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Twenty-five years ago, when I was a junior reporter and stringer for the San Francisco bureau of Time magazine, I came across the greatest story I never wrote, which was actually a pretty smart decision at the time, given that the story had no ending, I didnt know how to write such a story then, and even if I had written it, Time wouldnt have run it. It wasnt merely that the story was too bizarre. Time was a news magazine, and this wasnt news. It was, rather, a glimpse into the darker corners of the human spirit, the kind of thing you naturally gravitate to late in the evening, when, tired of films and politics, youd say to your friends, "Do you want to hear something really sick?" And thered be a silent, collective "ahhh," like that of children snuggling in for a bedtime story, knowing they were about to hear what theyd been waiting for all night.
I first came across the name John Ronald Brown in the late fall of 1973 in the San Francisco Chronicle when I saw an item in Herb Caens column about a doctor down on Lombard Street who was "lopping" peoples penises off. As it was my (self-appointed) job for Time in those days to cover the more raggedy edges of the ongoing paradigm shift, I called up the clinic and found myself talking to Browns partner at the time, Dr. James Spence, who, despite some reservations, invited me to see him.
Spence struck me as a bit of a hustler, far less polished than one would expect of someone with a medical degree if he had a medical degree. To some people he gave business cards reading "Dr. James Spence." But to me he said hed earned his medical degree in Africa and thus couldnt practice here. (I later heard he was an ex-con who claimed to be a veterinarian, but that degree was phony, too.)
The clinic wasnt much just a few rooms on a busy street, it seemed more like a real estate office than anything else. Sensing my skepticism, perhaps, Spence invited me to an upcoming formal dinner at his hilltop home in Burlingame, where he and his partner, the renowned plastic surgeon Dr. John Ronald Brown, would be explaining his new operation to a group of urologists, proctologists and internists, some of whom, Spence hoped, would join him and Dr. Brown in setting up the finest sex-change facility anywhere in the country.
A week later, I drove to Burlingame and discovered that Spence had a splendid home if it was his home overlooking the distant San Francisco Airport and, beyond, the bay. It was a surreal evening. Dinner was served by half a dozen attentive transsexuals who were undergoing hormone therapy while awaiting surgery.
At first, the other doctors seemed quite intrigued by Spences proposal for a full-service sex-change clinic. I remember sitting at one end of a long dinner table, watching Spence cut up a pear with a pocket knife while another doctor earnestly asked how he would select candidates for surgery. "It takes one to know one," Spence told his startled guests. "We let other transsexuals make the decision. They can tell best when someone is a true transsexual a woman trapped in a mans body."
After the fruit and cheese, we adjourned to the kitchen, where one of the waitresses lay back on a butcher-block table and casually flipped up her skirt. A gooseneck lamp was produced, and all the doctors proceeded to examine the kind of work currently being done by Dr. Browns competition.
Im no expert in female anatomy, but the waitresss genitalia didnt look like those of any woman Id ever seen. There was no clitoris or anything resembling a vagina. It rather looked like someone had taken a pickax and neatly poked a small, square hole, an inch on a side, directly into her groin either that or like an aerial photograph of a Manitoba iron-ore mine taken from 20,000 feet. In contrast, Spence maintained, Brown had developed a revolutionary technique that would give transsexuals fully orgasmic clitorises and aesthetically pleasing vaginas.
Later, Dr. Brown and I stood around the kitchen table while he displayed what to me were ghastly photographs of his surgical technique. One picture showed a gauze noose holding up the head of a bloody penis while Brown sliced away at the tendrils of unwanted erectile tissue (the capora cavernosa).
Unlike some other gender-reassignment surgeons, and contrary to what Herb Caen had written, Brown didnt exactly lop off the penis. At least in later years (his process was continually evolving), he carefully split the penis, then, after saving the nerves and blood supply, positioned the glans penis under a fleshy hood to create the clitoris. With the leftover penile skin he made the labia majora. Finally, after removing the fat and hair follicles, he used the scrotal skin as lining for the new vagina.
As a layman, I couldnt tell if Brown was a competent surgeon or not, but I must say he came across as genial, knowledgeable and obviously quite proud of his ã technique. There was a certain naiveté (and even passivity) about him that struck me as surprising in a surgeon, but compared to everything else Id seen that night it didnt warrant a second thought.
Since this was hardly a story I could write for Time, I produced an appropriately dull and thoroughly bloodless article about the growing phenomenon of sexual-reassignment surgery: "Though the first modern medically supervised sex-change operation took place in Europe in 1930, transsexual surgery did not attract wide notice until the transformation of a former GI named George Jorgensen to Christine in 1952 . . ."
A month later, in early January 1974, just as my story was about to appear in print, Brown called in a near panic to beg that I not mention his name. The proposed new clinic had fallen through, and Spence, he said, was now saying all sorts of terrible things about him. As my story didnt mention Brown (or anything else about that night), I told him to relax. That was the last I heard of him until early this October, when I clicked on the Internet and the following story caught my eye:
SAN DIEGO A 77-year-old former doctor has been convicted of murder for fatally botching the surgery of a New York man who wanted his healthy leg amputated to satisfy a bizarre fetish.
The story gave the name of the fetish as apotemnophilia "sexual gratification from limb removal." It said that "only 200 worldwide are known to suffer the fetish." It reported that the victim, 79-year-old Philip Bondy, had paid $10,000 for the operation, after which he died in a "suburban San Diego hotel" from "gangrene poisoning." It said that the unlicensed doctor who performed the surgery could get "life imprisonment for second-degree murder." Although the story gave the doctors name as John Ronald Brown, at first it didnt ring a bell. But after downloading additional stories, I found myself looking at a photograph of a heavyset, pink-complexioned man with thinning, disheveled hair, and suddenly I realized, Hey, I know this man.
Driving up to San Diego Countys George F. Bailey Detention Center, I feel as if Im visiting some remote outpost in the mountains of Mars. The detention center is located on a desolate brown hilltop two miles north of the border with Mexico; off in the distance I can faintly see Tijuana, shimmering in the heat and haze. There are no people, no birds and no wind. Two faded flags hang limply outside the visitor entrance, which is landscaped with cactus and crowned with long coils of razor wire.
Because Brown is staying in the jails medical wing (hes diabetic), hes wearing what looks like a surgeons standard blue operating smock (the difference is that his is splattered with fat gravy stains). Although cordial and deferential as we talk by phone through the wire-reinforced windows, Brown at times seems anguished, or at the very least distracted, gnawing on his fingernails or swirling his tongue around the corners of his mouth. Sometimes, he turns sideways and lets me talk to his profile while he leans wearily against the concrete wall.
Although I find it hard to hear Brown (a man in the adjacent visitors chair is reading religious tracts into the phone), eventually Im able to get to the heart of the matter: Why, against state law, the Hippocratic oath and, in my opinion, basic common sense, did he cut off that mans leg?
Brown replies that he was simply doing what doctors are supposed to do meet the patients needs. "In cosmetic surgery we do things all the time for which there is no need. We are constantly rearranging what God gave us."
"But what about your own liability?" I ask. The patient, I point out, was a frail old man, still recovering from pneumonia, with a history of heart disease and bypass surgery. Even in ideal circumstances, his post-operative prospects were far from great. "Werent you worried that people would ask questions if he died?"
Brown shrugs. "I didnt spend much time thinking about it," he says.
Someone who did think about it was Gary Stovall, a homicide detective for the San Diego suburb of National City, who on May 11, 1998, was assigned to investigate the death of an elderly New York City resident found in Room 609 of the local Holiday Inn with his left leg missing and blood oozing from the stump.
Despite the bizarre circumstances, at first it wasnt completely clear to Stovall that a crime had been committed. A friend of Philip Bondys had initially told the police that Bondy had been in a "taxi accident" in Mexico and had required immediate surgery in a clinic there.
But to Stovall that story didnt make sense. If Bondy had been in an accident, why didnt his body have any other injuries? If an American citizen had been badly injured in a traffic accident, why didnt the Tijuana police know anything about it? And strangest of all, why did Bondy have two $5,000 receipts in his room, one for "surgery" and the other for "hospitalization," both signed by a local man named John Brown?
Because Stovall was working on another murder case at the time, he couldnt immediately go see Brown in person. And besides, says Stovall, a baby-cheeked detective with a deceptively mild manner, "I was still under the impression that he was a good Samaritan."
But when Brown still hadnt returned any of Stovalls three phone messages by Wednesday morning, May 20, Stovall drove to Browns San Ysidro apartment and ã banged on the door.
"Do you know why Im here?" he asked.
"Yes," answered Brown, who had come to the door wearing a robe. "Its because of the man who died in the hotel room in National City."
Although Brown was "nonthreatening, polite, well-spoken and obviously well-educated," says Stovall, it was also clear to him that Brown was not someone for whom "personal appearance was a high priority." When Stovall asked him to come down to the station, he put on a wrinkled shirt and a stained jacket. Not only did his apartment smell like "garbage," but the couch was bloodstained and the stuffing was falling out. The stove was "filthy" and the sink was stacked with dirty dishes. There were books, professional journals, travel bags and medical supplies scattered about the floor. "If a child had been living there," Stovall says, "Id have put him in a foster home."
Brown declined to say whether or not hed amputated Bondys leg, says Stovall, but he talked about virtually everything else, including driving Bondy to the clinic and visiting him at the Holiday Inn the following day to inspect the wound. (He saw some "minor red marks," Brown tells me, and "possibly" a pale-blue tint, indicative of emerging gangrene.)
At first Brown didnt want to make a statement, says Stovall. "Then he said, Okay, Ill make a little statement. He ended up making a 29-page statement." Although Stovall still didnt know what had happened to Bondy, he was convinced that something illegal was going on. After 90 minutes, he left the interview room to tell his superiors that he was going to arrest Brown.
Brown, who tends to be oblivious to the psychic atmosphere, didnt even realize that he was in trouble. After waiting 45 minutes for Stovall to return, he says, he was bored and restless "There was nothing to read." Deciding he had better things to do, he walked out of the station and headed home. He had gone two blocks and just turned a corner, he says, when suddenly two police cars and what seemed like 12 officers appeared.
It reminded Brown of the "Toonerville cops." Then, he says, "one pulled out a gun and pointed it at my head." Brown looked at the weapon in astonishment. "All I could think," he says, "was What a fucking big gun!"
If the gun amazed Brown, his arraignment dumbfounded him. The prosecutor, Deputy District Attorney Stacy Running, asked the judge to hold him without bail on the grounds that he was an "incredibly dangerous individual to the citizens both of the United States and Mexico."
