Barefoot Bandit: Colton Harris Moore

The authorities finally caught up with the infamous "Barefoot Bandit" in the Bahamas... but here is 5 reasons he will be buying a nice pair of shoes. We all love a good story and for two years Colton Harris-Moore gave us a heck of a yarn while managing turn himself into modern day folk lore with his Houdini like evasion of authorities. After avoiding police for over two years, they finally nabbed the Barefoot Bandit (yes he was actually barefoot when they caught him) after a high speed boat chase in the Bahamas yesterday.
While they say crime does not pay, in this case it may. Colton has amassed over 60,000 Facebook supporters over the past two years and it looks as though he is going to be able to buy himself a nice new pair of shoes in the end. Here are five reasons why:
1. Harris-Moore's crimes were not violent or serious in nature: While Colton is infamous for the grand nature of his thefts, from nabbing $600,000 Cessna airplanes (and flying them with little aviation experience) to highjacking just about every vehicle Consumer Reports covers... none of his crimes have been violent in nature. He has not physically harmed any of his victims. This has largely help feed his lore. In the end, Colton is looking at a large stack of larceny, burglary, theft and evasion charges (Nebraska has issued an arrest warrant). However, his theft of boats, cars, and small planes keeps him well out of the league of the world's criminals that eat liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti.
The list of Colton's latest alleged crimes include the following:
June 1st: Astoria, Oregon - stole boat and car
June 9th: McMinnville, Oregon - stole car
June 10th: Ontario, Oregon - stole car
June 18th: Yankton, South Dakota - stole car, reportedly broke into a house ate food and showered, homeowner caught him, Colton escaped
June 20th: Norfolk, Nebraska - Colton caught on surveillance tape, police say he stole another car and committed several burglaries including a restaurant and theft at an airport
June 24th: Dallas City, Illinois - police recover car believed to have been stolen by Colton
End of June: Danville, Illinois - police report Colton stole car he then drove to Bloomington, Indiana
July 4th: Colton believed to have stolen Cessna Corvalis from Monroe County Airport crashed off coast of Abaco
July 5-7th: Search for Colton Harris-Moore Continues in Bahamas. Includes FBI and Bahamian Police
2. Harris-Moore had a tough childhood: By all accounts, Colton had a miserable childhood. The product of a alcoholic mother and father, Colton became a skilled outdoorsman spending a great deal of time in the woods to the north of Seattle, in Pugust Sound. His mother has often stressed how difficult his childhood has been over the years and in fact Colton's spree started with his escape from after sneaking out of the window of a Juvenile detention centre over two years ago. Any judge or jury will surely take this into consideration.
3. Even some of Harris-Moore's "victims" are pulling for him: After John Miller had his $600,000 Cesna swiped by Colton, folks urged him to Google the "Barefoot Bandit"... so he did. Friends told Miller to google Barefoot Bandit. "And up pops this little baby face of a young kid that looks like he's 12-years-old." Miller said he started to soften up. He read Colton had had a hard life, with an alcoholic mother and father. He remains angry but also wonders how the kid pulled it off. Bottom line... if Miller's own victims soften on the kid, it's likely as judge or jury will as well.
4. Harris-Moore already has well known competent legal counsel: It was not long after his arrest before the Barefoot Bandit had a well known, competent entertainment lawyer by his side. Who needs a hefty retainer to plop down when the publicity this case will garner is all O. Yale Lewis (A Seattle entertainment lawyer who has represented the likes of Courtney Love and the family of Jimi Hendrix) will need to plunge head first into this case. Have no fear as it seems the Bandit is in good hands with his defense.
5. Let the entertainment deals begin to flow: Part of the reason Harris-Moore's mother obtained O. Yale Lewis is because the entertainment deals are already flowing. Colton's mother, Pamela Kohler says she needs an attorney to handle her "entertainment" interests, and she said a deal for a book about her son is in the works. Given Colton's popularity, the book deal is just a stepping stone to larger deals, interviews and likely a movie about his exploits.
In the end, telling his unique tale to the right people are finally going to get the Barefoot Bandit a nice pair of shoes.

