David Drake

The Deutsche Oper in the German capital said the production of Idomeneo will be staged after it received a new security assessment from the police.

The [episode shows] an animated Irwin in Hell with a stingray poking out of his bleeding chest.

Researchers claim men will target eight different girls every day and spend two minutes eyeing up each one.
The first thing the average bloke will look at is the boobs before working down to the bottom and then the legs.

The Block E murder that shocked Minneapolis turns out to be a double homicide.

"I might as well stop living. They gave him life for political reasons. My son is not a menace! His life is over! This is racial and political! Oh, Jesus! I'm sorry what happened to [the victim], but they didn't give my baby a chance!"

Verdict in Block E's murder case doesn't solve one mystery

Nick Coleman, Star Tribune

The Block E murder that shocked Minneapolis turns out to be a double homicide.

Alan Reitter died last March. His killer, Derick Holliday, 21, was convicted of the crime last week and will spend his life in prison. The loss of his life was self-inflicted, but left another mother crying.

When Hennepin County District Judge Toddrick Barnette delivered the verdict, Holliday's mother, Yolanda White, wailed loudly.

"I might as well stop living," she cried. "They gave him life for political reasons! My son is not a menace! His life is over! This is racial and political! Oh, Jesus! I'm sorry what happened to Mr. Reitter, but they didn't give my baby a chance!"

I can't question a mother's grief, but a few points in rebuttal are in order. There is little doubt that Derick Holliday was a menace when he was wildly firing a "Dirty Harry" .44 Magnum in downtown after a fight in a movie theater. Alan Reitter, out on the town with his fiancee, didn't have any chance at all. County Attorney Amy Klobuchar, who is running for the U.S. Senate, spoke with Reitter's family outside court. But if she hadn't done that, she would be criticized, and rightfully. As for race, Judge Barnette, like Holliday, is black.

Justice isn't always color-blind, or politically pure. But it appeared to be so in this case.

That leaves us with this mystery: Why did Derick Holliday, without a hard criminal record or evidence of drug use, shoot a perfect stranger? One person who knew Holliday as a smart, happy teenager says murder was the last thing he expected from the kid he called "D."I nearly dropped on the floor when I heard them say his name on TV," recalls Steve Dwyer. "The 'D' that I know and remember would never have done something like this."

Dwyer, 31, is a finance manager at United Health Care. From 1999 to 2003, he was in the Big Brothers program and his "little brother" was Derick Holliday. Derick was in eighth grade when they met, and for four years, the two got together regularly to play basketball, see movies or just hang out.

"We had the same interests and we would talk a lot about sports. He was always up on it. He would say, 'K.G. [the Timberwolves' Kevin Garnett] had 23 points last night!' He was lacking in direction. But he was sweet. He had no temper at all. I am shocked that a kid like that ends up in prison for life."

Dwyer was startled by the impoverished conditions in the fourplex where Derick lived: There were six children, and some seemed to be sleeping on the floor. And when Dwyer would take Derick out to eat, he had to demonstrate the proper use of silverware because Derick ate everything with his hands.

"It was disgusting," Dwyer says. "I'd say, 'D, you have to use a fork to eat spaghetti!' It was definitely an eye-opener. But I have a lot of respect for Derick's mother. She was trying hard. She was able to make a good home for that family. "

The trajectory of this kind of tragedy is familiar: A good kid gets caught up in a gang, is drawn deeper and deeper into criminal activity, and ends up dead. Or kills someone. But Derick Holliday made the descent without warnings.

There is only one misdemeanor on his record, and a few minor scrapes as a juvenile. Experts would tell you this was not a kid at high risk for homicide. But one theory around the courthouse was that Holliday was a "wannabe" who carried a big gun in the hopes of gaining a big image.

"He was on a good path," says Dwyer, who has written letters to Holliday in jail and tried unsuccessfully to visit him. "Now he has made this terrible mistake. I thought he was too smart to pull something like this."

Dwyer says Holliday did well in school, earning B grades until he was a senior at Edison High. That's when he was expelled after a fight with another student. He went to an alternative school for a while, then went to Chicago to live with a grandmother.

"He just fell off the face of the Earth," says Dwyer, who tried to keep in touch. Dwyer was dismayed when Holliday smarted off in court after the verdict, telling the Reitter family, "I hope y'all are happy."I think D knows he really screwed up," Dwyer says. "That comment shows that he's probably scared out of his wits."I keep thinking of him making that initial mistake -- getting kicked out of school. That's when this all began. Somehow, we need to do a better job to prevent things like this from happening. To just throw up your hands and say, 'That's the way things are,' or that "It's just another black kid going to prison. ...' Those things are crimes unto themselves. We have got to keep searching for answers."

The Block E murder trial is over. The hurt is not.

After the verdict, I asked Alan Reitter's sister, Jean, how she felt when she heard Holliday's mother crying.

"I remember when we were crying so terribly, when we went up to see my brother Alan, in his casket," she said. "And I remember my mom almost falling over. So, yes, I know how she [Yolanda] feels. She lost her son today.

"But at least she can visit him."

"we have seen roughly 80 to 90 percent protection of neurons when administered after a stroke."

When low doses of meth were administered, the scientists saw less damage in the stroke slices than the non-stroke slices.