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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (AP) — The U.S. marshals office in Grand Rapids says a woman who walked away from a Detroit-area prison in 1976 after being convicted on drug charges has been recaptured in California.Deputies say Susan Lefevre was living under the name of Marie Walsh in the San Diego suburb of Del Mar, Calif., when she was arrested Thursday at her home in an affluent neighborhood.Lefevre told them her husband and two children had no idea of her criminal conviction 32 years ago in Saginaw County or her escape from what now is the Robert Scott Correctional Facility in...

SPITZER'S LEGACY: A $3.6M PROBE TABBy BRENDAN SCOTT April 13, 2008 -- Eliot Spitzer's political and sexual shenanigans are costing taxpayers upwards of $3.6 million. **SNIP** This month, Attorney General Andrew Cuomo launched his second look at the Dirty Tricks saga: a far-reaching probe into whether Spitzer ordered the State Police to gather intelligence on Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno. It should double the estimated $150,000 the attorney general's office spent on the initial report that sparked the Spitzer's troubles last year. Meanwhile, the State Investigation Commission has launched an investigation of the investigations - those by the attorney general,...

ATLANTA - Air traveler angst was sure to continue Friday as American Airlines grounded hundreds more flights. The financial toll and loss of goodwill likely would grow as well, as the inspection-related mess spread further to other carriers and hurt an industry already bleeding cash thanks to high fuel costs. Lawmakers were asking questions and some fed-up air travelers headed for trains. Others gave the airlines a pass, saying the companies were doing the best they could. "If somebody's got a choice between being in a plane crash and being late, is there a choice?" Jane Bernard, a writer from...

Dealing with border-jumping duffers Enhanced security putting the future of unique Aroostook Valley Country Club at risk By Mark Rickard and Madeleine LeClerc Published Friday April 11th, 2008 Appeared on page A2 Will the only golf course that sits on both sides of the Canada-United States border fall victim to enhanced border security? The future of the Aroostook Valley Country Club – which has served both Americans and Canadians for 81 years – is in doubt if United States Customs border patrol officers enforce entry regulations at the club. For more than eight decades, Aroostook Valley has been a unique...

American airlines begged the feds Thursday to let it keep its fleet aloft, saying the fastenings that need to be checked pose no safety threat. The answer was no. The airline has grounded 2,500 flights since Tuesday, causing chaos for passengers nationwide, while it inspects latches and clamps on wiring covers as required by the Federal Aviation Administration. The FAA yesterday ordered the 300 Boeing MD-80 jets to remain parked while mechanics made sure wire ties were exactly 1 inch apart and clamps faced the right way. More than 900 flights were scrapped yesterday, and the airport havoc is expected...

SAN DIEGO – Federal probation officials are recommending that Brent Wilkes, the Poway defense contractor who was convicted of bribing former Rep. Randy “Duke” Cunningham, should be sentenced to 60 years in prison, according to court records. Wilkes was scheduled to be sentenced next Monday, but that has been postponed until Feb. 19 at the request of his lawyer, Mark Geragos. In court papers, Geragos said he needed more time to analyze and challenge the report from the federal probation office, which he received Jan. 15 – later than required under court rules. Such a lengthy sentence recommendation, even in...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — A former teacher serving house arrest for having sex with a 14-year-old student was arrested on charges of violating her probation, state records show. According to a Department of Corrections report, Debra Lafave discussed her personal life and other subjects with a teenage waitress at a restaurant where both worked. One of the terms of her probation was that she was not allowed to have unsupervised contact with minors without permission. Lafave, 26, is serving three years of house arrest and seven years of probation after pleading guilty to having sex with the boy in a...

<p>Tampa, Florida - According to records with the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, Debra Lafave was arrested today for violating her probation. The violation listed says she talked to a coworker who was 17 years old on various occasions.</p>

Boy, 12, charged with assault after throwing cocktail sausage in 'Just William' prank How the law made a meal out of a boy's childish prank By JAYA NARAIN - More by this author » Last updated at 21:50pm on 22nd August 2007 Food for thought: The boy of 12 contemplates all the stress caused by throwing a sausage A 12-year-old boy has been brought before the courts for throwing a cocktail sausage at a neighbour District Judge Tim Devas compared the incident to a story from boys' adventure book Just William. The case has been brought before Manchester City...

