Man spent 23 years in jail for a crime he did not commit will be given $80,000m dollars a day

DALLAS — Thomas McGowan's journey from prison to prosperity is about to culminate in $1.8 million, and he knows just how to spend it: on a house with three bedrooms, stainless steel kitchen appliances and a washer and dryer.

"I'll let my girlfriend pick out the rest," said McGowan, who was exonerated last year based on DNA evidence after spending nearly 23 years in prison for rape and robbery.

He and other exonerees in Texas, which leads the nation in freeing the wrongly convicted, soon will become instant millionaires under a new state law that took effect this week.

Exonerees will get $80,000 for each year they spent behind bars. The compensation also includes lifetime annuity payments that for most of the wrongly convicted are worth between $40,000 and $50,000 a year — making it by far the nation's most generous package.

"I'm nervous and excited," said McGowan, 50. "It's something I never had, this amount of money. I didn't have any money — period."

His payday for his imprisonment — a time he described as "a nightmare," "hell" and "slavery" — should come by mid-November after the state's 45-day processing period.

Exonerees also receive an array of social services, including job training, tuition credits and access to medical and dental treatment. Though 27 other states have some form of compensation law for the wrongly convicted, none comes close to offering the social services and money Texas provides.

The annuity payments are especially popular among exonerees, who acknowledge their lack of experience in managing personal finances. A social worker who meets with the exonerees is setting them up with financial advisers and has led discussions alerting them to swindlers.

The annuities are "a way to guarantee these guys ... payments for life as long as they follow the law," said Kevin Glasheen, a Lubbock attorney representing a dozen exonerees.

Two who served about 26 years in prison for rape will receive lump sums of about $2 million apiece. Another, Steven Phillips, who spent about 24 years in prison for sexual assault and burglary, will get about $1.9 million.

The biggest compensation package will likely go to James Woodard, who spent more than 27 years in prison for a 1980 murder that DNA testing later showed he did not commit. He eventually could receive nearly $2.2 million but first needs a writ from the state's Court of Criminal Appeals or a pardon from the governor.

McGowan and the others are among 38 DNA exonerees in Texas, according to the Innocence Project, a New York legal center that specializes in overturning wrongful convictions. Dallas County alone has 21 cases in which a judge overturned guilty verdicts based on DNA evidence, though prosecutors plan to retry one of those.

Charles Chatman, who was wrongly convicted of rape, said the money will allow him some peace of mind after more than 26 years in prison.

"It will bring me some independence," he said. "Other people have had a lot of control over my life."

Chatman and other exonerees already have begun rebuilding their lives. Several plan to start businesses, saying they don't mind working but want to be their own bosses. Others, such as McGowan, don't intend to work and hope to make their money last a lifetime.

Some exonerees have gotten married and another is about to. Phillips is taking college courses. Chatman became a first-time father at 49.

"That's something I never thought I'd be able to do," he said. "No amount of money can replace the time we've lost."

The drumbeat of DNA exonerations caused lawmakers this year to increase the compensation for the wrongly convicted, which had been $50,000 for each year of prison. Glasheen, the attorney, advised his clients to drop their federal civil rights lawsuits and then led the lobbying efforts for the bill.

Besides the lump sum and the monthly annuity payments, the bill includes 120 hours of paid tuition at a public college. It also gives exonerees an additional $25,000 for each year they spent on parole or as registered sex offenders.

No other state has such a provision, according to the Innocence Project.

Exonerees who collected lump sum payments under the old compensation law are ineligible for the new lump sums but will receive the annuities. Whether the money will be subject to taxes remains unsettled, Glasheen said.

The monthly payments are expected to be a lifeline for exonerees such as Wiley Fountain, 53, who received nearly $390,000 in compensation — minus federal taxes — but squandered it by, as he said, "living large." He ended up homeless, spending his nights in a tattered sleeping bag behind a liquor store.

But after getting help from fellow exonerees and social workers, Fountain now lives in an apartment and soon will have a steady income.

Fountain's story is a cautionary tale for the other exonerees, who meet monthly and lately have been discussing the baggage that comes with the money.

Chatman said he's been approached by "family, friends and strangers, too."

"It takes two or three seconds before they ask me how much money, or when do I get the money," he said. "Everyone has the perfect business venture for you."

Though appropriately wary, the exonerees say they are excited about having money in the bank.

"You're locked up so long and then you get out with nothing," McGowan said. "With this, you might be able to live a normal life, knowing you don't have to worry about being out on the streets."

Ashcroft subject to lawsuit by man who cites Justice policies

(CNN) -- Former U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is not immune from being sued by a man who says he was illegally detained under Justice Department policies implemented after the September 11 terror attacks, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

A spokesman for former Attorney General John Ashcroft says his team is reviewing the decision.

The man, a native-born U.S. citizen who was once a college football star, was held and interrogated by the FBI for 16 days in 2003 and his travel was limited for another year, court documents said.

A spokesman for Ashcroft, asked for his reaction, said, "We're reviewing the decision and have no further comment."

The court rejected Ashcroft's argument that his involvement was as a prosecutor, which would give him full immunity from lawsuits, not as an investigator, which could leave him liable.

"We disagree," the decision said. "Many tools and tactics available to prosecutors can serve either an investigatory or advocacy-related function."

Abdullah al-Kidd's lawyers said Ashcroft developed a policy under which the FBI and Justice Department would use the federal material witness law as a pretext "to arrest and detain terrorism suspects about whom they did not have sufficient evidence to arrest on criminal charges but wished to hold preventively or to investigate further."

His arrest warrant was based on an FBI affidavit that said he was needed to testify at the trial of a Saudi man who had been indicted on visa fraud. Al-Kidd was never called as a witness in that case, in which the defendant was acquitted, court documents said.

