Daughter, wife of AZ official accused in sex case

PHOENIX – The daughter of a county supervisor has been arrested on suspicion of sexual misconduct with the same teenage boy that her mother is accused of sexually abusing over a three-year period, police said Thursday.
Rachel Katherine Brock, 21, was arrested Wednesday on three counts of sexual conduct with a minor and one count of transmitting obscene material as part of an ongoing investigation surrounding her mother, 48-year-old Susan Brock.
Both women were being held without bond at the Maricopa County jail.
In Rachel Brock's initial court appearance, acting attorney John Rock argued that the judge should free her on bond because there appeared to be no physical evidence to support any of the charges. Rock also said the teen would have been asked if he had been a victim of any other sexual abuse when Susan Brock was arrested in October.
"It appears that he's given contradictory information," Rock said. But the judge wasn't persuaded.
It was unclear whether Rachel Brock had a permanent attorney. Susan Brock's attorney, Pheron Hall III, did not immediately return a call seeking comment Thursday.
Rachel Brock is the daughter of Maricopa County Supervisor Fulton Brock, and Susan Brock is his wife of 28 years. The family lived together in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler but Fulton Brock filed for divorce after his wife's arrest.
Rachel Brock is accused of committing numerous sex acts with the teenage boy between February 2007 and August 2008, and sending him nude photos and a video of herself masturbating; none of the acts involved intercourse. The boy was 14 at the time, and Rachel Brock was 18, classifying the crimes as dangerous crimes against children.
Police said that between August 2007 and October of this year, the teen met Susan Brock for sexual trysts. Susan Brock reportedly provided the boy with cell phones, and police seized text messages reportedly recording sexual exchanges between the two.
Chandler police Sgt. Joe Favazzo said it appears that Susan and Rachel Brock didn't know about each other's relationship with the teen.
"You have a situation where you have a mother who's abusing a juvenile victim, seemingly unknowingly to the daughter, or vice versa, and the daughter is also abusing the same victim," Favazzo said. "I just can't imagine a mother and daughter having this conversation, and the investigators say they don't have anything indicating the two of them knew about it."
The boy, now 17, told police that Rachel Brock began abusing him in 2007 by inappropriately touching him during a trip to California, and it escalated to other sexual contact in a vehicle about a month later, according to a court document released Thursday. The boy also told police there was sexual contact with Rachel Brock at the Brocks' home and at a property owned by the Brock family.
Susan Brock was arrested in October on two counts of child molestation and two counts of sexual contact with a minor involving the same boy.
The teen told police Susan Brock would pick him up at school or home and drive him to secluded areas where they would have sexual contact in her car, although there was no intercourse, according to a court document. Authorities say Susan Brock also helped the boy meet his girlfriend and provide places where the young couple could have sex.
In a statement Thursday, Fulton Brock said "'shocked and devastated' are not sufficient words to describe the news this day or what has transpired over the last two months."
"I have filed to divorce my wife. I cannot divorce my daughter," Fulton Brock said. "She is my blood. I will always be her dad. And she needs me now more than ever."
A third woman, Christian Hart Weems, 37, was arrested in the case Tuesday on suspicion of obstructing a criminal investigation and conspiracy to commit computer tampering. She's accused of deleting potentially incriminating e-mails between the boy and Susan Brock. Police say Weems is a friend of Susan Brock.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101230/ap_on_re_us/us_supervisor_wife_arrested

Ultimate Beer Dispenser

Merry Christmas Everyone!

