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Barmaid sent to jail for menacing victim
By GLENN McLEAN – Friday, 28 November 2008
A threat to shoot her victim and cut her up if she testified against her has put Courtney Leigh Chapman-Stone in jail for a year for attempting to pervert the course of justice.
Chapman-Stone, 18, barmaid of New Plymouth, was in tears for much of her sentencing after she admitted two charges of attempting to pervert justice, assault with intent to injure, theft and intimidation.
With her victim still on the floor, Chapman-Stone stole her wallet and tobacco and walked out the door.
Prosecutor Mark Wilton told the New Plymouth District Court that Chapman-Stone had kicked her young female victim several times in the head after they got into a fight.
She followed that text up with a bribe to pay the girl $200 if she dropped the charges.
After police laid assault charges against her, Chapman-Stone later texted her victim, threatening to shoot her and get her associates to cut her up.
Defence counsel Kylie Pascoe told the judge that her client had had an extremely difficult time after losing her eight-week-old baby.
Crown prosecutor Tim Walls told Judge Allan Roberts that the perverting justice charge be taken extremely seriously and asked for a jail sentence around the 18-month mark.
While Judge Roberts said he had a great deal of sympathy about what had happened, there was no way he could avoid sending her to jail. Her offending and behaviour had got out of control following the death.
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Duck causes flap and crash
By MICHELLE DUFF – Manawatu Standard Wednesday, 26 November 2008
MURRAY WILSON/Manawatu Standard
DUCK SWERVER: A two-vehicle smash on Palmerston North’s Centennial Drive was thought to have been caused when a car swerved to avoid squashing a duck and her ducklings. .
A mallard duck that led her ducklings into the path of an oncoming car is thought to have been the cause of a two-car smash on Centennial Drive in Palmerston North yesterday. Inset: file picture of ducks.15am, causing a car to swerve into an oncoming Honda Odyssey van.
The duck crossed the road about 9.
Both drivers were unhurt.
The impact rolled the van and sent it spinning sideways down the road, with the male driver escaping out of the driver's side window.
Constable Brendon Ross said the woman car driver had lost control after trying to avoid the duck. The duck is also believed to have been unscathed.
"As you can see it's a people mover but no kids, thankfully.
The van took the full brunt of the crash, so it was lucky there were no kids in the back seat, he said."
Speed was not a factor, and it was too early to say if charges would be laid. He popped straight out the window with just a grazed arm, which is pretty amazing, but I guess that's what happens when you have your seatbelt on.
"I got out of the way, then jumped out and ran over to him – I thought it was going to be pretty bad.
A student on his way to Massey University got a shock when the van flipped and began careening down the road towards him. I was like 'are you all right, are you all right,' and he was like 'yeah, yeah'. He just popped his head up through the door.
"Don't swerve, slow down if you can, but if it's too dangerous run over them."
Detective Sergeant Tim Moffatt said care should be taken to avoid animals on the road, but if you couldn't stop safely, hitting them was better than hitting another person. Don't swerve to hit them, either. I'm not advocating killing them, I'm saying don't swerve to avoid them."
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Easy rider a hit with wheelchair-bound
Saturday, 15 November 2008
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BIKIE CHICK: Catriona Williams tries out the Conquest, a motor tricycle especially designed to carry people in wheelchairs, at Wigram Air Base.
Easy-riding wheelchair users have become the fastest thing on wheels thanks to a speedy contraption which has been tearing up the country's roads.
It was gifted to the CatWalk Spinal Cord Injury Trust by its British designer, and supporters have been taking turns in it.
For the past two weeks, the Conquest, a motor tricycle especially designed to carry people in wheelchairs, has been touring New Zealand the first and only machine of its type to visit the country.
"It's a high-powered vehicle.
Trust founder Catriona Williams said the design offered independence and something cool, which had been absent from disabled transport. Some of the riders were nervous and had never ridden a bike before. It's very capable of going at high speeds.
Riders roll onto the bike in their wheelchairs and it is totally hand operated. Within minutes they had a smile from to ear to ear and every single one has thought it was amazing," she said.
At an auction in Christchurch on Thursday night it sold for $50,000, along with other items raising a total of $214,250 to be put towards research into a cure for spinal injuries.
However, with a $50,000 price tag and costing $15,000 to import, it might be a while before the Conquest becomes a common sight on New Zealand roads.
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‘She was ugly and didn’t listen’ – Nia’s mum
The Saturday, 01 November 2008
Lisa Kuka, Nia Glassie's mother, was overheard at Starship children's hospital in Auckland telling a phone caller from Australia that she had seen Nia being picked up and thrown against a wall, a court has been told.
