WEIRD NEWS Take 2

Scared to Death
Corey Walgren was a popular high school hockey player with good grades, a close-knit family, and plans to apply to college soon. But suddenly he found himself called into a meeting with a campus dean and the school police officer at Illinois' Naperville North High School and threatened with being placed on the sex offender registry for allegedly possessing and possibly sharing "child pornography." The accusations were in regard to a video police found on Walgren's phone. Allegedly it was of a consensual sexual encounter with a 16-year-old classmate but in truth, the video was so dark, nothing could be made out. Walgren's mother, Maureen said, "I think they wanted to scare him straight." The boy's parents weren't even contacted until almost 20 minutes into his meeting with authorities, and once Walgren's mother said she'd come to the school, Walgren was left alone in the school office to wait for her. But rather than wait, he got up and walked less than a mile away to a five-story parking garage where he jumped to his death. His family is only now speaking out - and has plans to sue the school district and the police department - hoping that can change the way incidents involving minors are handled. Maureen Walgren says, "There has to be a change in their policy and their procedures. Corey's death cannot go by with no meaning at all." (Chicago Tribune)

Don't Hack With Trump
Jordan Hamlett is a 31-year-old private investigator from Louisiana who allegedly illegally attempted to obtain Donald Trump's taxes using an unorthodox method: FAFSA forms. He allegedly tried digging up the then-presidential candidate's taxes in September 2016 by exploiting a flaw in the online tool students use to fill out their Free Application for Federal Student Aid for college. At the time, Trump was making headlines by refusing to release his tax returns ahead of the elections due to a routine IRS audit. It seems that hackers have manipulated the FAFSA tool to steal private data by filling out preliminary candidate information such as name and using a fake social security number. More fields are then auto-filled by the FAFSA system, including tax return information (the tool has since been removed by the IRS and Department of Education). A filing signed by a US attorney states that "the defendant immediately volunteered that he had committed the crime, and he even sounded proud of what he had done," but Hamlett's lawyer says his client's statements were involuntary because he wasn't read his Miranda rights by federal agents before they began their interrogation. The attorney later said, "Mr. Hamlett looks forward to presenting his case and motives to a jury of 12 citizens to let them decide whether any offense was committed." (Politico)

$15 Costume Jewelry Turns Out to Be Real!
It was almost gaudy - a large piece of costume jewelry picked up for about $15 in the 1980s at a London flea market. Despite its garish appearance, its owner liked it and often wore it out shopping, or around the house. We can assure you she likes it a whole lot more now. Turns out its a genuine 26.27 carat white diamond, and it's expected to fetch as much as $450,000 when it's auctioned by Sotheby's on June 7. Jessica Wyndham of Sotheby's says the unidentified owner assumed it wasn't real because it apparently didn't sparkle as a diamond tends to and was in a "filthy" mount. But Wyndham says it was likely cut in the 19th century, "With an old style of cutting ... the light doesn't reflect back as much as it would from a modern stone cutting," (Sotheby's)

You Should Be Lynched?
Meanwhile, down in Mississippi, state Rep. Karl Oliver is facing a firestorm after saying politicians who support the removal of Confederate monuments should be lynched. Four Confederate monuments were recently removed from New Orleans in an effort to "correct" history, per the city's mayor. But Oliver didn't see it that way and in a Facebook post wrote that "if the ... 'leadership' of Louisiana wishes to, in a Nazi-ish fashion, burn books or destroy historical monuments of OUR HISTORY, they should be LYNCHED!" Appalled politicians, including the head of the Mississippi Republican Party and Gov. Phil Bryant, quickly spoke out, as did the NAACP. Oliver "not only called for the murder of public officials" but "in specifically calling for lynching, he also explicitly raised the ugly history of racial violence in America," said the president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. Oliver issued an apology Monday, noting, "I do not condone the actions I referenced, nor do I believe them in my heart. I freely admit my choice of words was horribly wrong, and I humbly ask your forgiveness." Mississippi House Speaker Philip Gunn says Oliver will be removed as vice chairman of the House Forestry Committee regardless. And FYI - the monuments removed from New Orleans aren't to be destroyed as Oliver suggested, but will likely appear in museums. (Jackson Free Press)

Now That's a Man!
In Crawford County, Arkansas, 41-year-old Raymond Van Holson was shot in the head with an arrow! Amazingly, he then proceeded to drive himself, about six miles, to the closest hospital. He was later flown to Washington Regional Medical Center in good condition, according to the sheriff's office. Meanwhile, authorities identified the arrow-wielding assailant as 42-year-old Kenneth Larribge Miesen and police are currently looking for him. Miesen stands about 5 feet 11 inches tall, weighs around 155 pounds and has an average build. He has hazel eyes and short brown hair, with a short beard and mustache as well as tattoos on both arms. In other words, he looks just like about 500,000 other guys in Arkansas. (Arkansas Online)

Need a Job? Like Pot?
Hey, if you need a job, and like to smoke pot, well Washington State University researchers are offering to pay you to help make America's roads safer - and to get really high in the process. As part of a project to develop a more effective breathalyzer test to detect stoned drivers, volunteers (21 and up and residents of Pullman, Washington) will first submit blood, breath, and mouth-swab samples at Pullman Regional Hospital. They'll then be sent to buy marijuana at a state-licensed store and smoke it at home before being taken back to the hospital by taxi for further testing. In an optional extra step, the volunteers will be asked to meet local law enforcement officers and undergo the standard field sobriety test. For your trouble you'll get $30 for the first hour and $10 for every hour after that. The researchers, whose work is being sponsored by the state Department of Social and Health Services, say they hope to perfect a test for "acute exposure" to the THC in marijuana, which could give police departments around the world a new tool to reduce accident rates. (KIRO 7)

What the What?
A suicidal man in Alaska ended up killing his girlfriend with the bullet he shot into his own head! Even more ironic - he lived! Now 21-year-old Victor Sibson is facing a second-degree murder charge over the suicide attempt which happened on April 19 in Anchorage. Prosecutors say the bullet Sibson fired traveled through his head and hit 22-year-old Brittany-Mae Haag in the armpit, striking her vital organs and fatally wounding her. Assistant District Attorney James Fayette calls the death an "extreme-indifference killing." Prosecutors also believe Haag was trying to get the gun away from Sibson when he fired it. Sibson, whose blood-alcohol level was found to be three times the legal driving limit, "had an entry wound on the left side of his head, he had an exit wound on the top of his skull," but he was saved by the "extraordinary skill of heroic medical personnel," according to Fayette. After considering both first and second-degree murder charges against Sibson, a grand jury decided to indict him on the latter charge last week and he surrendered to authorities Friday. In a court appearance Sunday, he said he couldn't afford $250,000 bail and asked the judge: "Could we figure out if I'm guilty or not today?" (KTVA News)

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

City Page Survey

Fall Book Discussion and Movie Series

Book discussion group to meet