Tuesday, October 25, 2005
Civil Rights Icon Dies at 92
By BREE FOWLER , AP
DETROIT (Oct. 25) - Rosa Parks, whose refusal to give up her bus seat to a white man sparked the modern civil rights movement, died Monday evening. She was 92.
Mrs. Parks died at her home during the evening of natural causes, with close friends by her side, said Gregory Reed, an attorney who represented her for the past 15 years.
Mrs. Parks was 42 when she committed an act of defiance in 1955 that was to change the course of American history and earn her the title "mother of the civil rights movement."
At that time, Jim Crow laws in place since the post-Civil War Reconstruction required separation of the races in buses, restaurants and public accommodations throughout the South, while legally sanctioned racial discrimination kept blacks out of many jobs and neighborhoods in the North.
The Montgomery, Ala., seamstress, an active member of the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, was riding on a city bus Dec. 1, 1955, when a white man demanded her seat.
An Arrest Seen Around the World
Rosa Parks helped spark the civil rights movement by refusing to give up her seat on a Montgomery, Ala., bus for a white man.
Timeline:
· 1913: Born in Alabama
· 1955: Arrested for refusing to yield seat
· 1996: Received Presidential Medal of Freedom
· 1999: Received Congressional Gold Medal
Sources: biography.com, World Book
Mrs. Parks refused, despite rules requiring blacks to yield their seats to whites. Two black Montgomery women had been arrested earlier that year on the same charge, but Mrs. Parks was jailed. She also was fined $14.
U.S. Rep. John Conyers, in whose office Parks worked for more than 20 years, remembered the civil rights leader Monday night as someone whose impact on the world was immeasurable, but who never saw herself that way.
"Everybody wanted to explain Rosa Parks and wanted to teach Rosa Parks, but Rosa Parks wasn't very interested in that," he said. "She wanted to them to understand the government and to understand their rights and the Constitution that people are still trying to perfect today."
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick said he felt a personal tie to the civil rights icon: "She stood up by sitting down. I'm only standing here because of her."
Speaking in 1992, Mrs. Parks said history too often maintains "that my feet were hurting and I didn't know why I refused to stand up when they told me. But the real reason of my not standing up was I felt that I had a right to be treated as any other passenger. We had endured that kind of treatment for too long."
Her arrest triggered a 381-day boycott of the bus system organized by a then little-known Baptist minister, the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., who later earned the Nobel Peace Prize for his work.
"At the time I was arrested I had no idea it would turn into this," Mrs. Parks said 30 years later. "It was just a day like any other day. The only thing that made it significant was that the masses of the people joined in."
The Montgomery bus boycott, which came one year after the Supreme Court's landmark declaration that separate schools for blacks and whites were "inherently unequal," marked the start of the modern civil rights movement.
The movement culminated in the 1964 federal Civil Rights Act, which banned racial discrimination in public accommodations.
After taking her public stand for civil rights, Mrs. Parks had trouble finding work in Alabama. Amid threats and harassment, she and her husband Raymond moved to Detroit in 1957. She worked as an aide in the Detroit office of Democratic U.S. Rep. John Conyers from 1965 until retiring in 1988. Raymond Parks died in 1977.
Mrs. Parks became a revered figure in Detroit, where a street and middle school were named for her and a papier-mache likeness of her was featured in the city's Thanksgiving Day Parade.
Mrs. Parks said upon retiring from her job with Conyers that she wanted to devote more time to the Rosa and Raymond Parks Institute for Self Development. The institute, incorporated in 1987, is devoted to developing leadership among Detroit's young people and initiating them into the struggle for civil rights.
"Rosa Parks: My Story" was published in February 1992. In 1994 she brought out "Quiet Strength: The Faith, the Hope and the Heart of a Woman Who Changed a Nation," and in 1996 a collection of letters called "Dear Mrs. Parks: A Dialogue With Today's Youth."
She was among the civil rights leaders who addressed the Million Man March in October 1995.
In 1996, she received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, awarded to civilians making outstanding contributions to American life. In 1999, she was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal, the nation's highest civilian honor.
Mrs. Parks received dozens of other awards, ranging from induction into the Alabama Academy of Honor to an NAACP Image Award for her 1999 appearance on CBS' "Touched by an Angel."
The Rosa Parks Library and Museum opened in November 2000 in Montgomery. The museum features a 1955-era bus and a video that recreates the conversation that preceded Parks' arrest.
