Stew of News - Mattel fine, abortion Dr., Boyle, Mitsubishi electric car, Calif. arson, Jolie, Darfur

No more toying around

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission on Friday said it imposed a $2.3 million civil penalty against Mattel Inc. for violating a ban on bringing dangerous products to the United States, Reuters reported.

The fine stems from Mattel's recall of 95 types of toys and up to 2 million units, from shelves in recent years, primarily for excessive lead content in paint. The toys were all made in China, the CPSC said.

The photo shows a Chinese boy holding a Mattel "Barbie and Tanner" still for sale in China despite being recalled in the U.S., at a department store in Shanghai last month. Mattel issued an extraordinary apology to China Friday, saying it was to blame for design flaws. (Mark Ralston / AFP - Getty Images file)

It figures I own Mattel shares...

U.S. Justice Dept. to probe Kansas abortion murder

The U.S. Justice Department said on Friday it's launching an investigation into the murder of Kansas abortion provider George Tiller, who had been reviled by anti-abortion groups, Reuters reported Friday.

The Justice Department said it would investigate whether Tiller's murder violated a 1994 U.S. law that establishes penalties for those who block access to abortion services, according to the report.

Kansas authorities have charged Scott Roeder with murder in the Sunday shooting death of Tiller in his church.

Tiller was one of only a few physicians in the U.S. willing to perform late-term abortions, those performed after the 20th week of gestation when a fetus potentially could survive outside the womb and legal under certain conditions.

Tiller's Wichita clinic had been the site of several mass protests by anti-abortion groups and was bombed in 1985. The doctor was shot in both arms by an abortion opponent in 1993.

After the shooting, Attorney General Eric Holder directed agents to protect other abortion facilities.

The killer sought to boost the anti-abortion movement, but what he achieved was set it back to barbaric times, if you ask me.

Susan Boyle leaves London clinic

Susan Boyle has left the clinic she checked into last week after the pressure of participating in the TV show Britain's Got Talent, dealing with the paparazzi 24/7, and extremely high expectations about her winning the show got to be too much.

Sources at Britain's Got Talent told US magazine that Boyle, 48, checked out of the London Priory Hospital on Wednesday. Her brother Gerry also confirmed her release on Britain's GMTV Friday, US reported.

Boyle, who sought treatment for exhaustion hours after the show ended on May 30, has relocated to a flat in central London and has since been in hiding, the sources told US.

"She wanted to be with her friends again," an insider said.

This weekend, Boyle will continue to rest, although it's not clear whether she'll have time to go back to her home town in Blackburn, Scotland. Her home on Yule Terrace is currently empty, US reported.

Next week, Boyle begins meetings with 19 Management, Simon Cowell and Sony BMG to discuss her recording contract.

"Susan wants to get on with it now," a source told US. "She's not quitting--those rumors are rubbish."

I love her and hope these music business moguls treat her well.

California man gets death sentence in arson murders

A convicted arsonist was sentenced to death Friday for setting a Southern California wildfire that killed five federal firefighters struggling to defend a rural home from raging, wind-driven flames, AP reported Friday.

Holy crap! I hope other arsonists are paying attention.

Raymond Lee Oyler, 38, was found guilty in March of five counts of first-degree murder for setting the Oct. 26, 2006, blaze about 90 miles east of Los Angeles, according to the report.

"After evaluating the same evidence that the jury had heard and going through that, I find that the aggravating circumstances do outweigh the mitigating circumstances," Riverside County Superior Court Judge W. Charles Morgan said.

"In particular, Mr. Oyler set on a mission ... to wreak havoc in this county by setting fires by his own design for his own purposes and as proven by the evidence he became more and more proficient," Morgan said. "He knew that young men and women would put their lives on the line to protect other people and property and he continued anyway."

The fires Oyler set killed Jason McKay, 27; Jess McLean, 27; Daniel Hoover-Najera, 20; Mark Loutzenhiser, 43, and Pablo Cerda, 23.

Oyler, a former auto mechanic, was also convicted of 20 counts of arson and 17 counts of using an incendiary device for a rash of blazes in the area that year.

One of his daughters, Heather, 22, said: "My dad is not a bad guy. He's not bad at all," she said.

Not bad? Then what do you call someone who sets fires to fry people all over town? Fiery? Yeah, he's a saint who meant to purify the victims' souls through a trial by fire. OK, seriously--what compels someone to do something like this?

