Bad Moon on the rise
By John Gorenfeld
Salon
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/09/24/moon/index.html
"Last December, at his three-day God and World Peace event, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon drew a notable slate of political figures, from Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., to Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., and, perhaps most notably, James Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, who offered some respectful opening remarks to Moon's Unification Church faithful. Moon followed, and called for all religions to come together in support of the Bush plan for faith-based initiatives."
Internet helping fuel fear about new car theft scam
By Edgar Sanchez
Sacramento Bee
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/scam_alert/story/7468197p-8410737c.html
"Motorists may be overreacting to Internet reports that cars are being stolen with purloined keys, authorities said last week."
A Guru Teaches Techies How to Breathe
By Manjeet Kripalani
Business Week
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_38/b3850124_mz033.htm
"As Arun Nandal prepared to start a new job as a software engineer, the good son touched his parents' feet to seek their blessing. Then he boarded a train and traveled 40 hours from his home in northern India to the country's tech capital, Bangalore, to share his joy with someone almost as important. That person was Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, well known in India and, increasingly, around the world as guru to the technology class. Nandal, 22, credits Sri Sri and his Art of Living courses on breathing and spiritual development with helping him land his first job, at Lucent Technologies Inc., in Bombay. He says Sri Sri's techniques taught him to concentrate better and helped boost his university grades. "We are very energetic at our age, so we need to focus," says Nandal. "Art of Living helps with that.""
Close Encounters
BY MATTHEW FORNEY
Time Asia
http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501030929-488900,00.html
"Forget China's astronauts. The country's most famous intergalactic traveler lives in the last house on his lane at the edge of a Siberian forest. Meng Zhaoguo's odyssey began at the Red Flag logging camp in the Manchurian province of Heilongjiang, when he saw a metallic glint thrown off nearby Mount Phoenix. Thinking a helicopter had crashed, he set out to scavenge for scrap. The 36-year-old lumberjack stood gazing at the wreck from across a valley when "Foom! Something hit me square in the forehead and knocked me out.""
New theory on 'mass hysteria'
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/3128402.stm
"Pesticide spraying may hold the key to an unsolved mystery involving the collapse of hundreds of children more than 20 years ago."
The Mystery of Hollinwell
BBC Inside Out
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/features/2003/09/hollinwell_incident.shtml
"The Hollinwell incident remains one of the strangest events ever to happen in Great Britain."
Jury Selection to Begin in Case of Decapitated Children
By Lynn Brezosky
Associated Press
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAPCZTXVKD.html
"Jury selection was set to begin Monday in the case of a man accused of stabbing, suffocating and decapitating three small children - two of them his own - with the help of his common-law wife."
'Ghosts' scare students away from school
Indio-Asian News Service
<http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Di...September2003&file=World_News200309222620.xml>
"The fear of ghosts made a school in West Bengal state shut down briefly as students refused to turn up."
Creeping up on ghosts
By KATYA CENGEL
Louisville Courier-Journal
http://www.courier-journal.com/features/2003/09/20030923.html
"Three women clad in black polo shirts and beige khakis enter Shelbyville City Hall. The leader of the group, Kay Owen, vice president of the Scientific Investigative Ghost Hunting Team (SIGHT), takes an 11-page witness questionnaire from her folder and begins firing questions at Shelbyville City Hall Deputy Clerk Wendy Rutledge."
Gang duping people with 'mystic coins' busted
Newindpress
http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitem...&Title=Southern+News+-+Andhra+Pradesh&rLink=0
"The Parvatipuram police on Monday arrested 30 members of a gang on charges of cheating the public of several lakhs of rupees in the name of mystic coins."
W.Va. town revels in Mothman legend, erects statue in winged apparition's honor
Associated Press
http://sundaygazettemail.com/section/APNews/News/ap0048r
"At first, Mayor Jim Wilson was skeptical that a 37-year-old local legend about a red-eyed, winged apparition known as Mothman would draw visitors to this Ohio River town."
Mothman lives
by Chris Stirewalt
Charleston Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2003092313/
"It's the eyes of the Mothman that are causing a fright."
