Open Thread ... "So this is the new year"

Thank you for struggling to your computer despite what must be a colossal hangover. The Open Thread is up and running on a lovely New Year's Day. We won't have full service today, though we'll try to update with a few posts.

As always, please follow our standard rules: Please sign your comments, and please avoid profanity, as well as racially and sexually abusive language. And when you sign your comments, please use only one nickname. If you need to reach me, just email jhart@kcstar.com. Thanks again, and have a great day!

Comments

[Keith G. in P.V.]

Good morning and Happy New Year, Mr. Abbott and Gracie and all my fellow Costellos.

Crime, like time, marches on! Another gubment official busted for something involving sex and minors. This time, it's the North Hempstead, NY, budget director.

2008's final naked news? Bucks County, Pa., LEOs are looking for a man dressed only in a black ski mask who stepped out of his SUV to benefit the view of a girl. He's described as white, in his teens or early 20s, with a muscular build. Surprisingly, no other identifying details were released.

Utah TV station KSL (K-SLUT?) reports a Provo woman meth head went on a naked rampage in her apartment, breaking dishes and throwing stuff. It's sad when you can't be naked in your own home.

[JUNGLE JIM]

Good morning Keith. When I clicked on comments for the OT, it showed 0 so far. I was going to begin with "Crime marches on". How did you know that to beat me to it? Get out of my head (it's so messy in there)!

Fake 911 call leads to an arrest. A 28-year-old Sarasota man was arrested Monday for allegedly trying to lure police away from him by making a bogus 911 call about an armed robbery at another location.

Charles Roy Armstrong was arrested after officers said they discovered that the bogus call came from his cell phone.

[AH]

Good morning everyone. Looks like a nice day outside. I may actually see what it looks like.

Keith are you working today or having fun.

[JUNGLE JIM]

Hernando deputies: teacher caught in bed with student. The mother of a 17-year-old Nature Coast High School student returned home today to find her daughter lying underneath a 42-year-old man in his underwear, according to the Hernando County Sheriff's Office. Deputies say he is the Nature Coast band teacher, and that this is the second time he was with the teen but the first time he got caught.

Albertson's robbed by ... Keanu Reeves lookalike? A man jumped the pharmacy counter at Alberton's Supermarket on Ulmerton Road this morning, raided the store's supply of Hydrocodone, then fled. But here's where it gets interesting: Police say the suspect resembles actor Keanu Reeves.

[JUNGLE JIM]

Blood sucking check cashing business gets a taste of its own medicine...
Man in Dracula mask tries to rob business for third time in three weeks. A man wearing a Dracula mask and armed with a gun tried to rob a check-cashing business for the third time in three weeks, but new security procedures implemented after the first two robberies left the would-be robber with no cash Wednesday afternoon.

[Searching]

I dont know JJ...Keanu Reeves ..... Interesting?... hmmmmm

LOL
Happy New Year everyone! Went to a great party last night.. only slightly marred by some coked out beotch that showed up and wouldnt shut up!

[Searching]

Maybe it was meth.. who knows they all ramble just the same.

[JUNGLE JIM]

Traveling salesman pleads guilty to rape-murder of 90-year-old woman. A traveling magazine salesman from Missouri pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges that he raped and killed a 90-year-old Lafayette woman in her home three years ago.

Richard Craig McNew, 34, a felon from St. Louis, is expected to be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole for murdering Anna Elizabeth Vuori.

Vuori was bound and gagged in her Moraga Boulevard home, sexually assaulted and found smothered to death on Dec. 10, 2005. McNew, who worked for Overachievers, a Missouri magazine-subscription company, then took $18,000 in savings bonds and $200 in cash and Vuori's keys.

Richmond man's murder conviction overturned. A state appeals court has overturned a Richmond man's murder conviction because police appeared to rely on his knowledge of TV police dramas in persuading him to confess and failed to advise him of his full set of rights.

After Bradford's arrest, the court said, a detective asked him if he watched "cop shows" on television, and then reminded him of what officers tell suspects after an arrest: that they have the right to remain silent, to consult a lawyer and to have a lawyer appointed if they can't afford one.

Bradford said he understood those rights, from TV shows and past arrests. But the court said the officer had failed to give an additional warning required by Miranda - that anything Bradford said could be used against him in court.

[JUNGLE JIM]

Bill and Ted's excellent robbery.

[AH]

Glad your evening was not totally spoiled. I liked your comments on the racial issue. I don't agree with all but what you and James stated is a good starting point.

[JUNGLE JIM]

Sometimes, even common criminals show the best of taste...
Kenosha Man Accused Of Stealing $625 In Lobster, Beef. Racine police said a man tried to steal $625 in groceries, which included $365 in lobster and $213 in ribeye and beef roasts.

[JUNGLE JIM]

Friends don't let friends drive paint-balled...
Paintball attempt to deter drunken driving. A man who reportedly told police he was trying to deter a friend from driving drunk by blasting the friend's windshield with paintballs wound up in jail.

In the words of Kennewick, Wash., police Sgt. Ken Lattin: "This is a very creative way to prevent someone from drinking and driving, but not legal or safe."

[JUNGLE JIM]

Thank good ness we don't live in a crime-infested city like Seattle...
28 homicides last year in Seattle; 9 tied to gangs. Of 28 homicides in Seattle in 2008, police believe that at least nine were linked to gangs. And in the four of those cases involving juvenile victims, no arrests have been made.

