Agency polishes image Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force Director Jim Paine jokes that the words "long troubled" so often preceded references to his agency that he wondered if they might become part of the official name one day. But Paine hopes a hard-won distinction the drug-fighting force recently won will elevate the 25-year-old agency's image in the eyes of local residents and law enforcement. In August, the four-county drug enforcement organization will become the first regional drug enforcement unit in the state to receive official accreditation from the Kentucky Association of Chiefs of Police. [continues 927 words]
Newly worn footpaths, cars parked in remote spots or the sound of machinery running at night. Kentucky State Police want land owners to stay alert to such signs this summer as marijuana growers cultivate their illegal crops, often on someone else's property. Kentucky is one of the nation's top marijuana-producing states, and law enforcement annually searches for patches of the unlawful weed and those who grow it. Troopers with the KSP Cannabis Suppression Campaign are asking the public to watch for signs of growers. [continues 209 words]
With Two Friends Dead, 'Good Kid' Enters Rehab, Finds Hope for Future When one of Stacey's close friends died last fall of a drug overdose, her reaction was "to go out and get high to numb the pain." So when heroin killed another close friend in the winter, friends and family hid the fact from her for two months. By that time, Stacey was in rehab herself, and they didn't want anything to divert her from the program. "It was devastating," said Stacey, 17, about finally finding out last month about her 18-year-old friend's death. "But right away, I stood up in group and talked about it. And that night when I went home, I hugged my Dad for the longest time. I never would have done that before." [continues 1770 words]
Covington soon may remove dozens of pay phones that were installed without permission above city sidewalks and that have, according to police, become a favorite tool of prostitutes and drug dealers. "Drug phones" are what police and residents matter-of-factly call them, because many of them accept incoming calls -- making it easier and less obvious to arrange sex and drug transactions with drivers. Under a proposed ordinance that might receive a vote from the City Commission on April 29, all unauthorized pay phones in the public right of way would have to be removed by June 1, or the city will do it. [continues 888 words]
On Dec. 14, when Ryan Alexandra Koeninger's family should have gathered for her first birthday party, they were instead planning her funeral. At the time, everyone thought the tot had succumbed to Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Three days earlier, her mother, Angel Koeninger, woke from a mother/daughter nap to find Ryan lying cold and lifeless beside her in their California home. Less than an hour later, the little girl was pronounced dead at a hospital and nothing -- from interviews with family members to the initial autopsy -- suggested anything but SIDS was to blame. [continues 487 words]
The newly formed Northern Kentucky chapter of Residents Attacking Drugs will hold a special drug assembly for Campbell County teachers, students in grades 8 through 12 and their parents from 7 to 9 p.m. Thursday at the Campbell County High School auditorium. The assembly will include youth speakers from Kids Helping Kids, a drug dependency treatment program in Clermont County, Ohio; Dr. Mike Kalfas, medical director of the St. Luke Alcohol and Drug Treatment Center in Falmouth; Lt. Dave Fickenscher of the Campbell County Police; and Laura Kruthoffer of the St. Luke West Intensive Outpatient Chemical Dependency program. Plans are under way for a similar meeting for students, parents and teachers at Bishop Brossart High. The local RAD chapter was formed in response to the heroin overdose deaths in recent months of three young men in rural Campbell and Kenton counties. [end]
A Campbell County grand jury on Thursday indicted the former head of the Northern Kentucky University Foundation on a charge of selling marijuana. The grand jury charged James Alford, 52, with trafficking in marijuana within 1,000 yards of a school. The indictment included a gun specification, which increases the maximum penalty from five years to 10 years in prison. Alford's attorney, Dean Pisacano, could not be reached for comment. Highland Heights police and the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force arrested Alford in December at his condominium in Highland Heights after a month-long investigation. [continues 175 words]
Origin An opiate, like morphine and OxyContin, heroin was created by scientists seeking a non-addictive substitute for morphine. It was prohibited by federal law after scientists learned it was many times more addictive than morphine. How it's used At one time, heroin was almost always injected into a vein, known as "mainlining," or just under the skin, known as "skin popping." But the more potent heroin sold on the street today is increasingly sniffed, snorted or smoked, what users call "chasing the dragon." It can also be taken orally. [continues 131 words]
