Posts by MadApostate

7

Two girls missing - more Longo murders?

by Nathan Natas in

jw
friends

two recent stories, both from the detroit free press, follow.. - - - - begin first news story - - - -.

monday january 28 10:39 pm est .

fbi searches for runaway sisters.

MadApostate

NN:

To the contrary, the school auditorium location would seem to indicate a very large attendance.

The story says they were married by "a minister"; likely a JW.

27

CCoJWs Requests/Denied Local Tax Money Allocation

by MadApostate in

this city of columbia sc webpage shows that ccofjws requested, but was denied, allocation of local tax dollars from the city's accommodation tax budget allocation.. .

http://www.columbiasc.net/city/funding.htm.

any locals here that can check out the person that actually formalized this request, and how did ccofjws say they were going to use the $$$ to promote columbia?

MadApostate

Moore said the hotel association is eager to protect the Watchtower group.
"They never asked for the money," said Moore, who said the hotels will step in to pick up the remaining coliseum rent. "We're taking the high road."

Sounds like MOORE is protecting the WTS by LYING. Yah, they didn't ask for the $$$$, just like they didn't do the same thing in Columbia, SC where they submitted an Application for the same tax dollars (or was it actually for a "library card"?)

Also, since the Hotels/Motels are now going to pick up the tab for the thousands of $$$$, maybe that tells us how good of a job the WTS does in negotiating room rates.

Maybe they have been getting hotel/motel kickbacks all along???

---------------------------------------------

Hotels to help pay rent for coliseum

This story was published 1/29/2002

By John Trumbo
Herald staff writer

No city money will be spent to help pay the rent at the Tri-Cities Coliseum for the Jehovah's Witnesses Watchtower weekend conventions this summer.

The Tri-Cities Hotel & Lodging Association is withdrawing its request that Kennewick and Richland each provide $6,000 to help cover rent.

Association President Kathy Moore said the controversy and negative publicity resulting from the proposed coliseum rent subsidy had become too much.

The association sent letters to the cities Friday to officially cancel the request.

Instead, said Moore, Tri-City hotels will put up the cash needed to cover the deficit between what the Watchtower organization will pay and what the coliseum charges. The subsidy would have paid $12,000 of $17,500 needed to expand the convention events from three weekends to five weekends.

"Although this convention clearly qualifies for hotel tax funding, recent rhetoric initiated by the
Tri-City Herald has raised some unwarranted concerns. We value our relationship with the city ... and do not want to put you in a compromising position," Moore wrote in her letter.

"The hotel association feels this (expenditure) is a good use of the hotel tax funds, but we want the negative press to stop," Moore said Monday.

Kennewick City Attorney John Ziobro announced a week ago that he believed the expenditure approved by the council in December was not as represented in a background report. The council voted to donate $6,000 to be used for advertising and promotion, but the money was actually going to be used as a rent subsidy.

Richland's city attorney had not concluded his review of the issue. State Auditor's Office staff had asked both cities to review the proposed expenditures from their hotel tax account to see if it was proper under state law.

The Watchtower events are expected to bring about $9.5 million worth of business to the Tri-Cities over the summer.

This will be the group's 10th consecutive year meeting in the Tri-Cities. Moore said the hotel association is eager to protect the Watchtower group.

"They never asked for the money," said Moore, who said the hotels will step in to pick up the remaining coliseum rent. "We're taking the high road."

. http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/2002/0129/story4.html

17

Conventions Money Canceled-Tri-City

by messenger in

jw
friends

http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/2002/0129/story4.html.

hotels to help pay rent for coliseum.

this story was published 1/29/2002.

MadApostate

Three previous news articles in this series, have already been posted, along with other articles which show that the WTS's DCs are being supported nationwide by public tax dollars:

. http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=16702&site=3

34

Recent JW EXPEDITIONS TO MOUNT ARARAT

by Utopian Reformist in

jw
friends

despite the apparent redundancy, i would like to introduce the subject from a different perspective.

around 1996 i came in contact with a jw pioneer named "francesco annunziata" from naples, italy.. francesco was involved with a man (inactive jw) named angelo palego, with whom he has made several expeditions to mt.

ararat searching the famous ahora gorge for remnants of the ark.. the majority of the more technical and geological/scientific information is in italian, but there is enough information posted in english to merit attention.. i posted this subject in an effort to move away from discussing the flood, size of the flood and/or location of the flood.