UFO spotted over County
by Kelly Donahue
Cibola County Beacon
http://www.cibolabeacon.com/articles/2003/09/23/news/news5.txt
"Out of the dusk of a western sky comes . . ."
Indian minister's call for occult studies
Agence France-Presse
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7360973%5E13762,00.html
"WITH two cobras coiled around his neck, a federal minister walked on fire, honoured village exorcists and vowed to promote occult studies, a news report said today."
BJP's Paswan wants voodoo included in school curriculum
Indian Express
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=32146
"His resignation on the table, Murli Manohar Joshi may already have a worthy successor in the Union HRD Ministry. Minister of State Sanjay Paswan who, after Joshi's love for Vedic mathematics and astrology, wants tantrik practices and exorcism included in school curriculum."
Snake-charming the nation
Hindustan Times
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_389419,0012.htm
"In the past, we have commented about Murli Manohar Joshi's campaign to push for the inclusion of astrology and Vedic science in university syllabi being cuckoo."
Sack Union minister Paswan for promoting superstition: Laloo
Press Trust of India
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=24939
"RJD chief and Bihar's former chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav on Wednesday demanded that Union Minister Sanjay Paswan be sacked from the Cabinet for "promoting superstition"."
Sorrow as UFO expert dies, 49
Stourbridge News
http://www.expressandstar.com/artman/publish/article_42680.shtml
"A leading UFO researcher and writer who gave a number of talks in the Black Country has died."
Judge refuses to side with vampire cultist
BY FRANK STANFIELD
Ocala Star Banner
http://www.starbanner.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030924/NEWS/209240325/1047
"A Lake County circuit judge Tuesday rejected vampire cult leader Rod Ferrell's contention that he got bad advice from his lawyers when he pleaded guilty to beating to death the parents of one of his followers."
Lawsuit wants 'Demons' name restored at school
By MIKE HERNDON
Mobile Register
http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1064308523313560.xml
"While McIntosh High School's athletes continue to take the field without a mascot, an ongoing lawsuit seeks to restore the school's longtime nickname, the "Demons.""
Grandma on trial in hoax
By SHAWN ANKROM
Springfield News-Sun
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/n...ws/2003/09/22/1064287814.19830.3311.1352.html
"Greed and a gambling addiction were behind a grandmother's "tearfully perpetuated myth" that her 7-year-old granddaughter was dying of cancer, Champaign County Prosecutor Nick Selvaggio said Monday."
Grandmother awaits verdict
By SHAWN ANKROM
Springfield News-Sun
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/n...ws/2003/09/23/1064375195.19830.9871.1577.html
"Jurors late Tuesday began delibrating a verdict in the case of a woman accused of helping deceive the community into believing her granddaughter was dying of cancer."
Jury: Grandmother not guilty
By SHAWN ANKROM
Springfield News-Sun
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/n...ws/2003/09/24/1064388005.19830.8373.1702.html
"Jurors found a grandmother not guilty on all three charges that she aided in a scam that her granddaughter was dying of cancer."
Mom and dad will do time
By SHAWN ANKROM and CLAIRE BUSHEY
Springfield News-Sun
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/n...ws/2003/09/24/1064459534.19830.9221.1795.html
"Teresa and Robert Milbrandt sat quietly in a crowded Champaign County Common Pleas Court room on Wednesday as they were sentenced to prison and barred from any contact with their 8-year-old daughter."
No Goodbyes for Hannah?
By SHAWN ANKROM
Springfield News-Sun
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/n...ws/2003/09/24/1064460143.19830.0974.1798.html
"Hannah Milbrandt might not be allowed a final goodbye with her parents before they are taken to prison."
Parents who faked daughter's disease sent to prison
Associated Press
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1064482477206850.xml
"A couple who admitted faking their daughter's leukemia to gain thousands of dollars in donations were sentenced to prison yesterday."
US couple jailed over cancer scam
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3137578.stm
"A US couple who faked their seven-year-old daughter's leukaemia to gain thousands of dollars in donations have been sent to prison."
