Category: News

Medical Student Missing – Help Find Teleka Patrick – Video

Post author By Ezra Grant
Post date December 15, 2013
No Comments on Medical Student Missing – Help Find Teleka Patrick – Video

KALAMAZOO, Mich. (WOOD) – The family of a missing Kalamazoo med student are doing everything and anything they can to get the public’s help in finding their loved one.

“When it first happened, I didn’t feel like it was real…it just started hitting me today that it’s real. I can’t put it into words man,” said Mattahais Patrick, Teleka’s brother.

Teleka Patrick, 30, was last seen Dec. 5 after spending the evening in downtown Kalamazoo. She was then dropped off at her vehicle in the parking lot of Borgess Medical Center. Police said her car was found abandoned on I-94 near Porter, Ind. later that night. Some of her belongings were in the car, but not her purse.

“This is a mother’s worst nightmare. You know, sometimes I cry myself to sleep. Sometimes I’m very optimistic. But what really caused me to be not optimistic was finding her car and not finding her,” said Irene Patrick, Teleka’s mother.

On Friday, December 6th, she failed to arrive at work. The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Department was notified and started searching for her.

“Where is she? Where, where? To me, it’s more frustrating, its scarier that they found the car and didn’t find her,” said Teleka’s sister Teneisha.

Teleka Patrick’s family sent out a letter Saturday asking the public for help in finding her. They talked about the things they love most Teleka; her smile, her kindness and her laugh when she made corny jokes.

Her family is hoping and praying for her safe return.

“Sweetheart, please come home. I can’t have Christmas without you. I just made her bed because she has her ticket to come and spend Christmas with us,” said Irene.

Teleka’s parents traveled to Kalamazoo from Florida, her sister from Boston and her brother from New York City, in hopes of finding answers as to where Teleka is.

Tags Med Student, missing

Domestic Policies Healthcare News Politics Teaparty washington

The Political See-Thaw

Yes, that sound you heard out of Washington was not just John Boehner’s rant against his conservative brethren, it might have been the long-awaited thaw in relations between the two parties in the Congress over the budget.

And you probably thought that Republicans didn’t believe in warming.

Well, don’t get too excited. After all, 94 House members voted against the bill and it looks like the Senate will manage only four GOP supporters when the bill lands on their desks. And this is a bill that I might have voted against because it basically sacrifices the long-term unemployed on the alter of perceived laziness and blame-the-victim politics that’s the hallmark of the Republican Party (though Patty Murray must be terrific at selling unpopular ideas). The bill does modify and correct some of the most egregious sequestration cuts, but this budget deal was played on the Republican side of the field.

Is this a thaw? Possibly, though there are significant snowstorms ahead. The immigration bill is stalled in the House and it would be a monumental achievement for a law that includes a path to citizenship to pass in that chamber. Then again, Boehner is not a dumb politician and understands that the Republicans need to begin courting the Hispanic vote, so maybe he can shepherd a modified version of the bill through his caucus. Of course, Democrats will jump all over any perceived weakness int he GOP approach and will run with it in 2014 and 2016.

The Senate provides another ice sheet for progress. Although the two sides came to an agreement to pause the confirm-a-thon until Monday, the Republicans are still smarting from having the filibuster rug pulled from under their Gucci-shoed feet. Two of the president’s DC Circuit nominees have been approved at the EPA Chief is up next. I see this as great progress and a future bulwark against Republican mischief via the courts in the years to come. “Young Democratic Judges” is a phrase I love hearing over and over.

So I’m not looking for a grand love-in on the floor of the legislative bodies over the course of the next year, but I do see a grudging push in the direction of getting things done, especially on the right. They can run against the health care law and probably keep the House and make inroads in the Senate in 2014. Their main concern, and a shiver up the spine, has to be the prospect of a Tea Party presidential candidate and the thought of defending 24 Senate seats in 2016. They won’t win the former contest and could do serious damage to themselves in the latter if they persist with the nonsense they’ve been peddling since 2010.

