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Assassinate Obama & Decapitate 102 Blacks?

Posted in Project New Era, Ridiculousness on October 27, 2008 by projectnewera

Original Article Found at Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON – Federal agents have broken up a plot to assassinate Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and shoot or decapitate 102 black people in a Tennessee murder spree, the ATF said Monday.
In court records unsealed Monday, federal agents said they disrupted plans to rob a gun store and target a predominantly African-American high school by two neo-Nazi skinheads. Agents said the skinheads did not identify the school by name.
Jim Cavanaugh, special agent in charge of the Nashville field office for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, said the two men planned to shoot 88 black people and decapitate another 14. The numbers 88 and 14 are symbolic in the white supremacist community.
The men also sought to go on a national killing spree, with Obama as its final target, Cavanaugh told The Associated Press.
“They said that would be their last, final act — that they would attempt to kill Sen. Obama,” Cavanaugh said. “They didn’t believe they would be able to do it, but that they would get killed trying.”
An Obama spokeswoman traveling with the senator in Pennsylvania had no immediate comment.
The men, Daniel Cowart, 20, of Bells, Tenn., and Paul Schlesselman 18, of West Helena, Ark., are being held without bond. Agents seized a rifle, a sawed-off shotgun and three pistols from the men when they were arrested. Authorities alleged the two men were preparing to break into a gun shop to steal more.
Attorney Joe Byrd, who has been hired to represent Cowart, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Monday.
Cowart and Schlesselman are charged with possessing an unregistered firearm, conspiring to steal firearms from a federally licensed gun dealer, and threatening a candidate for president.
The investigation is continuing, and more charges are possible, Cavanaugh said.

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“Dumb Nigger” Makes a Return

Posted in Project New Era, Ridiculousness on October 27, 2008 by projectnewera

*Editor’s Note: Below is the link to a news clip featuring a story of a young man by the name of Keith Slater who returned a pair of shoes to Journey’s. After examining the receipt, he noticed that the customer name said “Dumb Nigger.” And the worst part of it all is that when Slater’s parents contacted management at Journey’s, they were told that these things are “programmed into the system!” That being said, I am asking that all of my readers CONTACT Journey’s in Oak Park Mall, express your disdain over this incident and DEMAND that the employee responsible for this be fired. Here is the address:
OAK PARK MALL
11683 WEST 95TH #126
OVERLAND PARK, KS 66214
Journey’s (in Oak Park Mall)
(913) 859-9418
11683 West 95th Street,
Overland Park, KS 66214
VIDEO OF INCIDENT
http://www.kmbc.com/video/17768384/index.html
I also feel that sometimes, contacting the store isn’t enough! Journey’s doesn’t want any bad press. Here is their corporate contact information:
Journeys Customer Feedback
Genesco Park
1415 Murfreesboro Rd, Suite 648
Nashville, TN 37217
913-859-9418

11 Comments »

Missing: Xavier Jackson

Posted in Missing, Project New Era on October 26, 2008 by projectnewera

Case Type: Non Family Abduction
DOB: Nov 8, 2004
Missing Date: Oct 25, 2008
Age Now: 3
Race: Black
Sex: Male
Height: 3’0″ (91 cm)
Weight: 35 lbs (16 kg)
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Missing City: PALM BEACH SHORES
Missing State : FL
Missing Country: United States
Case Number: NCMC1108715
Circumstances: Xavier was last seen in the company of David Mills. Xavier has a scar on his left cheek. He was last seen wearing a white tank-top, blue shorts and black Nike sandals. David was last seen wearing a white collared shirt and shorts. Xavier may be in need of medical attention.
If you have any knowledge of little Xavier’s whereabouts, please contact the Palm Beach Police at (561)838-5454

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Murdered: Darnell Donerson & Jason Hudson

