Deaths cut close to home [Hand Dryers]
An emotional Judith Collins has revealed her personal pain at the loss of a cousin, murdered when her husband breached a protection order. The Justice Minister spoke to the Herald on Sunday yesterday, after announcing plans to use GPS monitors to track violent men and stop them going near women they had threatened or attacked. There have been questions this week about why the police did not respond to pleas for help from Katharine Webb, whose former husband, Edward Livingstone, shot dead their son and daughter then turned the gun on himself in Dunedin this week.
But the GPS proposal dates back further. In July 2012 Collins' cousin Robyn Prole was brutally killed by her husband Rex Prole, despite a protection order banning him from approaching or contacting her. Livingstone's violence brought back memories of Robyn's death. "She'd only been married for about two years before he murdered her," Collins said. Robyn's first husband had died in his 20s from a congenital heart problem, leaving her to bring up their son, Alex, whom she adored.
"She met this Rex Prole person at her church where he was supposedly a rehabilitated prisoner," Collins said. "She brought him to a National Party function that I was speaking at and introduced me to him. I thought he was a bit dodgy, but it wasn't for me to judge. Next thing she was married to him. She was very happy after many, many years - she was well into her 50s - to have found someone else. That was about two years before he killed her." The cousins were "quite close" and Collins was a guest at the wedding, but after a while communication broke down. It turned out Rex was violent towards Robyn.
She was 57 when she died. She had left him and got a protection order after a violent incident but he had breached the order. "The day that he killed her she went to collect the mail from her mailbox at the house that they had owned," Collins said. "She drove in, didn't even get out of the car but opened up the window and he walked up to her. He had a kitchen knife in his hand and he stabbed her straight into the throat and she bled to death in front of the neighbours." The only positive thing Collins had to say about the 65-year-old builder was he had pleaded guilty. Collins said Robyn, the daughter of her father's sister, was a kind person who only ever saw the good in people, even when there was no good. Asked how Robyn's death influenced her work as Justice Minister, Collins said: "Obviously I need to be very professional as I am about these matters, but I am very aware of the way in which this can happen to anybody in any family. It has a devastating effect."
Monsoon founder invests in Loaf [Hand Dryers]
Peter Simon, founder of Monsoon and Accessorize, has taken a significant minority stake in Loaf, the British furniture and homeware retailer, for an undisclosed sum. Founded in 2008 by entrepreneur Charlie Marshall, Loaf has become the UK's fastest-growing homeware company, with average annual sales growth of 81% over the last three years.
With plans to grow turnover from 20m to 100m over the next few years, Loaf had been looking for a suitable partner to help.
Charlie says: "Peter shares our values and approach to business. With 40 years' experience of growing two of Britain's most successful retail names, his guidance and advice will help ensure we achieve our goals of filling the gap in the UK market for laid-back furniture and becoming a household name."
The predominantly-online store launched five years ago, when Marshall started out selling a select range of 12 beds and just one mattress. Having lost a whole Saturday trying to buy a bed, he saw an opportunity to make the shopping experience as quick and hassle-free as possible – two years, 187 mattress and bed factories later, Loaf was born.
While most were waiting for the financial markets to improve, Charlie saw the downturn as the ideal time to launch a business. He attributes Loaf's success to responding to consumers' demand for distinctive-looking and characterful furniture which does not burn a hole in the pocket.
This fuss-free formula paid off, and in 2012 Loaf launched into other areas of the home with sofas and kitchen tables, which now make up a significant part of the business. The company will expand again in Spring 2014 into kitchen accessories and storage, console tables and home office furniture.
The 40-strong team based at Loaf's West London showroom-style HQ is set to grow to 60 over the next few months. To achieve Charlie Marshall's expansion goals, retail destinations called Loaf Shacks are planned to run alongside the online offering.
Son prejudiced murder trial [Sunglasses]
A Chelmsford man convicted of choking and stabbing his estranged wife to death four years ago -- in front of their young son -- wants the state's highest court to reduce his first-degree-murder conviction.
Jeffrey McGee's attorney does not deny McGee killed his wife, Christine, but is arguing in court documents that the jury was prejudiced against McGee. Defense attorney Nona Walker, from the Committee for Public Counsel Services, added that Middlesex Superior Knife threat made in dispute over oven Court Judge Kathe Tuttman erred during the 2010 trial when she allowed prosecutors to bring a couch into the courtroom so McGee's then 6-year-old son could show the jury how his mother was laying while his father attacked her.
