The Netflix documentary "Making a Murderer has generated a lot of conversation nationally. I myself have doubts about convicted murderer Avery's innocence, but I am disturbed by the Manitowoc County's Sheriff's Department involvement in finding previously overlooked evidence.
After viewing the official interrogation videos of Brendan Dassey, Avery's nephew, I do have serious doubts about Dassey's involvement.
I have decided to compile a page of documents relating to the Steve Avery/Brendan Dassey trials for my own, and hopefully your, convenience.
It is a work in progress and documents will be added as I find them.
A who's who list of people who are important in the documentary "The Making of a Murderer." Who's who?
Avery's Wis. Stat § 809.30(2)(h) Postconviction Motion: The motion argued that Avery should be granted a new trial because he was not allowed to present alternate suspects in his trail. The suspects are named, including his brothers!
Written transcripts of phone call between Brendan and his mom. I this call Brendan tells his mom he was involved in the murder: Brendan61306
Written transcript of the initial police interrogation of Brendan, Brendan says he saw body parts. Brendan tells the officers that Steven admitted to stabbing Ms. Halbach in a Jeep: Brendan's first interrogation
Transcript of the nest police interrogation. Brendan tells the police he was actively involved in the rape and murder: Brendan transcript March, Video of interrogation: Video of interrogation
Transcript of Dassey and is lawyer's "investigator. DasseyInvest
Transcript of interrogation which happens after Brendan's first lawyer allows the defense interrogator to coerce Brendan into writing an account of what happened. Brendan's lawyer allows the police to interrogate Brendan without the lawyer's presence. Brendan gives another account which is totally inconsistent with his third account. Brendan transcript 4 May
"Mishimala forma d'un sentit" by Lali Masriera - originally posted to
Flickr as mishima:la forma d'un sentit.
Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
Between my thighs,
As your muscles
Bunch and loosen.
I grip your thick mane
With shaking hands
And breathe in your
Sweet, salty scent.
The steady rhythm
Of your movements
Makes time and place
Pass in a frenzied blur.
Two racing as one
Winded and exhilarated.
In a rush we arrive home
And, slowly, I dismount.
There was a time I would have laughed at being paid $1.00 an hour. After all, I came of age when the minimum wage was $3.35 an hour. But being desperate sure makes a difference in one's perception of the value of a dollar. I even no longer suck up pennies off the floor when I vacuum. After all, 150 of those round beauties will buy a loaf of bread.
I need to make some money, but even more I need to do something productive. My self esteem is around zero, my computer is hanging on literally by a wire, and my car has been down since before Thanksgiving. I type "work at home" into the search engine. I can skip the "Make Thousands a Week from Home" come-ons. My momma didn't raise a fool.
Surveys suck!
Surveys look promising. A number of reputable sources say that even though you won't get rich, you can make some extra money from home. I'm in! I set up a new email address and follow a link to legitimate survey companies. I spend hours filling out forms with my name, age, address. Over and over. When I'm done I check my email. Eureka! Surveys await with promises of cash and sweepstakes rewards. I start the first survey, only to be kicked out after a few questions. "Sorry, you are not a match for this survey." Hmmm. Okay. I start the next one. Same thing. And again. And again. I realize that maybe the survey companies want people who actually can afford to buy a car, a new washing machine, or new shoes. Surveys are out.
I discover a transcription company that lets beginners work at their site for $30 an audio hour. I can type, sort of. I can do 30 wpm if I look at the keys. I take a test and pass. In like Quinn. I read the rules and get poised to type. The audio files are broken into 10 or 20 second clips. The first one is awful. The audio quality is bad, and the person speaking sounds as if he has marbles in his mouth. I have no headphones, and the dogs won't quit clicking across the floor. A gravel truck seems to pass by outside every 2 minutes. The first 10 second clip takes me 5 minutes. That means that at this rate, I'll earn $30 a week. Woohoo! I'll take it! Unfortunately, they do not always have clips to transcribe, so I look for something else while I wait.
Mechanical Turk
And then I find it. The Holy Grail of work-at-home: Amazon's Mechanical Turk. This work from home gig is heaven sent. Amazon hooks up business people who need tasks done cheaply with people from around the world who will work cheap. From copying business card text for a penny, to transcribing audio files for hundreds of dollars, it is a stay at home worker's paradise.
