Kids know better

Despite the FDA approving the consumption of spinach again, many kids claim worry that it may not be safe. The fact that they don't like it either in no way influences their opinion, surely. Thanks to some indepth research and rumor-finding, some youths have found that broccoli, green beans, lima beans, asparagus, and squash have also been "tainted" with unknown toxins. Concurrent rumors are that cooties and yuckies are both to blame in this newest produce scare.

Good news, they're being caught

Goshen teacher charged with sexual misconduct with student

Associated Press

GOSHEN, Ind. - An elementary school teacher faces a felony charge of sexual misconduct with a minor for what authorities say was a relationship with a high school student.

Mel Trowbridge, 44, a fifth-grade teacher at Goshen's Waterford Elementary School, was accused of having sex with a teenage girl several times over the past year, said Detective Kelly Todd of the Elkhart County Police Department.

"In terms of the time frame, we're looking at from July of 2005 through August of 2006," Todd said.

Trowbridge, who was arrested Thursday, was being held Friday at the Elkhart County Jail under $100,000 bond. The charge against him carries a possible sentence of two years to eight years in prison.

Bruce Stahly, superintendent of the school district about 25 miles east of South Bend, said the Trowbridge's contacts with the 15-year-old girl were believed to have occurred away from school.

Stahly said Trowbridge has taught at the elementary school for several years and has been an assistant coach in track and basketball at Goshen High School.

Trowbridge has been suspended with pay and no longer has access to school buildings, he said.

.....
I posted before my luck in timing that I am not suspect because I'm male, for I no longer teach. This year will be a big shakedown and I'm glad that I'm not there to answer questions that I shouldn't have to answer, merely because I'm male.

Okay, here the US is in the wrong. I say let him stay there.

U.S. prison head freed in Afghanistan

JASON STRAZIUSO
Associated Press

KABUL, Afghanistan - An American convicted of running a private prison in Afghanistan as part of a freelance hunt for terrorists left the country late Saturday following his release from an Afghan jail, officials said.

Court documents filed Friday in Washington, D.C., show that U.S. officials planned to help Brent Bennett secure a passport and a ticket out of the country, and an Associated Press reporter saw a man identified as Bennett board a plane for Dubai late Saturday.

Bennett, former U.S. soldier Jonathan "Jack" Idema, and Edward Carabello were arrested in July 2004 and convicted of running a private prison in Kabul after Afghan security forces raided a house and discovered eight Afghan men who said they had been abused.

Abdul Qayum, the commander of the Pul-i-charki prison where Bennett had been jailed, said the American was in good spirits when he left the prison on Saturday.

An Afghan airport official showed an AP reporter a copy of the passport of the man boarding the plane in the name of Brent L. Bennett. The official asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Idema, who is serving a five-year sentence at the prison, also told the AP that Bennett was being flown out of the country on Saturday.

No U.S. officials in Afghanistan would comment on Bennett's case, and an American lawyer filing paperwork on his behalf said he didn't know if Bennett was free or in U.S. custody. When Bennett boarded the plane he was not wearing any restraints.

"We don't know if he was forcibly put on the plane or not because they probably knew people would be watching," lawyer John Tiffany said by phone from the United States. "I'm hoping that there were no constraints."

Edward P. Birsner, the consul at the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, said in Friday's court filing that the "Embassy has no intentions of taking Mr. Bennett into custody."

A spokesman for the embassy declined to comment on the case Saturday.

Bennett had been sentenced to three years in prison. Carabello, who said he was a video journalist, was released in April.

8th dominoe

My folks got a call today about a friend who died after surgery. Not only was he a friend, but even bringing it closer to them was that he got a blod clot and died after having the same surgery that my mother had. She had both knees replaced and is generally considered a relatively simple and common surgery. Whether it was freakish or that her doctors loaded her with lots of blood thinners or simply that God needed her to live ... it brings it closer (click) another domino closer.

In the last five years, other dominoes have fallen in line, drawing closer. It hurts losing a loved one, but since the folks are older, ultimately there is a fear of the unknown -- what happens when you die. What happens to the soul of the person? What happens to everyone still around (spouse)? There is reason to fear, but nothing to do about it.

Paul, I met you twice and you seemed like a nice guy. God rest!