The fundamentals of blood
By Peter Temple
The Age
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/09/17/1063625088286.html
"Dramas such as the Jonestown mass suicide and the Waco siege give the impression that America is jumping with religious sects. It is, but they are generally tiny. Still, you have to start somewhere. The Mormons began small and are now the world's fastest-growing Christian religion (11 million strong and adding half a million new members a year)."
World's First Alien Abductee Suffering Lung Cancer
Wireless Flash
http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2003-09-24&nav=VIEW&id=U9C985M068Y030924
"The world's first alien abductee just celebrated the 42nd anniversary of her abduction -- and it might be her last."
Catholic Church decides against Mary miracle declaration
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/s793404.htm
"The Catholic Archbishop of Perth has declared that the "Weeping Mary" statue of Rockingham does not constitute a miracle."
Forum examines "intelligent design"
By Tiffany Bosler
Montgomery County Courier
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1569&dept_id=180944&newsid=10189035&PAG=461&rfi=9
"The Montgomery College Auditorium was packed with county residents, parents and children Thursday night who were eager to hear the arguments against the teaching of evolution in area schools."
Local Institute Thrives on Alternative Medicine
By Catherine Santore
Moscow Times
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/09/24/020.html
"Nontraditional medicine in Russia takes many forms, from intensive yoga to door-to-door peddlers of medicinal honey creams. Claiming its place among these alternatives to crowded state clinics is the Norbekov Institute, a global network of schools that claims to improve health through the power of positive thinking."
Art Bell returns to national airwaves
By HENRY BREAN
Pahrump Valley Times
http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2003/Sep-24-Wed-2003/news/artbell.html
"When Art Bell came out of retirement and returned Saturday to the nationally syndicated radio show he created, Pahrump's most famous resident picked up right where he left off."
Therapists try to perfect healing touch
BY TERRI T. JOHNSON
WASHINGTON OBSERVER-REPORTER
http://www.observer-reporter.com/293231426461567.bsp
"The human body pulsates with rhythms, including the involuntary movements of the cardiac and respiratory systems. Even in total rest, the body is dependent on the oft-silent ebb and flow of blood and air."
Company in court, possible pyramid scheme
WTNH
http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=1456148&nav=3YeXIAfc
"A Connecticut-based company may soon be out of business, accused of bilking its customers in a so-called pyramid scheme."
KNOX FAMILY FEARS SON IS PART OF A CULT
WBIR
http://www.wbir.com/News/news.asp?ID=14692
"A Knox County mother and father say their son may never be the same, and they blame it on his religious revival during college. Tony and Susan Hupp are sharing their story, because they don't want other parents to experience their pain."
Read No Evil
by Shane Johnson
Salt Lake City Weekly
http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2003/feat_2003-09-25.cfm
"Upon learning, decades after the fact, from tenderfoot-turned-U.S.-Senator Ransom Stoddard that he was not "the man who shot Liberty Valance," the editor of the Shinbone Star tore his notes to shreds and told Stoddard, "This is the West, sir! When the legend becomes fact, print the legend!""
Expert will address cults on campus
By Dave Stephens
Purdue Exponent
http://www.purdueexponent.org/inter...03/09/24§ion=features&storyid=cultspeaker
"Cults are on campus and they're targeting students."
Judge clears way for extradition of hoax suspect
By Fred Kelly
Indianapolis Star
http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/7/077359-2527-009.html
"A Kansas woman accused of pretending to be a Hoosier couple's long-lost daughter will be transported to Indiana to face criminal charges."
Kansas Supreme Court Rejects Walker's Petition
Associated Press
http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/2508209/detail.html
"The Kansas Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the bail request of a woman accused of posing as an Indiana couple's long-missing daughter."
Lawyer in missing-girl case vows extradition fight
Associated Press
http://www.ljworld.com/section/stateregional/story/146501
"Despite two adverse court decisions in as many days, a defense attorney promised Wednesday to keep fighting an attempt to extradite a Topeka woman to Indiana to face charges that she posed as a couple's long-missing daughter."