To Brown, none of this made sense, either legally or morally. "I didnt think any laws had been violated on either side of the border," he says. "Or, from now on, is every surgeon who performs an operation where the patient later dies of infection going to be arrested for murder?"
Friends and former patients were outraged as well. It wasnt Browns fault that Philip Bondy died, says Ann, whose sex-change surgery was a great success (but who asked to be identified only by her first name). "That old man was already sick. He just wanted his leg cut off so he could get a hard-on. Dr. Brown was just doing his job."
To Browns ex-wife, Julie, and their two teenage sons, his arrest came as a devastating shock. "My oldest boy was going to spend the day [with him]," says Julie, a hearty, buoyant woman who has remained on close terms with Brown. "He called over there. Can I speak to my dad? The police said, Your dad has been arrested for murder."
As soon as the police finished searching Browns apartment they took everything, including the garbage disposal, she says they came over to search hers. "There were a bunch of guys in yellow jackets, like a SWAT team. They had a search warrant. They asked me to sit on the couch. The first thing they did was take pictures of my fish tank. I heard on the news that Brown had been arrested for cutting off the mans leg. What did they think that I was keeping it in the fish tank?
"They were here for hours. They told me I was going to jail and that I would never see my kids again. I was crying. I begged them, I said, Please dont take my kids away. They said Brown bought me from my father. Did he pay for you? I said I wasnt a cow. Yes, it was an arranged marriage, but so what?"
Julie, a native of the Caribbean island of St. Lucia, met Brown in 1981, when he opened a practice there. "He asked me if I would like to get married," she says. "I said, I dont know. I was 17. He was 59."
Although the two were divorced in the early 90s, after Brown was sent to prison for practicing medicine without a license, Julie says she still loves him. "He raised me. He taught me to read and write. Hes a really good man. If I had it to do again, Id marry him in a heartbeat."
One thing I quickly discover is that there appears to be no broad middle ground in peoples opinion of John Brown. Some former patients cant praise him highly enough. "He did exactly what I asked," says one young woman who asked Brown to increase her cup size from 34B to 36B. "He was always a gentleman, courteous, very considerate, thoughtful, intellectual and calm."
To old friend and longtime admirer Patrice Baxter, Brown was "one of the best surgeons in the United States." Not only did he do Baxters tummy tuck, face-lift and breast implants, he also did her granddaughters ears. "They stuck out. The kids on her track team called her Dumbo Why dont you just fly? He did her nose, too." It turned out so well that she became a model.
At 66, Baxter has a trusting manner, pink, unblemished cheeks and, thanks to Brown, a generous uplifted bosom. She met Brown in Rosarito Beach in 1982, she tells me, and over the years he operated on so many of her friends and relatives that it became a running joke. One time when Brown was visiting Baxters home, she ran out of bedrooms. "So my girlfriend says, Well, he can sleep in my room. Hes seen everything Ive got. Then I said, Well, he can sleep in my room. Hes made everything Ive got."
Which isnt to say that Brown didnt have his faults, says Baxter. "He was brilliant, but he had no common sense. He would walk through plate-glass doors. He couldnt balance his checkbook." Sometimes in the middle of a conversation hed just pick up a magazine and begin to read. His bedside manner was no great shakes, either. "He tended to mumble. He didnt hold your hand."
But so what? she asks. "He wasnt a general practitioner," he was a surgeon. He certainly wasnt in it for the money. "He only charged $2,500 [for a sex change]. Half the time they didnt even pay."
In the last 25 years, according to Browns estimate, he did 600 male-to-female sex-change operations, most without benefit of a medical license. Even so, with at least some of them, the results could hardly have been better. One 33-year-old "manager for a major airline" tells me she had Brown do her gender- reassignment surgery in 1985, when she was only 19. It was so successful, she says, that when she later got married, her husband never guessed shed been a male. (To simulate a period, she used to prick her finger to leave bloodstains on the sheets.) I also hear from Ann, a Cambodian refugee whose father was killed by the Khmer Rouge, that Brown changed her entire "suffering, painful life" from that of "an ugly worm to a beautiful butterfly." Furthermore, unlike that of some transsexuals, who have difficulty passing as women, her surgery turned out so well, she says, that she got a job as a stripper in Las Vegas Chinatown.
At the same time, there are plenty of other people who tell me they wont rest until Brown is behind bars for life. UC San Diego plastic-surgery professor Jack Fisher has personally repaired 12 to 15 of what he calls Browns "pelvic disasters." "Hes a terrible, appalling technical surgeon," says Fisher. "Theres just no other way to describe it. He doesnt know how to make a straight incision. He doesnt know how to hold a knife. He has no regard for limiting blood loss." Basically, says Fisher, the man "had been committing crimes against humanity for years."
Dallas Denny, an Atlanta-based transgender author and activist who periodically posts warnings about Brown on the Internet, says that among transsexuals he was known as "Table Top Brown" for his willingness to operate in kitchens, garages and motel rooms. "Patients were waking up in parked cars or abandoned in hotel rooms. There was no screening and no aftercare. Anyone who walked in the room was a candidate."
And the results of the surgery, says Denny, were horrific. "Some of these people, expecting vaginoplasties, received simple penectomies, leaving them looking somewhat like a Barbie doll," she wrote in a 1995 attack on Browns skills. "Others ended up with something which looked like a penis which had been split and sewn to their groin which is essentially what had been done. Some ended up with vaginas which were lined with hair-bearing scrotal skin; these vaginas quickly filled up with pubic hair, becoming inflamed and infected. Some ended up with peritonitis, some with permanent colostomies. Some ran out of money and were dumped in back alleys and parking lots to live or die."
Cheree, a northern California businesswoman, went to Mexico in 1984 to have dual sexual-reassignment surgery with her brother at Browns Tijuana clinic. "He ran specials bring a girlfriend, two for the price of one." But after Cheree saw the conditions there, she changed her mind. "The sewers overflowed once or twice a day." There was never enough running water or enough bathrooms. The operating room was just an ordinary bedroom with an ob-gyn chair. Sometimes, says Cheree, "Brown would sip coffee while doing the operation."
But the thing that most bothered Cheree, she says, was Browns "brusque" attitude. After surgery, he would grab the dried, blood-clotted bandages and rip them right off. He was always so disheveled, too. "His hair went in different directions. His shoes were scuffed and worn down. I remember him walking down the hall eating raw weenies right out of the package. A fucking package of weenies!"
In one case, says Cheree, who spent 11 days at Browns clinic caring for her (new) sister, Brown operated on an HIV-positive patient who still had pins in her arm from an auto accident (she used the insurance settlement to pay for her surgery). In another, he used too much erectile tissue to construct genital outer lips. As a result, whenever the girl got excited "her labia got hard."
But despite Browns flaws, says Cheree, there was a reason why so many "girls" went to him "He gives you a vagina at a fair price." Whereas with other doctors you had to take hormones, wait up to six years, live as a woman, undergo psychological evaluations and then pay $12,000 to $20,000 or more, with Brown it was good old-fashioned capitalistic cash-and-carry. Anyone, says Cheree, could ã raise the necessary $2,000 or $3,000 Brown used to charge (in the 80s) by turning "a couple of tricks." The word would go out that Brown was coming to town. "Hed shoot silicone anywhere you wanted it. For $200 hed do breast surgery. For $500 hed do cheeks, breasts and hips. After injections you had to lie flat on your back for three days so the silicone wouldnt go anywhere. He plugged the holes with Krazy Glue."
There wasnt any indication in Browns early years that hed one day end up as an itinerant peddler of silicone injections. The son of a Mormon physician, he found academics so easy that he graduated from high school before he turned 16. When he was drafted by the Army in World War II, he did so well on the General Classification Test (scoring higher, Brown says, than any of the previous 300,000 people who had gone through the Salt Lake Induction Center) that the Army pulled him out of the clerk-typist pool and sent him to medical school. He graduated from the University of Utah School of Medicine in August 1947. But after two decades as a general practitioner in California, Alaska, Hawaii and the Marshall Islands (and after nearly losing a patient when he got in over his head during a thyroidectomy), Brown decided he needed formal surgical training. He spent two years at Newark City Hospital as chief resident, he says. Later, he attended a program in plastic surgery at New Yorks Columbia-Presbyterian Hospital, but in what would become the first great professional disappointment of his life, he was never able to achieve certification by the American Board of Plastic Surgery (and with it staff privileges at major hospitals).
"I passed the written part of the exam without cracking a book," he says. The problem was the orals. As a result of having grown up with a "domineering" father, he tended to fold when confronted by authority figures. "My brain turns to cottage cheese."
Ten years later, in 1977, in what was the second great disappointment of his life, the California Board of Medical Quality Assurance, in part as a result of his association with James Spence, revoked his medical license for "gross negligence, incompetence and practicing unprofessional medicine in a manner which involved moral turpitude." Among other things, the board charged, Brown allowed Spence to hold himself out as an M.D.; he allowed unlicensed people, including other transsexual patients, to write prescriptions under his signature, diagnose patients and provide medical care; he misrepresented sex-change surgery on insurance forms as corrective surgery for "the congenital absence of a vagina"; he exhibited "gross negligence" by failing to perform sex-change operations in an acute-care facility (Brown did them in his office on an outpatient basis); he unaccountably failed to hospitalize a patient who had a "life-endangering" and "pus-infected" wound the size of a softball where his penis used to be; he failed to take medical histories or do physical exams before surgery; and he did sex-change surgery on virtually anyone who asked for it, regardless of whether they were physically or emotionally stable enough to cope with it.
Despite the medical boards harsh denunciation of Brown, the administrative judge who recommended that his license be revoked apparently did so reluctantly, as he also filed a "memorandum opinion" on Browns behalf, pointing out that the doctor, despite his "difficulties," appeared to be "a pioneer" who made "innovative contributions" to the emerging field of transsexual surgery. Perhaps a better resolution to the problem, wrote Judge Paul J. Doyle, would have been to limit Brown to doing surgery in a "medically recognized organization," while denying him any responsibility either for determining the eligibility of prospective patients or for their post-operative care.
Most doctors, when they have their licenses revoked, give up, leave the country or find another line of work. At first Brown did try to work outside the continental United States. But after successively losing permission to practice in Hawaii, Alaska and the island of St. Lucia ("I dont know what you have to do to lose your license in the Caribbean," says UCSDs Jack Fisher), Brown returned to Southern California, where he started what would eventually become an ambitious underground practice in gender-reassignment surgery, breast implants, face-lifts, liposuction, ã silicone injections, penile implants and penile enlargement. To avoid legal problems, he lived in Chula Vista but did his surgery in Mexico. (In his advertising brochures, Brown referred to this as his "international practice.")
