News Blurbs

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Bodies Found In Funeral Home Bought At Tax Sale
Remains Of Four People Were Left Inside Vacant Building Since 2006

GARY, Ind. (Post-Tribune) ― Four bodies in a funeral home isn't unusual. Four unidentified bodies left behind in a vacant funeral home is "unbelievable."

That's what the Rev. Reginald Burrell thought Sunday when he and deacons from Northlake Church of Christ went to visit their newly purchased building.

"What in the world is a body still doing in this building?" Burrell thought when he saw a body bag on a table inside the former Serenity Gardens Funeral Home at 934 E. 21st Ave.

He notified Lake County Coroner David J. Pastrick, who arrived Tuesday morning with a crew to investigate the scene.

They found four bodies, including one in the bag, one in a corrugated burial box and two in caskets.

Pastrick believes they could have been there since 2006, when the Indiana State Board of Funeral and Cemetery Services revoked the business license for Serenity owner Darryl Cammack.

"They are unidentifiable," Pastrick said of the remains.

Cammack, who lost his funeral home license in Illinois in 2003, had been sanctioned by the Indiana board in 2005 after at least eight customers filed complaints against him.

"That building has been vacant since I started coming over to that church in Gary in 2005," Burrell said.

His church bought the building at a tax sale and intends to renovate it.

"We have lots of plans and goals we want to pursue," Burrell said. The church now is located next door to their proposed new site.

Gary police are working with state agencies in the investigation.

Lake County Commissioner Roosevelt Allen, who was chairman of the state board in 2005, said Cammack could be charged with breaking several laws.

Pastrick said he doesn't know the origin of the bodies, but believes if the deceased were local, he would have been contacted by relatives about a delay in burial.

"I can't even imagine a funeral director doing something like this. This is my field. It's unbelievable," Pastrick said.

http://cbs2chicago.com/local/Bodies.Found.Funeral.2.1020590.html

:eek:

[mrc27]

Supervisor Asks Woman To Take Down American Flag

Is it okay to show your patriotism at the office?

For one Arlington woman, the answer was "no" after she hung an American flag in her office just before the Memorial Day weekend.

Debbie McLucas is one of four hospital supervisors at Kindred Hospital in Mansfield. Last week, she hung a three-by-five foot American flag in the office she shares with the other supervisors.

When McLucas came to work Friday, her boss told her another supervisor had found her flag offensive. "I was just totally speechless. I was like, 'You're kidding me,'" McLucas said.

McLucas' husband and sons are former military men. Her daughter is currently serving in Iraq as a combat medic.

Stifling a cry, McLucas said, "I just wonder if all those young men and women over there are really doing this for nothing."

McLucas said the supervisor who complained has been in the United States for 14 years and is formerly from Africa. McLucas said the supervisor took down Debbie's flag herself.

"The flag and the pole had been placed on the floor," McLucas said. But McLucas also said hospital higher ups had told her some patients' families and visitors had also complained.

"I was told it wouldn't matter if it was only one person," she said. "It would have to come down."

McLucas said hospital bosses told her as far as patriotism was concerned, the flag flying outside the hospital building would have to suffice.

Kindred Hospital Corporate Headquarters are located in Kentucky. They have yet to make a final decision on the matter. They have not returned our phone calls for comment.

The Kindred Hospital Corporation was chosen as Fortune's most admired for 2009. McLucas hopes they'll back her patriotism.

"I find it very frightening because if I can't display my flag, what other freedoms will I lose before all is said and done," McLucas asked.

http://cbs11tv.com/local/patriotism.at.office.2.1020415.html

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Woman Charged With Hurling Baby in Car Seat at Wal-Mart Employee

MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Police have charged a woman who they say used a child car seat with a 2-month-old infant inside to hit a Wal-Mart employee.

Detective Monique Martin said in a news release Monday that Camilla Fields of Memphis, Tenn., was charged with felony child abuse and neglect and assault. Police did not know if she had an attorney.

A police report from the Wednesday incident says Fields was carrying the car seat when she was confronted by a security guard about shoplifting.

Police say Fields threw the seat and ran away, causing the baby to land face down on the pavement. A paramedic treated the baby until the child regained consciousness.

The child's mother, Stacey Cleaves, was also charged with false reporting and child neglect.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,521739,00.html

:( :mad:

[mrc27]

Millionaires Go Missing
Maryland's fleeced taxpayers fight back.

Here's a two-minute drill in soak-the-rich economics:

Maryland couldn't balance its budget last year, so the state tried to close the shortfall by fleecing the wealthy. Politicians in Annapolis created a millionaire tax bracket, raising the top marginal income-tax rate to 6.25%. And because cities such as Baltimore and Bethesda also impose income taxes, the state-local tax rate can go as high as 9.45%. Governor Martin O'Malley, a dedicated class warrior, declared that these richest 0.3% of filers were "willing and able to pay their fair share." The Baltimore Sun predicted the rich would "grin and bear it."

One year later, nobody's grinning. One-third of the millionaires have disappeared from Maryland tax rolls. In 2008 roughly 3,000 million-dollar income tax returns were filed by the end of April. This year there were 2,000, which the state comptroller's office concedes is a "substantial decline." On those missing returns, the government collects 6.25% of nothing. Instead of the state coffers gaining the extra $106 million the politicians predicted, millionaires paid $100 million less in taxes than they did last year -- even at higher rates.

No doubt the majority of that loss in millionaire filings results from the recession. However, this is one reason that depending on the rich to finance government is so ill-advised: Progressive tax rates create mountains of cash during good times that vanish during recessions. For evidence, consult California, New York and New Jersey (see here).

The Maryland state revenue office says it's "way too early" to tell how many millionaires moved out of the state when the tax rates rose. But no one disputes that some rich filers did leave. It's easier than the redistributionists think. Christopher Summers, president of the Maryland Public Policy Institute, notes: "Marylanders with high incomes typically own second homes in tax friendlier states like Florida, Delaware, South Carolina and Virginia. So it's easy for them to change their residency."

All of this means that the burden of paying for bloated government in Annapolis will fall on the middle class. Thanks to the futility of soaking the rich, these working families will now pay Mr. O'Malley's "fair share."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124329282377252471.html

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Husband Accused of Throwing Wife Off Louisiana Bridge

RUSTON, La. — The Lincoln Parish Sheriff's Department says the suspect in a weekend killing is believed to have thrown the victim off a bridge in Richland Parish.

In a Monday news release, Lincoln authorities say Samuel R. Davis of Choudrant has been booked with second-degree murder in the Saturday evening death of his wife, 39-year-old Meredith Davis.

Samuel Davis was being held Monday at the Lincoln Parish Detention Center.

Lincoln authorities say Richland Parish authorities received a call about midnight from someone who said a man had dropped a body off a bridge. Richland deputies recovered a body, which they identified as Meredith Davis. Lincoln deputies later stopped and arrested Samuel Davis on Interstate 20.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,521724,00.html