SYOSSET, New York (AP) -- As police searched for the killers of a couple whose young sons found them shot dead in their home, family friends and relatives said they were mystified by the slayings.
Nassau County police identified the victims as Jaspal Singh, 46, and Geeta Singh, 38.
Their sons, 12 and 13, came home from school expecting to be greeted by their mother, but nobody answered the door, police said. They said the boys used a spare key to get in and found their parents' bodies.
The boys ran to alert a neighbor, said Michael Moore, 13, who lives across the street.
"They were saying, 'How could this happen to us?"' he said.
Neighbors said the family, originally from India's Punjab state, had moved into the home less than a year ago and previously lived in Queens. A family friend, Raj Maini, said the parents had emigrated 18 years ago.
"It's just crazy. I can't believe it. He was such a good man," Maini said, referring to Jaspal Singh.
Police said the children were staying with relatives. Local schools planned to offer grief counseling to students Wednesday.
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- Brian Emmett's childhood fantasy came true when he won a free trip to outer space.
But the 31-year-old was crushed when he had to cancel his reservation because of Uncle Sam.
Emmett won his ticket to the stars in a 2005 sweepstakes by Oracle Corp., in which he answered a series of online questions on Java computer code.
He became an instant celebrity, giving media interviews and appearing on stage at Oracle's trade show.
For the self-described space buff who has attended space camp and watched shuttle launches from Kennedy Space Center, it seemed like a chance to become an astronaut on a dime.
Then reality hit. After some number-crunching, Emmett realized he would have to report the $138,000 galactic joy ride as income and owe $25,000 in taxes.
Unwilling to sink into debt, the software consultant from the San Francisco Bay area gave up his seat.
"There was definitely a period of mourning. I was totally crestfallen," Emmett said. "Everything you had hoped for as a kid sort of evaporates in front of you."
With commercial spaceships still under development, it's uncertain when the infant space tourism industry will actually get off the ground.
Still, ultrarich thrill-seekers are already plunking down big -- though refundable -- deposits to experience a few minutes of weightlessness 60 miles above Earth.
A visit to the stars for a black hole in the wallet
And in recent years, space tourism companies have teamed with major corporations to stage contests with future suborbital spaceflights as the grand prize.
The partnerships have interstellar hype, but as Emmett found out, they can get mired in that most earthbound hassle: taxes.
"From a consumer perspective ... I'd be wary," said Kathleen Allen, director of the University of Southern California's Marshall Center for Technology Commercialization. "I'd check to see the fine print."
Since the Internal Revenue Service requires winnings from lottery drawings, TV game shows and other contests to be reported as taxable income, tax experts contend there's no such thing as a free spaceflight. Some contest sponsors provide a check to cover taxes, but that income is also taxable.
"I don't see how an average person can swing that kind of tax payment. It's a big, big bite," said tax attorney Donna LeValley, contributing editor for J.K. Lasser's annual tax guide.
To reduce the financial burden, winners can argue that they don't owe any taxes until their flight lifts off. Another option is working out an installment plan to pay taxes over time, said Greg Jenner of the American Bar Association.
The IRS declined to comment, saying it does not talk about individual matters.
Despite Emmett's cancellation, Oracle said its contest was a success. The software giant is in the process of naming his replacement and still has two other winners on board from Asia and Europe.
That spaceflight will be provided by Space Adventures Ltd., the same company that brokers deals for trips on Russian rockets to the orbiting international space station for a reported $20 million per customer.
Eric Anderson, the company's chief executive, insists that contests are the best way for most people to get into space. He said Space Adventures has given away about 20 reservations through competitions, and the majority of winners are satisfied.
Space contest rules vary widely but generally require winners to undergo astronaut training before the trip and sign a waiver freeing the sponsors from any liability if there's an accident.
Microsoft Corp. is the latest company to dangle a free space ride. This month it launched an elaborate online puzzle game as part of its promotional campaign for its new Vista PC operating system.
The grand prize winner -- to be named this week -- gets a seat with Rocketplane Ltd., which is building a souped-up Lear jet it hopes will ferry passengers to space in late 2009.
The $50,000 check that comes with the prize, which is valued at $253,500, should cover the winner's taxes, said Brian Marr, group marketing manager for Vista.