In 1986, Penthouse Forum magazine sent a writer to Tijuana to investigate Browns claim that he could make penises an inch or two longer by cutting the suspensor ligament holding the penis root to the pubic bone. The article, published as "The Incredible Dick Doctor," portrayed Brown as a wildly inattentive driver who backed into other cars, an absent-minded dresser whose pants fell down in the operating room, and a blithe spirit of a surgeon who, when he accidentally made a cut in the penile shaft that sent blood spurting everywhere, casually declared, "I made a boo-boo."
A few years later, the television news magazine Inside Edition followed up on the Forum piece with an investigative story on "The Worst Doctor in America." In it, Brown, who apparently gave the camera crew free run of his clinic, is shown performing a scalp-flap operation to give a transsexual a more feminine hairline. Although the patient is supposedly under deep sedation, he moans and howls all through the procedure, a development Brown dismisses on camera as "nothing unusual."
It seemed unusual enough to the San Diego District Attorneys Office, however, that it launched an investigation that led to Browns spending 19 months in jail for practicing medicine without a license (hed previously been convicted of prescribing narcotics after his license had been revoked and practicing under a false name). The jail term didnt deter Brown. Hed decided to become a "rebel" long before. "I didnt like some of the things that organized doctors were doing, so I rebelled," he says. "Later I didnt like what the government was doing in support of the medical organizations, so I rebelled. I chose to ignore the laws." As soon as he could pull things together (he had to drive a taxi on Coronado Island for a year), he resumed his surgical practice, doing operations in Tijuana and living now in San Ysidro. It was there, in 1996, that he got that first tentative call from a New York therapist and apotemnophiliac by the name of Gregg Furth.
Furth was a Jungian analyst who in 1988 had published a well-regarded and often-cited book, The Secret World of Drawings, which analyzed the artwork of children dying of leukemia for clues to their subconscious (many apparently knew exactly when they were going to die). A handsome, personable man around 50, he was good friends with a much older man, Philip Bondy, a retired Loral (satellite) Corp. engineer and fellow apotemnophiliac who liked to collect photographs, slides and videos of male amputees.
Despite his professional training (and years in analysis), Furth still had no idea where his and Bondys apotemnophilia came from. Although Johns Hopkins psychologist John Money, who originated the term, had argued that apotemnophilia was "conceptually related to transsexualism, bisexuality and Munchausens syndrome (feigning illness to get medical care)," Furth believed it had less to do with sex and more to do with possession by an alien limb.
"The way he explained it to me," says Deputy D.A. Stacy Running, "is that its as if Your leg is attached to my body, and once I get it off, my body is whole. You see me as being mutilated. I see myself as finally being whole. I live with it. I cant understand it. How the hell do I explain it to you?"
Officially classified as a "paraphilia" (extreme or atypical sexual behavior or desire), apotemnophilia can be irresistibly intense. Some apotemnophiliacs, when they cant find a doctor to do the surgery, resort to removing unwanted limbs with chain saws, shotguns, trains and, in one case, a homemade guillotine. Others spend their time looking for a surgeon who will take their desires seriously and not just patronize them with referrals to psychiatrists. In 1996, while passing through San Diego, Furth came across a newspaper article about John Ronald Brown, and suddenly he knew hed found the man for whom hed been searching his entire adult life a competent "fringe" physician who wouldnt balk at cutting off a healthy leg.
Fearful that Brown would turn him down if he came right out and said he wanted his leg amputated "I didnt want to hear no over the phone," Furth would later testify he flew to San Diego to plead his case in person.
It wasnt a hard sell. Brown says he found Furth likable and persuasive, while Furth thought Brown uncommonly open-minded about a would-be amputees right to choose. Brown set the price of the procedure at $3,000, and in February 1997, Furth traveled to the Clinica Santa Isabel in Tijuana, where Brown did his surgery.
Unfortunately for Furth, Brown had neglected to tell the assisting doctor that theyd be cutting off a healthy leg. "He was Mexican, short and round," Furth testified. "He wanted to know what all this was about." When Furth told him, the doctor became enraged. "He kept saying, This isnt right! You dont want this!" Finally, he stormed out of the building, forcing Brown to cancel the surgery.
A year later, Brown called Furth with "good news and bad news." The good news was hed found another surgeon to help him. The bad news was the cost was now $10,000.
Although increasingly ambivalent about the surgery, Furth testified, he also felt he couldnt turn down such a rare opportunity. One reason: His good friend Philip Bondy planned to have his own leg cut off as soon as Furth had his done. So when Furth told him the day of the surgery that he was having second thoughts, Bondy "scolded" him, Furth testified, telling him that if he backed out now, "Youll regret this the rest of your life."
But on the taxi ride to the Clinica Santa Isabel, Furth found his attitude changing anyway. By the time he got there, he knew beyond any doubt that he did not want his leg removed. "It was over. It was finished. [My compulsion] had died. I went out and told Brown, Absolutely not."
Thinking perhaps that Furth was merely nervous, Brown offered him a sedative. But, Furth testified, he didnt want to be sedated. He wanted out of there. Before leaving, however, he suggested what he thought would be a win-win solution for everyone. Even though he no longer wanted the operation himself, he knew someone else who did. "Maybe we could switch it around," said Furth. "Philip [could] take my place."
Brown performed the operation on a Saturday morning. Bondy was happy at first, even though, as he would later tell Furth, he had felt Brown "sawing" on his leg. As it was just as illegal to amputate a healthy leg in Mexico as it is in the United States, right after the operation Brown drove 15 miles out into the desert on the old road to Ensenada and threw the leg out the window for the coyotes to eat. Then, before driving Bondy to the National City Holiday Inn, he gave his patient some lessons in walking with crutches. ("He kept falling down, " Brown says in some exasperation. He couldnt seem to grasp the concept of a three-point stance hed put his remaining foot between the crutch tips, not in front of or behind them.)
By Sunday, Bondy was feeling hungry and dehydrated, and his voice was sounding raspy. Furth, who was staying in an adjoining room, brought him food and water and sat up with him past midnight, talking about the surgery and what it all meant. Around 8 Monday morning, Furth testified, he came back to see what Bondy wanted for breakfast and discovered a "horrible," "traumatic" and "chaotic" scene.
Bondy was lying half on the bed and half off, with blood oozing from a blackened and gangrenous stump. "I saw the phone tipped over," Furth said. "I saw the wheelchair upsided. I saw the sheets pulled out. I touched the top of his head. Rigor mortis had set in. This man did not have a peaceful death."
As the medical examiner determined, Bondy had died from clostridia perfringens (also known as gaseous gangrene), a ã fast-moving flesh-eating bacteria that lowers blood pressure and causes the heart to stop. According to Jack Fisher, the bluntly outspoken UC San Diego plastic surgeon hired by the prosecution to critique Browns medical skills, Brown had failed to leave himself a large enough skin flap to cover the bone and stump. As a result, the skin was stretched too tight for any blood to flow. This killed the flap and allowed clostridia perfringens to feed on the dying flesh.
The photographs of Bondy on his deathbed reminded Stacy Running of an inmate at a concentration camp. "He was very thin, very emaciated. There was not an ounce of excess flesh. The skin on his face followed the skull. The mouth was open. It looked like he was screaming or crying when he died to God or I dont know whom."
It was clear to Running that Brown had amputated Bondys leg. It was equally clear that Bondy had paid him to do it. The question was why? Then she got a call from Gary Stovall, who was in New York searching Furths apartment.
"I can remember to this day," says Running, a petite, articulate woman with an open, guileless manner that reminds me of Mary Richards from The Mary Tyler Moore Show. "I was working here. Gary calls. Stacy, are you sitting down? Listen to this. And he started reading to me from a piece of literature [on apotemnophilia].
"That was when we first realized what we were dealing with that Phil Bondy wanted his leg cut off for a reason we couldnt comprehend. We were in shock. And we are people who see the worst that humanity has to offer. We see people do horrible things to their wives, their husbands, their children and their friends. Weve seen just about everything you can see. And then something like this comes up and knocks you for a loop."
Prosecutors have cases where they dont have enough evidence. They have cases where the evidence is contradictory. But rarely do they have a case where the evidence is abundant, bizarre and thoroughly documented on videotape.
When Detective Stovall searched Browns San Ysidro apartment, he found not only bloody shoes, bloody pillows, used needles, silicone vials and two or three dozen empty tubes of Krazy Glue, but bloody towels in the bathtub soaking in bleach, bloody swabs in a travel bag, and dozens of returned advertising brochures (apparently the remnants of a recent mail campaign), which read in part:
The prettiest pussies are John Brown pussies.
The happiest patients are John Brown patients.
Because . . .
1. Each has a sensitive clit.
2. All (99%) get orgasms.
3. Careful skin draping gives a natural appearance.
4. Men love the pretty pussies and the sexy response.
In what turned out to be a lucky break for the prosecution, Brown also owned videotapes of his operations. One of them, entitled "Jack Has a New Pisshole Behind His Balls," had been shot by a friend of the grateful patient and given to Brown as a gift. It showed Brown cutting an opening in Jacks urethra just behind his testicles so Jack could urinate sitting down. "The guy was tattooed from his head to his knees," says Running. "He had big flames coming out of his butthole. Just when you think youve seen it all . . ."
But it was the video of transsexual surgery that most fired up the prosecution against Brown. "Ive seen medical videos before," says Tom Basinski, an investigator in the D.A.s office. "Usually the scalpel slices right in." But Browns scalpel was so dull he had to push hard, saw back and forth. "I said to myself, Oh, my God. This is why this guy has to be stopped."
In the videos opening shot (which is reminiscent of that famous scene from The Crying Game), an attractive Asian girl Ann, the soon-to-be Las Vegas stripper is shown standing naked from the waist up, quietly chatting with Brown, who is off camera. She has nicely formed breasts, and abundant black hair that cascades down her shoulders. Then slowly the camera moves down her body and suddenly you realize she has a penis.
When the actual surgery starts, I find it so unsettling I have to turn off the tape. "All the men had the same reaction," says Running. "The judge asked, Do I have to watch this surgery? I said, Well, yes, you do. Youre the judge."
Apparently Brown intended the tape to be an advertising or training video, as the second scene shows the doctor sitting in a chair, wearing a white coat and explaining the upcoming operation to the camera. "He has a microphone, and his hand is kind of shaking," says Running. "You see him reach up and grab his hand. And this is his dominant hand, the one he operates with. He holds up crude drawings, ripped out of a spiral notebook. He says, This is the corpa . . . the corpa . . . Hes stumped on the word. He finally says it, the capora cavernosa, the spongy tissue on the underside of the penis. He goes on in this vein. You can see him waving [the cameraman] off when he loses a thought. The tape was so crude you could hear dogs barking during the surgery and music playing. The scrotal skin was lying on a board. It had pushpins in it. It was so dirty and dried out, it looked like it had been run over by a tire."
