Archive for July 20, 2008

Boy, 4, Dies in Vehicle While Mom Got Pedicure

July 20, 2008 · Filed under life in Florida

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A 4-year-old-boy left in a hot SUV died Saturday as his mother was preparing for her wedding in West Palm Beach.

Police said the 29-year-old mother, Mirlande Jean-Baptiste, was having her nails done when she returned to her vehicle to find her son unresponsive.

Paramedics tried to revive the boy but he was pronounced dead at Palms West Hospital.

Rest of the story here.

As the grandmother of a 4-year-old boy, this breaks my heart to read. She had dropped off other children at a relative’s house to be watched while she got ready for the wedding, and did not know that the little boy was in the back, perhaps hiding, perhaps sleeping.

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Female Homicide Victim Found in Water Near 7-Mile Bridge

July 20, 2008 · Filed under life in Florida

CRAWL KEY — An autopsy performed Saturday on the body of a woman found floating in shallow water near the Seven Mile Bridge revealed a few clues, but her identity and cause of death remain a mystery.

Despite not knowing how the woman died, the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office has classified her death as a homicide due to the way she was found: her wrist, waist and neck were bound and she was weighted down with a heavy object.

Medical Examiner Michael Hunter determined the woman was white with reddish hair. She was 5 foot, 5 inches, about 150 pounds, in her 20s or 30s.

”There is no definitive cause of death,” said Becky Herrin, spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s Office.

Toxicology tests were conducted on the body, which had been in the warm Keys waters two to three days and was badly bloated and decomposed. But the results of those tests take weeks.

The body, clothed in a T-shirt and shorts, was found around 11 a.m. Thursday by two tourists on a boat for a fishing trip.

”It was relatively shallow water and very, very clear so you could see very well,” said Florida Fish & Wildlife Conservation Commission officer David Dipre, who was at the scene. “There was no chop. It was like glass. The fishermen saw something unusual and when they got close, they realized it was a body.”

The body had been weighted down by a ”heavy object,” which the sheriff’s office would not reveal due to the open investigation. But at low tide, the body got caught in grassy flats only about 2 feet deep, and about 300 yards on the Atlantic Ocean side of the Seven Mile Bridge.

It’s unknown whether the woman was dumped into the water from a boat or off a bridge.

At the autopsy, her fingerprints, DNA and dental impressions were taken in hopes of trying to identify the woman. Her fingerprints were sent the Florida Department of Law Enforcement for match attempts with a national data base. Her DNA was sent to the FBI.

Anyone with information about the identity of the woman or about her death can call the Sheriff’s Office Special Operations at 305-289-2410 or remain anonymous and call Crime Stoppers of the Florida Keys at 1-800-346-TIPS.

Source: Miami Herald

American tourist, traveler from overseas, or a Floridian? Hard to say in that area. I hate to think of her being discarded like that with her survivors wondering what became of her. If you know of any missing women matching that description, contact the number in the article.

Update:

MIAMI – Police say a Miami man murdered his wife, bound her with rope and telephone cords, tied to her gym weights and dumped her off the Seven Mile Bridge. Police say Francisco Jarquin, 30, killed Eliett Jarquin, 28, likely about July 13 in their Miami home. He is believed to have fled to Nicaragua.

Investigators said Eliett Jarquin was the mother of two boys. She had been planning to leave her husband because of his abusive behavior. She was reported missing to Miami police by an aunt in New York.

Source: Jacksonville.com

A very unhappy ending for this woman. I hope her husband gets the justice he deserves.

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Body Found in Sports Bar Ceiling

July 20, 2008 · Filed under life in Florida

Hollywood Fire and Rescue cut open an air-conditioning vent to find a dead body Saturday evening, after employees reported smelling a foul odor and seeing blood on the floor of the kitchen, police said.

Two days before, employees of the All-Star Sports Bar, 1510 South State Road 7, reported an attempted burglary when they came in and noticed broken ceiling tiles on the floor. Nothing was taken from the restaurant, police said.

The man’s body was not identified Saturday night and it remained stuck in the vent as crime scene investigators’ examined the scene.

”Fire and Rescue will probably have to cut more of the vent open to get the body out,” said Lt. Manny Marino, spokesman for the Hollywood Police Department. He said it is unclear how long the man was in the vent.

Source: Miami Herald

DAMN. Hope he wasn’t leaking into the food. 

UPDATE:  (Ewwwwww!)

