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Two young men are facing underage drinking charges after rescuing a sober accident victim from a North Carolina Lake. Deputies claim that the two young men smelled of alcohol when law enforcement looked into the tragic accident.

A 15-year-old North Carolina teen was severely injured in a diving accident on High Rock Lake earlier this month. The teen reportedly dove from a pontoon boat into shallow water. The young man had not been drinking before the tragic accident. The North Carolina teen reportedly broke his neck during the dive into the lake.

A number of other young men are credited with saving the accident victim’s life. A 17-year-old and an 18-year-old acted to save the accident victim from High Rock Lake. The 17-year-old and another young man pulled the accident victim from the water, and the 18-year-old, an Eagle Scout, performed CPR on the accident victim.

The third young man (who had helped pull the accident victim from the water) drove the pontoon. The teens first sought assistance from people on a fishing boat, and then continued on to Tamarac Marina. Emergency crews took over care for the accident victim at the marina.

Deputies conducted interviews in the aftermath of the accident. Law enforcement claims the young men admitted to drinking beer. Breath tests reportedly show that the 17-year-old measured 0.04 percent blood alcohol content, while the 18-year-old reportedly measured 0.11 percent. Authorities accuse two of the heroes of underage drinking.

The accident victim reportedly required surgery to insert pins into his neck. The high school sophomore had been airlifted to Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center.

Source: Salisbury Post, “Teens who saved friend charged with underage drinking,” Aug. 3, 2012

Greenville DUI Attorney Blog | North Carolina Underage Drinking Lawyer | Pitt County First DUI Law Firm

If you’re looking to buy a cottage, be glad you’re in Manitoba — the latest cottage country report from Royal LePage finds that not only are properties cheaper, they’re also more plentiful.
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From her childhood spent on a remote island in Finland to becoming the matriarch of the Nygard clothing empire.
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In today’s DUI double standard department…

Waco Man Gets Life Sentence for Driving Drunk

Waco, TX.  June 10 — A man has been sentenced to life in prison after being convicted of drunken driving — his ninth such charge since 1984.

Defense attorney Melanie Walker had told jurors no one was seriously injured in last year’s rollover accident and her client suffers from alcoholism.

However, prosecutor Lauren McLeod said alcoholism is no excuse for criminal behavior.

The Waco Tribune-Herald reports that the 52-year-old Sneed and his wife both testified that she was driving. Karroll Sneed told jurors she fled over fears of being jailed on misdemeanor warrants. Sneed said he took the blame out of concern for his wife, who had recently suffered a stroke.

Life in prison for a DUI?  Rape gets 15 years, 2nd degree murder 25.  Just an aberration, right?  Wrong.  See, for example, Third DUI = Life in Prison (Mississippi, alcoholic with 2 priors), Another Life Sentence for Drunk Driving (Texas, alcoholic with 9 priors), 99 Years for Drunk Driving (Texas, alcoholic with 7 priors). 

One of the premier DUI attorneys in the country, Troy McKinney of Houston, made an Open Records Act demand on the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, asking:  How many Texans are serving sentences of 60 years to life in prison for drunk driving? Not for drunk driving resulting in injury or death — just for drunk driving (or driving over .08%). The response from the Department:

21 to 25 years    125 

26 to 30 years     39 

31 to 40 years     55 

41 to 59 years     16

And finally:

60 to 98 years     23 

99 years 6 Life     13

Repeat: These are sentences just for drunk driving or driving over .08% — not for DWI causing death or serious injury. To trigger the longer sentences, the DWI was at least the offender’s fourth offense.

It would be a fairly safe assumption that these prisoners are alcoholics. In other words, life in prison for having a genetically-predisposed disease and being unable to control it…..without help.

So, what if they got help? What does it cost to keep a citizen in prison for the rest of his life? For even one year? And what does it cost to offer that person rehabilitative therapy? Even, perhaps, to involuntarily commit him to a facility for treatment of the disease?

Justice and humanity aside, do the math….

DUI BLOG

Party demands for a constitutional limited government, balanced Federal Government budget, simplified tax system, audits of Federal agencies as well as reduced taxes and earmarks, will his ratings sink even faster than the current pace to the inevitable 12%?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/20/us/politics/20dems.html

WASHINGTON — President Obama’s political advisers, looking for ways to help Democrats and alter the course of the midterm elections in the final weeks, are considering a national advertising campaign that would cast the Republican Party as all but taken over by Tea Party extremists, people involved in the discussion said.

