At 450 pounds, Ohio killer fights execution

( I find myself baffled by this,when will we get it thru our heads. killing should never be easy, no matter how much it gets sanitised and prettied up as"humane", or "justice" this guy killed someone,blood is demanded so he can"pay for his crimes". so just shoot him! behead him! whatever dead is dead, no backsies. who gives a rat's ass how he gets there. if it's already a foregone conclusion he's gotta die than stop being such utter pussies about it and just do it already! or perhaps realise that no amount of torture or death will bring the lives this criminal ended and maybe,just maybe try to develope some sort of reform)

By By ANDREW WELSH-HUGGINS | Associated Press – 4 hrs ago

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — At about 450 pounds, Ohio death row inmate Ronald Post is so fat that his executioners won't be able to find veins in his arms or legs for the lethal injection, and he might even break the death chamber gurney, his lawyers say.

If the state is forced to use a backup method that involves injecting the drugs directly into muscle, the process could require multiple doses over several hours or even days and result in a grueling and painful end, they say.

Post, who gained close to 200 pounds on death row, is trying to stave off execution Jan. 16 for the 1983 killing of a motel clerk during a robbery, arguing that because of his obesity, an attempt to put him to death would amount to cruel and unusual punishment.

State officials say Post, 53, can be humanely executed under both Ohio's usual method and the untested backup procedure. The warden at the prison where the death chamber is situated even tested the gurney by piling 540 pounds of weights on it for two hours.

Post has not presented "sufficient evidence demonstrating that his obesity or other physical conditions will present a substantial risk that his execution cannot be conducted in a humane and dignified manner," Assistant Attorney General Charles Wille said in court papers.

A federal judge in Columbus will hold a hearing on Post's claim later this month.

Post's case is not without precedent: In 1994, a federal judge in Washington state ruled that convicted killer Mitchell Rupe, at more than 400 pounds, was too heavy to be hanged because he might be decapitated. After numerous court rulings and a third trial, Rupe was sentenced to life in prison, where he died in 2006.

If Post manages to stop his execution because of his weight, the legal precedent may not be far-reaching, because of the very small number of death row inmates who are that obese, said Deborah Denno, a Fordham University law professor and expert on lethal injection. And she said it is unlikely prisoners would begin stuffing themselves to try to fend off execution.

Richard Dieter, executive director of the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, which opposes capital punishment, predicted states will find a way around obesity claims by adjusting their execution procedures, perhaps by changing the drug or the dosage.

"Inmates probably will recognize that that's a thin straw to hang your hopes on," he said.

In 2007, it took Ohio executioners about two hours to insert IVs into the veins of condemned killer Christopher Newton, who weighed about 265 pounds.

At 6-foot-2½, Post weighed 260 pounds around the time he was moved to death row in 1985. His weight has gone up and down behind bars, and at one time he lost 150 pounds through dieting, his lawyers say.

But knee and back problems have made it difficult to exercise, his lawyers say. They also say Post's request for gastric bypass surgery was denied, he has been told not to walk because he might fall, and severe depression has contributed to his inability to control how much he eats.

The Ohio prison system would not comment on how Post gained so much weight behind bars. They said meals are served in reasonable portions and seconds are not allowed, and they provided copies of prison menus that list healthier options such as low-fat milk, vegetarian patties and mixed vegetables.

Inmates can buy sweet and salty snacks from the commissary.

A doctor who examined Post for the defense said Post does not have accessible veins in his arms, hands or legs.

"Given his unique physical and medical condition there is a substantial risk that any attempt to execute him will result in serious physical and psychological pain to him, as well as an execution involving a torturous and lingering death," Post's attorneys argue in court papers.

His lawyers have indicated they would fight any attempt by the state to employ a third possible procedure: the "cut-down" method, in which executioners cut into the condemned man's arms to find a vein. Ohio's execution policies don't call for such an approach, and it is unclear if the state can go ahead with such a procedure without court approval.

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Mitt Romney rejoins Marriott board

By By SAMANTHA BOMKAMP | Associated Press – 10 hrs ago

NEW YORK (AP) — Former presidential candidate and Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney is rejoining Marriott International's board of directors.

