Woman calls 911 on police...from jail

This is something new, after being arrested for refusing to pay her cab fare she then calls 911.

This dame is from a different world, other wise known as not from the blue planet, she tells the 911 dispatchers I am trapped in a detention facility, and got a charge of making a false 911 report, this on top of not paying her cab fare which got her
theft of labor or services, criminal trespass to land and disorderly conduct.

I am not sure about the other charges as we have seen here, you nearly have to kill a cab driver to get more then just probation, this 911 thingy may just stick, story from UPI below.


NAPERVILLE, Ill., March 23 (UPI) -- Police in Illinois said a woman arrested after an altercation with a taxi driver called 911 from jail to say she was "trapped" in the facility.

Cmdr. Mike Anders of the Naperville police said Carly Houston, 29, of Chicago, was arrested early Sunday morning after her taxi driver asked her for specific directions to her intended destination and she allegedly "yelled, screamed, cursed and extended (both) middle fingers at the cab driver and threatened bodily harm" against him, the Naperville (Ill.) Sun reported Tuesday.

The driver pulled over at a BP gas station, where witnesses were "alarmed and disturbed" by the passenger's behavior, Anders said.

Houston was arrested after police arrived and she refused to pay the taxi fare.

However, Anders said Houston incurred further charges at the police station when she used an allowed phone call to dial 911 and report she was "trapped inside the detention facility."

She was charged with misdemeanor charges of making a false 911 report, theft of labor or services, criminal trespass to land and disorderly conduct.

The year of the upset at the big dance

This has been a very unusual year for the NCAA Tournament, its been one upset after the other.

In the East regional number 12 Cornell beating number 5 Temple and then number 4 Wisconsin before getting trampled by Kentucky. Number 11 Washington beat number 6 Marquette and New Mexico then beaten by Eastern Regional winner West Virginia.

Number 7 Clemson was another 1st round upset victim losing to Missouri, who
turned around and gave West Virginia a tough game before fading late 69-59.

The East seemed to calm down until last night when the number 1 seed
Kentucky lost to West Virginia 73-66. In a game that the Wildcats
made several runs but poor 3 point shooting through out the game
and lack of clutch foul shooting sealed the deal for Kentucky.

The Midwest region had its upsets and has the 2 lowest ranked teams in the
Great 8 Michigan State and Tennessee, its biggest upset was of number 1 Kansas
by number 9 Northern Iowa in the second round.

The first two rounds where friendly to the favorites in the West, with only
number 13 Murry State winning a squeaker over number 4Vanderbilt 66-65,
the second rounds only upset was Xavier over Pit 89-66.

It was in the Sweet Sixteen when things changed, the number 5 Butler Bulldogs
beat the number 1 seed in the West, Syracuse 63-59 and followed that up
with beating the number 2 seed Kansas State 63-56, and have made it to
the final four.

The South has had only 3 upsets throughout, number 11 Old Dominion in a
close one over Notre Dame 51-50 and the 2 upsets by every one's favorite of the
tournament St Mary's.

St Mary turned the table's on Gonzaga in there conference tourney after getting
beat twice in the regular season, they then faced number 7 Richmond in the
first round of the big dance, the number 10 St Mary's surprised the South's
number 2 seed Villanova.

Today we have four more teams trying to punch there ticket to Indy, the first
game is 5 Michigan v 6 Tennessee and 1 Duke v 3 Baylor.

Buckle your seat belt it should be one heck of a ride, through next weekend.

Words from Charlie Daniels, country western star

He may proudly sing patriotic songs, including 'This Ain't No Rag, It's a Flag' and 'My Beautiful America,' but now Charlie Daniels says he's angry and disappointed by leadership in his home country. Speaking out against the recent health-care reform bill, Charlie says America is on a fast downward spiral.

"We no longer have a representative government; we essentially have a dictatorship that is willing to force their will on us regardless of what we want," he says in a March 22 post on his website's "Soapbox and Message Board" titled 'Black Monday.' "This is the most despicable act ever perpetrated on the American public by the most dishonorable congress we've ever had."

But most of the blame, the musician continues, falls on the Commander-in-Chief. "[President] Obama claims this program will actually cut the budget, but anybody with a brain in their heads knows that it will not only not cut the budget, but will cost trillions of dollars that we just don't have, adding catastrophic amounts to the national debt."