The decision said that "al-Kidd's arrest functioned as an investigatory arrest or national security-related pre-emptive detention, rather than as one to secure a witness's testimony for trial."

Al-Kidd, an African-American born in Wichita, Kansas, converted to Islam and changed his name from Lavini T. Kidd, according to court documents.

He was taken into custody at Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia as he prepared to depart to Saudi Arabia, where he planned to study Arabic and Islamic law, the documents said.

The FBI interrogated him, moving him from Virginia to Oklahoma and then Idaho, court documents said. He was kept in chains while being held in high-security cells that were lit 24 hours a day, his lawyers said.

A judge ordered his release 16 days later, but he was required to surrender his passport and stay in Nevada for another 15 months.

During that time, he lost his job with a government contractor because he could not get a required security clearance. The father of two also was divorced by his wife.

The FBI began watching al-Kidd months before detaining him, as part of their anti-terror investigation aimed at Muslim men, his lawyers said.

When agents learned of his plans to fly to Saudi Arabia, they obtained the "material witness" warrant based on their contention he would not return.

The agents failed to tell the magistrate who issued the warrant that al-Kidd was an American citizen with family in the United States, or that he had previously cooperated with the FBI, his lawyers said. They also told the judge he had a one-way ticket, when he actually held a round-trip ticket, they said.

Oregon Player Suspended for Sucker Punch

(AP) Oregon suspended running back LeGarrette Blount on Friday for the remainder of season for punching Boise State defensive end Byron Hout.

As Boise State began celebrating on their famous blue turf, Hout yelled in Blount's face and tapped him on the shoulder pad. Before Broncos head coach Chris Petersen could pull Hout away, Blount landed a right to Hout's jaw, knocking him to his knees.

Blount also had to be restrained by police officers from fans heckling him on the way to the locker room after No. 16 Oregon's 19-8 loss Thursday to the No. 14 Broncos.

Blount's suspension includes any bowl games. Coach Chip Kelly said Blount will remain on scholarship.

Hout will not be suspended for taunting Blount. Boise State spokesman Max Corbet told The Associated Press in an e-mail that Petersen planned to spend time with Hout this week to help him learn from what happened.

Mike Bellotti, who stepped aside as head coach to become Oregon's athletic director this summer, said the Pac-10 was consulted about the punishment and supported Oregon's decision.

Pac-10 commissioner Larry Scott was at the game and saw the altercation firsthand.

After the game, Blount apologized for his actions.

"It was just something that I shouldn't have done," said Blount, who had eight carries for a loss of five yards. "I lost my head."

Regardless, Oregon University president Richard Lariviere called Blount's behavior "reprehensible."

"We do not and will not tolerate the actions that were taken by our player. Oregon's loyal fans expect and deserve better," Lariviere said in a statement. "The University of Oregon Athletics Department is reviewing the situation and will take appropriate action, reflecting the seriousness of the player's behavior."

In February, Blount was suspended indefinitely from the team for "failure to fulfill team obligations." Bellotti did not share any details, elaborate at the time, but Blount reportedly missed offseason team meetings.

He was reinstated before spring practice.

Blount, a 6-foot-2, 240-pound transfer from East Mississippi CC, rushed for 1,0002 yards and a school-record 17 touchdowns last season.

Mobile home killer has been arrested

A man who told authorities "My whole family's dead!" in a frantic call to police has been charged with killing the eight people attacked in his family's mobile home in coastal Georgia.

Guy Heinze Jr., 22, was arrested Friday on eight counts of first-degree murder in the slayings last weekend at a mobile home park a few miles north of Brunswick, a port city midway between Savannah and Jacksonville, Florida. Among those killed were seven of Heinze's relatives.

Glynn County Police Chief Matt Doering would not say what evidence led police to charge Heinze. The suspect was returned to the county jail Friday less than two hours after his release on bond on lesser charges.

The chief also declined to say whether police think Heinze acted alone or with others.

"Right now, I don't know," Doering said. "I do know he's involved... I would have not allowed him to be arrested if I was not comfortable with that."

Doering said he wasn't sure Heinze was responsible for the deaths until late Friday afternoon when two new pieces of evidence became available, but he wouldn't say what they were.

In the call to emergency dispatchers early Aug. 29, Heinze said he'd come home to find the bodies and that it appeared the victims had been beaten to death. Seven were found dead at the scene, an eighth died at a hospital, and the attack's only survivor remained hospitalized after being critically injured.

"It's the most heinous crime we've ever had in this community," said Doering, who insists that revealing details about the slayings could jeopardize the investigation.

Police haven't released causes of death for the victims. But Doering identified the lone survivor as 3-year-old Byron Jimmerson Jr., the son of one of the slain women.

Hours after the bodies were found, Heinze was charged with evidence tampering, lying to police and drug possession, but police didn't say until Friday that they suspected him of the killings. The arrest warrant for the evidence tampering charge says Heinze admitted to removing a shotgun from the home and trying to hide it from police in the trunk of his car. He told police he thought the gun was stolen.

Heinze had been briefly released on bond on the lesser charges and arrested again later Friday, as family members of the slain victims gathered for a funeral home visitation the night before all seven were to be buried Saturday.

The dead included the suspect's father, Guy Heinze Sr., 45; his uncle, Rusty Toler Sr., 44; and his aunt Brenda Gail Falagan, 49. Also slain were Toler Sr.'s four children — Chrissy Toler, 22; Russell D. Toler Jr., 20; Michael Toler, 19; and Michelle Toler, 15.

Chrissy Toler's boyfriend, Joseph L. West, 30, was also killed and her 3-year-old son was hospitalized.

