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ayittey1 · 5 years ago

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The Removal of Chiefs From Power

Most indigenous African societies applied various restrictions against the office of chieftaincy so that whoever occupied the "stool" would act "properly." Of course, the restrictions varied from ethnic group to tribe. In some tribes, the king was not to venture out of his palace into town except under the cover of darkness. The king was never to speak to his people directly, except through a linguist (okyeame as in the case of the Akan). The Akan chief or king was forbidden to meet with any foreigner except in the presence or company of a member of the council of elders. The paramount chief was forbidden to see the burial place of chiefs; two paramount chiefs could not shake hands nor should a chief exchange clothes with another man or eat from the same dish with him.

Some of these injunctions were intended to enhance the sanctity of the office. But there were others which were clearly designed to check despotic tendencies and misuse of power. One that is of interest which was adopted by many indigenous West African societies was the prohibition against property holding.

AAmoah (1988) explained,

In some societies, especially the Akans of Ghana, the danger of a ruler using his position to amass wealth for himself was obviated by the custom that the king could not, except in a few circumstances, own any personal property while he was in office. Everything that the ruler acquired while he was in office, unless the elders knew that he was acquiring it for himself and consented to it, automatically became stool property. That ruled applied to the wives of the ruler as well. To make the rule effective, the administration of stool funds and property was put in the hands of the Sanaahene (treasurer). The ruler was debarred from any close contact with the stool finances. He was neither permitted to hold the scale used for weighing out gold dust nor to open the leather bag in which the gold was kept (p.177).

While this prohibition is fascinating and akin to requiring an American president to place his private holdings of stock in a "blind trust," it may have contributed to the myth of communal ownership. When the Akan said, "The chief does not own anything. Everything he owns belongs to the stool" it was easy for Europeans to take that practice to imply "communal ownership" rather than as an injunction against personal aggrandizement. Every gift to the chief will also belong to the stool.[1]

Even in modern times, chiefs are still held accountable and corrupt chiefs are destooled :

The Cief of Akyem Osorase near Oda in the Eastern Region (of Ghana), Barima Adu-Baah Kyere and his supporters including the Gyaasehene have allegedly fled the village to unknown destination following assassination attempts on them.

A pick-up vehicle being used by the chief was said to have been burnt to ashes by the irate mob which besieged the palace.

A police source said there has been a dispute between Barima Adu-Baah and section of the people of Osorase over accountability on the village's revenue (Ghana Drum, June, 1994; p.12).

Nana Sobin Kan II, the Chief of Asansi Dompuase traditional area in the Ashanti region, was destooled on Feb 7, 2012. The charge was

“continuously showing gross disrespect and disregard to kingmakers and elders of the stool. He had continuously sown seeds of confusion and litigation in the traditional area through the rampant sale of stool lands to private developers without plot numbers and site plans. He was also accused of having received huge sums of money as compensation on behalf of the Adansi-Dompuase traditional areas from AngloGold Ashanti last year but failed to disclose the amount involved to kingmakers.” (Daily Guide, Feb 10, 2012; p.17)

THE PARAMOUNT Chief of the Nsawkaw Traditional Area in the Tain District of the Brong Ahafo Region, Nana Kutu Ayim Baffour II, has been destooled (removed from office).

Kingmakers of the traditional area yesterday performed customary rites to destool the Omanhene after they accused him of denigrating the Nsawkaw Stool.

As a result, a sheep was slaughtered followed by the pouring of libation to symbolize his destoolment.

The announcement of the Omanhene's destoolment was greeted with thunderous applause from a large crowd that emerged at the forecourt of the Krontihene's Palace, where the event took place.

Copies of the statement that heralded his destoolment have been sent to the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Regional Police Commander, Presidents of the National/Regional Houses of Chiefs, Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs, among other institutions.

The embattled chief is currently facing criminal charges at a Techiman Circuit Court for fraud and impersonation, after the Attorney General's Department found him culpable of forging documents to facilitate his enstoolment” (Daily Guide Aug 11, 2013)

The traditional ruler and the paramount ruler of Mahin kingdom, in Ilaje Local government Area of Ondo State in Nigeria, Oba Lawrence Omowole, was removed from office for “ceding Aboto community which is an important part of Mahin kingdom to another person either in the garb of a king or otherwise.” He denied the allegation (Nigerian Tribune, February 18, 2017).

Consider the case of Oba Samuel Aderiyi Adara of the Ode-Ekiti community of Ekiti State in Nigeria, who was dethroned for non-performance:

The traditional ruler, who is a born again Christian, was accused of not contributing enough to the progress of the community and of frustrating the celebration of the yearly festival.

The monarch was equally blamed for the deaths of some notable indigenes, including four professors, one of them a former don of the University of Ado-Ekiti.

The traditional ruler was invited to the community meeting where he was accused of failing in his duty of moving the town forward. But attempts by the monarch to extricate himself from the allegations failed when he was asked to mention his personal contribution to the growth of the town since he became the king. He was lambasted for not informing the state government of the pathetic socio-economic situation in his domain and asked to vacate the throne for a more progressive minded personality in the town.

While the meeting was still going on, some youths in the town invaded the venue, removed the dress of the traditional ruler, including his royal beads and crown, and chased him out of the town. Shortly after, traditional trees in strategic shrines were cut down, symbolizing the demise of the Oba.

The spokesman for the community said it was the collective decision of both the old and young to dethrone the monarch, saying his reign was "disastrous, woeful and sorrowful" (The Guardian, July 24, 2003; p.4).

In Yoruba culture, removal of the royal beads and dress constituted destoolment. The "primitive peasants" of Africa had the sense to remove a king whose tenure was “disastrous” but not so the "educated" elites of modern Africa. The rule of so many post colonial African leaders has been more than “disastrous.”

Togo's former Security Chief, Colonel Senyi Memene, accused of diverting a staggering $1.5 million into foreign bank accounts, has been compelled to regurgitate part of his loot from Switzerland.

In addition, a minister of state, Kawo Ehe, ex-minister of Commerce and Transport, and a prominent Trade Union leader, Nanbog Barnabo, have been forced to refund a total of CFA27.5 million (about $94,000) to the national exchequer (New African, Jan. 1990; p.19).

Political Pressure from Various Groups And Associations

In June, 1990, Kenya's President, Daniel arap Moi, threatened to hunt down "like rats" those who were calling for political reform (The Economist, June 23, 1990; p.39). The African chief never threatens his people. Nor does he talk thus to his people:

Lusaka, Zambia. August 14, 1990 (Reuters) -- President Kenneth D. Kaunda of Zambia, under growing pressure from advocates of democratic change, mounted a campaign against the revival of multiparty system in his country.

Mr. Kaunda, who abolished political pluralism in 1973, accused the democracy movement of receiving funds from outside the country and of abusing the freedom to campaign in a referendum on multiparty rule.

`I have bent backward in the spirit of patience and tolerance and have allowed multiparty supporters to behave as though they were a registered party in Zambia,' he said at a news conference. `I am now going to unleash UNIP forces,' he added, referring to the ruling United National Independence Party, `to go and explain the dangers' of multiparty government in Zambia.

The 66-year-old President, who has ruled his country of 8 million since independence from Britain in 1964, said advocates of political pluralism are bent on destroying Zambia (The New York Times, Aug. 15, 1990; p.A6).

First, it was not the role of the African chief to "unleash" his forces "to go and explain the dangers" of a particular political course. Rather, it was the governed who told the ruler how they wished to be ruled. Second, it was not the function of an African chief "to bend backward" and allow a political movement to exist. Freedom of association was a right in traditional Africa.

In fact, freedom of association was so common feature of indigenous African systems that it was taken for granted. The commoners could form associations, religious, economic or political, with whom they wished and when. The chief or king had no power to ban these associations. Some of them brought political pressure to bear on despotic rulers and to check misrule or abuse of power.

As noted earlier, the Akans had a commoners' association whose leader was called the Nkwankwaahene, which was not a hereditary position. Qualities for this position were eloquence and bravery. Through him, the commoners complained to the council of elders and forced the elders to consider any representation he made on behalf of the commoners. "In this way, the office of the Nkwankwaahene provided an effective channel for expressions of popular criticisms against the ruler and his government. It enabled the elders to take action against the ruler without being charged with disloyalty or jealousy" (Amoah, 1988; p.175).

There were various other associations and commoner societies: for example, asafo companies, age-grades, and secret societies. The asafo companies of the Akans of Ghana were primarily warrior organizations of the common people or the youth. They were often organized in the face of external aggression to defend the chiefdom. But the asafo companies also performed a number of social services such as road work, sanitation and other duties that arose during annual festivals. They might refuse to perform these services to show their displeasure at a tyrannical chief. Moreover, they became an effective political force in the enstoolment and destoolment of chiefs. "No chief would remain on the stool for long if the asafo companies were united against him" (Amoah, 1988; p.176).

The age-grade system of the Igbo provided a variety of checks against despotism. The age-grades were arranged in order of seniority. Members of each age-grade stood together and acted together as one body in public affairs. Each age-grade controlled the moral conduct of its members. "If a member stole, for example, the rest of the age-grade called on him to restore the stolen articles to the owner and to pay a fine in kind to the grade" (Amoah, 1988; p.176).[2]

These age-grades were ranked in an order of seniority. There were the senior, intermediate and junior grades. Within the society as a whole, the power, authority, rights and duties of each person depended on the position of his age-grade in the hierarchy of the age-grade system. Thus, the senior age-grade of the elders constituted the governing class of the society, while a number of intermediate grades combined to act as the executive organ of the government.

Members of each grade jealously safeguarded their own status and the correct relationship that should exist between their grade and those subordinate and superordinate to theirs. The age-grade system, therefore, provided an effective balance of power in the society especially in those societies which had no centralized machinery for political and administrative control like the pre-colonial Igbo societies (Amoah, 1988; p.177).

Political checks were also applied against African chiefs by secret societies. The African continent in the pre-colonial days was the home of numerous such societies, many of which continued to exist even during the colonial period. "One writer enumerated about 150 of such societies in 1929" (Amoah, 1998; p.177). They were abolished in Nigeria in 1978.

Some were mystic societies, some patriotic and a few others were subversive and criminal. For example,

In order to gain admittance to the society of leopard-men of Cameroon and Central Africa (Manja and Banda), the applicant had to kill a close relative (mother, son, or first wife in preparation for a ritual festivity. The members of this society, citing the need for vengeance as their justification, abducted and murdered people who had been accused of witchcraft. For these rituals they disguised themselves as leopards, either wearing skins of that animal or tattooing their bodies with colored mixtures in imitation of leopard skins. They walked on all fours, touching the ground only with their toes, so as to make their footprints resemble the leopard's, and they voiced similar cries. The same atmosphere of tension and collective terror, leading to self-destruction, prevailed in Zaire among the amiotes and leopard-men of the northeast, by the Ubangui River, and, in the crisis of the 1930s, in the Wamba and Bunia regions (Coquery-Vidrovitch, 1988; p.191).

Most secret societies, however, were founded to enforce, maintain and teach tribal tradition, the custom and beliefs of their respective ethnic groups. More importantly, they "could bring pressure to bear on the rulers and restrain them from pursuing unpopular measures" (Amoah, 1988; p.177).

[1] This is similar to modern day practice in the United States. “The National Archives and Records Administration stores gifts to the president — many of which end up in their official libraries — as well as the vice president and member of their families. Under a 2006 rule, recipients may not keep gifts from foreign officials that are worth more than $305, for fear of the potential influence on U.S. policy. They are accepted, however, on behalf of the American people” (The Washington Times, Dec 8, 2007; p.A2).