Bored Woman's Terror Hoax Cuts Trip Short, Gets Her 2 Years in Jail
Reuters
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/travel/World/cruise030923.html
"A Southern California woman was sentenced in U.S. District Court on Monday to two years in federal prison for committing a high seas terror hoax that she had hoped would cut short a vacation cruise with her parents and return her to her boyfriend."
'Football ghost' keeps Indian schoolchildren off school
Ananova
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_822542.html
"Students at a primary school in India have boycotted classes for the last fortnight because of a "football ghost"."
Kids fooled by net hoax
Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/24/1064083062400.html
"British schoolchildren munched through thousands of packets of chips, thinking they were helping a disabled baby - only to discover they were the victims of an internet hoax, the Daily Mirror in London reported yesterday."
How the West was spun
By Carl Schoettler
Baltimore Sun
http://www.sunspot.net/features/bal-to.corbett23sep23,0,4732416.story
"Just a year before the Civil War, on April 3, 1860, Pony Express riders began the first of their 1,950-mile gallops from St. Joseph, Mo., to Sacramento, Calif., and on into American mythology. They promised to make the trip in less than 10 days and often did it in eight. Riders carrying Lincoln's First Inaugural Address sped through in seven days and 17 hours."
Sea Monster Slows Merger
WCAX
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=1456753&nav=4QcSIBCZ
"The North Country Chamber of Commerce tours one of its newest members. North Country Engineering makes a variety of machine parts. It's the chamber's job to help promote this business."
Sect mom to stand trial for son's death
Associated Press
http://www.neponsetvalleydailynews.com/news/local_regional/ap_robidoux09252003.htm
"A mother who allegedly watched her infant son starve to death because of a religious prophecy was ordered yesterday to stand trial on a second-degree murder charge after psychiatrists determined she was competent to face the ordeal of a trial."
SUE'S PSYCHIC CLASS
Carmarthen Journal
<http://www.carmarthenjournal.co.uk/...ayContent&sourceNode=102624&contentPK=7153753>
"An Ammanford psychic who runs Britain's only school for psychic detection appeared on Channel Four's Richard and Judy programme on Monday."
Sightings yet to be explained
by Paul Wells
Airdrie Echo
http://www.airdrieecho.com/story.php?id=74874
"While far from being Alberta's version of Area 51, a Canadian UFO investigator and researcher says Airdrie and area has been a veritable hotspot for reported sightings of late."
Children of Om
BY KATY ST. CLAIR
East Bay Express
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/issues/2003-09-24/feature.html/1/index.html
"Where do old cult leaders go to grow old and die? Where do they end up when their warped charisma hasn't reached the infamy of a Manson or a Moon -- when their following doesn't end in the grim swell of bloated bodies from mass suicide, but simply fizzles out?"
Astronomy Picture of the Day
by Phil Plait (Bad Astronomy)
NASA.gov
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030923.html
"Today is the autumnal equinox -- should eggs be able to stand on end?"
Warning on ice cube enemas
By Judy Skatssoon
Australian Associated Press
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,7361585^1702,00.html
"DRUG and medical experts have issued a warning following evidence that would-be first aiders have been using ice cube "enemas" to revive people from drug overdoses."
Commonwealth's attorney:: Rumors unfounded, damaging
By LEE ANN PRESCOTT
Smyth County News & Messenger
http://www.smythnews.com/frontpage/MGBI3C6DZKD.html
"Perhaps gossip and rumors are to be expected in an election year. A week ago, gossips passed along a tale accusing a local police officer and a Smyth County businessman of being arrested for selling illegal drugs."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skepticsearch/
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By John Gorenfeld
Salon
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2003/09/24/moon/index.html
"Last December, at his three-day God and World Peace event, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon drew a notable slate of political figures, from Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., to Rep. Danny Davis, D-Ill., and, perhaps most notably, James Towey, director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, who offered some respectful opening remarks to Moon's Unification Church faithful. Moon followed, and called for all religions to come together in support of the Bush plan for faith-based initiatives."