Christine McGee, who was living with her then-3 1/2-year-old son, Gavin, in Tyngsboro, took the boy to visit his father on the night of Nov. 19, 2007. Jeffrey McGee had moved to an apartment in Chelmsford three days earlier. Realizing his estranged wife had been seeing other men, McGee, 39, decided if he couldn't have her then no one could, prosecutors said.
Gavin McGee testified that he awoke in his father's apartment to see his father strangling his mother on the living-room couch. He watched his father go to the kitchen and get two knives, one of which he used to repeatedly stab Christine.
"My mom was getting killed," the young boy testified. McGee, with Gavin in the car, tried unsuccessfully to commit suicide by driving into an oncoming dump truck on Route 110 in Methuen.
Walker argues that the victim's sexual exploits were central to McGee's defense, yet the judge restricted the defense in its presentation. But Assistant District Attorney Hallie White Speight countered that Tuttman was correct in limiting testimony of the victim's supposed sexual activities because there was no evidence McGee knew about it.
Speight added that Tuttman "properly exercised" her discretion in allowing Gavin to demonstrate his mother's position on the couch since Gavin was limited in giving a verbal description.
McGee was sentenced to life without parole. At McGee's sentencing hearing, Donald Plouffe, Christine's father, said, "May he rot in hell."
A reduction of McGee's sentence to second-degree murder would allow him to be eligible for parole after 15 years; a reduction to manslaughter would set him free at some point. Tuttman also imposed a seven- to 10-year state prison sentence to be served from and after the life sentence on his conviction for assault and battery with a dangerous weapon.
Knife threat made in dispute over oven [knife]
A roommate dispute about who would use a shared oven turned criminal when one of the roommates grabbed a chef's knife and told the other, "We're not calling the cops anymore — this is how we're doing it now," according to police. The roommates had recently connected through the online bulletin board Craigslist, Sgt. David Keaveny said.
Charged with a felony count of criminal threatening with a dangerous weapon, as well as a misdemeanor charge alleging vandalism, is Robert Wilson, 27. According to police reports, Wilson recently moved from the Chicago area to a Langdon Street residence.
An affidavit by officer Erik Widerstrom states that he and other officers were dispatched to 47 Langdon St. at 10:45 p.m. Tuesday, when a caller said his roommate "pulled a knife" on him. The caller told police "there had been a dispute about who was using the oven to cook food," during which Wilson removed a pizza from the oven and threw it on a floor, the affidavit states.
Wilson's new roommate took out his cell phone and announced he was going to take video of Wilson's behavior, when Wilson grabbed the phone and threw it on the floor, cracking the screen, according to the police report. Wilson "then reached up on top of the refrigerator and produced a chef's knife," with a 6- to 8-inch blade, while making threats, police allege. A third roommate independently corroborated the allegations, according to Widerstrom's affidavit.
Wilson was arrested on the felony charge, which alleges he placed another in fear of imminent bodily injury by holding a knife while making threats. He also faces the criminal mischief charge that alleges he damaged his roommate's phone by throwing it on a floor. Keaveny said police had recently responded to multiple calls at the same residence for roommate complaints including reports of moved property, a missing computer modem and other "roommate squabbles."
According to Portsmouth Circuit Court records, Wilson was arraigned Wednesday and is scheduled to return to the court Jan. 14 for a probable cause hearing. He is court-ordered to have no contact with the two roommates. Stephen Church, superintendent of the Rockingham County Jail, said Wilson remains incarcerated at the Brentwood jail, unable to post $2,500 cash bail.
Are women hardwired to nest? [knife]
My husband has been working some out of New York City and staying in a corporate apartment when he’s there. We went to visit him during Christmas break and while the apartment was perfectly lovely, I couldn’t believe how little he had in his cupboards and refrigerator. It was truly a bachelor’s apartment.
He had some milk, eggs, cheese, bread, peanut butter, grapes, lettuce, some cold cuts and some spreadable butter but that was pretty much it. What in the heck had he been eating? Was he going out or just not eating at all? (He said the office kept having parties and he was living off of that.)