[2] This self-policing aspect of the age-grade system might be of interest to African Americans in combating the soaring crime rate in black neighborhoods.

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multiverseforger · 4 years ago

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Jester and screwball Spiderman villians

Screwball was self-styled as a performance artist and the world's first live-blogging super-villain. She was an Internet personality and social-media attention monger to such an extent that she commited crimes on camera. Her real name and identity remain as of yet unknown. Her first crimes were filmed by an amateur camera crew, and uploaded on a website.[2]

One of her earliest crimes consisted of robbing an off-track betting parlor for the sake of it, but she was sighted by Spider-Man . He tried to give chase, but eventually fell behind due to Screwball's proficiency in parkour. During this time, corrupt NYPD officers were employing Spider-Tracers to incriminate Spider-Man in numerous deaths; so when Spider-Man tagged Screwball with a Spider-Tracer, she believed she had been marked for death, and turned herself over to the nearest police officers to find protection from the alleged killer.[2]

Screwball's original costumeThe superhero fight bookmaker Bookie paid for Screwball's bail in exchange for her to dress up as Spider-Man and arrange a fight with the Basher so that he could swindle his supervillain clients at the Bar with No Name, who had bet Spider-Man wasn't going to accept Basher's challenge. After Screwball took down the Basher, the real Spider-Man appeared in the scene and chased after Screwball. He webbed her up and unmasked her.[1]

Later on, Screwball started using a camera embedded into her helmet to record her exploits. She was taken down by Spider-Man after stealing ten million dollars from an investment firm. However, she managed to evade him after hurling the stolen property into the air, forcing him to go after it.[4] Since the traffic to Screwball's site went up eighty-five percent any time she and Spider-Man tussled, she hacked into the screens of New York's cab fleet to display a message to challenge Spider-Man to a fight.[5] Spider-Man's took advantage of Screwball's challenge, and lured her to a confrontation between him and Raptor to use her as a distraction. After Screwball served her purpose, Spider-Man knocked her out.[6]

Following the birth of Lily Hollister and Norman Osborn's baby, Doctor Octopus rallied numerous villains to go after the infant. As the child of two people powered by the Goblin Serum, Octavius believed its blood carried the key to cure him of his crippling illness.[7] Screwball was one of the villains that tried to track down the baby. After the Chameleon took off with the child and tricked Spider-Man into thinking it had died, the wall-crawling hero went on a rampage to take down every villain involved in Doctor Octopus' scheme. Screwball was approached in Midtown Manhattan by the Looter to warn her of Spider-Man's actions. Before she could finish brushing him off, Screwball was taken down by Spider-Man from behind.[8]

Screwball was briefly seen being chased by Spider-Girl who had informed Screwball that she was no longer broadcasting her show due to the heroine taking out her cameraman. She was last scene being arrested by the police after Spider-Girl left.[9]

Screwball later joined forces with Jester into pranking Mayor J. Jonah Jameson. Upon uploading the prank on the Internet, both villains were defeated by Spider-Man, whose mind at the time had been taken over

She was later seen in Las Vegas[11] having formed a partnership with Arcade in which she did his bidding and he gave her training, equipment and exclusive streaming rights.[12]

Jonathan Powers was a struggling actor of huge ego who finally got his big break as the leading character in an off-Broadway revival of Cyrano de Bergerac. Panned by critics, jeered by the audience, and disdained by his fellow performers, Powers was fired after one performance. Obsessively, he continued to study the various arts and crafts that he thought would make him a versatile actor: fencing, gymnastics, body building --everything except acting lessons. Still, he was only able to find employment as a stooge on a children's television show taped in New York. Finally getting fed up with having pies thrown in his face, Powers decided that if the public wants laughter at other people's expense, he would give it to them. Contracting the criminal weapons-maker known as the Tinkerer to make him a number of gimmicks, Powers fashioned himself a gaudy harlequin-like disguise and called himself the Jester.

Criminal Career

Committing a wave of crimes based on his toys and gimmicks, and then secretly hired by corrupt politician Richard Raleigh to threaten D.A. candidate Franklin Nelson, the Jester was opposed by Daredevil, who eventually stopped his criminal activities and saw him put behind bars.[2]

The Jester escaped on numerous occasions to plague New York anew. In one of his biggest plots, he began distributing false newscasts claiming that John F. Kennedy was still alive,[3] or that the Vietnam War had never happened to get the public to stop trusting the news media.[4] He also created false commercials and newscasts for Foggy Nelson's reelection campaign as District Attorney which caused him to lose the election.[5] He then went on to frame Daredevil as a murderer,[6] before finally having a fake President Ford denounce the NYPD as criminals. When Daredevil was overcome by an angry mob, he staged a trial to sentence him to death.[7] Daredevil then freed himself and defeated the Jester, restoring order to the city.[8]

Briefly, the Jester, impersonating a famous actor, performed Cyrano on television. This appeared to end his criminal career after fulfilling his dream.[9] He left prison years later and became a stylised performer, process server, and showman.[10]

Superior Spider-Man

Powers eventually backslid, becoming partners with Screwball for a web-show called Jested. After pranking Mayor J. Jonah Jameson and uploading it live on the Internet, both pranksters were targeted by Spider-Man (whose body was being controlled by Doctor Octopus at the time). When Spider-Man came into conflict with Screwball and the Jester, their tactics of bullying and pranks caused him to snap and brutally beat them up within an inch of their lives.[11]

Death & Resurrection

After serving his time in prison for any and all offences, Powers once again abandoned his life of crime. He still ended up in prison once again when an undercover federal agent and a paid informant got him to confess his desire to return to his bad habits. She-Hulk represented Powers in court, but her argument that Powers shouldn't be arrested for thinking about committing a crime rather than actually committing a crime wasn't enough to convince the jury. He was killed by a prison guard during a scuffle started by other two inmates.[12]

Through unrevealed means, the Jester was revived and returned to a life of crime, only to be defeated by Jessica Jones and Spider-Woman.[13]

Powers and Abilities

Power Grid [16]Intelligence4 Strength 2Speed 2Durability 2Energy Projection 3Fighting Skills6

Abilities

The Jester is an above-average athlete with special skills in gymnastics, swordsmanship, and unarmed combat.[14]

Strength level

The Jester possesses the normal human strength of a man of his age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise.

Paraphernalia

Weapons

The Jester employs a variety of harmless-looking toys and gimmicks modified into deadly weapons or special tools. He has a yo-yo whose weighted knob can be used for striking and whose thin steel cable can be used for strangling. He has a bag of polished ball bearing marbles which he throws onto the ground to make an opponent lose his footing. He has a box of popcorn-like objects which explode on impact and emit a noxious tear-gas. He has a number of 8-inch diameter plastic flying discs rigged to squirt an anaesthetic drug. He has various sized rubber balls containing plastic explosives in their centers. He has an extendable artificial hand on a scissors rigged with a high voltage electrical charge, as well as an artificial hand that can be fired from a small air-cannon.

Besides these weapons, which he carries on his person or in a pouch, he occasionally employs larger and more complicated weapons, such as miniature (2 feet tall) robots outfitted with laser weaponry, diamond drill bits, etc., that can be remotely controlled by a radio-linked micro-processor that responds to spoken commands.

The Jester is constantly expanding and refining his arsenal of deadly toys

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afraidof-thedark · 5 years ago

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Police arrested a monster on June 21, 1981.

If their evidence was correct, Wayne Williams was responsible for one of the most horrific reigns of terror in American history. Twenty-nine African-American children had been brutally murdered, along with at least two men in their late twenties.

From 1979 until 1981, Atlanta was a city under siege. Parents were afraid to let their children leave the house, even to go to school.

But that wasn’t enough to keep them safe. In one of the most terrifying cases, seven-year-old LaTonya Wilson was abducted from her own bedroom in the early morning hours of June 22, 1980. Her killer managed to carry her past her sleeping brother and sister without anyone noticing. LaTonya’s body was found four months later.

The arrest of Williams should have been cause for celebration. Certainly the police and FBI were happy. But many residents were skeptical.

Where was their monster?

At twenty-three, Williams was younger than his last alleged victim. He’d been something of a local celebrity who’d started a surprisingly successful ham radio station when he was still in high school. He was soft-spoken, gentle, and cooperative. FBI profiler John Douglas of the Behavioural Science Unit said he looked more like the Pillsbury Doughboy than a serial killer.

Photo credit: Youtube.com

Atlanta’s African-American community responded to Williams’ arrest with outrage. White supremacist groups were to blame for the murders, some said. The Klan was determined to wipe out their entire race. And yet–

Williams, as calm and soft-spoken as he was, fit the FBI’s profile to a T.

He was African-American (most serial murders are committed by people of the same race. Besides, a white man could not have prowled the neighbourhoods where the children went missing without being noticed.)

He was single, and between the ages of twenty-five and twenty-nine.

He was a police buff, who drove a police-type vehicle, and who tried to involve himself in the investigation. (Williams had even been arrested for impersonating a police officer.)

He had a police-type dog–a German shepherd.

Scratches had been seen on his face and arms after some of the disappearances. Witnesses could place him with some of the victims, though he claimed he didn’t know any of the missing children. Williams, with his goal of finding and managing the next Jackson 5, had the perfect opportunity to approach young people and win their trust.

Although he had a book on how to beat polygraphs, he still managed to fail a polygraph exam twice. Fibers from nineteen sources, including his bedspread, carpeting, car, and dog, had been found on a number of the victims (this was long before DNA). The carpet fibres were considered highly significant since they were so rare.

Williams was charged with the murder of the two adult victims, Nathaniel Cater and Jimmy Payne, and received two life sentences. He is still in prison. While he was never tried for the deaths of any of Atlanta’s missing children, the police declared the cases closed. Understandably, the parents of the murdered children were furious, but the state explained it would be too expensive to try Williams for the rest of the murders.

To this day, a lot of people think Williams is innocent, and that there is a police cover-up involved. Douglas, now retired from the FBI, believes the forensic and behavioural evidence shows that Williams killed at least eleven of the children. He had this to say in his book Mindhunter:

Despite what his detractors and accusers maintain, I believe there is no strong evidence linking him to all or even most of the deaths and disappearances of children in that city between 1979 and 1981. Young black and white children continue to die mysteriously in Atlanta. We have an idea who did some of the others. It isn’t a single offender and the truth isn’t pleasant. So far, though, there’s been neither the evidence nor the public will to seek indictments.”

Montana police sergeant John Cameron suggested serial killer Edward Edwards was responsible for some of the murders that plagued Atlanta, but he also thinks Edwards was the Zodiac killer and the murderer of JonBenét Ramsey and Chandra Levy, among others, so that seems a tad far-fetched.

In 2007, DNA testing on two human hairs and several dog hairs found on some of the victims failed to exonerate Williams. While there wasn’t enough of a sample for conclusive proof, the DNA sequence matched one in one-hundred dogs, including Williams’ shepherd, and the DNA in the hair samples would eliminate ninety-nine point five percent of all African-Americans…but not Williams.

Williams continues to protest his innocence, and has never confessed to any of the murders, although when asked by the prosecutor at his trial if he “panicked when he killed those kids,” Williams answered “No,” before going ballistic and throwing a temper tantrum. That outburst on the stand may have led to Williams’ conviction. Previously, the jurors were having a hard time seeing the mild-mannered talent scout as a killer.

