3 charged with enslaving disabled Ohio mom, child

ASHLAND, Ohio (AP) ? A mentally disabled woman charged with shoplifting a candy bar asked to be jailed because three people "had been mean to her" ? then went on to tell authorities about her time spent in unfathomably cruel servitude, along with her young daughter, at the hands of three people, authorities said Tuesday.

On several occasions, according to an FBI affidavit, the suspects injured her and ordered her to go to an emergency room for pain medication they would then take for themselves.

The 29-year-old woman was forced to do housework under the threat of harm to her and her child by her captors' pet python or pit bulls, authorities allege, and a menagerie of snakes was put in the terrified 5-year-old's face until she cried.

Authorities announced federal charges Tuesday against three people they say invited the woman and her child, whose names were withheld, to live with them in their blue-collar Ashland neighborhood of older two-story houses. Beginning in early 2011, they forced the mother to cooperate with them by threats and physical abuse, authorities said.

The woman and her daughter were freed in October after police investigated an abuse allegation one of the suspects made against her, authorities said, and they are doing well.

"The victim in this case is slowly recovering," U.S. Attorney Steve Dettelbach said.

Jordie Callahan, 26, Jessica Hunt, 31, and Daniel J. "DJ" Brown, 33, were charged with forced labor. Callahan also was charged with tampering with a witness in the investigation.

The suspects had an initial appearance in U.S. District Court in Cleveland and were ordered jailed until a bond hearing on Monday.

Andrew Hyde, who represented Callahan on related state kidnapping charges dismissed Tuesday as the federal case was announced, called the charges ludicrous and said the woman at the center of the alleged forced-labor plot moved in and out as she pleased.

"There was never any forced labor, any forced co-habitation. She was never forced to do anything. She used this story to get out of trouble she was in" with regard to a child-abuse allegation, Hyde said.

Hyde said county social service workers placed the girl with her mother when the woman was living with the three suspects.

A federal court lawyer for Callahan declined comment. A second defense attorney, Ed Bryan, said Hunt will plead not guilty and said there are credibility issues with the mother.

There was no immediate response to phone and email messages left for the attorney representing Brown.

According to an FBI affidavit, the mother and child were denied food at times or given leftovers; on one occasion when they hadn't eaten all day, the mother was given a plate of food and ordered to feed a pet dog.

The trio looted the woman's bank account and public assistance and on several occasions injured her and ordered her to go to the emergency room for pain medication, according to the affidavit.

The woman told investigators the trio learned of her plan to try to escape and punished her by shaving her hair into a Mohawk and using a marker to write "slut," ''tramp" and "whore" on her face and chest. She was forced to clean up the hair without a broom or dust pan, according to the affidavit.

The woman was forced to do house work and shop for her captors and clean up after pets, authorities said.

The trio kept the mother and daughter under surveillance with a baby monitor, according to the affidavit, and at one point, the woman was lured back with ice cream.

"They treated her with such cruelty that it is hard to comprehend," Dettelbach said. "They tried to take away her human dignity."

Police first got involved when the woman was charged with shoplifting a candy bar and asked to be jailed because the three suspects "had been mean to her," said Ashland police Lt. Joel Icenhour.

It wasn't clear whether she had staged the candy bar theft to get police help.

Police checking into her "mean" claim went to the apartment after one of the suspects said it was the woman who was abusive. Authorities said the allegation was a ruse complete with a video staged by the suspects. They said the suspects forced the woman to act as if she were mistreating her child.

Defense attorney Hyde said police told the woman they would help if she felt she had been framed with an incriminating video. According to Hyde, she bought that argument and made up the enslavement allegation.

"I think the feds just failed to fully investigate this before they jumped to some conclusions," Hyde said.

A woman in the Ashland neighborhood said Tuesday she was surprised by the allegations, saying that Callahan sometimes helped her husband with yard work and other chores and that she never saw signs someone was being held captive in the house.

Tara Williams, 51, said she occasionally saw Callahan walking down an alley with a large yellow-and-white snake draped around his neck but never saw him threaten anyone with it. She said three pit bulls also lived in the apartment, along with a pot-bellied pig that once got loose.

The white, two-story house of three apartments, including the defendants' apartment, is set back from the road with a "no trespassing" sign near the front.

Williams said she occasionally saw the presumed victim walking by quickly and sometimes underdressed for cold weather. The woman never spoke or looked at others, Williams said. Williams never saw a child, she said.

Like many in Ashland and around Ohio, Williams said she couldn't help but think of the parallels to the case in Cleveland a little more than a month ago, in which three women were freed from a house where a man allegedly imprisoned them for a decade, raping them during that time and fathering a child with one of them.

