North Carolina's Democratic Party Is A Corrupt, Dysfunctional, Political Hot Mess! 2012 Obama Trouble!

North Carolina's Democratic Party is a Racist, Corrupt, Confused Political Hot Mess!

And Due to a recent Gay Sexual Harassment Scandal among State Party leaders, North Carolina's Democratic Party is even more chaotic & messed up!

Yes, right now its truly embarrassing to be a Democrat if you live in North Carolina.

Its a Fact NC Democrats are making the National Democratic Party look so BAD!

That's why as a NC Resident I am a Registered Independent.

All of this Political Dysfunction is sure to cause major problems for Pres. Obama's 2012 re-election chances because North Carolina is a Battleground state.

Considering North Carolina's extremely Racist, Klan loving history I'm beginning to think some NC Democratic Party Leaders are Intentionally trying to create havoc because they really don't want him to Win.

Just a thought.

You don't have to agree.










North Carolina a political headache for Democrats

Once a bright spot for President Barack Obama, North Carolina is now more like a political migraine less than four months before Democrats open the party's national convention in Charlotte.

The causes are plenty.

Labor unions, a core Democratic constituency, are up in arms. Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue isn't running for re-election; Democrats say she was likely to lose. The state Democratic Party is in disarray over an explosive sexual harassment scandal. Voters recently approved amending the state constitution to ban gay marriage, a position that runs counter to Obama's. And unemployment in the state remains persistently high.

"Nobody can sugarcoat the fact that we got problems here," said Gary Pearce, a former Democratic consultant who was an adviser to former Democratic Gov. Jim Hunt. Pearce was referring specifically to state party woes but could have been talking about any of the troubles here for Democrats.

But, he added: "I think the greatest strength that the party has is President Obama. And he's the thing that people will rally around."

It wasn't supposed to be like this — at least that was the hope — when Democrats chose Charlotte to host the national convention, where Obama will formally accept his party's presidential nomination for a second time, Sept. 4-6.

When Democrats announced the choice in February 2011, they said selecting the Southern city signaled Obama's intent to fight hard for the conservative-leaning state like he did in 2008. They also highlighted the economic transformation in the state and in Charlotte — from tobacco, textiles and furniture-making to research, energy and banking. Party leaders noted the state's strong political leadership and expressed hope that a Perdue re-election bid would get a boost from the attention that would be lavished on the convention.

Now traditional Democratic Party groups are threatening huge protests in part because they're deeply uncomfortable that the convention is being held in one of the least union-friendly states. And thousands of Democrats across the country are calling for the convention to be relocated because of the gay-marriage vote.

Democrats say that won't happen.

"Charlotte is going to host a great convention," insisted Mayor Anthony Foxx, who pushed to bring the event to North Carolina's largest city.

Said Democratic National Convention in Charlotte spokeswoman Joanne Peters: "The convention is staying in Charlotte."

Republicans point out the obvious.

"North Carolina is a mess for the Democratic Party and for President Obama," said Republican National Committee spokesman Matt Connelly.

Four years ago, Obama became the first Democrat to carry North Carolina since Jimmy Carter in 1976. He did it by exploiting voter anger at President George W. Bush and assembling a diverse coalition of supporters, including huge numbers of minorities who had never been politically organized and young voters. State law allowed people to register to vote on Election Day, which also meant the large student vote could be tapped.

The campaign also targeted highly educated newcomers to the state.

Obama's team has been hopeful about replicating that effort, while mindful of the new challenges confronting him here. They note that there are enough states in play that Obama can find a strategy to get the necessary 270 electoral votes to win a second term without the 15 North Carolina offers, while Republican Mitt Romney's path to victory is more limited, meaning he's more likely to need a victory here.

Criticism began immediately after Charlotte was announced.

Many labor leaders were upset that the convention would be held in a state that offers few protections for workers and in a city with no union hotels. While some unions plan to attend, more than a dozen trade unions are boycotting. Union protests also are planned for convention week.

But unions aren't the only ones stirring trouble for Obama.

Politically, things are much different in the state.

State unemployment was 9.7 percent in March, well above the national average of 8.2 percent that month, and it's much higher in some rural counties.

There's also the fired-up Republican base that turned out Tuesday to approve the constitutional ban on gay marriage. The vote prompted more than 28,000 people to sign an online petition — by the New York-based Gay Marriage USA — to move the convention from Charlotte. Twitter also was flooded with similar sentiment from angry supporters of same-sex marriage. Obama stated his support for gay marriage a day after the vote.

Democrats want to include gay marriage in the platform to be adopted at the convention. That could create controversy at a gathering that's intended to promote party unity by drawing attention to a divisive social issue when the economy remains the most pressing concern.

What's more, the state Democratic Party is in disarray.

With sagging poll numbers, Perdue announced in January that she would not seek a second term. Her decision came on the heels of bruising budget battles with the GOP-controlled Legislature. Republicans in 2010 captured the Legislature for the first time in 140 years.

Then there's the sex scandal roiling the state party.

State Party Chairman David Parker has refused to resign — although he has said he won't seek re-election — despite pressure to step down from Perdue and other Democrats who say his presence leading the party has become a distraction. Sexual harassment allegations against executive director Jay Parmley by a former party employee have siphoned off all the political air in North Carolina.

The turmoil is churning just as Democrats accelerate preparations for the convention.


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, WRAL, Google Maps

David Parker Defends His Leadership, Refuses To Resign (Gay Sex Harassment Scandal)

NC Dem chairman defends handling of sex harassment complaint

North Carolina Democratic Party Chairman David Parker said Thursday that he merely followed legal advice in settling a sexual harassment complaint filed last year against the party's former executive director by a junior staffer.

