They're connected. We can count on Texas, Utah, Colorado and Arizona all behaving in the same way we see outlined here;The Columbus Dispatch - "Helen Jones-Kelley, director of the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services, disclosed today that computer inquiries on Samuel Joseph Wurzelbacher were not restricted to a child-support system.
The agency also checked Wurzelbacher in its computer systems to determine whether he was receiving welfare assistance or owed unemployment compensation taxes, she wrote.
Jones-Kelley made the revelations in a letter to Ohio Senate President Bill M. Harris, R-Ashland, who demanded answers on why state officials checked out Wurzelbacher.
Harris called the multiple records checks 'questionable' and said he awaits more answers. 'It's kind of like Big Brother is looking in your pocket,' he said.
If state employees run checks on every person listed in newspaper stories as buying a business, 'it must take a lot of people a lot of time to run these checks,' he said. 'Where do you draw the line?'
The checks were run after the news media reported that Wurzelbacher was considering buying a plumbing business with more than $250,000 in annual income, Jones-Kelley wrote.
'Given our understanding that Mr. (Joe) Wurzelbacher had publicly indicated that he had the means to purchase a substantial business enterprise, ODJFS, consistent with past departmental practice, checked confidential databases ,' she wrote."
The article also indicates that checks on Joe were more extensive than originally discovered or admitted. To date I don't know of anyone who has asked what was going on with the FLDS through government held private records, but we know they engage in this sort of activity. The sort of monstrous all seeing eye of Sauron activity portrayed above shouldn't be shocking to us, it's just what people in government do. Government is constantly overpopulated with employees with nothing much to do. They use their free time to pursue political agendas both in and outside of their agencies and outside the government. Where did the presumption of INNOCENCE go? Shouldn't government RESTRICT itself (oxymoron) to checking up on someone WHEN then apply to do something, not BEFORE? And why does Joe have to "Apply" to be a plumber?
Do you SERIOUSLY want government run HEALTH CARE? All of your most intimate and private data, pawed through by people wondering if you should be running for office or considering this political position or that political position or speaking out on this subject or that? We know what HAPPENS when those bureacrats think we exhibit hypocrisy in this area, they leak it to their cronies and it becomes public. Any WONDER why the FLDS wanted to live "off the grid?" Do you see what happens when the government can't get it's camera in you bathroom? They INVADE. Sauron must see EVERYTHING.
Jones-Kelley justifies her preemptive strike;
"Not surprisingly, when a person behind in child support payments or receiving public assistance is receiving significant media attention which suggests that the person appears to have available financial resources, the Department risks justifiable criticism if it fails to take note and respond..."
This is going to LOOK for a crime, before evidence of a crime has been found. The "Department" being seen as jealous of it's public image and needing to protect that image as all knowing, all powerful and preventing crime.
"Republican legislators have challenged Jones-Kelley's reason for checking on Wurzelbacher as 'frightening' and flimsy.
Jones-Kelly also has denied any connections between the computer checks on Wurzelbacher and her support for Obama. She donated the maximum $2,500 this year to the Obama campaign.
Ohio Inspector General Thomas P. Charles is investigating whether the child-support check on Wurzelbacher was legal."
Texas is still "investigating" Rozita Swinton. They move with cat like quickness on Joe though, and did so in the case of the FLDS. If they don't like the result of the investigation, they move with glacial speed.
Out of 439 actual children in custody after the FLDS raid, only a handful remain.
"Texas Child Protective Services officials confirmed on Wednesday that 402 children have now been dropped from court oversight, bringing the total number of people nonsuited in the case to 428. The Deseret News' ongoing tally includes 26 'disputed minors,' FLDS women who CPS originally believed were minors but were nonsuited when the agency confirmed they were adults.
That leaves only 37 children left with pending lawsuits, agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins said in an e-mail."
37 out of 439. That's 8%. That's one out of 12. I think at this point it would be a good strategy for FLDS parents to name each and every one of the children still under suit. Then the question should be asked of Texas 39 times. Was THIS one of the children you saw pregnant on the ranch that day? Next question asked 39 times: Was this one of the girls who HAD been pregnant? Next question: Was this one of the "Children you saw with children?" If any of the children still left are boys, then of course, the question doesn't have to be asked as many times.
