Jilted lover sent out pornographic Christmas cards of his ex-girlfriend

By Calvin Palmer
A Tennessee man has been sentenced to two years probation after pleading guilty  to sending sexually explicit Christmas cards to the relatives of his ex-girlfriend after the break-up.
David Simmons, 57, of Murfreesboro, was arrested in May in connection with eight counts of unlawful photography against his ex-girlfriend, criminal impersonation and vandalism. He pleaded [...]

Hairdresser “seduced” by high-speed motorbike gets jail for doing 166mph

By Calvin Palmer
A hairdresser caught doing 166mph on a Scottish road has been jailed for nine months and banned from driving for five years.
Neil Purves, 27, of Cockburnspath, Berwickshire, was traveling on the A702 near West Linton, Peeblesshire, on May 13, when a police patrol was alerted by a ”high-pitched engine noise”.
When police caught up [...]

Up against a Savannah wall

By Calvin Palmer
“Tear down this wall!” President Ronald Reagan instructed Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev in a 1987 speech during a visit to Berlin. Some Americans seem to have a thing about walls.
Out and about in Savannah at the weekend, I happened to lean against a wall that encased steps to the front door of a [...]

‘Child killer on the loose,’ says sheriff

By Calvin Palmer
Authorities have tentatively confirmed that the body of a child found in a Georgia landfill is that of a Florida girl who went missing on her walk home from school on Monday.
Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler said the tentative identification was based on clothing and on a birthmark that matched seven-year-old Somer Thompson, [...]

Child’s body found in Georgia landfill

By Calvin Palmer
The body of a child was found today in a Georgia landfill but investigators have not yet confirmed whether it is the body of a missing north Florida girl.
Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler said: “We want to find who did this and bring them to justice.”
At first he said the body was female [...]

Metallica fans asked to check cell phone photos for missing Virginia Tech girl

By Calvin Palmer
Police today issued an appeal to people who attended Saturday’s Metallica concert in Charlottesville, to check videos or photos in case they contain images of a missing Virginia Tech student.
Morgan Dana Harrington, 20, was last seen at the John Paul Jones Arena in Charlottesville.
A friend who accompanied the Virginia Tech junior said Harrington [...]

Policing requires the best qualified person for the job

By Calvin Palmer
Sometimes I feel like a voice in the wilderness, the only person to see the flaws in what the vast majority are more than happy to accept.
So, I was heartened by a report in The Florida Times-Union yesterday, where Mike Hallett, the chairman of the University of North Florida’s department of criminology and [...]

Make that a double

By Calvin Palmer
An upstate New York woman was charged with aggravated driving while intoxicated this morning after she arrived at the state police barracks to pick up a friend who had been arrested earlier for DWI.
Stacy E. Kolinski, 22, of Otisco, arrived about 2:25 a.m. at the barracks in Lafayette to pick up George L. [...]

Balloon boy’s father to face criminal charges

By Calvin Palmer
Balloon boy’s father Richard Heene will soon come down to earth with a bump. Larimer County Sheriff’s office is planning to file criminal charges.
Sheriff Jim Alderden said yesterday that officers were preparing search warrants and drawing up charges against the eccentric amateur scientist and unidentified members of his family.
The sheriff did not give [...]

America’s far-right borrows Nazi tactics

By Calvin Palmer
Regular readers of this blog will already be familiar with my oft-quoted thesis that the ultra-conservatives and the Tea Party set strongly resemble the Nazi Party supporters of 1930s Germany.
This conclusion is not mud-slinging on my part, as many to the right of the political spectrum would have you believe, but based on [...]