Ala. man fights to keep wife buried in front yard

(guy just trying to respect his wife’s last wishes getting hassled ‘cause somebody’s worried about what it’ll do to property values. He even had a proper casement installed and it does add a certain flair to the place, why not bury the guy next her when he kicks it and add a whole family values aspect to the place. Politicians have no imagination)

By JAY REEVES, APSTEVENSON, Ala. — James Davis is fighting to keep the remains of his late wife right where he dug her grave: In the front yard of his home, just a few feet from the porch.

Davis said he was only abiding by Patsy Ruth Davis' wishes when he buried her outside their log home in 2009, yet the city sued to move the body elsewhere. A county judge ordered Davis to disinter his wife, but the ruling is on hold as the Alabama Civil Court of Appeals considers his challenge.

Davis, 73, said he never expected such a fight.

"Good Lord, they've raised pigs in their yard, there's horses out the road here in a corral in the city limits, they've got other gravesites here all over the place," said Davis. "And there shouldn't have been a problem."

While state health officials say family burial plots aren't uncommon in Alabama, city officials worry about the precedent set by allowing a grave on a residential lot on one of the main streets through town. They say state law gives the city some control over where people bury their loved ones and have cited concerns about long-term care, appearance, property values and the complaints of some neighbors.

"We're not in the 1800s any longer," said city attorney Parker Edmiston. "We're not talking about a homestead, we're not talking about someone who is out in the country on 40 acres of land. Mr. Davis lives in downtown Stevenson."

A strong libertarian streak runs through northeast Alabama, which has relatively few zoning laws to govern what people do with their property. Even a neighbor who got into a fight with Davis over the gravesite — Davis said he punched the man — isn't comfortable with limiting what a homeowner can do with his property.

"I don't think it's right, but it's not my place to tell him he can't do it," said George W. Westmoreland, 79, who served three tours of duty in Vietnam. "I laid my life on the line so he would have the right to do this. This is what freedom is about."

Westmoreland declined to discuss his specific objections to the grave.

It's unclear when the appeals court might rule. Attorneys filed initial papers in the appeal on Friday. The decision could come down to whether the judges believe the front-yard grave constitutes a family plot that requires no approval or a cemetery, which would.

In the meantime, Davis has protested by running for City Council. A campaign sign hangs near a bigger sign in his yard that says: "Let Patsy Rest in Peace."

A law professor who is familiar with the case said it's squarely at the intersection of personal rights and government's power to regulate private property. While disputes over graves in peoples' yards might be rare, lawsuits over the use of eminent domain actions and zoning restrictions are becoming more common as the U.S. population grows, said Joseph Snoe, who teaches property law at Samford University in suburban Birmingham.

"The United States Supreme Court has said that the states, and the cities through the states, have the power to regulate. But if it goes too far ... then the government's got to pay, and there are certain things the government just doesn't have the power to do," he said. "As we get bigger and as government gets bigger and as people are more regulated ... you start having more and more disagreements."

Davis, a longtime carpenter, built the family's home on a corner on Broad Street about 30 years ago in Stevenson, a town of about 2,600 in northeast Alabama. Once a bustling railroad stop, the city is now so quiet some people don't bother locking their doors. Stars twinkle brightly in the night sky; there aren't many lights to blot them out.

Davis first met Patsy when she was a little girl. They were married for 48 years, but she spent most of her final days bedridden with crippling arthritis. Seated on a bench beside her marble headstone and flower-covered grave, Davis said he and his wife planned to have their bodies cremated until she revealed she was terrified by the thought.

"She said this is where she wanted to be and could she be put here, and I told her, `Yeah,'" Davis said. "I didn't think there'd be any problem."

There was, though. A big one.

After his wife died on April 18, 2009, the City Council rejected Davis' request for a cemetery permit. The decision came even though the county health department signed off on the residential burial, saying it wouldn't cause any sanitation problems.

Ignoring the council's decision, Davis said he and a son-in-law cranked a backhoe and dug a grave just a few feet from the house. A mortuary installed a concrete vault, and workers lowered Patsy's body into the plot in a nice, metal casket.

The city sued, and the case went to trial early this year. That's when a judge ordered Davis to move his wife's remains to a licensed cemetery. That order is on hold to give the state appeals court time to rule.

