Daily Rotten Archives February 21, 2004 2001 | 2002 | 2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 Crusading assistant principal caught planting drugs Newsday | Submitted by: Amos Quito "An assistant principal who was trying to get a student expelled admitted planting marijuana in the boy's locker, police said. Police say Pat Conroy told them this month that he placed the marijuana in the locker at South Haven High School last year because he suspected the boy was a drug dealer and wanted him expelled. The plan failed because a police drug dog didn't find the contraband during a school search last year. Conroy, who has been placed on administrative leave, said he 'lost his perspective' and had done something 'stupid, arrogant and unethical.'" [Hey fuckwad: you forgot "illegal."] Read article... Wife convicted of failed stabbathon WNBC-TV 4 New York | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "A woman who stabbed her husband during a game in which he was handcuffed and blindfolded - then stabbed him again after driving him to a hospital - was convicted Thursday of attempted murder. Sheila Davalloo, 34, of Pleasantville, could be sentenced to up to 25 years in prison... Davalloo and Christos were engaged in a game in which Christos, blindfolded and handcuffed, was to guess what she was touching him with. She took a 4-inch paring knife from the kitchen and stabbed Christos twice in the chest. Prosecutors said Davalloo pretended to call 911 and took Christos to the Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla only after he begged her. When she parked near the hospital, she took the knife and stabbed him a third time." Read article... Ashcroft still tracking political dissidents FindLaw | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "The Ashcroft Justice Department has had its eye on peaceful demonstrators and dissenters for quite some time. In May 2002, for instance, the Attorney General announced the elimination of twenty-six-year-old regulations that had prevented the FBI from monitoring 'open to the public' events held by domestic religious, political and civic organizations unless it had specific cause for doing so... in a November 23, 2003 article, the New York Times detailed how - according to a leaked bureau memorandum - the FBI was collecting extensive information about, and tracking, antiwar demonstrators. According to the Times, the memo 'possessed no information that violent or terrorist activities are being planned' as a part of major protests. Still, even with no evidence of a link to terrorism, the surveillance continued - and likely continues to this day." Read article... Judge slaps Swiss banks with $1.25B judgment New York Post | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "The federal judge overseeing payouts to Holocaust victims' heirs blasted Swiss banks for lying about their ties to the Nazis and 'stonewalling' efforts to disburse a $1.25 billion settlement in a scathing order issued yesterday. Brooklyn federal Judge Edward Korman accused the banks of conducting 'spin and distortion' by asserting their innocence in the genocide... The judge's order also fingers the banks for covering up the forced transactions by destroying documents and withholding account information that would smooth the process of returning money to the victims' heirs." Read article... German cops threatened suspect with physical torture BBC | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "German prosecutors have filed charges against a deputy head of police after he ordered officers to threaten a suspect with torture. Wolfgang Daschner, of the Frankfurt police department, has admitted issuing the order to try to find the whereabouts of a kidnapped boy. The child, who was 11 years old, was subsequently found killed... On Mr Daschner's orders, Frankfurt police threatened the suspect with 'intense pain' if he did not reveal the whereabouts of Jakob. The man then confessed to having already killed Jakob, and told the police where the body was." Read article... Schwarzenegger reluctantly tells SF mayor to knock it off San Francisco Chronicle | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, facing mounting calls for action from within his own party, ordered Attorney General Bill Lockyer on Friday to intervene immediately to stop San Francisco from granting marriage licenses to same-sex couples... Schwarzenegger directed the state's top lawyer 'to take immediate steps' to obtain a court ruling that the city's actions are illegal. 'Our civilized society and legal system is based upon a respect for and adherence to the rule of law,' the governor wrote... 'The City and County of San Francisco's actions are directly contrary to state law and present an imminent risk to civil order.' ... Rob Stutzman, Schwarzenegger's communications director, said the governor believed that San Francisco officials were 'flouting state law' and that 'we're going down a dangerous path that leads to anarchy.'" [First: nobody actually believes that San Francisco is teetering on the brink of "anarchy." Second: the state ban on same-sex marriages contains a significant grammatical flaw. Third: the ban may be illegal under the state constitution. So knock off the rhetoric and let's see what the courts have to say.] Read article... and This article... States not falling for No Child Left Behind New York Times | Submitted by: Reid Fleming "As he campaigns for re-election, President Bush hopes to capitalize on the law, known as No Child Left Behind, as one of the pillars of his domestic agenda. But the Democratic presidential candidates have made it a frequent target of criticism and ridicule. And things are not going that well... Last month, the Republican-controlled Virginia House of Delegates passed a resolution, 98 to 1, urging Congress to exempt Virginia from the law. That vote came after Rod Paige, the education secretary, and other administration officials met with Virginia lawmakers, said James H. Dillard II, chairman of the House Education Committee. 'Six of us met with Paige,' Mr. Dillard, a Republican, said. 'He looked us in the eye and said, "It's fully funded." We looked him back in the eye and said, "We don't think so."'" Read article... Bush unable to distinguish fast food and manufacturing jobs Newsday | Submitted by: optional "In the [President's annual economic] report last week, Bush's chief economic adviser N. Gregory Mankiw called the definition 'somewhat blurry' and asked whether it should be changed. 'When a fast-food restaurant sells a hamburger, for example, is it providing a "service" or is it combining inputs to "manufacture" a product?' For an administration that has seen 2.6 million manufacturing jobs vanish since January 2001, raising the possibility of changing how manufacturing jobs are classified has provoked a sharp response, especially in an election year... The White House McDonald's, whose customers include many White House staffers, though no president since Bill Clinton, is an economic indicator of its own. Business has been slow." [There's a McDonald's inside the White House?] Read article... and This article...