Steff

QUOTE(LowerCaseRepublican @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 02:31 PM) I tried (and obviously failed) to open it back up. So much for writing first thing in the morning. I've been trying to splice out some of the argument thread that caused SS2K to close it & then re-open. I was sure to edit the bs from my reply... your welcome

QUOTE(The Critic @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 02:31 PM) I think Mommy and Gramma need to relax. You know what would help them relax? A nice HOT bath of their own. Gramps, too.

Why the hell are you even comparing the two in THIS thread...???

QUOTE(kapkomet @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 02:18 PM) Before you pile on the s*** storm, if he was posting when the thread was locked, he can still post and not know the difference. I've done that before and not meant to. Unless he's an awfully slow typer... I'd say he wasn't posting when Mike locked it.

QUOTE(daa84 @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 02:18 PM) just a thought before it happens.....can we try to not make this a 25 page thread that contains one rumor and countless pages of pointless arguement? Uhhh.. no.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/13536701.htm Mother charged in boy's scalding death A 3-year-old boy died New Year's Day after investigators said his mother intentionally scalded him with hot water. The mother -- and the boy's grandmother who had custody -- have been charged. BY AMY SHERMAN, JERRY BERRIOS AND DIANA [email protected] Three-year-old Jaquez Mason wasn't supposed to be anywhere near his mother because of a court order forbidding contact. But on Christmas Day, his grandmother Annie Williams, who had custody, allowed the child to go with the mother to her Coral Springs apartment. Sometime during that day, the mother, Valerie Kennedy, held her son in a tub of scalding water, giving him third-degree burns -- the most severe kind -- over 50 percent of his body, according to Broward Sheriff's investigators. She was punishing the child, but it was unclear why, investigators say. When Kennedy, 30, turned Jaquez over to his grandmother on Christmas night, she said that he had gotten burned, according to BSO. Over the next seven days, Williams, 51, applied powder and ointment to the burns over the lower half of the child's body in her Deerfield Beach home, but never sought medical treatment, investigators said. On Sunday, someone in the grandmother's home called 911. By the time BSO deputies arrived at 9:44 a.m., Jaquez, who would have turned 4 in February, was unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at Broward General Medical Center a half hour later. ''Certainly he should have been taken to a hospital and he wasn't,'' BSO spokesman Jim Leljedal said. ``Certainly, people do survive severe burns, but they need to get to a burn center. In this case that care was deliberately denied.'' Kennedy is charged with murder. She was being at a Broward County Jail late Monday. Williams, facing manslaughter charges, posted bail and bonded out around 9:30 p.m. Monday, according to jail officials. Williams told investigators she didn't seek medical care for Jaquez because she feared she and her daughter would get into trouble, Leljedal said. Williams' husband, Charles, defended his wife Monday. ''She is a good grandmother,'' he said, before leaving the couple's Deerfield Beach home with his pastor. ``She was helping that baby.'' An official at Broward County's ChildNet -- the county's private foster care agency -- says he thinks Valerie Kennedy had eight children, including Jaquez. A ninth child died previously, but Leljedal had no details on the circumstances. Kennedy was ordered by the court not to have any contact with the children, but it was unclear Monday why the court order was issued. The children ranged in age