OREGON MAN SURVIVES 12 NAIL to the HEAD
By SARAH SKIDMORE, Associated Press Writer
Friday, April 21, 2006

An Oregon man who went to a hospital complaining of a headache was found to have 12 nails embedded in his skull from a suicide attempt with a nail gun, doctors say.
Surgeons removed the nails with needle-nosed pliers and a drill, and the man survived with no serious lasting effects, according to a report on the medical oddity in the current issue of the Journal of Neurosurgery.
The unidentified 33-year-old man was suicidal and high on methamphetamine last year when he fired the nails — up to 2 inches in length — into his head one by one.
The nails were not visible when doctors first examined the man in the emergency room of an unidentified Oregon hospital a day later. Doctors were surprised when X-rays revealed six nails clustered between his right eye and ear, two below his right ear and four on the left side of his head.
The study did not say how long the nails were, and a hospital spokeswoman refused to release that information. A photo published in the study suggests the nails range from 1 1/2 to 2 inches long.
No one before is known to have survived after intentionally firing so many foreign objects into the head, according to the report, written by Dr. G. Alexander West, the neurosurgeon who oversaw the treatment of the patient.
The man at first told doctors he had had a nail gun accident, but later admitted it was a suicide attempt.
The nails came close to major blood vessels and the brain stem but did not pierce them. The patient was in remarkably good condition when he was transferred to Oregon Health & Science University in Portland, where the nails were removed.
The patient was later transferred to psychiatric care and stayed under court order for nearly a month before leaving against doctors' orders.

SHELL EXPLODES AND INJURES TEACHER

CALIFORNIA: A teacher in Ventura who kept a 40-millimeter shell on his desk as a paperweight blew off part of his hand when he apparently used it to try to squash a bug, the authorities said. The five-inch-long shell exploded Monday while the teacher, Robert Colla, was instructing 20 to 25 students at an adult education class. Part of Mr. Colla's right hand was severed, and he suffered burns and shrapnel wounds, said Capt. Tom Weinell of the Fire Department. No one else was injured. Mr. Colla was reported in stable condition at a hospital. He found the round while hunting years ago and "obviously he didn't think the round was live," said Dennis Huston, who teaches computer design alongside Mr. Colla. (AP)

GO TO BED MARRIED, WAKE UP DIVORCED

Mon Mar 27, 2006 10:02 PM ET171NEW DELHI (Reuters) - A Muslim couple in India has been told by local Islamic leaders they must separate after the husband "divorced" his wife in his sleep, the Press Trust of India reported.
Sohela Ansari told friends that her husband Aftab had uttered the word "talaq," or divorce, three times in his sleep, according to the report published in newspapers Monday.
When local Islamic leaders got to hear, they said Aftab's words constituted a divorce under an Islamic procedure known as "triple talaq." The couple, married for 11 years with three children, were told they had to split.
The religious leaders ruled that if the couple wanted to remarry they would have to wait at least 100 days. Sohela would also have to spend a night with another man and be divorced by him in turn.
The couple, who live in the eastern state of West Bengal, have refused to obey the order and the issue has been referred to a local family counseling center.
India's minority Muslim population is governed by Islamic personal laws on issues such as marriage, divorce and property inheritance.
"This is a totally unnecessary controversy and the local 'community leaders' or whosoever has said it are totally ignorant of Islamic law," said Zafarul-Islam Khan, an Islamic scholar and editor of The Milli Gazette, a popular Muslim newspaper.
"The law clearly says any action under compulsion or in a state of intoxication has no effect. The case of someone uttering something while asleep falls under this category and will have no impact whatsoever," Khan told Reuters.

