(CBS) ĀÆ Police usually close a death investigation when the Medical Examiner's office comes down with a suicide ruling, but in the case of Chicago School Board President Michael Scott, that is not happening.
The Cook County Medical Examiner's office ruled that Scott's death early Monday was a suicide. But shortly after the ruling on Monday, police said their investigation would continue. "We know what the (medical examiner) ruled, but there's still a lot of questions that exist out there," police Supt. Jody Weis said. "We want to make sure we've done a thorough examination before we make a definitive call ourselves. It's early on, this investigation." That's actually typical of police investigations of suicides. Even in an obvious case the police become very thorough so as to prevent accusations of slipshod work later on.
People who knew Scott well also say they can't imagine he would take his own life. "I haven't talked to anyone that believes that this was in fact a suicide," said former alderman and WVON radio host Cliff Kelley.
Scott's body was found partially submerged in the Chicago River near the inoperable Kinzie Street railroad bridge after 3 a.m. Monday. His Cadillac was nearby, and a .380-caliber handgun was found underneath or near his body.
The U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is tracing the history of that handgun and will turn over their findings to Chicago police.
Sources said no suicide note has been found. And Weis said Scott's wife said it was unusual for him not to return home before midnight. Scott was last seen alive around 6:30 p.m. Sunday.
In a statement, Scott's family said "The family of Michael W. Scott deeply appreciates the outpouring of support during this time of unimaginable grief. Our personal loss is also shared by many throughout Chicago, the home he loved so much. We will miss him greatly."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2009 00:00 ||
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#2
Even if it WAS suicide it needs to be carefully investigated until some kind of motive is found. In his position he could have been killed or killed himself because of things he knew, things that could be damaging to crooks and politicians (but I repeat myself.)
#3
Darth, what do you mean? Al Gore is the most brilliant climate scientist in the world! He won a Nobel Peace price - and he actually did something to "earn" it, unlike Obama. I mean, he traveled all over the world, spewing CO2 like it was water, to tell people about the evils of carbon dioxide.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/18/2009 17:46 Comments ||
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#4
The VATICAN this week recently affirmed once again that it supports the conept of there being no disverse or dichotomy between GOD + SCIENCE.
MODERN SCIENCE > Many significant loopholes or defects exist in our curr knowledge of how the Sun behaved during the so-called "GREAT EPOCHS" = "GREAT EXTINCTIONS" PERIODS OF EARTH'S NATURAL/GEOLOGIC HISTOIRE".
Hence, THIRD SECRET OF FATIMA > "DANCE OF THE SUN" > Since SCIENCE tells us that the Sun is essens static and that Earth revolves around the Sun, IT IS NOT THE SUN THAT "DANCES" BUT THE EARTH I.E. SOMETHING OCCURS WHICH DESTABILZ AND KNOCKS THE EARTH OFF ITS NORMAL ORBITAL PATH around the Sun.
APOCALYPTIC IRONY > By the above scope, the proverbial "END OF DAYS" = END OF DAYLIGHT i.e. EARTH IS KNOCKED FAR ENUFF AWAY BY SPACE ROCK(S) "X" THAT THE LEVEL OF "NORMAL" SUNLIGHT REACHING IT IS SERIOUSLY REDUCED.
HOWEVER, the above being said, A PROTRACTIVE
"LACK OF SUNSPOTS" = NATURAL SOLAR ENERGIES may be building up inside the Sun due to lack of normal Energy Release mechanisms.
IOW, as horrible as being knocked out of our normal Orbit would be to life on Earth, IRONY = Earth may be knocked off its orbit far enuff away by SPACE ROCK "X" to MINIMIZE effects from ANY HERETOWITH POSSIBLE EXPANSION OF THE SUN'S SPHERE [or even RETRACTION]???
SECULARISM > says IFF MANKIND DOESN'T CONTROL IT OR QUANTIFY IT, IT DOESN'T EXIST. Iff GOD desn't exist becuz Mankind-Humanity can't quantify or control GOD, THEN HOW DID JOHN OF PATMOS WRITE THE BOOK OF REVELATION, OR THE "MIRACLE AT FATIMA", ETC???
