lbuxx's Blog

Another earthquake tremor...10:15 a.m.   lasted about 20 seconds.....

Cops: 3rd-graders aimed to hurt teacher

By RUSS BYNUM, Associated Press Writer 49 minutes ago

WAYCROSS, Ga. - A group of third-graders plotted to attack their teacher, bringing a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape and other items for the job and assigning children tasks including covering the windows and cleaning up afterward, police said Tuesday.

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The plot by as many as nine boys and girls at Center Elementary School in south Georgia was a serious threat, Waycross Police Chief Tony Tanner said.

"We did not hear anybody say they intended to kill her, but could they have accidentally killed her? Absolutely," Tanner said. "We feel like if they weren't interrupted, there would have been an attempt. Would they have been successful? We don't know."

The children, ages 8 and 9, were apparently mad at the teacher because she had scolded one of them for standing on a chair, Tanner said. A prosecutor said they are too young to be charged with a crime under Georgia law.

School officials alerted police Friday after a pupil tipped off a teacher that a girl had brought a weapon to school, Tanner said.

Police seized a broken steak knife, handcuffs, duct tape, electrical and transparent tape, ribbons and a crystal paperweight from the students, who apparently intended to use them against the teacher, Tanner said.

Nine children have been given discipline up to and including long-term suspension, said Theresa Martin, spokeswoman for the Ware County school system. She would not be more specific but said none of the children had been back to school since the case came to light.

The purported target is a veteran educator who teaches third-grade students with learning disabilities including attention deficit disorder, delayed development and hyperactivity, friends and parents said.

The scheme involved a division of roles, Tanner said. One child's job was to cover windows so no one could see outside, he said. Another was supposed to clean up after the attack.

"We're not sure at this point in the investigation how many of the students actually knew the intent was to hurt the teacher," Tanner said.

The parents of the students have cooperated with investigators, who aren't allowed to question the children without their parents' or guardians' consent, he said. Authorities have withheld the children's names.

Police expected to forward the results of their investigation to prosecutors, Tanner said.

Children in Georgia can't be charged with a crime unless they are at least 13, District Attorney Rick Currie said.

Martin told The Florida Times-Union of Jacksonville, Fla., that administrators would follow school system policy and state law in disciplining the students.

"From what I understand, they were considered pretty good kids," Martin said. "But we have to take this seriously, whether they were serious or not about carrying this through, and that's what we did."

Four mothers of other third-grade students at Center Elementary called for the immediate expulsion of the suspected plotters.

Stacy Carter and Deana Hiott both cited school system policy stating that any student who brings "anything reasonably considered to be a weapon" is to be expelled for at least the remainder of the school year.

"We don't want our children around them," Carter told the Times-Union. "The one with the knife could have stabbed my child or someone else's child at lunch or out on the playground."

"This is an isolated incident, an aberration. ... We have good kids," Center Principal Angie Coleman told the newspaper.

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wow........

Unless thats a picture of the actual pit bull that attacked the couple, don't you think you're just kinda fanning the flames a little?

I don't know, maybe you couldn't find a more vicious looking picture. 

I sit here and wonder if this had been a german shephard or a rott running loose, or heck even a beagle would you have been able to find an appropriate picture.

Give me a break.

Signed
Irritated Reader

More flood pics from today....old downtown Fenton, old Gravois bridge-

Here are a few flood pics from today at lunch time-

I wanted to remind everyone to be on the lookout for animals that are on the move because of the flooding.  I drive 44 from the city out to Fenton everyday.  Very rarely do I see any deer.  For the last two days I'm seeing a dead deer a day..

It just occurred to me...duh....that the animals are on the move cause of the rising waters.

Anyone know of highway 44 closings Rolla to Saint Louis?  I've looked on the MO DOT website and they are not reporting any but I'm not sure how up to date they are..

Any spots to watch out for? 

