ABC 13 Local
September 6th 2010

A woman is fighting for her life while a gunman is on the loose after a shooting early Sunday morning.

Police say it started with a dispute between two small groups at the intersection of Suder and Mayo. According to police, the dispute appeared to be over, and the groups were leaving the scene. That’s when somebody pulled out a gun and fired multiple shots.

Latrease Thompson, 32, was shot in the chest. She was taken to Mercy Saint Vincent Medical Center in critical condition.

Two bullets pierced James Woods’ house during the shooting, and one shattered his car window. “[I] came out to see what was [happening], didn’t see anything, went back inside the house. Few minutes later, somebody was knocking on my back door saying, ‘Mr. Woods, Mr. Woods, she’s been shot,” remembers Woods.

Gary Ruffier and his wife also heard the shots. They ran across the street to help Thompson after she was shot. “Tried giving her assistance, we got her a towel. My sister-in-law held the towel on her chest till police got here,” he said. “Scary. She wasn’t breathing.”

Latrease Thompson remains in Saint V’s tonight in critical condition. Currently, police don’t have any suspects. If you any information about the shooting, contact Crime Stopper at 419-255-1111

WHIOTV
September 6th 2010

DAYTON, Ohio — A woman is in jail Monday after admitting that she stabbed a man to police dispatchers.

The stabbing happened on Saturday, but authorities just released the 911 call on Monday.

Lynnette Holland, 56, is in the Montgomery County Jail on a $250,000 bond.

According to deputies, Holland stabbed a man inside a Harrison Township apartment on Briar Place.

Deputies said they found her, covered in blood, standing outside the apartment whey they responded to two calls that she made to 911.

Inside the apartment, they found a 50-year-old man unconscious with stab wounds.

In the first call to 911, the suspect said the man tried to attack her and she wanted officers to respond to take control of the situation. A few minutes later, she called back and said that sometime between the first call to police and the second call, the violence escalated.

The female caller to 911 said, “He’s bleeding from the gut. You’ve got to get an ambulance here.”

The police dispatcher said, “You stabbed him?”

The female caller said, “yes Ma’am.”

The dispatcher said, “Okay.”

The female caller said, ” I need a paramedic her for real. I been beat up too many times.

Authorities said the stabbing is still under investigation and the male victim will survive.

Sun-Times Media Wire
CBS 2 Chicago
September 6th 2010

CHICAGO (Sun-Times Media Wire) – A man found kneeling over his girlfriend’s body early Saturday on the South Side has been charged with her murder, police said.

Gerald Rufus, 28, of the 6400 block of South Morgan Street, is charged with one count of first-degree murder, police said.

Police said Theresa Russell, 23, was discovered shot at 2:32 a.m. Saturday inside an apartment in the same block where Rufus was arrested just hours later.

Russell, of the 7600 block of South May Street, was dead on the scene, the Cook County Medical Examiner’s office said. An autopsy Saturday determined she died of a gunshot wound to the arm and her death was ruled a homicide.

Rufus was picked up after he was seen on top of the victim, who suffered a gunshot wound under the left armpit. He initially told police Russell was shot in front of the building at 6435 S. Morgan St. and he had taken the victim upstairs to the kitchen area, a police report said.

The man then changed his story and said the incident occurred on the back porch of the second floor apartment, and that the gunmen shot into the apartment from the back door, the report said.

The man was taken into custody because witnesses gave conflicting statements indicating they heard a single shot fired inside the apartment and there was not evidence that a shooting happened in front of the building.

Police later learned Russell was shot dead after arguing with Rufus.

Rufus was scheduled to appear for a bond hearing on Monday, although court information was not immediately available.

Wentworth Area detectives are investigating.

BigBossC83
Youtube
September 7th 2010

Watch this! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mEh50Rfma9c

Read the threat:
http://www.youtube.com/comment_servlet?all_comments=1&v=mEh50Rfma9c

“All Comments (11)

*
BigBOSSC83
2 hours ago

I don’t you cunts shit! Also what are yours sources son, you are gay! Tell women take responsibility when get Raped. Grow when another woman? is killed, they need too grow up!!!

Women and pussy whipped are not too entitled to shit. You and society are responsible are creating their own killers. You go 1st!
BigBOSSC83 2 hours ago
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devchelle2
2 hours ago

@BigBOSSC83 well i know you went to middlesex county college. wanna know more?

