Tragedy Strikes Vancouver Winter Olympic Games … Male Luger from the Former Soviet Republic of Georgia Dies After Training Crash

The Vancouver Olympic Luge track has been billed as the worlds fastest. Sadly, it is now known as the deadliest.

Their is  sad news to report from the Vancouver Winter Olympic Games. Nodar Kumaritashvili, a male luger from the former Soviet Republic of  Georgia crashed and died today during a training run. Before the opening ceremonies even started tragedy has struck the Winter Olympics.  Kumaritashvili lost control of his sled, went over the track wall and struck an unpadded steel pole near the finish line at Whistler Sliding Center. Unpadded poll, oh dear Lord what were these people thinking?

Click on pic to see crash

A men’s luger from the former Soviet republic of Georgia died Friday after a crash during training, an Olympic official with direct knowledge of the situation said. The death cast a shocking pall over the Olympics hours before the Vancouver Games were to open.

The official told The Associated Press that the International Olympic Committee received confirmation of Nodar Kumaritashvili’s death. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the 21-year-old luger’s family hadn’t been notified yet.

VIDEO can be seen here (Warning Graphic) We have dnot to link to the pics, just too graphic. They are easily found on the web. God rest this sliders soul.

Training was suspended following the terrible incident as track officials are investigating the crash. Rescue workers were at the Luger’s side within seconds providing chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. The 21 year old Nodar Kumaritashvili  was then quickly airlifted to a trauma center in Whistler where he would later die from his injuries.

Our sympathies go out to the family and loved ones of this Olympic athlete.

UPDATE I: Olympic Probe: Track Didn’t Cause Luger’s Death

Hmm, if the track did not cause the death of the Georgian luger, why are they making changes to it? Obviously, the IOC is playing semantics and parsing words here. It was not the track, in the sense of the sliding area that caused the sad death of Nodar Kumaritashvili, a male luger from the former Soviet Republic of  Georgia; however, it was the non-padded steel pole that did. That will eventually need to be addressed as a negligent issue in the death of the Georgian luger. 

WHISTLER, British Columbia – Fast and frightening, yes. Responsible for the death of a luger, no.

Olympic officials decided late Friday night against any major changes in the track or any delays in competition and even doubled up on the schedule in the wake of the horrifying accident that claimed the life of a 21-year-old luger from the republic of Georgia.

They said they would raise the wall where the slider flew off the track and make an unspecified “change in the ice profile” — but only as a preventative measure “to avoid that such an extremely exceptional accident could occur again.”

Rhode Island Democratic US Rep. Patrick Kennedy Won’t Seek Reelection in 2010

Add another one to the Democratic list of those who will not seek reelection in 2010. However, this time its RI Democrat US Rep Patrick Kennedy, the son of the late Senator Edward M. Kennedy. Another One Bites the Dust …

Kennedy, 42, was first elected to the House in 1994. His departure will leave Congress without a Kennedy for the first time since 1962, when his father was elected to the Senate seat held previously by his uncle, John F. Kennedy.

In a two-minute video retirement announcement, Kennedy invokes the memory of his father as he explains his decision to leave the House.

“My father instilled in me a deep commitment to public service,” Kennedy says. “Now, having spent two decades in politics, my life is taking a new direction, and I will not be a candidate for reelection this year. Going forward, I will continue many of the fights we’ve waged together, particular on behalf of those suffering from depression, addiction, autism and post-traumatic stress disorder.”

The AP & MSM resorts that it is the end of an era, but one would ask ERA? The Founding Fathers never intended for political service to be a full time, let alone life time appointment. They also fought against royal families of rule, not embracing them.   ther looks at it that Washington, DC is now Kennedy free.

Patrick Kennedy’s retirement will leave the Congress Kennedy-free for the first time since 1962. Could Republicans go 2 for 2 in New England in replacing once held Kennedy seats? Will there be a Scott Brown effect in Rhode Island?

Kennedy stated he had made some missteps, ya think?

“I’m so grateful to the people of Rhode Island. When I made missteps or suffered setbacks, you responded not with contempt but with compassion.”

Yet another seat that Democrats will have to defend in 2010 … Is Nancy Pelsoi getting nervous yet?

UPDATE I: Did Patrick Kennedy retire from the House because he feared a tough challenge? That is what a USA Today article is asking. It appears that the days of Democrats getting a free ride in New England states might be at an end. It would seem that the Scott Brown election in Massachusetts has affected more than just one Kennedy political seat.