Ariel Castro has pleaded not guilty to more than 300 counts against him, which include kidnapping, rape and felonious assault.

___

Sheeran reported for this story from Cleveland.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/3-charged-enslaving-disabled-ohio-mom-child-004016279.html

mr rogers jamie lee curtis spring equinox audacious pollen count mexico city mexico earthquake

Small dam construction to reduce greenhouse emissions is causing ecosystem disruption

June 18, 2013 ? Researchers conclude in a new report that a global push for small hydropower projects, supported by various nations and also the Kyoto Protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, may cause unanticipated and potentially significant losses of habitat and biodiversity.

An underlying assumption that small hydropower systems pose fewer ecological concerns than large dams is not universally valid, scientists said in the report. A five-year study, one of the first of its type, concluded that for certain environmental impacts the cumulative damage caused by small dams is worse than their larger counterparts.

The findings were reported by scientists from Oregon State University in the journal Water Resources Research, in work supported by the National Science Foundation.

The conclusions were based on studies of the Nu River system in China but are relevant to national energy policies in many nations or regions -- India, Turkey, Latin America -- that seek to expand hydroelectric power generation. Hydropower is generally favored over coal in many developing areas because it uses a renewable resource and does not contribute to global warming. Also, the social and environmental problems caused by large dam projects have resulted in a recent trend toward increased construction of small dams.

"The Kyoto Protocol, under Clean Development Mechanism, is funding the construction of some of these small hydroelectric projects, with the goal of creating renewable energy that's not based on fossil fuels," said Desiree Tullos, an associate professor in the OSU Department of Biological and Ecological Engineering.

"The energy may be renewable, but this research raises serious questions about whether or not the overall process is sustainable," Tullos said.

"There is damage to streams, fisheries, wildlife, threatened species and communities," she said. "Furthermore, the projects are often located in areas where poverty and illiteracy are high. The benefit to these local people is not always clear, as some of the small hydropower stations are connected to the national grid, indicating that the electricity is being sent outside of the local region.

"The result can be profound and unrecognized impacts."

This study was one of the first of its type to look at the complete range of impacts caused by multiple, small hydroelectric projects, both in a biophysical, ecological and geopolitical basis, and compare them to large dam projects. It focused on the remote Nu River in China's Yunnan Province, where many small dams producing 50 megawatts of power or less are built on tributaries that fall rapidly out of steep mountains. There are already 750,000 dams in China and about one new dam is being built every day, researchers say.

Among the findings of the report as it relates to this region of China:

• The cumulative amount of energy produced by small hydroelectric projects can be significant, but so can the ecological concerns they raise in this area known to be a "hotspot" of biological diversity.

• Per megawatt of energy produced, small tributary dams in some cases can have negative environmental impacts that are many times greater than large, main stem dams.

• Many dams in China are built as part of a state-mandated policy to "Send Western Energy East" toward the larger population and manufacturing centers.

• Small dams can have significant impacts on habitat loss when a river's entire flow is diverted into channels or pipes, leaving large sections of a river with no water at all.

• Fish, wildlife, water quality and riparian zones are all affected by water diversion, and changes in nearby land use and habitat fragmentation can lead to further species loss.

• The cumulative effect on habitat diversity can be 100 times larger for small dams than large dams.

• Policies encouraging more construction of small dams are often developed at the national or international level, but construction and management of the projects happen at the local level.

• As a result, mitigation actions and governance structures that would limit social and environmental impacts of small hydropower stations are not adequately implemented.

"One of the things we found generally with small dams is that there was much less oversight and governance with the construction, operation and monitoring of small hydropower," Tullos said. "On the large, main stem dams, people pay attention to what's going on. On a small hydropower project, no one notices if minimum flows are being maintained. Or if a pump breaks, the hydropower station might sit idle for long periods of time."

Researchers said the key finding of the research, contrary to prevailing but unvalidated belief, is that "biophysical impacts of small hydropower may exceed those of large hydropower, particular with regard to habitat and hydrologic change."

Source: http://feeds.sciencedaily.com/~r/sciencedaily/top_news/~3/T54Vytxh0yI/130618125114.htm

dr seuss birthday derrick williams romney michigan railgun jk rowling new book between two ferns statins

Solar plane lands at Washington on journey across U.S.

Link Information - Click to View

Solar plane lands at Washington on journey across U.S.
An airplane entirely powered by the sun landed in Washington on Sunday after a flight from St. Louis, the next-to-last leg of a journey across the United States intended to boost support for clean energy technologies.