Megan has the same dream every night. She's at a friend's house. Someone walks into the room and offers her heroin. Without even thinking, she pushes the needle into her arm. Then she wakes up, covered with sweat. Megan hasn't used heroin since December. Before that, she was clean for seven months. But the craving never stops. "Heroin eats your soul," she said. "You stop having values. You lie, cheat, steal. When you're an addict, you'll do anything to get a buzz. You don't care who you hurt. Including yourself. Or maybe especially yourself." [continues 1586 words]
Covington might soon pass a law that says two strikes and you're out of your apartment or house if you commit more than one prostitution, drug, gambling or alcohol offense in your home within a year. Under the proposed law, city landlords who fail to evict criminal offenders would find their apartments boarded up for a year. The measure is part of a city effort to play hardball with people committing crimes harming the quality of life in their neighborhoods. [continues 655 words]
Session Held At Campbell High Only a fraction of the 450 people who turned out for a communitywide meeting Feb. 5 to confront teen heroin use in rural Campbell and Kenton counties showed up for a second meeting Tuesday night to map out a plan to combat the problem. And of those who did, fewer still signed up to volunteer for further action. But those who did seemed intent on making a difference. Both meetings were in response to the heroin overdose deaths in recent months of three young men from the two counties. [continues 592 words]
As Campbell County struggles with the reality of teen heroin use, a second communitywide intervention to combat the problem will be convened at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the auditorium at Campbell County High School. Mary Pat Behler, one of the meeting's organizers, said the purpose of the meeting is two-fold: to continue to draw attention to the issues of teen substance abuse throughout Northern Kentucky, and to explore ways to fund more treatment options. Behler is director of NorthKey Community Care, an outpatient community mental health organization. [continues 285 words]
In an extraordinary meeting marked with heated accusations, frustration and tears, a standing-room-only crowd of Alexandria parents came together Wednesday night to learn about heroin and what it's doing to their children. Convened by Alexandria Police Chief Mike Ward in the wake of the overdose death of 18-year-old Adam Messmer in early January, the meeting at the Alexandria Fire Station was intended as a communitywide intervention -- first to come to grips with the reality of heroin in the city and surrounding rural areas of Campbell, Pendleton and Kenton counties, and second, to try to find ways of attacking it. [continues 862 words]
Drugs Rival Alcohol In Some Counties PIKEVILLE -- Law enforcement officials say eastern Kentucky's raging prescription-drug problem is changing the face of a DUI. "Everybody you're looking at now is a pillhead," said former Martin County Sheriff Darriel Young, who left office last month. "In the last couple of years, it's gotten a whole lot worse. Everybody's pilling." County after county has seen explosive growth in "drugged" driving, a signal that the abuse of narcotics rivals or surpasses the abuse of alcohol. [continues 357 words]
A preliminary court hearing for former Northern Kentucky University Foundation President James Alford has been delayed six weeks while his attorney investigates the marijuana trafficking charges against Alford. A preliminary hearing had been scheduled Thursday, but Campbell District Court Judge D. Michael Foellger agreed to attorney Dean Pisacano's request that the hearing be put off for six weeks. Prosecutors didn't object, and Foellger re-scheduled the hearing for 1:30 p.m. Feb. 13. Alford, 52, of Highland Heights, didn't appear in court Thursday and remains free on bond. He pleaded innocent at a Dec. 20 arraignment to a charge of trafficking in marijuana between eight ounces and five pounds, a felony that carries a potential penalty of up to five years in prison. Alford was arrested Dec. 19 at his condominium after a month-long investigation by the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force and Highland Heights police. [continues 231 words]
America's 8th, 10th and 12th graders appear to be smoking less. They are drinking less. Show them an illicit drug, and larger percentages than in recent years are likely to decline to use it. Such are the happy conclusions of a study sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The question is: What went right? One speculative answer is that something went right because something went wrong. Two experts were quoted in The New York Times as saying that the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks may have caused American youth to become more serious about their lives. Another expert, however, says evidence for the theory is lacking. [continues 270 words]
Suspended Friday after he was arrested and charged with selling marijuana from his home, Dr. James Alford resigned Monday as head of the Northern Kentucky University Foundation. The NKU board of regents has set a special meeting for Thursday morning, ostensibly to deal with naming an interim successor to Alford. The agenda says the session is to discuss a single personnel item in a closed session. "I'm sure there will be something related to naming an interim president this week," said NKU spokesman Chris Cole. [continues 171 words]