MadApostate

Here is a thread I started on this topic 2 months ago, in which I point out that the photos which show the Ark are labeled "Elab", which evidently is short for the English "elaborated", or its Italian equivalent.

. http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/forum/thread.asp?id=16269&site=3

3

Abandoned JW Attempts Suicide

by MadApostate in

jw
friends

this 1997 news article well illustrates that "jehovah's earthly organization" has neither the will nor established procedure to assist jws that genuinely need help beyond what they could ever repay to the borg, either $$$$ or in human capital.. people who are no longer an asset to the borg are forgotten and abandoned.. .

as a jw you are worth only as much as your last and next fs report.

yun ja kim's story.

MadApostate

This 1997 News Article well illustrates that "Jehovah's Earthly Organization" has neither the will nor established procedure to assist JWs that genuinely need help beyond what they could ever repay to the Borg, either $$$$ or in human capital.

People who are no longer an asset to the Borg are forgotten and abandoned.

As a JW you are worth only as much as your last AND next FS Report.

--------------------------------------------------

Yun Ja Kim's story

By Mike Stobbe
Times-Union staff writer

GAINESVILLE - Yun Ja Kim didn't have much. She had few clothes and little furniture. She had no job, no money and was behind on the rent. What little she had was consumed in a fire Nov. 11 inside her small apartment in Jacksonville. The blaze also consumed her mobility and her independence.

It burned over 95 percent of her skin and all of her hair. Her ears were so cooked, a doctor cut away all but the lower right lobe. Her legs were so charred, doctors amputated them below the knees.

But through 15 operations and five months of intensive care at Shands Hospital in Gainesville, she survived and has recovered enough to begin years of physical rehabilitation and plastic surgery.

Yun Ja Kim.

That, however, is just the beginning of her problems.

Kim, 44, has no place to go, no family in the United States. She has no way to pay her $1 million medical bill. She has no health insurance and hasn't qualified for government aid.

And she has no will to live. She says she planned the fire to kill herself and has asked hospital workers to help her die. Frances Wack, a Shands social worker who has handled burn cases for 10 years, said she's never had a case as frustrating, mysterious and troubling.

"It's been a nightmare," she said.
Kim has given various accounts of how she was burned, and investigators reached different conclusions.

Kim lived in a first-floor apartment in Villager Apartments North, 5824 Justina Court in Arlington.

On Nov. 11, apartment manager Gary Mann heard a smoke detector and saw smoke pour from the door of Kim's apartment. The door was ajar, but a chain lock kept it from fully opening. Mann and another man kicked the door in and found Kim slumped against a wall, naked and burned. Fire was consuming the back half of her 700-square-foot apartment.

A Jacksonville fire investigator concluded the blaze started in a storage shed and spread into the apartment through a back bedroom window. But Ted Nixon, an investigator hired by State Farm Insurance, concluded it started inside the apartment.

"This fire was the result of a human act," Nixon reported to State Farm.
A red plastic gasoline can found in the kitchen, Mann noted. "She had no car. She didn't drive," Mann said. "Why did she need the gas?"

Jacksonville police Detective Jim Parker reviewed fire department and insurance investigator's reports and concluded officials can't say for sure how the fire started. "I'd go with what she told you," he said.

Kim's account

Last week, as she lay in her hospital bed, Kim gave this account of the fire:

Kim was depressed because of her income and job problems and another reason that she wouldn't reveal. Intending to kill herself, she took a can of gasoline to the kitchen and poured the fuel onto her T-shirt. She also soaked a washcloth with gasoline and left it on the floor.

She took a cigarette lighter, flicked it and held out the flame. And in that moment of hesitation, she chose not to set herself on fire.

But somehow she ignited the wash cloth. She thought of running but didn't want the fire to spread. She moved to stomp it out and fire.

She tore off her clothes and extinguished the flames burning her. But the fire spread in the apartment.

She lay on her couch to die. But again, she worried about the rest of the building and she stumbled toward the door, where Mann found her.

Kim went directly to Shands. For three months, she was never more than semi-conscious because of medicine and severe illness. A breathing tube prevented her from talking.

Kim's injuries left her prey to infection, said David Mozingo, the doctor who runs the burn unit. "She had pneumonia several times and other infections. . . . There was one point where we didn't think she would make it."
It was, Mozingo said, among the worst burn cases he has seen in his seven years of burn care experience.

After a month of healing, only the skin on her scalp and lower back was healthy. Mozingo removed skin from those areas for grafts on her chest and abdomen, while cadaver skin was used to temporarily patch her arms and other areas. When the scalp and back healed, he again took grafts to redo the arms and other areas.
In late March, Kim regained full consciousness and was removed from the ventilator.