Crown witness Robyn Armstrong, an intensive care unit ward clerk, gave evidence during the murder trial in the High Court at Rotorua yesterday. She said that she took a call from Australia for Kuka at the hospital, two days after Nia was admitted in a coma.
"Lisa said [to the caller] `hang on a minute, it wasn't me'.
Under examination by prosecutor Amanda Gordon, Mrs Armstrong said she heard "someone yelling on the other end of the phone".. She then said: `I saw it happen … I saw it . I was there… He put her head between his legs and hit her head on the floor three times and then threw her . ..
Panama Le'au'anae, Kuka's lawyer, asked Mrs Armstrong if she was not mistaken."
Neither the caller, nor the person who allegedly harmed Nia, were identified by name in court. "Lisa spoke clearly, calmly and quite loud. Mrs Armstrong said she was not.. I was profoundly affected by what I heard . there's no way I was mistaken..
Earlier witness Nicole Kuka, Lisa Kuka's adult niece, said she discussed Nia's injuries with accused Oriwa Kemp at Starship on July 23, the next day Nia was admitted."
Mrs Armstrong said she later made notes on what she had heard and gave them to police.
The trial continues next week with evidence from medical specialists and forensic experts.
The trial continues next week with evidence from medical specialists and forensic experts.
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Schools add business skills to the three Rs
Thursday, 30 October 2008
Schools are being urged to teach business skills and the value of enterprise to equip pupils for the business world.
Along with literacy and numeracy, the Education Ministry wants schools to include a business focus in lessons to make school leavers more business savvy.
Programmes are already under way in which secondary school pupils form their own registered companies, come up with products, implement a marketing plan to sell them and make a profit.
A Retirement Commission pilot project, introduced this year, aims to have finance skills taught in all schools by 2010 to help address New Zealand's poor savings record and mounting credit card debt.
Some hope to sell what they have come up with to businesses.
"The curriculum these days has got to be less about faithfully reproducing things that are given to [pupils], and more about applying their knowledge using problem solving creatively.
Ministry curriculum group manager Mary Chamberlain said the new focus on enterprise and entrepreneurship would better prepare young people for the world of business."
Reading, writing and mathematics was important, she said."
The ministry, Trade and Enterprise and the Enterprise New Zealand Trust will stage the first Enterprising Students Week in Wellington from Monday. .
"From primary through to secondary schools, there are now superb opportunities for young people to get involved in business programmes and activities," Ms Chamberlain said.
The five-day forum will showcase programmes already combining business skills in schools and include hundreds of business leaders, educators, government officials and pupils."
Business New Zealand chief executive Phil O'Reilly said the new focus would produce more business-capable school leavers and a better understanding of the business world.
"These programmes highlight just how resourceful and business-savvy young Kiwis are.
"This is not about trying to make mini entrepreneurs out of students.
"This is not about trying to make mini entrepreneurs out of students."
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"To have that better understanding is likely to make them better citizens
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Hide those legs, teams told
Senior girls kick up over marching orders
Monday, 27 October 2008
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SHORT SHRIFT: Members of Glenbrae marching team go through their paces in Palmerston North.
The girls from a Palmerston North masters marching team are feeling hemmed in after being told to ditch their skirts and don more "age appropriate" trousers.
Glenbrae Marching Team and other masters teams were ordered by Marching NZ to wear trousers this marching season.
"It's sort of like, `Oh these old girls, we'd better cover them up!"' team member Frances O'Donnell, 46, said. It's what marching is all about," Miss O'Donnell said.
"Yes trousers do cover a multitude of sins, but you have to be able to see your leg action.
Miss O'Donnell, who drives from Wellington to Palmerston North twice a week for marching practice, said the Glenbrae team's crisp blue tartan skirts were 19 centimetres above the knee.
The masters grade is for those 30 years old and over, with the emphasis on fun. "Marching has always been in skirts.
"So they're short, but there are some pretty hot-looking girls out there with nice legs!"
Another team member, Debbie Aplin, also favoured skirts.
Auckland marchers Mystic Knights have started an online "Keep the Skirts" petition, which has gained 282 signatures so far. We're not that old!" Glenbrae's members ranged in age from 32 to 65, with an average age "somewhere in the 40s", she said. "It's about attracting people back to the sport, a new generation of marchers.
Marching NZ chief executive Diane Gardiner said the issue was not about how senior marchers looked." Teams had plenty of warning about the new rules, which were signalled last year, she said. We've actually lost some people, because they've not been comfortable wearing the skirts. Later it was influenced by returning members of the armed forces, giving the sport a more military look.
Marching was started to keep young women fit and healthy during the Depression.