Archive for August, 2009

Incandescent: Europe Bans the 100 Watt Light Bulb to Cut Carbon Emissions

August 31st, 2009

Beginning tomorrow, night time in much of Europe is going to get a little darker.  In an effort to cut carbon emissions contributing to global warming, countries that belong to the European Union will no longer be allowed to import frosted incandescent light bulbs.  In addition all incandescent light bulbs of greater than 75 watts will be banned.

The new rules with be phased in, with clear (as opposed to frosted, which are banned) 60 watt bulbs set to be banned after 2011, and clear 40 watt bulbs phased out after 2012.  Merchants will still be able to sell their existing stock until it runs out.

Evidently there has been something of a run on higher watt bulbs in anticipation of the new rules.  Reports suggest that nasty earth-killing 100 watt bulbs are selling at six to seven times their normal rate, as certain reactionary consumers put the fate of their eyeballs before the fate of their planet.

Many people hate the compact florescent bulbs that are the main replacements for incandescent bulbs.  The light they emit seems harsher and more yellow, and some think they lead to more eye strain, particularly in readers.

There is also some controversy about the claims made on the packaging of the compact fluorescents.  Many tout themselves as equivalent to certain incandescent wattages, but real world use suggests otherwise.

In a recent article, the U.K. Telegraph tested an 11 watt compact florescent that billed itself as a replacement for a 60 watt incandescent, and found the compact florescent produced only 58% as much light as the incandescent bulb for which it claimed to be a replacement.  Even the European Commission itself has warned about “exaggerated claims” made by manufacturers.

My personal experience with compact florescent light bulbs is that they’re perfectly fine.  As long as you don’t believe the inflated “equivalence” claims made on the packaging, and buy the next wattage up from the one you’re replacing, the bulbs work fine and the light they produce, while undoubtedly somewhat yellower than their incandescent cousins, is not as ugly as some would have you believe.

The European Union is trying to cut carbon emissions by 20% by 2020, a very tall order.

Georgia Trailer Park Killings: Is Guy Heinze Jr. a Suspect in Murders?

August 31st, 2009

Guy Heinze Jr. MugshotHere’s what we know so far about the Brunswick, Georgia trailer park killings.  Early on the morning of Saturday, August 29th, police received a 911 call from Margaret Orlinski, a neighbor of the Heinze family.  Orlinski was calling at the behest of Guy Heinze Jr, who said he had returned home that morning to discover that his entire family had been brutally beaten.

Seven members of the Heinze family were already dead, and Guy Heinze Jr.’s cousin Michael Toler, who had Down’s Syndrome, would die the following day.  Orlinski soon handed the phone off to a very distraught Guy Heinze Jr., who said, “I just got home and my whole family is dead.”  The first part of Guy Heinze Jr.s conversation with the 911 dispatcher follows.

Guy Heinze Jr.: I just got home and my whole family is dead.

Dispatcher: OK.  Tell me what’s going on, sir.

GHJ: I was out last night and just got home, and everybody’s dead.  My daddy’s dead.  My uncle is dead.

Dispatcher: How many people are there?

GHJ: There’s like six.  My whole family’s dead.  Looks like they been beat to death.  I don’t know man.

Dispatcher:  OK.  You’re 147 Hope Plantation, correct?

GHJ: Yeah, man.  I mean, I don’t know what to do man.

Dispatcher:  OK.  Take a deep breath.  The guy’s coming for you.  Stay on the line, OK?  It’s in slot number 147, right?

GHJ:  Yes ma’am.  I don’t know what to do ma’am.

The website of a local newspaper has the entire 911 call tht you can listen to.  In addition to Margaret Orlinski and Guy Heinze Jr., a maintenance worker at the trailer park later gets on the call.  A full transcript of the call can be found here (.pdf).

Later in the call, Heinze returned to the phone once again.  When asked, “When you came in the house, what did the house look like?,” Heinze replied, “it looks like a (bleep)ing murder scene.”

Authorities finally arrived and removed Guy Heinze Jr.’s cousin 19-year-old Michael Toler, who had been severely beaten, but was still alive, to the hospital.  He died the next day.