What do you think? Is Williams responsible for all of Atlanta’s murdered children during those three horrible years? Is he responsible for any of them?

What true crime case keeps you up at night? If there’s one you’d like me to profile, please let me know in a comment.

P.S. If you liked this post, you’ll want to read this.

-J.H. Moncrieff

#wayne williams #tc #tcc #crime #true crime #murder #latonya wilson #serial killer #serial killers #nathaniel cater #jimmy payne #atlanta's children #edward edwards #mystery

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savetopnow · 7 years ago

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2018-03-09 06 NEWS now

NEWS

Associated Press

Danish inventor denies killing journalist at murder trial

Democrats' Texas rift shows difficulty in retaking Congress

UK police: 21 people sought treatment after ex-spy poisoning

Mississippi passes law banning abortion after 15 weeks

Trump rolling out big trade tariffs, sparing Mexico, Canada

BBC News

Irish abortion referendum: Two women's stories

Curious Emperor penguins take a selfie video in Antarctica

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Paul Newman gave part of salary to me

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Chicago Tribune

Cubs dropped as defendant by suing fan blinded by foul ball at Wrigley; case against MLB continues

Skokie woman free on bond after being charged in fatal hit-and-run

Truman College student shot near Uptown neighborhood campus

Off duty officer injured during attempted carjacking in Chatham neighborhood

Grad students, U. of I. reach tentative contract agreement to end strike

LA Times

'Breaking Point: The War for Democracy in Ukraine' goes beyond headlines with a thorough approach

For now, the stage belongs to Devon Modster and Matt Lynch as they make their case to be UCLA's starting quarterback

Lawmakers revise financial deregulation bill to try to blunt criticisms and assure House passage

More showers on the way, but L.A. is still way below average for rainfall

Trump to impose sweeping tariffs on steel, but exclude Canada, Mexico and maybe other allies

NPR News

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Why Are New Hampshire's Tax-Free Liquor Stores Selling So Much Hennessy?

A Health Plan 'Down Payment' Is One Way States Try Retooling Individual Mandate

Top House Intelligence Committee Dem Wants To Talk To Seychelles Meeting Attendees

Calif. Teen Arrested For Impersonating Officer Made A Traffic Stop, House Calls

New York Times

‘I Am a Pawn’: Trump’s Immigration Fight With California Squeezes Those Caught in the Middle

International Women’s Day 2018: Beyond #MeToo, With Pride, Protests and Pressure

Trump Moves Ahead With Tariffs in Defiance of Allies at Home and Abroad

Op-Ed Contributors: John McCain and Angelina Jolie: America Should Lead in Saving the Rohingya

Gray Matter: How Lies Spread Online

ProPublica

ProPublica Wins Five SABEW Awards for Business Journalism

The Trump Appointee Behind the Move to Add a Citizenship Question to the Census

Florida’s Governor Will Sign Bill Expanding Workers’ Comp Benefits for First Responders

Apply to Be ProPublica’s Newest Design Fellow and Help Build Our Local Reporting Network

Trump Town

Reddit News

Ex-Russian Spy ‘Stable’ After Nerve Agent Attack in U.K.

Oklahoma Teachers union demands $10K raises, increased funding for education, state agencies

Yale Student Found Not Guilty in Rape Trial

Texas Judge Tortured Defendant With Stun Belt to Show ‘Power,’ Court Rules

Outrage Over Footage of Police Officer Beating a Black Man in North Carolina

Reuters

Hold the iPhone! Amazon primed to be larger than Apple

Trump sets metals tariffs but exempts Canada and Mexico

Trump ex-aide Manafort pleads not guilty again, faces July trial

South Koreans in Washington to brief on talks with North Korea's leader

S&P rises after report on Trump tariff plan

Reveal News

Nation’s largest janitorial company faces new allegations of rape

A group of janitors started a movement to stop sexual abuse

The Hate Report: How white supremacists recruit online

New documents about Jehovah’s Witnesses’ sex abuse begin to leak out

California is preparing to defend its waters from Trump order

The Altantic

West Virginia's Teachers Are Not Satisfied

This Average Joe Is the Most Quoted Man in News

The Unsinkable Benjamin Netanyahu?

Eric Garcetti Isn't Expecting Much From Washington

The Particular Horror of Church Shootings

The Guardian

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'Hit him again': Texas judge rebuked for repeated electrocution of man in court

How Trump tried to keep his alleged affair with Stormy Daniels a secret

Police chief leads praise for officer poisoned in Russian spy attack

The Independent

More than 100 tribes across the world still live in total isolation from society

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Trump revives debate over influence of violent video games as he looks for ways to respond to Florida school shooting

African Union head says Trump's 's***hole' comment is 'in the past' during Tillerson visit

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The Intercept

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The Quartz

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Wall Street Journal

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#news

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gyrlversion · 6 years ago

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Boy found in Kentucky is NOT missing Timmothy Pitzen

Timmothy Pitzen’s family say they are devastated after the man claiming to be their missing son turned out to be a 23-year-old criminal with a history of lying to the police in a cruel hoax.

‘It’s devastating. It’s like reliving that day all over again and Timmothy’s father is devastated once again,’ the boy’s aunt Kara Jacobs said in a press conference.

The family said that they were elated when they first heard that a boy claiming to be Timmothy had been found wandering the streets of Newport, Kentucky. He told police that he had been kidnapped but had fled his abductors in Cincinnati, Ohio, and run across state lines to safety.

But that hope was cruelly dashed when police ran a DNA test and found that ‘Timmothy’ was actually 23-year-old ex-convict Brian Michael Rini.

‘It’s been awful,’ said Timmothy’s grandmother Alana Anderson. ‘We’re been on tenderhooks… it’s been exhausting.’

Incredibly, Anderson said the family didn’t feel anger towards the fraudster, only pity.

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‘It’s devastating. It’s like reliving that day all over again and Timmothy’s father is devastated once again,’ the boy’s aunt Kara Jacobs (pictured with his grandmother Alana Anderson at a press conference)

Police said Brian Michael Rini (left) from Medina, Ohio, lied to investigators when he claimed to be missing Illinois boy Timmothy Pitzen (right) when he was found wandering around on Wednesday

‘I feel so sorry for the young man who’s obviously had a horrible time and felt the need to say he was somebody else,’ she said.

Timmothy vanished on May 11 2011, after being taken out of school by his mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen. She committed suicide in a motel room soon after and left a note saying the boy was safe but would never be found.

‘Although we are disappointed that this turned out to be a hoax, we remain diligent in our search for Timmothy, as our missing person’s case remains unsolved,’ an Aurora Police Department spokesperson said.

Another of Timmothy’s aunts, Jen West, was even more generous and said that, while she was crushed, there could be a silver lining to the hoax as it has renewed interest in her nephew’s missing person’s case.

Brian Rini’s criminal history

July 2017: Rini pleaded guilty to ‘disorderly conduct’ and ‘criminal trespass’ after breaking into a home and causing $1,250 worth of damage after throwing an elaborate house party. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, and released in March this year

December 2016: pleaded guilty plea/no contest to theft charges

April 2016: guilty plea/no contest to ‘making false alarms about law enforcement’

December 2015: guilty plea/no contest after ‘writing a series of bad checks’

November 2015: pleaded guilty/no contest to two counts of theft

June 2015: pleaded guilty/no contest after dialing 911 to falsely claim to police that his ex-girlfriend was going to commit suicide

April 2015: pleaded guilty/no contest to once count of ‘passing bad checks’ – fifth degree felony

October 2013: pleaded guilty/no contest to ‘falsification’

Source: Fox 19

‘It’s a blessing in that respect, that the more coverage he gets, the better,’ said West, of Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio.

It is still not clear why Rini pretended to be the family’s missing child. Police have not yet announced any charges but lying about felony offences to the police can result in felony charges, which carry anything from probation up to ten years in jail, plus multiple other charges.

Rini appears to have a history criminal behavior including charges for burglary, vandalism, using bad checks and giving fraudulent information to the police. He’s only been released from an Ohio jail for the burglary a few weeks before making the Timmothy claim, on March 7.

His own brother, Jonathon Rini, told Fox 8 that Rini should be locked up.

‘He deserves more time behind bars’, said Jonathan, who added that his brother had sometimes given his name to the police to try and avoid arrest.

‘Once he started using my name for things he was doing, I have no compassion for him whatsoever. He used my name in a traffic stop in Norton and then skipped court and I received a traffic warrant for it,’ said Jonathon Rini.

‘I’d tell the family that I’m sorry for what he’s done, but for him, I wouldn’t even speak to him,’ Rini said.

Police have confirmed they are investigating Rini’s claims that he had been kidnapped and acknowledged that he had a history of issuing false statements to authorities.

In 2018, the alleged Pitzner impersonator was arrested and charged by the Norton Police Department on one count of falsification.

Police say he lied about two friends fighting in the back of his car, giving them vague details about the incident using the vehicle’s in-car emergency alert system. He then gave officers false identification and social-security information, which later turned out to belong to his brother.

‘It’s been awful,’ said Timmothy’s grandmother Alana Anderson. ‘We’re been on tenderhooks… it’s been exhausting’

His own brother, Jonathon Rini, told Fox 8 that Rini should be locked up

He was also arrested and charged in 2017 with burglary and vandalism after breaking into a home in Medina County, Ohio, and throwing an elaborate house party that caused $1,250 worth of damage, The Medina Gazette reports.

Rini had just finished serving an 18 month sentence in Belmont Correctional Institute when he emerged in Newport claiming to be Timmothy. He has been in and out of prison over the past six years, according to WLWT.

In the wake of the DNA results, Timmothy’s grandmother Alana Anderson expressed the devastation the family is now feeling, following their brief moment of hope.

‘It’s been awful,’ Anderson told reporters. ‘We’ve been on tender-hooks,’ adding that the family has been ‘alternatively hopeful and frightened’ over the last 24 hours.

When asked about Rini and his alleged false statement, Anderson offered compassion, saying the man had ‘obviously had a horrible time and felt the need to say he was someone else, and [I] hope that they can find his family.’

The grandmother said their family would never give up hope that Timmothy may one day be found.

‘My prayer has always been that when he is old enough, he would find us if we couldn’t find him.’

According to an officer’s dispatch report from Wednesday, Rini had told police he was born on October 18, 2004, the same day as Timmothy, and also gave his correct middle name of James.

The report also said he claimed that he had managed to flee ‘from two kidnappers that have been holding him for seven years’. He said his abductors had most recently been keeping him in a Red Roof Inn, thought to be in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Rini claimed that when he saw his chance to escape, he fled and ‘kept running across a bridge’ – the state line – and into Newport, Kentucky.

Rini (left on after claiming that he was the missing boy and right in a mugshot) has an extensive of false claims to police, his criminal records show . He recently finished serving an 18 burglary sentence, before emerging in Newport

An age processed image released last year predicts what Timmothy Pitzen may have looked like at age 13

‘FBILouisville, Newport PD, and HCSO have been conducting a missing person investigation. DNA results have been returned indicating the person in question is not Timmothy Pitzen,’ FBI Louisville tweeted on Thursday.

‘A local investigation continues into this person’s true identity. To be clear, law enforcement has not and will not forget Timmothy, and we hope to one day reunite him with his family. Unfortunately, that day will not be today.’

Locals who saw Rini on Wednesday said that his face was bruised and he appeared to be ‘very scared and agitated’.