I know your name, where your from….shall i continue??? should i make a video giving all your stats??? How would you like it if i released your personal info the everyone here??? How many? of these people want to hurt you??? How many CAN hurt you?? how easy would it be to find you….?…. EASY!!
devchelle2 2 hours ago
*
BigBOSSC83
2 hours ago

@devchelle2,

I didn’t do it with MyloveDame21, so you a hypocrite. You vogeter does apologize and remove the vids then I give what? want fair?
BigBOSSC83 2 hours ago
*
devchelle2
2 hours ago

@BigBOSSC83 I saw the video. You release her name and facebook page. How fucking dare you!!

I have your name your fathers name your brothers name, I know where you went to school your Dads phone number where you live now….

want me to make a video giving all the ANTI TFL? people your info???

I got it off the internet… under your definition that would be fair.

Dude… dont even begin to play games with me… Ill make you sorry a thousand different ways
devchelle2 2 hours ago

Radio Host and ‘Conspiracy Theorist’ Taps Into Dark National Mood to Build Media Empire

Dan Harris
ABC News
September 2nd 2010

“Good old Uncle Sam will stage attacks … that’s how they keep the slaves in line,” the libertarian radio host says during a rant on his show. “We have to wake up and face the fact that we have a criminal government.”

Jones, who sits at the helm of an independent media empire, is arguably the nation’s premiere purveyor of what could be called paranoia porn.

“World government means world tyranny run by a scientific dictatorship of control freaks that want to carry out forced population reduction,” he explained.

The criminal government is just one of many conspiracy theories Jones espouses — although he thinks that term belittles his reporting. He also believes that the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center were an inside job, that President Barack Obama is an “unconstitutional criminal” and that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) runs concentration camps.

“They [FEMA] have designation sports stadiums,” he said matter-of-factly, “They have designated fields, they have designated closed down prisoner of war camps for the American people during a civil uprising.”

You can count on Jones to push the envelope. Take his stance on the government poisoning the water. “I have all the other government documents where the government proposes — or government think tanks propose — poisoning the water to dumb down the population to make them more easy to manage,” Jones said.

RELATED: Millions in U.S. Drink Dirty Water, Records Show

People who monitor hate groups say they’re extremely worried about Jones’ growing influence. His six-day-a-week radio show and webcast reach an estimated one million people a day. On YouTube and elsewhere, Jones estimates 200 million people have seen his various documentaries, like “The Fall of the Republic,” “Endgame: Blueprint for Global Enslavement” and “The Obama Deception.”

Critics Say Jones Incites Anger

In 2002, Richard McAslin, allegedly a Jones listener, snuck into a men’s club in California that Jones has called, “a haven for the global elite,” carrying a rifle, a handgun, a cross-bow and a sword. Last summer, another Jones fan — a mother of three on Long Island, N.Y., named Nancy Genovese — was arrested for allegedly taking pictures of an Air National Guard base with firearms in her car. The charges were later dropped.

Jones’ critics say that by floating his highly-charged ideas at a time when the nation is already very angry and anxious, he’s upping the odds for unbalanced people to do stupid things.

“I’ve got to report the information I see and what I believe is happening,” he said. “I have a responsibility to put out.”

When asked if he’s worried about possibly-deranged people who listen to his show taking violent action, he went on the defensive.

“I knew when you guys called that this would be the crux of your interview and that’s fine because the government is going to stage more terror attacks like it did in 1995, like it did in 2001 and try to blame it on the American people,” he said.

The Other Side of Alex Jones

Despite his mistrust of the so-called mainstream media, Jones agreed to let “Nightline” into his world for a day. He operates out of an office in Austin, Texas. The exact address is kept a secret because fans tend to show up uninvited.

Around the office, Jones says he doesn’t allow his dim view of human nature to color his personal relationships. He jokes a lot with his staff — a group of unfailingly polite, mostly young men — often just seconds after loudly proclaiming doom on the air.

He’s also ebullient about his wife and their three young children, who are allowed to watch the show, until the subject matter gets too sinister. His seven-year old son already knows the word propaganda.

“The most important thing is he knows everybody has an agenda, including myself,” Jones said.

