"You're welcome to come along for the ride, Connecticut" ... still gives me chills.

That's usually when I start to bawl.

New Detroit Films

New York City has made almost 900,000 historical photos available on their website. I saw some of them on the news and they're fascinating. They have photos of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges under construction, some street scenes with the old pushcarts, just fascinating stuff. However, they proved so fascinating to so many that the website crashed! I just tried it again, and it's still down, but if you want a peek, try it later today.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/records/html/gallery/home.shtml

On Tuesday, April 3rd, there were multiple tornados in the Dallas area.

I got in the bathtub, with my bicycle helmet on and a heavy coat. Fortunately, the twister didn't land nearby.

Here's a photo snapped by freelance photographer Parrish Velasaco that afternoon.



The tornado picked up trailers and tossed them in the air:

Tornadoes are scary shit. I'm glad I live in an area in which tornadoes are not common.

Those pictures are amazingly frightening! Glad you're OK!

The Empire State Building is set to take 2nd Place for the Tallest Building in NYC. At about 2:00 p.m. this afternoon, the new freedom tower will go taller than the Empire State Bldg (by about 20 feet).

The tower will eventually end up about 500 feet higher when it is completed next year.

Here is a cool video of it from the top.

Did I hear that the Tower, when finsihed, will be the tallest building in the US ? ?

You may have heard that, but it's not necessarily true... Click on my link just above...

Breaking news from Westchester County (just north of NYC) ... Mount Kisco, a well-to-do suburb and home of Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Police have discovered the body of Kennedy's estranged wife in their home. No details yet about the cause of death.

SC, according to this article in the Westchester County newspaper, she hanged herself. How sad for their four children.

http://www.lohud.com/article/20120516/LIFESTYLE01/305160146/Mary-Kennedy-wife-Robert-F-Kennedy-Jr-hanged-herself-her-Bedford-home-source-says-view-photos-house?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Frontpage

Prosecutors say Prosper High boys formed sex club, drugged girls

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2012/05/...ged-girls.html/

Prosper is a suburb north of Dallas.

A group of Prosper High School boys formed a club where they would invite girls over, give them drugs and have sex with them, prosecutors said Tuesday.

Five Prosper High students were arrested Monday, May 14th in connection with a months-long investigation by Prosper police. One of those arrested was Darius McClinton-Hunter, 17, the son of Los Angeles Angels outfielder Torii Hunter. McClinton-Hunter bonded out of the Collin County Jail on Monday. It is unclear whether Garrick White, the other 17-year-old arrested, remains in jail.

Three of the students taken into custody this week were juveniles, and their names are not being released. A hearing for the juveniles arrested on Monday is under way at the Collin County Courthouse, where new details are emerging about the case.

Prosecutors say the boys would drug girls to have sex with them. They allegedly called it “Team Snapback.” One of the juveniles is accused of helping to drag a girl into a closet, where prosecutors say McClinton-Hunter forced her to have oral sex.

The defense says the girl went into the closet willingly and had consensual sex with another boy, not McClinton-Hunter.

The judge will decide today whether to release the juveniles to their parents.The defense for the first juvenile says the boy is a sophomore and a good student with no criminal history. He ran varsity track and was set to join the varsity football team next year. His parents are both retired military officers.

In the WTF were you thinking category, a man was caught on video putting a little boy in a washing machine in a NJ laundromat.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national...ticle-1.1082426

Actor Michael McKean (Lenny on "Laverne and Shirley") was hit by a car on the upper westside of Manhattan yesterday. The incident took place on 86th Street and Broadway, one block away from where actor Richard Bright (Al Neri in "The Godfather") was struck and killed by a bus some six years ago.

McKean suffered a broken leg as a result of the accident. He is currently appearing on Broadway in a Gore Vidal play. No word if anyone wished him to "break a leg".

That area must be a pedestrian nightmare.

The area where I live has seen an unusually large number of pedestrians hit by cars over the past two months. What's even more alarming is that almost half are hit-and-run.

SC, did you see the photos of him on the stretcher? His leg looked pretty mangled. On the news this morning, they reported that his condition had been upgraded from critical to stable, so I guess that's a good sign.

I did see the picture and yes he looked in bad shape. Poor guy. I hope he makes a complete recovery.




TIS

by any chance stephen king was near that area when he was hit by a car?

I recently saw a statistic where NYC has approx. 300 motor vehicle fatalities a year, of which 80+ are pedestrians. North Carolina which has a population similar to NYC has 1,300 motor vehicle fatalities per year. Moonshine?

Fatalities are much rarer on city streets and boulevards than the highways. Still the NC statistic of 1300 vhicular deaths is surprising. Ironically a few years ago the UNC mascot was killed when struck by a car during the NCAA tourney a few years ago, but it wasn't in Carolina.

The Etan Patz disappearance looks like it's come to an end. His alleged killer was arrested by NY Police earlier today, one day short of 33 years ago, when the boy disappeared on his way to school.

