Terri Schiavo Dies at 41
Terri Schiavo, the severely brain-damaged Florida woman at the heart of an epic legal and political battle that launched a national debate on end-of-life issues, died Thursday morning. The 41-year-old woman died in her Pinellas Park, Fla., hospice at 9:05 a.m. EST, nearly 14 days after doctors removed the feeding tube that had kept her alive for 15 years. Her husband, Michael Schiavo, held her in his arms as she took her final breaths, his attorney said. George Felos declined to describe in detail his client’s wife’s passing but said: “It was evident to everyone around him, the profound emotion and loss for Mr. Schiavo. It was clear to everyone he loved Terri deeply and her passing was a tremendous loss for him.” Felos also disclosed for the first time that Michael Schiavo had been living in the hospice since March 18, when his wife’s feeding tube was removed. He said that Terri Schiavo’s breathing became irregular and her heart became weaker on Wednesday, signaling to doctors that she was “entering the final stages of the death process.” Read the story here.
Minuteman Project gearing up
The first of what organizers hope will be 800 to 100 civilian volunteers arrived today in this one-time silver-mining town prior to beginning a monthlong effort to monitor a section of the Mexican border for illegal crossings. Organizers of the Minuteman Project said their volunteers, many of whom were recruited over the Internet, were to meet Friday for a rally, then fan out next week across 23 miles of the San Pedro Valley to watch the border and report sightings of illegal activity to Border Patrol agents. Minuteman field operations director Chris Simcox described the project as “the nation’s largest neighborhood watch group” and said one of the goals is to make the public aware of how porous the border is. Jim Gilchrist, a retired accountant from Aliso Viejo who organized the project, said that some volunteers will carry handguns, which is allowed under Arizona law, but are being instructed to avoid confrontation, even if shot at. Hispanic and immigrant-rights groups have denounced the project as anti-immigrant and a lure for violent racistsand vigilantes. Read the story here. John & Ken will get updates on the Minuteman Project from KFI News Reporter, Jay Lawrence.
Wednesday, March 30th, 2005
Jackson Prosecution Ends Questioning of Psychologist
SANTA MARIA, Calif. – The prosecution in the Michael Jackson molestation trial this morning abruptly ended its brief questioning of a psychologist whose report to police led to reopening the criminal investigation of the pop star.
Psychologist Stan J. Katz testified that he treated the boy who has accused Jackson of molestation and then contacted authorities, who had closed an investigation into the singer.
Read the story here.
Avila trial halted by juror illness
SANTA ANA - Testimony in the trial of Alejandro Avila, accused in the murder of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion, was suspended today when a juror became ill and was taken to a hospital.
Superior Court Judge William Froeberg told the remaining 17 jurors to return at 1:30 p.m.
Sheriff’s deputies called the Santa Ana Fire Department after Juror No. 11, a 62-year-old man, said he was feeling lightheaded and ill. As the other jurors watched outside the 10th-floor courtroom, the man was treated and then wheeled away on a stretcher and taken to St. Jude’s Medical Center.
Read the story here.
Tuesday, March 29th, 2005
DNA report puts victim in Avila’s car
SANTA ANA - Genetic material recovered from inside a child-slaying suspect’s Ford Thunderbird has a one in a trillion chance of belonging to anyone other than Samantha Runnion, a forensic scientist testified Monday.
The DNA was recovered from the console between the front seats and on the door handle and door pull on the passenger side of a car that Alejandro Avila, 30, of Lake Elsinore, was driving on July 15, 2002 – the day 5-year-old Samantha was kidnapped, sexually assaulted and suffocated, Orange County Sheriff’s Crime Lab scientist Edward Buse testified.
Read the story here.
Witness: Mother of Jackson Accuser Said She Couldn’t Leave Neverland
SANTA MARIA, Calif. – The man who tried to introduce Michael Jackson to the boy who says the pop star molested him, took the stand this morning and described how the accuser’s mother said she couldn’t leave the singer’s ranch.
Jamie Masada, owner of the Laugh Factory in Hollywood, described meeting the boy and his siblings at a comedy camp for underprivileged youths in 1999. Masada took the boy under his wing, later introducing him to celebrities and helping to raise money for the family while the boy was recovering from cancer.
Read the story here.
Attorney: Terri Schiavo to have autopsy
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. (AP)—An autopsy will be performed after Terri Schiavo dies to show the extent of her brain damage, her husband’s attorney says.
On Monday, Schiavo’s 11th day without food or water, supporters of prolonging the woman’s life carried their protests to the White House, while the husband’s attorney said she looked “peaceful” and had a stuffed toy cat under her arm.
Read the story here.
