So I'm sitting here blogging about 02:00 this morning and I hear SNAP - another mouse caught in my living room - 3, count them, 3 nights in a row!!
Tonight I went to Benny's and bought 8 more traps. They are all over the storage area, front hall, living room and kitchen!
Let's see how many of those little suckers I catch and KILL tonight!
I love country living!
Thursday, December 20, 2007
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Pandemic Flu Virus
The evolution of flu viruses cannot be predicted. This makes it difficult to know if or when a virus might mutate to become easily transmittable among humans. Therefore, it is impossible to say when another pandemic will arise, or whether it will be mild or severe. One thing is known; it is not a question of if, but a question of when.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) asserts that once a virus allows for efficient human-to-human transmission, a pandemic can occur. Because of high global mobility and interconnection, illness could spread quickly and, if the virus has a high fatality rate, threaten millions of lives around the world.
A flu pandemic may strike in waves, each of which could last for 6 to 8 weeks. An especially severe pandemic could lead to widespread illness, a large number of deaths, and economic loss.
Everyday life would be disrupted because so many people in so many places would become seriously ill at the same time. Impact could range from school and business closings to the interruption of such basic services as public transportation and food delivery.
A substantial portion of the world's population would require some form of medical care. Healthcare facilities would be overwhelmed, creating a strain on hospital staff, and a shortage of beds, ventilators, and other supplies.
Central to preparedness planning is estimating the mortality rates of the next pandemic. Experts' answers to this fundamental question have ranged from 2 million to more than 50 million. All of these predictions are scientifically grounded. The reasons for the wide range of estimates are numerous.
Even in the best case scenarios of the next pandemic, 2 to 7 million people could die and tens of millions would require medical attention worldwide.
Interventions: Distributing antiviral treatments to inffected individuals and others near them to reduce symptoms and susceptibility; vaccinating people, possibly children first, with either 1 or 2 shots of a vaccine not well matched to the strain that may emerge; social distancing, such as restricting travel and quarantining households; and closing schools.
The results also showed that vaccinating school children first is more effective than random vaccination when the vaccine supply is limited. Regardless of contagiousness, social distancing measures, alone, had little effect.
But when the virus was highly contagious, all single-intervention strategies left nearly half the population infected. In this instance, the only measures that reduced the number of cases to below the annual flu rate involved a combination of at least three different interventions, including a minimum of 182 million courses of antiviral treatment.
No Interventions: The results showed that, with no intervention, a pandemic flu with low contagiousness could peak after 117 days and infect about 33% of the US population. A highly contagious virus could peak after 64 days and infect about 54% of the population.
Rhode Island is one of only seven states, including Massachusetts, that have yet to make any purchases toward its share of the stockpile of anti-virals for pandemic influenza, which is something public health policy officials say puts the entire nation at risk.
The state has until June to comply. Also, Rhode Island doesn't have a liability shield law in place to protect health care volunteers in the case of a public health emergency.
A pandemic could deliver a "shock" to the economy, with immediate demand- and supply-side effects, as well as longer-term supply-side effects.
As a pandemic spreads, international travel would dramatically decline as people avoided flu "hotspots" and governments restricted travel. In all likelihood, people would quarantine themselves and their families by staying at home more. Nonessential activities requiring social contact would be sharply curtailed, leading to significant declines in retail trade. People would avoid public places, such as shopping malls, community centers, places of worship, and public transit. Attendance at theaters, sporting events, museums, and restaurants would decline.
Schools and business would suffer. It seems likely that many schools would close, and even if they did not, attendance would fall dramatically as parents kept their children at home. In either event, large-scale school closings would lead to a spike in workplace absences because parents would stay home to care for their children even if they were not sick. The impact on businesses of all kinds due to employee absenteeism would be dramatic.
The general slowdown in economic activity would reduce gross domestic product (GDP).
Business confidence would be dented, the supply of labor would be restricted, supply chains would be strained as transportation systems were disrupted, and arrears and default rates on consumer and business debt would probably rise. It seems likely that the stock market would initially fall and rebound later.
Estimates of the economic impact vary widely. A pandemic could cause a serious recession in the US economy, with immediate costs ranging from $500 billion to $675 billion.
The following is a sampling of predictions from financial leaders:
WBB Securities LLC predicted a pandemic could cause a one-year economic loss of $488 billion and a permanent economic loss of $1.4 trillion to the US economy
The Congressional Budget Office said a pandemic could deal a $675 billion hit to the US economy
The World Bank has predicted a pandemic could cost the global economy $800 billion a year.
Despite the advance warning, the world is ill prepared to defend itself against a flu pandemic. WHO has urged all countries to develop preparedness plans, but only around 40 have done so.
The WHO has further urged countries with adequate resources to stockpile antiviral drugs nationally for use at the start of a pandemic. Under the current situation, most developing countries may have limited access to vaccines and antiviral drugs throughout the duration of a pandemic.
Coming soon: How you can prepare.
However, the World Health Organization (WHO) asserts that once a virus allows for efficient human-to-human transmission, a pandemic can occur. Because of high global mobility and interconnection, illness could spread quickly and, if the virus has a high fatality rate, threaten millions of lives around the world.
A flu pandemic may strike in waves, each of which could last for 6 to 8 weeks. An especially severe pandemic could lead to widespread illness, a large number of deaths, and economic loss.
Everyday life would be disrupted because so many people in so many places would become seriously ill at the same time. Impact could range from school and business closings to the interruption of such basic services as public transportation and food delivery.
A substantial portion of the world's population would require some form of medical care. Healthcare facilities would be overwhelmed, creating a strain on hospital staff, and a shortage of beds, ventilators, and other supplies.
Central to preparedness planning is estimating the mortality rates of the next pandemic. Experts' answers to this fundamental question have ranged from 2 million to more than 50 million. All of these predictions are scientifically grounded. The reasons for the wide range of estimates are numerous.
