Page last updated at 14:55 GMT, Friday, 28 August 2009 15:55 UK by the BBC News
A woman freed in California 18 years after being kidnapped at the age of 11 is said to have had a happy reunion with her mother.
Jaycee Lee Dugard was found living in her alleged kidnapper's home in a suburb of San Francisco after her abduction 200 miles (322km) away.
She and the two children he allegedly fathered with her are "doing great", stepfather Carl Probyn said.
Mr Probyn said his ex-wife had been struck by how young Jaycee looked.
He and Jaycee's mother divorced after the abduction and he told US media how he had endured years of "hell", under suspicion of having played a part in his stepdaughter's kidnapping.
Jaycee Dugard was forced into a car on her way to school in front of his eyes. He had tried in vain to give chase on a bicycle.
Ms Dugard's alleged abductor and his wife have both been arrested as police search their home in Antioch, El Dorado County.
Phillip Garrido, 58, is being held on suspicion of various kidnapping and sex charges. He is already a convicted rapist and kidnapper.
His wife Nancy, 54, was allegedly with him during the kidnapping in South Lake Tahoe and has also been arrested.
'Guilt over bonding'
Jaycee Dugard, her two daughters, her sister, her mother and another relative were at the reunion on Thursday, Mr Probyn said.
"I think they're pretty happy," he added.
In interviews on NBC, ABC and CBS on Friday morning, Mr Probyn said the most surprising thing to his wife had been that Jaycee still looked very young.
Ms Dugard also felt guilty for bonding with her captor and her family felt troubled by learning the facts of how she had been forced to live for 18 years, Mr Probyn added.
DNA tests are being taken to confirm Ms Dugard's identity as the police investigation progresses.
Police have removed a car from the suspects' home in Antioch.
They said they had found a vehicle which matched a description of the car originally described at the time of the abduction.
'A disgusting thing'
El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar described finding a makeshift compound in the backyard consisting of sheds, tents and outbuildings.
Phillip Garrido
Phillip Garrido allegedly fathered two children with Ms Dugard, police say
The true identity of the backyard's inhabitants only emerged after Garrido was called in along with his "family" for a parole office hearing on Wednesday.
Diane Doty, a neighbour, has said she often heard children playing in the backyard.
"I asked my husband, 'Why is he [Garrido] living in tents?'" she said on Thursday.
"And he said, 'Maybe that is how they like to live.'"
The alleged abductor has himself told a US TV channel that Ms Dugard's ordeal was a "heart-warming" story.
"It's a disgusting thing that took place with me at the beginning, but I turned my life completely around," Garrido told KCRA television from El Dorado County jail.
Court records show that Garrido was convicted of kidnapping and raping a 25-year-old woman in South Lake Tahoe in 1976.
The Good News Network Channel ~ “A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.” (Tom Stoppard).
Friday, August 28, 2009
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
Angle Food Ministries
We have been getting our food once a month at our local church from The Angle Food Ministries. I am so happy with the food and the price. Once a month you can pay like $30 dollars and that will feed a family of 4 for one week or feed a single senior citizen for almost a month. Check out the link in the Cool Links menu bar.
SC retiree: $260M Powerball prize won't change me
By MEG KINNARD, Associated Press Writer Meg Kinnard, Associated Press Writer – Tue Aug 25, 7:59 pm ET
COLUMBIA, S.C. – A retired South Carolina state employee who spent two bucks on the lottery was all smiles Tuesday as he claimed a $260 million Powerball jackpot. "For once in my life, I really experienced the old saying, pinch me to see if I'm still alive, or if this is real," Solomon Jackson Jr. said.
South Carolina Education Lottery officials say the Powerball jackpot is the largest ever won with a ticket bought in the state, which has the nation's fifth-highest unemployment rate. Powerball is played in 30 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Jackson, a lifelong Columbia resident, shared few details about himself or his plans for the money. He did say he is married and has 10 siblings, though he would not say how many children he has or give his age.
He also did not say whether he will take his winnings in yearly payments over three decades or in a $129 million lump sum, which would work out to about $88 million after taxes.
He did reveal he had been an assistant supervisor for the state Revenue Department until taking early retirement in 2000 and using his free time to return to school to get a degree from Midlands Technical College.