Posted in Murdered, Project New Era on October 25, 2008 by projectnewera

*Editor’s Note: It is with great regret that I report that the mother & brother of singer and Oscar winning actress, Jennifer Hudson, were found shot to death in their Chicago home. In addition to the murder, her nephew, Julian, is missing. My heart goes out to Hudson family and hopefully the accused murderer (who is said to be Jennifer’s brother in law, William Balfour) will be brought to justice. As an FYI, the picture posted of Jennifer with her mother (below) is from the website entitledThe YBF. As more information surfaces, I will continue posting here so that my readers remain informed as well.
Original Article Found at MSN
 CHICAGO (AP) — The mother and brother of Jennifer Hudson were found shot dead Friday at a South Side home, and police were looking for a missing child who is the nephew of the singer and Oscar-winning actress.
“We can confirm that there is an ongoing investigation concerning the deaths of Jennifer Hudson’s mother, Darnell Donerson, and her brother, Jason Hudson,” Hudson’s personal publicist, Lisa Kasteler, said in a statement. “No further comment will be made and the family has asked that their privacy be respected at this difficult time.”
Police spokeswoman Monique Bond said the deaths appeared to be the result of domestic abuse. The Cook County medical examiner’s office said autopsies for Donerson, 57, and Jason Hudson, 29, were pending.
Police were talking to “a number of people in custody” on Friday night, said Bond, who declined to elaborate.
Deputy Chief Joseph Patterson said a family member entered the home around 3 p.m. Friday, found a woman shot on the living room floor and left to notify authorities. Responding officers found a man shot in the bedroom, Patterson said. There was no sign of forced entry.
Police tape blocked access to the large, white house, where a crowd gathered outside.
Authorities issued an Amber Alert for 7-year-old Julian King and were seeking a 1994 white Chevrolet Suburban. The child was the grandson of the female victim, Patterson said.
The alert said the child was possibly abducted and could be accompanied by a man named William Balfour — considered armed and dangerous — who was a suspect in the double homicide investigation.
Records from the Illinois Department of Corrections show Balfour, 27, who has not been charged with a crime, is on parole and spent nearly seven years in prison for attempted murder, vehicular hijacking and possessing a stolen vehicle.
Public records show one of Balfour’s addresses as the home where Donerson and Jason Hudson were shot.
The two could also be in a teal or green Chrysler Concorde with a temporary license plate, a left front headlight hanging out and scratches on the left side of the vehicle, police said.

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Murdered: Iesha (18) & Naim (14) Drake

Posted in Murdered, Project New Era on October 25, 2008 by projectnewera

 
Original Article Found at The Pittsburgh Channel
PENN HILLS, Pa. — A Penn Hills woman’s boyfriend, accused of fatally beating her children with a 20-pound dumbbell this week, was arraigned late Thursday night on homicide charges.
Penn Hills police said they were called to Nikesha Warren’s home in the 1600 block of Relative Drive in the Hulton Estates at roughly 9:40 p.m. Tuesday for a domestic disturbance. (See Map)
A neighbor told WTAE Channel 4 Action News reporter Sheldon Ingram that she went to the apartment and saw Naim Drake, 14, dead on a couch. While waiting for police, she and other neighbors found the body of Ieisha Drake, 18, upstairs. Ieisha had also been stabbed.
The teenagers’ mother was also stabbed and critically wounded in the attack, which Allegheny County police said came at the hands of her boyfriend, Keith Scott, 41.
“At first I cried, but then I realized he is in a better place,” said a young friend and neighbor of Naim’s.
Penn Hills police say a friend of Nikesha Warren suspected something was wrong because Warren had not reported to work.
The friend broke into Warren’s apartment and heard Warren calling for help in the basement. Then the friend knocked on a neighbor’s door for help.
“She said come on, come on, I need you to help me,” said the neighbor, who didn’t want to be identified.
The pair went inside and found 14-year old Naim Drake dead on the sofa.
“I saw the little boy on the couch. When I saw him on the couch, he had a pillow over his head. I took the pillow off of his head and saw blood on his shirt and it was ripped. I thought he was beat up,” the woman said. “So I called his name and shook him and he did move. I called his name again and shook him and he didn’t move. When he didn’t move that time I said he’s dead. “
In addition to homicide, Scott is charged with aggravated assault and attempted homicide. A county police source told WTAE Channel 4 Action News that he tried to commit suicide upon his arrest.
Police have not discussed a possible motive for the killings.
It’s not yet clear if Scott was the father of Naim Drake, a Linton Middle School ninth-grader, or Ieisha Drake, a recent graduate of Penn Hills High School.

14 Comments »

Murdered: Kiyanna Salter

Posted in Murdered, Project New Era, Ridiculousness on October 25, 2008 by projectnewera

