News of the Weird, February 24, 2013
182 views
Skip to first unread message
Chuck Shepherd
Feb 24, 2013, 9:25:23 AM2/24/13
to newsoft...@googlegroups.com
WEIRDNUZ.M307 (News of the Weird, February 24, 2013)
by Chuck Shepherd
Copyright 2013 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
* Officials at England's 12th-century St. Peter's Church in Seaford,
East Sussex, which is renowned for its eerie quietness, created a
30-minute CD recently of near-total silence, first as a small-scale
fund-raising project but later for general sales (since word-of-mouth
had attracted orders from as far away as Ghana). Those who have
heard it said they could make out only the occasional squeaking of
footsteps on the wooden floor (and the very distant hum of passing
cars). Said one admiring parishioner, "People sometimes like to sit
down and just have a bit of peace and quiet." [Daily Mail (London),
1-27-2013]
Government in Action
* France has seen its wolf population gradually increase from near-
extinction in the 1930s but still classifies the predator as a
"protected" species. However, sheep farmers increasingly complain
that wolves' attacks are reducing their herds. Therefore, in a
recently-proposed "National Wolf Plan," the government boldly
gave headline-writers around the world material for rejoicing: a
national program to "educate" the wolves. Individual wolves
known to have attacked sheep would be caught, marked, and briefly
detained, with the hope that they would learn their lesson from that
trauma and from then on, pass up sheep and turn instead to rabbits,
boar, and deer. (Said one critic, "You might as well try to educate a
shark.") [TheLocal.fr (Paris), 2-7-2012]
* Updates: The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax
administration revealed in January that twice as many fraudulent
income tax refunds were paid to inmates in 2011 (173,000) as for
the tax year 2010. However, IRS claimed that the fraudulent returns
it did manage to stop totaled $2.5 billion (almost half of which was
disingenuously claimed by two inmates). Also, the Department of
Health and Human Service's inspector general revealed in January
that Medicare was illegally billed for $120 million from 2009-2011
for services used by inmates and illegal immigrants--neither
category of which is authorized to use Medicare. [Associated Press
via Tampa Bay Times, 1-18-2012] [Associated Press via New York
Times, 1-25-2013]
* Recurring Theme: As of January, New York City music teacher
Aryeh Eller, 46, has almost reached a milestone in his battle with
the Board of Education. Soon, he will have earned a million dollars
in salary and benefits since the Board removed him from the
classroom 13 years ago and dispatched him to a light-duty "rubber
room" after complaints of fondling and sexual harassment in the
one year that he actually taught. An arbitrator had found
insufficient evidence for his termination, but the Board refuses to let
him back in the classroom, fearing he is a danger to students. [New
York Post, 1-27-2013]
Great Art!
* Not Expected to Fly Off the Shelf: Iceland's menswear designer
Sruli Recht's Autumn/Winter 2013 collection, debuting in Paris in
January, included a ring made from a four-inch slice of his own skin
(removed during recent abdomen surgery, then salted and tanned to
give it sturdiness). The ring (called "Forget Me Knot") carries a
price tag of $500,000--considering that the rest of the ring is 24k
gold. [Huffington Post, 1-22-2013]
* In Russia's coldest region (the Siberian republic of Yakutia), artist
Mikhail Bopposov created a massive, nearly-900-pound cobra
statue (honoring the Chinese Year of the Snake)--made entirely of
cow dung. Though at this time of the year, the sculpture freezes,
Bopposov plans to sell it when it melts, since fertilizer is a valuable
commodity during the region's short summers. (Actually, this is
Bopposov's second foray into dung art, after last year's winged
serpent he created for the Chinese Year of the Dragon.) [RIA
Novosti (Moscow), 1-11-2013]
Police Blotter
* Hard Times: According to police in Idaho Falls, Id., Mark
Carroll, 18, masked and armed with a handgun, is the one who
threatened and robbed the night-shift clerk at the Maverik
convenience store on New Year's morning. The clerk was Donna
Carroll, Mark's mother, but police said that it was not an "inside"
job and that she still does not believe the man behind the mask was
her son. [KIDK-TV (Idaho Falls), 1-23-2013]
* Major Crimes Unit: (1) Sheriff's deputies in Tampa were
searching in January for the thief who stole a wallet from a car and
used the victim's debit card three times--once at a gas station and
twice to wash clothes in the laundry room of the Countrywood
Apartments. (2) Edward Lucas, 33, was arrested in Slidell, La., in
November and charged with theft from the sheriff's department
headquarters. Lucas reportedly had walked in and requested a file,
and while he was waiting (as surveillance video later confirmed), he
furtively swiped three ball-point pens from the reception area.