When he first started staying at the apartment, I had him show me via Facetime what I would have to work with in the kitchen when we visited. There was one fry pan, three pots, one brownie pan, the top to a broiler pan but no under part. There was a coffee maker. The apartment Taming the urban griller only had five sets of cutlery – we needed six because Michael’s brother was also joining us. The knives were sub par. So I packed my favorite knife, a cutting board, a set of cutlery, my favorite coffee and photocopied favorite recipes before leaving.
I shoved into my overstuffed luggage new cozy slippers for him and books to read. I tried to fit in a throw blanket but didn’t have the space.
When we arrived in the city, I hit the grocery store around the corner and stocked up on essentials for cold weather — tomato soup, good sourdough bread for grilled cheese sandwiches, pasta, hot cocoa with marshmallows, and lots of fruit. The only catch is that in New York, you have to be able to carry what you buy. (They do have delivery service for groceries for an extra $5 but I like the challenge of lugging it all home.)
I bought tin foil and disposable foil pans to roast in. With the foil I could turn the broiler pan into a workable cookie sheet for Christmas cookies and rolls and biscuits. I bought pre-made manicotti, added sauce and cheese for a lovely pasta bake with friends after a cold day visiting the Statue of Liberty. I bought a spiral-sliced ham with a pre-made glaze and baked that for Christmas Eve and for sandwiches. I used the ham for breakfast too in cheese biscuits. Then did roast beef two nights later, which lasted several days. I made mashed potatoes several nights with the spreadable butter and half-and-half that I used for coffee.
Taming the urban griller [Hand Dryers]
The Great Aussie Barbecue can be a sordid affair. Mediocre ingredients are routinely overcooked, then shared, charmlessly, among celebrants long past caring. In truth, there has seldom been anything great about it, until food fashions intervened. Dishes such as pulled pork, smoked brisket, fall-off-the-bone ribs and smoke-infused chickens have emerged as the stars of the barbecue revolution. The minimum requirements for slow-smoked and painstakingly roasted dishes are an old-fashioned Weber kettle, a mountain of charcoal or briquettes, lashings of hickory chips and tolerant neighbours. The following recipes will breathe authentic barbecue personality into dishes unfamiliar to most backyard barbecue vandals - dishes that will help them to return from the dark side and emerge as superheroes of the grill.
Slice about 1 to 2 centimetres from the top (stem end) of a fig and cut a deep cross into the top. Squeeze the bottom of the fig to open up that cross and insert a wedge of the best blue cheese you have to hand - roquefort or gorgonzola are ideal. Then, wrap most of the fig in a strip of good prosciutto, tucking it in, rather than skewering it, and sit the fig on a halo of foil - made by loosely rolling, from corner to corner, a square of foil torn from a standard roll, and twisting into a circle - on a hot gas grill. Drop the lid and cook until the prosciutto crisps, the fig softens and the cheese melts. Eat.
For the dip, crumble a quantity of blue cheese - ideally roquefort, but gorgonzola also works quite well - into Best Foods or Hellman's bottled mayonnaise. Try two large chunks of blue cheese, each bigger than a golf ball, with a cup of mayonnaise. Use a fork to mash the cheese into the mayonnaise, then thin the mixture with a generous squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Mix until smooth. Cover and chill. Prepare a dozen chicken wings (24 segments) by snipping off and discarding the top joints and then dividing them at the main joint. Toss the resulting ''flats and drummies'' in EV olive oil and season well with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Cook them, covered, on a well-oiled gas grill at a temperature over 200C. Turn them after five minutes and again after another five. They will cook in about 15 minutes. Ensure that they have cooked evenly and that all sides are crisp and golden with dark char marks. Prepare a glaze by placing half a stick of butter (125 grams) into a saucepan and squirting Sriracha chilli sauce over it until it is well covered. Heat gently and stir well to emulsify. Place the hot, cooked wings in a large bowl and pour the butter and chilli sauce over, tossing to coat evenly. Lift on to a platter to drain and cool slightly before serving them alongside the dip.
