Friday, July 27, 2012
Thursday, July 26, 2012
At 24, Emma Koenig was like a lot of 20-somethings: broke, bouncing between low-...
At 24, Emma Koenig was like a lot of 20-somethings: broke, bouncing between low-...: At 24, Emma Koenig was like a lot of 20-somethings: broke, bouncing between low-paying jobs, rotating through Craigslist roommates and pseudo-romances. She channeled those experiences into a Tumblr blog, a defanged version of HBO's "Girls" that offers a "sweetly dark look at a life stage."
Wash That Blog Out With Soap
www.nytimes.com
Emma Koenig has a viral blog, a book out next month and a deal pending with a production company to develop a TV series — and she has finally moved out of her parents’ house.
Wash That Blog Out With Soap
www.nytimes.com
Emma Koenig has a viral blog, a book out next month and a deal pending with a production company to develop a TV series — and she has finally moved out of her parents’ house.
Sandusky shower abuse victim to sue Penn State
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — For months, the identity of the boy who was sexually assaulted in the locker-room showers by Jerry Sandusky was one of the biggest mysteries of the Penn State scandal. Now, for the first time, a man has come forward publicly to claim he was that boy, and is threatening to sue the university.
The man's lawyers said Thursday they have done an extensive investigation and gathered "overwhelming evidence" on details of the abuse by Sandusky, the former assistant football coach convicted of using his position at Penn State and as head of a youth charity to molest boys over a period of 15 years.
Jurors convicted Sandusky last month of offenses related to so-called Victim 2 largely on the testimony of Mike McQueary, who was a team graduate assistant at the time and described seeing the attack.
"Our client has to live the rest of his life not only dealing with the effects of Sandusky's childhood sexual abuse, but also with the knowledge that many powerful adults, including those at the highest levels of Penn State, put their own interests and the interests of a child predator above their legal obligations to protect him," the lawyers said in a news release.
They did not name their client, and The Associated Press generally does not identify victims of sex crimes without their consent.
The university said it was taking the case seriously but would not comment on pending litigation.
University President Rodney Erickson and the board of trustees, a school spokesman said, "have publicly emphasized that their goal is to find solutions that rest on the principle of justice for the victims."
The statement from the man's attorneys said Victim 2 suffered "extensive sexual abuse over many years both before and after the 2001 incident Michael McQueary witnessed."
McQueary testified in December at a hearing that he had seen Sandusky and a boy, both naked, in a team shower after hearing skin-on-skin slapping sounds."I would have described that it was extremely sexual and I thought that some kind of intercourse was going on," McQueary said.
McQueary reported the abuse to school officials, including Paterno, but none of them told police. In a recent report conducted by former FBI Director Louis Freeh and commissioned by Penn State, the investigators excoriated Paterno and the other administrators for not attempting to identify Victim 2, saying it showed "a striking lack of empathy."
Trustees fired Paterno, who has since died, because he failed to do more about claims against Sandusky, and the scathing independent review said several top school officials looked the other way because they were afraid of bad publicity. The NCAA has vacated 112 Penn State wins.
In a pair of voicemails recorded last year, released with the statement and posted online by the lawyers, a voice that's purportedly Sandusky's expresses his love and says he wants to express his feelings "up front."
The voicemails are dated Sept. 12 and Sept. 19, less than two months before the former Penn State coach was arrested on child sex abuse charges. Sandusky was convicted in June of 45 sex abuse counts and awaits sentencing.
The second voicemail asks whether Victim 2 would like to attend Penn State's next game.Sandusky left "numerous" voicemails for their client that fall, the attorneys said.
Before the trial, defense attorney Joe Amendola said he had met with a man he believed he might be Victim 2 and the man told him he had not been abused by Sandusky. Amendola said he was not convinced and did not intend to subpoena him, but also said Sandusky himself was insistent they had the right person.
The statement from Victim 2's lawyers leaves many questions unanswered, including whether he had been in contact with prosecutors before or during the trial, whether he remembers McQueary, and whether he is the same person who met with Amendola.
"Jerry Sandusky's abuse of Victim 2 and other children is a direct result of a conspiracy to conceal Sandusky's conduct and the decisions by top Penn State officials that facilitated and enabled his access to victims," the statement read. "We intend to file a civil lawsuit against Penn State University and others and to hold them accountable for the egregious and reckless conduct that facilitated the horrific abuse our client suffered."
The statement did not say when the lawsuit would be filed or contain details on what redress the plaintiff is seeking. The lawyers said they would not have further comment, and messages left for their spokesman were not immediately returned.
Several messages seeking comment from Amendola and Sandusky's other lawyer, Karl Rominger, were not immediately returned.