But Democrats are divided. The party’s House and Senate campaign committees are resistant, not wanting to do anything that smacks of nationalizing the midterm elections when high unemployment and the drop in Mr. Obama’s popularity have made the climate so hostile to Democrats. Endangered Congressional candidates want any available money to go to their localized campaigns.

The "parties" are over.

The People may or may not win.

But the status quo has seen its days.

…

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Nineteen years ago next month, my life changed forever. Last Wednesday, October 20, a chapter in my life was permanently closed when as I held her hand, my first mother-in-law, Gwende Dean, died at age 75.

Drunk driving effects more than just those killed or injured in the crash. It effects everyone in the extended circle for years and years. Especially when the one killed was an only child.

My husband, Mike Dean, was that only child who was killed in a crash on November 21, 1991 at the young age of 32. Mike and his mom were close since she had raised him as a single mom. At the time of Mike’s death, we had only been married two and a half years and our daughter was only 8 months old. Immediately following his death, I became her replacement child and I felt a great obligation to look after her. I have tried to do that for the last nineteen years.

When Gwende was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007 and later with a small brain tumor, we knew the prognosis was fatal. She fought valiantly and never complained. Her goal was to see our daughter finish high school. She did live to see that, although she was too weak to attend the ceremony.

My family moved back to Texas earlier this year in some part to be closer to her as her life slipped away. Many trips were made to visit with her before she got to the point where she couldn’t talk or use her motor skills any longer. Calls were made frequently to check with her caregiver to see how she was doing.

When I received the call on Oct. 17 that she had stopped taking food or water, I packed my car for the 4 hour drive north to her home. For over two days I sat beside her bed and read her the sports page because her team, the Texas Rangers, were finally in the ALCS playoffs. I had the TV on to the game last Monday evening in case she might hear any of it even though she was semi-comatose. I wanted her to know that her team was going to the World Series for the first time ever–so much so, that I told her they were in the Series even though they weren’t at that point!

Gwende, or G.G. as we affectionately called her, breathed her last breath and stepped into eternity at 9:55 a.m. last Wednesday. She was finally reunited with her son–the one she loved and had missed so desperately for the last 19 years!

People who choose to drive drunk never consider how lives are impacted. They never stop to think that a Mom had to live with the grief of losing her only child. They never stop to think about a little girl who never had a chance to know her daddy Mike. They never stop to think that the ultimate stress that is put on a body through the grief process might–I believe DID–lead to cancer in a grieving mother.

Grief regurgitated…grief re-lived. A chapter in our lives has closed with the death of Gwende Dean. May she finally rest in peace.

Blog to Eliminate Drunk Driving

Drinking alcohol can be very harmful to your body and your mind. Alcohol can be very harmful to adults and especially teenagers. Everyone could drink alcohol if they wanted too because it is so easy to get. Alcohol can be a very big problem for the person who is drinking it and the people around them.

Alcohol use can make you become addicted physically and psychologically.When you first take a drink of alcohol you get a “buzz” but this “buzz” wears off so people drink more to become “buzzed” once more. Some people’s bodies get a tolerance for alcohol and must drink larger amounts Alcoholism tends to run in the family. People who drink to alter their moods because it’s the way they can have fun or relax and can become psychologically dependent on alcohol.

Alcohol can damage your internal organs because it’s a harmful drug. Alcohol can destroy brain cells and can give you anxiety or even depression. The heart can be harmed by alcohol and it can give you a risk for high blood pressure or coronary heart disease. The liver can be highly affected by alcohol. By drinking it you can get inflammation of the liver or an overgrowth of scar tissue in the liver, Pregnant women should,’t drink because it can damage the fetus leading to birth defects. Female and men’s reproductive organs can be harms. Men can be impotent and the women can have disruption of menstrual cycle.

Alcohol can hurt your relationships with people and get cause violence. People who get drunk ten to be more violent with others when they are out or at home. Some women are sometimes the victims of wife beatings because their husbands may arrive drunk at home. Sometimes children of an alcoholic have to take care of that parent who is intoxicated or just in bad shape because of drinking. More crimes can happen when people drink because they become bolder.

If you drink alcohol be careful and keep it in moderation or it could take over your life. It could also seriously harm your body and mind. It could also hurt your relationships with friends and loved ones.

Underage Drinking