04-18-03

Summoned to a house Sunday morning because of an argument over drugs, New Port Richey police made a much bigger discovery: a sophisticated growing room for marijuana plants inside a house, reports said.

Officer Chris Trapnell went to 5053 Hillside Drive at 11:40 a.m. Sunday to investigate an argument involving drugs. There, Trapnell found Richard Lubanski, 38, who lived at the Hillside Drive home.

Lubanski, according to his arrest report, admitted to having a "small amount" of marijuana in the house, Trapnell said. Lubanski then unlocked a bedroom door, revealing a "grow room."

In the room were a carbon dioxide machine, ozone generator, a motorized tract lighting system and walls lined with reflective materials. On the floor were 45 marijuana plants, each about 3 feet tall.

Lubanski, according to his arrest report, said he was growing the marijuana to sell.

Lubanski was taken to the Land O'Lakes jail, facing 45 counts of cultivating marijuana and one count of possessing drug paraphernalia. He was being held Monday evening on $100,500 bail.

A man who allegedly tried to rob a local bank Monday morning was rejected, then laughed at and finally caught a short distance away.

Sgt. Bob Rawlinson said the man, identified as Julius Kearney, 23, reportedly entered the Bank of America at approximately 9:50 a.m. He was reportedly carrying a trash bag, and instructed a teller to "put the money in the bag," while keeping his hands in his pockets.

Reportedly, the teller told Kearney that "the bank was out of money today," causing him to go to a second teller with the same demand.

"The teller just looked at Mr. Kearney and began laughing," Rawlinson said. "She thought it was a joke."

Yellow Ribbon ‘Tradition’ is of Recent Origin, Folklorists Say

As American men and women continue to lay down their lives every day in the war with Iraq, yellow ribbons can be seen popping up like spring posies in towns and cities all across the United States, a phenomenon many will recall from the Gulf War of 1991, when similar decorations adorned tree trunks, front doors and lapel pins until the troops came home from the battlefield.

At its broadest, the gesture signifies home-front support for American military personnel and the war effort in general; at its most personal, it signifies the hope that a loved one participating in the distant conflict will return safe and sound.

In any case, "tying a yellow ribbon" has become such a ubiquitous and familiar symbolic act that many people assume its origins to be quite old, though folklorists say the history of the practice as we know it stretches back little more than 20 years.

According to one popular misconception -- evidently a by-product of the 1949 John Wayne film "She Wore a Yellow Ribbon," in which the female lead did just that to express her undying love for a cavalry officer -- the custom originated during or just after the American Civil War. But even though the motif of that film, not to mention its title and theme song, derived from a folk ballad dating back hundreds of years in different versions, there is no historical evidence that Americans of the Civil War period (or any period since, through the mid-20th century) actually wore yellow ribbons to express such sentiments.

The fact is, according to research published by the late Gerald E. Parsons, longtime librarian of the Folklife Reading Room of the Library of Congress, the custom didn't exist at all before 1980, when the idea of displaying yellow ribbons in honor of the 52 Americans held hostage by Iranian militants seemingly emerged from nowhere and took the country by storm -- a tribute said to be indirectly inspired by the popular song "Tie a Yellow Ribbon Round the Ole Oak Tree," composed in 1972, which in turn was inspired by an oral folktale circulating since the 1950s.

Granted, the lyrics of "Tie a Yellow Ribbon," not to mention the folktale on which they were based, tell the story of a paroled convict's prospective homecoming, not that of a soldier stationed overseas. Similarly, the Iran hostage crisis involved civilians held captive on foreign soil as opposed to military personnel in combat. But once the basic connection had been drawn between the plight of Americans endangered in conflicts abroad and displaying yellow ribbons as a form of tribute, the stage was set for a fresh application -- first in 1991 to the troops who fought in the Gulf War, and now, 12 years later, to U.S. forces sent back to the region to effect a "regime change."

The very fact that this shift took place, argued Gerald Parsons, lends the yellow ribbon weight as a folk tradition in spite of its brief historical lifespan. "Ultimately," he wrote, "the thing that makes the yellow ribbon a genuinely traditional symbol is neither its age nor its putative association with the American Civil War, but rather its capacity to take on new meanings, to fit new needs and, in a word, to evolve."

An officer who had been dispatched to the scene of a disturbance was told by a woman at the residence that she wanted the man standing in the yard off her property. The officer noticed that the woman had been drinking.

The man in the yard said that he came to the house because the woman had not called him or answered her phone at the time they had agreed. He found another male at the house when he arrived and was upset.

The man was the father of the woman’s two infant children, who were asleep in a Jeep that was parked and running, and belonged to their father. The man smelled strongly of alcohol, was uncooperative and aggressive, and admitted he had been drinking.

After finding an open beer can in the Jeep, along with the remainder of a six-pack, the officer conducted field sobriety tests and arrested the children’s father for pubic intoxication. Another officer was told to collect the man’s personal effects from the Jeep.

The Jeep was secured and left at the scene at the owner’s request. An officer who arrived on the scene after the investigating officer had left was attempting to park the vehicle legally when he discovered the man’s wallet containing cash in the Jeep.

Because department policy required officers to secure items of value with an arrested person at the police department, the officer opened the wallet to count the money. When he unfolded a dollar bill, a white power – later determined to be cocaine – was found inside.

The defendant was charged with possession of the cocaine, and he moved to suppress the evidence. The State argued that the evidence was seized in an inventory of the vehicle, and the trial court denied the defendant’s motion.

Holding: In order to be lawful, a vehicle inventory must follow a lawful impoundment. Vehicles parked illegally may be impounded.

The defendant’s Jeep was parked illegally and remained running, and was subject to impoundment. The arresting officer exercised his discretion to permit the Jeep to be parked and locked, instead of impounded.

Since the vehicle was illegally parked, though, it was necessary to park it legally and removed the keys. During the time necessary to accomplish those things, the Jeep was lawfully in police custody.

It was at this time that the wallet was seized and inventoried pursuant to standard police procedure. The officers in this case were authorized to impound the illegally parked vehicle, and were engaged in a caretaking function when the wallet was seized.

The inventory was pursuant to a lawful impoundment, and was designed to protect the owner’s property. The trial court did not abuse its discretion in denying the defendant’s suppression motion. Perez v. State, No. 04-02-00139 (Tex. App.-San Antonio, 1-8-03).

Dog Property Laws

If I like it, it's mine.

If it's in my mouth, it's mine.

If I can take it from you, it's mine.

If I had it a little while ago, it's mine.

If it's mine, it must never appear to be yours in any way.

If I'm chewing something up, all the pieces are mine.

If it just looks like mine, it's mine.

If I saw it first, it's mine.

If you are playing with something and you put it down, it automatically becomes mine.

If it's broken, it's yours.

From the Chaplain

PRAYER

This is an interesting prayer given in Kansas at the opening session of their Senate. It seems prayer still upsets some people. When Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session this is what they heard:

Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask your forgiveness and to seek your direction and guidance. We know your Word says “Woe to those who call evil good.”

But that is exactly what we have done. We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that we have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism.

We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.

We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.

We have killed our unborn and called it choice.

We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.

We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.

We have abused power and called it politics.

We have coveted our neighbor’s possessions and called it ambition.

We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of expression.

We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment

Search us, Oh, God and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will and to openly ask these things in the name of Your Son.

A number of legislators walked out during the prayer in protest, but in six short weeks, the pastor logged more than 5,000 phone calls with only 47 of those responding negatively! Paul Harvey read it on his program; request for copies came from India, Africa and Korea.

May this prayer sweep over our nation and may we again be called “one nation under God.”