Endowment Manager Arrested In Thursday Bust The man who managed more than $30 million in endowments for Northern Kentucky University and regularly met with the top business and political leaders in the area is charged with being a small-time marijuana dealer. Dr. James Alford, 52, praised for having one of the top investment strategies in the nation among college foundation directors, pleaded not guilty to the felony charge Friday in Campbell District Court. Later in the day, the Northern Kentucky University Foundation announced Alford had been suspended with pay pending resolution of the charge. [continues 605 words]
Toxic Chemicals Put Cops at Risk The crackdown on methamphetamine production in the Midwest has left a rural countryside pocked with abandoned and destroyed labs. Hidden away in barns and farm houses and trailers, the residue of illicit meth labs has leaked toxic chemicals into ditches and farm fields. Indiana will spend millions this year cleaning more than 800 meth labs, a considerable increase from 1994 when drug officials found only four labs. Kentucky and other Midwest states have seen similar increases in recent years. [continues 659 words]
The chewy leaves and buds of an East African shrub called khat are attracting growing attention locally from drug treatment and enforcement officials, who hope it doesn't take root as a street drug here. Ohio officials issued an alert Wednesday and the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force is sending information to police in its jurisdiction about the plant known formally as Catha edulis Forsk, and casually as khat, qat, Abyssinian tea and African salad. In fact, "salad" is precisely how a motorist stopped on Interstate 75 recently with what was thought to be khat described his cargo to police. [continues 322 words]
Cites Big Jump in Crimes Kentucky should form a new state agency to battle its growing drug problem, House Majority Leader Greg Stumbo said Friday during a speech in Covington. Stumbo, the No. 2 Democrat in the state House, proposed creating an agency he dubbed the Kentucky Bureau of Investigation while speaking at a forum sponsored by the Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce. "Traveling around the state, the one thing I keep hearing about is the problem with drugs," said Stumbo, D-Prestonsburg. "I think the state police do a fine job, but they need some help." [continues 572 words]
With school now back in full swing, it seems appropriate to look at two recent court cases - both on the local and national level - that may impact our children and our schools. Earlier this summer, the United States Supreme Court ruled that a school district could require all middle and high school students participating in extracurricular activities to consent to urinalysis drug testing. Last month, federal Judge David L. Bunning refused to issue a preliminary injunction prohibiting enforcement of a dress code for students at Highland Middle School in Fort Thomas. [continues 596 words]
WASHINGTON - Kentucky's prison budget ballooned dramatically over the past two decades and grew five times faster than state higher education spending, a new study concludes. Meanwhile, there are almost as many African-American men in prison in Kentucky as there are enrolled in the state's colleges and universities, the report says. "This report underlines the sad reality that the nation's colleges and universities have lost budget battles to the growing prison system," said Vincent Schiraldi, one of the report's authors and president of The Justice Policy Institute, a Washington think tank pushing for criminal and juvenile justice reform. [continues 556 words]
Campbell County schools will implement a random drug-testing policy in January. The Campbell County school board voted to approve the testing program Monday. The random testing would affect students in grades sixth through 12 who participate in athletics and marching band, as well as those who park their vehicles on lots at the county's schools. The district will be working during the next 90 days to develop a policy that outlines how many students will be tested, how the tests will be conducted and other details of the program, said Chris Gramke, a spokesman for the school district. [continues 67 words]
Campbell County students who participate in extracurricular activities may be subjected to random drug tests. A committee formed by the Campbell County school board to study the merits of drug testing met for the first time Tuesday. Campbell County Superintendent Roger Brady said he doesn't believe the district is overrun with drugs, but knows drug activity has been a problem in the county. "There are drugs in every high school in America," said Chris Gramke, a spokesman for the district. "We realize Campbell County is no exception. We also aren't blind to the fact that there is a problem in the entire county with people between the ages of 14 and 25 doing heroin. We feel it's a proactive way to fight dugs." [continues 92 words]
