Enjoy!
"Pa. carjack hoax mother gets 8 years in jail" Associated Press, January 27, 2012
PHILADELPHIA - The in-vitro treatments. The suburban house. The lavish trips and dinners out.
None of it was worth it, a soccer mom-turned-“abduction hoax’’ mom told a US judge yesterday before she was sentenced to over eight years in prison for a $1 million swindle.
Bonnie Sweeten, 40, of Feasterville, is infamous for an alarming 911 call that claimed she and her 9-year-old daughter had been carjacked by two black men. She said they had been stuffed into the trunk of another vehicle. She made an equally furtive call to her second husband.
Sweeten’s voice cracked when she apologized for stealing $280,000 from an elderly relative after gaining access to his retirement account papers.
Sweeten, a paralegal, also stole $640,000 from the one-lawyer firm where she worked and took out a $150,000 loan on the lawyer’s real estate. She has already spent a year in prison for the fake 911 call.
Sweeten had developed elaborate means to steal the money, doctoring a judge’s order for law firm clients; telling her husband she had gotten a law degree, leading him to throw a party; and posing as her boss at the refinancing of the woman’s property. “Her conduct has shown that, at her core, she is a criminal,’’ Assistant US Attorney Denise Wolf argued in court.
Same for Wall Street, but I don't see them being hauled before the bar.
Sweeten and her husband, a self-employed landscaper, were spending $4,000 a month on their $400,000 mortgage and another $8,000 a month through debit purchases, according to the FBI.
Sweeten has been in custody since June 2009, just weeks after the daughter she eventually had with husband Larry Sweeten turned 1. She served nearly a year in state prison for the 911 hoax, and has been in federal custody since then. With time served, she’ll be eligible for release in 2018.
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Speaking of crooks:
"Corruption trial begins for Pennsylvania legislator" Associated Press, January 24, 2012
HARRISBURG, Pa. - A prosecutor yesterday described a once-powerful longtime Democratic lawmaker as a “common thief with uncommon access’’ to taxpayers’ money, as he became the first sitting Pennsylvania legislator to go to trial as part of a public corruption inquiry that started five years ago.
Senior Deputy Attorney General Ken Brown told jurors the evidence will show that state Representative Bill DeWeese illegally used legislative employees for political campaigning and fund-raising.
“We’re talking about public monies, monies paid by taxpayers, that were taken by this defendant and used for his own campaign work and for his own personal use,’’ Brown said an opening statement.
Costopoulos painted DeWeese as a man whose values were shaped by his working-class family, his service as a Marine Corps officer, and the constituents in his district in Pennsylvania’s southwestern corner who have elected him 18 times. DeWeese initially won his House seat in a 1976 special election.
DeWeese, 61, a former House speaker and the Democratic floor leader during the 2001-2007 period covered by the investigation, “has earned a good reputation for truthfulness, integrity’’ and respect for the law, Costopoulos said.
But the lawyer said DeWeese is “not a hands-on guy’’ and delegated most responsibilities for overseeing the hundreds of staffers in the Democratic caucus to others.
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"SMALLER JOB -- Richard Singer of Pottsville, Pa., unloaded his toy dump truck while clearing snow from a sidewalk in Pottsville. A weekend storm brought much of the Northeast its first significant snow of the winter (Boston Globe January 23 2012)."
"Parochial students rally against closures" January 10, 2012
PHILADELPHIA - Students at several Philadelphia-area Catholic schools slated for closure staged rallies yesterday to voice their opposition to an archdiocese plan that would shut 48 schools.
Dozens of students gathered outside St. Hubert’s High School for Girls carrying signs, chanting, and singing the school’s alma mater....
About 360 students from West Philadelphia Catholic High held a rally before classes began....
The Rev. Michael Marone, the school minister, said he and his students are very passionate about West Catholic. The students vowed that yesterday’s rally would be the first of many. “We have so many good people who are interested in our school, who love our school,’’ Marone said. “They come into the building, they meet our kids and they say how wonderful they are.’’
Officials in the archdiocese say declining enrollments are forcing the closures, which will displace almost 24,000 students....
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"1 killed, 7 hurt in shooting at party" December 19, 2011|Associated Press
DUQUESNE, Pa. - A shooting at a Sweet 16 birthday party has left one person dead and seven others wounded, Western Pennsylvania authorities said yesterday....
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