NEUROSURGERY CHIEF ARRESTED IN OAKLAND OPERATING ROOM
Thursday, March 9, 2006

(03-09) 09:40 PST Oakland, Calif. (AP) --
The chief of neurosurgery at Highland Hospital was wrestled to an operating room floor by deputies and arrested after allegedly throwing a drunken fit when a nurse refused to let him operate, authorities said.
Federico Castro-Moure, 45, was arrested Monday night on suspicion of being under the influence of alcohol and interfering with the duty of officers, said Alameda County sheriff's Lt. Jim Knudson.
Castro-Moure became belligerent after insisting on operating on a man who broke his ankles and fractured his spine in a two-story fall, according to the sheriff's department.
Two other surgeons had determined the injuries were not life-threatening, but Castro-Moure insisted the man would die if he did not receive immediate attention, the report said.
He "threw a fit" and began yelling and cursing at staff when they told him equipment for the procedure needed to be transferred from another hospital, according to the report. When the surgical instruments arrived, a nurse refused to allow Castro-Moure to operate until they could be sterilized.
Castro-Moure threatened the nurse by punching his fist in his hand. He took a swing at deputies after they were called to intervene.
"Do you know that I am a (expletive) doctor, and I'm going to do what I want," he said, according to a witness.
He was booked into Glenn Dyer Detention Facility in Oakland and was released several hours later in lieu of $4,000 bail, a jail official said Thursday morning.
Castro-Moure was placed on leave while the hospital investigates the matter, hospital spokesman David Cone said.
A woman who answered the phone at Castro-Moure's home Thursday morning said the doctor had no comment.

........................
Neurosurgeon won't face charge - Prosecutor sees too little evidence for intoxication case
Christopher Heredia, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, April 6, 2006

Citing a lack of evidence, a prosecutor announced Wednesday that he will not file charges against a neurosurgeon suspected of trying to perform surgery while intoxicated last month.
Alameda County Assistant District Attorney Tom Rogers said he could not sustain allegations that Dr. Federico Castro-Moure was combative and under the influence of alcohol during a March 6 scuffle with sheriff's deputies at Alameda County Medical Center.
The surgeon allegedly screamed obscenities with breath "reeking of alcohol" and physically threatened hospital employees during a dispute in an operating room over whether to proceed with a scheduled surgery.
Castro-Moure, 45, later attributed the odor on his breath to a glass of wine he'd consumed earlier in the day and to rice he said had fermented in his mouth.
Rogers declined further comment on his decision.
Castro-Moure's lawyer, Harry Traback, said his client is pleased and hopes to restore his reputation, as his blood alcohol level was 0.008 -- well below the legal threshold for intoxication -- and the altercation was overblown.
"Hopefully, he can reestablish his reputation, which has been significantly impaired by inaccurate reporting," Traback said. "From the standpoint of the hospital and medical board, he hopes they will follow suit and drop the charges."
The Medical Board of California partly suspended Castro-Moure's medical license on March 22; a hearing on the matter before an administrative law judge is scheduled Friday.
On Tuesday, a psychiatrist concluded after an examination that Castro-Moure had no mental or physical impairment that would prevent him from practicing medicine, nor does he suffer from any chemical dependency.
Dr. David Altman, the hospital's chief medical officer, said in a statement that the hospital is awaiting a ruling from the medical board before commenting further on Castro-Moure's status at the hospital.

GIRL WEDS DOG TO WARD OFF 'EVIL EYE'
Wednesday, February 22, 2006

(02-22) 06:44 PST NEW DELHI, India (AP) --
A 7-year-old girl wed a stray dog as part of a ritual to ward off the "evil eye" on her and her family in eastern India, a news agency reported Wednesday.
Shivam Munda's upper teeth appeared before her lower teeth — considered a bad omen by members of the Santhal ethnic group to which she belongs, the Press Trust of India said in a report from Dhanbad, a coal mining town in the eastern state of Bihar.
Kundan Munda, a coal mine worker, said his daughter married the dog only to "remove the evil eye," a superstitious belief that some misfortune could befall her and the family, and that she would be free to marry a man later.
Friends and family participated in three days of traditional ceremonies and festivities that are part of a Santhal tribal marriage, Munda said, according to the report.

