Daisy's First Snow

Daisy didnt seem to mind the snow, until she got her feet in it....LOL
then she was homeward bound.
That's SpoiledChild2 in background.

Come on Spring!!

Crazy for the Peep

photo by: Antigoni Gouras

Peeps as Colorful Pin Cushion

New Uses for Peeps

RealSimple.com pays homage to the Peep by putting its gooey, sugary, not-found-in-nature brightness to use in the kitchen, springtime decorating schemes, and even weddings.


Over the years, Peeps has become quite a cult icon. Once known for only their pink and yellow standard at Easter. After the stash left by the Bunny, aka "Peep Dealer", was devoured, and the sugar high was gone, many a child, and adult, went Peep Mad until next Easter.

This Peep Craze was behind Just Born's move to manufacture Peeps at every major holiday in various shapes and colors. This year, Just Born unveiled the Easter Tulip Peep for 2008. Thus, giving all Peep Addicts another "Peep of choice" to choose from.


Crafty Peeps:



Original Purpose: In-demand marshmallow model.


Aha! Use: Tired of stepping on push pins or being limited to the same chubby tomato pin cushion your granny (and her granny) had? Spritz a little craft sealant on your favorite Peep, then poke away.


Fun Fact: Peeps were made by hand using a pastry tube until 1954, when a machine was invented to create multiple marshmallow chicks at a time. Prior to this time it took 27 hours to make one Peep.


Find more innovative uses for Peeps at: realsimple

Jury: Smith son died of drug overdose

Upper Right: All that is left of Daniel Wayne Smith

Lower Right: Stern with blood on his hands



This is the last post I will ever make on these people. I don't know
when I have ever been so sickened over a miscarriage of justice.
May the Sterns and the Bahamas all burn in hell.

3/31/2008, 2:09 p.m. EDT
By TOSHEENA ROBINSON-BLAIR The Associated Press

NASSAU, Bahamas (AP) — A Bahamas jury ruled Monday that Anna Nicole Smith's son died from an accidental drug overdose, just like his mother.

The seven-member jury, which deliberated for less than two hours, recommended no criminal charges in the September 2006 death of 20-year-old Daniel Smith...


Police had said there was no evidence of homicide, and autopsies found that Daniel died from a combination of drugs, including methadone and antidepressants. But Bahamian authorities ordered the inquest amid widespread speculation over the circumstances surrounding his death.

In its ruling, the jury said the cause of death was "nondependent use of drugs," meaning that Daniel Smith was not addicted and was not aware the drugs in his system would kill him.

Neil McCabe, an attorney for Anna Nicole's mother, Virgie Arthur, said she was disappointed in the ruling because she suspected foul play was involved. Arthur has claimed previously that Anna Nicole's boyfriend and attorney Howard K. Stern played a role in both deaths, but she did not provide evidence.

"We don't think it makes any sense," McCabe said. "The boy was not a drug user, the judge said so. Why would he all of a sudden take a massive dose of methadone?"

Stern, who has denied giving Daniel any drugs, said outside court that he was not sure whether the jury's decision would bring an end to the case.

"I have no control over them," he said of Arthur and her attorneys.

Magistrate William Campbell said the jury's decision ended the case as far the courts in the Bahamas were concerned.

The inquest began in November and heard from more than two dozen witnesses. Anna Nicole's former boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, testified that Daniel was a troubled young man who struggled with drugs and alcohol. But Stern said he was surprised at the autopsy report and said he had never seen Daniel using drugs.

Stern, who came to the Bahamas with Anna Nicole during her pregnancy in 2006, initially claimed he was the father of her infant daughter, Dannielynn. He gave up custody last spring after DNA tests proved Birkhead was the father...

Letters From Home April Campaign for Soldiers

It is time once again for Letters From Home to send out their items received for the Spring Campaign. The ship out date is April 20, 2008. Therefore, you only have a few weeks to get your items together. I suggest shipping Priority Mail due to the deadline.

They ship three times this year:

April 20, July 20, and November 23, 2008.

The mailing address is:

Letters From Home Program
Ms. Christine Jovenitti, Director
6631 Ridgway Jbg Rd
PO Box 125
Johnsonburg, PA 15845

There are also drop off locations if you live in that area.

Christine's email is lettersfromhome@windstream.net

My daughters' school participates in our local program that was spearheaded from this chapter. The soldiers love phone cards, they have to be international, so they can talk to their family when they have opportunity. Also, the Soldiers just love, love, love, the cards they receive. This campaign is taking Valentine's Day, Easter, and Spring cards. Thank you cards are always welcome. The volunteers stuff your card in a SASE for you. They can not give out Soldiers' names due to Privacy Act. However, if you put your return address inside the card, you may hear back from the Soldier that received your card/box.

It is a great way to help out the Soldiers and let them know they are not forgotten. It is also a great way to get your child/children involved in helping and thinking of others. Have your smaller children make homemade cards. LFH just asks that you NOT use GLITTER, as it gets on the other products in the boxes. I know, I know, how can you not have glitter???!!!
I understand their request and wouldn't want glitter in my candy either! LOL ;)

Donations can be more than cards. They lists all the donation requests on the website.
For more information on Letters From Home click on the title above or here: http://www.lettersfromhomeprogram.org/ Make a Soldier smile!

Happy Monday!
Chrissy :)

Click to Give @ The Hunger Site

Co-blogged with SpoiledChild1




Click to Give @ The Hunger Site: Free Ways to Help
Send an E-card
Sign Up & Give More

SpoiledChild1 and I were surfing today and found this awesome site that I wanted to save as our last post for the night. This site is more than awesome it is AMAZING!!
We signed up for the free blue "Stop Hunger" wristbands, and the Breast Cancer wrist bands, (of course)! We are still in the process of checking it all out. There is also a store where proceeds go toward the product's charity. SHOPPING!!!

Give me feedback on what you think. It makes me feel wonderful to feel like we are making a difference no matter how big or how small. More wonderful than that is seeing my daughters' faces when they find a site like that and want to help. Whenever they want to help anytime. Our big thing is Trick or Treat for UNICEF. We have been doing it for 5 years now. We will talk more about that @ Halloween.
Check out this site and let me know your feelings. I will let you know what I pick up!

:) Chrissy

Celebrities known for....what?

Annoyed Americans are uniting with a growing trend. Talentless celebrities who are Famous for Nothing. These stars have literally not done anything, and yet the paps follow their every move. These stars court big headlines and big bucks for zero talent. America is becoming fed up.
Kevin Federline got paid between $100,000 to $300,000 for um, well, nothing. Nothing except for his Las Vegas 30th birthday, and maybe a little attention, that is. While attempting rapping, K-Fed got booed off stage by the very people he invited to the soiree.
This list is already long and growing. Including the likes of Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Kim Kardashian, Kevin Federline, Lauren Conrad and posse, Lindsay Lohan, Kimberly Stewart, (do I have to keep going??) Just pick up any rag mag at the check out and they grace the cover of five to ten every week. How many times to we have to see Britney's barefoot, vajayjay hanging out, Starbuck's toting, sideswiping, ratty weave, can't get custody of her kids, mug splashed across every mag in the store? I know I don't have to look, I don't. You just can't help but notice when it is EVERYWHERE.
Why not put pictures of each soldier that lost their life or a limb. Why doesn't one of these mags contribute a story to these heroes each week. I would buy it, would you? Editors do not want those stories because they hit too close to home. There is a reason for that. It is real. It is home. I would love to know what the men and women that are fighting for my peace and my rights love to do in their spare time. I would love to know about their dreams, the kids they left behind. I want to know this about not just the ones who have lost their lives, but the ones still fighting the fight, the ones who have been wounded. How are they? How are they healing? How is their family?
Why do we pay our hard earned money to look inside the lives of these talentless, uneducated stars? Myself, I do not buy them. I do not want to further their stardom or their vanity. I, for one, do not want these girls as role models for my daughters.
As long as these known for nothing stars keep getting attention and money, they will keep treating the world as their own private party.
This I know for sure, my daughters will grow up with more dignity and respect than all of them put together.
God Bless Our Soldiers and let them come home safe and soon!