Even in the best case scenarios of the next pandemic, 2 to 7 million people could die and tens of millions would require medical attention worldwide.
Interventions: Distributing antiviral treatments to inffected individuals and others near them to reduce symptoms and susceptibility; vaccinating people, possibly children first, with either 1 or 2 shots of a vaccine not well matched to the strain that may emerge; social distancing, such as restricting travel and quarantining households; and closing schools.
The results also showed that vaccinating school children first is more effective than random vaccination when the vaccine supply is limited. Regardless of contagiousness, social distancing measures, alone, had little effect.
But when the virus was highly contagious, all single-intervention strategies left nearly half the population infected. In this instance, the only measures that reduced the number of cases to below the annual flu rate involved a combination of at least three different interventions, including a minimum of 182 million courses of antiviral treatment.
No Interventions: The results showed that, with no intervention, a pandemic flu with low contagiousness could peak after 117 days and infect about 33% of the US population. A highly contagious virus could peak after 64 days and infect about 54% of the population.
Rhode Island is one of only seven states, including Massachusetts, that have yet to make any purchases toward its share of the stockpile of anti-virals for pandemic influenza, which is something public health policy officials say puts the entire nation at risk.
The state has until June to comply. Also, Rhode Island doesn't have a liability shield law in place to protect health care volunteers in the case of a public health emergency.
A pandemic could deliver a "shock" to the economy, with immediate demand- and supply-side effects, as well as longer-term supply-side effects.
As a pandemic spreads, international travel would dramatically decline as people avoided flu "hotspots" and governments restricted travel. In all likelihood, people would quarantine themselves and their families by staying at home more. Nonessential activities requiring social contact would be sharply curtailed, leading to significant declines in retail trade. People would avoid public places, such as shopping malls, community centers, places of worship, and public transit. Attendance at theaters, sporting events, museums, and restaurants would decline.
Schools and business would suffer. It seems likely that many schools would close, and even if they did not, attendance would fall dramatically as parents kept their children at home. In either event, large-scale school closings would lead to a spike in workplace absences because parents would stay home to care for their children even if they were not sick. The impact on businesses of all kinds due to employee absenteeism would be dramatic.
The general slowdown in economic activity would reduce gross domestic product (GDP).
Business confidence would be dented, the supply of labor would be restricted, supply chains would be strained as transportation systems were disrupted, and arrears and default rates on consumer and business debt would probably rise. It seems likely that the stock market would initially fall and rebound later.
Estimates of the economic impact vary widely. A pandemic could cause a serious recession in the US economy, with immediate costs ranging from $500 billion to $675 billion.
The following is a sampling of predictions from financial leaders:
WBB Securities LLC predicted a pandemic could cause a one-year economic loss of $488 billion and a permanent economic loss of $1.4 trillion to the US economy
The Congressional Budget Office said a pandemic could deal a $675 billion hit to the US economy
The World Bank has predicted a pandemic could cost the global economy $800 billion a year.
Despite the advance warning, the world is ill prepared to defend itself against a flu pandemic. WHO has urged all countries to develop preparedness plans, but only around 40 have done so.
The WHO has further urged countries with adequate resources to stockpile antiviral drugs nationally for use at the start of a pandemic. Under the current situation, most developing countries may have limited access to vaccines and antiviral drugs throughout the duration of a pandemic.
Coming soon: How you can prepare.
Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Bengal Tiger Habitat Destruction
Habitat destruction is forcing India's endangered tigers to new grounds, including high mountains which have a sufficient prey base but are not known to be the natural home of the big cats.
With forests in the foothills being built over and cleared for farming, wildlife experts say tigers are being increasingly spotted in high altitudes in India's northeast and west.
But they say tigers could still be as endangered in their new environment and are not as adaptable as leopards.
India's wildlife crisis, highlighted best by the dwindling tiger and lion population, has caused huge national concern, pushing authorities to declare new measures to save the cats.
Experts say increasing human interference such as development, encroachment and destruction of habitat, as well as poaching, are the main threats to animals across India, from the Himalayas to Indian Ocean islands.
India is thought to be home to half the world's surviving tigers, but according to a census in 2001 and 2002, their numbers have dwindled to between 1,300 and 1,500 from 40,000 a century ago.
With forests in the foothills being built over and cleared for farming, wildlife experts say tigers are being increasingly spotted in high altitudes in India's northeast and west.
But they say tigers could still be as endangered in their new environment and are not as adaptable as leopards.
India's wildlife crisis, highlighted best by the dwindling tiger and lion population, has caused huge national concern, pushing authorities to declare new measures to save the cats.
Experts say increasing human interference such as development, encroachment and destruction of habitat, as well as poaching, are the main threats to animals across India, from the Himalayas to Indian Ocean islands.
India is thought to be home to half the world's surviving tigers, but according to a census in 2001 and 2002, their numbers have dwindled to between 1,300 and 1,500 from 40,000 a century ago.
Oh Happy Day!
At 14:23 today I received a call from Joe, a nice young man who works at Verizon about the problems with my Fios TV service!
We spoke for about 30 minutes about some of the issues that I emailed about. (see 12/11/07)
He was able to answer many of my questions and told me that some of these issues were scheduled to be fixed on or about 1/8/08!
He also gave me the phone number, and more importantly, his email address asking that I document any problems that I have going forward. Little does he know that documenting info is what I did for 28 years in the security industry and I'm pretty good at it. I'm hoping that everything that can go wrong, goes wrong in the next week or two while I, and my problems, are fresh in his memory.
So, it took 7 days for a response to my first letter and phone call. Not so bad considering it's the ugly corporate world.
The poor man has no idea what he's in for.
We spoke for about 30 minutes about some of the issues that I emailed about. (see 12/11/07)
He was able to answer many of my questions and told me that some of these issues were scheduled to be fixed on or about 1/8/08!
