Lead Stories
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In May, British researchers told the American Society of Clinical Oncology that a poison used by South African Zulu tribesmen to coat the tips of their spears and arrows could be a major weapon against cancer of the lungs, colon, and ovaries. The toxin, which comes from the root bark of the Cape bush willow, appears to deprive human cancer tumors of blood without harming the surrounding tissue.
Brianna Stewart, who graduated in spring 2000 from Evergreen High School in Vancouver, Washington, was exposed earlier this year as 31-year-old Treva Throneberry and charged with fraud and perjury. Throneberry has masqueraded as a homeless teenager twice before, in Pennsylvania and Texas. During her career at Evergreen she earned a D in drama class (despite her successful ruse) and got a 45-year-old man jailed for having sex with a minor (which of course she was not).
In January a federal judge in Toronto ruled in favor of a prisoner who was suing Her Majesty the Queen because prison guards failed to provide him with a lower bunk in his cell. Khon Ha Tri, who was serving a term for drug trafficking, injured his knee while playing soccer in August 1996 and later fell while coming out of the shower, aggravating his injury. A prison doctor who treated him wrote guards a note directing that the patient be given a lower bunk, but Tri’s cell mate refused to give up the bunk, guards did nothing about it, and Tri fell from an upper bunk several times, eventually tearing a knee ligament. (Tri was released from prison after filing his suit but has since been jailed again on another charge.)
In April a judge in Charleston, West Virginia, sentenced 38-year-old James Dale Duncan to 20 to 40 years in prison for having sex with his 13-year-old daughter, ostensibly to teach her about sex and birth control. Duncan insisted that he was acting only “from a parent’s point of view and not a pervert’s”; his sister agreed, telling the judge, “He didn’t do this for pleasure.” Duncan showed no remorse after the sentencing and declared, “I’m going to jail knowing she won’t end up pregnant.”
Send your weird news to Chuck Shepherd, Chicago Reader, 11 E. Illinois, Chicago 60611 or to weird@compuserve.com.