‘VERY THANKFUL TO BE ALIVE’: ATTACK VICTIM RETURNS TO NEW BEDFORD GAY BAR
By Michele McPhee
Saturday, February 4, 2006 - Updated: 12:32 AM EST

NEW BEDFORD - In the minutes after a Nazi-sympathizing teen smashed a hatchet into his face and fired a bullet through his back, paramedic Robert Perry lay motionless in a spreading pool of his own blood so his attacker would believe he was mortally wounded.
“I laid very still for a number of minutes. I knew that was my only chance to live . . . to stay still and pretend I was dead so he wouldn’t come back and hit me again,” Perry told the Herald last night. “This guy was four feet away, still shooting. All I could think is he’s going to try and finish me off.” Perry, 52, of Dartmouth spoke to the Herald from Puzzles Lounge, the cozy gay bar in New Bedford where the brutal hate crime was unleashed Thursday morning. He returned there last night after his release from Boston’s Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where his right cheekbone was restructured with wire and small screws and he was treated for the bullet wound.
His face swollen and purpled with bruises left by the hatchet blow, Perry was embraced by tearful friends as he walked past the bright-pink walls of Puzzles and stood in the glow of a gas fireplace. After the hugs, Perry lifted his shirt and showed the angry red wound that ripped into his back and out his chest.
He joked with his friends to assuage their anguish. “When I smile it’s going to be kind of crooked, but I’m not too good-looking anyway.” Perry, a paramedic who drives an ambulance for Mass. General Hospital and Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, said he feels grateful to be alive.
“After (the attacker) left, I was doing an exam on myself. Made sure my toes and fingers were moving, and took my pulse,” Perry said. “It’s a lot scarier to be the guy in blood on the floor rather than the guy in the uniform over that victim.”
Two other men, Alex Taylor of Fairhaven and Luis Rosado of New Bedford, remained hospitalized last night as an all-out manhunt continued for the 18-year-old suspect, Jacob D. Robida of New Bedford. Robida called himself “Jake Jekyll” on a hate-filled Web profile. Perry said he noticed Robida come into the bar because he was wearing a black hooded sweatshirt and black trench coat.
“Anyone can come in here. No matter what they look like. We are very open-minded,” he said. “But he was very quiet and seemed very odd.” Perry was watching two men shoot pool when there was a sudden commotion and one of the players was bleeding. He stood up to help and Robida spun on him.
“This hatchet was just coming for my face. He got me. Then I got shot once,” Perry said. “That bullet went between my skin and my spinal column and came out the other side. It’s a miracle. I’m just very thankful to be alive.”
By 8 p.m. last night, exhaustion set in Perry’s friends escorted him home.
“I feel bad for this kid. He has problems. I’m not saying I forgive him, but I’d like to learn how the hell he turned out like this,” Perry said of Robida. “I just won’t feel safe until he’s caught.”