A phone message left for Heinze Jr.'s attorney, Ron Harrison, was not immediately returned. Harrison said earlier this week that Heinze denied any part in the killings.

Clint Rowe, who has been acting as a spokesman for the family, said he learned of the arrests while at a public visitation for the victims, saying it was "definitely a surprise."

"I'm floored right now," Rowe, who is an uncle to the Toler children, said from the funeral home. "But right now it's just an arrest. We have to see where this thing takes us so I'm going to keep my mouth shut until the Glynn County Police Department informs us of more."

The Community Reinvestment Act

Community Reinvestment Act
The Community Reinvestment Act (or CRA, Pub.L. 95-128, title VIII, 91 Stat. 1147, 12 U.S.C. § 2901 et seq.) is a United States federal law designed to encourage commercial banks and savings associations to meet the needs of borrowers in all segments of their communities, including low- and moderate-income neighborhoods.^[1][2][3] Congress passed the Act in 1977 to reduce discriminatory credit practices against low-income neighborhoods, a practice known as redlining.^[4][5] The Act requires the appropriate federal financial supervisory agencies to encourage regulated financial institutions to meet the credit needs of the local communities in which they are chartered, consistent with safe and sound operation. (See full text of Act and current regulations.^[1] To enforce the statute, federal regulatory agencies examine banking institutions for CRA compliance, and take this information into consideration when approving applications for new bank branches or for mergers or acquisitions.^[6]

The Community Reinvestment Act of 1977 seeks to address discrimination in loans made to individuals and businesses from low and moderate-income neighborhoods.^[7] The Act mandates that all banking institutions that receive FDIC insurance be evaluated by Federal banking agencies to determine if the bank offers credit (in a manner consistent with safe and sound operations) in all communities in which the bank takes deposits.^[3] The law does not list specific criteria for evaluating the performance of financial institutions. Rather, it directs that the evaluation process should accommodate the situation and context of each individual institution. Federal regulations dictate agency conduct in evaluating a bank's compliance in five performance areas, comprising twelve assessment factors. This examination culminates in a rating and a written report that becomes part of the supervisory record for that bank.^[8]

The law, however, emphasizes that an institution's CRA activities should be undertaken in a safe and sound manner, and does not require institutions to make high-risk loans that may bring losses to the institution.^[3][4] An institution's CRA compliance record is taken into account by the banking regulatory agencies when the institution seeks to expand through merger, acquisition or branching. The law does not mandate any other penalties for non-compliance with the CRA.^[6][9]

The original Act was passed by the 95th United States Congress and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter in 1977 (Pub.L. 95-128, 12 U.S.C. ch.30).^[38] Several legislative and regulatory revisions have since been enacted.

The CRA was passed as a result of national pressure to address the deteriorating conditions of American cities—particularly lower-income and minority neighborhoods.^[4] Community activists, such as Gale Cincotta of National People's Action in Chicago, had led the national fight to pass, and later to enforce the Act.^[39]

The CRA followed similar laws passed to reduce discrimination in the credit and housing markets including the Fair Housing Act of 1968, the Equal Credit Opportunity Act of 1974 and the Home Mortgage Disclosure Act of 1975 (HMDA). The Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, sex, or other personal characteristics. The Home Mortgage Disclosure Act requires that financial institutions publicly disclose mortgage lending and application data. In contrast with those acts, the CRA seeks to ensure the provision of credit to all parts of a community, regardless of the relative wealth or poverty of a neighborhood.^[40][41]

Before the Act was passed, there were severe shortages of credit available to low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. In their 1961 report, the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that African-American borrowers were often required to make higher downpayments and adopt faster repayment schedules. The commission also documented blanket refusals to lend in particular areas (redlining).^[42] The "redlining" of certain neighborhoods originated with the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) in the 1930s. The "residential security maps" created by the Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) for the FHA were used by private and public entities for years afterwards to withhold mortgage capital from neighborhoods that were deemed "unsafe".^[43] Contributory factors in the shortage of direct lending in low- and moderate-income communities were a limited secondary market for mortgages, informational problems to do with the lack of credit evaluations for lower-income borrowers, and lack of coordination among credit agencies.^[44][40][41]

In Congressional debate on the Act, critics charged that the law would create unnecessary regulatory burdens. Partly in response to these concerns, Congress included little prescriptive detail and simply directs the banking regulatory agencies to ensure that banks and savings associations serve the credit needs of their local communities in a safe and sound manner.^[4][40] Community groups only slowly organized to take advantage of their right under the Act to complain about law enforcement of the regulations.^[45]

The Financial Institutions Reform Recovery and Enforcement Act of 1989 (FIRREA) was enacted by the 101st Congress and signed into law by President George H. W. Bush in the wake of the savings and loan crisis of the 1980s. As part of a general reform of the banking industry, it increased public oversight of the process of issuing CRA ratings to banks. It required the agencies to issue CRA ratings publicly and written performance evaluations using facts and data to support the agencies' conclusions. It also required a four-tiered CRA examination rating system with performance levels of 'Outstanding', 'Satisfactory', 'Needs to Improve', or 'Substantial Noncompliance'.^[40]

According to Ben Bernanke, this law greatly increased the ability of advocacy groups, researchers, and other analysts to "perform more-sophisticated, quantitative analyses of banks' records," thereby influencing the lending policies of banks. Over time, community groups and nonprofit organizations established "more-formalized and more-productive partnerships with banks."^[4]

Although not part of the CRA, in order to achieve similar aims the Federal Housing Enterprises Financial Safety and Soundness Act of 1992 required Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the two government sponsored enterprises that purchase and securitize mortgages, to devote a percentage of their lending to support affordable housing.^[4]