There are a lot of college kids (mine included) out at Rolla that want to get home for Easter. 

My daughter cannot leave school til tomorrow and I'm wondering if she's even going to be able to get home..

Any alternate routes we might want to consider?

Hopefully I'm worrying for no reason, but the kids are starting to stress out there thinking they won't be able to get home.

KSDK is reporting a levee break in Peerless Park... I'm in Fenton/ Valley Park (on high ground) at work.  I can hear helicopters out there.  I wonder if there's a break in Valley Park as well. 

I guess that new dirt levee isn't working so well......

Folks-

Please contact your elected officials to let them know you support tougher laws against dogfighting.  Here is a link to the Humane Society.  They have a handy form you fill out that locates your official and sends the email directly to him/her.  It's a start..

https://secure2.convio.net/hsmo/site/Advocacy?cmd=d
isplay&page=UserAction&id=125

Thanks!

For all of you fellow animal lovers out there, there is a site called Zootoo.com that is having a contest.  Please check it out-

www.zootoo.com/makeover

The shelter with the most points will win a makeover.  Personally, I've signed up to support Stray Rescue.

 

My letter to Rick Sullivan-

Mr. Sullivan-   Why would you fire the one "constant" that our children have had in the past 1 1/2 years?  Who do you think (in their right mind) would take on the task of overseeing the St. Louis Public School system at this point in time?  At this point the SLPS is a joke, a bad joke. Your so called "mandate" is to improve the SLPS.  Please tell me how this move is improving our schools?   Your SLPS parents or as you have decided to call us, "customers" are outraged to say the least.  We are worried. We feel as if we are beating our head against a brick wall.  How long will you ignore us?  We feel misled by you and your SAB.  Most of us predicted months ago that as soon as you could, you would get rid of her.  We hoped for the best.  Once again the worst has happened.   Dr. B was the only one who knew what she was doing and had a plan to improve the district.  I don't see how this is a good business move on your part.    Currently our children's education future sits in limbo while you mess around and attempt to figure out what you're doing.  I can only thank God that MY child will be out of this mess in two years if not sooner.  Maybe before she graduates the SAB can totally dismantle the SLPS and construct some charter school for her to go to.  Although you wouldn't come right out and say that you were "against" charter schools, you did acknowledge that they took away from the public school system and that it was your job to champion the public school system.  Lets see if you reneg on that as well.  Maybe if the SAB keeps it up you can grant the Mayor's wishes of district wide charter schools.  We'll see won't we?   I feel for the kids and the parents that will have to deal with this for who knows how long.
  Sincerely, Concerned Metro Parent

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Anyone else want to let him know what you think? Rick.Sullivan@slps.org

Gunman opens fire in KirkwoodFrom staff reportsST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH02/08/2008

An armed man walked into a Kirkwood city council meeting Thursday night and shot several people, including the at least one police officer, the city’s mayor and several council members.

At least one city council woman is dead and others are being treated for serious injuries at a hospital.

A correspondent for the Post-Dispatch who was attending said the 7 p.m. meeting had just started — the mayor was starting the meeting just after the Pledge of Allegiance — when the man rushed into the council chambers yelling and began opening fire with at least one weapon. She identified the man as Charles Lee "Cookie" Thornton, a man she knows from covering the council.

"He came from the back of the room," said Janet McNichols, the correspondent. "He kept something about, ‘Shoot the mayor’ and he just walked around shooting anybody he could."

McNichols said the shooter first fired at Tom Ballman, a police officer at the meeting. She said she looked up to see the officer shot in the head.

Thornton then targeted Public Works Director Kenneth Yost, who was sitting in front of McNichols. He was also hit in the head, she said.

 

"After that, I was on my stomach under the chairs," she said. "I laid on my stomach waiting to get shot. Oh God, it was a horror."

McNichols said Thornton continued to yell about the mayor, and from his voice and the gunshots, she could tell he had approached the dais at the front of the room where the council sits behind a semicircular desk.