He also gave me the phone number, and more importantly, his email address asking that I document any problems that I have going forward. Little does he know that documenting info is what I did for 28 years in the security industry and I'm pretty good at it. I'm hoping that everything that can go wrong, goes wrong in the next week or two while I, and my problems, are fresh in his memory.
So, it took 7 days for a response to my first letter and phone call. Not so bad considering it's the ugly corporate world.
The poor man has no idea what he's in for.
A Rhode Island Monster
So many times we hear of states not doing enough to keep convicted killers behind bars. It's the story we never want to hear; knowing that something could have been done to stop someone from being free to commit another crime, but wasn't, and an innocent person's life was lost.
I came across this article on the internet (where else, in my little world) that reminded me of how much our little state did to be sure this monster stayed behind bars for as long as possible. And how this one person ruined so many lives in the town I grew up in.
By HELEN O'NEILL, AP Special Correspondent
Sun Dec 16, 1:46 AM ET
WARWICK, R.I. - They called him Iron Man, a hulking teenage football player with a baby face and winsome smile who lived with his parents in a small ranch house in the Buttonwoods section of town.
Then, one summer night in 1987, Craig Price crept across his neighbor's yard, broke into a little brown house on Inez Avenue and stabbed Rebecca Spencer 58 times. She was a 27-year-old mother of two. He was 13.
Two years passed before Price struck again.
Joan Heaton, 39, was butchered with the kitchen knives she had bought earlier that day. The bodies of her daughters, Jennifer 10, and Melissa 8, were found in pools of blood, pieces of knives broken off in their bones; Jennifer had been stabbed 62 times.
Buttonwoods was paralyzed. Police combed the streets. Neighbors padlocked their doors. The Heaton house was just a few hundred yards from the Spencer home and the question hung thick over the tidy, working-class neighborhood: What kind of monster was living in their midst?
The answer came two weeks later.
Price was a wisecracking 15-year-old who had been in minor trouble for petty burglaries — "thieving" he called it — but who seemed friendly to neighbors and was always surrounded by friends.
Police had become suspicious after Price lied about a deep gash on his finger. They knew from the crime scene that the killer had cut himself. A bloody sock-print matched Price's size-13 feet. They found the knives in his backyard shed.
At the police station, his mother sobbing softly beside him, Price calmly confessed to the four murders.
Yet even as police and prosecutors celebrated the capture of Rhode Island's most notorious serial killer, they were reminded of a grim reality.
In five years, Price would be free to kill again.
Price was a month shy of his 16th birthday. As a juvenile, he would be released from the youth correctional center when he turned 21 — the maximum penalty under Rhode Island law at the time. His records would be sealed. The 5-foot-10 inch, 240-pound killer would be free to resume his life as if the murders had never occurred.
The law was on his side and Price knew it.
"When I get out I'm going to smoke a bomber," Price yelled to the crowd, as he was led, handcuffed, from the courthouse.
Jeffrey Pine, then assistant attorney general, said he had never felt such frustration or disgust. "There was something fundamentally wrong with a system that allowed someone who killed four people to simply go free at 21," Pine said.
And so Pine and others embarked on a remarkable mission. They would change the system so that future young murderers could be locked up for life. At the same time they would do their best to ensure that Price himself would stay behind bars long past his 21st birthday.
It was an extraordinary response to an extraordinary case and it involved every level of government, from the governor's and attorney general's offices to the state legislature, the police and the courts.
In effect, the legal system would bend the laws it was sworn to uphold because, despite misgivings by some, many believed that keeping Price behind bars was simply the right thing to do.
___
Even today, Price's taped confession sounds chillingly surreal. In a nonchalant, matter-of-fact drawl he describes the night of terror in the Heaton home. He tells how he bit Heaton's face as he knifed her. He mimics the last sounds of the dying girls. He whines about cutting his hand.
Detective Tim Colgan, who took Price's confession, went home that night and cried. Colgan had been first on the scene. Never had he witnessed such savagery. Nor such lack of remorse.
Detective Kevin Collins, who assisted with the confession, had never felt such rage. He vowed to do everything in his power to prevent Price from ever walking free.
For years, that is what he did.
With members of the victims' families, he formed Citizens Opposed to the Release of Craig Price, or CORP. He organized rallies, launched fundraisers, appeared on national news shows and in publications: Larry King Live, Time, Newsweek. CORP hired planes to fly banners in major cities around the country declaring "Killer Craig Price. Moving to your city? Beware."
Every time the name Craig Price surfaced, so did the earnest, angry face of a seasoned police officer warning the nation about the murderer who had terrorized his town.
"Craig Price is a serial killer stopped temporarily at four killings," he said. "He should be locked up for life."
Many in the state agreed. Within a month of Price's arrest, the state legislature passed a law allowing juveniles to be tried in adult court for serious crimes. The same measure had failed on two previous occasions.
But the law couldn't be applied retroactively to Price. Collins and Pine knew they needed to do more.
Pine's chance came when he was elected attorney general in 1992.
He pushed for legislation to allow judges to consider criminal records in deciding whether someone should be committed to a psychiatric hospital. Known as the Craig Price Bill, it passed in 1994.
He flew to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., to seek the advice of Greg McCrary, a national expert on serial killers. McCrary had profiled hundreds of murderers. But rarely had he encountered anyone as violent as Price. Less than 1 percent of killers are that frenzied, he told Pine. And, so far, society has found no way to treat them.
In a detailed report, McCrary described Price as a human predator who showed no empathy or remorse and was highly likely to kill again. State psychologists were saying the same thing.
Nothing in Price's background explained his rage. By all accounts he was from a stable home where both parents worked to provide a comfortable life for their children.
