The last time that I talked to her was Thursday March 6th, around 12:30pm.  She IM’d me, asking me if I could call her phone, because she couldn’t find it.   There was no answer – it went directly to voicemail.

She said that she suspected that Zach took it, and he’d been “acting crazy”.  They had been dating for awhile, and recently broke up, but were still friends.   While we were talking, Zach wrote her back saying that he didn’t take it and had no idea where it was.

She was going to fill me in more later about what was going on, but she had to go offline so she could work on some things.   We never had a chance to talk again.

from the Traveler:

Fayetteville Police are investigating an apparent homicide that occurred Sunday morning, according to a press release from the Fayetteville Police Department. A suspect was arrested in southern Oklahoma at about 5 p.m., FPD officials said.

The victim, Katherine Wood, was found by police inside her apartment after FPD received a call about a disturbance at Colonial Arms Apartments on North Leverett Avenue.

Officers found a purse outside the apartment when they arrived. The information inside the purse led them to check an apartment where the owner of the purse was believed to reside, according to the press release.

The officers received no response and after they checked the interior of the apartment, they discovered Wood’s body. The circumstance of Wood’s death appeared suspicious, given the information supplied to the police by the caller and the purse found outside, according to the press release.

Fayetteville Police obtained a warrant for the arrest of 28-year-old Zachariah Marcyniuk and plan to charge him with first degree murder. Marcyniuk was arrested Sunday afternoon by Oklahoma Highway Patrol.

Wood’s body will be sent to the Arkansas State Medical Examiner’s Office to assist with determining the cause and manner of death. A Katherine Wood, residing at Colonial Arms Apartments, is listed in the University Directory as a student in the English department.

from The Associated Press

2 Men Held on Bond in Boston Hoax Case

By KEN MAGUIRE, Associated Press Writer
BOSTON (AP) — A judge ordered two men held on bond Thursday for allegedly placing electronic advertising devices around the city, an act that stirred fears of terrorism and shut down parts of Boston.Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, were held on $2,500 cash bond each after they pleaded not guilty to placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct for a device found Wednesday at a subway station.

Officials found 38 blinking electronic signs promoting the Cartoon Network TV show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force” on bridges and other high-profile spots across the city Wednesday, prompting the closing of a highway and the deployment of bomb squads. The surreal series is about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball. The network is a division of Turner Broadcasting Systems Inc.

“It’s clear the intent was to get attention by causing fear and unrest that there was a bomb in that location,” Assistant Attorney General John Grossman said at their arraignment.

The 1-foot tall signs, which were lit up at night, resembled a circuit board, with protruding wires and batteries. Most depicted a boxy, cartoon character giving passersby the finger – a more obvious sight when darkness fell.

The men did not speak or enter their own pleas, but they appeared amused and smiled as the prosecutor talked about the device found at Sullivan Station underneath Interstate 93, looking like it had C-4 explosive.

“The appearance of this device and its location are crucial,” Grossman said. “This device looks like a bomb.”

Some in the gallery snickered.

Outside the courthouse, Michael Rich, a lawyer for both of the men, said the description of a bomb-like device could be used for any electronic device.

“If somebody had left a VCR on the ground it would have been a device with wires, electronic components and a power source,” he said.

Boston officials were livid when the devices were discovered.

“It is outrageous, in a post 9/11 world, that a company would use this type of marketing scheme,” Mayor Thomas Menino said Wednesday. “I am prepared to take any and all legal action against Turner Broadcasting and its affiliates for any and all expenses incurred during the response to today’s incidents.”

Berdovsky, an artist, told The Boston Globe he was hired by a marketing company and said he was “kind of freaked out” by the furor.

“I find it kind of ridiculous that they’re making these statements on TV that we must not be safe from terrorism, because they were up there for three weeks and no one noticed. It’s pretty commonsensical to look at them and say this is a piece of art and installation,” he said.

Fans of the show mocked authorities for what they called an overreaction.

About a dozen fans gathered outside Charlestown District Court on Thursday morning with signs saying “1-31-07 Never Forget” and “Free Peter.”

“We’re the laughing stock,” said Tracy O’Connor, 34.

