Fair Proxy Web

Composite sketches released of girl stuffed in box

(CNN) — Authorities are hoping composite sketches will help them identify a child whose body, stuffed in a large plastic storage box, washed ashore this week on an uninhabited island in Texas.

The sketches, released Friday, show a girl with long blond hair, in a pink shirt and a matching skirt — clothes she was reportedly wearing when she was found.

Earlier, a self-described cynical old cop gently held a tiny shoe decorated with purple flowers as he begged for help in identifying the dead child Galveston police have dubbed Baby Grace.

She is more to us than just a case number, more to us than just an unidentified body. She is very much a human being, said Maj. Ray Tuttoilmondo of the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office.

She is someone’s child, someone’s grandchild, someone’s cousin, someone’s best friend, and to us, that is the most important part about this case, Tuttoilmondo said.

We have adopted the name of Baby Grace because, there again, that is part of the emotional part of this case for us, he said, holding the sneaker identical to one of those the child was wearing when she was found Monday. Watch why the Baby Grace case is so emotional for police

A fisherman became very upset after discovering the girl’s body, in a large blue Sterilite plastic container, on an uninhabited island in Galveston’s West Bay, Tuttoilmondo said.

A fishing tournament with hundreds of contestants was held over the weekend in the area where the girl’s body was found. Police said they hope to track down contestants who may have seen something. Some of them may have fished near the site of the discovery.

If we can get to every single person, that’s exactly what we’re going to do, Tuttoilmondo said.

The Galveston County medical examiner has said the child suffered skull fractures, but that he found no other broken bones.

Anything relating to chronic abuse, old injuries, things like that, those are parts of the investigation that we still need to look at, Tuttoilmondo said.

The Houston Chronicle reported that the medical examiner said the girl had been dead for at least two weeks when her body was found.

Police said the child was between 2 and 5 years old, the Chronicle reported.

I don’t often make an appeal of emotion, choosing to stick with the facts of the case as we should, Tuttoilmondo wrote in an e-mail to local reporters.

However, a case such as this draws out emotions in all that touch it, even us cynical old cops. I ask that you buck the system and include the emotions you, like me, are experiencing in looking at this case, as a parent, a child, one who has children as part of your life or just as a human being.

Police have received hundreds of calls about the case, he said. A number of them we followed up on have led us to go check on other children. Fortunately, we found all of them safe and sound, but nothing that’s absolutely made a home run hit yet.

Other callers have wanted to know how they can help. Some have offered to donate graveyard plots for the child and have volunteered to help sift through information.

The community where we are is a very close-knit, solid community, and they’re all more than willing to help, Tuttoilmondo said.
found here.

IRS warns of fake e-mail claiming to help wildfire victims

WASHINGTON (CNN) — A new e-mail scam is using last week’s wildfires in California to prey on people with generous hearts.

The Internal Revenue Service is warning Americans about an e-mail hoax that claims to be from the tax agency and asks for donations for wildfire victims.

Anyone who clicks on the donation link is taken to a fake Web site that asks for the person’s bank account numbers.

Instead of using the numbers for charity, the scammers can launch a number of identity theft ploys.

This is very reprehensible, IRS spokeswoman Michelle Lamishaw said Friday.

It’s an opportunistic attempt to profit at the expense of the victims of these wildfires as well as the generosity of people who would like to help them.

The agency was tipped off by taxpayers and agency employees who received the e-mail and knew it was a scam, she said.

The scam has popped up both on the East Coast and on the West Coast, so we imagine that it’s a fairly large number of e-mails that went out she said.

The e-mail uses the IRS logo and Lamishaw called it sophisticated, with few clear signs that it’s a hoax. However, the e-mail itself is a clue.

The IRS as a rule does not even send e-mails, she said, so if something appears to come from the IRS it’s 99 percent sure that it’s a scam.

The fires are blamed for 14 deaths and charred more than 508,000 acres, destroying about 1,600 homes.
found here.

Obama making less than a quarter of Senate votes

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Sen. Barack Obama has missed the most votes of any Democratic presidential hopeful in the Senate over the last two months, including a vote on an Iran resolution he has blasted Sen. Hillary Clinton for supporting.

The Illinois Democrat has missed nearly 80 percent of all votes since September.

The other Democrats in the Senate running for president have missed a high percentage of votes as well.

Sen. Joe Biden of Delaware has missed 68 percent of the votes during the same period, Sen. Christopher Dodd of Connecticut 65 percent and Clinton of New York 63 percent.

Obama’s campaign points out that Biden missed the most votes if the whole year is considered, followed by Dodd, then Obama.

Obama’s campaign argues that looking at the last two months is arbitrary.

Obama missed a vote on a resolution that declared the Iranian Revolutionary Guard, an elite part of the Iranian military, a terrorist organization. He has criticized Clinton for voting for it, saying it would give President Bush a blank check to invade Iran.

This kind of resolution does not send the right signal to the region, Obama said during a presidential debate earlier this week. It doesn’t send the right signal to our allies or our enemies.

Obama was campaigning in New Hampshire when the vote was taken. His campaign blamed his absence on the short notice given when the vote was scheduled. But two senior Democratic Senate aides said senators were advised the night before that the vote would occur the next day.

