Posted on 01/26/2010 1:18:51 PM PST by MissTickly
WASHINGTON -- Ellie Light, the ubiquitous letter writer arousing blogosphere suspicions that she is a White House operative spreading the gospel of Barack Obama, may really be a man who works as a respiratory therapist.
Or it may be a woman who works as a traveling nurse.
Either way, there's big trouble in his and her household. And the story gets stranger.
It begins with The Plain Dealer's publication on cleveland.com Thursday that a woman using the name Ellie Light was duping newspapers nationwide by giving them "local" addresses in letters to the editor that she penned defending President Obama's progress in advancing the Democratic agenda. Many newspapers will not publish letters unless they are from local readers.
News of Light's tactics left multiple newspapers embarrassed, with some apologizing to their readers. But it also triggered suspicions in the blogosphere that Ellie Light might not even be real, and that the letter-writing campaign was a duplicitous spin strategy from the Obama White House or the Democratic Party.
The Plain Dealer and others sought to find out real story. That led to a series of e-mail exchanges between The Plain Dealer and "Ellie Light," followed by phone calls Monday night and today to a number provided in the e-mails. She talked with a husky voice. And she eventually appeared to confess, reluctantly, that her real name is Barbara Brooks. She said she is a nurse who travels to hospitals across the country.
Information on Barbara Brooks, provided by "Ellie Light" as well as others, was confirmed by California and Texas public records. The Plain Dealer posted that story earlier today.
But there's one problem: A woman in Texas named Barbara Brooks - who knows a lot about this whole scam, whose information turns up in some of the above-mentioned records, and who even covered for "Ellie Light" during a call to her home earlier today - now says the person with the husky voice is trying to pull another fast one.
How does she know this?
Because the husky-voiced "woman" claiming to be Barbara Brooks is actually her husband, she says. His name is Winston Steward. He sent letters to newspapers using the name "Ellie Light" - one of the pseudonyms he has used over several years - and now, to protect himself, is using his wife's name. And his wife isn't one bit happy.
"He's making up all kinds of garbage," said Barbara Brooks.
Asked why her husband, already using a pen name for his letters, would claim her identity as well, Brooks said he apparently is afraid of being harmed by "right-wing crazies" near their home in California as the real story emerges. The couple has a home in Frazier Park, a mountain community close to Bakersfield, where Steward is living while awaiting the outcome of a worker's compensation case, and a home near San Antonio, Texas, where Barbara Brooks is. This is according to Barbara Brooks, that is. (more at link)
Ace of Spades (a fine blog) has confirmed that it is Nurse Barbara.
Shocked, I tell you...just shocked!
...or the Wookie named Michelle...
https://eams.dwc.ca.gov/public/GeneralPublic
There is a Winston Steward showing as an active case on the California Workers Comp Appeals Board website
There are two Barbara Brooks. Expired & inactive licenses
http://www2.dca.ca.gov/pls/wllpub/WLLQRYNA$LCEV2.QueryView?P_LICENSE_NUMBER=374711&P_LTE_ID=828
BOARD OF REGISTERED NURSING
Licensee Name: BROOKS BARBARA LEE
License Type: Registered Nurse
License Number: 374711
License Status: INACTIVE Definition
Expiration Date: February 28, 2010
Issue Date: August 31, 1984
County: OUT OF STATE
Actions: No
BOARD OF REGISTERED NURSING
http://www2.dca.ca.gov/pls/wllpub/WLLQRYNA$LCEV2.QueryView?P_LICENSE_NUMBER=115427&P_LTE_ID=828
Licensee Name: BROOKS BARBARA LIPPS
License Type: Registered Nurse
License Number: 115427
License Status: EXPIRED Definition
PRIOR DISCIPLINE Definition
Expiration Date: November 30, 1983
Issue Date: January 01, 1958
County: LOS ANGELES
Actions: No
Can you find her on a Union membership list? This whole thing is Community Organizing carried to Nth degree...
Someone said Winston Steward might be seeking workmens comp for http://www.kforce.com/ Could be another winston steward but waiting for workmens comp would give him a lot of time.
http://patterico.com/2010/01/23/ellie-lights-obama-letters/
Interesting since we also face "talking points" from naysayers here on FR! Same old lines a hundred times.
