Steff

QUOTE(WHarris1 @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 04:01 PM) Yes Steff--comcast. TY..

http://money.cnn.com/2005/04/12/news/midca...dex.htm?cnn=yes Company also plans dolls of Mary and Moses at start, with dolls able to recite Bible verses. April 12, 2005: 11:12 AM EDT NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - A talking Jesus doll is due to go on sale in May, along with versions of Moses, the Virgin Mary and David, as a teddy bear maker tries to find a market with churches and religious families. The foot-tall Jesus doll will be able to recite five Biblical verses at the push of button on its back, while the Moses doll will recite the Ten Commandments. The Mary doll will recite a long Bible verse. Joshua Livingston, one of the original founders of Valencia, Calif.-based Beverly Hills Teddy Bear Co. has returned to the company to head its new Biblical doll unit, One2Believe. In the past, Beverly Hills Teddy Bear mostly manufactured bears and other plush toys on a contract basis for other retailers. This will be the company's first attempt to sell direct to consumers via the Internet, Livingston said. He said that the idea for the religious dolls has been a long-time desire of David Socha, who is the other founder of the teddy bear company. The company has hired a marketing firm with expertise reaching out to churches and church schools to generate sales, Livingston said. "In the beginning we don't feel it'd be right to put it in Toys R Us and be next to a Barbie or a Bratz," he said. The company expects to sell about 50,000 of the Biblical dolls by the end of the year, with the Jesus doll -- not surprisingly -- expected to be the top seller. It hopes to also bring out an Esther doll by the end of the year and hopes to have other Biblical character dolls introduced in future years. The line of Biblical dolls is known as Messengers of Faith. The dolls will cost $24.99, although Livingston said there will be discounts for churches as well as free shipping for those who buy three or more of the dolls. They will have hand-sewn period clothing, with Jesus wearing sandals and veils for the Virgin Mary. They will also have movable limbs and hands that can grip objects. While Socha is Catholic and has been active in giving time and money to church groups for years, Livingston is Jewish. He said it doesn't seem strange to him selling the Jesus doll, though. "I have a very open mind and believe people can have their own beliefs and religion," he said.

QUOTE(Gene Honda Civic @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 02:47 PM) ONly for those in the Boston and NY markets. Comcast here in Chicago, correct?

QUOTE(traydragen @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 12:11 PM) Are we being shown on ESPN or ESPN 2 tonight?? Comcast.. no?

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...ap/missing_girl Sex Offender Questioned Over Missing Girl 1 hour, 57 minutes ago U.S. National - AP RUSKIN, Fla. - Authorities investigating the weekend disappearance of a 13-year-old girl from her family's mobile home questioned a convicted sex offender who once had a relationship with her mother, officials said. Volunteers continued searching Thursday for Sarah Michelle Lunde, who has a troubled past and has run away before, Hillsborough County Sheriff's David Gee said. But she has usually returned after a few hours, and officials don't believe this is "a typical runaway," he said. The man being questioned, 36-year-old David Onstott, was arrested Tuesday night in an unrelated incident in nearby Apollo Beach. Authorities say he threatened another man with a screwdriver. "Obviously, he has our attention," Gee said, declining to talk about the details of the investigation. Sarah disappeared after returning home Saturday night from a trip with a church youth group. Her 17-year-old brother, Andrew, said he saw her at about 9 p.m. Saturday and later went out with friends. When he returned home about 4 a.m. Sunday, the front door was open and Sarah was gone, he said. A half-empty bottle of beer had appeared on the kitchen table, he said. About an hour later, Andrew told The Tampa Tribune, Onstott showed up at the family's home before dawn that morning and asked for the teens' mother. Lunde said that when he told Onstott that his mother wasn't home, Onstott grabbed the beer bottle and left. "He just showed up out of the blue," Lunde said. "It was strange." Sarah's mother, thinking her daughter was at a friend's house, didn't report her missing until Monday. The relationship between the girl's mother and Onstott had ended months earlier, Gee said. Onstott spent 5 1/2 years in prison after being convicted in 1995 of sexual battery on an acquaintance. The victim testified that Onstott knocked on her door, asked to use the bathroom then threw her on the floor and raped her. David Onstott Sr. said he doesn't think his son is involved in Sarah's disappearance. "I can't believe he would hurt a young girl," he said. The sheriff's office also interviewed the girl's father, who lives in Zephyrhills, about 50 miles north of this Tampa Bay area town. He is not considered a suspect, Gee said. Ruskin is about 100 miles south of Homosassa, where a three-week search for a missing 9-year-old, Jessica Lunsford, ended with the discovery of her body last month. A registered sex offender who stayed at a home near hers has been charged with her slaying. for Sarah..