He's held the post with the hotel chain twice before. The first time was from 1993 to 2002, when he left to campaign for governor of Massachusetts, and from 2009 to 2011, when he left to start his campaign for the presidency.

It's the first job announcement Romney has made since he lost the November election to President Barack Obama. Romney has kept a low profile since the election. He's spent the past month largely in seclusion at his family's California home.

Romney has been connected to the Marriott dynasty all of his life. He was named after J.W. Marriott. Romney's full name is Willard Mitt Romney and Marriott's was John Willard Marriott. Marriott, who founded the company in 1927, was close friends with Romney's father.

Marriott International Inc. is based in Bethesda, Md.

Store employee fired after ‘booting’ ambulance

(he probably thought it was just the ghost busters)

By Mike Krumboltz | The Sideshow – 8 hrs ago

One generally assumes that an ambulance with its lights flashing can park wherever it pleases. This past weekend in New Orleans, a parked ambulance was "booted" by a convenience store employee, who was apparently annoyed that the ambulance had parked in his store's lot. Never mind that the paramedics were treating a man inside the store. That employee has since been fired.

According to a report from WWLTV.com, the paramedics put the patient in the back of the ambulance and began to drive away when the vehicle came to a sudden stop. The medics saw that someone had put a boot on their vehicle. When a store employee finally removed the boot, the tire was flat. The paramedics had to call for backup while the man with chest pains waited in the back.

[Related: Snow traps drivers for days in giant Russian traffic jam]

Jeb Tate, spokesman for New Orleans Emergency Medical Services, said, "We actually had to delay that patient's care by calling another ambulance out here to come transport this patient."

Now, a few days later, WWLTV.com reports that the convenience store employee has been fired and issued a citation by the New Orleans Police Department for simple criminal damage to property. According to the police report, the man, Ahmed Sidi Aleywa, claimed that he didn't know that the vehicle was an ambulance and that he doesn't speak English.

Judge temporarily blocks Calif. gay therapy law

(silly judge you have to pray away the gay not pschoanalyse it. seriously though this is s astep in the right direction.)

By By LISA LEFF | Associated Press – 1 hr 29 mins ago

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked California from enforcing a first-of-its-kind law that bars licensed psychotherapists from working to change the sexual orientations of gay minors, but he limited the scope of his order to just the three providers who have appealed to him to overturn the measure.

U.S. District Court Judge William Shubb made a decision just hours after a hearing on the issue, ruling that the First Amendment rights of psychiatrists, psychologists and other mental health professionals who engage in "reparative" or "conversion" therapy outweigh concern that the practice poses a danger to young people.

"Even if SB 1172 is characterized as primarily aimed at regulating conduct, it also extends to forms of (conversion therapy) that utilize speech and, at a minimum, regulates conduct that has an incidental effect on speech," Shubb wrote.

The judge also disputed the California Legislature's finding that trying to change young people's sexual orientation puts them at risk for suicide or depression, saying it was based on "questionable and scientifically incomplete studies."

The law, which was passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Jerry Brown in October, states that therapists and counselors who use "sexual orientation change efforts" on clients under 18 would be engaging in unprofessional conduct and subject to discipline by state licensing boards. It is set to take effect on Jan. 1.

Although the ruling is a setback for the law's supporters, the judge softened the impact of his decision by saying that it applies only to three people — psychiatrist Anthony Duk, marriage and family therapist Donald Welch, and Aaron Bitzer, a former patient who is studying to become a counselor who specializes in clients who are unhappy being gay.

The exemption for them will remain in place only until Shubb can hold a trial on the merits of their case, although in granting their request for an injunction, the judge noted he thinks they would prevail in getting the law struck down on constitutional grounds.

Bitzer, Duk and Welch were represented by the Pacific Justice Institute, a Christian legal group. President Brad Dacus said he thought Shubb's ruling would have a chilling effect that would keep the licensing boards that regulate mental health professionals from targeting other practitioners.

"If there are any, we can easily add them to the case as a plaintiff," Dacus said. "We know we will have to have another hearing on the merits, but to be able to get a preliminary injunction at this stage is very telling as to the final outcome, and I'm very encouraged by it."