"It is a beautiful day for education," Jackson said. "I said, 'Well, why can't I throw $2 at the lottery, to help education?' Come to find out, I did not need $2 to win, so I wasted a dollar. Thank God. Thank God. Thank God."
Jackson, who said he has played the lottery before, appeared at a claims center in Columbia on Tuesday with I.S. Leevy Johnson, an attorney whose wife taught Jackson in high school and said he has known the man for years. But Johnson said he was still somewhat taken aback when he fielded Jackson's call Monday.
"He said to me, Mr. Johnson, I want to talk to you about something. And being a criminal defense lawyer, I said, 'Oh Lord,'" Johnson said. "We matched the numbers up, and we learned that truly he was a winner."
Jackson picked up the only ticket that matched all the winning numbers for the Aug. 19 drawing — 14, 24, 31, 43 and 51, with a Powerball of 27 and a multiplier of 5 — at a Columbia gas station after shopping at a nearby Walmart. He says he won't let his winnings affect who he is, only dropping hints that eventually someone else will benefit from his good fortune.
"I'm already retired, I've already got a good income, and God has blessed me, so I won't do a bunch with it," Jackson said with a smile. "But somebody's going to be blessed."
Lottery officials say Jackson's chances of winning were one in 195 million.
"That's a lot of people," he said. "And yet, little ole me, of all the people."
COLUMBIA, S.C. – A retired South Carolina state employee who spent two bucks on the lottery was all smiles Tuesday as he claimed a $260 million Powerball jackpot. "For once in my life, I really experienced the old saying, pinch me to see if I'm still alive, or if this is real," Solomon Jackson Jr. said.
South Carolina Education Lottery officials say the Powerball jackpot is the largest ever won with a ticket bought in the state, which has the nation's fifth-highest unemployment rate. Powerball is played in 30 states, the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
Jackson, a lifelong Columbia resident, shared few details about himself or his plans for the money. He did say he is married and has 10 siblings, though he would not say how many children he has or give his age.
He also did not say whether he will take his winnings in yearly payments over three decades or in a $129 million lump sum, which would work out to about $88 million after taxes.
He did reveal he had been an assistant supervisor for the state Revenue Department until taking early retirement in 2000 and using his free time to return to school to get a degree from Midlands Technical College.
"It is a beautiful day for education," Jackson said. "I said, 'Well, why can't I throw $2 at the lottery, to help education?' Come to find out, I did not need $2 to win, so I wasted a dollar. Thank God. Thank God. Thank God."
Jackson, who said he has played the lottery before, appeared at a claims center in Columbia on Tuesday with I.S. Leevy Johnson, an attorney whose wife taught Jackson in high school and said he has known the man for years. But Johnson said he was still somewhat taken aback when he fielded Jackson's call Monday.
"He said to me, Mr. Johnson, I want to talk to you about something. And being a criminal defense lawyer, I said, 'Oh Lord,'" Johnson said. "We matched the numbers up, and we learned that truly he was a winner."
Jackson picked up the only ticket that matched all the winning numbers for the Aug. 19 drawing — 14, 24, 31, 43 and 51, with a Powerball of 27 and a multiplier of 5 — at a Columbia gas station after shopping at a nearby Walmart. He says he won't let his winnings affect who he is, only dropping hints that eventually someone else will benefit from his good fortune.
"I'm already retired, I've already got a good income, and God has blessed me, so I won't do a bunch with it," Jackson said with a smile. "But somebody's going to be blessed."
Lottery officials say Jackson's chances of winning were one in 195 million.
"That's a lot of people," he said. "And yet, little ole me, of all the people."
Monday, August 17, 2009
Taco Bell's New Green Menu Takes No Ingredients from Nature
Make someone laugh....
scroll down to watch the video....
find more funny videos at The Onion News Network.
scroll down to watch the video....
find more funny videos at The Onion News Network.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
White Folks Will Riot: Pastor Manning
I thought this was interesting. If Obama's goal is to reunite America by pissing people off...than Obama is doing a great job!!
White Folks Will Riot: Pastor Manning
Shared via AddThis
White Folks Will Riot: Pastor Manning
Shared via AddThis
Mission Accomplished: Clinton Leaves North Korea With Pardoned Journalists
A spokesman for Bill Clinton says the former president and the two journalists have left North Korea en route to Los Angeles.
