News story for 4-17-2005

The Facts

News story for 4-10-2005

The following is an excerpt from MSNBC's website.

LAS VEGAS - The woman who claims she bit into a human finger while eating chili at a Wendy’s restaurant has a history of filing lawsuits — including a claim against another fast-food restaurant.

Anna Ayala, 39, who hired a San Jose, Calif., attorney to represent her in the Wendy’s case, has been involved in at least half a dozen legal battles in the San Francisco Bay area, according to court records.

She brought a suit against an ex-boss in 1998 for sexual harassment and sued an auto dealership in 2000, alleging the wheel fell off her car. That suit was dismissed after Ayala fired her lawyer, who said she had threatened him.

The case against her former employer was settled in arbitration in June 2002, but it was not known whether she received any money.

Speaking through the front door of her Las Vegas home Friday, Ayala claimed police are out to get her and were unnecessarily rough as they executed a search warrant at her home on Wednesday.

"Lies, lies, lies, that’s all I am hearing," she said. "They should look at Wendy’s. What are they hiding? Why are we being victimized again and again?"

Ayala acknowledged, however, that her family received a settlement for their medical expenses about a year ago after reporting that her daughter, Genesis, got sick from food at an El Pollo Loco restaurant in Las Vegas. She declined to provide any further details.

San Jose police have joined the Las Vegas police fraud unit in the investigation into how a 1½-inch-long fingertip ended up in Ayala’s bowl of chili at the San Jose Wendy’s on March 22. Ayala said Friday she had not yet filed a claim against Wendy’s, and it was unclear whether she had filed suit against the franchise owner.

Wendy’s spokesman Bob Bertini would not comment on the investigation Friday.

The company, however, maintains that the finger did not enter the food chain in its ingredients. The employees at the San Jose store were found to have all their fingers, and no suppliers of Wendy’s ingredients have reported any hand or finger injuries, the company said.

On Thursday, Wendy’s offered a $50,000 reward to anyone providing verifiable information leading to the positive identification of the origin of the finger.

"It’s very important to our company to find out the truth in this incident," Tom Mueller, Wendy’s president and chief operating officer, said in a statement.

Investigators would not say what they were looking for in the search of Ayala’s house. Ken Bono, a family friend who lives at the home, said officers searched freezers, a picnic cooler in the backyard and the belongings of an aunt who used to live at the house.

The Santa Clara County Coroner’s Office used a partial fingerprint to attempt to find a match in an electronic database of missing people and those with criminal histories, but came up empty. DNA testing is still being conducted on the finger.

"The simple fact of the matter is that the finger came from somebody. Where’s that person at?" said Sgt. Nick Muyo, a spokesman for the San Jose Police Department.

Bertini said Wendy’s stores in the area have suffered from declining sales since the incident.

"Obviously the store has been down significantly," he said. "This has been an ordeal for all of us. Hopefully there will be a resolution soon."

Are we that desperate for money that we need to put pieces of people in our food and then sue the restaurant? This woman is obviously full of it and is a gold digger who is only out for money at the expense of everyone but herself. The power of the almighty dollar in our nation is enough to make me sick. Money turns families, friends, neighbors, and otherwise close people, against each other. Imagine how much less fighting there would be in this world if there was no such thing as money. How many fights and disagreements have all been the result of one thing... money. Like Shaggy 2 Dope's charecter says in the movie "Big Money Hustlas", "It's always about some money. Why's it always gotta be over some ----- --- money?"

   This woman has a history of filing lawsuits that are for PURE gain and have nothing to do with justice. I did not know who to believe in this story until I read the part about NO ONE at any factories or restaurants or anything reporting any hand injuries. That finger did not just seperate from somone's hand and walk in there with the person not knowing it. Chances are, if somone at the factories had an accident and lost a finger-tip, they would have reported it so they could get worker's comp. It's not like a papercut or something where you don't bother reporting it. It would've been reported. Nothing was. Even it was a trucker that had the accident or some other bizarre situation, if the person lost the finger-tip, they probably want it so that they could go to the hospital and get it reattached. If they didn't, I highly doubt they would go in the storage compartment of a Wendy's food truck and open up a bag of chili and then throw it in there and leave. This woman probably got this finger from a relative or friend who works in a  morgue.