The Salt Lake Tribune - "Mohave Superior Court Judge Steven F. Conn gave Texas Ranger Brooks Long, Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran and Deputy Sheriff John Connor 45 days to participate in personal interviews with Jeffs' defense team or face depositions."
The immovable object, moves;
"Mohave County Superior Court Judge Steven Conn...ordered Schleicher County Sheriff David Doran, his deputy John Connor and Texas Ranger Brooks Long to submit to interviews with Jeffs' defense team — or face a deposition.
Contacted by the Deseret News (today), Doran was unsure if he would submit to an interview.
'Until I receive something officially, I can't answer that,' he said. 'We're going to work with our attorney general's office and take advice from them'."
Oh, I like seeing the shoe on the other foot. I'd also like to see Doran booted from office so that he can't play the game as if he has some sort of Nixonian Executive privelege.
"During (today's) hearing, Jeffs' attorney, Michael Piccarreta, said he warned the Mohave County Attorney and the attorney general's special prosecutor not to go or send any Arizona officers to Texas. They ignored his advice.
Piccarreta said the defense has a right to interview the three Texas officers because they had contact with Arizona law enforcement and investigators."
The DEFENDANT HAS RIGHTS. He is not an animal. He is an American Citizen. HE HAS RIGHTS. Texas and Arizona both have been acting as if Warren Jeffs does not have rights.
"Doran said he did not know why his office would need to be interviewed as part of Jeffs' criminal case in Arizona.
'I have no idea because the state of Texas, I don't believe, has anything to do with their case,' he said."
I think the Sheriff, frankly, is out of his depth. He may be able to bully out of the limelight in a small out of the way town, but he's in it now. I don't think he has any experience with not being able to control the agenda.
"The judge did not rule on the defense's motion to suppress evidence from the Texas raid and expressed reservations about not ruling on that motion.
'I would rather rule sooner than later on the legality of the search,' the judge said."
It sounds as if the Judge simply doesn't believe the prosecution, and is using the defense to get a glimpse into what is going on in Texas, between Arizona law enforcement and law enforcement in Texas.
When he gets that look, he'll rule. It would be easier if he ruled against the evidence for the FLDS, but either way, the FLDS will get traction out of the ruling.
"415 people have been 'nonsuited' in the ongoing custody battle. That leaves approximately 50 children still involved in pending legal cases. The Deseret News' tally includes the 26 so-called 'disputed minors,' FLDS women that Child Protective Services initially said were minors but later nonsuited when the agency determined they were adults."
The Deseret News - "(Warren Jeffs') criminal defense attorneys also say they don't buy Arizona prosecutors' assertions that they won't use evidence seized in the April raid on the FLDS Church's YFZ Ranch in Texas.'The court is concerned that perhaps the state for now will want to reserve its options, not commit itself one way or the other as to whether it intends to use any of the Texas evidence and only make that decision at some time in the future,' Mohave County Superior Court Judge Stephen Conn wrote in an Oct. 23 order released Monday.
'The problem with the latter possibility is that the court and the defendant have the right to know now rather than later whether the state intends to use the Texas evidence at trial'."
Thanks for that, the defendant has rights. It cannot be that at the last possible moment Arizona suddenly says "I think we'll use that evidence now" placing an unreasonable burden on Warren Jeffs' defense and their strategies. What the court doesn't touch on is the fact that both Arizona and Texas are mining the evidence that could very well be thrown out, to find other paths to prosecution that appear legitimate. Paths they would have had no knowledge of, except that they looked at evidence illegally seized. This is why I brought up Veda Keate.
" 'Given the extraordinary extent of these coordinated prosection (sic) efforts, the court may understand the defendant's reluctance to accept the state's assurance that those efforts, designed specifically to obtain evidence against him and others, will have no bearing on the current criminal proceedings,' (Richard) Wright and (Michael) Piccarreta wrote.
The judge said that unless a deal is struck between prosecutors and Jeffs' defense team, he may have to rule on the legality of the search in Texas.
'How the latter determination would be made is difficult to fathom,' Conn wrote."
The judge clearly doesn't want to "go there" but the prosecution is forcing his hand and he's warning them. What he's warning them is that he anticipates a strong possibility of ruling against the use of such evidence. Then we have the thorny problem of looking at what Arizona has collected and used and seeing if they have also used that evidence to find other supposedly "untainted" evidence. That would be decidedly "no fair" and the prosecution's case would start to fall apart over the issue of not being able to unscramble their evidence omelet.