* "ALIEN AUTOPSY" = AUTOPSY OF TIME-TRAVELING, "ALIEN-LOOKING" HUMAN SPECIA FROM EARTH'S FAR FUTURE [DARWINIST evolution]???
* 1990's "SUPERMAN" TV CARTOON SERIES > IIRC the Superguy traveled circa 70,000 years in Earth's? future to see its RED SUN, NOT "YELLOW" SUN???
THE MSM + HOLLYWEIRD CAN'T DENY IT.
All together now People, wid feeling, OOOOOOOOOOOOPPPPSSSIIIIIEESS!
#5
"MAGNETO/GALACTUS" PARADOX > X-MEN'S MAGNETO, Master of {Electro]MAGNETISM; ALTEREGO = APOCALYPSE + URANUS] > should MAGNETO use his mighty psy/telekinetic powers to SAVE THE EARTH FROM SPACE ROCK "X", as oppos to allowing "X" to slam into Earth but using his powers to fight the SUN + STOP ITS EXPANSION?
#7
CF, silly you. Everyone knows that the planet didn't start heating up until about 1850 when the industrial revolution started pouring tons of CO2 into the poor defenseless atmosphere. Before that, the climate never changed. It was always perfect. Then evil human beings messed it up.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/18/2009 20:33 Comments ||
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#8
Gore is a modern snake oil salesman.
Difference between old fashioned and modern snake oil salesman is that the snake oil is now sold in a green bottle.
The Nazi Party tried their best to remove Christ from Christmas by paganising carols, producing glittering swastika, iron cross and toy grenade baubles for the fir tree, research for a new exhibition has found.
Many of the changes made under Hitler, put in place to remove the influence of the Jewish-born baby Jesus, are still in use today, much to the alarm of modern Germans. The swastika-shaped baking trays and wrapping paper adorned with Nazi symbols have long gone, but traces of the Third Reich Christmas can still be found in the subtly rewritten lyrics of favourite carols.
The discoveries have been highlighted by a new exhibition at the National Socialism Documentation Centre in Cologne.
"I always thought that Unto Us a Time Has Come was a song about wandering through winter snow," said Heidi Bertelson, 42, a lawyer who visited the exhibit told Times. "I didnt realise that Christ had been excised."
The Nazi version, which removed the religious references and replaced them with images of snowy fields, remains in some song books and is sung in many households. The same goes for carols referring to Virgin Birth and lullabies that invoke the Baby Jesus.
The rewriting was supervised by the chief Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg and Heinrich Himmler led the way in de-Christing Christmas.
Their plan was to remove the emotional ties of the Church and merge Christmas into a Julfest, a celebration of winter and light which drew on pagan traditions.
"The most important celebration in the calendar did not match their racist credo so they had to push out the Christian elements," said Judith Breuer, who helped her mother, Rita, pull together the exhibition.
Rita started trawling flea markets in the 1970s in search of her childhood Christmas and turned up boxes of Nazi-era Christmas decorations complete with swastikas and grenades.
"After the Nazis had gone you could still find textbooks on Christmas that use exactly the same phrasing," she told The Times. I don't recall reading of the Reichsmarine selling Adolf and Eva Christmas tree ornaments, but I could have just missed it. Ouch. That's going to leave a mark.
"We are on a path and a process where I would anticipate that Guantanamo will be closed next year," he said. "I'm not going to set an exact date because a lot of this is also going to depend upon cooperation from Congress."
Economic issues, however, were on the front-burner in China, which is the United States' biggest government lender.
The president is in Beijing as part of his tour through several Asian countries to address economic challenges. He spoke candidly about the precarious balancing act his administration is trying to perform. He wants to spend money to kick-start the economy, but at the same time is in danger of creating too much red ink.
Obama warned the United States' climbing national debt could drag the country into a "double-dip recession," though he said he's still considering additional tax incentives for businesses to reverse the rising unemployment rate.