For now, Davis visits his wife's grave each time he walks out the front door. He puts fresh artificial flowers on it regularly, and he washes off the marker when raindrops splatter dirt on the gray stone. At Christmas, he said, he and other relatives hold a little prayer vigil around the grave, which is beside an old wooden garage.

Edmiston said the man rejected several compromises from the city, including the offer of two plots in the municipal graveyard.

While state officials say they don't know how many people might be buried on residential lots in Alabama, burials on private property in Alabama are not uncommon, said Sherry Bradley, deputy environmental director for the state Department of Public Health.

While the state can regulate cemeteries, Bradley said it doesn't have any control over family burial plots. The city contends the grave at Davis' home is an illegal cemetery that falls under government oversight, said Edmiston, the city lawyer.

If nothing else, Edmiston said, the appeals court might decide what constitutes a "family burial plot" in Alabama, and what's a cemetery.

"It would be far-reaching if they say anyone can bury someone in their front yard if there are no drainage issues," he said.

As it is, Davis said his five children will bury him in the yard beside Patsy after he dies, and they and his 15 grandchildren will care for the property from then on.

"That's my perpetual care," said Davis, referring to the city's worry about what the grave will look like after he dies.

Davis is adamant that he won't move the body, regardless of what any court says.

"If they get it done it'll be after I'm gone," said Davis. "So if they order her to be moved, it's a death sentence to me. I'll meet Mama sooner than I planned on it."

Brazilian worker survives iron bar piercing skull

(stories like this one have been popping up in the news since the 1800’s worker gets bar thru skull everything fine. Not sure what to make of these tales, which sound like urban legend but are actually happening. I never feel sure I can trust a headline I’ve seen in Ripley’s)

By RENATA BRITO, APRIO DE JANEIRO — A 24-year-old construction worker survived after a 6-foot metal bar fell from above and pierced his head, doctors said Friday.

Luiz Alexandre Essinger, chief of staff at Rio de Janeiro's Miguel Couto Hospital, said doctors successfully withdrew the iron bar from Eduardo Leite's skull during a five-hour surgery.

"He was taken to the operating room, his skull was opened, they examined the brain and the surgeon decided to pull the metal bar out from the front in the same direction it entered the brain." Essinger said.

He said Leite was conscious when he arrived at the hospital and told him what had happened.

He said Leite was lucid and showed no negative consequences after the operation.

"Today, he continues well, with few complaints for a five-hour-long surgery," Essinger said. "He says he feels little pain."

The bar fell from the fifth floor of a building under construction, went through Leite's hard hat, entered the back of his skull and exited between his eyes, Essinger said, adding: "It really was a miracle" that Leite survived.

The accident and surgery took place on Wednesday.

"They told me he was lying down (in the ambulance) with the bar pointing upward," said Leite's wife, Lilian Regina da Silva Costa. "He was holding it and his face covered in blood. His look was as if nothing had happened. When he arrived he told the doctors he wasn't feeling anything, no pain, nothing. It's unbelievable."

Ruy Monteiro, the hospital's head of neurosurgery, told the Globo TV network that Leite escaped by just a few centimeters from losing one eye and becoming paralyzed on the left side of his body.

He said the bar entered a "non-eloquent" area of the brain, an area that doesn't have a specific, major known function.

Leite is expected to remain hospitalized for at least two weeks

Your ad here? NY brothers promote toilet-paper ads

(perfect for when you want something to read in the W.C.)

RYE BROOK, N.Y. — Two brothers from a New York City suburb have an advertising concept that's on a roll — a roll of toilet paper.

Bryan and Jordan Silverman are creators of toilet tissue printed with ads, and sometimes with coupon codes that can be read by cellphones. The Journal-News ( http://tinyurl.com/ccveoyb) says in a story Sunday that the brothers expect their product to appear this fall in the Port Chester-Rye Brook Public Library.

Twenty-two-year-old Jordan Silverman came up with the idea for Star Toilet Paper in 2010. His 18-year-old brother tells the newspaper that he was initially skeptical but came to see it as advertising to "a really captive audience."

The brothers from Rye Brook have entered their concept in a contest run by Entrepreneur magazine.