Jones got his start with a local cable access show in the 1990s. He now has a huge fan base, which includes celebrities like Willie Nelson, Jessie Ventura, Charlie Sheen, even Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag.

While he admits that some people may watch him purely for entertainment, he says the real reason for his recent growth is that the public increasingly mistrusts government. He does seem to have tapped into the dark national mood.

“This info was radical ten years ago. It isn’t radical now,” he said.

Does Jones Overstate His Case?

However, Jones sometimes seems to latch onto small pieces of information to prove his much larger, more sinister theories. During “Nightline’s” visit, he commented on an article on CNN.com:

“They recommend having a one-child policy in the US,” he said on the program, “So just hardcore draconian police state being proposed here in the US.”

RELATED: A Chinese Official Says The World Could Fight Climate Change by Adopting Beijing’s Population Control Methods

I looked up the article, which was actually a fluffy, feature piece about a woman who wrote a semi-jokey book about having environmentally friendly sex. The only reference to a one-child policy was a sarcastic aside.

“It’s all sarcastic. They’re constantly supporting one-child policy. That’s what CNN’s pushing. And I have clips of CNN and FOX saying humans have too big a carbon footprint and we need to have a one-child policy.”

RELATED: A Planetary Law, Such As China’s One-Child Policy, Is The Only Way To Reverse The Disastrous Global Birthrate Currently, Which Is One Million Births Every Four Days.

By the end of our time together, Jones was admitting to sometimes overstating his case about the entire government, and every corporation being corrupt.

“Certainly sometimes I do,” he says. “But overall I try to tell the facts as I see them.”

He says he actually hates his job and would love to stop his show if only the bankers would be put in the jail, the federal government made smaller, and all corrupt wars ended.

But he doesn’t see any of those things happening anytime soon. Until then, he says, it’s his duty to shake America out of its trance.

Lawrence A. Hunter
CNBC
September 2nd 2010

President Obama is playing “Watch the Birdie” with Americans over the age of 50, diverting their attention with handouts and scare tactics to hide in plain sight the enormous damage his policies are doing to the retirement safety net.

First it was Medicare. The ObamaCare legislation drops a few free goodies like breadcrumbs in front of Medicare recipients (such as free diagnostics and annual checkups) to draw their attention away from the enormous cuts in Medicare being used to help pay the freight for the new national healthcare system. Additionally, the White House has engineered a full-blown propaganda campaign, coordinated with the AARP, to deceive Medicare recipients and baby boomers about the magnitude and the implications of the $575 billion in Medicare cuts being used to help pay for ObamaCare. Even more deceitfully, using TV icon Andy Griffith in a taxpayer-funded TV ad to talk about how happy days are here again, the Obama Administration and its mouthpiece AARP are attempting to hoodwink people over the age of 50 about the inherent healthcare rationing sown into the very fabric of ObamaCare.

Medicare’s own Chief Actuary has already publicly reported that the Medicare payment rates for the doctors and hospitals serving retirees will be cut by 30 percent during the next three years. The details buried in the Medicare Trustees report reveal that still further Medicare cuts adopted in the ObamaCare legislation add up altogether to $818 billion during the first 10 years of full implementation, and $3.223 trillion during the first 20 years, just for Medicare’s hospital program (Part A, HI). Counting the cuts for Medicare physician reimbursement under the Part-B program brings the grand total in Medicare cuts to $1.048 trillion during the first full 10 years, and $4.95 trillion during the first 20 years.

Now the president is coming after Social Security.

In his Saturday radio address on August 14, President Obama revealed he is already moving on to cut Social Security.

But again, he is playing “Watch the Birdie,” this time using scare tactics rather than sweeteners.

In that address, he denounced the idea of solving Social Security’s problems by allowing young workers the freedom to voluntarily choose to save and invest some of their taxes in their own personal retirement accounts, an option federal employees already enjoy. The president rejects fixing the Bernie-Madoff Ponzi scheme currently used to finance Social Security with some form of personal accounts to begin pre-funding Social Security with real saving and investment. Instead, he rails about “privatization,” an incendiary (and false) characterization of voluntary personal retirement accounts intended to scare the bejeebers out of the American people.

President Obama knows that all these account proposals affect only younger workers and do not touch the benefits of today’s retirees or the baby boom generation soon to retire. Moreover, congressional proposals for voluntary personal accounts have maintained the safety net of Social Security, guaranteeing that workers would get at least as much as Social Security promises now.