It's common for contest winners to have to play a waiting game.
Virgin Galactic customer Doug Ramsburg won his ticket in a Volvo sweepstakes during the 2005 Super Bowl.
His family and friends often hound him about when he'll reach the cosmos. After all, Virgin Galactic doesn't have any spacecraft yet.
Even without an itinerary, Ramsburg says he's not worried. He said he's confident in the man tasked to build Virgin's commercial spacecraft -- aerospace designer Burt Rutan, whose SpaceShipOne became the first privately manned rocket to reach space in 2004.
Ramsburg considers the prize a "blessing" but declined to talk about the financial arrangements, except to say the $100,000 check that came with the prize should make him the first free Virgin Galactic passenger.
"You don't have to be a superhero in order to go to space," said Ramsburg, 43, who works in the admissions office of the University of Colorado at Denver.
Back on Earth, Emmett said he has no regrets about turning down his trip and doesn't blame anyone.
"I was, however briefly, a potential astronaut," he wrote last fall in a blog entry titled "Clipped Wings."
I fail to see what's fucked up about that news. It's not the first time a contest prize has been taxed. It's not the first time someone's dream has been right in front of their face and then yanked away.
I mean, yeah, sure, sucks for that guy, but really... This isn't anything shocking. I like Hamelin's idea, though. Would that kind of donation be considered tax deductable? If so, that would have been one hell of a way to stick it to the IRS.
Sure, it doesn't seem as fucked up when it follows articles about kids finding their murdered parents or Cambodia's sex industry, but it is fucked up that our tax system is essentially preventing most Americans from getting to experience a once in a lifetime event.
Getting taxed for receiving something tangible, like money, is fine. That's how life is. But, to get taxed on receiving something intangible, like a vacation or a space ride based on an assigned monetary value, is bullshit.
The government is essentially taxing you for having fun.
I know, but like I said, it's not something unexpected at all. Yes, the system is fucked up. Again, it surely does suck for the guy in the story, I'm not trying to argue that. But this is just business as usual for the government, so it doesn't grab me as "Whoa, that's really fucked up! How could something this messed up happen?"
Now if only I could find an easy way to copy articles from Wii's News Channel to this topic. That thing is full of fucked up news. Like, some guy getting caught with millions of pornographic pictures of children on his computer, and videos of him having sex with infants as young as three months old. I could have gone my entire life without having to know that someone was actually deranged enough to have sex with a three month old baby.
Oh. I tried the AP website, since it was linked all over every article, but that came up empty. But here's a different article on the same story. Thanks for the tip.
Neighbor in horrific child porn case had 'no idea'
COLLINGDALE - A borough man said Monday that concern for 11 children who lived next door escalated when he inadvertently received an obvious mailing for kiddie porn, addressed to that very house.
Even then, Kenn Christian said he didn't feel it proved any of the suspicions he might have harbored about his then neighbor, John Worman. The piece was addressed to another name, but someone Christian said he didn't recognize as living in that house on Westmont Avenue.
"On the one side it looked like a regular advertisement. I turned it over and I saw photographs of naked children, with their (privates) censored," Christian said.
Not wanting to get caught up in any federal postal offenses, he said he put the item back in the mailbox. But he didn't want to forget it, either.
That incident turned out to be one of the final entries Christian would make in a journal he'd been keeping for some 10 months - one he started to combat some frustrating "bad neighbor" issues with Worman, and his live-in girlfriend, Concetta Jackson, he said. Among all of his many journal entries, it was the only time Christian said he mentioned the word "pedophile" in connection to his fears for the children.
It wasn't long after the mail mix-up in 2006, that Worman was charged as a child rapist, allegedly sexually abusing a young girl from the time she was in fourth grade until she was in high school.
Last week, U.S. Attorney Patrick L. Meehan announced federal charges against Worman, Jackson and another women with whom Worman had an intimate relationship, Dorothy Prawdzik.
The three defendants are facing life in prison if convicted of sexually abusing at least 12 children - including a 3-month-old infant - and producing millions of sexually explicit videos and pictures of the attacks.
Christian's journal is now in the hands of the Delaware County District Attorney's Office.