A grassroots group working to stop drug dealing on one of Cincinnati's most crime-ridden streets temporarily closed its office Monday after a threat of a drive-by shooting. The Avondale Public Safety Task Force shut its Burnet Avenue office after an elderly staff me mber was warned by a relative about persistent rumors in the neighborhood of an impending shooting there. Tom Jones, the task force's chairman, sent the group's staff home as a precaution but pla ns on reopening today or Wednesday at an undisclosed location. [continues 418 words]
A federal appeals court decision Wednesday appears to have cleared the way for a Pittsburgh company to establish a methadone clinic in Covington, said an attorney who represented the company in litigation with the city. Covington discriminated against MX Group five years ago in its efforts to open a treatment program for drug addicts, the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Wednesday. MX Group likely will open a clinic at 1 West 43rd St. in Covington near a trash compacting st ation, said Bill Oldfield, who helped represent the company in its legal battle to force the city to accept the clinic. [continues 443 words]
Our View: Stop It Now We should take the report of heroin use on the rise in Northern Kentucky as a chilling warning. We cannot afford to do anything less. Our communities must not let this deadly, addictive drug gain any kind of new foothold and most certainly cannot minimize or deny the problem, which is too often a tendency with this drug. Three overdose deaths in four weeks all tied to heroin are clear signals heroin is here. We must be alert, on guard and ready to fight its spread. [continues 200 words]
The simultaneous roundups of street-level drug dealers Monday in Covington and Newport undoubtedly sent the message Mayor Butch Callery said he intended. "We want to put out the word that we're not going to tolerate drugs in the community," he said after 60 officers from federal, state and local police agencies swept in on Covington's Eastside neighborhood and Newport Housing Authority apartments. Investigations conducted over several months in the two cities resulted in warrants for the arrest of more than 60 people. Drugs, money and weapons were seized in the roundups that saw more than 40 people arrested over two days. More arrests are expected. [continues 172 words]
When Scott Perkins sees a bags of Skittles, M&Ms or miniature Tootsie Rolls, he thinks of only one thing: the designer drug Ecstasy. When it's water bottles or liquid mint drops, he sees only the popular date drug known as GHB. Those are popular methods for smuggling so-called club drugs into large dance parties called "raves," said Perkins, a former Green Beret and police officer from Orlando, Fla. Perkins, one of the nation's foremost experts on the growing popularity of club drugs and the rave scene, shared his knowledge Thursday with almost 200 law enforcement officials and educators at a program put on by the Kentucky Crime Prevention Coalition. [continues 679 words]
A bill introduced Tuesday will help law enforcement officials fight an influx of makeshift chemical labs in which over-the-counter cold medicine is converted to the illegal drug ''crank.'' House Bill 644 would make it illegal to possess a large quantity of over-the-counter drugs that contain pseudoephedrine, ephedrine and phenylpropanolamine if the intent is to make methamphetamines. It would allow law enforcement to use the mere possession of large amounts of cold medicine - more than 24 grams, or about 33 boxes of 24 tablets - as evidence in and of itself of possible illegal drug activity. [continues 413 words]
At least one group of air travelers has cut back on flying since Sept. 11: couriers who once used the skies to deliver drugs of all sorts to Greater Cincinnati. Federal and state officials, attorneys and police officers all say that the number of arrests and the amount of drugs seized at Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport has dropped noticeably since increased security measures were instituted. The logical inference, they say, is that the greater likelihood of a random search of baggage - both checked and carry-on - has scared drug runners away. [continues 645 words]
The problem with Joseph Famularo's association with the maker of the highly abused prescription painkiller OxyContin is one soley of appearance. In a nutshell, it just doesn't look right for the former U.S. Attorney for Kentucky's Eastern District, the prosecutor credited with filling a key role in the law enforcement crackdown on OxyContin abuse, to now be serving as an unpaid consultant for the pharmaceutical company that makes and markets OxyContin. It makes the former prosecutor's warnings about the drug whose abuse and misuse he called "a locust plague rolling through southeastern Kentucky" when he was in office ring rather hollow. [continues 321 words]
State, Federal Laws Are Top Hindrances FRANKFORT - Another state-sponsored effort to look at industrial hemp as a cash crop has kicked off, but any chance of growing the plant in Kentucky is still a ways off. The Industrial Hemp Commission, a 17-member board created by the General Assembly earlier this year, met for the first time Monday. The group - made up of members of the pro-hemp community, law enforcement, the legislature and state Department of Agriculture - is charged with identifying whether hemp can successfully be grown and sold in Kentucky. [continues 429 words]