A Kenilworth cake baker on a mission [Hand Dryers]
A few years after Gertrude Troyer's family gave up its horse and buggy, she hopped in her brother's 1960 Pontiac Bonneville headed for Kenilworth. They didn't know how to get there, so they just drove to the White House and eventually found a pay phone. She was a 21-year-old country girl from Plain City, Ohio, on her way to a short stint volunteering for her Mennonite church in an impoverished Washington neighborhood. Forty-six years later, she's still here, standing on her tippytoes at 5:20 a.m., using a butter knife to help slide a plastic bucket of sugar from the shelf above her counter to begin work on a rush of cake orders for Christmas. Gertie, as everyone calls her, has made it here as a missionary, a summer camp organizer and a construction office custodian. She has taken abuse from surly teens, has prayed with relatives of the murdered and now helps support herself running a makeshift cake-baking business in the brick home she shares with one of the girls she first mentored decades ago.
Wearing a black veil over pulled-back gray hair, a red cotton cape dress that covers her from neck to ankles, and Asics running shoes, Troyer tackles her morning's baking agenda — one strawberry supreme, three red velvet, a poundcake — with the same Cultivating trees is a steady way of life buoyant relentlessness she has brought to the rest of her life in the city. "Most people know that's not the norm. Most people don't just leave their home towns and go someplace else almost completely opposite, and stay," said her housemate, Cynthia Sharpe, 58, who was just 11 and living in the Kenilworth Courts housing project when Troyer arrived.
At first, Sharpe said she didn't see Troyer "as an individual," just as one of the friendly missionaries who came to help out. Another quizzical neighborhood kid was Vincent Wright Jr., now an officer with the D.C. police. "I was like, 'These are some homely-looking folks,' " Wright recalls. "That dress makes them look like, what's that the girl on 'Little House on the Prairie,' Melissa Gilbert or something?" She grabs eggs in her right hand and cracks them with a sharp knock against the egg in her left. Like some just-in-time manufacturing guru, she moves fast: batter in, rotate pan, cakes out, repeat. Flour gets measured to the hundredth of a pound on her digital scale. "It's the way I've been doing it for years, and it comes out right," said Troyer.
She grew up Amish and learned to bake without electricity in her mother's kitchen. By age 15, her father reluctantly followed local church leaders as they shifted toward a less conservative religious tradition as Mennonites. Although they still aspired to live as Jesus would, they did so with cars and electric lights. Troyer's frugal roots remain. She uses an empty 25-pound Domino sugar sack as a trash bag, and scrapes the paddle of her stand mixer with her fingers to get off every bit of batter, then scrapes her fingers with the spatula to get the last few drops. She's still smarting over the time, years ago, when a pair of red velvets went bad. She used cake flour, not self-rising. They were dry and flat, and went to the birds. "I was so beat out I did that," she said, before translating the German-influenced holdover phrase for the uninitiated. "I was disgusted with myself. That's exactly what it means." Then she burst out in the playful, wholehearted laugh that has melted tough kids, skeptical adults and longtime customers alike.
Cultivating trees is a steady way of life [Sunglasses]
By Saturday, the holiday rush was over at Buck and Darlene Miller's 10-acre Christmas tree farm near Silver Lake, and they were wandering through the trees with Katie, their 6-year-old black lab. The customers had gone. Bright and pale sawdust scattered along the ground near stumps where families had found their perfect tree, sawed it down and hauled it away. There was hardly a sound on the farm. Over three decades, the Millers have fallen into a quiet, happy rhythm of cultivating trees on this hillside farm. They raised their two children here and stayed put even as Mount St. Helens covered them with ash in the early 80s. Ask Buck how to grow a perfect Christmas tree and he shrugs. Sure, there's science to it, but there's also art and mystery, he says. "You just do it," he said Saturday. "This whole thing is an educated guess."
Each year brings a long stream of cars up the Miller's gravel drive. It's a steady business, even when the economy is sour, Buck said. He said he hardly keeps track of how many trees he sells, but estimated customers bought between 300 and 400 of his trees this year. The cars seem to come all at once, in spurts, Buck said. There's a sudden rush, as many as 60 cars in a day. Then it quiets down until the next run of tree hunters. "I'll never understand why they come at the same time," Buck said. "I think it's moving through the air." The Pacific Northwest Christmas Tree Association estimates that growers in the region— both wholesale and "you-cut" — sold 2.3 million trees in Washington alone this Christmas season. Those numbers show that the market may be returning to its peak of 2.6 million trees annually in the late 90s and early 2000s after a glut of oversupply hit the market in recent years, said Bryan Oslund, the trade group's executive director.
