IRS shifts away from private debt collectors
WASHINGTON (AP) " So much for privatizing the federal government.
The Internal Revenue Service's decision this week to quit using debt collectors to dun delinquent taxpayers was celebrated by public employee unions as a pendulum shift after watching the Bush administration often opt for private contractors over federal workers to deliver government services. The IRS program was a small one, bringing in a little more than $80 million since its inception in 2006. But it represented an ideological toehold for conservatives who believe that private companies are more efficient than government agencies.
It was an ideology embraced by former President George W. Bush, who famously " and unsuccessfully " toyed with the idea of partially privatizing Social Security.
Privatization won't disappear. It's too widespread in a federal government that relies on private contractors for work as diverse as computer programming and providing security in Iraq. But with a new Democratic administration in charge, experts don't expect to hear much about privatizing government functions from President Barack Obama.
Man who killed 5 had vowed change
CLEVELAND (AP) " A man who killed himself a day after allegedly killing his wife and four others told a judge in 2005 that he was ready to be a law-abiding citizen who would not let society down if he was released from prison.
"I swear to you from the bottom of my heart that I 'WILL NOT' let you down. Let my wife or children down. Let my family down. Let society down. Or especially, let myself down," Davon Crawford wrote to Cuyahoga County Judge Michael Russo as part of a motion for release.
Crawford, who was freed in 2007, shot himself in the head Friday afternoon when confronted by police in the bathroom of a house not far from the house where his wife, his sister-in-law and three young children were found dead, said Police Lt. Thomas Stacho.
Police said Crawford is suspected of killing them. Cuyahoga County coroner's spokesman Powell Cesar confirmed Saturday that all five victims were shot in the head.
Crawford, 33, was divorced from his first wife about three months after writing the letter to Russo, records show. He married again recently, according to the father of his new wife, 30-year-old Lechea Crawford. She was one of the women killed in the couple's home Thursday night, and police say a 2-month-old baby found unharmed in the home is believed to be theirs.
Police Chief Michael McGrath said it appears that some sort of domestic argument sparked Thursday's shootings.
The two-story red-and-yellow wood frame home where Crawford died is located in a densely populated neighborhood. Several dozen people lined up behind yellow police tape across the street, cheering as a sheet-covered stretcher was removed from the house.
Family of dental patient who died awarded $11 M
NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. (AP) " The family of a New Jersey man who died hours after having his wisdom teeth removed has won more than $11 million in damages.
A Middlesex County jury determined Friday that George Flugrad, a Perth Amboy oral surgeon, committed medical malpractice when he failed to get clearance from Francis Keller's doctor to operate on the 21-year-old in 2005.
Keller told Flugrad he had a hereditary condition that caused his immune system to react to any trauma to his face or hands by swelling. And that condition caused Keller's throat, face and hands to swell and his airway to slowly close following the surgery.
First licensed female ship captain dies
BANGOR, Maine (AP) " Molly K. Carney, who as Molly Kool was the first woman in North America to become a licensed ship captain, has died. She was 93.
She died Feb. 25 at an independent retirement community in Bangor where she lived, said her friend Ken Kelly. She was known there as Captain Molly, and there was a lighthouse and a captain's wheel in the hallway outside her room there, Kelly said.
Known in Canada by her maiden name, Molly Kool won her captain's papers in 1939 and sailed the Atlantic Ocean between Alma, New Brunswick, and Boston for five years, Kelly said.
Kool grew up in the village of Alma, where she learned a love of the sea and sailing from her father, a Dutch ship captain. At 23, she made history by earning the title of captain, after the Canadian Shipping Act was rewritten to say "he/she" instead of just "he," Kelly said.