Police arrest Okla. Speeder after Watching Video of Him Going 195mph on YouTube

 

Police arrest Okla. Speeder after Watching Video of Him Going 195mph on YouTube : MyFoxDC.com

BY NEWSCORE

An Oklahoma man was arrested on reckless driving charges after police used videos he posted on the internet of himself at speeds of up to 195mph to find him, The Oklahoman reported Thursday.
Dee Albert "Cody" Replogle, 30, was arrested Monday on two complaints of reckless driving that were brought to light when he posted videos taken from inside his Corvette on YouTube, the report said.
In the videos, posted under the name “cody111280,” the vehicle’s engine is heard roaring as the car zips past highway traffic.
The Oklahoma Highway Patrol tracked down Replogle after the department received an email complaint about the videos, the report said.
Replogle admitted to taking the videos and posting them. He was released on bail.
Read more: http://newsok.com/troopers-use-youtube-to-catch-oklahoma-city-speeder/article/3525989?custom_click=lead_story_title

60 Minutes: Endless Memory

I watched this last night, thought it was pretty cool, especially the one guy that's a Steeler fan. I think it would be effin awesome to have an Endless Memory as a Football Fan, I mean no one could beat you in a Sports Facts discussion.. lol

Clutch TD by DeSean Jackson FTW..

Brett Favre out, Joe Webb in for Vikings vs. Bears

Brett Favre’s consecutive games started streak is over at 297, Tarvaris Jackson’s streak is over at one, and now it’s time for Joe Webb’s streak to begin.
Vikings coach Leslie Frazier has confirmed that Favre is out on Monday night against the Bears, and Webb will get his first NFL start.
The Vikings have not yet said whether the medical staff expects Favre to return this season, but Frazier has said that if Favre’s shoulder sufficiently recovers, Favre will get his job back.
Webb, a rookie sixth-round draft pick from Alabama-Birmingham, has completed two of five passes for eight yards, and run once for 16 yards, in very limited action this year.

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2010/12/18/brett-favre-out-joe-webb-in-for-vikings-vs-bears/

Yummy Bacon....

5 charged in attack on man, pregnant teen aboard bus

Three of the five teenage girls caught on video viciously attacking a pregnant teen and her boyfriend on a Metro bus last month have significant juvenile criminal histories, mostly for assaults and thefts, according to court records.
One girl was convicted last year of attacking a woman and attempting to steal her purse, while another girl allegedly grabbed and shoved a nurse at Swedish Hospital in August. A third girl has several theft convictions, including one from early 2008 for stealing $918 worth of merchandise from the downtown Seattle Macy's store, according to court records.
On Nov. 19, the five teens — four juveniles and one adult — got on the Route 358 bus in Belltown during rush hour and made their way to the back of the packed, articulated coach, according to the King County Sheriff's Office, which is responsible for policing Metro buses, bus stops and transit stations.
Without warning, one of the suspects grabbed an MP-3 player away from 17-year-old Jessica Redmon-Beckstead, who was on the bus with her boyfriend, Jason DeCoste, 19. In the moments that followed, the suspects punched and kicked both Redmon-Beckstead and DeCoste on the bus, despite the posted signs alerting passengers that video-surveillance cameras are on board.
The Sheriff's Office provided video footage of the incident during a news briefing in Sheriff Sue Rahr's office on Thursday. "I was shocked by how vicious it was and how unprovoked it was," Rahr said of the attack.
During the incident, one of the suspects can be heard accusing DeCoste of stealing her cellphone. According to sheriff's spokesman Sgt. John Urquhart, DeCoste briefly met the girl at a party last summer and has denied taking her phone. His girlfriend, who was three months pregnant at the time of the attack, did not know any of the suspects, Urquhart said.
Redmon-Beckstead and DeCoste can be seen getting punched in the face and head several times; at one point, one of the suspects uses a bus railing to lift herself up and repeatedly kick DeCoste in the head. Three of the suspects rummage through his pockets, one of them pulling out a pack of cigarettes.
DeCoste tells the attackers that his girlfriend is pregnant, and one replies: "Nobody hit her in the stomach," while encouraging her friends to "hit her in the face."
"During the course of the video all the suspects are seen laughing during the course of the assaults and even joke about how they did not get any money from the victims. One of the suspects is heard complaining that she broke her nail," according to charging documents filed in the case.
Quickly arrested
On the video, DeCoste and other passengers are heard yelling for the bus driver to stop the bus, and DeCoste is again punched in the face and head as he and Redmon-Beckstead get off the bus. According to the Sheriff's Office, the couple then walked to the front of the bus and notified the driver, who called police and waited for deputies to arrive.
Redmon-Beckstead needed six stitches to close a gash over her left eye, while DeCoste suffered bruising. Both told deputies they were concerned for their unborn child, charging papers say.