Original Article Found at CBS Chicago
CHICAGO (CBS) ― Police have released a CTA bus surveillance video and photos of the man suspected in the shooting death on a South Side bus of an 17-year-old girl Sunday.
On Monday morning, family members said they were certain that Kiyanna Salter was not the intended target.
The shooting happened as the No. 71 bus stopped to let passengers off at about 10 p.m. Sunday
Calumet Area police detectives are looking for a man who stepped off the bus at the busy three-way intersection of 71st Street, Cottage Grove Avenue and South Chicago Avenue, and then turned and fired a shot into the bus, killing Salter.
A family member who was on the bus with the victim told the Chicago Tribune the shooting happened after one man accidentally brushed the hand of another man on the bus. That brief contact led to an argument followed by the shooting that left Salter dead.
CTA surveillance video is blurry but police believe his clothes may be enough to give the suspect away. His jacket is visible, splattered with the number nine in several colors.
“Nobody deserves to bury their child for a senseless crime because you’re angry at somebody,” said Salter’ aunt Tara Bruce. “It’s not that much anger in the world, it’s not.”
There were cries of sorrow and anguish at vigil held for Salter Monday night. But there were also prayers for the suspect and calls for peace.
“Whoever has did the shooting on last night, yesterday dear God, we ask that you convict his heart right now in a mighty way that he could turn himself over right now in a mighty way dear God,” said a man at the vigil
“This is crazy. So what is it going to take for our community to wake up and save our kids?” a vigil attendee asked.
“It’s a sad case to see what’s really going on in Chicago,” said family friend Maria Buckley. “We need to put these guns down and get right with God.”
Salter’ friends and family are struggling to cope with her senseless murder. Salter’ cousin Jasmine Wilcox was on the bus with her. She says they had been grocery shopping for a sick relative.
According to the Chicago Tribune, Wilcox says while riding the bus a man in his 20s started talking to them. A short time later, a younger man walked by to get off the bus and accidentally brushed the hand of the man they were talking to. That contact led to an argument during which at least one of the men showed a gun.
After the younger man got off the bus, he turned and fired a single shot. Wilcox says she and other passengers ducked, and then she notice her cousin wasn’t moving.
Salter was pronounced dead a short time later at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
“We just asking everybody to stay prayful for the family, and ask God to give them strength,” Buckley said.
Salter was a senior at Percy L. Julian High School, at 10330 S. Elizabeth St., and family and friends say she loved school.
“She was a good girl, and she was killed by gun violence,” Buckley said, “and she wanted to be a doctor. She went to school at Julian. It’s a sad case to see what’s really going on in Chicago.”

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Murdered: Alex McFarlane

Posted in Project New Era, Ridiculousness on October 25, 2008 by projectnewera

Original Article Found at NY Daily News
Just days after a 19-year-old died after being beaten and thrown from a speeding car, his attacker was arrested yesterday, police said.
Javier Morales, 22, allegedly threw Alex McFarlane onto a St. Albans, Queens, street early on July 3. McFarlane was taken to Mary Immaculate Hospital in a coma, and on Sunday, doctors declared him brain-dead, his father, Alfonso McFarlane, said. They kept Alex on life support for a day to preserve his organs for donation.
Morales was initially charged with four counts of assault.

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Murdered: Sameere Conn

Posted in Murdered, Project New Era on October 25, 2008 by projectnewera

Original Article Found at Sun Times
Eighth-grader Sameere Conn lived in a neighborhood where classmates can’t be friends after school because they walk home to different gang territories.
It’s a place where kids tell stories about kill lists and where boys are told to throw down gang signs — a sign of disrespect — to prove they are not affiliated.
But the neighborhood, Trumbull Park, also is a place where boys play football at local parks and dream about the NFL.
Sameere — called “Six Pack” because he had been lifting weights since he was 5 — was on his way home from a football game Wednesday night. He stopped with pals for treats at Hook’s Finer Foods, a corner store at 2501 E. 106th St.
A gunman opened fire from outside and then aimed through a glass front door, striking Sameere and a 27-year-old man, witnesses said. Everyone ran for the back of the store. The 27-year-old was struck in the leg and lived. Sameere made it to the store’s cramped back room, where he fell, witnesses said.
He did not appear fatally injured. But hours after the 8:30 p.m. shooting, Sameere died.
Relatives said Sameere, who attended Orville T. Bright Elementary School, was not a kid who got into trouble. He was shot, they said, because that’s what happens in this neighborhood.
“He was there,” said his grandmother, Elaine Mayo, rocking sideways from foot to foot. “He just happened to be there. . . . He just made 13 years old. He didn’t have a chance to do . . . anything.”
Chicago Police have several good leads in the shooting, which likely stemmed from a dispute between the Gangster Disciples and the Latin Counts, a source said.
The corner outside the store is a magnet for gang fights, employees said. A fresh bullet hole was visible above a shelf of Oreos, Butterfingers and Skittles behind the shopkeeper.
Sameere’s good friend, a 14-year-old classmate at Bright elementary, said they had been harrassed by gang members. To prove they were not in a gang, the boys had to “throw down” — reverse a gang sign.
The teen said Sameere told him recently that they were on a list of people who might be shot.
“I don’t even know how to react to that, that his life is in peril everyday,” said the teen’s mother.
Sameere’s grandmother was not aware of any threats — but she knows how tough the area is.
Sameere enjoyed school. He played basketball, and his favorite “project” was girls, his grandmother said. He dreamed of playing in the NFL, and his football coach recently told him he could be the next Walter Payton.
“He was beautiful, he was awesome, and we’ll miss him dearly,” said his father, William Conn, of Appleton, Wis.