[WTSP-TV (St. Petersburg), 1-10-2013] [Associated Press via
Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Miss.), 11-21-2012]
* Judges in Danger: (1) Sheriff's deputies in Ozaukee County, Wis.,
tracked down Shelly Froelich, 48, as the woman who allegedly
called the jail in January and asked if Judge Thomas Wolfgram was
in, and when informed that he wasn't but that he'd be in court the
following morning, said, "Good. Tell him I have a hit on him."
Deputies said Froelich's son was in lockup and that his mom had
several times before issued threats to judges after her son had been
arrested. (2) James Satterfield, 58, was arrested in Cobb County,
Ga., in December after police said he wrote a letter to the wife of
Judge Reuben Green vowing to eat the couple's children after
"cook[ing] them first to make them more palatable." [Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel, 1-23-2013] [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1-14-
2013]
People With Issues
* Michael Selleneit, 54, pleaded guilty in January to several charges
including attempted murder in an October 2011 attack on a
neighbor, who Selleneit had declared was raping Selleneit's
wife--"telepathically." In fact, police said, Selleneit had been
making that claim "for years," though he had not taken action until
October 2011. His wife, Meloney, was also charged, as she
allegedly goaded her husband on, telling him to "go for it," and even
supplying the gun. Both spouses have been extensively examined
by mental health professionals, and it turns out that Michael is the
saner of the two. He had been ruled "competent" to stand trial, but
Meloney has so far not been. [Deseret News (Salt Lake City),
1-14-2013]
Perspective
* Joint findings of Great Britain's Ministry of Justice, Home Office,
and Office for National Statistics, published in January, revealed
that 99 out of every 100 recent sexual offenses in England and
Wales have ultimately gone unpunished. According to the report
(covering 2011), 473,000 sexual offenses occurred, with 53,700
recorded by the police, and 5,600 resulting in convictions. The lack
of official reporting by victims is even less understandable than in
the United States, since government compensation is available to
certain victims under British law. [Justice.gov.uk, 1-09-2013]
Least Competent Criminals
* A massive, fraudulent test-taking scheme spanning three Southern
states came to a halt in 2009 after going undetected for 15 years. In
February 2012, Clarence Mumford, Sr., 59, pleaded guilty as the
mastermind of the syndicate that charged schoolteachers thousands
of dollars to have proxy test-takers sit in for them in mandatory
qualifications exams. The 2009 incident that brought the scheme to
light was when one proxy for hire (Memphis, Tenn., science teacher
Shantell Shaw) decided to take both a morning test for one teacher
and an afternoon test for another teacher, at the same location, while
wearing the same pink baseball cap. [New York Times, 2-2-2013]
Readers' Choice
* Overachievers: (1) Cheyenne Labrum, 39, was arrested in Provo,
Utah, in December, and charged with robbing a man in a motel
room of $14 cash and a 12-pack of beer. Police records show it as
the 66th time Labrum has been booked into the local jail. (2) Scott
Morris, 40, was arrested for speeding and suspicion of DUI in
Boulder, Colo., in November. It was only the 44th time Morris had
been traffic-stopped--although Morris might be held to a different
standard, in that he is a Boulder police detective. [Provo Daily
Herald, 12-14-2012] [Denver CBS, 12-7-2012]
Thanks This Week to James Hoban, Sandy Pearlman, and
Annie Thames, and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial
Advisors.