I start out searching the internet for a company for 10 cents. I transcribe a recipe for 15 cents. Then I discover surveys. Many colleges pay people to fill out surveys, from "Moral Judgment" to "Visual Memory and Personal Preferences". The pay ranges from .50 cents to $2. I have many opinions about many topics, and I don't mind sharing them. This is right up my alley. So far, I am averaging about $10 a day. Nice if you only need a little pocket money, but I need to support myself. Those transcribing jobs look promising, so I'm ordering a foot pedal and headphones with the money I earned last week.
The most important thing about my work-at-home dreams is that I have hope and I feel like a productive human being again. Wish me luck!
Turkopticon is a must!
If you have decided to become a "Turker" (worker at Mechanical Turk) I highly recommend installing turkopticon into your browser. It is a free extension hosted at UCSD.
Like the real world, the are some "work providers" who will take advantage of workers. This nifty extension will allow you to see how other workers have rated the "employer." The ratings are based on fairness, how fast and how well he pays and communication, After completing a task, you too can rate the employer.
You will need to sign up to be able to post.
Turkopticon is invaluable when it comes to avoiding work assigners who don't pay well, or unfairly reject work completed. You can also see the good work assigners when deciding which tasks to perform.
Many writing sites have shut down this past year, not the least being Yahoo Contributor Network.
In 2015, HubPages announced it had acquired "the best of Squidoo's" writing.
I was a little dismayed over this as I always felt that much of Squidoo was not actual writing but only thinly veiled sales capsules. I also did not agree with Squidoo's policy of only paying a select few writers. So far Hubpages hasn't adopted that payout policy
I do have faith that HubPages will continue to be the quality site that has allowed me to earn extra money each month. This last Panda update was rough, but views are again on the rise.
Is Bubblews going to be the next site to fail? My residual income is about a nickel a week over there, and new posts get no views at all. More and more people are complaining of not getting paid, and I feel Bubblews, too, is on shaky ground. (Update: Bubblews failed November 15, 2015.)
I had the pleasure of living and working in Eastern North Carolina for over a quarter century. I spent many hours lying on the beach or playing in the Atlantic Ocean with my children.
But there is much more to Eastern North Carolina than just the beautiful beaches. If you plan to visit Carteret County or the surrounding area, you must make time to see beautiful Fort Macon.
The entrance to Fort Macon
Fort Macon State Park and Atlantic Beach
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Fort Macon is located in Fort Macon State Park just east of Atlantic Beach, North Carolina. The fort was built at the farthest end of Bogue Banks, a 21 mile long barrier island that is a popular North Carolina tourist destination.
Fort Macon State Park offers beaches, salt-water fishing, nature trails, a refreshment stand and a bathhouse. There is no fee for parking, fishing or visiting the fort.
Atlantic Beach has beautiful beaches facing south onto the Atlantic Ocean. It also has beautiful views of Bogue Sound, the stretch of water separating Bogue Banks from the mainland.
Catering to tourists in the summer, Atlantic Beach is a laid-back small town in the off-season.
Early Forts Protecting Beaufort Inlet
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Fort Macon was built to protect Beaufort Inlet and to defend the town of Beaufort from invading forces. Beaufort was ransacked by Spanish forces in 1747 and then Great Britain in 1782. The U.S. government realized the entire East Coast's ports were vulnerable to invading armies and pirates. A series of forts were eventually planned and built along the entire eastern shoreline.
The first fort designed for the Beaufort Inlet, Fort Dobbs, was started in 1756 but was never completed.
A second fort, Fort Hampton, was eventually completed in 1807. It was used to protect Beaufort Inlet against the invading British during the War of 1812. Fort Hampton was later abandoned and was washed away by the Atlantic Ocean in 1825.
Fort Macon's namesake
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Fort Macon was named after Nathaniel Macon, a United States Representative and later Senator from Warrenton, North Carolina.
He was elected in 1785 to the Continental Congress but declined the office. He was elected again and served from 1791 to 1815.
He resigned from Congress after being elected to the US Senate, where he served until 1828.
Nathaniel Macon was instrumental in procuring the funds necessary to build the new fort.
An aerial view of Fort Macon. Beaufort Inlet is to the east.