At Patton Middle School in McMinnville, Oregon, students created something called "slap butt day." On one such day in February 2007, according to The Oregonian (July 22, 2007): "Two boys tore down the hall of Patton Middle School after lunch, swatting the bottoms of girls as they ran -- what some kids later said was a common form of greeting. But bottom-slapping is against policy in McMinnville Public Schools. So a teacher's aide sent the gawky seventh-graders to the office, where the vice principal and a police officer stationed at the school soon interrogated them." A police officer interrogated them?...

TEL AVIV, Israel, Aug. 18 (UPI) -- Internet addiction should be grouped with extreme addictive disorders such as gambling, sex addiction and kleptomania, an Israeli psychiatrist said. Dr. Pinhas Dannon of Tel Aviv University's Sackler Faculty of Medicine said 10 percent of Internet surfers are afflicted with "Internet addiction disorder," which can lead to anxiety and severe depression. Internet addiction is classified by mental health professionals as an Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, a mild to severe mental health condition that results in an urge to engage in ritualistic thoughts and behavior. "Internet addiction is not manifesting itself as an ‘urge.’ It’s...

Christopher JonesThe suspect in Friday’s high-speed chase that gained national attention when two news helicopters collided above the scene shuffled into court Saturday morning with his head down and his left arm wrapped in heavy gauze from his wrist to his elbow. Christopher Jones, 23, suffered the injuries Friday afternoon during his arrest when police dogs took him down inside a west Phoenix residence. “I’m not a flight risk,” Jones told Commissioner Joan Sinclair during his initial court appearance at Madison Street Jail. “I will man up to what I did. I am responsible for it.” Jones told the...

Buffalo -- An anti-abortion extremist defending himself in a federal trial sat on the witness stand Monday to explain why he killed a doctor. "I don't like killing. I don't like the thought of it," James Kopp said as he asked and answered a series of questions from his seat next to the judge. "The plan was to keep everyone alive at the end of the day." Kopp, charged with violating the federal Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act by killing Dr. Barnett Slepian in 1998, is serving a 25-year-to-life for a state conviction on second-degree murder in the...

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. --Defense attorneys and death penalty opponents were outraged Thursday over an execution in which the condemned man took more than half an hour to die, needed a rare second dose of lethal chemicals, and appeared to grimace in his final moments. "I am definitely appalled at what happened. I have no doubt he suffered unduly," Angel Nieves Diaz's attorney, Suzanne Myers Keffer, said after Diaz died by injection. Executions in Florida normally take about 15 minutes, with the inmate rendered unconscious and motionless within the first three to five minutes. But Diaz took 34 minutes to die and...

NEW YORK - As the city agency overseeing the removal of the World Trade Center rubble was wrapping up its work in 2002, several officials handling the painstaking recovery of human remains warned that things were moving too fast. They believed that more pieces of the 2,749 dead could be found, and that the city shouldn't be rushing such an important task. But they were overruled, two of those officials told The Associated Press this week. Over the past few days, dozens of bones have been discovered in underground passages at ground zero, more than five years after the tragedy....

• Q2 jumps by 67 percent year over year • Buyers done in by ‘creative mortgages’ according to figures released Monday by Foreclosures.com, a Central Valley-based real estate investment advisory firm and publisher of foreclosure property information. "Year over year at the end of the second quarter of 2006, foreclosure activity in California has increased more than 67 percent," says Alexis McGee, president of Fair Oaks-based ForeclosureS.com. The once hot housing markets in Las Vegas and Phoenix are cooling off rapidly and defaults there are on the rise as well, she says. "Both Las Vegas and Phoenix were impacted by...

Serious movement in D.C. – and if I hadn't been there, I would not have believed it. For several months Joan Wire and her daughter have been trying to secure an appointment with a highly effective government official we'll simply call Mr. Washington. Joan Wire is the stalwart wife of Mike Wire. Mike is the storied "man on the bridge," the single most critical eyewitness in the saga of TWA Flight 800, the 747 that was inexplicably blown out of the sky on the night of July 17, 1996. The CIA built its notorious zoom-climb animation around Mike's position on...

Charlie Crist Let My Daughter Die by Robert Schindler, Sr. Posted Jul 31, 2006 As most Americans know, on March 31, 2005, my daughter, Terri Schindler Schiavo died of starvation and thirst after having her feeding tube removed by court order. The sad chain of events that concluded with Terri’s death ignited a media firestorm nationally and internationally. What few saw or heard was the callous inaction of aspiring governor Charlie Crist. Florida Atty. Gen. Charlie Crist let my daughter die. He had it within his authority to save her life, but he turned a blind eye to her suffering....

