Daily Rotten Archives February 19, 2004 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 Man apparently decapitates girlfriend, becomes roadkill Pasadena Star-News | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "A woman was found stabbed and beheaded Monday morning, apparently the victim of an ex-boyfriend who later killed himself by jumping in front of a big-rig truck, authorities said. Evidence suggests that Glenda Vittimberga, 37, an associate professor at Cal State Los Angeles, was killed in the kitchen... Vittimberga's body was found in the kitchen, her head in the living room fireplace... The ex-boyfriend committed suicide at about 3:30 a.m. on Interstate 15 at Cajon Pass. Officer Patrick Kelhi of the California Highway Patrol said the man parked his car on the shoulder, stripped naked, and neatly placed his socks, shirt, jacket, wallet, keys and cell phone in the car. Then he hurled himself in front of a passing tractor-trailer, killing himself instantly and causing the truck driver to hit another semi in an attempt to avoid the collision." Read article... and This article... Man accused of murder, cannibalism Sun | Submitted by: fuchsia perfect "A cannibal has been caught by cops as he cooked his victim’s brain in a pan on the hob. Horrified officers found the dismembered body of the dead man after they were called to a flat in East London. Blood was splattered on the walls and floor - and the maniac was frying the brain in the kitchen... the murder suspect had been released hours earlier from a mental home. The victim, named by neighbours as Brian Cherry, is also believed to have received psychiatric treatment." Read article... Mom feeds toddlers liquor, vomit, cat crap WKYT-TV 27 Lexington | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "A Kentucky mother accused of letting her young children eat vomit now admits she did it. Louisville police arrested 22-year-old Sherri Carter last year after a six-month investigation into abuse charges involving her children. At the time, Carter's boys were one and two-years-old when she now admits to serving them alcohol in their sippies, tying them to toilets and letting them eat human vomit and cat feces." Read article... Embarrassing FBI study finally released 3 years later MSNBC | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "An internal FBI report kept under wraps for three years details dozens of cases of agents fired for egregious misconduct and crimes, including drug trafficking, attempted murder, theft, misuse of informants and consorting with prostitutes... Although the numbers were small, the FBI's attempts to prevent the report's disclosure from the public and Congress since its completion in June 2000 is raising questions among FBI critics about an attempt to avoid embarrassment... Grassley said the report 'almost never saw the light of day.' It was only provided to lawmakers in July 2003, months after it was requested, and was accompanied by a Justice Department letter urging that it be kept confidential." Read article... Hypothetical Al Qaeda attack prompts water bill hike Muncie Star Press | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "The war on terror will cost Indiana-American Water Co. customers slightly more than $2 million a year. The Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission ruled on Dec. 30 that the federal Bioterrorism Act of 2002 and evidence the commission heard privately supported the rate increase of $2,062,871 a year... 'I really can't tell you what they are using the money for,' said Mary Beth Fisher-Johnson, director of public information for the IURC. 'Most of that was done confidentially in camera to justify it to the commission because of security concerns. All I can say is that basically the commission was satisfied that the money was being appropriately spent.'" Read article... California judge dismisses electronic voting lawsuit Contra Costa Times | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "A skeptical Sacramento County judge Wednesday rebuffed an attempt to impose new safeguards on 19 counties that use electronic-voting equipment. Judge Raymond M. Cadei rejected arguments by a group of concerned residents that millions of California voters would be relying on new technology that is vulnerable to electoral mischief. 'The petitioners have failed to provide any evidence of an actual threat,' Cadei said at the close of the hearing. 