But President Obama thinks Americans over the age of 50 are stupid and can be demagogued with false claims about their benefits. The far-left faction in the Democratic Party just can’t stand the idea of workers and retirees supporting themselves more through the private sector. They call that “privatization,” which means too much filthy capitalism for their tastes.

President Obama knows that all these account proposals affect only younger workers and do not touch the benefits of today’s retirees or the baby boom generation soon to retire. Moreover, congressional proposals for voluntary personal accounts have maintained the safety net of Social Security, guaranteeing that workers would get at least as much as Social Security promises now.

But President Obama thinks Americans over the age of 50 are stupid and can be demagogued with false claims about their benefits. The far-left faction in the Democratic Party just can’t stand the idea of workers and retirees supporting themselves more through the private sector. They call that “privatization,” which means too much filthy capitalism for their tastes.

So the question remains: What is the president up to?

How does he propose to solve Social Security’s long-term financial crisis, which even his own Presidential Debt Commission realizes is real? Without some form of real saving and investment for workers to begin prefunding their retirement, the only alternatives remaining are to raise payroll taxes or cut benefits—and that is precisely what President Obama’s Debt Commission is planning.

One might think raising payroll taxes is out because President Obama pledged over and over to get elected that he would not raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. If he refuses even to consider personal accounts as inconsistent with his socialist ideology, he will never be able to deliver on that promise.

As to benefit cuts, this is exactly what the Presidential Debt Commission is plotting to reveal right after the November election. Former Sen. Alan Simpson, co-chairman of the Commission, tipped the Commission’s hand recently when he described Social Security as a “milk cow with 300 million tits.”

Leaks indicate that among the options being considered are delaying the retirement age (sounds like a panacea to bureaucratic pencil pushers who never did a day of hard labor in their lives), changing the basic benefit formula to reduce future benefits, and delaying or slashing COLAs.

Apparently, President Obama’s concept of spreading the wealth includes sacking both the Medicare and Social Security systems on which America’s retirees have come to rely. That’s some progressive vision of “fiscal responsibility:” Put seniors out in the cold and into an early grave.

Gabriella Souza
News Press
September 3rd 2010

12:54 P.M. UPDATE – Lee sheriff’s deputies are continuing to investigate a double homicide-suicide in Lehigh Acres today.

Lisa Forde, 33, her husband, Winselsio, 39, and the couple’s 1-year-old child, Caleb, were found dead in their home on East Lake Drive on Thursday. Authorities released their names this morning.

Court and jail records show that the Fordes had a history of domestic violence.

Winselsio Forde was arrested in April 2009 after Lisa Forde said he threw her to the floor when she was pregnant, officials said.

State attorney’s office spokeswoman Samantha Syoen said Winselsio Forde was able to go through a diversion program, which required counseling because he was a first-time offender.

Winselsio denied the incident happened as Lisa described, Syoen said, adding that an arrest report said Lisa had a minor scratch on her left hand.

The Fordes were married in 2007, according to public records.

Lisa Forde, who was a paramedic for Lee County EMS, refused any medical attention, reports said.

He completed the diversion program and a no-contract order was lifted in April, records show.

The family did not have a history with the Department of Children and Families, said spokesman Terry Field.

A formal DCF inquiry has not started, he said.

The sheriff’s office has not said how the family died.

Lee County EMS is working with the family on funeral arrangements for Forde, said to spokeswoman Diane Holm, adding that her colleague was scheduled to work today.

Forde worked in the southern part of Lee County.

On Thursday, people flocked to the Fordes’ chartreuse, one-story home as they learned of the deaths.

A person who neighbor Stan White said was the family’s babysitter reportedly discovered the bodies around 4 p.m. Thursday.

The Fordes’ neighborhood, located on a cul-de-sac, remained cordoned off with crime scene tape today.

White, who lives four houses down from the family, said the Fordes kept to themselves and were seldom seen around the neighborhood.

“You would never expect something like this to happen where you live,” he said Thursday.

Economic desperation can lead a parent to kill their children, said Terry Field, the spokesman, speaking from his experience with DCF cases.