Jay Parmley resigned his post Sunday after news of the complaint became public, but he has denied wrongdoing.

"I did not want to settle the case," Parker said at a news conference. "I had no choice but to follow (the party lawyer's) advice and signed what I was told to sign."

He said he risked personal liability in any lawsuit over the complaint if he had rejected the advice provided by Democratic Party lawyer John Wallace.

"I got good legal advice, but I didn't get really good political advice," Parker said, noting the mounting pressure he has faced in recent days to step down of his handling of the issue.

State officials, including Gov. Beverly Perdue, said they have lost confidence in his ability to lead the party, and party activists said the non-disclosure agreement Parker signed to settle the complaint went against party values of openness and transparency.

"I chose to do what was right rather than what was easy," Parker said. "I am fine with (the decision) because that's who I am."

He reiterated Thursday that he wouldn't resign, but he said he would call a special meeting next month to name a new party chairman and wouldn't run for re-election.

"I am not going to change the standards by which I have lived my life and by which I have practiced law in order to succumb to political pressure. I'm simply not going to do that," he said. "Most of my fellow Democrats are asking me to stay on and fight this and not resign and hunker down, as it were, and continue to lead this party."

"Every single one of the people who called for my resignation, I will vote for each and every one of them proudly," he said.

Perdue expressed relief that Parker plans to leave his post in a few weeks.

"We've been distracted all week," she said. "At the end of the day, it's resolved. We're moving on forward."

Patrick Gaspard, executive director of the Democratic National Committee, called Parker's move "in the best interest of the party."

Still, Democratic consultant Brad Crone said Parker will remain a distraction for the party until he's replaced.

"The Democrats just want this story to go away," Crone said.

Republican National Committee spokesman Matt Connelly noted the lingering effects of the issue when he predicted in a statement that President Barack Obama would have to address it next week during a visit to the Triangle.

"I think chairman Parker wants it to be more about him than the good and the future and the welfare of the Democratic Party, and that's sad," Crone said.

The conservative Civitas Institute has requested the State Board of Elections to investigate whether any taxpayer money was used in the settlement. The state gave more than $331,000 to the Democratic Party last year through the check-off included on income tax returns.

Wallace said that the Democratic Party has a legal defense fund, which doesn't include any taxpayer money, but he declined to say whether it was used to pay the settlement. He said $11,000 had been paid into the fund and $10,000 paid out.

In a letter to Parmley dated Dec. 8, the junior staffer lays out specific behaviors he said constituted sexual harassment:

"The Executive Director often solicited my opinion on his clothes. He would point both hands to his crotch and ask me how his crotch looked in those pants."
"The Executive Director would frequently pretend to punch my crotch and make a popping noise with his mouth."
"The Executive Director frequently gave me unwanted shoulder rubs despite my verbal objections."
"On July 28, 2011, the Executive Director discussed, in detail, his sexual activities."
"On July 29, 2011, the Executive Director showed me a picture of a penis."
The staffer was fired from the party on Nov. 21 and stated in the letter that he thought it was in retaliation for his complaints against Parmley.

"Quite frankly, to me, the letter smacked of extortion," said Parker, who rebutted each of the allegations point by point during his news conference.

He explained the shoulder rubs by noting that Parmley was a "close talker" who breached people's personal space when meeting with them.

"Political people tend to put their hands on your shoulder," he said. "I noticed this behavior in Jay Parmley but didn't see anything sexual or unwanted in it."

Clothing opinions aren't sexual in nature, he said, noting the staffer who filed the complaint often commented on Parker's bow ties. Likewise, someone pretending to punch a body part isn't usually construed with any sexual intention, he said.

Parker noted that some items mentioned in the letter, such as the alleged July 28 conversation about sexual activities and the July 29 photo – Parker said the photo was described to him as a man with little clothing standing in a San Francisco street – weren't included in a complaint the former staffer filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

The EEOC complaint, which Parker said is filed under oath, doesn't list any action prior to Sept. 6.

"None of the stuff that was salacious in the 12/8 letter was included (in the EEOC complaint). We're down to a whack on the leg to wake him up on Sept. 6 and unwanted shoulder rubs," he said. "That doesn't amount to a hostile environment."


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Sources: Daily Caller, Huffington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, WRAL, Youtube, Google Maps

David Parker Holds News Conference! Perdue Ignored Gay Sex Harassment Scandal Until It Went Public

North Carolina's Racially-Divided Democratic Party is Rocked by yet Another Scandal involving Corruption among its Leadership.

This time the Scandal involves Gay Sexual Harassment & Retaliation Allegations.

NC Gov. Bev Perdue previously Investigated for Campaign Finance Corruption, Chose to Ignore this Dirty Scandal and Intervene ONLY after this story was leaked to the National Public.

Jay Parmley, North Carolina's Executive Director of the Democratic Party, Resigned amid Gay Sexual Harassment Claims.

David Parker, Chairman of the North Carolina Democratic Party is also Expected to Resign Amid Sexual Harassment Claims.





David Parker, North Carolina Democratic Party Chair, Expected To Resign Amid Controversy

David Parker, chairman of the Democratic Party in North Carolina, is expected to step down amid allegations that he helped facilitate a plot to cover up claims of sexual harassment by a former staffer who left the party last year.

Parker had previously sounded defiant, but Gov. Bev Perdue (D) on Tuesday capped off a chorus of Democratic voices that have come forward this week to express their concern that Parker's continued leadership is a distraction for the party.

Perdue told Parker that "he had lost the confidence of Democratic leaders, and I asked him to step aside for the good of the party," the Raleigh News & Observer reports. She had earlier faced tough questioning on the matter, but insisted it was an "internal personnel matter" before telling a persistent reporter to "get over it." Lt. Gov. Walter Dalton also spoke in favor of Parker's resignation on Tuesday.

Their comments came shortly after five top Democratic officials, including the secretary of state and state treasurer, released a statement demanding Parker's resignation and claiming that "change needs to be made as we prepare for the general election in November."

The controversy over a former staffer who came forward with sexual harassment allegations escalated Friday, when emails regarding the account were obtained by the News & Observer.

From their report:

The emails included questions from a member of the state's executive committee about a financial settlement and nondisclosure agreement with a former staffer who left the party in November after complaining about being sexually harassed by a senior staff member.

The emails did not identify the staffers nor discuss the actions that constituted harassment.

The situation is particularly sensitive for North Carolina Democrats, who will play host to the Democratic National Convention in Charlotte this summer.

Read more at the Raleigh News & Observer.




Penis picture, gay sex descriptions among sexual harassment allegations against NC Democrat


A bombshell letter from the former North Carolina Democratic Party (NCDP) communications staffer to now-former NCDP Executive Director Jay Parmley detailing the allegations of sexual harassment has surfaced.

In the letter, dated Dec. 8, 2011 — which local news outlet WRAL first published with redactions of alleged victim Adriadn Ortega’s name — Ortega alleges that Parmley “frequently gave me unwanted shoulder rubs despite my verbal objections” and that Parmley “often solicited my opinion on his clothes.”

“He would point both hands to his crotch area and ask me how his crotch looked in those pants that day,” Ortega wrote, adding that Parmley “would frequently pretend to punch my crotch and make a popping noise with his mouth.”

“On July 28, 2011, the executive director discussed, in detail, his sexual activities from the past when he was living in South Carolina,” Ortega then said. “In addition, he discussed in detail his sexual activities from when he moved to North Carolina, where he solicited sex from gay websites such as [REDACTED].”

The next day — on July 29, 2011 — Ortega alleged that Parmley “showed me a picture of a penis.”

“And, on September 6, 2011, during the drive back from the DNC Kick-Off in Charlotte, the executive director reached back several times from the driver’s seat and caressed my leg,” Ortega added.

Ortega said he raised concerns about this behavior — which he described as sexual harassment — with Parmley on Oct. 1, 2011. Two days later, he went to former NCDP Executive Director Scott Falmlen to discuss the behavior as well. Ortega said Falmlen described him as a “valuable employee,” but Parmley turned around and fired him on Nov. 21, 2011.

In the letter, Ortega said he believes he was “fired in retaliation for my complaints of sexual harassment.”

Ortega then said he would sign a “separation agreement, confidentiality agreement and release” on the condition that he got a financial settlement package. The package he requested to stay quiet was a “provision of severance compensation equal to one year’s pay” and “with regards to health insurance, NCDP will cover the cost of my COBRA for one year or until I find employment with health coverage, whichever comes first.”

The exact value of the financial settlement package Ortega received for signing the non-disclosure agreement he later signed is at this point unclear. NCDP officials have continually refused to answer questions about it.

NCDP spokesman Walton Robinson has not responded to any of The Daily Caller’s requests for comment on this scandal, and did not answer when asked for comment about this letter.

After TheDC broke this story last week, Parmley resigned on Sunday. Since then, a chorus of high-profile Democrats have demanded the immediate resignation of Parmley’s boss, NCDP Chairman David Parker. North Carolina’s Democratic Gov. Bev Perdue, the highest profile official to demand Parker’s resignation, admitted that she has been aware of the allegations of sexual harassment since “late last year.” She called for Parker’s resignation only after telling a reporter who asked about the scandal to “get over it

Late on Wednesday, Parker defied Perdue and publicly refused to step aside amid the scandal and subsequent appearance of a cover-up. “There was no cover-up and that the personnel matter was professionally and appropriately handled by the party’s attorney using the highest ethical standards.”

Before this new letter surfaced, Perdue responded to Parker’s public defiance and refusal to resign by saying that wasn’t acceptable. According to local news reports, Perdue said Parker “needs to go.”

Brad Crone, a North Carolina Democratic campaign consultant, told TheDC that he thinks this letter proves even more so that Parker needs to resign.

“This story is spiraling out of control and is damaging the party in ways we cannot imagine,” Crone wrote in an email. “I do not understand how Chairman Parker is willing to put himself before the interest of the party. The Democratic Party is bigger than one person, it’s sad that Chairman Parker doesn’t realize that fact. This letter is devastating and shows a real lack in judgment in managing the senior staff. Clearly, it’s time for Chairman Parker to resign and do it now.”

White House spokesman Eric Schultz, Democratic National Committee spokesman Brad Woodhouse and Obama re-election campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt have not returned any of TheDC’s requests for comment on the issue.

Even so, Obama is scheduled to visit North Carolina next Tuesday. “Next week we’ll find out whether or not he has the support of President Obama,” North Carolina GOP spokesman Rob Lockwood told TheDC.


Letter details allegations of sexual harassment by ex-director of N.C. Democratic Party

A former staffer accused the North Carolina Democratic Party’s executive director of caressing his leg and discussing his sexual exploits, according to a new document obtained by The (Raleigh) News & Observer.

The sexual harassment allegations are detailed in a Dec. 8 letter from Adriadn Ortega, a former party staffer, to then-executive director Jay Parmley. Ortega claimed he was “fired in retaliation for my complaints of sexual harassment” and asked for a severance equal to his annual pay and health care coverage for a year.

His allegations match those detailed in a complaint filed Jan. 31 with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission obtained by The N&O. The EEOC complaint stated that Ortega tracked the alleged harassment in a notebook.

Ortega, 26, did not respond to questions. Parmley, 41, could not be reached for comment. He resigned Sunday but denied harassing any employee. He blamed political reasons for his departure.

The letter became public minutes after state party chairman David Parker refused to resign under pressure from party leaders, including Gov. Bev Perdue, who asked him to step aside “for the good of the party.” In a statement, Parker, 57, a Statesville lawyer, said he had the “strong support” of the party’s executive council.

“They have consulted with our party attorney and are clearly as satisfied as I am that there was no cover up and that the personnel matter was professionally and appropriately handled by the party’s attorney,” according to his statement.

He called for a referendum June 17 on his chairmanship.

Perdue called Parker’s plan “totally unacceptable.” Parker’s top deputy, first vice-chair Gwen Wilkins, said Parker didn’t have the support of all executive council members. “The chairman needs to go,” Perdue said in a statement Wednesday evening.

Settlement confirmed

As chairman, Parker authorized a settlement agreement with Ortega. It’s unclear whether the terms of the severance Ortega put forth in the letter were met, but party officials confirmed the agreement’s existence. The settlement includes a confidentiality agreement, which Ortega wrote in his letter that he would sign.

Parker could not be reached for comment.

In the letter, Ortega says Parmley:

• Frequently gave him unwanted shoulder rubs despite verbal objections.

• Pointed to his crotch area and asked how his crotch looked in his pants.

• On July 28, detailed his past sexual activities.

• On July 29, showed Ortega a picture of a penis.

• On Sept. 6, caressed Ortega’s leg as they drove back from a Democratic convention kick-off in Charlotte.

In the letter, Ortega writes that he confronted Parmley on Oct. 1, and met two days later with Scott Falmlen, a former state party executive director, to discuss the situation. Falmlen recalled the conversation, but said Ortega didn’t share the “salacious specifics ... I have seen for the first time tonight.”

In the EEOC complaint, Ortega said he was no longer harassed after the meeting. But he was fired Nov. 21.

In his letter, he defended his work as a tracker, a party operative who follows opposition candidates and takes video of their speeches.

“I believe that the sexual harassment towards me created an offensive, hostile work environment,” Ortega wrote.

Ortega, who started working for the party in March 2010, asked for a settlement equivalent to his pay. He made roughly $20,000 a year, according to campaign-finance reports.

He gave the party a week to respond, threatening to make a complaint to the party’s executive council or pursue legal action.

Late Wednesday, Democratic Party attorney John Wallace released a statement saying “in this type of situation, it is difficult if not impossible, to ascertain the truth.”

He said the terms of the agreement were confidential, but Ortega “acknowledged that he had a satisfactory working relationship with the Democratic Party.”

The News & Observer began investigating Ortega’s departure in December. The state party refused to comment at the time, calling it a personnel matter. Ortega also initially denied being harassed and keeping a notebook.

The allegations did not become public until April 13, when party email messages were obtained by The News & Observer. The messages did not detail the allegations nor identify the individuals involved.

Parmley, who served less than a year at the helm of the party, denied harassing any employee and blamed right-wing political enemies for “spreading a false and misleading story.”


Jay Parmley, North Carolina Democratic Party Director, Resigns Amid Harassment Allegations

The executive director of the North Carolina Democratic Party has resigned amid concern among party activists about high turnover at the party headquarters and harassment allegations there.

Jay Parmley, who became the top administrator last year after holding a similar post in South Carolina, resigned Sunday.

He wrote in a resignation letter that he had "never harassed any employee at any time at the (state party) or in any other job."

State party leaders raised concerns after e-mails circulated last week that mentioned the allegations, which the party has not detailed.

State party chairman David Parker agreed that the issues involving Parmley were becoming a political distraction, particularly in an election year.

The Democratic National Convention will be held in Charlotte in less than five months.


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Sources: Daily Caller, Huffington Post, McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, WRAL, Youtube, Google Maps

Warren Turner Wins Wrongful Termination Lawsuit! Re-Hired! Next: His Council Seat?

Former Charlotte Councilman Warren Turner reinstated to state probation job


Former Charlotte City Council member Warren Turner, fired in July 2010 from his job as a state probation officer, has been reinstated.

Turner began working again with the state probation office earlier this month as a judicial services coordinator in Gaston County.

Pamela Walker, the N.C. Department of Public Safety's deputy director of communications, told the Observer in a prepared statement Friday that Turner had been reinstated after the N.C. Department of Correction reviewed the appeal of his firing.



"After careful consideration of the issues raised by both Mr. Turner and the DOC, the parties have reached a mutual settlement agreement," Walker said in the statement. "The department reviewed Mr. Turner's level of career experience and agrees to his reinstatement."

The settlement agreement calls for Turner to receive back pay between the time of his firing and reinstatement. The state also will pay $10,000 to Turner's legal counsel to cover the cost of his appeal.

Walker said the settlement that led to Turner's reinstatement was reached before the appeal came before the N.C. Office of Administrative Hearings.

She also said Turner's annual salary of $41,451 is the same pay he received as a probation officer.

Judicial services coordinators are responsible for the intake of new probation cases, preparing pre-sentence reports and conducting initial risk-needs assessments.

Turner, 47, could not be reached for comment Friday. His attorney, Eric Montgomery, declined comment.

Montgomery said in 2010 that Turner would appeal his firing. He said the reasons listed by the DOC in the letter to Turner were "procedural BS."

Montgomery said the DOC decided it wanted to fire Turner and then looked for a way to do it.

Turner and his attorney have repeatedly said Turner didn't do anything wrong.

Turner, after eight years on the City Council, lost his bid for re-election in 2011. His last term was marred by accusations of sexual harassment.

A city investigation in 2010 found Turner had made sexually inappropriate comments to at least five female staff members. Turner denied the allegations. The City Council declined to censure him.

