Daily Rotten Archives February 10, 2004 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 43% of Florida distrusts its own citizenry Sarasota Herald-Tribune | Submitted by: Sketchcow "During a week in January, the Herald-Tribune and 29 other Florida newspapers tested how officials responded to a routine request to inspect records. Reporters and other news media employees posing as citizens visited 234 local agencies in 62 of Florida's 67 counties. Overall, 57% of the agencies audited complied with the public records law. The rest made unlawful demands or simply refused to turn over the records. Public officials lied to, harassed and even threatened volunteers who were using a law designed to give citizens the power to watch over their government... Roger Desjarlais, the Broward County administrator, threatened a volunteer by saying, 'I can make your life very difficult.' After insisting that the volunteer give his name, Desjarlais used the Internet to identify the volunteer, find his cell phone number and call him after work hours... Another volunteer, who is a Herald-Tribune reporter, was almost arrested after he politely declined to sign in at the front desk at the Charlotte County school district." Read article... Hell freezes over, O'Reilly grudgingly apologizes San Diego Union-Tribune | Submitted by: buck_fabies "Conservative television news anchor Bill O'Reilly said Tuesday he was now skeptical about the Bush administration and apologized to viewers for supporting prewar claims that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The anchor of his own show on Fox News said he was sorry he gave the U.S. government the benefit of the doubt that former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein's weapons program poised an imminent threat, the main reason cited for going to war. 'I was wrong. I am not pleased about it at all and I think all Americans should be concerned about this,' O'Reilly said in an interview with ABC's Good Morning America. 'What do you want me to do, go over and kiss the camera?' asked O'Reilly, who had promised rival ABC last year he would publicly apologize if weapons were not found. O'Reilly said he was 'much more skeptical about the Bush administration now.'" [Welcome aboard, Bill.] Read article... USDA puts happy face on failed Mad Cow investigation Washington Post | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Federal officials ended their investigation into the country's first case of mad cow disease yesterday after failing to locate almost two-thirds of the 80 cattle that had entered the United States from Canada with an infected Holstein. The 52 missing animals include 11 cows believed to be at higher risk because they were born about the same time as the Holstein and may have eaten the same contaminated feed. 'The paper trail has gotten cold; we have not been able to trace those animals,' said W. Ron DeHaven, chief veterinary officer at the Department of Agriculture. 'Some of them very likely have gone to slaughter,' he said. Although DeHaven said the seven-week investigation had been exceptionally successful - 'We never expected to be able to find all of them; it's remarkable we found as many as we did' - the deputy USDA administrator had tried to soothe public fears in December by promising that most of the herd would be found alive. 'Most of them are likely still alive,' he said Dec. 27, according to a USDA transcript. 'Because the records that are kept on dairy cattle are typically very good ... we feel confident that we are going to be able to determine the whereabouts of most, if not all, of these animals within the next several days.' Yesterday, DeHaven said that many of the animals' ear tags had been lost and that the chances of finding the rest of the herd was 'pretty slim at this point.'" Read article... Farmer throws fired field worker to the lions BBC | Submitted by: Lydia "A South African farmer and three others have been charged with murder, accused of feeding an ex-worker to lions. The four were arrested on Monday after police found a human skull and pieces of a leg in a lion enclosure. Witnesses told police that Nelson Shisane, 38, was assaulted, tied up and driven to a lion breeding project, where he was thrown over the fence. Mr Shisane, who had been sacked last year, had apparently returned to the farm, to collect his belongings." Read article... Public hospital completely fucked Boston Globe | Submitted by: dianalily "The Lydon case has also laid bare a striking lack of oversight at one of the nation's oldest public health hospitals. Caught in the awkward position of regulating itself, the Public Health Department did not regularly inspect Tewksbury and seldom, if ever, penalized officials there. The hospital itself has not reported disciplining a single doctor since 1996, even as it hired doctors with questionable records... an initial Public Health report, released last month, portrays a hospital where doctors and administrators alike face little accountability for their mistakes, and most patients are too disabled and isolated to raise many complaints... 'I thought the fix would be simple: fire the people that were responsible,' said one frustrated employee, who declined to be identified because she feared for her job. 'I don't understand what they're doing.'" Read article... Bush no hero, but not quite AWOL either Kansas City Star | Submitted by: I'm Scared Now "The White House, trying to end doubts about President Bush's Vietnam-era military record, released documents Tuesday that it said proved he had 'met his requirements' in the Texas Air National Guard despite long, unexplained gaps in his service... Bush joined in 1968, and spent most of his service time based near Houston. But in May 1972 he requested and received a temporary assignment with the Alabama National Guard so he could serve as political director on the Senate campaign of Winton 'Red' Blount, a family friend. Bush says he recalls showing up for drills in Alabama, but his supporters have struggled to prove it. Bush was not paid for any service during a five-month period in 1972, from May through September, according to the records released with Bush's approval Tuesday. He was paid for two days in October and four days in November and none in December 1972. He was not paid for February or March 1973. The records do not indicate what duty Bush performed or where he was... the White House