I can't even imagine what his parents are going through now.

Here's the story, SC. I hope this gives them a sense of peace. They've never moved away from that apartment or changed their phone number in case Etan might come home one day.

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/05/24/sus...atz-police-say/

j

Such a heart wrenching story. That poor family at least gets closure. What a darling little boy.


Here in CA the story of a man who served 10 years for a rape he didn't commit when the victim friends him on facebook after he was released from prison.

Brian Banks, now 26, pleaded no contest 10 years ago on the advice of his lawyer after a childhood friend falsely accused him of attacking her on their high school campus.

In a strange turn of events, the woman, Wanetta Gibson, friended him on Facebook when he got out of prison. During a meeting later with him, Gibson said she had lied; there had been no kidnap and no rape and she offered to help him clear his record, court records state.

But she reportedly refused to repeat the story to prosecutors because she feared she would have to return a $1.5 million payment from a civil suit brought by her mother against Long Beach schools.



Here's the whole story:

http://www.statesman.com/news/nation/man-exonerated-of-rape-conviction-10-years-later-2374707.html

TIS

TIS, by far there are more innocent people, who have sat in prison for the crime of rape than any other crime on the books. When DNA evidence recently emerged as a forensic tool to identify potential rapists, prosecutors rejoiced. An unintended consequence of this was that across the country scores of defendants, convicted of rape, were exonerated as the semen on the victim was found to have belonged to someone else.

Days after being named teacher of the year at Texas' Colleyville Middle School, band director John McDaniel was arrested on accusations that he sexted with a 15-year old-student.

McDaniel, 32, is charged with online solicitation of a minor, a third-degree felony, and improper relationship between educator and student, a second-degree felony.

When he was brought in for questioning, McDaniel, confessed to exchanging nude photos with a girl who was in his class last year, Grapevine police said.

"The information we have is that there was some sexting going on, by way of the cellphone and some explicit emails," Sgt. Robert Eberling said.

According to the arrest affidavit, McDaniel and the girl began chatting on Facebook two years ago.

The victim told investigators that McDaniel told her she was pretty and wondered what she looked like naked.

The affidavit goes on to say that she shared topless photos with him and he responded with a photo of his genitals.

The victim's brother discovered one of the emails over the weekend, according to the affidavit.

"When you send your child to school, you hope they are placed in a safe stable environment," Eberling said. "It's unfortunate that this happens."

No one answered the door at the north Fort Worth home McDaniel shares with his wife.

He is out of jail on a $10,000 bond, although police said he could be arrested again if they find other victims.

"Unfortunately, when you are dealing these type of offenses and the people that perpetrate these offenses, generally there are other victims," Eberling said.

McDaniel has been placed on administrative leave.

He has served as head band director at Colleyville Middle School since July 2009.

"If the police investigation substantiates the allegations, the district will immediately proceed with termination procedures," the Grapevine-Colleyville Independent School District said a in statement.

http://www.ksdk.com/news/article/322173/28/John-McDaniel-accused-of-sexting-student

Here in Brooklyn, we're no strangers to this sort of stuff. The school mentioned in the article below is only five blocks from where I live. One of the television stations that reported this story also said the teacher in question supplied the boy with marijuana in addition to sex. Yes, high school certainly isn't what it used to be - and note the last line of the story!

Signor V.

*************************************

NEW YORK (WABC) -- A teacher at James Madison High School in Brooklyn has been arrested on rape charges, after being accused of having a sexual relationship with a student.

According to a Special Commissioner of Investigation report, English teacher Erin Sayar, 35, had sex with an 11th grader at least eight times last December.

Investigators were tipped off by a girl who had a crush on the alleged victim and read Facebook posts between the two.

Although the student initially denied any romance with Sayar, authorities obtained phone records that showed the couple had exchanged 19 telephone calls and 3,856 text messages in December 2011.

When confronted with the evidence, investigators said the victim admited to having sex with Sayar between 8 and a dozen occassions on the campus of James Madison High School and in her SUV.

Police arrested Sayar on Thursday and charged her on 8 counts, including rape, sexual misconduct and sex abuse.

Sayar is married with a 3-year-old daughter.

The school in Brooklyn is the same one where two females teachers were caught in a naked embrace in a classroom in 2009. They were fired.

These student teacher trysts have gotten out of control. This should be approached with zero tolerance, teacher's union be damned.

I'm very pro-labor, but a line needs to be drawn here.

In Texas, if you're a School Teacher, then there's a law against sexual relations with students, regardless of their age. So for Texas school teachers, there is no "age" defense, as some students have reached the "age of consent", so for clergy and school teachers... there are extra prohibitions.

But all of the teachers are well aware of the law.

Just like career criminals and gang members.... they full well know the law, and break it anyway. They probably know the law better than most.... but, they break it anyway.