FOXNews.com
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Bill Clinton has left North Korea with the two pardoned American journalists, a spokesman for the former president said Tuesday.
"President Clinton has safely left North Korea with Laura Ling and Euna Lee," Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna said in a statement. "They are en route to Los Angeles where Laura and Euna will be reunited with their families."
The women, dressed in short-sleeved shirts and jeans, appeared healthy as they climbed the steps to the plane and shook hands with Clinton before getting into the jet, APTN footage in Pyongyang showed. Clinton waved, put his hand over his heart and then saluted.
North Korean officials waved as the plane took off.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il issued a "special pardon" for the reporters after Clinton made a surprise visit to the communist nation to negotiate their release Tuesday morning. The release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee was a sign of North Korea's "humanitarian and peaceloving policy," the Korean Central News Agency reported.
The White House has not been commenting on any aspect of the trip.
During the visit, Clinton met with Kim as well as the two reporters, who were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor after North Korea accused them of sneaking into the country illegally and engaging in "hostile acts."
The public breakthrough in talks was reached in the course of a day. But sources said the framework for the journalists' release had been negotiated ahead of time.
Through a representative, the families of the reporters released a statement saying they were "overjoyed" at the news.
"We are so grateful to our government: President Obama, Secretary Clinton and the U.S. State Department for their dedication to and hard work on behalf of American citizens," the statement said. "We especially want to thank President Bill Clinton for taking on such an arduous mission and Vice President Al Gore for his tireless efforts to bring Laura and Euna home. We must also thank all the people who have supported our families through this ordeal, it has meant the world to us. We are counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms."
The official Korean Central News Agency earlier said in a brief dispatch that Clinton left North Korea with his party early Wednesday by plane after he negotiated for the release of two jailed American journalists.
But the news agency withdrew the report without citing a reason.
The White House is not yet offering details on the mission.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who was peppered with questions about the matter at the daily press briefing, said the main concern was for the safety of the journalists.
"I think we're obviously talking about something that's extremely sensitive," he said earlier. "We will have more to say on this hopefully later on."
Gibbs revealed little beyond the terse written statement his office put out Tuesday morning. The statement called Clinton's visit a "solely private mission" to secure the journalists' release and said the White House would not "jeopardize" his success by commenting.
Though analysts said Clinton must have coordinated closely with the administration, Gibbs denied a report in state media that said Clinton conveyed a verbal message to Kim from President Obama.
"That's not true," Gibbs said.
North Korea's state media said Kim and Clinton held "exhaustive" talks on a wide range of topics. Kim expressed his thanks, and engaged Clinton in a "wide-ranging exchange of views on matters of common concern," the official Korean Central News Agency said in a report from Pyongyang.
Clinton landed Tuesday morning in the North Korean capital in an unmarked jet. After greeting North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator and a high-ranking parliamentary official, he bowed and smiled as a young girl presented him with flowers, a red scarf tied around her neck, according to footage aired by television news agency APTN.
The unusually warm exchange Tuesday between officials from communist North Korea and the ex-leader of a wartime foe came amid heightened tensions between Washington and Pyongyang over the regime's nuclear program. In recent months, North Korea has abandoned a disarmament pact, launched a long-range rocket, conducted a nuclear test and test-fired a barrage of ballistic missiles in defiance of the U.N. Security Council.
Clinton made the trip to secure the release of two reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV media venture who were arrested along the North Korean-Chinese border in March.
Speaking out for the first time since their capture, Gore said in a joint statement with Current co-founder Joel Hyatt that everyone at the media outlet was overjoyed by the prospect of their safe return. "Our hearts go out to them and to their families for persevering through this horrible experience," it said.
The U.S. and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations, but officials were believed to be working behind the scenes to negotiate their release.
Clinton, whose administration had relatively good relations with Pyongyang; Gore, his vice president; and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who in the 1990s traveled twice to North Korea to secure the freedom of detained Americans, had all been floated as possible envoys to bring back Lee and Ling.
However, the decision to send Clinton was kept quiet. A senior U.S. official later confirmed to reporters traveling to Africa with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the former president was in North Korea.
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency announced Clinton's visit with a brief dispatch but did not say who he would be meeting during his trip.
But analysts said Kim Jong Il was eager to smooth over relations with Washington as he prepares to name a successor.
