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Oct. 3rd, 2003 11:22 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdI always knew Kit Bond was a class act.
Republican aide fired over offensive web site
Libby Quaid
Oct. 3, 2003 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- Missouri Republican Sen. Kit Bond on Thursday fired his communications director for running a political Web site named for the tail number of a plane that crashed in 2000, killing the state's Democratic governor.
"The actions of a member of my staff in using official computers to make hurtful personal attacks on public servants were totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated," Bond said in a statement issued Thursday.
The staff member was Ernie Blazar, Bond's communications director the past three years. Bond aide Jason Van Eaton confirmed Thursday that Blazar had been fired.
The Web site had Republican-leaning commentary with links to political news and other Web sites. Blazar, using pseudonyms, apparently ran the site and e-mailed other political Web sites during working hours, and some of it was done on his Senate computer.
The site's title -- N8354N -- "is not random," a note on the Web site read. "It marks an inflection point in current Missouri politics. On that day, the worm began to turn." Content was removed from the site early Thursday morning.
Gov. Mel Carnahan was running for Senate when his plane crashed Oct. 16, 2000. He was elected posthumously and Carnahan's widow, Jean, was appointed to take his place. But Republican Jim Talent won the Senate seat from her last year in a special election to finish out her husband's term.
Missouri Democrats found the Web site and made the connection to Bond's office on Wednesday. They said Thursday that Bond did the right thing to fire Blazar but questioned whether other Bond staffers had participated.
"There was no excuse for the pain this guy inflicted on people, and taxpayers should not be forced to pay his salary," said Marc Farinella, a longtime adviser to Carnahan and his wife, Jean.
It's not against Senate rules to operate such a Web site, so long as Senate resources are not used. But it is against the rules to use Senate resources to do any political activity.
In his statement, the senator said he knew nothing about the Web site until Wednesday night.
"I offer my sincere apologies, and those of my staff, to all those offended by these messages," Bond said. "There will be no place in my office, or in my campaign, for this type of attack. The person responsible will no longer be a member of my staff."
I overheard a cellphone conversation in Kroger yesterday, the guy exclaimed "They found a baby in a backpack at Mapco?" Turns out it wasn't at the Mapco, it was at the garden center. Fortunately, she's all right. But what I want to know is why are they looking for the mother? We have safe haven laws, and that should automatically release the child for adoption.
Infant found in bed of truck
Police believe mom put newborn there
By Yolanda Jones and Sherri Drake
yojones@gomemphis.com
drake@gomemphis.com
October 3, 2003
Doris Courtney couldn't wait to get her new birdhouse.
So, on her lunch break Thursday at Crittenden Memorial Hospital in West Memphis, the registered nurse and a co-worker went to pick it up. After they got the birdhouse, they found something else in the back of Courtney's pickup.
"A baby. She told me she found a baby in a backpack in the back of my truck," said her husband, Dale Courtney, of Widener, Ark., about 39 miles southwest of Memphis.
The baby, in a red JanSport backpack, is white and weighs 6 pounds and 13 ounces. She was wrapped in a pink shirt with a flower on it and the word "smile" in blue.
Her umbilical cord had been cut and was clamped with a hair barrette.
West Memphis police were investigating the discovery of the newborn girl and the Arkansas Department of Human Services was notified.
The baby remained at the hospital early today.
As Courtney began her lunch break errand, West Memphis police got an anonymous call from a woman who said she saw a baby in a backpack in the back of a gold pickup outside the Professional Building at 228 W. Tyler.
The building is on the other side of the driveway near the hospital's emergency room.
In 2001, Arkansas enacted the Safe Haven Act, which allows parents of newborns to drop them off at the emergency room of any licensed hospital in the state, or any state law enforcement agency with no questions asked to identify the parents.
The infant must be no older than 30 days and must be "left with or voluntarily delivered to the medical provider or law enforcement agency by the child's parent who does not express an intent to return for the child."
The law was passed in response to incidents where mothers have abandoned newborn children in dangerous locations or killed them.
West Memphis Police Inspector Mike Allen said investigators believe the woman who called police from a pay phone at a nearby convenience store may have been the mother. They were still searching for her early today.
When police got to the hospital parking lot, there was no sign of the baby or the pickup.
Courtney's husband said his wife told him she found the backpack when she placed the birdhouse in the back of his truck as she left Outdoor Concepts, a garden nursery about 21/2 miles from the hospital.
"She said it was sitting on the tool box," Dale Courtney said. "When she touched it, she said she heard whimpering and thought someone had left a puppy in the truck. But when she opened it there was the baby. The baby was red and started crying and they called 911.''
Courtney said his wife didn't feel like talking about her discovery Thursday night after police quizzed her for hours.
"She is tired. It is not every day you find something so precious in a truck," he said.
Courtney said his 64-year-old wife, the mother of three grown children and five grandchildren, works in the heart recovery unit at the hospital.
He knew something unusual had happened at work by the way she was acting later.
"When I saw her she told me not to tell her anything bad after the day she had," he said. "I thought she had wrecked my truck, but when she told me what she found in my truck all I could do was hug her tight."
