16 year old marries 40 year old coach!

Wow, isn’t this illegal?        

The Hagers are trying to figure out how life went off track for their teenage daughter, Windy.   

They envisioned that life for the good student and promising athlete would be filled with dreams of the prom and college, but that all changed this week when Windy, 16, married her high school track coach.

“She was a dream kid,” said her mother, Betty Hager. “We’d never have to worry about Windy trying to get by with something.”

At South Brunswick High School in North Carolina, Windy’s greatest passion was track and field.“She just always was outside, always running, and her name’s Windy — I guess she was predestined to do love to do that,” Betty said.

But that passion led her down a troubling path.

Special Attention From Coach

During Windy’s freshman year, her 38-year-old track coach, Brenton Wuchae, began taking a more active interest in her, offering to give the 14-year-old rides home from practice.

“He just seemed like a genuine guy, like he was there for the kids,” said Windy’s father, Dennis Hager.

But the Hagers eventually grew uneasy. Their phone bills showed text messages between Wuchae and Windy as late as 2 a.m.

They also discovered worrying e-mails. In one, Windy wrote to a friend, “I don’t care to look at anyone other than him. He is the apple of my eye, I’ve never felt this way for someone, but I just don’t want to lose him because of my parents’ power trips.”

The Hagers confronted Wuchae.

“He assured me there was nothing like that going on, [and that] they were just friends. His intentions were purely appropriate,” Dennis said.

Not satisfied with that answer, the Hagers turned to the school district, which spoke to the coach.

The principal of the high school wrote to the Hagers, “I have seen nothing but a cooperative attitude from the teacher, and to the best of my knowledge, he has not had any contact with Windy since then.”

“School officials can’t be responsible for what happens the other hours of the day, and I would think the relationship developed much more outside of school,” said Brian Shaw, an attorney for the school district.

The Hagers contacted police; they even tried to get a restraining order.

“We’ve tried everybody. We’ve been to the law. We’ve been to the school board,” Betty said. “Our family has come and tried to talk to her. We’ve had people on the phone with her for hours,€” family, friends. We’ve been to our pastor asking for guidance. We’ve been to his pastor.” 

Meanwhile, the Hagers say Windy withdrew, refusing to speak to them until she asked them to sign a consent form so that she and her coach, a man more than twice her age,€” could get married.

Although anguished, her weary parents gave in.

“Signing those consent forms was the hardest thing I did in my whole life, but we had to move on, it was going to kill us all,” Dennis said.

Monday, Windy and Wuchae married, and he resigned from the school.

But was Windy really old enough to understand her decision? Experts say it’s a difficult situation.

“With most teenagers, they’re not sure yet who’s who and what’s what and what should be done,” said Henry Paul, author of the book “Is My Teenager OK?” “It’s obviously up to the adult figure to set the boundaries.”

Windy and her new husband would not comment for this story, but the Hagers realize what they’ve lost.

“She could have done anything,” Betty said. “She could have set the world on fire. She threw it all away.” 

     Ok, well maybe this thing is illegal in California, but I’m not terribly surprised to hear this story arising from  North Carolina!  

There is only one way to resolve this issue between parents and newlyweds… either a reality tv show or an appearance on Jerry Springer!

 Mark

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Orwell to turn in grave

I found this story from the Foreign Policy blog, and it links to this BBC article:

 

‘Talking’ CCTV scolds offenders

CCTV in action

“Talking” CCTV cameras that tell off people dropping litter or committing anti-social behaviour are to be extended to 20 areas across England. They are already used in Middlesbrough where people seen misbehaving can be told to stop via a loudspeaker, controlled by control centre staff.

About £500,000 will be spent adding speaker facilities to existing cameras.

Shadow home affairs minister James Brokenshire said the government should be “very careful” over the cameras.

An example of how talking cameras work

Home Secretary John Reid told BBC News there would be some people, “in the minority who will be more concerned about what they claim are civil liberties intrusions”.

“But the vast majority of people find that their life is more upset by people who make their life a misery in the inner cities because they can’t go out and feel safe and secure in a healthy, clean environment because of a minority of people,” he added.

What really upsets people is their night out being destroyed or their environment being destroyed by a fairly small minority of people John Reid

The talking cameras did not constitute “secret surveillance”, he said.