In October 2000, to expand the secondary market for affordable community-based mortgages and to increase liquidity for CRA-eligible loans, Fannie Mae committed to purchase and securitize $2 billion of "MyCommunityMortgage" loans.^[46][47] In November 2000 Fannie Mae announced that the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) would soon require it to dedicate 50% of its business to low- and moderate-income families." It stated that since 1997 Fannie Mae had done nearly $7 billion in CRA business with depository institutions, but its goal was $20 billion.^[48] In 2001 Fannie Mae announced that it had acquired $10 billion in specially-targeted Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) loans more than one and a half years ahead of schedule, and announced its goal to finance over $500 billion in CRA business by 2010, about one third of loans anticipated to be financed by Fannie Mae during that period.^[49]

In July 1993, President Bill Clinton asked regulators to reform the CRA in order to make examinations more consistent, clarify performance standards, and reduce cost and compliance burden.^[52] Robert Rubin, the Assistant to the President for Economic Policy, under President Clinton, explained that this was in line with President Clinton's strategy to "deal with the problems of the inner city and distressed rural communities". Discussing the reasons for the Clinton administration's proposal to strengthen the CRA and further reduce red-lining, Lloyd Bentsen, Secretary of the Treasury at that time, affirmed his belief that availability of credit should not depend on where a person lives, "The only thing that ought to matter on a loan application is whether or not you can pay it back, not where you live." Bentsen said that the proposed changes would "make it easier for lenders to show how they're complying with the Community Reinvestment Act", and "cut back a lot of the paperwork and the cost on small business loans".^[36]

By early 1995, the proposed CRA regulations were substantially revised to address criticisms that the regulations, and the agencies' implementation of them through the examination process to date, were too process-oriented, burdensome, and not sufficiently focused on actual results.^[53] The CRA examination process itself was reformed to incorporate the pending changes.^[40] Information about banking institutions' CRA ratings were made available via web page for public review as well.^[36] The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) also moved to revise it's regulation structure allowing lenders subject to the CRA to claim community development loan credits for loans made to help finance the environmental cleanup or redevelopment of industrial sites when it was part of an effort to revitalize the low- and moderate-income community where the site was located.^[54]

During one of the Congressional hearings addressing the proposed changes in 1995, William A. Niskanen, chair of the Cato Institute, criticized both the 1993 and 1994 sets of proposals for political favoritism in allocating credit, for micromanagement by regulators and for the lack of assurances that banks would not be expected to operate at a loss to achieve CRA compliance. He predicted the proposed changes would be very costly to the economy and the banking system in general. Niskanen believed that the primary long term effect would be an artificial contraction of the banking system. Niskanen recommended Congress repeal the Act.^[55]

Niskanen's, and other respondents to the proposed changes, voiced their concerns during the public comment & testimony periods in late 1993 through early 1995. In response to the aggregate concerns recorded by then, the Federal financial supervisory agencies (the OCC, FRB, FDIC, and OTS) made further clarifications relating to definition, assessment, ratings and scope; sufficiently resolving many of the issues raised in the process. The agencies jointly reported their final amended regulations for implementing the Community Reinvestment Act in the Federal Register on May 4, 1995. The final amended regulations replaced the existing CRA regulations in their entirety.^[56] (See the notes in the "1995" column of Table I. for the specifics)

Wow She's 91 and still driving her, 45 year old car with 559,000 miles

In the Olympics of car ownership, Rachel Veitch of Orlando, Fla., is a marathoner of the first order, with a record virtually impossible to match.

For one thing, Veitch is still driving at the age of 91. For another, she has had her 1964 Mercury Comet Caliente for 45 years, racking up about 559,000 miles on it. Together, Veitch and her car have outlasted her three husbands -- a feat surely worth of a footnote in the annals of automotive history.

Teen who cries blood gets help from experts

(CNN) -- Calvino Inman had just stepped out of the shower one evening in May when a glimpse of his reflection in the mirror caused him to panic. "I looked up and saw myself, and I thought I was going to die," says the 15-year-old from Rockwood, Tennessee. His eyes were streaming tears of blood.

Doctors are still searching for a medical reason for Calvino Inman's tears of blood.

Inman's mother, Tammy Mynatt, says she immediately rushed him to the emergency room, but by the time they arrived, the bleeding had stopped. Doctors couldn't see what the family was trying to explain. They returned home completely perplexed. When the bloody tears returned a few days later while Inman was on a camping trip, he was rushed back to the hospital.

Mynatt hoped that once doctors finally witnessed the phenomenon, there would be answers. But that wasn't the case. "The people at the hospital said they had never seen anything like it," Mynatt recalls. She says her son underwent an MRI, a CT scan and an ultrasound, but none of the tests had abnormal results. "'We don't know how to stop it,'" Mynatt remembers being told by doctors. "It just has to run its course."

Dr. Barrett G. Haik, director of the University of Tennessee's Hamilton Eye Institute, says there is an answer, sort of. He says "crying blood," a condition called haemolacria, is common in people who have experienced extreme trauma or who have recently had a serious head injury. But a case such as Inman's is still a medical mystery. "What's really rare is to have a child like this," Haik says. "Only once every several years do you see someone with no obvious cause." Watch more on the teen who cried blood »

Haik and a team of researchers published a 2004 study in the Journal of the American Society of Ophthalmic Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery looking specifically at children who developed unexplained, spontaneous episodes of bloody tears between February 1992 and January 2003. Only four cases were recorded.

Because of the rarity of the condition, experts anticipate Inman will have multiple tests from a variety of specialists, including hematologists (blood specialists), ophthalmologists (eye specialists) and otolaryngologists (ear, nose and throat specialists).

