breaking historical epic. Attention has focused on the quantity of bare flesh in Curse of the Golden Flower, which took 96m yuan (£6.3m) in its first weekend.
Web forums have buzzed with debate on whether the film, nicknamed Curse of the Golden Corset, is salacious. Even the normally sober state news agency has described lead actress Gong Li's appearance as "eye-popping". The $45m (£23m) epic deals with court intrigue in the Tang dynasty and had the best opening weekend of any Chinese movie.
But the costumes, or lack of them, have raised eyebrows both on the internet and in official circles. The Xinhua news agency said: "The most eye-popping role is played by Gong Li, the empress, whose breasts are so tightly wrapped that they appear ready to pop out of her costume."
Matinee tomorrow is at 2.
Chinese web portal Sohu.com alone has received 8,000 postings on the subject. "With costumes like that, you'd think China was more liberal than America," said one unnamed web user. "It caters to Western tastes while ignoring our own country's sentiments." Internet surfer "Bond" said: "What I remember is not the fighting scenes or the acting, but the shiny white flesh."
Evening shows are at 7 and 9:30.
Line forms 7 blocks down. Near the Running Dog DVD Copy Shop.
Actress Gong, who was in the updated Miami Vice movie, defended the skimpy costumes as modelled on Tang dynasty fashions. "They show the beauty of a woman's curves. There was no feeling of awkwardness or danger for us wearing the costumes," she said.
#1
Attention has focused on the quantity of bare flesh in Curse of the Golden Flower, which took 96m yuan (£6.3m) in its first weekend.
"It caters to Western tastes while ignoring our own country's sentiments."
"What I remember is not the fighting scenes or the acting, but the shiny white flesh."
Har har! I love watching societies dealing with cognitive dissonance! These statements are mutually exclusive. Getting all three of these statements to live together is going to be impossible. More evidence that the Chinese are officially starting to get it! :-)
#3
AH9418: I knew there was a reason for the great number of Chinese in the world.
China is an empire with twice the land area of Western Europe. Of course there's a lot of people there. The primary* difference between Europe and China is that China has been civilized a lot longer - meaning that agricultural technology was more advanced, for a long time - thus allowing it to support larger populations.
* The other difference is that China is a unified political entity, whereas Europe is not. But the similarity lies in the fact that China probably has more distinct languages (which the Chinese call dialects, but are mutually incomprehensible) than Europe.
#4
China's population at the end of the 18th century was 400m. The US population at that point was just over 5m. Today, China's population is 1.2b and increase of 3x from 200 years ago. The US population is 60x from where it was 200 years ago. Which country has had the population boom? At the end of the 18th century, the UK population was about 11m. Today, it is about 60m, or roughly 5x what it was back then, despite the emigration of huge numbers of Britons to Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States, all former Crown Colonies. Tell me again about the population boom.
#5
so why don't we all have bootleg dvds of this flick?
Posted by: Frank G ||
12/22/2006 7:51 Comments ||
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#6
Give Kimmie time, Frank ...
Posted by: Steve White ||
12/22/2006 8:37 Comments ||
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#7
Chinas state news service Xinhua is known in the expat community as Sin Who? It's the best newspaper for getting a little salacious content in China. And best of all it's English version is on the net.
New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi could resign this week to end a criminal probe into his use of state workers to chauffeur his wife, several newspapers in New York said Thursday. Hevesi spokesman Jeffrey Gordon declined to comment on the news reports, which appeared in at least four newspapers. A spokeswoman for Albany County District Attorney David Soares, who is conducting the investigation, could not be immediately reached for comment.
The Democratic comptroller is expected to step down and plead guilty to an unspecified charge as part of a plea bargain with Soares, according to unnamed sources cited in the reports, which appeared in The Daily News, the New York Post, The New York Sun and the Albany Times Union. Soares was seeking an indictment on a charge of defrauding the government, a felony that carries an up to four-year prison term, according to the reports.
Hevesi became embroiled in a scandal after his little-known Republican challenger in the November election questioned whether the comptroller was using state employees to chauffeur his ailing wife without reimbursing the state. Hevesi admitted that, but said his actions were prompted by security concerns for his wife. He has repeatedly apologized and reimbursed the state over $200,000, more than twice what he originally estimated he owed the state.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/22/2006 00:00 ||
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A court has awarded £6,850 in compensation for an elephant that was killed in a road accident, on the ground that it was a living being at par with a human being.
Babli, a 35-year-old elephant that belonged to Salim Khan, died after it was hit by a speeding Jeep while carrying four British tourists around the Amber Fort near the historic city of Jaipur in 1988.
Mr Khan, one of the dwindling number of professional mahouts in India, took his case to the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal, which awarded him 290,000 rupees (£3,300) in 1993. The insurance company for the driver of the Jeep challenged the ruling, arguing that Mr Khan should receive a maximum 2,000 rupees because the elephant was livestock.
The lawyer for Mr Khan argued that Babli should be considered on a par with a human being because she responded to commands, performed elaborate tricks and was the main breadwinner for the family. After 13 years of wrangling, the Rajasthan High Court finally ruled in favour of Mr Khan.
The verdict came as a huge relief to mahouts, whose livelihoods are threatened by the rising cost of maintaining their elephants and the increase in traffic on Indian roads.
Just remember, none of the other elephants will ever forget this. Someday, you wankers will be toejam, biotches.
#2
The real question is exactly HOW the managed to drive straight into an elephant. If you drive into an elephant and it was an accident, you are in contention for the Darwin Awards.
Posted by: Charles ||
12/22/2006 16:36 Comments ||
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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.
Morocco's government banned an independent magazine and took legal action against its editors late on Wednesday for an article listing popular Moroccan jokes about religion, sex and politics.
New York state Comptroller Alan Hevesi could resign this week to end a criminal probe into his use of state workers to chauffeur his wife, several newspapers in New York said Thursday. Hevesi spokesman Jeffrey Gordon declined to comment on the news reports, which appeared in at least four newspapers. A spokeswoman for Albany County District Attorney David Soares, who is conducting the investigation, could not be immediately reached for comment.
A court has awarded £6,850 in compensation for an elephant that was killed in a road accident, on the ground that it was a living being at par with a human being.