“It’s almost too easy to be a terrorist these days,” said Jennifer Mason, 26. “You stick a box on a corner and you can shut down a city.”

Authorities vowed to hold Turner accountable for what Menino said was “corporate greed,” that led to at least $750,000 in police costs.

As soon as Turner realized the Boston problem around 5 p.m., it said, law enforcement officials were told of their locations in 10 cities where it said the devices had been placed for two to three weeks: Boston, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, Ore., Austin, Texas, San Francisco and Philadelphia.

“We apologize to the citizens of Boston that part of a marketing campaign was mistaken for a public danger,” said Phil Kent, chairman of Turner, a division of Time Warner Inc.

Kent said the marketing company that placed the signs, Interference Inc., was ordered to remove them immediately.

Interference had no comment. A woman who answered the phone at the New York-based firm’s offices Wednesday afternoon said the firm’s CEO was out of town and would not be able to comment until Thursday.

Messages seeking additional comment from the Atlanta-based Cartoon Network were left with several publicists.

Authorities are investigating whether Turner or other companies should be criminally charged, Attorney General Martha Coakley said. “We’re not going to let this go without looking at the further roots of how this happened to cause the panic in this city,” Coakley said.

In Seattle and several suburbs, the removal of the signs was low-key. “We haven’t had any calls to 911 regarding this,” Seattle police spokesman Sean Whitcomb said Wednesday.

Police in Philadelphia said they believed their city had 56 devices.

The New York Police Department removed 41 of the devices – 38 in Manhattan and three in Brooklyn, according to spokesman Paul Browne. The NYPD had not received any complaints. But when it became aware of the situation, it contacted Cartoon Network, which provided the locations so the devices could be removed.

“Aqua Teen Hunger Force” is a cartoon with a cultish following that airs as part of a block of programs for adults on the Cartoon Network. A feature length film based on the show is slated for release March 23.

—

Associated Press Writer Tom Hays in New York contributed to this report.

On that news report, Craig Baker said that he didn’t have a problem with Muslims or Islam, he just didn’t want them on the other side of his fence.

This reminds me of the opposition of using the Fay Jones Butterfly House as a synagogue by Temple Shalom here in Fayetteville last year.

from http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-pigraces26dec26,0,448801,full.story?coll=la-home-nation

Feud may cast mosque beside swine

A Texas man’s response to a he said-he said dispute with Muslim neighbors: pig races on Friday nights.

By Lianne Hart, Times Staff Writer
December 26, 2006

KATY, TEXAS — While Kamel Fotouh makes plans to build a mosque on 11 acres of pasture here, neighbor Craig A. Baker is making plans of his own — plans to hold pig races.

Baker figures he’ll need a tent, souvenirs and a track for the pigs to race on, all in full view of the Muslims next door, for whom pigs are forbidden as food.

As a bonus, Baker will host the competition on Friday — a Muslim holy day.

This is not meant as a slur on Islam, Baker said. It’s a dispute between two neighbors. “A lot of people are making this into a racist situation, a redneck guy from Texas saying ‘We’re going to put on pig races,’ ” he said. “But I’m standing up for property rights.”

The trouble started in October, shortly after the Katy Islamic Assn. bought the land next to Baker’s marble business.

Katy, population 13,000, is a mix of largely white, middle-class housing developments, shopping centers and fields. Until now, it was mostly known as the home of a Rice Harvest Festival, an outlet mall and actress Renee Zellweger.

Like many drawn to a quieter lifestyle and lower housing costs, about 500 Muslim families have moved to Katy over the years and become an accepted part of the community. “I have never once felt discrimination,” said Fotouh, an engineer and president of the Katy Islamic Assn., who has lived here for 20 years.

Baker has even longer roots in Katy — his family settled here during the 1800s and never left. The street that runs past the mosque site is named Baker Road.

Baker and Fotouh both say their first meeting was initially cordial. Baker readily agreed to remove his cattle from the association’s land. He also offered to donate granite fill for the group’s new driveway.

But Baker says that as their meeting wound up, Fotouh suggested that he move, in order to keep the place of worship separate from the business. Fotouh denies making such a request.

“We would not go to a land owner and say ‘We’re moving in, you move out.’ It does not make sense,” he said.