Mystery still surrounds Guy Heinze Jr.’s possible involvement with the crime.  He was arrested the following day and charges with possession of prescription drugs and marijuana, tampering with evidence, and obstruction of justice.  The tampering with evidence charge is tied to his removal of a shotgun from the residence.  None of the victims are believed to have been killed by gunfire.  The obstruction of justice charge concerns his lying to police about his whereabouts the previous night.

Statements from the police are thus far confusing and difficult to parse.  Local Police Chief Matt Doering has stated that Guy Heinze Jr. was co-operative, and was not currently considered a suspect.  The FBI has been called in to help with the physical evidence in the case.

Doering has said that more than one person may be involved in the killings.  The trailer home was owned by Russell “Rusty” Toler, the half-brother of Guy Heinze Sr., a long-haul trucker.

The Jaycee Lee Dugard Story: Latest News and Recap of Abduction by Phillip Garrido

August 31st, 2009

By now we are getting to know more and more of the details of Jaycee Lee Dugard’s abduction and 18 year captivity at the hands of nut-job Phillip Garrido. I have previously written about Jaycee’s abduction, the role of Garrido’s wife Nancy Garrido in the case, and possible serial killer links between Garrido and the deaths of local area prostitutes. This post is intended as a catch-all to bring together all the facts that are currently known about the case.

Phillip Garrido’s First Victim and Prison Term

Phillip Garrido was a convicted sexual predator and registered sex offender before he ever set his wicked eyes on Jaycee Lee Dugard.  1976, 15 years before Jaycee Dugard’s abduction, Phillip Garrido kidnapped a casino worker from a South Lake Tahoe parking lot.  He took her to a storage unit that he rented and repeatedly raped her.  For his crime, he was sentenced to 50 years in federal prison, but was paroled in 1988.

How Phillip and Nancy Garrido Met and Were Married

Phillip Garrido was serving time in Leavenworth prison in Kansas when he and his wife met. Sources are sketchy, but it appears that Nancy Garrido’s maiden name was Nancy Boconegra. Little is known of her life before she met Garrido. She met the man who was to become her husband because her uncle was a fellow prisoner at Leavenworth. Nancy Garrido was a member of the Jehova’s Witnesses at the time.

The full extent of Nancy Garrido’s complicity in Jaycee Dugard’s abduction is not known at this time. Her brother-in-law, Ron Garrido, has described her as a “robot”, and stated that she was “under his control”.

Phillip Garrido’s Blog and Website

Phillip Garrido had a blogger.com blog with the address http://voicesrevealed.blogspot.com/. On it he revealed plans for another website, godsdesire.net. Garrido registered the godsdesire.net domain name, but never completed the website. His blog is mostly a collection of disturbed ravings about his ability to speak without using using his voice. He even had some of his acquaintances make sworn testimonials about this strange “power”. Other posts are disordered religious ramblings without any clear point.

Inside the Garrido Compound Where Duggard and Her Daughters Lived

The Garrido property had a large backyard which extended far back from the house itself. The backyard was a rat’s nest of shacks and makeshift tents in which Jaycee Lee Dugard and her two daughters were forced to live. Piles of rubbish were everywhere about the property. A lonely trampoline and a half-filled swimming pool stood next to the quarters where the girl were imprisoned.

Chillingly, some of he rooms were soundproofed. Also found among the wreck were large metal cages.

Inside the living quarters, there was equal disarray. Mattresses were strewn about the tents, with no obviously defined sleeping arrangements. One notable feature of the quarters was a large collection of cat books, which may have belonged to Jaycee or one of her daughters. It isn’t known whether the girls were allowed to keep a cat.

How Jaycee Lee Dugard Was Rescued

It was Phillip Garrido’s own overconfidence, or perhaps sheer craziness, that finally led to his arrest and rescue for Jaycee Dugard. Within the past few years, Garrido had become increasingly interested in religion and had taken to preaching his own brand of madness in shambling People’s Park in Berkeley. He also wanted to prosthelytize at the neighboring University of California at Berkeley, and had brought his two daughters along when trying to obtain a permit to pass out literature on campus.