What Today's Teens are Thinking About

(Click on title for article)

During my usual lazy-Sunday-Blog-Surf, Starbucks Frappe in hand, I stumbled-upon a "new-to-me-blog" that is going to quickly become a daily go-to.

Tweens and teens alike have so many things going on today. Times have changed and it is not the "oh so lazy days" of our time. I find myself spending so much time thinking "If only I could get inside their head". I despise the one-liners for answers, i.e. Fine, okay, no, yes...etc.

I am just blessed today that they are alive, healthy, smart (and cute, too) and able to have the sense of humor to come up with a few zingers of their own that make me laugh.

http://www.vanessavanpetten.com/

Credit to Vanessa Van-Petten for this enlightening post.

Whole Foods Kids Contest

Blogged in ca-hoots with co-bloggers SpoiledChild and SpoiledChild2



This just in...

Seventh Generation is sponsoring some Whole Foods Earth Day fun: the Whole Earth Generation, in which we're inviting anyone and everyone between the ages of eight and 17 to create a short video that shows how they’re making a difference in the health of the world we all share. To learn how you or someone you know can get in on the action and maybe even become a Whole Foods Green Ambassador, click on over to their special YouTube page and start shooting your shot at stardom.

Earth Day is April 22. Good Luck!

Keep checking back for lots of Earth Day fun from SpoiledChild and SpoiledChild2.

» Permalink

Don't Forget Earth Hour!

Blogged in cahoots with co-blogger Spoiled Child2

TURN OFF THE LIGHTS!


We invite everyone throughout North America and around the world to turn off the lights for an hour starting at 8 p.m. (your own local time)–whether at home or at work, with friends and family or solo, in a big city or a small town.

You can follow these suggestions to help make a difference everyday.

1. Switch to compact fluorescent light bulbs to save money and reduce emissions. Lighting accounts for around 5% of household greenhouse gas emissions, and compact fluros use 75% less energy than an equivalent incandescent bulb. Although the bulbs cost more up-front, you will actually save money through the energy saved and extended life of the bulb.

2. Turn appliances off while not in use. Unplug any appliances like mobile phone chargers, TVs, microwaves, MP3 players, which are not being used and are on standby. In Australia, appliances on standby consume up to 10% of your electricity bill.

3. Turn off anything that doesn’t need to be on. A good rule is to turn off anything not being used. When you leave a room or leave the house, turn off your lights or appliances like the TV or computer.

4. Switch to green power. This is one of the best ways you can make a difference. Contact your electricity provider today and switch to green power, a cleaner, more renewable form of energy that does not contribute to global warming. If all Australians switched to green power today, Australia’s total greenhouse pollution would be cut by 30% in one year. That’s the equivalent of more than 40 million cars!

5. Use less hot water. This is not only a good water saving tip, it saves electricity too.

6. Spend one minute less in the shower.

We would love to hear what you will do or did during your hour in the dark!

Sign up for Earth Hour 2009 at www.EarthHour.org/sign-up

Check out Google in the dark!! http://www.google.com/ (March 29 only)

Fun Facts for This Day in History

Compiled by co-blogger Spoiled Child.

For your perusal, events that occurred this day in history.


March 29, 1973: US Withdraws From Vietnam War

Two months after the signing of the Vietnam peace agreement, the last U.S. combat troops leave South Vietnam as Hanoi frees the remaining American prisoners of war held in North Vietnam. America's direct eight-year intervention in the Vietnam War was at an end. In Saigon, some 7,000 U.S. Department of Defense civilian employees remained behind to aid South Vietnam in conducting what looked to be a fierce and ongoing war with communist North Vietnam.
_____________________________________________________
March 29, 1951: Rosenbergs convicted of espionage

In one of the most sensational trials in American history, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are convicted of espionage for their role in passing atomic secrets to the Soviets during and after World War II. The husband and wife were later sentenced to death and were executed in 1953.
The conviction of the Rosenbergs was the climax of a fast-paced series of events that were set in motion with the arrest of British physicist Klaus Fuchs in Great Britain in February 1950. British authorities, with assistance from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, gathered evidence that Fuchs, who worked on developing the atomic bomb both in England and the United States during World War II, had passed top-secret information to the Soviet Union. Fuchs almost immediately confessed his role and began a series of accusations.
____________________________________________________
March 29, 1939: Clark Gable & Carole Lombard Marry

Clark Gable and Carole Lombard marry on this day in 1939 as Gable is filming Gone with the Wind. The marriage was considered one of Hollywood's happiest but ended in tragedy when Lombard was killed in a plane crash in 1942, en route from a War Bond drive. Gable joined the air force shortly after her death, rose to the rank of major, and won several medals.
___________________________________________________
March 29, 1929: First Telephone in the Oval Office

On this day in 1929, President Herbert Hoover has a phone installed at his desk in the Oval Office of the White House. It took a while to get the line to Hoover’s desk working correctly and the president complained to aides when his son was unable to get through on the Oval Office phone from an outside line. Previously, Hoover had used a phone located in the foyer just outside the office. Telephones and a telephone switchboard had been in use at the White House since 1878, when President Rutherford B. Hayes had the first one installed, but no phone had ever been installed at the president’s desk until Hoover’s administration.

Cat killed by angry husband, police say

No animals were harmed in the writing of this blog...

Right top: faux dead cat; center, Paul Vickers, soon to be

divorced; bottom, pot farm.

Denver Post
03/28/2008 02:49:25 PM

In an attempt to get back at a cheating wife, a Longmont man shot one of her cats.

Wednesday afternoon, Longmont police went to Paul Vickers' home after family members alerted them to a disturbing e-mail Vickers allegedly wrote.

"He sent out an email to family members expressing frustration over past marital issues he and his wife had," said Sgt. Garrett Boden.

"In the same email, Vickers described killing the cat with a .22-caliber pistol, so that his wife could feel his marital pain." The e-mail also threatened the remaining three cats, Boden said.

Vickers wasn't home Wednesday afternoon, but police did find him there Wednesday night, when they made the discovery that a personal vendetta may not have been all Vickers had been cultivating.

"Officers said that they smelled a strong odor of marijuana when they entered Vickers' home, which led them to apply a search warrant of the home," Boden said.

In the home, officers found an elaborate grow operation, which included a total of 19 marijuana plants, equal to about 4.2 pounds. Of those 19, eight were adults, and 11 were juveniles.

Detectives were also able to seize numerous bags of harvested and processed marijuana.
As for the cat, a black and white mix, its body was found in a retention pond south of Vickers' home.

"The cat was truly the victim here," Boden said. "Not to say that we weren't concerned Vickers posed a potential threat to his wife, but it was all about revenge. He knew his wife was partial to cats."

Police arrested Vickers, 50, on suspicion of domestic violence, cruelty to animals, possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, cultivation of marijuana and possession of more than 450 grams of marijuana.

