Edition 3-03-04

Freedom Rights Rally & State Meeting
April 9 - April 12
State Meeting: Sunday April 11 @ 12 Noon
Monticello - American Legion Hall

FORT DODGE, IOWA - A paramedic was fired and denied benefits after allegedly handling a corpse in an inappropriate manner. Scott Kirkhart was fired from Trinity Regional Medi- cal Center after he stuck his fingers in the mouth of a corpse which he was taking to the morgue. A security officer present had a "strong reaction," to the incident, according to state records. As a result, Kirkhart shoved his fingers into the dead person's nostrils and later grabbed the per- son's breast and said "honk, honk." Hospital officials say he admitted to putting his fingers in the dead person's mouth but denied the other accusations. He argued at a hear- ing that his benefits should be paid to him since touching a corpse is not unusual in training practices, but the judge disagreed, saying that Kirkhart wasn't in training at the time and that it is inappropriate to desecrate a body.

Exotic species wandering free in south Florida are creating growing safety and environmental concerns, the New York Times reported Monday. Among the creatures generating frantic calls to trappers are Burmese pythons, African monitor lizards, vervet monkeys and alligator-like caimans. "Any place the public perceives as a large, wild, jungle-like environment, that's where you'll see them," said trapper Todd Hardwick, who said he once caught a 22-foot reticulated python under a house in Fort Lauderdale, where it had retreated after swallowing a raccoon. "Miami is a fast, disposable society, which means whatever is the hot pet today will be my catch of the day next week." Kenneth Krysko, a University of Florida herpetologist, is part of a study to see what impact the imported species are having on native species and habitat, and cites the growing number of Nile monitor lizards abandoned as pets showing up in the wild. "It's really sad, because this is such a beautiful lizard, just a magnificent species," Krysko said. "But no one realizes the ability this animal has to tear off your cat's head with one twist."

PIERRE -- Former Gov. Bill Janklow's appeal of his convictions for a fatal traffic crash presents the South Dakota Supreme Court with some unusual complications.

During his 16 years as governor, Janklow appointed four of the five justices to the high court. The fifth justice was appointed by Janklow to be a circuit judge before another governor promoted the judge to the Supreme Court.

At least some of the justices are expected to remove themselves from Janklow's appeal, which means current or retired judges who have no conflict of interest would be appointed as replacements to sit on the Supreme Court to decide the former governor's case.

But the code of judicial ethics would not require any justices to disqualify themselves just because Janklow had appointed them, said Tom Barnett, secretary-treasurer of the State Bar of South Dakota.

In such a case, justices must decide whether they have such a close relationship with someone that it would raise questions about fairness and impartiality if they took part in deciding the case, he said.

Each justice must decide if their participation in a case would be proper.

However, Janklow has appealed his convictions for reckless driving and second-degree manslaughter.

The appeal will likely be heard by a Supreme Court consisting at least partly of judges appointed by other governors.

Vince McMahon has officially made an offer and invited Bret Hart to make one final WWE appearance at the companies big- gest PPV - WrestleMania XX. The invitation isn't to be in- ducted into the WWE Hall of Fame or to be part of the Chris Benoit angle, it would be an opportunity for Hart to make a speech to the fans and say his final goodbye.

Eddie Guerrero, Chris Jericho, Big Show & Trish Stratus shot an episode of MadTV a couple weeks ago which is cur- rently scheduled to air on the day before WrestleMania XX, March 13th. Over the past two days Chris Jericho has been filming a Stacker 2 commercial in Los Angeles. He goes back on the road for the weekend house shows today, so his schedule has been pretty hectic this week

In a trend that caught many in the industry by surprise, more U.S. homes now have Internet access than have cable television. "It kind of snuck up on us the last five or six years," says eMarketer President Geoffrey Ramsey. "The penetration of basic cable has plateaued for the last five years ... while the Internet is still growing at about 3 (percent) to 4 percent a year. New York City-based eMarketer, which analyzes Internet data, says 67.9 percent of Americans will have Internet access in their homes -- edging past the 65.8 percent with basic cable -- by the end of 2004, the New York Post reports

How do they survive?

ONE: Recently, when I went to McDonald's I saw on the menu that you could have an order of 6, 9 or 12 Chicken McNuggets. I asked for a half dozen nuggets.
"We don't have half dozen nuggets," said the teenager at the counter. "You don't?" I replied. "We only have six, nine, or twelve," was the reply. "So I can't order a half dozen nuggets, but I can order six?" "That's right." So I shook my head and ordered six McNuggets.

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TWO: The paragraph above doesn't amaze me because of what happened a couple of months ago. I was checking out at the local Foodland with just a few items and the lady behind me put her things on the belt close to mine. I picked up one of those "Dividers" that they keep by the cash register and placed it between our things so they wouldn't get mixed. After the girl had scanned all of my items, she picked up the "Divider" looking it all over for the bar code so she could scan it. Not finding the bar code she said to me,"Do you know how much this is?" I said to her "I've changed my mind, I don't think I'll buy that today." She said "OK" and I paid her for the things and left. She had no clue to what had just happened