According to a story in People Magazine, campus police officers became suspicious at the behavior of his daughters. The older of the two stared strait up at the ceiling and answered questions with an unblinking smile. Lisa Campbell and her fellow officer Ally Jacobs called Garrido’s parole officer to investigate. When told that Garrido had his two daughters with him, the parole officer answered, “he doesn’t have any daughters”. The next day parole officials arrived at Garrido’s house and Jaycee Lee Dugards long nightmare was finally over.

Phillip Garrido Possible Serial Killer: Links to Prostitute Deaths

In the latest and most chilling twist to the Phillip Garrido saga, police are now investigating possible links between Garrido and the deaths of several women in the late 1990’s. Bodies of some of the women had been discovered in an area near one of Garrido’s former workplaces.

Police have also brought in so called “death dogs” to search for the bodies of three girls who disappeared from the area between 1988 and 1991. The have also searched the property of a neighbor. The Times of London offers details about this aspect of the case.

Jaycee Dugard’s Children’s Names and What We Know About Them

During her long captivity, Jaycee Lee Dugard bore two children, both presumed to have been fathered by Phillip Garrido. The older of the two daughters is named Starlite, and the younger is named Angel. Starlite is 15, and Angel is 11.

As of yet not much is known about the two girls, and I hope it stays that way. They have led lives that one can only imagine and it will take years of work and therapy to help the two to lead something like a normal life. In recent years, Phillip Garrido had become bolder about letting the two girls go out in public. He took them along with them on his trips to People’s Park in Berkeley, and had recently allowed them to attend a party at the home of a business associate.

A photo of the two entering the party has appeared in the press, with their faces blurred out. In it, they are well dressed, and appear to be wearing makeup.

The Jaycee Dugard Trust Fund

ABC news reports that a trust fund has been established for Jaycee Lee Dugard and her children. Checks (only) can be sent to:

Jaycee Dugard Trust Fund, c/o Viewtech Financial Services, P.O. Box 596, Atwood, Calif. 92811.

Is Jaycee Lee Dugard Kidnapper Phillip Garrido a Killer? Police Investigating Link to Prostitute Murders

August 30th, 2009

We know Phillip Garrido is a kidnapper, rapist, nutcase, and all-around evil scumbag, but is he also a serial killer?  Police seem to be taking the possibility quite seriously.  Reports indicate that El Dorado County police are investigating possible links between Phillip Garrido and the disappearance of up to 10 prostitutes in the area in the late 1990’s.  Investigators are said to be digging holes in Garrido’s rat’s nest of a back yard, as well as on a neighboring property, in search of evidence.

The San Jose Mercury News, which has so far done the best and most detailed reporting on Jaycee Lee Dugard’s abduction, is reporting that the house of Garrido neighbor Damon Robinson has now been declared a crime scene.  It was Robinson’s former girlfriend who three years ago called the cops to complain that Phillip Garrido was hiding three young girls in his backyard.  Police did manage to respond to the call, but evidently didn’t bother to investigate Garrido’s very suspicious-looking backyard, leading to an extra three years of captivity for Jaycee Lee Dugard and her daughters.

Police believe Phillip Garrido may be implicated in the murders of several women, some of whom may have been prostitutes,  because bodies had been discovered near a former workplace of Garrido.  One of the girls who disappeared was a relative of one of Garrido’s neighbors.  As of yet, no news links have reported anything other than very circumstantial evidence linking Jaycee Lee Dugard’s kidnapper to the missing women.

I’m really hoping that Phillip Garrido has nothing to do with the murder of those young women.  As the case stands, we have something like a happy ending, at least as happy as many years of therapy can make it for Garrido’s three victims.  Garrido is a monster and a nut-bag as things stand now.  If he is indeed linked to the murder of several prostitutes and other women, he’s in the running for one of the criminals of the century.  Personally, I hope he doesn’t make the pantheon.