Turner was fired from his probation officer job for missing meetings or drug screenings with at least 14 probationers, according to a termination letter released by the DOC.

The DOC said Turner falsified at least one record of a home visit with a probationer. The agency also said Turner reported visiting with probationers on days that he was on leave or wasn't scheduled to work.

Turner also had been told not to conduct city business on state time, but then spent hours on his city-issued cellphone conducting city business during state work hours, according to the DOC. His actions, the agency said, were a "blatant disregard" of the earlier warning.

The DOC said it didn't find any evidence that Turner had made sexually inappropriate comments or harassed female probationers.

The Observer reported that in 2009 Mecklenburg County officials told Charlotte City Manager Curt Walton that they believed Turner had misrepresented himself as a county building inspector.

A woman told the Observer that Turner visited a construction site on South Tryon Street and showed his gun to laborers working there. She said he told them he was a building inspector and threatened to put them in jail if they didn't stop working on the house.

After the report, the DOC moved Turner to a desk job and took away his state-issued gun and car pending an investigation. The termination letter didn't address the allegation that Turner showed the laborers a gun.

Turner began his new job as judicial services coordinator Feb. 6. Coordinators do not carry weapons.

Turner has said repeatedly that he did nothing wrong.

Turner, a Democrat, had been a probation officer for 20 years. He was first elected to the City Council in 2003.


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, Youtube, Google Maps

Charlotte Police Officer Puts Dog Feces In BLACK Citizen's Mailbox! Brutality & Harassment!

Whenever a BLACK citizen tries to assert their Legal rights with a Charlotte Cop, that citizen ends up DEAD Or in a Coma.
But get this!
Charlotte has both a BLACK Police Chief & a BLACK Mayor!
So what's going on?
Is this some kind of local Conspiracy to run many of Charlotte's BLACK residents out of Charlotte? i.e., Mayor Bloomberg style in NYC?
There have even been instances where BLACK College students have tried to assert their legal rights in a Civil manner with Charlotte Cops & those citizens were STILL Arrested!
This is being done from the Top down!
Its almost as if Charlotte's City Leaders & Charlotte Police Chief Actually HATES most of Charlotte's BLACK Citizens.
Something sure smells fishy!




Teen says police officer put dog feces in mailbox

A teen charged with assaulting Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department Captain Charles Adkins says he caught Adkins putting dog feces in a friend’s mailbox and that’s what started the fight.

CMPD is now investigating Capt. Adkins and his actions before that confrontation, as well as conducting a criminal investigation into his assault. Adkins was off-duty at the time.

Captain Adkins suffered severe lacerations, plus ended up kicked and punched. He is now on sick leave as a result of the injuries.

Jamel Williams, 16, says he looked out a window Wednesday in the Reedy Creek neighborhood and saw Adkins putting dog poop in friend Kendrick Neely's mailbox.

That is when Williams and Neely both went outside to confront him.

"He knew I knew it was him and he tried to walk away,” Williams said. "He just got all nasty and all angry and we were asking why he'd put it in the mailbox."

Williams claims Adkins admitted putting the dog poop in Neely's mailbox that day, plus several times over the last two weeks. Williams claims Adkins blames him and Neely for recent neighborhood crimes.

Neely was arrested January 10 on three counts of possession of stolen goods. Neely was also arrested January 16 for assault and battery, communicating threats and disorderly conduct.

Williams, meanwhile was arrested last December for breaking and entering, larceny and possession of stolen goods. Williams says he found a bag of stolen items in the woods and was arrested while looking through it but says he didn’t steal it.

Both of their pictures are on flyers distributed in the Reedy Creek neighborhood with the headline "Community Safety Alert." It’s unclear who distributed the flyer.

"He said we'd been doing things in the neighborhood that we haven’t been doing,” Williams said.

Williams says he asked Adkins several times if he was a police officer but didn't get an answer.

That's when Williams says he decided to follow Adkins home and told him he was going to call police on Adkins about the dog poop in the mailbox.

"When I said we were going to follow him to his house, that's when he punched me,” Williams said.

Williams has a swollen lip and bruised arm from the fight.

"He didn't want us to find out he was a cop and that's why he started this whole big thing,” Williams said.

Williams says he had a knife on him and showed it to Adkins but didn't use it in the fight. Williams was arrested and charged with assault and battery.


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, Google Maps

Obama Harassed & Heckled By Tea Party Plants At Iowa Town Hall (Videos)

Obama takes heat from Tea Partiers at Iowa town hall

President Obama got a little dose of Tea Party town hall anger on Monday during his three-day tour of the Midwest.

At a town hall event in Decorah, Iowa, local Tea Party activist Ryan Rhodes stood up and shouted a question at the president regarding reports that Vice President Joe Biden had called the members of the Tea Party "terrorists," USA Today reports. Rhodes questioned how the president can talk about civility when Biden was accused of using that kind of rhetoric.

After taking a question from another town hall attendee, Mr. Obama said he agrees that everyone should tone down their political rhetoric.

"Now, in fairness, since I've been called a socialist who wasn't born in this country, who is destroying America and taking away its freedoms because I passed a health care bill, I'm all for lowering the rhetoric," he said.

Earlier this month, Biden told CBS News that published reports that he compared Tea Party-linked lawmakers to "terrorists" were "absolutely not true." Instead, the vice president explained, "What happened was there were some people who said they felt like they were being held hostage by terrorists. I never said that they were terrorists or weren't terrorists, I just let them vent."

Though Mr. Obama addressed the question during the town hall, Rhodes and another critical town hall attendee pressed the president on the issue after the event.

"When you're talking about civility, how is your vice president calling us terrorists?" Rhodes asked.

Referring to the debt ceiling debate, Mr. Obama responded, "For us to be willing to take the economy to the brink was irresponsible."

A woman next to Rhodes reminded the president that Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano once warned that right-wing extremists should be monitored. Mr. Obama responded, "That's true, Timothy McVeigh should be -- you would agree with that."

After a bit more back-and-forth, the president told Rhodes, "It doesn't sound like you are interested in listening," and continued shaking hands with other Iowans in attendance.

The president hit the road this week to talk with voters about reviving the economy. As unemployment continues to hover around 9 percent, the president's poll numbers have dropped recently, and Republican presidential candidates are ratcheting up their political attacks against him.

During his two stops yesterday, Mr. Obama pointed to a number of initiatives he has proposed to create jobs and spur economic growth - including renewing payroll tax cuts, building up infrastructure programs and giving tax breaks to companies that are hiring veterans - but said "Congress needs to move."


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Sources: CBS News, Fox News, Huffington Post, Telegraph.co.uk, Youtube, Google Maps

Christine O'Donnell vs. Gawker: Tea Party Strikes Back!

Gawker Risks Tea Party Fury Over Christine O'Donnell "Kiss & Tell"


As an upstart Manhattan-based gossip site with a reputation for iconoclasm and baiting celebrities, Gawker.com has always been clear in its priorities: attract traffic, make money, don't fret too much about upsetting your subjects.

But the agent provocateur of the New York media scene appeared to have crossed one line too many, after it published a prurient "Kiss and Tell" about the Republican senatorial candidate and Tea Party darling Christine O'Donnell.

O'Donnell has faced embarrassing revelations before in her campaign to be elected senator for Delaware in next Tuesday's US midterms – most notoriously, she was revealed to have dabbled in witchcraft as a young woman, forcing her to issue a TV ad that opens: "I am not a witch ...". She admitted campaigning against masturbation during the 1990s and her knowledge of the US constitution was embarrassingly exposed during a campaign meeting.

Gawker's revelation that she had spent a drunken night with an unnamed man three years ago, however – detailing in the most ungentlemanly of terms her appearance "when her underwear came off" – appeared to have achieved the most unlikely feat of her campaign so far: sparking indignation among the mainstream media and winning her defenders from the left as well as the right.

"Gawker Hits O'Donnell While She's Down", read a blog at TheAtlantic.com (O'Donnell is 21 points behind her Democrat rival in the senatorial race), while Walter Shapiro at PoliticsDaily.com wrote: "What Gawker has achieved is something that I never thought possible. It made me feel sorry for Christine O'Donnell."

"I hate to be the person to defend her, but as feminists we have to defend all women from this nonsense, even women who are antifeminist," Jessica Valenti, the founder of feministing.com, told the Guardian.

Even the National Organisation for Women, the largest feminist organisation in the US, hit out at the "slut-shaming" approach of the article. "NOW repudiates Gawker's decision to run this piece," said NOW's president Terry O'Neill. "It operates as public sexual harassment. And like all sexual harassment, it targets not only O'Donnell, but all women contemplating stepping into the public sphere."

The piece, entitled I Had a One Night Stand with Christine O'Donnell, was published on the site on Thursday, and concerned the events of an evening three years ago, when the author claimed O'Donnell, an acquaintance, had turned up at his home in Philadelphia and asked if she could change into her Halloween outfit – a ladybird. After persuading the unnamed author and his flatmate to accompany her for drinks, O'Donnell had reportedly stayed the night in the man's bed, though they had not had sex. (The man has since, perhaps inevitably, been named by a number of websites).

From Gawker's point of view, this story was not unusual — three weeks ago, it published an article about Democrat congressional candidate Krystal Ball entitled 9 Pictures of a Politician Sucking a Dildo Attached to a Man's Nose. The O'Donnell piece, accordingly, seems to have caused Nick Denton, Gawker Media's British founder, little concern. In a memo to staff on Thursday, he congratulated them on "an example of brilliant packaging".

Remy Stern, the site's editor, told the Guardian: "It was a compelling story and we stand by it. It speaks to a certain hypocrisy given her views on sexuality."

But for some of those close to the organisation, there was no question that Gawker's "anything goes" culture of mischief-making had finally gone too far. "It definitely feels off," said Chiore Sicha, a former editor of the site who now co-edits TheAwl.com. "This is Gawker not quite getting its mission right. I have talked to Nick about it."

By publishing a story by "some enormous schmoe" in which O'Donnell had not behaved particularly embarrassingly – "for most people this is just your average Halloween" – the site had badly misjudged its audience, said Sicha. But as for the site's founder: "Nick is never one to worry about what people are saying. He doesn't really care."

Other media watchers agree that Denton, who pays his staff partly based on the traffic their stories generate, will lose no sleep over the media brouhaha.

"Nick has a travelling carnival moving at high speed, and he will be delighted by this," said Jack Shafer, the respected media columnist at Slate.com. Neither the kiss and tell form nor the prurience of the story was particularly new, he said, even in American political discourse. "It's the volume at which Nick Denton is playing this story that is new." Denton's talent, he said, was as a "shape-shifter", appealing to journalistic mores when it suited him, side-stepping its ethics when it did not.

And the giddy ringmaster certainly appears to have achieved his aim. By last night a story titled Katy Perry Shoots More Stuff Out of Her Boobs, also posted on Thursday, had garnered 10,660 page views. The O'Donnell kiss and tell was ranking at 720,680. And, as Shafer noted: "Everyone who complained about it has read to the end."