It was disturbing to watch FLDS members sign "family service plans" that would later be used against them, and to prolong CPS involvement in their lives. Those families may ultimately escape the worst consequences of those actions, but Warren IMHO opinion should NOT make a deal with the prosecution as FLDS families and their attorneys repeatedly have. He'll end up in jail for the rest of his life. It would appear the imprisonment already threatens his sanity.
"Jeffs' lawyers have complained of difficulty in getting interviews with Texas authorities. They also expressed frustration that a woman connected with one of the cases refused to meet with them. In another filing in one of the Jeffs cases, the attorneys did file notice that they had scheduled an interview next month with ex-FLDS member and anti-polygamy activist Flora Jessop."
My guess is that the judge will permit all interviews eventually.
If the judge ends up ruling on the evidence he starts a cascade effect. Either he rules against it and that becomes a precedent for use in Texas or he rules against it and sets up an appeal. He really doesn't want to go there. That's why he wants a "deal." WARREN, DON'T MAKE THAT DEAL.
The Colorado Springs Gazette - "Defense attorneys not connected to (the first-degree murder case of Earl 'Freddy' Mayes) said the technique is an effective way of letting jurors know what the defendant was going through at the time of the alleged crime without him having to take the stand. Using a mental condition defense might also convince jurors to convict of a lesser offense such as second-degree murder, which is homicide without premeditation, or manslaughter.
'It just gives the defense more room,' said David Foley, a longtime Colorado Springs defense attorney who recently used the mental condition defense for Rozita Swinton, accused of misdemeanor false reporting and making the call that triggered Texas authorities to raid a polygamist compound in April. A decision in the case is pending."
My Way News (AP) - Philadelphia - "(U.S. District Judge R. Barclay) Surrick ruled that (Philip J.) Berg lacked standing to bring the case, saying any harm from an allegedly ineligible candidate was 'too vague and its effects too attenuated to confer standing on any and all voters.' "
"I cannot say a word about it," Childress said when reached at his Austin home Friday. "There is nothing I can say that wouldn't be out of line."
"Banks, who sent the letter Sept. 5 and left the agency early this month, could not be reached for comment Friday."
"The attorneys join a growing list of officials associated with the April raid who have since left their jobs. Cary Cockerell, commissioner of the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services - of which CPS is a part - retired Aug. 31 for personal reasons, while Texas Ranger Lt. Barry Caver, who commanded the April raid, left law enforcement in June to pursue a better-paying oil-industry job.
None of the officials has cited the FLDS case as a reason for leaving. In Cockerell's case, CPS officials said specifically the case was not a factor in his decision.
Childress, a former University of Texas law professor who worked for CPS in the late 1990s, was brought back to help coordinate the massive case, which involved 439 children and 26 adults initially believed to be children."
Folks, this is war. This is an agency lurching out of control without direction. If you have any doubts, read on.
"The loss of essentially the two lead attorneys in the case likely will bring another CPS lawyer to the fore - perhaps Jeff Schmidt, who has represented CPS during some hearings.
'There is a group of attorneys out there' at CPS' San Angelo offices, said agency spokesman Patrick Crimmins. 'He (Childress) was just acting as lead attorney. We're just trying to figure out their roles and responsibilities.' "
CPS doesn't know WHO is going to take over. By the way, who would want the job? It's a greased rail to unemployment and disgrace. This wasn't planned IMHO. Someone threatened Childress without knowing how he'd respond and he quit or some issue came to light that someone had to take the blame for and Childress got the nod. Something happened that scattered the pieces on the chess board and they're in full scramble mode.
Once again, a rule of politics is that you don't make your constituency (your co workers in a bureaucracy) LOOK bad. This LOOKS bad, so it IS BAD. You don't DO it unless something profound happens because it looks that way and everyone will think it is for some earth shattering reason. Planned resignations take place with the outgoing head giving plenty of time and citing "good reasons" and praising their peers. Tom Brady doesn't quit the Patriots during the introduction of the starting line up in the Super Bowl. It's DESTRUCTIVE. It's not what a career "team player" does. Bureaucrats are CONSUMATE team players. They don't survive unless they are.
"It is with great regret that I hereby tender my resignation as staff attorney for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services, effective Nov. 1, 2008, or at whatever earlier date may be most convenient and least disruptive to the operations of the agency," Charles Childress wrote in a resignation letter obtained by the Deseret News.