She has continued to improve, though last week her wounds still were striking. Her chin and other spots on her face were pink from a second-degree burn. The rest of her was bandaged. She was weak and couldn't lift her arms because scarring had pulled them taut.

But she could talk and even offered a slight smile, though she made it clear she is devastated by her appearance and would allow no photographs.

Mozingo said Kim is well enough to be moved to an intensive rehabilitation care center or nursing home.

Wack said such a facility would want to know her that bills would be paid, that she could get a wheelchair and prostheses and that she would have a place to go after her stay.

A troubled past

Kim's past could hold the key to finding her help.

Shands staff know she is from South Korea and came to the United States in the mid-1980s. She married a Georgia man, Karl Nickerson, who was in the military. They divorced in 1989.

The divorce was traumatic for her, said a friend, Eloise Taylor of Jessup, Ga. Kim couldn't speak English and had been emotionally and financially dependent on her husband.

Kim lived in a series of U.S. cities before coming to Jacksonville a few years ago.

Police records show she was arrested in November 1995, at the Colony Apartments on Merrill Road in Arlington. According to a report, she broke her apartment window, then started screaming when an officer questioned her. She cursed and kicked at police, and was arrested on charges of disorderly intoxication and resisting an officer.

Court records show she pleaded guilty to the first charge and was sentenced to two days in jail. The second charge was dropped.

She became homeless after the arrest and for a time was enrolled in a private, not-for-profit program called LINK, which helps mentally ill homeless people. In February 1996, LINK placed her in the Williams Boarding Home in Springfield, said Annette Williams, the facility's owner.

A doctor concluded Kim had major depression with psychotic features, Williams said. She was on medication and was prone to spells of paranoia and angry solitude, Williams said.

In April, Williams helped Kim get a job at Iceman clothing store near Regency Square mall. By May 1, Kim had moved from the boarding home into the apartment on Justina Court and was looking for used furniture.

"She was established with money coming in," Williams said.

Kim was a good worker, said Iceman manager Howard Teitelbaum.

She showed up to work as timely as the public bus system allowed. She kept to herself and at times seemed angry and depressed. Her limited English left her co-workers baffled about her problems, Teitelbaum said.

She seemed to get intensely annoyed by the clerks' tendency to wear a lot of perfume. Once, she became so irate with one clerk that she grabbed a pair of scissors and held them like she would stab the woman, said Teitelbaum, who broke them up.

Kim quit in September without saying what she would do next, he said. In early November, Kim told Mann she only had $150 of the $300 rent and would need a few weeks to come up with the balance.
Then came the fire.

Finding help

It has been hard to find anyone to help Kim, Wack said. Her brother, Jong Keun Kim, was difficult to reach because of a 13-hour time difference in South Korea and the need for an interpreter. In late November, after learning of his sister's injuries, he visited, Wack said.

He gave family consent for Kim's medical treatment and indicated the family would support the decision to put her in a nursing home if she recovered. Then he returned to his country and has not called to check on her, Wack said.

Wack said there is a rift between Kim and other family members, due at least partly to Kim's having become a member of the Jehovah's Witnesses. Kim said there are other issues but did not elaborate.

Hospital staff said they think the family does not have the money to help her. Kim said she doesn't want her family's help and does not want to return to South Korea.

"Nobody can understand me . . . and now I've become like this," Kim said.

Wack said she's made hundreds of calls, trying to find friends and family members who can help Kim or provide information about health benefits. Many calls have not been returned.

"This happens with a lot of people. Everyone's concerned in the beginning. But when the reality sets in about the person's still alive and how much care they're going to need, then you can't find people," Wack said.

Wack knows Kim has a Social Security number, which she apparently obtained when she was married. She thinks Kim might be entitled to some public benefits. Kim said she had a green card but lost it last year.

Also challenging is a patient who at times says she does not want to live.
"The hardest thing is trying to respect her wishes and what she wants to do," Wack said.

"She is still very depressed. When I asked her, 'Where would you want to go when you leave the hospital,' she said 'In the ground.'

"I'm just desperate for someone to help her."

Her friend Eloise Taylor has expressed a willingness to help. Taylor, 43, knew Kim when they were both going through divorces in Hinesville. Taylor also is a Jehovah's Witness and they studied the Bible together.