At some point he fired at City Attorney John Hessel, who told McNichols he fended the attacker off by throwing chairs. She saw Hessel later, appearing uninjured except for a knot on his head.

Among those hit, in addition to Ballman and Yost, were Mayor Mike Swoboda, and council members Michael H.T. Lynch and Connie Karr, McNichols said. Conditions were not known for any of them.

RELATED LINK Thornton battled city council in past

Then police officers burst into the room and there was more yelling, McNichols said. First, Thornton saying he had a gun, she said. Then gunshots and the officers saying they’d got him.

McNichols said about 30 people were in the council chambers at the time of the shooting. Witnesses were herded into offices while police secured the scene. Later they were taken to the police station to be interviewed.

Thornton was not a stranger to the council, where he was often a contentious presence. In May 2006, he was handcuffed and pulled from a meeting. He was charged with disorderly conduct and released.

McNichols said he often aimed his ire at the mayor and at Yost.

Late last month, a federal judge in St. Louis dismissed a lawsuit in which Thornton, representing himself, claimed Kirkwood officials violated his free speech rights by prohibiting him from speaking out at meetings.

In a ruling Jan. 28, U.S. District Judge Catherine D. Perry took into account that Thornton had twice been convicted of disorderly conduct for disrupting meetings in 2006 with off-point complaints about persecution by officials.

"He came to many, many meetings and always said terrible things to the mayor," McNichols remmebered. "He’d come to the meeting and he’d have a big easel and a picture. a donkey on there and call the council asses."

Sportscaster Doug Vaughn of Channel 4 told that station that he went to Kirkwood High School with Thornton and saw him through the years. He said Thornton’s behavior changed after police cracked down on his parking of vehicles for his construction company outside his home in Meacham Park. He felt harassed, Vaughn said.

"He could not have been a nicer guy to those who knew them but I think this problem with the city drove him completely crazy," Vaughn said in the TV interview.

City Hall is at 139 Kirkwood Road. Three blocks surrounding it were quickly cordoned off as dozens of police cars, firetrucks and ambulances from other districts, including Normandy, Eureka and Des Peres, poured in to help.

Even an hour after the shootings, ambulances and fire rescue vehicles were still arriving at the scene.

Media were kept about three blocks from the scene.

Dotti Durban and her husband, Mike, had planned to attend the City Council meeting to learn about an idea to rezone an area near Manchester and Lindbergh but she got held up at work.

She was met by dozens of police cars as she drove to city hall in hopes of catching part of the meeting.

"Lucky for us that we weren’t at that meeting," Durban said.

ST. LOUIS — People's Health Centers is offering free electronic income tax and circuit breaker filing for senior citizens from 1 to 4 p.m. on Feb. 6 at the William L. Clay Sr. Leisure Living Community, 5623 Clemens; and from 2 to 7 p.m. Feb. 7 at BJK People's Health Centers, 5701 Delmar Boulevard in St. Louis.

Participants will need to bring their W-2 or 1099 forms; copies of a blank check and of their 2006 returns; proof of any child care expenses, income or compensation; valid picture IDs for the taxpayer and spouse; and Social Security cards for all family members. For more information, call 314-460-3648.

Gov. Blunt says he won't run again By Jo Mannies ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH 01/22/2008
Matt & Melanie Blunt from their YouTube video announcement.
Missouri Gov. Matt Blunt, a Republican, just announced that he's not running for re-election this fall.
 
In a statement that shocked political leaders in both parties, Blunt released a TV address "announcing that having achieved virtually everything he set out to accomplish when he ran for governor, he will not seek a second term.

"In his address, Gov. Blunt cites among his accomplishments turning an inherited $1.1 billion deficit into three straight surpluses without a tax increase, cutting taxes, ending the education cuts of the past and providing budgets that will deliver $1.2 billion to universities, classrooms and students, rescuing the broken Medicaid system and transforming it into a network of care for vulnerable Missourians and helping turn record job-loss into nearly 90,000 new jobs.

