N.H. couple evade death and taxes

SHE sits on the lookout in a lawn chair on their front porch, her forehead glossy with sweat, Bible next to her left foot, wind chimes clinking at her back. Her husband of 24 years is by her side, German shepherd at his knee, handgun tucked beneath the belt on his jeans.

 

High in these humid hills, Ed and Elaine Brown have been holed up in their home for six months, refusing to serve a five-year prison sentence for tax evasion. They all but dared law officials to come and get them. This, they say, is a fight they're ready to die for.

 

"Show me the law!" says Ed, a trim 64-year-old with a silver mustache, whose forehead crinkles when he gets heated. The Browns stopped paying income taxes in 1996. They say the Constitution and Supreme Court decisions support their claims that ordinary labor cannot be taxed. But a judge ruled against them in January, convicting the Browns of conspiring to evade paying taxes on $1.9 million in income from Elaine's dentistry practice.

 

Now, the Browns say they're in a battle for freedom, and it just might end in bloodshed right here, in a towering turreted house with 8-inch-thick concrete walls and an American flag fluttering over the double-car garage. They have garnered national support, with blogs devoted to news about the standoff and supporters regularly showing up on the couple's doorstep with groceries.

 

Government and law officials have cut off power, Internet, house phone, cell phone, television and mail service to the couple's 110-acre compound. But their house is equipped with solar panels, a watchtower, a satellite dish and a stockpile of food.

 

"We are self-sustained like a ship," Ed says. "We don't need power from the shore to run the ship."

 

FBI agents are trying to avoid a deadly shootout reminiscent of Waco, Texas, or Ruby Ridge, Idaho. They have tried negotiating, waiting, begging.

 

"We are proceeding carefully to make sure no one gets hurt," says U.S. Marshal Stephen Monier, the lead officer handling the siege. "We are aware that there are guns in there."

 

Monier says the couple broke the law and should turn themselves in peacefully. "They have been tried and convicted and sentenced."

 

But the Browns aren't budging.

 

"You remember that little gentleman in China, Tiananmen Square?" Ed says, peering through his sunglasses. "He was the same as we are. You can scare me, you can kill me, but you can't intimidate me."

 

"We're fighting for you, your country," adds Elaine, 66, a calm woman with short, wavy dark hair. "This isn't just taxes."

 

"There's no more America," Ed says. "It's already gone."

 

"I'll die fighting, rather than live in slavery," Elaine says. "I'll tell you that."

 

 

 

THE mountain air outside the Browns' home is hot and thick with flies. On the shaded front porch overlooking a small duck pond, a visitor in a straw hat — who drove his pickup truck for two days from Texas to meet the Browns — eats grapes out of a paper bag and flips through an issue of Shotgun News magazine. He introduces himself as Doug. His last name is Tibbetts, he says, "like that guy who dropped the bomb on Hiroshima."

 

Another guest, who refuses to give his name and makes it a point to tell everyone he is armed, drove here from Massachusetts. He talks about illegal immigration and government corruption in a slow deep drip of a voice that seems to irritate Ed, who frequently cuts him off.

 

The government, Ed says, is at a point of "communism in its purist form."

 

Elaine nods.

 

 

 

A jar of Vaseline and peanut butter

What you never want to hear your neighbors say

 

1. Perhaps you should build a higher fence because we are buying a pack of Pit Bulls.

2. My parents are coming to stay with us because their village is being ravaged by Ebola.

3. Is your chainsaw strong enough to cut a hooker in half?

4. I beat my wife only because she walks in to doors and falls down stairs.

5. Can my kids play at your house while I clean our Meth lab?

 

 

Things nobody wants to find on their dresser the morning after a night out

 

1. Some dude’s boxers, cowboy hat and bullwhip.

2. Empty bottle of Rohypnol and an enormous German bratwurst.

3. Videotape wrappers and a note that says: “Thanks for last night whatever your name is!”

4. Grandma’s dentures, a jar of Vaseline and peanut butter.

5. A straight razor and some bloodied bandages

Gorbachev Made Me Buy It

SO many fashion ads feature celebrities now that it isn’t even faintly jarring to flip through the August issue of Vogue and see Scarlett Johansson lying on her belly with a Louis Vuitton bag over her shoulder and 10 pages later find her flat on her back, her cascading blond hair spread to promote L’Oréal Superior Preference shade No. 10NB.

