Random found image of bongs.

Pa. brothers face charges after broken bong brawl
January 23, 2012 | WPVI.com

Two western Pennsylvania brothers are charged with simple assault and marijuana possession charges after what police are calling a brawl over a broken bong

Ferndale police tell the Tribune-Democrat of Johnstown they responded to a fight call Wednesday in which one man was reportedly brandishing a screwdriver while the other hid in his bedroom.

After investigating, police say 18-year-old Tyler Kamler told them 23-year-old Brandon Kamler became upset when Tyler asked him about the broken bong – a glass or plastic water pipe commonly used to smoke marijuana. Police say they later found some small bags of marijuana, an ashtray and two smoking pipes buried in a flower bed after asking Brandon Kamler if there were other drugs in the house.

The brothers don’t have attorneys and declined immediate comment when called at home Friday.

(Copyright ©2012 WPVI-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

East Windsor teen suspended over Confederate flag shirt, mom says school is wrong
Lisa Coryell, For The Times | nj.com | November 14, 2011, 3:54 PM

EAST WINDSOR — A Kreps Middle School parent who says her daughter was suspended for wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with the image of the confederate flag says the school overstepped its boundaries and violated her daughter’s right to free speech.

Jane West says she’s thinking about withdrawing her daughter, Torri Albrecht, from the school even as district officials insist that the flag — viewed by many as a racially charged symbol — was not the reason the girl was suspended.

“They’re saying that now because they know they really went too far this time,” West said. “If there wasn’t a problem with the sweatshirt, why did the vice principal call at 10 after 8 on Monday to demand that I bring a change of clothes for my daughter?”

“He told me he had a bunch of students and a bunch of teachers come into his office to say they were disturbed by it,” she said.

West said she told the assistant principal, Jermaine Blount, he was crazy if he thought she was coming out with a change of clothes for the eighth-grader.

“The Indian kids wear their turbans. The Jewish kids wear their yarmulkes. That’s their birthright,” she said. “I told him that Torri was born in Virginia. That flag is her heritage and I’m not telling her to take it off. He said ‘I guess she’ll have to suffer the consequences.’”

West said before heading to the school she called her daughter’s cell phone to tell her not to follow any orders to turn the sweatshirt inside out.

When she got to the school she was told that her daughter had been given a one-day suspension, she said.

No stranger to run-ins with school administrators at Kreps over issues involving her daughter, West said she’d had enough. She told her daughter to clean out her locker because she wasn’t coming back to school.

District Superintendent Edward Forsthoffer III disputed West’s account.

“No student was suspended for wearing an inappropriate shirt,” he said. He declined to say why Albrecht was suspended, citing student confidentiality policies.

Speaking in generalities, he said the district has a dress code that bans any clothing that causes a substantial disturbance in school.

“We’d rather be proactive than reactive,” he said. “Ninety-nine times out of 100, when asked, students say ‘OK, I’ll change.’ Some want to make an issue of it for ulterior motives. If there’s defiance involved, if there’s profanity involved (in the refusal to change clothing), certainly we’d have to respond appropriately.”

The battle flag of Confederate forces in the Civil War is widely regarded as one of the most controversial symbols from American history. Many see it as a symbol of racism while others consider it a part of familial and cultural heritage.

West says she and her daughter are in the latter group.

“We are so far from prejudiced,” she said. “My older daughter is biracial. For Torri this was about expressing herself. It was about saying ‘I’m from the South and I’m proud of it.’ She didn’t do it to cause hurt feelings.”

Furthermore, she said, the sweatshirt could not have caused a disturbance in the 10 minutes Albrecht wore it before being escorted to the office at the start of the school day. Albrecht herself said no one commented on the shirt.

Courts have upheld the right of schools to prohibit the display of Confederate flags on school property, but both Forsthoffer and West agree that the East Windsor district is pushing that issue.

The superintendent said no ban was ever issued. West says Kreps Principal Lori Stein called her the day after the suspension to say the school had changed its stance.

“She said that after careful consideration she decided that if Torri wears the sweatshirt, it might not be liked but that (Stein) would look the other way and allow her to wear it,” West said.

She’s not sure she’ll accept that solution, she said.