Justice Department gets Quran shooting info By Karina Gonzalez Staff Writer FBI Agent Tim Burke told area Muslims on Friday that his office has turned over information in the case involving the shooting of the Quran to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Hamilton County district attorney’s office. "Right now we are going to let the Justice Department decide if this case will be tried," Mr. Burke, FBI supervisor for the Chattanooga area, said while speaking to members of the Annour Islamic community. The FBI began a preliminary investigation last week after the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a national...

Man charged with threatening Bill Clinton Thu Jul 20, 12:07 AM ET A man was accused Wednesday in an indictment of making threats against former President Clinton. James L. Williford, 57, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for allegedly making threatening remarks about Clinton at a chiropractic clinic in Edmond on July 12. Three employees at the Edwards Chiropractic Clinic told investigators they heard Williford threaten to "bust a cap," or shoot, Clinton, according to an affidavit. During an interview with Secret Service agents, Williford denied threatening Clinton but said he believed Clinton was "a...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A man was accused Wednesday in an indictment of making threats against former President Clinton.James L. Williford, 57, faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine for allegedly making threatening remarks about Clinton at a chiropractic clinic in Edmond on July 12. Three employees at the Edwards Chiropractic Clinic told investigators they heard Williford threaten to "bust a cap," or shoot, Clinton, according to an affidavit.During an interview with Secret Service agents, Williford denied threatening Clinton but said he believed Clinton was "a communist mole for the Red Chinese," the affidavit said. Williford, of...

Last time, I introduced you to Will Hooper, a 26-year-old graduate of the University of Alabama at Tuscaloosa, who has been suffering from an extreme case of obsessive-compulsive disorder since age 10. In October 2003, when Will was 24, he and his father, James, heard of an experimental new surgery called deep-brain stimulation. One of its pioneers is Douglas Anderson, a doctor at Loyola University Health Systems in suburban Maywood, a drive north from Tinley Park. In the procedure, Dr. Anderson drills two tiny holes in the forehead, plants two electrodes in the frontal region of the brain, and then...

A Southern guy must be in tremendous pain if he is willing to fly to Chicago so that a neurosurgeon from Loyola University Health Systems can bury two batteries in his chest, drill two holes into his skull and plant two wires in his brain. Will Hooper did just so a little more than two years ago, when he was a 24-year-old computer technology student at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. He had been suffering from obsessive-compulsive disorder since age 10. Will is one of about 50 people worldwide who have undergone this experimental surgery. His doctor at Loyola,...

A woman in Shelton, Wash., who was reported missing by her husband, was found dead under piles of clutter in their home, where she suffocated to death, according to police. Shelton Police Chief Terry Davenport said the home was so cluttered that police officers' heads touched the ceiling as they climbed over the clutter. Authorities found the body of 62-year-old Marie Rose buried under clothes after 10 hours of searching. She reportedly suffered from a condition known as hoarding. Rose's husband believes she fell while looking for the phone in the house this week and suffocated. There were so many...

Check this out. This poor Federal employee has got to be the worst case of OCD I've ever seen. Makes you wonder about USPS efficiency.

Like people all over the country, Gary Patronek, a veterinarian who teaches at Tufts University, heard the bizarre story of Ruth Knueven and her 488 cats -- 222 of them dead, and most of the others so wild and sick that they had to be euthanized. Knueven, 82, charged with five misdemeanors, including animal cruelty, became a public curiosity last week after Fairfax County officials hauled the cats and carcasses out of her home in Mount Vernon and her daughter's townhouse in Burke. Both residences, filthy and damaged, were declared unfit for habitation until repairs are made. In the Mount...

CHICAGO — Joe Neglia was a retired government intelligence worker with Parkinson's disease (search) when he suddenly developed what he calls a gambling habit from hell. After losing thousands of dollars playing slot machines near his California home several times a day for nearly two years, Neglia stumbled across an Internet report linking a popular Parkinson's drug he used with compulsive gambling. "I thought, 'Oh my God, this must be it,"' he said. Three days after stopping the drug, Mirapex (search), "all desire to gamble just went away completely. I felt like I had my brain back." A Mayo Clinic...

WASHINGTON - About 300 cats, nearly a third of them dead, were removed from an elderly woman’s Virginia home after neighbors complained of a stench coming from the house, police said on Tuesday. The house, less than a mile from late President George Washington’s historic Mount Vernon estate, looked neat from the outside with manicured lawns and bright flowers, but inside it was overflowing with wild cats, feces and urine. “Cats were coming out of the cabinets and drawers and were inside the walls. There were hundreds of them,” Fairfax County Police officer Richard Henry told Reuters. He said animal...