“It’s very public, it’s interactive.”

Competitions would also be held at schools in many of the areas for children to become the voice of the cameras, Mr Reid said.

Downing Street’s “respect tsar”, Louise Casey, said the cameras “nipped problems in the bud” and reduced bureaucracy.

“It gets across the message, ‘please don’t litter our streets because someone else will have to pay to pick up that litter again’,” she told BBC News.

“Half a billion pounds a year is spent picking up litter.”

‘Scarecrow policing’

Mr Brokenshire told the BBC he had a number of concerns about the use of the talking cameras.

“Whether this is moving down a track of almost ‘scarecrow’ policing rather than real policing – actually insuring that we have more bobbies on the beat – I think that’s what we really want to see, albeit that an initiative like this may be an effective tool in certain circumstances.

“We need to be very careful about applying this more generally.”

The talking cameras will be installed in Southwark, Barking and Dagenham, in London, Reading, Harlow, Norwich, Ipswich, Plymouth, Gloucester, Derby, Northampton, Mansfield, Nottingham, Coventry, Sandwell, Wirral, Blackpool, Salford, South Tyneside and Darlington.

HAVE YOUR SAY A very silly idea from a government that is bereft of wisdom and out of touch Stuart, Dunstable Send us your comments

In Middlesbrough, staff in a control centre monitor pictures from 12 talking cameras and can communicate directly with people on the street.

Local councillor Barry Coppinger says the scheme has prevented fights and criminal damage and cut litter levels.

“Generally, I think it has raised awareness that the town centre is a safe place to visit and also that we are keeping an eye open to make sure it is safe,” he said.

But opponent and campaigner Steve Hills said: “Apart from being absurd, I think it’s rather sad that we should have faceless cameras barking at us on orders from who? Who sets these cameras up?”

There are an estimated 4.2 million CCTV cameras in Britain.

A recent study by the government’s privacy watchdog, the Information Commissioner, warned that Britain was becoming a “surveillance society”.

Now as Orwellian and foreboding as this is, I still think it would be fun to be the guy on the microphone watching the camera. “Hey, jackass with the stupid looking yellow hat, yeah you. Stop leaving your shit on the floor, clean it up!”

All kinds of potential for fun and abuse. =P

Mark

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Swiss man jailed for Thai insult.

I thought the Swiss were supposed to be neutral?

 

Swiss man jailed for Thai insult

Oliver Jufer has lived in Thailand for more than a decade

A Swiss man has been jailed for 10 years after pleading guilty to charges of insulting the Thai king.

Oliver Jufer, 57, was arrested last December after drunkenly spray-painting posters of King Bhumibol Adulyadej in the northern city of Chiang Mai.

Earlier this month he pleaded guilty to five charges under Thailand’s draconian lese majeste law.

Judge Phitsanu Tanbukalee said that Jufer received a reduced sentence because he had admitted his guilt.

“This is a serious crime, and he was sentenced to four years for each of five counts, for a total of 20 years,” he said.

“Because he confessed, the court has reduced his sentence to 10 years.”

Jufer is believed to be the first foreigner ever imprisoned for the offence.

Others have been charged in the past, but later expelled from the country rather than jailed.

Sensitive issue

Jufer, who had faced a maximum sentence of 75 years, has lived in Thailand for more than 10 years.

KING BHUMIBOL ADULYADEJ   Born in 1927, ascended throne in 1946 World’s longest-serving current head of state Official powers are limited, but wields enormous influence because of popular backing Widely believed to have given backing to 2006 military coup Sensitive regimes

He was recorded on surveillance cameras defacing the portraits on the king’s 79th birthday.

Earlier he had tried to buy alcohol but been refused, since such sales are sometimes banned on important days. King Bhumibol, the world’s longest-serving current head of state, is a very popular figure in Thailand.

The case has highlighted strict laws in Thailand which forbid any criticism of the monarchy.

Such is the sensitivity of the issue, says the BBC’s Jonathan Head in Bangkok, that it is receiving little attention in the Thai media.

Most Thais feel a deep reverence for their monarch. But they also fear discussing the institution because of the severe penalties for criticising members of the royal family.

Jufer has a month to lodge an appeal against the sentence, our correspondent adds, but his best hope now is probably a royal pardon.