Taylor, a certified nurse's assistant, visited Kim Saturday and invited her to move in. Taylor said she can care for Kim but can't afford the Shands bill or future major medical bills. Taylor's niece, an Atlanta immigration attorney, came with her to track down Kim's green card and look into government aid.

Kim and Shands staff were weighing Taylor's offer yesterday.

Kim said she knows Taylor loves her, but added, "I don't want to be a burden."

Taylor said it's OK. "The door is open, if she's ready to come."

10

LONGO'S PARENTS RESPOND TO DEATH PENALTY DECISION

by MadApostate in

longo's elder and elderette parents are playing the "politically correct" jw organizational role in their public statement re the prosecuter's decision to seek the death penalty.. .

prosecutor to seek death penalty for longo.

newport, oregon (reuters) -- an oregon prosecutor said wednesday she will seek the death penalty if a man charged with killing his wife and three young children is convicted.

MadApostate

UUUUUUUPPPPPPPPPP

10

LONGO'S PARENTS RESPOND TO DEATH PENALTY DECISION

by MadApostate in

longo's elder and elderette parents are playing the "politically correct" jw organizational role in their public statement re the prosecuter's decision to seek the death penalty.. .

prosecutor to seek death penalty for longo.

newport, oregon (reuters) -- an oregon prosecutor said wednesday she will seek the death penalty if a man charged with killing his wife and three young children is convicted.

MadApostate

Here's the full statement. Since this was probably approved, or maybe even prepared, by WTS Legal, read it like reading a QFR, i.e., a word/phrase at a time.

----------------------------------------------

Statement Released by Christian
Longo's Family

January 23, 2002, 06:30 PM

By KGW Staff

Statement released by Christian Longo's family to KGW on Wednesday evening following the prosecutor's decision to seek the death penalty:

"As we continue to mourn the loss of four beloved members of our family, we must now begin to deal with the charges that have been made against another family member. It would be difficult for anyone to imagine their son or brother committing such acts. No family should ever have to face such a dilemma.

With so much still to be revealed by the legal process, we still don't know how to feel, or what to think. We hope that the months and years to come will help us to understand, to cope, and to heal.

We will not participate in any arguments or debates over capital punishment. It is our belief that it is the right, and responsibility, of the authorities to decide whether or not to impose such a penalty.

Our concern right now is not what punishment Chris will face if he is found guilty, but if he is guilty, and what is in his heart now."

. http://www.kgw.com/print-ready/story.html?StoryID=35393

10

LONGO'S PARENTS RESPOND TO DEATH PENALTY DECISION

by MadApostate in

longo's elder and elderette parents are playing the "politically correct" jw organizational role in their public statement re the prosecuter's decision to seek the death penalty.. .

prosecutor to seek death penalty for longo.

newport, oregon (reuters) -- an oregon prosecutor said wednesday she will seek the death penalty if a man charged with killing his wife and three young children is convicted.

MadApostate

Longo's Elder and Elderette parents are playing the "politically correct" JW organizational role in their public statement re the Prosecuter's decision to seek the Death Penalty.

------------------------------------------------------

Prosecutor to seek death penalty for Longo

NEWPORT, Oregon (Reuters) -- An Oregon prosecutor said Wednesday she will seek the death penalty if a man charged with killing his wife and three young children is convicted.

Christian Longo, 28, was indicted on aggravated murder charges, appearing before Circuit Court Judge Robert Huckleberry via closed-circuit television from the Lincoln County jail in a 10-minute proceeding.

Held on $2.5 million bail, Longo showed no emotion when Chief Deputy District Attorney Paulette Sanders announced the decision to seek the death penalty.
Several people in the packed courtroom applauded the decision.

The bodies of two of Longo's children were found in an inlet off the Pacific Ocean near Waldport, Oregon, shortly before Christmas, and his wife and third child were discovered in Newport waters a few days later.

He was put on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list and arrested January 13 after a tip from a Canadian tourist who saw him in Cancun on December 27.

Longo appeared on his 28th birthday in the courthouse less than a mile from where the bodies of his wife and youngest child were found.

The judge set a pretrial hearing for March 6. Longo was expected to enter a plea to the charges at that time.

District Attorney Bernice Barnett did not elaborate on the evidence against Longo but said the decision to seek the death penalty was based on "mitigating circumstances" in the crimes.

In a statement released to KGW-TV in Portland, Longo's parents, Joe and Joy Longo of Indianapolis, said, "Our concern right now is not what punishment Chris will face if he is found guilty, but if he is guilty, and what is in his heart now."