French scientists finds surprise solution to OCD Paul Michaud, Contributor, Paris Two French scientists say they have come up, quite accidentally, with a solution to Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) that involves implanting electrodes destined originally to control Parkinson's disease. OCD, according to the U.S.-based Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder Foundation, affects one adult in 50, with "twice that many experiencing it at some point in their lives." The disorder manifests itself in a number of ways, with sufferers becoming so excessive in their behavior that they are known to spend hours washing their hands, or doing such things -- "which make no sense...

Previous FR Natalee Holloway Threads...Natalee Holloway - Case Discussion Extended Thread 3Posted on 06/23/2005 12:44:51 PM CDT by brigettehttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1429067/postsNatalee Holloway - Extended Thread 2Posted on 06/20/2005 12:14:36 AM CDT by brigettehttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1426433/postsNatalee Holloway - Extended Thread 1Posted on 06/16/2005 11:43:44 AM CDT by brigettehttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1424188/postsAnother Twist in Holloway DisappearancePosted on 06/14/2005 11:24:41 AM CDT by PBRSTREETGANGhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1422593/postsAla. Teen's Mom: Men 'Know What Happened' (Natalee Holloway)Posted on 06/13/2005 4:01:55 AM CDT by bd476http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1421756/posts Natalee's body found... (false report)Posted on 06/11/2005 1:05:50 PM CDT by kcvl http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1420967/postsHolloway Not Only American Missing In ArubaPosted on 06/08/2005 1:25:36 AM CDT by MassRepublicanFlyersFanhttp://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1418606/postsNatalee Holloway (Aruba) 5 Men Now...

Spiritual OCD There was an interesting series on Focus on the Family this week dealing with addictions and obsessive compulsive disorders. Today, the guest, Dr. Archibald something-or-other, was talking about how OCD can manifest itself in an unrelenting quest for new spiritual highs. OCD, he said, differs from addictions in that the former are rooted in some sort of insecurity or fear, whereas the latter are often rooted in biology and/or sinful desires. He spoke about how he has known some people who feel that if they do not have an ecstatic religious experience each week, they feel as though...

TEHRAN (AFP) - An Iranian woman is attempting to set a legal precedent by divorcing her husband because he has not showered for more than a year, a press report said. The 36-year-old woman, only identified as Mina, reportedly told a Tehran court her husband Reza smells so bad that even his children will not go near him. "Everybody is making fun of us. We cannot go to any parties. I feel so ashamed," the woman told the divorce court, according to the governmental Iran (news - web sites) newspaper. Iranian women wishing to divorce can only demand one if...

Sobbing 31-stone (434 lb) Chris Leppard was dragged off to a mental hospital against his will by meddling social workers and police. Chris, 23, has been forcibly detained for a month because he cannot stop eating. The authorities used powers normally used to detain mentally ill people who might harm themselves or others. They locked him up despite the fact neither he nor his family wanted him to go. Last night Chris’s furious mother Anne said he has no mental problems and was winning his fight against the rare illness that compels him to eat. Chris’s case was condemned by...

A leading expert on Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder who advised actor Leonardo DiCaprio on portraying Howard Hughes in "The Aviator" says the actor himself developed a serious case of the condition. "There were moments when I was very concerned for Leo," UCLA psychiatry professor Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz told Scotland on Sunday. Schwartz, who was called in to by director Martin Scorsese to help replicate the characteristics of OCD from which Hughes suffered, says DiCaprio's brain started to malfunction, as he reawakened his own OCD he suffered as a child. "He let his own mild OCD get worse to play the part, Schwartz...

Armed with just pen and paper as no computer was up to the job, for three months Lion Kimbro wrote down every thought that came into his head. It left little time for much else. Now, was that necessary? When was the last time you thought hard about something? When you actually set aside some time in the day to just sit and think, and note down what was on your mind? No-one does that, do they? Time's too precious, life is too short. Not for Lion Kimbro, a 26-year-old geek and computer games tester from Seattle. Last year he...

Implanted Devices May Alter Treatment of Many Disorders A handful of scientists around the world have begun cautiously experimenting with devices implanted in patients' bodies to deliver precisely targeted electrical stimulation to the brain in hopes of treating otherwise hopeless behavioral, neurological and psychiatric disorders. While stressing that the ethically sensitive research with "brain pacemakers" has just begun, the scientists say the results so far have been so promising that it could mark the beginning of a new era in treating often intractable cases. The approach builds on rapid recent advances in understanding how the brain works, on high-tech imaging...

