Lead Stories
Among those charged recently with possession of child pornography and now awaiting trial: Gerald Ackerman, former mayor of Port Huron, Michigan, in April; Warren Ernest Campbell, a chief of the fire department of Cannington, Ontario, in August; Jeremy Lacey, president of the University of Vermont’s only alcohol-free fraternity, in August; George Edward Davis, former high school principal in Lonoke, Arkansas, in August; and pediatrician Jonathan I. Weinstein, of Herndon, Virginia, in May.
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Time magazine and the Tampa Tribune recently reported on the growing trend of skin branding. One technician said most devotees are people “intensely into their spirituality who are wishing to release some power.” Branding guru Fakir Musafar teaches two techniques at his San Francisco school: the strike method, in which a design plate is heated and applied to the skin, and sketching, which is done with a 2,200-degree cauterizing scalpel. Branding produces a third-degree burn, takes at least three weeks to heal, and increases the risk of skin cancer.
A Resurgence of Interest in Farming
People who should have kept a lower profile: In July in Gifford, Florida, Brizella Mortimer, 29, was charged with burglary after a neighbor, who had noticed the disappearance of several items from her home, looked out her window and saw her favorite towel hanging from Mortimer’s clothesline; a search of Mortimer’s home turned up more of the items. And in July a thief in Salta, Argentina, gave himself away by showing up at a Catholic mass wearing clothes he had recently stolen from the priest officiating.