For more please go to:
www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and Twitter @rigrundfest

Tags angry john boehner, Republicans

Education News

Discovery: Earliest Known Prison Memoir Written By African-American

Post author By MelodyM
Post date December 15, 2013
No Comments on Discovery: Earliest Known Prison Memoir Written By African-American

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Yale University announced Thursday that research has determined an 1858 manuscript it acquired is the earliest known prison memoir written by an African-American.

The book-length manuscript, titled “The Life and Adventures of a Haunted Convict” and written under the name Robert Reed, describes the author’s experiences while incarcerated in New York from the 1830s through the 1850s. It was acquired by Yale’s Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library in 2009.

English and American studies professor Caleb Smith authenticated the manuscript and identified its author as Austin Reed, a free black man who was born in upstate New York, Yale said.

“Finding any new text by an African-American author of the 19th century is significant, but this memoir has so much to say about captivity, freedom and human rights,” said Smith, who’s preparing the manuscript for publication. “It is a truly remarkable discovery.”

The key piece of evidence in the authentication process was an 1895 handwritten letter, preserved in state files, from Austin Reed to the warden of a juvenile reformatory where he served earlier that recounts some of his story and inquires whether the institution has maintained any records of his time as an inmate, Yale said.

Reed’s account aimed to expose the brutal punishments at Auburn State Prison, including whippings and what were called shower baths, similar to water-boarding, a type of simulated drowning. He described what happened after he confronted a warden with a knife:

“Stripping off my shirt the tyrantical curse bounded my hands fast in front of me and ordered me to stand around,” he wrote. “Turning my back towards him he threw sixty seven lashes on me according to the orders of Esq. Cook. I was then to stand over the dreain while one of the inmates was my back in a pail of salt brine.”

Yale American history professor David Blight called the Reed prison narrative manuscript “a revelation.”

“Nothing quite like it exists,” said Blight, director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition. “Reed is a crafty and manipulative storyteller, and perhaps above all he left an insider’s look at the American world of crime, prisons and the brutal state of race relations in the middle of the 19th century.”

h/t – huffingtonpost

Tags African American, earliest prison, memoir

News

Cop Gives the Shirt off His Back to Homeless Man Freezing in New York

Post author By MelodyM
Post date December 15, 2013
No Comments on Cop Gives the Shirt off His Back to Homeless Man Freezing in New York

One New York City cop gave the sweater he was wearing to a homeless man who was dressed only in a thermal undershirt Friday when temperatures dropped to 23 degrees.

Officer Carlos Ramos, 29, was assigned to look for suspicious activity near the United Nations in midtown Manhattan when he spotted Robert William sitting on a sidewalk outside the Robert Moses Park dog run.

William was sitting barefoot because his shoes had gotten soaked, and had taken off his other shirt to try and wrap it around his freezing cold feet.

Warm heart: NYPD Transit Bureau officer Carlos Ramos stopped and gave Robert William a sweater off his back in the frigid New York morning on Friday.

Grateful: Robert Williams’ shoes were wet and he had only a thermal undershirt on

‘I saw he was in need and it was my job to help him,’ Ramos told the New York Daily News.

‘I saw he had no coat,’ he said. ‘It was a very cold day, because I was very cold even bundled up.’

He offered the thick, navy blue Champion sweatshirt he was wearing under his uniform and coat to William, who initially refused.

‘My concern was for him – his concern was for me staying warm,’ Ramos told the Daily News.

Ramos finally convinced William to take the sweatshirt.

‘He gave it to me. He said, “Don’t worry about it,”‘ William told the New York Post.

‘I felt good about having it.’

Makeshift: After Ramos left, William, wearing his new sweater, tore up his shirt to wear as socks.

The warmhearted officer told the Daily News that he regularly helps people out, especially when the weather is cold.

‘A nice cup of coffee, a tea, whatever seems appropriate,’ he said.

Ramos has been a NYPD officer since 2007. He works in anti-crime and counterterrorism for the Transit Bureau.