Attorney Don McPartland is a litigation attorney with Secor, Cassidy & McPartland, P.C. ([http://www.legalrazor.com])
Donald C. McPartland
[http://www.legalrazor.com]

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Winning the US Open Golf Championship

Winners of the U.S. Open receive the U.S. Open Golf Trophy, a monetary prize, and several opportunities for advancement and security within a golf career, such as:
• automatic invitations to participate in the other three majors for the next five years: Masters Tournament, British Open, and PGA Championship
• automatic invitation to participate in the Players Championship for the next five years
• ten year exemption from qualifying for the U.S. Open
• for regular members, five year exemption on the PGA Tour; for non-members of the PGA Tour, the option of either joining the PGA Tour within 60 days of their win, or before the start of the next five tour season
• automatic invitations to three out of five of the senior majors upon turning fifty years old: U.S. Senior Open for five years, Senior PGA Championship for life, and Senior British Open for life
There are several notable U.S. Open record-breakers:
• The record for the most U.S. Open wins is tied among four golfers, each claiming a total of four wins: Willie Anderson, Bobby Jones, Ben Hogan, and Jack Nicklaus.
• The youngest U.S. Open qualifier in the history of the tournament has been Tadd Fujikawa, a fifteen year old from Hawaii, a qualifier for the 2006 tournament.
• The record for the youngest winner in the history of the U.S. Open has not been broken since 1911, when John McDermott won at nineteen years old.
• In 1990, the record was set for the oldest U.S. Open victor so far by Hale Irwin, at forty-five years of age, winning the third and final U.S. Open of his career.
• The record for lowest score over 72 holes is tied among Jack Nicklaus, Lee Janzen, Tiger Woods, and Jim Furyk, at the low score of 272.
• The record for the most strokes under par over 72 holes is held by Tiger Woods, who won in the year 2000 at 12 strokes under par.
The terrain these notable golfers have had to conquer in order to win their sports awards has not been mild. U.S. Open golf championship takes place at a variety of courses arranged in a manner that renders scoring very difficult and that demands accuracy in driving. The hosting courses are usually lengthy, comprised of rough, hilly greens, and pinched fairways in areas leading to holes that would otherwise be regarded as simpler and more straightforward. For this reason, scoring is usually tight among the leading players, and the winner does not often win by an extreme difference. Along with these requirements for a chosen U.S. Open Golf course are the infrastructure of the surrounding locale and the space available along and around the course, for media and other spectators.
Many golf courses aspiring to become a part of the U.S. Open rotation among hosts have actually had renovations in order to offer these desired landscape features. Throughout its history, U.S. Open tournaments venues that have met the rigid qualifications have included: Pebble Beach Golf Links, in Pebble Beach, California; Pinehurst Resort, in Pinehurst, North Carolina; Olympic Club, in San Francisco, California; Shinnecock Hills Golf Country Club, in Shinnecock Hills, New York; Oakland Hills Country Club, in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan; and Canterbury Golf Club, in Beachwood, Ohio, which have all proudly hosted the event in multiple years, along with a select few others.

The author of this article is 10 year veteran in the crystal awards and recognition gifts industry.

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Unclaimed Money - Start Looking for Yours

Unclaimed money in this economy is certainly news worthy. We just had a recent week-long series on one of our local top nightly news channels that explained how and why unclaimed money happens. They even went as far as to research names, locations and amounts owed; releasing a new list every night of local individuals who were owed money. The existence of unclaimed money and property is not just a local issue specific to where I live, but it has a national reach with an estimate of over $30 billion dollars of money owed to individuals and companies.
I wondered how does unclaimed money and property happen, considering that, I think, I know where every penny I have and I am aware of all of my property and its location. The fact is that 70% of all Americans are owed unclaimed money and it will remain at that level unless we understand how and where to start looking for that which belongs to us. Much of the unclaimed funds reside within the states' coffers or the federal pockets and there is very little interest for any state or the government to locate the rightful owners of the money or property and return it.
Apparently, in many cases, people have simply forgotten about their missing money and the financial institutions where it was kept. Due to illness, disability, financial institutions closing and/or death there seems to be pots of abandoned money. Inheritances, life insurance payouts, credit balances, stocks, bonds, royalty payments and unclaimed utility deposits are some of the other sources of funds that currently make up the unclaimed money pools. Due to our increasingly hectic lifestyles and job hopping, many of us have lived in two or three states by the time we reach our middle years, possibly leaving a trail of money behind.
As highlighted on our nightly news, finding lost money or property that belongs to you has become much easier. There are outreach and awareness programs both locally and nationally that provide you with access to databases to search for funds that may be owed to you. Pro-consumer laws have been passed the have helped facilitate the process once you locate a possible source of money owed to you. The internet has also become a powerful resource helping individuals initiated the search process themselves.
Keeping accurate records about your finances and property is key to reducing the likely hood that you will find yourself, or leave your heirs, with lost money or property. However, in the current climate, searching at least once to see if there are any outstanding funds that should be in your pocket, and not the governments or your local state, certainly can't hurt.