"Are you going to stand up?" the bus driver asked.
"No," Parks answered.
"Well, by God, I'm going to have you arrested," the driver said.
"You may do that," Parks responded.
Mrs. Parks' later years were not without difficult moments.
In 1994, Mrs. Parks' home was invaded by a 28-year-old man who beat her and took $53. She was treated at a hospital and released. The man, Joseph Skipper, pleaded guilty, blaming the crime on his drug problem.
The Parks Institute struggled financially since its inception. The charity's principal activity - the annual Pathways to Freedom bus tour taking students to the sites of key events in the civil rights movement - routinely cost more money than the institute could raise.
Mrs. Parks lost a 1999 lawsuit that sought to prevent the hip-hop duo OutKast from using her name as the title of a Grammy-nominated song. In 2000, she threatened legal action against an Oklahoma man who planned to auction Internet domain name rights to http://www.rosaparks.com.
After losing the OutKast lawsuit, Reed, her attorney, said Mrs. Parks "has once again suffered the pains of exploitation." A later suit against OutKast's record company was settled out of court.
She was born Rosa Louise McCauley on Feb. 4, 1913, in Tuskegee, Ala. Family illness interrupted her high school education, but after she married Raymond Parks in 1932, he encouraged her and she earned a diploma in 1934. He also inspired her to become involved in the NAACP.
Looking back in 1988, Mrs. Parks said she worried that black young people took legal equality for granted.
Older blacks, she said "have tried to shield young people from what we have suffered. And in so doing, we seem to have a more complacent attitude.
"We must double and redouble our efforts to try to say to our youth, to try to give them an inspiration, an incentive and the will to study our heritage and to know what it means to be black in America today."
At a celebration in her honor that same year, she said: "I am leaving this legacy to all of you ... to bring peace, justice, equality, love and a fulfillment of what our lives should be. Without vision, the people will perish, and without courage and inspiration, dreams will die - the dream of freedom and peace."
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
Thank you Rosa Parks, R.I.P.
..:: posted at 1:37 AM
Sunday, October 02, 2005
WinMX PNP Network Mysteriously Ends Operations
September 21, 2005
Thomas Mennecke
| WinMX began its time as a simple OpenNap client in a time when Napster and Scour ruled the P2P scene. When Napster and Scour were banished from the Internet, WinMX's importance took on a new burden of importance. It reinvented itself from a mere OpenNap client to become one of the premier P2P networks of its day. |  |
During its height, WinMX, developed by FrontCode Technologies, eclipsed the Napster P2P network in not only resourcefulness, but also in population. During mid-2002, its population had reached over 1.5 million simultaneous users. With an active community, plenty of independent user forums and steady development it appeared there was nothing that could stop this network.
Then something mysterious happened. From July 2003 to July 2004, there were no updates to WinMX - nothing to improve the network architecture, the dreaded queues or any other attributes. Then in July 2004 after nearly a year of frustration, FrontCode released addition betas which many perceived as a mere "filler" versions. Version 3.53 did little more than feature “a major upgrade of the chat component and other minor improvements." Another beta version (3.54) was subsequently released, which improved the media library.
That would be the last anyone would hear from WinMX ever again. Slyck maintained communications with FrontCode president Kevin Hearn, who stated that work was still being continued on the mystical version 4.0. During the early part of the summer, Mr. Hearn told Slyck.com that something might be available towards the end of the 2005 summer.
However, another plot twist appears to have mixed things up once again. On September 13, 2005, WinMX was the recipient of a letter (along with 6 other P2P firms) from the RIAA. The letter demanded the receiving developers they cease infringing operations immediately, and offered to "discuss pre-litigation resolution of these claims."
Like Alberto Treves' decision to release the source of Ares Galaxy, or Sam Yagan's decision to join the DCIA, every move a P2P developer makes is immediately questioned to be in direct response to the RIAA's letter campaign. Such is the case for FrontCode Technologies. Or should we say WinMX Technology Associates?
Currently, the WinMX.com homepage, the FrontCode.com homepage, the WinMX PNP Network and all of its host caches are down. It is impossible to connect to the network, and those remaining online will only stay online as long as their host supernodes do. But is this the end of WinMX?
