Six hurt in Mardi Gras parade shooting

By Calvin Palmer

An infant and at least five other people were shot during the Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans today.

Police said two suspects were in custody and the victims were recovering in hospital.

The shootings occurred near the Garden District about 1:40 this afternoon as hundreds of truck floats that follow the Rex parade were going by.

“It sounded like a string of fireworks, so I knew it was more than one shooter,” said Toni Labat, 29, a window company manager. She was with her two children, a 2-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl.

“Everybody was petrified. They hit the ground, the floats stopped, everybody on the floats ducked,” Labat said.

Police spokesman Bob Young said the victims were taken to hospital.  The infant was grazed by a bullet and not seriously hurt.

Dr. Jim Parry, 41, a surgeon and Air Force reservist, who was with a gathering of doctors near the shooting site, ran over to tend to one man shot in the abdomen until paramedics took over.

“I’m off to Afghanistan this summer,” Parry said. “Damn, this is more dangerous than Afghanistan.”

Two male suspects, ages 18 and 20, were in custody and three weapons believed to have been used in the shooting were recovered, Young said.

It was a very, very peaceful Mardi Gras up to this point,” he said. “Everybody seemed to be having a joyous time along the parade.”

[Based on reports by the Associated Press and AFP news agency.]

Sting operation results in six arrests at adult book store

By Calvin Palmer

A sting operation by police at an adult book store in Connecticut exposed more than tawdry naked images on the printed page.

Six men were arrested after they allegedly grabbed the genitals of undercover detectives. Three of the men allegedly exposed their genitals, during the sting at Romantix Books and Videos in Milford on Friday and Saturday night.

Police set up the operation at the adult business after receiving complaints about illegal sexual activity, Officer Vaughan Dumas said yesterday.

Fabiano Teixeira, 25, of Bridgeport; Rubin Gonzalez, 18, of Bridgeport; William Caputo, 46, of West Haven, and Elpidio Madeloso, 35, New Haven, were charged with fourth-degree sexual assault.

Glenn McGarvey, 51, of Stratford, and Lawson Ward, 67, of Milford were charged with public indecency.

Teixeira allegedly exposed his genitals and then groped the undercover detective, police said, while Ward and McGarvey are accused of exposing their genitals. Caputo, Gonzalez and Madeloso allegedly grabbed the crotches of the undercover detectives.

Dumas said that a similar operation about 10 years ago resulted in several arrests, including one of a Catholic priest.

[Based on a report by the Connecticut Post.]

Four teenagers accused of raping girl, 13

By Calvin Palmer

Four teenage boys were charged today with the rape of a 13-year-old girl, which was part of a gang initiation.

The teenagers, two 15-year-olds, one aged 16 and another 13, were each charged at Ramsey County District Court with two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one count of committing a crime for the benefit of a gang.

The boys allegedly took the girl by bus from Minneapolis to a residence in the Dayton’s Bluff neighborhood of St. Paul on Friday night. According to a St. Paul Police report, the girl drank alcohol and then was “bitten, punched and threatened until she was raped by the suspects.”

The girl was held overnight, but managed to escape from the house Saturday when the suspects momentarily left her alone. She went to a home of a stranger who called police.

The four boys were arrested a short time later.

They made their first court appearance today. A hearing on motions to try all but the 13-year-old as adults was set for March 17. A trial for the 13-year-old was scheduled for March 20.

All four remain in custody, Ramsey County attorney’s office said.

[Based on a report in the Minneapolis Star Tribune.]

Missing woman found in ditch had been fatally shot

By Calvin Palmer

The missing woman found dead in a ditch in northwest Harris County on Sunday was shot and her purse remains missing, investigators said today.

Sabrina Pina’s clothed body was found on Sunday morning in a ditch along Jack Road near Warren Ranch.  She had been fatally shot.

The 27-year-old Spring resident was last seen alive about 2:00 p.m. on Saturday at a Kohl’s store at Texas 249 and Spring Cypress.

“We think she was abducted there,” said Sgt. Wayne Kuhlman, of the Harris County sheriff’s homicide division.

Kuhlman is hoping other shoppers in the Kohl’s parking lot may have seen the apparent abduction. He declined to say whether anything suspicious was recorded by the store’s security cameras.

“We have her Pina on surveillance camera but I don’t want to go into any more detail,” Kuhlman said.

Pina’s purse has not been found, but detectives said today they are unsure whether the killer intended to rob her.

“We don’t have a clear motive at this time,” Kuhlman said.

Detectives are still checking Pina’s cell phone records to see if she made a call after her disappearance.

There are no indications that Pina’s bank or credit cards have been used since Saturday. 