TGIF

Thank goodness its Friday!! I would if it were any Friday but not this Friday. One of my computers is down. My refrigerator is broken. Yes, broken, as in, "Ma'am it can't be fixed" broken. But thankfully, it can be replaced since what "broke" was under a five year warranty. But today is Friday. When will I receive my sparkling new fridge? When will I get this call to replace my fridge? Will they call today? Will they really call? I only have today for a "business day". Tomorrow starts the weekend. Thirsty kids, hungry kids. And it is supposed to rain, so that means bored kids. And bored kids means computer. Someone will be left out. Maybe computer guy will make a Saturday call. They can't use my laptop! Why would a perfectly good refrigerator go out 3 years in the running and why did it conspire with the computer?
To irritate me. Plain and simple.
Then the computer on top of that, double whammy. Sneaky.
There is a bright side to all this chaos. We have an older fridge in the basement and a dorm fridge in the upstairs office. The kids will just have to walk farther to get something to drink or eat. It is supposed to rain. The kids will have to be inside with me. Maybe we can catch up on a movie. We could watch the Bee Movie for the 10th time or Akeelah and the Bee for the 17th time. They are that good. The kids could get caught up on their Accelerated Reading for school. We could just hang out. That would be wonderful!
Yes, thank God its Friday!

Daniel Wayne Smith Inquest

Couple of things--

In May, 2006, Anna Nicole had won a ruling by the Supreme Court that said she had a right to pursue an inheritance from the late J Howard Marshall in federal court. Stern is suing the Marshall estate now on behalf of the Smith estate, and everyone is dead. He just believes if he hangs in long enough, Marshall’s estate will settle, which the family has sworn never to do.

On a side note, I would really like to know where Stern was and what he was after Anna Nicole went to South Carolina with Ford Shelley. Especially on June 23, 2006, when E. Pierce Marshall died unexpectedly of an odd aggressive infection. Stern, who never left Anna alone, had left her in South Carolina and Florida from June to sometime in July. He says he was working on the Supreme Court case. I do not believe him.

Not to mention that Daniel is hospitalized in California for one week in June due to back pain and Anna Nicole is not by his side? She stays in hiding from Birkhead. Not ringing true.

Was Eroshevich there? There is still the question of WHO sedated Anna to unconsciousness prior to her being released from the hospital after Daniel died. That’s unheard of. Sedate a patient and send them home?

Ray Marino never takes the stand. He’s the person Daniel was living with for his last year or so of his life and would know Daniel’s frame of mind better than anyone. One story is he claimed to have lost his passport?

The Private Investigator Daniel talked to also does not appear. I can see where a PI would not want to have to testify under oath--but it sure would have helped in this case. He wasn't hired--I don't know if that would make a difference.

It seems funny to me that Ford Shelley is convinced of Sterns guilt, yet his testimony could be interpreted to indicate that Daniel MIGHT have killed himself. Damn courts. People are only allowed to answer the questions without filling in the gaps.

.

As he did when Anna Nicole died, Stern made odd phone calls during the emergency. He called Shane Gibson, Ben Thompson, and possibly Ford Shelley and Ben Thompson Jr. So that answers the question from the first day of testimony “who were all the men in the room trying to pry Anna off of Daniel?”

Daniel and Anna Smith

Stern Testifies In Smith Inquest

Text in red italics are my personal comments, just my own opinion...Prairie Chicken

March 19th, 2008
By TOSHEENA ROBINSON-BLAIR

A close friend of the former US reality TV star the late Anna Nicole Smith not only recounted the final hours of the celebrity’s 20-year-old son’s life while on the witness stand Tuesday, but also refuted previous testimony that he possibly got rid of evidence.

California attorney Howard K. Stern was the last witness to take the stand in the Coroner’s Inquest that began in November, but was delayed while the court tried to secure testimony from American witnesses – who are not compelled to come to The Bahamas to give evidence in the matter.

On the witness stand Tuesday, Mr. Stern described the young man as a good person, even though his mother sent him to live with caretaker Raymond Martino after friction between the two reportedly developed in May 2006. There has been speculation that Stern orchestrated the friction between Anna and Daniel, and that Daniel went to live with Martino so he didn't have to watch Stern manipulate her. It was during this time that Daniel spoke with a private investigator, concerned about the control Stern had over Anna.

"I had a lot of love for Daniel," said the attorney, who told the court that he knew the young man since 1997. Words are cheap. Once Daniel became a young man and could see through Sterns manipulative ways, he became a liability to Stern.

"I thought he was looking for freedom, a little more independence. I myself went through the same thing with my parents."

Mr. Stern told the court that he had never seen Daniel use any type of illicit drugs. Wasn't it Stern who installed all the video cameras in Anna's house? He knew what everyone did in the house, because he taped it all. creepy.

"I did not believe Daniel had died of a drug overdose at all. Even after the toxicology report came back I thought that it was some kind of set-up…He was not that kind of kid." No, he wasn't.

An autopsy concluded that Daniel Smith died on September 10, 2006 from a lethal combination of drugs – the most lethal being the powerful pain killer methadone. Which Daniel had no connection to. No prescription, none found on him. Only quarts of liquid and bottles of pills ordered by Stern in one of Anna's alias'.

Mr. Stern said when he picked Daniel up from the airport the night of September 9 he appeared to be in a good mood.

"He kept saying, ‘I can’t believe I have a baby sister. I can’t believe it’," the Stern recalled.
However, he noted that the young man was paler and thinner than usual having spent a week in July in the Intensive Care Unit at a hospital in Burbank, California for severe back pain and depression over his break-up with his girlfriend, Maya. In two years this is the first I've seen an actual NAME of a girlfriend, and still, is this a real person, or another set up story? Anyone ever seen or talked to her? Has anyone checked the supposed hospital records? How does Daniel spend a week in the hospital in California, and Anna is not by his side? I don't buy it. They were glued at the hip, and she wasn't there when he was in severe pain, hospitalized?

Mr. Stern also told the court that it was Daniel who first occupied the hospital room bed where nurse Nadine Carey previously testified that she found two, small, white pills. He is the ONLY person to say Daniel was lying in that bed. Every other person said no, only Stern lay there.

Smith died at Doctors Hospital three days after his mother gave birth to her second child, Dannielynn.

Mr. Stern told the court Tuesday that even after doctors called off their resuscitation efforts on Daniel, his mother still attempted to do chest compressions and asked Mr. Stern for assistance with ventilation.

"Anna screamed, ‘No. No.’ She did not accept that Daniel had died. She was screaming (that) she did not want to trade out children," the Stern recounted.

"She was just devastated. There is no way I could describe how I felt…Anna was inconsolable. She was wearing a cross necklace. She actually pulled it off her neck and threw it against the wall."

He admitted to taking one picture of Ms. Smith cradling her dead son. Mr. Stern said he took the photograph because Anna asked him to do it. I'm pretty sure when a person's child dies, getting a photograph package is way down on the to-do list.

On the witness stand last month, South Carolina real estate developer G. Ben Thompson said he witnessed Mr. Stern take three to four pictures of the deceased because "they might be worth some money one day."

However, Mr. Stern disputed testimony given by South Carolina developer Ford Shelley that he flushed pills allegedly found in Daniel’s jeans pocket after he had died.

Mr. Thompson’s son, Ben, testified that he and his brother-in-law, Mr. Shelley, witnessed Mr. Stern get rid of the two pills. The younger Thompson said Mr. Stern told them in getting rid of the pills he "took care of a problem."

Mr. Stern said that entire incident simply never happened. Stern was just trying to cover his ass. Once the nurses found the 2 pills in the bed, he put 2 in Daniels pants pocket ("dropping" a couple in front of witnesses, so it might look like he was trying to protect Daniels reputation by flushing them) and threw a handful (26) in Daniels bag. Usually if you take medication on an airplane, the pills are in the bottle, or at least contained in some manner--(a baggie, even?)--but not just loose in a suitcase with your clothes. But Stern couldn't leave the container, so just tossed them in there, trying to divert attention to Daniel. More important though; those drugs were not in Daniels system. Soma, not at all and methadone, a sudden 20X overdose from liquid. NOTE: there was no methadone in his bile duct, which would indicate past usage.