Wesley Profit, a Massachusetts psychiatrist who examined Price on behalf of the state, wrote in 1990 that Price was a serial killer who was "in a psychotic rage at the time of the murders." He is "in dire need of extensive treatment," Profit continued, "and even then may not be in a position to be safely placed in the community."
The reports were more tools for the state, Pine said. "We were looking at everything."
___
In many ways, the best tool turned out to be Price himself.
On the advice of his court-appointed lawyer, Price refused a court order to undergo further psychological testing, fearing the results would be used to commit him for life. His refusals allowed Pine's office to file contempt-of-court charges in 1994. When Price flew into a rage and threatened to "snuff out" a corrections officer, Pine seized the opportunity to file extortion charges.
It was an extraordinary indictment. No one could remember an inmate being charged for what many considered routine language in the youth prison.
"We were dealing with a quadruple murderer who had threatened to kill again," Pine said, "And we were going to prosecute him to the full extent of the law."
But he was also dealing with a growing public demand for action, fueled by fear of Price's imminent release. Price's 21st birthday was on Oct. 11, 1994.
Media reports describing the young killer's life behind bars stoked the fear. There were stories about how Price had beefed up to 300 pounds by lifting weights, how he had made a controversial rap video about killing a cop, how he boasted freely about "making history" when he was released.
Even President Clinton couldn't avoid the furor surrounding Price. In May 1994 when Clinton flew to Providence he was greeted by demonstrators holding banners demanding that the "Warwick Slasher" remain locked up. Pressed in a television interview, Clinton said he thought it was "outrageous that this kid could get out."
Gov. Bruce Sundlun was saying the same thing.
"Everyone in state government shares your concerns," he told the crowd at a candlelit vigil outside Warwick City Hall in June 1994. "Everyone in state government wants to blow out the candle on Craig Price and keep him behind bars."
But the state still had to figure out ways to do so. A major test was the extortion trial.
Patrick Youngs, who prosecuted the case and still works in the attorney general's office, remembers hyperventilating as he waited for the verdict. It was days before Price's 21st birthday. The whole state was watching. Television stations were cutting into soap operas to report the outcome. Youngs knew the judge would not be swayed by public pressure. And he knew he had a very weak case.
By now Price had a new lawyer, Robert Mann, one of the state's most respected civil rights advocates with a reputation for taking on tough cases. In court, Mann accused the attorney general's office of twisting the laws to selectively prosecute Price. The state was essentially using two sets of laws, he argued, one for everyone else and one for Price.
But Price sealed his own fate. Found guilty by a jury, he delivered a belligerent, rambling diatribe about how he had paid his dues to society and how he was now being persecuted because of his race. "The media has once again done a good job of creating a monster," he said, his voice thundering through the stunned courtroom. "Not just a bogeyman, but a black bogeyman."
"The judge got a glimpse," Youngs said. "And that was all he needed."
Price was sentenced to 15 years, seven to serve and eight suspended. He spent his 21st birthday in the Adult Correctional Institution.
Citizens Opposed to the Release of Craig Price spent it at a candlelit vigil at the state house.
___
"The test of the system is not whether some middle-class white kid caught with an ounce of marijuana gets a fair shake," Mann says. "The test is whether someone portrayed as larger than life evil gets a fair shake."
There was no doubt that Price tested the limits of the system.
"People said we bent the system," Youngs said. "We didn't. We did our best within the rules."
For more than a decade, the state continued to find creative ways way to charge and convict Price. The criminal contempt charge stemming from Price's earlier refusals to submit to psychiatric testing went forward — and brought a one-year sentence — even though, on the advice of Mann, Price had since agreed to the tests. Fights in prison led to assault charges. The state even took the unusual step of charging Price with violation of probation while he was in prison.
Every conviction added more time. And every conviction brought more headlines about the state's tireless efforts to protect the public from Craig Price.
Several appeals went to the state Supreme Court. Always, Price lost.
Mann wasn't the only one who questioned the lengths to which the state went. Mental health advocates had bitterly opposed the law allowing courts to consider criminal records in commitment proceedings. The state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union consistently criticized the state's tactics.
"The pressure that was brought to bear to keep him in prison is the same pressure that condemns innocent people to prison and to death," Steven Brown, the branch's executive director, said in 1994.
Yet lawmakers, prosecutors and judges were faced with an agonizing dilemma: What should society do with a psychopathic killer it cannot legally lock up for life?
In May 1997 Price appeared before Chief District Court Judge Albert DeRobbio after a jury convicted him of criminal contempt. Three years earlier DeRobbio had sentenced Price to one year for the same charge, believing it was the maximum he could impose. Subsequently the
Supreme Court ruled that judges had unlimited sentencing power in such cases.
At 77 and still head of the District Court, DeRobbio is the respected elder statesman of the Rhode Island judiciary. From his courtroom on Dorrance Street, DeRobbio has handed down thousands of sentences and seen his share of murderers.
The Price sentencing, he says, was the most difficult decision of his career.
Contempt charges usually result in a fine, not jail time. Yet the state was begging DeRobbio to put Price away for life.
DeRobbio could weigh public health and safety, but not public fear. He could take into account the murders, but he could not sentence Price for those crimes.
"I did not feel that I could, in conscience, sentence him to life on a contempt charge," DeRobbio said.
And so he gave 25 years, 10 to serve and the remaining 15 years if Price got into trouble or refused treatment.
"I felt that to put him on hold for 25 years would be to put a hold on many, many things," DeRobbio said. "And maybe, in that time, some form of treatment could be found."
___
Price has written many letters over the years, to judges and prison officials and the media, complaining about his incarceration. Long ago, he says, he paid his debt for his juvenile crimes.
"The state was effectively organized not to rehabilitate me, but to incarcerate me," Price said in court in 2004. "They were looking for anything to lock me up."
Many felt that was true, but that the state had no other choice.