"There may be some tax provisions that can encourage businesses to hire sooner rather than sitting on the sidelines. So we're taking a look at those," Obama told Fox News' Major Garrett.
"I think it is important, though, to recognize if we keep on adding to the debt, even in the midst of this recovery, that at some point, people could lose confidence in the U.S. economy in a way that could actually lead to a double-dip recession."
And the president said that despite the federal government's massive stake in General Motors, his administration will not weigh in on the possibility that GM could direct bailout funds toward its European Opel unit.
"We are not going to meddle in GM's decisions," Obama said. "We are a shareholder but we are not an active shareholder. We have specifically said that we are not in the business of running a car company. We're not getting involved in day-to-day management."
He said the Detroit automaker owes the U.S. government money, but that "we want to get out of that business as soon as possible" and encourage repayment.
#1
"There may be some tax provisions that can encourage businesses to hire sooner rather than sitting on the sidelines. So we're taking a look at those," Obama told Fox News' Major Garrett.
Yea, there damn well may be a few tax provisions that need fix'n. Ever heard of capital gains or Federal Income tax? Probably not because you've never held a paying job or attempted to make log-term investments. Poor clueless bastar*.
#4
I'd like to give him a six-month leave of absence from his current job and have him run a small hardware store. If he turns a profit, he can have his job back. And no fair hiring someone to fill out all the federal, state and local paperwork- he's got to do it personally. Full compliance required with ADEA, ADA, EPA, OFCCP, FMLA, USERRA, NLRA, FSLA, HIPAA, ERISA and the IRC.
Posted by: Matt ||
11/18/2009 14:45 Comments ||
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#5
Clueless? Not hardly.
His idea of a "tax provision" would be a fine if you don't hire X people per year.
As far as deficits go, it's Obama and the Dems that are creating them. They can reduce them, or even cancel the rest of the 'stimulus', but they have no intention of doing that.
Obama knows that massive deficits will affect his re-election chances. He's decided that all he has to do is campaign against the deficits, and many independents will conclude that he isn't so bad after all. Cynical, but he's correct.
But wait, that's not all. Federal debt
2008 $9,985.8 billion
2009 (est.) $12,867.5 billion
2010 (est.) $14,456.3 billion
========================= 2008-2009 debt increase = 2,881.7 billion in one year!
But this year's increase in debts is a heck of a lot more than the combined 2 years 2009-2010 FY deficits ($611B + $1170B). So this government is borrowing like mad and more than half of the debt forced on the taxpayers doesn't even show up in the fed's budget numbers.
Posted by: ed ||
11/18/2009 15:08 Comments ||
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When it comes to Sen. Al Franken, sometimes it's hard to tell if the joke's on him or on all of us.
In early October, Franken -- a former Saturday Night Live comic and now the junior senator from Minnesota -- presented legislation designed to paint Republicans into an uncomfortable corner, to let him claim the moral high ground of standing up for women's rights, and to enrich some of his biggest campaign donors. Specifically, Franken introduced an amendment to the defense appropriations bill that would bar the Pentagon from doing business with any contractor or subcontractor that requires its employees to submit to arbitration (and thus avoid court proceedings) over any civil-rights claims or actions related to sexual assault.
Franken and the Left styled the measure as "anti-rape" legislation, when in fact it's really a thinly veiled gift to trial lawyers, to whom the Democratic party is largely in thrall. Federal law already precludes arbitration for such serious crimes, and the amendment would sweep in all manner of ordinary employment disputes.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2009 00:00 ||
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Democrats on Tuesday crushed a Senate filibuster against a controversial appeals court nominee, demonstrating to Republicans they can't stop President Barack Obama from turning the federal judiciary to the left.
The 70-29 vote limited debate over the qualifications of U.S. District Judge David Hamilton of Indiana, and assured his elevation to the Chicago-based appeals court. Sixty votes were needed to end the filibuster, but confirmation only requires a simple majority of the 100-member Senate.
