Investigators Say Man Set Himself On Fire

Keene - Police in Keene said a Massachusetts man found on fire in front of the Cheshire County Superior Courthouse on Wednesday night has died.

The call came in to the Keene Police Department at 5:30 p.m., according to Lt. Todd Lawrence.

Police said the man was thoroughly burned when they arrived at the scene.

The man was later identified as Thomas Ball, 58, of Holden, Mass. An autopsy showed that he set himself on fire and that he took his own life.

Witnesses said what they saw in front of the courthouse almost defied belief.

"I saw a man standing on fire. He walked around a little bit, walked on to the grass, collapsed on all fours and literally sat there and burned," said witness Dan Koski.

"(The flames were) over his head, and when he was on the ground, they were probably a good foot over his body," said witness Jerry Goodrich.

"I have 21 years of Army service going back to the Vietnam War. My loyalty to the government should be a given. It is gone. I am certain it will never return regardless of how long I might have lived."

- Thomas James Ball in his "last statement" before he self-immolated in front of the courthouse that was integral in destroying his life.

I just got back from the Cheshire county courthouse, the site of yesterday's self-immolation. As I was walking out, they were painting over the scorch marks they attempted to wash away earlier in the morning.

Thomas thankfully dropped off a "last statement" to the Keene Sentinel, so we could all know what he was going through. I will post that below.

First, what I learned in over an hour and a half of poring over stacks of paperwork along with Kyle Jarvis of the Sentinel and a reporter from WMUR:

Thomas James Ball, born 2/21/53 and his wife at the time, Karen Louise Ball (maiden name Primiano), born 3/2/65 had begun divorce proceedings about a decade ago. It was alleged that Ball had committed domestic violence against his 4 year old daughter at the time, Melissa. Karen had called Monadnock Family Services after the incident and was allegedly told that if she did not report the incident to police, that she would be arrested for child abuse. She called Jaffrey PD out of fear of what the government people would do to her family (steal her kids if they were both arrested) and because of their mandatory arrest policy in domestic violence cases, Thomas was arrested. He was found not guilty of simple assault in Cheshire Superior Court, despite slapping his daughter multiple times and causing bleeding. The Jaffrey PD apparently admitted that pressing forward as a domestic violence case was a mistake. His wife's testimony shows he did not have a history of violence. Thomas figured he'd get to see his kids again after the not guilty. He figured wrong. The court continued to press for counseling at Monadnock Family Services (MFS) prior to allowing Thomas unsupervised visits with his kids. Of course, this is a huge racket for MFS, who likely is paid for every one of the cases they are sent by the court, either by the people involved or by the state of NH.

Rome - The secret world of cybercrime is becoming more and more mainstream as news of national and worldwide institutions being hacked into continue to surface.

Sony, Citigroup, Apple and Google are just some of the companies that have had their servers infiltrated recently in what is becoming a spate of hackings targeting big time corporations with big time money.

Wednesday morning, NBT Bank, along with cosponsor the Rome Chamber of Commerce, hosted a cybercrime seminar at the Beeches.

The presentation was given in order to give people a better idea of what cybercrime is, how it works and what companies and individuals can do to prevent falling victim.

NBT Bank brought along its in-house experts to present the information. The experts were Joseph Stagliano, Executive Vice-President and Chief Information Officer, and James Terry, Senior Vice President and Director of Operational Risk and Financial Crime Management.

Across China millions of children are suffering from lead poisoning and authorities are often denying them the right to be tested or receive treatment, according to a recent report by Human Rights Watch.

Researchers from the New York-based organization conducted interviews in contaminated villages in Hunan, Henan, Yunnan and Shaanxi provinces. They say local authorities are seeking to silence those who speak out or seek help.

[Sophie Richardson, Human Rights Watch]:
"In the instances we documented, families were either being denied the opportunity to have their children tested at all, they were having children tested and either the results were being withheld or they were being falsified, which parents knew as a result of taking their children to a different area and getting them tested again and getting results that were significantly higher. And across the board one of the most difficult problems we documented was the difficulty parents face in getting adequate medical treatment for their children."

Chinese authorities have launched a campaign to crack down on lead pollution and some over polluting factories have had to close. Yet Human Rights Watch says local officials face conflict of priorities when they are required by central authorities to safeguard people's health and at the same time ensure economic progress.

[Joe Amon, Human Rights Watch]:
"The problem is, local government officials, they are not given an incentive to respect these laws, what they are prioritizing is economic growth and when there are problems with the environment or with health, they cover it up, they don't want to address it and what happens is people suffer."

One of the most recent cases of poisoning to be reported by state run media was in Yangxunqiao in Zhejiang Province. More than 600 people, including over 100 children were poisoned by pollution from a tinfoil workshop, according to Xinhua.

Lead poisoning can cause high blood pressure and damage to the nervous and reproductive systems.

At least 23 people died in Port-au-Prince June 6 after a night of heavy rain. Six people were listed as missing. Some 500 dwellings - tents and tarps - were destroyed, according to Haïti-Liberté (June 8-14). The rains also brought an increase of cholera cases, with the number of deaths due to this disease climbing to more than 5,000.

Hundreds of thousands of people are still living in temporary camps - under torn tarps and ripped tents - 18 months after the earthquake destroyed their homes. Many of them were forced to relocate. The people forced out by the rain and mud slides didn't have many choices of where to go: back to their old neighborhoods to houses which haven't completely collapsed, to friends or family, or to other camps. They couldn't go to shelters because the government doesn't provide any.