A spokesman for Obama, however, was adamant Obama did not have enough time to return to Washington for the vote.

Obama has also missed votes on a Democratic priority, the expansion of the federally funded State Children’s Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) as well as a vote on a resolution that condemned MoveOn.org for running an ad in the New York Times attacking the top general in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus.

Most of the votes Obama missed were for amendments to spending bills, when his vote would not have decided the outcome.

Obama’s campaign says he was in the Senate for critical votes, and canceled a campaign appearance to be in the Senate for a critical SCHIP vote.

The most important votes that this Congress did were in the first six months — ethics reform, minimum wage, Iraq, 9/11 bill, energy, Obama spokesman Bill Burton said. The last two months have been appropriations bills, and we were here for the Iraq votes.

Stu Rothenberg of the Rothenberg Political Report said the voters may not punish Obama for missing votes.

I think most Americans understand that if you’re running for president, you’re going to have to be in Iowa, New Hampshire, and you’re not going to make all the votes and they give candidates slack, Rothenberg said.

With the mounting fight with the White House over key bills, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is putting all the contenders on notice.

I am going to leave here and go call our presidentials and let them know that they better look at their schedules, because these are not votes you can miss, Reid said on the Senate floor Friday.
found here.

Nadal through to Paris semifinals

PARIS, France (AP) — World No.2 Rafael Nadal is through to the Paris Masters semifinals after beating Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in straight sets.

The Spaniard cruised to a comfortable 6-4 6-2 victory and will now play the in-form Marcos Baghdatis, who saw off Tommy Robredo 6-4 6-4.

The result means Robredo can no longer qualify for the season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai, while Baghdatis still has an outside chance of claiming one of the last two spots available.

Nadal’s win means he moves a step closer to a possible rematch with David Nalbandian, who beat David Ferrer 7-6 6-7 6-2 in his quarterfinal.

Nadal lost to Nalbandian two weeks ago in the Madrid Masters quarterfinals in their only meeting.

Nalbandian will now face Richard Gasquet in the other semifinal, after the Frenchman ended Andy Murray’s hopes of reaching the Masters Cup.

Gasquet battled to a 6-3 0-6 6-4 victory and now looks likely to take one of the two remaining places.

Argentine Nalbandian, who saw off Roger Federer in the previous round, needed nearly three hours to subdue fifth-seeded Ferrer — who has already clinched his place in Shanghai.

The match was so tough, with a lot of intensity, Nalbandian said. We were both so tired in the beginning of the third set.

Youzhny finished his third-round victory over Tommy Haas at just after 1am on Friday morning, and looked exhausted against Nadal. He saved two match points before Nadal won with a forehand pass up the line.

Baghdatis’ victory preserved his slim chance of qualifying for the Masters Cup. The whole week I’ve been playing great tennis, he said. Everything I do is going in and I’m serving pretty good.

Nalbandian had already been eliminated from Masters Cup contention, but remained on course for a second straight Masters title.

Federer, Nadal, Ferrer, Novak Djokovic, Nikolay Davydenko and Andy Roddick have already all qualified for the Shanghai tournament. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

found here.

Hurricane Noel expected to brush East Coast

Read VIDEO PHOTOS var cnnOtherTab1Label = ‘map’;MAP var clickExpire = “-1″;

(CNN) — Hurricane Noel grew in size Friday as it ran almost parallel to the East Coast, on track to bring heavy rain to parts of New England, the National Hurricane Center said.

As of 5 p.m. ET, Noel’s maximum sustained winds were near 80 mph (130 kph), with its center about 450 miles (725 kilometers) west of Bermuda and about 320 miles (510 kilometers) southeast of North Carolina’s Cape Hatteras.

The Category 1 hurricane was moving northeast at 20 mph (32 kph).

Noel’s rainfall swamped the Bahamas and Cuba on Thursday, forcing about 24,000 evacuations from low-lying areas of Cuba and dumping 15 inches of rain on the Bahamas, The Associated Press reported.

Portions of the U.S. East Coast were in for heavy rainfall, though much less than the deluge in the Bahamas, forecasters said.

Although the hurricane center predicted that Noel will skirt the U.S. coast before crossing Nova Scotia overnight Saturday, forecasters urged U.S. residents from North Carolina northward to watch local weather forecasts, and advised Canadian citizens to consult that nation’s hurricane center. Watch how the Northeast can expect hurricane-strength storm

Noel is forecast to dump up to 4 inches across eastern New England, with isolated maximum totals of up to 6 inches. See the storm’s projected path

Hurricane-force winds extended 70 miles (110 kilometers) from Noel’s center, and tropical storm-force winds extended up to 345 miles (555 kilometers), according to the Miami, Florida-based hurricane center.

One person was killed by the storm in the Bahamas on Thursday, the AP reported, with about 400 people forced from their homes.

Cuban authorities said they evacuated 24,000 people because of flooding, the AP said. At least 2,000 homes were damaged, but no deaths were reported, according to the AP. See scenes of heavy flooding

Earlier this week, the storm triggered flooding and landslides that killed at least 116 people in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, according to the AP.

One person also was killed in Jamaica.

Noel is the fifth named hurricane of the 2007 Atlantic hurricane season, which ends November 30.
found here.