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Dragged to Death: Brandon McClelland

Posted in Murdered, Project New Era, Ridiculousness on October 25, 2008 by projectnewera

*Editor’s Note: I am not saying that dragging people behind a car has EVER been right. But seriously folks, are people REALLY still lynching black people, KKK style, in 2008? Seriously? This is utterly disgusting. And the police have the nerve to say that this is not race related. Right…sure it’s not. My heart goes out to the family of the victim!
Original Article Found at AZ Central News
PARIS, Texas – When the mutilated and partially dismembered body of Brandon McClelland, a 24-year-old black man, turned up lying in the middle of a rural east Texas road one morning last month, the police immediately pronounced the case a hit-and-run by an unknown driver.
Within a few days, however, suspicions turned toward two white friends who had picked up McClelland in their truck a few hours before he was found dead early on Sept. 16. Despite signs that the truck had been washed, authorities discovered blood and other physical evidence on the undercarriage and arrested the two men, both with long criminal histories.
Now this small, racially divided town – already seared with a racist label by civil rights groups last year over differences in how blacks and whites were treated by the local justice system – is on edge yet again, wondering if it has a horrific new hate crime on its hands.
The district attorney insists that race had nothing to do with McClelland’s death, and police investigators are portraying the case as an apparent falling-out among friends.
But McClelland’s relatives and Paris civil rights leaders are less certain. Citing the violence done to McClelland’s body and reports that one of the accused assailants, Shannon Finley, had white supremacist ties, they are demanding that Paris authorities investigate the case as a possible hate crime akin to the infamous 1998 lynching of James Byrd Jr., in Jasper, Texas, 250 miles south of here.
Byrd was dragged to his death behind a pickup truck by three white men who were later convicted of murder.
McClelland was walking in front of the pickup when Finley, 27, and a friend, Charles Ryan Crostley, 27, who was also arrested, allegedly ran him down and then dragged him 40 feet along the road until his mutilated body popped out from beneath the chassis, according to a police affidavit accompanying the warrant for Finley’s arrest.
“If you take somebody out to the country like that in the middle of the night and do that to him in that way, that’s how they do black people around here,” said Brenda Cherry, a local activist working with McClelland’s family. “To me, it smells like Jasper.”
Paris’ race relations came under withering national scrutiny last year after the Chicago Tribune reported the case of Shaquanda Cotton, a 14-year-old African-American girl who was sentenced by a local judge to up to seven years in a youth prison for shoving a hall monitor at her high school. Just three months earlier, the same judge had sentenced a 14-year-old white girl to probation after convicting her of the more serious crime of arson for burning down her family’s house.
The discrepancy in the treatment of the two teenagers provoked protests from national civil rights groups and led to Cotton’s early release from prison.
Now McClelland’s family fears that Paris officials, eager to protect their city of 26,000 from another round of negative publicity over race relations, are purposely downplaying possible racial overtones in McClelland’s murder.
“At the crime scene, it looked like these boys went back and poured beer on my son’s body,” said Jacqueline McClelland, Brandon’s mother. “Two beer cans were lying out there, but the police didn’t even pick them up, they just left evidence out there. They won’t even consider the racial issues. That’s the way it is in Paris.”
Even the editor of the local newspaper, normally an impassioned defender of Paris’ reputation, has cautioned law-enforcement officials to “leave no stone unturned” in their investigation.
“Hopefully, this community has learned from its past,” Mary Madewell wrote in the Paris News. ” … Even if our worst fears prove to be true, let us realize that the actions of single individuals should in no way bring condemnation to an entire community.”