Kim, 67, reportedly is in ill health, suffering a stroke a year ago on top of chronic diabetes and heart disease. He rules the impoverished communist nation of 24 million with absolute authority, but has not publicly named the next leader. He is believed, however, to be grooming his third son, 26-year-old Jong Un, to take over.
Internal stability is key to a smooth transition, and establishing relations with Washington would be one way to rule out a threat from a superpower that has 28,500 troops stationed just on the other side of the border with South Korea, analysts said. The two Koreas remain technically at war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
Releasing the journalists would serve as a face-saving segue into talks, analysts said.
During a nuclear standoff with North Korean in 1994, former President Jimmy Carter went to Pyongyang and met with leader Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il's late father. That visit, during Clinton's presidency, led to a breakthrough accord months later.
The last high-ranking U.S. official to meet with Kim Jong Il was Madeleine Albright, Clinton's secretary of state, who visited Pyongyang in 2000 at a time of warming relations. Ties turned frosty when George W. Bush took office in the White House in 2001.
Since Obama took office, Pyongyang has expressed interest in one-on-one negotiations with Washington. The latest provocations were seen in part as a way to draw a concerned U.S. into bilateral talks.
Washington says it is willing to hold such talks with the North, but only within the framework of international disarmament negotiations in place since 2003. Those talks involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States. North Korea has said it will never return to the six-nation disarmament process.
Lee and Ling were captured in North Korea's far northeast in the midst of the nuclear standoff. They had traveled to the border region in China to report on women and children defectors from North Korea.
Their families and U.S. officials had pushed for their release, noting that Ling has a medical condition and that Lee has a 4-year-old daughter.
Hillary Clinton had urged North Korea to grant them amnesty, saying the women were remorseful and their families anguished.
FOX News' Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
FOXNews.com
Tuesday, August 04, 2009
Bill Clinton has left North Korea with the two pardoned American journalists, a spokesman for the former president said Tuesday.
"President Clinton has safely left North Korea with Laura Ling and Euna Lee," Clinton spokesman Matt McKenna said in a statement. "They are en route to Los Angeles where Laura and Euna will be reunited with their families."
The women, dressed in short-sleeved shirts and jeans, appeared healthy as they climbed the steps to the plane and shook hands with Clinton before getting into the jet, APTN footage in Pyongyang showed. Clinton waved, put his hand over his heart and then saluted.
North Korean officials waved as the plane took off.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Il issued a "special pardon" for the reporters after Clinton made a surprise visit to the communist nation to negotiate their release Tuesday morning. The release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee was a sign of North Korea's "humanitarian and peaceloving policy," the Korean Central News Agency reported.
The White House has not been commenting on any aspect of the trip.
During the visit, Clinton met with Kim as well as the two reporters, who were sentenced in June to 12 years of hard labor after North Korea accused them of sneaking into the country illegally and engaging in "hostile acts."
The public breakthrough in talks was reached in the course of a day. But sources said the framework for the journalists' release had been negotiated ahead of time.
Through a representative, the families of the reporters released a statement saying they were "overjoyed" at the news.
"We are so grateful to our government: President Obama, Secretary Clinton and the U.S. State Department for their dedication to and hard work on behalf of American citizens," the statement said. "We especially want to thank President Bill Clinton for taking on such an arduous mission and Vice President Al Gore for his tireless efforts to bring Laura and Euna home. We must also thank all the people who have supported our families through this ordeal, it has meant the world to us. We are counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms."
The official Korean Central News Agency earlier said in a brief dispatch that Clinton left North Korea with his party early Wednesday by plane after he negotiated for the release of two jailed American journalists.
But the news agency withdrew the report without citing a reason.
The White House is not yet offering details on the mission.
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, who was peppered with questions about the matter at the daily press briefing, said the main concern was for the safety of the journalists.
"I think we're obviously talking about something that's extremely sensitive," he said earlier. "We will have more to say on this hopefully later on."
Gibbs revealed little beyond the terse written statement his office put out Tuesday morning. The statement called Clinton's visit a "solely private mission" to secure the journalists' release and said the White House would not "jeopardize" his success by commenting.
Though analysts said Clinton must have coordinated closely with the administration, Gibbs denied a report in state media that said Clinton conveyed a verbal message to Kim from President Obama.