* * * * *
WeirdNews at earthlink dot net, http://www.NewsoftheWeird.net
(almost daily), and P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679.
by Chuck Shepherd
Copyright 2013 by Chuck Shepherd. All rights reserved.
Lead Story
* Officials at England's 12th-century St. Peter's Church in Seaford,
East Sussex, which is renowned for its eerie quietness, created a
30-minute CD recently of near-total silence, first as a small-scale
fund-raising project but later for general sales (since word-of-mouth
had attracted orders from as far away as Ghana). Those who have
heard it said they could make out only the occasional squeaking of
footsteps on the wooden floor (and the very distant hum of passing
cars). Said one admiring parishioner, "People sometimes like to sit
down and just have a bit of peace and quiet." [Daily Mail (London),
1-27-2013]
Government in Action
* France has seen its wolf population gradually increase from near-
extinction in the 1930s but still classifies the predator as a
"protected" species. However, sheep farmers increasingly complain
that wolves' attacks are reducing their herds. Therefore, in a
recently-proposed "National Wolf Plan," the government boldly
gave headline-writers around the world material for rejoicing: a
national program to "educate" the wolves. Individual wolves
known to have attacked sheep would be caught, marked, and briefly
detained, with the hope that they would learn their lesson from that
trauma and from then on, pass up sheep and turn instead to rabbits,
boar, and deer. (Said one critic, "You might as well try to educate a
shark.") [TheLocal.fr (Paris), 2-7-2012]
* Updates: The Treasury Department's inspector general for tax
administration revealed in January that twice as many fraudulent
income tax refunds were paid to inmates in 2011 (173,000) as for
the tax year 2010. However, IRS claimed that the fraudulent returns
it did manage to stop totaled $2.5 billion (almost half of which was
disingenuously claimed by two inmates). Also, the Department of
Health and Human Service's inspector general revealed in January
that Medicare was illegally billed for $120 million from 2009-2011
for services used by inmates and illegal immigrants--neither
category of which is authorized to use Medicare. [Associated Press
via Tampa Bay Times, 1-18-2012] [Associated Press via New York
Times, 1-25-2013]
* Recurring Theme: As of January, New York City music teacher
Aryeh Eller, 46, has almost reached a milestone in his battle with
the Board of Education. Soon, he will have earned a million dollars
in salary and benefits since the Board removed him from the
classroom 13 years ago and dispatched him to a light-duty "rubber
room" after complaints of fondling and sexual harassment in the
one year that he actually taught. An arbitrator had found
insufficient evidence for his termination, but the Board refuses to let
him back in the classroom, fearing he is a danger to students. [New
York Post, 1-27-2013]
Great Art!
* Not Expected to Fly Off the Shelf: Iceland's menswear designer
Sruli Recht's Autumn/Winter 2013 collection, debuting in Paris in
January, included a ring made from a four-inch slice of his own skin
(removed during recent abdomen surgery, then salted and tanned to
give it sturdiness). The ring (called "Forget Me Knot") carries a
price tag of $500,000--considering that the rest of the ring is 24k
gold. [Huffington Post, 1-22-2013]
* In Russia's coldest region (the Siberian republic of Yakutia), artist
Mikhail Bopposov created a massive, nearly-900-pound cobra
statue (honoring the Chinese Year of the Snake)--made entirely of
cow dung. Though at this time of the year, the sculpture freezes,
Bopposov plans to sell it when it melts, since fertilizer is a valuable
commodity during the region's short summers. (Actually, this is
Bopposov's second foray into dung art, after last year's winged
serpent he created for the Chinese Year of the Dragon.) [RIA
Novosti (Moscow), 1-11-2013]
Police Blotter
* Hard Times: According to police in Idaho Falls, Id., Mark
Carroll, 18, masked and armed with a handgun, is the one who
threatened and robbed the night-shift clerk at the Maverik
convenience store on New Year's morning. The clerk was Donna
Carroll, Mark's mother, but police said that it was not an "inside"
job and that she still does not believe the man behind the mask was
her son. [KIDK-TV (Idaho Falls), 1-23-2013]
* Major Crimes Unit: (1) Sheriff's deputies in Tampa were
searching in January for the thief who stole a wallet from a car and
used the victim's debit card three times--once at a gas station and
twice to wash clothes in the laundry room of the Countrywood
Apartments. (2) Edward Lucas, 33, was arrested in Slidell, La., in
November and charged with theft from the sheriff's department
headquarters. Lucas reportedly had walked in and requested a file,
and while he was waiting (as surveillance video later confirmed), he
furtively swiped three ball-point pens from the reception area.