‘He walked up to my car and he went, ‘Can you help me? I just want to get home. Can you just please help me?” a good Samaritan told a 911 dispatcher. ‘And I asked him what was going on and he told me he’s been kidnapped.’

One woman revealed to CBS Chicago that the alleged impostor told her he had been running for two hours and that he had ‘been passed around for seven years’.

‘Really you felt bad for him, his face looked like he’d been beat up,’ she said. ‘He had a really big bruise on his face. I was hurt for him’

Another resident told ABC7: ‘He looked like he had been beat up, punched in the face a couple of times. You could see the fear on him and how nervous he was and how he kept pacing. He just looked odd.’

On Wednesday afternoon, Rini reportedly gave police a detailed description of his alleged kidnappers, who he says have held him captive for more than seven years.

He described the two kidnappers as ‘two male, whites, body-builder type build,’ according to the police report.

‘One had black curly hair, Mt. Dew shirt and jeans & has a spider web tattoo on his neck. The other was short in stature and had a snake tattoo on his arms.’

He then described his alleged captor’s vehicle as a new white Ford SUV, with yellow transfer paint and a dent on the rear left bumper, registered to Wisconsin.

Several police departments were instructed to search Red Roof Inns in both Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky, but workers at several of the hotels said they couldn’t recall anyone matching the description.

Timmothy vanished without a trace in 2011 following his mother Amy Fry-Pitzen’s suicide (pictured together)

His mother took Timmothy on a three-day holiday, visiting the zoo and several water-parks before she was found dead inside a Rockford motel room, having committed suicide

Timmothy disappeared on May 11, 2011, shortly after being dropped off at Greenman Elementary School, in Aurora, Illinois, by his father.

The boy, just six-years-old at the time, was later picked-up by his mother, who told the school she needed to take her son home because of a family emergency.

Fry-Pitzen, 43, then took her son on a three-day holiday, visiting the zoo and several water-parks across different state lines.

The last known images of Timmothy and his mother together were captured on CCTV, checking out of the Kalahari Resort, in Wisconsin Dells on May 12.

The following day, Amy was spotted alone by a surveillance camera in a supermarket 120 miles away near Rockford, having purchased a pen, paper and some envelopes.

On May 14, she was found dead inside her Rockford Inn motel room with a series of slashes to her wrists. She left behind a note that said her son was safe and in the care of others, but added: ‘You’ll never find him’.

‘I was in total shock at the time,’ Timmothy’s dad James Pitzen said to Crime Watch Daily, back in 2017. ‘They told me where she was found, in a cheap little motel. She had a razorblade knife and she cut herself.’

Timmothy’s identification card was found among Amy’s possessions, but her son, the Spiderman backpack he’d been pictured leaving school with and her cellphone were all missing.

James said just hours before she committed suicide he received a call from Amy saying: ‘Timmothy is fine. Timmothy belongs to me. Timmothy and I will be fine. Timmothy is safe’.

‘She was definitely wrestling with the demons. The demons were winning, and they eventually won,’ James said.

The mother grappled with depression for the majority of her adult life and had attempted to commit suicide on more than one occasion. She had also disappeared for a series of days-on-end before but never with Timmothy.

Timmothy (shown aged 6) vanished after his mother picked him up from Greenman Elementary School and took him on a three day holiday

A report filed by the Sharonville Police Department on Wednesday details boy’s claims to be Timmothy, and even describes his alleged kidnappers

In an interview with People in 2015, Timmothy’s father, James Pitzen (left), described his son as a ‘little mini-me’ and vowed to never give up searching for him

After Rini allegedly claimed to be Timmothy, the Pitzen family were given new hope.

Timmothy’s maternal aunt Kara Jacobs told NBC Chicago: ‘We hope it’s true. What’s hard is the story that he escaped from captors. And your mind goes in too many directions that you don’t want to think about,’ .

What happened to Timmothy Pitzen?

On the morning of May 11, 2011, James Pitzen dropped his son off at Greenman Elementary School in Aurora.

At 8:30am, Timmothy’s mother, Amy Fry-Pitzen, appeared at the school telling educators that she needed to remove her son from class because of a ‘family emergency’.

Later that day, James returned to the school to pick Timmothy up, but was told Amy withdrew him from class hours earlier.

For more than a day, he found no sign of Timmothy or Amy, until eventually she called James and his brother on May 12, telling them ‘Timmothy is fine. Timmothy belongs to me. Timmothy and I will be fine. Timmothy is safe’.

The last CCTV images of Amy and Timmothy alive together were captured on May 12 as they checked out from the Kalahari Resort, in Wisconsin Dells.

The following day, Amy was spotted alone on CCTV 120 miles away in a supermarket near Rockford, having purchased a pen, paper and some envelopes.

On May 14 she was found dead in her Rockford Inn motel room having committed suicide by slashing her wrists.

A note found next to her body said that Timmothy was safe, and in the care of others, but added: ‘You’ll never find him’.

Timmothy’s identification card was found inside the room, but workers at the motel said Amy had checked-in alone.

Police say they’ve investigated several false leads since Timmothy’s disappearance in 2011.

The last potential breakthrough came in 2014, when a woman said she saw a boy matching his description at her yard-sale. Police were never able to confirm the sighting.

‘And what I’ve prayed about since he’s been gone is that God will keep him close and take care of him, and that maybe by some stroke of luck, he was with people who would love him. And if that’s not the case, it will be heartbreaking to get through.’

However, the brief glimmer of hope turned out to be another false-lead in the missing child case.

The last breakthrough in the disappearance of Timmothy came in 2014 when a woman hosting a garage sale in northern Illinois dialed 911 to tell police a boy matching his description had been standing in the front-yard of her home.

Shortly before her daughter’s suicide, Alana Anderson received a note from her daughter that read: ‘I’ve taken him somewhere safe. He will be well cared for and he says that he loves you. Please know that there is nothing you could have said or done that would have changed my mind.’

Aurora Police launched an investigation spanning three states – including Illinois and Wisconsin – after her death to find the person allegedly in possession of Timmothy.

Police say they also explored the possibility Amy may have murdered her son in the midst of her turmoil and hidden the child’s body somewhere.

The razorblade-edged knife she used to cut her wrists with showed only traces of her blood.

But three months after Timmothy’s disappearance investigators found a ‘concerning’ amount of blood in the back seat of Amy’s car.

However, hope the six-year-old could still be alive was revived when the blood was later concluded to have come from a nosebleed suffered by the Timmothy several months earlier.

Analyzing the exterior of Amy’s SUV, police were able to determine the vehicle had at one stage been parked in a grassy area, near a stream and a road treated with glass beads.

They believed this could have been the location where Amy handed over Timothy to the mysterious third-party, but nothing further came from the evidence.

James Pitzen has previously said he’s never given up hope that his son is alive and will one day return home to him.

‘I always wonder what she told Timmothy, Why hasn’t he tried to call? We taught him how to dial 911. ‘This is your number, this is your mom’s number, you know where you live, your address,’ all the stuff you do,’ he told People in 2015.

‘Maybe I’ll see Tim in the morning,’ James said he often tells himself. ‘Maybe tomorrow they’ll find him.’

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teeky185 · 6 years ago

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Jussie Smollett, the "Empire" actor, has been charged with making a false police report when he said he was attacked in downtown Chicago by two men who hurled racist and anti-gay slurs and looped a rope around his neck. Police spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said prosecutors charged Smollett with felony disorderly conduct, an offence that could bring one to three years in prison and force the actor to pay for the cost of the investigation into his report of a January 29 beating. Police were trying to get in touch with Smollett's lawyers to "negotiate a reasonable surrender," Mr Guglielmi said. That could involve Smollett turning himself in to a Chicago police station. He said he did not have a time frame for how long the actor would be given. "We are trying to be diplomatic and reasonable, and we're hoping he does the same," Mr Guglielmi said. The charges emerged on the same day that detectives and two brothers who were earlier deemed suspects testified before a grand jury. In a statement, lawyers Todd Pugh and Victor Henderson said Smollett "enjoys the presumption of innocence, particularly when there has been an investigation like this one where information, both true and false, has been repeatedly leaked." People attend a rally in support of actor Jussie Smollett in the Manhattan borough of New York City Credit: Reuters The announcement of the charges came after a flurry of activity in recent days that included lengthy interviews of the brothers by authorities, a search of their home and their release after police cleared them. Investigators have not said what the brothers told detectives or what evidence detectives collected. But it became increasingly clear that serious questions had arisen about Smollett's account - something police signalled on Friday when they announced a "significant shift in the trajectory" of the probe after the brothers were freed. Smollett, who is black and gay and plays a gay character on the hit Fox television show, said he was attacked as he was walking home from a Subway sandwich shop. He said the masked men beat him, made derogatory comments and yelled "This is MAGA country" - an apparent reference to President Donald Trump's campaign slogan, "Make America Great Again" - before fleeing. Earlier on Wednesday, Fox Entertainment and 20th Century Fox Television issued a statement saying Smollett "continues to be a consummate professional on set" and that his character is not being written off the show. The series is shot in Chicago and follows a black family as they navigate the ups and downs of the record industry. The studio's statement followed reports that Smollett's role was being slashed amid the police investigation. Whispers about Smollett's potential role in the attack started with reports that he had not fully cooperated with police and word that detectives in a city bristling with surveillance cameras could not find video of the attack. Interview with actor Jussie Smollett on ABC's "Good Morning America" Credit: Getty Investigators did find and release images of two people they said they wanted to question and last week picked up the brothers at O'Hare Airport as they returned from Nigeria. Police questioned the men and searched their apartment. The brothers, who were identified by their attorney as Abimbola "Abel" and Olabinjo "Ola" Osundairo, were held for nearly 48 hours on suspicion of assaulting Smollett before being released. The next day, police said the men provided information that had "shifted the trajectory of the investigation," and detectives requested another interview with Smollett. Police said one of the men had appeared on "Empire," and Smollett's lawyers said one of the men is the actor's personal trainer, whom he hired to help get him physically ready for a music video. The actor released his debut album, "Sum of My Music," last year. Speaking outside the courthouse where the grand jury met, the brothers' lawyer said the two men testified for about two and a half hours. "There was a point where this story needed to be told, and they manned up and they said we're going to correct this," Gloria Schmidt said. Attorney Gloria Schmidt speaks to reporters at the at the Leighton Criminal Court Building in Chicago Credit: Reuters She said her clients did not care about a plea deal or immunity. "You don't need immunity when you have the truth," she said. She also said her clients received money from Smollett, but she did not elaborate. Smollett has been active in LBGTQ issues, and initial reports of the assault drew outrage and support for him on social media, including from Sen. Kamala Harris of California and TV talk show host Ellen DeGeneres. Former Cook County prosecutor Andrew Weisberg said judges rarely throw defendants in prison for making false reports, opting instead to place them on probation, particularly if they have no prior criminal record. Smollett has a record - one that concerns giving false information to police when he was pulled over on suspicion of driving under the influence. According to records, he was also charged with false impersonation and driving without a license. He later pleaded no contest to a reduced charge and took an alcohol education and treatment programme. Another prospective problem is the bill someone might receive after falsely reporting a crime that prompted a massive investigation that lasted nearly a month and included the collection and review of hundreds of hours of surveillance video. The size of the tab is anyone's guess, but given how much time the police have invested, the cost could be huge. Kim Foxx, Chicago's top prosecutor, recused herself from the investigation into the attack reported by "Empire" actor Jussie Smollett Credit: AP Weisberg recently represented a client who was charged with making a false report after surveillance video discredited her account of being robbed by three men at O'Hare Airport. For an investigation that took only a single day, his client had to split restitution of $8,400, Weisberg said. In Smollett's case, "I can imagine that this would be easily into the hundreds of thousands of dollars." Also on Wednesday, Chicago's top prosecutor, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, announced that she had recused herself from the investigation. Her office explained that Foxx made the decision "out of an abundance of caution" because of conversations she had with one of Smollett's family members just after the report. When the relative expressed concerns about the case, Foxx "facilitated a connection" between the family member and detectives, according to a statement. Foxx said the case would be handled to her first assistant, Joseph Magats, a 28-year veteran prosecutor. Sign up for your essential, twice-daily briefing from The Telegraph with our free Front Page newsletter.

