Clinton affirms special relationship with Britain

By Calvin Palmer

Britain’s place as the favorite ally of the United States was affirmed today by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton when she met with Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

“Our two countries have stood side by side confronting global challenges for a very long time,” Clinton said standing next to Miliband, the first foreign minister she has met since becoming Secretary of State.

“We share fundamental values and objectives ranging across combating terrorism and weapons of mass destruction and working to solve the global economic crisis.

“It is often said that the US and Great Britain have enjoyed a special relationship. Well, it’s certainly been that in my mind this relationship really stands the test of time and I look forward to working with the Foreign Secretary.”

Mr Miliband said transatlantic relations would be “renewed and refreshed” under the Obama and Brown governments.

“We have a strong partnership that has to be carried forward,” he said.

Clinton thanked Britain for its deployment of troops, particularly in Afghanistan, and praised U.S.-British cooperation in Pakistan, where the border areas are used by Islamist militants to launch attacks in neighboring Afghanistan.

Securing the first meeting with Clinton was something of a coup for Foreign Office officials, after speculation that the special relationship with the United States might weaken under President Obama.

It has been said that the new president does not share the affinity for Britain of his predecessors, while in speeches since his election he has lumped Britain in with other European allies.

Following her talks with Miliband, Clinton was due to receive Germany’s Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Who?

As Field Marshal Montgomery said, when he took the German surrender at Luneberg Heath on May 8, 1945, “Never heard of you.”

[Based on reports by The Daily Telegraph and AFP news agency.]

Funeral director admits selling corpses to body parts ring

By Calvin Palmer

A former New Jersey funeral director today admitted his link to a macabre body parts ring.

Stephen K. Finley, 45, of Murray Hill, pleaded guilty, at Essex County Superior Court, to disturbing and desecrating human remains.

Authorities linked Finley to a body parts ring that collected bones, tissue, and skin from more than 1,000 corpses in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania, said Essex County Prosecutor’s Office.

Finley owns Berardinelli funeral home, also known as Funeraria Santa Cruz, in Newark.  He is one of two New Jersey funeral directors involved in the scheme.

Robert J. Maitner Jr., who owned Kiernan Funeral Home in Belleville, pleaded guilty in New York for his role in the scheme. His charges in New Jersey remain pending.

Finley sold corpses to ringleader Michael Mastromarino, a former dentist and the founder of Biomedical Tissue Services and who is serving 18 to 54 years in prison in New York.  He was paid $1,000 per corpse.

A team of “cutters” then went to work, removing anything that could be sold for medical transplant: skin, bones, tendons, ligaments, heart valves.

The group also forged and altered documents, making victims younger on paper, changing their names and causes of death. None of the harvested tissue was screened for disease.

“The activity engaged in by this funeral director was utterly repulsive,” said Essex County Prosecutor Paul Dow in a statement. “This defendant had no regard for the common decency owed to the victims and the victims’ loved ones.”

Finley is due to be sentenced on March 24 and the prosecution is seeking a five-year prison sentence.

Last month, authorities permanently revoked his funeral license.

[Based on reports by The Star-Ledger and newsday.com.]

Texas state trooper’s curiosity leads to $3.9m haul of marijuana on school bus

By Calvin Palmer

A school bus stopped by the side of a southwest Texas highway aroused the curiosity of a state trooper and led to the discovery of more than 4.5 tons of marijuana, the Texas Department of Public Safety reported today.

When the trooper looked inside the abandoned bus on U.S. 59 in Webb County on Saturday morning, he discovered 9,120 pounds of marijuana neatly packed in 560 bundles, hidden under cardboard and in a secret ceiling compartment, officers said.

The discovery was the second-largest marijuana seizure the DPS has recorded during routine traffic enforcement since 1997, officials said. They estimated the street value of the haul at $3.9 million.

The trooper was on patrol when he spotted the bus, which may have been abandoned after its engine broke down, investigators said.

DPS narcotics officers wish to talk with anyone who may have information about the bus or the people who were using it.
 
[Based on a report by the Houston Chronicle.]

Woman claims mall security men harassed her over girlfriend’s kiss

By Calvin Palmer

A Texas woman intends  to prove that security officers at a San Antonio shopping mall unfairly targeted her and her girlfriend when they were arrested in December on trespassing and other charges.

Jessica Garcia, 22, said a Bexar County sheriff’s deputy and an employee from a private security company began harassing her and her 22-year-old girlfriend because her girlfriend gave her a kiss on the cheek while they were sitting on a bench inside the Rolling Oaks Mall in northeast San Antonio.

Mall officials said the women were acting inappropriately and were told to leave because they were not complying with the shopping center’s code of conduct.