To Browns critics, in fact, it almost seemed as if he had seen too many Frankenstein movies. "Brown does an operation called an ileum loop," Running tells me, "in which he takes a piece of intestine, leaving it attached to the blood supply, and diverts it to make a vagina. The problem is, your intestines digest food, secrete enzymes, they smell. He almost killed a rebuttal witness in [a prior trial] by doing that to her. He pulls all your guts out on your stomach. Your intestines are connected to your vaginal lining. In many cases he stitches it back to your stomach, and you get peritonitis. He is quite the adventuresome surgeon. He uses human beings for guinea pigs. He is as close to [the Nazi doctor] Josef Mengele as you can get. But I couldnt say that in court. It would have been grounds for a mistrial."
Initially, says Running, the case against Brown "had come in as involuntary manslaughter," but after reviewing the evidence against him, she upgraded the charges to "implied malice murder in the second degree." This applies in cases where the defendant does something that is dangerous to human life, knowing it is dangerous to human life and doing it anyway. But it wasnt enough merely to show that Brown had botched Philip Bondys surgery and then abandoned him in a hotel room. To make the murder charge stick, Running had to demonstrate that Brown had a history of being reckless throughout his career. And to do that, she had to find former patients to testify against him.
They werent easy to come by. Some people told powerful, compelling stories, only to recant them a few weeks later. Some people clearly had hidden agendas. Others told stories that simply didnt jibe with the known facts. On top of this were the large number of women who didnt want it known that they once were men.
When D.A. investigator Basinski, a tall, outgoing former cop with a shaved head and big gray mustache, began calling the people on Browns patient lists, a lot of them just hung up on him. "Some were hookers," he says. "Some thought they were in trouble. Some just didnt like the police. I called one woman, and an older woman answered. Why do you want my son? she said. He committed suicide two weeks ago."
As Basinski later learned, Christina (formerly known as Eddie) had mortgaged her house to pay for a total of 10 surgeries by Brown. But according to legal documents filed by Running, the skin grafts that Brown used to line Christinas vaginal walls were so thin that they tore during intercourse. When Brown removed Christinas lower ribs to give her a narrower and more feminine waist, she subsequently developed an abscess as big as a basketball. Christinas nose job turned out so poorly that she ended up with different-sized nostrils, one of which turned up like that of a pig. Christina complained to Brown that hed made her vaginal entrance too small. But when Brown enlarged it, Christina felt hed "ruined" her.
Today, Brown says he feels badly that he didnt better explain the procedure to Christina. But when he called to tell her he was refunding $500, her mother told him that her son had just hanged himself in the garage. (According to Running, Brown took the news quite calmly, noting merely that "transsexuals had a high suicide rate.")
There was another patient, a genetic female named Mona, who had gone to Brown for breast implants and a face-lift. But Brown, says Running, accidentally cut a nerve in Monas face, leaving her with a crooked smile. Her implants also failed, causing her breasts to rot, turn black and leak a fluid that her boyfriend said smelled like "cat piss." Everything was so bizarre. Sometimes, says Running, when Brown dropped by to inject Mona with pain killers, hed be wearing only one shoe.
Runnings most effective witness, perhaps, was Camille Locke, a bright and forceful woman who at times can be quite contentious. (Basinski says he got so mad at her in an argument over O.J. Simpson that he "wanted to punch her out.") Despite her strong personality, Camille is quite modest in her language and demeanor (when referring to a penis, she demurely calls it a "phallus").
Before her sex-change surgery, Camille had once been an insurance underwriter with clients like Caterpillar and International Harvester. But after surgery, she tells me, she was lucky to find a $5-an-hour job teaching brokers telephone sales.
When Brown did Camilles sex-change surgery in November 1997, the operation took two hours. "He gave me an epidural," says Camille. "I woke up 10 minutes prior to the end of the operation. We started talking. Brown said, Were almost done. I wasnt scared. I was happy as hell. I was finally getting what I wanted. When you are climbing Mount Everest, you dont worry about a little frostbite on the top."
To keep her vaginal opening from growing shut while it healed, Brown gave Camille a phallus-shaped stent made of the same kind of foam used to cushion furniture. "He told me to put a condom on it. I had to hold it in place with little white bra straps. Otherwise it would fall out when I stood up."
After several days, Camille returned to her home in the San Fernando Valley to recuperate. There, to her horror, she developed a recto-vaginal fistula that caused feces to pour out of her vagina. "My bladder was blocked, my lymph glands swelled up and my skin turned yellow," she says. She was hiccuping constantly, unable to stand, and near death. "Black stuff was pouring out of my lungs, all my systems were shutting down. All I would have had to do is take one breath and let go." After five days, a friend found her lying in her own feces and drove her to the ã hospital, where the doctors took one look and said, "What the hell is this?"
The pain was so bad, says Camille, she was screaming at the top of her lungs for 24 hours straight. "They were giving me morphine every 15 minutes. I had an MRI and CAT scan. Six doctors were operating on me simultaneously. I had to have a [temporary] colostomy. They were ready to body-bag and toe-tag me."
Running knew such stories would have enormous impact with a jury if she could only get the witnesses to court. "We were dealing with people who were very needy, very high-maintenance and sometimes petulant. Many were terrified that the community in which they live and work would find out. Carrie [another witness against Brown] once came to court wearing two wigs, sunglasses and her hair down over her face. "Gary [Stovall] leaned over to me Your witness looks like a sheepdog."
Defense attorneys have an old saying: When the facts are on your side, argue the facts. When you dont have the facts, argue the law. And when you have neither the facts nor the law, pound the table.
And thats exactly what Browns attorney, Sheldon Sherman, did, says Running: "He slammed his hand on my table at least 17 times. He screamed and slammed his hand, and spittle flew and caught me under my right eye. And he is frothing at the mouth at these God-like doctors who wont let Brown be a part of their club!"
"It was a tough case," says Sherman, a blunt-talking, no-nonsense attorney. "The evidence, facts and the law were all against us."
Having no really good defense options, Sherman chose to portray Brown as a brave and caring man who tended to a segment of society no one cared about. "No one else would deal with transsexuals," he said in his closing argument. "John Brown said, Ill deal with them. Did he do this for money? No. He did it because he cared. And if you dont believe that, then you have my permission as if you needed it to find him guilty of murder."
Unfortunately for Brown, after a day of deliberations that is exactly what the jury did.
Sherman, who is planning to appeal the verdict, says he still cant understand how any California court ever got the authority to try Brown for murder. "Brown is guilty of practicing medicine without a license," he says. "I could also go with the notion that he was guilty of manslaughter. But murder? Come on. How does California even get jurisdiction? If you shot someone in Mexico and he died in California, could you be charged with shooting him in California? Of course not. Its the same principle."
Besides, he says, it was never Browns intention to murder anyone. He was trying to help Philip Bondy. "He believed that if you are a consenting adult you should be allowed to do what you want to do. Who is not to say the 48 hours [that Bondy lived after the surgery] werent the happiest 48 hours of his life?"
Browns sentencing is now set for December 17. Given the small latitude open to the judge in such matters, says Sherman, Brown will most likely get 22 years to life.
Which to Gerry McClellan, an investigator for the California medical licensing board who has followed Browns career for nearly 25 years, is very good news indeed. Brown, says McClellan, is one of those people who, because he lives his life almost entirely in his own mind, is impervious to reality. "He has no social conscience. He really believes in what he does. Thats what makes him so dangerous. He is a sociopath, a sincere sociopath. Jail is a momentary hindrance to him. Hes been burned before he keeps putting his hand on the stove. There is some kind of grander scheme he is fulfilling. I just dont know what it is."
Actually, as Brown tells me in a series of late-night collect calls from prison, it isnt his scheme. Its Gods scheme. And there isnt just one, there are many. In the main scenario, Brown is released from jail, raises money and finishes development of a "hyperthermia chamber" that, he says, will cure cancer, AIDS and genital herpes. As Brown explains it, the patient would be placed in a chamber with an IV drip to replace lost fluid, swathed in bandages and sprayed with hot water to induce a healing fever.
Brown has also developed a prototype of an asphalt removal machine that uses chisels set at a 45-degree angle in a rotating drum, which would cut the cost of such removal from $2 to $4 a linear foot to a mere 50 cents. He has designed an aerodynamic attachment for the rear of trailer trucks that he says will reduce fuel costs by one third. He has plans to write four books: an autobiography based on his medical career; a full explanation of the movement of tectonic plates; a proof of the existence of God based on gaps in evolutionary theory; and most important of all to Brown, a novel about the life of Jesus based on little known facts in the historical record. This last book, which causes Brown to sob whenever he talks about it, will tell the story of what he believes was Jesuss youthful betrothal to Mary Magdalene, his uncles crucifixion in an earlier Roman terror campaign, and Jesuss role in orchestrating his own crucifixion.
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In the meantime, Brown is pursuing what he calls the "Doc Holliday" scenario. Before he was arrested, Brown had written to a dozen states, asking if they would consider giving him a license if he would agree to work as a general practitioner in some small rural setting without a resident physician.
The problem at the moment, of course, is that hes locked up in jail. But even that, Brown believes, is not necessarily an insurmountable obstacle. After he lost his license in 1977, he says, he went to live on a 550-acre Mexican ranch. As he was walking up a hill one night carrying a kerosene lantern, God spoke to him, clearly and distinctly. "Words started pushing into my mind," says Brown. "The words kept coming up for two days. The message began, Why do you kick against the traces? It went on: You should know that the details of your life have been arranged so that you would be where you are now, doing what you are doing. I knew that meant working with the transsexuals. It went on: What you are doing is appreciated, because these are my children, too."
By the time the conversation was over, says Brown, he knew hed been given a mission to take care of the surgical needs of Gods "children," the transsexuals, for the next 20 years. Now, he says, God is guiding his steps again, this time to finish his hyperthermia chamber for curing congenital AIDS. In case He forgets, says Brown, every day he "reminds" God of the "special program I plan for AIDS babies, and I pray every night He will release me soon."
But if God has some other plan for him, Brown says, "Ill be content to be here as long as He wants me here."