Now this isn’t in itself funny (it’s pretty fucked up for the Swiss dude) but what IS funny is the picture of their leader. Look at that guy!  He looks like a Jewish lawyer pansey.  I would be jailed within a day if I lived under those laws and had a leader so ripe for jokes!

Poor country though, they will never have comedians like Jay Leno.

Mark

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Taliban leader captured in women’s clothing!

The article is fairly long, but the actual concept is very amusing.

An amusing excerpt:

NATO, meanwhile, announced the capture of a senior Taliban fighter who had eluded authorities by wearing a woman’s burqa. Mullah Mahmood, who is accused of helping Taliban fighters rig suicide bomb attacks, was seized by Afghan soldiers at a checkpoint near Kandahar, the alliance said.

I love the implications in this. This Taliban leader wearing women’s clothing, it’s such a mockery of their own belief systems and so damn embarrassing for them.

Or maybe I’m the only one who finds this funny.

Mark

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Swiss accidentally invade Liechtenstein!

Crazy Swiss and their invading smaller countries…

ZURICH, Switzerland – What began as a routine training exercise almost ended in an embarrassing diplomatic incident after a company of Swiss soldiers got lost at night and marched into neighboring Liechtenstein.

According to Swiss daily Blick, the 170 infantry soldiers wandered just over a mile across an unmarked border into the tiny principality early Thursday before realizing their mistake and turning back.

A spokesman for the Swiss army confirmed the story but said that there were unlikely to be any serious repercussions for the mistaken invasion.

“We’ve spoken to the authorities in Liechtenstein and it’s not a problem,” Daniel Reist told The Associated Press.

Officials in Liechtenstein also played down the incident.

Interior ministry spokesman Markus Amman said nobody in Liechtenstein had even noticed the soldiers, who were carrying assault rifles but no ammunition. “It’s not like they stormed over here with attack helicopters or something,” he said.

Liechtenstein, which has about 34,000 inhabitants and is slightly smaller than Washington DC, doesn’t have an army.

I think the best thing is that those 170 ammo-less soldiers could have conquered the country if they had wanted to.

Mark

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Clowns are creepy, but this is too much.

Colombia clowns killed on stage

Two circus clowns have been shot dead during a performance in the eastern Colombian city of Cucuta, police say.

The attacker jumped into the arena and fired before fleeing, police chief Jose Humberto Henao told Efe news agency.

Local reports say the audience of about 20 people, mostly children, thought the shooting was part of the show before realising both men had been killed.

Last year, a prominent circus clown, known as Pepe, was also shot dead by a unknown assailant in Cucuta.

The motive for the latest killing remains unclear, police said. Local media reports suggest two attackers may have been involved.

One clown was shot in the head as he performed on stage, about an hour into the Circo del Sol’s evening show.

The second, named as 18-year-old Franklin Leal, from Cucuta, was then shot as he stood by the ticket booth, according to the newspaper La Opinion.

The travelling circus had set up in a suburb of Cucuta, capital of Norte de Santander province near the Venezuelan border, about 10 days earlier, the paper says.

As wretched as this all is, the only thing I can say is: “Homey don’t play that.”
Mark

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Man tries to get in jail for eating chocolate

Hey sometimes you just need to make a point:

AMSTERDAM, Feb 9 (Reuters Life!) – A Dutch journalist asked an Amsterdam court on Friday to convict him for eating chocolate, saying by doing so he was benefiting from child slavery on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast.

Teun van de Keuken, 35, is seeking a jail sentence to raise consumer awareness and force the cocoa and chocolate industry to take tougher measures to stamp out child labor.

“If I am found guilty of this crime, any chocolate consumer can be prosecuted after that. I hope that people would stop buying chocolate and thus hurt the sales of big corporations and make them do something about the problem,” van de Keuken said.

Ivory Coast, the world’s No. 1 cocoa producer which has been racked by instability since a brief 2002 civil war, is the target of allegations by international rights groups that children are working as slaves on its cocoa plantations.

Van de Keuken launched his attempt to be charged for eating chocolate two years ago when the Dutch public prosecutor ruled that it was not a case for the courts and that the journalist was not directly involved with the cocoa business.

On Friday, he appealed against the prosecutor’s decision before a court which is expected to rule in April.