HOLLYWOOD – For days, workers and patrons at a strip mall along State Road 7 went about their business as usual, while a dead man was struck in the ventilation shaft.The man, identified Monday as Benjamin Rodriguez, 46 and homeless, had been dead up to 72 hours before his body was discovered Saturday, according to officials and state records. He was found upside down in the shaft, with his arms at his sides, according to the Broward Medical Examiner’s Office.

His death left people wondering why anyone would take such a dangerous route, and if perhaps this is a reaction to a rough economy.

“That’s crazy. It sounds like a horror movie,” said Estefania Nevial, an accountant’s assistant in the strip mall just south of Mayo Street. “I couldn’t believe it. I guess that’s how desperate people are.”

Rodriguez, who had a criminal history and past drug abuse convictions, was most likely trying to burglarize the business, 441 All-Star Sports Bar at 1510 S. State Road 7, police said. Once Rodriguez, who was 5-foot-7 and about 180 pounds, got into the shaft, he became stuck in the vent above the kitchen stove hood.

The rest of the story is in Sun-Sentinel.com.

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Third Fatal Shooting in Jacksonville Today

July 20, 2008 · Filed under life in Florida

JACKSONVILLE, FL — The Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office brought in extra manpower Sunday afternoon following a third deadly shooting.

The latest happened before 3 p.m. near East 28th Street and Buckman, which is just off Talleyrand Avenue.

Police say the victim got shot in the chest at an abandoned home about a block away and ran to a corner store on East 28th for help.

The clerk called 911. The victim died at Shands. He hasn’t been identified.

Authorities have several streets in the area blocked off.

No word on any suspects or motive.

Earlier today, someone shot and killed a man riding a bicycle in front of the Hollybrook Apartment complex [see map].

The violence on Sunday began around 6:15 a.m. when police responded to a report of gunfire in an area off Kings Road [see map].

Police found 39-year-old Patrick Stafford shot to death in a yard.

If you have any information on any of these incidents, call our partner First Coast Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS.

You’ll remain anonymous and could receive a cash reward of up to $1,000 if your information leads to an arrest.

Source: First Coast News

Additional information on News4Jax.com.

This huge increase in our murder rate involves one segment of the population that are busily killing their own.

Update from First Coast News:

JACKSONVILLE, FL — For 58 years the Williams Grocery Store has been a staple in the Talleyrand neighborhood. Charlene Austin’s family has owned it every since she can remember. She recalls a different time.

“When my mother grew up out here, everybody looked out for everybody. Everybody took care of everybody,” says Austin. Yards of crime scene tape now show a changing time says Austin. One block away investigators say a man was shot at an abandoned house. He later walked to the corner store for help. Police say he was taken to Shands were he was later pronounced dead.

This marks the third homicide before 3 p.m. on Sunday. The extra activity has police calling in an extra team of detectives. But this store owner says the answer isn’t just more police.

“What are the cops going to do? This problem starts at home. They can put all the police officers out here they want but this starts at home. Parents need to take better control of their children,” says Austin.

Another long time neighbor Mrs. Jesse B. Ward agrees.

“Children back then had more manners and respect than they have now. See they don’t have respect for themselves or anybody else,” says Ward as she leaves church.

Police continue to look for suspects and suspects in this latest crime. As they do, Mrs. Austin says the neighborhood needs to look for solutions.

“Everybody’s saying it’s a poor area, it’s an inner city urban area. Oh well!”, says Austin. “Those are circumstances, but that doesn’t give you the right to kill people,” says Austin.

Right now police do not have any suspects or motive regarding this case. The victim’s name and age have not yet been released.

If you have any information on this crime call Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS. You will remain anonymous.

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Why are Politicians Determined to Ruin the Western Economies?

July 20, 2008 · Filed under Uncategorized

I keep hearing the same old nonsensical claptrap from every Democratic representative that uses the same old excuse as to why the idiotic do-nothing congressional “leadership” wants to block using our own resources instead of sending so much of our money overseas to *very* unfriendly regimes, to wit: It will take 10 years, 12 years, 15 years, yada yada for the new energy to come online IF the drilling is approved, so why even approve it?

The congressional ban on offshore drilling expires September 30, so that becomes a key date. A new report from Wall Street research house Sanford C. Bernstein says that California actually could start producing new oil within one year if the moratorium were lifted. The California oil is under shallow water and already has been explored. Drilling platforms have been in place since before the moratorium. They’re talking about 10 billion barrels worth off the coast of California.

There’s also a “gang of 10” in the Senate, five Republicans and five Democrats, that is trying to work a compromise deal on lifting the moratorium. So it’s possible a lot of action on this front could occur much sooner than people seem to think.