KILLING KIN MADE WORLD 'BETTER,' SUSPECT SAYS

Man accused of slaying couple speaks from jail
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Saturday, February 4, 2006
MARTINEZ
The Sacramento-area man accused of fatally stabbing and bludgeoning his sister and her husband in their El Cerrito home said in a jailhouse interview Friday night that he "made the world a better place" by killing them.
In a wide-ranging, 20-minute talk with The Chronicle from the Contra Costa Jail in Martinez, Edward "Ted" Wycoff, 37, of Citrus Heights (Sacramento County) admitted to the slayings but said he had no choice early Tuesday other than to kill his sister, Julie Wycoff Rogers, 47, and his brother-in-law, Paul Rogers, 48, an attorney.
Wycoff said he was upset at how the couple had raised their three children, a 12-year-old girl and boys ages 15 and 17. He said his sister, a former member of the El Cerrito Planning Commission, had aggravated a neighbor over a dispute about home repairs and moved their 96-year-old great-aunt into a nursing home, taking control of her assets against his wishes.
"Murder is wrong, but what I did was I killed two bad people and I made the world a better place by doing that," he said. "She was truly an evil person, and so was Paul. They destroyed their children's lives. I guess what I achieved is I removed two very evil people from the face of the earth."
Wycoff could face the death penalty if he's found guilty of killing the couple after breaking into their rented home at 1467 Rifle Range Road about 4:20 a.m. Tuesday, authorities said.
Both victims were stabbed with a large knife and bludgeoned with a wheelbarrow handle during a premeditated assault, prosecutor Harold Jewett said. Wycoff was charged Thursday with two counts of murder along with the special circumstance of committing multiple murder.
Wycoff said he showed up bleeding at a Placer County hospital several hours after the killings, telling doctors he had fallen off his bicycle onto broken glass. Roseville police arrested him and turned him over to El Cerrito police.
The couple's daughter and 17-year-old son were home at the time, police said. They are now with relatives, who are arranging for the 15-year-old son, who attends school out of state, to return home, police said.
"They saw too much," El Cerrito police Cmdr. Gary Priebe said Friday. "Let's leave it at that. It's going to be very difficult for them to deal with it and go on with their lives."
Wycoff expressed remorse that the children were now parentless because of him.
"Yes, I'm real sorry about that -- that's bad," he said. "I intended to raise them. I did not intend for those children to be orphaned."
Wycoff, who is 6 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 300 pounds, said he had disguised himself by wearing a motorcycle helmet and attaching a fake pony tail to it so that he appeared to have long hair. Wycoff, who wears his hair short, had hoped police would blame the attack on an intruder.
"I've never done anything like this before. I don't like hurting people. This is truly ugly to me," Wycoff said. "I don't like this. This is not something I want to do. I just felt it had to be done."
But Wycoff said he had trouble smashing through the window of the home, and his sister and her husband got up quicker than he expected. He said he attacked his sister first before accosting her husband. Wycoff said he believed his niece saw his face.
Asked if he intended just to hurt the couple, Wycoff said he had hatched a plan in September to kill them. "It was never my goal to injure them," he said. "I did kill them but I did not get out and get away clean."
Wycoff said he knew he would probably not be released from jail. "I'm very disappointed," he said. "No, I'm not happy about that at all."
Wycoff said he realized the public would probably not understand his actions. "Well, they're not a stand-up sort of guy. I'm a take-control, take-action guy," he said. "I'm the kind of guy who will stand up and do what's right."
He said while everyone considered the couple "to be saints," no one knew them like he did.
Wycoff said killing them would protect "people in the future" who would have had to deal with them.
"I think I'm a great guy," he said. "I don't like this stuff like I had to do. I'm not like that. It's just something I had to do, so I did it."

2 KIDS LEFT AT HOME -- COUPLE ARRESTED
San Ramon police say dad, stepmother partied in Las Vegas
Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, January 5, 2006