'At this point it is merely speculative.' Activists concerned that new electronic voting systems are highly susceptible to tampering went before Cadei in an effort to force Diebold Election Systems, the company providing the 19 counties with the technology, to add more safeguards... A recent study by the Maryland Legislature found that the technology was ripe for hacking, while Secretary of State Kevin Shelley discovered that Diebold had installed unapproved software in 17 counties. Shelley has called on counties to implement new safeguards, such as random testing, to ensure the integrity of the March election. But some county elections officials - including Santa Clara County Registrar of Voters Jesse Durazo - are objecting." [Computer scientists are telling us that without a paper audit trail, we have no way to detect malfunctions performed by the electronic voting machines. So what are we supposed to do - wait for a stolen election that we will never be able to prove was stolen in the first place?] Read article... and This... and This... County clerk invites commissioners to eat shit KMGH-TV 7 Denver | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Just six days before he faces a recall election, Arapahoe County Clerk Tracy Baker has appointed his girlfriend - the woman in the center of the scandal that could oust him from office - to be voting system supervisor. Leesa Sale is now his assistant chief deputy and Baker says he is well within his authority to transfer her to voting system supervisor... The commissioners and others want to boot Baker from office, claiming that he mismanaged his office and created a hostile work environment stemming from a sexual relationship with Sale. Seven employees in the clerk and recorder's office have filed claims with the county." Read article... Woman registers cows to vote, again News Corporation | Submitted by: sTabby "Brenda Gould is in trouble again for registering her cows as voters. For the second year running, the woman from Newmarket, near Cambridge in eastern England, has listed two names on the registration form who turned out to be cows, East Cambridgeshire District Council said today... 'This was the second time that Mrs. Gould had given false information on electoral forms and so, regrettably, the council felt it was necessary to take action to prevent this abuse of the election system from continuing.'" Read article... Donut bumpers terrorize middle school girls WCAU-TV 10 Philadelphia | Submitted by: Ellis D Trippman "The gang is allegedly called DTO (for Dykes Taking Over) and made up of self-styled lesbian students. Girls at the Turner Middle School allege that the lesbian students are harassing them with gay remarks. The straight students say lesbians are bullying, groping and harassing them in gym and in the girl's bathrooms... 'I told them, "No." And they kept bothering us. (They) kept coming to us asking us to become gay,' said Felicia Anderson, a straight student. Anderson, 14, said she doesn't like it and it makes her cry... 'Don't nobody wanna be gay. Don't nobody wanna be harassed. Don't nobody wanna be scared to come to school,' said Kendra Branch, a student." Read article... Bush economists rewriting history Business Week | Submitted by: LSDave "The [Council of Economic Advisers]'s Economic Report of the President, released Feb. 9, unilaterally changed the start date of the last recession to benefit Bush's reelection bid. Instead of using the accepted start date of March, 2001, the CEA announced that the recession really started in the fourth quarter of 2000 - a shift that would make it much more credible for the Bush Administration to term it the 'Clinton Recession.' In a subsequent press conference, [Harvard economist N. Gregory Mankiw] said that the CEA had looked at the available data and 'made the call.' ... In the early 1980s, the Reagan Administration tried, unsuccessfully, to convince the NBER to combine the 1980 and 1981-82 recessions into a single downturn that could be called the 'Carter Recession.' During the '92 election season, the first Bush Administration kept hoping that the NBER would announce that the recession of 1990-91 was over - a statement that didn't come until December, 1992." Read article... TV station snags cop in underage sex sting KPTV-TV 12 Portland | Submitted by: optional "Clackamas County has ordered an internal investigation into the conduct of a Reserve Deputy who has admitted to being caught in FOX 12's undercover sting to aimed at catching sexual predators online. In a written statement, Sheriff Pat Detloff confirmed the resignation of 29-year old Michael J. Benthin. Sheriff Detloff says Benthin admitted to chatting with what he believed was a child online and attempting to make contact with the child... Over a two-day period, FOX 12's sting employed volunteers from Perverted-Justice.com rooted out a dozen area men who used the Internet to hook up with teen girls." Read article... USAMRIID scientist isolated for Ebola WJZ-TV 13 Baltimore | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "A Fort Detrick scientist is in isolation Thursday morning after she is exposed to the deadly Ebola virus. Last week, the woman grazed her hand with a needle while working with mice infected with a