Thank God, we're not in Kansas, Toto!

A Wichita, Kansas junior football practice turned ugly Monday night. Gunfire and a brass knuckle beatdown came on the practice field after a group of parents, upset over the amount of playing time that at least one little footballer was getting, accosted and gang-attacked the coach. This at a league whose players are all between second and eighth grade.

Writes The Associated Press: “Police say one man complained that his son was not getting enough playing time during Monday evening's practice at Linwood Park in Wichita. Then six men surrounded the coach and started punching him.”

Even the coach’s wife got in on the rumpus. In fact, after she saw her hubby getting clobbered, she took out a gun and fired one shot into the air. Then the coach went to his vehicle, armed himself and confronted the fathers.

The incident occurred at Linwood Park in south Wichita, where the Wichita Tigers, who are part of the Greater Wichita Junior Football League, were practicing. The brouhaha started when the mother of a former player confronted the coach and demanded to know why her son wasn’t pegged to start in the season opener.

Jeremy Burris, director of the teen football program, said the boy in question had played for three different teams, and had to be removed for “character issues.” Burris said that the boy was disqualified from playing because he had yet to turn back in his football equipment from the previous season.

“It’s kind of a mutual understanding between teams,” said Jerome Crawford, director of the football program. “The only way to maintain our equipment is to not allow them to play for another team until we get our stuff back.”

The incensed mother started yelling at the coach, prompting other parents and visitors to try to step in and calm her down. Police eventually had to be called; they arrived, took some statement and left.

Thirty minutes later, the woman's husband returned with a group of five other men, and demanded to talk to the coach. One of the men told the coach he was armed. A vicious beating ensued, and guns were drawn.

The coach and his wife were subsequently both dismissed from the football program. Kansas.com says they were sacked for pulling out weapons; both have licensed concealed-carry permits, police said.

Speaking of the unnamed 37-year-old coach, Burris called him a “great role model” for the kids, but added: “You can’t take weapons out around children.”

Police are asking that anyone who witnessed the events or may have a video recording to step forward.

Because, again, what could possibly go wrong?

Taking advantage of U.S. Defense Department offers of free or low-cost military hardware, Texas school districts have been helping themselves to high-powered weaponry, bullet-proof vests, and armored vehicles to militarize their campus police officers.

A KHOU investigation shows that ten school districts in Texas have been acquiring the military surplus under a government program that allows them to load up at little to no cost.

According to the investigation, the districts have acquired 64 M-16 rifles, 18 M-14 rifles, 25 automatic pistols, extended magazines, and 4,500 rounds of ammunition. Additionally, the schools stocked up on armored plating, tactical vests, as well as 15 surplus military vehicles.

In the wake of the over-the-top military-like response by police in Ferguson to protestors, not everyone is thrilled by the idea of campus police outfitted like SWAT teams.

“We don’t necessarily believe that this kind of equipment leads to students feeling more secure and safe in schools,” said Brennan Griffin of Texas Appleseed, which has been studying police on campus policies for years.

“We’ve seen how even much less-lethal devices like Tasers and pepper spray get used inappropriately and end up harming children,” he told the KHOU.

Following the Columbine and Sandy Hook school massacres, school districts have increasingly been supplying officers with more weaponry they feel is needed based upon the possibility of an active-shooter on school grounds.

According to Spring Hills school district Police Chief Charles Brawner, the rifles are only available to tactically-trained officers in an emergency and, when not in use for training, they are locked up in the department’s armory.

Pointing out that studies show that most shooting scenarios last approximately 12 minutes, Griffin said, “It’s hard to see how an officer would be able to gain access to the armory, bring it to the school, assess the situation and somehow use that weapon in the time that a school shooting usually occurs.” 

The Texas school districts that have been acquiring the weaponry include: Frenship ISD, Texarkana ISD, LaJoya ISD, Linden-Kildare CISD, Aledo ISD, Beaumont ISD, Ector County ISD, San Antonio ISD, Edinburg CISD, and Spring Branch ISD.

Everything's coming up pumpkins!

Tip of the hat to Wicked Gay Blog for this.

Uhhh...

Texan gay marriages a financial boon ... for New Mexico!

New Mexico Receiving Deluge of Gay Texans

9.8.2014

By Neal Broverman

Marriage tourism blooms in Santa Fe and Taos. 

It's gold rush time in New Mexico destination cities like Santa Fe and Taos, as same-sex couples from Texas and Oklahoma flood the state to marry.

Since Santa Fe County legalized same-sex unions a year ago, more than half the licenses issues at the county courthouse have gone to gay couples — that equals 1,388 of 2,524, a whopping 55 percent, reports the Santa Fe New Mexican. A similar percentage, 48 percent, was issued to gay newlyweds in Taos County.

