Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards suffered a concussion in Fiji, a band spokeswoman said on Saturday. Media reports said he had fallen from a coconut tree and was recovering in New Zealand.

Richards, 62, was treated locally and then flown to a hospital outside of Fiji as a precaution, Rolling Stones spokeswoman Fran Curtis said.

Curtis said Richards suffered a mild concussion earlier in the week. She said she did not know how it happened. He was still hospitalized on Saturday.

What was he doing in the coconut tree? Didn’t anyone tell him that coconut rum is available at the bar?

A special prosecutor Friday threw out a felony arrest warrant issued against the district attorney stemming from an altercation with a deputy in a courtroom, but he promised a thorough investigation that could result in the case being presented to a grand jury.

Danny Craig, the district attorney in Richmond County in east Georgia, said he dismissed the warrant issued Thursday against Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard because notice wasn’t given to the Attorney General’s office before the warrant was sought.

Such notice is required when a warrant is sought for an elected district attorney, Craig said.

At the same time, Craig, assigned by the AG’s office to handle the case, vowed to get to the bottom of what happened between Howard and Fulton sheriff’s deputy Levoular McCray, who says Howard injured her shoulder in an assault on March 31.

Talk about getting out of a jam on a technicality… I still don’t understand what makes Paul Howard above the laws that affect you and me. Wouldn’t it be nice if the police and the GBI investigated and got “to the bottom of what happened” before they filed warrants against us common folk?

In my entire life, I have never seen government officials as corrupt as the ones in the Atlanta area…

Apparently, the bastards at St. Luke’s have issues with honesty and integrity, and they still plan to pull the plug on Andrea before Tuesday.

From John Hawkins at Right Wing News:

I’ve just spoken with Andrea’s sisters, Melanie Childers and Lanore Dixon today, as well as Andrea’s lawyer, Jerri Ward.

Unfortunately, St. Luke’s has reneged on the deal. Lanore told me that about 20 minutes before Andrea was supposed to be moved to the Illinois facility, St. Luke’s told the family the move was off. It seems that St. Luke’s decided at the last minute that Glenshire Nursing & Rehab Centre in Illinois isn’t equipped to care for Andrea, which is a bit puzzling, since Lanore told me they helped set up the transfer in the first place.

This means that Andrea’s life is still in danger. Jerri tells me that the hospital has only promised, in writing, to not pull the plug on Andrea on Sat, Sun, or Mon. But, from Tuesday on, they’re reserving the right to pull her life support at any time after giving “reasonable” notice to the family. What is “reasonable” notice that you’re about end an innocent woman’s life against her wishes and the wishes of her family?

In any case, on Tuesday, the hospital has a meeting scheduled about Andrea and the one sliver of good news is that the family says they have a doctor with privileges at St. Luke’s who is willing to go in and argue that Melanie is not medically futile. Whether that will make a difference is impossible to say at this point.

The bottom line here is that according to Andrea Clark’s family, St. Luke’s has not lived up to their end of the bargain and has only agreed in writing to extend Andrea’s life one day beyond the old deadline of Sunday.

You can find all of the contact information for St. Lukes on this page.

Start calling people. Andrea needs us now, more than ever.

It’s a toss up as to which bodes worse for Daniel Baldwin’s career: The fact that he was arrested on charges of cocaine possession or the fact that it took a week for anyone to notice.

If his brother wasn’t threatening cast members and making so much noise, someone, somewhere might have noticed.

The least known Baldwin brother was arrested on several drug-possession charges at a Santa Monica dive motel Saturday night after police responded to a phone call from a fellow guest. Some reports peg the call as a noise complaint, while others say it was to report a woman being threatened.

He may have threatened a woman? Who would have thought he as possible of doing such a thing.

Warrants issued for the arrest of Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard have been placed on hold. Douglas County Sheriff Phil Miller told 11Alive News that Douglas County Judge David Emerson called and ordered him not to execute the arrest warrants he issued against Howard.

According to Sheriff Miller, Judge Emerson wants to give Howard’s attorney time to file an emergency appeal to stop the warrants, which he issued Thursday for an alleged incident in Fulton County. The warrants stem from a complaint from a Fulton County sheriff’s deputy who claims that Howard dislocated her shoulder when she tried to take him out of a courtroom on a judge’s orders. Howard has denied the charge.

The warrants accuse Howard of aggravated battery and obstructing an officer. Howard’s attorney, former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, said he would appeal the issuance of the warrants.