I am sure more will come up. I was working today so I had very little time. If I find anything else I will alert.
If he is a self employed free lance commercial artist how can he file a workman’s comp claim...
This could be another winston steward but maybe he worked for this agency as a temp because he could not pay the bills with his music?
Have you searched google for winston steward. There are some MP3’s of a winston steward. I thought it was a coincidence.
I am looking for the workmens comp link. I found it either here or on one of the website comments but it does not show up in my history.
Looking for links,
http://www.startribune.com/blogs/82694427.html?elr=KArksLckD8EQDUUULPQL7PQLanchO7DiUsr
She gave her phone number, and said “feel free to call me.”
So I did. Phone rings. Phone picks up. I ask if this is the famous Ellie Light.
“It’s me, it’s me, I’m the one who gave the bad addresses, the full of hubris woman.”
Did she say she was from the cities where the letter ran? I said or strongly implied it,” Ms. Light said. “They’d say, ‘we only print stuff from local residents, you’re from Sheboygan?,’ and I wouldn’t say no.”
She expressed regret: “I hate the idea that I’m causing newspapers grief, that this sort-of plays into the idea that papers are a liberal tool.”
Others have called as well, but she suspects coming clean won’t put the controversy to bed.
Except I’ll say this: I matched the area code from the phone “Ellie” gave me to real estate records in the area, and came up with an Eleanor Light, which led me to believe - in my silly, trusting way!
LOL!
http://www.thebigfeedblog.com/2010/01/ellie-light-revealed-woman-claims-she.html
OKAY, THIS IS THE LAST UPDATE: New news from Cleveland.com:
“I am Winston Steward and have been sending the letters from Ellie Light,” he told The Plain Dealer in an e-mail late Tuesday, following a phone interview in which he said the same. “I hope this ends any confusion and sets the record straight.”
The woman said her husband was using her name because he was afraid he might be attacked by “right-wing crazies up in Bakersfield,” about 40 miles from their home in a mountain community.
Look at the guy. I’m still not convinced “he” isn’t a woman.
There is/was a nutroot at the Daily Kos named Winston Steward who wrote a lunatic diary. The Kos gets no link from me. But consider it true. It is either legit, or a link created by the Kos to throw more jelly in the mix.
And there was an album put out in the 80s by a man named Winston Steward, We can’t claim there one and the same. The album received no reviews. So I can’t even tell if you it sucks or not.
LATEST MAJOR UPDATE: This comment was left at Politico:
I am not Ellie Light!! Ellie Light is my husband, Winston Steward. He wrote all the letters himself. He doesn’t belong to any organizations. It was his idea, and I advised him not to write under phony names.
Posted By: Barbara Brooks | January 26, 2010 at 01:58 PM
MAJOR UPDATE: This has “balloon boy” (part 2) written all over it. From Cleveland.Com:
A woman claiming to be Barbara Brooks has now contacted The Plain Dealer and said she is not the letter writer; she claims her ex-husband is running a spoof. The newspaper is investigating; more details as they become available.
I tend to believe someone is jacking around. First, the inconsistencies in the “real” name, and second, the claim of threats, via email. Before anyone even knew who “she” was? Ha. If had to pick one, I’d guess the caller was the real Ellie Light and the Barbara Brooks character is just a pajama wearing freak trying to make a buck. But who knows, they very well both may be pajama wearing freaks.
MAJOR UPDATE # 2: My sources are telling me there is a Barbara Brooks on Facebook, who claims to be a pediatric nurse, who is claiming that “Ellie Light” is her husband. She does not say whether or not she is married to David Axelrod. On her Facebook wall she wrote:
COMMUNITY-BASED CHILDREN’S MENTAL HEALTH SERVICES
http://www.co.kern.ca.us/kcmh/services/providers.pdf
Barbara Steward??? Bakersfield crazies coming after his wife? she said she was a pediatric nurse?
A stretch?
It was posted here. D’oh, me blonde!
https://eams.dwc.ca.gov/public/GeneralPublic
Search Results Last Name First Name Case Number Date Of Injury Employer Name Case Status Next Hearing Date
STEWARD WINSTON ADJ4407343 2004-03-09 K-FORCES STAFFING Active
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