Monday, March 28th, 2005
For those of you that live under a rock, or in Phelan, the John & Ken Show is asking all our listeners to buy gas every Monday, to counter the Nativo Lopez “inspired” pathetic weekly boycott of California gas stations. Nativo seems to think that if people don’t buy gas on Mondays, then illegals will get their driver licenses. He is calling it “Dark Mondays” – clever, huh?
So the John & Ken Show wants you to buy gas on Mondays, then Fax or E-mail your receipt to the show. Remember, you don’t need to “buy” gas to participate in the event. All you need to do is prove that you went to a gas station on a Monday. Use your imagination, like taking a picture of yourself, or even grabbing a business card from the station. Send us your entries on Monday only. Then, on April 12th, we will chose one trip for two persons to join us in Washington D.C. for the Angry Mob March. It’ll be your chance to tell the politicians how you feel in person.
You can e-mail the proof here
Or
You can fax the receipt in to: 818-260-9968 (please use a cover sheet, with your contact information)
Past Jackson Allegations Can Be Heard
SANTA MARIA, Calif. – Judge Rodney S. Melville ruled today that he would allow the jury to hear evidence of previous allegations that Michael Jackson molested children, including two cases involving multimillion-dollar settlements.
The ruling is a key step in the Jackson case because it forces the defense to try to undermine other incidents involving five young boys that are not part of the current charges against Jackson.
Read the story here.
Schiavo Called Beyond Saving
PINELLAS PARK, Fla. – A spokesman for Terri Schiavo’s parents said Sunday that their court battle to keep her alive was over, and as their daughter began her 10th day without food or water after her feeding tube was removed by judicial order, a family lawyer said she was past the “point of no return.”
“Terri is declining rapidly,” lawyer David C. Gibbs III said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” “We believe she has at this point passed where physically she would be able to recover. They’ve begun giving her morphine drip for the pain. At this point, we would say Terri has passed the point of no return.”
Read the story here.
Anger at Bushes as time grows short for Schiavo
A week ago, the demonstrators outside Terri Schiavo’s hospice were mostly calm. They prayed, sang hymns and awaited word from protest organizers about legal developments in the case, hoping their presence might help save the brain-damaged woman.
By Sunday, after nine days of legal defeats for Schiavo’s parents in their effort to have her feeding tube reattached, much of the optimism was gone. Last week’s unity among the demonstrators had splintered, and an undercurrent of anger ran through them.
Read the story here.
Gang will target Minuteman vigil on Mexico border
NACO, Ariz.—Members of a violent Central America-based gang have been sent to Arizona to target Minuteman Project volunteers, who will begin a monthlong border vigil this weekend to find and report foreigner sneaking into the United States, project officials say.
James Gilchrist, a Vietnam veteran who helped organize the vigil to protest the federal government’s failure to control illegal immigration, said he has been told that California and Texas leaders of Mara Salvatrucha, or MS-13, have issued orders to teach “a lesson” to the Minuteman volunteers.Read the story here.
Friday, March 25th, 2005
Expert: Jackson’s Fingerprints Found on Porn
A forensic expert testified today in the Michael Jackson molestation trial that fingerprints belonging to Jackson and his 15-year-old accuser were found on the same pornographic magazine. Overall, 19 prints were found on explicit publications tucked into a briefcase in Jackson’s bedroom, 12 from the singer, five from his accuser and two from his accuser’s younger brother, according to retired Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Sgt. Robert Spinner. Some of the fingerprints were found on different pages of the October 2000 edition of Hustler Barely Legal Hardcore, Spinner said. At least three of Jackson’s fingerprints were discovered on different editions of the same magazine – July and August 2003 – published after the alleged molestation occurred and the accuser had stopped visiting the Neverland ranch. The boys previously testified that they were shown adult magazines from the same briefcase. The accuser claimed that he was molested in the weeks after Jackson showed him and his brother the magazines in February, 2003. Read the story here.
Conservatives Split in Debate on Curbing Illegal Immigration
Republican lawmakers are headed for a showdown over illegal immigration, an issue that exposes a deep and bitter rift within the GOP. The drama will unfold when Congress returns early next month and turns to finish an emergency spending bill to fund the Iraq war. The House version, approved before the Easter break, carries tough immigration restrictions, reigniting a long-simmering battle with the Senate over how to deal with the growing illegal population. It is a conflict that President Bush scarcely needs as he tries to unite his party behind contentious Social Security changes and judicial nominations. Meeting Wednesday with Mexican President Vicente Fox, Bush promised to continue pushing Congress for a program allowing temporary guest workers. That accommodation is the opposite of what House conservatives are seeking with the crackdown on asylum seekers and state driver’s-license requirements for illegal immigrants that they attached to the Iraq bill. Bush acknowledged the limits of his influence: “I’m not a member of the legislative branch,” he told Fox. Read the story here.