QUOTE(mreye @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 03:26 PM) Speaking of...where the hell has he been? Thought he said new job...

TAXES Accounts Receivable Tax Building Permit Tax Capital Gains Tax CDL License Tax Cigarette Tax Corporate Income Tax Court Fines (indirect taxes) Dog License Tax Federal Income Tax Federal Unemployment Tax (FUTA) Fishing License Tax Food License Tax Fuel permit tax Gasoline Tax (42 cents minimum per gallon) Hunting License Tax Inheritance Tax Interest Expense (tax on the money) Inventory Tax IRS Interest Charges (tax on top of tax) IRS Penalties (tax on top of tax) Liquor Tax Local Income Tax Luxury Taxes Marriage License Tax Medicare Tax Property Tax Real Estate Tax Septic Permit Tax Service Charge Taxes Social Security Tax Road Usage Taxes (Truckers) Sales Taxes "Taxed to Extremes" Cont'd Recreational Vehicle Tax Road Toll Booth Taxes School Tax State Income Tax State Unemployment Tax (SUTA) Telephone Federal Excise Tax Telephone Federal Universal Service Fee Tax Telephone Federal, State and Local Surcharge Taxes Telephone Minimum Usage Surcharge Tax Telephone Recurring and Non-recurring Charges Tax Telephone Usage Charge Tax Toll Bridge Taxes Toll Tunnel Taxes Traffic Fines (indirect taxation) Trailer Registration Tax Utility Taxes Vehicle License Registration Tax Vehicle Sales Tax Watercraft Registration Tax Well Permit Tax Workers Compensation Tax COMMENTS: Not one of these taxes existed 100 years ago. Also, our nation was the most prosperous in the world, had essentially no national debt, had the largest middle class in the world, and Mom stayed home to raise the kids!!! What the heck happened ????

QUOTE(mreye @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 03:14 PM) I've never been either. My cousin just got back. I'll have to ask him. IIRC Tex has been there a few times..

QUOTE(mreye @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 03:01 PM) That's just f***ing wrong! :headshake I've never been there so I have no idea what it's like.. but this is a good reason not to bother going..

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 01:31 PM) Besides, according to Baseballreference.com Carl has made almost 38 million dollars for his career before this year. I think he'll be OK retiring 30 years before I do. The bling he was wearing at the bar Saturday night at SF would have allowed me to retire 30 years early...

QUOTE(mreye @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 02:47 PM) A 911 Manager called into WLS this morning and said it is a legit call and they should dispatch police. He said they've gotten calls from parents that said their kid wouldn't get up for school and they sent the cops. :headshake Great use of tax dollars, huh? Get out!!!.. That is unreal.

QUOTE(Queen Prawn @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 02:44 PM) When I read it I was laughing as well. In all seriousness, what was she expecting them to do? Is that a legitimate police call (asking in seriousness as I am not sure)? I can't imagine it's on the "emergency" list since there was apparently no one in danger or hurt...