Danielle Pardue, the mall’s marketing director, denies the women’s claims of discrimination and said security officers would evict anyone found kissing in the mall, regardless of sexual orientation.

“If our security officer feels that is disruptive to our shoppers and our business, then they have that authority to make that determination,” she said. “It’s their responsibility to make sure our shopping place is an enjoyable shopping place for everyone to be.”

She said the women were not arrested because they were kissing but because they had re-entered the mall after being told to leave.

Garcia had been due to appear in court today but her lawyer had to postpone until later this month.

She said the officers intentionally harassed the couple, accusing them of kissing and having “swapped spit.”

She said that after her girlfriend gave her a kiss on the cheek, the officers approached them and warned them to stop.

“He said: “This is a family mall, y’all can’t do this,'” she said. “We said, “Do what?” He said, “Y’all kissed, and if y’all do it again I’m going to write you a citation or I’m going to kick y’all out.””

Pardue initially said it was the kissing that gained the officers’ attention, but she later clarified that the officers approached the women to tell them to sit properly on the bench.

She said one of the women was sitting on the other’s lap — a claim Garcia disputes. Garcia said her girlfriend had the lower portion of her leg around hers, from the knee down. She said neither was sitting on top of the other.

“The officers passed people who were kissing and they didn’t tell them anything, but they came to us,” Garcia said. “We didn’t even kiss. All she did is she kissed me on my cheek. There’s no other way to explain it. They discriminated against us.”

Pardue said the women complied briefly with the officer’s request, but once the officers began walking away, they continued to engage in an “activity that was not appropriate for the public.”

She said that at that point, the officers told the women to leave.

Garcia said she and her girlfriend walked out of the mall, but re-entered through another entrance in order to take a shortcut to their car, which was parked on the other side.

Pardue said that when security found the women back inside the mall, they were confronted about trespassing, and that’s when the women became disruptive and physical with the officers.

Garcia said she attempted to tell the officers she was merely trying to get to her car, but the officers kept harassing her and her girlfriend and the situation deteriorated.

In the end, she was charged with trespassing, resisting arrest and assault on a peace officer, while her girlfriend was charged with trespassing.

Pardue said the mall’s code of conduct is posted at all its entrances, stating disruptive or disorderly conduct isn’t tolerated. IHowever, it tsays nothing about kissing.

“Our mall is a commercial venue that provides a shopping experience with respect to all races, religions and orientations,” Pardue said. “We would have enforced the same policies had it been a heterosexual couple.”

Civil rights advocates expressed dismay over the mall’s policy against public displays of affection.

“What if they’re holding hands, is that going to be enough?” asked Patrick Filyk, president of the San Antonio chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. “Seems like a real slippery slope for management.”

[Based on a report by the San Antonio Express-News.]

Tax issues see Daschle and Killefer withdraw their nominations

By Calvin Palmer

Tom Daschle today withdrew his nomination to become President Obama’s Health and Human Services Secretary.  The decision comes one day after Obama declared that he would stand behind Daschle as problems over unpaid taxes were scrutinized on Capitol Hill.

“I accept his decision with sadness and regret,” Obama said in a statement.

Daschle had expressed regret yesterday for not paying about $140,000 in back taxes but vowed to press ahead.

The move came as a surprise on Capitol Hill, where Democratic senators had rallied behind Mr. Daschle. It is the highest-level political casualty of the young Obama administration and follows on just hours after Nancy Killefer announced her withdrawal from consideration for the post chief performance officer after it was revealed she had owed taxes.

In a brief letter to President Obama, the 55-year-old executive with consulting firm McKinsey & Co. wrote that she had “come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay” that must be avoided in responding to urgent economic problems.

She offered no further details of her tax difficulties.

When Killefer’s selection was announced on January 7, the Associated Press disclosed that in 2005 the District of Columbia government had filed a $946.69 tax lien on her home for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help. Since then, administration officials have refused to answer questions about the tax error, which she resolved five months after the lien was filed.

Killefer’s impressive credentials got her selected for two jobs: deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, which requires Senate confirmation, and the new White House post of chief performance officer for the entire federal government, which does not require confirmation.

White House spokesman Tommy Vietor said today: “Nancy Killefer has decided to withdraw her nomination, and we accepted her withdrawal.”

Since acknowledging Killefer’s unemployment tax error, Vietor had declined to amplify or answer follow-up questions, saying he couldn’t respond because she was still completing the Obama transition team’s questionnaire for nominees.

Her nomination was never formally sent to Congress.

[Based on a report by The New York Times and Associated Press.]