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New York Times reporter Judith Miller has finally been released from jail, after agreeing to testify to what everyone already knew, i.e., that she discussed Valerie Plame with Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney's chief of staff. I wrote about this last night; like many others, I expressed puzzlement over why Miller has finally agreed to name Libby, when he gave her and other journalists permission to do so a year ago.
Several readers have written to point out that I had missed a key fact that was not disclosed in the article I linked to last night, but was in today's article in the Washington Post:
After she received this "personal, voluntary waiver," Miller said, her lawyer approached the special prosecutor in the leak investigation and received an assurance that her testimony would be narrowly limited to her communications with the source. She did not mention the source's name in her brief appearance on the courthouse steps, but he has been identified previously as I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby…
Bingo. No one is crazy enough to sit in jail over a silly misunderstanding–she wanted a "personal" waiver, and Libby was happy to give it to her, in fact thought he had given it to her last year, but somehow they failed to communicate. No, Judith Miller sat in jail until the prosecutor agreed that she would not have to testify about any source of the information about Valerie Plame other than Libby. Miller had multiple sources, and everyone already knew that she talked to Libby. The real question is, who was her other source? Some have speculated that it may have been Plame's husband, Joe Wilson, or maybe another journalist. Now, we may never know.
It's hard not to find the prosecutor's action here disturbing. Who is the second source that Miller went to jail to protect? Why is the prosecutor willing to forgo information about the second source? If Plame's own husband was telling journalists that his wife was a CIA employee, isn't that highly relevant to whether someone in the administration should be criminally prosecuted for saying the same thing? Or, if Plame's employment was so widely known that journalists were telling one another that she worked for the Agency, isn't that likewise relevant to any prospective criminal prosecution?
Is Scooter Libby being set up? Let's hope not.
PAUL adds: One thing seems clear in all of this — Miller's lawyer Robert Bennett is way out of line as he makes the rounds of the talk shows suggesting that Scooter Libby should have called Judith Miller earlier to personally assure her that she had his permission to testify. For example, he told Wolf Blitzer:
Mr. Libby knew where Judy was. He had her phone number. They knew each other. There was no secret where she was. So I find it amazing that somebody would suggest that Judy would unnecessarily spend 85 days in jail.
I find it amazing that Bennett would say something this ridiculous. As CNN has reported, Libby's lawyer (Joseph Tate) told Miller's original lawyer (Floyd Abrams) a year ago that she could testify as to Libby's conversation with Miller. And Libby himself testified twice before the grand jury about his conversation with Miller. The claim that Miller thought Libby's waiver of confidentiality might have been coerced is absurd. As Bennett knows, these waivers are executed in writing with a lawyer present, and state that they are given freely and voluntarily. In the real world, a lawyer-to-lawyer conversation between Tate and Abrams in which the former represented that his client had executed a waiver would have left no doubt that an uncoerced waiver had been granted. But if there was any doubt, Miller had a year to resolve it before going to jail.
In any case, Libby had no reason to contact Miller's attorney again. As Tate told CNN, Libby assumed that Miller was protecting another source, as she very likely was. (Another, more speculative, possibility is that Miller was trying to play the martyr, perhaps to restore her "street credibility" after coming under attack from liberals for her reporting on WMD in Iraq). Thus, absent any word from Miller's lawyer, Libby had no reason to think that Miller was in jail because she was protecting him, nor is there any reason to think that now. But as soon as Libby got word that Miller was claiming she needed personal assurances, Libby provided them. This makes it all the more unconscionable for Bennett to suggest that Libby is to blame for Miller stay in jail. And it's absurd to believe that, if all Miller wanted was another, more personalized assurance from Libby, she would not have had her lawyer obtain it sooner.
In this regard, it's also odd that Miller remained in jail for more than ten days after Libby provided his most recent assurances. This is further evidence that the real problem for Miller was not the absence of Libby's voice repeating what his lawyer had long ago said. As John suggests, it's most likely that the real event that had to occur in order to spring Miller was the prosecutor's decision not to target the source Miller actually was protecting.
UPDATE: A New York lawyer has another theory, which is plausible. It's also light years beyond anything you'll read on this topic in the newspapers tomorrow:
Re: your post this evening regarding Judith Miller. Her change of heart may have been prompted by the prosecutor's agreement to refrain from questioning her not about other sources in the Plame matter, but about another matter in which the same prosecutor filed a motion to compel Miller's testimony before the grand jury.
I wrote you about this several months ago. In a published decision, U.S.D.J. Robert Sweet (S.D.N.Y.) denied Fitzpatrick's motion to compel Miller to testify before a grand jury relating to a leak to Miller about a warrant issued to the FBI for a search of a New York Muslim charity's offices. A source leaked this information to Miller, who, incredibly, promptly contacted the Muslim charity and revealed the warrant prior to the search. Fortunately, no FBI agents were injured when they searched the offices the next day, in what clearly could have developed into a very dangerous situation.
District Judge Sweet (I will resist reiterating my comments regarding him included in my other email to you) denied the prosecutor's motion to compel Miller's testimony about this incident, finding, if you can believe it, that Miller's conduct was permissible because it was merely in keeping with the Times' editorial policy of contacting subjects of upcoming articles for comment prior to publication. In opposing the motion Miller stated that she was contacting the charity to get its comments about an article she planned to write after the search had been conducted. In doing so, of course, she divulged the existence of the warrant and created a situation where the office could have been booby-trapped, or at a minimum crucial evidence destroyed or removed. As an attorney, I found the facts of this case and Judge Sweet's reasoning so disturbing that I continue to be shocked, months later, that this incident hasn't received more public comment. I don't expect the Times to report it, of course, but where is the alternative media? I noted that the prosecutor himself (as opposed to a deputy) filed a long affidavit in support of the application, which I understand is something of a rare occurrence in criminal practice. If you haven't read the decision you really should. I found it to be an eye-opener.
In any case, I always thought that Miller agreed to go to jail not to protect a dubious principle and a source who had already clearly released her from confidentiality in the Plame matter, but rather out of self-preservation, so that she could safely ride out the duration of the grand jury in jail without having to testify about the search warrant affair and her frankly criminal role in that. If my sense about this is correct, she caved once it was suggested that the grand jury could be extended for up to 18 more months. The absurdly public "release" from confidentiality recently restated by Scooter Libby gives her cover, but my hunch is that the real reason for her release from jail is the prosecutor's agreement to limit his questioning of her to the Libby contacts, which puts the search warrant matter off limits.
If you are interested in reading Judge Sweet's opinion let me know and I'll try to locate a copy or a link. The decision was published in the New York Law Journal.
Love the site. It is consistently the most informative, reasoned and interesting blog I have seen.
If that's right, maybe it's good news for Libby: he's not being set up by the prosecutor, he's just the PR fall guy for Miller and her lawyer, who don't want to mention a discreditable incident about which the public knows nothing. I hope that's the right explanation. It still leaves open, of course, the question of why Fitzgerald seemed to think it was a big deal to get Miller's testimony, if he wasn't interested in the second source.
The case referred to by our reader can be accessed here.
PAUL adds: While we're on the subject of unconscionable statements, consider this one by New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.: "We are very pleased that [Miller] has finally received a direct and uncoerced waiver, both by phone and in writing, releasing her from any claim of confidentiality and enabling her to testify." (emphasis added) Miller had a direct and uncoerced written waiver a year ago and she got the "phone" version immediately after she asked for it. It would have been hard for Paul Krugman to produce a more misleading statement than Sulzberger's.