Names of Jaycee Lee Dugard’s Daughters

In other news related to the case, the Times of London is reporting that the names of Jaycee Lee Dugard’s daughters are Starlite and Angel.  Starlite, the older of the two, is 15, while Angel is 11 years old.  I can never quite bring myself to call these poor girls Phillip Garrido’s daughters, even though they presumably are.  That monster has forfeited any right to paternity though his long years of evil and torment.

I find it interesting that the UK newspapers, even “respectable” ones like the Times, seem much more interested in the Dugard case than their U.S. counterparts.  Aside from the local SJ Mercury news, very little original reporting seems to be coming from the American papers.  U.S. television, however, has been all over the story.

Bail Denied to Garridos

In  other news, Phillip and Nancy Garrido were both arraigned in El Drado County Superior court on 29 charges of rape and kidnapping.  They were brought into the court in chains and sat stoicly while the charges against them were read.  They are both represented by court-appointed public defenders.  The judge ordered them held without bail.

Is Vicki Kennedy the Next Senator from Massachusetts? Will Ted Kennedy’s Widow Be Appointed to Fill His Seat?

August 30th, 2009

Vicki Kennedy isn’t a politician, but she already has the backing of two powerful Senators to fill the seat in the U.S. Senate left vacant by the death of her husband, Ted Kennedy.  There is a long history in America of widows being appointed to the seats of their dead husbands.  History is in her favor if Vicki Kennedy wants to be the next Senator from Massachusetts.  Is this a good thing?

What we – meaning the public – know about Vicki Kennedy is very little.  She has kept a low public profile since becoming the second wife of the last of the Kennedy brothers.  Ted Kennedy had a reputation as a womanizer before marrying the former banking industry lawyer, who was then called Victoria Reggie.  But lurid tales of the Senator’s sex life ceased after their marriage.

The New York Times calls Vicki Kennedy “canny, razor smart, and beautiful“.  Not a bad combination.  When Ted Kennedy and Victoria Reggie met, she was a divorced mother of two with a job as a lawyer in the banking industry.  They met at the home of her father Edmund Reggie, a longtime Kennedy family confidant.  The elder Reggie was a political insider in notoriously corruption-prone Louisiana who was at the time under indictment for misapplying bank funds.

Edmund Reggie was a close associate of former Louisiana governor Edwin Edwards, who in 2001 was sentenced to 10 years in prison on racketeering charges.  Reggie was sentenced to 120 days of home confinement and a $30,000 fine in connection with “missaplication of funds” charges associated with a failed Louisiana Savings and Loan.  After Reggie’s wrist slap, Vicki Kennedy was quoted as saying:

“We know Edmund Reggie; we know who he is, and obviously the judge showed he knows, too.”

Victoria Kennedy graduated from Tulane University, and later was awarded a summa cum laude law degree from Tulane Uniiversity Law School.  After law school, she went to work for law firm Keck, Mahin, and Cate.  While at the firm, Vicki Kennedy specialized in banking and bankruptcy law.  Somewhat ironically, Keck, Mahin, and Cate would later need a bankruptcy lawyer itself as it descended into insolvency later in the decade.

Senators Orin Hatch, a Utah Republican, and Chris Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, have both come out in favor of Vicki Kennedy’s appointment to fill her late husbands Senate seat.  Both men were friends of Senator Kennedy, as well as long-time Senate colleagues.

Under current Massachusetts law, which was hurriedly passed in 2004 when it appeared that then-Governor Republican Mitt Romney would be allowed to appoint Sen. John Kerry’s replacement should he be elected President, the Massachusetts Governor has no power to appoint a replacement Senate member should the incumbent leave office before his term expires.

Current Governor Duvall Patrick is empowered to call a special election for next January to fill Ted Kennedy’s Senate position.  The seat will remain vacant until then.  However, Massachusetts legislators are considering passing legislation the would allow Patrick to appoint a temporary replacement to fill the seat in the interim.  It it now widely believed that Victoria Kennedy would be Patrick’s choice.

Democrats want the seat filled quickly because of their razor-thin ability to muster the 60 votes necessary to overcome potential Republican filibusters.  Needless to say the zig-zagging of the Massachusetts legislature over the issue makes a mockery of the democratic process, but that’s politics for you.