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Murdered: Alicia Ray

Posted in Found Dead, Murdered, Project New Era on October 14, 2008 by projectnewera

*Editor’s Note: Special thanks to Izzy for giving me a bit more insight to the type of person Alicia was. It’s a shame that such a beautiful and talented girl had to be murdered so senselessly.
Original Article Found at Sacbee
Alicia Ray did what many do at 20 years old: try to find their way.
Six weeks ago, the 2006 Sheldon High School graduate, moved back to Sacramento. She had moved to Texas in December 2007 with her mother, Eugena Taylor. But Texas was no substitute for the native Californian. According to Ray’s mother, she longed for a return to Sacramento.
Sunday, firefighters found Ray’s body at a 2205 West El Camino Road apartment where she had temporarily been staying with a friend. Her body was burned, and it appeared she had been strangled.
On Tuesday, Jose Duarte, 21, was charged with first-degree murder in connection with Ray’s death. He also was charged with felony use of a dangerous weapon and with arson. He did not enter a plea during his arraignment in Sacramento Superior Court.
Ray’s relatives say the young woman was strangled with a USB computer cord. Authorities told them her body was burned in an attempt to cover up the act.
“I know she didn’t deserve it,” said Xinh Nguyen, a longtime friend of Ray.
When Ray returned to Sacramento earlier this summer, relatives said they didn’t see or hear from her much. She sent a text message to her brother, Lindbergh Carey, just before coming to Sacramento but did not contact him once she arrived, he said.
“I kind of knew something was up because you hadn’t talked to her,” he said, adding that the two usually stayed in regular contact.
Maurice Bass, Ray’s cousin, said they spoke about three weeks after her arrival.
“She didn’t let me know that she was in Sacramento right away,” he said. He offered to let her stay at his home, but she wasn’t interested.
Nguyen said she didn’t even know Ray had returned to Sacramento until she heard about her death.
The night before Ray’s body was found, she was at a friend’s apartment, working on the computer and sending text messages until around 10 p.m., according to her mother. At about 10:30 p.m., her mother said, she called the friend at whose apartment she was found and asked if it was OK to have a man over.
That is the last contact that anyone had with Ray, according to her mother.
Ray’s plan had been to go Sacramento to find a job and rejuvenate herself, her mother said.
Carey said it is unclear if his sister was truly looking for a job.
Relatives said they didn’t know many of Ray’s friends.
“It’s just a big question mark in the middle I didn’t know,” said Bass, her cousin. “It just don’t make sense and that upsets me.”
None of the Ray’s family had met Duarte.
Ray’s remains will be flown to Los Angeles – where she was born – for burial.

11 Comments »

Murdered: Tiana Stokely

Posted in Murdered, Project New Era on October 14, 2008 by projectnewera

Original Article Found at Bay News 9
A man shot his ex-girlfriend to death at her office Friday and wounded a supervisor who came to her aid before killing himself, police said.
William Lynch entered the Aflac insurance office at Sycamore Plaza on Friday afternoon and asked to speak with his former girlfriend, Tiana Stokely, Suffolk County police said. It was unclear how Lynch got into the building, which has a keypad lock.
Stokely led him into supervisor Gary Destefano’s office, where Lynch pulled out a .40-caliber handgun and began firing, eventually turning the gun on himself, Lt. Jack Fitzpatrick said. The supervisor was shot at least once in the chest, he said.
Both Lynch, 37, and Stokely, 20, died at the scene. Destefano was airlifted to Stony Brook University Medical Center, where he underwent surgery, police said. They didn’t know his condition.
Lynch was wanted on a charge of violating a court order to stay away from Stokely, police said.
Aflac spokeswoman Laura Kane offered the company’s sympathies but provided no details about the shooting.
Police evacuated the office complex. No other injuries were reported.

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Missing: Molicia J. Tumaline

Posted in Missing, Project New Era on October 14, 2008 by projectnewera

Case Type: Endangered Missing
Missing Date: Oct 6, 2008
DOB: Oct 25, 1997
Sex: Female
Age Now: 10
Race: Black
Height: 5’2″ (157 cm)
Weight: 140 lbs (64 kg)
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Missing City: BONSACK
Missing State: VA
Missing Country: United States
Case Number: NCMC1107382
Circumstances: Molicia was last seen on October 6, 2008. She was last seen wearing blue jeans, a green short sleeve shirt, and black sneakers.

