At the Walmart
A 58-year-old Wal-Mart employee who said he "couldn't take it anymore" lit himself on fire in a parking lot near the Bloomingdale store where he worked late Thursday night and was later pronounced dead at a hospital, authorities said this morning.
In an interview, his son said his father went to work last night with nothing seeming out of the ordinary. "This had nothing to do with the economy. I want to make that clear," he said, adding that the family may never know the reason for the public suicide.
The Carol Stream man, who worked the overnight shift, was in a parking lot of an adjacent sporting goods store in the west suburban strip mall when he set himself on fire with lighter fluid around 10 p.m., said Randy Sater, a watch commander with the Bloomingdale Police Department.
Chicago Breaking News
February 28, 2009 5:40 PM
Sad
February 20, 2009 9:39 AM
Rediscovering Vinyl
When Barack Obama moved into the White House on January 20th, he gained access to five chefs, a private bowling alley — and a killer collection of classic LPs. Stored in the basement of the executive mansion is the official White House Record Library: several hundred LPs that include landmark albums in rock (Led Zeppelin IV, the Rolling Stones' Let It Bleed), punk (the Ramones' Rocket to Russia, the Sex Pistols' Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols), cult classics (Captain Beefheart's Trout Mask Replica, the Flying Burrito Brothers' The Gilded Palace of Sin) and disco. Not to mention records by Santana, Neil Young, Talking Heads, Isaac Hayes, Elton John, the Cars and Barry Manilow. . . .
On January 13th, 1981, the LPs — each in a sleeve with a presidential seal — were presented to Jimmy Carter at a White House ceremony. But the collection — placed in a hallway near the third-floor listening room, complete with a sound system — didn't remain upstairs long. When Ronald Reagan took office that year, the LPs were moved to the basement. Depending on the source, the reason was Nancy Reagan's distaste for shelves of vinyl, or the edgy choices themselves. A spokesman for Obama said it was too early to comment on whether the president would revive the library. But Obama may be pleased to learn that at least a few of his favorite albums — Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks, Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run — are there if he wants them on pristine slabs of vinyl.
Rolling Stone
February 19, 2009 1:48 PM
Not Suspicious?
William Foxton, 65, who had served in the British Army and more recently worked as a defense contractor in Afghanistan, died from a single bullet wound to the head in the southern English port city of Southampton on Tuesday, police said.
"A pistol was recovered at the scene. Police do not believe the death to be suspicious," a police statement said. . . .
"I want Madoff and others involved to know that they have my father's blood on their hands," Willard Foxton was quoted by The Daily Telegraph as saying.
"I'm very angry. My first thought was to show up at Madoff's trial in New York and throw my father's medals in his face."
MSNBC
During much of the 1990s and earlier this decade, the father-of-two worked in the Balkans, where he was the head of the European Commission Monitoring Mission. In Kosovo he worked with aid worker Sally Becker, known as 'The Angel of Mostar.
Miss Becker, who helped rescue 170 wounded children and their families from an orphanage during the Balkans war, yesterday (THUR) said: "Bill was one of he most exceptional men I have ever met, He was a larger than life character who worked tirelessly on behalf of the victims of war. He would not hesitate to risk his own life for others."
Emrys Davies, 74, a former British ambassador who headed the British delegation to ECMM in 1995, said Mr Foxton once crawled across a minefield to save a trapped child.
He said: "The news of his death really is desperately sad. It was an honour to know Bill. I'd like to wring Bernie Madoff's neck."
Telegraph
February 18, 2009 9:52 AM
