cobl04
45:33
Oh look, we've gone back to a time when it was okay to jail people for suggesting the Earth revolved around the sun.
Scientists found guilty for earthquake deaths
Scientists found guilty for earthquake deaths
Oh look, we've gone back to a time when it was okay to jail people for suggesting the Earth revolved around the sun.
Scientists found guilty for earthquake deaths
"This is a historic sentence, above all for the victims," said Wania della Vigna, a lawyer who represents 11 plaintiffs, including the family of an Israeli student who died when a student residence collapsed on top of him.
"It also marks a step forward for the justice system and I hope it will lead to change, not only in Italy but across the world," she said.
Aldo Scimia, whose mother was killed, wept as the verdict was read out.
"We cannot call this a victory. It's a tragedy, whatever way you look at it, it won't bring our loved ones back," he said. "I continue to call this a massacre at the hand of the state, but at least now we hope that our children may live safer lives," he said.
(CNN) -- Murder-suicides, by their very nature, leave a mountain of unanswered questions. When the killer pulls the trigger first on his victim and then himself, he takes with him to the grave the reasons that compelled the angry, desperate act.
Not so in the case of Radcliffe Haughton.
What prompted the 45-year-old former Marine to open fire at a suburban Milwaukee salon Sunday -- killing his wife and two other women, and wounding four others -- was foreshadowed in no uncertain terms by his estranged wife just three days earlier.
At a restraining order hearing Thursday, the wife, Zina, begged the court for protection, saying her husband would surely kill her.
With her voice shaking, she outlined how he'd threatened to throw acid in her face. How he accused her of cheating on him. How his red hot jealousy terrorized her "every waking moment."
"Things have gotten so bad. We need to separate," she said at the hearing, according to a recording obtained by CNN affiliate WISN. "We need a divorce before you hurt me. I don't want to die."
The judge sided with her. Haughton was ordered to stay away from his wife for the next four years. He was forbidden from possessing a gun.
But on Saturday, he bought a .40-caliber handgun from a private seller. Wisconsin law only requires background checks for purchases from a dealer.
And he waited.
The next day he took her life.
At the bizarre Thursday hearing, Haughton acted as his own attorney -- cross-examining his wife, asking questions that the judge refused to allow.
Haughton said his wife's infidelity was to blame for their failing marriage.
"I have been involved with Zina Haughton for most of my adult life. This is the woman that I love," he said.
"Things have not always been the best that they could have been but I can stand before the court, stand before God and say that I love her. I love her unconditionally. This situation was brought about by infidelity."
The wife said the abuse began long before the infidelity accusations.
She detailed a night when she said Haughton pulled a gun on her. It accidentally discharged. The bullet narrowly missed her and her daughter.
"For 20 years, we've fought. He's hit me. We've fought. But since May 29, the evening that he thinks I cheated on him, just the threats have gotten so bad, and like I said, I don't want to die," she said.
Police in the area say they had a long history of run-ins with Haughton, a general manager of a local Land Rover dealership.
"Since 2001, the Brown Deer Police Department has responded to calls for service regarding the Haughtons, ranging from animal complaints to domestic violence related cases," the Brown Deer Police said in a statement.
The police reports seemed to speak of a man who was destined to harm his wife.
In January 2011, Haughton was accused of throwing his wife's clothes out of their home during an argument and then pouring tomato juice on her car.
When police arrived, Haughton locked himself in the home and officers thought they saw Haughton holding a "long barreled" gun in the direction of his wife, according to a police report. Charges were eventually dropped in that case.
On October 4 this year, police say, Haughton slashed his wife's tires outside the salon.
After that incident, the wife applied for the restraining order.
"He threatened to throw acid in my face, burn me and my family with gas. His threats terrorize my every waking moment," she said in the request obtained by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
On Saturday, Haughton walked into the two-story Azana Spa in Brookfield, outside Milwaukee, where his wife was a stylist. He was screaming.