Dr. James C. Flemming, also an ophthalmologist at the Hamilton Eye Institute, has been in touch with Mynatt and her son. He is reviewing Inman's medical records for possible treatment.

Flemming says complications to look for include blood clots, a growth or tumor near the eye, or even a simple infection. He also says the culprit could be something so tiny that none of the standard tests would pick it up. "It's a very hard thing to estimate," Flemming says. "You may have to watch expectedly for other symptoms to show up."

Inman's analysis would also include a psychological evaluation to rule out the possibility that the bloody tears were faked. "When you can't find an origin, you can't eliminate any of the possibilities" Haik explains. He says there have been cases where children seeking attention have found creative ways to simulate haemolacriatic symptoms.

Still, Mynatt and her son are relieved to at least have more guidance. In an interview with CNN affiliate WATE, Mynatt was near tears herself explaining her frustration: "I just truly want somebody to say they've seen this and they can help us."

And that's at least one reassurance Flemming and his team of experts at the Hamilton Eye Institute can offer. "We get more positive talk now than negative. It really feels like there's hope," Mynatt says, relieved.

But still, the possibility remains that after endless tests, the underlying cause may never be found. In all four cases Haik examined previously, the bleeding stopped on its own.

"As physicians, that's disconcerting, because we like to have the answers," Haik admits. Moreover, he says he knows from previous experience that the toll of not knowing is much worse for patients. "I could always see the fear in their faces because no matter what we studied, we couldn't find an answer."

Eugene Lockhart Indicted in Mortgage Scam that Swindled $20 Million from Lenders

(AP) Former Dallas Cowboys linebacker Eugene Lockhart was arrested Thursday after he was indicted with eight others in an alleged mortgage fraud scheme that swindled more than $20 million from several home lenders, federal officials said.

The U.S. Attorney's Office said Lockhart and the others made 54 fraudulent loan closings for single-family homes in the Dallas area that totaled about $20.5 million. The scheme started in February 2001 and involved obtaining loans to buy distressed or pre-forclosure properties sold at inflated prices. The defendants kept the surplus loan proceeds, according to the federal indictment.

Authorities allege the group recruited "straw" buyers and purchasers and doctored financial statements so the lender would approve the loans.

"The people involved are escrow officers, appraisers, title companies ... the gamut of real estate," said FBI spokesman Mark White. "That's usually how these things work. It takes somebody in every single area to get this thing to work."

The indictment charges Lockhart, 48, of Carrollton, with one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud and one count of wire fraud.

Lockhart was involved with several real estate businesses, including America's Team Mortgage, America's Team Realty, Cowboys Realty and KLT Properties, according to the indictment. He's accused of collaborating with the eight others to devise the scheme and helping obtain inflated appraisals.

Cowboys Mortgage owner Lendell Beacham, 54, of DeSoto, also was arrested. He faces one count of conspiracy to commit bank fraud and wire fraud and one count of wire fraud.

Lockhart and Beacham were expected to make an initial appearance later Thursday. They did not yet have attorneys, White said. A telephone number for Lockhart's home also could not immediately be found.

The others are expected to surrender to the FBI by Friday, expect for one who is currently serving a federal sentence, federal officials said.

Lockhart played for the Cowboys from 1984 through 1990 and for New England in 1991-92. He recorded 16 career quarterback sacks and made six interceptions, returning one for a touchdown.

Solution to Microsoft killing Outlook Express via Hotmail on September 1, 2009

If you're still using Outlook Express for checking your Windows Live Hotmail, listen up. Microsoft

has cut off your access. On September 1, 2009, the support for Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV), the protocol that Outlook Express and a handful of older clients currently use to access Hotmail, will be discontinued.

As Neowin reported in April of last year, Microsoft originally planned to cut off access for Outlook Express users on June 30, 2008. However the WebDAV protocol got a stay of execution after users complained that it was too soon. Microsoft's management agreed and gave users another year to make the migration. Microsoft has stated that these changes are necessary to support the larger and larger mailbox sizes that Hotmail supports. The say that that due to WebDAV's age, it can no longer keep up with the demands placed on it.

Outlook Express was last included with Windows XP. Windows Vista includes Windows Mail, but it does not feature the direct Hotmail connection features that were present in Outlook Express. Windows Vista users who wish to connect to their Hotmail accounts can use Windows Live Mail, which uses Microsoft's new favored protocol, DeltaSync. Users of Outlook Express who wish to continue using the client can reconfigure the client to connect using POP3, which was added to Hotmail in March 2009.

As part of Microsoft's new distribution strategy, Windows 7 does not include any mail client by default, but users can optionally install Windows Live Mail.

This change will have no affect on users of Microsoft Outlook 2003/2007 using the Office Outlook Connector since it also uses Microsoft's new DeltaSync protocol. However if you're using a previous version of Outlook that connects using WebDAV, you'll need to upgrade to a new client that supports the Office Outlook Connector or reconfigure your client to connect using POP3.

Any users of Entourage on the Mac should also update their client settings to use POP3. Currently there is no alternative connection agent available like the Outlook Connector for Entourage.

Users who check their email using only the browser based version of Hotmail, will not have to make any changes to their account.

To install this download:

1. Download the setup file by clicking the Download button next to OutlookConnector.exe (below), and save the file to your hard disk.
2. Double-click the OutlookConnector.exe program file on your hard disk to start the Setup program.
3. Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.

To download OutlookConnector.exe click on the link below. Of course now you will be using Outlook, which in my mind is a much better program just a little more detailed.

http://tinyurl.com/6gddl5

Grab a Kleenex...