The fatal blaze, known as the Esperanza Fire, destroyed 34 homes and 20 outbuildings and charred nearly 70 square miles of terrain.

Here's another one who could be burned at the stake rather than given a soothing lethal injection.

Mitsubishi unveils $47,000 electric car

Mitsubishi's electric vehicle is twice as expensive as popular hybrid cars by rivals Toyota and Honda, but Japan's No. 4 automaker said Friday the i-MiEV will help it survive increasingly intense global competition, AP reported Friday.

The i-MiEV? Who the hell will remember that name? Doesn't Mitsubishi have a marketing department...or common sense? It doesn't take a marketing degree to know that name recollection is critical for any product to make it past its launching.

The i-MiEV is powered solely by electricity and can be recharged from a regular home socket, AP reported. The four-seater vehicle can run up to 100 miles after charging seven hours at 200 volts. A hybrid car switches between a gas engine and electric motor to boost mileage.

"It is a zero-emission vehicle. It does not rely on oil, which is different from hybrid cars," Mitsubishi Motors President Osamu Masuko said at a news conference.

(Photo: Mitsubishi Motors Corp. execs walk around the new electric car "i-MiEV" during its unveiling Friday in Tokyo, Japan.)

The i-MiEV costs $47,560--more than twice as much as Toyota's new Prius hybrid vehicle or Honda's Insight, the cheapest hybrid on the market. Masuko acknowledged the high price is a major hurdle to encouraging people to buy the i-MiEV.

Turns out MiEV stands for Mitsubishi innovative electric vehicle, with the initial "i" having not particular meaning. Brilliant.

Masuko said the company had spent more than 40 years to develop the i-MiEV, but declined to say how much the company had invested in its development. Globally, Mitsubishi hopes to sell 15,000 units for the year through March 2012, AP reported.

But the company can only make a profit on the i-MiEV if it produces 30,000 units per year, Masuko said.

Angeline Jolie calls for more action to end Darfur crisis

Actress (who hasn't acted in I don't know how long) Angelina Jolie has written a new article for Time magazine calling for more action to end the crisis in Darfur, US magazine reported Friday.

I was going to make fun of this, but now that I think about it every interview of Jolie I've seen has left me with the impression that she's extremely intelligent. Plus, I haven't read the article. And, furthermore, the crisis in Darfur is a serious mess.

On Friday, members of the United Nations Security Council will learn the results of the International Criminal Court's Darfur investigation, US reported.

"The evidence the prosecutor has presented is clear and compelling," Jolie writes, pointing out that "millions of people have been displaced" and "hundreds of thousands have been killed."

Jolie recalls her first trip to Chad to visit refugees from Darfur in 2004, noting that "nothing changed" since then, US reported.

Despite the Bush administration labeling the Darfur situation as "genocide," Jolie says the words have not "compelled us to intervene."

"Darfur has almost disappeared from the news, and experts now call it a 'low intensity' conflict. But the intensity of the crisis has not lessened for those who are struggling to survive," the Oscar-winning actress (who turned 34 Thursday) says in the article.

"More than 250,000 people from Darfur have lived destitute lives in refugee camps in Chad for six years now," says the mother of six. "Camps with more than two million internally displaced persons inside Darfur are even worse. Thirty percent of those displaced are school-age children. Girls leaving the camps are raped; boys leaving the camps are killed. They want an education; they want to go back to their villages, to their land; they want peace. But they also want justice."

The world is a fucked up place, if you ask me.

Sources: The Associated Press, Reuters, US magazine
Copyright © 2009

Late-term abortion doctor killed in Kansas

The body of Dr. George Tiller, one of the few U.S. physicians that performed late-term abortions, is removed from Reformation Lutheran Church in Wichita, Kansas, on Sunday, May 31, 2009 after a gunman shot the abortion provider dead in the lobby of the church. (AP/Travis Heying, Wichita Eagle)

Dr. George Tiller, whose Kansas women's clinic was the epicenter of the state's battles over abortion for nearly two decades, was shot and killed at his church Sunday morning, various news sources reported.

Tiller, 67, was fatally shot shortly after 10 a.m. Sunday at Reformation Lutheran Church, where he was an usher and his wife was in the choir, Wichita police said.

He was killed in a church, of all places...what a nice touch!

Authorities took a man into custody near Kansas City after stopping a car that matched a description of the killer's getaway vehicle, according to sheriff's deputies in Johnson County, Kansas. No charges had been filed and a motive for the killing was not immediately known, CNN reported.