Air France: Out of gas? Ask passengers to pitch in

(airlines needing gas money? What’s next plane pooling? Hitchflying? The airlines have been in a dire situation for some time now but news like this makes me wonder whether or not this was staged. Sorry but it sounds like a publicity stunt to me, the pilot hat in hand wandering the isles of the plane “please sir, could you spare a few grand?” then miracle of miracles the airplane gets its fuel! Huzzah we can fly again!! Gee those poor airlines sure have it rough, I need gas money sometimes too. )

PARIS — An emergency layover in Syria's capital was bad enough. Then passengers on Air France Flight 562 were asked to open their wallets to check if they had enough cash to pay for more fuel.

The plane, heading from Paris to Lebanon's capital, diverted amid tensions near the Beirut airport on Wednesday. Low on fuel, it instead landed in Damascus, the capital of neighboring Syria, where a civil war is raging.

An Air France spokesman explained Friday that the crew inquired about passenger cash only as a "precautionary measure" because of the "very unusual circumstances." Sanctions against Syria complicated payment for extra fuel.

He said Air France found a way to pay for the fill-up without tapping customer pockets, and apologized for the inconvenience. He wouldn't say how the airline paid, or how much.

One woman aboard said the passengers had rounded up 17,000 euros.

"The pilot asked the passengers in first class to get their cash together. Everyone started to collect money, and they managed to collect 17,000, but the pilot in the end didn't take anything. They resolved the problems with the Damascus airport," said a passenger speaking on France-Info radio identified as May Bsat.

The Boeing 777, carrying 185 people, took off for an overnight layover in Cyprus then landed safely in Beirut on Thursday.

Lebanon is a volatile mix of pro- and anti-Syrian factions, and a series of hostage-takings has raised worries about Lebanon being dragged deeper into Syria's unrest. Mobs supporting Syrian President Bashar Assad blocked the main airport highway in Beirut on Wednesday, before Lebanese military units moved in.

The layover was awkward for Air France, the flagship carrier for a country whose government toes a hard line against Syrian President Bashar Assad — and warns all its citizens to avoid or leave Syrian soil.

France, which once ruled Syria and Lebanon, championed European Union-wide economic sanctions on Syria — including its national airline, Syria Air. Air France operated regular flights to Damascus until suspending them amid violence earlier this year.

While it was the first time Air France said it had resorted to a request for passenger cash, it wasn't the first airline to do so.

Hundreds of passengers traveling from India to Britain were stranded for six hours in Vienna last year when their Comtel Air flight stopped for fuel, and the charter service asked them to kick in more than 20,000 pounds ($31,000) to fund the rest of the flight to Birmingham, England.

Legendary expedition ship found off Greenland

(yet another ancient ship wreck in the news.)

STOCKHOLM — A U.S.-based oceanographic institute says it has found the wreckage of a ship that was manned by a crew of doomed Antarctic explorers more than a century ago.

The Schmidt Ocean Institute says that in July its researchers discovered the S.S. Terra Nova using echo sounders off the southern coast of Greenland, where the ship sank in 1943 after being damaged by ice.

Built in the late 19th century, the S.S. Terra Nova gained fame by taking the explorer Robert Scott and a crew to the Antarctic in 1910 in an effort to become the first to reach the South Pole.

Scott and several of his men froze to death in 1912 during their march to the earth's southernmost point.

Puerto Ricans vote on 2 constitutional amendments

(way to go Puerto Rico, seeking reforms, streamlining, public debate. Denying bail to flight risk murderers. All at the same time, efficiency at work. My hat’s off to you)

By DANICA COTO, APSAN JUAN, Puerto Rico — Hundreds of thousands of voters crowded polling stations across Puerto Rico on Sunday to decide whether to amend the island's constitution via a two-part referendum that has sharply divided the U.S. territory.

The referendum would shrink the local legislature by almost 30 percent as part of a cost-saving measure and allow judges the right to deny bail in certain murder cases. Puerto Rico is currently the only place in the Western Hemisphere where everyone is entitled to bail regardless of the crime.

People walked, drove, cycled, skateboarded and arrived by wheelchair at polling stations and stood in line, sometimes under a brutal sun.

"This is one of the most important referendums in many years," said Alexandra Beltran, a San Juan resident who voted in the upscale neighborhood of Ocean Park accompanied by her husband and young daughter. "I believe it's time we do something to intimidate criminals."

The island of nearly 4 million people reported a record 1,117 homicides last year, and the drug-fueled violence continues unabated, with an increasing number of innocent bystanders being killed.

At polling stations in the impoverished seaside town of Loiza, some voters decried the wave of violence that has hit their town especially hard.

