Odds or Ends

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas -- Animal control officers removed 237 dogs from the home of a 70-year-old woman who said she had been breeding the animals, officials said.

Animal care services department spokesperson, said it took about six hours to gather up all the dogs, which were taken to a city kennel.

Most of the dogs were Pomeranians, but there were also Yorkshire terriers, two standard poodles and several other breeds. Copeland said they appeared to be suffering from the close quarters.

They had plenty of food and plenty of water but were not living in healthy conditions. Many were covered in feces and urine. A workman who made a service call to the home notified the city about the dog situation. The woman may face several citations from the city.

One of the dogs was euthanized because of its poor condition. The woman claimed that dog had recently wandered to the house.

The city will seek custody of the dogs so they can be given to animal rescue groups.

The homeowner seemed to be a very nice lady who loved her dogs, but there was just too many for her to care for.

David Blue, the actor who plays Cliff, Marc St James boyfriend on "Ugly Betty," was allegedly mugged after leaving a wrap party for the show in Hollywood. The actor wrote on his My Space detailing how it all went down. He wrote, "Walking back to my friend's car, about a block away from the party, two men jumped out of their car and held a gun to my face and stole my wallet and my friend's purse/camera/phone."Blue wrote that he was happy to be alive (obviously!) and also glad it didn't happen to one of his richer co-stars like America Ferrera or Judith Light.

OMAHA, Neb. -- A man opened fire with a rifle at a busy department store Wednesday, killing eight people in an attack that made holiday shoppers run screaming through a mall and barricade themselves in dressing rooms.

The young shooter, who left a note predicting, “Now I’ll be famous,” wounded five others, two critically, then took his own life.

Witnesses said the gunman sprayed fired down on shoppers from a third-floor balcony of the Von Maur store using what police said was an SKS assault rifle they found at the scene. (Omaha, Nebraska, Police Officer at scene
where 19yr old shot and killed 9 people)

“My knees rocked. I didn’t know what to do, so I just ran with everybody else,” said Kevin Kleine, 29, who was shopping with her 4-year-old daughter at the Westroads Mall, in a prosperous neighborhood on the city’s west side. She said she hid in a dressing room with four other shoppers and an employee.

Police found the first victim on the second floor, then several more near a customer service station on the third floor.

The shooter, identified by police as 19-year-old Robert A. Hawkins, was found dead on the third floor with a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Omaha Police Chief Thomas Warren said the shooting appeared to be random. He would not release the victims’ identities and gave no motive for the attack.

Police probing allegations that someone put pepper spray on a Puerto Rican beauty contestant's clothing said Saturday they would investigate whether anyone lied to them after tests found no traces of the substance on the woman's belongings.

Miss Puerto Rico Universe Ingrid Marie Rivera and pageant organizers claimed that someone had laced her makeup and doused her clothing with a chemical they believed to be pepper spray during the November 23 contest in an attempt to knock her out of the running.

The 24-year-old from the town of Dorado said she broke out in hives and swelling during the pageant and was forced to ice down her face and body backstage during the event.

On Friday, the Caribbean island's Forensic Sciences Institute said the brush and gown, delivered to police four days after the pageant, contained no traces of capsicum, pepper spray's active ingredient. They did not test for other substances.

How sad if she lied and how cruel if she is telling the truth. What people will do to win or cause someone too lose!!!

NEW YORK -- A New York man who said he donated sperm to a female co-worker as a friendly gesture — and then sent presents and cards to the child over the years — is legally considered the father and may have to pay child support for the college-bound teenager, according to a judge’s ruling.“What’s the saying? No good deed goes unpunished,” said Deborah Kelly, a lawyer for the man, who acknowledged that he is named as the father on the child’s birth certificate.Like all the involved parties, the man remains anonymous because of privacy concerns.Nassau County Family Court Judge Ellen Greenberg ruled on Nov. 16 that despite the mother’s willingness to have the child’s DNA tested, the man was barred from seeking a paternity test to determine if he is truly the father because the results could have a “traumatic effect” upon the child, who is now 18 years old and lives in Oregon with the mother. The next step is a meeting with a support magistrate to determine the amount of child support payments — if any — the man would have to pay until the teen turns 21, Kelly said.The magistrate will determine child support based on the mother’s earning capacity; the reported income of her female partner; and the income of the father.Even without genetic evidence, the man’s interactions with the child over the years had a patriarchal nature, said Jeffrey Herbst, an attorney who represents the mother in the lawsuit through a federal agreement called the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act.“It’s still a parental relationship,” Herbst said.According to the man’s testimony, in the late 1980s he was a physician at the same Nassau County hospital where the child’s mother was a resident. After learning the woman and her female partner wanted to have a baby, the man donated his sperm and the woman gave birth on July 26, 1989. Married at the time, the man agreed that he would not have any rights or benefits in raising the child, but the verbal agreement was never put in writing, according to court documents.Still, he took the unusual step of allowing his name to appear on the child’s birth certificate because he thought it was in the child’s “best interests that he would have an identity when he grew older,” he said in court documents.Before the mother, her partner, and the child moved to Oregon in 1993, the man had contact with the child, according to court documents. He also sent the child money, gifts, and cards and letters signed “Dad” or “Daddy,” and spoke to him by phone about seven times in the past 15 years.That correspondence, coupled with an affidavit from the child stating that he “has never known anyone other than (the man) to be his father,” is enough for a parental relationship, according to Herbst.“The fact of the matter is that he held himself out as the child’s father for 18 years until he asked for DNA testing,” Herbst said.In the murky legalities of artificial insemination by a known donor, the best protections are to have everything in writing and “do your homework,” said reproductive lawyer Melissa Brisman of Park Ridge, N.J.“You can’t be half a father, and half a not, under the law,” she said.But the man’s trust was abused, his lawyer said.“The doctor was told this is how it’s going to be,” Kelly said. “And 18 years later, you end up dealing with something that you didn’t know you were going to deal with. Sometimes people aren’t really thinking about the legal ramifications.”