"I had no idea what I was getting into when I started it," Christian said. "It's really opened a Pandora's Box."
Christian, in a joint interview with Collingdale Police Chief John Hewlings in Hewling's office Monday afternoon, said he resents that the journal and contents of it seem to have been taken out of context.
"I didn't know what was (allegedly) going on in that house, and neither did (Hewlings)," Christian said. "Believe me, I would have been over there in a New York minute."
Christian said he's lived on Westmont Avenue for seven years. He and his wife of 40 years rent their home.
Concetta Jackson and four children moved into the Section 8 house next door in 2003.Christian said within weeks of Jackson's move, Worman moved in, bringing with him "elaborate computer equipment."
Christian said he only got as far as the living room once, and that was after Worman's arrest last year, when he wanted to check on Jackson.
"I didn't know what was going on until I read about in the newspaper," Christian said, after Worman's initial arrest.
Though there were screams in the middle of the night, and drilling noises, Christian said, "You can't see through walls."
According to federal charges, Worman installed a video camera in a bathroom wall, and between 2003 and 2006, videotaped four children as they used the toilet and showered.
Authorities alleged that the incident occurred at properties in both Colwyn, where Worman listed his address when he was arrested last year, and Collingdale.
Christian said when he first visited Hewlings, he went with the expressed intention of asking what he could do to avoid legal problems with what he called "neighbors from hell."
Hewlings said Christian called and visited him once, around April 2005, regarding loud noises, dog problems and harassment he was receiving from his neighbors.
He said he suggested to Christian to keep a record of dates and times of problems, in order to build a solid case of harassment and disorderly conduct.
"He was told that once he had several incidents indicating a pattern of behavior that a complaint could be filed in district court and he would have a chance to tell the judge what was going on," Hewlings said.
Christian said he took Hewlings' advice. He bought a notebook from the Dollar Store and started his log, first by bringing it up to date and then with daily entries.
He said it was his intention to fill the notebook before he brought it back to Hewlings. When Worman was arrested, he said, it was only about half filled.
"There would never have been any arrest if it wasn't for the police to begin with," said Christian. He lauded the combined efforts of law enforcement in the case, including county detectives and FBI.
"I called 911 so many times ... and every time the Collingdale police showed up," he said.
Usually by then, whatever the problem was that spurred his call had ceased. Sometimes, he said, he could see that his neighbors wouldn't even answer the door when officers arrived.
According to Hewlings, 11 officers responded to calls at the Westmont Avenue residence and at no time was any report made to them or to him regarding concerns of sexual abuse of children.
"I was never aware of any abuse, and neither was he," agreed Christian.
And Christian knows well of what he speaks. People whom he would describe only as "near and dear" to him were victims of child sexual abuse, he said.
SHIZUOKA -- A man burned to death on a street here Tuesday, apparently after dousing himself with gasoline and setting himself on fire as part of a protest over the construction of an airport, police said.
Law enforcers said a 57-year-old resident made an emergency phone call at about 3:50 a.m. on Tuesday, reporting black smoke and a pillar of fire on a sidewalk in front of the north side of a prefectural government building in Shizuoka's Aoi-ku.
Firefighters who arrived at the scene extinguished the fire and found the charred corpse of a male adult.
A motorcycle was parked nearby, and officials found a protest note addressed to the governor in the motorcycle's front basket, which voiced opposition to the construction of Shizuoka Airport.
Investigators said the corpse was that of a 58-year-old man living in Shizuoka. He was believed to have owned land in an area earmarked for use in construction of the airport.
A lighter was found at the scene, and the smell of gasoline was reported. In addition to the letter to the governor, officials found a letter addressed to the mayor of Shizuoka, which criticized the neglect of industrial waste.
A note posted at the entrance of the man's home reportedly read, "Thank you for all your trouble."
Police said there were few people in the area at the time of the incident. (Mainichi)
If you click the link, there is a picture of the charred ground where they found him.
PITTSBURGH, Pennsylvania (AP) -- The father of a young girl who died of exposure had knocked her unconscious because he was angry she wouldn't go to bed, then took her outside in freezing temperatures and left her there, police said before the man's arraignment Thursday.
Nyia Miangel Page, who was about to turn 2, was found dead Sunday on a wooded knoll about a 10 minute walk from the family's home.