"I anticipate that we will have resolved all but a handful of pending cases through cooperative agreements with the parents, resulting in dismissal of the department's suits by early November," he wrote.
This hints broadly at the subject matter of the dispute. The writing is on the wall to reduce the number of FLDS child custody cases to perhaps less than five. The language indicates that the cases are going to be plural in nature, but the number will be very small.
"The remaining cases may end up going to trial next year. Three cases involving children either placed back in foster care or returned to their parents under family service plans will be up for dismissal in February 2009."
This aludes to the number of cases. It seems it will be three.
"The dismissal date for all other cases is April 13, 2009, although there is an argument that could be made against applying this deadline," Childress wrote.
Someone advocated that the cases be continued. Judging from the speed of the dismissals and the revelation of the "handful" estimate by Mr. Childress, it would seem Mr. Childress is likely to have fallen on the side of just letting those cases go.
I am speculating here but it is sound speculation for someone as far on the outside as I am. If this is truly the case, I again repeat that Charles Childress may turn out to be, in the final analysis, a great hero for the FLDS, having stood up to Texas who seems intent on prosecuting a much larger number of cases.
You can imagine a meeting that goes like this:
"You're dismissing nearly ALL the cases Charles, WHAT'S UP?!?!"
"You have maybe three cases."
"That's unacceptable!"
"You have maybe three cases, this is what you hired me to do."
"You find MORE!"
"I can't."
(Phone Rings, Governor Perry is calling on his cell phone)
"Pack your kit and git Chuck."
All should pay attention to this politicized prosecution. It is the very essense of what persecution is all about. The FLDS have become a political football. The fortunes of Texas depend on finding more than just a couple of Child Abuse cases than in the end may cost more than $20,000,000.00 apiece. For this reason it no longer matters what is right or what is wrong to the elected officials like Governor Perry. They need a lot of cape mounts on their den wall to justify what was done. Sorry FLDS, nothing personal. It's just politics. I hope you understand. Take one for the team willya?
KRDO - "A court filing says Rozita Swinton will enter (an inpatient) program next month, but no details have been released on the location or nature of the treatment."
If you needed confirmation of the internal fight going on at CPS, look no further than this story;
The Deseret News - "Texas Child Protective Services officials also are not commenting on why (Charles) Childress is leaving, but said they are in the process of reorganizing their legal team based in San Angelo, Texas, right now.
Childress is not the only lawyer who worked the FLDS child custody case to resign recently. Gary Banks, who was the lead counsel when the 439 children were taken into state custody immediately following the raid, resigned Oct. 3 to take a position with a Texas law firm."
The powerful and connected do not stay unemployed. They are offered safety nets even before they leave one job, even in disgrace. Politics is like that. Who needs a "Golden Parachute" when what you will be offered instead is lifetime security? But I digress. That is a discussion for both the Economic Pharisee and the Political Pharisee (both me, of course).
The key here is that whoever is ultimately pulling the strings in the whole CPS/FLDS/YFZ fiasco, it has been determined from the top that the handling of the custody cases is a disaster. Since this is politics, the disaster part is determined by how it makes those at the top look. Charles Childress had NOTHING to do with the raid taking place, but still falls on the sword. Preceding him was Gary Banks, who WAS lead counsel at the time of the raid.
Clearly the RESULT is important to those at the top. Gary is made responsible, but taken care of. It will be interesting to see how things go for Charles Childress. There are some days when you wish illegal wiretapping wasn't. I'd love to be able to speak to the mouse in the corner in those conference rooms.
My my, but isn't this a bit of an earthquake;
The Houston Chronicle - "The lead attorney at the center of the largest child removal case in U.S. history has turned in his resignation and neither he nor Texas Child Protective Services are saying why.
Charles Childress was hired by CPS on July 21 to take over the behemoth case involving 439 children taken and eventually returned to the West Texas ranch belonging to the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a polygamist sect."
Of course only one in six children taken in the raid are still the subject of CPS suits, the vast majority have been nonsuited. The only reason to believe that such nonsuits will stop, is the fact that the number of FLDS children taken in the raid is finite.
After three months the attorney hired specifically to handle FLDS cases has abruptly resigned. Such resignations don't occur unless something major has happened behind the scenes. I've pointed out before that when high profile figures in a department or case resign, it's done with the awareness of how it will look to the world at large.