"I came to vote because they killed my only son six months ago," said Aurea Elicea as she wiped away tears.

Limiting bail would prevent suspects from intimidating witnesses and killing again while out on bail, she said, adding that her son's killer hasn't been arrested.

"That is why people don't testify," she said.

But the referendum comes just weeks after federal prosecutors charged a man with murder and held him for two weeks without bail only to release him after saying they had the wrong person. It's a case still fresh in the minds of voters such as Daisa Rivera, 30, who said there should always be a presumption of innocence.

Other voters such as 56-year-old Efrain Santos Clemente remained unswayed.

"Given the current situation in Puerto Rico, I think we need to find a solution to the increase in crime," he said, adding that he supports shrinking the legislature so that money can be used to reduce crime as several politicians have pledged.

If approved, the referendum would grant judges the right to deny bail to those accused of premeditated murder, killing a police officer or killing someone in a public space or during a home invasion, sexual assault or drive-by shooting. The referendum also would reduce the number of Senate seats from 27 to 17 and the number of House seats from 51 to 39.

Outside a polling station, Gloria Saldana, 67, was still pondering the first proposal as a neighbor of hers drove away and yelled at her to vote against both proposals.

She said she hadn't decided whether to support the bail proposal, but that she was definitely voting against reducing the size of the legislature.

"There are 73 right now, and they don't do anything," she said. "If there are less of them, they will do even less work."

Puerto Rico's legislature also is among the highest paid of any U.S. jurisdiction, a fact that riles many islanders already angry about the number of corruption cases that have surfaced in recent years.

"Everyone knows they are stealing a lot and they are making a lot of money," said 59-year-old Jose Calderon, who voted in support of the referendum.

If approved, the bail amendment would go into effect by month's end, while the reduction of the legislature's size would become effective January 2017.

The elections commission has said it expects a high turnout among Puerto Rico's 2.3 million registered voters. Inmates and those hospitalized or under house arrest have already voted.

Belgians demand pedophile accomplice stays in jail

(couple of interesting things about this, first the criminal is referred to as “pedophile” not murderer, committed four counts of murder, he ended human lives in brutal fashion but what makes the headline? Pedophile. Not that I’m in any way supporting that crime either but where’s our sense of scale here? Don’t know about y’all but I think murder should get top billing here. Second the person up for parole here already served 15 years, that’s a long time. If we wish to cling to the fallacy that a criminal “justice” system has anything to do with rehabilitation then parole for good behavior must be upheld. If we wish to accept that  prison is about retribution and punishment for crimes with no thought of a criminal ever being a part of mainstream society then why do we bother with prisons at all? Why not just execute anyone guilty of crimes we as a people hold to be too heinous and clear up all that space?  Not that that would deter foul crimes from being committed humans are bastards after all but it would streamline the entire system.)

BRUSSELS — About 2,000 demonstrators in Belgium on Sunday protested the possible early release from prison of the ex-wife of a pedophile, who was an accomplice in his abuse and murder of young girls.

The protesters in Brussels braved some of the year's hottest weather of 35 C (95 F) to show their displeasure with the possibility that Michelle Martin, former wife of child rapist Marc Dutroux, could move to a convent after her conditional release.

The Dutroux case is one of the most sensational in Belgium's recent history. Dutroux, now 55, is serving a life term for kidnapping, torturing and abusing six girls in 1995 and 1996, and murdering four of them.

Martin, who was sentenced to 30 years in prison for helping her husband, has served 16 years of her term, but could be released within weeks.

"Thirty years is 30 years," some of the protesters were shouting.

`'What crime do you have to commit to serve a full term," said Paul Marchal, whose daughter was a victim of Dutroux. He demanded that victims and their survivors have a bigger role in the decision on conditional early release.

"It is very important that the victims can have a say in the cases," Marchal said.

Martin, 52, allowed two 8-year-old girls imprisoned in a decrepit basement to die of starvation while Dutroux spent four months in jail for theft.

The protesters said Martin should not be free to come and go from the convent in Malonne, 45 miles (75 kilometers) southeast of Brussels.

"We are marching for our grandson who is 2 and half years old and we want him to live in a country where there is justice," said Murielle Bontemps, a grandmother from Liege, 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Brussels. `'That he will not fear going out to play out with his friends, and that we won't fear that he'll get kidnapped, because what we are doing now is we set predators free."