         I am tired of people abusing the legal system. Every day we have people who make jokes out of our courtrooms. Turn on any court room show ( Judge Judy, Mills Lane, Joe Brown, Greg Mathis, People's Court, Texas Justice, etc.) and you will see people dressed up like something the cat threw up, spreading lies about each other to a judge for the sole purpose of defaming the charecter of somone that used to be their friend. Why? So they can make money off of an unfortunate event. Somone gets hit by a car and what happens? The "victim" (and I use that term loosely) gets maybe a sore muscle. Maybe a bruyise. They hire a  fast-talking lawyer like the evil Johnny Cochran (a lawyer who fought to prove the innocence of black people everywhere no matter how guilty they were) and they hire a few doctors (or just go to doctors who happen to also be family members) and they write up all kinds of phony paper work. They wear casts and braces to court to fake injuries in order to get sympathy from the judge. Sometimes they even exploit religion as well. "Well ya honor, I was comin out da Baptist church over on 7 mile and groesbeck and this guy over heea done hit me wit his car goin 8 miles a hour and this gave me a serious whiplash and a ruptured liver and a broken spine and a cracked brain and a inflammed tibia and a shattered neckbone. The force was so great that it made me drop my bible on da flo and da pages done got ripped, yo. These injuries through the miraculous works of the Lord Almighty don't be on my x-rays but my brutha-- I mean my doctor, can vouch for me."

     That is NOT what the court systems are there for. I don't know how this woman got this finger. That is probably why the police raided her home. They were probably looking for a hand or other body parts. They know it was not the fault of Wendy's or any of its factories, so they went over to look at the residence of this woman. and she acts like a victim when she is MORE than guilty. "Oh the police just stormed in here and were excessively violent to me and they had no right to come in here and I'm being victimized and and poor me and oh everyone please feel sorry for me and poor me boohoo" SHUT UP!!! Be an adult about it. If you need money then get a job or a loan or a loan from your friends. Do NOT abuse what is set up to mainain JUSTICE in our nation. This woman is part of what is wrong with America. She needs to be locked up. thank you.

News story for the week of 4-3-05

The Facts

I'm sure EVERYBODY and their mother has heard, by now, about the ailments and death of Pope John Paul II. I am not going to report on his life, legacy, illness and death, because I'm sure everybody has heard everything that there is to hear about it. All of the news channels have been covering this story non-stop for a few days now (as they should be). I figure I will bring you a story that you do not know about. I will bring you NEW news. Here it is.

With the tragic story of the end of the only Pope that I have ever been alive to witness, so many other stories are going un-noticed. Stories like Colin Powell making public regrets for "giving false intelligence" to the U.N. (read "The First Four Years" for full story), to a police officer being pulled over and ticketed for speeding to make an emergency baby delivery. This is another story that has slipped under the Papal rug lately. This story is about a woman from North Carolina.

Here are the facts

The following excerpt is taken from MSNBC's website.

"North Carolina woman not the marrying kind". She sues state over 200 year old law against cohabitation.

Wilmington, N.C. 

A former sheriff's dispatcher who quit her job after her boss found out she lived with her boyfriend is challenging North Carolina's law against cohabitation.

Deborah Hobbs said that she was told to either get married, move out, or find another job after her boss found out about her living situation. The legal arm of the American Civil Liberties Union of North Carolina filed the lawsuit on mondy on her behalf. The lawsuit seeks to abolish the nearly 200- year old and rarely enforced law that prohibits unmarried, unrelated adults of the opposite sex from living together. North Carolina is one of seven states with such a law. Convicted offenders face a fine and up to 60 days in jail..

"The government has no business meddling in the private relationships of consenting adults," said Jennifer Rudinger, executive director of the ACLU-NC Legal foundation. Hobbs had been living with her boyfriend for about three years when she was hired as a Pender County 911 dispatcher in February of 2004. The couple decided that they did not want to marry. Hobbs quit last may instead of being fired. Sheriff Carson Smith said last year that Hobbs' employment was a moral issue as well as a legal question. He said he tries to avoid hiring people who openly live together, but that he does'nt send out deputies to enforce the law.

Hobbs declined to comment Monday. Rudinger said she is employed and still lives with her boyfriend. Neither the sheriff nor Pender County Attorney Trey Thurman would comment.