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Murdered: Shannon Braithwaite

Posted in Murdered, Project New Era on October 14, 2008 by projectnewera

*Editor’s Note: This is absolutely sad. It almost makes you feel as though you can’t do anything NICE for anyone anymore. What is wrong with people? May Shannon rest in peace & a special “thank you” to her friend from Myspace who gave me this exclusive picture.
Original Article Found at NY Daily News
A bright 16-year-old high school student who loved to dance was found dead with her throat slashed in her Brooklyn apartment Tuesday.
Shannon Braithwaite’s devastated mom, Marva, pinned the slaying on a 15-year-old runaway girl she had taken in just a week ago.
Cops were seeking the teen Tuesday night.
“The one day I left them alone, I came home to find my daughter stabbed up in a pool of blood,” said Marva Braithwaite, 35.
“My little girl was a loving, God-fearing child who never was a problem to me.”
Braithwaite made the gruesome discovery of her daughter’s body when she returned to her Empire Blvd. home in Crown Heights about 4:30p.m.
Shannon, a sophomore at Vanguard High School on the upper East Side, was on the floor in the foyer, bloodied by knife wounds to her hands, face and neck.
The knife was recovered in the home, a police source said.

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What Do You Propose?

Posted in Abuse, Child Abuse, Found Dead, Project New Era on September 29, 2008 by projectnewera

*Editor’s note: Stories such as the one posted below are becoming more and more common, especially as it pertains to black children who are forced into the foster care system. You feel for these children because in most cases, they’re tossed around like a rag doll from home to home, constantly being made to feel as though they’re not loved or wanted. What I’m finding to also be a common practice is that many social workers are now taking on the practice of simply putting a child “somewhere,” as this “somewhere” is often mistaken for better than “nowhere.” Although I am not pointing the finger at ALL social workers because there are several out there who value their jobs and take pride in creating the best and most ideal situation for each case they’re in charge of, I still can’t help but to wonder how the ‘bad seeds’ manage to slip through the cracks and why MORE isn’t being done to prevent stories like the one posted below from happening? As a community, there has to be something that we can do. A child should not have to throw him or herself from a window in an effort to find assuagement from an otherwise ‘not so good’ situation. I feel for these children, as they generally can’t speak for themselves. Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood and an extreme advocate of women taking control of their bodies, proposed an idea in her speech entitled The Children’s Era that basically stated that just as you would interview a teacher or cook before allowing them to work for you, children should have those same rights. Sanger understood that children could not, obviously, speak for themselves in utero; however, she proposed that potential parents be given a battery of mental and physical tests to ensure that children were being placed in the most ideal situation. Although this test would not be 100% fool proof, it would most certainly lessen several incidences related to the death of children who are not being regarded as humans. What are your thoughts? Please feel free to post them here or email them to me atprojectnewera@gmail.com.
Original Article Found at NBC 4
Two girls’ bodies were found in a freezer in Lusby home after a third girl jumped from a second-story window Friday to escape her adopted mother, according to the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office.
A 7-year-old girl was left unattended in a locked room at the home on Buckskin Trail, investigators said. After jumping from the window, she was found by residents on Pawnee Trail, who called the sheriff’s office. The girl appeared to be extremely abused and neglected and is receiving treatment at Children’s Hospital.
A search of the home on Buckskin led to the discovery of human remains in a freezer, according to the sheriff’s office.
Upon learning that her adopted 7-year-old daughter had been picked up by sheriff’s deputies, 43-year-old Renee Bowman contact the sheriff’s office and confessed to beating the girl with a hard-heeled shoe, investigators said.
Investigators learned that Bowman adopted three girls from the District of Columbia. Bowman told authorities the human remains are those of her other two adopted daughters, another 7-year-old girl and a 9-year-old girl. Bowman said the remains had been in the freezer since before she moved to Lusby from Rockville in February 2008.
The three children were in the D.C. Child and Family Services system but were assigned to private contractor Board of Child Care, which is headquartered in Baltimore but has an office in the District, according to D.C. Council Member Tommy Wells, the chair of the Human Services Committee, which oversees child and family services.
The freezer was taken to the medical examiner’s office in Baltimore.
Bowman is being held on first-degree child abuse charges.
Anyone with information about the case should call Maryland State Police at 410-535-1400 or the Calvert County Sheriff’s Office at 410-535-2800, extension 2454.

6 Comments »

Unsolved Murder: Kanika Powell

Posted in Project New Era, Unsolved Murder on September 28, 2008 by projectnewera

