Police: Mother Duct-Taped Children, Posted Pictures On Web
BELLINGHAM, Mass. -- A mother who duct-taped her children to chairs and then placed their photos on MySpace.com is facing charges of child abuse.
Amber Green, 23, and her live-in fiance, Lee Smith, 29, have been charged by police with two counts of assault and battery.
"The pictures clearly depict that Amber and Lee went to the extreme in wrapping duct tape around the kids,'' Bellingham Oficer David Ayotte wrote in a police report.
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Police said Green admitted to taping her 5 and 6-year-old children, they "asked to play with the tape and wanted to be tied up,'' the report said.
The tape was wrapped around the children's stomachs and chest and close to their throats, police said. The pictures show the children upset and crying.
"It is a possibility that the children may have had a difficult time breathing,'' according to the report.
Green posted the photos on MySpace for her friends to see.
They were spotted by a woman who said she saw "disturbing photos of Green's children secured and bound to chairs with duct tape'' and called police.
Both Green and Smith were freed without bail after their court appearance last month. They are due back on court Monday.
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LUDA GOIN IN FOR MOTHER ERF
Rapper/actor Ludacris has signed on to face off against rocker Tommy Lee in a new eco-centric reality show called "Battleground Earth," slated to air on the Discovery Networks' Planet Green channel this summer.
According to Daily Variety, ten episodes of "Battleground Earth" are expected to be shot within the next few weeks in preparation for a late July or early August premiere of the new show. Planet Green is expected to begin airing in 50 million homes by June 4th.
For the show, Luda and Tommy Lee will travel the country and compete in challenges that highlight "green" issues. For the series finale, the pair will join forces by co-headlining a concert at Los Angeles' Greek Theater, with the proceeds benefiting Griffith Park.
For Ludacris, "Battleground Earth" continues his dedication to the green cause - as SOHH previously reported, the Atlanta rapper and actor participated in last summer's Live Earth concert.
In addition to the upcoming reality series, Luda has recently been cast in Fox's Max Payne film alongside Mark Wahlberg, Mila Kunis and Beau Bridges. He will also hold a role in the Guy Ritchie picture RocknRolla, due out in October and the forthcoming film Ball Don't Lie which will debut at the Tribeca Film Festival.
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FUNERALS GOIN' LIVE!!!!
LONDON (Reuters) - Pay-per-view funerals go live online in Britain on Tuesday, allowing mourners who cannot attend services in person to pay their last respects via the Internet.
Despite criticism of the scheme as macabre, the company who launched the service, Wesley Music, is planning to offer it to crematoria across the country who will charge a one-off payment of around 75 pounds ($150) for access to a funeral webcast.
Mourners use the password to access a live online broadcast of the funeral service captured by a small camera mounted in the chapel."Families are dispersed across the world these days and sometimes it's the case that someone cannot get home in time for a funeral," said Alan Jeffrey, director of Wesley Music.
"For those who need it, this is a very important service. It means that rather than being excluded, they can at least witness and be a part of a funeral as it happens. In a time of stress this is something that can ease the pain."
David Powell, of funeral directors Henry Powell and Son in Southampton, southern England said he had already tested the service during three funerals. He insisted they remained private, intimate affairs despite being broadcast on the web.
"It's a personal thing. It doesn't go out for all and sundry to gawk at," he told Reuters. "There is a password for the family to send to people who want to watch online."
He said mourners as far away as Australia and Canada had already used the system. "The families have been absolutely delighted to be able to share in the proceedings when it wasn't possible for them to get over here and attend."
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TSA FORCES A CHICK TO DIVEST HER NIPPLRY
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A woman who claims she was ordered by federal airport screeners to remove her nipple rings with pliers demanded an apology from the U.S. Transportation Security Administration on Thursday.
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Mandi Hamlin, 37, also called for an investigation into the February 24 incident in Lubbock, Texas, saying that snickering male agents violated TSA policy by forcing her to remove the jewelry.
"I felt surprised, embarrassed, humiliated, scared and angry," Hamlin told reporters at the offices of her Los Angeles attorney, Gloria Allred.
"This situation was totally out of control. I will not sit quietly. No one deserves to be treated this way."
The TSA, a unit of the Department of Homeland Security that was set up after the September 11 attacks on the United States in 2001, said it was investigating the incident but that agents were trained to search people with piercings in "sensitive areas" with dignity and respect.
"TSA is well aware of terrorists' interest in hiding dangerous items in sensitive areas of the body, therefore we have a duty to the American public to resolve any alarm we discover," the agency said in a written statement.
The TSA said incidents of female terrorists hiding explosives in "sensitive areas" were on the rise and provided a picture of a "bra bomb" that was used in training its agents.
Allred said the incident began when Hamlin, who has a number of piercings, set off a hand-held metal detector and told a TSA officer that her nipple rings were the problem.
A small group of TSA officers gathered around Hamlin, Allred said, and told her she would have to remove the jewelry from her nipples if she wanted to board her flight.
Hamlin went behind a curtain and removed one of her nipple piercings but could not budge the other, tearfully telling the officers it could not be taken out without pliers, Allred said.
"As Ms. Hamlin struggled to remove the piercing behind the curtain, she could hear a growing number of predominantly male TSA officers snickering in the background," the attorney said.
Allred said TSA policy called for a pat-down under such circumstances but did not require the piercings to be removed.
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