So I repeat: Drill, drill, drill. Deregulate, decontrol, and unleash the American energy industry. Those hated traders will then keep selling oil as the laws of supply and demand and free markets keep working.

Read the rest here.

What about coal? We have ample amounts of coal. Yet power plants are routinely denied permits to build new coal-fired generating systems in America. Such is not the case overseas:

Der Spiegel, the German newsmagazine, explained earlier this month why the Persian Gulf states are switching to coal. “[They] may be sitting atop massive oil reserves,” the magazine said. “But with prices for crude skyrocketing, it makes more sense to sell it than to use it. Instead, the Gulf states are turning to coal for their own energy needs – to the detriment of the climate.” And these states are not alone. “Demand for coal plants,” the magazine says, “is growing rapidly across the globe.”

Abu Dhabi (largest of the seven UAE emirates) has announced that it will switch to coal-fired power plants. Dubai (the second largest) is already building four of them – with a combined output of 4,000 megawatts – as a first-phase investment in coal. Apart from the United Arab Emirates, Oman (widely regarded as “the next Dubai”) has signed a contract with South Korea for the construction of several coal-fired plants. Beyond the Gulf, Egypt proposes to build its first coal-fired plant on the shores of the Red Sea. Russia has announced plans to build more than 30 coal-fired plants by 2011.

As almost everyone now knows, China connects a new coal-fired plant to its electrical grid every 10 days – and intends to keep doing so for several years. Less known is China’s decision to construct a massive coal-fired plant in Inner Mongolia that will convert the region’s vast coal reserves into oil. With 10,000 people now engaged in the construction, the plant will be completed by the end of the year. The coal-to-liquid process used by this plant will consume twice as much coal and produce twice the CO{-2} emissions as the simple burning of coal in a conventional power plant.

The Kyoto Protocol, incidentally, classifies the Gulf states as developing countries – meaning that they are under no obligation, oil revenues notwithstanding, to reduce CO{-2} emissions. They have opted for coal for a single compelling reason: cost. They can produce a megawatt-hour of electricity using Australian coal, Der Spiegel calculates, for $17.49 (U.S.). Using natural gas, the cost rises to $41.34. Using oil, the cost rises further to $79.50. At the same time, they can sell their oil on the global market for something approaching (or occasionally exceeding) $140 a barrel.

One of the ironic differences between Germany and the Gulf states, Der Spiegel observes, is the absence of solar energy investment “in the sun-baked Gulf states.” Germany produced 1,300 megawatts from solar installations in 2007; the Gulf states combined produced 36 megawatts. As impressive as its commitment to solar power appears, though, Germany has its work cut out. It has promised to generate most of its electricity by renewable energies (largely wind and solar) by 2020 – when it will phase out its nuclear power. Germany has thus opted for the world’s most expensive electrical power even as other countries simultaneously opt for the cheapest.

The end of the cold war and the opening of the Soviet archives showed that many people in positions of power in the government were actually Soviet agents, and the environmental movement was also infiltrated and encouraged by Soviet agents.

Kalugin infiltrated the United States as a journalist, attending Columbia University in New York City as a Fulbright Scholar in 1958. From 1965-70, he served as deputy resident and acting chief of the residency at the Soviet Embassy in Washington, D.C., quickly becoming the youngest general in the history of the KGB. Eventually, he became the head of worldwide foreign counterintelligence, serving at the center of some of the most important espionage cases, including the Walker spy ring.

Finding that the KGB’s internal functions had little to do with the security of the state and everything to do with keeping corrupt Communist Party officials in power, Kalugin retired from the KGB in 1990 and became a public critic of the communist system. He currently teaches at the Centre for Counterintelligence and Security Studies.

Kalugin said one of his most effective spying techniques was pitting American citizens against their own government.

“We appealed to pacifists and told them, ‘You cannot have peace unless you stop the internal situation of the U.S.,’” he said. “We got environmentalists and told them, ‘Capitalists spend any amount of money even if it does destroy your precious nature.’ Well, at the time, the Soviet Union was the most polluted country in the world,” he joked.

Kalugin listed several astonishing facts from a classified KGB report, proving just how much the organization is committed to counterintelligence. He said that in 1981 the KGB reported that they had funded or supported 70 books, 66 feature and documentary films, more than 100 television stations, 4,865 articles in magazines or newspapers, 300 conferences or exhibitions and 170,000 lectures around the world.

“Friendship, companionship—that is fine,” Kalugin said, “but national interests remain. Counterintelligence will never cease to exist. The U.S. remains priority number one.”

Source:

I wonder who the paymasters are now.

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