The Thompson's, once close friends of Ms. Smith, are embroiled in a legal dispute with her estate over the ownership of the Eastern Road Horizons house where the Anna Nicole lived while in The Bahamas. Anna talked Ben into signing a quit-claim deed on the property even though she had not secured a mortgage or signed a note. She told Ben she had to have it to get her Bahamian residency. He signed it over. He had paid 900K for the property, then spent 50K on landscaping for her. It all went south when he presented her with an agreement that she would pay 1.4 mil for it, instead of 950K. She accused Ben and Ford of trying to make money off of her and Stern told her that with the quit-claim deed signed, she didn't have to pay. So she said it was a gift. The rest is history.

Mr. Stern said he never saw Ms. Smith give her son drugs and he knew nothing about Daniel taking a bottle of methadone from his mother as alleged by Dannielynn’s father Larry Birkhead in court Monday.

He also denied Mr. Birkhead’s testimony that Ms. Smith was hospitalized in April 2006 in order to kick her methadone addiction. Mr. Stern said he took her to the hospital because she suffered from migraines. There are hospital records, no? Why doesn't anyone get them? It would be easy to see who is lying and who is not.

The attorney said the only thing Mr. Smith had in her duffel bag were clothes and personal items and not a bottle of methadone as alleged by Mr. Birkhead. And Ben Thompson and Ford Shelley and the nannies who were suddenly deported back to Haiti so they couldn't testify, and Big Moe, his wife, the Broward County law enforcement. Did anyone else notice that at the beginning of the proceedings it was reported several times that Elizabeth Thompson, Esq., was representing the nannies, but then they disappeared?

The inquest resumes Thursday with brief final submissions from the attorneys involved and the summing up of the case by Magistrate William Campbell before the case is handed over to the jury for a decision.
………………………………….

Jury To Get Smith Case
By TOSHEENA ROBINSON-BLAIR

Daniel Smith, right, and his celebrity mother Anna Nicole Smith both died of drug overdoses under suspicious circumstances.

In less than a week, the coroner’s court probe into the death of a former Playboy playmate’s son is expected to go to the jury.

On Thursday, the inquest into the death of Daniel Smith – the deceased son of late TV actress/model Anna Nicole Smith – reached a crucial stage when the attorneys involved made their final summation before Magistrate William Campbell, who is sitting as the coroner in this matter.

During their submissions, the media and jury were kept outside the courtroom.

With all the evidence in, the seven-member jury must formally decide the legal cause of the death of Daniel Smith, 20.

Before that can happen, though, Magistrate Campbell must first sum up the main points of the case.

Last Tuesday, he had hinted that he was likely to do just that Thursday, but that did not happen.

Rather, he told the jury that evidence in the matter appears to be simple but "it requires further time for review."

The coroner’s jury has the power to recommend criminal charges if it finds evidence of wrongdoing.

Daniel died at Doctors Hospital almost two years ago while visiting his mother who had just given birth to a baby girl.

Magistrate Campbell advised the court last week that the matter would be adjourned to March 31 at 10am. He told jurors that the case is to be decided only on the evidence heard in court.

Police have said there is no evidence of homicide in Daniel’s death. No broken bones, bruises, bullet holes, lacerations or stabbings.

About six months after Daniel’s death, his mother suffered a fatal prescription drug overdose in Florida.

An autopsy found the likely cause of Daniel’s death was a combination of eight different drugs – a mixture of stimulants and depressants.

The court previously heard that the most lethal of the eight would have been the deadly painkiller methadone.

More than 30 witnesses have been called in this matter since it began last November, including a number of medical professionals, police officers, and friends of the late reality T.V. star and her son.

The court has heard that Daniel’s drug overdose was likely intentional because it was such a large volume ingested in a short space of time. Intentional could mean self-ingestion or ingested without his knowledge. So this is an interesting sentence.

During testimony, it was also indicated that about 26 tablets were found in Daniel’s suitcase and two pills were found in a hospital bed that nurses claimed was occupied by Anna Nicole’s attorney-turned-boyfriend Howard K. Stern.

However, earlier this week, Mr. Stern told the court that Daniel first occupied the bed where a methadone pill and a muscle relaxant pill were found.

According to Mr. Stern, Daniel was hospitalized for back pains and was depressed over a break-up with his girlfriend. Again, I'm asking for doctor or hospital records, or some verification from "Maya" the girlfriend.

Viva Viagra!

Get out your party hats! A little invention that is important to a lot of people (ahem, men) is turning 10 years old today.

Yes, it's true, Viagra turns 10 today. According to drug company, pfizer, it has been prescribed to more than 30 million men.

I know this has been a miracle for some couples out there, but I would like to know how much harm than good it did. You have heard of deaths, seizures and other health related conditions due to the effects of the "blue wonder drug".

I also wonder how many marriages that by the spouse taking Viagra, it has caused to end or at least caused heartache in. And I would also like to know how many by the spouse taking Viagra has helped.

I know, it's not the drug, it's the person taking the drug. Anyhow, Happy Birthday, Viagra!

stock photo

Woman Told To Remove Nipple Rings For SoCal Flight

LOS ANGELES (AP) ― A woman was forced by the Transportation Security Administration to remove her nipple rings before she was allowed to board a flight, an attorney said on Thursday.

"The woman was given a pair of pliers in order to remove the rings in her nipples," said Los Angeles attorney Gloria Allred. "The rings had been in her nipples for many years." Allred and the woman planned to hold an early-afternoon news conference in Los Angeles to explain what they plan to do "to ensure that no other person is forced to suffer" the same fate, the attorney said in a statement.

The Transportation Security Administration does not have a specific policy addressing nipple rings or any other jewelry, said TSA spokesman Dwayne Baird. Baird said he did not know of the incident Allred mentioned in her statement. "I'd be really curious to know what this woman had in her nipples," Baird said. "Sometimes they have a chain between their nipples, or a chain between their nipples and their belly button. It would have to be made of heavy metal to be detected."

Transportation Security employees are required to check anything that raises concerns at checkpoints, Baird said. "No matter what it is, if it's something that unduly alarms people or sets off the sensors they must check it," Baird said. "But I've never heard of any of our people having anyone remove something that sounds as small as a nipple ring."

Allred said that several years ago, celebrity Nicole Richie had her breasts inspected by security at an airport because of her nipple rings. Baird said he was not aware of the Richie incident either.

Inquest of Death of Daniel Wayne Smith--Complete Witness List

Right: a post adolescent Daniel

Testimony Nov 19, 2007

1. Albury St. Louis

Inspector, Royal Bahamas Police Force’s Criminal Records Office.

Took 6 official photos of Danny before autopsy, noting pinkish reddish abrasions on his body on pelvic and upper shoulder area; collected swabs, hair, etc.

2. Marva Gibson

Immigration officer at Nassau International airport.

Testified Danny, at 9 pm, September 9, 2006 was quiet, conservative, cooperative and helpful regarding visa/immigration paperwork.

3. Howard K Stern

Decedent's mother’s lawyer/ person who apparently had control over Anna for several years.

Testified as to when he met Anna, that Anna and Danny were emotionally close, that he had Identified Danny at the morgue; verified that dead man in 6 photos Danny.

4. Dr Reginald Neymour

Anesthesiologist at Doctors' hospital

He told the court that he met another doctor performing chest compressions, started oxygen, placed an endo-tracheal tube into windpipe and IV into his left hand for medicine designed to start the heartbeat and increase blood pressure. To no avail.

5. Dr. Iferenta

Emergency doctor on duty

Explains 10 person emergency team at Drs Hosp, and that Anna freaked out at the scene.

6. Dr. Caroline Burnett

Princess Margaret Hospital Employee

Testified that she pronounced Smith dead at the Princess Margaret Hospital when the funeral home brought the body in to be "tagged."