All five suspects got off the bus when the driver stopped. Within half an hour, deputies arrested three of them in the 8500 block of Aurora Avenue, Urquhart said.
According to Urquhart, a fourth suspect, who is 16, was arrested Nov. 30 at her house in South Seattle.
The fifth suspect, 19-year-old Ayana Cain — who complained about breaking a nail — was arrested Dec. 7 at a Belltown beauty salon, he said. Cain, a student at South Lake High School, spent four days in the King County Jail before posting bond on her $50,000 bail, jail records show.
One 16-year-old is currently on electronic home monitoring while three others — ages 17, 16, and 15 — are being held at the King County Juvenile Detention Center. The Seattle Times does not typically name juvenile-crime suspects. King County prosecutors have filed paperwork in hopes of charging the 17-year-old as an adult.
The four juveniles have been charged with second-degree robbery, and Cain was charged with second-degree assault, according to charging documents.
The suspects, who were provided ORCA bus passes by Seattle Public Schools, have had their passes revoked and are banned from riding Metro buses for a year, according to the Sheriff's Office. If they are discovered on a bus during that time, they can be arrested for criminal trespassing.
Virtues of video
During the roughly four-minute assault, no one on the bus called 911, but Rahr said people were probably too shocked to react.
"When a situation erupts very quickly, it takes awhile for people to respond," she said.
Though Rahr characterized the attack as "an isolated incident," she said emphasis patrols are being assigned to Route 358 buses to ensure riders feel safe. But she pointed out that the route alone carries nearly 10,000 people each weekday and more than 3 million people a year.
Urquhart encouraged passengers who witness crimes to call 911 but not to get involved. He said the bus driver "did everything right" once he became aware of the disturbance at the back of his bus — and passengers can be heard yelling for him to stop the coach.
"He did not move that bus. He kept that bus in place until police could get there and interview witnesses," which led to the quick arrest of three of the suspects, Urquhart said. "This is how it's supposed to work," he said.
The bus is one of nearly 400 Metro coaches currently equipped with state-of-the-art video equipment, which records both video and audio. Cameras will be added to another 250 buses over the next few years, Rahr said.
In releasing the video of the Nov. 19 incident, Rahr said video cameras aboard buses are a deterrent to crime. She said there is a more than 90 percent arrest rate for crimes that are captured on video.
In a Sept. 17 incident, a surveillance video helped police identify and arrest a man who allegedly punched a mentally disabled man just after stepping off the No. 7 Metro bus on Rainier Avenue South, near Mount Baker Station.
The unprovoked attack left the victim, 55, with a broken jaw and face cuts. Police arrested Raymel J. Curry, 32, who has been arrested or cited more than 50 times, on suspicion of second-degree assault.
Previous attacks
The 16-year-old who was arrested Nov. 30 and is still in custody was convicted of attempted first-degree robbery last year for attacking a woman outside her apartment building and trying to steal her purse.
The 16-year-old and two other girls followed Lauren Luttrell, 29, off a bus in the Ravenna neighborhood and demanded money, according to Luttrell and court records. When Luttrell refused, the 16-year-old grabbed Luttrell by the hair and pushed her to the ground. A second girl "banged my head against the door frame a few times" and the 16-year-old delivered several kicks to her body.
The girls laughed during the assault, "which I think is messed up," Luttrell said Thursday. "They all just seemed very mean-spirited."
Luttrell wasn't surprised to hear the 16-year-old was suspected in another attack: "She was the main girl of the three who attacked me.
"Definitely I think they were enjoying it. They hadn't tried to take my purse until they'd verbally and physically messed with me," said Luttrell.
The 16-year-old was sentenced to 15 to 36 weeks in juvenile detention, but the court records did not indicate how much time she served.
In February, the 16-year-old was again arrested for possessing a stolen vehicle — and was supposed to report for drug treatment 10 days before the Nov. 19 bus assault, court records show.
The same 16-year-old and another suspect in the bus attack, who is 15, got into a fight while visiting the other 16-year-old suspect in the hospital in August, according to court records. The girls were fighting over a laptop and the 15-year-old allegedly grabbed and shoved a nurse, the records say. The 15-year-old was charged with assault.
The 17-year-old suspect has been arrested numerous times for theft for stealing from a beauty-supply store, a grocery and two department stores, including the downtown Macy's.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2013694732_busattack17m.html