Original Article Found at Washington Post
Kanika Powell suspected something when the man knocked on her door claiming to be an FBI agent. He held a badge up to her peephole but walked away when Powell refused to open up without seeing a photo ID.
Five days later, there was another knock at the door of her Laurel area apartment. This time a different man, who said he was delivering a package. When Powell again refused to open the door, he also left — no package, no note where it could be claimed.
Five hours later, Powell was outside her door after returning from errands. Someone was waiting in the hallway and opened fire, riddling her with bullets. She died a day later, this past Friday, and police have no idea why she was killed.
Her slaying has all the trappings of a television drama: e-mail messages Powell, 28, left behind about the strange men coming to her door; her mysterious career at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, where she worked as a security specialist; the FBI’s insistence that none of its agents approached the woman; and investigators who say they can find no apparent motive for her killing — no spurned lover, no robbery, no signs of gang activity, nothing.
“At this point, we haven’t ruled out any avenue of investigation or motive, other than that it was random,” Detective Kelly Rogers of the Prince George’s County police said yesterday.
Rogers said police arrived at Powell’s home four minutes after she called 911 Aug. 23, after the encounter with the man who identified himself as the agent. Officers canvassed Powell’s apartment complex but found no one matching the description she’d given them.
Powell had also reported the incident to the apartment complex and told friends and colleagues. “It appears she did everything she could,” Rogers said. Yesterday, Rogers and Powell’s family began circulating fliers announcing a $25,000 reward for information leading to an arrest or indictment. Police are asking anyone with information to call the county’s Crime Solvers hotline at 866-411-TIPS (8477).
For article continuation, please click HERE.

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Murdered: Neica Gibbs

Posted in Murdered, Project New Era, Ridiculousness on September 28, 2008 by projectnewera

*Editor’s Note: Sad story! When I received it, she had been found dead with no known motive or cause of death. Shortly after……
Original Article Found at CBS 4
The teenage boy accused of killing 13-year old Neica Gibbs, whose body was found next to a dumpster after she was missing for three weeks, has been ordered to stay in juvenile custody.
15-year old Jason Hartley appeared before Judge Michael Orlando Friday afternoon. The judge ruled that there was probable cause to hold Hartley until his next hearing on August 20th. Prosecutors will decide whether to try Jason as an adult, officials said Friday.
Hartley has been charged with one count of homicide in connection with Gibbs’ death. Police are now saying that Hartley had a crush on Gibbs and allegedly strangled her after the two had sex and got into an argument in his mother’s trailer home.
“They became involved in a verbal and physical altercation which ultimately led to the death of Neica Gibbs,” said Frank Sousa, with Ft. Lauderdale Police.
According to the probable cause affidavit, Hartley confessed to the crime. “The defendant’s confession was after Miranda Rights and consistent with physical evidence taken from the crime scene.”
The girl’s body was found wrapped in a tarp behind a garbage dumpster Tuesday. Ironically, Gibbs’ body was found by the suspect’s mother, Lorraine Boggess.

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Starved: Danieal Kelly

Posted in Abuse, Neglect, Project New Era, Ridiculousness on September 28, 2008 by projectnewera

*Editor’s Note: It’s been said before but it most certainly bears repeating. Some people are just too unfit to have children. Of course, it’d be a violation of human rights if we took action that prevented one from having a child based on what they WOULD do but sometimes, things like this are just needed. It should also go without saying that we need to do something to insure that those who are put in the position of social work to protect families and children are really doing their job and not just sitting back collecting a paycheck. Why bother taking a job in that field if you’re going to ignore things that are a part of your job description? If these social workers would really do as their name suggests (WORK), then incidences such as these would become few and far between. Rest in Peace, Danieal.
Original Article Found at USA Today
PHILADELPHIA — For days before Danieal Kelly died in a fetid, airless room — made stifling hot by a midsummer heat wave — the bedridden teenager begged for something to drink until she could muster only one word: water.
Unable to help herself because of her cerebral palsy, she wasted away from malnutrition and maggot-infested bedsores that ate her flesh. She died alone on a putrid mattress in her mother’s home, the floor covered in feces. She was 14 but weighed just 42 pounds.
The nightmare of forced starvation and infection that killed Danieal while she was under the protection of the city’s human services agency is documented in a 258-page grand jury report released this week that charges nine people — her parents, four social workers and three family friends — in her ghastly death.
The report describes a mother, Andrea Kelly, who was embarrassed by her disabled daughter and didn’t want to touch her, take her out in public, change her diapers or make sure she had enough fluids. It portrays Daniel Kelly, the father who once had custody of Danieal, as having no interest in raising her.
And it accuses the city Department of Human Services of being “uncaring and incompetent.”
“It was this indifference that helped kill Danieal Kelly,” an angry District Attorney Lynne Abraham said. “How is it possible for this to have happened?”
The report should “outrage the entire Philadelphia community” and bring about “earth-shattering, cataclysmic changes” at the Department of Human Services, Abraham said.
Andrea Kelly, 39, the only defendant charged with murder, was ordered held Friday without bail. The social workers — suspected of falsifying home visits and progress reports in the case — face charges ranging from child endangerment to involuntary manslaughter. The family friends are accused of lying to the grand jury about the girl’s condition before her death.