Ten Republicans repudiated their own party leaders and voted to limit debate. The Obama administration made a crucial decision from the outset by getting the support of Hamilton's home-state Republican senator, Richard Lugar.
The vote emphatically warned Republicans that with only 40 senators, they're too outnumbered to prevent Obama from making major inroads into a judiciary that was populated over eight years with conservative judges chosen by President George W. Bush.
Republicans have objected to holding a vote on Hamilton's confirmation since June, when the Judiciary Committee reported his nomination favorably to the full Senate.
Conservative Republican senators and their judicial-watching outside groups then launched a major political assault on Hamilton.
They criticized his rulings against Christian prayers in the Indiana legislature and against a menorah in the Indiana Municipal Building's holiday display.
Conservatives were furious that Hamilton struck down part of an Indiana law requiring women to make two trips to a clinic for counseling before they could get an abortion. He said the requirement placed an undue burden on a woman's constitutional right to choose to end a pregnancy.
Beyond the political message, the filibuster effectively ended a bipartisan accord reached in 2005, when 14 senators signed onto a deal that effectively stopped Democratic filibusters of Bush's judicial nominees except in extraordinary circumstances.
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said the Republican opposition was "more of the partisan, narrow, ideological tactics that Senate Republicans have been engaging in for decades as they try to pack the courts with ultraconservative judges."
The Senate confirmed 326 of Bush's court nominees. There are 876 court seats, mostly for the regionally based courts of appeals and lower district courts.
Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., who led the opposition to Hamilton, argued that Hamilton's record met his definition of extraordinary circumstances.
He not only attacked Hamilton's judicial record, but criticized his work in the distant past: vice president for litigation and board member of the American Civil Liberties Union in Indiana; and a fundraiser for two months for the Association of Community Organizatons for Reform Now (ACORN).
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2009 00:00 ||
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Chicago politics, where voting is such a revered civic duty that people do it even after they're dead, cold, stiff, stuffed, boxed and buried beneath the permafrost for years, has now come to D.C. with the Obama administration.
This afternoon comes the most encouraging economic news, courtesy of our keen-eyed buddy Rick Klein over at ABC, that the Obama administration's $787-billion economic stimulus has, for example, thankfully created 30 new jobs in a little-known rural corner of Arizona at a cost to American taxpayers of only $761,420.
That works out to only $25,380.67 spent to create each individual job.
Seems like a lot per slot, but those 30 folks must be happy to be employed again and paying taxes.
This will be a real feather in the cap of Vice President Joe Biden, who's been left behind and assigned by the ever-campaigning president to monitor the stimulus plan, its spending and effectiveness moving into the crucial midterm elections of 2010. Might the Democrats snatch that House seat?
So the people of that 15th Congressional District in staunchly Republican Arizona should be pretty happy about this.
Trouble is, there is no 15th Congressional District in Arizona. None. Nada. Zip. Zero. Doesn't exist. Not in Arizona. Not even on paper at the Democratic National Committee. There are only eight. Period.
But the administration's much-vaunted recovery.gov website reported these jobs as being created there.
Could well be a computer glitch. Lord knows humans would never make such a dumb, misleading mistake, even in politics.
But then the trouble is that just months after grandly unveiling the recovery.gov website to showcase its economic prowess and tech-savvy, the Obama administration just spent 18 million additional taxpayer dollars to redesign the still new website.
And that site proudly also reported nonexistent new stimulus spending not just in Arizona but other states across the country.
So that looks to have worked pretty well, at least if you're counting computer designer jobs created.
Anyway, how do you think the 15th will vote next year?
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
In the 57th state of Nuevo Arizona?
Posted by: ed ||
11/18/2009 1:41 Comments ||
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Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman has "unconceded" in New York's special House election after reports that the vote margin narrowed between him and Rep. Bill Owens (D).
Hoffman conceded the race on Election Night after learning he trailed Owens by 5,335 votes. But the Syracuse Post-Standard reported last week that the margin had shrunk to 3,026 votes after recanvassing.