It is a trend across America this political cycle, once safe and unopposed Democrat seats are now either being challenged by Republicans, have Republicans in the lead in polls or have Democrats simply retiring rather than suffering election night defeat.

The WPVI-TV poll showed 62% of Rhode Island voters surveyed gave him an unfavorable job approval rating and only 35% said they would vote to re-elect him.

“This could become the race of Patrick Kennedy’s life,” pollster Joe Fleming told WPVI.

The poll surveyed only 250 voters, which is low, and had a margin of error of plus or minus 6.2%, which is high. Nevertheless, it sparked a buzz among conservative bloggers that Patrick Kennedy was “next.” As Hot Air, a right-of-center blog, wrote on Feb. 5: “Kennedy may not be able to withstand the anti-incumbent fervor in what has been a state almost as reliably blue as Massachusetts.”

Patrick Kennedy called Brown’s candidacy “a joke’’ … Looks like the jokes on him and Patrick appears not to be laughing, but saying good bye to politics instead.

More MSM Washington Post Misrepresentations … House Republican Retirements Mean GOP Losing Momentum, Not Even Close

Nice try media, but Democrats will be dropping like flies on midterm election eve this November after the votes are counted.

Once again the lame stream media, this time the Washington Post puts forth a false and negative premise of the Republican parties momentum is coming to a halt. In the wake of three Republican retirements in the House of Representatives in the past 10 days the WAPO is quick to say, or should we say wish, hope and pray that there is now a debate between the leaders of the two major parties over whether the GOP is losing momentum in its quest to score major gains at the ballot box this fall.

With the three latest lawmakers choosing not to seek reelection in November, Republicans will have to defend 18 open seats and Democrats 14. The raw numbers contradict the conventional wisdom that Democrats would head for the sidelines after GOP Sen. Scott Brown’s special election victory Jan. 19 in Massachusetts.

Read more

Robert Wiles Murder: Unidentified Remains Found in St Cloud Reserve

Melbourne, FL– Exactly two days after prosecutors released files in the case against former Wiles employee, Stobert “Toby” Holt, unidentified remains have been found off Crabtree Road in the St. Cloud Wildlife Preserve in Melbourne, Fl, Osceola County. Mr. Holt was also scheduled for a bail hearing today.

Read the rest at Blink on Crime:

Jarred Harrell Arrested as Person of Interest in the Murder of 7 Year Old Somer Thompson

24 year old Jarred Harrell has been arrested in Meridian, Mississippi as a “person of interest” in the death and murder of 7 year old Somer Thompson.Harrell was arrested on 29 charges of possession of child pornography. Harrell is being held on one million dollar bond.

Jarred Mitchell Harrell

Authorities are calling Harrell a POI in the kidnapping and killing of Somer Thompson, the 7 year old Florida girl whose body was found in a landfill after she vanished on her way home from school. Jared Harrell lived at a home on 1152 Gano Avenue in Orange Park, FL just a few feet from where Somer Thompson was last spotted. He moved out a few weeks after Thompson’s murder.

According to accounts, Jarred Harrell previously lived in the same neighborhood as Somer Thompson.

Clay County Sheriff Rick Beseler said a man who had lived in the girl’s neighborhood was arrested in Mississippi Thursday on 29 charges of possession of child pornography. The man, Jarred Harrell, 24, has not been charged in the death of 7-year-old Somer Thompson.

Harrell, who was arrested in Meridian, Miss., had lived until recently in a home near Somer Thompson’s. Authorities were searched that house Thursday. Deputies and an FBI forensics team were seen searching its front yard with rakes and shovels

Beseler, who announced the arrest during an evening news conference

Justice for Somer Thompson

Harrell was arrested by U.S. Marshals Thursday morning in Meridian, Mississippi.

Authorities are searching two homes in Lauderdale County, Mississippi and in Calahan, Florida, respectively.   A search conducted on Thursday morning at 1152 Gano Avenue in Orange Park, where Harrell formerly resided, has already yielded evidence which led authorities to name him as a person of interest in the case. Harrell is being held on a $1 million bond.

According to Harrell’s arrest report in August 2009,  he was kicked out of an Orange Park apartment after a roommate thought he had stolen a cell phone.

Harrell left behind a computer, and the roommates said they searched it because they thought Harrell had been using it to look at child porn, the report says. The roommates said they did find porn involving young girls and turned the computer and discs over to the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office on Aug. 10. The materials were sent to state investigators, who confirmed the contents.