Clearly the damage of a Childress resignation was outweighed by the damage that Childress would stay, so he resigned. Since the appearance of a Childress resignation is a sign of the total turmoil in Texas and their "persecution" of the FLDS, the resignation signals extreme internal distress at CPS.
What else could possibly be the meaning of a three month employee resigning in the biggest child custody case in US History? By concluding there is no one to pursue, Childress has said there was no case. At all.
Hat tip to Brooke Adams.
There are informative articles in both the Salt Lake Tribune and the Deseret News today on last nights debate at University of Utah's College of Law. It's summed up by this exchange. I could write several blog posts, and in fact may do so, on the exchange. I'll start with this.
"The debate got lively when (Marci) Hamilton accused the attorney general's office of not trying hard enough to find evidence to prosecute polygamy.
'I know they don't like to hear it, but someone has to say that because it's a fact,' she said.
'I'm astounded at the naivete in that statement,' (Kirk) Torgensen replied. 'I live this. I don't write about it from some office back east. I live it. I've got to sit in cases where I have got to ask, "Where is the evidence so I can prove it in court?" Now you can say this is easy ... '
'I didn't say it was easy, I just said you weren't trying hard enough.'
When Torgensen offered to deputize her to prosecute cases, some in the audience shouted 'No! No! No!' while others shouted 'Yes! Yes!' The chief deputy did warn polygamous communities that the attorney general's office would prosecute underage marriage cases."
The offer to deputize Marci is the one of the core points. "You try it Marci, it's not that easy." Utah cannot house all the inmates they would produce in a full on prosecution of polygamy.
Prosecuting polygamy establishes polygamy as the crime. Establishing polygamy as the crime sets up test cases along the lines of a class action to present to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court these cases may ultimately come before may be an activist and liberal one and their actions will be based on the concept that marriage is defined by society. Such a court will not be opposed to homosexual "marriage" and is not likely to be able to wiggle around the implications that has for polygamy. In short, as stated before, Marci would set up the case that would be the "Roe vs Wade" of polygamy legalization. Utah, for it's part is trying to bargain with polygamists and Utah at large to make polygamy a misdemeanor which would keep underage marriages a prosecutable offense but make adult consensual polygamy a traffic ticket. As an aside, that's a devils bargain I don't think we should make.
Marci says polygamy should be aggressively prosecuted;
" 'It is easy to figure out who is engaging in polygamy,' Hamilton said. "You just have to figure out who is going into which house. . . . If you know that even a small percentage of individuals in these circumstances are prone to abuse children, why wouldn't you enforce the criminal law?' "
"Torgensen, who said he was expressing his own opinions and not necessarily those of the Attorney General's Office, said Hamilton did not understand the difficulties in getting evidence of crimes within polygamous communities and her sweeping assumptions would never uphold in court.
'People cohabitate with each other in many instances, in many circumstances, all the time,' he said. 'Who goes into what house doesn't prove anything. The difference here is that you make it sound very easy and in my experience that is not true.' "
Marci Hamilton is an activist who wishes to bend law and have it selectively applied in other cases, to advance HER agenda;
"Heidi Mattingly, a member of the Davis County Cooperative Society, was critical of Hamilton.
'I think she doesn't know her law,' she said."
Heidi, don't be so kind. She knows the law, Marci is an activist, the law is only important when it is on her side. Now I'd like to see a debate with a clear supporter of polygamy on the panel.
The Deseret News - "Mohave County prosecutors have repeatedly said they do not plan on using any evidence seized from Texas in Jeffs' upcoming trials in Arizona."
"In court papers filed Monday in Arizona, (Warren) Jeffs' defense attorneys are asking a judge to order the depositions of Texas law enforcement officials. Richard Wright and Michael Piccarreta say they have made repeated efforts to schedule interviews, but Texas authorities have not cooperated with them.
'This failure to grant personal interviews is slowing the process of analysis as to all of the issues raised in the motion to suppress,' the attorneys wrote."
If there is nothing harmful to the cases that Texas seeks to prosecute against the FLDS, then why the foot dragging? Texas on the one hand seems to think there IS something to hide. Arizona on the other wants to be as far away from Texas evidence as they can. But tehre's nothing wrong with the collection of evidence at YFZ. Nope. Nothing.