The journalist traveled to Burkina Faso to track down former child slaves who he said were sold by their impoverished parents or lured by merchants to work on Ivory Coast farms.

Van de Keuken said he has now brought one of these former child slaves to testify in court against him.

“We profit from these people and they get almost nothing in return. As consumers we are also responsible for these atrocities,” van de Keuken told Reuters.

He urged consumers to choose fair trade chocolate but warned it was often difficult to trace the origin of cocoa beans.

The Netherlands is the biggest importer and processor of cocoa beans in the European Union, which accounts for 40 percent of global cocoa processing.

“I cannot deny that there are issues with child labor but it is totally wrong to call it slavery,” said Robert Zehnder, secretary general of the European Cocoa Association (ECA). “We work with governments and NGOs to address the problem.”

David Zimmer from the CAOBISCO industry association said boycotts of chocolate would hurt farmers in west Africa as 10 million people depended on cocoa for their livelihood.

Members of the global chocolate and cocoa industry signed an accord in late 2001 for the introduction of a certification system by July 2005 that would enable customers to choose chocolate produced without abusive labor practices. But, to the frustration of rights groups, deadlines have been slipping.

Man it would suck if they created a judicial precedent where you couldn’t eat chocolate… that would especially suck for Valentine’s Day. And I bet some of the good danish food (especially their desserts) would really suck without chocolate ingredients…

Mark

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Man steals police car because he’s too tired to walk

Yep. Too tired to walk home, he steals a patrol car.

TOKYO, Feb 6 (Reuters Life!) – A Japanese man told police he stole a patrol car that had been left idling outside a post office in Gunma, north of Tokyo, because he was too tired to walk home.

Police officers had left the vehicle in the car park with the engine running, while they investigated a report that a stolen card had been used at the post office, the Mainichi newspaper said on Tuesday.

“I came out shopping by train, but I got tired walking, so I thought I would drive the police car home,” the man told police.

He was apprehended about 15 minutes later in the driveway of a private home, about 4 kms (2.5 miles) from the post office, the Mainichi said.

And they say we Americans are lazy!

Or maybe he just thought it could transform into a giant robot and simply drove it home when that didn’t work out.

Mark

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Prison hostage released for some pizza!

Hostage released for pizzaAn Australian prison guard held hostage for two days was released after a ransom demand for pizzas was met.Up to 20 inmates at the Risdon Prison in Hobart, Tasmania, seized the guard in a protest over conditions in the maximum security jail.

Initially they made 24 demands to authorities, but eventually gave up their hostage after agreeing to 15 pizzas, Coke and garlic bread instead.

“At midnight, the final sticking point with the inmates was that they were requiring pizzas to be delivered. Our staff member was negotiated out with the delivery of 15 pizzas,” Graeme Barber, Tasmania’s director of prisons, told The Advocate newspaper.

The guard is recovering from his ordeal at home.

I guess sometimes you just really get a strong craving for pizza. I hope they at least asked for good pizza.

Mark

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Man learns to tell “pigs” from cops

This sounds like something out of that “Eye for an Eye” show.

A New Zealand man who called police officers ‘pigs’ has been ordered to spend a day at a pig farm.

The 22-year-old has also been ordered to write an essay about the difference between pigs and police officers.

The man was charged with using offensive language after he hurled abuse at police during a trip to Auckland.

Community Magistrate Robyn Paterson at Tauranga District Court ordered him to spend a day at a pig farm and present a short essay on his experiences, reports The Bay of Plenty Times.

According to the newspaper, he wrote: “I was very, very drunk. I have stopped drinking because of what happened. I have wasted the police’s time and my time.”

He maintained the word pig could be found in the Oxford dictionary and was often used to describe police.

But added he had learned ‘that there is nothing at all in common with a pig and an officer’.

This is definitely a bizarre ruling, I wonder howcommon this sort of thing is with the New Zealand justice system. I could so write a simple essay explaining the differences between pigs and cops. I may indirectly suggest that they’re similar in a lot of ways, but I could do it. The only thing I’d really disagree with is having to spend a day at a pig farm which I’m guessing isn’t that pleasant an experience.

Though it would also be tempting to try and justify the use of the word “pig” as vernacular slang in relation to police officers. =P

Mark

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