That said, what is a reader to make of a Vuitton ad, coming in the big September books, that stars Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the last president of the Soviet Union? A decade ago, Mr. Gorbachev’s appearance in a Pizza Hut commercial was generally greeted as a low point in his career.

The Vuitton ad, however, is part of a campaign to emphasize the company’s heritage in luggage and travel accessories. Photographed by Annie Leibovitz, the ads include other celebrities using Vuitton bags: Andre Agassi and Steffi Graf cuddling in a hotel room, their bags not yet unpacked; Catherine Deneuve resting on a trunk in front of a steaming locomotive; and Mr. Gorbachev in the back of a car with a duffel bag on the seat next to him. Of the group, Mr. Gorbachev appears the least comfortable. He is holding on to a door handle, as if the bag contained polonium 210.

It seems unlikely he will be approached by L’Oréal.

THE August issue of Harper’s Bazaar, meanwhile, includes fashion illustrations by Julius Preite of “The Simpsons,” with a cartoon version of Glenda Bailey, the editor, in place of her usual portrait. And now on Style.com, it is Candy Pratts Price, the site’s executive fashion director, who appears more animated than usual.

In a feature called “CandyCast,” Ms. Price will dispense thoughts on fashion in the form of an avatar, illustrated by Bruno Frisoni, the creative director of Roger Vivier. She looks skinnier than a paper clip.

“Take a look at gray!” she says in the first installment, which sounds a tad like a spoof of Diana Vreeland. “Always chic, always right, and always, always mandatory!”

Ms. Price said she hopes to convey a lighter tone in the future.

“It will definitely be related to fashion, because that is what I do for a living,” she said. “I am not a doctor.”

Utility blasts its Oregon dam to make way for fish

The largest dam removal in the Pacific Northwest in 40 years began on Tuesday with blasts of 4,000 pounds of explosives, the dam's owner, Portland General Electric, said.  Eight feet of the 47-foot-tall Marmot Dam was removed by Tuesday afternoon and over the next two months there will be five more blasts, along with jackhammers working daily, company spokesman Mark Fryburg said.

 

"Today, this partnership took a great step toward restoring a breathtaking river for fish, wildlife and people," Portland General Electric CEO and President Peggy Fowler said in a statement. "We celebrate the future of a watershed that will provide unimpeded salmon and steelhead passage from the slopes of Mt. Hood to the Pacific Ocean."

 

The Marmot Dam on the Sandy River about 40 miles east of Portland was built almost 100 years ago along with the nearby 16-foot-high Little Sandy Dam, which will be destroyed next summer, the utility said.  Removing the two dams will allow the Sandy to flow freely from Mt. Hood to the Columbia River.

 

Portland General Electric, the biggest utility in Oregon, is spending $17 million to remove the two dams in coordination with 23 environmental, governmental and civic organizations. When the dams were built, they ruined a natural fish run that biologists say the fish will rediscover and repopulate once the dams are removed, Fryburg said. The river is home to winter steelhead, spring Chinook and coho salmon, all listed on the federal Endangered Species Act, Portland General Electric said.

 

"Steelhead and salmon need free-flowing rivers to survive," said Mike Myrick, a member of the Sandy River Chapter of Northwest Steelheaders. "Removal of Marmot Dam is a historic moment in salmon recovery taking place in the backyard of metropolitan Portland." 

British Grandmother convicted of "honor killing"

A 70-year-old British grandmother is facing life imprisonment after being convicted on Thursday of the "honor killing" of her son's wife who she murdered after luring her to India. Bachan Athwal, 70, who has 16 grandchildren, is believed to be one of the oldest women ever to be convicted of murder in England. Her son was also found guilty of murder. They will be sentenced on September 19.