A San Ramon couple who police said left their 5- and 10-year-old sons home alone -- but got a dog-sitter for their puppies -- were arrested Tuesday after celebrating the New Year in Las Vegas for five days.
San Ramon police met Jacob Calero, 39, and his wife, Michelle De La Vega, 32, aboard America West Flight 6550 after it arrived at Oakland International Airport at 11 a.m., police said. Investigators had been eager to talk to the couple since finding their boys safe but alone in the couple's luxury apartment Saturday, one day after the parents took off. The 5-year-old boy is autistic, relatives said.
Calero and a tearful De La Vega, the children's stepmother, refused to talk to the detectives, who arrested them on two counts each of felony child endangerment, police said. The couple, who police said may have left the kids home alone before, remained jailed Wednesday night in lieu of $200,000 bail each. They refused media requests for interviews.
Police found the children alone Saturday evening after receiving a phone call from their concerned maternal grandmother, Liberata Holden. The children are now in Holden's custody.
"They should have known better than to leave us alone," 10-year-old Joshua Calero told The Chronicle on Wednesday from his grandmother's house in Manteca. "They knew it was against the law."
G. Wright Morton, De La Vega's attorney, declined comment. It was not immediately known Wednesday who was representing Calero.
The decision to arrest the couple was "a no-brainer," authorities said, and Calero refused to return phone calls from police while in Las Vegas on Tuesday, apparently heeding the advice of his attorney.
"We found the children home alone, fending for themselves, which was going to be up to five days had we not been involved," said police Sgt. Brian Kalinowski said. "These are things that concern us and, clearly from our perspective, make it a criminal issue."
The boys' mother, Maria Cristina Calero, died of breast cancer in 2003 at the age of 31. Jacob Calero, a construction plumbing foreman, married De La Vega, a cosmetic dentist and owner of Genesis Aesthetic Dentistry in Santa Clara, in April. Holden expressed outrage Wednesday that her grandsons had been left by themselves.
"I'm upset at their poor judgment," said Holden, 60. "I feel like this is not a thing I would do myself. I believe that children are not only a blessing but also our responsibility."
The couple left for Las Vegas on Friday. Holden said Calero had asked her to babysit the boys, but she was busy and could not. She grew concerned when she couldn't reach Calero on Saturday. She feared the boys were alone and called the police.
No one replied when officers knocked on the door at about 11 p.m. -- investigators believe that's because the boys had been told not to answer the door. The officers used a ladder to climb to a second-floor balcony and entered the home through an unlocked door. Police found the boys asleep with the gas fireplace lit.
When awakened, the boys told officers that their parents wouldn't be back for several days and they'd been eating cereal and frozen Healthy Choice meals -- including Salisbury steak and chicken with rice -- warmed in a microwave.
Only later did authorities learn that the younger boy, Jason Calero, who is described by relatives as mildly autistic, was heard earlier Saturday screaming "Help me, help me" from the home while his brother was playing at a friend's house, Kalinowski said. A neighbor retrieved Jason and watched him until Joshua returned home an hour later, the sergeant said.
Police said Calero and De La Vega found someone to care for the puppies -- Popo the pug and Pumpkin the Maltese mix -- that they'd given to one another on Christmas.
"It makes me feel unloved, put it that way," Joshua told The Chronicle.
"When we asked 'Where are the puppies?' Joshua said they're too small to leave home alone, so they were left with an adult," said Erin Stoker, the boys' godmother and former babysitter, who lives in Tracy. "That's appalling to me. It's absolutely ludicrous.
"Maybe they'll wake up and realize that children are human and important. Things happen to children when parents are there watching them. How could you go on a plane and fly to Las Vegas, knowing that your two children are home alone? It's wrong."
Police said they believe the couple had left the boys home alone on previous occasions. Stoker said she asked the older boy how many times they'd been left alone, and he said "'too many times to count,' and he's very bright."
The two boys are "absolutely the most entertaining, adorable loving children that you'd ever want to know," Stoker said. "I have four children of my own, and these children I consider to be my own."

RAPIST HAS VICTIM WRITE HIM A CHECK
Friday, October 21, 2005

(10-21) 10:37 PDT DAVIE, Fla. (AP) --
A rapist was captured after he forced his victim to write him a check and then tried to cash it, police said.
Anthony R. Roberts, 25, was arrested Wednesday night outside a check cashing store, minutes after he left the woman's apartment, police said.
Police said Roberts forced his way into her apartment at gunpoint, bound her with tape and raped her. But first he forced her to make out a $1,400 check in his name, and told her to write on it that it was for electrical work, authorities said.
"I don't know what the guy was thinking," said police spokesman Lt. Bill Bamford. "To walk into a check-cashing store like nothing happened, like she paid him for a job. That's one of the lowest forms of life."
The victim freed herself and called 911. Officers rushed to her apartment and as they talked to her, a suspicious clerk at a check cashing store nearby called the woman to ask about the check. Police surrounded the store and arrested Roberts.
He was jailed without bail. The name of his attorney was not immediately known.

PUNKER ADMITS TO SCALPING, SAYS IT WASN'T INTENTIONAL
July 15, 2005

BOISE, Idaho -- A woman pleaded guilty to scalping a mohawk-wearing teenage girl, blaming the attack on mental illness and her drug addiction.
Marianne Dahle, 26, entered the plea to the aggravated battery charge as her trial was to begin Wednesday. She faces up to 15 years in prison.
Prosecutors said Dahle tied up the 15-year-old girl Jan. 18 and used a 4-inch knife to cut away the entire crown and back portion of her scalp.
Investigators said they believe Dahle and the victim were part of a clique of young female ''punkers'' who wore mohawks, and that Dahle scalped the youngster in retaliation for actions she perceived as offensive.
Dahle's attorney, Kathy Edwards, said the woman planned to shave the girl's mohawk but forgot to bring a razor and used the knife instead. She said Dahle has a history of mental illness and was not taking her prescribed medications at the time.
In court, Dahle acknowledged she scalped the girl, but said she only meant to trim her mohawk.
''The things that you said happened, but it was not intentional,'' Dahle told the judge.
Neither the victim nor her mother attended Wednesday's hearing. The girl spent two weeks in the hospital while doctors used skin from her thigh to cover the patch of missing skin.
After the attack, Dahle allegedly drove the victim to a hospital and left her; she surrendered several days later.
The attack happened at Kirkham Hot Springs, 70 miles northeast of Boise.