He continues, "I have always had unfailing faith in the American ability to persevere, to bounce back and overcome almost anything, but people, this health care bill will change America into something that will resemble a police state."

He then closes the post by issuing a bleak preview of where he believes the country is heading. "America is on it's way to becoming the largest banana republic on earth," he warns. "Pray for our troops, and for our country."

The Grand Ole Opry member, who recently returned to stage after recovering from a mild stroke he suffered earlier this year, is already back on the road with his band. (He also hints that skydiving may be in his future!)

Hot off the press a teen punch's a cab driver and rob's him of $78

Yeah what else in news another teen punch's a cab driver and rob's him of $78, this happend in a fairly affluent town of Somerset, NJ.

More then likely he was bored out of his head and needed something to do, so he goes off to a nearby motel where he calls a cab, and as they say the rest is history.

I think we all know whats next, a trip to the courthouse with a high priced mouthpiece and the judge says probation, big surprise, and on a on we go, again.

So where does it stop, I am not the violent type but there should be a pay back of some kind, and I am not talking cash here which would come from Mommy and Daddy.

The story is from NJ's Star Ledger, enjoy.

Somerset teen is accused of punching, stealing $78 from cab driver
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP — A Somerset County teenager allegedly punched a cab driver and swiped $78 from him during an early morning attack Monday, according to court papers.

Timothy Lewis, 18, of Arden Street in Franklin Township, was charged with second-degree robbery, according to court papers. Bail was set at $75,000.

The incident occurred at 2:09 a.m., and the driver did not require medical attention, said Capt. Jack Bennett, a spokesman for the Somerset County Prosecutor’s Office.

The victim told police that Lewis reached over the front seat and punched him in the face, causing his nose to bleed, according to the affidavit Franklin police Detective Brian Stillwell filed in Superior Court in Somerville.

Uniform patrol officers arrested Lewis after they identified him through known associates, Stillwell wrote. Lewis allegedly told police that he had someone else call Amigo Taxi for a driver to pick him up at the Quality Inn on Easton Avenue, and the driver took him to Phillips Road, where he ultimately reached over and took the money, the affidavit says.
Authorities found the money at Lewis’ residence, court papers say.

The diva gets away with it, again

Miodrag Mejdina the New York City taxi driver assaulted by top supermodel Naomi Campbell, , has said he wont press charges after his run in the with feisty fashion diva.

I wonder how much it cost for him to drop the charges, and yeah I get it he has to pay his bills, but the diva gets away again.

I mean it was not like she just slapped him, she hit him hard enough to cause his head to hit the steering wheel.

And its not like its her first offence, if you read my post of 2 days ago you know she has a violent history.

It seems the super model wants to put this behind her let me translate, hey it over with so lets just forget about it, after all he was only a cab driver and I am a super model.

I think this quote she gave to the Times of India just 13 hours ago says it all, "I've worked very hard on correcting my previous wrongdoings and I won't be held hostage by my past behaviour. I always try to treat people with respect, she added", sounds like a new spin on an old line of shit.

It's like the old line given by jock's or celebrity's who get caught doing something wrong and the universal line is "I want to put all this behind me", what about the people you have hurt or worse.

I have written about jock's and celebrity's violence against cab drivers on this blog, and its always the same sorry tale, at worst they get a slap on the wrist, and then they give the big press conference where they are so sorry and want to put this behind them.

Take it easy out there and stay safe!

Could hard times be hitting Santa and Mrs Claus?

This story comes from Fairbanks, Alaska where the police have arested a woman from the North Pole for stealing TV's for the second time, and using taxi's as her get away car.

She was last arrested in December, I wonder what holiday is in December, am I the only person with a grin from ear to ear?

The story below is from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner.

FAIRBANKS, Alaska — Police said a North Pole woman accused in December of stealing televisions and hiring a cabbie as her getaway driver is now accused of trying it again.

The Fairbanks Dail News-Miner reported that a 27-year-old woman was charged with second-degree felony robbery and misdemeanor theft in the Friday incident, which occurred just one week after she posted bail in the similar case last year.

