Shackled Teen's Aunt Arrested in His Alleged Kidnapping and Torture

Click here for articleThis is a shocking story. The neighbors didn't even know what was going on. -----Vickie

Shackled Teen's Aunt Arrested in His Alleged Kidnapping and Torture
BERKELEY, Calif. — Police have arrested the aunt of a 17-year-old boy who showed up at a gym shackled and terrified, claiming he had just fled his captors.

Caren Ramirez is the third suspect arrested in the alleged assault against the teen.

Ramirez, 43, was arrested Tuesday night after police received a tip she was in the San Francisco suburb of Berkeley, said Tracy police spokesman Matt Robinson. Tracy is about 60 miles east of San Francisco.

Police had been looking for Ramirez after they arrested Kelly Layne Lau, 30, and Michael Schumacher, 34, earlier Tuesday.

Lau and Schumacher were in jail in lieu of bail set at nearly $1.2 million each. They were booked for suspicion of torture, kidnapping and child abuse.

Prosecutors did not know if the couple had attorneys.

Lau and Schumacher's four young children, two of whom were home when police arrived, were taken into protective custody, authorities said.

The boy, who authorities said ran away from a Sacramento foster home last year, came into the In-Shape Sports Club in Tracy on Monday wearing only boxer briefs and covered in what appeared to be soot, gym manager Chuck Ellis said.

Gym manager Chuck Ellis said the teen was scared someone was going to come after him and asked to be hidden.

The boy said he had been held captive for nearly a year, said Ellis, adding that he looked as if he was only 10 to 12 years old.

Authorities said they believe the boy had been chained to a car seat but picked up a dropped key, unlocked himself and fled when the car stopped.

Investigators were trying to figure out the connection between the couple and Ramirez, who authorities believe occasionally visited their home.

Ramirez had become the teen's guardian after child-welfare officials took him from his abusive father three or four years ago, police have said. After Ramirez was arrested for allegedly abusing the boy, he was placed in another foster home, which he fled in late 2007, police said.

Since then, the boy's whereabouts hadn't been known until around 4 p.m. Monday, when he entered the fitness center.

Shackled Teen's Aunt Arrested in His Alleged Kidnapping and Torture

Siblings of Walmart worker that got stampeded are sueing

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I tried to post it, but there was something wrong with the ending tag. Who do you think is at fault? Do you think that it was Walmart for not providing enough security?

Siblings of Walmart worker that got stampeded are sueing

Liberals Angry Over Obama Keeping Gates as Pentagon Chief

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Obama promised the country change while he was campaigning. Most of his cabinet are former staffers of the Clinton administration. I think it shows the lack of experience on his part. -----Vickie

Liberals Angry Over Obama Keeping Gates as Pentagon Chief
President-elect Obama's expected selection of Robert Gates as his defense secretary and retired Gen. Jim Jones as his national security adviser is raising eyebrows among liberals.

More than a month before he takes the oath of office, President-elect Barack Obama already is testing the loyalty of his liberal base.

On Monday, he is expected to announce his national security team, which will include Robert Gates as his defense secretary, a carry-over from the Bush administration, and retired Gen. Jim Jones, who supported John McCain for president, as his national security adviser.

Liberal blogger Chris Bowers of The Open Left says the message sent by the selection of Gates undermines Democrats.

"The message would be clear," he writes in his blog. "Even Democrats agree that Democrats can't run the military."

Obama's outspoken opposition to the Iraq war before he became a U.S. senator was one of the reasons he was embraced early in the presidential race by the anti-war faction of the Democratic Party's base, so his apparent decision to keep a Bush adviser as defense secretary for at least a year has raised some eyebrows within that faction.

Bowers, a member of the Pennsylvania state Democratic committee, argues that Gates provided support and cover for practices from waterboarding to the use of psychotropic drugs on terror detainees. The blogger isn't as negative toward Jones but still called it "very disappointing."

"It is just so very frustrating," Bowers writes. "It seems like the only place progressives are making any gains is in the House. We are being entirely left out of Obama's major appointments so far. I guess everyone gets to play in Obama's administration, except progressives."

Democratic blogger Brent Budowsky, who served as a congressional assistant in the 1970s and 1980s, said he would have preferred to see Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska or former Democratic Sen. Sam Nunn of Georgia get the nod for defense secretary.

Budowsky said he fears that Obama's national security team will steer him toward a longer military commitment than the one he made on the campaign trail.

"It is unfortunate that on an issue so momentous as who runs the Pentagon at time of war, the views that were stated in the campaign, and supported so deeply by the base of the Democratic Party and the new voters and small donors who were the heart of the Obama campaign, are sacrificed so quickly, for Bob Gates," he writes in his blog.

GOP strategist Dave Winston told FOX News that some pushback was to be expected.

"The base is clearly going to say, where are you headed in terms of this policy?" Winston said. "And I think it will cause him some headaches with the base, although for the overall country, I think they will see it quite favorably."