“They have a break in reality,” he said. “We see cases in which the primary earner feels like she or he can no longer provide and the best thing for them would be is to kill the entire family.”

Last year, there were no child death investigations that closed with findings of abuse and neglect in Lee County in 2009, according to a state review.

But, in Collier, there were at least eight including the five Damas children, whose father confessed to killing them in September 2009.

Domestic violence murders often occur when the victim tries to leave, said Laura Streyffeler, clinical director at Abuse Counseling & Treatment in Lee County.

“Usually, when a victim says she’s leaving, it’s ‘if I can’t have you nobody will’ and he takes the whole family so they can all be together,” Streyffeler said. “It’s the ultimate control.”

The counselor recommended victims seek help from an organization like ACT to create a safety plan before leaving an abuser.

An abuser might kill a child as a way to punish the victim or to main control, even in death.

“Very often, perpetrators of domestic violence consider their children as property so if they’re going to go, the kids have to go with them,” she said.

They may also not want another person to raise their children, she said, noting that domestic violence murders run across all cultural and racial lines.”

From this morning’s editions of The News-Press

Little is known about the man, woman and infant boy who died Thursday in what Lee County sheriff’s deputies believe is a double homicide-suicide at a Lehigh Acres residence.

Detectives have not released the victims’ identities as they try to contact family members. Details about how the three died remain a mystery.

But the stream of people who flocked to the East Lake Drive home with tears in their eyes Thursday afternoon confirmed they know who the victims are.

Lisa Beth Forde, 33, is owner of the home, according to the Lee County property appraiser. Her husband since 2007, Winselsio Alex Forde, also is listed in public records as a resident of the home.

Lee County sheriff’s deputies were waiting for a search warrant late Thursday night so they could continue their investigation. The medical examiner will then perform autopsies on the bodies found inside the chartreuse, one-story home.

A person who neighbor Stan White said was the family’s baby sitter reportedly discovered the bodies around 4 p.m. Deputies quickly hurried to the scene and wrapped the cul-de-sac in crime scene tape.

Lisa Forde is a paramedic with Lee County EMS. Thursday afternoon, a woman in printed scrubs sat in the front seat of her car, pressing a tissue to her eyes. Another woman in green scrubs rushed up to deputies in tears.

Deputies quickly ushered the woman in green inside the yellow tape. She returned leading a brindle boxer on a leash. White said he often sees Lisa Forde walking the same dog around the neighborhood.

Soon after, a man dressed in black who identified himself as the family’s minister, but declined to give his name, stood at a distance from the home. He said he was there to offer assistance, but quickly left after reporters approached him for comment.

White, who lives four houses down from the family, said the Fordes keep to themselves and are seldom seen around the neighborhood. He thinks the baby is about 1 year old.

The victims inside the home died violently, but White said he hadn’t heard any commotion all day.

“You would never expect something like this to happen where you live,” he said.

This is the second suspected homicide involving a child in Lehigh Acres in the past four months.

In May, 2-month-old Josue Rosales died after having his throat slit, allegedly by his grandfather, Manuel Rosales, according to Lee sheriff’s deputies. Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty in that case.

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MSN
September 1st 2010

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Lowri Turner
Daily Mail Online
June 13th 2008

When did it become acceptable to be a gold-digger?

After all, isn’t a woman who sleeps with a man for money – or at least for extensive use of his credit card – called something else?

But then, ‘prostitute’ doesn’t have quite the same glamorous, diamond-encrusted platinum ring to it, does it?

A new French film opens in the UK this week called Priceless.

It tells the story of a woman who selects her mates entirely on the basis of the size of their wallets.

Who needs sexual chemistry when you can have cold hard cash?

Audrey Tautou is predictably Gallic and gamine in the lead role, but underneath the pretty tousled hair and shiny Chanel handbags, the message is an ugly one.

A man exists not as an equal partner in a kind, loving, relationship, but merely as someone to be fleeced for as much money as possible.

How depressing and how insulting to the millions of women who don’t live their lives according to these mercenary rules.

While we are the majority, the sad fact is, we are all judged as a result of movies like this.

It makes us all look cheap. Priceless cannot be blamed alone.

The message it delivers is one that has been subtly gaining currency in recent times and not just on film.