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oselatra · 6 years ago

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It's the Best and Worst 2018

Our annual salute to weird, worrisome, wonderful Arkansas. Christmas is almost here, and that means it's time once again to open the Arkansas Times' annual regift of highly questionable taste and quality: The Best and Worst issue, our yearly salute to all the news items you tried like hell to forget. Yeah, with Donald Trump in office, it might seem like 2018 lasted a nice, round 29 months or so. But we can assure you that, based on the little hashmarks we've scratched into the wall of our dank and windowless cell here at AT HQ, it was only 365 days, just like every other year. That said, our cup did truly runneth over in 2018, and we were taking notes! So read on, if you dare, for tales of Baphomet barnstorming, the burning hole of Midway, pit bull purloining and disguise, and how Twitter came to be Rapert-free for 12 blessed hours. It's all here, served up with a heaping dose of love. So, Merry Christmas to you, and the happiest of New Years, Dear Reader. And above all: Unless it's saving a litter of puppies from a burning building or something, don't do anything that'll land you in Best and Worst 2019. Nobody wants that.

Best win

Little Rock native and 6-foot-10-inch basketball standout Kalin Bennett was heralded as a trailblazer in December after it was revealed he will reportedly be the first student athlete with autism to be recruited by an NCAA Division I school. Though several schools tried to scoop up the phenom, he ultimately decided on Kent State.

Best breath of fresh air

Entergy Arkansas announced in November that after reaching a settlement with the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, it will close the state's two largest coal-fired power plants by 2030.

Best draining the swamp

In September, former Sen. Jon Woods (R-Springdale) was sentenced to 18 years in federal prison and ordered to pay $1.6 million in restitution after being convicted in May on 15 counts related to a bribery scheme in which Woods and several co-conspirators directed taxpayer funds to two nonprofits in exchange for kickbacks. The sentence could keep Woods behind bars until he's just shy of 60 years old.

Best activist judge

During Woods' sentencing, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks told Woods he hoped a stiff sentence would act as a "general deterrent" for other officials who might seek to steal from the public, saying Woods saw elected office as a way to put money in his own pocket. "I find that grotesque," Brooks said. That makes several of us, Your Honor.

Best Art of the Deal

In November, Woods was one of 79 federal prison inmates who wrote to President Trump, proposing to help build Trump's promised big, beeyouteeful wall on the U.S.-Mexico border in exchange for lessened sentences. No word on whether Trump is considering it, but we're gonna call that a long shot.

Worst failure to read the employee handbook

Federal agents arrested a special events coordinator for Pulaski County Youth Services in November, alleging he visited online child-porn chatrooms, distributed child pornography and smoked meth during work hours while sitting in his office at the county administration building.

Second worst failure to read the employee handbook

Police said that in August, a North Little Rock McDonald's restaurant employee threw hot grease on a customer waiting at the drive-through window during an argument that started when the employee told the indecisive customer that he needed to make up his mind and quit wasting her time. The customer, who investigators say later came back to the restaurant with family members and broke a window, was treated at a local hospital for burns to his face. The employee was fired.

Best true love

In August, investigators arrested Maxine Feldstein, 30, of Fayetteville, saying she helped her boyfriend, Nicholas Lowe, 23, escape from the Washington County Jail by allegedly forging documents from Ventura County in California ordering Lowe's immediate release. Deputies said they took a phone call by Feldstein and the paperwork she later emailed as legit, and released Lowe soon after.

Best history repeating itself

At the time of his release from the Washington County Jail, Lowe was being held on charges of false impersonation.

Worst history repeating itself

In June, it was revealed that one of the sites the Trump administration was considering for a concentration camp for immigrant children was in Kelso (Desha County), less than a five-minute drive from the site of the notorious internment camp at Rohwer, where over 8,000 Japanese-Americans were confined behind barbed wire by the U.S. government during World War II. The site was not selected.

Best flaming hole

Authorities were baffled when an 8-foot geyser of flame erupted from a basketball-sized hole in the ground in the tiny Baxter County town of Midway in September and burned for 45 minutes, with locals suggesting everything from a meteorite to the Devil himself was to blame. The real reason turned out to be much more mundane: Testing revealed in December that the hole had likely been filled with paint thinner and set ablaze as a prank.

Best miracle

Authorities in Ouachita County called it a miracle in August after a 1-year old and a 3-year-old were found with minor injuries near the wreckage of a Chevrolet Impala lodged in a ravine near Camden, in which the children had survived undiscovered for days after a car crash that killed their mother. Eventually, the older child escaped from the wreck and was able to make his way 300 yards to the road, where he was spotted by a motorist. Though covered in cuts and scratches, the two children were expected to fully recover.

Best The Kids Are Alright

Thousands of students across the state participated in the one-day National School Walkout over gun violence a month after a shooting that killed 15 students and two adults at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.

Best teaching the teachers

After three students at Greenbrier High School in Faulkner County received corporal punishment for participating in the walkout, Jerusalem J. Greer, the mother of one of the students, noted on social media that, when given the option between a paddling and detention for walking out of class, the kids chose paddling. Greer added: "This generation is not playing around."

Worst raffle

The raffle of an AR-15 rifle to benefit a graduation party for the Batesville High School Class of 2018 was scrapped in February after critics noted the rifle was the same model that had been used to massacre 17 people at the Florida high school the week before.

Worst caller

Benjamin Craig Matthews, 39, of Mountain Home was arrested on election day after investigators said they traced to Matthews' personal cell phone over 40 threatening phone calls to CNN headquarters in Atlanta, including death threats to CNN anchor Don Lemon, a frequent target of President Trump's Twitter ire.

Best There She Was

Donna Axum Whitworth, an El Dorado native and former Miss Arkansas, who at age 22 went on to become the first Arkansas contestant to win the 1964 Miss America crown, passed away on Nov. 4. She was 76.

Best defensive use of meat

A security guard at a Little Rock grocery store foiled a theft and likely saved himself serious injury in October after police say he whacked a knife-wielding shoplifter upside the head with a large slab of meat the alleged thief had dropped while trying to flee. The woman dropped the knife and kept running.

Worst omission

In October, Democratic candidate for Secretary of State Susan Inman said she was in "sheer disbelief" after learning the day before early voting for the Nov. 6 general election that her name had been left off the ballot in Garland County. The election rolled on, however, with Inman being defeated in the race.

Best whuppin'

One spot of good news on Election Day was that National Rifle Association darling Rep. Charlie Collins (R-Fayetteville), who pushed through the state's odious "Guns on Campus" law over the objections of officials at pretty much every college and university in the state, got beat like a drum by Moms Demand Action-sponsored "gun sense" Democrat Denise Garner, who bested Collins by over 11 percentage points.

Worst pilot

Zemarcuis Devon Scott, 18, was arrested in July after investigators said he jumped a fence at the Texarkana Regional Airport and attempted to steal a twin-engine commercial jet. Scott allegedly told investigators after being pulled from the cockpit at gunpoint that he thought flying a plane consisted solely of pushing random buttons and pulling levers.

Worst reason for trying to steal a twin-engine commercial jet

Police said Scott told investigators the reason he tried to steal the jet was because he wanted to attend a rap concert in another state.

Worst prediction

Democrats and Republicans alike condemned an October radio ad fielded by out-of-state PAC Black Americans for the President's Agenda that featured two women saying that if Republican 2nd District U.S. Rep. French Hill wasn't re-elected, "white Democrats will be lynching black folk again" and Democrats will "take us back to bad old days of race verdicts, life sentences and lynchings when a white girl screams rape."

Worst theft

After an October incident in which intruders broke into the Humane Society of the Delta in Helena-West Helena, leading to the injury of several dogs, a spokesperson for the shelter said there was no surveillance footage of the incident because their security cameras had been stolen long before.

Best footloose

In July, the Fort Smith Board of Directors unanimously voted to repeal a decades-old ban on dancing on Sundays, with the board reportedly playing a clip of Kenny Loggins' song "Footloose" before the vote.

Worst attempt at a protest

In October, online activists pointed out that the Union County Sheriff's Office had been forcing all arrested suspects to wear a Nike T-shirt in their mugshots, an apparent comment on Nike's decision to feature former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick — who has angered conservatives and President Trump by taking a knee during the National Anthem to protest police shootings of African Americans — in advertisements. Within an hour of the post going viral, the sheriff's office removed all mugshots from its website.

Best shooting yourself in the foot

In November, Arkansas native Cody Wilson — a libertarian who led the team that successfully created the world's first 3D printable firearm and who has repeatedly sparred with the government over his plans to post blueprints for printable guns and gun parts on the internet — was arrested in Taiwan after investigators said he allegedly had sex with an underage girl in Texas.

Worst stampede

During August's annual "Salt Bowl" football showdown between Benton and Bryant high schools at War Memorial Stadium, both teams and over 38,000 fans suddenly hauled ass for the exits after someone mistook a loud noise in the stands for gunfire. Luckily, there were only minor injuries.

Best tribute

A Dermott man was arrested in May after leading police on a high-speed chase while at the wheel of a Ford Mustang with the number 3 painted on the door, an apparent homage to the late NASCAR driver Dale Earnhardt.

Worst goal

In June, Stephen Koch, 25, of Scranton in Logan County was found guilty of several charges and sentenced to 50 years in prison after he admitted to a judge that he had sought out and had sex with HIV-infected people with the goal of contracting the virus so he could intentionally infect others without their knowledge.

Worst communication skills

White Hall resident Patricia Hill, 69, allegedly admitted to police that she shot and killed her husband in July because he purchased porn through the couple's satellite TV system.

Best arrest

Three teenage girls were arrested in Conway in July after police say they posted video to Snapchat showing them repeatedly terrorizing a 1-year-old girl with a stun gun, with the three girls laughing uproariously as the child screamed and cried in fear as they loudly zapped the device close to her body.

Worst waste of good whiskey

A June crash between two semi trucks on Interstate 40 near Galloway in Pulaski County left thousands of airline-sized bottles of Fireball whiskey spilled all over the interstate.

Worst tick

The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported in June that a Benton County dog was found to be carrying the state's first-known example of the Longhorned Tick, an invasive East Asian parasite that is a known carrier of multiple bacterial and viral diseases, including thrombocytopenia syndrome, which is often fatal.

Worst cowardly

In January, members of Ozark Indivisible, an anti-Trump group based in Northwest Arkansas, reported that the office of U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton had started issuing "cease and desist" letters to constituents who visited, wrote to or called his office to express their displeasure over his votes to attack the Affordable Care Act, the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program and his other anti-progressive actions, with the letters warning that if the constituents kept expressing their First Amendment rights and stuff, they would be reported to police.