Complicating the outlook for the law is that another federal judge in Sacramento is considering similar arguments from four more counselors, two families and a professional association of Christian counselors, but has not decided yet whether to keep the ban from taking effect.

"We are disappointed by the ruling, but very pleased that the temporary delay in implementing this important law applies only to the three plaintiffs who brought this lawsuit," National Center for Lesbian Rights Legal Director Shannon Minter said. "We are confident that as the case progresses, it will be clear to the court that this law is fundamentally no different than many other laws that regulate health care professionals to protect patients."

Lawyers for the state argue that outlawing reparative therapy is appropriate because it would protect young people from a practice that has been rejected as unproven and potentially harmful by all the mainstream mental health associations.

The welfare of a missing 11-year-old leukemia patient who was taken from a Phoenix hospital by her mother the day before she was scheduled to be discharged is the prime concern for authorities, who fear a catheter in the girl's heart could become infected and endanger her life.

The patient, who is known as Emily, recently battled an infection and had her right arm amputated. Surveillance video captured Emily, a young boy, and Emily's mother, who police are only identifying as Norma, walking out of Phoenix Children's Hospital at 10:30 p.m. on Wednesday.

"In this particular case, we have again an 11-year-old girl who can't really decide for herself," said Sgt. Steve Martos of the Phoenix Police Department. "Her parents are now removing her from the hospital and putting her in danger by not providing that last bit of medical attention that she needs."

The search has been difficult for officers, Martos said, since Emily and her family are from Mexico and have no locally listed records in Arizona.

A nurse supervisor called 911 when she realized Emily was missing and described how she was able to avoid detection.

"She was wearing a wig, which is not unusual , a lot of our cancer patients wear wigs," the supervisor said. "She wasn't wearing a wig when she went into the bathroom though and then she was wearing a wig when she came out and she was actually covering her right arm, the amputated arm."

Police said Norma removed Emily's IV before walking her out of the hospital in street clothes.

The family left the hospital in a black van and have not been seen since.

It's not clear how long Emily had been a patient at the hospital or what may have prompted her mother to take her before she was scheduled to be discharged.

NEWSER) – Here's a macabre tale: A woman in central Russia kept her husband's dead body for three years and told her kids to talk to him and feed him, AFP reports. When her husband, a Pentecostal missionary, died in 2009, she simply left him on a bed in their apartment. She ordered their five home-schooled children to "'talk' to their father and 'feed' him with a broth she made," said investigators. "The children, who were worried for their mother and realized their father was dead, would tell her that he talked to them and ate the food."

They even covered the scent of his decomposing corpse with air fresheners, but finally had to dispose of him when the family moved to another town. So two of the kids, girls aged nine and 14, put him in bags and left him in the bushes—but his right hand and head broke off, so they dumped them in a garbage bin. Police later investigated but determined that the mother posed no danger to anyone, even though she was mentally unstable. Amazingly, an examination of the kids determined that they were still mentally healthy.

When Kristen Cunnane was in middle school, she was molested by one of her male teachers. Years later, she and several other survivors managed to charge their attackers for the crime, suing California's Moraga school district for sheltering these predators.

Now Moraga’s lawyers have formed a response: Kristen Cunnane was so "careless" and "negligent" when she was 12 years old that she practically deserved to be raped.

"She was herself responsible," the district and three other defendants' attorneys wrote in aOct. 24 legal filing. "Carelessness and negligence on her part proximately contributed to the happenings of the incident."

This is a 12-year-old girl we're talking about here. A scared little girl molested by a man she thought she could trust, now a young woman being told that this teacher’s advances were her "responsibility" to deflect.

Please, join us in writing the Moraga school district and its legal team to express your horror and disgust at their attack on Kristen Cunnane. If we can bring enough media attention to this story, we can stop this appalling victim-blaming once and for all -- but if we don’t speak out, more women and girls will be shamed into silence.

PETITION TO MORAGA SCHOOL DISTRICT: Blaming pre-teen victims for the actions of their molesters is nothing short of horrific. We demand that you stop the assault on Kristen Cunnane and her fellow survivors, taking responsibility for your failure to protect them from predatory teachers.