Law enforcement officials said it is too soon to say whether Pina’s abduction is connected to the February 2 kidnapping of Susana De Jesus, a 37-year-old Houston woman taken at gunpoint from a Pearland shopping center, also located in a suburban area near a major freeway.

De Jesus is still missing.

Brazoria County sheriff’s detectives who are investigating De Jesus’ disappearance have been in touch with the Harris County sheriff’s homicide investigators working Pina’s case.

Both agencies will discuss the two cases in the future, said Brazoria County sheriff’s Capt. Chris Kincheloe.

[Based on a report by the Houston Chronicle.] 

Bernanke looks to 2010 for signs of recovery

By Calvin Palmer

The chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke warned today the economic downturn could get even worse than recent forecasts.

Bernanke told the Senate Banking Committee that the Federal Reserve was doing everything it could to unlock credit markets and ease the financial crisis but it could take until 2010 before the actions of the government gain traction.

“If actions taken by the administration, the Congress, and the Federal Reserve are successful in restoring some measure of financial stability —  and only if that is the case, in my view — there is a reasonable prospect that the current recession will end in 2009 and that 2010 will be a year of recovery,” Mr. Bernanke said.

Two economic barometers today underscored the economy’s downward trajectory.

House prices in the United States plunged at the fastest pace on record in December, according to a closely watched measure of the housing market, signaling that housing is likely to continue declining.

Single-family home values in 20 major metropolitan areas fell 18.5 percent in December compared with a year earlier, according to a data released by Standard & Poor’s Case-Shiller home price index. Housing prices dropped 2.5 percent from November to December.

Nationwide, housing prices in the last three months of 2008 sank to their lowest levels since the third quarter of 2003.

The private Conference Board’s index of consumer confidence dropped to a new low of 25 in February from 37.4 a month earlier as people worried about losing their jobs, earning less and worse prospects over the next six months.

In the first leg of Mr. Bernanke’s bi-annual report to both houses of Congress on the state of the economy and the Fed’s actions, he painted a dire picture of the markets going forward, but assured the committee that government agencies were taking all necessary actions to thaw credit markets.

“The measures taken by the Federal Reserve, other U.S. government entities, and foreign governments since September have helped to restore a degree of stability to some financial markets,” Mr. Bernanke said in testimony. “Nevertheless, despite these favorable developments, significant stresses persist in many markets.”

In particular, he said, most securitization markets “remain shut.”

As required by law, Mr. Bernanke addressed both halves of the Fed’s dual mandate: stable prices and maximum employment. The former part of the mission has largely been met, with prices more or less unchanged from their level a year ago, and inflation is expected to glide under 1 percent during 2009.

But labor market conditions continue to deteriorate. Citing projections by the Fed’s Open Market Committee in January, he said the unemployment rate, which hit 7.6 percent in January, would probably reach 8.5 to 8.75 percent in the fourth quarter. The country’s gross domestic product is projected to decline 0.5 to 1.25 percent this year, he said, and foreclosure rates remain high.

He added, “This outlook for economic activity is subject to considerable uncertainty, and I believe that, over all, the downside risks probably outweigh those on the upside.”

Bernanke testified that the international nature of the slowdown, added to a “so-called adverse feedback loop” — the idea that economic and financial conditions become mutually reinforcing — threaten to delay recovery.

He urged support for the significant — and in many cases, unpopular — fiscal and monetary interventions the government has made into the economy thus far.
 
[Based on a report by The New York Times.]

Boy, 11, accused of killing pregnant woman made threats, says family

By Calvin Palmer

The 11-year-old boy accused of killing a pregnant woman while she lay in bed on Friday morning had been making threats about harming her for a while.

Debbie Houk said today that Jordan Brown often gave her daughter a hard time, especially when his father was not around.

“It’s been at least two months that he’s made the threats,” Debbie Houk said, adding that Jordan “just bucked her (Kenzie) a lot when his dad wasn’t around.”

“Chris was good about it. He tried. He told him, ‘Don’t you ever disrespect her,'” Debbie Houk added.

Brown is accused of shooting 26-year-old Kenzie Marie Houk at close range in the head on Friday and killing her and her unborn baby boy.

Brown and his father, Chris, lived with Houk and her two daughters — Adalynne, aged four, and Jenessa, aged seven – at a rented farmhouse on the Wampum-New Galilee Road, New Beaver.  They had moved into the house about four months ago, according to neighbors.

Kenzie’s family said there were problems right from the beginning.

Brown once told a boy that he wanted to shoot Kenzie and her daughters, said Jason Kraner, Kenzie’s brother-in-law.

He relayed the information to Chris Brown and Kenzie but they did not take it seriously.

Lawrence County District Attorney John Bongivengo said yesterday that the working theory in the case is that the boy was jealous of his father’s fiancee and her daughters.