Testimony Nov 20, 2007

7. Nadine Carey
Nurse
Met congested and crowded hospital room when she responded to code blue. Said she and Jancy Cota removed second bed from room. "I noticed two tablets on the top of the sheet. I held them until the code was called off," Ms. Carey told the court.

8. Patricia Laing
Nursing Supervisor
Ms. Laing – the last witness called to the stand on Tuesday – told the court that she in turn passed the pills on to a police officer. She said they were secured in a sealed plastic bag.

9. Dr. Horizal Simmons
Obstetrician, First Doctor at the scene.
Dr. Simmons testified that when he arrived in Ms. Smith’s room he saw a male lying in a bed on his back. He added that a female was standing at the foot of the bed with another male standing beside her with his arms around her in a "supportive manner." Dr. Simmons said he began a cardiac massage and continued until an emergency response team arrived.

10. Francis Woodside

Nursing Assistant

Francis testified that Daniel Smith was sleeping in the same bed as his mother, while her attorney Howard K. Stern slept in the other, at about 6:00 a.m., which was 3 hours and 40 minutes before a hospital-wide alarm that he had been found unconscious. Woodside noted nothing unusual in the room except the sleeping arrangements. "We don't usually have that happen, patients sleeping in the bed with relatives."

11. Janice Knowles

Nurse-midwife

Janice testified that she did not notice anything wrong with Smith before medical personnel found him not breathing and with no pulse at about 9:40 a.m.12. Mavis DavisPhlebotomistMavis testified that she did not notice anything wrong with Smith before medical personnel found him unconscious at 9:40 a.m.

13. Patrice Hanna
Registered nurse and midwife
was the first of two nurses to respond to the code blue that went out, some three hours and 20 minutes after Mavis Davis last saw Smith alive. Mrs. Hanna told the court that a white pill was later found in one of the beds in Ms. Smith’s room. It was unclear whether the pill was found in the bed occupied by Mr. Stern or by the Smiths.

14. Harriett Lundy
Medical Technologist
told the court that her role on September 10 was to collect urine and blood specimen from the deceased. She said specimens were also sent to a reference lab, LabCorp in Tampa, Florida by FedEx.

15. Coralee Young
Nurse
testified that Ms. Smith was "hysterical and screaming" during the resuscitation efforts.

16. Catriona McGaggart

Nurse

Said that Anna Nicole Smith was crying hysterically as medical personnel frantically tried to revive her son after his collapse. Ms. McTaggert said even after doctors called off their resuscitation efforts after 25 minutes of trying to revive Smith, his mother still attempted to do chest compressions and asked Mr. Stern for assistance with ventilation.

Testimony Dec 10, 2007

17. Govinda Raju

Pathologist

Eight drugs were found during autopsy, five administered during attempt of life saving procedures, Daniel having a prescription for one, Lexapro an antidepressant. Raju testified that the fatal dose of Zoloft and methadone were ingested between 2:00-5:00 a.m., Sept 10. Raju further added that as a result, Smith's respiratory system collapsed and he had a cardiac arrest.

18. Carolyn Nairn

Patient in room 202

Testified that she heard a lot of commotion coming from the room next door to her - Anna Nicole's room 201 - and a female crying and screaming, "Oh my baby boy."

19. Dr. Charles Diggis

Surgeon Chief Medical Examiner

Testified as to and explained the “Code Blue” procedure at Doctor’s Hospital.

20. Corporal Addie Findley

Policeman

With as of yet unnamed partner was first on scene at hospital.

Testimony Jan 29, 2008

21. Frederick Taylor
Inspector , Central Detective Unit of the Bahamas Police Force
Mr. Taylor told the court that Mr. Gibson and his wife; Anna Nicole’s companion, Howard K. Stern and emergency room physician Dr James Iferenta were all in the room at the time of his arrival. He did not specify what time he arrived.

22. Quinn McCartney
Chief Superintendent, forensic scientist on Bahamas police force
He told the court that two pills found on a hospital bed were determined to be a muscle relaxant and methadone. Another witness had testified to seeing Mr. Stern in that bed on an earlier occasion. "It’s quite possible that he could have come here with a cumulative build-up of methadone in his body? Theoretically, he could have come here with toxic levels in his body?" Coroner William Campbell asked Mr. McCartney before reading an advisory from the Federal Drug Administration [FDA] about the drugs’ harmful side effects. Mr. McCartney admitted it was quite "possible."
He pointed out that in addition to the .790 milligrams of methadone found in Smith’s bloodstream there were also 22 milligrams found in his stomach that suggested it would have been recently consumed prior to death. The coroner estimated that if Smith took a 5 milligram or 10 milligram methadone pill every eight hours, he would have had to consume more than 20 to account for the significant level of methadone in his blood stream and stomach. Mr. McCartney agreed.

23. Yvette Deveaux
Police corporal
testified about 26 tablets found in Smith’s suitcase. Ms. Deveaux also told the court that Nurse Patricia Laing gave her two pills and told her she retrieved them from Smith’s hand. (However, Inspector Taylor testified that Laing said she had gotten the tablets from another nurse. Last month, Nurse Nadine Carey told the court that she found two pills on the bed that other witnesses testified was occupied by Mr. Stern.)

24. Hospital Security tape

Shows Daniels arrival at the hospital and Howard leaving then returning. Cuts off at 8:00am, 1 hour and 40 minutes before Daniel is found dead.

25. Ford Shelley
Friend of Anna Nicole and Daniel Smith, son-in-law of G Ben Thompson
Mr. Shelley said Daniel wanted to be more independent, that he was a brilliant young man living in a shell due to his mother's fame. He wanted to break free; he loved his mother but didn't want to be known as her son. Ford said Anna kept her drugs in a duffel bag, that he had seen methadone in pill and liquid form and prescribed under four different aliases. He also stated that Daniel could not hold his liquor and couldn’t have been a drug addict. Testified to the infamous pill flushing incident.

Cross examination: Stern lawyer tries to cast doubt on close relationship.

26. Doctor Lee Hern
Lab Director Miami-Dade County Medical Examiner's Office
Dr. Lee Hern testified that a large dose of methadone ingested was the primary factor of death. He did not believe him to be habitual drug user. Felt death was an "intentional" overdose because such large amount in short time was taken. Estimates methadone was consumed at approximately 5:30 a.m.

27. Gaither Ben Thompson
Real Estate Developer and personal friend of Anna Nicole and Daniel Smith
He told the court that the last time he saw Daniel was the night before he died. He recalled that the 20-year-old was skinnier and a little paler than usual but was "extremely happy" to see his mother and his new sister. Howard K. Stern called him the day Daniel died. "Stern said, ‘Ben you need to get to the hospital as quick as you can. It’s not good’," the G. Ben recounted. Mr. Thompson said he arrived to find Ms. Smith screaming and holding on to her dead son as Stern looked on. He testified that he witnessed Stern take three to four pictures of the deceased because "they might be worth some money one day." The witness was adamant that Stern made the remark. "I was totally shocked he was taking pictures of a dead child lying in that bed," G. Ben said.

Cross-examination by Shaka Serville. Challenged G. Ben Thompson’s statement as to Stern’s reason for taking photographs and accused Thompson of having monetary reasons to slander Stern (who still has ownership of Horizons estate hung up in other court proceedings.)

28. Ben Thompson
Son of G. Ben, brother-in-law of Ford Shelley, real estate developer
Ben Corroborated Shelley’s testimony regarding Stern having flushed two pills that fell out of Danny’s clothing and Stern’s statement, adding that the pills were egg shaped and white. He also stated it was he who had taken the photograph of methadone in the mini-fridge in Anna Nicole’s bedroom.

Cross-examination by Shaka Serville. Serville sought to show Smith had an injunction against the Thompson/Shelley family being on property and said that the methadone claims came after the legal fight over the house started.