The Construction of Fort Macon
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The construction of Fort Macon was started in 1826 by the US Army Corps of Engineers. The Corps of Engineers utilized both paid and slave labor during the building of the fort.
The fort was designed as a pentagon and was built to be not visible from the sea. The waters to the east, north and south could be monitored from the fort, preventing enemy ships from attacking the port at Beaufort.
From the start the building project was beset by problems. When digging started (done mostly by slaves), the holes quickly filled with groundwater. The first bricks made were of poor quality and were not suitable for building. The problems were eventually overcome, and in 1836 the fort was completed for a total cost of $463,790. Further modifications were done in the ensuing years.
Ironically, Robert E. Lee, who was later a general in the Confederate Army, designed a series of erosion control in the 1840's.
The Civil War
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At the time the Civil War started in April 1841, Fort Macon was empty except for a ordnance officer and his wife. Two days after Confederate forces fired upon Fort Sumter in South Carolina and started the Civil War, a group of militia members from the town of Beaufort seized the fort from the United States.
Confederate forces occupied the fort for the next year, bringing in reinforcements and new armaments.
In early 1862, General Burnside defeated confederate forces in eastern North Carolina. He then sent General Parke and his troops to seize Fort Macon. Parke's union soldiers effortlessly occupied nearby Morehead City and Beaufort, and then demanded the surrender of Fort Macon.
Colonel White, a young man with epilepsy, declined to surrender the fort and his 400 soldiers. The Union forces began a two day bombardment of the fort, firing mortars and the newly invented rifled cannons. Flagmen stationed across the inlet in Beaufort aided the union forces with their aim on the fort.
The relentless bombardment heavily damaged the fort. When Colonel White saw the gunpowder casements were in danger of being breached and causing a catastrophic explosion, he raised the white flag of surrender.
Union forces occupied Fort Macon for the remainder of the war. Beaufort became an important port for the repair of Union ships and the delivery of supplies.
If you visit Fort Macon today, you can still see the cracks in the bricks and mortar caused by the bombardment of the fort. You will also find a cannonball embedded in an interior wall, and will see the path a cannonball took as it made its way down a cement staircase.
Post Civil War to Present
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Colonel James Young commanded an all
Black regiment at Fort Macon
Fort Macon was manned by the army until 1877. During this time it was used as both a military and civilian prison.
Spanish-American War
After 1877, Fort Macon again fell into disuse until the start of the Spanish-American War. In the summer of 1898, some of the Third North Carolina Volunteers, an all-Black regiment was stationed at the fort.
They were led by Colonel James Young, who is thought to be first African-American to earn the rank of colonel in the United States' military.
Fort Macon Becomes a state park
Fort Macon was abandoned again to the forces of time and weather. In 1923, Fort Macon was offered for sale as military surplus by the government.
In 1924, Congress turned over Fort Macon and its surrounding acreage to North Carolina for use as a state park.
In 1934, the Civilian Conservation Corps, a federal program enacted to provide work for Americans, began the work of clearing and restoring the old fort. A few years later the American people began to enjoy the park and its surrounding beaches.
World War II
1941 saw America enter into WWII. German submarines cruised the eastern coast of the United States, sinking ships and striking fear into the hearts of coastal residents. Fort Macon was again put to military use when the Army leased the fort from N.C.
Coastal Artillery regiments were assigned to the fort, and a steady stream of olive-green trucks loaded with men and supplies started to arrive. The casemates were again full of American soldiers who were ready to defend the inlet and American lives.
Though the soldiers saw no direct action, many ships and a German submarine were sunk just off the North Carolina Coast.
On October 1, 1946, Fort Macon was again returned to North Carolina for the public's enjoyment.
The old brick archways inside Fort Macon
is a photographers dream.
Fort Macon Today
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Fort Macon has been fully restored to her previous glory. Static displays which showcase life at the fort have been set up in many of the casemates. The original cannons were long ago sold for scrap metal, but they are slowly being replaced with replicas.
During the summer there are many activities planned at the fort. Every weekend musket firing will be demonstrated. An occasional reenactment of the Siege of Fort Macon will be held with men and women dressed in period costumes.
Concerts are held on some evenings, and there are free guided tours available seven days a week. Many couples chose this historic location for their weddings. The list of scheduled activities can be accessed at this link: Fort Macon.