 

The two killed Sikh Heathrow Airport worker Surjit Kaur Athwal, who disappeared in December 1998 after she decided to walk out of her arranged marriage. Bachan Athwal, a mother-of six, was furious about her daughter-in-law's plans to leave, which she believed would bring disgrace on the family, London's Old Bailey court heard.

 

The pensioner was said to have told one family member that any divorce proceedings would "would happen over my dead body".

The Customs officer was lured to India by her mother-in-law, and her minibus driver husband Sukhdave Singh Athwal, 43, on the pretext of attending family weddings but was instead strangled.

 

The alarm was raised after the 27-year-old victim failed to return to her home in Hayes, west London. Her body, believed to be somewhere in the Punjab area in India, has never been found. The verdict is the second involving honor killings in Britain this month. Iraqi Kurd Mahmod Mahmod was jailed for life last week for murdering his daughter after discovering she was having an affair.

 

"This case highlights how seriously we treat any murder or violence, regardless of the motive, whether it be for financial gain or in the name of so called honor," said Detective Chief Inspector Clive Driscoll of London's Specialist Crime Directorate after Thursday's verdict. 

"It is the culmination of over eight years' work by the Metropolitan Police, and the determination of Surjit's family, to see the perpetrators brought to justice," he said.

 

During the three month trial, the court heard that Surjit's 10-year arranged marriage -- which she entered when she was just 16 -- was on the rocks and she was desperate to leave it. She had asked for a divorce and was having an affair with a colleague. Athwal and her son were so aggrieved they plotted to "get rid of her", the jury was told. "She was a vivacious young girl, was Surjit ... and she had developed a somewhat Westernised-style of life," prosecutor Michael Worsley said. She cut her hair short, smoked cigarettes and drank alcohol.  "They were Sikhs, and for the girl to have an affair was obviously something dreadful. Eventually feelings against her boiled over."

 

Women in Milan jail want a break -- into fashion

Sixty year old Paola Mazzini is no celebrity designer. But after more than a decade in jail, the drugs convict and a dozen fellow prisoners are looking to break into the world of glamour by launching their own clothing brand.

 

The inmates at Milan's San Vittore prison have learned tailoring skills from a local cooperative that aims to help women behind bars, and have already made costumes for theatre and television as well as flowing dresses and long-sleeved shirts for small shops.

 

Having transformed the stereotype of the jailbird sewing sacks, they are now going it alone.

 

"I didn't know how to do this before," said Mazzini, who is due to leave jail next year. She carefully snipped across a drape of soft white cloth for a shirt. "Now I'm dedicating myself to tailoring."

 

The rows of clothes and cardboard cut-outs hanging from the walls at San Vittore could be part of any tailor's workshop. Only the occasional entrance of a prison guard sets the workplace apart.

 

The scheme aims partly to help women acquire skills for life outside prison, but their work has also already been used in costumes for Milan's La Scala opera house and small accessories for soccer team Inter Milan.

 

One of the prisoners' clients even has a boutique on Milan's exclusive Montenapoleone street, and they have mounted a prison fashion show where guards and an invited audience watched models strutting past in their designs.

 

"Next time, we will present clothes from our brand," said Alessandro Brevi, head of the Milan-based Cooperativa Alice, which runs the project and has as operated for some 15 years in the city's jails.

 

So far, the inmates' only independent venture has been a line of T-shirts under the 'Jail Cats' brand with a motif of cats or prison bars, sold in libraries or at the cooperative's headquarters.

 

The new line has the backing of Italian designer Anna Molinari of Blumarine and will be named later this year.

 

"First we need to have a name, eventually we will work with Anna Molinari to see what will our collection will be. We hope we will be able to market it by next spring, even before if possible," Brevi said.

 

"We are thinking of a small collection of clothes. We will work mainly on women's clothes."

 

With Italy's clothing and textile sector only just rebounding from a beating by global rivals, the launch of a new brand will be a challenge.

 

"The problem is distribution," Brevi said, adding that he would like the cooperative to have a shop although it is working on a Web site to sell its products.

