1/12: Minimum Wage, Maximum Losers
9 p.m.
• So I was at a wake/body viewing/whatever-it's-called-before-you-bury-someone just now. The better half's one uncle who I have never seen before just died. I showed up, sat there and kept my mouth shut. Whenever I'm at one of these events I just keep my head down, shut my mouth and close me eyes. However, as the Serbian priest was doing his thing someone suddenly ripped one while the priest was in a pause (I don't know who it was because my eyes were closed). Why oh why does the Lord push me to such extremes?
• How in the hell do these lottery winners go broke? If I ever took home $100+ million, the last place I'd go to is a casino. Should this ever happen to me, the story would probably go, "kkk was bouncing checks at the local Best Buy trying to purchase DVDs."
• Speaking of winners, here's a local story I've been following since it recently broke.A man beset by problems since winning a record lottery jackpot says he can't pay a settlement to a casino worker because thieves cleaned out his bank accounts.
Powerball winner Jack Whittaker gave that explanation in a note last fall to a lawyer for Kitti French, who accused him of assaulting her at the Tri-State Racetrack and Gaming Center, a slots-only casino near Charleston, according to a motion Ms. French's lawyer filed this week demanding payment of the confidential settlement.
Mr. Whittaker won a nearly $315 million on Christmas 2002, then the largest undivided lottery prize in U.S. history. He took his winnings in a lump sum of $113 million after taxes.
Since then, he has faced his granddaughter's death by drug overdose; he has been sued for bouncing checks at Atlantic City, N.J., casinos; he has been ordered to undergo rehab after being arrested on drunken driving charges; his vehicles and business have been burglarized; and he has been sued by the father of an 18-year-old boy, a friend of his granddaughter's, who was found dead in Whittaker's house.
In the latest lawsuit, Mr. Whittaker told Ms. French's lawyer, John Barrett, that "a team of crooks" cashed checks in September at 12 City National Bank branches and "got all my money," according to the motion Mr. Barrett filed Wednesday in state court.
"I intend to pay but can't without any money," Mr. Whittaker wrote, according to the motion.
An official with City National Bank said Friday the bank is investigating "small discrepancies" in Mr. Whittaker's accounts.
Pittsburgh police last night charged a 25-year-old mother of four with suffocating her 2 1/2-year-old daughter and stuffing her body in a box inside a closet of her Hill District home.
Ronda Watts initially reported her daughter Bryonna missing in the afternoon, but after police conducted a search of her home, they found the little girl dead in the closet of an upstairs bedroom at 2335 Reed St. Her body lay in a 2-foot-tall Pampers cardboard box with a plastic bag over her head.
Police said the girl, who stood two feet tall and weighed 28 pounds, appeared to have been suffocated.
Ms. Watts was charged with homicide.
During an interview at police headquarters last night, Ms. Watts told police that after her two eldest daughters left home for school in the morning, she was home alone with Bryonna and her 4-month-old son.
She said that while dressing the girl, the toddler became upset and started crying. Ms. Watts cupped her hand over her toddler's mouth in an attempt to silence her cries and the toddler lost consciousness, police said.
Ms. Watts told police she then grabbed a plastic bag and placed it over the girl's head and then found a box and put her body inside it. She placed the box in a closet on the second floor of the home.
The girl was found fully dressed inside the box, her body still warm, police said...
...Police would not discuss a possible motive but believe the mother said that Bryonna had disappeared as a cover story.
Officers from Zone 2 responded to the house after Ms. Watts called 911 at 12:40 p.m. to report the girl was gone from her front porch.
While police dispatchers broadcast a description of Bryonna, saying she was wearing pink pants and had beads in her hair, the officers looked through the house.
Explaining that sometimes children play games and that maybe the girl was hiding somewhere in the residence, the officers searched room by room. As the search progressed, police said, Ms. Watts became increasingly uneasy. When the officers entered the upstairs bedroom, she became extremely agitated and even grabbed one of the officers.
Police then found Bryonna in the closet. She was pronounced dead at 1:52 p.m.
Two lawyers for the mother, Giuseppe Rosselli and his partner, James Sheets, said they had been denied access to their client for more then five hours last night because an officer said the mother had waived her right to have an attorney present. They said they were only allowed three to five minutes with their client.
They said Ms. Watts was a caring mother of four who often baby-sat for her sisters' and cousins' children as well.
"There is nothing to suggest that she is anything but a 25-year-old single mother raising four children in a loving manner," said Mr. Rosselli.
2:30 p.m.
• I'm shocked ... SHOCKED that Nancy Pelosi would exclude from the upcoming federal minimum wage hike a tuna company in her district.
House Republicans yesterday declared "something fishy" about the major tuna company in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's San Francisco district being exempted from the minimum-wage increase that Democrats approved this week.
"I am shocked," said Rep. Eric Cantor, Virginia Republican and his party's chief deputy whip, noting that Mrs. Pelosi campaigned heavily on promises of honest government. "Now we find out that she is exempting hometown companies from minimum wage. This is exactly the hypocrisy and double talk that we have come to expect from the Democrats."
On Wednesday, the House voted to raise the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour.
The bill also extends for the first time the federal minimum wage to the U.S. territory of the Northern Mariana Islands. However, it exempts American Samoa, another Pacific island territory that would become the only U.S. territory not subject to federal minimum-wage laws.
One of the biggest opponents of the federal minimum wage in Samoa is StarKist Tuna, which owns one of the two packing plants that together employ more than 5,000 Samoans, or nearly 75 percent of the island's work force. StarKist's parent company, Del Monte Corp., has headquarters in San Francisco, which is represented by Mrs. Pelosi. The other plant belongs to California-based Chicken of the Sea.
Guess ol' Nancy doesn't care about the children of Samoa. Regarding the federal minimum wage. I don't care. This is because the faggot Democrats (and Republicans) in my state already jacked up our state rate. At least over in Ohio the dumbasses there voted in a minimum wage hike. I'm just having it done for me. I have had two minimum wage jobs in my life. Know what I did? I got another job. Tough stuff there. I remember the Morgan Spurlock hippie did one of his "30 Days" shows about living on $5.15/hour. I watched about 5 minutes of it before having to take a poop.
7 a.m.
• I've said for a while now how the out-of-control niece-in-law has pissed away 2+ years of money that was to be used for her college education. Well, she also had an inheritance from years ago that was stashed away from her. With that money she bought a good used car about 2-3 months ago. It was a nice car. Too bad I knew what was going to be in store for the poor thing. Within a week there was already a dent in it. There have been a few scratches and the like over the last month or so, including one time the niece drove it over a hill (don't ask). But yesterday, as she was bending over to grab a cigarette, the niece swerved into an oncoming lane and hit another car. The other driver wasn't hurt, and the niece's care got the brunt of the damage, including a smashed driver's side window. Thank Christ I was able to convince my mother-in-law to take her name off that title no more than two weeks ago. If my crack-whore sister-in-law is the equivalent of a real-life sitcom like "Friends," then the niece-in-law is "Joey."
6 Comments
Recommended Comments