"It's been a very good year," he said. "Demand hasn't been this high for a number of years. Growers are, if not sold out, pretty close to it." The Millers, both 66, owned Watkins Tractors and Supply in Kelso for years and sold the business in January. They bought their land, at 1251 George Taylor Road, in 1973 and began growing Christmas trees on it a decade later. Over the years, they've provided trees to local churches as well as the community tree in Castle Rock. Some trees are legendary. In a scene reminiscent of the holiday classic movie "Christmas Vacation," a regular customer discovered two squirrels loose in his home after he bought a 16-foot tree from the Miller's. The man caught one with a fishing net and nabbed the other with a live animal trap. Both were released unharmed, Buck said.
Man shot by deputy during alleged attack is cleared to stand trial [Hand Dryers]
A Moses Lake man accused of attacking a Grant County sheriff's deputy can stand trial according to prosecutors. Prosecutor Angus Lee stated an evaluation by Eastern State Hospital staff shows Corey L. Minatani, a 41-year-old man, is competent to stand trial.
Minatani is charged with two counts of assault in the first degree, after allegedly attacking his wife and a Grant County sheriff's deputy in August 2012. An order allowing the proceedings against Minatani hasn't been entered. Another hearing is scheduled for Dec. 23.
Issues between Minatani and his wife reportedly came to a head about two weeks before the incident and they planned to get a divorce. While Minatani was picking up their children in Port Orchard, she reportedly invited a man to spend the night with her, according to Moses Lake police.
Minatani reportedly tried calling his wife during the course of the night, and became upset as she ignored his phone calls and decided to return home. When he arrived, he allegedly told the other man to leave, and began arguing with his wife. During the fight, he reportedly switched between being homicidal and suicidal, and attacked her with his hands and at least two kitchen knives.
Minatani's son called police, and the victim reportedly ran out to meet them. The deputy, after hearing reports that Minatani was suicidal, entered the residence. Minatani allegedly responded to the deputy calling for him by asking if the deputy had his gun out.
When the deputy said his gun was out, Minatani reportedly stepped into the hallway holding a knife and a serving fork, and said, "Officer, you better put both hands on your gun."
Minatani allegedly approached the deputy, ignoring warnings to stop, until he was about 5 to 7 feet away from the deputy and crouched as if he was going to lunge. The deputy shot Minatani in the chest.
Suggests possible risks [Name necklace]
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration says there is no evidence that antibacterial chemicals used in liquid soaps and washes help prevent the spread of germs, and there is some evidence they may pose health risks.
The agency said it is revisiting the safety of chemicals such as triclosan in light of recent studies suggesting they can interfere with hormone levels and spur the growth of drug-resistant bacteria.
The government’s preliminary ruling lends new credence to longstanding warnings from researchers who say the chemicals are, at best, ineffective and at worst, a threat to public health.
Under its proposed rule released today, the agency will require manufacturers to prove their antibacterial soaps and body washes are safe and more effective than plain soap and water. If companies cannot demonstrate the safety The Polish paradox and effectiveness of their products, they would have to be reformulated, relabeled or possibly removed from the market. The agency will take comments on its proposal before finalizing it in coming months.
“Due to consumers’ extensive exposure to the ingredients in antibacterial soaps, we believe there should be a clearly demonstrated benefit from using antibacterial soap to balance any potential risk,” said Dr. Janet Woodcock, director of the FDA’s drug center.
The agency’s proposal comes more than 40 years after the agency was first tasked with evaluating triclosan and similar ingredients. Ultimately, the government agreed to publish its findings only after a three-year legal battle with the environmental group, Natural Resources Defense Council, which accused the FDA of delaying action on triclosan. The chemical is found in an estimated 75 percent of antibacterial liquid soaps and body washes sold in the U.S.
The FDA’s preliminary rule only applies to personal hygiene products, but it has implications for a $1 billion industry that includes thousands of antibacterial products, including kitchen knives, toys, pacifiers and toothpaste.
Most of the research surrounding triclosan’s safety involves animal studies, which cannot always be applied to humans. But some scientists worry the chemical can disrupt hormones in humans too, raising the risk of infertility, early puberty and other developmental problems. Other experts are concerned that routine use of antibacterial chemicals such as triclosan is contributing to a surge in drug-resistant germs, or superbugs, that render antibiotics ineffective.
In March 2010, the European Union banned the chemical from all products that come into contact with food, such as containers and silverware.