To learn more about finding unclaimed money that might be out there with your name on it visit us today at http://www.unclaimed-money-digest.com
William Price is the owner of http://www.unclaimed-money-digest.com where you can learn more about the various ways to locate your unclaimed money and property. Learn about the different websites and tools that are available for you to begin your search and find your pots of unclaimed or forgotten money!

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James Arness of 'Gunsmoke' fame dies at 88

James Arness, the 6-foot-6 actor who towered over the television landscape for two decades as righteous Dodge City lawman Matt Dillon in "Gunsmoke," died Friday. He was 88.
The actor died in his sleep at his home in Brentwood, Calif., according to his business manager, Ginny Fazer.
Arness' official website posted a letter from Arness on Friday that he wrote with the intention that it be posted posthumously: "I had a wonderful life and was blessed with ... (so) many loving people and great friends," he wrote.
"I wanted to take this time to thank all of you for the many years of being a fan of Gunsmoke, The Thing, How the West Was Won and all the other fun projects I was lucky enough to have been allowed to be a part of. I had the privilege of working with so many great actors over the years."
As U.S. Marshal Dillon in the 1955-75 CBS Western series, Arness created an indelible portrait of a quiet, heroic man with an unbending dedication to justice and the town he protected.
The wealth and fame Arness gained from "Gunsmoke" could not protect him from tragedy in his personal life: His daughter and his former wife, Virginia, both died of drug overdoses.
Arness, a quiet, intensely private man who preferred the outdoor life to Hollywood's party scene, rarely gave interviews and refused to discuss the tragedies.
"He's big, impressive and virile," co-star Amanda Blake (Miss Kitty) once said of Arness, adding, "I've worked with him for 16 years, but I don't really know him."
The actor was 32 when friend John Wayne declined the lead role in "Gunsmoke" and recommended Arness instead. Afraid of being typecast, Arness initially rejected it.
"Go ahead and take it, Jim," Wayne urged him. "You're too big for pictures. Guys like Gregory Peck and I don't want a big lug like you towering over us. Make your mark in television."
"Gunsmoke" went on to become the longest-running dramatic series in network history until NBC's "Law & Order" tied in 2010. Arness' 20-year prime-time run as the marshal was tied only in recent times, by Kelsey Grammer's 20 years as Frasier Crane from 1984 to 2004 on "Cheers" and then on "Frasier."
The years showed on the weathered-looking Arness, but he — and his TV character — wore them well.
"The camera really loved his face, and with good reason," novelist Wallace Markfield wrote in a 1975 "Gunsmoke" appreciation in The New York Times. "It was a face that would age well and that, while aging, would carry intimations of waste, loss and futility."
Born James Aurness in Minneapolis (he dropped the "u" for show business reasons), he and brother Peter enjoyed a "real Huckleberry Finn existence," Arness once recalled.
Peter, who changed his last name to Graves, went on to star in the TV series "Mission Impossible."
A self-described drifter, Arness left home at age 18, hopping freight trains and Caribbean-bound freighters. He entered Beloit College in Wisconsin, but was drafted into the Army in his 1942-43 freshman year. Wounded in the leg during the 1944 invasion at Anzio, Italy, Arness was hospitalized for a year and left with a slight limp. He returned to Minneapolis to work as a radio announcer and in small theater roles.
He moved to Hollywood in 1946 at a friend's suggestion. After a slow start in which he took jobs as a carpenter and salesman, a role in MGM's "Battleground" (1949) was a career turning point. Parts in more than 20 films followed, including "The Thing," `'Hellgate" and "Hondo" with Wayne. Then came "Gunsmoke," which proved a durable hit and a multimillion-dollar boon for Arness, who owned part of the series.
His longtime co-stars were Blake as saloon keeper Miss Kitty, Milburn Stone as Doc Adams and Dennis Weaver as the deputy, Chester Goode.
When Weaver died in February 2006, Arness called it "a big loss for me personally" and said Weaver "provided comic relief but was also a real person doing things that were very important to the show."
The cancellation of "Gunsmoke" didn't keep Arness away from TV for long: He returned a few months later, in January 1976, in the TV movie "The Macahans," which led to the 1978-79 ABC series "How the West Was Won."
Arness took on a contemporary role as a police officer in the series "McClain's Law," which aired on NBC from 1981-82.
Despite his desire for privacy, a rocky domestic life landed him in the news more than once.
Arness met future wife Virginia Chapman while both were studying at Southern California's Pasadena Playhouse. They wed in 1948 and had two children, Jenny and Rolf. Chapman's son from her first marriage, Craig, was adopted by Arness.
The marriage foundered and in 1963 Arness sought a divorce and custody of the three children, which he was granted. He tried to guard them from the spotlight.
"The kids don't really have any part of my television life," he once remarked. "Fortunately, there aren't many times when show business intrudes on our family existence."
The emotionally troubled Virginia Arness attempted suicide twice, in 1959 and in 1960. In 1975, Jenny Arness died of an apparently deliberate drug overdose. Two years later, an overdose that police deemed accidental killed her mother.
Arness married Janet Surtees in 1978. Besides his wife, Arness is survived by two sons and six grandchildren. A private memorial service will be held.
___
AP Television Writer David Bauder and Entertainment Writer Jake Coyle in New York contributed to this story.