Hoffman appeared on conservative commenatator Glenn Beck's radio show this afternoon. Beck asked the him if he would "unconcede."
"Yes, if I knew this information at the election night, I would not have conceded," Hoffman said. Beck asked him again if he was "unconceding" and Hoffman replied, "If that's possible, yes."
Officials in the upstate New York district are still counting over 10,000 absentee ballots, which also had Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava's name on them. Scozzafava dropped out of the race three days before Election Day, citing poor fundraising and polling returns. She subsequently backed Owens.
Owens was sworn into Congress on Nov. 6, just before House Democrats voted on the healthcare reform. Should Hoffman come away with more votes, a highly unlikely possibility, Owens would have to be removed from office, according to the House clerk.
Hoffman would have to take over 65 percent of the absentee ballots in order to eclipse Owens. In the interview, Hoffman admitted his victory would be a "long shot."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/18/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Owens would have to be removed from office, according to the House clerk.
#3
I'm not holding my breath for Hoffman to be officially declared the winner. Remember that he was beaten by a Democrat. I expect that if a recount shows Hoffman winning by just a few votes, someone will find some recently printed ballots for Owens.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/18/2009 17:51 Comments ||
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#4
In fact I'll bet that station-wagon is on its way form Minnesota to New York even as we speak....
The former head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection called Monday for the U.S. to reinstitute the ban on assault weapons and take other measures to rein in the war between Mexico and its drug cartels, saying the violence has the potential to bring down legitimate rule in that country.
Former CBP Commissioner Robert C. Bonner also called for the United States to more aggressively investigate U.S. gun sellers and tighten security along its side of the border, describing the situation as "critical" to the safety of people in both countries, whether they live near the border or not.
Mexico, for its part, needs to reduce official corruption and organize its forces along the lines the U.S. does, such as a specialized border patrol and a customs agency with a broader mandate than monitoring trade, Mr. Bonner said in an exchange of e-mails.
Continued on Page 49
#4
It's a good thing that Columbia eradicated its cocaine cartel problems so long ago. How, even, did those cartels become powerful in the first place, without the USA to supply weapons? I suppose the best thing we could do would be to impose lots of gun restrictions which would totally solve the drug problem. Hooray!
#5
How about all those weapons being sold by Mexican police to the drug gangs. Can we maybe talk about those guns first?
Or how about changing Mexican extradition laws so that Mexican nationals who violate US laws can be sent here and tried for their crimes. Can we talk about that?
No? Just taking guns away from law abiding US citizens? Only option? Nope. No hidden agenda here.
#6
> Or how about changing Mexican extradition laws so that Mexican nationals who violate US laws can be sent here and tried for their crimes. Can we talk about that?
You'd be the first to complain about sovereignty if the countries were reversed.
Next time you are feeling all smug talk to someone in LAPD about the number of annual murders committed by Mexican nationals who then flee back to Mexico to escape prosecution. Then just for giggles go ask the Federalis about the reverse numbers.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
(CBS) ĀÆ Police usually close a death investigation when the Medical Examiner's office comes down with a suicide ruling, but in the case of Chicago School Board President Michael Scott, that is not happening. 
"We are on a path and a process where I would anticipate that Guantanamo will be closed next year," he said. "I'm not going to set an exact date because a lot of this is also going to depend upon cooperation from Congress."
When it comes to Sen. Al Franken, sometimes it's hard to tell if the joke's on him or on all of us.
Democrats on Tuesday crushed a Senate filibuster against a controversial appeals court nominee, demonstrating to Republicans they can't stop President Barack Obama from turning the federal judiciary to the left.
Chicago politics, where voting is such a revered civic duty that people do it even after they're dead, cold, stiff, stuffed, boxed and buried beneath the permafrost for years, has now come to D.C. with the Obama administration.
Conservative Party candidate Doug Hoffman has "unconceded" in New York's special House election after reports that the vote margin narrowed between him and Rep. Bill Owens (D).