[WTSP-TV (St. Petersburg), 1-10-2013] [Associated Press via
Clarion-Ledger (Jackson, Miss.), 11-21-2012]
* Judges in Danger: (1) Sheriff's deputies in Ozaukee County, Wis.,
tracked down Shelly Froelich, 48, as the woman who allegedly
called the jail in January and asked if Judge Thomas Wolfgram was
in, and when informed that he wasn't but that he'd be in court the
following morning, said, "Good. Tell him I have a hit on him."
Deputies said Froelich's son was in lockup and that his mom had
several times before issued threats to judges after her son had been
arrested. (2) James Satterfield, 58, was arrested in Cobb County,
Ga., in December after police said he wrote a letter to the wife of
Judge Reuben Green vowing to eat the couple's children after
"cook[ing] them first to make them more palatable." [Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel, 1-23-2013] [Atlanta Journal-Constitution, 1-14-
2013]
People With Issues
* Michael Selleneit, 54, pleaded guilty in January to several charges
including attempted murder in an October 2011 attack on a
neighbor, who Selleneit had declared was raping Selleneit's
wife--"telepathically." In fact, police said, Selleneit had been
making that claim "for years," though he had not taken action until
October 2011. His wife, Meloney, was also charged, as she
allegedly goaded her husband on, telling him to "go for it," and even
supplying the gun. Both spouses have been extensively examined
by mental health professionals, and it turns out that Michael is the
saner of the two. He had been ruled "competent" to stand trial, but
Meloney has so far not been. [Deseret News (Salt Lake City),
1-14-2013]
Perspective
* Joint findings of Great Britain's Ministry of Justice, Home Office,
and Office for National Statistics, published in January, revealed
that 99 out of every 100 recent sexual offenses in England and
Wales have ultimately gone unpunished. According to the report
(covering 2011), 473,000 sexual offenses occurred, with 53,700
recorded by the police, and 5,600 resulting in convictions. The lack
of official reporting by victims is even less understandable than in
the United States, since government compensation is available to
certain victims under British law. [Justice.gov.uk, 1-09-2013]
Least Competent Criminals
* A massive, fraudulent test-taking scheme spanning three Southern
states came to a halt in 2009 after going undetected for 15 years. In
February 2012, Clarence Mumford, Sr., 59, pleaded guilty as the
mastermind of the syndicate that charged schoolteachers thousands
of dollars to have proxy test-takers sit in for them in mandatory
qualifications exams. The 2009 incident that brought the scheme to
light was when one proxy for hire (Memphis, Tenn., science teacher
Shantell Shaw) decided to take both a morning test for one teacher
and an afternoon test for another teacher, at the same location, while
wearing the same pink baseball cap. [New York Times, 2-2-2013]
Readers' Choice
* Overachievers: (1) Cheyenne Labrum, 39, was arrested in Provo,
Utah, in December, and charged with robbing a man in a motel
room of $14 cash and a 12-pack of beer. Police records show it as
the 66th time Labrum has been booked into the local jail. (2) Scott
Morris, 40, was arrested for speeding and suspicion of DUI in
Boulder, Colo., in November. It was only the 44th time Morris had
been traffic-stopped--although Morris might be held to a different
standard, in that he is a Boulder police detective. [Provo Daily
Herald, 12-14-2012] [Denver CBS, 12-7-2012]
Thanks This Week to James Hoban, Sandy Pearlman, and
Annie Thames, and to the News of the Weird Board of Editorial
Advisors.
* * * * *
WeirdNews at earthlink dot net, http://www.NewsoftheWeird.net
(almost daily), and P.O. Box 18737, Tampa FL 33679.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages