Sabtu, 26 November 2011
Judge challenges inmate to lose weight
Miller, who sentenced McCovery, 37, earlier this month for driving with a suspended license, promised the 345-pound hypertensive man that she would shrink his stay at the Lake County Jail by one day for every pound he lost while in custody.
After 20 days in the slammer, where he limited his intake mostly to vegetables on his dinner tray, he weighed in Monday at 320 pounds, and Miller cut him loose early — in time for turkey-day sweet-potato pie at home in West Palm Beach.
"It's not easy to lose weight. I thought he'd lose 5, maybe, 6 pounds — not 25," said Miller, 64, who has often dished out creative sentences during her 17 years as a county judge. "It's like [sentencing] someone in a drug case. I'd much rather have them stop doing drugs than send them to jail. I hope I can help."
Miller, the judge on "Lake Courts," a TV program on a community-access channel that replays criminal proceedings in her courtroom, has ordered defendants to take up jogging, enroll in dance class and tutor math. She often assigns misdemeanor offenders to pull weeds or turn dirt in a community vegetable garden that benefits food pantries.
"I don't do any Jerry Springer stuff where people have to parade outside Walmart with a sign that says, 'I'm a thief,' '' Miller said, referring to punishment that includes public humiliation. "I do what I do to try to change the person in front of me. But I know I can't help everyone. If the person needs jail, they get jail."
Bobby Azcano, an attorney with The Ticket Clinic law firm, said Miller's approach on the bench is unusual in the Central Florida courts where he practices, which also includes Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia counties.
"Very unique to say the least," said Azcano, a lawyer since 2000. "I think she's a counselor on the bench is how I would describe it. … She's interested in the rehabilitation process. She's not as punitive as other judges are."
A former teacher who has worked as a public defender and once served as the Lake County sheriff's attorney, Miller admitted some peers have cautioned her to act more judicial and less like a social worker. She shrugs off the criticism.
"I'm the Tim Tebow of the courtroom," Miller said, half-joking in her reference to the former University of Florida football star widely criticized by NFL pundits for unconventional but successful quarterbacking skills.
Miller usually gives defendants a choice between her specially tailored sentence or jail and fines.
In October, Gwendolyn Wages, 50, appeared in Miller's court on a probation violation that accused her of failing to complete a community-service requirement for causing a wreck while impaired by pain medicine. The Ocala woman, limited by back and hip ailments, said she was not healthy enough for physical work.
Prosecutors offered to forgive the violation and five days in jail if Wages just paid her fine and costs.
Miller instead directed Wages to complete 60 holiday-greeting cards, enough for every patient at LifeStream Behavioral Center, a mental-health and addiction facility in Leesburg.
Said Miller: "Come Christmastime, we'll pass them out to whoever is in LifeStream and away from their family during the holiday season."
Wages said she made not 60 but 90 cards: "I hope it brightens up somebody else's day."
Not everyone embraces the judge's sentences.
An Orlando woman turned down Miller's proposal Wednesday to fulfill a sentence for driving with a suspended license by decorating small brown bags that will hold holiday goodies for LifeStream patients. She chose instead to pay a $200 fine.
But Natasha Wells, 30, a divorced mother with three kids, leapt at the same deal for the same offense.
"Pay $200 or have an arts-and-craft day with my kids? Are you kidding?" she asked.
McCovery, cited for the criminal traffic offense while visiting his sister in Leesburg, also was surprised by the judge's proposal. He had discussed his desire to lose weight with Miller in court while asking her to delay his jail stay for a week so he could retrieve his prescription medicine for high blood pressure.
She imposed a 29-day sentence and offered to assess his weight-loss commitment after 20 days behind bars. He credited his weight loss and nine-day reprieve to encouragement from detention deputies, bland jail food and Miller.
"She gave me a chance to prove myself, and I didn't want to let her down," he said.
Miller added a personal note to his release order. It read, "Good job, Mr. McCovery!"
[latimes]
Damn: British women are the fattest in Europe
Figures released by the European Commission showed that nearly a quarter (23.9%) of women in the UK were obese in 2008/09, when the data was recorded.
The statistics showed British men are not far behind, with 22.1% being classed as overweight, coming second only to Malta.