A string of high-profile divorce cases – most notably that of Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills, where she walked away with £24 million, but also that of Susan Sangster, who amassed a fortune of £18 million from three marriages (before ex-husband number four successfully got a judge to call a halt to her divorce trolley dash) – contribute to the growing view that women are for sale and men are to be used as human cashpoints.

There is also, of course, the whole WAG phenomenon, predicated almost entirely on a cynical pact between rich, bored, badly behaved men (Ashley Cole comes to mind) and the women who want to live off them.

The gaggle of wannabe WAGs hovering outside any nightclub frequented by Premier League footballers is proof that there is an increasing number of women who believe that far from having their own life and their own job, the notion of being a human leech is to some degree a preferable career.

As evidence that bleeding a man dry is on the up, there is now a fashion label called Golddigga and even websites such as www.golddiggers. uk.com, devoted to ways of hooking a rich guy.

Click on www.sugardaddyforme.com and the deal being struck is clear.

A glamorous-looking young woman appears on the screen. ‘Attractive, ambitious, insatiable,’ it reads.

In other words, she’s offering sex on tap. When the picture of the tastefully greying man floats into view, it says: ‘Affluent, caring, generous.’

Yet, we’re not supposed to call these women prostitutes. That would be rude.

But the line between the girl who asks for cash up front and the one who is taken to a designer boutique to choose the latest handbag is surely now as thin as the strap on a La Perla push-up bra.

I write as someone who could have taken the gold-digger route on two occasions.

On the first, I met a chap on a plane. He was sitting next to me in business class. We chatted politely and then the subject moved to shopping. ‘I like to buy nice things for ladies,’ he said.

I noted the plural.

‘Would you like me to take you shopping when we land?’ he asked.

That was too naked a business deal for me, which was what I presumed he would expect in return, so I declined. On the second occasion, I met a man at a very posh party. He dealt in diamonds.

He was persistent and persuasive and, in the end, I agreed to have dinner with him.

When he arrived, his chauffeur gave me a look as I got in which said: ‘So, you’re the new one?’

At the restaurant, the maitre d’, who clearly knew my date well, did the same thing.

Before the starter had even been served, my dinner partner took a small packet out of his pocket, carefully unwrapped it and slid something across the table, with the words: ‘So what does it take to become your lover?’ I looked down and saw it was a diamond.

I could have taken it. I didn’t. I felt insulted, cheapened. I pushed it back across the table.

Looking back, I should have walked out, butthe whole episode felt so surreal that I didn’t feel fully enraged until afterwards and a small part of me also thought it would, perhaps, be rude to walk out.

But a growing number of women would slip that diamond straight in their handbag.

Let’s not get this out of proportion.

Of course, it is still only a tiny percentage of women that would dream of behaving like this; it’s just that percentage – which is rising – think what they do is so acceptable. Listen to Sophie Sharp, a dancer from Bromley in Kent, who says: ‘I’ve always been into expensive clothes and accessories and think nothing of paying £400 for a dress.

But on my earnings it was hard to afford everything I wanted.’ Well, um, yes it would be. Still, Sophie’s solution was not to visit Primark but to get herself a sugar daddy instead. ‘My friends told me to go to Chinawhite (the fashionable club in London),’ she reveals.

So she put on her best low-cut black frock and, hey presto, she’d hooked herself a Dubai businessman. ‘I didn’t find him attractive,’ she admits.

Even so, she accepted his offer to take her shopping.

A total of £2,500 later, she says, he flew back to Dubai with nothing more than a chaste peck on the cheek in return, to which it’s tempting to say, is a likely story.

Sophie’s current sugar daddy is a personal trainer with a celebrity client list. He runs a chain of gyms.

He has given her a one-bedroom house of her own near Bromley and presented her with a brand new £18,000 Toyota MR2 sports car just two months after meeting her.

They do have sex, and she says: ‘I love him,’ although whether she’d love him if he was a street sweeper is an open question.

In Sophie’s world, being a golddigger is par for the course. All Sophie’s friends are doing the same.

‘I have friends who are dating rich men just to get designer clothes and jewellery, and one who was seeing a 50-year-old just so he would pay for her to have breast implants,’ she says.

Rachel MacLynn is head of global membership for millionaires-only networking service Seventy Thirty.

‘There are gold-diggers everywhere in London and other British cities. I’m constantly approached by young women,’ she says.