Perhaps not. Interestingly enough, if one conducts a DNS whois for "WinMX.com", the result directs owner ship to a "WinMX Technology Associates" - not FrontCode Technologies as it has in the past. Even more interesting is the geographical relocation from Toronto, Canada to Port Vila, Vanuatu. Many will remember that Sharman Networks pulled a similar stunt to avoid prosecution in the Netherlands and to capitalize on "tax efficiencies."
FrontCode.com is still registered in Canada. Kevin Hearn, who is usually readily available for comment with Slyck.com, has not responded to inquiries for several weeks.
Before anyone clamors the end of the WinMX PNP network, time needs to be given to allow for this development to unfold. Although it appears WinMX.com was reregistered prior to this event, its occurrence cannot be downplayed until this fluid situation is resolved.
|
..:: posted at 6:28 AM
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Condoms Are Named For Clinton, Lewinsky
POSTED: 10:41 am PDT September 21, 2005
BEIJING -- A rubber company in China has begun marketing condoms under the brand names Clinton and Lewinsky, apparently seeking to exploit the White House affair that led to the impeachment of America's 42nd president.
Spokesman Liu Wenhua of the Guangzhou Rubber Group said the company was handing out 100,000 free Clinton and Lewinsky condoms as part of a promotion to raise consumer awareness of its new products.
He said that after the promotion ends, the Clinton condoms will go on sale in southern China for 29.8 Yuan ($3.72) for a box of 12, while the Lewinsky model will be priced at 18.8 Yuan ($2.35) for the same quantity.
"The Clinton condom will be the top of our line," he said. "The Lewinsky condom is not quite as good."
Liu said the company had chosen to use the Clinton name because consumers viewed the former president as a responsible person, who would want to stress safe sex as an effective way to prevent the spread of the HIV virus.
"The names we chose are symbols of people who are responsible and dedicated to their jobs," he said. "I believe Bill Clinton cannot be unhappy about this because he's a very generous man."
Liu said the company did not believe using the Clinton and Lewinsky names constituted a violation of copyright or other laws.
"We have received full approval from the local Industrial and Commercial Bureau to start production," he said.
Clinton has campaigned aggressively for heightened AIDS awareness in China, where the disease is spreading rapidly.
In impeachment proceedings conducted by the U.S. Senate in 1999, he was acquitted on charges of perjury and obstruction of justice. The charges stemmed from denials he made about a sexual relationship he maintained with Lewinsky, a former White House intern.
Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Some things you can never live down!
..:: posted at 7:28 PM
Sunday, September 04, 2005
As Last Refugees Escape, New Orleans Turns To Its Dead
September 4, 2005 By KOMO Staff & News Services
NEW ORLEANS - As the last weary refugees from the Superdome and convention center headed to shelters, New Orleans drew closer to dealing with its dead, a gruesome landscape of corpses expected to number in the thousands.
No one knows how many people were killed by Hurricane Katrina and how many more succumbed waiting to be rescued. But the bodies are everywhere: hidden in attics, floating in the ruined city, crumpled in wheelchairs, abandoned on highways.
Echoing the mayor's prediction, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Saturday she expected the death toll to reach the thousands. And Craig Vanderwagen, rear admiral of the U.S. Public Health Service, said one morgue alone, at a St. Gabriel prison, expected 1,000 to 2,000 bodies.
Touring an airport triage center, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., a physician, said "a lot more than eight to 10 people are dying a day."
Most were those too sick or weak to survive. But not all.
Charles Womack, a 30-year-old roofer, said he saw one man beaten to death and another commit suicide at the Superdome. Womack was beaten with a pipe and treated at the airport center, where bodies were kept in a refrigerated truck.
"One guy jumped off a balcony. I saw him do it. He was talking to a lady about it. He said it reminded him of the war and he couldn't leave," he said.
Three babies died at the convention center from heat exhaustion, said Mark Kyle, a medical relief provider.
But some progress was evident. The last 300 refugees at the Superdome were evacuated Saturday evening, eliciting cheers from members of the Texas National Guard who had been standing watch over the facility for nearly a week as some 20,000 hurricane survivors waited for rescue.
On Sunday, utilities planned to send trucks into the city to assess storm damage for the first time since Katrina struck. Morgan Stewart, a spokesman for electricity provider Entergy Corp., said the National Guard would escort the company's vehicles.
The convention center was "almost empty" after 4,200 people were removed, according to Marty Bahamonde, a spokesman for the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Earlier estimates of the crowd climbed as high as 25,000.