Testimony March 18, 2008:

29. Larry Birkhead
Significant other to Anna Nicole Smith and father of her daughter Dannielynn (baby daddy)

a. He was questioned extensively about his January 24, 2007, police statement in which he reported "personally" witnessing Anna Nicole, her attorney turned boyfriend Howard K. Stern and Daniel smoke marijuana. Birkhead remembered marijuana being there, but could not recall if the three in question – Daniel, Anna Nicole and Stern, actually used it.

b. He said Anna Nicole was addicted to methadone. The witness told the court about an occasion where Anna Nicole believed her son had stolen a bottle of her methadone medication. He said although Daniel had denied taking the bottle sometime in April 2006, his mother did not believe him and checked the home’s security tape where he was shown taking the bottle. There were two friends with him at the time, Mr. Birkhead testified. He alleged that pregnant Anna Nicole was hospitalized in Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles in May 2006 to get off of methadone, and testified that he saw was witness to Stern making methadone available to Anna at different times.

c. Anna Nicole told Daniel that if he were going to experiment with drugs "she would rather him do it in her presence rather than running around experimenting with his friends," and that he had "personally observed" Daniel using the drug Ecstasy; he saw Anna give Daniel a pill that he put into his mouth. Birkhead said someone told him that the pill was Ecstasy. He was never asked the identity of that "someone."

d. “She didn’t care for the kids he was hanging out with at the community college he attended, he started breaking curfew and the rules of the house, so there was a little tension there…She suspected he was drinking alcohol and possibly doing drugs." Birkhead said he spoke to Daniel on Anna’s behalf about his behavior and alleged drug activity and that Daniel told him he wanted to move because his mother didn’t like his friends.

e. Personally, when Birkhead had a back pain and Anna Nicole offered him a pill, which she said was methadone. He said she had also offered him Ecstasy before.

Cross: Mr. Stern’s attorney Wayne Munroe argued that Mr. Birkhead’s police statement was given at a time when he was involved in litigation with Anna Nicole. At the time the couple was engaged in a paternity and custody battle over baby Dannielynn. Munroe also countered that Anna Nicole was receiving in-patient treatment for her migraine headaches, not methadone withdrawal.

Mr. Evans (attorney for Virgie Arthur) suggested to the witness that Daniel stolen the bottle to prevent his mother from taking the prescription medication, in an action similar to what Birkhead himself had admitted to doing.

30. Howard K Stern
Attorney/companion to Anna Nicole Smith

a. Attested to his love for Daniel. Lied.

b. Was surprised to hear the toxicology report showed methadone in Daniels system, didn’t believe he was “that kind of kid”, felt bad that he hadn’t seen the signs and been able to “save” Daniel. Lied.

c. Rejected assertions that Anna kept a litany of drugs in a duffel bag. "Anna did not have 300 bottles of drugs filling up a duffel bag like the world wants to think," Stern said. Simply denied it.

d. Defended his decision to photograph Daniel and his hysterical mother minutes after Daniel was found dead. Said he took one photograph. Denied it.

That’s it. Short and sweet. Basically everyone else is lying. He denies anything and everything. There is a conspiracy against him, yadda, yadda.

People who did not appear as requested (being out of Bahamian jurisdiction, they could not be compelled to testify)

The Haitian Nannies: Nadine Alexie and Quethelie Alexis

Melanie Thompson, wife at some level to G. Ben Thompson, of South Carolina

Jack Harding, private investigator, California

Ray Martino, guardian of Daniel in California up to the day of his death.

California Doctor Sandeep Kapoor

Eliot Spitzer--you sexy devil...

Until now I have not mentioned Eliot Spitzer on the blog because first, I leave politics to Paraguay Parakeet at http://www.paraguayparakeet.blogspot.com/, and second, because your fidelity or marriage status doesn't interest me. People have been having sex since long before religion and government was around to control and tax it. But the visual from this article is too fun not to share...

A controversial political strategist sent a letter to the feds in November saying that then-Gov. Eliot Spitzer "used the services of high-priced call girls" in Florida - and kept his socks on while he did.

The missive from a lawyer for Roger Stone said his client had obtained the lowdown on Spitzer from "a social contact in an adult-themed club."

"The governor has paid literally tens of thousands of dollars for these services," the letter to the FBI reads, according to the Miami Herald. "It is Mr. Stone's understanding that the governor paid not with credit cards or cash but through some prearranged transfer.

"It is also my client's understanding from the same source that Governor Spitzer did not remove his midcalf-length black socks during the sex act," said the letter, which was signed by Stone's attorney Paul Rolf Jensen.

Thank you, Mr. Jensen.

Final day of Testimony--Daniel Wayne Smith Death Inquiry

By Tosheena Robinson-Blair
Associated Press
March 20, 2008

Anna Nicole Smith's longtime lawyer and companion told a court Tuesday he was surprised to learn an overdose killed the Playboy playmate's son, saying he never suspected the young man was abusing drugs.

Howard K. Stern, the final witness to testify at the inquest to determine what killed Daniel Smith in September 2006, said he thought a toxicology report showing the 20-year-old died from a combination of drugs, including the painkiller methadone, was false because it didn't fit with his impression of the son.

"I didn't believe Daniel died of a drug overdose at all. Even after the toxicology report came back, I thought that was some kind of set up or something," Stern said in the inquest, which ended Tuesday. "He wasn't that kind of kid."

Stern's account contradicted the portrayal given Monday by another former Anna Nicole boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, who described the young man as troubled and apparently struggling with drugs and alcohol.

Stern said he regrets not recognizing that Daniel's health was deteriorating shortly before he died in the Bahamas, the island nation that became the center of a bitter custody dispute for Anna Nicole's baby daughter when the 39-year-old model died Feb. 8, 2007, from an overdose of prescription drugs.

"Daniel said to me, 'I don't know why I'm so tired.' I didn't think anything of it," Stern said. "I wish I had."

He also rejected previous testimony by Ford Shelley, the son-in-law of a developer who was embroiled in an ownership dispute over the Bahamas estate where Anna Nicole lived, who claimed the late reality TV star kept her numerous prescription drugs in a duffel bag.

Stern, who is the executor of Anna Nicole's estate, denied ever giving Daneil any drugs. "Anna did not have 300 bottles of drugs filling up a duffel bag like the world wants to think," Stern said.
Stern testified he took a photograph of Anna Nicole cradling her dead son after his collapse in her hospital room. "I did that for her and I would do it again," he said, adding that Anna Nicole requested the picture to be taken.

At the time of his death, Daniel was visiting his celebrity mother after she had given birth to daughter Dannielynn in a Nassau hospital. Anna Nicole's fatal overdose in Florida occurred about six months later.

Stern was the last witness to testify before a seven-member jury that will formally determine what killed Daniel and has the power to recommend criminal charges if it finds evidence of wrongdoing.

The judge was scheduled to turn the case over to the jury for deliberations on Thursday.

Police have said there is no evidence of homicide in Daniel's death, and an autopsy found the likely cause of death was a combination of drugs, including methadone and antidepressants.

Note: hours after this posted, it was determined that the seven-member panel would return their decision on March 31, to enable adequate time to evaluate all of the testimony.

The Inquiry of the Death of Daniel W Smith

By TOSHEENA ROBINSON-BLAIR
March 18th, 2008

DANIEL SMITH INQUEST. Larry Birkhead, the father of the late Anna Nicole Smith’s infant daughter, took the witness stand in the Coroner’s Court yesterday and was questioned about the statement he gave to police about Daniel Smith’s alleged illegal drug usage. Mr. Birkhead is shown on his way to court.

A Coroner’s Inquest into the death of Daniel Smith – the son of the late U.S. reality TV star Anna Nicole Smith – yesterday heard how the former Playboy playmate allegedly gave her son illegal drugs.