The newspaper said the woman was arrested Friday after police were called to a Fred Meyer store on a report of a woman walking out without paying for a TV and trying to leave in a cab.

Court records said the woman was arrested late last year for going into a Sam's Club on two occasions and allegedly stealing $6,000 worth of televisions, then loading them into a taxi.

More crap done to cab drivers, part 2

Hi Everyone, yeah its been a while since my last post.

Between cab drivers getting robed, beat up and worse, plus the fact finding any funny or positive news story's about cab drivers is next to impossible I just gave up.

I don't know if this is a one time thing, if I can find something on a regular basis but here goes

This is a story about a model named Naomi Campbell, miss Campbell seems to have a problem keeping her hands or what ever is handy from hitting people.

The latest is a NYC cab driver, this despite recently going through an anger management class, I guess it has worked as well as probation has with this Deva.

The news article does not say what started the fight, maybe the drivers outfit matched hers or he had the same color cell phone,but she started beat down on the driver from the back seat, then bailed when the driver pulled to the curb and called 911.

Police are now looking to interview Campbell, I wish them good luck I hope they wear a helmet.

The British runway diva has a violent streak that dates back to at least the late 90s. In 2000, she pleaded guilty in a Toronto court to a 1998 assault on Georgina Galanis, her then assistant. Campbell had allegedly assaulted Galanis with a telephone in a hotel room and threatened to throw her out of a moving Peugeot.

In March 2005, Campbell allegedly slapped assistant Amanda Brack and beat her with a BlackBerry.

Also that year, Italian actress Yvonne Sciò claimed Campbell left her “covered in blood” after an altercation at a Rome hotel, allegedly because Sciò had worn the same dress as Campbell.

In March 2006 in New York City, Campbell was arrested for assaulting another housekeeper with a jewel-encrusted cell phone, resulting in a bloody head that required several stitches.

On October 25 of that year, Campbell was arrested in London on suspicion of assault. Two months later, another former Campbell housekeeper, Gaby Gibson, began a new court case against the model seeking unspecified damages, and accusing her ex-employer of being a “violent super-bigot.”

On January 16, 2007, Campbell pleaded guilty to a charge of reckless assault against her housekeeper Ana Scolavino. She was sentenced to five days community service and ordered to attend two days of an anger management course.

On April 3, 2008, Campbell was arrested inside Heathrow Airport on suspicion of assaulting a police officer after one of her bags had been lost.

Campbell was subsequently banned from flying globally with British Airways by the airline.

She was charged with three counts of assaulting a constable, one count of disorderly conduct likely to cause harassment, alarm or distress, and one count of using threatening, abusive words or behavior towards cabin crew.

Campbell pleaded guilty to four of the six charges against her.

It looks like another round of anger management and more probation for the Deva, one more joke heard from!

Paddy's Day

The Chicago River flows green once every year. Credit: Wallula Junction, Flickr
The global urge to "go green" may have reached a fever pitch in the past few years, but it was the push to protect our waterways that gave Chicago one of its best-known traditions.

The Chicago Journeyman Plumbers Local 130 call it the eighth wonder of the world: Dyeing the Chicago River green on the morning of every St. Patrick's Day Parade.

"Plumbers, they can do anything they want to do," jokes Kevin Sherlock, parade coordinator for the plumbers union, which has been putting on one of the world's biggest St. Pat's celebrations for more than fifty years. The Chicago River once flowed into Lake Michigan, the lake that provided drinking water for all of Chicago, Sherlock tells Holidash. Thanks to the plumbers, the river was re-routed more than a century ago to prevent pollution of the water source. These days, the lake flows into the river, keeping the polluted water away from the potable water.

What does that have to do with dyeing the river green for St. Patrick's Day? Well, it was the plumbers who set out to determine exactly how the river was being polluted in the 1960s, a job that heralded the introduction of the first batch of green dye to the 156-mile waterway.

"The plumbers were testing plumbing systems to see if anything was being illegally dumped into the river," Sherlock explains. "They were putting a green dye into the systems of each building." If the dye ended up in the river, they'd know whose system needed an overhaul.