Thousands of refugees dragged their meager belongings to buses, the mood more numb than jubilant. Yolando Sanders, who had been stuck at the convention center for five days, was among those who filed past corpses to reach the buses.
"Anyplace is better than here," she said.
"People are dying over there."
Nearby, a woman lay dead in a wheelchair on the front steps. A man was covered in a black drape with a dry line of blood running to the gutter, where it had pooled. Another had lain on a chaise lounge for four days, his stocking feet peeking out from under a quilt.
By mid-afternoon, only pockets of stragglers remained in the streets around the convention center, and New Orleans paramedics began carting away the dead.
The exact number of dead won't be known for some time. Survivors were still being plucked from roofs and shattered highways across the city. President Bush ordered more than 7,000 active duty forces to the Gulf Coast on Saturday.
"There are people in apartments and hotels that you didn't know were there," Army Brig. Gen. Mark Graham said.
The overwhelming majority of those stranded in the post-Katrina chaos were those without the resources to escape - and, overwhelmingly, they were black.
"The first few days were a natural disaster. The last four days were a man-made disaster," said Phillip Holt, 51, who was rescued from his home Saturday with his partner and three of their aging Chihuahuas. They left a fourth behind they couldn't grab in time.
Tens of thousands of people had been evacuated from the city, seeking safety in Texas, Tennessee and many other states.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry warned Saturday that his enormous state was running out of room, with more than 220,000 hurricane refugees camped out there and more coming. Emergency workers at the Astrodome were told to expect 10,000 new arrivals daily for the next three days.
In Washington, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta announced that more than 10,000 people had been flown out of New Orleans in what he called the largest airlift in history on U.S. soil. He said the flights would continue as long as needed.
Thousands of people remained at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport, where officials turned a Delta Blue terminal into a triage unit. Officials said 3,000 to 5,000 people had been treated at the unit, but fewer than 200 remain. Others throughout the airport awaited transport out of the city.
"In the beginning it was like trying to lasso an octopus. When we got here it was overwhelming," said Jake Jacoby, a physician helping run the center.
Airport director Roy Williams said about 30 people had died, some of them elderly and ill. The bodies were being kept in refrigerated trucks as a temporary morgue.
At the convention center, people stumbled toward the helicopters, dehydrated and nearly passing out from exhaustion. Many had to be carried by National Guard troops and police on stretchers. And some were being pushed up the street on office chairs and on dollies.
Nita LaGarde, 105, was pushed down the street in her wheelchair as her nurse's 5-year-old granddaughter, Tanisha Blevin, held her hand. The pair spent two days in an attic, two days on an interstate island and the last four days on the pavement in front of the convention center.
"They're good to see," LaGarde said, with remarkable gusto as she waited to be loaded onto a gray Marine helicopter. She said they were sent by God. "Whatever he has for you, he'll take care of you. He'll sure take care of you."
LaGarde's nurse, Ernestine Dangerfield, 60, said LaGarde had not had a clean adult diaper in more than two days. "I just want to get somewhere where I can get her nice and clean," she said.
Around the corner, a motley fleet of luxury tour buses and yellow school buses lined up two deep to pick up some of the healthier refugees. National Guardsmen confiscated a gun, knives and letter openers from people before they got on the buses.
"It's been a long time coming," Derek Dabon, 29, said as he waited to pass through a guard checkpoint. "There's no way I'm coming back. To what? That don't make sense. I'm going to start a new life."
Hillary Snowton, 40, sat on the sidewalk outside with a piece of white sheet tied around his face like a bandanna as he stared at a body that had been lying on a chaise lounge for four days, its stocking feet peeking out from under a quilt.
"It's for the smell of the dead body," he said of the sheet. His brother-in-law, Octave Carter, 42, said it has been "every day, every morning, breakfast lunch and dinner looking at it."
When asked why he didn't move further away from the corpse, Carter replied, "it stinks everywhere."
Dan Craig, director of recovery at the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said it could take up to six months to get the water out of New Orleans, and the city would then need to dry out, which could take up to three more months.
A Saks Fifth Avenue store billowed smoke Saturday, as did rows of warehouses on the east bank of the Mississippi River, where corrugated roofs buckled and tiny explosions erupted. Gunfire - almost two dozen shots - broke out in the French Quarter.