Tiny footprints in the snow suggested she had gotten up and wandered around before she died, police said.
Her father, William Lorenzo Page, 23, of Braddock, was arrested on charges of criminal homicide, kidnapping, false reports and simple assault. He did not have an attorney in court Thursday morning, and was jailed without bond.
Page told police he woke up early Saturday and found the girl awake and playing near a mirror in the hallway, according to the criminal complaint. He said he got mad when the girl wouldn't go back to bed, so he hit her so hard she hit her head and was unconscious, the complaint said.
Page then took her outside wrapped in a blanket and left her, police said.
An autopsy determined Nyia died of hypothermia, but the Allegheny County Medical Examiner ruled the death a homicide because investigators said it was unreasonable to assume the child got to the wooded location alone.
Her small body was found about a 10-minute walk from her home, a trek that would have included climbing 17 snowy steps up to a wooded knoll.
A witness had seen Page enter his house Saturday morning from the direction where his daughter was found, police said. He was back out on the street about an hour later, saying he was looking for the girl and telling the witness, "Somebody took my daughter," according to a criminal complaint.
Nyia's mother told police she last saw the girl after Nyia tried to crawl into bed with her parents about 12:30 a.m. Saturday. The mother told police she put the youngster back into her own bed in an upstairs room.
Police, emergency crews and bloodhounds searched in 20-degree temperatures for most of two days before finding the little girl's body.
Page, who did not have an attorney in court Thursday morning, was jailed without bond.
John Cave, 14, is deaf, but it doesn't keep him from going to public school. He even has a new specially trained assistance dog to help him. But that's the trouble: the W. Tresper Clarke High School in Westbury, Long Island, N.Y., says the boy "doesn't need the dog" at school and, when the boy brought the dog anyway, school officials called the police. Responding officers refused to arrest the boy after confirming state law says public facilities cannot bar disabled people from having service dogs. Still, principal Timothy Voels refuses to let Cave bring the dog on school grounds if he has the dog with him, closing the door when he arrives. "All I wanted to do was give my son one more step toward independence," says John's mother, Nancy. (New York Newsday)
John Cave, 14, is deaf, but it doesn't keep him from going to public school. He even has a new specially trained assistance dog to help him. But that's the trouble: the W. Tresper Clarke High School in Westbury, Long Island, N.Y., says the boy "doesn't need the dog" at school and, when the boy brought the dog anyway, school officials called the police. Responding officers refused to arrest the boy after confirming state law says public facilities cannot bar disabled people from having service dogs. Still, principal Timothy Voels refuses to let Cave bring the dog on school grounds if he has the dog with him, closing the door when he arrives. "All I wanted to do was give my son one more step toward independence," says John's mother, Nancy. (New York Newsday)
Arrest the principal for discrimination against handicapped students. Sue the school district. Whatever they have to do, because this is bullshit.
Comments
I also hope they ended up sharing an STD that makes them die a horrible death.
At least I hope not... ¬_¬
Not the 13 year old across the street, the fat-ass movie director.
But no, I was talking about that dude all the Con's hate.
I would have asked for money on the internet for that.
I mean, yeah, sure, sucks for that guy, but really... This isn't anything shocking. I like Hamelin's idea, though. Would that kind of donation be considered tax deductable? If so, that would have been one hell of a way to stick it to the IRS.
Getting taxed for receiving something tangible, like money, is fine. That's how life is. But, to get taxed on receiving something intangible, like a vacation or a space ride based on an assigned monetary value, is bullshit.
The government is essentially taxing you for having fun.
Now if only I could find an easy way to copy articles from Wii's News Channel to this topic. That thing is full of fucked up news. Like, some guy getting caught with millions of pornographic pictures of children on his computer, and videos of him having sex with infants as young as three months old. I could have gone my entire life without having to know that someone was actually deranged enough to have sex with a three month old baby.
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=17781253&BRD=1675&PAG=461&dept_id=18171&rfi=6
If you click the link, there is a picture of the charred ground where they found him.
Well, I'm not really sure how to describe this thread, but it's worth reading.
Way to shift the blame in one sentence.
That cloud is really starting to tick me off.
Also, What kind of crap is that?!