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Mar 14, 2012

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Mayor wipes away New Jersey city's toilet paper crisis
Mar 14th 2012, 15:08

 

By msnb.com staff and news services

The great Toilet Paper Crisis of 2012 -- at least for the city of Trenton, N.J. -- is over after the mayor authorized an emergency order of the indispensable material for city buildings.

The local crisis became an international sensation, and that wasn't lost on council members, the Trenton Times reported Wednesday.

"Today all over the world we are the laughingstock not only of this nation but of the world and that, in and of itself, should send us a message that we need to get our act together," Council President Kathy McBride said at Tuesday night's council meeting.


Mayor Tony Mack's administration placed the order Tuesday and some supplies were supposed to have arrived that afternoon, with the rest on Wednesday.

The situation had become dire on Tuesday at police headquarters.

The men's rooms were completely bare and just a few rolls were left in the women's rooms, Detective George Dzurkoc said after filing a health complaint on behalf of the Policemen's Benevolent Association.

"The bottom line is they have a health issue knocking at the door," Dzurkoc said.

The crisis started in September, when the council rejected a $42,000 contract for paper products because of concerns about the $4,000 price tag for coffee cups.

The emergency order provides $16,000 for toilet paper, paper towels and toilet-seat covers.

A city official said the search for a long-term provider continues.

Budget spat wipes out toilet paper

Public works director Harold Hall, who had earlier warned the council of supplies running low at senior centers, police headquarters and city hall, blamed the city council for not approving the contract when it was presented to them last year.

"You, as adults, know that we need these items in these buildings," he said.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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Oregon paper publishes embarrassing correction after editor found dead in sex act
Mar 14th 2012, 14:33

By msnbc.com staff

An Oregon newspaper was forced to print an embarrassing correction after sultry details about the death of one of the paper's own Pulitzer Prize-winning editors began to emerge.

Bob Caldwell, 63, a longtime editorial page editor at The Oregonian, died on Saturday. A family friend initially told the newspaper that Caldwell was found dead in his car; later, The Oregonian reported Caldwell had actually gone into cardiac arrest while engaged in a "sex act" with a 23-year-old woman at her apartment. He reportedly had been paying her in exchange for such encounters.

Caldwell, who is married with three children, was "coughing and then unresponsive" during sex with the woman, the paper reported. The woman, who was not identified, allegedly told sheriff's deputies she met Caldwell about a year ago at Portland Community College. Caldwell gave her cash for books and other items for school in exchange for sexual favors at her apartment, she said, according to The Oregonian.

Caldwell was transported to Providence St. Vincent Medical Center Saturday, and was later pronounced dead, The Oregonian said. He had not given the woman money on Saturday, according to the paper.

No prostitution charges will be filed against the woman, deputies said.

“Technically we probably could have charged her with prostitution because there was an exchange of something, books and maybe tuition money for sex,” Sgt. Dave Thompson told Oregon Public Broadcasting. “But it’s a misdemeanor crime, and the circumstances of the guy dying in her apartment, we felt like it was probably not the most important arrest to make.”

Widow: 'We love him unconditionally'
On Tuesday, Caldwell's widow, Lora Cuykendall, posted a Facebook update about the circumstances concerning his death, and saying he "would have understood why The Oregonian needed to print the story." She added, "He also would have regretted the anguish that it caused to those he loves - both outside and inside of the newspaper. We love him unconditionally. Thanks to all of you for your loving support. Thanks to all of you for your loving support."

It's not known whether Caldwell's widow was aware of his affair.

The Oregonian's original obituary described Caldwell as having a "big smile and and a bigger laugh."

Caldwell's editorial career with the Oregonian began in 1995, but he worked for the paper for a total of 30 years. The newspaper won a Pulitzer Prize in 2006 under him for a series of editorials about abuses at the Oregon State hospital, titled "Oregon's Forgotten Hospital," according to The Associated Press.

"He never lost his schoolboy enthusiasm for putting out the newspaper," said the obituary. "He never lost sight of the democratic ideals that drew him to journalism in the first place: Tell people the news, and the rest will follow." 

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Boy, 3, kills self with gun inside car
Mar 14th 2012, 13:56

By msnbc.com staff and news services

TACOMA, Wash. -- A 3-year-old boy accidentally killed himself with a gun as another child sat next to him in a car, police in Tacoma reported Wednesday, the third recent shooting of a child in Washington state.

The car was parked at a gas station just after midnight Wednesday when the boy's mom got out to buy some items and her boyfriend went to fuel the car, leaving his gun inside, NBC affiliate KING5 TV reported.


Police believe the boy then got out of a car seat, grabbed the gun and shot himself. The man's daughter was also in the car, though she was not hurt.

The family, who have not been identified by police, is believed to be from the Tacoma area and the boyfriend does have a concealed weapons permit, KING5 reported.

Tacoma police spokesman Naveed Benjamin said the man had put his pistol under a seat.

Detectives called the shooting a tragic accident, Benjamin said.

The shooting follows the death of the 7-year-old daughter of a police officer in Stanwood, Wash., on Saturday when a sibling found a gun and fired while the parents were out of their car.

And on Feb. 22, an 8-year-old girl was critically wounded in a Bremerton classroom when a gun fired from the backpack of a 9-year-old boy as he put it on a desk.