If I had heard it I would have run off the road for sure.. just hearing about it I was having trouble driving from laughing so hard.

http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/travel...788/detail.html Study Finds Racism In New Orleans' Bourbon Street Bars POSTED: 8:48 am CDT April 14, 2005 NEW ORLEANS -- Head to New Orleans' famed Bourbon Street any hour of the night or day and you'll find music, booze and a party atmosphere. If you're black, you run a better than even chance of also finding discrimination, harassment and price gouging, according to a new study. A study conducted by the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Action Center shows that blacks who go for a drink along Bourbon Street have a 50-50 chance of either having to pay more or being forced into ordering a minimum number of drinks. The study was done in the wake of the death of a black Georgia Southern student who suffocated after a scuffle with white bouncers outside Razzoo Bar and Patio. The organization paired black and white men -- dubbed mystery shoppers -- of the same type, body style, dress and manner, sent them into 28 Bourbon Street bars within minutes of each other to evaluate the treatment they received. In 57 percent of the bars, the black men received less favorable treatment than their white counterparts. In 40 percent of the bars, the black men were charged more for drinks. In 10 percent, they were told there was a drink minimum which they would have to buy, while the white men weren't. In 7 percent of the bars, the black men were told they would have to meet a dress code, while the white men dressed in the same fashion were not. "This is 2005," said Human Relations Commission member Larry Bagneris. "This is not 1964, and this will not be tolerated in the city of New Orleans." Names of the bars in the study were not released. They will be notified of the findings and invited to workshops in May that will stress not only the laws but sensitivity training. "Why all the fuss over a little discrimination in nightclubs and bars?" said Fair Housing Action Center spokeswoman Diana Dunn. "Why? Because we don't want any more young black men killed in the French Quarter."

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article.ad...413153909990014 Updated: 12:55 PM EDT 911 Dispatcher Offers to Shoot Unruly Child Man Apologizes for 'Stupid' Comment, Gets Reprimanded Multiband: 911 Dispatcher Upsets Mother WATAUGA, Texas (April 14) - A 911 dispatcher was reprimanded for responding to a mother's plea for help with an unruly child by saying: "OK. Do you want us to come over to shoot her?" "I admit what I did. It was stupid, it was inexcusable and I'm sorry," said dispatcher Mike Forbess. The woman, identified only as Lori in Wednesday's Fort Worth Star-Telegram, said she recently phoned authorities after coming home to find her daughters fighting. She told the dispatcher that her 12-year-old had kicked a hole in the door. After Forbess' comment, the woman fell silent for about five seconds. "Are you there?" Forbess asked. "Excuse me?" the woman asked. Forbess, a dispatcher for five years at the Watauga Department of Public Safety, told her he was joking and apologized. But the woman was offended, and Forbess immediately told his supervisor what happened. "This type of response cannot be tolerated, and this letter shall serve as notice that any future unprofessional responses while answering the 911 line will be cause for termination," Police Chief David Van Laar wrote to Forbess. Watauga is a Fort Worth suburb of about 22,100 residents.

QUOTE(Kalapse @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 02:20 PM) I found a possible clue to finding out how old these things are. I looked up Dolphin's Stadium and in one of the endzones it says Iowa. So when was the last time the hawkeyes played a bowl game at Dolphin's Stadium? Dolphin's Stadium Ahhhhh.... That link took me to Wrigley..

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0004912.html Violent Crime total Murder Rape Robbery Property Damage Calif. 579.3 6.8 28.2 179.7 3,424.3 Ind. 352.8 5.5 27.8 103.3 3,357.7 Utah 248.6 2.5 37.9 53.4 4,225.5 Utah doesn't have as many violent crimes.. but they sure are a bunch of vandals.. Ya think their parents would teach them that it's wrong to destroy others property...