"We had a unique combination of the state's most heinous crime committed by one of its youngest criminals," Pine says. "It was a chaotic, emotional time, and I think we did a good job of making the system work."
There is no doubt that Price left a lasting legacy on the juvenile justice system in Rhode Island.
Today, a 15-year-old serial killer would immediately be referred to adult court, and likely sentenced to life without parole.
There are currently 10 juveniles imprisoned or awaiting trial in the Adult Correctional Center.
Price himself ended up in court many more times — for assault, violation of probation, and various appeals. In 2004 he was transferred to the Florida Department of Corrections as part of a routine interstate transfer. Florida prison officials refused to allow him to be interviewed, citing "security reasons."
Price's current scheduled release date is December 2020. He will be 46.
I came across this article on the internet (where else, in my little world) that reminded me of how much our little state did to be sure this monster stayed behind bars for as long as possible. And how this one person ruined so many lives in the town I grew up in.
By HELEN O'NEILL, AP Special Correspondent
Sun Dec 16, 1:46 AM ET
WARWICK, R.I. - They called him Iron Man, a hulking teenage football player with a baby face and winsome smile who lived with his parents in a small ranch house in the Buttonwoods section of town.
Then, one summer night in 1987, Craig Price crept across his neighbor's yard, broke into a little brown house on Inez Avenue and stabbed Rebecca Spencer 58 times. She was a 27-year-old mother of two. He was 13.
Two years passed before Price struck again.
Joan Heaton, 39, was butchered with the kitchen knives she had bought earlier that day. The bodies of her daughters, Jennifer 10, and Melissa 8, were found in pools of blood, pieces of knives broken off in their bones; Jennifer had been stabbed 62 times.
Buttonwoods was paralyzed. Police combed the streets. Neighbors padlocked their doors. The Heaton house was just a few hundred yards from the Spencer home and the question hung thick over the tidy, working-class neighborhood: What kind of monster was living in their midst?
The answer came two weeks later.
Price was a wisecracking 15-year-old who had been in minor trouble for petty burglaries — "thieving" he called it — but who seemed friendly to neighbors and was always surrounded by friends.
Police had become suspicious after Price lied about a deep gash on his finger. They knew from the crime scene that the killer had cut himself. A bloody sock-print matched Price's size-13 feet. They found the knives in his backyard shed.
At the police station, his mother sobbing softly beside him, Price calmly confessed to the four murders.
Yet even as police and prosecutors celebrated the capture of Rhode Island's most notorious serial killer, they were reminded of a grim reality.
In five years, Price would be free to kill again.
Price was a month shy of his 16th birthday. As a juvenile, he would be released from the youth correctional center when he turned 21 — the maximum penalty under Rhode Island law at the time. His records would be sealed. The 5-foot-10 inch, 240-pound killer would be free to resume his life as if the murders had never occurred.
The law was on his side and Price knew it.
"When I get out I'm going to smoke a bomber," Price yelled to the crowd, as he was led, handcuffed, from the courthouse.
Jeffrey Pine, then assistant attorney general, said he had never felt such frustration or disgust. "There was something fundamentally wrong with a system that allowed someone who killed four people to simply go free at 21," Pine said.
And so Pine and others embarked on a remarkable mission. They would change the system so that future young murderers could be locked up for life. At the same time they would do their best to ensure that Price himself would stay behind bars long past his 21st birthday.
It was an extraordinary response to an extraordinary case and it involved every level of government, from the governor's and attorney general's offices to the state legislature, the police and the courts.
In effect, the legal system would bend the laws it was sworn to uphold because, despite misgivings by some, many believed that keeping Price behind bars was simply the right thing to do.
___
Even today, Price's taped confession sounds chillingly surreal. In a nonchalant, matter-of-fact drawl he describes the night of terror in the Heaton home. He tells how he bit Heaton's face as he knifed her. He mimics the last sounds of the dying girls. He whines about cutting his hand.
Detective Tim Colgan, who took Price's confession, went home that night and cried. Colgan had been first on the scene. Never had he witnessed such savagery. Nor such lack of remorse.
Detective Kevin Collins, who assisted with the confession, had never felt such rage. He vowed to do everything in his power to prevent Price from ever walking free.
For years, that is what he did.
With members of the victims' families, he formed Citizens Opposed to the Release of Craig Price, or CORP. He organized rallies, launched fundraisers, appeared on national news shows and in publications: Larry King Live, Time, Newsweek. CORP hired planes to fly banners in major cities around the country declaring "Killer Craig Price. Moving to your city? Beware."
Every time the name Craig Price surfaced, so did the earnest, angry face of a seasoned police officer warning the nation about the murderer who had terrorized his town.
"Craig Price is a serial killer stopped temporarily at four killings," he said. "He should be locked up for life."
Many in the state agreed. Within a month of Price's arrest, the state legislature passed a law allowing juveniles to be tried in adult court for serious crimes. The same measure had failed on two previous occasions.
But the law couldn't be applied retroactively to Price. Collins and Pine knew they needed to do more.
Pine's chance came when he was elected attorney general in 1992.
He pushed for legislation to allow judges to consider criminal records in deciding whether someone should be committed to a psychiatric hospital. Known as the Craig Price Bill, it passed in 1994.
He flew to the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., to seek the advice of Greg McCrary, a national expert on serial killers. McCrary had profiled hundreds of murderers. But rarely had he encountered anyone as violent as Price. Less than 1 percent of killers are that frenzied, he told Pine. And, so far, society has found no way to treat them.
In a detailed report, McCrary described Price as a human predator who showed no empathy or remorse and was highly likely to kill again. State psychologists were saying the same thing.
Nothing in Price's background explained his rage. By all accounts he was from a stable home where both parents worked to provide a comfortable life for their children.