 

For the inmates, some of whom also have chores in the prison kitchen, the launch is an exciting prospect.

 

"It's a joy that we can do it," said 23 year-old Fedua from Morocco. "The launch of the brand is important -- it will show what we are capable of."

 

 

"Sewing machines used to scare me. I've learned how to make shirts, trousers, dresses. I prefer making shorts, as they're easy," she said. She hopes to make a wedding dress one day.

Malaysian teacher apologizes for pond punishment

A Malaysian teacher has apologized for forcing 200 schoolgirls to squat in a dirty pond after they failed to own up to a sanitary pad found in a toilet bowl, a newspaper said Thursday.

 

The Star newspaper said in its online edition that the 27-year-old female teacher had been spared punishment after the apology to the parents of the students. (www.thestar.com.my)

 

"Everybody has forgiven her," the school's parent-teacher association chairman, Jimmy Kiu, was quoted as saying. "The incident is settled in good faith."

 

Newspapers Sunday reported that the girls were in the pond for an hour in heavy rain and the teacher, who was also a hostel warden, watched under an umbrella.

 

A school official had said the warden was angry and punished the girls after she found the sanitary pad in the toilet bowl.

 

Oscar the cat predicts patients' deaths

Oscar the cat seems to have an uncanny knack for predicting when nursing home patients are going to die, by curling up next to them during their final hours. His accuracy, observed in 25 cases, has led the staff to call family members once he has chosen someone. It usually means they have less than four hours to live.

"He doesn't make too many mistakes. He seems to understand when patients are about to die," said Dr. David Dosa in an interview. He describes the phenomenon in a poignant essay in Thursday's issue of the New England Journal of Medicine.

 

"Many family members take some solace from it. They appreciate the companionship that the cat provides for their dying loved one," said Dosa, a geriatrician and assistant professor of medicine at Brown University.

 

The 2-year-old feline was adopted as a kitten and grew up in a third-floor dementia unit at the Steere House Nursing and Rehabilitation Center. The facility treats people with Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease and other illnesses.

 

After about six months, the staff noticed Oscar would make his own rounds, just like the doctors and nurses. He'd sniff and observe patients, then sit beside people who would wind up dying in a few hours.

 

Dosa said Oscar seems to take his work seriously and is generally aloof. "This is not a cat that's friendly to people," he said.

 

Oscar is better at predicting death than the people who work there, said Dr. Joan Teno of Brown University, who treats patients at the nursing home and is an expert on care for the terminally ill

 

She was convinced of Oscar's talent when he made his 13th correct call. While observing one patient, Teno said she noticed the woman wasn't eating, was breathing with difficulty and that her legs had a bluish tinge, signs that often mean death is near.

 

Oscar wouldn't stay inside the room though, so Teno thought his streak was broken. Instead, it turned out the doctor's prediction was roughly 10 hours too early. Sure enough, during the patient's final two hours, nurses told Teno that Oscar joined the woman at her bedside.

 

Doctors say most of the people who get a visit from the sweet-faced, gray-and-white cat are so ill they probably don't know he's there, so patients aren't aware he's a harbinger of death. Most families are grateful for the advanced warning, although one wanted Oscar out of the room while a family member died. When Oscar is put outside, he paces and meows his displeasure.

 

No one's certain if Oscar's behavior is scientifically significant or points to a cause. Teno wonders if the cat notices telltale scents or reads something into the behavior of the nurses who raised him.

 

Nicholas Dodman, who directs an animal behavioral clinic at the Tufts University Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine and has read Dosa's article, said the only way to know is to carefully document how Oscar divides his time between the living and dying.

 

If Oscar really is a furry grim reaper, it's also possible his behavior could be driven by self-centered pleasures like a heated blanket placed on a dying person, Dodman said.

 

Nursing home staffers aren't concerned with explaining Oscar, so long as he gives families a better chance at saying goodbye to the dying.

 

Oscar recently received a wall plaque publicly commending his "compassionate hospice care."