Baker insists that Fotouh asked him to leave, and has offered to pay for lie detector tests to prove it.

After Baker moved his cattle, Fotouh sent a thank-you gift — a crystal clock. Baker returned it.

Baker, 46, said he was going to let the matter drop until a second incident occurred. At a homeowner’s association meeting, someone asked a mosque representative why Baker was asked to leave his land. The representative said that Baker was a liar and that the exchange had never happened, Baker said.

Fotouh said in an interview that Baker had not been called a liar.

But Baker believed he’d now been insulted twice, and decided to retaliate with an insult of his own: Friday pig races.

“I was called a liar in front of my friends, neighbors and prospective customers,” Baker said. “You don’t do that to someone from the South.”

Baker has since put up a website, AmericanPigRace.com. “I will use my property as I see fit,” Baker wrote on the opening page.

He continued: “My only objective here is to protect my property rights and the American values and traditions that the Baker family has enjoyed on Baker Road since the early 1800s.

“It is high time that we as Americans ‘Take A Stand.’

“MAY GOD BLESS AMERICA.”

Another resident’s website, anonymously registered, features an odometer-like counter that keeps track of attacks that “Islamic terrorists have carried out” since Sept. 11; a link to the FBI; and a link to a recording of the Muslim call to prayer. “Get used to it,” reads the tagline. “You will be hearing it 5 times a day 365 days a year.”

Affluent residents in neighborhoods near the planned mosque have said they are concerned that noise, traffic and flooding from the mosque property would lower their property values.

“Do I want something with a big gold dome behind my house? No. Do I want to keep hearing the call-to-prayer thing? No,” said Laura Hughes, a member of the newly formed Preserve the Lifestyle and Neighborhoods of Katy.

Hughes’ husband, Michael, bristles at the idea that residents’ objections are related to religious intolerance. “I don’t care if it’s a Catholic church or a mosque,” he said. “This home is my retirement, and I’m going to protect its value.”

However, Jackie Lockwood — who works in the Hugheses’ neighborhood but lives elsewhere in Katy — said the residents didn’t know what to expect and that was a problem. “It’s the terrorist connection…. I think people make that connection and they’re not happy about having a mosque here because of it.”

Recent polls show that residents here aren’t alone in their fears. About a quarter of respondents in a Gallup Poll in the summer said they would not want to live next door to a Muslim. A third thought that Muslims in the United States sympathized with Al Qaeda.

An independent poll released by the Council on AmericanIslamic Relations found in March that one in three Americans associated the word “Islam” with “war,” “hatred” or “terrorist.”

CAIR spokeswoman Rabiah Ahmed said it was not uncommon for people to say that a mosque would bring down their property values. “In order to stay away from being labeled racist, they try to come up with a more sophisticated response to support their opposition,” she said.

Not everyone is against the mosque, said Katy Islamic Assn. spokesman Yousof Allam. After a recent homeowners meeting, “a lot of people stood up and shook our hands and said they supported us,” he said.

County Commissioner Steve Radack said that he had received fewer than 10 complaints and that residents were getting worked up about issues that could be solved. Traffic at the mosque can be controlled by off-duty sheriff’s deputies. Flooding and draining issues will have to be resolved before new construction can begin.

Fotouh said that daily calls to prayer would be made inside the building. “Someone will not be yelling on top of the roof,” he said.

He envisions a 25,000-square-foot mosque and community center that would offer after-school activities, housing for senior citizens, and play areas for children. An architect hasn’t been hired yet, and construction won’t start until a $900,000 loan for the land is paid off, he said.

Meanwhile, Baker, financed by wealthy neighbors, has offered to buy the land from the association for $1.2 million. Fotouh said he wasn’t interested in any deals the neighbors might put together.

“We are not moving no matter what we are offered,” Fotouh said. “We are here to stay.”

Baker said he has no intention of leaving either. “I’m going to live here for the rest of my life,” he said.

The pigs, 24 so far, wriggle and roll in the sun-warmed dirt in pens edging the property line.

“KIA Community Center Coming Soon,” reads a large yellow sign at the site of the future mosque.

Hanging from a trailer on Baker’s land is an equally large yellow sign. “Friday Night Pig Racin’, ” it says. “Good Family Fun.”