West said she plans to send Albrecht to Virginia to live with her sister in December but doesn’t know what to do in the meantime, since Kreps is the only middle school in the district. She said she’s considering home-schooling the girl until she can make the move south.

Venus fly traps in the wilds near the NC coast. Note the plants clumping habit as well as the tall attractive blooms. Image Miss Fidget circa 2003.

Poaching a threat to rare Venus flytrap plant
by Joel Allen | http://www.carolinalive.com | 01.26.2012

Three people have been arrested in Brunswick County, NC and charged with digging up 200 Venus flytrap plants. Joyce Whaley, 71; her nephew, Kasey Whaley, 31; and his wife Elizabeth Whaley, 27, reportedly told North Carolina wildlife officers that they wanted to sell the rare plants for about 10 cents a piece.

Those who study the Venus flytrap say poaching can be a real problem for the plant’s continued survival.

Its unique ability to capture insects makes the plant popular with kids and adults, but it’s our fascination with this rare carnivorous plant that also makes it a tempting target for poachers.

“People mistakenly think if they find a patch, they can harvest the entire patch, take them home and make money. That’s not really the case. You can buy Venus flytraps now in any of the big box stores,” said Coastal Carolina University botanist Dr. James Luken.

The only place in the world where the Venus flytrap is found in the wild is within a small stretch of coastal North and South Carolina, including Horry County.

Luken said there may be three to four thousand of the plants growing in the heavily-wooded area where he goes to study the plant. To discourage poachers, NewsChannel 15 won’t reveal the location.

Luken said the Venus flytrap is not officially listed as endangered but probably should be, and the population is small enough that the loss of just a few plants can be quite serious.

“A poaching event that removes an entire small population can really have a big impact on the sustainability and the viability of the entire population.”

For Luken, who’s been studying the plants for ten years, spotting a potential poaching incident is pretty easy.

“It basically leaves a little divot in the organic soil and it looks very different than animal digging or anything like that. It has a very characteristic look to it,” he said.

It’s not just poaching that’s a problem, though. Housing and commercial development threatens the plant’s habitat, too. Still, Luken is optimistic about the Venus flytrap’s long-term survival.

“Luckily in both North Carolina and South Carolina, we have some really big preserves with healthy populations of plants, so as long as we continue to manage those correctly, I think we’ll be OK.”

In North Carolina, the fine for digging up plant species like the Venus flytrap is $25.

David Allen Canterbury. Image kgw.com

Portland police arrest man after alleged ‘Star Wars’ light saber assault at Toys R Us
By Kate Mather, The Oregonian | December 14, 2011 | www.oregonlive.com

Police arrested a man who allegedly assaulted three people with a blue light saber at a Hayden Island Toys R Us Wednesday night.

A 9-1-1 caller reported the incident about 9:50 p.m. and said the man was inside the store, 1800 Jantzen Beach Center, swinging the “Star Wars” weapon of choice at customers, said Sgt. Pete Simpson, a spokesman for the Portland Police Bureau. While the caller was on the phone, the man then left the store — light saber in hand — and walked out to the parking lot.

Officers tried to arrest the man, but he kept swinging the light saber at them, Simpson said. One tried to use his Taser on the suspect but the device didn’t work.

Another officer used his Taser and made contact, but the man knocked one of the wires away with the light saber.

The officers finally arrested the man after grabbing him and pinning him to the ground. The suspect, identified only as a 33-year-old Hillsboro man, was treated by medics at the scene and taken to an area hospital for a mental evaluation. He faces “several criminal charges” after he is evaluated, Simpson said.

None of the victims of the light saber assault needed medical attention, Simpson said.

Ex-Manhattan chiropractor living in style in Seattle?on welfare: feds?
NANCY DILLON | nydailynews.com | December 06, 2011

A former Manhattan chiropractor and his alleged wife have been living the high life in a million-dollar Seattle mansion while cashing welfare checks for the last eight years, federal authorities claim.

David Silverstein and Lyudmila Shimonova are the subjects of a new federal lawsuit claiming they collected approximately $135,000 in housing welfare while posing as a dutiful landlord and destitute mother of two.

Investigators said contrary to their filings with welfare officials, the husband and wife have fat bank accounts, own a black Jaguar XJR4D and jet away to week-long vacations in Mexico, Paris, Israel, Turkey and the Dominican Republic.