Democratic consultant Bob Beckel told FOX News that objections from liberals over Obama's Cabinet selections isn't all bad.

"Not so sure, from Obama's standpoint, it's bad politically," he said. "It helps him in his negotiation with Congress."

Obama's national security team also will include several former members of Bill Clinton's administration, eliciting some complaints about recycling people from the Clinton White House. And Obama is expected to pick Hillary Clinton to be his pick for secretary of state.

But Beckel says Obama needs experience from the last Democratic White House.

"If he went to a Democratic administration before that, he'd have to go to the nursing home," he said.

FOX News' Wendell Goler contributed to this report.

Liberals Angry Over Obama Keeping Gates as Pentagon Chief

Fw: Bluetooth Gone Wrong

Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG.
Version: 7.5.430 / Virus Database: 270.8.0/1735 - Release Date: 10/20/08 2:52 PM

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Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG.
Version: 7.5.430 / Virus Database: 270.8.0/1735 - Release Date: 10/20/08 2:52 PM

Is this for real?     OMG!!!   amazing, bet this guy changed his undies afterwards.

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Fw: Beauty of Autumn

Internal Virus Database is out-of-date.
Checked by AVG.
Version: 7.5.430 / Virus Database: 270.8.0/1735 - Release Date: 10/20/08 2:52 PM

God's handiwork part 3

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Version: 7.5.430 / Virus Database: 270.8.0/1735 - Release Date: 10/20/08 2:52 PM

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Sarah Palin and David Letterman

Greta VanSustern on Fox News showed the tape of David Letterman talking about Sarah Palin. I didn’t think that it was right, and I kind of felt that Katie Couric didn’t think too much of it either. I got this email, so I thought that I would post it.

Do you think that he committed a violation of the FCC? What are your thoughts on this? ------Trickyvikki

Subject: On Team Sarah: Not funny, David!

A message to all members of Team Sarah

Such hypocrites!

Two nights ago, David Letterman, in interviewing Katie Couric, described Gov. Palin as “the first vice presidential candidate that I found myself being aroused about.”

It is ghastly that this kind of discourteous, indecent talk should pass for conversational fodder — even on late night TV.

This violates CBS’s own “Program Practices” specifically states that: “The Program Practices editors review material for excessive or gratuitous violence, sexuality, nudity and inappropriate language. They ensure that character portrayals are sensitive to current ethnic, religious, sexual and other significant social concerns.” http://www.cbspressexpress.com/div.php/cbs_network/page/program_practices

A violation? What do *you* think?

Well, don’t just think it! Make your voice heard.

Email the Federal Communications Commission!

Email fccinfo@fcc.gov, tell them your name, where you are from, and EXACTLY how you feel about Letterman taking indecent liberties with a dignified lady, mom, and governor on his show!

– Emily
teamsarah08@gmail.com

Visit Team Sarah at:http://www.teamsarah.org

–
To control which emails you receive on Team Sarah, go to:
http://www.teamsarah.org/profiles/profile/emailSettings

Sarah Palin and David Letterman

My response to an article that I found last night

I found this article while surfing last night, and here is my response to it. The writer forgot to tell everyone that Jim Martin is outspending on ads by about three to one.
During the election, he ran more ads than Saxby Chambliss, and they were pretty nasty. He is running one now that probably took Saxby Chambliss out of context by saying he didn’t know what a recession was. He just runs that one sentence twice in his nasty ad.

He has been running ads about the bailout, which I feel he is being a hypocrite about. Barack Obama supported the bailout, as did John McCain. The reason that I call him a hypocrite, is because he is now running ads saying he backs Barack Obama completely, but yet he ran ads against Sen. Saxby Chambliss running him down for voting for the bailout when Obama supported it.

Although I hate what happened to his daughter, Saxby Chambliss isn’t running the ad. It is a 527 group doing it.

Obama is even running radio ads for Martin. So there is nastiness on both sides. ——Vickie

Freedom’s Watch attacks Democratic Senate candidate whose daughter was kidnapped as being soft on crime.
http://thinkprogress.org/ 2008/ 11/ 22/ chambliss-martin-crime/



Freedom’s Watch attacks Democratic Senate candidate whose daughter was kidnapped as being soft on crime. By Amanda Terkel at 6:40 pm Freedom’s Watch attacks Democratic Senate candidate whose daughter was kidnapped as being soft on crime.» Yesterday, the struggling Freedom’s Watch released an attack ad against Georgia’s Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Jim Martin, saying that he “failed to look out for Georgia’s families.” “First he actually helped block stiffer penalties for drunk drivers,” warns the voice in the ad, which echoes previous GOP ads.

17 hours ago
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My response to an article that I found last night

How Obama got elected

Just think, these people canceled out your votes. Kind of makes you sick, doesn't it?======Trickyvikki

How Obama got elected