"That's not true," Gibbs said.
North Korea's state media said Kim and Clinton held "exhaustive" talks on a wide range of topics. Kim expressed his thanks, and engaged Clinton in a "wide-ranging exchange of views on matters of common concern," the official Korean Central News Agency said in a report from Pyongyang.
Clinton landed Tuesday morning in the North Korean capital in an unmarked jet. After greeting North Korea's chief nuclear negotiator and a high-ranking parliamentary official, he bowed and smiled as a young girl presented him with flowers, a red scarf tied around her neck, according to footage aired by television news agency APTN.
The unusually warm exchange Tuesday between officials from communist North Korea and the ex-leader of a wartime foe came amid heightened tensions between Washington and Pyongyang over the regime's nuclear program. In recent months, North Korea has abandoned a disarmament pact, launched a long-range rocket, conducted a nuclear test and test-fired a barrage of ballistic missiles in defiance of the U.N. Security Council.
Clinton made the trip to secure the release of two reporters for former Vice President Al Gore's California-based Current TV media venture who were arrested along the North Korean-Chinese border in March.
Speaking out for the first time since their capture, Gore said in a joint statement with Current co-founder Joel Hyatt that everyone at the media outlet was overjoyed by the prospect of their safe return. "Our hearts go out to them and to their families for persevering through this horrible experience," it said.
The U.S. and North Korea do not have diplomatic relations, but officials were believed to be working behind the scenes to negotiate their release.
Clinton, whose administration had relatively good relations with Pyongyang; Gore, his vice president; and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who in the 1990s traveled twice to North Korea to secure the freedom of detained Americans, had all been floated as possible envoys to bring back Lee and Ling.
However, the decision to send Clinton was kept quiet. A senior U.S. official later confirmed to reporters traveling to Africa with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton that the former president was in North Korea.
North Korea's official Korean Central News Agency announced Clinton's visit with a brief dispatch but did not say who he would be meeting during his trip.
But analysts said Kim Jong Il was eager to smooth over relations with Washington as he prepares to name a successor.
Kim, 67, reportedly is in ill health, suffering a stroke a year ago on top of chronic diabetes and heart disease. He rules the impoverished communist nation of 24 million with absolute authority, but has not publicly named the next leader. He is believed, however, to be grooming his third son, 26-year-old Jong Un, to take over.
Internal stability is key to a smooth transition, and establishing relations with Washington would be one way to rule out a threat from a superpower that has 28,500 troops stationed just on the other side of the border with South Korea, analysts said. The two Koreas remain technically at war because their three-year conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty, in 1953.
Releasing the journalists would serve as a face-saving segue into talks, analysts said.
During a nuclear standoff with North Korean in 1994, former President Jimmy Carter went to Pyongyang and met with leader Kim Il Sung, Kim Jong Il's late father. That visit, during Clinton's presidency, led to a breakthrough accord months later.
The last high-ranking U.S. official to meet with Kim Jong Il was Madeleine Albright, Clinton's secretary of state, who visited Pyongyang in 2000 at a time of warming relations. Ties turned frosty when George W. Bush took office in the White House in 2001.
Since Obama took office, Pyongyang has expressed interest in one-on-one negotiations with Washington. The latest provocations were seen in part as a way to draw a concerned U.S. into bilateral talks.
Washington says it is willing to hold such talks with the North, but only within the framework of international disarmament negotiations in place since 2003. Those talks involve China, Japan, the two Koreas, Russia and the United States. North Korea has said it will never return to the six-nation disarmament process.
Lee and Ling were captured in North Korea's far northeast in the midst of the nuclear standoff. They had traveled to the border region in China to report on women and children defectors from North Korea.
Their families and U.S. officials had pushed for their release, noting that Ling has a medical condition and that Lee has a 4-year-old daughter.
Hillary Clinton had urged North Korea to grant them amnesty, saying the women were remorseful and their families anguished.
FOX News' Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Good News from the Washington, DC Area
Pioneering ‘domino transplant’ doctor changes lives
Posted: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 3:52 PM
By Jay Blackman, NBC News Producer
Scroll down to watch the video.
Posted: Tuesday, August 04, 2009 3:52 PM
By Jay Blackman, NBC News Producer
Scroll down to watch the video.
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