[JUNGLE JIM]

2 teens, $250K, 1 big spending spree: Cash allegedly stolen from relative fueled Christmas binge. Two young Minnesota men — flush with a quarter-million dollars in cash stolen from a grandfather on Christmas Day — spread grief and cheer throughout the holidays with a flagrant trail of ill-gotten gifts, authorities said Wednesday.

The men — ages 18 and 19 — allegedly handed out $100 bills to their buddies. In a two-day shopping spree, authorities said, they bought at least six cars and trucks: from a $14,000 Ford F-350 pickup to a $1,200 Ford Focus. They reportedly spent two days in a hotel near the Mall of America and packed their room with the spoils of after-Christmas sales: clothes, shoes, a laptop computer and other electronics, including a flat-screen television.

[Searching]

Thanks AH.. I agree with you though, we need some PC free/ no holds barred zone to ask questions that we wonder about another race.. without getting tagged for it. It would solve a lot of frustration for me.

[JUNGLE JIM]

This next story is a couple of weeks old. A woman in Chicago cracked a cold-case murder by paying attention to somedetails that were publicly known, but never followed through upon by the police...
Babysitter Cracks Old, Cold Mob Murder. More than 27 years after a mob-related double murder in McHenry County, a little bit of digging by a 42-year old former baby-sitter has led authorities to reopen what was a very cold case.

The information supplied by Holly Hager, who is now a mural painter, has led McHenry County sheriff's detectives to take a fresh look at the long-unsolved killings.

The 1981 murders of 37-year old Ron Scharff and 30-year-old Patricia Freemen were the first on record in the then-tiny town of Lakemoor.

"I know who did it," Hager, who used to baby-sit Scharff's young sons, said in an exclusive interview with the Chicago Sun-Times and NBC5.

The killer, she says, was Larry Neumann, a feared enforcer for the Chicago Outfit. The motive: revenge.

"I just thought my baby-sitter is one hell of a Nancy Drew," Paul Scharff said on learning about Hager's digging. "My father was killed on June 2, 1981. I would like [an] explanation of why this couldn't have happened 25 years ago."

[Keith G. in P.V.]

Good morning, Jungle Jim and Searching and AH!

I'm off today, AH. Just piddling around the house this morning. Back to the salt mines tomorrow.

Note to JJ: my head is a mess all by its little ol' self, thank you very much. Perhaps it's a case of "Grape minds think alike" as I toasted the New Year with a glass of bubbly about 10:30 last night, then promptly went to sleep.

[Searching]

Hubby isnt used to drinking and actually took a couple of shots last night. The were shots of Cabo? is that how it was spelled.. he is still in bed nursing a hangover! LOL

[James Hart]

Good morning, everybody. I just ate a swiss cake roll and watched an old "House" episode on DVD. Oh yeah, 2009 is off to a rocking start!

[John Boy]

Bah, Humbug !! Some of us have to work !! Been here since 10am, be here until 8pm tonite....But good news !! The end is in sight...Monday is last Monday I have to work for awhile...actually going to start having TWO days off a week now !! YIPPEEEEEEE...

[James Hart]

Sorry to hear that you're stuck working today, but congratulations on your new schedule, JB! Did you have a good Christmas?

[John Boy]

Yes, sure did. Kids came down from Nebraska. I did have Christmas day off, so at least got to spend that one day with them. Took the granddaughter to the "Christmas in the Park" lights display out at Longview lake. She really enjoyed that !

[James Hart]

I wish I lived closer to Longview Lake. I saw those displays on the news, and they looked excellent!

[John Boy]

Fantastic, they were that !!!

[John Boy]

And the nice thing about going AFTER Christmas - - traffic wasnt nearly as bad. A few years ago, we went, and took over two hours to drive through it. This year, about 20 minutes....Everybody had already been there for the most part....Really made it a lot more enjoyable...

[James Hart]

Well, and that was probably a good memory for your granddaughter, too.

I bet work must be absolutely dead today. I hope you brought a good book!

[John Boy]

Well, not exactly dead. Bunch of Yahoos working from home...cant even take a holiday off....so have to help them with password problems, because they arent familiar with Laptops.....

[Patty PV]

Good morning, and Happy New Year everyone!

What a celebratory day. We finished painting the entry way; now I'm going to walk the dogs. Black-eyed peas iwth ham hocks have been prepared for a traditional good-luck supper for the first day of the year.

John Boy, I hope your day flies by fast. I was crabby about going to work yesterday, but it was busy so it went by quickly. Have to work tomorrow too, and it will probably be busy as well. And it's about time you had two days off a week! Congrats.

[Keith G. in P.V.]

Dallas and Washington D.C. will undertake a study of eyewitness identification procedures, conducted by the Urban Institute.

Dallas has had 19 convictions overturned by post-conviction DNA testing since 2000, the most in the nation. All but one were based on eyewitness identification.

I'm not a big science fiction/fantasy fan, but I've been watching the Sci Fi Channel's Twilight Zone marathon off and on. I think it's held up remarkably well over 50 years (1959-1964). The world before CGI replaced the need for clear, concise, well written and acted stories. (end of old phart's editorial comment)

[Tom K]

They walk all over the constitutional rights of animal owners using blatantly unconstitutional and illegal methods and at the same time they overturn a murder conviction for a nitpicking reason.

[Searching]

OKaaaay?

[Cymnanytamb]

Just wanted to say hi to everyone

new to the forums, and i'm glad to meet everyone!

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