"The Texas Department of Public Safety referred questions to the state's attorney general's office, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment."
No comment.
The Salt Lake Tribune - "Should the state prosecute polygamous parents and remove their children from their homes?
That question will be vetted by Marci A. Hamilton and Kirk Torgensen on Wednesday during the 25th annual Jefferson B. Fordham debate at the University of Utah College of Law. The debate is at 6 p.m. in the Sutherland Moot Courtroom.
Hamilton is a law professor at the Cardozo School of Law in New York City, and author of 'God vs. Gavel' and 'Justice Denied.' She says failure of states to prosecute polygamists has created 'dangerous cults like the FLDS,' a failure she attributes to authorities being 'timid in the face of specious claims of religious liberty.'
Torgensen is chief deputy in the Utah Attorney General's Office and assisted in prosecutions of two polygamists: Rodney Holm and Warren S. Jeffs, both of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff has said that prosecuting all polygamists is impractical given limited law enforcement and public resources; he has instead advocated focusing on crimes within polygamous communities."
FLDS members at YFZ began registering to vote in the aftermath of the raid.
The San Angelo Standard-Times - " 'We've monitored that very closely,' (Sheriff David) Doran said. 'There has been an increase in registration out there. That's a concern. That is something that could change the status quo of Schleicher County and it's something the residents here don't want.'Doran, the only Schleicher County official with an opponent in the Nov. 4 election, said as many as 120 ranch residents have registered to vote in the county."
We? Have you got a mouse in your pocket? A change in the status quo is "something the residends there don't want?" Hello? David! "They" are residents of Schleicher County. If "they" register to vote, it is something that those "residents" want. It is THEIR RIGHT. If they vote you out, it's something the "residents" want. As for a change in the status quo, I think YOU did that.
The Deseret News - "Ms. (name redacted) has refused the defendant's request to be interviewed," Jeffs' attorneys Richard Wright and Michael Piccarreta wrote in court papers. "However, Ms. (name redacted) has no right to refuse an interview even though she is the complaining witness against the defendant in a separate criminal case."
"Indeed, Ms. (name redacted) lived in the same household with Ms. (name redacted) during relevant time periods and was a close friend. She possesses potentially helpful information based on her law enforcement report. Accordingly, she has been listed as a potential defense witness," Wright and Piccarreta wrote.
This stunning revelation has just been made!
"A total of 393 people have now been 'nonsuited' in a San Angelo, Texas, court. The Deseret News' tally includes 26 so-called 'disputed minors,' FLDS women CPS initially believed were underage but later nonsuited when they were determined to be adults.
'There could be more nonsuits,' (Patrick) Crimmins said Thursday."
I figure no more than 72.
The Deseret News - "Six months after the raid, the Texas Attorney General's Office is declining to comment much on the status of its ongoing investigation.
'No state charges are pending re: Swinton,' spokesman Jerry Strickland said in an e-mail to the Deseret News. 'We cannot and will not comment on details of our investigation.' "
The Deseret News - "On Wednesday, Texas Child Protective Services filed to nonsuit 29 children from court oversight. On Tuesday, the agency dropped 20 more. That brings the total number of people dropped from the case to 364."
"Approximately 63 children, ages 10 and up, have been asked to attend the (sexual abuse, underage marriage and the law) sessions provided by therapists in the San Angelo area. They run a total of four hours, either in one-hour or two-hour blocks. If providers have knowledge of sex abuse, it can be included as long as it is age appropriate and does not include sex education, (Patrick) Crimmins wrote."
The Salt Lake Tribune - "To date, the state has ended cases of 338 children from the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. That leaves cases involving 101 children still pending. Among them: A 14-year-old girl who was returned to foster care in August after her mother failed to give a Texas judge assurances she would keep the girl safe."
FoxNews - "Details of the second affair came hours after Democratic U.S. Rep. Tim Mahoney held a news conference to address a story, first reported by ABC News, that he had been involved with the former aide. Mahoney acknowledged he had caused 'embarrassment and heartache' to his family but denied doing anything illegal."
"No marriage is perfect," Mahoney said, "but our private life is our private life."
"Mahoney himself did not directly address the first purported tryst during a news conference earlier in the day, but instead issued a statement taking 'full responsibility for my actions and the pain I have caused my wife Terry and my daughter Bailey.' "
Surprise, Surprise. The State has been withholding? Say it isn't so;
The Deseret News - "(Allen) Steed is seeking any notes, e-mails, correspondence, records, documents or any other evidence related to his case and that of Jeffs, his attorney noted.