Internet helping fuel fear about new car theft scam
By Edgar Sanchez
Sacramento Bee
http://www.sacbee.com/content/news/scam_alert/story/7468197p-8410737c.html
"Motorists may be overreacting to Internet reports that cars are being stolen with purloined keys, authorities said last week."
A Guru Teaches Techies How to Breathe
By Manjeet Kripalani
Business Week
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/03_38/b3850124_mz033.htm
"As Arun Nandal prepared to start a new job as a software engineer, the good son touched his parents' feet to seek their blessing. Then he boarded a train and traveled 40 hours from his home in northern India to the country's tech capital, Bangalore, to share his joy with someone almost as important. That person was Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, well known in India and, increasingly, around the world as guru to the technology class. Nandal, 22, credits Sri Sri and his Art of Living courses on breathing and spiritual development with helping him land his first job, at Lucent Technologies Inc., in Bombay. He says Sri Sri's techniques taught him to concentrate better and helped boost his university grades. "We are very energetic at our age, so we need to focus," says Nandal. "Art of Living helps with that.""
Close Encounters
BY MATTHEW FORNEY
Time Asia
http://www.time.com/time/asia/magazine/article/0,13673,501030929-488900,00.html
"Forget China's astronauts. The country's most famous intergalactic traveler lives in the last house on his lane at the edge of a Siberian forest. Meng Zhaoguo's odyssey began at the Red Flag logging camp in the Manchurian province of Heilongjiang, when he saw a metallic glint thrown off nearby Mount Phoenix. Thinking a helicopter had crashed, he set out to scavenge for scrap. The 36-year-old lumberjack stood gazing at the wreck from across a valley when "Foom! Something hit me square in the forehead and knocked me out.""
New theory on 'mass hysteria'
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/nottinghamshire/3128402.stm
"Pesticide spraying may hold the key to an unsolved mystery involving the collapse of hundreds of children more than 20 years ago."
The Mystery of Hollinwell
BBC Inside Out
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nottingham/features/2003/09/hollinwell_incident.shtml
"The Hollinwell incident remains one of the strangest events ever to happen in Great Britain."
Jury Selection to Begin in Case of Decapitated Children
By Lynn Brezosky
Associated Press
http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGAPCZTXVKD.html
"Jury selection was set to begin Monday in the case of a man accused of stabbing, suffocating and decapitating three small children - two of them his own - with the help of his common-law wife."
'Ghosts' scare students away from school
Indio-Asian News Service
<http://www.thepeninsulaqatar.com/Di...September2003&file=World_News200309222620.xml>
"The fear of ghosts made a school in West Bengal state shut down briefly as students refused to turn up."
Creeping up on ghosts
By KATYA CENGEL
Louisville Courier-Journal
http://www.courier-journal.com/features/2003/09/20030923.html
"Three women clad in black polo shirts and beige khakis enter Shelbyville City Hall. The leader of the group, Kay Owen, vice president of the Scientific Investigative Ghost Hunting Team (SIGHT), takes an 11-page witness questionnaire from her folder and begins firing questions at Shelbyville City Hall Deputy Clerk Wendy Rutledge."
Gang duping people with 'mystic coins' busted
Newindpress
http://www.newindpress.com/Newsitem...&Title=Southern+News+-+Andhra+Pradesh&rLink=0
"The Parvatipuram police on Monday arrested 30 members of a gang on charges of cheating the public of several lakhs of rupees in the name of mystic coins."
W.Va. town revels in Mothman legend, erects statue in winged apparition's honor
Associated Press
http://sundaygazettemail.com/section/APNews/News/ap0048r
"At first, Mayor Jim Wilson was skeptical that a 37-year-old local legend about a red-eyed, winged apparition known as Mothman would draw visitors to this Ohio River town."
Mothman lives
by Chris Stirewalt
Charleston Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/2003092313/
"It's the eyes of the Mothman that are causing a fright."