subset: commoncrawl


text:
Welcome to our little sports annex for Martial Arts. Over
time we will expand coverage similar to our coverage found at Fastpitch Central.
Presently we simply want to provide the Sports Communicator. It will improve the internal communications of your team.
Or, if you simply love sports pictures on your desktop, try Sports Pictures. And, don't miss the 'Todays News Group' click found at the bottom of the Team Web Connections section.


text:
I'd like to create a callback function in rails that executes after a model is saved.
I have this model, Claim that has a attribute 'status' which changes depending on the state of the claim, possible values are pending, endorsed, approved, rejected
The database has 'state' with the default value of 'pending'.
I'd like to perform certain tasks after the model is created on the first time or updated from one state to another, depending on which state it changes from.
My idea is to have a function in the model:
after_save :check_state
def check_state
# if status changed from nil to pending (created)
do this
# if status changed from pending to approved
My question is how do I check for the previous value before the change within the model?


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Ever Work Really Hard on a Texting Ban Then Go Mama Grizzly To Protect It?
Sioux Falls has one. Pennington County does as well. Add Mitchell, Watertown, Brookings, Vermillion and Huron to South Dakota municipalities who have texting bans at the local level.
The South Dakota Legislature has had the issue in front of them for multiple years, but has not gained a consensus. This has led to bans at the local level. However, a measure that is under consideration could subvert the local action.
Rich Lauer of Sioux Falls spearheaded the effort to get the texting ban in place in this community and is miffed to put it mildly. "I don't think anyone whose IQ is north of their body temperature believes that texting and driving is a good idea. Unfortunately the legislature has not been successful in reflecting the will of the people. Responsible communities have taken it upon themselves to pass ordinances. Laws are devices that an organized society uses to express its concerns and feelings on important issues of the day." All the studies show that distracted driving is a detriment. Insurance companies, police organizations and the general public are in agreement on the issue.
So what does the above statue do to local laws that cover distracted driving? Rich Lauer says those local laws become meaningless. It changes the category from a primary offense to a secondary offense. Which means you can be pulled over if the police catch you in the act of texting and driving right now. If the new law is passed, there must be another reason besides distracted driving to be pulled over.
The last portion of the bill is especially troubling to Lauer. "The police are not allowed to confiscate any electronic equipment. So if there was an accident and there was a suspicion that you were texting and driving, (the police) cannot find out. It takes away the ability for police to gather evidence."
The text of HB 1177 that pertains to banning texting while driving reads as follows:
No local government or local authority, except as expressly authorized by law, may adopt or enforce any ordinance or other measure regulating or restricting distracted or inattentive driving by a person who is operating a motor vehicle on a highway if the ordinance or measure is contrary to or at variance with any provision of state law relating to such activity or if no state law relating to such activity has been enacted or is in effect.
For purposes of this section, the term, distracted or inattentive driving, includes operating a motor vehicle while using electronic communications devices or electronic messaging, consuming food or beverages, interacting with passengers, watching television or other electronic or printed visual media, or engaging in other activity that may interfere with the ability to focus on driving tasks.


text:
Back to Search Results | Start New Search
Tire Size: P215/50R17
Serv. Desc: 90T
Sidewall: BW
Max Load: 1323 lbs
Warranty (mi.) 65,000
Availability: Call for availability
3 out of 5Submitted by Jay in Tennessee on 7/15/2015(1990 Mazda Miata Base)
Toyo tires were on this car when I bought it new in 1990 and I immediately changed them due to traction issues. I'm only back now as hardly anyone else seems to carry this tire size any more. They have not improved in 25 years. I have 500,000 miles on this car and these are the worst tires I have ever had on it. 15,000 miles and two of the four new ones are bald even though I rotate and balance religiously.
4.65 out of 5Submitted by Jocelyn in North Carolina on 12/12/2014(2005 Toyota Corolla LE)
I recently purchased a full set of these tires for my Corolla. I have been impressed with their handling. I have not been able to try them out in the snow yet, but am looking forward to it. Good price for a good tire!
5 out of 5Submitted by Jessica in Massachusetts on 12/7/2014(1995 Volkswagen Jetta GLX)
Went great in snow!
5 out of 5Submitted by Adina in Indiana on 10/18/2014(2007 Toyota Camry Hybrid)
I have to be very honest, I don't know what these tires are going to do in the snow or in the rain yet. I just got them yesterday. They were recommended to me, and when I say I feel like I'm riding on air...I mean it! Love these tires, they make my car ride like it's brand new again. I'll give another review after the winter to see how they hold up.
4.55 out of 5Submitted by David in Indiana on 10/2/2014(2000 Chevrolet Impala LS)
Very good tires. I would definitely buy again. I commute 81 miles a day for work. Long lasting.
4.7 out of 5Submitted by Theresa in North Carolina on 9/12/2014(2009 Toyota Camry LE)
Toyo tires are EXCELLENT. They live up to your expectations along with the Excellent expectation of the Toyota Camry.
5 out of 5Submitted by Cory in West Virginia on 9/10/2014(2006 Chevrolet Cobalt LS)
All I ever buy for my Cobalt is Toyo Tires. The best wheels for the price. Snow, Rain, Sleet, Hail. These tires let my car go pretty much anywhere. Within reason of course. Limited Slip and Plenty of Grip! I have recommended this brand to many people over the years and they all feel the same way I do.
4.55 out of 5Submitted by DAVID in Tennessee on 8/11/2014(2000 Honda Accord SE)
Best tire ever on this car. Good ride, good driving, a little road whine, but great tread life. With 30k, these tires are still like new.
3.65 out of 5Submitted by Dan in New York on 4/7/2014(1983 BMW 320i Base)
Bought these for my 74 BMW as 13" tires are limited. Toyo makes great tires.
Submit Review


text:
I'm wondering if these should go in a blog, but on the other hand who other then you guys care
I'm pretty much done with the Networking Academy CCNA Routing course besides building the skill labs and doing the final test. I went through it so fast I decided to take a step back and read the corresponding chapters out of the Cisco Press ICND2 Book and visit Jeremy's and Bryant's videos to pick up what I could.
I've been doing a lot of labs lately, mostly focusing on real world troubleshooting scenarios and trying to learn the right debug options and how to read the output. I'm starting to really appreciate Cisco's white papers!
I've just finished reading about ACL's and started compiling my notes into a pdf so I can start doing some Labs. I started doing some standard access lists last night, but It was to late and my brain was fried.
I'm still planning on sitting the ICND2 at the end of Febuary as long as I can get through Frame-Relay and NAT and still feel like I retained enough. It will be close.. I really wish I could encounter more issues or have more trouble with a particular subject so I could include you guys more! So far things have been going pretty smooth.
You guys are awsome!


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Minnehaha Commissioners Approve Fertilizer, Seed Plant near Colton
SIOUX FALLS - Commissioners in Minnehaha County have approved a $10 million fertilizer and seed plant near Colton.
The Argus Leader reports that the commission voted 4-0 to allow the Eastern Farmers Cooperative to build the plant, which is scheduled to open in 2014. The farmer's co-op is looking to consolidate two older facilities.
Some nearby residents asked commissioners to deny the permit, saying possible anhydrous ammonia spills would threaten their safety.
Commissioners upheld a decision by the planning and zoning department, which granted a conditional-use permit Jan. 28. Opponents were appealing that decision Tuesday.
Commissioner Jeff Barth says the plant would be served by two paved roads and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. He says the location is "as good as it gets."
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.


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The Buccaneers have swung wildly in years past, from playoff team to also-ran in a heartbeat.
That's the reason they changed coaches a year ago, but new boss Greg Schiano saw the same kind of inconsistency within a season as an NFL rookie.
The Bucs overcame a 1-3 start to win five of their next six, but then lost five of the last seven to finish a disappointing 7-9. That's part of the reason they're hard to peg, and we have them 24th in our preseason power rankings.
They added some top-shelf talent (as has become their custom), but have some worrisome thin spots that could compromise their ability to become a consistent contender.
You can read the full preview here, and then tell us if we've gotten in right with the rankings in the poll below.


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Find Our Town Alabama victim assistance centers. Victim assistance centers provide information about crime and criminal victimization, domestic violence, NOVA, victims compensation funds and impact statements.
Alabama Crime Victims Assistance 50 North Ripley Street Montgomery AL 36130 37.4 miles from Our Town 334-290-4420
Montgomery Montgomery County Victims Assistance 100 South Lawrence Street Montgomery AL 36104 37.8 miles from Our Town 334-832-2550
Montogomery Alabama Victims Assistance 422 South Court Street Montgomery AL 36104 38.0 miles from Our Town 334-262-7197
Montgomery AL Victims Assistance 645 South McDonough Street Montgomery AL 36104 38.1 miles from Our Town 334-242-4007
Eligibility for victim compensation or restitution varies by state. Generally, anyone who has suffered a crime-related injury or mental trauma may be eligible to request compensation or restitution. In cases of crime-related death, the victim's family may be able to request compensation. In some states, a victim suffering economic losses or damages may also be able to request restitution.What is the source of funding for victim compensation funds?
Funding for victim compensation funds comes from penalties and fines paid by convicted offenders. Inmates who are earning wages while incarcerated may be required to pay into a victim compensation fund. Private donations may also be made to victim compensation funds.How are victims protected after an offender is released from prison?
Depending on the type of case, special conditions may be placed on the offender's release from prison. These conditions may involve no-contact provisions or prohibitions against coming within a certain distance of a victim's home. Victims may also receive end of sentence notifications and community release notifications.