"He yelled 'Everybody!' Get down. Get down,'" Betty Brunner, a customer in the salon, told WISN.
"And as I went to get down, Zina walked to the reception desk, and said, 'Calm down, sir. There are good people here."
Haughton grabbed his wife and pushed her behind a wall, Brunner said.
Then the bullets flew.
Brunner considers Haughton's wife a hero for confronting her husband and making sure to move him away from most of the customers.
She says she wonders how Zina Haughton stayed so calm in the face of death.
If the court hearing is any indication, perhaps she knew it was just a matter of time.
"I love her unconditionally. This situation was brought about by infidelity."
trojanchick99 said:This made me ill. What a tragedy.
At the bizarre Thursday hearing, Haughton acted as his own attorney -- cross-examining his wife, asking questions that the judge refused to allow.
Haughton said his wife's infidelity was to blame for their failing marriage.
With that in mind, those who died from the sinking of the Titanic did not get justice from the iceberg that struck it.
Really, you can't put nature on trial, which is what this case is about.
bono_212 said:Do you really blame the iceberg, though, or the lack of lifeboats?
The police officer recorded details like the woman’s date of birth, height, weight and bra size. He made note of certain materials, like chloroform and rope.
And then the officer, Gilberto Valle, a six-year veteran of the New York Police Department, created a document on his computer, calling it a blueprint for “Abducting and Cooking.”
In February, Officer Valle offered to kidnap a woman on an unnamed person’s behalf for a price: “$5,000 and she is all yours,” the officer wrote to that person, according to the complaint.
Officer Valle appeared to be under the impression that the person he was communicating with intended to rape the woman, according to the complaint.
“She will be alive,” he wrote. “I think I would rather not get involved in the rape. You paid for her. She is all yours, and I don’t want to be tempted the next time I abduct a girl.”
And while September 11 is a recent memory that many still live with, the attacks are a distant reference to schoolchildren today. As the event and its subsequent war have become "recent history," The Atlantic's Conor Friedersdorf took to examine how high schoolers are learning about 9/11 and the years following.
His general findings: the threat of terrorism can be eliminated, the Patriot Act was not controversial and Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.
Friedersdorf's analysis is decidedly unscientific, looking only at one history textbook: a 2003 edition of The American Vision by Professors Joyce Appleby, Alan Brinkley, Albert Broussard, James McPhereson, and Donald Ritchie. Still, the book is one of the most used American history textbooks in schools for 11th graders.
He criticizes the book's flat portrayal of 9/11, perhaps misleading students to believe that the day's attacks killed more people than the invasion of Normandy.
In Louisiana, for example, one commonly used textbook teaches students "the accumulated wisdom of the past from a biblical worldview."
Ideally, Casey St. Clair would be spending Thanksgiving relaxing and eating dinner with her boyfriend and his family. Instead, the part-time Target employee and substitute teacher will worknextThursday night during the early kickoff of the big-box retailer's Black Friday sale. Stores will open at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving this year, reflecting a wider shift in the retail industry toward getting a head start on the biggest shopping day of the year.
Wal-Mart workers plan Black Friday walkout
As it stands now, Toys R Us, Wal-Mart, Sears and KMart will be the first large retail chains to open their doors for bargain hunters at 8 p.m. Many other chains are open Thanksgiving Day, but their Black Friday sales don't start until midnight or Friday morning.
St. Clair, who lives in Corona, California, is scheduled to work Wednesday from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. She'll return Thanksgiving Day before 9 p.m. and work until 5:15 on Friday morning. She has to sleep at some point, so traveling 45 minutes each way for Thanksgiving dinner is out.
"It shouldn't have to be a rushed affair, slipping in to eat some turkey and taking a piece of pie for the road," said St. Clair, who plans to have dinner at home with her boyfriend before going to work.
Despite what this article says, I truly believe that in a few years time, stores will be open on Christmas Day.
Will retail workers ever get a break?