One day, when I was a freshman in high school, I saw a kid from my class was walking home from school. His name was Kyle. It looked like he was carrying all of his books. I thought to myself, "Why would anyone bring home all his books on a Friday? He must really be a nerd." I had quite a weekend planned (parties and a football game with my friend tomorrow afternoon), so I shrugged my shoulders and went on. As I was walking, I saw a bunch of kids running toward him. They ran at him, knocking all his books out of his arms and tripping him so he landed in the dirt. His glasses went flying, and I saw them land in the grass about ten feet from him. He looked up and I saw this terrible sadness in his eyes. My heart went out to him. So, I jogged over to him and as he crawled around looking for his glasses, and I saw a tear in his eye. As I handed him his glasses, I said, "Those guys are jerks. They really should get lives." He looked at me and said, "Hey thanks!" There was a big smile on his face. It was one of those smiles that showed real gratitude. I helped him pick up his books, and asked him where he lived.
As it turned out, he lived near me, so I asked him why I had never seen him before. He said he had gone to private school before now. I would have never hung out with a private school kid before. We talked all the way home, and I carried his books. He turned out to be a pretty cool kid. I asked him if he wanted to play football on Saturday with my friends and me. He said yes. We hung all weekend and the more I got to know Kyle, the more I liked him. And my friends thought the same of him. Monday morning came, and there was Kyle with the huge stack of books again. I stopped him and said, "Hey boy, you are going to really build some serious muscles with this pile of books everyday!" He just laughed and handed me half the books. Over the next four years, Kyle and I became best friends. When we were seniors, we began to think about college. Kyle decided on Georgetown, and I was going to duke. I knew that we would always be Friends, that the miles would never be a problem. He was going to be a Doctor, and I was going for business on a football scholarship. Kyle Was valedictorian of our class? I teased him all the time about being a Nerd. He had to prepare a speech for graduation. I was so glad it Wasn’t me having to get up there and speak. Graduation day, I saw Kyle. He looked great. He was one of those guys that really found him during high school. He filled out and actually looked good in glasses. He had more dates than me and all the girls loved him! Boy, sometimes I was jealous. Today was one of those days. I could see that he was nervous about his speech. So, I smacked him on the back and said, "Hey, big guy, you'll be great!" He looked at me with one of those looks (the really grateful one) and smiled. "Thanks," he said. As he started his speech, he cleared his throat, and began. "Graduation is a time to thank those who helped you make it through those tough years. Your parents, your teachers, your siblings, maybe a coach... but mostly your friends. I am here to tell all of you that being a friend to someone is the best gift you can give him or her. I am going to tell you a Story." I just looked at my friend with disbelief as he told the story of the first day we met. He had planned to kill himself over the weekend. He talked of how he had cleaned out his locker so his Mom wouldn't have to do it later and was carrying his stuff home. He looked hard at me and gave me a little smile. "Thankfully, I was saved.
My friend saved me from doing the unspeakable." I heard the gasp go
Through the crowd as this handsome, popular boy told us all about his weakest moment. I saw his Mom and dad looking at me and smiling that same grateful smile. Not until that moment did I realize its depth. Never underestimate the power of your actions. With one small gesture you can change a person's life. For better or for worse. God puts us all in each other's lives to impact one another in some way.

Jon Voight's Delusional Hate Filled Rant About Obama

Maybe I am missing the point of having health care for everyone. Although when I listen to Limbaugh, Hannity and several others they make it seems like Obama is the only person that wants nationalize health care. What does he have to gain from passing a bill to make it so? I thought that he was already a millionaire... So the benefit of Health care is...Is it true that the United States has 70% of the American people are without health care? So if that is really the case, why wouldn't people want health care?

Missouri woman is facing a felony harassment for allegedly placing a phony Craigslist personal ad

AUGUST 18--A Missouri woman is facing a felony harassment rap for allegedly placing a phony Craigslist personal ad that included the photo, phone number, and e-mail address of a teenage girl with whom the suspect had been feuding. Elizabeth Thrasher, 40, allegedly placed the online ad in Craigslist's "Casual Encounters" section, which caters to those seeking all manner of sexual liaisons. Predictably, the May 1 ad resulted in unknown men calling the 17-year-old girl, and sending her e-mails and text messages, some of which included pornographic images, according to the below sheriff's report. Investigators allege that Thrasher and the girl's mother, who is dating Thrasher's ex-husband, had been arguing prior to the Craigslist posting. After the teenager upbraided Thrasher in a MySpace message, the woman retaliated by placing the bogus Craigslist ad, prosecutors charge. Thrasher, pictured in the mug shot at right, was booked yesterday and released on $10,000 bond. The felony complaint against Thrasher was filed in St. Charles County, former home to Lori Drew, who was indicted in a cyber bullying case that resulted in the November 2006 suicide of Missouri teenager Megan Meier. Though Drew was convicted at trial of three misdemeanor counts, U.S. District Court Judge George Wu last month announced his intention to toss out those verdicts.

Former dentist pleads no contest to felony sex charge with minor

prominent retired Ohio dentist, accused of grabbing two boys on Lely Barefoot Beach and forcing one to perform oral sex, pleaded no contest today to a felony sex charge.

The plea by Dr. David Rees Sperry, 68, of 14595 Glen Eden Drive in Naples, averted a trial in which he would have used an insanity defense to claim his Parkinson's and dementia medications made him unaware of his actions.

Sperry pleaded no contest to lewd and lascivious battery, rejecting any plea bargains that would have capped his sentence. Instead, he left his fate in the hands of Collier Circuit Judge Fred Hardt.

The second-degree felony charge, which involves a 14-year-old boy, carries a maximum penalty of 15 years in a state prison.