“It was just him and his dad all of his life, and then he’s living with this woman and her daughters and there’s a new baby on the way,” he said.

“He planned it,” Debbie Houk said. “He knew the severity and the danger of guns.”

“That look on his face in his picture, that was him all the time,” said Jennifer Kraner, Kenzie’s sister. “He has this terminal stare. There’s no kid in him.”

For now, the family wants to celebrate Kenzie, remember her spirit and her smile.

Her funeral and that of her unborn baby, named Christopher Allen Houk-Brown, is due to take place this evening at a funeral home in New Castle.

[Based on a report by the Beaver County Times and newsday.com.]

NASA’s global warming satellite crashes into ocean

By Calvin Palmer

A U.S. satellite designed to monitor global carbon dioxide emissions crashed into the Antarctic Ocean today after failing to reach orbit.

NASA said the satellite launched successfully from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California aboard a Taurus XL rocket at 1:55 a.m.

A fatal mission error occurred minutes after liftoff when a clamshell-like “fairing” that protects the satellite during its ascent failed to separate properly.

“The initial indications show that the vehicle did not have enough lift to reach orbit and landed short of Antarctica in the ocean,” said John Brunschwyler, program director for the Taurus rocket at Orbital Sciences Corporation, the Virginia-based company that built it.

It was the first time NASA had used a Taurus rocket, but Brunschwyler said the system has had a nearly perfect record in 56 previous flights with no issues with the “fairing” design.

The Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) was part of a $280 million (£192 million) mission to map the global distribution of carbon dioxide and study how it changes over time.

NASA flight director Chuck Dovale said all indications were that all stages of the launch vehicle burned, so there was no threat to the environment from the toxic hydrazine fuel on board.

An investigation board would be formed to determine the “probable cause” of the failure, he said.

He called it “a huge disappointment” for the science community.

Michael Freilich, the director of NASA’s science division, said it was unclear how long it might take to field a replacement for the OCO, which took eight years to develop.

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

Photos show suspect sitting in abducted woman’s car

By Calvin Palmer

New photographs were released yesterday of a suspect in the kidnapping of a woman from a Texas parking lot.

Susan De Jesus, 37, was ordered into her 2008 Cadillac by a masked man on the night of February 2 as she left a clothing store in Pearland where she worked.  She has not been seen since.

The new photographs, enhanced by NASA, show a man driving her car buying food at a drive-through at 7629 W. Bellfort in Houston in the early morning hours after the kidnapping.  The photographs, taken by a security camera, did not show De Jesus.

Brazoria County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Chris Kincheloe said he hopes the photos, along with a reward that grew to $27,500 yesterday, will help solve the case. He is optimistic De Jesus is still alive.

He said investigators do not know if the De Jesus kidnapping is connected to the case of Sabrina Pina, 27, whose body was found in a northwest Harris County ditch on Sunday after she was reported missing the day before.

Police are looking for at least two suspects. A witness said a large, dark van or SUV followed De Jesus’ Cadillac out of the parking lot after the abduction.

The photographs taken at a Whataburger drive-through window show a grainy image of a black or Hispanic man wearing a red T-shirt with writing on the back.

“He’s still wearing gloves,” Kincheloe added.

The man awkwardly reached with his right hand to pay for his food, which leads police to believe he may have a distinctive tattoo or watch on his left hand or arm.

The FBI and Houston police used the OnStar system in De Jesus’ car to tell that it stopped at the Whataburger at 3:40 a.m. and the device later led police to find the car in an apartment parking lot at 6363 W. Airport later the same morning.

Another security camera captured an almost unrecognizable photo of a masked man leaning out of De Jesus’ car to use her card to make a withdrawal from an automated teller machine at 3636 Old Spanish Trail about an hour after she was kidnapped.

Investigators still have no motive for the abduction and the kidnappers have not contacted the victim’s family or officials with any ransom demands, Kincheloe said.

[Based on a report by the Houston Chronicle.]

India bans online sex video clips posted by jilted boyfriends

By Calvin Palmer

India has introduced a new law to prevent jilted boyfriends from posting recordings of sexual encounters with former girlfriends on the Internet.

Those convicted face three years in jail or a fine of up to 500,000 rupees ($10,000) — what an Indian graduate might earn in two and a half years.

Web sites featuring clips of young women performing sexual acts with their boyfriends have grown in popularity in India.  Many of the clips, recorded on mobile phones, are posted as an act of revenge when the relationship ends.

The new act comes into force amid a controversy of a case where a university student posted a clip of his former girlfriend performing a striptease for him after the girl refused to marry him.

The National Commission for Women is helping the victim to bring a case against her former boyfriend and his father.