Worst dasvidanya

Ornithologists confirmed in May that a goose killed by hunters near Monticello in January was a Russian Tundra Bean Goose, a bird that has been spotted in the U.S. only a handful of times and never in Arkansas. The bird had somehow strayed over 6,000 miles from its normal breeding grounds before getting a beak full of hot steel for its trouble.

Worst lesson

Plentiful outrage erupted in May after video surfaced online of a teacher encouraging preschoolers at Forrest City's Teach N Tend Day Care Center to pelt a 4-year-old classmate with rocks, allegedly to "teach him a lesson" about throwing pebbles.

Best resignation

Less than one day after being appointed to the board of the Country Music Association Foundation, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee resigned under pressure from fans and leading music industry figures, who noted his homophobic and divisive rhetoric in the past.

Best conviction

Jacob Scott Goodwin, 23, of Ward was convicted and sentenced to 10 years in prison by a Virginia jury in May for participating in the gang beating of a black man during the August 2017 "Unite the Right" neo-Nazi rally in Charlottesville.

Best citizen crimestoppers

Against all odds, online activists dedicated to unmasking those who participated in violent actions in Charlottesville tracked down and identified Goodwin through videos that showed only a few of his tattoos and general build.

Worst best

A study by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released in April found that Arkansans are the hardest-slamming binge drinkers in the nation, with our hardcore boozers consuming a liver-quivering 8.3 drinks per binge and a record 841 binge drinks every year. Mississippi was No. 2, with 831.8 binge drinks per year.

Best reason to take the stairs

A woman was awarded $3 million by a Pulaski County Jury in December over a 2013 incident in which her right big toe was ripped off by a malfunctioning escalator at Little Rock's Park Plaza Mall.

Worst shithole senator

U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton continued his slouch toward the shithole of history in January by contradicting Senate colleagues from both parties who said President Trump referred to immigrants from Africa and Haiti as residents of "shithole countries" during an Oval Office meeting, saying on TV's "Face the Nation" program that Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, who was in the room at the time and called Trump's comments vile and hateful, "has a history of misrepresenting what happens in White House meetings." Cotton later said that he heard Trump to say "shithouse."

Worst shithole representative

U.S. Rep. Steve Womack attempted to out-asshole U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton after the news about Trump's "shithole countries" remark, saying the countries Trump called shitholes are behind the times and "depraved" before adding that what America really should be doing is attempting to appeal to immigrants from European countries (read: white people) who can "actually fit into [American] society as we know it."

Worst fucking disgrace

On Nov. 30, Sen. Jason Rapert (R-Conway) shared a link on Facebook listing the record number of successful Muslim candidates in the recent election, commenting, "Do you want them ruling everything in America?" In response, the Council on American-Islamic Relations called for Rapert's censure by the state legislature, and former Arkansas U.S. House candidate Chintan Desai called Rapert "a fucking disgrace" on Twitter.

Best blocking the blocker

Rapert, who is the subject of a lawsuit filed in October over his practice of blocking pretty much any critic who disagrees with his bloviations on social media, took to Facebook in early December to complain that he, himself, had been temporarily blocked from Twitter after the company found that one of his posts about Muslims violated their rules.

Best birthday

Searcy firefighter Lt. Cody Larque gave 1-year-old Evan Don Scott a heck of a first birthday present after the boy's mother rushed the child — who had turned 1 that day — to a local fire station because he was choking on a marker cap. As captured by an intense surveillance video, Larque was able to dislodge the obstruction by repeatedly striking Evan on the back, saving his life.

Worst authority figure

On Dec. 29, 2017, after last year's "Best and Worst" issue hit the stands, Arkansas State Police troopers arrested Lamar High School coach Kevin Kyzer, 51, and charged him with driving while intoxicated while at the wheel of a school bus carrying nine high school basketball players to a tournament.

Worst 'education'

In April, the State Board of Education — following a law passed by the state legislature — approved new rules for the state's 19,500 home-schooled students that rescinded a requirement that parents must inform the state of their proposed home-school teaching curriculum and teaching schedule. Coupled with a 2015 law that ended state testing to prove home-schooled students have reached proficiency in subject areas, the rules change effectively allows home-schooling parents to teach their children nothing at all if they so choose.

Best meeting of two fanciful, wholly imaginary characters

In January, Republican gubernatorial primary challenger Jan Morgan, famous for declaring her Hot Springs gun range a "Muslim Free Zone," appeared in the tiny town of Fouke, where she accepted a hug from a person dressed as the Fouke Monster and said the FBI has informed her she's on ISIS' "hit list." Morgan went on to lose the Republican gubernatorial primary to incumbent Governor Hutchinson by a wide margin.

Best surprise

A 17-year-old who police say was in the process of robbing a Little Rock Subway restaurant at gunpoint got a heck of a surprise in January when a uniformed Little Rock police officer walked out of the restaurant's restroom. The officer arrested the alleged thief after a short foot chase.

Best historian smackdown

Tom Dillard, the retired head of special collections at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, turned his weekly history column in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette to more recent concerns in February, writing that Department of Arkansas Heritage Director Stacy Hurst, a political patronage hire who Dillard noted "has absolutely no expertise or background in history," has fostered a "toxic culture" at Heritage, as seen in a series of high-profile resignations at the agency.

Worst Breaking Dumb

The FBI and soldiers from the Arkansas National Guard's Weapons of Mass Destruction 61st Civil Support team descended on a Little Rock home in moonsuits in February after a man called police to report he was experiencing heart palpitations, blurred vision and diarrhea, which he feared was a result of poisoning himself while making ricin, a deadly toxic substance. He had been inspired to make ricin by an episode of the TV show "Breaking Bad." He survived and was indicted on federal charges in March.

Worst criminal

A thief actually managed to get away less than empty handed in March when, after pepper spraying a clerk while attempting to flee with almost $500 in clothing from the Tommy Hilfiger store at the Outlets of Little Rock, police say she managed to drop all the clothes and her identification.

Worst 'joke'

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee got roasted on Twitter in April after he shared a "joke" in which Huckabee said that during a recent colonoscopy he was put to sleep with the same drug that killed Michael Jackson, with Huck ending with the punchline, "When I woke up, I MOON-walked right out of the hospital." Like a lot of Huckabee's jokes, there's so much tone-deaf anti-comedy to unpack there that it's hard to know where to start, but Twitter users let him have it nonetheless.

Best backout

In April, after years of bad national press related to a "phantom pilot" throwing terrified tame turkeys from a Cessna, killing some of them, during the annual Yellville Turkey Trot Festival, the Yellville Chamber of Commerce said it would no longer sponsor the festival, which some feared would be the end of the 72-year-old event.

Best stipulation

Later the same month, the Mid-Marion County Rotary Club said it would become the new sponsor of the Yellville Turkey Trot Festival, but only if no more turkeys were flung from airplanes. The "phantom pilot" appears to have gotten the message, because in October, the festival went on as planned, with fun, food and frolic for all but without — to the sure consternation of cruel jackasses everywhere — the barbaric "turkey drop" tradition.

Best lucky

A Van Buren officer shot at close range by a suspect in August was spared serious injury after investigators said the bullet was deflected by a steel, pen-sized handcuff key in his shirt pocket.

Best miss

In May, a pedestrian narrowly missed serious injury when a huge chunk of the concrete facade of a building at 319 W. Second St. in Little Rock came loose and tumbled to the sidewalk seven stories below.

Worst stash

Craig Whittington, 44, of Hot Springs was arrested at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in May after, police say, a nurse smelled marijuana coming from a patient's room and responding officers allegedly found 10 pounds of weed on Whittington's person.

Best maximum

In February, disgraced former Cross County District Judge Joseph Boeckmann Jr., 72, of Wynne, who was convicted in federal court in 2017 on wire fraud and witness tampering charges relating to what investigators say was a practice of taking suggestive photographs of young men he sentenced to community service and using his position on the bench to procure defendants in his court as sexual and sadomasochistic partners, was sentenced by federal Judge Kristine Baker to five years in federal prison and fined $50,000, the maximum sentence on all counts.

Best power to the people

In May, the Arkansas Supreme Court ordered Attorney General Leslie Rutledge to either approve a citizen-led ballot initiative on raising the state's minimum wage or present a more acceptable version. Rutledge, who had previously refused 70 out of 70 ballot initiatives she'd considered since 2016, always claiming they were too unclear to put before voters, but not offering suggestions on how to improve the language, approved not only the initiative to raise the minimum wage but three other ballot initiatives within days. The proposal to raise the minimum wage went on to prevail in November.

Best Saline County

In June, the Saline County Sheriff's Office arrested a man near the loading dock of a hardware store in the tiny town of Avilla who was wearing pants with the crotch ripped out and a "leather belt with chains and other adornments that were wrapped around his genitalia" while slathered head to toe in personal lubricant. Police said the man, who also reportedly had a backpack full of pornography, told responding officers he'd come to the store, which was closed at the time, "because I'm dumb."

Best coincidence

Shamon West, 21, was arrested in June after police say he attempted to pay his waitress at a Pine Bluff restaurant with the waitress' own credit card, which had been stolen two days before during a car break-in. After arresting West, police recovered a driver's license, more credit cards and a Social Security card belonging to the waitress when they searched him.

Worst closing

In February, Little Rock's Bennett's Military Supply announced it was closing after being in business in the city since 1870 — over 148 years.

Worst logic

When asked by a reporter in August why posters donated by the American Atheists society shouldn't be hung in classrooms alongside "In God We Trust" placards allowed by a recent law approved by the state legislature, Rep. Jim Dotson (R-Bentonville) said that hanging the atheist posters would be a violation of the First Amendment's separation of church and state.

Best resistance

In April, an underground group of LGBTQ students at the notoriously homophobic Harding University in Searcy published and distributed a 16-page chapbook called "HU Queer Press 2.0," which features poetry, prose and testimonials by gay students living on the campus where being LGBTQ is considered immoral.

Worst report card

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's 2017 Youth Risk Behavior Survey, released in June, reported that Arkansas teens in grades 9-12 scored first in the nation in several troubling categories, including: percentage who had been physically forced to have intercourse, percentage who had been forced to participate in sexual activity in the past year (including kissing, fondling and intercourse), percentage who had been bullied at school, percentage who had suffered a concussion while playing sports in the past year, percentage who had seriously considered committing suicide in the past year, percentage who had driven while drinking in the past month and percentage who are considered obese.

Best telling it like it is In a Q&A session published by the website Quora in June, Little Rock Nine member Melba Pattillo Beals said the attitudes that tormented her and other members of the Nine in the 1950s persist in Little Rock, telling the interviewer: "That behavior still lies beneath the surface. It appears in the desire to create charter schools. It appears in all of the reversals of fair housing, fair jobs, protection for our water and air. It isn't just about Central High alone. That torment affected the quality of education in Little Rock forever. It set a tone and established that separate can never be equal, and yet still Little Rock insists on separate and unequal. Little Rock has never resolved the decision of Brown v. Topeka [Board of Education] and has never taken it seriously. Until they do, they must relive the lessons of the '50s."

Worst electorate

Rep. Michael "Mickey" Gates (R-Hot Springs) was arrested in June on charges he'd failed to pay state income tax for at least six years, but went on to win re-election in November in a landslide, garnering over 65 percent of the vote.

