Mitt Romney easily clinches Florida primary with more votes than Gingrich and Santorum combined

Seven states will vote in February. Here's the calendar...http://t.co/kcAv4K9v

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Florida Marine Veteran Shot in Craigslist Robbery Used Fingers to Plug Bullet Wounds

A U.S. Marine veteran is recovering from a Craigslist transaction gone bad in which he was shot and then forced to plug the wounds with this fingers, benefiting from a military background that police say possibly saved his life.

"Thank God that I'm here," Lt. Col. Karl Trenker told ABC News' Miami affiliate WPLG-TV from his hospital bed in Florida. "I could very easily not have survived this."

Trenker, 48, had arranged to meet with a Craigslist buyer in Miramar under the name "Galven" who he believed was interested in buying a men's chain necklace his fiancee had posted on the online marketplace.

Trenker thought he was meeting the man in a well-populated plaza, but it turned out to be an apartment complex. He met two men outside on Dec. 21 and showed them the necklace.

"He just picked it up, looked at it and then just started running. I said, 'Listen, we can just drop this now. You set that thing on the ground, walk away, we're done. Police are going to be on their way in a minute,'" Trenker said.

Instead of dropping the necklace, the two men took off running and Trenker pursued them for several blocks before one of the suspects, Jeff Steele, "turned and fired several shots at him," according to a Broward County Sheriff's Office police report.

"I got shot. I didn't know I was shot as many times as I was shot," Trenker said. "I felt the one go into my chest and then one through my abdomen."

Trenker was hit three or four times and shot at four or five times, Broward County Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Dani Moschella said.

"I put my finger in the bullet holes, the big ones, and then I ran back to the car and I made sure the kids were OK and I told them, 'Listen, Dad's been shot. There's an ambulance already on the way,'" Trenker said.

Police said four of Trenker's seven children were in the car and witnessed the alleged robbery and the chase, but not the alleged shooting.

"He called me and said, 'Honey, I've been shot,'" Trenker's fiancee, Tanya Saiz, told WPLG. "I nearly fainted. He saved my life. That would have been me."

Saiz had originally been the one who was planning to meet the purported customer.

Trenker is amazed that after recently returning from a tour of duty in Iraq, he would be injured in his own hometown. "I can't believe this. I go to Iraq, I go to Afghanistan and here I am at home, shot," Trenker said. "It's inconceivable. I don't know how that they can put so little value on life."

Fiancee Saiz told WPLG, "He's been shelled with artillery and survived that, so for this scrawny, skinny little kid to come in and take his necklace, he didn't know the guy was armed.

"If there ever was a time to believe in miracles, this was it, because this was our miracle."

Moschella emphasized that authorities discourage people involved in robberies to pursue thieves. She said that is best left up to law enforcement.

"He could have been killed and that gold chain, of course, isn't worth your life," Moschella said. "This isn't your average victim. His good physical condition and military training may have helped save his life."

Within hours, police had arrested three suspects. Steele, 20, and James Flounory, 20, were each charged with one count of attempted murder and two counts of robbery with a firearm. The third suspect, Andre Gayle, 20, was charged with carrying a concealed weapon and possession of marijuana.

Flounory and Steele are in jail without bond and Gayle is out of custody.

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Florida Inmate Drops Pounds in Exchange for Early Release

A 345-pound man jailed for driving with a suspended license was freed nine days early thanks to a Lake County, Fla., judge's "lose-a-pound, gain-a-day" deal.

George McCovery, 37, dropped 25 pounds in 20 days -- a feat he credited to bland prison food and the judge's weight-loss challenge.

"She gave me a chance to prove myself, and I didn't want to let her down," he told the Orlando Sentinel.

Judge Donna Miller, whose courtroom proceedings are replayed in the TV show "Lake Courts," is famous for her unusual sentence deals. In her 17 years as a judge, Miller has ordered defendants to start jogging, take a dance class, tutor math and write Christmas cards, according to the Sentinel.

"I do what I do to try to change the person in front of me," she said, acknowledging that her self-improvement sentences won't be doled out to everyone. "If the person needs jail, they get jail."

Miller said she would check McCovery's weight after 20 days. And to her surprise, he had already shed 25 pounds.

"It's not easy to lose weight," Miller told the Sentinel. "I thought he'd lose 5, maybe, 6 pounds -- not 25."

Carrying extra pounds can raise the risk of chronic, debilitating and even life-threatening medical conditions such as heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes. And if waistlines keep expanding at current rates, experts predict half of the U.S. population will be obese by 2030.

McCovery, who takes medication for high blood pressure, said he wanted to lose weight during the trial. But it isn't easy. Obesity treatments, such as bariatric surgery, are effective, but many people are reluctant to undergo such an invasive procedure. And a dearth of drugs approved to treat obesity leaves few options for extreme weight loss short of strict diets and intense exercise programs.

