Woman accused of cooking meth at Wal-Mart

Woman accused of cooking meth at Wal-Mart - Watch the video of an Oklahoma woman accused of cooking meth inside Walmart! An Oklahoma woman was arrested for allegedly mixing chemicals needed to make meth inside a Walmart. She reportedly told police she was too broke to buy the chemicals.



Shoppers had no idea this woman is suspected cooking meth inside this Walmart while they were inside. Shopper Jessica Fuentes had her one-year-old son in the store.

"People need to start thinking. If she has family she needs to think about her family," Fuentes said. "If you are broke, do something; get a job, do something better with your life. Don't do something like that. It's just wrong."

Police said once Walmart security knew what Elizabeth Halfmoon was up to they called police.

"When I saw her she had just finished mixing-she had just finished up the mixing process of some sulfuric acid with starter fluid in a bottle and was in the process of taping the cap on to the bottle," said Officer David Shelby, a spokesman for the Tulsa Police Department.

They immediately got her and the ingredients out of there before anyone got hurt. No one was evacuated from the store. Halfmoon denied attempting to make meth in the store, but Officer Shelby said firefighters told him differently.

"Speaking with some of the firefighters that were on the scene, she made statements to them that was what she was doing," Shelby said. "She was attempting to obtain these chemicals and was in the process of trying to manufacture methamphetamine. However, she said that she was not very good at it."

As she was mixing some of the chemicals in the store, it ate some of the paint off of one metal shelf. Another officer who responded didn't know exactly what Halfmoon made and had to be treated at a local hospital for chemical burns on his hands.

"Something could have happened, something could have blown up in there. We would have all been screwed," said one customer.

Police said they arrested Halfmoon last month in another meth sting. She had just recently been released from jail. KSDK

Wealthy couple on welfare, feds say

Wealthy couple on welfare, feds say - Wealthy couple in Seattle was collecting more than $100,000 on welfare, the feds say.The couple, a chiropractor and his wife live in a $1.2 million waterfront home and have spent the past eight years flying to Moscow, Paris, Israel, Turkey, Mexico and the Dominican Republic.

Now, the U.S. attorney's office is suing David Silverstein and Lyudmila Shimonova, accusing them of filing false claims and demanding that the couple pay back more than $135,000 in federal housing assistance since 2003. Prosecutors are also seeking tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

In gaining Section 8 housing assistance, Shimonova represented that she lived alone with her two children and that her household assets were less than $5,000. Silverstein received the monthly benefits of $1,272 as Shimonova's purported landlord, the government said.

Shimonova also received benefits under the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, as well as Social Security cash reserved for people who can't work due to age or disability and whose assets fall below a certain threshold - $3,000 for a married couple or $2,000 for a single person, the complaint said.

"Defendants have separately and, it appears, in conjunction with one another made false representations to various state and federal agencies in order to obtain federally funded benefits," assistant U.S. attorneys Harold Malkin and Kayla Stahman wrote.

Meanwhile, they were traveling the world, according to Department of Homeland Security records.

Michael Radyshewsky, a federal welfare fraud investigator, wrote in an application to search the couple's home that they took weeklong trips to Moscow in 2003, Dominican Republic in 2005, and Mexico and France in 2009. In 2007, they went for 12 days to Israel, and this past June they took a two-week trip to Turkey.

Silverstein said Tuesday his lawyer asked him not to comment. The home did not appear to have a listed phone number, and no contact information for Shimonova could immediately be found.

The investigation included surveillance of the three-bedroom, 2,300-square-foot home on Lake Washington, during which agents observed his black Jaguar parked there frequently.

Though Shimonova had claimed she was single and lived there alone, Silverstein listed it as his residence on his driver's license and passport application, the prosecutors said.

But in documents filed so that he could receive the housing assistance, he listed his office as his residence to conceal that he was living with Shimonova - not her landlord, they said.

Furthermore, it appeared clear that the pair was actually married. Silverstein wrote on the website of his chiropractic business: "On a personal note, I am happily married with two children, whose careers are in medicine and Middle Eastern studies. As a family, we all enjoy snow-shoeing, mountain climbing and ocean sports."

A report of the Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle for the 2010 fiscal year listed "Mila and Dr. David Silverstein" as donors.

In addition to failing to disclose the marriage or living situation, Shimonova also failed to disclose bank accounts in her name containing tens of thousands of dollars, prosecutors said.

The lawsuit seeks to have the couple pay $11,000 in fines for each false claim the couple made. The U.S. attorney's office

Demi Moore AA sponsor funeral

Demi Moore AA sponsor funeral - Devastated Demi Moore is overcome by grief at funeral of old friend and AA sponsor!

Demi Moore had a difficult few weeks after announcing she had split from husband Ashton Kutcher following allegations of his infidelity. But over the weekend, Demi Moore put her marriage trouble aside as she attended the funeral of her long-time friend Pattsy Rugg.

Looking understandably upset, Demi clutched a male friend's arm as she left the Christ the King Church in Cape Cod, Massachusetts, following the emotional service. Wearing an all-black outfit, Demi appeared to have lost even more weight since releasing a statement about the end of her marriage, and looked worryingly thin as she headed home.

She later attempted to conceal her tears under a pair of sunglasses. Demi, 49, was close friends with Rugg, a substance abuse counsellor who is reported to have died from complications arising from pneumonia. The pair are believed to have met when Rugg was appointed as Demi's Alcoholics Anonymous sponsor.