According to a complaint filed Friday, the couple claimed they were not married, that Shimonova lived alone with her two children and that Silverstein lived at his office address.

Investigators later found Silverstein boasting about his family on his business website, the complaint said.

“On a personal note, I am happily married with two children, whose careers are in medicine and Middle Eastern studies. As a family, we all enjoy snow shoeing , mountain climbing and ocean sports,” a section of Silverstein’s Seward Park Chiropractic Center profile states.

Prosecutors said Shimonova’s son, Ruben Shimonova, majored in Middle Eastern studies and her daughter, Marianna Shimonova, attended medical school at the University of Washington and is currently in a psychiatric residency program in New York.

Silverstein said on his website that he had offices in Manhattan and Morris County, N.J., before moving to Seattle.

An annual report from the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle listed “Mila and Dr. David Silverstein” as Community Campaign Donors in 2010, according to the complaint.

“Mila” is believed to be a shortened version of Shimonova’s first name, Lyudmila.

“Defendants have separately and, it appears, in conjunction with one another made false representations to various state and federal agencies in order to obtain federally funded benefits,” assistant U.S. attorneys Harold Malkin and Kayla Stahman wrote in their lawsuit.

Silverstein told the Associated Press Tuesday his lawyer asked him not to comment.

His lawyer, David Allen, did not immediately return a message.

The family’s three-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot home on Lake Washington did not appear to have a listed phone number.

The lawsuit seeks to have the couple pay $11,000 in fines for each false claim the couple made.

The U.S. attorney’s office declined to comment on whether criminal charges are forthcoming.

Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop is single. (Dane County Sheriff's Office)

Man Named Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop, 30, Arrested on Drug Charges
www.ktla.com | January 8, 2012

MADISON, Wis. (KTLA) — A man with an unusually long name was arrested on drug charges at a park in Madison this week, according to police records.

Beezow Doo-Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop, 30, was arrested Thursday afternoon after neighbors called in about excessive noise and drug use in a local park.

Mr. Zoppipty-Bop-Bop, who’s no stranger to the law, was found inside the tennis courts, carrying a knife, marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

Mr. Zopittybop-Bop-Bop, born Jeffrey Drew Wilschke, changed his name in October. His Facebook lists choice of name because it sounds like a “jazz term” that means “the sum of the hysteria of all the chaos in the universe. or something.”

He’s also listed as single.

He was arrested on charges of carrying a concealed weapon, possession of drug paraphernalia, possession of marijuana, all in violation of probation from a similar arrest last April.

While enroute to jail, Beezow Doo Doo Zopittybop-Bop-Bop told officers that he would “get even with them.”

It is unclear what the suspect meant by his statement, but he was booked into the jail nevertheless.

Preston James Phipps, 24, of Des Moines

Des Moines police officer assaulted with toy monkey
Jan 9, 2012 | by Tom Alex  |  desmoinesregister.com

A man arrested in a theft from a convenience store is accused of attacking a police officer with one of the stolen items — a stuffed monkey.

Preston James Phipps, 24, of Des Moines, was arrested late Saturday night after allegedly causing problems at the Git-N-Go convenience store at 2601 S.W. Ninth St. in Des Moines.

Police Officer Andrew Pirtle said in a report that he saw a man carrying two stuffed animals leaving the store about 10:20 p.m. Moments later the officer was flagged down and informed that the man had just made a mess in the store.

Officer Pirtle stopped the man near Southwest Ninth and Loomis Avenue. As they talked, Pirtle noted the man’s mood switched quickly from passive to aggressive. When Pirtle tried to take Phipps into custody, Phipps allegedly swung around and hit the officer in the face with a stuffed monkey.

The officer managed to control the man’s hands and apply handcuffs. Phipps was in jail on Monday, charged with fifth-degree theft, disorderly conduct and assault on a police officer. Bond was set at $1,600.

A clerk at the store said that when she asked him what he was doing behind the counter, Phipps replied, “Don’t you worry about it. I’m going back to prison anyway.”

Police said Phipps took one pair of sunglasses, two stuffed animals (pink and orange monkeys) and two packs of smokeless tobacco.