"The governor called a news conference tomorrow morning at 9:30 am where he is expected to discuss his announcement," his statement said.

Blunt, 37, made his announcement in a press release and a two minute, 50-second video statement. With his wife, Melanie, at his side, Blunt says in the video that he had accomplished his goals during his first term and does not want to stay in "any office just to hold it."

"After a great deal of thought and prayer, and with the knowledge that we have achieved virtually everything I set out to accomplish, and more, I will not seek a second term in the upcoming election," Blunt said.

Blunt said his administration had helped to get the state budget out of deficit, had reformed a "broke and broken" Medicaid system for the poor, had boosted spending on education by $1.2 billion and had helped to create more jobs in Missouri. RELATED LINKS Transcript of Blunt's announcement VIDEO: Address to Missourians from Gov. Matt Blunt on YouTube TALK: Blunt's announcement -- Good riddance or bad move? POLL: How would you grade Matt Blunt as governor?

"What we set out to achieve four years ago has been accomplished," Blunt said.

Blunt reads verbatim from his speech in the video announcement. Melenie Blunt does not speak, but looks at her husband during the first part of the video, and then smiles toward camera with him as he completes his statement.

"To serve as your governor is a great privilege," he says near the ending. "I will continue to work every day to be worthy of the faith and confidence you have placed in me."

His decision leaves his party without a presumed candidate in the gubernatorial election on Nov. 4. Blunt and the leading Democratic candidate, Attorney General Jay Nixon, had clashed frequently over issues ranging from immigration to the collapse of AmerenUE's Taum Sauk reservoir.

Lt. Gov. Peter Kinder, a Republican from Cape Girardeau and a former state senator, told a Post-Dispatch reporter who saw him in a Capitol hallway shortly after Blunt's announcement that there was a "decent chance" he will run.

State Republican legislative leaders expressed shock at the news, which Blunt revealed to them at 3:50 p.m. in a conference call.

"I'm sort of dumbfounded," said Senate Pro Tem Mike Gibbons, R-Kirkwood.

House Speaker Rod Jetton, R-Marble Hill, said GOP legislators "were shocked. Nobody expected it. I don't think anybody knew this. It's hard to keep a secret in Jefferson City, but I hadn't heard anything."

"...We were just speechless," Jetton said. "You don't expect that on Jan. 22 of an election year."

Jetton said among the likely GOP candidates would be former U.S. Sen. Jim Talent of St. Louis County, U.S. Rep. Ken Hulshof of Columbia, State Treasurer Sarah Steelman of Rolla and Kinder, the lieutenant governor. "We need to sit down among ourselves and see who would best be able to carry out our mission," Jetton said of Republicans.

Of Blunt's decision, Jetton said the governor indicated "he didn't have the sense of mission, that he had accomplished what he had committed to do, that he just didn't have the oomph to carry on."

Jetton had planned to complete this year in office and become a lobbyist, but said Blunt's announcement "changes everything." He said he would discuss his own prospects, including a run for governor, with his wife.

After Blunt made his plans known, State Republican Party spokesman Doug Russell swiftly followed suit with his own statement:
 
 “Governor Blunt has been a remarkable leader that changed Missouri for the better.  His conservative policies and values turned our state in a new, hopeful direction.  Under his administration, budget deficits were replaced with surpluses, education was restored to its place atop our priority list, children are safer, more Missourians are working and healthcare for low-income Missourians has been transformed so that we are preventing sickness rather than treating illness once it has reached a chronic stage.
 
" I wish Governor Blunt, the First Lady and Branch all the happiness in the world as they embark on a new journey when the governor’s term expires.  I also appreciate Governor Blunt’s commitment to ensuring the next governor of our state is a Republican who will continue to employ the principles of personal responsibility, fiscal conservatism and limited government so that we can be assured Missouri’s brightest days are ahead.”  

