By Richard Savill

The court heard Frank Corti (right) was at home in Botley when Gregory McCalium, a neighbour, forced his way in.
Frank Corti, 72, who served with the Royal Engineers in North Africa from 1956-58, dodged the knife and punched Gregory McCalium, 23, twice in the face, giving him a black eye and a swollen lip. He then restrained the attacker until police arrived.

McCalium, a barman, was given a four-and-a-half year prison sentence at Oxford Crown Court on Monday for aggravated burglary and was told by the judge he had “got what he deserved”.

Thug who scarred police woman for life escapes prison
The court heard Mr Corti was at home in Botley, Oxford, with his wife Margaret, 72, when McCalium, a neighbour, forced his way in at 8am on Aug 19 last year. McCalium was drunk.
Speaking after the case, Mr Corti said: “I was scared when he first drew the knife, but my old training must have kicked in because I just punched him as hard as I could and he went down like a sack of spuds. If you can’t defend what’s yours, where are we at?”

McCalium had denied the charge and claimed he could not remember what happened.

But he smoked so much of it over a year-old period that he was too high to bother delivering thousands of items of post.

Judge Stephen Ashurst told him at York Crown court: “All postmen know that those who interfere with the post in the course of their work face severe consequences. They are inevitably sacked and very often go to prison.

“You went to very considerable lengths to set up what I regard as a professional cannabis unit. I could not possibly justify passing a community sentence for what you did.”

Alan Mitcheson, prosecuting, said police found sacks of undelivered mail at Goddard’s house, a pit containing charred fragments of junk mail and a cannabis unit in his bedroom capable of growing many crops.

They also found 227 letters and parcels and 9,675 leaflets and other door-to-door items which should have been delivered between April 2007 and March 2008. After checking Royal Mail records, they found Goddard had claimed £170 for 13 postal rounds he had never even started.

David Dixon, defending, said: “This was laziness brought about by excessive cannabis use. He stopped delivering junk mail which some may say was a public service.”

Goddard admitted growing cannabis and was convicted of a charge of intending to supply it to others after a trial in April. He also asked for ten more offences of claiming payment for undelivered junk mail to be taken into consideration.

A Clayton, Ohio man scolded by a Miami County judge in late May for “knucklehead” decisions after violating terms of probation granted following a high-speed chase was sentenced to additional probation and participation in the MonDay rehabilitation program.

“Your life is going to change beginning today. Either you will rehabilitate yourself, or you will go to prison,” Judge Jeffrey Welbaum told Taylor Roustio, 20, on Monday, June 15, in Miami County Common Pleas Court.

Roustio earlier was sentenced to probation and 45 days in the county jail for fleeing from West Milton police May 31, 2008. Police from Tipp City and Troy eventually joined in the pursuit, with speeds up to 98 mph, before Roustio was stopped on Interstate 75 in Troy.

When Roustio returned to court May 26, accused of violating terms of probation, Welbaum lectured him for poor decisions. Those decisions included going out with old friends and drinking, which ended in Roustio’s assault of a woman in April.

Welbaum agreed in May to consider the MonDay program, if the program officials were interested in working with Roustio.

Program officials contacted after the May hearing agreed to try working with him in the program that provides a secure treatment environment for felony offenders.

Welbaum ordered Roustio’s participation and extended his probation from the original three years to five years.

Roustio also was ordered to obtain his GED and to serve a three-year driver’s license suspension. He will be held in the county jail until MonDay has a bed available for him.

“This is your last chance. Don’t blow it,” Welbaum said.

A 25-year-old Egyptian man cut off his own penis to spite his family after he was refused permission to marry a girl from a lower class family, police reported Sunday.

“After unsuccessfully petitioning his father for two years to marry the girl, the man heated up a knife and sliced off his reproductive organ,” said a police official.

The young man came from a prominent family in the southern Egyptian province of Qena, one of Egypt’s poorest and most conservative areas that is also home to the famed ancient Egyptian ruins of Luxor.

The man was rushed to the hospital but doctors were unable to reattach the severed member, the official added citing the police report filed after the incident.

The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak with the press, added that the man was still recovering in the hospital.

Traditionally, marriages in these conservative parts of southern Egypt are between similar social classes and often within the same extended families - and are rarely for love.

HAMTRAMCK — The license plate in the window of the family Cadillac reads “Best Dad.” But a 4-year-old girl told police Mom wasn’t nearly so kind.

“Mom cooks me like a turkey in the oven,” she told police.

Hamtramck cops stumbled onto the graphic allegations of burnings, beatings and torture after the girl’s mother phoned police Jan. 23 and confessed to “harming her children,” Detective Ben Bielecki said Thursday.

The allegations belied outside appearances of a happy family, shocking neighbors of the family whose front picture window is adorned with the sign “1 God.”

“They were new to the neighborhood,” said Deandre Martin, 28, who lives next door to the white, two-story home near Holbrook. “I didn’t realize what was going on. It’s horrific. I’m just happy the kids are alive.”

Reyna Valentino, 40, a mother of five, faces life in prison on allegations that she burned her 4-year-old daughter in an oven, used a hot nail or screwdriver to singe her eyelids and beat her 5-year-old daughter’s leg with a pry bar.

She was arraigned Wednesday on felony charges of first-degree child abuse and torture in 31st District Court.

The 4-year-old gave her account to investigators.

“She said, ‘Her heart is hurt and broke because momma doesn’t love me anymore,’ ” Bielecki read from the report.

”  ’Mom cooks me like a turkey in the oven. I felt fire. It burned my back,’ ” he read. “ ’She hurts me with a screwdriver all the time.’ ”

Police said Valentino’s husband, Randy, wasn’t home and there’s no evidence that he abused their children.

After the incident, Valentino called police about 3 p.m. to come get her.

“She said she is harming her family,” Bielecki said. “It’s extreme. It’s an awful thing that’s happened. I just hope she doesn’t get custody of the kids — ever.”

The couple has three other children, two boys believed to be 7 and 8 years old and an infant who is about 8 months, Bielecki said.

All five children are in foster care and doing well, he said. Martin said police removed them from the house about a week ago.

Martin said the family moved in during the fall. He never saw Valentino but said her children were always smiling, laughing and seemingly healthy.

Valentino spent more than a week undergoing a psychiatric evaluation at Detroit Receiving Hospital after the incident.

She’s now being housed in the Wayne County Jail awaiting a preliminary hearing on Thursday. Social Services officials are assessing her mental condition, police said.

Valentino will have a court-appointed lawyer next week, court officials said.

The following was released this week. The FDA says General Mills’ famous Cheerios brand cereal markets itself as a drug, rather than a food, which makes it subject to a whole different set of rules:

Ken Powell
Chairman of the Board and CEO
General Mills
One General Mills Boulevard
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55426

Dear Mr. Powell:

The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has reviewed the label and labeling of your Cheerios® Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal. FDA’s review found serious violations of the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (the Act) and the applicable regulations in Title 21, Code of Federal Regulations (21 CFR). You can find copies of the Act and these regulations through links in FDA’s home page at http://www.fda.gov.

Unapproved New Drug

Based on claims made on your product’s label, we have determined that your Cheerios® Toasted Whole Grain Oat Cereal is promoted for conditions that cause it to be a drug because the product is intended for use in the prevention, mitigation, and treatment of disease. Specifically, your Cheerios® product bears the following claims ort its label:

• “you can Lower Your Cholesterol 4% in 6 weeks” ”
• “Did you know that in just 6 weeks Cheerios can reduce bad cholesterol by an average of 4 percent? Cheerios is … clinically proven to lower cholesterol. A clinical study showed that eating two 1 1/2 cup servings daily of Cheerios cereal reduced bad cholesterol when eaten as part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol.”

These claims indicate that Cheerios® is intended for use in lowering cholesterol, and therefore in preventing, mitigating, and treating the disease hypercholesterolemia. Additionally, the claims indicate that Cheerios® is intended for use in the treatment, mitigation, and prevention of coronary heart disease through, lowering total and “bad” (LDL) cholesterol. Elevated levels of total and LDL cholesterol are a risk factor for coronary heart disease and can be a sign of coronary heart disease. Because of these intended uses, the product is a drug within the meaning of section 201(g)(1)(B) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321 (g)P)(B)]. The product is also a new drug under section 201(p) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 321(p)] because it is not generally recognized as safe and effective for use in preventing or treating hypercholesterolemia or coronary heart disease. Therefore,under section 505(a) of the Act [21 U.S.C. § 355(a)], it may not be legally marketed with the above claims in the United States without an approved new drug application.

[read the official release]

A worker at Radio Shack was arrested for punching a customer.

Officers arrested 52-year-old James Knol of Eau Claire on Sunday night for disorderly conduct and battery.

According to the police report, 56-year-old Leigh Carey was trying to return something at the Radio Shack on Clairemont Avenue.

Carey told investigators Knol wouldn’t let him, so he asked to talk to a manager.

That’s when he says Knol started punching him and a witness called 911.

Knol is due in court May 19.

Police in Bloomington say a 23-year-old man is in stable condition after he pretended that he was falling off a bridge over the Minnesota River, then actually fell off the bridge.

Police got a call just before 5 a.m. Sunday from a 21-year-old man who said his friend fell off the Highway 77 bridge and into a marshy area about 30 feet below. The caller said he was driving north when his friend, who he said had been drinking, told him to pull into the bridge’s emergency lane so he could urinate.

The 23-year-old stood eventually climbed to the ledge of the bridge, then looked at his friend and pretended to fall. “He then in fact fell,” reads a press release from the Bloomington Police Department.

Police from Bloomington and Eagan responded, and the Eagan Fire Department used a chair lift to retrieve the man. He was transported to Hennepin County Medical Center where he’s being treated for serious injuries.