Orly? Yes, Insects for lunch...

One Minute on Facebook

Rambling gunman dead after opening fire at Florida school meeting

 

(CNN) -- Clay Duke sat quietly through the first portion of the Bay District Schools, Florida, school board meeting Tuesday afternoon as local children were honored for their achievements.
When it came time for citizens to bring up issues, the 56-year-old resident calmly approached the front.
He spray painted a red "V" with a circle around it on the wall, brandished a small-caliber handgun and ordered the room cleared at a Panama City schools building.
"Six men stay. Everyone else leave," the burly gunman said.
Moments later, Ginger Littleton, a board member, returned to the room and swung a purse at him. She ended up on the ground after the two struggled. The gunman cursed her, but did not open fire and he let her leave the room.
Someone was going to die, he said.

Gunman fires at school board members

Witness: Scariest moment of my life

RELATED TOPICS

• Panama City
• Florida
• Crime and Law

At that point, Duke, as seen on the dramatic live internet feed provided by CNN affiliates WJHG and WMBB, began a rambling discourse that included the apparent firing of his wife and sales taxes.
The confrontation ended in the gunman identified as Duke calmly firing at the school officials, being wounded and, according to police, taking his own life.
At first, school board members and Superintendent Bill Husfelt tried to reason with Duke, who had a criminal record. They talked about possibly finding a job for Duke's wife or looking into the case.
Husfelt told the gunman that he likely signed the termination papers, but didn't recall the circumstances.
"I'm the one who signed the papers," Husfelt. "Let them go," he said referring to the school board members.
At one point, Husfelt said, "I don't want anybody to get hurt. I've got a feeling that what you want, is you want the cops to come in and kill you because you are mad. Because you said you are going to die."
"But why? This isn't worth it," the superintendent told him. "This is a problem."
The gunman then pointed the pistol at the official.
"Please don't. Please don't. Please," Husfelt said.
The gunman opened fire at Husfelt and school board members. He missed them all, even though he was at close range, said Lee Stafford, director of student services of Bay District Schools. Duke said, "I'm going to kill [unintelligible]," while he fired.
Mike Jones, chief of security for the school system and a retired police officer, exchanged fire with Duke, who was wounded and rolled to the ground. Duke turned his gun on himself, dying of a fatal gunshot to the head, authorities said. Husfelt called Jones a "hero."
The gunman was declared dead at a local hospital. An autopsy is expected Wednesday.
Police and school officials were left to piece together what happened.
"I'm sure they never expected this kind of event to occur," Sgt. Jeffrey Becker of the Panama City Police Department.
The superintendent later related the event as being "surreal," Becker said.
Husfelt told reporters that Duke had almost a smile on his face. "He made up his mind. You could tell he was going to die."
The superintendent said he believes the gunman used a combination of live bullets and blanks. But police said live bullets were used.
Husfelt told "AC360" Tuesday night that the gunman was "just mixed up" and that he tried to calm him down. "I knew the police were on their way."
"You knew he had something in mind he was going to do and it would not end well," Husfelt said.
The superintendent said he wanted to protect the school board members, but Duke did not want to talk.
"The good Lord was standing in front of me," said the school chief, adding authorities found two bullet holes behind his desk.
Police have a solid lead on Duke's motive, Becker said, but were not prepared Tuesday night to release it.
The investigation includes Duke's assertions that his wife had been terminated by the school district. Police were talking with Duke's wife, Becker said.
School officials said they were unaware of the significance of the spray painting.
But a Facebook page belonging to a Clay Duke has a profile photo of a "V" in a red circle, a logo that is used in the movie "V for Vendetta."