UFO spotted over County
by Kelly Donahue
Cibola County Beacon
http://www.cibolabeacon.com/articles/2003/09/23/news/news5.txt
"Out of the dusk of a western sky comes . . ."
Indian minister's call for occult studies
Agence France-Presse
http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,7360973%5E13762,00.html
"WITH two cobras coiled around his neck, a federal minister walked on fire, honoured village exorcists and vowed to promote occult studies, a news report said today."
BJP's Paswan wants voodoo included in school curriculum
Indian Express
http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=32146
"His resignation on the table, Murli Manohar Joshi may already have a worthy successor in the Union HRD Ministry. Minister of State Sanjay Paswan who, after Joshi's love for Vedic mathematics and astrology, wants tantrik practices and exorcism included in school curriculum."
Snake-charming the nation
Hindustan Times
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_389419,0012.htm
"In the past, we have commented about Murli Manohar Joshi's campaign to push for the inclusion of astrology and Vedic science in university syllabi being cuckoo."
Sack Union minister Paswan for promoting superstition: Laloo
Press Trust of India
http://www.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=24939
"RJD chief and Bihar's former chief minister Laloo Prasad Yadav on Wednesday demanded that Union Minister Sanjay Paswan be sacked from the Cabinet for "promoting superstition"."
Sorrow as UFO expert dies, 49
Stourbridge News
http://www.expressandstar.com/artman/publish/article_42680.shtml
"A leading UFO researcher and writer who gave a number of talks in the Black Country has died."
Judge refuses to side with vampire cultist
BY FRANK STANFIELD
Ocala Star Banner
http://www.starbanner.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030924/NEWS/209240325/1047
"A Lake County circuit judge Tuesday rejected vampire cult leader Rod Ferrell's contention that he got bad advice from his lawyers when he pleaded guilty to beating to death the parents of one of his followers."
Lawsuit wants 'Demons' name restored at school
By MIKE HERNDON
Mobile Register
http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/1064308523313560.xml
"While McIntosh High School's athletes continue to take the field without a mascot, an ongoing lawsuit seeks to restore the school's longtime nickname, the "Demons.""
Grandma on trial in hoax
By SHAWN ANKROM
Springfield News-Sun
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/n...ws/2003/09/22/1064287814.19830.3311.1352.html
"Greed and a gambling addiction were behind a grandmother's "tearfully perpetuated myth" that her 7-year-old granddaughter was dying of cancer, Champaign County Prosecutor Nick Selvaggio said Monday."
Grandmother awaits verdict
By SHAWN ANKROM
Springfield News-Sun
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/n...ws/2003/09/23/1064375195.19830.9871.1577.html
"Jurors late Tuesday began delibrating a verdict in the case of a woman accused of helping deceive the community into believing her granddaughter was dying of cancer."
Jury: Grandmother not guilty
By SHAWN ANKROM
Springfield News-Sun
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/n...ws/2003/09/24/1064388005.19830.8373.1702.html
"Jurors found a grandmother not guilty on all three charges that she aided in a scam that her granddaughter was dying of cancer."
Mom and dad will do time
By SHAWN ANKROM and CLAIRE BUSHEY
Springfield News-Sun
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/n...ws/2003/09/24/1064459534.19830.9221.1795.html
"Teresa and Robert Milbrandt sat quietly in a crowded Champaign County Common Pleas Court room on Wednesday as they were sentenced to prison and barred from any contact with their 8-year-old daughter."
No Goodbyes for Hannah?
By SHAWN ANKROM
Springfield News-Sun
http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/n...ws/2003/09/24/1064460143.19830.0974.1798.html
"Hannah Milbrandt might not be allowed a final goodbye with her parents before they are taken to prison."
Parents who faked daughter's disease sent to prison
Associated Press
http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1064482477206850.xml
"A couple who admitted faking their daughter's leukemia to gain thousands of dollars in donations were sentenced to prison yesterday."
US couple jailed over cancer scam
BBC News
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/3137578.stm
"A US couple who faked their seven-year-old daughter's leukaemia to gain thousands of dollars in donations have been sent to prison."