In the French Quarter, some residents refused or did not know how to get out. Some holed up with guns.
As the warehouse district burned, Ron Seitzer, 61, washed his dirty laundry in the even dirtier waters of the Mississippi River and said he didn't know how much longer he could stay without water or power, surrounded by looters.
"I've never even had a nightmare or a beautiful dream about this," he said as he watched the warehouses burn. "People are just not themselves."
Donate To Hurricane Katrina Relief Efforts:
-American Red Cross -- http://www.redcross.org/ or 1-800-HELP-NOW
-Salvation Army -- http://www.salvationarmyusa.org/ or 1-800-SAL-ARMY.
-Mercy Corps -- http://www.mercycorps.org/.
Please help, nothing is too small!
Friday, July 29, 2005
Kenya Man Holds Torch For Chelsea Clinton
POSTED: 10:48 am PDT July 28, 2005
NAIROBI, Kenya -- A Kenyan city councilman says he offered Bill Clinton 40 goats and 20 cows for his daughter's hand in marriage five years ago. He's still awaiting an answer.
Godwin Kipkemoi Chepkurgor wrote Clinton asking for Chelsea's hand in 2000 when Clinton visited Kenya, Chepkurgor told the East African Standard newspaper. Chepkurgor, 36, vowed to remain single until he gets an answer to his proposal to marry Chelsea, 25.
Chepkurgor, a city councilor in Nakuru, told Clinton of plans for a grand wedding presided over by South African Nobel Peace Prize winner Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
"Had I succeeded in wooing Chelsea, I would have had a grand wedding," he told the Standard in an interview published Friday during Clinton's recent visit to Kenya.
Chepkurgor said his letter praised both Clinton's leadership and his wife, now Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, for standing by her husband in the Monica Lewinsky scandal.
The electrical engineering graduate said he promised to pay 40 goats and 20 cows in dowry for Clinton's only daughter in accordance with African tradition. But he said the letter prompted security checks - on him, his family and his classmates.
It's unlikely Clinton ever received the offer. A security official told the Standard the letter probably never made it out of the office because authorities thought Chepkurgor "just took the joke too far."
Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
Ain't love grand!
Saturday, February 19, 2005
POSTED: 7:18 am PST February 18, 2005 UPDATED: 12:30 pm PST February 18, 2005 SEATTLE -- Police officers involved with strippers, some at a known "vice location," are the subjects of an internal investigation and a four-year FBI probe, The Seattle Times reported in a copyright article Friday.
In one instance, according to a Police Department report, Rusty Lee Leslie, 44, a 17-year veteran, "embraced and passionately kissed" an exotic dancer July 11 while he was in uniform in the parking lot of Rick's on Lake City Way.
In the report, dated Dec. 14 and obtained Thursday through a public disclosure request, Capt. Neil E. Low of the department's Office of Professional Accountability wrote: "A public display of affection with an employee-entertainer of the club reflects negatively on the department, gives the appearance of a conflict of interest and gives the impression the department sanctions the behavior of employees of the club," the report said. The dancer, who would not comment to the Times, has been cited 11 times since 1997 on accusations of having sexual contact with customers and offstage nudity, according to court records. The strip club is a "well-known, documented vice location," and Leslie's conduct "raises concerns about vice detectives working covert operations at Rick's," the report said. "Do the detectives have to worry that an officer involved in an amorous relationship with an employee of Rick's will reveal their covert identities or investigations?" Leslie was suspended for a day without pay, a punishment officials did not explain. He said he would not fight the suspension and would not comment further. Through a representative of the Seattle Police Guild, he told internal investigators he had been dating the dancer for five years and described the kiss as what one might share with a spouse or friend in a restaurant or at work. Other officers also have come under investigation for ties to women at the club since 2001, when police informed the FBI Public Integrity Task Force that officer Rene Flores may have told an occasional Rick's dancer, Teri Nelson, her ex-boyfriend was being sought for questioning about a killing in suburban Kirkland. Nelson said she began dating Flores in 2001 when he appeared in uniform at a party she threw for another dancer at a downtown hotel, but only after her former boyfriend, Kyle Wilkins, had been located by police. Flores, a six-year veteran, was fired in 2003 after he and officer Matthew Wahlgren vandalized a rookie officer's police car, causing about $1,200 in damage while they were drunk and off-duty at a bar. The two veterans pleaded guilty to gross misdemeanors. Wahlgren also was fired. Both are seeking reinstatement. Another officer helped quell disturbances at Rick's informally, responding to cellular telephone calls from managers without contacting dispatchers or filing reports, two dancers told The Times. The task force probe also covers at least five officers working off-duty at downtown nightclubs where drug dealing and liquor violations were reported, according to The Times. Police officers getting cozy with exotic dancers is a longstanding concern, said former Lt. Richard M. Schweitzer, who retired recently after 35 years on the force, including work as a watch commander supervising some of those now under scrutiny. "The department has never been happy about its officers dating these dancers," Schweitzer said. "These girls often have criminal histories. Some of them use drugs. It can put officers in a very vulnerable situation." Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske told The Times he was aware of the parking lot and Kirkland matters and is waiting for the FBI task force's report, which is expected soon. Kerlikowske asserted that court decisions and arbitration rulings nationwide have hamstrung enforcement of a policy that officers "must avoid associations with persons, both on and off duty, which might reasonably be expected to compromise their integrity or credibility or the image of the department." Police guild president Sgt. Kevin E. Haistings said that while the behavior of some officers might embarrass the department, anything short of a violation of law or ethics should not be grounds for discipline. Police "do not give up their constitutional rights" when they are given a badge and gun, Haistings said. Frank Colacurcio Jr., owner and operator of Rick's, said Thursday that he was unaware of any illegal vice activity, ties between dancers and police officers or the parking lot kiss. "I wish if they saw anything, they would let the management know," he said. "It would make a big difference." Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All rights reserved. ..:: posted at 5:44 AM
Monday, January 31, 2005
Jury Selection Begins in Child-Molestation Trial
Friday Jan 31, 2005 2:40pm EST By Stephen M. Silverman
 By LINDA DEUTSCH, AP SANTA MARIA, Calif. (Jan. 31) - Dressed in a bright white suit and a jewel-trimmed vest and belt, Michael Jackson on Monday stood before the first group of prospective jurors who could decide his fate on charges he molested a teenage cancer patient and plied the boy with alcohol at his Neverland Ranch.
The pop superstar, accompanied by four defense lawyers, stood and smiled as he faced prospective jurors for the start of jury selection in what could become the most sensational celebrity trial the world has ever seen. He greeted the clerk with a handshake at the courthouse in this small coastal city in central California.
Outside, fans from around the world pressed up against a chain-link fence and shouted words of encouragement, holding up signs that read, "Dear God, Please Give Michael Justice'' and "France Supports and Loves MJ.''
Fans danced and sang a Jackson song attacking the district attorney and booed a woman who held a sign backing the accuser.
Santa Barbara County District Attorney Tom Sneddon, whom Jackson has derided in a song as a "cold man'' with a vendetta, did not come to court. A deputy represented the prosecution.
Jackson, 46, is charged with molesting a teenage boy - then 13, now 15 - and plying him with alcohol.
On Sunday, Jackson issued a court-approved video statement on his Web site, predicting he would be acquitted. His parents also spoke out in his defense Monday, saying the young accuser was after his money.
"I know my son, and this is ridiculous,'' his mother, Katherine Jackson, said in an interview broadcast on CBS' "The Early Show.'' She said people who believe her son is guilty "don't know him.''
Judge Rodney Melville told the first group of 150 prospective jurors that they might have to serve for about six months, but that it was an important duty.
"Most of us have relatives who have fought and died to protect this service,'' Melville said. "Freedom is not free. Jury duty is part of the cost of freedom.''
The first group was predominantly white. About a quarter appeared to be Hispanic. There were only three blacks.
Sixty-six members of the first group asked to be excused, but during questioning by the judge two changed their minds. A woman who said she was eight months pregnant was excused from the case.
Five hundred more prospective jurors were to be processed later Monday and on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Those not excused will out questionnaires, and then will be questioned individually by the attorneys. The judge wants 12 jurors in addition to eight alternates.
The small-town feel of the jury pool was apparent during questioning. One woman ran a pet shop, while another was in local real estate. One woman said she could get a medical excuse from her doctor across the street. A few said they have friends who work at Jackson's Neverland ranch.
Prospective jurors were addressed with nine-digit numbers in court.
One woman said she worked at an elementary school where she dealt with "people that need counseling for molestation.''
Other prospective jurors said they had to care for sick relatives or had too many job responsibilities. One woman said that at 75, she was "just too old.''