William told the New York Post that he doesn’t know how long he’s been homeless for, but that he used to live uptown at West 163rd and St Nicholas Ave before an argument with a roommate saw him turfed out onto the streets.

h/t: DailyMail

Tags gives shirt to Homeless man, officer Carlos ramos

Health News

Woman’s Stomach Pain was a 40 Year Old Fetus

Post author By MelodyM
Post date December 13, 2013
No Comments on Woman’s Stomach Pain was a 40 Year Old Fetus

A Colombian woman suffering from stomach pain was found to have a 40-year-old fetus inside her.

The 82-year-old, from Bogota, had what is known as ‘lithopedion’, or stone baby, when the unborn child develops outside the womb.

The woman was originally thought to be suffering from a stomach bug, NTD TV reports.

A Colombian woman suffering from stomach pain was found to have a 40-year-old fetus inside her

But an scans revealed lithopedion, where the fetus becomes calcified.There are fewer than 300 cases reported in medical literature.

The woman will now will undergo surgery to have the fetus – mostly comprised of dead tissue – removed.

According to NTD, Dr Kemer Ramirez of Bogota’s Tunjuelito Hospital said that the doctor overseeing the woman noticed something ‘abnormal in her abdomen’ – and suspected gallstones.

An ultrasound showed nothing then radiography of her abdomen revealed a tumour in her abdominal cavity.

Dr Ramirez explained: ‘This happens because the fetus does not develop in the uterus because it has moved to another place.

Dr Kemer Ramirez of Bogota’s Tunjuelito Hospital (pictured) explained the woman was suffering from ‘lithopedion’, or stone baby, when the unborn child develops outside the womb

‘In this case, the abdominal part of the woman is not a viable (place) and this is what happened, a calcified fetus because the body is generating defence mechanisms and it is calcified until it stays there encapsulated.’

The patient is thought to have been transferred to another hospital to have the lithopedion removed.

In 2009, a 92-year-old Chinese woman was found to have a 60-year-old ‘stone baby’ inside her.

The first reported case of lithopedion was Madame Colombe Chatri, a 68-year-old French woman.

An autopsy after her death in 1582 revealed she had been carrying a fully-developed stone baby in her abdominal cavity for 28 years.

Tiger Woods’ Brother Arrested for Making Bomb Threat

Post author By Ezra Grant
Post date December 13, 2013
No Comments on Tiger Woods’ Brother Arrested for Making Bomb Threat

Tiger Woods’ half brother, Earl Dennison Woods Jr., was arrested Thursday after police said he called in a bomb threat to an Arizona Department of Economic Security office in Phoenix.

Woods, 58, worked at the office and admitted to supervisors that he called in the threat as a joke, authorities said.

Phoenix police responded at about 8:30 a.m. to the DES building at 1824 E. McKinley St. after a caller — later identified as Woods — said that he had a bomb and was going to blow up the building, said Sgt. Trent Crump, a Phoenix Police spokesman.

The building was evacuated and searched, but no device was found.

During the search, Woods admitted to management that he called in the threat and he had done so as a joke, Crump said, adding that Woods repeated his admissions to authorities during an interview.

Woods was booked into a Maricopa County jail on suspicion of use of an electronic communication device to terrify, intimidate, threaten or harass, which is a misdemeanor.

Tags bomb threat, brother, tiger woods

College Student Could Lose Limbs After Passing Out Drunk In -17 Degree Temperatures

Post author By MelodyM
Post date December 12, 2013
No Comments on College Student Could Lose Limbs After Passing Out Drunk In -17 Degree Temperatures

Terrible story from the University of Minnesota Duluth. 19-year-old sophomore Alyssa Jo Lommel suffered serve hypothermia after passing out on her front porch in subzero temperatures. The temperatures in Duluth dropped to -17 on the Friday night she went out drinking. Now, because of the severe frostbite, she may lose her limbs. According to the report:

After being dropped off around midnight, Lommel wasn’t discovered until 9:30 a.m. Police found her cellphone on the back porch and footprints matching the boots she had on in the backyards of the two homes.

Lommel’s night included time spent at parties in homes around the University of Minnesota Duluth, where she is a student. Friends and roommates interviewed said Lommel did not appear to be noticeably intoxicated, and the men who dropped her off at her home said they didn’t wait to see if she entered or not.

“He hit the locks and she got out and they drove away,” the police report states.

The driver of that pickup was asked how intoxicated Lommel was. Friends said she had been drinking for six hours, including a game where she took tequila shots. Police reported finding a Twitter entry from Lommel stating “Yum Yum 10th shot of tequila.”

The man who dropped her off told police that Lommel had “no more than usual” when it came to drinks that night.

“Just like a normal party chick,” the report read when talking about the driver’s observations. “She wasn’t wasted. She could talk. And she wasn’t falling-down drunk.”

h/t – brobible

Featured Nelson Mandela News

‘Fake’ Sign Language Interpreter Marred Mandela Memorial

Post author By MelodyM
Post date December 11, 2013
No Comments on ‘Fake’ Sign Language Interpreter Marred Mandela Memorial

As President Obama and other world leaders spoke Tuesday in Johannesburg at a memorial for Nelson Mandela, a man stood nearby and appeared to be doing sign language interpretation. Many in the deaf community are outraged because the man appeared to be faking.

Pedro Ugarte /AFP/Getty Images

There’s outrage among many in the deaf community over the appearance on stage Tuesday of a man who they say was only pretending to do sign language interpretation as President Obama and other world leaders eulogized Nelson Mandela in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Among those who noticed what was happening was Wilma Newhoudt, the first deaf person elected to South Africa’s parliament and a vice president of the World Federation of the Deaf.

“Shame on this male so called interpreter on the stage,” she wrote on Twitter during the memorial service. “What is he signing? He knows that the deaf cannot vocally boo him off. Shame on him!”

Others who protested included Bruno Peter Druchen, national director at the Deaf Federation of South Africa. “Please get RID of this CLOWN interpreter, please!” he tweeted.

The Limping Chicken, a U.K. website that focuses on news involving the deaf community,posted a video showing both the “fake” and a sign language interpreter who many TV viewers saw in a small box superimposed on their screens. The woman in that box was actually interpreting what was said, Limping Chicken reports. You can see how different her actions and gestures are compared to those of the man on stage.

As you can see from the photo we’ll attach to the post, the man was within just a few feet of Obama as the president delivered his remarks.

IOL, a news site from South Africa’s Independent Newspapers, reports that “government spokeswoman Phumla Williams said she was unable to respond to the allegations immediately, as she did not know which department procured the service provider. She said she did not know about his qualifications or expertise.”

Update at 1:45 p.m. ET. White House Regrets Distraction:

Asked about the apparently bogus interpreter, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Wednesday that “it’s a shame that you had a service that was dedicated to honoring the life and celebrating the legacy of one of the great leaders of the 20th century has gotten distracted by this and a couple of other issues that are far less important than the legacy of Nelson Mandela.”

The “other issues” he was referring to would include the handshake between Obama and Cuban leader Raul Castro, and the selfie taken by Obama, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Prime Minister Helle Thorning Schmidt of Denmark.

Update at 11:20 a.m. ET. Government Is “Looking Into This Matter.”

The national government just emailed reporters with a statement about Tuesday’s memorial service. In it, there’s this passage:

“As we look at yesterday’s events, government has noted the concern expressed in various quarters about the alleged incorrect use of sign language at the National Memorial Service.

“Government is looking into this matter but has not been able to conclude this inquiry due to the demanding schedule of organising events related to the State Funeral.

“Government will report publicly on any information it may establish but wishes to assure South Africans that we are clear in defending the rights and dignity of people with disabilities.”

h/t NPR

Tags fake interpreter, sign language

Education News

Homeless Man Learns to Code, Launches App

Post author By MelodyM
Post date December 11, 2013
No Comments on Homeless Man Learns to Code, Launches App

A homeless man in New York, after receiving coding lessons from a helpful Samaritan, has launched a new app for carpooling with a focus on saving the environment.

(Credit: Journeyman)

Back in August, programmer Patrick McConlogue offered homeless man Leo Grand a choice: US$100, or 16 coding lessons. Grand, who had been homeless since 2011 after losing his job at insurance provider MetLife and being priced out of his home when a high-rise apartment block was built nearby, didn’t have to think for long: coding lessons it was.

After furnishing Grand with a refurbished Chromebook and three books on coding, McConlogue met with him every weekday morning for an hour for a lesson. Now, Grand has released his very first app: Trees for Cars, available for iOS and Android.

The idea behind the app, Grand said, is to decrease the number of cars on the roads with a view to reducing CO2 emissions. Users sign up, specify whether or not they want to catch a ride or offer one, and the app will connect them with like-minded carpoolers nearby. The app will then track how much CO2 was saved by all the passengers.

Every line of code was written by Grand, and all proceeds from the AU$0.99 app sales will go directly to him.

You can check out the course McConlogue taught Grand here, read the story of thisremarkable journey here, and pick up the app for AU$0.99 for on iTunes and Google Play.

Tags Code, coding, homeless man

News

FEEL GOOD VIDEO: Airline Surprises Passengers with Gifts [VIRAL]

Post author By MelodyM
Post date December 10, 2013
No Comments on FEEL GOOD VIDEO: Airline Surprises Passengers with Gifts [VIRAL]

Canadian airline, WestJet, asked their customers exactly what they wanted for Christmas and sent the gifts out on the belt at luggage pick-up!

HAPPINESS ENSUED!

This is giving us the warm and fuzzies!

Check it out below.

George Zimmerman’s Girlfriend wants Case Dropped, Document Says

Post author By MelodyM
Post date December 10, 2013
No Comments on George Zimmerman’s Girlfriend wants Case Dropped, Document Says

(CNN) — George Zimmerman’s girlfriend is asking a judge to lift an order that blocks her from seeing him and says she doesn’t want charges filed against him.

In a court document obtained by CNN Monday, Samantha Scheibe says she wants a no-contact provision against Zimmerman lifted so the couple can “talk and be together.”

“I am not afraid of George in any manner and I want to be with him,” she says.

Zimmerman was arrested on November 18 at Scheibe’s Apopka, Florida, home after the two had a heated fight. According to a police report about the incident, Scheibe said that after an argument, Zimmerman broke a table with a shotgun and then pointed it at her “for a minute.”

But in a signed affidavit filed by Zimmerman’s attorney, Jayne Weintraub, Scheibe says Zimmerman “never pointed a gun at or toward my face in a threatening manner” and claims police misinterpreted her.

“I believe that the police misinterpreted me and that I may have misspoken about certain facts in my statement to the police,” she said. “I do not feel that the arrest report accurately recounts what happened.”

Zimmerman is accused of aggravated assault and misdemeanor counts of domestic violence battery and criminal mischief in the incident. His arraignment is scheduled for January 7.

Search in Zimmerman case turns up weapons, ammunition

He was released on $9,000 bail and has denied the accusations.

h/t – CNN

Tags dropped charges, george zimmerman, girlfriend

News

Spy Games: NSA and CIA Allegedly Tried to Recruit World of Warcraft and Second Life Players

Post author By MelodyM
Post date December 10, 2013
No Comments on Spy Games: NSA and CIA Allegedly Tried to Recruit World of Warcraft and Second Life Players

Blizzard

In a report titled “World of Spycraft: NSA and CIA Spied in Online Games,” ProPublica lays out the framework by which the NSA and CIA allegedly worked to snoop in online games, attempting to zero in on terrorists or criminals who might try to use the hypothetically anonymous virtual environments to communicate, move money or plot attacks.

As such, says ProPublica:

The spies have created make-believe characters to snoop and to try to recruit informers, while also collecting data and contents of communications between players, according to the documents, disclosed by the former National Security Agency contractor Edward J. Snowden. Because militants often rely on features common to video games — fake identities, voice and text chats, a way to conduct financial transactions — American and British intelligence agencies worried that they might be operating there, according to the papers.

The findings stem from the trove of classified information released by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. Information from that stack has been released intermittently since June 2013.