Tiller, who began performing abortions in 1973, was one of the few U.S. physicians who still performed late-term abortions. His clinic is one of three in the nation where abortions are performed after the 21st week of pregnancy, when the fetus is considered viable, and has repeatedly been the site of protests for about two decades, AP reported. A protester (Shelley Shannon, who is now serving a 20-year sentence in federal prison) shot Tiller in both arms in 1993, and his clinic was bombed in 1985, CNN reported.

Tiller "dedicated his life to providing women with high-quality heath care despite frequent threats and violence," his family said Sunday in a written statement. "We ask that he be remembered as a good husband, father and grandfather and a dedicated servant on behalf of the rights of women everywhere." Tiller's wife, four children and 10 grandchildren said their loss "is also a loss for the city of Wichita and women across America."

Abortion-rights group Planned Parenthood called Tiller's death "an enormous loss," CNN reported. Tiller did not work for the group but provided "critical reproductive health care services" to women "facing some of the most difficult medical circumstances," the group said.

"He was continually harassed by abortion opponents for much of his career--his clinic was burned down, he was shot by a health center protester, and he was recently targeted for investigation only to be acquitted by a jury just a few months ago," Planned Parenthood Federation President Cecile Richards said in a written statement. "None of this stopped George Tiller from his commitment to providing women and their families with compassionate care that others were unwilling to offer."

In March, Tiller was acquitted of 19 counts of performing procedures unlawfully at his clinic. In 2008, a probe initiated by abortion opponents who petitioned state authorities to convene a grand jury ended without charges, CNN reported.

Leading anti-abortion groups condemned the shooting, noting they support only nonviolent protest and the shutting of Tiller's practice by legal means.

"We are shocked at this morning's disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down," Troy Newman, Operation Rescue's president, said in a statement. "Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning."

In 1991, the Summer of Mercy protests organized by Operation Rescue drew thousands of anti-abortion activists to this city for demonstrations marked by civil disobedience and mass arrests, USA Today reported.

On its Web site, Operation Rescue refers to Tiller as a "monster" who has "been able to get away with murder," CNN reported. Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry, who is no longer affiliated with the group, called Tiller "a mass murderer."

The National Right to Life Committee, the largest U.S. anti-abortion group, said it "unequivocally condemns any such acts of violence regardless of motivation," CNN reported. "The pro-life movement works to protect the right to life and increase respect for human life," it said. "The unlawful use of violence is directly contrary to that goal."

Anti-abortion leaders voiced concern that the Obama administration and other Democrats may try to capitalize on the murder to defuse the abortion issue in upcoming Supreme Court confirmation hearings for nominee Sonia Sotomayor, AP reported. Her exact views on abortion aren't known, but conservatives fear she supports abortion rights.

After the 1991 protests, Tiller kept mostly to his heavily guarded clinic, although in 1997 he opened it to three tours by state lawmakers and the media, USA Today reported. The clinic is fortified with bulletproof glass, and Tiller hired a private security team to protect the facility. Once outside the clinic, Tiller was routinely accompanied by a bodyguard.

At a recent trial, he told jurors that he and his family have suffered years of harassment and threats and that he knew he was a target of anti-abortion protesters, USA Today reported.

Federal marshals protected Tiller during the 1991 Summer of Mercy protests, and he was protected again between 1994 and 1998 after another abortion provider was assassinated and federal authorities reported finding Tiller's name on an assassination list, USA Today reported.

If Tiller was slain because of his work, he would be the fourth U.S. physician killed by abortion opponents since 1993, CNN reported.

In 1998, a sniper killed Dr. Barnett Slepian in his Amherst, New York, home. Anti-abortion activist James Kopp was later arrested in France and is serving life in prison. In 1994, Dr. John Bayard Britton and one of his volunteer escorts were shot and killed outside an abortion clinic in Pensacola, Florida. Paul Hill, a former minister, was convicted of the killings and executed in 2003. And in 1993, another doctor, David Gunn, was shot to death outside a different Pensacola clinic. His killer, Michael Griffin, is serving a life sentence, CNN reported.

Going back further, to 1977, Tiller would be the eighth U.S. abortion provider murdered, with 17 others being targeted with attempted murder, AP reported based on statistics provided by the National Abortion Federation.

Sources: The Associated Press, CNN, USA Today
Copyright © 2009