A second sexual battery charge was dropped by the prosecution in February and involved an 18-year-old boy who said he fled after Sperry grabbed him.

Sperry will have a sentencing hearing Wednesday, when the medical experts who would have testified at his trial will present testimony in an effort to seek a more lenient sentence, such as probation and house arrest.

Sperry was arrested on April 3, 2007, and has been free on $50,000 bond ever since. The boy told deputies Sperry grabbed him as he looked for lizards along a beach trail and forced him to perform oral sex. Deputies searched Sperry’s backpack and found two see-through male bathing suits, a condom, suntan lotion, and tooth picks.

Sperry denied the allegations until the State Attorney's Office received the DNA test results, which showed Sperry's DNA, Assistant State Attorney Steve Maresca told the judge last week. Maresca said that was when defense attorney Amira Fox filed a motion to proceed on an insanity defense and Sperry began frequent visits to doctors.

Defense attorney Jerry Berry, who is co-counsel, spent 20 minutes questioning Sperry, whose decline in health has been apparent in court. Berry needed to show Sperry fully understood the plea. He appeared confused at times.

"My mind is not working well," Sperry said at one point, sitting at the defense table and holding a cane as the boy sat in the back of the court with his mother. "... I felt that there's some definite limitations, as far as the ability to understand."

He explained his decision to plead and accept responsibility. "This defense, probably a jury might not have the capability to understand," he said, citing all the medical experts who would have testified he was involuntarily intoxicated by Mirapex and L-dopa and was unaware of his actions.

The judge asked, "Do you understand the court will hear all that evidence now?"

"Yes, sir. I think that's wonderful," Sperry replied.

He was fingerprinted, provided a DNA sample, and left with his wife and attorneys.

19-year-old man arrested in an undercover sting for him selling dozens of snakes without a license

Florida wildlife officials seized a dozen pythons and arrested a 19-year-old man in an undercover sting after getting a tip that the snakes were being sold on Craigslist without a proper license.

Investigators from the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission met Bradley Scott Dean at a gas station in New Port Richey, Fla., on Wednesday night under the guise of wanting to buy several Burmese pythons from him, MyFOXTampaBay reported.

"There was an offer, and acceptance. We arranged for a meet," Lt. Steve DeLacure told the station. "I went in an undercover capacity and met with the defendant on Wednesday evening."

DeLacure said he was acting on a tip that the snakes were being offered for sale on Craigslist, but Dean didn't have the required license to own or sell the reptiles. Investigators arrested Dean at the gas station and say they found eight snakes at his home. A total of 12 pythons were seized, according to police.

"It's not like I kept them unresponsibly [sic]," Dean told MyFOXTampaBay. "I kept them all in locked cages and in a locked room. It's not like they would have got out like that incident with the 2-year-old."

Last month, a Burmese python being kept as a pet escaped from its aquarium and strangled a 2-year-old girl in Florida as she slept in her crib.

Woman kidnapped as child resurfaces 18 years later with 2 childern

An 11-year-old California girl snatched from the street in front of her house in 1991 had two children with the man accused of taking her and was forced along with the children to live in backyard sheds, police said Thursday.
Phillip Garrido is a registered sex offender, listed as having been convicted of forcible rape.

Phillip Garrido is a registered sex offender, listed as having been convicted of forcible rape.


"From what they have both said, he fathered both of those children with Jaycee [Dugard]," El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar told reporters.

The girls, now 11 and 15, had been living with their mother, now 29, in a series of sheds behind Garrido's house in Antioch, California, until they were discovered on Wednesday, Kollar said.

"None of the children had ever gone to school, they had never been to a doctor, they were kept in complete isolation in this compound, if you will, at the rear of the house," he said. "They were born there."

In a rambling telephone interview from jail, Garrido told CNN affiliate KCRA of Sacramento he was relieved at being caught.

"I feel much better now," he said. "This is a process that needed to take place."

Kollar said Garrido's wife, Nancy, was with her husband when Dugard was abducted from the street in front of her house in South Lake Tahoe. Dugard was already a registered sex offender at the time. Video Watch police talk about why they arrested Garrido »

* KCRA: Garrido says he's turned his life around
* Shed hidden in accused abductors' backyard
* Elizabeth Smart, father discuss case

"There was nothing then nor is there anything now to indicate that this was anything other than a stranger abduction of an 11-year-old," Kollar said.

The investigation went years without apparent progress until Tuesday, when Garrido showed up on the campus of the University of California at Berkeley with his two daughters and attempted to get permission to hand out literature and speak, Kollar said. He did not know the subject of either the literature or the planned talk.

Police officers "thought the interaction between the older male and the two young females was rather suspicious," so she confronted them and performed a background check on him, Kollar said.

That check revealed that Garrido was on federal parole for a 1971 conviction for rape and kidnapping, for which he had served time in the federal penitentiary at Leavenworth, Kansas.

A school spokesman identified the officers as Allison Jacobs and Lisa Campbell, and said the two became suspicious of "subtle behavior" Garrido exhibited.

They passed on the information to Garrido's parole officer, who requested that the 58-year-old man appear Wednesday at the parole office.

Garrido did just that, accompanied by his wife, Nancy, "and a female named Allissa," Kollar said.

The presence of "Allissa" and the two children surprised the parole officer, who had never seen them during visits to Garrido's house, Kollar said.

"Ultimately, Allissa was identified as Dugard," Kollar said.

DNA confirmation is being sought to confirm her identity, but Dugard revealed information during an interview that only she could have known, Kollar said.

"The two minor children turned out to be children of Jaycee and the male suspect, Garrido," he said.

Scott Kernan, undersecretary of the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, told reporters that Garrido admitted to having abducted Dugard.