Source: Reuters
Posted on: Monday, Jun 17, 2013, 8:12am
Views: 36

Source: http://www.labspaces.net/128648/Solar_plane_lands_at_Washington_on_journey_across_U_S_

jamie lynn sigler mega millions jackpot black panther party frank martin pink slime eagle cam trayvon martin case

Iranian reformists rally around common candidate

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) ? Iran's presidential race lost one more candidate Tuesday but gained a new script: reformist leaders uniting behind relative moderate Hasan Rowhani to boost his once-improbable shot at victory.

Former presidents Mohammad Khatami and Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani fell behind Rowhani after a rival moderate bowed out in attempts to consolidate reform-minded forces battered by years of crackdowns.

The move forced hardliners and conservatives favored by the ruling clerics to consider anointing their own unity candidate or risk having Friday's election slip away.

"Rowhani now has the best situation among the candidates," said Saeed Leilaz, a Tehran-based political analyst. "He will win the election on Friday."

But reformists still have major challenges ahead following former Vice President Mohammad Reza Araf's withdrawal from the presidential race.

Rowhani's backers must persuade their flock to go to the polls rather than boycott a vote many allege to be unfree and unfair. Iran's election overseers last month pruned the list of would-be hopefuls to eight candidates, most of them loyalists favored by both the theocracy and the military.

Among those cut from the candidates list was Rafsanjani, angering many reformists who believed only he had the stature to defeat the hardliners. Rafsanjani praised Aref's decision to withdraw in favor of his protege, Rowhani.

"Rafsanjani was really the only choice to re-energize reformists," said Rasool Nafisi, an Iranian affairs analyst at Strayer University in Virginia. "Rowhani only got their support because he is seen as Rafsanjani's man and a vote for Rowhani was a vote for Rafsanjani."

Rowhani, a 64-year-old cleric and former nuclear negotiator, rejects outgoing President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's combative approach in world affairs and sides with Rafsanjani's view that Iran can maintain its nuclear program and ease tensions with the West at the same time.

Although all key decisions in Iran are ultimately in the hands of the ruling clerics, Rowhani's ties to the influential elder statesman Rafsanjani could give him more latitude to sway viewpoints if elected president.

But a significant number of opposition backers also say they are now more interested in a capable fiscal steward such as Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf as Iran's economy sinks under international sanctions and alleged mismanagement.

And more hardline candidates could well pull out of the race and rally around one of their own, such as current nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili. Rowhani currently is set to face off against five conservative candidates including Jalili.

Beyond shaping the candidates' list, Iranian authorities also have kept an extremely tight lid on any possible dissent. They keep close watch for impromptu political rallies and try to choke off the Internet and foreign-based satellite TV channels such as the BBC and Voice of America.

Nevertheless, Hamid Reza Shokouhi, an editor at the pro-reform Mardomsalari newspaper, said Aref's withdrawal could boost turnout.

"It not only will move his supporters in favor of Rowhani, but it will also convince disappointed voters who didn't want to vote," said Shokouhi, adding that many had planned to boycott since "they saw no chance for either Aref or Rowhani to make it to the run-off because of the vote split."

Reactions were mixed, though, among a small sampling of pro-reform voters on the streets of Tehran.

Morteza Moradpour, a student, said "Aref's withdrawal can boost reformists very much because now reformists have one joint choice and can run more unified."

But Rahim Kazemi, a shopkeeper, said, "We would love to see Aref in the race because if there were a runoff he stood a better chance. I think now that he has withdrawn from the race many may not go to ballot boxes."

Under the Iranian system, if no candidate gets a majority in the first round, then the top two have a run-off.

The election will choose a successor for Ahmadinejad, who under the law cannot run for a third term. It is also a major test for Iran's clerically dominated establishment after Ahmadinejad's disputed 2009 re-election. That vote unleashed the worst domestic unrest since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Many university students and other reformists remain imprisoned following a massive crackdown.

In his campaign stops, Rowhani has been careful not to confront authorities directly over the crackdown. But he has called for police to stop harassing women over their choice of clothes in public, and for restoring the dignity of universities and its students.

"Rowhani will let women have a greater role and freedom in society," said Shohreh Ghasemi, a nurse in Tehran. "Other candidates just urge women to sit at home waiting for to deliver another baby."

Rowhani represents an important test for Iran's broad spectrum of alternative voices, ranging from moderates who want less confrontation with the West to hardened opposition groups at odds with the Islamic system as a whole.

Rowhani has tried to keep his message broad, arguing that less confrontational policies would allow Iran to advance its nuclear program while easing Western concerns and allowing for sanctions to be rolled back.

The West and its allies fear Iran could be moving toward development of a nuclear weapon. Iranian officials, including Rowhani, insist that the country seeks nuclear reactors for energy and medical applications only.

Rowhani served as Rafsanjani's top national security adviser during his 1989-97 terms as president.

He took over the nuclear portfolio in 2003, a year after Iran's 20-year-old nuclear program was revealed. Iran later temporarily suspended all uranium enrichment-related activities to avoid possible sanctions from the U.N. Security Council.

Ahmadinejad strongly opposed any such concessions and deal-making, which took place while Khatami was president.

Rowhani, who backed Rafsanjani's unsuccessful candidacy in the 2005 presidential race, resigned as nuclear negotiator after a few testy meetings with the recently elected Ahmadinejad.

In a statement Tuesday after Aref's withdrawal from the race, Rowhani said he feels more responsibility to continue "reforms and moderations."

Aref said on his website that he made the decision to withdraw at Khatami's urging. He said Khatami told him that his continued candidacy "is not in the interest" of Iran's reformers.

Khatami then released a message thanking Aref, calling him "dear brother" and urging all reformists vote for Rowhani. "I will give my vote to his excellency the esteemed brother Rowhani. And I ask all reformists to see the presence of Rowhani (in the race) as an opportunity for achieving their demands."

Khatami is considered a father of Iran's reform movement, and Aref has been a close ally of Khatami's since his presidency from 1997 to 2005.

Rowhani also won an endorsement from Zahra Mostafavi, the daughter of the late founder of the Islamic Republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iranian-reformists-rally-around-common-candidate-191834222.html

naacp glen campbell jerusalem artichoke bud shootout new orleans weather new orleans weather sparkle

McDonald's May sales rise 2.6 percent; shares up

(Reuters) - McDonald's Corp said sales at its established restaurants around the world rose 2.6 percent in May as it expanded offerings for late-night breakfasts, tweaked other menus and benefited from advertising value-priced meals.

Analysts polled by Consensus Metrix had expected a 1.9 percent rise in global sales at restaurants open at least 13 months.

McDonald's shares rose 2 percent to $100.50 in premarket trading on Monday.

Sales at restaurants open at least 13 months rose 2.4 percent in the United States, while they rose 2 percent in Europe and 0.9 percent in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa (APMEA) region.

Analysts polled by Consensus Metrix expected comparable-restaurant sales to increase 2.1 percent in the United States, 1.2 percent in Europe and 1.5 percent in APMEA.

The overall global result was better compared with April, when same-restaurant sales slipped 0.6 percent.

During that month, an unexpected 0.7 percent gain in the United States was offset by a 2.4 percent fall in Europe and a 2.9 percent drop in the APMEA region.

Resurgent rivals like Burger King Worldwide and Wendy's Co have chipped away at McDonald's lead by rolling out a broad variety of special menus and value deals.

They have also copied its successful business strategies, ranging from restaurant renovations to extended hours.

McDonald's has countered by introducing new products such as chicken McWraps and egg white McMuffins. It is also expanding its test of a late-night breakfast menu and eliminating some items, including Angus burgers and its fruit & walnut salad.

McDonald's shares, which have risen 9 percent this year, closed at $98.28 on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday.

(Reporting by Lisa Baertlein in Los Angeles and Siddharth Cavale in Bangalore; Editing by Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/mcdonalds-may-sales-rise-2-6-percent-120451156.html

little league world series us open tennis us open tennis Empire State Building shooting Republican National Convention Karlie Redd guild wars 2

Apple's WWDC keynote will be streamed on Apple TV at 1PM ET.

Apple's WWDC keynote will be streamed on Apple TV at 1PM ET. Head to the new "Apple Events" channel on the set-top box, grab some popcorn, and see what Cook and co have to offer up. You can also watch it through a browser?but you'll need to use Opera.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/PC93iHT5u28/apples-wwdc-keynote-will-be-streamed-on-apple-tv-at-1pm-512258085

martin luther king jr quotes Inauguration 2013 Tony Gonzalez Richard Blanco Anna Burns Welker Martin Luther King, Jr. Mlk Quotes

iRobot Makes It Easier To Show Up To Work While At Home In Your PJs

Email, the internet, and a host of other advancements in office technology have finally made the dream of working from home a reality. But sometimes you just need to be in the office, and thanks to a collaboration between iRobot and Cisco, you still don't need to change out of your pajamas to get chewed out by your boss.

Read more...

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/gizmodo/full/~3/grRDPIDXMEo/embargo-mon-8am-irobot-makes-it-easier-to-show-up-to-511958847

amber heard Google Now Jason Collins White House Correspondents Dinner 2013 NHL playoff schedule Queen of Versailles Nicole Eggert