weakened form of the virus. Right now the scientist shows no signs of illness... The scientist could remain in confinement for up to 30-days." [More on this story as it develops.] Read article... Farmer drinks manure water to prove point Muncie Star Press | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "During a public hearing conducted by the Indiana Department of Environmental Management Wednesday night, dairy opponent Barbara Peeg squeezed some manure out of a dropper into a jar full of water. She then put the lid on the jar and shook it, demonstrating that your water could be contaminated even though you couldn't see it. Peeg then delivered the jar to an IDEM official and sat down. [Dairy farmer Tony Goltstein] came out of the audience of 200 or so people at the Randolph County Fairgrounds, removed the lid from the jar and took a big drink, causing shock and laughter in the crowd." Read article... Ibogaine touted as miracle detox drug KRON-TV 4 San Francisco | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "'I didn't believe it when I first heard about ibogaine. I thought it was something that needed to be debunked,' admits Dr. Deborah Mash, professor of Neurology and Molecular and Cellular Pharmacology at University of Miami. Dr. Mash is one of the few scientists in the world to study ibogaine, a mild hallucinogen that comes from the root of a shrub found in West Africa and was rumored to have the amazing ability to help drug addicts kick their addiction... one dose of ibogaine blocked the withdrawal symptoms of even hard-core addicts and was amazingly effective for heroin, crack cocaine and even alcohol... Dr. Mash will present her findings to the Food and Drug Administration next month. She hopes the FDA will eventually authorize further testing, based on her results. In the meantime, ibogaine remains illegal in the United States." Read article... Joke backfires on college professor Asheville Citizen-Times | Submitted by: ringo "Mars Hill College has accepted the resignation of a longtime professor after he challenged students to disrobe in exchange for an A in his sociology class and one of them took him up on the offer. College President Dan Lunsford said the professor didn't expect the student would actually take off his clothes during the class last Thursday evening. The instructor's offer was intended to illustrate cultural differences and that public nudity is unacceptable in American society, he said... The incident has been the talk of the campus at this Madison County school affiliated with the Baptist Church." Read article... Deaf? Like TV? Well, fuck you. Palm Beach Post | Submitted by: Adam "The Bush administration has decided that people with bad hearing have bad judgment, too, and need special guidance from the federal government. So the U.S. Department of Education is declaring about 200 television programs inappropriate for closed-captioning and denying federal grant requests to make them accessible to the hearing-impaired. The department made its decisions based on the recommendations of a five-member panel. Who the five members are, only the government seems to know, and it isn't saying... The government is refusing to caption Bewitched and I Dream of Jeannie, apparently fearing that the deaf would fall prey to witchcraft if they viewed the classic sitcoms. Your government also believes that Law & Order is too intense for the hard-of-hearing. So is Power Rangers. You can rest easy knowing that your federal tax dollars aren't being spent to promote Sanford and Son, Judge Wapner's Animal Court and The Loretta Young Show within the deaf community." Read article... Dubya's 1972 nickname CNN | Submitted by: Alexander Luthore "George W. Bush has long had a habit of giving people nicknames - and perhaps that's because he picked up a few along the way himself. Like the one he earned in 1972, when he left his home in Houston to work on the long-shot Senate campaign of Winton M. (Red) Blount... a group of older Alabama socialites, who were volunteering their time, gave Bush a nickname because they thought he 'looked good on the outside but was full of hot air.' They called him the Texas Soufflé." Read article... Nutball dies after eating 350 coins Fox News | Submitted by: Lolo "French doctors were taken aback when they discovered the reason for a patient's sore, swollen belly: He had swallowed around 350 coins - $650 worth - along with assorted necklaces and needles... doctors were awed when they took an X-ray. They discovered an enormous opaque mass in his stomach that turned out to weigh 12 pounds - as much as some bowling balls. It was so heavy it had forced his stomach down between his hips. Five days after his arrival, doctors cut him open and removed his badly damaged stomach with its contents. He died 12 days later from complications." Read article...