El Dorado County Sheriff's Office online records showed that Phillip and Nancy Garrido were in the county jail, held on suspicion of offenses including conspiracy to commit a crime and kidnapping with the intent to commit robbery and rape.

Dugard had been living behind Garrido's home since she was kidnapped, Kollar said.

But her presence there apparently went unnoticed by others in the residential neighborhood, where homes on one-fourth to one-half-acre lots typically sell for less than $200,000, said Kathy Russo, whose father has lived two houses away from the Garridos for 33 years.

"My dad said he never saw a young woman," said Russo, who added that her father, 94-year-old Dante Confetti, considered Garrido to be a "kind of strange, reclusive, kind of an angry kind of guy."

She said the one-story house's backyard was obscured by trees and ringed by a wooden fence.

Her family's last contact with Garrido was last fall, she said. "He was burning something in the backyard and my home health aide called the fire department," Russo said.

"He was really pissed off," she said. "Came over to the house and started yelling."

Garrido told KCRA that he left documents three days ago with the FBI in San Francisco, California, that would shed light on the case. "They're going to be a part of the trial," he said.

A call from CNN to the FBI's San Francisco bureau was not immediately returned.

Garrido said he could not go into detail about why he chose to abduct Dugard. "I haven't talked to a lawyer yet, so I can't do that," he said.

But Garrido said he had "completely turned my life around" in the past several years. "You're going to find the most powerful story coming from the witness, from the victim," he said. "If you take this a step at a time, you're going to fall over backward and in the end you're going to find the most powerful, heartwarming story."

He added, "Wait 'til you hear the story of what took place at this house. You're going to be absolutely impressed. It's a disgusting thing that took place with me in the beginning, but I turned my life completely around."

Describing the two daughters, he said, "Those two girls slept in my arms every single night from birth; I never kissed them."

But in a later comment, he said that, from the time the youngest was born, "everything turned around."

Asked about the fact that they had not seen doctors, he said, "We just didn't have the finances and so forth."

Kollar said a search of Garrido's property "revealed a hidden backyard within a backyard," he said. It included several sheds no higher than 6 feet tall, two tents and several outbuildings "where Jaycee and the girls spent most of their lives."

The "secondary" backyard was inside the first and was "screened from view." One of the sheds was soundproof, he said.

"The way the backyard is set up you could walk through the backyard, walk through the house and never know that there was another set of living circumstances in that backyard."

At the end of the backyard is a 6-foot fence lined with shrubs, tall trees, garbage bags and a tarp, all of which obscured views of what was there, he said.

Extension cords provided electricity to the sheds and tents, and an outhouse and rudimentary shower "as if you were camping" were there, too, he said.

Dugard "was in good health, but living in a backyard for the past 18 years does take its toll," Kollar said. He described her as "relatively cooperative, relatively forthcoming" in discussions with detectives. He said Dugard was "in relatively good condition," neither obviously abused nor malnourished. He added, "There are no known attempts by her to outreach to anybody."

The mother and her two daughters were staying at a motel in the area, he said. "Family reunification has begun and will be a long and ongoing process," he said, presumably referring to Dugard's parents.

Earlier Thursday, Carl Probyn, Dugard's stepfather, told CNN that an FBI agent had called his wife, Terry, on Wednesday afternoon to tell her that Dugard had been found.

"Jaycee remembers everything," he said. "They talked back and forth and she had the right answers to all my wife's questions."

He said, "I'm feeling great! ... It's like winning the Lotto."

He witnessed the abduction of the blond, blue-eyed girl, who was wearing a pink windbreaker and pink stretch pants as she walked to her bus stop on June 10, 1991. Video Watch the stepfather describe finding out Jaycee is alive »

At the time, "It was reported that a vehicle occupied by two individuals drove up to Jaycee Dugard and abducted her in view of her stepfather," the El Dorado County Sheriff's office said Thursday.

Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said the reappearance of Dugard is "absolutely huge."
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"One of the things that we preach to searching families all the time ... is that even in these long-term cases there's hope," he said.

Grandmother chases news Crew With Hoe

COCOA, Fla. -- A WESH 2 News crew came under attack on Monday while investigating a story about two teenagers who were reportedly working at a strip club in Brevard County.

Uncut: News Crew Attacked

The Playmates Nightclub in Cocoa remains under investigation for allegedly having a 15-year-old and 17-year-old working there in skimpy attire.The reporter and photographer were looking for one of the teenagers but encountered a furious grandmother instead.A videotape recorded during the incident showed the grandmother charging the photographer with a garden hoe. One swing landed squarely on the camera.Nobody was hurt in the attack. Police reviewed the videotape.The investigation into the situation at the strip club in continuing.

So the police actually review the tape to see if she did something wrong, well after she told them to get... I think how she handled it was nice from that point. I can not help but think that there was someone there earlier to get her all fired up to come out with that hoe! Unfortunately news people seem to have this thought in their head that they are doing nothing wrong! Maybe this will make them see the light?

Mother has been charged with her daughters death after pet python killed her

OXFORD, Fla. — Authorities say the mother of a Florida girl suffocated by a pet python last month has been charged in the child's death.

The Sumter County Sheriff's Office says 19-year-old Jaren Ashley Hare and her boyfriend, 32-year-old Charles Jason Darnell, were each charged Monday with manslaughter, third-degree murder and child abuse.

Two-year-old Shaianna Hare died July 1. Authorities say Darnell found the 8-foot python wrapped around her that morning.

Click to hear the 911 call.

Click here for photos.

He stabbed it several times and it eventually released her. A medical examiner determined the girl died from asphyxiation.

Hare and Darnell were each being held on $35,000 bond. Court documents that would list attorneys for them have not yet been processed.