Worst 'teaching moment'

In June, police said that Little Rock resident Shay Stevens, 46, retrieved a handgun and shot her 18-year-old son in the abdomen during a heated argument that started when he told her he wanted to buy a handgun.

Best sign-off

In July, it was announced that perma-tanned KATV, Ch. 11, weatherman Ned Perme would retire after over 30 years as the station's chief meteorologist.

Worst erection

A new version of the Ten Commandments Monument was installed on the state Capitol grounds April 26, a little less than a year after a mentally ill driver ran over and destroyed the previous version in his Dodge Dart a day after it was first installed. Now it's on to the federal courts, which will hopefully knock the new one down all permanent like.

Best Baphomet

In August, over 100 members of the Satanic Temple showed up for a "Rally for the First Amendment" at the Arkansas State Capitol, an event that included an appearance by the 7-and-a-half-foot bronze statue of the goat-headed demi-god Baphomet, which the Satanic Temple hopes to install permanently on the Capitol grounds if its federal lawsuit challenging the state's Ten Commandments monument prevails.

Worst algae that clearly has nothing to do with building a massive hog farm in the watershed of the Buffalo National River

In July, the National Park Service sent out a warning that the Buffalo National River was experiencing a record bloom of slimy, blue-green algae, saying that visitors should avoid the algae because it produces cyanotoxins that can make people and pets sick.

Worst living up to stereotypes

Three carnival workers were arrested in August after police say they murdered a Kansas couple, drove the bodies to Arkansas and buried them in a shallow grave in the Ozark National Forest.

Best evidence

Police in Little Rock arrested Dalvin Pettus, 25, in August on charges that he'd shot five bullets into his neighbor's house. Their evidence: a series of text messages police said Pettus sent to his neighbor an hour before the shooting in which Pettus said he planned to shoot up the house.

Best reason to hit somebody with a wrench

Charles Eedo Green of Sherwood was arrested at the Little Rock Air Force Base on a sweltering day in late August after police say he whacked an airman in the head with a wrench because the man stood in front of the room's only air conditioning vent and refused to move.

Worst pass

Jessie Lorene Goline, a 26-year-old art teacher at Marked Tree High School, was sentenced to only five years probation after being convicted in March of having sex with three of her students, including one who was under the age of 18, leading critics online to speculate whether the sentence would have been the same if Goline had been a man.

Worst weapon

In September, police say Kortvion Hall, 19, successfully robbed an Arvest Bank branch inside a Little Rock Walmart store wielding a fire extinguisher.

Best hiding the loot

As police officers closed in on Hall in the Walmart parking lot after the bank robbery, investigators say Hall tried unsuccessfully to swallow the cash he had stolen.

Worst defense

In April, police arrested a 27-year-old Little Rock man after an incident in which investigators say the man, while attempting to evade arrest, poured an acid-based drain cleaner called "Liquid Fire" into his mouth and spat it at officers. The chemical — which reportedly burned through the officers' uniforms in seconds, leaving burned and blistered skin — also severely burned the man's mouth, lips and throat, requiring a hospital stay. He was arrested, anyway.

Worst overweight

Officials with the Arkansas Department of Transportation hustled to the tiny North Arkansas town of Beaver in October to inspect the historic and unique one-lane suspension bridge there after video circulated online of a 35-ton tour bus crossing the bridge, which has a clearly posted limit of 10 tons, causing the span to visibly sag several feet under the bus' weight. The bridge was given a clean bill of health.

Worst 'costume'

There was a flurry of outrage online in November after someone posted photos from a Halloween costume contest at Fort Smith's The Lil' Dude Tavern. The winner: a patron in a full Ku Klux Klan robe and hood.

Worst accidental

Investigators said that after his arrest in November, 72-year-old Louie James Rogers of Stone County admitted to police that he might have "accidentally" raped a developmentally disabled woman at his Mountain View home.

Best firework

Residents of Perryville in Perry County were shocked in early November when a fireball caused by a large meteorite entering the atmosphere briefly turned night into day over the town, as captured on several surveillance videos.

Best out of touch

In a move that will surely come as a shock to the nation's formerly homeless millionaire truck driver demographic, Rep. Stephen Meeks (R-Greenbrier) apologized a day after a Nov. 19 Twitter post in which he said "being poor in America is a personal choice" before adding: "A homeless man can go to school, get a job driving a truck making $70k per year and in 20 years become a millionaire."

Best pocket

After the tractor Eldon Cooper was driving slipped off a muddy levee and into a water-filled drainage ditch near Mountain Home in March, the Baxter County farmer survived for hours until help arrived by breathing from a small pocket of air trapped in the corner of the tractor's cab, authorities said. Other than being wet and cold, Cooper reportedly escaped the harrowing event without serious injury.

Worst 'emergency'

Johnny Byron Hall, 32, of Malvern was arrested in April on charges of indecent exposure after police say he was openly masturbating in the emergency room of a hospital in Sherwood that is part of CHI St. Vincent Infirmary.

Worst curtains

Central Arkansas's close-knit community of theater lovers was shocked in late April when the Arkansas Repertory Theatre announced it would suspend operations immediately, citing a "perfect financial storm" of declining charitable giving and ticket sales.

Best second act

After a huge public outcry and flurry of more than $500,000 in donations — matched by the Windgate Charitable Foundation of Siloam Springs — The Rep's board of directors announced the show will go on, reopening in January 2019 with a slate of new shows.

Best disguise

Dasia Jackson, 22, of North Little Rock was arrested in April after police say she broke into an animal shelter and liberated her pit bull terrier, La La, which had been seized from her the previous week and scheduled to be euthanized under the city's ban on the breed. When found, police said La La had been dyed completely black, with Jackson's hands and forearms also dyed black up to the elbows.

Best educator

Bob Dorough, a member of the Arkansas Jazz Hall of Fame who taught millions of American kids history, mathematics, language skills, civics and more through his lyrics, music and narration for the popular "Schoolhouse Rock" series of cartoon shorts that aired on ABC from 1973-1985, died April 25 at the age of 94.

Best apology

The franchise owner of a Garland County IHOP restaurant publicly apologized to Hot Springs mother Alexis Bancroft in May after Bancroft wrote on Facebook about an incident in which the restaurant's manager would not allow Bancroft's 3-year-old son William, who was born without arms, to sit on the table and eat with his feet while dining there with his family.

Worst threat

Hot Springs police arrested Steven Brian Cole, 40, in June after investigators said he had repeatedly abused his elderly mother and stepfather, including telling his mother he would "eat her face off" and threatening the couple that he would kill them and "make one of us eat the other."

Best creepy

The mugshot of Steven Bryan Cole.

Worst what could have been

Glen Schwarz was eliminated as a candidate for Little Rock mayor in November after running on a platform that included building a roller coaster-based mass transit system and installing dozens of wire Faraday cages to act as emergency shelters during lightning storms.

Best election

Though Schwarz's Cinderella story ended on election day, Frank Scott Jr., 35, went on to win a December run-off election, besting opponent Baker Kurrus to become Little Rock's first popularly elected African-American mayor.

Worst tie

In December, once all the votes were in for a hotly contested alderman's race in Hoxie (Lawrence County) between challenger Cliff Farmer and incumbent Becky Linebaugh, it was discovered that the results were a tie, 223 to 223. Farmer revealed he'd neglected to vote for himself because he didn't return from an Election Day business trip before the polls closed. The race was settled by a roll of the dice, and Farmer lost.

It's the Best and Worst 2018

#It's the Best and Worst 2018

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ayittey1 · 4 years ago

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The Destoolment (Removal) of Chiefs From Power

An unspecified number of members of the `Oyoko' clan, King‑makers of the Okumaning stools, have been rounded up by Kade Police for allegedly beating up their chief, Nana Karikari Appau II. The King‑makers have preferred 13 destoolment charges against the chief. These include the alleged embezzlement of C50,000 ($18,182) land compensation belonging to the entire Oyoko family at Okumaning and the signing of a land agreement with an Italian firm, Greenwhich Chemicals Company, involving some 16,000 acres without the consent of the entire family (Daily Graphic, 28 October, 1981; p.8). The Chief of Akyem Osorase near Oda in the Eastern Region (of Ghana), Barima Adu-Baah Kyere and his supporters including the Gyaasehene have allegedly fled the village to unknown destination following assassination attempts on them. A pick-up vehicle being used by the chief was said to have been burnt to ashes by the irate mob which besieged the palace. A police source said there has been a dispute between Barima Adu-Baah and section of the people of Osorase over accountability on the village's revenue (Ghana Drum, June, 1994; p.12). Nana Sobin Kan II, the Chief of Asansi Dompuase traditional area in the Ashanti region, was destooled on Feb 7, 2012. The charge was “continuously showing gross disrespect and disregard to kingmakers and elders of the stool. He had continuously sown seeds of confusion and litigation in the traditional area through the rampant sale of stool lands to private developers without plot numbers and site plans. He was also accused of having received huge sums of money as compensation on behalf of the Adansi-Dompuase traditional areas from AngloGold Ashanti last year but failed to disclose the amount involved to kingmakers.” (Daily Guide, Feb 10, 2012; p.17) THE PARAMOUNT Chief of the Nsawkaw Traditional Area in the Tain District of the Brong Ahafo Region, Nana Kutu Ayim Baffour II, has been destooled. Kingmakers of the traditional area yesterday performed customary rites to destool the Omanhene after they accused him of denigrating the Nsawkaw Stool. As a result, a sheep was slaughtered followed by the pouring of libation to symbolize his destoolment. The announcement of the Omanhene's destoolment was greeted with thunderous applause from a large crowd that emerged at the forecourt of the Krontihene's Palace, where the event took place. Copies of the statement that heralded his destoolment have been sent to the Brong Ahafo Regional Minister, Regional Police Commander, Presidents of the National/Regional Houses of Chiefs, Minister of Chieftaincy Affairs, among other institutions. The embattled chief is currently facing criminal charges at a Techiman Circuit Court for fraud and impersonation, after the Attorney General's Department found him culpable of forging documents to facilitate his enstoolment” (Daily Guide Aug 11, 2013) The traditional ruler and the paramount ruler of Mahin kingdom, in Ilaje Local government Area of Ondo State in Nigeria, Oba Lawrence Omowole, was removed from office for “ceding Aboto community which is an important part of Mahin kingdom to another person either in the garb of a king or otherwise.” He denied the allegation (Nigerian Tribune, February 18, 2017). Consider the case of Oba Samuel Aderiyi Adara of the Ode-Ekiti community of Ekiti State in Nigeria, who was dethroned for non-performance: The traditional ruler, who is a born again Christian, was accused of not contributing enough to the progress of the community and of frustrating the celebration of the yearly festival. The monarch was equally blamed for the deaths of some notable indigenes, including four professors, one of them a former don of the University of Ado-Ekiti. The traditional ruler was invited to the community meeting where he was accused of failing in his duty of moving the town forward. But attempts by the monarch to extricate himself from the allegations failed when he was asked to mention his personal contribution to the growth

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caveartfair · 7 years ago

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Hidden “Void” Discovered in Egypt’s Great Pyramid—and the 9 Other Biggest News Stories This Week

01 A team of researchers and scientists have discovered a “void” in Egypt’s Great Pyramid of Giza with the help of particle physics.