Closing schools because of snow sends wrong message, says campaign group

By Calvin Palmer

The Parents Outloud campaign group in Britain has today claimed that closing schools because of snow is teaching children a bad lesson.

Margaret Morrissey said it sent out the message that if life gets difficult you should simply stay at home.

Her comments come as thousands of schools across Britain announced that they would be closing their doors for the second day running.

It has already been announced that all schools in Bradford, Birmingham and Surrey will be closed today, along with more than 100 in Kent.

Morrissey said: “We are giving children the message that when things get difficult you should just stay at home and have fun. Then, when they keep taking sick days from work when they grow up we wonder why.”

She said the continuing closures would be extremely difficult for parents who would have to balance work with childcare.

Morrissey added: “The problems schools have are exacerbated by the government bringing in thousands of health and safety laws, some are very important, but others are not. Schools have to have the right ratio of pupils to teachers to be able to open.”

The Schools Secretary Ed Balls dismissed as “nonsense” the claim schools had been forced to close because of health and safety laws.

“It is important that our kids are safe in schools but the idea that our schools are closing because of health and safety legislation is nonsense,” he told BBC Radio. “They were closed because teachers could not get into schools to open the schools and it was going to be really dangerous for some children trying to make the journeys when there weren’t buses or Tubes or trains available and it was very hard to drive.

“The reason why schools are closed is that judgments are made by responsible people, the headteacher and the governors, about what is safe and, rightly in my view, many schools judged on Monday morning that it was not safe to open.”

He denied Morrissey’s suggestions there was a set staff to pupil ratio.

Chief executive of Bradford Council, Tony Reeves, said the decision to close the city’s schools was taken on Monday because of the “very severe weather forecast”.

He said: “This decision has not been taken lightly, but it is in the best interests of both children and parents to ensure their safety and to allow parents to make child care arrangements, including informing their employers where necessary. It is schools being closed at short notice which causes most disruption to residents and the economy.”

Many people in Britain have pointed to the way America does not grind to a halt when snow falls.  That may be true in the north but in the south ,snow and ice causes just as much havoc as it has done in Britain these past two days.

In north Texas, it isn’t snow in the British sense but frozen rain, which leaves a layer of ice fragments on roads.  Factor in the fact that authorities do not have gritting facilities, at best they put sand on overpasses, and the roads are effectively left untreated.  Motorists venture out at their peril.

The independent school districts monitor the weather situation closely and, when icy conditions prevail, they announce the closure of schools, not on a piece of cardboard stuck on the school gates but through the media. Parents are warned well in advance, if they can be bothered to switch on the television.

The school districts also have provision for a number of snow days each year, which means that days lost through bad weather are added on at the end of the semester.  Children and teachers therefore do not have a “holiday,” the lost days are made up when the weather is warmer.

When school districts decide to close schools, the decision is not taken just to inconvenience parents.  The decision is taken with the safety of children in mind.  And that is the point Morrissey is missing.

If a bus skidded out of control on its way to a school and 20 children were killed, she would probably be leading the outcry as to what a school bus was doing on the road in such icy conditions.

Many drivers in Britain, as in Texas, are unaccustomed to driving in snow and consequently become a risk not only to themselves but also to others.

The lesson Morrissey is teaching children is that is acceptable to be reckless and put your life and the lives of others at risk.

I wonder if she works for a bank or some other financial institution?

[Based on reports in The Independent and The Times.]

Cell phone ‘explodes’ and kills man

By Calvin Palmer

A Chinese shop assistant has died after his cell phone exploded, severing a major artery in his neck, according to a newspaper report.

The 20-year-old, who worked at a computer shop in Guangzhou, China, died after he put a new battery in his phone.  It is believed he may have just finished charging the battery and had put the phone in his breast pocket.

According to the daily newspaper, Shin Min Daily News, the accident happened at 7:30 p.m. on January 30.

An employee at the shop told the newspaper that she heard a loud bang and saw her colleague lying on the floor in a pool of blood.  She said the victim had recently changed the battery in his cell phone.

Authorities have yet to determine the make and model of the phone and its battery. Police are investigating whether the phone and battery were counterfeit.

This incident is the ninth recorded cell phone explosion in China since 2002. 

In June 2007, a 22-year-old welder, Xiao Jinpeng, died from chest wounds when his cell phone exploded while he was at work at an iron mill in Gansu province.

An inquiry discovered that the cell phone battery had exploded due to the heat of the iron mill.

Lithium batteries are widely used in cell phones – but if they are overcharged or exposed to heat, the inflammable liquid inside can explode.

Motorola and Nokia, two of the world’s biggest cell phone makers, denied links to the distributors of problem batteries in China, suggesting they were counterfeit.

[Based on a report by The Times.]