The idea of adding massive amounts of green dye to the Chicago River on St. Patrick's Day, however, came from a plumber working on the project, who mentioned it to his co-workers when he stopped off at the offices of Local 130 to pay his dues. What better tribute to the Emerald Isle, after all, than a bit of Irish green in the river? The first time the plumbers tried it, the people of Chicago observed the bright green water flowing by their buildings for three days.

Today it's more like three hours before the green stuff dissipates naturally. The process begins at 10:45 a.m. on Columbus Drive on the morning of the Chicago parade. Men in giant white suits and masks throw an orange powder -- one of three colors, along with white and green, on the Irish flag -- that Sherlock likens to Tang into the river. Boats churn the water to turn it a perfect emerald green, and the current carries the color along the parade route just in time for step off at noon.

The river-dyeing festivities alone attract anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 people -- two-thirds of whom traditionally stick around and join the even bigger crowd at the parade. "You don't need to be Irish to appreciate it!" explains former resident Karen Reilly. "Every time I saw the green water it made me smile."

So what's inside those buckets of "Tang"? Some say it's fluorescent, the same dye used by crime scene investigators to find latent blood stains, but Sherlock won't say.

"It's like the McDonald's Big Mac sauce, it's a secret," he tells Holidash with a laugh. "We can't tell you -- this is very unique to Chicago."

Even when the city of Dublin, Ireland came calling with a request for help in dyeing the storied River Liffey green, the folks at the plumber's union would only agree to assist if it was their crew who did the job -- the same group who has been making the magic happen in Illinois since the 1960s.

So what can Sherlock say about the powder? Don't worry about those white suits and masks -- it's 100 percent safe. After all, a project born of an effort to clean up the rivers would hardly be appropriate if it were toxic.

"As plumbers, we're here to protect the water," Sherlock says. "What's going in there does not harm the fish, does not harm the plant life." It's even been tested by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency to ensure there's only fun -- and nothing funky -- about this St. Pat's tradition

Stephen Strasburg

Well, that didn't take long. Hey, be happy we're learning about this now, as opposed to four weeks from now. Washington Nationals manager Jim Riggleman tipped his hand Tuesday -- and I think certainly helped fantasy baseball owners in the process -- when discussing the April destination for everyone's favorite pitching prospect, Stephen Strasburg.

"Spring training is great, but even as opposed to Double-A or Triple-A pitching, it's just not the same. When everything counts, records count and statistics count, regular season is just a different animal with a guy to go out there with the adrenaline throwing on both sides and the other team is trying to get you."

Got that? It's almost assured the kid with the 100 mph fastball will be starting the 2010 season in the minor leagues. This is hardly a surprise. It's the right move, and I applaud the Nationals when they officially make it. I've been discussing this for a few months, and getting odd stares and angry e-mails in the process, but this is yet another reason rookies are very dangerous and often trip people up in fantasy baseball drafts. See Matt Wieters from last season. You want Wieters now, but how many owners still feel burned by him? I for one took him on one of my fantasy teams. I think he will be up sooner than most folks think. Now if he was owned by a team with a slam dunk picthing staff or a team like, God Forbid the Yankees, than maybe it would be next year or the end of the season. But Washington, come on, give the kid a shot. You fantasy buffs have a great year.

Tampa Bay Rays

The Tampa Bay Rays are everything that most small-market teams strive to be. They aren't loaded from top to bottom with billboard-recognizable names, and they boast a core group of young, cheaper players that are putting up enviable numbers.

The pitching staff in Tampa could lead this team back to a playoff run. All five projected starters have the talent to put up win totals in the 'teens and stay below four in the ERA department. If healthy, the new closer in town could shine in his role as the sole ninth-inning hurler.

The batting order is a pleasant mix of power, speed and upside potential that could pressure the upper portion of the division come September and October. With two hitters easily taken among the first 20 picks on fantasy draft day, one being a potential MVP candidate, 2010 looks like it could be a great season for the Rays.

Base season is fast coming

I am quoting from Mike Schmidt, hall of famer. He wrote this in the March issue of the Sporting New. The following is just the tail end of his comments. This concerns one of my favorite baseball players. PETE ROSE "One the surface, it would seem Pete Rose's crime is no worse that that of Mark McGwire's. If baseball can forgive McGwire and ALL of his contemporaries,why not Pete? Gambling on the game vs.cheating in the game--one gets you banned for life, the other makes you famous."