Authorities seek hand with a missing finger
The mystery of how a human finger found its way into a bowl of fast- food chili has sparked a series of investigations that hope to trace the finger back from a San Jose restaurant to the hand it was detached from. Santa Clara County sheriff’s officials said Thursday that they planned to lift a fingerprint from the mystery digit, in the hope that the owner’s prints might be listed on a database. The far-flung probes began after a diner at a Wendy’s restaurant on Monterey Road bit into the 1 3/8-inch piece of a finger Tuesday evening while eating chili. Investigators from Santa Clara County’s Department of Environmental Health are tracing the meat, sauce, beans, spices and frozen vegetables used in the tainted chili back to their producers in hopes of linking the finger to an industrial accident. “We probably are going to go back as far as the grower of the beans,” said Ben Gale, the environmental health director, even as a restaurant spokesman expressed confidence that the digit had not originated in the food supply process. Read the story here.
Thursday, March 24th, 2005
Schiavo not likely to experience a painful death, neurologists say
Terri Schiavo has had no food or water since Friday, which has led her parents and their supporters to complain that she could be experiencing a painful death. But neurologists on Wednesday said that based on court findings of her condition, her body gradually will shut down in a painless process that will lead to death. The Florida woman suffered serious brain damage after her heart stopped in 1990, and she has been the focus of a protracted legal battle that reached a zenith on Friday, when her feeding tube was removed by court order. In a process that could take days, weeks or longer, the lack of food and water will cause chemical imbalances that eventually will shut down major organs such as the kidneys, and that ultimately will trigger heart abnormalities or other fatal problems, says Roger Albin, a neurologist at the University of Michigan. Florida courts have ruled that Schiavo is in a persistent vegetative state, a condition caused by extensive damage to the cortex and other parts of the brain that are responsible for consciousness, higher thinking, memory or even sensations such as pain, hunger and thirst. Read the story here.
Dubious doctor touted as Nobel Prize nominee by Hannity, Scarborough
Fox News host Sean Hannity and MSNBC host Joe Scarborough both promoted Dr. William Hammesfahr’s false claim that he is a Nobel Prize nominee. Hammesfahr, a Florida neurologist disciplined in 2003 by the Florida Board of Medicine who claims he can help Terri Schiavo, testified during an October 2002 court hearing on the Schiavo case that his claim to be a Nobel nominee is based on a letter written by Rep. Mike Bilirakis (R-FL) recommending him for the prize. But Bilirakis is not qualified to make a valid nomination under the Nobel rules. According to the process posted on the Nobel Prize website, the Nobel Assembly sends out invitations to approximately 3,000 people who are allowed to propose candidates. The 3,000 are “mainly members of the Nobel Assembly, previous prize winners, and a selection of professors at universities around the world.” Read more about the “Nobel Prize nominee” Dr. Hammesfahr here.
About the Schiavo “Nobel Prize Nominated” Doctor
NewsMax reports that Dr. William Hammesfahr “believes that Terri Schiavo can recover with proper treatment.” NewsMax—along with FOX, MSNBC, the National Review and Dr. Hammesfahr’s website—indicates that he was nominated for the Nobel Prize in 1999.
... if he had been truly nominated—he would be violating fundamental Nobel Foundation principles to say that. The 50 year vow of silence is up in 2049. But wait. There’s more.
The Tampa Tribune reported in 2003 that the Nobel Prize nomination was a letter written by Hammesfahr’s Congressman to the Nobel committee. The Nobel Prize website articulates the nomination procedure: a letter from a Congressman isn’t on the list. Does the Nobel Committee consider these “informal” nominations? In a word: no. (and a nod to News Hounds) The Florida court found Hammesfahr’s 2002 testimony in the Schiavo case to be anecdotal. A quick review of the handful of published research on his web site makes that judgment abundantly clear. It reminds me of the “doctor-by-mail-order” materials that land by the truckload in my parents’ mailbox each month. Read more here.
Blake Jurors ‘Stupid,’ D.A. Says
Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Steve Cooley said jurors who acquitted actor Robert Blake of the murder of his wife are “incredibly stupid” and insisted his office put on a good case. “Quite frankly, based on my review of the evidence, he is as guilty as sin. He is a miserable human being,” he said. In his first comments on the verdict, Cooley told a group of reporters that the outcome showed that prosecuting celebrities is extremely difficult in Los Angeles. The district attorney’s blunt assessment was rebuffed by a juror on the case as well as by some legal experts, who called his statements highly unusual. “To hear him say we aren’t a smart jury is sour grapes,” Blake juror Chuck Safko said. “They didn’t have a good case. Their case was built around witnesses who weren’t truthful.” Added Laurie Levenson, a professor of criminal law at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles who attended portions of the trial: “To criticize the jurors is unprofessional. It is unbelievable. Read the story here.