<p>For 25 years, a difficult-neighbor problem plagued Curtis and Elaine Colvin of Seattle. The neighbor's home and lawn resembled a junkyard. Finally, last spring, the elderly man was taken out of state by relatives.</p> <p>Konstantinos Apostolou bought the house — and sent in five men to clear the floor-to-ceiling junk. "It was the most disgusting thing I've ever seen in my life," says his son, George Apostolou. There was nowhere to walk, except for a narrow "goat path" connecting the rooms. The men hauled out seven Dumpsters' worth of clothes, books, magazines, spoiled food, firewood, car parts, tires, bank statements and 50-year-old tax records. "I feel bad for the guy," says Apostolou. "I'm sure he was ill."</p>

What Is OCD? If you or someone you care about has been diagnosed with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), you may feel you are the only person facing the difficulties of this illness. But you are not alone. In the United States, 1 in 50 adults currently has OCD, and twice that many have had it at some point in their lives. Fortunately, very effective treatments for OCD are now available to help you regain a more satisfying life. Here are answers to the most commonly asked questions about OCD. What Is Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder? Worries, doubts, superstitious beliefs all are common in...

The cases never cease to fascinate: reclusive people trapped by their own accumulations, in rooms made unlivable by floor-to-ceiling heaps of newspapers, books and saved objects — from twist ties to grand pianos.Some pass into legend, like the Collyer brothers, "the hermit hoarders of Harlem," who in 1947 were buried by the piles of urban junk that filled their four-story Harlem brownstone. But even less extreme examples, like that of the Bronx man rescued on Monday after being trapped for two days under an avalanche of magazines and catalogs, haunt the public imagination.Such compulsive hoarding is being recognized as a...

Please help! I'm getting rather obsessive about finding this article!!

You're hardwired to go mad October 23 2003 at 10:30AM Washington - American and Japanese researchers said on Thursday that they had found a genetic mutation that causes obsessive-compulsive disorder and other mental illnesses and said some patients had a second mutation that made their conditions worse. The rare finding could make it easier to discover better treatments for the disorder, one of the top 10 leading causes of disability worldwide. Dr Norio Ozaki of Fujita Health University School of Medicine in Japan and colleagues at several American institutions - including the University of Pittsburgh and Yale University - worked...

THIS is Charles Lax's brain on speed. Mr. Lax, a 44-year-old venture capitalist, is sitting in a conference for telecommunications executives at a hotel near Los Angeles, but he is not all here. Out of one ear, he listens to a live presentation about cable television technology; simultaneously, he surfs the Net on a laptop with a wireless connection, while occasionally checking his mobile device — part phone, part pager and part Internet gadget — for e-mail. Mr. Lax flew from Boston and paid $2,000 to attend the conference, called Vortex. But he cannot unwire himself long enough to give...

<p>June 14, 2003 -- A New Jersey mother whose daughter mutilated herself while on the controversial anti-depressant drug Paxil called yesterday for a ban on its use to treat children.</p> <p>The call for a ban comes hot on the heels of alarming new research released earlier this week that claims depressed children who take the drug become more suicidal - and a warning from the Food and Drug Administration, The Post has learned.</p>

This is a new thread dedicated to conservative parents of children/teens "at risk". I noticed in my FReeping that there are a lot of other conservative parents like me dealing with children or teens that are socially "at risk". Yes, there are other web sites out there dedicated to this, however they tend to be liberally/socialistically slanted. They have a whinning "poor pitful me" attitude. As conservatives, from talking with many of you, we take a different attitude and require our children to have that same attitude. I FReep Mailed Jim Robinson to get his "blessing" on this thread. If...

Critics may consider it odd, but Sen. Bob Graham keeps a meticulous daily log of mundane tasks for a reason. Someday, historians may be glad. By BILL ADAIR, Times Staff Writer © St. Petersburg Times published February 23, 2003 This portrait of Sen. Bob Graham hangs in the hall to the governor’s office in the Florida Capitol. In his hand is one of his notebooks. WASHINGTON -- On Sunday, Feb. 7, 1999, Sen. Bob Graham awoke in the bedroom of his Capitol Hill townhouse and began his daily ritual by stepping on the scale. He weighed 187 pounds, up 1...

<p>A few penguins swimming leisurely every now and then at the San Francisco Zoo is nothing new. But dozens of them doing laps in unison all day to the point of exhaustion has zookeepers perplexed.</p> <p>"We've lost complete control," said Jane Tollini, the zoos penguin keeper. "It's a free-for-all in here. After 18 years of doing this job, these birds are making mincemeat of me."</p>