‘They are desperate for me to match them with our millionaire members.

‘One posh girl in her early 30s approached me at a swish members club in West London and said she’d be willing to date any man up to the age of 80.

‘ What’s interesting about the new breed of gold-digger is that they tend to be well-educated and come from good families.

Jess Kent, 23, a promotional assistant, is the daughter of a surgeon and a teacher from Northampton. She was just 17 when she told her parents she was flying to the Mediterranean for a modelling job. In fact, she had arranged a liaison with her 52-year-old boyfriend, who spent a small fortune with her at the roulette tables in Monte Carlo.

Or what about Natalie Parker, 24, who’s studying French and Spanish at university in Southampton? Her parents – a property developer and a housewife – live in a four-bedroom, four-bathroom house with a gym and a pool in Spain.

‘I’ve always dated wealthy men, even though I’ve not really been attracted to them,’ Natalie muses.

So, has she ever had to offer sex with a sugar daddy to secure a lavish gift?

‘Some of these men do want more at the end of the night,’ she concedes, without actually answering the question.

It is worth saying that the men are not blameless in this unpleasant sex for designer clothes/ jewellery/breast implants transaction. A man who buys a woman is no better than the woman who agrees to sell herself. It all reduces human interaction to the level of a business deal.

Still, it is the women’s attitudes that are so shocking. It’s as if feminism never happened. Did it ever occur to Sophie or Heather or all the other young women who now aspire to be golddiggers, that they could work to provide a life for themselves rather than just expect a guy to buy it for them?

Looking further ahead, do these girls know the sort of deal they are doing? They are not only throwing away any moral sense, but also their independence, control of their own lives and self-respect.

If the deal is sex for money, the man with the cash may decide to go shopping himself elsewhere.

In Priceless, Audrey Tautou is locked out of her hotel room by one wealthy lover, leaving her standing shivering in a bikini. In the real world, a relationship where there is such an imbalance of power, where one partner has basically bought the other, might just about work if things go well.

But if Mr Rich tires of Ms Golddigger, he simply trades her in for a younger, firmer rival.

I didn’t take the gold-digger route because I think it is wrong. It is insulting to men and it cheapens women. Every woman who does it polishes an image of womankind that the rest of us then have to try to argue against.

It makes us all look as if we are for sale for the price of a pair of Gucci shoes. I have lost count of the number of conversations I have had with men where they have said that basically all a woman is interested in is how much money they have and the size of their car.

When I explain that I have never dated a man for his money, nor have any of my girlfriends, that we have jobs and homes of our own and we wouldn’t dream of expecting a boyfriend to provide either, they look at me with disbelief.

The image of womanhood that the gold-digger propagates is one of a greedily acquisitive airhead. She never reads a book or a newspaper, but knows the ticket price for the latest designer handbag.

Consumption replaces affection.

Her diamante sandals may be lovely and sparkly, but she tarnishes all of us.

Additional reporting: Sadie Nicholas.

AP
Associated Press
August 29th 2010

LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. — A gunman entered a western Arizona home and fatally shot five people, including the mother of his two children, before fleeing with the kids to Southern California where he killed himself, police said Sunday.

In all, six people died. Officers responding to the home said they found four people dead and two others wounded. One of the injured died of his wounds early Sunday at a local hospital, police said.

The alleged gunman, identified as 26-year-old Brian Diez, was found dead hours later at a residence in Rancho Cucamonga, Calif. The two children — a 4-year-old and a 13-month-old — were unharmed at the house with relatives, police said.

Police went to the Lake Havasu City home after dispatchers received an emergency call at 11:57 p.m. Saturday from a woman who said an intruder had shot several people.

Police identified the dead as 23-year-old Deborah Langstaff, 24-year-old Primo Verdone, 42-year-old Russell Nyland and 20-year-old Ashley Nyland. Wounded were 20-year-old Brock Kelson and 44-year-old Deborah Nyland.

Kelson and Deborah Nyland were taken to a local hospital, where Kelson died early Sunday, police said.

At about 3:30 a.m., San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department deputies were sent to the Rancho Cucamonga home about a reported suicide. Deputies found Diez dead of a self-inflicted gunshot wound, authorities said.

Diez fathered the two children with Deborah Langstaff during a long-term relationship, but the couple had been estranged, Lake Havasu City police said.