has not been able to produce fellow guardsmen who could testify that Bush attended meetings and drills." Read article... and This article... Bush economists: jobs lost overseas is good Seattle Times | Submitted by: I'm Scared Now "The movement of American factory jobs and white-collar work to other countries is part of a positive transformation that will enrich the U.S. economy over time, even if it causes short-term pain and dislocation, the Bush administration said yesterday. The embrace of foreign 'outsourcing,' an accelerating trend that has contributed to U.S. job losses in recent years and has become an issue in the 2004 elections, is contained in the president's annual report to Congress on the U.S. economy... The report, which predicts the nation will reverse a three-year employment slide by creating 2.6 million jobs in 2004 [sounds credible already], is part of an effort by the administration to highlight signs that the recovery is picking up speed... Last year's Economic Report of the President predicted that 1.7 million jobs would be created in 2003. Instead, the nation lost 53,000 jobs. In Bush's three years in office, 2.2 million jobs have disappeared." Read article... and This article... British kidfucker found murdered BBC | Submitted by: optional "The dismembered body of a former teacher jailed for abusing pupils has been found in a garden in Edinburgh. Lothian and Borders Police have named the victim as 51-year-old registered sex offender Alan Wilson. It is understood his legs had been severed... Wilson, of North Bridge, Edinburgh, was a principal history teacher at Edinburgh's respected James Gillespie's High School until he was suspended in February 1999 when a mother complained that he had plied her son with drink. He resigned from his job after an investigation revealed repeated sex abuse on boys after making them drunk. He was jailed for 18 months in 2000 after being convicted of carrying out homosexual acts on three of his pupils." Read article... Frat boys kill, eat wild raccoon Guardian | Submitted by: vast deference "Three fraternity members accused of killing, skinning and eating a raccoon have been ordered to perform community service... The Phi Kappa Psi fraternity ordered the trio to perform 39 hours of community service last month amid allegations that they shot and killed the raccoon on Dec. 12, then skinned and ate some of it after cooking the meat. The students also must apologize and give an educational speech about animal cruelty to the fraternity. Phi Kappa Psi member Eric Zimmerman is charged with misdemeanor animal cruelty. He is the only one facing criminal charges because he is accused of killing the raccoon. Zimmerman has said he shot the animal with a pellet gun after it fell on the ground and began convulsing." [At which point did he decide it was a good idea to eat a convulsed wild animal?] Read article... Gabon high school left way, way, way behind BBC | Submitted by: Lydia "Teachers at Gabon's largest secondary school are swapping examination results for sexual favours from students, the education minister has said... [Daniel Ona Ondo] said there were bars selling alcohol near the school against government regulations. Last month the school was closed after four days of violence. 'The situation is extremely serious and has lasted for five or six years but it come to light after the student violence broke out,' an education official told AFP news agency. The official said some pupils were allegedly working as prostitutes near the school." Read article... Canadian jailbait love giving head, evidently Globe and Mail | Submitted by: TRS-80 "According to statistical evidence, as well as reports from social workers, educators and the girls themselves, oral sex is now a fact of life in middle-school culture. And it's no longer the domain of the class 'bad girl.' ... This turn among pubescent girls first came to light in 1999 in the United States. After president Bill Clinton drew his famous distinction between 'sexual relations' and oral sex, U.S. media began to discover that middle-schoolers mirrored his opinion." Read article... Finn receives $217,000 speeding ticket CNN | Submitted by: I'mNotATerroristButIPlayOneOnTV! "One of Finland's richest men has been fined a record $217,000 for speeding through the center of the capital, police said on Tuesday. Jussi Salonoja, 27, heir to his family's sausage business, was caught driving 80 km per hour in a 40 kph (50 mph in a 25) zone last Thursday, the police said. Finnish traffic fines vary according to the offender's income and, according to tax office data, Salonoja's 2002 earnings were close to seven million euros." Read article... Dr. Atkins died fat, but wasn't actually obese CNN | Submitted by: threat alert jesus "Dr. Robert Atkins, whose popular diet stresses protein-rich meat and cheese over carbohydrates, weighed 258 pounds at his death and had a history of heart disease, a newspaper reported Tuesday. Atkins died last April at age 72 after being injured in a fall on an icy street.. At 258 pounds, the 6-foot-tall Atkins would have qualified as obese... Stuart Trager, chairman of the Atkins Physicians Council in New York, told the Journal that Atkins'... weight was added between his accident and his death, and in fact Atkins weighed less than 200 pounds at the time he was injured. 'During his coma, as he deteriorated and his major organs failed, fluid retention and bloating dramatically distorted his body and left him at 258 pounds at the time of his death, a documented weight gain of over 60 pounds,' the doctor said in a written statement. 'How and why the Journal reported that he was obese, remains the only unanswered question in this pathetic situation.'" [Fans of hypocrisy should leave Atkins alone.] Read article... Microsoft lawyer somehow gets antitrust post Globe and Mail | Submitted by: Your Mom "A top lawyer from Microsoft will head a legal committee with influence in the level of oversight American courts have in antitrust settlements - like the one negotiated by Microsoft. Microsoft associate general counsel Richard J. Wallis takes over later this year as chairman of the American Bar Association's antitrust section, an unusual role for a corporate lawyer. The panel has already begun organizing opposition to a congressional plan that would require more aggressive oversight by the courts of such antitrust settlements." Read article...