According to the Internet Movie Database, the 2006 film is about "a shadowy freedom fighter known only as "V" uses terrorist tactics to fight against his totalitarian society. Upon rescuing a girl from the secret police, he also finds his best chance at having an ally."
CNN could not verify if the Facebook page belonged to the gunman, but it does list Duke, 56, as living in Panama City, Florida.
A biography on Duke's Facebook page reads: "My Testament: Some people (the government sponsored media) will say I was evil, a monster (V)... no... I was just born poor in a country where the Wealthy manipulate, use, abuse, and economically enslave 95% of the population. Rich Republicans, Rich Democrats... same-same... rich... they take turns fleecing us... our few dollars... pyramiding the wealth for themselves. The 95%... the us, in US of A, are the neo slaves of the Global South. Our Masters, the Wealthy, do, as they like to us..."
Under "political views," Duke labels himself a "Freedom Fighter." Under religious views, he wrote, "Humanism."
Duke, who lived in Lynn Haven, a suburb of Panama City, has a previous record, Becker told CNN.
According to the website of the Florida Department of Corrections, Duke was sentenced in 2000 for aggravated stalking, obstructing justice and throwing or shooting into a vehicle.
According to the Panama City News Herald, after six months of stalking a former girlfriend, Duke confronted the woman outside her home on Oct. 20, 1999. He was wearing the mask and vest and holding two .22-caliber guns. He threatened to kill her, then kill several others and then himself, the newspaper said. When the woman tried to drive away, Duke shot out a rear tire.
The photo of Duke on the corrections page matches the Facebook page.
The News Herald reported that the gunman was taken out of the building on a stretcher. According to Panama City Police Chief John Van Etten, no one other than the suspect was injured, affiliate WJHG said.
School board spokeswoman Karen Tucker said the man "was a large guy" she had seen sitting in the back of the boardroom earlier, according to the News Herald.
Superintendent Husfelt will hold a press conference at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday at the administration building in Panama City, police said.
CNN affiliate WMBB reported children and parents were at the meeting to be recognized for achievements, but were gone before the incident began.
"We are absolutely in state of shock," said Stafford. "I was in the third floor and we were watching the live feed, and first we thought it was a drill. But the more that you watched it, we realized this was an actual incident and emergency situation."
Duke's Facebook page listed him as a 1972 graduate of King High School in Tampa.

His favorite quotation: "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth," from the movie "A Few Good Men."

http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/12/14/florida.meeting.shooting/index.html

Stem Cell Transplant Cures HIV In 'Berlin Patient'

On the heels of World AIDS Day comes a stunning medical breakthrough: Doctors believe an HIV-positive man who underwent a stem cell transplant has been cured as a result of the procedure.
Timothy Ray Brown, also known as the "Berlin Patient," received the transplant in 2007 as part of a lengthy treatment course for leukemia. His doctors recently published a report in the journal Blood affirming that the results of extensive testing "strongly suggest that cure of HIV infection has been achieved."
Brown's case paves a path for constructing a permanent cure for HIV through genetically-engineered stem cells.
Last week, Time named another AIDS-related discovery to its list of the Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs of 2010. Recent studies show that healthy individuals who take antiretrovirals, medicine commonly prescribed for treating HIV, can reduce their risk of contracting the disease by up to 73 percent.
While these developments by no means prove a cure for the virus has been found, they can certainly provide hope for the more than 33 million people living with HIV worldwide. Alongside such findings, global efforts to combat the epidemic have accelerated as of late, with new initiatives emerging in the Philippines and South Africa this week.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/12/14/hiv-cure-berlin-patient_n_796521.html