SPEARS TO GIVE BIRTH ON TV

Pop sensation Britney Spears reportedly has agreed to screen the birth of her baby on the next season of her reality TV show "Britney and Kevin: Chaotic."
In a bid to beat pop rival Jessica Simpson's show "Newlyweds," Spears has decided to allow cameras at the intimate moment, to boost lackluster ratings.
The baby is due later this year and will be Spears' first child and husband Kevin Federline's third.
A source told British tabloid the Daily Star, "Britney was in two minds about the birth even after she'd decided to do a one-off special to introduce the little one to the world.

WELCOME TO THE NEW AMERICA

Thanh Nhat Le, 51, was arrested in Dorchester, Mass., in April, when he tried to cash a check he wrote to himself for $7,550 on his account at a Sovereign Bank. He had opened the account two weeks earlier, handing over $171 in small bills. He was certain that he had plenty of money in his account, though, because in the interim, he had also mailed the bank three checks for deposit: one for $250,000, one for $2 million, and one for $4 billion. [Boston Herald, 4-7-05]

VERMONT TEEN ACCUSED OF STEALING CORPSE'S HEAD
Tuesday, April 12, 2005
(04-12) 10:24 PDT Morrisville, Vt. (AP) --

A 17-year-old Morrisville youth was being held on $100,000 bail after police said he raided a tomb in a cemetery and removed a head from a corpse. "We had a person voice their concerns about information they had heard on the street," said Chief Richard Keith of the Morristown Police Department. Keith said police at first could not believe what they had heard. But when they went to Morrisville Cemetery and investigated, they found that someone had broken into a tomb, broken open the casket and removed a man's head. "We had the funeral director come to the scene and we pulled the casket out. Yes, indeed, we found remains and they had been disturbed," Keith said. Nickolas Buckalew, 17, later was arrested and charged with unauthorized removal of a dead body. He pleaded innocent to the crime. Police believe they have a strong case against Buckalew because remains and evidence were found in a silo near the suspect's home outside the village and one-fifth of a mile from the cemetery. "Within minutes we found the duffle bag with the remains in it and tools that were used to enter the tomb and the casket," Keith said. The victim's widow, the only family member in the area, was told of the vandalism. "The widow was in shock," the chief said. "She did not want any information. She did not want to know any details." Authorities are not sure of the motive of the crime. Court documents said the suspect allegedly talked of using the man's head as a bong or a pipe for smoking marijuana.

CORONER EXAMINES MUMMIFIED CORPSE
Wednesday, March 23, 2005
Fairfield, CA

Coroner's officials have not determined the cause of death or confirmed the identity of a mummified corpse found last week on the kitchen floor of a Fairfield home after a neighbor reported a foul odor, police said Tuesday.The body is believed to be that of 81-year-old Kathleen Wilson, the mother of a man who was arrested for elder abuse after he told police that she had fallen in the kitchen in 2003 and never gotten up, Fairfield police Sgt. Mike Johnstone said.Jack Wilson, 58, said he had fed his mother for a short while but that she had died, and he never moved the body, Johnstone said. Wilson, who was booked into Solano County Jail, may be charged with manslaughter after further tests are done on the corpse.Wilson may also be charged with elder abuse of his father, Harry Wilson, 81, who was taken into protective custody Friday after the corpse was found.Harry Wilson, who told police he thought his wife was asleep, is being evaluated for possible mental health problems. Jack Wilson, who told police he was unemployed and had long lived with his parents, is also being evaluated in jail by mental health specialists, Johnstone said.Investigators are checking whether Social Security checks were still being issued to Kathleen Wilson, Johnstone said. Police have not identified a motive for her son's failure to alert authorities about her death or to move her body.Police have no record of having been called to the house for a disturbance. Johnstone described Jack Wilson as "very cooperative'' in the investigation.