I wonder if this would work for the common criminal. The next time a warrant is issued for someone who has committed burglary, assault, battery, robbery, you name it, their attorney should file an emergency appeal to stop the warrants.

Why not? Are district attornies above the law?

The efforts of so many people finally paid off. Andrea Clark is being transferred to a hospital in Chicago. While her condition remains very, very serious, at least she now has the chance to recover. She did not have that at St. Luke’s.

ProLifeBlogs.com has a letter from Melanie Childers, thanking everyone who took time to contact the hospital and spread information.

My family has made the decision to move our sister to the hospital in Chicago. Thank God there is someone willing to take her. And, really, it is best to get her out of Texas, because of the futile care law here.

St. Luke’s played hardball with us on this issue. We were told that we could make the decision today and they would pay the entire amount of $14 thousand to move her, but if we made the decision tomorrow, they would only pay half of it, and if it were the day after tomorrow, they would pay nothing.

As you know, I’m a Democrat, but one that is against abortion. I agree with the Republicans on that issue, at least. After this experience, though, I have to tell you: I am in absolute awe of the power that the right to life people generate. I, of course, first posted on Democratic Underground, and I have to give them some credit: they let my post stand against the rules about posting something like this under the wrong topic. They also let it stand, even though it had people’s (my sister’s and mine) personal numbers in it. And, of course, some people there forwarded it to other blogs. And everyone there was very supportive in their comments, as well.

But the pro-life people stepped forward and just absolutely ground St. Luke’s into submission on this issue. You have, without a doubt, saved my sister’s life. I want you to know that. Without the pro-life/right to life people stepping in from the very first of this fight for Andrea, we would have lost. I have never in my life seen such a centered, focused and energized group of people.

You used that energy and focus to do some good in this world and you didn’t care whether you were fighting for a Democrat’s life or a Republican’s. Now, that’s conviction.

There are not enough words in the English language to tell you how grateful I and my family are, for what you people have done. When we protested at St. Luke’s last Saturday, the strangers that showed up were people that had had relatives killed at St. Luke’s in much the same way that St. Luke’s had planned to kill my sister. These people hadn’t known any better, and they hadn’t known that there was such a powerful group of individuals out there, devoted to this one cause, that might be able to help them.

Because of the people in the pro-life movement, a light has been shown on the truth, for all of Texans; indeed, for all of the world to see. May God bless you for your works. And, please, do not hesitate to ask myself or my family, for anything that you may ever need in order to continue your fight for these precious lives. We are here for you and your cause, as you were here for us in ours.

Melanie Childers

She also left this post on Democratic Underground:

Some of you might remember my posting on DU about my sister, Andrea Clark, for whom St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital in Houston was threatening to terminate care. Andrea would have died had St. Luke’s been successful. Because of DU and others, Andrea is now being transferred to a facility in Chicago, Illinois. They have no futile care law in Chicago, so Andrea will be okay there.

Andrea is now showing some signs of improvement, although slight. She has endocarditis, which takes about four months, at best, to resolve itself. It’s going to be a long road back for her, if she makes it, but I want to thank the mods here and Skinner, for helping us to get the word out.

I have to tell you, too, that the right to life people were with us on this all the way. And we never made a secret of the fact that we were Democrats, either. They are an absolutely formidable force. I don’t know what we would have done without them. They pinned St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital to the wall with calls, emails, blogs, radio interviews, etc. St. Luke’s is so utterly happy to get my sister out of that hospital ALIVE, if it weren’t so tragic, it would be almost comical.

Anyway, just wanted to let you know that this had a happy outcome, and express our family’s thanks for your help.

Now Andrea can stop worrying about treatment and start focusing on recovery.

Good Luck Andrea!

An attorney for Fulton County District Attorney Paul Howard said that he plans to go to court Friday to appeal a warrant for his client’s arrest that was signed Thursday by a Douglas County judge.

Attorney Roy Barnes, the former Georgia governor, said he did not expect Howard to turn himself in to face the aggravated battery and other charges before the petition to dismiss the warrants is filed with the Georgia Court of Appeals.

“I’ve never heard of anybody arresting a district attorney in my 35 years of practicing law,” Barnes said.

The warrants charge Howard with aggravated battery and other crimes following a courtroom struggle with a Fulton deputy a month ago.

I bet, in his 35 years of experience, no district attorney ever got physically violent with a deputy either.

At first I thought this whole thing was odd, simply because of the seeming appearance of “judge shopping”, but I tell you what. After discovering the Georgia law that allows such cases to be filed in any county, and the more I hear from Howard’s defense attorney, the more convinced I am that the deputy’s attorneys did the right thing here.