"You don't look a day over 60,'' the judge replied.
The woman said she was willing to serve if she had to, but noted she had "a multitude of illnesses.''
When another woman said she had to be home every night to care for her mother, the judge told her that she would be home every night.
"Don't they lock juries up, too?'' the prospect asked, inquiring if the judge could guarantee she would get home.
"Oh yeah, I'm going home every night,'' said Melville, who intends to end each day of trial by 2:30 p.m.
One man said he couldn't serve because his employer wouldn't pay him while he was on jury duty.
"Your employer doesn't pay jury service?'' asked Melville.
"He's an attorney, no sir,'' the man said.
Watch His Full Statement
Associated Press Writer Tim Molloy contributed to this report.
Copyright 2005 The Associated Press.
..:: posted at 3:11 PM
Saturday, January 29, 2005
SpongeBob Asexual, Not Gay: Creator
Friday Jan 28, 2005 8:00am EST By Stephen M. Silverman
 SpongeBob SquarePants
CREDIT: NICKELODEON
Tossing water on the controversy as to whether he's straight or gay, SpongeBob SquarePants is ... neither, insists his creator.
Addressing issues raised last week after at least two conservative Christian activist groups said the hugely popular TV cartoon character and his best friend, Patrick Starfish, are being exploited to promote a homosexual lifestyle, scoffed. He said the allegations are far-fetched, and that his agenda does not go beyond entertainment.
"It doesn't have anything to do with what we're trying to do," Hillenburg tells Reuters. "We never intended them to be gay. I consider them to be almost asexual. We're just trying to be funny and this has got nothing to do with the show."
Playful SpongeBob, who lives in a pineapple under the Pacific Ocean, was purportedly "outed" in 2002 news stories that reported his Nickelodeon TV show and its spin-off merchandise were popular with gays.
Focus on the Family founder James Dobson last week criticized the nonprofit We Are Family Foundation group's pro-diversity music video for children and which includes SpongeBob: "Their inclusion of the reference to 'sexual identity' within their 'tolerance pledge' is not only unnecessary, but it crosses a moral line."
The Hollywood-based Hillenburg, a marine-science teacher turned animator who is married with a 6-year-old son, says there are "more important issues to worry about.
I really don't pay much attention to this." First is was Barney then the purple Teletubby, now SpongeBob! Is nothing sacred?!
..:: posted at 2:21 AM
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
All done.. hope you like, and if ya don't TOUGH -=P
~Starr
Wednesday, August 04, 2004
Same-sex marriage ruled legal in Washington state
By Sanjay Bhatt
Seattle Times staff reporter
Washington state's Defense of Marriage Act, which limits marriage to one man and one woman, violates the state Constitution, King County Superior Court Judge William Downing ruled today.
Citing the rationale of state Supreme Courts in Massachusetts and Vermont, Downing wrote, "The Court concludes that the exclusion of same-sex partners from civil marriage and the privileges attendant thereto is not rationally related to any legitimate or compelling state interest and is certainly not narrowly tailored toward such an interest."
The suit was filed by Lambda Legal and the Northwest Women's Law Center on behalf of eight same-sex couples denied marriage licenses in King County. The case was the first of its kind to be filed in Washington since Massachusett's high court ruled in favor of same-sex couples marriage, and its outcome will have legal and political impact beyond this state.
Gay couples have been able to wed in Massachusetts since May.
The Washington suit contends that this state's law, passed by the Legislature in 1998, violates the state and federal constitutions' guarantees of equality for all citizens.
In oral arguments July 27, attorneys for the plaintiffs said same-sex couples need the legal protections that only marriage can provide.
Lawyers for King County, and the state defended the DOMA law. They were joined by Washington Evangelicals for Responsible Government and the Coalition for Community Development and Renewal, an organization of inner-city pastors, who intervened in the suit.
With no history or tradition of same-sex marriage in Washington, there is no fundamental right to marriage, they said.
The defendants also pointed to a 1974 case, Singer v. Hara, in which the State Court of Appeals ruled that the state's Equal Rights Amendment did not apply to two gay men who sought to marry.
A second lawsuit, this one against the state, was filed in April by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of 11 same-sex couples. Eventually that case and the King County suit will go to the state Supreme Court.
Go Seattle!
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Video: Officers Under Investigation For Actions At Strip Club