Pay Your Taxes, Pa-Rum-Pum-Pum-Pum....
Fri Mar 11, 2005 08:34 AM ET

HYDERABAD, India (Reuters) - Tax defaulters in southern India are being forced to face the music after city authorities hired drummers to play non-stop outside their homes until they pay up.
After many residents ignored repeated demands to settle overdue property taxes. authorities in a city in Andhra Pradesh state have sent 20 groups of drummers to play outside offenders' houses for the past week.
"They put up a spectacle outside the houses of defaulters, draw them out and explain their dues to them and the need to clear it at the earliest," said T.S.R. Anjaneyulu, municipal commissioner of Rajahmundry city.
"They don't stop until people agree to clear the dues."
The city, owed a total of 50 million rupees ($1.15 million), had been at its wits' end after sops like waiving interest and penalties had failed to recover the arrears.
The new method seems to be working, though. One week of incessant drumming has cleared 18 percent of the backlog.

Mauled Man Tried to 'Reason' With Chimps
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: March 8, 2005

Filed at 12:23 a.m. ET
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- A man who was severely mauled by two chimpanzees at an animal sanctuary last week was quickly overwhelmed when the apes attacked, his wife said Monday.
``One was at his head, one was at his foot. But all that time ... he was trying to reason with them,'' a sobbing LaDonna Davis told ABC's ``Good Morning America.'' ``I couldn't do anything.''St. James Davis, 62, lost all the fingers from both hands, an eye, part of his nose, cheek, lips and part of his buttocks in the ferocious attack, his wife said over the weekend on NBC's ``Today Show.'' She also said one of his feet was mutilated. A Kern County Sheriff's commander also said his genitals were mauled.Owners of chimp agree to mediate lawsuit with SoCal city
Wednesday, May 17, 2006

(05-17) 10:52 PDT Pomona, Calif. (AP) --
A man badly mauled by chimpanzees while visiting his pet must find a mediator if he wants Moe the chimp to live near him again, a judge said.
Superior Court Judge Abraham Kahn ordered St. James Davis; his wife, LaDonna; and the city of West Covina to seek mediation over a stalled lawsuit settlement they reached four years ago. He also ordered both sides back to court in July.
In the meantime, Kahn urged the Davises to take down the "Free Moe" signs they've placed in front of their home.
Outside court Tuesday, Davis said he has not seen the pet he calls his "son" since his mauling last year.
"I would heal a lot better if we could be together again," he said. "I miss him with all my heart."
Two male chimps escaped from their cages and attacked Davis while he was celebrating Moe's birthday at a Kern County sanctuary in March 2005. They chewed or tore off his testicles, part of his face, most of his fingers and part of his left foot before a sanctuary worker shot them to death. His wife lost a thumb in the attack.
Moe, who was not involved in the mauling, had lived with the Davises from 1960 until 1999 when West Covina officials removed him after he bit a woman.
The Davises filed a civil rights lawsuit that was settled in 2002 with the city paying them $100,000 and agreeing to pay $225,000 to buy a home in neighboring Baldwin Park where Moe could live, Davis attorney Ernest Algorri said.
That part of the deal fell apart when Baldwin Park officials refused to let the 130-pound, immensely strong chimp into their city.
The judge said rising real estate prices make it impossible now to buy a house for Moe at the agreed-upon price. He suggested both sides consult real estate experts.
West Covina City Attorney Arnold Alvarez-Glasman said the city wants a conclusion to the case and has "been very compassionate in trying to solve this very delicate problem."

Time Well Spent
Martha Stewart leaves prison richer, more likable and a hotter commodity than when she went in
Jonathan Curiel, Chronicle Staff Writer
Friday, March 4, 2005Because Stewart's supporters believe she was unfairly prosecuted and jailed at the same time other (bigger) corporate malfeasance was ignored, Stewart's imprisonment made her a kind of martyr, says media critic Neal Gabler, author of "Life, the Movie: How Entertainment Conquered Reality."
"When she gets out of prison, she's Nelson Mandela, not some disgraced personality," Gabler says.