'We're entitled to all of it,' (Jim) Bradshaw said. He added he has already received documents from Washington County Attorney Brock Belnap, but he believes there was much more to the case files.
'I suspect there is a large volume of information exchanged between the Utah attorney general, Washington County attorney, Roger Hoole and others that we are entitled to,' Bradshaw said.
For his part, (Brock) Belnap insisted he withheld only documents he considered privileged because they were 'work projects' that included opinions, legal analyses and other commentary from the attorneys in his office."
The weakness of the state's case was also highlighted.
"Bradshaw received the timeline of events in Steed's case, noting that Wall left the marriage in 2004 and did not raise the allegation of rape until 2006 after meeting with attorneys.
'Mr. Steed is charged in Sept. 2007 for events that allegedly occurred in 2001. It is extremely critical to know what this alleged victim originally said, who she said it to, what the initial reports said and if there was any physical evidence,' Bradshaw said.
Steed is also seeking information about the 'financial rewards' Wall received from the state's victim reparation fund, Diversity Foundation, a book publisher and any other sources.
'Her account of what occurred is not correct,' said Bradshaw. 'Or at best it is greatly exaggerated to obtain financial rewards. Money changes everything.'
Wall's attorney, Roger Hoole, said his client was not trying to hide anything."
Of course not.
The Green Monster didn't have anything whatsoever to do with Elissa Wall's sudden discovery that she was raped. She didn't know she was raped until someone told her she was. Two years after she left Allen, five years after the fact.
"A scheduled Oct. 22 preliminary hearing could be used now to examine discovery issues, the judge said."
Ya Think?
Fox Business - NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - "The Federal Reserve Board said Sunday it has approved the application by Wells Fargo & Co. to acquire Wachovia Corp. . The deal was expected to close by the end of the year."
Rule #2: GOVERNMENT IS THE WORST POSSIBLE SOLUTION FOR ANY PROBLEM.
Corollary: GOVERNMENT SHOULD ONLY BE USED WHEN IT IS THE ONLY SOLUTION.
The International Herald Tribune - "Some ordinary Icelanders face a similar problem to the one that brought down the banks. In recent months, many mortgages were taken out in foreign currencies - marketed by the banks as a way to benefit from lower interest rates abroad, as rates in Iceland rose into the double digits.
Now, with the Icelandic krona plunging, homeowners suddenly have to pay back far more expensive euro or dollar values of their mortgages. At the same time, house prices are falling."
Banks lent into a crumbling "Krona," which is the denomination of Iceland's currency. If you earn money in Iceland and get paid in "Kronas," and it turns into toilet paper, you can't even HOPE to pay back your mortgage. You aren't TIGHT, you can't dig into your savings to bail yourself out, you're dead in the water.
The Sun (UK) - "(Alistair) Darling teamed up with American and European finance chiefs yesterday to try to stave off a global slump."
"An administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because no decision has been made, said the $700 billion rescue package passed by Congress last week allows the Treasury Department to inject fresh capital into financial institutions and get ownership shares in return."
"We will not hide it from my lord, how that our money is spent; my lord also hath our herds of cattle; there is not ought left in the sight of my lord, but our bodies, and our lands: wherefore shall we die before thine eyes, both we and our land? buy us and our land for bread, and we and our land will be servants unto Pharaoh: and give us seed, that we may live, and not die, that the land be not desolate. And Joseph bought all the land of Egypt for Pharaoh; for the Egyptians sold every man his field, because the famine prevailed over them: so the land became Pharaoh's. And as for the people, he removed them to cities from one end of the borders of Egypt even to the other end thereof. "
The Deseret News - "Sarah has never been found. Barlow was never arrested. The Texas Attorney General's Office told the Deseret News the case remains under investigation."
The Deseret News - "Eleven more children were 'nonsuited' on Tuesday, Texas Child Protective Services spokesman Patrick Crimmins said. That brings the total number of people dropped from the court case to 315."
"The reasons for nonsuiting a child vary, CPS said, including no evidence of abuse or the parents taking appropriate steps to protect the child from harm. A nonsuit effectively ends the court oversight and requirements for the parents, although CPS could still maintain some role in working with the families."