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Sources: Gawker.com, Guardian.co,uk, Youtube, Google Maps

Clarence Thomas vs Lillian McEwen: She Comes Forth Years Later: Supports Hill

Lillian McEwen Breaks Her 19-Year Silence About Justice Clarence Thomas



For nearly two decades, Lillian McEwen has been silent -- a part of history, yet absent from it.

When Anita Hill accused Clarence Thomas of sexual harassment during his explosive 1991 Supreme Court confirmation hearing, Thomas vehemently denied the allegations and his handlers cited his steady relationship with another woman in an effort to deflect Hill's allegations.

Lillian McEwen was that woman.

At the time, she was on good terms with Thomas.

The former assistant U.S. attorney and Senate Judiciary Committee counsel had dated him for years, even attending a March 1985 White House state dinner as his guest.

She had worked on the Hill and was wary of entering the political cauldron of the hearings. She was never asked to testify, as then-Sen. Joe Biden (D-Del.), who headed the committee, limited witnesses to women who had a "professional relationship" with Thomas.

Now, she says that Thomas often said inappropriate things about women he met at work -- and that she could have added her voice to the others, but didn't.

Over the years, reporters and biographers approached her eager to know more about Thomas from women who knew him well. But McEwen remained mum. She said she saw "nothing good" coming out of talking to reporters about Thomas, whom she said she still occasionally met. She did not want to do anything to harm her career, she added. Plus, she realized, "I don't look good in this."

Today, McEwen is 65 and retired from a successful career as a prosecutor, law professor and administrative law judge for federal agencies. She has been twice married and twice divorced, and has a 32-year-old daughter. She lives in a comfortable townhouse in Southwest Washington.

And she is silent no more.

She has written a memoir, which she is now shopping to publishers. News broke that the justice's wife, Virginia Thomas, left a voice mail on Hill's office phone at Brandeis University, seeking an apology -- a request that Hill declined in a statement. After that, McEwen changed her mind and decided to talk about her relationship with Thomas.



"I have nothing to be afraid of," she said, adding that she hopes the attention stokes interest in her manuscript.

To McEwen, Hill's allegations that Thomas had pressed her for dates and made lurid sexual references rang familiar.

"He was always actively watching the women he worked with to see if they could be potential partners," McEwen said matter-of-factly. "It was a hobby of his."

McEwen's connection to Thomas was strictly personal. She had even disclosed that relationship to Biden, who had been her boss years earlier.

In her Senate testimony, Hill, who worked with Thomas at two federal agencies, said that Thomas would make sexual comments to her at work, including references to scenes in hard-core pornographic films.

"If I used that kind of grotesque language with one person, it would seem to me that there would be traces of it throughout the employees who worked closely with me, or the other individuals who heard bits and pieces of it or various levels of it," Thomas responded to the committee.

McEwen scoffs softly when asked about Thomas's indignation, which has barely cooled in the 19 years since the hearings. In his vivid 2007 memoir, the justice calls Hill a tool of liberal activists outraged because he did not fit their idea of what an African American should believe.

McEwen's memoir describes her own "dysfunctional" family in the District and, ultimately, a long legal career. She charts how she developed an "inner self" to escape the chaos of her childhood. Her story also includes explicit details of her relationship with Thomas, which she said included a freewheeling sex life.

Given that history, she said Hill's long-ago description of Thomas's behavior resonated with her.

"He was obsessed with porn," she said of Thomas, who is now 63. "He would talk about what he had seen in magazines and films, if there was something worth noting."

McEwen added that she had no problem with Thomas's interests, although she found pornography to be "boring."

According to McEwen, Thomas would also tell her about women he encountered at work. He was partial to women with large breasts, she said. In an instance at work, Thomas was so impressed that he asked one woman her bra size, McEwen recalled him telling her.

Presented with some of McEwen's assertions, Supreme Court spokeswoman Kathy Arberg said Thomas was unavailable for comment.

However bizarre they may seem, McEwen's recollections resemble accounts shared by other women that swirled around the Thomas confirmation.

Angela Wright, who in 1984 worked as public affairs director at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission -- which polices sexual harassment claims -- during Thomas's long tenure as chairman, shared similar accounts with Senate investigators.

Once, when walking into an EEOC seminar with Thomas, he asked her, "What size are your breasts?" according to the transcript of her Senate interview.

Her story was corroborated by a former EEOC speechwriter, who told investigators that Wright had become increasingly uneasy around Thomas because of his comments about her appearance.

But Wright also had problems that made committee Democrats nervous. She had been fired by Thomas, and previously by a member of Congress. She also had quit a third job in government, accusing her boss of incompetence and racism.

Concerned about Wright's credibility, Biden lifted a subpoena for her to testify at the hearing. Instead, transcripts of the interviews with Wright and her corroborator were simply entered into the record, drawing only modest press attention.

Another woman, Sukari Hardnett, who worked as a special assistant to Thomas in 1985 and 1986, wrote in a letter to the Judiciary Committee that "If you were young, black, female and reasonably attractive, you knew full well you were being inspected and auditioned as a female" by Thomas.

For his part, a parade of women who worked with Thomas defended him before the Judiciary Committee, calling it impossible that he would engage in the type of inappropriate behavior described by his accusers.

McEwen recalls writing Thomas a short note before the confirmation hearings, curious about what she should say if she were quizzed about their relationship. She said Thomas preferred that she would take "the same attitude of his first wife," who never talked publicly about their relationship.

In 2007, the Howard University Law School graduate retired and grew reflective on her life. Her career had included stints as an administrative law judge for both the Social Security Administration and the Securities and Exchange Commission. She also had turns as a law professor and a private attorney -- all after her work as a federal prosecutor and Senate Judiciary Committee lawyer.

She spends her days in her Southwest townhouse. She frequently meets up with friends for movies, golf and other outings. Regularly, she stops by the National Museum of the American Indian for lunch.