“So far we have received three similar complaints but we are aware of the fact there are hundreds of cases which remain unreported,” said Manju Hembrom, a member of the commission. “We will try to educate girls particularly in colleges to desist from such activities.”

The girls featured in these clips can be stigmatized for the rest of their lives, with their career and marriage prospects blighted.

“Men in India do not want wives who have documented sexual pasts,” said Pavan Duggal, an expert in cyber-law. “Indians do a lot of video voyeurism because it is forging ahead in technology, but society’s values have not changed as fast. People do not know where the boundaries are.”

The new law and its tough punishment has been welcomed by women’s rights campaigners.

But according to Duggal, the new act is a “toothless tiger” that will automatically grant bail to those charged, giving them time to erase the incriminating evidence.

“We have had only three convictions for cyber crimes in India in 14 years,” he said. “We have no privacy laws for people or data. We need far more stringent measures.”

[Based on a report by The Daily Telegraph.]

Neuroscientist warns social networking Web sites harm children’s brains

By Calvin Palmer

Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and other social networking Web sites shorten the attention span of children, encourage instant gratification and make them more self-centered.

These claims are made by Baroness Greenfield, a member of Britain’s House of Lords and a neuroscientist at Oxford University.

She believes repeated exposure to these Web sites could effectively ‘rewire’ the brain along with computer games and fast-paced TV shows.

“My fear is that these technologies are infantilising the brain into the state of small children who are attracted by buzzing noises and bright lights, who have a small attention span and who live for the moment,” she said.

Her comments echoed those she made during a House of Lords debate earlier this month. Then she argued that exposure to computer games, instant messaging, chat rooms and social networking sites could leave a generation with poor attention spans.

“I often wonder whether real conversation in real time may eventually give way to these sanitised and easier screen dialogues, in much the same way as killing, skinning and butchering an animal to eat has been replaced by the convenience of packages of meat on the supermarket shelf,” she said.

Lady Greenfield told the House of Lords a teacher of 30 years had told her she had noticed a sharp decline in the ability of her pupils to understand others.

“It is hard to see how living this way on a daily basis will not result in brains, or rather minds, different from those of previous generations,” she said.

She also suggests that the current increase in autism may be linked to an increased prevalence among people spending time in screen relationships.

Psychologists have argued that digital technology is changing the way we think. Students no longer need to plan essays before starting to write, they can edit as they go along thanks to word processors. Satellite navigation systems have negated the need to decipher maps. Well that’s a bonus for most women then.

A study by the Broadcaster Audience Research Board found teenagers now spend seven-and-a-half hours a day in front of a screen. Oh horror upon horror.  I would have thought that was better than hanging round on street corners and stabbing someone.

Educational psychologist Jane Healy believes children should be kept away from computer games until they are seven. Most games only trigger the ‘flight or fight’ region of the brain, rather than the vital areas responsible for reasoning.

I take it Healy is not a great fan of computer games.  I am surprised she has not launched into a tirade against Grand Theft Auto, the usual target when computer games come up for discussion.

Sue Palmer, no relation by the way, author of Toxic Childhood, said: ‘We are seeing children’s brain development damaged because they don’t engage in the activity they have engaged in for millennia.

“I’m not against technology and computers. But before they start social networking, they need to learn to make real relationships with people.”

Basically, what we have here is the widespread adoption of a new technology by young people being blamed by the old guard for all the perceived ills of youth culture.

I can remember back in the early 1960s how scientists would trot out their theories that watching too much television would harm children’s eyesight and probably rewire their brains for good measure.

The same thing was probably said when books became universal.

“It’s going to kill conversation and the oral tradition of story-telling,” experts of the day probably warned.

“It’s going to change the way we think, rewire children’s brains into constructing grammatically correct sentences and spelling words correctly.  It’s the end of social interaction as we know it.”

The onset of moving pictures probably elicited similar protestations and dire warnings.

And yet look where we are, a world of fast communications, with music, video, photographs even family and friends just a key stroke away on a computer keyboard.

Would we want it any different? I think not.

And if children need to make relationships with real people before embarking upon a life of social networking, surely that is down to their parents.  And that could well be the nub of the problem, not the advances in technology.

With the pressures of modern living, parents have not got the time to spend with their children like they used to have in the past, those millenia my namesake referred to, and it is far easier for parents to leave children to their own devices – computers, cell phones, playstations and televisions – rather than spend time with them.

So forget all this nonsense peddled by neuroscientists, psychologists or whoever wishes to sell a few more books or garner the media spotlight. Technology is here to stay and as new technologies develop, there will always be those doom-mongers among us to point out the dire consequences that could unfold with their use.

[Based on a report by the Daily Mail.]