(via Wired & National Geographic)

In an article published in the journal Nature on Thursday, an international team of researchers detailed their discovery of a previously unknown giant “void” above the Grand Gallery of the 4,500 year-old, 50-story pyramid. With the permission of Egypt’s Ministry of Antiquities, a group of scientists entered the Great Pyramid in December 2015 and left several bathroom tile-sized panels containing special photographic film on the floor of the queen’s chamber, an area usually closed to the public. They left the panels, made with nuclear emulsion film, there for more than three months to capture images they could later use to discover new passageways in the pyramid. The film works by recording pictures of tiny particles called muons (like electrons but heavier). The process has previously been used to observe the magma of volcanoes and the inside of Belize’s Mayan pyramids. Physicist Jacques Marteau told Wired that “it’s the same principle as X-rays,” only stronger. Overall, the team of researchers employed three independent measures to verify the 153-foot-long, 26-foot-tall space, which they’ve decided to call a “void” rather than a chamber, as its purpose remains unknown. The team will likely work with specialists on ancient Egyptian architecture as it aims to uncover the void’s ancient uses.

02 Hundreds of works from the famed trove of Nazi art dealer Hildebrand Gurlitt went on view this week at a pair of exhibitions in Germany and Switzerland.

(via the New York Times)

The roughly 450 pieces, by artists including Claude Monet and Paul Cézanne, that are on view as part of the dual-venue exhibition “Gurlitt Status Report” are only a fraction of the 1,500 pieces found during a 2012 police raid of the Munich apartment of Cornelius Gurlitt, Hildebrand’s son. A subsequent raid unearthed more works in his Salzburg home. The initial seizure only became public about a year later, and led to early speculation that the collection held $1 billion worth of art, estimates that have since proven wrong. The exhibitions at the Kunstmuseum Bern in Bern and Bonn’s Bundeskunsthalle are the first opportunity for the public to see some of the pieces Cornelius hoarded away in his apartment after the death of his father. Cornelius, who died shortly after the discovery of his work, bequeathed the collection to the Kunstmuseum Bern, but a legal challenge to the will by a distant cousin delayed exhibition. An ongoing investigation into the provenance of the works has so far confirmed that six pieces were looted by Nazis, though many of the works on view are of dubious provenance as well. Though Gurlitt bequeathed his entire collection to the Kunstmuseum Bern, the institution has only accepted works for which the provenance has been firmly cleared.

03 Linda Nochlin, a pioneering scholar who famously shepherded feminist theory into the art-historical canon, died Sunday at the age of 86.

(Artsy)

She is best known for her essay “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?,” a searing takedown of gender inequality in the art establishment. First published by ARTnews in 1971, it shook the deep-seated patriarchal underpinnings of the art world by asserting: “The fault lies not in our stars, our hormones, our menstrual cycles, or our empty internal spaces, but in our institutions and our education.” Other groundbreaking writing followed. Woman as Sex Object: Studies in Erotic Art, 1730–1970 (1973) and Women, Art and Power (1988), for instance, combined Nochlin’s incisive intelligence with her passion for communicating art’s cultural influence. Beyond her wide-ranging scholarly achievements, Nochlin is also remembered for her intellectual generosity and consistent support of aspiring art historians over her many years teaching at Vassar College. “She was brilliant, of course,” art writer and former Nochlin student Aruna D’Souza of the trailblazing historian’s far-reaching impact told Artsy. “But she was also kind and empathetic, she was funny and sharp, and most of all she treated everyone as if they had the potential to change the way she, and the field, thought about art. How empowering that was, and how refreshing, too, her determination not to reproduce herself—to support work that challenged her own views, that took unusual paths and awoke new curiosities.”

04 Thousands signed a letter denouncing sexual harassment in the art world, and Artforum contributing editors publicly criticized their publishers, as fallout from the Knight Landesman scandal continues.

(via The Guardian, Artforum, and Artsy)

Over 150 artists, gallerists, and curators, among others in the art world, penned an open letter last week addressing discrimination and harassment against women in the art industry and distributed it through social media channels with the hashtag #notsurprised. “We have been silenced, ostracised, pathologised, dismissed as ‘overreacting’, and threatened when we have tried to expose sexually and emotionally abusive behaviour. We will be silenced no longer,” it reads. Though the letter was seemingly prompted by sexual harassment allegations against Landesman, who resigned as a co-publisher of Artforum last week, it said, “the resignation of one publisher from one high-profile magazine does not solve the larger, more insidious problem: an art world that upholds inherited power structures at the cost of ethical behaviour.” Around 2,000 people signed the letter before it was released to the public. In a separate message posted to Artforum’s website Wednesday, several of its contributing editors—including Hans Ulrich Obrist and Anne M. Wagner—said they “stand with the magazine’s current and former staff in condemning the publishers’ handling of the allegation of Knight Landesman’s sexual misconduct—as reflected in their original statement.” The letter also expressed “full support” for David Velasco, who assumed the role of editor-in-chief after his predecessor, Michelle Kuo, tendered her resignation from the role on October 18th. “We expect the magazine’s publishers both to assume responsibility and to take all action necessary,” the letter stated. Following the publication of the contributors’ letter, Artforum’s publishers reached out to each of them individually to tell them the publication’s original statement from October 24th, which called the complaint “unfounded,” was made in response to the legal suit and was “in no way intended as a defense of Knight Landesman or any of his actions.” They added, “as publishers, we assume complete responsibility for the statement, despite the profound regret we feel for the making of it.”

05 Cyber criminals are stealing “large sums” from galleries, dealers, artists, and collectors by impersonating them in email correspondence.

(via The Art Newspaper)

The theft involves “straightforward email deception,” in the words of The Art Newspaper. Thieves hack into the email accounts of art dealers and collectors, monitoring their correspondence. When a legitimate sale has occurred and an invoice is sent to a purchaser for payment, the thieves send a follow-up email to the buyer from the seller’s account claiming that the details of the legitimate invoice were incorrect. The buyer is then told to wire funds to a different bank account belonging to the criminals, who then move the money, so that both buyer and seller are unable to recover funds after the deception is discovered. London dealer Laura Bartlett only realized she’d fallen victim to the scam after she called a U.S. client after not receiving payment for a sale. The collector had wired funds to the account of the scammers, who then used the client’s account to send Bartlett a series of emails promising payment and stalling her inquiries. “This particular sale was going to pay a lot of bills,” said Bartlett, who shuttered her gallery shortly after the fraud. Other times, the fraudsters send a gallery or art fair accountant an invoice from the email account of an internal source asking for funds to pay for a fictitious service. Global gallery Hauser & Wirth and Tony Karman, president of EXPO Chicago, were both targeted, but detected the fraud and avoided any loss of funds. The thefts and attempted thefts have raised awareness about the need for cybersecurity across the art industry, which is not known for being on the cutting edge of technology.

06 A judge in a Massachusetts court heard arguments on whether to grant an injunction against the proposed sale of works from the Berkshire Museum’s collection.

(via ARTnews)

The roughly two-hour hearing at Berkshire County Superior Court on Wednesday grew contentious as lawyers for each side debated whether the board of the museum had breached its fiduciary duties and been honest and transparent with its members. They also debated whether the plaintiffs, who include museum members and the sons of Norman Rockwell, whose donated works are due to be sold for tens of millions of dollars on November 13th, had legal standing to pursue the museum in court. The office of Massachusetts Attorney General Courtney Aladro filed a motion Wednesday to join the suit as a plaintiff in case others were found to lack standing. Judge John A. Agostini said in closing “that he would rule as soon as possible, and thanked the crowd for its attention,” ARTnews reported. Agostini had noted at the opening of the hearing that the courtroom typically didn’t see such crowds “except for a few large murder cases.”

07 Sotheby’s CEO Tad Smith reported a third-quarter loss of $23.5 million—slightly better than expected—during the company’s earnings call Friday.

(via ARTnews)

The auction house’s total revenue over that period was $171 million, beating projections by roughly $60 million. The $23.5 million overall loss amounted to a $0.45 net loss per share, above an anticipated $0.67 per share decline (the third quarter is typically the slowest for the New York auction house). Some of the better-than-expected results can be chalked up to $7.4 million that Sotheby’s set aside in 2013 for a potential tax liability. When the statute of limitations on that liability expired, Sotheby’s was able to count that money as income, boosting third-quarter bottom line. “Such an action provided a one-time discrete cash infusion that, while relatively insignificant, made a ripple in this most uneventful of quarters, and was responsible for a $0.14 per share benefit,” reported ARTnews. Smith also cited sales in Hong Kong, the scheduling of which meant they were included as part of the company’s third-quarter this year, for the uptick. Total sales for the auction house nine months into the year are up 13%, according to Smith.

08 Police seized a $1.2 million ancient bas-relief from a dealer at The European Fine Art Fair.

(via the New York Times)

Last Friday afternoon, prosecutors and police officers entered the Park Avenue Armory, the New York home of The European Fine Art Fair (TEFAF), with “with stern expressions and a search warrant,” reported the Times. They left after seizing an ancient limestone relief depicting a Persian soldier from the booth of London-based antiquity dealer Rupert Wace. While police did not provide details around the evidence underpinning the warrant, some experts suspect that the work—which was unearthed during a 1933 excavation of the ancient region of Persepolis, in modern-day Iran—left the country after the Persian government passed a law in 1930 prohibiting the export of antiquities. An Iranian cultural official told the Tehran Times that the relief had been stolen, and “legal follow-ups are underway to first prove that the relic belongs to Iran and finally repatriate it.” But Wace maintains he purchased it legally, telling the New York Times that “this work of art has been well known to scholars and has a history that spans almost 70 years.” He said an art collector donated the bas-relief to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts in the 1950s, where it hung until it was stolen in 2011. Authorities recovered the work in 2014, but the museum kept the insurance money it received and left the work to AXA, the insurance company that Wace said sold him the object. As of Friday, the Manhattan district attorney had yet to make any arrests in connection with the seizure.

09 Artist Sean Scully’s former assistant has been arrested for allegedly stealing a triptych and later offering it at auction.

(via Hyperallergic and the New York Post)

Brooklyn-based artist Arturo Rucci purportedly stole a small three-panel painting from Scully’s Chelsea studio in 2011 before consigning it to Bonhams Auction House. Scully contacted the NYPD when the auction house called to confirm the authenticity of his 1985 work (valued between $400,000 and $600,000) and he realized it was missing. The 50-year-old Rucci has seen modest success as an artist himself since leaving Scully’s employ, exhibiting in various New York galleries and selling work for sums hovering just below $2,000. Pieces by Scully, a famed Irish artist, on the other hand, have appeared at New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, Chicago’s Art Institute, and London’s Tate Modern, among other institutions. They generally sell for upwards of $1 million. Police arrested Rucci on Thursday, charging him with “criminal possession of stolen property,” according to the New York Post

10 London architecture firm dRMM won the Royal Institute of British Architects Stirling Prize for its rehab of a disused pier in Hastings, England.

(via dezeen)

The winning plan transformed the 1872 pier into a wide-open deck with a visitor’s center clad in reclaimed wood. The large, unadorned deck allows flexibility in how it is used, departing from the typical pier plan that has a lot of commercial spaces, such as restaurants or cafes. The design also has “a grand external staircase that doubles as a performance space,” according to dezeen. The annual RIBA Stirling Prize goes to a project “judged to have made the biggest contribution to British architecture in the past year,” dezeen reported. The judges said dRMM’s pier project had “evolved the idea of what architecture is and what architects should do.” Shortlisted twice before, dRMM’s final victory this year follows last year’s selection of Caruso St John Architects for designing Newport Street Gallery in south London.

from Artsy News

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