Seems to me if they had just kept a better eye on them in the first place there wouldn't be a need for such things.. http://www.cnn.com/2005/LAW/04/14/fugitive...ests/index.html Dragnet grabs 10,000 fugitives Operation Falcon nets 162 accused or convicted of murder Thursday, April 14, 2005 Posted: 2:53 PM EDT (1853 GMT) WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 10,000 fugitives from justice have been captured in a nationwide, weeklong dragnet, law enforcement officials said Thursday. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales announced the results of the unprecedented coast-to-coast sweep at a news conference Thursday afternoon with U.S. Marshals Service director Ben Reyna.. Among the 10,340 people captured between April 4 and April 10 are 162 accused or convicted of murder, 638 wanted for armed robbery, 553 wanted for rape or sexual assault, 154 gang members and 106 unregistered sex offenders. Some targets were considered especially dangerous. In one case, an armed man was found in a cave under a trap door in his kitchen floor, Gonzales said. Some fugitives had escaped from prisons and jail, some had been released on bond and others had been named in criminal warrants but disappeared or failed to appear as ordered. "We're really amazed. We had no idea we'd apprehend more than 10,000 bad guys," said one federal law enforcement official who asked not to be identified. "We didn't know what to expect, but the response from law enforcement personnel everywhere was truly amazing." A comparison with Marshals Service arrests in fiscal 2004 gives an idea of the scope of this month's sweep. For that year, U.S. Marshals caught more than 36,000 federal felons, and Marshals-led task forces also arrested more than 31,600 people wanted on state and local felony warrants, according to the U.S. Marshals Web site. Some fugitives captured this month were less dangerous, and more old-fashioned than others. In cases described by an official as "the new and the old," the fugitives captured included operators of two methamphetamine labs and an illegal alcohol-producing still. Fugitives were tracked in every state, plus Puerto Rico and Guam, officials said. Officials insist the operation was strictly designed to carry out law enforcement objectives but acknowledge the scope of the operation was expected to prompt positive publicity. In addition, one official said the operation, originally considered for later this spring, was timed in part to coincide with "Crime Victims Rights Week." "One thing this does is demonstrate support for victims of all these crimes. When these fugitives are captured, it helps bring closure," said the law enforcement source. The mission was dubbed "Operation FALCON", which officials say is an acronym for "Federal and Local Cops Organized Nationally." "Just about anybody with a badge and a set of handcuffs was asked to help out, and they did," said another official familiar with the operation. More than 3,000 law enforcement officials searched for fugitives, and as many as 10,000 may have helped at least part-time, officials said. The raids were coordinated by five national fugitive task forces and 83 district task forces led by the U.S. Marshals Service. Among 25 federal agencies enlisted to help were the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Agency; the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Secret Service and even Inspector General investigators for the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Social Security Administration. HUD's interest was related to fugitives with housing benefits, and some of those on the run received Social Security benefits, sources said. Much of the law enforcement muscle came from 206 state law enforcement agencies, 302 county sheriffs' departments, and 366 city police departments.

I heard about this on Court TV last night.. Poor kids.. poor parents. What a shame.. And Mike.. while I agree something is likely amiss here.. people quoted in the article did say that they were totally shocked.. that the kid was fine before the incident.. that the teasing was going both ways until seconds before the incident. maybe he did just "snap". Just can't imagine it.. :headshake Oh eye.. LMAO..

QUOTE(LosMediasBlancas @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 12:01 PM) It's their honeymoon, there will plenty of motion goin' on I think. :rolly

QUOTE(southsider2k5 @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 11:42 AM) And way worse dresses. I am glad I am hitched, so I never have to go through a wedding again Awwww. I bet you looked cute in your pink taffeta dress.

QUOTE(ChiSoxyGirl @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 11:41 AM) Yeah after watching friends and cousin's plan weddings I think that's the only I reason I love weddings: no work for me and a fun party.... Planning a wedding, to me, sounds akin to the seventh circle of hell. But with slightly better shoes.... LOL.. it hasn't been too bad.. mostly just chasing after those lazy asses who can't seem to send their responses back.. :rolly Now comes the fun of the seating chart... I voted to just let people sit where they want but I got veto'd quickly.

QUOTE(ChiSoxyGirl @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 11:35 AM) That's so cool! I'm very excited for you! I love weddings. That's all. Thanks!! I'm excited also.. for it to be over. We've been living in sin for so long this is just a formality mainly for having kids.. and his mother has been riding us for a couple years so it will make her happy for us to be married. I love them also.. other people's..

QUOTE(SoxFanForever @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 11:15 AM) Looks like someone has been reading WSI I saw this too. All the pictures on this thing are 2 years old supposedly. That would explain the dirt hill neighborhood that it gives me when I put in my address. We've been there 2 years last month.

QUOTE(ChiSoxyGirl @ Apr 14, 2005 -> 11:33 AM) When are you getting hitched Steff? May 7th.