Demi was so close to Rugg that she even used to introduce her to friends as her mother. Rugg, who was a certified art therapist, worked at the Barnstable County Correctional Facility. She died aged 70 on November 25th.

An obituary for Rugg read:

'Pattsy, born in Worcester, Mass September 25, 1941, leaves us with a legacy of love, compassion and accomplishments that go far beyond any words captured in this difficult announcement.'

Demi and Ashton confirmed they had split last month following claims that he had cheated with Sara Leal. Last night the actress's estranged husband was all smiles as he flirted with Glee star Lea Michele at the premiere for new film New Year's Eve. DailyMail

Principal chocolate sauce photo

Principal chocolate sauce photo - Pupils at scandal-hit school post sexy Facebook shot of principal over hallways! A photo has emerged of the principal of a failing New York school grinding with a shirtless man covered in what looks like chocolate sauce.

The photo comes as the school, and its principal Sharron Smalls, 43, are under investigation for a credit-swap program that has allegedly allowed hundreds of students to receive a diploma without taking the courses required for graduation.

Ms Smalls used the scandalous photo as her Facebook profile picture until last week, but some students were able to find it and posted copies all around the school in retaliation for the credit-swap scandal.

As a result of the investigation, nearly half of the seniors at Jane Addams High School, in the south Bronx, may not graduate this May.

Their resentment of their principal was clear when some of the students talked to the New York Daily News about the racy Facebook photo.

'I cannot believe my principal would dance like that,' said Christine Daniels, 18, who is a senior at the school.

Others pointed out the hypocrisy highlighted by the photo: the all-girls school dress code tries to keep the students in line, saying 'the thug look is out'.

'She doesn't want us to come to school with short shorts and then she turns around and does this. It’s gonna be bad for college, very bad,' said senior Tehrra Smith, 17.

It seems that the students are not the only ones upset with Ms Small's performance since she started leading the school in 2007.

'These photos are just another example of our leader’s poor judgment. No matter how this turns out, principal Smalls needs to go,' said Stephen Tavano, one of the school's long-time math teachers.

The photo is clearly not going to do good things for Ms Smalls' reputation, which is not coming at a bad time during the credit-swap investigation.

The school has been regarded poorly for quite some time, though, as it received the lowest grade on the city's last progress report. As a result, the credit-swap issue seems to be simply adding to the reasons education officials are thinking of closing the school.

'This is a school that has for years performed far below citywide averages. This is why we are considering phasing it out,' said the city's education department spokesman Margie Feinberg.

'When you are in a leadership position in a school, you have to consider the potential downside of exposing your personal life on social media,' Ms Feinberg told The Daily News.

Dailymail

Man killed wife who killed son

Man killed wife who killed son - Man from New Hampshire killed his wife who killed their 4-year-old son! A New Hampshire man was sentenced to 15 to 30 years in prison Friday for beating his wife to death with a flashlight after he came home to find she had strangled their 4-year-old son with a ribbon and tried to kill their 7-year-old daughter.

Christopher Smeltzer, 38, pleaded guilty to killing Mara Pappalardo, who was hospitalized several times for mental illness. Prosecutors say she was paranoid, obsessed with death and convinced her husband and mother-in-law were plotting to take her children away.

"When I walked into the room, as soon as I saw my son, I knew something was very wrong," Smeltzer told the court before he was sentenced, his voice breaking at times. "I knew he was dead. And I lost all control. Enraged, I struck my wife. I did something that was not going to bring my son back."

Smeltzer was charged with second-degree murder in the November 2010 killing at their Auburn home. Prosecutors later downgraded that to manslaughter, saying he was provoked by the sight of the still bodies of their son, Mason, and daughter, Mercey.

He arrived home Nov. 7 to find Mason with a ribbon around his neck and Mercey with a scarf around hers. He thought both were dead. Pappalardo tied a blue rope around her own neck in an attempt to kill herself, although prosecutors said she died from both strangulation and Smeltzer hitting her in the head with the flashlight.

Smeltzer did not call 911. Instead, he snipped the ribbon off Mason's neck and removed the scarf from Mercey's. Then he took all the pills he could find -- painkillers, sleeping aids and methadone -- and lay down on the couch to die.

He was awakened the next morning by Mercey, who asked if her mother and brother were breathing and requested a cup of tea. He made her one, then called his father and 911.Smeltzer, who was wearing handcuffs Friday, wept while talking about how much he misses his son.

"I miss my wife as well," he said. "I miss Mara's smile and heart and the way she played with our children."

He apologized to her family.

"I brought more pain and sorrow," he said, adding he wishes every day he had a rewind button.

Judge Tina Nadeau said if Smeltzer earns a college degree and completes anger management behind bars, his minimum sentence would be reduced to 10 years.

Before Smeltzer spoke, a court-appointed guardian representing Mercey played a recording of the child reading a letter to the judge in which she said her father killed her mother and Mason.

"If he loves me, why would he try to kill me?" she said. "If my daddy gets out, how will I keep safe? Please keep him in jail for the rest of his life."

After that, prosecutor Jane Young got up and said the recording is contrary to statements Mercey has made in the past, in counseling and interviews. She repeatedly had said her father had taken the scarf off of her neck. She has said she remembers her mother carrying her into the bedroom, but doesn't remember what happened next, Young said.

Prosecutors said there is no evidence that Smeltzer killed Mason. AZCentral