Wesley Profit, a Massachusetts psychiatrist who examined Price on behalf of the state, wrote in 1990 that Price was a serial killer who was "in a psychotic rage at the time of the murders." He is "in dire need of extensive treatment," Profit continued, "and even then may not be in a position to be safely placed in the community."
The reports were more tools for the state, Pine said. "We were looking at everything."
___
In many ways, the best tool turned out to be Price himself.
On the advice of his court-appointed lawyer, Price refused a court order to undergo further psychological testing, fearing the results would be used to commit him for life. His refusals allowed Pine's office to file contempt-of-court charges in 1994. When Price flew into a rage and threatened to "snuff out" a corrections officer, Pine seized the opportunity to file extortion charges.
It was an extraordinary indictment. No one could remember an inmate being charged for what many considered routine language in the youth prison.
"We were dealing with a quadruple murderer who had threatened to kill again," Pine said, "And we were going to prosecute him to the full extent of the law."
But he was also dealing with a growing public demand for action, fueled by fear of Price's imminent release. Price's 21st birthday was on Oct. 11, 1994.
Media reports describing the young killer's life behind bars stoked the fear. There were stories about how Price had beefed up to 300 pounds by lifting weights, how he had made a controversial rap video about killing a cop, how he boasted freely about "making history" when he was released.
Even President Clinton couldn't avoid the furor surrounding Price. In May 1994 when Clinton flew to Providence he was greeted by demonstrators holding banners demanding that the "Warwick Slasher" remain locked up. Pressed in a television interview, Clinton said he thought it was "outrageous that this kid could get out."
Gov. Bruce Sundlun was saying the same thing.
"Everyone in state government shares your concerns," he told the crowd at a candlelit vigil outside Warwick City Hall in June 1994. "Everyone in state government wants to blow out the candle on Craig Price and keep him behind bars."
But the state still had to figure out ways to do so. A major test was the extortion trial.
Patrick Youngs, who prosecuted the case and still works in the attorney general's office, remembers hyperventilating as he waited for the verdict. It was days before Price's 21st birthday. The whole state was watching. Television stations were cutting into soap operas to report the outcome. Youngs knew the judge would not be swayed by public pressure. And he knew he had a very weak case.
By now Price had a new lawyer, Robert Mann, one of the state's most respected civil rights advocates with a reputation for taking on tough cases. In court, Mann accused the attorney general's office of twisting the laws to selectively prosecute Price. The state was essentially using two sets of laws, he argued, one for everyone else and one for Price.
But Price sealed his own fate. Found guilty by a jury, he delivered a belligerent, rambling diatribe about how he had paid his dues to society and how he was now being persecuted because of his race. "The media has once again done a good job of creating a monster," he said, his voice thundering through the stunned courtroom. "Not just a bogeyman, but a black bogeyman."
"The judge got a glimpse," Youngs said. "And that was all he needed."
Price was sentenced to 15 years, seven to serve and eight suspended. He spent his 21st birthday in the Adult Correctional Institution.
Citizens Opposed to the Release of Craig Price spent it at a candlelit vigil at the state house.
___
"The test of the system is not whether some middle-class white kid caught with an ounce of marijuana gets a fair shake," Mann says. "The test is whether someone portrayed as larger than life evil gets a fair shake."
There was no doubt that Price tested the limits of the system.
"People said we bent the system," Youngs said. "We didn't. We did our best within the rules."
For more than a decade, the state continued to find creative ways way to charge and convict Price. The criminal contempt charge stemming from Price's earlier refusals to submit to psychiatric testing went forward — and brought a one-year sentence — even though, on the advice of Mann, Price had since agreed to the tests. Fights in prison led to assault charges. The state even took the unusual step of charging Price with violation of probation while he was in prison.
Every conviction added more time. And every conviction brought more headlines about the state's tireless efforts to protect the public from Craig Price.
Several appeals went to the state Supreme Court. Always, Price lost.
Mann wasn't the only one who questioned the lengths to which the state went. Mental health advocates had bitterly opposed the law allowing courts to consider criminal records in commitment proceedings. The state branch of the American Civil Liberties Union consistently criticized the state's tactics.
"The pressure that was brought to bear to keep him in prison is the same pressure that condemns innocent people to prison and to death," Steven Brown, the branch's executive director, said in 1994.
Yet lawmakers, prosecutors and judges were faced with an agonizing dilemma: What should society do with a psychopathic killer it cannot legally lock up for life?
In May 1997 Price appeared before Chief District Court Judge Albert DeRobbio after a jury convicted him of criminal contempt. Three years earlier DeRobbio had sentenced Price to one year for the same charge, believing it was the maximum he could impose. Subsequently the
Supreme Court ruled that judges had unlimited sentencing power in such cases.
At 77 and still head of the District Court, DeRobbio is the respected elder statesman of the Rhode Island judiciary. From his courtroom on Dorrance Street, DeRobbio has handed down thousands of sentences and seen his share of murderers.
The Price sentencing, he says, was the most difficult decision of his career.
Contempt charges usually result in a fine, not jail time. Yet the state was begging DeRobbio to put Price away for life.
DeRobbio could weigh public health and safety, but not public fear. He could take into account the murders, but he could not sentence Price for those crimes.
"I did not feel that I could, in conscience, sentence him to life on a contempt charge," DeRobbio said.
And so he gave 25 years, 10 to serve and the remaining 15 years if Price got into trouble or refused treatment.
"I felt that to put him on hold for 25 years would be to put a hold on many, many things," DeRobbio said. "And maybe, in that time, some form of treatment could be found."
___
Price has written many letters over the years, to judges and prison officials and the media, complaining about his incarceration. Long ago, he says, he paid his debt for his juvenile crimes.
"The state was effectively organized not to rehabilitate me, but to incarcerate me," Price said in court in 2004. "They were looking for anything to lock me up."
Many felt that was true, but that the state had no other choice.