On the witness stand Monday, Larry Birkhead – the father of Anna Nicole Smith’s 18-month-old daughter, Dannielynnn – was questioned extensively about his January 24, 2007, police statement in which he reported "personally" witnessing Anna Nicole, her attorney turned boyfriend Howard K. Stern and Daniel smoke marijuana.

In that statement, Mr. Birkhead said Anna Nicole was addicted to methadone, and that he had "personally observed" Daniel using the drug Ecstasy.

However, Mr. Stern’s attorney Wayne Munroe argued that Mr. Birkhead’s police statement was given at a time when he was involved in litigation with Anna Nicole. At the time the couple was engaged in a paternity and custody battle over baby Danielynn.

Mr. Birkhead said he was at Anna Nicole’s home in Studio City, California, when he saw her give Daniel a pill that he put into his mouth. Mr. Birkhead said someone told him that the pill was Ecstasy. He was never asked the identity of that "someone."

On the witness stand Monday, Mr. Birkhead said he remembered Anna Nicole telling Daniel that if he were going to experiment with drugs "she would rather him do it in her presence rather than running around experimenting with his friends."

The witness told the court that Anna Nicole, whose real name was Vicky Lynn Marshall, became concerned about her son in early 2006. “She didn’t care for the kids he was hanging out with at the community college he attended," Mr. Birkhead testified.

"He started breaking curfew and the rules of the house, so there was a little tension there…She suspected he was drinking alcohol and possibly doing drugs."

Under questioning by Milton Evans, the attorney representing the interest of Daniel Smith’s father, Jesse, (you mean Billy Wayne?) and his maternal grandmother Virgie Arthur, Mr. Birkhead said he could not recall the year of the marijuana incident. He thought it likely happened in either 2005 or 2006.

While on the witness stand, Mr. Birkhead said he remembered marijuana being there, but could not recall if the three in question – Daniel, Anna Nicole and Stern, actually used it. On another occasion, Mr. Birkhead said he had a back pain and Anna Nicole offered him a pill, which she said was methadone. He said she had also offered him Ecstasy before.

Continuing with his testimony, Mr. Birkhead said in 2006, Daniel had lost about 20 pounds. Concerned over his welfare, Anna Nicole asked him to talk to her son, which Mr. Birkhead said he was reluctant to do.

He said it was a job that Mr. Stern was more likely to take on if he were around, but he was busy dealing with a legal matter. Mr. Birkhead said he finally acquiesced and Daniel told him that he wanted to get his own place, because his mother did not like any of his friends.

The witness also told the court about an occasion where Anna Nicole believed her son had stolen a bottle of her methadone medication.

He said although Daniel had denied taking the bottle sometime in April 2006, his mother did not believe him and checked the home’s security tape where he was shown taking the bottle. There were two friends with him at the time, Mr. Birkhead testified.

Mr. Evans suggested to the witness that Daniel swiped the bottle to prevent his mother from taking the prescription medication, in an action similar to what Birkhead himself had admitted to doing.

Mr. Birkhead also alleged that Anna Nicole was hospitalized in Cedars Sinai in Los Angeles in May 2006 in order to "get off of methadone. "However, Wayne Munroe – the attorney for Mr. Stern – told the court that Anna Nicole was receiving treatment for her migraine headaches.

Mr. Birkhead also testified that he saw a bottle of methadone in a duffle bag in Anna Nicole’s hospital room’s closet. He said at one time he saw Mr. Stern give her that same duffle bag.
South Carolina real estate developer, Ford Shelley, previously told the court that Anna Nicole had the methadone drug in both the tablet and liquid form and that she traveled with a Coach duffle bag filled with her "medication."

Dr Lee Hern of the Medical Examiner’s Office in Miami Dade County also previously testified that methadone likely caused Daniel’s death. He said it was likely an "intentional ingestion" as it was a large dose consumed over a short period of time.

Two toxicology reports – one produced by Dr Hern’s office – indicated that Daniel had a combination of eight drugs in his system – a mixture of anti-depressants and stimulants.
Daniel Smith died in his mother’s Doctors Hospital room on September 10, 2006 – three days after she had given birth to his sister, Dannielynn.

Mr. Birkhead told the court that he was concerned about the amount of prescription drugs that Anna Nicole took because she was pregnant with his baby at the time.

Neil Braithwaite, senior counsel in the Attorney General’s office wants to call two more witnesses to the stand – Melanie Thompson and private investigator Jack Harding – before wrapping up with Mr. Stern.

In court Monday, Mr. Braithwaite said Harding was contacted but did not return the AG’s office calls, while Ms Thompson’s family attorney was advised about the adjourn date.
Since the remaining witnesses are out of the court’s jurisdiction, they cannot be compelled to attend the proceedings.

Magistrate William Campbell has said that Stern – who will be recalled to the witness stand – needs to testify last because he is "the only interested party."
The remaining witnesses are not being called to assist in determining Daniel’s cause of death, but rather the circumstances surrounding his demise.

Bahamas Resumes Daniel Smith Death Probe
By Tosheena Robinson-Blair
Associated Press
March 19, 2008

Anna Nicole Smith was concerned about her adult son's friends and drug use before he died, though she also once apparently gave him an Ecstasy pill, a former boyfriend of the now-deceased Playboy playmate testified Monday.

Larry Birkhead, testifying at an inquest into the September 2006 death of 20-year-old Daniel Smith, said there was "a little tension" between Anna Nicole and her son between January and May of that year while they lived in Los Angeles.

She had concerns about his drinking too much and possibly taking drugs, noting that he had lost about 20 pounds and was breaking curfew, Birkhead told a jury determining the official cause of Daniel Smith's death in a hospital in Nassau, the Bahamian capital…

In response to a question, Birkhead said he did not know if Daniel might have removed the bottle to prevent Anna Nicole from taking the methadone - a drug she had struggled at times to drop.

Wayne Munroe, a lawyer for Stern, noted that Birkhead was embroiled in a custody fight with Stern at the time of the police statement.

The inquest began in November but was delayed while the court tried to secure testimony from witnesses in the U.S. The final witnesses are expected to testify this week.

Court: Daniel Smith Wasn't Murdered

I'm totally sickened by the blatant deceit, theft, corruption and murder that has simply been swept away like a Plumeria petal on a wave. Oh, I don't really care about Anna Nicole aka Vicky Lynn Smith. Her whole persona was a fairy-tale with a ghetto underbelly; a user who was ultimately used to death. But Daniel didn't deserve this. A shy 20-year-old man plaintively murdered by the very man he was afraid of. Embarrassed by the mother he loved so much and was so close to, but unable to save her from her low-life svengali and her own addictions. After I post the latest articles, I'll update the witness list. Please check back. And please take a moment when you read this to offer a prayer or meditation for Daniel. My belief is that he will hear it and will be comforted by your gift.

New evidence suggests Manson victims may be at Calif. ranch

They're baaack...

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) -
As investigators consider digging for bodies at a remote ranch where Charles Manson and his followers once hid out, authorities say new information is emerging to bolster reports of possible clandestine grave sites in the California desert.

A team of detectives and forensic investigators -- accompanied by an Associated Press reporter -- visited Barker Ranch outside of Death Valley last month to probe the soil for evidence of decomposed bodies.

After follow-up laboratory testing revealed that at least two sites could be unmarked graves, the group is now urging local investigators to begin excavating.

Former Inyo County Detective John Little told the AP yesterday that he was sent into the desert in 1974 by his former boss to investigate possible human remains buried at Barker Ranch.

Rare mummified dinosaur uncovered

OK, this one isn't about crime, but coming from Kansas, where the infamous state school board still fights to keep evolution out of public schools, believing that the world was created from a puff of smoke 7, 000 years ago, I just HAD to post this. How cool it this? I can not wait to see it.