"It's another tragedy in a very short period of time," Benjamin said. "It is incredible in light of the other ones. You would think people would take more care, not less."

"You can't predict what children are going to do," he added. "You need to unload and lock it up if you're not carrying it."

"And keep it out of the hands of children," Benjamin said. "It's really not that hard to practice firearm safety."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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thumbnail Kidnap survivor Jaycee Dugard says she will remain in hiding until her kids are old enough to understand
Mar 14th 2012, 13:47

By Associated Press

Kidnapping survivor Jaycee Dugard made her first public appearance over the weekend at a star-studded New York awards ceremony, but she plans to remain in hiding until her daughters are mature enough to understand what happened to them, she said in a recent interview.

Dugard, 31, and her two children, ages 14 and 17, have been living at an undisclosed California location since being found by authorities in 2009 - 18 years after she was abducted from a South Lake Tahoe bus stop.

She was held by Phillip and Nancy Garrido in their Antioch backyard, where she gave birth to two children conceived by rape.

In an interview that aired Tuesday night, Dugard told ABC News that she's spent the last three years healing and experiencing life with her family.

"I want my girls to have a normal life as much as possible," she told ABC News' Diane Sawyer. "I feel like on some things I have to do it a little bit differently ... not be recognized ... for their sake.

"I think in time as they get older, they'll know how to deal with it better, and that would be the time that we would come out," she said.

Dugard has been working to build the JAYC Foundation, which aims to support families dealing with abduction and other tragedies. She wrote a best-selling memoir last year, "A Stolen Life," which recounts her years in captivity.

Phillip Garrido is serving a 431-year prison sentence, and Nancy Garrido is serving 36 years to life, after both struck plea deals on kidnapping and rape charges. The state of California paid Dugard a $20 million settlement under which officials acknowledged repeated mistakes were made by parole agents responsible for monitoring Phillip Garrido, who was a convicted rapist.

Dugard describes years of captivity

Sawyer asked Dugard if either of the Garridos had tried to contact her. "No, not at all, which is fine with me," Dugard said.

Sawyer then asked Dugard if she has days when she doesn't think about what happened to her.

Dugard replied, "Oh, sure. It's not with me every day."

Asked if anyone had caught her eye romantically, Dugard said, "No, no, I just, I can't go there yet," Dugard said. "It's too soon."

July 7, 2011: Jaycee Dugard, the California woman who spent 18 years in captivity after being snatched from a street as a 11-year-old, is now revealing her horrific ordeal in an upcoming memoir. NBC's Aditi Roy reports.

Dugard was honored Friday at an awards ceremony held by fashion designer and humanitarian Diane von Furstenberg. She was introduced at the ceremony by Oprah Winfrey, another honoree of the night.

"Jaycee Dugard, I am so proud of you, your courage, your ability to press onward toward the future and toward a more victorious life for yourself and for using your courage, your strength, and your power to show the world that you care," Winfrey said.

During her first trip to New York, Dugard told Sawyer that she took in a Broadway play, admired the skyscrapers and enjoyed walking down the street among the crowds to get pizza.

"Just being free to do what I want to do, when I want to do it," she said. "That's the whole learning process to, to know that you can."

© 2011 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

thumbnail San Diego man taking his loincloth to federal court
Mar 14th 2012, 13:40

NBC San Diego

Will Walters says he was wrongly arrested during the San Diego LGBT Pride festival in July.

By Gene Cubbison and Lauren Steussy, NBCSanDiego.com

The man who was arrested during last summer's Pride festival in Balboa Park for public nudity is taking his case to federal court.

Will Walters, 30, says he was just expressing his fashion-sense during the San Diego LGBT Pride festival in July. A San Diego police officer made the arrest.

He insists that his leather outfit, featuring a loincloth getup over thong underwear, completely covered his genitals. He also claims he was mistreated in jail.

The case was never prosecuted, and the city rejected Walters' claim last month, according to Walters' attorney Chris Morris. Now, Walters will sue the federal court, saying the arrest "violated his rights under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment," according to Courthouse News Service.

For more, visit NBCSanDiego.com

The suit has been filed in the Southern District Federal Court in San Diego.

A local man filed a complaint against the city after a police officer arrested him at a Pride parade for public nudity. A police officer who encountered Walters at the beer garden apparently thought the display bordered on illegality.

"He said I needed to sign this citation or I was going to jail," Walters recalled in a Dec. 2011 interview with NBC San Diego.

"I said, 'Well, you're going to have to take me to jail, because I'm never going to sign something I'm not allowed to read,’” he said. “All I wanted to know was, how can I correct a problem, and what's the problem? And the problem was presented to me, and I said, 'that’s ridiculous.'"

Vote (on Facebook): Does wearing a loincloth constitute public nudity?

Walters wound up spending 12 hours behind bars after being removed from the Pride event by several officers, and taken to the Central Jail -- where, he says, even the booking deputy was amazed that he'd been cited for nudity.

Morris saw the arrest as selective enforcement of a kind that's never been applied to beachwear seen at other events where crowds flash a lot of skin, he said in December.

"Our main goal in filing the claim was to bring change to the city and its policies," Morris said on Tuesday. "That change is just not going to happen without court supervision."

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