Prosecutors had said on several occasions they did not know the identity of the boy, and they offered no reaction to the lawyers' announcement Thursday.
"We can't comment, given both our ongoing criminal prosecutions and our ongoing investigation," said Nils Frederiksen, spokesman for the attorney general's office.
The attorneys who released the statement include several based in Philadelphia and in State College, home to Penn State's main campus — where the shower assault took place.
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Online:
Lawyers' statement and voicemails: http://bit.ly/NYmGvl
2:14 PM 7/26/2012 - Mike Nova's starred items
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Ukraine activist bares breasts to Russian patriarch
via Uploads by AFP by AFP on 7/26/12
An activist from Ukraine's prominent feminist rights group FEMEN on Thursday bared her breasts in front of the Russian Orthodox Patriarch just minutes after he flew in to the country. Duration: 00:24
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via Voice of America by Jeff Seldin on 7/26/12
WASHINGTON, D.C. — One key to stopping the spread of HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, is making sure workers in the global sex industry take appropriate precautions. But there are growing concerns medical breakthroughs in the fight against AIDS will soon make that more difficult. Excitement about turning the tide in the fight against HIV is being tempered by researchers who worry some of the most vulnerable populations will miss out on medical advances. "The risk to sex ...
via Top Stories - Google News on 7/26/12
Telegraph.co.uk |
Euro Bankers Signal New Action
Wall Street Journal By BRIAN BLACKSTONE And WILLIAM HOROBIN Global markets rose following ECB president Mario Draghi's comments that the ECB would do "whatever it takes to preserve the euro." Charles Forelle reports on Markets Hub. Photo: Reuters. Draghi: ECB to do "whatever it takes" to save euroBusinessweek European shares rally as Draghi hints at ECB actionReuters European Central Bank vows to protect the euro, sending stocks sharply higher ...Washington Post MarketWatch all 1,845 news articles » |
via Yahoo! News - Top Stories on 7/26/12
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States said on Thursday it appeared that forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad were "lining up" for a massacre in the city of Aleppo, but again ruled out military intervention in the conflict. The U.S. State Department said that credible reports of tank columns moving on Aleppo along with air strikes by helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft represented a "serious escalation" of the government's efforts to crush an armed rebellion. ...
via Yahoo! News - Top Stories on 7/26/12
Even as the issue of guns shifts to the forefront of the presidential campaign, the White House and the Senate's top Democrat made it clear Thursday that new gun legislation will not be on the political agenda this year. Instead, President Barack Obama intends to focus on other ways to combat gun violence — a position not unlike that of his rival, Mitt Romney.
Mike Nova's starred items
via BBC News - World on 7/26/12
Eight high-ranking employees of the US justice department improperly promoted hiring of relatives, an investigation finds.
via The New York Times's Facebook Wall by The New York Times on 7/26/12
The 41-year-old Briton, whose body was found in November in a hotel in Chongqing, was allegedly poisoned by a woman trying to protect her son.
Bo Xilai’s Wife Is Charged in Killing of British Businessman
www.nytimes.com
Gu Kailai, the wife of the disgraced political leader Bo Xilai, has been indicted for intentional homicide, in a crime that has triggered China’s most serious political crisis in decades.
Bo Xilai’s Wife Is Charged in Killing of British Businessman
www.nytimes.com
Gu Kailai, the wife of the disgraced political leader Bo Xilai, has been indicted for intentional homicide, in a crime that has triggered China’s most serious political crisis in decades.
Mike Nova's starred items
via The New York Times's Facebook Wall by The New York Times on 7/26/12
Op-ed columnist Nicholas D. Kristof writes, “We shield youngsters in cinemas from violence — but only if it’s on the screen. Almost a week after the cinema shooting, we can also be sure what won’t happen: serious gun control.”
Safe From Fire, but Not Guns
www.nytimes.com
If we have safety regulations even for toy guns, how about some for real ones?
Safe From Fire, but Not Guns
www.nytimes.com
If we have safety regulations even for toy guns, how about some for real ones?
via The Guardian World News by Alan Travis on 7/26/12
Illicit drug use among young people aged 16 to 24 has been stable over the past year at about 1.3 million, or 19% of the age group, and remains at its lowest level since records began in 1996, according to official figures published on Thursday.
The 2011-12 annual survey of drug use, measured by the Crime Survey for England and Wales, shows that cannabis remains the most commonly used illicit drug among young adults, followed by powder cocaine, which appears to have passed a peak of popularity.
The annual drug data from what used to be the British Crime Survey shows that the government's ban on the "legal high" mephedrone, a synthetic stimulant, appears to have had some impact: there has been a slight decline in the level of use reported in the past year, from 1.4% to 1.1%.
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