With no nearby states offering marriage equality, Texans (and to a smaller extent, Oklahomans) are flocking to marry and honeymoon in the picturesque, art-filled New Mexico capital. Businesses, from caterers to florists, are reaping the benefits. The owner of a wedding venue called Hacienda Dona Andrea said she hosted 17 same-sex weddings this past year, with many costing north of $40,000 each.

Texas's loss is New Mexico's gain, says Hacienda owner Anna Contreras.

“It’s been great for us,” she told the the New Mexican. “As long as Texas holds their line, we’ll be getting their business. We are thrilled. It’s so great to be able to welcome these couples and make them feel special.”

Jack the Ripper?

A world-renowned DNA expert claims to have finally worked out who the true identity of Jack the Ripper and says the serial killer was a 23-year-old Polish immigrant named Aaron Kosminski, reports The Mirror.

Dr. Jari Louhelainen made the claim after taking DNA samples from a bloody shawl of one of the notorious London killer's victims, Catherine Eddowes. The claim is made in a new book, Naming Jack the Ripper, by author Russell Edwards.

The shawl had been taken by acting Sergeant Amos Simpson, who was on duty the night of Eddowes's death and wanted it for his wife. But horrified at the blood-soaked wrap, she never wore it, and it was stored away and passed down through the generations until it came to auction seven years ago.

Mr Edwards said: "Thank God the shawl has never been washed, as it held the vital evidence."

Louhelainen compared the DNA from Kosminski to relatives and said the man who emigrated from Poland, who ended up in an insane asylum, was the notorious killer. He died in an asylum in 1899, The Mirror reports.

 This is not the same solution reached by Patricia Cornwall in her 2002 nonfiction (?) book, Portrait of a Killer: Jack the Ripper -- Case Closed. Ms. Cornwell presented the case for Walter Sickert, a British artist. Critics of her book noted that Sickert had been proposed in earlier works, none of which were acknowledged by Ms. Cornwell. The implication being that perhaps she was Jack-the-Ripping off someone else's work?

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Damien's note: One can only felicitate Mrs. Simpson on her delicacy and wonder about what other souvenirs Sergeant Simpson brought home from time to time.

Hindenburg survivor dies

Just before 7:30 p.m. on May 6, 1937, the Hindenburg, an immense German zeppelin that had spent three days crossing the Atlantic, erupted in flames as it approached its mooring mast at the Lakehurst Naval Air Station in central New Jersey. Seen around the world in newsreel coverage and photographs, the disaster, which was attributed to an electric spark igniting the hydrogen gas that kept the airship aloft, killed 35 of the 97 people on board and another man on the ground.

Twenty-three of its 36 passengers survived. So did 39 of its 61 crew members, including Werner Franz, a 14-year-old cabin boy.

Mr. Franz died at 92 on August 13, 2014 in Frankfurt. The death was confirmed by Dan Grossman, a historian whose specialty is airships. Mr. Franz was believed to be the last surviving crew member. At least one other survivor of the crash, Werner Doehner, who was 8 years old and traveling with his family at the time, is thought to be still living.

The Hindenburg, 800 feet long (more than three times the length of a Boeing 747) and 135 feet in diameter, had its maiden voyage on March 4, 1936, and made 62 safe flights before its destruction. Mr. Franz had made four round-trip crossings on it, to both North and South America. As he recalled his experience of the crash in a book published in Germany a year later, he had been clearing dishes in the officer’s mess when the Hindenburg began to burn.

“Franz heard a thud, and he felt the ship shake and point sharply upward as the burning tail crashed to the ground,” Mr. Grossman wrote on his website, airships.net, summarizing the German account. “Hydrogen flames roared above and behind him as the ship tilted more steeply, and then a ballast tank ruptured, dousing Franz with water.”

The inadvertent soaking was Mr. Franz’s good fortune, offering a buffer against the mounting heat and flame. He kicked open a hatch used to bring supplies onto the ship, and when the ground loomed close enough, he was able to jump to safety, running from the wreckage before it could entrap him. He suffered no injuries.

Mr. Franz was born in Frankfurt on May 22, 1922. He returned to Germany after the disaster, serving as a radio operator and instructor in the Luftwaffe during World War II. Afterward he worked for the German postal service and was also a skating coach. He is survived by his wife, Annerose, and several children and grandchildren.

Mr. Grossman wrote that the day after the crash, Mr. Franz returned to the site to look for his pocket watch, given to him by his grandfather, and that he found it.

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Damien's note: Another obituary mentions that Mr. Franz was a figure skating coach.  And a tip of the hat to Lee for bringing this story to my attention.