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NM Tech Student Team Assesses Feasibility of New Filtering Unit, Dec. 7, 2007
by George Zamora
Right: Standing next to a prototype of a New Mexico Tech -developed SMZ/ZVI water-filtering system are (left to right) Tech team members Ben Simpson, senior majoring in management technology, Vincent Brandon, senior majoring in mechanical engineering, and Peter Anselmo, Tech management professor and Team faculty advisor.
SOCORRO, N.M., Dec. 7, 2007 – A New Mexico Tech team comprised of five Tech undergraduates is working to assess the commercial feasibility of a new water-filtration system which was developed using technology pioneered by a hydrologist at the research university.
Under the project, which is part of the National Science Foundation-funded New Mexico-Chihuahua Partnership for Innovation, students enrolled in New Mexico Tech's management and mechanical engineering departments also are collaborating with colleagues at New Mexico State University and three universities in Mexico to comprehensively test the filtration system, which uses a surfactant-modified zeolite/zero-valent iron (SMZ/ZVI) water-filtration medium.
The novel SMZ/ZVI filtering system was developed in large part by New Mexico Tech hydrology professor and researcher Robert Bowman and was patented by Tech.
The current version of the water-filtration system being tested uses gravity to force water through the filtering medium, which is housed in a large fiberglass canister that resembles an oxygen tank.
Previous tests conducted at New Mexico Tech show that SMZ/ZVI water-filtering systems can effectively be used to remove undesirable contaminants and metals, such as arsenic, from water. In addition, the filtering system was shown to also remove bacteria and viruses from waters being tested.
"In projects like this, two of the key variables for assessing commercialization potential are scalability and cost," said Peter Anselmo, chair of the New Mexico Tech Department of Management and faculty advisor for the team project.
"We are testing both these factors with the filtration system we've built, as we continue to sample water on a daily basis to see whether the SMZ/ZVI medium, which works great in the lab, will work as well with larger volumes of water passing through it," Anselmo related.
The New Mexico Tech team recently was the beneficiary of test equipment donated to the project by Sandia National Laboratories.
"This recently donated equipment will provide an additional means of testing scalability of various configurations of the filtration medium that we can then use to supplement the testing currently being conducted by our partners in Mexico," Anselmo said.
"If it is found to work under an assortment of various real-world conditions, then we need to know how long or how much water volume a given amount of filtering medium can handle," he said. "The latter is obviously related to the cost issue."
Anselmo pointed out that the commercial-feasibility study being conducted by the New Mexico Tech students is already international in scope, with actual water testing being conducted in Mexico, and that, once fully developed, the water-filtration system could be used worldwide.
In addition to water testing, the New Mexico Tech undergrads—management majors Jonathan Gardner, Duong Hung, and Ben Simpson, along with mechanical engineering major Vincent Brandon and electrical engineering/ physics major Robert Rayas — are also involved in developing related marketing plans and negotiating with prospective providers of raw materials and manufacturing equipment.
New Mexico Tech team members also are continuing to work in close conjunction with Bowman, keeping the filtering system's inventor appraised of their progress with the project.
"The areas we are currently targeting for field-testing this system are border areas along the U.S.-Mexico border, where either the groundwater or other drinking water sources — or both — are contaminated with various combinations of metallic, bacterial, and viral contaminants," Anselmo said.
The New Mexico-Chihuahua Partnership for Innovation has allowed New Mexico Tech students to interact one-on-one with students from the other collaborating universities, the team's faculty advisor added.
"It's been so successful that plans are underway to continue the Partnership beyond the existing projects' completion date of May 2008, so that the opportunities enjoyed by the current student team will be made available to more students in the future," Anselmo said.
"Commercialization of technology and creation of new technology driven business are crucial to the economic future of New Mexico," Anselmo continued, "and projects like this one also help us develop the managerial talent we need to work with and nurture to run the new local companies that we hope will be created as a result of these types of projects and partnerships."
In addition to their ongoing assessment of the commercial feasibility of the SMZ/ZVI water-filtration system, the team of New Mexico Tech students recently made a presentation on their research project at last month's New Mexico-Chihuahua Partnership for Innovation conference, held at university's Macey Conference Center in Socorro.


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On March 28, I was invited to brief Florida's junior Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) and his staff on the services the Miami Passport Agency provides U.S. citizens. Customer Service Assistant Rose Mederick, one of the agency's congressional liaison officers, as well as officials from other South Florida-based federal agencies, joined me to highlight their programs and the services they provide. The senator and his staff were very thankful for the Miami Passport Agency's work assisting U.S. citizens with their passport requests. He made special note of the many constituent requests his office receives for "very last-minute" passport emergencies and praised our ability to assist them in time for their international departures. The senator and his staff also lauded the outreach we do in Florida's diverse community and with our local press.
I am very privileged to be part of the Bureau of Consular Affairs in my role as one of the adjudication managers at the Miami Passport Agency. It is an honor to serve the public and lead a stellar team of career civil service officers -- several of whom have served in other cities and overseas. I have also come to realize that for most U.S. citizens, the only "direct" contact they will ever have with the U.S. Department of State is through their experience with Passport Services. Passport Services and its personnel in 26 cities around the country serve on the front lines of consular affairs and public diplomacy for the Department. I also recognize the value of maintaining very close relations with our congressional contacts; it's a rare and unique opportunity to be able to interact directly with the members of Congress themselves in their own districts, many of whom serve on key committees for the Department.
I know my passion for public service is shared nationwide by my colleagues who work tirelessly to build a positive image with the public, media, and members of Congress and to reflect the Bureau of Consular Affairs' world-wide commitment to efficient government service.
Passport Day in the U.S.A. is Saturday, April 9, 2011. On that day, you can visit a passport agency in your community to learn more about consular services.


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No matter what pace you're setting or where you are in the peloton these days, you can't help but notice the signs of the season.
Lawns are littered, and the colors jump out at you.
No, not the annual autumn changing of the leaves — the campaign signs of the election season.
The red, white and blue Scott Brown signs and the light blue, dark blue and white Elizabeth Warren signs cover the landscape.
Like sprinters well into the red zone as they approach the finish line, the race for the U.S. Senate seat looks like a photo finish.
And because monitoring my speed, heart rate and cadence on any particular ride is not enough, I have repeatedly tried to do my own unscientific political polling by counting these roads signs. But as soon as I get to the next hill, I lose count.
So I decided to go to the candidates and find out who cares about cyclists, who thinks like a cyclist, and who, like Bill Clinton said in the 1992 campaign, feels our pain. After all, cyclists are a special interest group, too.
Brown has been cycling for decades, participates in charity rides, and competes in triathlons. Warren rode a bike as a child and may occasionally ride at the home of her grandchildren.
Has Brown been able to ride his Trek TTX 9.9 carbon fiber time trial road bike during the election season?
"Not as much as I'd like," Brown said in an interview Friday, pointing out he has been limited to riding on the trainer two or three times a week because of his campaign schedule.
Brown said he usually rides about seven hours a week for a total of about 100 miles. In Washington, Brown said, he often rides with U.S. Sens. John Kerry, D-Mass., Rob Portman, R-Ohio, and Mark Warner, D-Va., along the Mount Vernon Trail in Virginia or Hains Point at East Potomac Park. The second-most bipartisan senator also crosses the aisle for bike rides.
In a short statement responding to about a dozen questions, Warren said, in part: "I biked when I was a kid and today, I keep a bike at my grandkids' house. I even taught my granddaughter Lavinia how to ride. But this isn't just about kids going to the ballpark. More and more, bikes are how people commute — for some people, it's even their main form of transportation."
Brown said he has participated in the Pan-Mass Challenge three times and the Rodman Ride for Kids a couple of times.
"I enjoy the camaraderie and the ability to help people," Brown said.
Last year, Brown had a chance to ride with Lance Armstrong during the Pan-Mass Challenge.
"I rode with Lance for about 10 miles, but they were really moving and I try to enjoy the event," said Brown, pointing out that he does the ride with a small group and tries to meet other riders along the way.
Racing his way into shape, Brown said he competed in about eight triathlons this season and had a "good year," usually finishing in the top 10 percent of his age group.
Though cycling and swimming are now his best events in triathlons, Brown said running used to be. However, he was hit by a car while riding and needed a couple of surgeries, which had an adverse effect on his running.
Brown said he would love to take a month and go to Europe with some of his cycling buddies. He said it would be great to ride every day, then sit back in the evening and have a few drinks, then do it again the next day and the next day.
"It would be such a wonderful thing to do," he said.
Brown said he has had many good days on the bike, including a route in New Hampshire that he loves, a "breathtaking" cycling experience in the Pyrenees in Spain, and a magnificent ride in Calais, France.
He said his best day on the bike, or his most memorable, was a Father's Day ride he took from New Hampshire to his father's house in Newburyport three or four years ago. Brown, whose mother and father divorced when he was about a year old, said he was estranged from his father for many years. He decided on that Father's Day that he would ride to his father's house and meet his wife and two daughters there. He said he remembers it as a melancholy ride, but he was going hard and working up a good sweat as he rode through Rye, Hampton, Salisbury and Amesbury along the coast, pushing harder and harder to get to Newburyport.
"I was riding toward my dad, and the irony was emotional," Brown said.
On the legislative front, Warren said in a statement that she believes there should be a wide variety of transportation options.
"That means we have good roads, but also that we have good trains, good sidewalks, and good bike paths for those who prefer to ride to work or to the store. I support giving people choices on how they get around," she said.
"This summer, I put forward my 'Rebuild Now' plan, a fully paid-for plan for rebuilding infrastructure," Warren said in the statement. "It includes support for the Partnership for Sustainable Communities, an initiative of the EPA, HUD and Transportation Department, that supports expanding transportation choices for individuals."
However, her seven-point "Rebuild Now" plan never mentions bicycle lanes, bikeways or anything about bicycles.
Brown said he backed the Rails to Trails program as a state senator and continues to stand up for bicyclists as a member of the U.S. Senate.
"I am always trying to support any cycling initiatives," Brown said. "Any time there are grant opportunities and I can jump onboard and push it through, it's a good thing."
Brown said improving bikeways and adding bike lanes can be difficult with the present fiscal conditions, but not impossible. Given the economic climate, he said, communities need to take the initiative and seek competitive grants that are available, making local, state and federal partnerships.
"Cities and towns must first show the desire to do it and then go after the money to do it," Brown said.
The Nauset Bike Trail on Cape Cod received grant money for improvements earlier this year, according to Brown's website.
The election is less than 10 days away, and the two candidates are shifting into the big ring for the finishing sprint.
Asked about the time trial helmet he is sometimes seen wearing at cycling events, Brown said he has many helmets, including the traditional bike helmet, but admits the TT helmet, worn by many triathletes, is often his choice for a reason.
"I'm usually out there just trying to get faster."
That sounds like a cyclist.
Mark Conti can be contacted by email at firstname.lastname@example.com.