In her short leather jacket, ankle-high boots and leather cap, she looks younger than her age. And when she talks about Thomas, her tone is devoid of rancor. She sees him mainly as someone who occupied a chapter of her life.

Still, McEwen, a Democrat, acknowledges growing increasingly irritated with Thomas's conservative jurisprudence and his penchant for casting himself as a victim in the Hill controversy.

Thomas himself has obliquely referred to the McEwen both in his 2007 memoir and during his confirmation hearing.

In an exchange with Sen. Arlen Specter (Pa.), who was then a Republican, he said there appeared to be tension between Hill and him "as a result of the complexion of the woman I dated and the woman I chose as my chief of staff." Both are light-skinned.

McEwen met Thomas in 1979, when both were among a tiny handful of young, black Capitol Hill staffers. A group of them would hold monthly meetings at neighborhood watering holes, and soon enough McEwen and Thomas had struck up a close friendship.

At the time, Thomas was married to his first wife and working for then-Sen. John Danforth (R-Mo.). McEwen, meanwhile, had recently separated from her first husband.

Over time, she said, Thomas would come by her place for drinks. She said the relationship grew intimate after Thomas left his wife in 1981. She said they broke off their relationship in about 1986.

Through the years, McEwen said, she has remained reasonably friendly with Thomas. On two or three occasions, she said, she brought friends to his Supreme Court chambers where they sat for long conversations.

But now, she says, "I know Clarence would not be happy with me."

"I have no hostility toward him," McEwen said. "It is just that he has manufactured a different reality over time. That's the problem that he has."



Sources: CNN, Washington Post

Anita Hill vs Virginia Thomas "Catfight": No Apology More Vengeance

Anita Hill: No Apology Coming For Thomas Testimony


Anita Hill, whose accusations of sexual harassment almost derailed Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas' high court nomination, has no plans to apologize for the charges she made nearly two decades ago.

The response from Hill, now a law professor at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, comes following a voice-mail message left for her by Thomas' wife, Virginia, over the weekend, requesting an apology.

Charles Radin, the Brandeis director of news and communications, said Hill received the voice mail and turned it over to the campus Department of Public Safety, which then turned it over to the FBI.

Special Agent Jason Pack, an FBI spokesman in Washington, declined to comment late Tuesday.

"I certainly thought the call was inappropriate," Hill said in a statement to CNN issued by Brandeis. "I have no intention of apologizing because I testified truthfully about my experience and I stand by that testimony."

In a statement to CNN, Virginia "Ginni" Thomas said: "I did place a call to Ms. Hill at her office extending an olive branch to her after all these years, in hopes that we could ultimately get passed what happened so long ago. That offer still stands, I would be very happy to meet and talk with her if she would be willing to do the same. Certainly no offense was ever intended."

According to a source at Brandeis, who spoke on condition of not being identified, the message left over the weekend said:

"Good morning, Anita Hill, it's Ginni Thomas. I just wanted to reach across the airwaves and the years and ask you to consider something. I would love you to consider an apology some time and some full explanation of why you did what you did with my husband. So give it some thought and certainly pray about this and come to understand why you did what you did. OK, have a good day."

Virginia Thomas is a conservative activist who founded the organization Liberty Central.

Hill declined comment to CNN affiliate WCVB outside her Waltham home on Wednesday, saying, "Please, let me go teach my class."

Then-President George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas -- a then-43-year-old conservative from Pinpoint, Georgia -- to the Supreme Court in 1991.

The nomination was "instantly controversial," according to an outline of the incident posted on the website for the Center for History and New Media, part of a history class syllabus.

African-American organizations, including the NAACP and the Urban League, opposed it, fearing that Thomas' conservative stance on issues such as affirmative action would reverse gains his predecessor, Justice Thurgood Marshall, had helped achieve, the outline said.

However, the nomination proceeded to the Senate Judiciary Committee, where the first few days of his confirmation hearings were uneventful, according to the historical account. "When asked about his stance on legal abortion, [Clarence] Thomas claimed that he had not formulated an opinion and the issue was dropped."

The nomination went before the full Senate, but a media frenzy developed when Hill -- then a law professor at the University of Oklahoma -- came forward and alleged that Thomas had sexually harassed her years earlier, when he was head of the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission and she worked for him, the outline said. The Senate Judiciary Committee launched an investigation.

Hill actually had made the allegations during interviews with the FBI, but they were leaked to the press just before the final Senate vote on Clarence Thomas, according to the Museum of Broadcast Communications' website. The Senate delayed the vote in order to hear more about Hill's allegations.

In three days of televised hearings that transfixed Americans, Hill testified that Thomas repeatedly requested dates with her and engaged in inappropriate discussions including references to pornographic material.

In his testimony, Clarence Thomas denied the allegations and called the hearings "a national disgrace ... a high-tech lynching for uppity blacks who in any way deign to think for themselves, to do for themselves," according to the museum.

Two days later, Clarence Thomas was confirmed on a 52-48 vote.

"Although the hearings themselves had no legal significance, to many observers they symbolized a public referendum on sexual harassment and other gender inequities in late twentieth-century America," according to the broadcast museum. The incident has been credited with increasing public awareness regarding gender discrimination and motivating female voters in the 1992 elections, which saw a record 29 women elected to Congress.

"Many feminist groups refer to Anita Hill as the mother of a new wave of awareness of gender discrimination, particularly given the attacks on her credibility that she withstood from the white male senators," the museum said.

Harriett Woods, then-president of the National Women's Political Caucus, was quoted by the museum as saying, "Anita Hill focused attention on the fact that there were no women in that Senate panel making decisions about people's lives."


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Sources: CNN, Google Maps