MY THOUGHTS

Ok. First off, Let me just say that I believe in God as much as the next guy. I think a lot of religions views are a little iffy but that's another chapter in another book. I know I personally would NEVER marry a girl unless I did live with her first. What if the girl/guy has some really annoying habits that you don't know about. What if the girl/guy is a different person when he/she is a room-mate instead of a guest. Some people just don't get along real well after a certain amount of time. I know there are people that I can be nice around and I can stand them for a few hours, and then after that time, we start fighting and bickering. I think it is just plain stupid to not EVER spend even 1 night with somebody and then promise to spend the rest of your life with that person. In my opinion, that is an invitation to disaster. In my opinion, this is one of the reasons why the divorce rate of our country is at 50%. I do not think God will banish me to the nethervoid for wanting to be absolutely sure that I can handle it. I think He'd be proud of me for taking the vow seriously and "researching" first to see if I could keep the vow.

I am also getting tired of the hipocracy of this country. We are founded on the principal that there should be seperation of church and state. That is one of the wonderful things about our important national documents. It's in writing. "Freedom of Religion". Freedom of Religion is one of the reasons the Pilgrims left England so many years ago (English schools teach their children that the American Pilgrims were kicked out of the nation...... F.Y.I.). It is not fair to Muslims, Atheists, Buddhists, Ba-hai, or any other non-Jewish/Christian group to leave the "one nation, under God" in our pledge. What if it were "One nation under Buddha". I know some of you people out there are saying "I don't play the "what if" game." Well some people play the what if game every day. Some Atheists and Muslims and other beliefs go off to school every day and say that they pledge allegiance to a nation under a God that they have the right not to even believe in. The what if game is real for them. They have the right to not believe in that particular God, why should this belief be pushed on them then? What if your child had to go to school every day and say "One nation, under Buddha, with liberty and justice for some, and bribery handing out "get out of jail free" cards for others." If you don't believe in Buddha that is not fair. If the national religion was Buddhism, then it would be different, but we do not have a national religion. The schools are not allowed to have organized prayer service, yet they pray every single morning when they say the pledge. I also think it is time to remove "In God We Trust" from the money. You can believe in God as much as you want. I know I do. But I also am aware that more than 25 percent of America does not share that belief. You may also use the argument against me that "That is the way it has been since the founding fathers. The founding fathers did it so why should'nt we. Why should we change it. It's been that way for how many years now". Let me respond to that by saying this. At the time, slavery was also common. Slavery had been going on for years at this time. It was the normal thing to do. Washington had slaves. Jefferson had slaves (which he had affairs with). He said in the Declaration of Independence that "All men are created equal". If all men are created equal, why did he enslave some of them? If Lincoln had thought to himself "Well slavery has been going on for years. Since the founding fathers. So why should we change it now?" Imagine how different this nation would be. Sometimes it is possible to change for the better. To change to make a fairer, and more just, American way of life. So that this is the America for ALL Americans. Not just the ones on the religious right (the religious right is neither, by the way).

Even if you don't want to call this a religious argument (which I believe it is) what business does the boss have to tell you who you can and cannot live with. What if your boss came in one day and said "Ya can't live with your friend anymore. Ya gotta move in with your brother". Is is at all possible that the 2 adults of different genders are not having "relations" under that roof? There have been women that I have known that have been good friends but that does NOT mean that I slept with them. What if it is a woman and a gay man living together. What if one of the people is of trans-gender. (trans-sexual or trans-vestite) What if it is a man who has a girlfriend or a fiance and a woman who he has known since childhood. Just because a man and a woman are room-mates does not mean they are doing anything "sinful". I do not seee anything wrong witht his situation. Who is her boss to tell her this anyway. Work and home lives should be seperate. This woman's living arrangements have NOTHING to do with her ability to do her job. And another point is, this woman is looking at jail time for this. The jail system is set up to keep people who wish to do society harm, in a safe place. Jail is set up to keep people off the streets who are causing harm to somone in some way. Think about it. Who goes to jail? Murderers, drug dealers, violent offenders, money launderers, and other criminals. Where is the crime here. Who is this hurting. Who is being sold drugs that will eventually kill them? Who is getting the bullet in their head? Who is having property or money stolen from them? How will society benefit from this woman being locked behind bars? This woman worked for the Police Department. If anything, this will hurt society. Because she helps put away the fore-mentioned criminals. How can someone honestly say, "Good. Now that woman won't be able to commit the heinous act of living peacefully in her apartment with that guy". So in the immortal words of Jamie Madrox, "If you had 98 cents, now you have a dollar. Because I just gave you my 2 cents."