"We still don't know how to feel, or what to think. We hope that the months and years to come will help us to understand, to cope, and to heal," they added.

"We will not participate in any arguments or debates over capital punishment. It is our belief that it is the right, and responsibility, of the authorities to decide whether or not to impose such a penalty."

No family members were present at the hearing.

Lincoln County, located along the ocean about 150 miles southwest of Portland, has not prosecuted an aggravated murder case in 15 years.

Longo waived extradition after his capture in Mexico and made no attempt to prevent authorities from bringing him back to Oregon.

Longo moved to the Oregon coast about four months ago with his wife MaryJane, 34, and their three children, Zachary, 4, Sadie Ann, 3, and Madison, 2.

He owned a construction cleaning business in Ypsilanti, Michigan, before the move and was named in six lawsuits seeking more than $30,000 there. He is also wanted on two warrants in Michigan for a probation violation and a larceny charge.

. http://www.cnn.com/2002/LAW/01/24/crime.longo.reut/index.html

27

CCoJWs Requests/Denied Local Tax Money Allocation

by MadApostate in

this city of columbia sc webpage shows that ccofjws requested, but was denied, allocation of local tax dollars from the city's accommodation tax budget allocation.. .

http://www.columbiasc.net/city/funding.htm.

any locals here that can check out the person that actually formalized this request, and how did ccofjws say they were going to use the $$$ to promote columbia?

MadApostate

Cities may rescind coliseum rent donations

By John Trumbo
Herald staff writer

Kennewick and Richland may rescind their $6,000 donations to help pay Tri-Cities Coliseum rent for a Jehovah's Witnesses conference this summer.

Kennewick City Attorney John Ziobro said he is recommending the Kennewick City Council not follow through with its Dec. 18 decision to use the money from the hotel and motel tax fund to help promote the conference.

Ziobro isn't saying the donation is against the law, only that the council's stated purpose to use the money for advertising and promotion as allowed by state law isn't what was going to happen.

Richland City Attorney Tom Lampson said Wednesday he was still studying the problem but should have an answer by Friday.

The Richland City Council voted Dec. 11 to put up $6,000 from its hotel and motel tax fund to subsidize the coliseum rent, based on a recommendation from the city's Lodging Tax Advisory Committee. But Councilwoman Rita Mazur now believes that donation will not materialize.

"I think what (we did) is legal, but because of all the ruckus we'll let it go. I don't think we'll be helping unless Lampson can tell us it is 100 percent legal," Mazur said.

Neither city has forwarded any of the $12,000 to the Tri-Cities Motel and Hotel Association, which in turn planned to forward the money as a rent subsidy to help bring the Jehovah's Witnesses' Watchtower Convention to the Tri-Cities. The event is set for five consecutive weekends July 4-6 through Aug. 16-18, skipping the first weekend in August.

The convention, which has been in the Tri-Cities for 10 years, is expanding from three weekends to five this year. The extra $12,000 would pay the rent for the two additional weekends.

Ziobro and Lampson started researching the proposed expenditure of funds earmarked for promotion and advertising after the state Auditor's Office staff questioned using the money to subsidize coliseum rent.

Public outcry followed a Jan. 4 story in the Herald about the proposed subsidy, but much of the concern was focused on the cities directing money to benefit a religious organization's conference.

But those criticisms are not the major issue for state auditors or the city attorneys.

Ziobro said he considered the state auditor's concern to be an issue of "form over substance."

In a letter sent Tuesday to the state auditor's office, Ziobro acknowledged the $6,000 in hotel and motel tax funds assigned by the council were not for advertising and promotion the Watchtower convention as stated in the agenda.

But Ziobro said Kennewick still can funnel the money to the coliseum as a rent subsidy because the city owns the facilities, and state law allows hotel and motel tax funds to be spent on operation of tourist-related facilities.

Richland, however, does not have that loophole to donate its hotel and motel money to the coliseum as a rent subsidy. "Richland is on their own," Ziobro said.

Jehovah's Witness spokesman Eddie Tubbs said the concern about appropriateness of spending city money to subsidize the coliseum rent won't cause a cancellation of the convention events this summer.
"The letters have gone out, and once we are committed and start making (lodging) arrangements we are committed," he said.

The Tri-Cities Hotel and Motel Association has estimated that the five weekends of conference activity is worth about $9.5 million in business because it draws about 29,000 conventioneers to the region.

. http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/2002/0124/story4.html

13