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Servings: 12
Categories: Dessert
Source: JudeTheFoodie.com
• ¾ c Almond Flour
• ¾ c All Purpose Whole Wheat Flour
• 1tsp Lemon Peel
• 1tsp Baking Powder
• ½ tsp Baking Soda
• ½ tsp Salt
• 2 cans (15 oz) Sliced Peaches, drained reserving 3 Tbsp juice
• ½ c Agave Lite
• 2 Eggs
• ½ c D'Avolio Butter Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 1tsp Vanilla Extract
• ¼ tsp Almond Extract
• 3Tbsp Peach Juice from can
Preheat oven to 350°. Cut a piece of parchment the size of a 9-inch round cake pan. Brush butter Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the bottom of the pan. Place paper on top and brush with a little more oil.
Drain peaches, retain 3 tablespoons juice. Arrange slices of peaches in one layer around pan being sure to spread them evenly.
In medium bowl add all dry ingredients. Stir with a whisk to blend. Set aside.
With hand mixer, blend Agave and eggs. Slowly add olive oil, vanilla and almond extracts and peach juice.
Add the flour mixture about a cup at a time and mix on low until just blended.
Pour gently over the peaches trying not to disturb the pattern but don't worry if they move a little.
Bake about 35 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.
Cool about 15 minutes. Invert onto a pretty plate and serve.
Have a yummy day!


text: Bryan County was created in 1793 from parts of Chatham, Effingham and Liberty counties. It is named for Jonathan Bryan, a member of the King's Council who accompanied James Oglethorpe at the colony's founding and served as one of the first British subjects to protest the oppressive rule of England. He was imprisoned for his offenses to the crown.


text: Hi guys, I've been following Falko's guides for a couple of years now but for this new LAMP I want to setup I need some changes. I followed The Perfect Server - CentOS 6.3 x86_64 (Apache2, Courier, ISPConfig 3) guide and it works perfectly but I would need you guys to explain a couple of things if you would: If I want www.someurl.com to redirect to my server (via no-ip.org or whatever), how should I name my server? Besides the name change, what else should I change in the configuration so it's open to the web in a "secure" way? Besides those two basic setup questions, I would also need help with the following as I have no clue on how to do it: The web server will be on a ESXi-hosted machine. It has two HDDs and all my VMs run from the first one. I have a second disk (also known to ESXi as a second datastore). Besides making a virtual disk in that second datastore, how can I tell my web server to host every user's files (i.e. home directories) in that second disk? All the help will be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance!


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Council of Europe standards for protection
The Council of Europe Convention on the Protection of Children against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse (Lanzarote Convention) is the main legal text to combat sexual violence against children. It is also the first universal convention to criminalise all forms of sexual violence against children, regardless of whether commercial or not.
It was opened for signature on 25 October 2007 and entered into force on 1 July 2010. Although elaborated by the 47 Council of Europe member states, the Convention is is also open to accession by the European Union and by non European States.
The purposes of the convention are
A monitoring mechanism will assess progress on the implementation of the Convention.
For more on convention monitoring, click


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Mayor Bill de Blasio and Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito visited an emergency management warehouse in East Williamsburg last Thursday to announce that the city will deploy 53 additional people to help with the relief efforts.
To date, New York City has already sent 158 city employees from various city agencies for assistance.
Thirty-one workers from the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) will help clean up debris, while 22 employees from the Department of Buildings (DOB) and Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) will help inspect buildings in Puerto Rico.
"We have people who are helping in every way to help Puerto Rico get back on its feet," de Blasio said. "Our personnel down there have been outstanding."
In addition, every police precinct, 24 firehouses and EMS stations will be collecting donations through October 31 for hurricane relief. Specifically, the city is asking for diapers, baby food, batteries, first aid supplies and feminine hygiene products.
The city is not collecting bottled water, which is being handled through other means, according to de Blasio.
Donations will be accepted from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. at these sites.
According to the city, 265 pallets of donated items have already been collected and are currently being shipped off to the island. Donations include 12,800 cases of diapers, 23,800 cases of feminine hygiene products, 1,200 first aid kits, 3,600 cases of baby food and 8,800 packs of batteries.
However, the mayor stressed that more donations are needed.
"I want to ask you to keep giving because the need is so great," he said. "Everyone, please, do what you can, every little bit helps."
The city is also collecting monetary donations through the Mayor's Fund, which will support organizations working on the ground.
"Just extraordinary generosity we're seeing from the people of New York City, and it keeps growing and growing," de Blasio said. "New Yorkers understand this is not a problem that's going to be solved in a few weeks or a few months. We have to be with Puerto Rico for the long haul."
City officials reviewed some of the on-the-ground assistance their teams have already provided on the island. Deputy Chief Joseph Jardin of the FDNY, who led search-and-rescue teams, said they went to work the day after Hurricane Maria hit.
Coordinating with both San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulin Cruz and Puerto Rico Governor Ricardo Rossello, the New York City task forces determined that there was a "significant and acute need for humanitarian aid."
"Due to a bridge collapse and mud slide, there were numerous communities that were isolated from help," Jardin said. "They were able to get a rope across a river and establish a ferry line to get commodities to those folks, as well as transport folks in need of medical assistance."
For example, the support teams helped get a few health care facilities up and running on generators.
"I can attest to the fact that there is a significant need for assistance," he said. "The island took an incredible hit with Hurricane Maria."
Office of Emergency Management (OEM) Commissioner Joseph Esposito said after search-and-rescue operations went well, the team transitioned into wellness checks and helped deliver supplies, food, water and medical items to isolated areas.
"They were decimated, their emergency operation centers were destroyed," Esposito said. "People couldn't get to work, so we really helped them a lot.
"We continue to assist, working everyday closely with the mayor and governor to facilitate additional requests for resources," he added. "They're hard at work, and they'll be there as long as they have to."
Mark-Viverito, a native of Puerto Rico, has already visited the island to see the damage firsthand. She reminded New Yorkers that 95 percent of the population still doesn't have electricity, and that the medical infrastructure is "severely debilitated."
"As more time passes, some people may have the sense that things are getting better, but they are still not getting better," she said. "With the way it's operating right now, it's not enough."
She cast blame largely on President Donald Trump and his administration's insufficient response, which she called "an incredible disservice" to Puerto Rico. She asked why the island didn't merit the attention that other relief efforts received.
"We need the support and the resources from the U.S. government, and they're still woefully lacking," Mark-Viverito said. "We need to continue to put the pressure on Trump, who obviously has a very limited attention span and does not want to focus on the severity of the catastrophe in Puerto Rico."
"It's a reality," she added, announcing that she's going back down to the island to follow up on her initial trip. "People's lives can be at stake."
The mayor also criticized Trump for his words and actions. De Blasio said Trump suggested "there was something wrong with the Puerto Rican people" after the president tweeted that they "want everything to be done for them when it should be a community effort."
"The Puerto Rican people are a hard-working people, a resilient people. They have been through a lot, and they keep coming back," de Blasio said. "There's nothing wrong with the Puerto Rican people. The only thing that's wrong is the United States response to this crisis, which has been insufficient.
"We've got to keep pushing the federal government to do more," the mayor added. "In the meantime, we will keep doing more, doing everything we can to help Puerto Rico."


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Happy Monday! Erica from Chapter by Chapter had a great question of what the difference was between being catatonic and being in a coma.
The words "catatonic" is thrown around in conversation all the time. But what does it really mean?
A person with catatonia can exhibit several different symptoms, such as:
-bizarre posturing
-waxy flexibility (staying in awkward positions when placed in them by other people)
-purposeless resistance to commands or being moved
-repetitive, meaningless actions or spoken phrases
-echolalia, or repeating phrases spoken to them
-echopraxia, or copying other people's gestures
Catatonic persons may maintain rigid postures for hours, and ignore external stimuli. There is another form, called catatonic excitement, in which the person exhibits constant, hyperactive activity.
Catatonic schizophrenia is a subtype of schizophrenia, but catatonia can also be seen in other psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, and depression.
Medically, it can be seen in encephalitis (inflammation of the brain), drug overdose, autoimmune disorders, and neuroleptic malignant syndrome.
So. What's the difference between catatonia and a coma?
A coma is a state where the person is deeply unconscious and cannot be awoken. There's one huge difference. Catatonic patients are awake when exhibiting these symptoms.
Also, the causes of coma are exclusively medical, rather than psychiatric, such as head trauma, overdose, stroke, a low oxygen insult, amongst others.
Please keep in mind this post is for writing purposes only and is not to be construed as medical advice!
All I ask in return is that you become a follower of my blog and post a link on your blog when I post. Easy peasy.
Also, don't forget to check out Mental Health Mondays at Laura's Blog!