P.S. May God bless and keep former Pope John Paul II

News story of the week for 3-27-05

The facts:

There is all according to CNN news.

PINELLAS PARK, Florida (CNN) -- The feeding tube for the brain damaged Florida woman at the center of a bitter moral and legal tug of war was disconnected Friday afternoon, and her husband's lawyer pleaded, "She has a right to die in peace." The dramatic moment seemed to cap an emotional day in which Terri Schiavo's husband , parents, the courts and members of Congress waded into the battle over the woman's fate.         

         Late Friday, lawyers for the House of Representatives filed an appeal with the U.S. Supreme Court, asking the justices to intervene in the case. Justice Anthony Kennedy has jursidiction over emergency appeals in cases arising in the 11th U.S. Circuit, where Schiavo's case is being played out. That appeal was later denied without comment. The court made the decision at 11:05 p.m. after the justices conferred by the telephone. There was no breakdown of the vote.

       David Gibbs, an attorney for Schiavo's parents, Mary and Bob Schindler, said the family is appealing to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals on an expidited basis and pressing Congress to sort out legislation, while also lobbying the Florida Legislature to pass a law to intervene. "We're now up against a very tight clock because Terri is in the process of being starved to death," Gibbs said. "It is looking more and more like Washington, D.C., or [the state capital of] Tallahassee is going to have to step forward and save Terri's life." He added, "The family is heartsick. This is their daughter. This is their loved one. This is their sister. And they are watching her suffer, in their opinion, a death that she shouldn't have to face"

     The tube was disconnected about 1:45 p.m., George Felos, Michael Schiavo's attorney, told reporters. Friday's medical procedure was the third time the tube had been disconnected from the 41-year-old woman. Present were her doctor, a number of other health care providers and a representative of her husband and guardian, Felos said. He said Terri Schiavo, who is Roman Catholic, recieved the sacrament of Communion from a hospice priest before the tube was disconnected. "I am told that it was an emotional occasion. Prayers were said at the time, and the feeding tube was disconnected," Felos told reporters. Mr. Schiavo currently is with his wife, at her bedside".  "It was a very calm peaceful procedure," he said.

      Without liquids, it could take Schiavo two to four weeks to die from dehydration. Felos said Terri's parents, who have been trying to become their daughter's guardians and have fought Michael Schiavo's desire to let his wife die, can visit their daughter at the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast in Pinellas Park. They are free to visit her right now. I want to be absolutley clear about that," Felos said. "There is no effort whatsoever to restrict their visitation. They can go and visit her now. They can stay as long as they want."

     The disconnecting of the feeding tube was the latest step in a contentious family saga that began 15 years ago, when Terri collapsed from heart failure that resulted in severe brain damage. Lowed courts have ruled that she is in a "persistent vegetative state." Seven years ago, Schiavo'a husband and her parents began a legal tug-of-war over whether to have her feeding tube removed and allow her to die. The case has drawn national attention and rallied activists on both sides of the right-to-die debate. Michael Schiavo contends his wife would not want to be kept alive artificially. But her parents argue she had no such death wish and believe she could get better with rehabilitation. Terri did not leave anything in writing about what she would want if she ever became incapacitated. Over the years, courts have sided with her husband in more than a dozen cases.

My thoughts:

I am middle of the road on this one. I believe she does have the right to die because she has been living this way for 15 years. Can you imagine 15 years of laying in bed? Not talking? Not eating solid food? I would'nt be able to make it 2 years. If this were depression or the flu or something then I would say hey wait a minute. She could get better in those cases. She is not going to get better. The family says she might with rehab. Why has it taken 15 years and it still hasn't happened? I don't think she should be forced to suffer anymore. The other side has a VERY good point though. Starvation is one of the slowest most painful deaths that anyone can go through. If you are going to do a mercy killing by pulling out the tube, you have to make it quick and painless for this poor woman. Either way Godspeed Mrs. Schiavo. Wer'e praying for you no matter what happens with this.