"We had a unique combination of the state's most heinous crime committed by one of its youngest criminals," Pine says. "It was a chaotic, emotional time, and I think we did a good job of making the system work."
There is no doubt that Price left a lasting legacy on the juvenile justice system in Rhode Island.
Today, a 15-year-old serial killer would immediately be referred to adult court, and likely sentenced to life without parole.
There are currently 10 juveniles imprisoned or awaiting trial in the Adult Correctional Center.
Price himself ended up in court many more times — for assault, violation of probation, and various appeals. In 2004 he was transferred to the Florida Department of Corrections as part of a routine interstate transfer. Florida prison officials refused to allow him to be interviewed, citing "security reasons."
Price's current scheduled release date is December 2020. He will be 46.
Friday, December 14, 2007
President Idiot Is Finally Disgusted...
with the steroids scandal!!
He states that baseball has been "sullied" and says players and owners must take the report seriously.
With all the disgusting things going on in the world, that's the thing he gets upset about?
Wonder why he hasn't taken the reports given to him seriously, like the NIE report that said that Iran hasn't got the capability for nuclear technology! Hey, Georgie, what about that stinking report?
What a freaking idiot he is.
He states that baseball has been "sullied" and says players and owners must take the report seriously.
With all the disgusting things going on in the world, that's the thing he gets upset about?
Wonder why he hasn't taken the reports given to him seriously, like the NIE report that said that Iran hasn't got the capability for nuclear technology! Hey, Georgie, what about that stinking report?
What a freaking idiot he is.
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Outrage in Providence
22:00 - I just turned the police scanner on after having it off for a couple of hours.
It is hard to believe but the city of Providence is still in gridlock. They are now, AS I WRITE THIS, still taking kids off school buses!!!! They are calling for people with SUVs to help get the kids to their homes! Have these kids been warm this entire time? Have they had the opportunity to eat anything? To use a bathroom? I have so many questions that there is not enough time or question marks available for them all!
Where's the DOT?? Why weren't these roads treated at the start of the storm at 11:00 so that cars and trucks could get up the hills instead of bogging down and causing back-ups? Why didn't they stop the already stopped traffic on highways and side roads to get the plows in from the other direction?
22:15 - 3 buses in Providence still have students on them that need to be removed! I just called Channel 10 to see if they were aware of this and they said they are monitoring this.
22:32 - According to Channel 11 - Mayor Cicilline saying that 52 students have been stranded! What an outrage!! Cicilline hasn't even spoken to any parents at this time! They are showing video, some of the kids are little - 8 to 10 years old.
On the police scanner @
22:37: 6 year old Asian girl, any idea what her name is?? She doesn't understand or speak English!
Ed Parker, who was with DOT forever - retired this year. He was someone I called from time to time when I had questions, concerns or complaints about the RI Roadways. He was great, always taking time to answer my questions. Whomever his replacement is, they should be fired!!
I have to give the Providence Police a lot of credit. They are doing an admirable job out there considering no support from the mayor and DOT!
It is hard to believe but the city of Providence is still in gridlock. They are now, AS I WRITE THIS, still taking kids off school buses!!!! They are calling for people with SUVs to help get the kids to their homes! Have these kids been warm this entire time? Have they had the opportunity to eat anything? To use a bathroom? I have so many questions that there is not enough time or question marks available for them all!
Where's the DOT?? Why weren't these roads treated at the start of the storm at 11:00 so that cars and trucks could get up the hills instead of bogging down and causing back-ups? Why didn't they stop the already stopped traffic on highways and side roads to get the plows in from the other direction?
22:15 - 3 buses in Providence still have students on them that need to be removed! I just called Channel 10 to see if they were aware of this and they said they are monitoring this.
22:32 - According to Channel 11 - Mayor Cicilline saying that 52 students have been stranded! What an outrage!! Cicilline hasn't even spoken to any parents at this time! They are showing video, some of the kids are little - 8 to 10 years old.
On the police scanner @
22:37: 6 year old Asian girl, any idea what her name is?? She doesn't understand or speak English!
Ed Parker, who was with DOT forever - retired this year. He was someone I called from time to time when I had questions, concerns or complaints about the RI Roadways. He was great, always taking time to answer my questions. Whomever his replacement is, they should be fired!!
I have to give the Providence Police a lot of credit. They are doing an admirable job out there considering no support from the mayor and DOT!
A Snowy Day
I went out early this morning to get my errands done and I was on my way home just as huge snowflakes started to fall.
As I unpacked the car, Hannibal was out getting his first taste of the snow and loving it as usual! I look forward to letting him out in the dark tonight and being able to see him. He loves to push the snow around with his nose and eat it too. I tell him over and over not to eat the yellow snow, but sometimes he does.
Veronica was to go to work until 6 tonight, but she never made it - the roads were so bad she left her car by the malls and had her step-father pick her up and take her home. Our original plan was that she would come here tonight after work and we'd get snowed in together, but, that's not gonna happen - at least tonight. I hope we have another snow storm soon where she can spend the night cuddled with her auntie.
I'm listening to the police scanner and everytown has MVA'S; cars off the road, icy conditions prohibiting cars from getting up any incline or hill, and even a school bus that slid into a house!
Prov PD is the worse, of course, with people calling for rides, well-being checks and dispersing kids not leaving stores. Some of the police officers are surprisingly co-operative and others are downright grumpy. From the warmth of my house, it's a bit funny. If I were out there on the road, I'd be one of the grumpy ones for sure.
So I'm off to take a nap now and later I'll be baking and/or making chocolate candies. Either way, I'm staying in!
As I unpacked the car, Hannibal was out getting his first taste of the snow and loving it as usual! I look forward to letting him out in the dark tonight and being able to see him. He loves to push the snow around with his nose and eat it too. I tell him over and over not to eat the yellow snow, but sometimes he does.