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Missing: Tereska Marie Wright

Posted in Missing, Project New Era on September 28, 2008 by projectnewera

Case Type: Non Family Abduction
DOB: Nov 17, 1990
Sex: Female
Missing Date: Sep 24, 2008
Race: Black
Age Now: 17
Height: 5’0″ (152 cm)
Weight: 110 lbs (50 kg)
Missing City: NEW ORLEANS
Missing State: LA
Hair Color: Black
Eye Color: Brown
Missing Country: United States
Case Number: NCMC1106482
Circumstances: Tereska was last seen outside of her home on the afternoon of September 24, 2008. She was last seen wearing a white shirt with blue and red stripes, blue jeans, and white shoes.
If you have any information regarding Tereska’s disappearance, please contact the New Orleans Police Department at 504-658-5800

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Murdered: Wanda Francois

Posted in Crime, Murdered, Project New Era on September 28, 2008 by projectnewera

Original Article Found at News Chief
A Winter Haven man was arrested today and charged with manslaughter in connection with death of his girlfriend, the Polk County Sheriff’s Office reported.
According to the arrest affidavit, 26-year-old Eddie McIntosh III, of 704 26th St., N.W., Winter Haven, got into an argument with his girlfriend, Wanda Francois, on Saturday.
A resident in the 700 block of 25th St., N.W., called emergency medical service personnel to her home after finding Francois unresponsive in her front yard.
Francois was taken to Lakeland Regional Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead around 6 p.m.
According to the arrest affidavit, McIntosh called three people – Francois’ mother and two of her cousins – giving them this version of events:
McIntosh said he and Francois argued Saturday morning at the home they share. During the argument, he said, he attempted to leave, but Francois stood in front of the door in an attempt to prevent him from leaving. McIntosh said he physically moved Wanda out of his way and got into his car. McIntosh said Francois then climbed onto the hood of his car and remained on the hood as he drove down several streets in Winter Haven, at times approaching speeds of 50 to 60 mph and swerving in attempt to throw her from the hood.
According to the affidavit, McIntosh said Francois eventually fell off the hood but that he saw her get up and use her cell phone, so he drove away.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, an autopsy performed Sunday by Dr. Vera Volnikh of the Polk County Medical Examiner’s Office revealed that Francois died as a result
of blunt impact to the head. Her injuries included a skull fracture to the right side of her head, a scalp hematoma, a subdural and epidural hematoma and a contusion
on her tongue.
Ruling Francois’ death a homicide, Volnikh noted that the woman suffered a traumatic impact, inconsistent with the story McIntosh gave to Francois’ relatives.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, McIntosh was arrested at 11:30 a.m. today at the office of his Bartow attorney and charged with one count of manslaughter.

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Murdered: Starlena Pratt

Posted in Project New Era, Sexual Assault, Torture on September 28, 2008 by projectnewera

Original Article Found at West Virginia Gazette
A South Charleston woman horribly burned following a domestic dispute last month died last night in a Huntington hospital as her family looked on.
Starlena Pratt, 28, died about 11:15 p.m. after family members decided to take her off of life support, according to Wanda Carney, a friend who has been helping the family since Pratt was burned on Aug. 3.
Police believe Pratt’s boyfriend, 31-year-old Farley Allen Rhodes, threw a flammable liquid on Pratt inside the couple’s apartment in South Charleston after Pratt told Rhodes she was going to leave him. The resulting fire burned Pratt on most of her body and set the apartment on fire. A woman living in an adjoining apartment escaped injury.
Rhodes was charged with one count of arson causing serious bodily injury and two counts of first-degree arson following the incident. Lt. R.T. Yeager of the South Charleston Police Department said Tuesday that police would probably pursue murder charges against Rhodes if Pratt died.
Pratt was taken to Cabell Huntington Hospital’s burn unit after the blaze, where she underwent numerous surgeries and clung to life. Her conditioned worsened dramatically over the weekend, Carney said. On Tuesday morning she was unresponsive and on life support, she said.
Doctors planned to amputate her arms and legs on Tuesday, but instead family members decided to take her off of life support. Carney said she died a short while later.
Carney said Pratt’s mother, Marcia Chandler, had to leave her job at Tudor’s Biscuit World to attend to her daughter in the hospital. Carney said donations may be made to the Starlena Pratt Fund at any BB&T bank branch.
[Starlena Pratt Removed from Life Support]