 
In Washington, U.S. Rep. Roy Blunt, R-Mo. and the governor's father, said he was proud of his son's service and understands his decision.

"I respect his decision to spend this year being the best governor he can be in service of our state and its people, rather than letting the focus shift to pure politics," Roy Blunt said.

Barely an hour after Blunt made his announcement, the Republican Governors Association in Washington issued a statement praising Blunt as "an important example of why Republican leadership is so important."

The association said Missouri's contest for governor this year was expected to be "one of the most hotly contested" in the country, and remains so. It says Blunt "is leaving a positive legacy for Missouri."

Heath Ledger found dead in NYC at age 28

By TOM HAYS
Associated Press Writer

AP Photo/MICHAEL CAULFIELD Watch Related Video

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NEW YORK (AP) -- Heath Ledger was found dead Tuesday at a downtown Manhattan apartment, naked in bed with sleeping pills nearby, police said. The Australian-born actor was 28. It wasn't immediately clear if Ledger had committed suicide.

He had an appointment for a massage at a residence in the tony neighborhood of SoHo, NYPD spokesman Paul Browne said. A housekeeper who went to let him know the massage therapist had arrived found him dead at 3:26 p.m.

A large crowd of paparazzi and gawkers gathered outside the building on an upscale block. Ledger's body was still inside, and several police officers guarded the door.

The medical examiner's office planned an autopsy Wednesday, spokeswoman Ellen Borakove said.

While not a marquee movie star, Ledger was a respected, award-winning actor who chose his roles carefully rather than cashing in on his heartthrob looks. He was nominated for an Oscar for his performance as a gay cowboy in "Brokeback Mountain," where he met Michelle Williams, who played his wife in the film. The two had a daughter, Matilda, and lived together in Brooklyn until they split up last year.

Ledger most recently appeared in "I'm Not There," in which he played one of the many incarnations of Bob Dylan - as did Cate Blanchett, whose performance in that film earned an Oscar nomination Tuesday for best supporting actress.

Ledger had finished filming his role as the Joker this year in "The Dark Knight," a sequel to 2005's "Batman Begins."

He's had starring roles in "A Knight's Tale" and "The Patriot," and played the suicidal son of Billy Bob Thornton in "Monster's Ball." He also played a heroin addict in the 2006 Australian film "Candy."

Before settling down with Williams, Ledger had relationships with actresses Heather Graham and Naomi Watts. He met Watts while working on "The Lords of Dogtown," a fictionalized version of a cult classic skateboarding documentary, in 2004.

Ledger was born in 1979 in Perth, in western Australia, to a mining engineer and a French teacher, and got his first acting role playing Peter Pan at age 10 at a local theater company. He began acting in independent films as a 16-year-old in Sydney and played a cyclist hoping to land a spot on an Olympic team in a 1996 television show, "Seat."

After several independent films, Ledger moved to Los Angeles at age 19 and co-starred opposite Julia Stiles in "10 Things I Hate About You," a teen comedy reworking of "The Taming of the Shrew."

Offers for other teen flicks soon came his way, but Ledger turned them down, preferring to remain idle than sign on for projects he didn't like.

"It wasn't a hard decision for me," Ledger told the Associated Press in 2001. "It was hard for everyone else around me to understand. Agents were like, `You're crazy,' my parents were like, `Come on, you have to eat.'"

His movie career caught on anyway, culminating with his Academy Award nomination opposite Jake Gyllenhaal in "Brokeback."

"Dark Knight" director Christopher Nolan said earlier this month that Ledger's performance as the Joker would be wildly different than Jack Nicholson's memorable turn in 1989's "Batman."

"It was a very great challenge for Heath," Nolan said. "He's extremely original, extremely frightening, tremendously edgy. A very young character, a very anarchic presence that taps into a lot of our basic fears and panic."