In addition to the beautiful fort, there is a new building which houses a theater/education center, a bookstore, and a large display room dedicated to the coast's ecology.
Fort Macon is free!
There are no fees to park or tour the fort, but there is a donation box located just inside the new building. The funds are used by the non-profit group Friends of Fort Macon to ensure the fort is well preserved and the public is informed about Fort Macon's long history.
Most of the fort is handicapped accessible and wheelchairs are available upon request. Do keep a close eye on your kids though. As the sign near the fort's entrance says, "Fort Macon was made for war, not safety." There are many steep drop-offs around the inner and outer perimeters.
When you are done touring the fort, you can drive a short distance to the park's beach access. There is plenty of parking, and you can change into your swimsuit and enjoy a dip in the Atlantic Ocean.
I'm an RT-R, a registered radiography technologist qualified in
radiation exposure to humans. I have completed 6 semesters of college
and passed a national registry test which certifies that I have the
knowledge and practical experience to make medical images using
radiation. In other words, I am a certified x-ray tech.
Did you know
that some states don't require a person to receive training before
exposing another person to x-rays? Currently, only 37 states
require a person to be accredited through an educational program. It is
scary to think it may be a doctor's aid or his/her secretary who is
shooting x-rays through your body. By not requiring a person to be
professionally trained, those 13 non-certifying states are putting
people at a higher risk of unnecessary radiation exposure, or a medical
misdiagnosis due to low quality images.
NC is one state where certification and licensing is not required. According to ASRT.org,
in February over 200 certified x-ray techs spoke with legislators about
requiring licensing standards. Brenda Greenberg, R.T.(R)(CT) said,
"Medical radiation can be dangerous when administered incorrectly, so
it's crucial that we make sure that every medical imaging and radiation
therapy professional is educated, competent and understands the
importance of making sure patients receive the lowest dose of medical
radiation possible."
Why do some states not have laws regulating
radiology technicians? Some point their fingers at lobbying by doctors
who operate small clinics and who wish to keep their costs down by not
paying the higher salary a certified technician demands. Others blame
the expense of setting up a state run licensing office.
Whoever
is to blame, patients need to speak up about their concerns over
radiation exposure. If you live in one of the thirteen states without
certification standards, make sure your doctor or local hospital uses
only registered technicians during x-ray, CT, and other medical imaging
procedures. Your health may be at stake.
The first time I, as an owner of a landscaping company, entered into the
role of "the boss," I wasn't prepared for the responsibility. I assumed
everyone would work as hard as I did, would be able to follow
directions well and would take good care of my expensive equipment. I
would get frustrated and angry with the employees when my expectations
were not met, and I'm sure that they did not enjoy working with me.
When I had the opportunity to be in a supervisory role again many years
later, I was more prepared and mature. I used what I learned from my own
past bosses, good and bad, and incorporated those experiences into my
own "boss style." I lowered my expectations. Not
every employee is going to work as hard as you will. Acknowledging that
fact lets you concentrate on ways to maximize each worker's unique
abilities. I listened to my employees. Listening is
important to avoid and/or resolve conflict. With multiple personalities,
you will have multiple interpersonal conflicts. By listening, I could
schedule conflicting employees on different shifts and help make the
work environment calmer for everyone. I made it a point to listen, but I
did not let myself get personally involved in the arguments. I did not play favorites.
Nothing destroys morale at a workplace faster than giving some
employees the impression you favor one or two people -- even when you
do. I identified each worker's strengths. Some
employees have excellent customer service skills, so I scheduled them at
times when the store was at its busiest. Other employees did not have
these customer service skills and were utilized at stock delivery and
restocking times. I was flexible, but fair. Life
throws everyone a curveball occasionally, and a good boss recognizes
this and understands. No one should fear losing their job for situations
beyond their control. I praised each employee's efforts.
Working for low and part-time pay can be stressful and demoralizing. To
counteract these feelings, I made it a point to find something good
about every employee and praised them. Everyone appreciates being
recognized for their efforts. I stood up for my workers.
Inevitably, a customer is going to complain about someone. If the
complaint reached the higher management levels, I defended my workers.
Loyalty is a quality that helps lower employee turnover rates and makes
an employee more willing to put in extra effort for her boss.