Republican aide fired over offensive web site
Libby Quaid
Oct. 3, 2003 | WASHINGTON (AP) -- Missouri Republican Sen. Kit Bond on Thursday fired his communications director for running a political Web site named for the tail number of a plane that crashed in 2000, killing the state's Democratic governor.
"The actions of a member of my staff in using official computers to make hurtful personal attacks on public servants were totally unacceptable and will not be tolerated," Bond said in a statement issued Thursday.
The staff member was Ernie Blazar, Bond's communications director the past three years. Bond aide Jason Van Eaton confirmed Thursday that Blazar had been fired.
The Web site had Republican-leaning commentary with links to political news and other Web sites. Blazar, using pseudonyms, apparently ran the site and e-mailed other political Web sites during working hours, and some of it was done on his Senate computer.
The site's title -- N8354N -- "is not random," a note on the Web site read. "It marks an inflection point in current Missouri politics. On that day, the worm began to turn." Content was removed from the site early Thursday morning.
Gov. Mel Carnahan was running for Senate when his plane crashed Oct. 16, 2000. He was elected posthumously and Carnahan's widow, Jean, was appointed to take his place. But Republican Jim Talent won the Senate seat from her last year in a special election to finish out her husband's term.
Missouri Democrats found the Web site and made the connection to Bond's office on Wednesday. They said Thursday that Bond did the right thing to fire Blazar but questioned whether other Bond staffers had participated.
"There was no excuse for the pain this guy inflicted on people, and taxpayers should not be forced to pay his salary," said Marc Farinella, a longtime adviser to Carnahan and his wife, Jean.
It's not against Senate rules to operate such a Web site, so long as Senate resources are not used. But it is against the rules to use Senate resources to do any political activity.
In his statement, the senator said he knew nothing about the Web site until Wednesday night.
"I offer my sincere apologies, and those of my staff, to all those offended by these messages," Bond said. "There will be no place in my office, or in my campaign, for this type of attack. The person responsible will no longer be a member of my staff."
I overheard a cellphone conversation in Kroger yesterday, the guy exclaimed "They found a baby in a backpack at Mapco?" Turns out it wasn't at the Mapco, it was at the garden center. Fortunately, she's all right. But what I want to know is why are they looking for the mother? We have safe haven laws, and that should automatically release the child for adoption.
Infant found in bed of truck
Police believe mom put newborn there
By Yolanda Jones and Sherri Drake
yojones@gomemphis.com
drake@gomemphis.com
October 3, 2003
Doris Courtney couldn't wait to get her new birdhouse.
So, on her lunch break Thursday at Crittenden Memorial Hospital in West Memphis, the registered nurse and a co-worker went to pick it up. After they got the birdhouse, they found something else in the back of Courtney's pickup.
"A baby. She told me she found a baby in a backpack in the back of my truck," said her husband, Dale Courtney, of Widener, Ark., about 39 miles southwest of Memphis.
The baby, in a red JanSport backpack, is white and weighs 6 pounds and 13 ounces. She was wrapped in a pink shirt with a flower on it and the word "smile" in blue.
Her umbilical cord had been cut and was clamped with a hair barrette.
West Memphis police were investigating the discovery of the newborn girl and the Arkansas Department of Human Services was notified.
The baby remained at the hospital early today.
As Courtney began her lunch break errand, West Memphis police got an anonymous call from a woman who said she saw a baby in a backpack in the back of a gold pickup outside the Professional Building at 228 W. Tyler.
The building is on the other side of the driveway near the hospital's emergency room.
In 2001, Arkansas enacted the Safe Haven Act, which allows parents of newborns to drop them off at the emergency room of any licensed hospital in the state, or any state law enforcement agency with no questions asked to identify the parents.
The infant must be no older than 30 days and must be "left with or voluntarily delivered to the medical provider or law enforcement agency by the child's parent who does not express an intent to return for the child."
The law was passed in response to incidents where mothers have abandoned newborn children in dangerous locations or killed them.
West Memphis Police Inspector Mike Allen said investigators believe the woman who called police from a pay phone at a nearby convenience store may have been the mother. They were still searching for her early today.
When police got to the hospital parking lot, there was no sign of the baby or the pickup.
Courtney's husband said his wife told him she found the backpack when she placed the birdhouse in the back of his truck as she left Outdoor Concepts, a garden nursery about 21/2 miles from the hospital.
"She said it was sitting on the tool box," Dale Courtney said. "When she touched it, she said she heard whimpering and thought someone had left a puppy in the truck. But when she opened it there was the baby. The baby was red and started crying and they called 911.''
Courtney said his wife didn't feel like talking about her discovery Thursday night after police quizzed her for hours.
"She is tired. It is not every day you find something so precious in a truck," he said.
Courtney said his 64-year-old wife, the mother of three grown children and five grandchildren, works in the heart recovery unit at the hospital.
He knew something unusual had happened at work by the way she was acting later.
"When I saw her she told me not to tell her anything bad after the day she had," he said. "I thought she had wrecked my truck, but when she told me what she found in my truck all I could do was hug her tight."