from 1 to teens, Leljedal said. Williams had custody of five of her daughter's children, including Jaquez. Three others lived elsewhere, according to BSO. ChildNet intends to ask a judge in a court hearing today to officially remove the children from Williams' care, said Peter Balitsaris, the agency's head. ''We will do within 24 hours a complete report on the history of the case and records,'' Balitsaris said. But Kennedy's mother-in-law, Julie Mathews of Lauderhill, disputed the claim that the mother could not see the children. Valerie Kennedy often had contact with her children, Mathews said. Two lived with Kennedy and her husband, Ellis Kennedy, in Coral Springs, including a 1-year-old son the couple has together, and a little girl, who is Kennedy's daughter from another relationship, Mathews said. The Kennedys married about two years ago. Ellis Kennedy, an employee at the Big Tomato Market Grill restaurant at the Coral Square Mall, is not Jaquez's father. ''My son called me last night crying so hard I could not understand what was happening,'' Mathews said. ``He said the police came and took the kids, took Valerie. . . . When he called me, he was hysterical. They didn't even tell him that the child was dead.'' Mathews reacted with disbelief when told about BSO's charge that Kennedy burned her son. ``That's not true! Oh my God. Who would say something like that? Oh my God! Are they crazy? The girl would never do that!'' Mathews said that a few days before Christmas, she and Kennedy took the children, including Jaquez, to Coral Square Mall. The young boy was happy as the children ate at the food court, she said. He asked, ''Can you be our grandma?'' Mathews said. ``He was just kind of teasing.'' On Christmas night, Mathews said, she visited her son's Coral Springs apartment bearing presents. Jaquez was not there and Valerie Kennedy was sleeping. Valerie woke up, and Mathews left Christmas presents for the couple and her grandson. She described Kennedy as a good mother: ``She takes very good care of her children that I know of.'' Annie Williams' neighbors in Deerfield Beach were shocked when they heard the news about Jaquez. ''It hurts my heart right now to know something like that happened,'' neighbor Gail Jenkins told Miami Herald news partner CBS 4. On Monday, authorities removed a hot water heater from Kennedy's apartment, according to CBS 4. Kennedy has an arrest record. In 2003, she was arrested for violating a domestic violence injunction, a misdemeanor. She served 12 days in jail. Records show she has been arrested several other times for offenses that include resisting arrest and failure to appear in court. The status of the charges was unknown Monday. The Williams family provided a short written statement Monday: ``The tragic death of little Jaquez Mason has left the Williams family overwhelmed with grief and sadness. The family is struggling together to deal with the loss of a little boy who was so loved by family and friends.'' http://wireservice.wired.com/wired/story.a...storyId=1139481 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) -- A woman charged with killing her 3-year-old son on Christmas Day by scalding him with hot water as punishment for soiling his diaper has been investigated at least six times for abuse allegations since 1997, records show. Valerie Love Kennedy, 30, was accused Oct. 12 of using drugs in front of two of her other children, a 10-month-old and a 2-year-old, according to a report from ChildNet, the private agency supervising state child placements in Broward County. More Stories About... Phillippa Hitchins Both of the children showed signs of physical abuse when a doctor examined them this week, prosecutor Phillippa Hitchins said Tuesday in court. Kennedy has had 10 children, with two dying at birth. It was unclear if any children remained in her custody before her arrest.