Federal and local drug agents have dismantled seven methamphetamine labs, arrested 11 people and confiscated guns and drugs after month-long investigation in Grant and Boone counties. The raids, which began last Friday, uncovered a series of labs operating out of homes in Dry Ridge, Crittenden, Verona and Walton, said Jim Paine, executive director of the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force. Last Friday and this Wednesday, agents recovered a massive 300-pound tank of anhydrous ammonia, which is used to make methamphetamine; 13 guns; various chemicals and equipment; and six ounces of the street stimulant valued at $6,000. [continues 231 words]
Agreement Would Allow For Additional Personnel The Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force is expanding its range beyond the initial three Northern Kentucky counties in response to needs expressed from some outlying areas for drug investigation and enforcement. The eight-person agency is seeking approval from commissioners in Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties for a modified inter-local agreement that makes it easier for the strike force to investigate illegal drug activity in areas beyond the three counties. The new agreement also makes it easier for outlying police forces to contribute manpower to the force. [continues 257 words]
WASHINGTON - Calling all patriotic Americans: Now is the time to rise up in defense of your country. Translation: Real Americans don't do drugs. It's no secret that terrorist groups around the world are often linked to illegal drugs. Government leaders believe Osama bin Laden, the main suspect in the recent deadly assault on New York and Washington, may have used drug money to finance some of his terrorist acts. With that in mind, government leaders are trying to tap into the patriotic fervor sweeping the country and convince Americans that illegal drug use is not only dangerous behavior. It's un-American. [continues 559 words]
Nearly a third of the inmates who leave Kentucky prisons wind up back behind bars within two years, a report issued last month found. The report, which examined 1998 statistics, said 31.6 percent of the inmates who had left prison after serving their sentence, receiving parole or winning shock probation were back within two years. While plenty high enough, that recidivism rate was actually down from a 10- year high of 34.7 percent in 1994. Moreover, the Kentucky Department of Corrections report found an even higher recidivism among prisons who had been involved with drugs. Thirty-six percent of the violent drug offenders and 32 percent of drug offenders, in general, were back in prison within two years. [continues 69 words]
It's caused explosions that blow homes off their foundations. Its fumes have permanently disabled police officers. Its residue left on a motel bedspread have snuffed out a 5-year-old's life. It is methamphetamine, maybe the deadliest street drug of our time. Not to its users, but to those who unwittingly cross paths with the deadly remnants of the clandestine labs in which it's made. The growing incidence of meth labs has sent law enforcement agencies scrambling to educate their officers about them, not only so police can find them, but so they can protect themselves against the health hazards the labs pose. [continues 1002 words]
There's no doubt that the scourge of illegal drugs is destroying both people and communities, fueling crime and violence, filling our court dockets and prisons and sapping all of society. There are laws to catch, punish and, hopefully, rehabilitate those who use and abuse drugs. But one law that bans federal college financial aid to applicants with drug convictions is an unfair punishment that keeps those with drugs in their past from improving themselves. That ban could deny more than 34,000 people the loans and grants they need to get an education in the coming school year - more than triple those turned away in 2000-01. [continues 423 words]
A ban on giving federal aid to college students with drug convictions could mean more than 34,000 people will be denied loans and grants in the coming school year - more than triple those turned away in 2000-01. The increase reflects a clarification in the U.S. Education Department's aid application, which screens for people with drug records. But the change has brought louder protests against the law: Even the measure's author says enforcement has been taken too far. [continues 437 words]
FRANKFORT - Harsher sentencing for violent criminals and a crack down on drug offenders has meant that Kentucky's inmate population has more than doubled in the last 10 years. The number of people incarcerated in federal, state and local prisons and jails in Kentucky jumped from 13,948 in 1990 to 28,388 in 2000, according to Census figures released this week. More prisoners doesn't necessarily mean crime rates have risen in the last decade, corrections officials say. An increase in the general population does mean more crimes are committed, said Pamela Trautner, spokeswoman for the state Corrections Department. But the spike in inmate population can more likely be explained by recent laws that strictly penalize offenders, she said. [continues 578 words]
The Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force and the FBI will share $825,000 in cash, nine trucks or cars, a mobile home and 10 firearms taken from a marijuana ring based in Florence. The value of the confiscated property makes it one of the largest forfeiture cases ever in Northern Kentucky, officials said during Wednesday's announcement. "This was a good case for us," said Jim Paine, director of the anti-drug agency that operates in Boone, Campbell and Kenton counties. [continues 284 words]
Kenton County prosecutors say prison sentences meted out to those who illegally bought and sold the prescription pain-killer OxyContin have helped limit the growth of the once-popular drug. "The word is on the street: It's not going to be tolerated," said Assistant Commonwealth Attorney Michael Folk. More than half of the people arrested in Covington earlier this year during an investigation of illegal sales and use of OxyContin have pleaded guilty. Five of the 11 have been sentenced to prison, and another is expected to plead guilty next month to charges that will carry a prison sentence, Folk said. [continues 314 words]
The new chief of a regional agency that targets illegal drugs in Northern Kentucky will update his board today on his progress in expanding the agency's dismal membership. Participation in the Northern Kentucky Drug Strike Force is voluntary, and now only three of the region's 33 police agencies contribute officers. But James Paine, who took over in April as executive director, says he has commitments from at least four other police and sheriff's departments. Paine is trying to elicit more cooperation by varying the length of time officers are loaned to the agency, by vowing to be accessible to police chiefs and by emphasizing the training benefits that serving on the task force provides. [continues 578 words]
As governor, I served the people of Kentucky from 1967 to 1971. In my role as governor, I listened to all sides of the issues, carefully considered all opinions before me and tried to be fair in my responses. Being actively involved in civil public service, I am often asked for my opinion on various matters affecting our state. One of the most recent, the industrial hemp issue, also has proven to be one of the most important. Although Kentucky has long been known for its historical hemp industry, it wasn't until about a year ago that I became educated about industrial hemp. Frankly, I was opposed to to the legalization of hemp for years because I had been of the opinion hemp was marijuana. I was shortsighted in my thinking, and I was wrong. [continues 539 words]
The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport's Drug Interdiction Task Force last year nearly doubled the number of arrests made. Last year 92 people were arrested, up from 48 in 1999. In addition, the amount of cash that was seized from drug couriers last year - $570,994 - was up from 1999, when $447,115 was seized. The drug money, after a judge rules it can be seized, is typically divided among the state, federal and local police agencies that comprise the Drug Interdiction Task Force at the airport. [continues 592 words]
A Northern Kentucky defense attorney charged in federal court today that FBI agents are trying to frame him on charges of intimidating a witness. Marcus Carey - who represents a member of a prominent Gallatin County family on federal drug trafficking charges - said he learned about the threat Wednesday afternoon from a potential witness in the case. Carey said the witness broke down crying as he told a story of the FBI asking him to wear a wire while a representative of Carey's talked to him. The FBI told to the witness ''to pick a fight'' with Carey's representative, Carey told U.S. District Judge Jennifer Coffman. [continues 276 words]
The United States is in the middle of a drug problem of national proportions, especially among our young people. Of the many illegal drugs available, marijuana is nearly always the first drug used by children and teen-agers. Since 1991, lifetime marijuana use has doubled among eighth and tenth grade students, and has increased by a third among high school seniors. No parent can afford to underestimate the incredible peer influence to use marijuana. Studies show that along with the increase in marijuana use, there has been a significant decline in anti-drug perceptions and lack of drug knowledge among young people today. [continues 368 words]
The pregnant 14-year-old was so hooked on marijuana that she would arrive early at her anti-drug counseling sessions - so she could meet up with a friend to sneak outside and smoke a joint. The 17-year-old high school athlete loved playing his sport - but not enough to give up drinking, which eventually led to his being kicked off the team after he was arrested Labor Day on a charge of drunken driving. The 16-year-old girl started drinking at age 9 and smoking pot when she was 11 - but saw nothing unusual about her behavior and fought with anyone who suggested otherwise. [continues 894 words]
