Free Republic

Scott Richter pursues legitimate business... By Dan Ilett Published: Thursday 21 July 2005 Anti-spam experts believe Scott Richter, the man dubbed the Spam King, has stopped sending junk email. According to anti-spam campaign group Spamhaus, Richter has been removed from ROKSO - an authoritative list of the world's most notorious spammers - after he decided to go straight earlier this year. Once the second biggest spammer in the world, Richter, who currently faces lawsuits with Microsoft and the New York State Attorney, is said to be turning his efforts to legitimate opt-in bulk mailing. Steve Linford, director of Spamhaus, said:...

SPOKANE — Much of America knew the name of the man nominated to replace Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor before she did. O'Connor, in Spokane to speak at a conference of federal judges from the western United States, spent yesterday afternoon fly-fishing on the St. Joe River in northern Idaho with U.S. District Judge Robert Whaley of Spokane. They were out of cellphone range for much of the afternoon and had no way to know that President Bush was trying to reach O'Connor to tell her of his choice of federal appeals- court Judge John Roberts Jr. to replace...

RUTLAND – A man already facing his fourth charge of drunken driving is now behind bars for allegedly riding a lawnmower on the road while intoxicated. Raymond M. Jensen, 47, of Route 4A in Hydeville, pleaded innocent Monday in Rutland District Court to the latest drunken driving charge involving the lawnmower, as well as a charge of violating the conditions of his release from the earlier DUI charge. He was ordered jailed for lack of $3,500 cash bail. "Despite being on strict conditions of release, he continues to drink and here he is driving a lawnmower down the street," Deputy...

A DRUNKEN prank left a North Wales man with severe burns to his bum. Friends were attempting to singe hairs from Eiddon James' buttocks when his bottom burst into flames. They had earlier tried to shave his head, magistrates were told. The terrified friends put out the blaze almost instantly, but Mr James was left injured. The 20-year-old was yesterday awarded £700 compensation by Llandudno magistrates, who heard he ended up in a specialist burns unit at Whiston Hospital, Merseyside. Thomas McLeod, 19, unemployed, of Inner Shield Road, Craigend, Glasgow, was ordered to pay the compensation and carry out 140...

A nude walker has been arrested a month into his latest bid to walk across Britain unclothed. Stephen Gough, 46, of Bournemouth, left Land's End on 16 June with 33-year-old girlfriend Melanie Roberts, also of Bournemouth, and an unnamed librarian. Police said they arrested two men and a woman on Monday near Quina Brook in Shropshire after receiving a complaint. All three are charged with causing a breach of the peace and are due before Shrewsbury magistrates on Tuesday. A West Mercia Police spokesman said: "We had a call from a member of the public that there were some naked...

Upholding a conviction of “aggravated sexual assault of a child,” on July 8, the Texas Court of Appeals rejected an HIV-positive defendant’s claim that he was “overcharged” for the offense because his penis and body fluids do not constitute “deadly weapons” within the meaning of the Texas Penal Code. Defendant Jimi Hofmann learned that he was HIV-positive in 1992. The incidents leading to criminal charges against him took place ten years later. During 2002, Hofmann initiated unprotected sexual contact with his daughter, A.K., then about age 15, telling her that he was not actually her biological father, although he was...

How goes the battle for hearts and minds in the war on terrorism? A survey released yesterday by the Pew Global Attitudes Project, including polls conducted in six predominantly Muslim countries, offers some clues. (Note that all components of the survey were taken before the London bombings.) Osama bin Laden, it turns out, has a bit of a PR problem in the Muslim world. Asked how much confidence they had in bin Laden "to do the right thing regarding world affairs," the percentage of respondents answering "a lot of confidence" dropped, since May 2003, from 38 to 25 in Jordan,...

GARFIELD, N.J. -- The leader of a gang of teens charged with robbing taxi drivers recorded a song boasting about the attacks, authorities said. A compact disc recovered from one of six teens arrested in the case contains a song in which he brags about committing "stickups" as a way to make money, Bergen County Prosecutor John Molinelli said.

By now many of you have heard of the President Bush Google/link bombs that have gone off since our world changed in 2001. For those who may not be aware, if you search the phrases "miserable failure," "failure," or "miserable" into Google, the top result goes to the White House biography of our current President. This little trick is done by taking advantage of the weight Google gives to contextual links. Because enough people pointed the linked phrase in question at President Bush's biography page, he has the honor of having the top spot in Google. However, what caused the...

The body of a man being transported to Shreveport, Louisiana fell from the back of a hearse and onto a busy Dallas freeway Tuesday. Dallas television station KTVT obtained photographs from the scene showing a gurney on its side and the man's body partially uncovered. A police report from the Dallas Police Department indicates someone called police saying they had just spotted a body on a gurney with a blanket over it lying in the middle of State Highway 175. The investigating officer says he was met at the scene by two witnesses who saw the gurney fall onto the...