Duckbilled Edmontosaurus covered by fossilized skin that is as hard as iron.

The 65 million-year-old duckbilled dinosaur mummy was found in Southwest North Dakota in 2004. It is one of only four dinosaurs ever found with fossilized skin.

By Blake Nicholson
March. 18, 2008

BISMARCK, North Dakota - Using tiny brushes and chisels, workers picking at a big greenish-black rock in the basement of North Dakota's state museum are meticulously uncovering something amazing: a nearly complete dinosaur, skin and all.

Unlike almost every other dinosaur fossil ever found, the Edmontosaurus named Dakota, a duckbilled dinosaur unearthed in southwestern North Dakota in 2004, is covered by fossilized skin that is hard as iron. It's among just a few mummified dinosaurs in the world, say the researchers who are slowly freeing it from a 65-million-year-old rock tomb.

"This is the closest many people will ever get to seeing what large parts of a dinosaur actually looked like, in the flesh," said Phillip Manning, a paleontologist at Manchester University in England, a member of the international team researching Dakota. "This is not the usual disjointed sentence or fragment of a word that the fossil records offer up as evidence of past life. This is a full chapter."

Animal tissue typically decomposes quickly after death. Researchers say Dakota must have been buried rapidly and in just the right environment for the skin to be preserved. "The process of decay was overtaken by that of fossilization, preserving many of the soft-tissue structures," Manning said.

Tyler Lyson, a 25-year-old doctoral paleontology student at Yale University, discovered the dinosaur on his uncle's ranch in the Badlands in 1999. Weeks after he started to unearth the fossil in 2004, he knew he had found something special.

"Usually all we have is bones," Lyson said in a telephone interview. "In this special case, we're not just after the bones; we're after the whole carcass." Researchers have used the world's largest CT scanner, operated by the Boeing Co. in California and used to examine space shuttle parts, to get a better look at what is encased in the rumpled mass of sandstone.

"This is the fourth dinosaur mummy that's ever been found in the world of any significance," said Stephen Begin, a Michigan consultant on the project. "It may turn out to be one of the best mummies, because of the quality of the skin that we're finding and the extent of the skin that's on the specimen."

Dakota was moved to the museum early last month and is currently surrounded by precariously perched desk lamps and a machine to suck up dust. State paleontologist John Hoganson, of the North Dakota Geological Survey, said it will take a year, maybe more, to uncover it. Amy Sakariassen, part of the team working on the project, was toiling away with a brush whose bristles had been ground down to nubs.

"It really is wonderful to work on it," she said, as Begin used a sharp instrument to pick away tiny bits of rock and unveil a scale. "Nobody's seen that particular scale in 67 million years. It's quite thrilling." Manning said his involvement has meant 18-hour days, seven-day weeks and "more work than I could have ever imagined. But I would not change a single second of the past few years."

Hoganson said the main part of the fossil is in two parts, weighing a total of nearly 5 tons (4.54 metric tons). "The skeleton itself is kind of curled up," he said. "The actual length would be about 30 feet, from about the tip of its tail to the tip of its nose."

The fossil has spawned both a children's book and an adult book, as well as National Geographic television programs. The National Geographic Society is funding much of the research. "We are looking forward to seeing what emerges from the huge dinosaur body block now housed in North Dakota," said John Francis, a society vice president.

Many prehistoric fossils have been found in the western North Dakota Badlands where terrain has been heavily eroded over time by weather. Hoganson said other treasures likely are waiting to be unearthed.

"It's one of the few places in the world where you can actually see the boundary line where the dinosaurs became extinct, the time boundary," he said. "In the Badlands, this layer is exposed in certain places."

Lyson, who found the fossil, eventually hopes to send it on a worldwide tour and then bring it back to his hometown of Marmarth, where he is creating a museum. For now, workers at the North Dakota Heritage Center on the state Capitol grounds are getting part of it ready for display this summer.

Peterson gets his SUV back

'I'm sure they wired it for sound.

I don't think they washed it.'

March 19, 2008

totally stolen from and thanks to
JOE HOSEY Herald-News

Drew Peterson was told by a judge he could have his cars back by 9 a.m. Tuesday. Peterson showed up at five minutes after the hour.

"Just picking up the car, you know," Peterson said after he and a companion showed up at District 5 State Police headquarters to reclaim his GMC Yukon Denali and Pontiac Grand Prix.

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He greeted a State Police special agent and attempted to shake his hand, but the agent snubbed him. "That's what I expected," said Peterson, a retired Bolingbrook cop who abruptly quit after 29 years on the force when he came under scrutiny for his wife Stacy's disappearance. "No hug, no kiss."

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State Police seized Peterson's vehicles on Nov. 1 as evidence. Stacy Peterson has been missing since Oct. 28. State Police have called her disappearance a "potential homicide" and named Drew Peterson a suspect.

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Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, won the return of the vehicles, as well as computers and 11 firearms that also had been confiscated and held as evidence, but State's Attorney James Glasgow blocked Peterson from getting his guns back by persuading State Police to revoke his firearm owner's identification card. Peterson is appealing the revocation.

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On Monday, Peterson said he was annoyed with the "Where is Stacy Peterson???" fliers posted in the windows of his next-door neighbor, Sharon Bychowski. He said the fliers cause his children to ask uncomfortable questions like, "Why is that picture there?"

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"I tell them, 'The pictures are up because they miss her,' " Peterson said. "I don't tell them they put them up to harass me." Bychowski said harassment has nothing to do with it. "Why is he worried about people looking for Stacy?" she said. "It should be in his best interest to look for Stacy."

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Peterson's companion drove off in the Grand Prix. Peterson opened the back of the Yukon and checked the interior before getting in. "I'm sure they wired it for sound," he said. "The big problem I have, I don't think they gassed it and washed it."

Judge returns Drew Peterson's cars

March 17, 2008

FROM THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
JOLIET -- An Illinois judge says a former police officer suspected in the disappearance of his wife can have his vehicles back. But the judge isn't ruling yet on whether he can have his firearms again.

Former Bolingbrook, Ill., officer Drew Peterson has denied involvement in the disappearance of his wife, who hasn't been seen since October.

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Will County Judge Richard Schoenstedt said Monday that Peterson's vehicles should be returned to him, along with copies of computer hard drives that investigators took from his home.

However, the judge says he needs more time to consider a defense request for the return of Peterson's guns. He scheduled a hearing on the issue for March 25.

Drew Peterson to appear in court

March 15, 2008
FROM STNG WIRE REPORTS
BOLINGBROOK --

For months, Drew Peterson has been an official suspect in the disappearance of his wife and the subject of speculation about the drowning death of one of his previous wives.

But since Stacy Peterson vanished in late October and authorities reopened the investigation into the 2004 death of Kathleen Savio, Peterson has not set foot in a courtroom in either case.

That is expected to change Monday. At 9:30 a.m. Peterson is scheduled to appear in a Joliet courtroom on a matter concerning the disappearance of his wife.

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The issue on which he will appear is relatively minor - the planned return of his cars, computers and other items that police seized as part of their investigation of his wife's disappearance - but it may nevertheless be significant.

"The judge wants to advise him that he's giving up some rights to challenge the (validity of the) photographs," said Peterson's attorney, Joel Brodsky, who said it would not be uncommon to allow an attorney to handle such a matter without requiring the client to attend.

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"I guess if (Peterson) is ever charged, it's potentially a death (penalty) case, the judge wants to make sure he stipulates so (Peterson) knows what he's doing," said Brodsky, who added that Peterson is looking forward to his court appearance.

Peterson has denied he was involved in his wife's disappearance, which authorities are investigating as a possible homicide, contending he believes she ran off with another man. He also has denied involvement in the death of Savio, who was found dead in her bathtub in 2004. Brodsky said he doesn't believe Peterson will be charged in either case.