They found the share of overweight and obese people increases with age in all of the 19 member states that data was available for. The figures also show the proportion of women who are obese or overweight falls as the educational level rises.
The high levels of obesity in the UK are in stark contrast to those in countries such as Romania, where just 8% of women were classed as obese along with 7.6% of men.
Separate statistics show that around a third (32%) of English children aged 11 to 15 are overweight or obese.
Last month Health Secretary Andrew Lansley launched a new "ambition" to bring down England's obesity levels by 2020 and said people need to be honest with themselves about how much they eat and drink.
Overall, Britons should be eating five billion fewer calories a day than at present, he said.
And earlier this year, the issue's toll on health services became apparent when it emerged that the number of hospital admissions for obesity has risen by more than 30%. There were 10,571 NHS hospital admissions in 2009/10 where the main reason for treatment was that the person was obese. The figure is more than 10 times the number in 1999/00 (979) and more than 30% higher than in 2008/09 (7,988).
A man or woman is defined as obese if their body mass index (BMI) is 30 or above and overweight if is between 25 and 30. The BMI is a measure of a person's weight relative to their height that correlates fairly well with body fat and is calculated by their dividing body weight by body height squared.
Igbo Leader, Ikemba Nnewi, Odumegwu-Ojukwu is dead
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu born on 4 November 1933 at Zungeru in northern Nigeria to Sir Louis Phillippe Odumegwu Ojukwu, a businessman from Nnewi, Anambra State in south-eastern Nigeria died in London in the early hours after a long illness at Royal Berkshire Hospital in the UK.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu also known as Ikemba Nnewi was said to have died in the UK after months in hospital for the treatment of a serious stroke he had suffered late last year.
Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu born on 4 November 1933 at Zungeru in northern Nigeria was imprisoned for assaulting a white British colonial teacher, who was humiliating a black woman, at King’s College in Lagos began his educational career in Lagos.
At 13, his father sent him overseas to study in Britain, first at Epsom College, in Surrey and later earned a Masters degree in history at Lincoln College, Oxford University and returned to colonial Nigeria in 1956.
In 1957 the Ikemba Nnewi joined the Nigerian Army as one of the first and few university graduates. Ojukwu was among the 15 Nigerians officers out of the 250 officers the Nigerian Military Forces had then.
After serving in the UN peacekeeping force in the then Congo under Maj.-Gen. Johnson Thomas Aguiyi-Ironsi, Ojuwkwu was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel in 1964 and was posted to Kano, where he was in charge of the 5 Battalion of the Nigerian Army.
Aguiyi-Ironsi appointed Odumegwu-Ojukwu military governor of the defunct Easter Region on Jan. 17, 1966.
After the first military coup of 1966 and the counter coup that followed, Odumegwu-Ojukwu declared the defunct Eastern Region a sovereign state to be known as Biafra.
In the declaration and during his public address to the people of Biafra, he said: “Having mandated me to proclaim on your behalf, and in your name, that Eastern Nigeria be a sovereign independent republic, now, therefore I, Lt.-Col. Chukwuemeka Odumegwu-Ojukwu, Military Governor of Eastern Nigeria, by virtue of the authority, and pursuant to the principles recited above, do hereby solemnly proclaim that the territory and region known as and called Eastern Nigeria together with her continental shelf and territorial waters, shall, henceforth, be an independent sovereign state of the name and title of The Republic of Biafra.’’
On July 6, 1967, the then military Head of State, Col. Yakubu Gowon declared war and attacked Biafra in a bid to stop Ojukwu’s secessionist attempt.
The war lasted 30 months and ended on Jan. 15, 1970.
As the war was wearing out, Ojukwu went on exile and stayed away for 13 years. He was granted state pardon by President Shehu Shagari, a decision which was trailed by the deceased’s triumphant return in 1982.
He is survived to Miss Intercontinental 1989 Bianca Onoh and children.
RIP to the Ex- Biafra Warlord!
story developing...................
Jumat, 11 November 2011
We can be friends: Super Eagles Sacked Coach Samson Siasia welcomes the new Stephen Keshi
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| President Nigerian Football Federation, Alhaji Aminu Maigari applauding as the immediate past Super Eagles Coach, Samson Siasia presents a commemorative jersey to the new National Coach for the National Football Team, Captain Stephen Keshi. |
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