The fundamentals of blood
By Peter Temple
The Age
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/09/17/1063625088286.html
"Dramas such as the Jonestown mass suicide and the Waco siege give the impression that America is jumping with religious sects. It is, but they are generally tiny. Still, you have to start somewhere. The Mormons began small and are now the world's fastest-growing Christian religion (11 million strong and adding half a million new members a year)."
World's First Alien Abductee Suffering Lung Cancer
Wireless Flash
http://www.ncbuy.com/news/wireless_news.html?qdate=2003-09-24&nav=VIEW&id=U9C985M068Y030924
"The world's first alien abductee just celebrated the 42nd anniversary of her abduction -- and it might be her last."
Catholic Church decides against Mary miracle declaration
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.abc.net.au/pm/s793404.htm
"The Catholic Archbishop of Perth has declared that the "Weeping Mary" statue of Rockingham does not constitute a miracle."
Forum examines "intelligent design"
By Tiffany Bosler
Montgomery County Courier
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=1569&dept_id=180944&newsid=10189035&PAG=461&rfi=9
"The Montgomery College Auditorium was packed with county residents, parents and children Thursday night who were eager to hear the arguments against the teaching of evolution in area schools."
Local Institute Thrives on Alternative Medicine
By Catherine Santore
Moscow Times
http://www.themoscowtimes.com/stories/2003/09/24/020.html
"Nontraditional medicine in Russia takes many forms, from intensive yoga to door-to-door peddlers of medicinal honey creams. Claiming its place among these alternatives to crowded state clinics is the Norbekov Institute, a global network of schools that claims to improve health through the power of positive thinking."
Art Bell returns to national airwaves
By HENRY BREAN
Pahrump Valley Times
http://www.pahrumpvalleytimes.com/2003/Sep-24-Wed-2003/news/artbell.html
"When Art Bell came out of retirement and returned Saturday to the nationally syndicated radio show he created, Pahrump's most famous resident picked up right where he left off."
Therapists try to perfect healing touch
BY TERRI T. JOHNSON
WASHINGTON OBSERVER-REPORTER
http://www.observer-reporter.com/293231426461567.bsp
"The human body pulsates with rhythms, including the involuntary movements of the cardiac and respiratory systems. Even in total rest, the body is dependent on the oft-silent ebb and flow of blood and air."
Company in court, possible pyramid scheme
WTNH
http://www.wtnh.com/Global/story.asp?S=1456148&nav=3YeXIAfc
"A Connecticut-based company may soon be out of business, accused of bilking its customers in a so-called pyramid scheme."
KNOX FAMILY FEARS SON IS PART OF A CULT
WBIR
http://www.wbir.com/News/news.asp?ID=14692
"A Knox County mother and father say their son may never be the same, and they blame it on his religious revival during college. Tony and Susan Hupp are sharing their story, because they don't want other parents to experience their pain."
Read No Evil
by Shane Johnson
Salt Lake City Weekly
http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2003/feat_2003-09-25.cfm
"Upon learning, decades after the fact, from tenderfoot-turned-U.S.-Senator Ransom Stoddard that he was not "the man who shot Liberty Valance," the editor of the Shinbone Star tore his notes to shreds and told Stoddard, "This is the West, sir! When the legend becomes fact, print the legend!""
Expert will address cults on campus
By Dave Stephens
Purdue Exponent
http://www.purdueexponent.org/inter...03/09/24§ion=features&storyid=cultspeaker
"Cults are on campus and they're targeting students."
Judge clears way for extradition of hoax suspect
By Fred Kelly
Indianapolis Star
http://www.indystar.com/print/articles/7/077359-2527-009.html
"A Kansas woman accused of pretending to be a Hoosier couple's long-lost daughter will be transported to Indiana to face criminal charges."
Kansas Supreme Court Rejects Walker's Petition
Associated Press
http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/news/2508209/detail.html
"The Kansas Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected the bail request of a woman accused of posing as an Indiana couple's long-missing daughter."