Eye for an eye: Iranian man sentenced to have drops of acid poured onto his face for blinding his lover's husband

An Iranian man who blinded his lover's husband is to suffer a similar fate in a tit-for-tat sentencing - by having acid poured into his eye.
Iran’s Islamic code allows for ‘an eye-for-an-eye, a tooth-for-a-tooth’ retribution - known as 'qisas' - in cases of violent crime.
The convict, named only as Mojtaba, threw acid in the face of his rival Alireza, a taxi driver, after an illicit affair with the victim’s wife, Mojdeh.

Tough justice: Iran's capital, Tehran, where convicted criminals can be sentenced to an eye-for-an-eye punishment

ll three are 25 and live in Qom, Iran’s clerical nerve centre 60 miles south of the capital, Tehran.
The grotesque penalty was passed by a lower court and upheld by Iran’s supreme court, a government daily, Iran, reported this weekend.
The Qom prosecutor, Mostafa Barzegar Ganji, said the victim had used his right to qisas.
'We have asked for forensic specialists to oversee the blinding of the convict,' he added.
Extreme punishments can be waived if the victim chooses to accept 'blood money' in reparation, and ‘eye for eye’ punishments are rarely carried out.
Similarly in capital cases, there have been several instances in Iran and Saudi Arabia where a convicted murderer’s life has been spared at the eleventh hour when their victim’s family has shown mercy.
Qisas sentences infuriate local reformists and are invariably branded as an 'abhorrent' form of 'judicial torture' by international human rights groups.
In August, a Saudi man convicted of paralysing a countryman in a cleaver attack two years earlier was sentenced to have his spinal cord cut as punishment. But it appears the punishment was not carried out.
Two leading Saudi hospitals insisted they would not conduct the operation and the judge later denied that he had seriously considered ordering the mutilation.
He was reportedly persuaded to backtrack by King Abdullah, the Saudi monarch, who wants to clamp down on extremist ideology and improve his country’s forbidding image.
In February last year a university student in Iran was sentenced to be blinded in both eyes for having hurled acid in the face of a female classmate, who refused his proposal of marriage. Again, there has been no reported confirmation that the sentence was carried out.
Ten years ago an Egyptian worker had an eye surgically removed in a Saudi hospital as punishment for disfiguring a compatriot in an acid attack six years earlier.
That was said to be the first time in 40 years that a Saudi court had applied the principle of 'an eye for an eye', local media said at the time.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1337957/Eye-eye-Iranian-man-sentenced-drops-acid-poured-face-blinding-lovers-husband.html#ixzz180neYz8l

Jason Statham enters the World of Warcraft Cataclysm

2 Black Birds + 1 Black Cat gang up on 1 White Cat

EMBED-Epic Animal Street Fight - Watch more free videos

Snake eats a Kangaroo

Snake eats a Kangaroo - Watch more Funny  Videos

Video: Jets employee trips Dolphins player during game

We know that the New York Jets are a team that likes to be loud and proud about their exploits. They're a team with a lot of swagger even when things are not going well, which they haven't been of late. Less than a week after losing 45-3 to the New England Patriots on Monday Night football, Rex Ryan's bunch lost 10-6 to the Miami Dolphins, and did so in a much more embarrassing fashion.
What, you say? How can a four-point deficit be worse than a 42-point beatdown? Because at least in the Patriots game, nobody on the Jets' sideline did anything rotten like this:




This play happened with 2:58 left in the third quarter, when the Dolphins punted to Jets receiver Santonio Holmes(notes). As Holmes took the ball for a short return, cornerback Nolan Carroll(notes) was hurt on the right sideline as he rushed down to cover the play. The replay showed strength and conditioning coach Sal Alosi extending his knee just enough to trip Carroll up on the play. Carroll was down for a minute, but returned to play later in the game.
You can be absolutely sure that the league will be looking at this play very hard, and that Alosi will be dealt with severely. Quite a foolish gesture -- this is the kind of thing that could cost Alosi his job on some organizations. And all over a little knee shot! The very least this joker could have done was to get his money's worth on the sideline tackle, as Alabama's Tommy Lewis did to Rice's Dicky Maegle did in the 1954 Cotton Bowl:



In all seriousness, there's nothing funny about this. Taking an unsuspecting player out under any circumstances is a very dangerous thing, and Carroll could have been hurt much worse than he was.

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/blog/shutdown_corner/post/Video-Jets-employee-trips-Dolphins-player-durin?urn=nfl-294916

Researchers dressed as giant pandas prepare panda cub for the wild in Chinese reserve

At the Hetaoping Research and Conservation Center for the Giant Panda in China's famous Wolong Nature Reserve, this 4-month-old cub is something of a pioneer, and the human researcher in a panda suit is helping to prepare him for life in the wild.
The captive-bred cub is being prepared for his eventual release through a new program conceived by panda researchers working to increase the endangered species' numbers in the wild.
For the program to be successful, the cub must be prevented from "imprinting" on his human caretakers or developing too much dependence on people. (We wonder if a similar aim could be achieved by allowing the cubs to be raised by dogs trimmed and dyed to resemble pandas.)
The researchers released four pregnant pandas into a protected area monitored by hidden cameras  this year, according to the Telegraph; the cub in the photo above was born to one of those mothers. When the researchers must come into close contact with him -- to take his temperature or give him a veterinary checkup, for example -- they do so only when clad in full-body panda costumes.
If anyone knows where one can fill out an application for panda-costume-wearing cub-sitter, please clue us in! This sounds like the best job in the world, perhaps tied only with Professional Island Caretaker.

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/unleashed/2010/12/panda-costume.html