BOSTON A man whose threats caused a London-bound jet to be diverted to Boston faces a detention hearing on Friday. Prosecutors say Sean Joyce of London boarded U-S Airways Flight 94 in Charlotte, North Carolina Monday and allegedly became abusive after drinking white wine and taking pills. An F-B-I affidavit says Joyce pushed one flight attendant and head-butted a crew member. The affidavit says he later hit and spit on passengers and crew who tried to subdue him, and threatened to kill everyone on the plane. The flight was diverted to Logan Airport, where Joyce was taken into custody by...

Virus writers have exploited last week's terrorism in London by luring people to click on a malicious e-mail attachment disguised as an amateur video of the attacks, according to two computer security companies. Separately, the Australian Red Cross is warning users about an e-mail that fraudulently requests donations to the "London Bombings Relief Charitable Fund." The e-mail with the virus-laden attachment has the subject line "TERROR HITS LONDON" but instead attacks the PCs, turning them into remotely controlled zombies that send out spam, said Chaim Haas, spokesman for MessageLabs. MessageLabs detected the e-mail Friday - the day after the attacks....

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) - An eight-year-old boy choked to death in a Malaysian village when a live fish he was holding in his hands leapt into his mouth and lodged in his throat, a news report said Tuesday. Samiun Ahmad, the son of a rubber tapper, had scooped the fish out of a pond in a neighbour's house and was excitedly showing it around when the freak accident occurred Monday, the New Straits Times reported. The report could not be independently confirmed immediately. People around him including a neighbour, Aslinda Khan, and her sons tried to pull the fish...

LONDON — Anti-terrorist police investigating the London bombings raided five residences in northern England Tuesday morning. No arrests were immediately reported. News reports said the searches were concentrated on one street in Leeds (search), 185 miles north of London. Police would confirm only that the activity was in West Yorkshire (search), the county Leeds is in. Metropolitan Police (search) Commissioner Sir Ian Blair said the raids were connected to the massive investigation of Thursday's attacks on three subway trains and a bus. "There have been a series of searches carried out in Yorkshire. Those searches are still going on. There's...

LITCHFIELD -- A Litchfield man was arrested early Wednesday for walking naked through Northfield. State police pinched Joseph A. Kowaleg III, 39, of 80 W. Morris Road, just before 4:30 a.m. Wednesday. A caller reported seeing a naked man near the intersection of Route 254 and Wigwam Road at 4:18 a.m., and police were dispatched. When they arrived, Kowaleg ran away -- presumably on bare feet. That's when trooper Paul Macisco and his canine partner, Duff, were called in to track down Kowaleg. Duff led police to Kowaleg, who apparently tried to put up a fight when he was caught....

A veteran worker at the Leofoo Safari Park was mauled and killed by a grizzly bear which he had fed for many years. He became the second victim in a year, after a lion at the same tourism park killed a painter in June last year. Lee Tsai-chin, 41, had worked at the safari park for 20 years. He normally took food to the bears' area in the park at around 8:30 a.m. everyday. But his colleagues found him lying in a blood puddle at around 9 a.m. yesterday. Lee was rushed from the park at Kuanhsi near Hsinchu to...

Court and police records paint a picture of Joseph Edward Duncan III's life as one without roots and a criminal record that started early. The son of a career serviceman, Duncan moved often, both in Europe and in the United States, before his family settled in the state of Washington, according to a packet of information Fargo police released when Duncan moved to Fargo five years ago. At age 15, a year before his parents divorced, Duncan stole a vehicle and led police on a high-speed chase before ramming a police blockade. He was placed at a boys ranch, put...

--$sWho   "); } ?> Blogging The Fifth Nail Friday, May 13, 2005   Still Confused ¶ 5:43 PM My blog entries lately are erratic and full of a lot of B.S., for that I apologize. I am just trying to put down what is in my head, regardless. As far as "taking people with me" well, I don't know if that is right or wrong. In fact, I don't know much any more what right and wrong even is. My view is either everything is right (in some regard) or everything is wrong (in some other regard). The...

An NDSU student and one of this city’s first high-risk sex offenders has been charged in Becker County, Minn., with molesting a 7-year-old boy near a middle school. Joseph Edward Duncan III, 42, was charged with second-degree criminal sexual conduct and attempted criminal sexual conduct. The criminal complaint accuses Duncan of approaching a 7-year-old boy and his 9-year-old friend with a video camera on July 3 at a middle school playground. The complaint said Duncan pulled down the shorts of the younger boy and touched him. He tried the same thing with the other boy but wasn’t successful, the complaint...

Sailor suspected of e-mailing nude photos July 2, 2005 1:06 am By KEITH EPPS A 25-year-old sailor is accused of inadvertently sending nude photos of himself to local police.He thought he was sending them to a 13-year-old girl--who turned out to be Spotsylvania Detective Barry Stocks, said sheriff's Maj. Michael Timm.Robert Whalen, who was stationed aboard the USS Eisenhower in Norfolk, is charged with five counts of sending pornography over the Internet to children and five counts of using a computer to transmit pornographic pictures to children. He was arrested Thursday and is being held at the Rappahannock Regional...