Lawyer in missing-girl case vows extradition fight
Associated Press
http://www.ljworld.com/section/stateregional/story/146501
"Despite two adverse court decisions in as many days, a defense attorney promised Wednesday to keep fighting an attempt to extradite a Topeka woman to Indiana to face charges that she posed as a couple's long-missing daughter."
Bored Woman's Terror Hoax Cuts Trip Short, Gets Her 2 Years in Jail
Reuters
http://abcnews.go.com/sections/travel/World/cruise030923.html
"A Southern California woman was sentenced in U.S. District Court on Monday to two years in federal prison for committing a high seas terror hoax that she had hoped would cut short a vacation cruise with her parents and return her to her boyfriend."
'Football ghost' keeps Indian schoolchildren off school
Ananova
http://www.ananova.com/news/story/sm_822542.html
"Students at a primary school in India have boycotted classes for the last fortnight because of a "football ghost"."
Kids fooled by net hoax
Sydney Morning Herald
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/24/1064083062400.html
"British schoolchildren munched through thousands of packets of chips, thinking they were helping a disabled baby - only to discover they were the victims of an internet hoax, the Daily Mirror in London reported yesterday."
How the West was spun
By Carl Schoettler
Baltimore Sun
http://www.sunspot.net/features/bal-to.corbett23sep23,0,4732416.story
"Just a year before the Civil War, on April 3, 1860, Pony Express riders began the first of their 1,950-mile gallops from St. Joseph, Mo., to Sacramento, Calif., and on into American mythology. They promised to make the trip in less than 10 days and often did it in eight. Riders carrying Lincoln's First Inaugural Address sped through in seven days and 17 hours."
Sea Monster Slows Merger
WCAX
http://www.wcax.com/Global/story.asp?S=1456753&nav=4QcSIBCZ
"The North Country Chamber of Commerce tours one of its newest members. North Country Engineering makes a variety of machine parts. It's the chamber's job to help promote this business."
Sect mom to stand trial for son's death
Associated Press
http://www.neponsetvalleydailynews.com/news/local_regional/ap_robidoux09252003.htm
"A mother who allegedly watched her infant son starve to death because of a religious prophecy was ordered yesterday to stand trial on a second-degree murder charge after psychiatrists determined she was competent to face the ordeal of a trial."
SUE'S PSYCHIC CLASS
Carmarthen Journal
<http://www.carmarthenjournal.co.uk/...ayContent&sourceNode=102624&contentPK=7153753>
"An Ammanford psychic who runs Britain's only school for psychic detection appeared on Channel Four's Richard and Judy programme on Monday."
Sightings yet to be explained
by Paul Wells
Airdrie Echo
http://www.airdrieecho.com/story.php?id=74874
"While far from being Alberta's version of Area 51, a Canadian UFO investigator and researcher says Airdrie and area has been a veritable hotspot for reported sightings of late."
Children of Om
BY KATY ST. CLAIR
East Bay Express
http://www.eastbayexpress.com/issues/2003-09-24/feature.html/1/index.html
"Where do old cult leaders go to grow old and die? Where do they end up when their warped charisma hasn't reached the infamy of a Manson or a Moon -- when their following doesn't end in the grim swell of bloated bodies from mass suicide, but simply fizzles out?"
Astronomy Picture of the Day
by Phil Plait (Bad Astronomy)
NASA.gov
http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030923.html
"Today is the autumnal equinox -- should eggs be able to stand on end?"
Warning on ice cube enemas
By Judy Skatssoon
Australian Associated Press
http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,7361585^1702,00.html
"DRUG and medical experts have issued a warning following evidence that would-be first aiders have been using ice cube "enemas" to revive people from drug overdoses."
Commonwealth's attorney:: Rumors unfounded, damaging
By LEE ANN PRESCOTT
Smyth County News & Messenger
http://www.smythnews.com/frontpage/MGBI3C6DZKD.html
"Perhaps gossip and rumors are to be expected in an election year. A week ago, gossips passed along a tale accusing a local police officer and a Smyth County businessman of being arrested for selling illegal drugs."
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