QUOTE(Balta1701 @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 02:10 PM) That's some interesting cherry-picking of statistics. Contreras allowed more walks in 05 than Prior did in 03. Should I care? Beats the hell out of me. LMAO..

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 01:16 PM) Whoa...I forgot all about that show. I enjoyed it when I was a kid. When you were a kid...

QUOTE(Chisoxfn @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 01:06 PM) Ruth Chris and Mortons (in that order). Oh and Ruth Chris Potatoes Au Grautin = AMAZING. I don't ever buy steaks unless I'm at one of those two places (which is maybe once a year). Otherwise I pick up my steaks at Costco and cook em on the grill. I'm a chicken, seafood or ribs guy if I eat out. Whats everyone's favorite cuts of steak: I go with Porterhouse, New York Strip, and Rib Eye I can't get past that Lobster tail at Morton's to try their steak... LOL. Lord it's got to be 4 lbs!!

I used to like Ruth Chris.. but had a bad experience in Mexico and can't get past trying them again. There really are so many good steak places out there.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 3, 2006 -> 04:38 PM) Adding wind speed and barometric pressure to the mix as well methinks. And a comparison of how mathematics and God are directly involved.

QUOTE(RockRaines @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 12:28 PM) lets give some reasoning behind it Because I said so.

Gibson's, Chop House, The Grotto.

QUOTE(Iwritecode @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 11:02 AM) The laws on kids being home alone are very vague. If a law is needed to clarify for a parent that their kids shouldn't be left alone while they are in another state.. then they shouldn't be parents. I don't care how mature the 9 year old... or 10 year old.. or 11 year old... etc, etc.. JMO..

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 11:01 AM) But still one person DID survive. And that's something too. A miracle.

QUOTE(Controlled Chaos @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 10:44 AM) Oh, I didn't mean to imply that at all here. I just meant the news I heard this morning, and articles I've read and even the people interviewed in that town, seemed more pissed that they were misinformed about the deaths rather than the deaths themselves. Yep.. as I said above many are more concerned with the political and media ramifications. No foul with me..

QUOTE(The Critic @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 10:50 AM) Sloppy reporting is the result of the "Get It First, Hope To Get It Right" competition between news networks. As long as being FIRST ON THE SCENE is of the utmost importance, you will see this type of situation over and over. I agree that there is sloppy reporting.. I just don't agree that happened in this case. An interview was being conducted live when some idiot ran up and screamed "they are alive.. they are alive.. (sic)!!". And bells started ringing and people were jumping up and down... The police should have had the area roped off to anyone NOT of authority so NO news could have gotten out at all. Wouldn't have helped in the case of the moron Gov. though.. :headshake

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 10:05 AM) Yet, I think that some people - and I don't mean on this board - are. I'm getting the impression that fake outrage is so often misdirecting the outrage that we should righteously feel towards people who genuinely do us wrong. It is definitely a shame that some focus on the media and political issues versus the loss of life...

I don't think anyone is misguided or was taking way from the real tragedy here. Just commenting on the reporting.

QUOTE(Rex Kickass @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 09:38 AM) I like Steve Carrell's version of "The Office" too but I always seem to just miss it. It moved to Thursday nights now.

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 09:33 AM) ^^^ True story. Steff takes food from babies mouths. I kick dogs and put tape on cats paws also.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 09:28 AM) IMO, it would be more fair to blame the paltry percentage of the guilty parties than throw the entire organization under the bus. At the very least, it would avoid insulting the vast majority of Catholics all over the world. But, hey, that's just my opinion. In the grand scheme of things it would be "fair" to lay the blame where it belongs.. but how realistic is that...? Insulting and jumping on the bandwagon is a major makeup of this country. Point proved above..

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 09:18 AM) Yeah good point. I am just miffed that something like this could happen in the year 2006, that being this blatent a miscommunication. Somebody really messed up here, and it will be interested to see who it was and why they did it. The only one of any authority that made any type of comment was the Gov... so right now his head is on the platter, IMO. Regardless of who told him what he should have check, double checked, and then re-checked the info. I applaud the CEO for keeping a lid on the info - which probably was a request by law enforcement.. I imagine it was difficult for him.

QUOTE(WCSox @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 09:16 AM) I'm sorry that someone in your family has been effected and I was livid with the Vatican when the scandal broke. There's absolutely no excuse for what happened. But that doesn't justify bad-mouthing the entire Catholic Church. That's just irresponsible and spiteful. You can check that ignorant ASSumption, because no one in my family has been effected. And since when does someone's opinion need justification?

QUOTE(whitesoxfan101 @ Jan 4, 2006 -> 09:08 AM) Well by all accounts I'm reading, it sounds like the coal company CEO is to blame big time here. He knew 20 minutes after it was said they were alive that they weren't, but kept quiet for almost 3 hours because "he wanted to be sure they were dead". PLEASE!! 3 hours?? That's pathetic, this whole thing is a total disaster....which is sad, because it takes the spotlight off what we should be talking about, which is the joke that is mining safety and how much it needs to improve. I'd rather him have done exactly what he did and not say anything versus giving out wrong information like the moron Gov did.