But the benefits of weight loss are well worth the effort. According to an August 2011 report, if every obese person decreased his or her body mass index by just 1 percent (a loss of 2 pounds for a 200-pound adult), as many as 2.4 million diabetes cases, 1.7 million cases of heart disease and stroke and 127,000 cancer cases could be prevented.

Although McCovery lost more than a pound a day, experts say slow and steady weight loss is the best way to shed the pounds for good.

"There's a lot that goes on between losing that first pound and losing that 100, 50 or even 20 pounds," Lisa Cimperman, a registered dietitian at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, told ABC News. Aiming to lose 1 to 2 pounds per week can help you stay on track and power through the inevitable weight loss lulls.

Along the way, McCovery was encouraged by his detention deputies, the Sentinel reported.

"Studies have shown that support groups or just having someone else encouraging you will help make you successful," said Lisa Cimperman.

That encouragement and the promise of making it home in time for Thanksgiving was enough for McCovery, who earned a note of praise from Judger Miller on his release order that read, "Good job, Mr. McCovery!"

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Continue Reading... Labels: Drops, Early, Exchange, Florida, Inmate, Pounds, Release

Florida Craigslist Stellensuchenden tot in Ohio Grab gefunden

CALDWELL (Ohio) (AP) — ein Richter erließ ein Gag Order Freitag für ein jugendliches verdächtiger in die Tötung eines Mannes und die Verwundung eines anderen, die auf eine falsche Stellenanzeige auf Craigslistreagiert hatte.

Der junge Anwalt versucht, Behörden und Staatsanwälten aus sprechen was der Anwalt beschrieb als ein "sehr sensational" Fall beenden. Noble County Sheriff Stephen Hannum sagte in einer e-Mail Freitag, dass er keine Informationen aufgrund der Gag Bestellung freigeben würde.

Kadaver Hunde gefunden den Körper eines Mannes, Florida , diese Woche in einem Grab in einer abgelegenen Gegend außerhalb Caldwell, einem kleinen Dorf ungefähr 80 km östlich von Columbus, nachdem ein Bewerber aus South Carolina gedreht wurde aber lief Weg durch den Wald, sagte der Sheriff.

Zwei Männer in Gewahrsam genommen wurden, aber keine Namen freigegeben worden. Akron Beacon Journal identifiziert die Verdächtigen als 52 Jahre alte Mann von Akron, etwa 90 Kilometer entfernt und ein 16-jährige Student an der Stow-Munroe Falls High School im Bereich Akron. Der Sheriff sank um zu bestätigen, die in einer früheren e-Mail am Freitag, bevor die Gag-Reihenfolge ausgegeben wurde.

"Ehrlich gesagt ich gerade Versuche an meine Enten, Beschädigung meine kriminellen Fall zu vermeiden," schrieb Hannum.

Gefängnis Beamten sagte, dass sie nicht bestätigen können, dass sie ein Häftling war ein Verdächtiger im Fall hielten.

Stow-Munroe Falls Superintendent Russ Jones identifiziert der juvenile verdächtige als 16-Year-Old Junior an der High School. Am Freitag Jones lehnte es ab, näher auf der Teen Hintergrund oder Aktivitäten aber sagte, gab es kein Sicherheitsproblem an der Schule.

"Der Vorfall betreffenden stammt von Noble County, das im südöstlichen Ohio ist, hatte nichts zu tun, in irgendeiner Weise, Form oder Gestalt mit einem unserer Studenten oder Mitarbeiter noch auf dem Schulgelände der," sagte er.

Sheriff Hannum sagte der South Carolina Mann entkam aus den entlegenen Gebiet am November 6 und ging zur Polizei, die später fand ein Hand-Zitze-Grab, die sie glauben gedacht war für ihn.

Der Mann gesagt hatte, seine Sachen zu Ohio zu tragen, weil er würde auf der Farm Leben, und Forscher glauben, dass Raub das Motiv war, sagte er.

Fünf Tage nach der South Carolina Mann erschossen wurde, Behörden einen Anruf von der Florida Mann Zwillingsschwester, betreffenden erhalten, dass ihr Bruder nicht von seit Okt. 22 in Parkersburg, WV, gehört hatte, sagte der Sheriff. Die Zweibettzimmer, in Boston, sagte, dass ihr Bruder angesprochen hatten, was sie glauben die gleichen Craigslist Anzeige, war ein Hausmeister für Rinder auf einer 688 Hektar großen Farm abzielte.

Ermittler fanden dann das Florida Mannes Körper.

Behörden hatte gesagt, dass eine Autopsie auf der Florida-Man Donnerstag ausgeführt wurde. Eine Nachricht, die Kommentar war Freitag für die Noble County Untersuchungsrichter hinterlassen.

Continue Reading... Labels: Craigslist, Florida, gefunden, Stellensuchenden