Decision on government shutdown would be on Dayton

GOP Senate Majority Leader Amy Koch says the decision on a government shutdown "lies with the governor."
Koch, R-Buffalo, spoke to MPR's Morning Edition. She said she's looking forward to the Legislative Commission on Planning and Fiscal Policy hearing today.
"It's a way for people to fully understand the various budget proposals," she said. "We're looking forward to talking about our budget proposal and vet the governor's budget proposal."
Koch said Republicans want the revenue and finance commissioners to detail Gov. Mark Dayton's budget and proposed tax increases. She said she's also interested in hearing about a proposal to increase taxes in a way that wouldn't hurt small businesses.
"We're not interested in tax increases but we do want to talk about that proposal," Koch said. "It gets tossed around and people can offer compromises all day, but we really need to fully understand them."
Koch again argued that the GOP budget is increasing spending, despite the fact that federal stimulus money and a K-12 accounting shift was used in the last budget. She responded to that question in the interview:
"They used one-time federal stimulus money and a one-time gimmick shift as ongoing funding. That's not our fault, that's not the governor's fault, that was decisions made by other Legislatures and other administrations. One-time money should not be used as ongoing funding. Even if you count that in as reality, we're spending about the same," Koch said.
When asked about a possible government shutdown, Koch said it would be up to Dayton, because the Legislature already passed a balanced budget that he vetoed. But Koch said a budget deal can be reached.
"There's absolutely time to finish this out," she said.

Billy Bob Thornton’s Daughter Found Guilty in Same Courthouse as Casey Anthony Trial

Billy Bob Thornton‘s estranged daughter Amanda Brumfield has been found guilty of aggravated manslaughter of a 1-year-old girl in Orlando. Amanda was tried in the same courthouse as the more high profile case of Casey Anthony, the Florida mother accused of killing her two-year-old daughter.
Amanda, 32, was convicted last Friday, the Associated Press reports, and is expected to be sentenced in July.
OK! NEWS: BILLY BOB’S DAUGHTER INDICTED FOR MURDER
According to the Orlando Sentinel, Amanda received her verdict in the same Orlando courthouse where Casey Anthony is being tried for the murder of her daughter.
“In contrast to the more high-profile Casey Anthony trial, expected to drag on for months in a courtroom 13 floors above it, the Brumfield trial took less than a week,” the OS reports.
The prosecutors in the case maintain that Amanda killed her best best friend’s daughter during an overnight babysitting job in October 2008.
Amanda claims that 1-year-old Olivia Madison Garcia was trying to climb out of a playpen when she hit her head and sustained trauma. Her defense team suggests the fall may have “aggravated a previous injury, causing her death,” the AP reports.
However, prosecutors find it impossible that a fall from that low height would cause a three-and-a-half inch fracture on the back of the girl’s skull and the bleeding and swelling found in her brain.
OK! NEWS: BILLY BOB THORNTON SUPPORTS ANGELINA JOLIE’S DIRECTING ENDEAVOR; SAYS THEY STILL TALK
She will be sentenced in July and was found not guilty of first-degree murder and aggravated child-abuse charges.

Chest Workout Home Version

The " Chest workout Home edition " was designed to provide an easy and fun professional workout for everyone. These exercises are designed to tone main pectoral muscles (upper, major and minor pectoral muscles) and you can workout wherever you want: at home, in the park, on the beach or at the gym.
No special equipment is required for this workout: if you don't have a bench for elevated push-ups, use any elevated surface (chair, box, etc.).