Veronica was to go to work until 6 tonight, but she never made it - the roads were so bad she left her car by the malls and had her step-father pick her up and take her home. Our original plan was that she would come here tonight after work and we'd get snowed in together, but, that's not gonna happen - at least tonight. I hope we have another snow storm soon where she can spend the night cuddled with her auntie.
I'm listening to the police scanner and everytown has MVA'S; cars off the road, icy conditions prohibiting cars from getting up any incline or hill, and even a school bus that slid into a house!
Prov PD is the worse, of course, with people calling for rides, well-being checks and dispersing kids not leaving stores. Some of the police officers are surprisingly co-operative and others are downright grumpy. From the warmth of my house, it's a bit funny. If I were out there on the road, I'd be one of the grumpy ones for sure.
So I'm off to take a nap now and later I'll be baking and/or making chocolate candies. Either way, I'm staying in!
He's Done It Again
WASHINGTON - President Idiot vetoed legislation Wednesday that would have expanded government-provided health insurance for children, his second slap-down of a bipartisan effort in Congress to dramatically increase funding for the popular program.
It was Bush's seventh veto in seven years — all but one coming since Democrats took control of Congress in January. Wednesday was the deadline for Bush to act or let the bill become law. The president also vetoed an earlier, similar bill expanding the health insurance program.
Bush vetoed the bill in private.
It was Bush's seventh veto in seven years — all but one coming since Democrats took control of Congress in January. Wednesday was the deadline for Bush to act or let the bill become law. The president also vetoed an earlier, similar bill expanding the health insurance program.
Bush vetoed the bill in private.
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
Mission NOT Accomplished
Today is the 1,686 day since the declaration of mission accomplished in Iraq.
Verizon Fios TV
Most of you know how annoying and frustrated I have been with the Fios TV service at my house and how I've told everyone to not even think of changing from Cox.
Tonight I wanted to watch Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News. I picked up the remote control to turn the TV on at 6:28 and finally got the picture at 6:48.
This was the straw that broke my sanity! I got on the phone (again) to the Verizon call center and asked for a name and mailing address to send a letter. What I got was an email address for some guy whose job is to answer complaints from Verizon customers (I couldn't imagine that job, probably far worse than what I did for Pulte Homes.)
Here's the gist of what I sent to him:
I agreed in September 2007 to a 2 year agreement to get a discounted price on Verizon TV, internet and telephone. I've found that whatever the price is that was discounted, it's not worth it! If I could get the TV service for FREE it still would not be worth it.
It's hard to put into words how much I dislike the Fios TV service in RI. I have called the call center more times than I can remember with questions and problems with the service. I have had 2 service techs here to fix the problems that I've had. The 1st technician was no help whatsoever as he had never even seen the TV service. The 2nd technician seemed to be knowledgeable, but still was not able to explain the problems that I have.
I hate the remote control. The often used buttons are not convenient, and having to press the STB button before pressing the POWER button is ridiculous. If anyone other than me is trying to watch TV it's almost laughable trying to get the TV and cable box on at the same time. I hate that the info banner is so big and the time it is shown on the TV cannot be shortened.
The two problems that annoy and tick me off beyond belief are the favorite button and not being able to skip channels. The favorite button goes to the guide and toggles between 2 channels with no discernible pattern. Not being able to skip channels is most annoying. I do not want to watch spanish, religion and shopping channels. There is NO way to skip them other than to block them with parental controls and then you still have to go through all the channels to surf.
I rarely watch live TV, I record almost everything I watch on the DVR because of the awful set up of Fios.
I'm ready to start a letter writing campaign against Fios TV and have told pretty much everyone I know to not even think of getting it, it's so awful to put up and live with.
I need to have this service updated, changed, removed, whatever before I lose my mind.
It should be interesting to see if this gets improved or resolved.
Stay tuned. If you can get the damn TV turned on, that is.
Tonight I wanted to watch Brian Williams on NBC Nightly News. I picked up the remote control to turn the TV on at 6:28 and finally got the picture at 6:48.
This was the straw that broke my sanity! I got on the phone (again) to the Verizon call center and asked for a name and mailing address to send a letter. What I got was an email address for some guy whose job is to answer complaints from Verizon customers (I couldn't imagine that job, probably far worse than what I did for Pulte Homes.)
Here's the gist of what I sent to him:
I agreed in September 2007 to a 2 year agreement to get a discounted price on Verizon TV, internet and telephone. I've found that whatever the price is that was discounted, it's not worth it! If I could get the TV service for FREE it still would not be worth it.
It's hard to put into words how much I dislike the Fios TV service in RI. I have called the call center more times than I can remember with questions and problems with the service. I have had 2 service techs here to fix the problems that I've had. The 1st technician was no help whatsoever as he had never even seen the TV service. The 2nd technician seemed to be knowledgeable, but still was not able to explain the problems that I have.
I hate the remote control. The often used buttons are not convenient, and having to press the STB button before pressing the POWER button is ridiculous. If anyone other than me is trying to watch TV it's almost laughable trying to get the TV and cable box on at the same time. I hate that the info banner is so big and the time it is shown on the TV cannot be shortened.
The two problems that annoy and tick me off beyond belief are the favorite button and not being able to skip channels. The favorite button goes to the guide and toggles between 2 channels with no discernible pattern. Not being able to skip channels is most annoying. I do not want to watch spanish, religion and shopping channels. There is NO way to skip them other than to block them with parental controls and then you still have to go through all the channels to surf.
I rarely watch live TV, I record almost everything I watch on the DVR because of the awful set up of Fios.
I'm ready to start a letter writing campaign against Fios TV and have told pretty much everyone I know to not even think of getting it, it's so awful to put up and live with.
I need to have this service updated, changed, removed, whatever before I lose my mind.
It should be interesting to see if this gets improved or resolved.
Stay tuned. If you can get the damn TV turned on, that is.
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