Giants @ Vikings to play at Ford Field

Pick an adjective, any adjective to try to describe the Vikings' season. And then understand this: It won't do it justice.
How do you sum up a season in which the roof literally caves in on the team?
That's what happened when the Metrodome's roof came tumbling down shortly after 5 a.m. Sunday, causing the NFL to move the Vikings' game against the Giants from Minneapolis to Ford Field in Detroit. Kickoff will be at 6:20 p.m. Monday.
The Dome's collapse even trumped the fact that Brett Favre's NFL-record starting streak of 297 consecutive games stands to come to an end because of a sprained throwing shoulder. Favre said as much via a text message to a USA Today reporter, telling him he doubts he will be able to play. But Vikings interim coach Leslie Frazier said on a conference call that there remains a possibility Favre could start.
Frazier finds himself attempting to get his team to ignore another major distraction in a season filled with them. The list includes Randy Moss' brief but tumultuous stay, Percy Harvin's migraines, Favre's wavering, Favre's injuries and the firing of coach Brad Childress.
That came on Nov. 22, a day after the Vikings' 31-3 loss to Green Bay in which the Metrodome roof only figuratively collapsed on a franchise that had Super Bowl aspirations when the season began.
"After all we have gone through this year, it's going to take a lot more than a building collapsing to break our focus," Vikings linebacker Heath Farwell said.
Now the Vikings (5-7) will attempt to win a third consecutive game under Frazier during the second of a three-game "homestand" with no certainty where they will be a week from Monday night when they are scheduled to play host to the Chicago Bears in a game that was supposed to be a celebration of their 50th season.
Officials with the Metropolitan Sports Facilities Commissioner remained optimistic the roof could be repaired in time for the Vikings' regular-season home finale, but there already was talk of moving the game to TCF Bank Stadium on the University of Minnesota campus.
All of this is happening as Frazier is attempts to keep his team focused enough to prove that he should have the interim label removed. Vikings players found out Sunday afternoon that the game was being moved to Michigan, after being told Saturday night that they would play the Giants on Monday night instead of Sunday afternoon.
Players spent Saturday night at a downtown Minneapolis hotel before returning to Winter Park to go through a second-walk through in as many days.
"I don't think it really hit them until we were sitting down talking today at noon about what the plan was and the fact that everything was officially done and we were going to be going to Detroit," Frazier said. "That's when it began to set in that we were not playing at home for sure and we started talking about going home to pick up their clothes and do the things they had to do to travel. Our guys are resilient, they are professionals, this is what we do for a living and they'll adjust. We talk all the time about being able to handle adversity and they'll handle this."
The plan was for the Vikings to leave for Detroit on Sunday. The Giants, meanwhile, were in Kansas City after being diverted away from Minneapolis on Saturday because of the snowstorm that brought the Twin Cities to a standstill.
"We are excited to just know when and where we're playing," Vikings kicker Ryan Longwell said. "This has been one of the craziest 48 hours I've seen, but we still have a job to do."
Lions President Tom Lewand said Sunday before his team's game against Green Bay at Ford Field that the organization reached out to the Vikings and the NFL early Sunday to offer their facility as a possible venue. The league also gave consideration to possibly playing the game in Indianapolis or St. Louis.
"The league considered a number of other stadiums around the country that were domed and Detroit seemed the most logical, primarily because it was very close by and Fox already had its TV equipment there to broadcast the Lions game today," John Mara, the Giants' chief executive and co-owner, told the Associated Press. "Ultimately the league made the decision to go to Detroit, and we were fine with that."
Of course, what Mara really would have liked was for the game to be moved to the Giants home at the New Meadowlands in New Jersey. "We asked for that several times, and we didn't get very far," he said.
Because of the unique circumstances, free general admission tickets for fans will be available Monday morning at the Ford Field ticket office. The NFL also announced that anyone already holding a ticket to the game will be admitted and given preferred seating. The Vikings will give refunds to those who don't use their tickets.
There was talk Sunday of moving the Giants game to TCF Bank Stadium, but the university issued a statement that following the Minnesota Gophers last home game against Iowa on Nov. 27 the stadium was "winterized for the season and is not now immediately operational for football games."
It would take about four days to bring TCF out of hibernation for the Vikings-Bears game. "Enabling the Vikings to play at our stadium presents substantial logistical and operational challenges on such short notice," the university statement read. "We'll continue to explore all feasible options to make it possible to accommodate the Vikings on campus to complete their season in the Twin Cities, should that be necessary."
Among the issues would be that the capacity of the Gophers home is 50,805; the Metrodome, or Mall of America Field as it has been branded, can hold 64,000.
Mara did not like the thought of moving to the Minnesota campus for a few reasons. "They were predicting the wind chill would be minus-11. That would have created a lot of issues for us," he said. "We don't have any of our cold weather equipment out here with us and plus, from a safety standpoint, I thought it was unnecessary."
The Vikings, who will return to Detroit on Jan. 2 to face the Lions in their regular-season finale, have lost only once at Ford Field since it opened in 2002, but those seven victories have come against the usually woeful Lions.
The Giants (8-4) present a much tougher challenge in a season that has been filled with them.
"We would have loved to have played this game at home but we have to go and get done what we anticipated getting done at home regardless of the fact that we've got to go to Detroit to get it done," Frazier said. "Our goal is to get a win. We would have loved to have played in front of our fans, but hopefully some of our fans will be able to travel in Detroit, just because of the distance. If that's the case we will get some semblance of what we would have gotten if we had actually played at home."


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