6A
NEWS
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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
THURSDAY OCTOBER 22 2009
CRIME
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former Mobile County Circuit Judge Herman Thomas, left, and his lawyer arrive at Mobile Government Plaza Wednesday. Thomas resigned in 2007.
Ex-judge charged in sex abuse case
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MOBIKE, Ala. — Kidnapping and extortion charges against a former Alabama judge were dismissed Wednesday, but a jury will deliberate the remaining felony counts accusing him of paddling and sexually abusing male inmates in return for leniency.
Circuit Judge Claud Neilson said jurors would hear closing arguments in the pared-down case against former Mobile Circuit Judge Herman Thomas on Thursday morning and begin deliberating later in the day.
Thomas, 48, was a community leader in Mobile, serving as a judge for 17 years, a trustee of two universities and an organizer of mentoring programs for youth.
He resigned in 2007 when allegations surfaced that he spanked defendants with a wooden paddle.
Then earlier this year a grand jury indicted him on charges that he physically and sexually abused young male defendants in return for help with their cases.
He originally faced 103 charges involving 15 young men, but prosecutors dropped four of the men's cases during the trial, and the judge threw out all ethics charges against him because the statute of limitations expired.
On Wednesday, the judge dismissed kidnapping charges, saying accusations that Thomas took young men to a private courthouse office for paddlings didn't constitute kidnapping.
Funeral home makes use of billboards
NATIONAL
**Iles Funeral Homes has found** a way to display funeral service announcements around Des Moines in the tradition of posting them around stores in small towns. They put them on electronic billboards.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
DES MOINES, Iowa - A funeral home is giving people one last chance to have their name in lights.
Iles Funeral Home in Des Moines is going high-tech with its funeral announcements, putting them on electronic billboards around the city.
John Wild, the general manager for Iles, compared it to the posting of funeral announcements at shops and post offices in rural communities where the business has funeral homes.
"That's how we get the word out about visitations and services in those communities and when we were approached about using electronic billboards, we thought it would be a good way to do the same thing here in Des Moines," Wild said.
Jessica Koth, spokeswoman for the National Funeral Directors Association in Brookfield, Wis., said it's the first time she's heard of a funeral home displaying service information on a billboard.
Wild was approached by Clear Channel Outdoors, which provides the digital billboards, about
advertising Iles Funeral Home on the signs. Instead, Wild decided to use the billboards to let the public know about visitations and funeral services.
"I thought it was forward thinking and innovative," said Tim Jameson, president of the Des Moines division of Clear Channel Outdoor.
The digital announcements, which have appeared on five billboards around Des Moines for a few months, last about 8 seconds. Announcements can flash the person's name, picture and service details as well as the funeral home's Web site.
The announcement rotates with other ads and there is no additional cost to the family.
Koth acknowledged concerns that the billboards could be a distraction, particularly if someone
spots the name of a friend or acquaintance without knowing about it beforehand.
But jameson said he doesn't think the billboards have been a problem.
"The ad is for people who normally wouldn't be reached," he said. "It's no different that getting a text message or e-mail on your phone while you're driving down the road that somebody has died."
CRIME
CRIME Police shoot man in California dorm fight
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Police at California State University, Sacramento shot a man on campus after he allegedly beat another man during a fight in a student dormitory.
Sacramento city police Sgt Norm Leong says three campus officers were responding to reports of a disturbance at a dorm Wednesday when a man charged them with a knife.
Associated Press
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BUSINESS
Halloween costumes getting gory
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Halloween has morphed into a gore fest that has kids as young as 6 unleashing their inner monsters in ultra-violent costumes — blood-smeared chain saws and spiked killing gloves sold separately.
Optionsinclude Leatherface from "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," Jason ("Friday the 13th"), Freddy ("A Nightmare on Elm Street") and Michael ("Halloween"). Costume sizes can run so small that many wearers might be too
"Bloody, sadistic, nightmare-inducing Halloween costumes are indeed being made and marketed for kids..."
twin 7-year-old girls.
JOEL SCHWARTZBERG Parenting writer
young to have seen the slasher movies under film industry guidelines.
Fanged creatures feasting on brain stems. Possessed babies chomping on arms. Not all parents think it's OK for the holiday second only to Christmas in the minds of many kids to be more a celebration of the most deranged characters pop culture has to offer.
"Bloody, sadistic, nightmare-inducing Halloween costumes are indeed being made and marketed for kids, and no one seems to care," said Joel Schwartzberg, a parenting writer and Montclair, N.J., dad of a 10-year-old boy and
Schwartzberg is fighting back at tooçarycostumes.com, which he hopes will raise awareness about how Halloween has strayed from "sickly sweet to just plain sick." No puritan, he said he loves a good horror flick and has even written some himself, but what's the point
of all the realistic gore — for the very young, anyway?
"I think wearing these costumes and being exposed to human deprivation, even in a fun context, doesn't scar kids so much as desensitize them to brutal violence," Schwartzberg said. "Kids are less able to distinguish
between real world and fictional brutality than grown-ups."
Some schools are also concerned, toning down Halloween
celebrations or banning them altogether because of complaints about the gore factor, along with religious objections and concerns about too much candy and potentially
dangerous props
like pointy toy swords and vision- impairing masks.
"It's one night a year — let them have fun as long as it's something that's not dangerous..."
But it's Halloweeeeeeeen, costume companies and other parents argue, urging the bothered among them to exercise the privilege of saying "No" to violent, realistic gore.
CINDY CHAPMAN
Parent
“It's one night a year — let them have fun as long as it's something that's not dangerous or putting their life in jeopardy,” said Big Lake, Minn., mom Cindy Chapman, who has a 9-year-old daughter. “I also have a rule: No store bought outfits, so that truly forces my daughter to be creative AND it cuts down on a lot of the commercial gore.”
Marilynn A. Wick, founder and CEO for one of the largest costume distributors, Costume World, said the company relies on customers to "use their best discretion in selecting costumes and makeup for young people." She added that children are inspired by films and video games and that "Costume World has a responsibility and a mission to supply our clients with
the most up-to-date costumes and accessories, many of which are inspired by these visual stimuli."
Many "too scary" costumes are elaborate affairs, including a child Doctor Zombie available in size small with a "highly crafted" mask
of a rotting face, a blood-splattered lab coat and "fully detailed" exposed and rotted rib cage.
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