When you act like a criminal, you should be treated like one, whether or not you are the district attorney.

California’s state senators on Thursday endorsed Monday’s boycott of schools, jobs and stores by illegal immigrants and their allies as supporters equated the protest with great social movements in American history.

By a 24-13 vote that split along party lines, the California Senate approved a resolution that calls the one-day protest the Great American Boycott 2006 and describes it as an attempt to educate Americans “about the tremendous contribution immigrants make on a daily basis to our society and economy.”

…

The boycott, also called “A Day Without Immigrants,” grew out of huge pro-immigrant marches across the United States in recent weeks. Organizers are urging people to stay home from school and jobs and avoid spending money on Monday to demonstrate their importance to the U.S. economy.

Once again, the media is trying to turn this into an “anti-immigration” event, rather than what it truly is.

“A Day Without Immigrants”? They’re kidding right? Our country was founded by immigrants. Legal immigrants are not the issue here.

My grandmother on my mother’s side immigrated to America in the 1940’s, legally. She worked hard, she provided for her family, she made great contributions to our society.

One of my father’s grandfathers, the son of legal immigrants himself, worked on the Trans-Siberian Railway, and helped build the Panama Canal., doing so in service to his country.

In fact, almost everyone in America has a story about an immigrant in their family, because most of us descent from immigrants.

But…

This boycott has nothing to do with legal immigrants. It’s the sneaking, lying, cheating, law breaking ILLEGAL immigrants who are the issue.

Of course, I have no problem thinking about “A Day Without Illegal Immigrants”. That has a mighty nice ring to it.

Here is an interesting update about Andrea Clark from Hyscience:

The family learned of a facility in Illinois that is willing to accept Andrea and offer her the opportunity to live, an expensive move that would require Andrea to be far removed from her family.

However, placing corporate greed ahead of all patient interests and the interests and wishes of the family, St. Luke’s Episcopal Hospital has just notified the family that they are willing to pay the almost $17,000 to move Andrea to Illinois if they will immediately – that’s TODAY, move Andrea out of St. Lukes to the Illinois facility. If the family waits until tomorow to decide, St. Lukes will only pay half. And if the family can’t make a decision by tomorow, the hospital may consider to pay absolutely nothing. In other words, the hospital is attempting to force Andrea out of the hospital in order to stop the financial drain of the cost of her care.

John Hawkins, from Right Wing News, has been in contact with Melanie Childers, Andrea’s sister, and

…So, the ideal situation would be to get her into a hospital in a nearby state, so that her family would have easy access to her. Illinois is a long way from Houston and the idea of having her sister in intensive care, far away from her home and family, is naturally very upsetting, but unfortunately, it may be the only option they really have.

Melanie told me the family is going to be discussing St. Luke’s offer to pay for the transportation to the Illinois facility tonight and if they accept it, she believes that Andrea will be moved tomorrow.

That’s where the story is at right now. As I learn more details, I’ll provide them for you.

I know the thought of moving her all the way to Illinois is unsettling, but it sure beats the alternative they were looking at just a few days ago.

Keep praying.

A Douglas County Judge has signed arrest warrants against Fulton County D.A. Paul Howard Thursday.

The warrants accuse the prosecutor of aggravated battery and other charges following an encounter with a deputy several weeks ago.

The case stems from an incident on March 31 in Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford, Jr.’s courtroom. The Judge ordered Howard handcuffed and locked in a holding cell for refusing to comply with the Judge’s orders not to talk to jurors in a rape case.

…

According to the AJC, Douglas County Sheriff Phil Miller confirmed that he would be serving the warrants that were signed by Douglas Superior Court Judge David Emerson on Thursday. The warrants accuse Howard of three felonies, including aggravated battery and obstruction of an officer, and three misdemeanors.

This incident occurred at the Fulton County Courthouse. Why is it that a Fulton County judge did not issue this warrant? Does the Douglas County Sheriff actually have jurisdiction to serve this warrant? Would someone in the know let me know? Please…

Update [02:15 04/28/2006] While watching a replay of the 11 o’clock news from WXIA, they quoted the following:

GEORGIA CODE
17-4-44

“A warrant for arrest may be issued in any county, though the crime was commtted in another county.”

Of course, all this means to me is, if you want to charge someone with a crime, and your local county judges won’t issue the warrant, you have 158 more chances to “shop-around” to see if you can get the warrant.