Esta semana en El Mojave

Policía arresta madre de alumno pintero reincidente.

Minnesota vampire politician update

Remember this guy?

Well, he’s gotten himself into a bit of trouble with the law, as you might expect with a high-profile Satanist vampire:

A fringe candidate for governor who played up his satanic side — and pledged public impalement for terrorists — wound up behind bars Tuesday thanks to a sharp-eyed sheriff’s dispatcher.

Jonathon Sharkey, 41, of Princeton, Minn. was arrested Monday night on two felony counts from Indiana, said Mike Smith, the Mille Lacs County jail administrator. One warrant was for escape, another for stalking against a former girlfriend.

“(Authorities are) very well aware of my ex-fiancee’s vicious and malicious attacks against me,” Sharkey said.

In a phone interview from jail, Sharkey said he did nothing wrong because he never signed his probation papers.

“I never signed the order of probation to begin with, never agreeing to it,” Sharkey said. “Hence, if the contract was not signed, it’s null and void.”

Buried in the paper trails of lawsuits is an even stranger claim: that Sharkey once faked his own death.

“I overdosed on over 120 tranquilizers,” Sharkey told WCCO-TV. “That definitely lowers your heartbeat real good.”

The site includes video.

Go on, you know you want to see the King of the Vampires-turned-gubernatoral-candidate’s press conference.

More SPJ photos

As promised, here are the other photos we submitted for the Society of Professional Journalists 2005 awards:

Photo by Peter Day. Published July 19, 2005.
Penny Hale wipes away a tear after opening a present from a group of teenagers who as toddlers were in Hale’s “Mommy and Me” class in 1993. Hale, who is retiring as an instructor for the Hesperia Recreation and Park District after 18 years, is heading toward a local teaching job. Numerous mommies and their children gave Hale an emotional send-off at Timberlane Park.

Photo by Dan Elliott. Published September 24, 2005.
The theme for the Hesperia Days Parade was “Tribute to our Military Families.” The parade started out colorfully and symbolically with Old Glory leading the way.

Photo by Peter Day. Published January 4, 2005.
Recreational kayaker Paul Covert braves the Mojave River as a stranded car tells the tale of an earlier near tragedy. According to the Hesperia Sheriff Station, a motorist had defied a posted warning and attempted to cross Rock Springs Road, which was deluged with rain water.

Photo by Peter Day. Published July 12, 2005.
Patricia Miller embraces Max, her chihuahua/terrier mix, after a structure fire destroyed her apartment unit on Sequoia Avenue in Hesperia.

The FEMA rap

I couldn’t make this up.

Disaster … it can happen anywhere,
But we’ve got a few tips, so you can be prepared
For floods, tornadoes, or even a ‘quake,
You’ve got to be ready – so your heart don’t break.

Disaster prep is your responsibility
And mitigation is important to our agency.

People helping people is what we do
And FEMA is there to help see you through
When disaster strikes, we are at our best
But we’re ready all the time, ’cause disasters don’t rest.

(And yes, there is audio.)

I certainly feel safer the next time a major disaster strikes.

The Return of Heartburn

For the first time in the six or so weeks that I’ve been taking the NapraPAC, I woke up early this morning with heartburn, and pretty bad heartburn at that. I’m not sure what brought it on — I took my Prevacid a few hours late yesterday, had some (non-spicy) Thai food for lunch and had nibbles of a lot of different things at Shelly’s Place for a story before last night’s council meeting.

I forgot how much I hate heartburn. Yuck.