Wilson Jeudi, the mayor of Delmas, a suburb of Port-au-Prince, along with the National Police, began evicting people from camps on public property in late May using bulldozers and front-loaders. Jeudi told the press, "Everybody was a victim of the earthquake; there is no question of paying people for emptying the public spaces they've occupied for months. We can't encourage foreign investors with such images." (Haïti-Progrès, May 25-31)

Such evictions have been occurring for months, though they have recently intensified.

• Passengers jumped to safety but sudden change of weight sent blimp soaring skywards
• Investigators piecing together last moments of doomed flight
• Wife of Australian pilot pays tribute to 'hero' who stayed at controls

Investigators were today piecing together the last moments before a a Goodyear blimp burst into flames and plunged to earth in a weekend crash in Germany.

The pilot, Michael Nerandzic, 53, was killed but three passengers managed to jump to safety when the airship caught fire as it was coming in to land at the Reichelsheim aerodrome near Friedberg.

Flights grounded or delayed at many large airports; airline working on problem.

Thousands of travelers were stranded at airports around the United States Friday night after a computer failure of United Airlines' reservation system.

United spokesman Charles Hobart confirmed the outage and said the airline apologized to customers.

"At approximately 7:15 pm CT tonight, United Airlines experienced a computer outage interrupting the airline's flight departures, airport processing and reservations systems," the airline said in statement. "Our technology team is working to resolve the issue as soon as possible."

Long lines of passengers formed at check-in counters at Chicago's O'Hare International and Denver International airports, two of United's largest hubs.

Passengers in Chicago told NBC station WMAQ that they were frustrated they were kept in line waiting for about two hours before any announcements came from the airline.

"I was only going home for 38 hours, so it's kind of cutting into that," said Sean Doyle, who was trying to board a 10:15 p.m. flight from Chicago to Denver.

"I'm a little cheesed, and I've been spending the entire time looking up who the new CEO of United Airlines is so I can compose a vitriol-filled note to him," said Kasey Madden, who was trying to fly to Minneapolis.

[Editor's Note: A member of our forum was an eyewitness to this event and has submitted the following report. This is an appeal for all Sott readers who are in a position to do so, to do what they can to help. This is an opportunity to show your humanity in the face of what appears to be naked psychopathy in action.]

A Frontier Communications Internet Installation Technician has been charged with "Cruelty to an Animal" after brutally clubbing a leashed, miniature schnauzer in the head with a Heavy Duty Test Phone. The 15 lb dog, "Pepper" is currently in Sylva Animal Hospital in critical condition with a severe head injury. At time of writing, "Pepper" had not yet regained consciousness and was suffering multiple seizures.

Upon arriving at the residence, the Frontier Technician was told by the resident, John Rarick to "Please wait while I put my dogs away" Instead of waiting as requested, "the Frontier Technician walked around the side of the cabin to where Pepper was restrained on her lead, bent over and viciously clubbed the tiny dog with a test phone about the size and weight of a dumbbell," according to a neighbor who was an eye witness to the bludgeoning of the dog, This occurred in full view of the Rarick's 4 year old son, who was raised with the 8 year miniature schnauzer.

"Pepper" is a friendly, family pet who was property leashed and represented no threat to the young, 6ft tall Frontier Technician. According to witnesses, the Frontier Technician was clearly "Looking for a dog" when he disregarded the resident's request that he "wait until I put my dogs up" and went around to the side of the cabin.

"This was not a startle reaction" said a witness to the assault on Pepper. "The Frontier Technician clubbed that little dog as hard as he could like this" stated the witness, making the motion of rising his arm into the air and striking downward in a forceful cross body blow. "The dog was at the end of her lead and the Frontier Technician had to bend over to hit her."

At no time after the incident did the Frontier Technician appear upset, or even concerned about the animal he'd just beaten unconscious. His face showed no visible affect at all, and his voice was flat and unemotional ...until AFTER he found out he would be charged with "Cruelty to an Animal".

Radiation level rises faster than expected in Fukushima absorption machine

Tokyo - The operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear power plant said on Saturday it had suspended an operation to clean up radioactive water only hours after it had begun because radiation levels rose dramatically.

Tokyo Electric Power Company had undertaken the operation at the plant, disabled by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, to avert spillage into the sea of large, growing pools of radioactive water.

A statement issued by the company, known as TEPCO, said the suspension, five hours after the operation began, was prompted by a sharp rise in radiation in a part of the system intended to absorb cesium.

"At the moment, we haven't specified the reason," a TEPCO spokesman told a news conference. "So we can't say when we can resume the operation. But I'd say it's not something that would take weeks."

The official said teams working at the plant believed the radiation rise could be linked to sludge flowing into the machinery intended to absorb cesium. Another cause could be pipes surrounding it.

Six gray seals have been killed on Cape Cod, Mass., beaches over the past five weeks, all of them shot and "suffering greatly," a federal official investigating the deaths said.

No arrests have been made in the killing of the seals, which are protected under federal law. The most recent dead gray seal was found shot in the head Friday, one day after federal officials said they were investigating the five previous killings.

"It's obviously very unsettling. This is tough for our team that is out there responding and trying to save these animals 24/7," said Michael Booth, the communications officer for the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW).