The thoughts of the president from *24*

Young mand says that former pastor Ted Haggard performed a sex act in front of him

DENVER — A young man who once attended New Life Church in the United States says that former pastor Ted Haggard performed a sex act in front of him in a hotel room in 2006 and sent him explicit text messages.
The man said his hidden relationship with Haggard was followed by a period of isolation, struggles with drinking, drugs and suicide attempts.
Those latest allegations against Haggard, once an influential national evangelical leader, were reported Monday night by KRDO-TV in Colorado Springs, which interviewed the man, now 25.
In a statement earlier Monday, Haggard apologized for his "inappropriate relationship" with the former church volunteer, but said it did not involve physical contact.
The newly disclosed relationship added a chapter to Haggard's dramatic fall, which began in November 2006 when a Denver male prostitute alleged a cash-for-sex relationship with Haggard.
Haggard confessed to undisclosed "sexual immorality" and resigned as president of the National Association of Evangelicals and pastor of New Life Church.
The latest revelations involve Grant Haas, who told the TV station that he met Haggard in 2005 when he was 22. He said he told Haggard he had been kicked out of a Moody Bible Institute in Chicago for his "struggles with homosexuality."

"It seemed like at that moment his eyes lit up and his whole attitude towards me changed," he told KRDO. Reached by text message Monday, Haas agreed to be identified by The Associated Press. Haggard's statement also identified him.
"I'm like, 'This must be God,"' said Haas, who described wanting to be a pastor himself. "Why would this big guy, this big evangelical leader, be taking such an interest in me?"
Haas told KRDO that one night in Cripple Creek, a casino town west of Colorado Springs, Haggard "asked me if we were going to be godly or bad that night." He said he told Haggard he wanted him just to be his friend and pastor — but Haggard masturbated in front of him.
Haas also said Haggard at certain times sent him between 1,000 and 2,000 text messages a month, some describing his sexual experiences and drug use from the road.

After the Haggard scandal in November 2006, Haas said he contacted the church immediately.
The church has said it struck a legal settlement with the man — it has not named Haas — in 2007 that paid him for college tuition and counseling as long as he did not speak publicly about the relationship. Brady Boyd, Haggard's successor as pastor at New Life, called it "compassionate assistance — certainly not hush money."
According to documents Haas provided KRDO, he is to be paid $179,000 through 2009. Haas claimed the church didn't follow through on promises to pay for counseling and medical treatment. more

Six people confessed to murders that they didn't commit

Joseph White, right, was convicted in 1989 of murdering Helen Wilson. The Nebraska Attoreney General's Office Now says Bruce Smith, left, was the real killer.
(Courtesy Nebraska Attorney General/Joseph White)
More PhotosGonzalez hadn't heard the name Helen Wilson in the four years since her elderly downstairs neighbor had been raped and murdered, until the day police swept into the basement of McCormick's seafood restaurant in Denver and led Gonzalez out in handcuffs.

She'd waived extradition from Colorado, saying recently that she figured she could quickly clear up the misunderstanding and go home. But when she got back to Beatrice, Gonzalez discovered several suspects were already in custody, and they were telling police she was involved in Wilson's murder.

Gonzalez, then 29, says she had never even met some of her co-defendants. They, like her, were people at the margins, drifters, some with drug problems, others suffering from mental illness.

For months, Gonzalez says, the police hounded her and called her a liar. She met with a police psychologist, who suggested the murder was so horrific that she simply blocked it out, and offered to work with her to help her remember. When Gonzalez protested that she didn't know one of her co-defendants, the psychologist, Wayne Price, told her, "You apparently don't want to."

"The odds are that at this time, it looks like you were in [there] but did in fact block it," Price said. "And if you can help you out by remembering, it will help you."

"Yeah," Gonzalez sighed.

Now, she says, she was being given 24 hours to decide, either plead to a lesser charge or go to trial for first-degree murder and face the possibility of the death penalty. She says the police kept telling her she would be the first woman to be executed in state history. The police deny threatening her, and her lawyer said he could not recall.
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Texas Girls B-Ball coach fired for running up the score 100-0

Texas Winner Runs Up Score; Dallas Academy Girls Turn Losing Into Learning
The coach of a girls' high school basketball team in Texas that blew out another team 100-0 was fired Sunday after refusing to apologize "for a wide-margin victory."

Learning disabled girls' basketball teams show their real courage on the court.Micah Grimes, former coach of Covenant School girl's basketball team, defended the win in an e-mail to the Dallas Morning News, saying "my girls played with honor and integrity."

The Covenant School, a private Christian high school in Dallas, which formally apologized for the big win over Dallas Academy, a small private school for students with learning disabilities, last week, called the trouncing "shameful."

During the lopsided Jan. 13 game, spectators said the Covenant School ran up the score, playing aggressive offense, even with their 59-0 lead at halftime. The girls kept on the pressure until they scored the 100th point.

"I was really frustrated, especially at halftime," Dallas Academy junior Lauren Click said. "I actually did ask my coach, 'Do we have to go back out there?'"

Related
Girl's Hoops Team Regrets 100-0 WinSoftball Players Show Ultimate SportsmanshipLife 101: Learning to Live With AutismThe Dallas Academy has eight girls on the varsity team and is used to challenges on and off the court. Despite hours in the gym practicing each week, the Bulldogs haven't won a girls basketball game in five years.

"We are not quitters, and we don't give up," Click said. "And we try hard at whatever we do, even if we are losing 100 to 0." more

Mom accused of prostituting daughter, 5

Mom accused of prostituting daughter, 5

A 48-year-old Wichita woman is accused of prostituting her 5-year-old daughter, and prosecutors say it wasn't the first time.

Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston on Friday sought a judge's permission to introduce testimony from two of the woman's grown daughters, who said she sold them for sex when they were between the ages of 8 and 14.

When the mother goes on trial, however, the jury will only hear about the 5-year-old. Prosecutors say a man the mother knew for years paid her for sex acts with the child.

Sedgwick County District Judge Greg Waller ruled this week that testimony about the 5-year-old's older sisters won't be allowed at trial.

Waller said the stories of the older women didn't meet the strict guidelines set by the Kansas Supreme Court for introduction of prior bad acts. Prosecutors said they were trying to show a pattern of behavior.

The 48-year-old mother and her friend, Reggie Stafford, 51, are charged with multiple counts of rape, sodomy and aggravated indecent liberties with a child.

The mother, who is not being named to protect the identity of her daughters, is also charged with aggravated child endangerment.

"This is a weird case," prosecutor Christine Ladner told Waller during Thursday's hearing.

"The sad facts are that (the mother) was the supplier of sex acts by her daughter to the defendant Stafford," Ladner said.

The adult daughters told Waller during a pretrial hearing Friday that they didn't want to testify against their mother.

In court, a 23-year-old daughter denied having sex with Stafford. But a social worker said the woman reported two years ago that she did have sex with Stafford, starting when she was 9 years old.

The woman changed her story in court Friday, after visiting her mother last week in jail.

"I can't testify against my mother," she said, crying. "I can't do it. I'm not doing it."

Her 25-year-old sister said she came forward when she found out the 5-year-old was going through what she had endured.

"I wanted to get it off my chest so I could go on with my life," the woman said, but she added that she was reluctant to testify against her mother.

She said she was 11 when her mom began taking her to see Stafford. The woman said she heard Stafford ask her mother whether she would bring over her other daughter, two years younger.

Defense attorneys Brad Sylvester and Sarah Flint said allowing the testimony would unfairly prejudice a jury.

"There's not a shred of evidence, just words coming out of her mouth," Sylvester said.

The key witness in the case is now 7 years old. She testified in a previous hearing that her mother took her to see Stafford on several occasions, where he performed various sex acts with her.

In return, the girl said Stafford gave her mother $6 or $7, which her mother used to buy alcohol and cigarettes. more

Woman lost 7 carat diamond ting in toliet, plumber friend finds it

PHOENIX (AP) -- Just a case of plumb luck.

It took a plumber to retrieve a woman's 7-carat diamond ring after city workers failed in efforts to flush the gem out of the pipes of a restaurant toilet.

The $70,000 wedding ring fell from Allison Berry's hand when she flushed the toilet in the restroom of the Black Bear Diner on Jan. 14, the plumber said. The ring plopped in and the water whisked it away, said Elena Castelar, the restaurant's shift manager.

City workers opened a pipe outside the restaurant and continuously flushed the toilet, hoping to push the ring out to the opening. When that didn't work, the city called the office in suburban Tempe of Mr. Rooter, a plumbing services franchise based in Waco, Texas.

"This is going to be like dredging for a treasure chest in the ocean," Mike Roberts, general manager of Mr. Rooter, said at the time.

Roberts guided a tiny video camera into the pipe with an infrared light attached. He eventually spotted the ring just 3 feet down and 5 feet over from where it was flushed.

Then it took an hour-and-a-half of jackhammering and pipe removal before Roberts and a technician could recover the ring, eight hours after it fell in the toilet.

"They always say diamonds are a girl's best friend. In this case, a plumber is a girl's best friend," Roberts said. "She was just so excited, she had tears in her eyes. She gave us a hug and said 'Thank you so much.'"

The Mr. Rooter bill came to $5,200 and the city's bill was $1,000.


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Indiana student ill, but wins Miss America crown

Katie Stam of Indiana was crowned Miss America on Saturday night, fighting off a throat infection, laryngitis and 51 other contestants to win the 88-year-old pageant.

The 22-year-old University of Indianapolis student became the first Miss America winner from the Hoosier State. She drew loud applause for her rendition of "Via Dolorosa" during the talent portion of the beauty pageant at Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip.

Stam said she had trouble sleeping one night this week while she took prescription medicine to fight the infection, but got her voice back by Thursday.


"I was feeling like myself again -- I will never take my health for granted," she said.

The Seymour native also strutted onstage in a black bikini and an off-the-shoulder, white lace evening gown. During the interview portion of the competition she decried the use of performance-enhancing drugs among professional athletes and discussed the definition of glamour.

"That beauty that you feel on the inside, it's that confidence, that radiance inside of you, that's what glamour is," Stam said.

Stam won a $50,000 scholarship and hopes to obtain a bachelor's degree in communications and become a television news anchor. She began competing in pageants at age 15.

Stam was crowned by reigning Miss America Kirsten Haglund of Michigan and will soon embark on a year of travel and public appearances.

She said she had one semester left in school -- but didn't know when she would finish -- and already was graduating debt-free without the $50,000 prize. Stam said she might use the money for graduate school.

The first runner-up was Miss Georgia Chasity Hardman, who took home a $25,000 scholarship.

The 52 young women took to the stage in blue jeans, bikinis and ballgowns following a mini-reality series on pageant prep work and a week of preliminary competition.

After an opening dance number and the traditional parade of states, judges and fans immediately trimmed the field to 15 finalists. Five more were trimmed based on swimsuit and evening gown competitions, while the remaining 10 went on to showcase their dancing, singing and other skills during the talent portion. more