James Verone: The Medical Motive for his $1 Bank Robbery

By KATIE MOISSE June 22, 2011

James Verone said he hoped his $1 bank robbery would earn him a three-year jail sentence, during which he could undergo surgery on his back and his foot and have a painful lump on his chest diagnosed and treated. After that, the 59-year-old from Gastonia, N.C., would move to Myrtle Beach to collect his social security, he told local reporters.

But the charge Verone faces for the June 9 heist, larceny from a person, is unlikely to keep him behind bars for more than 12 months. He is being held in Gaston County Jail, where he has already been seen by several nurses, on a $2,000 bond and is scheduled to appear in court June 28. And if his sentence is too short, Verone said he plans to rob again.

The robbery followed three years of hardship for Verone, who after losing his job of 17 years as a Coca-Cola delivery man tried desperately to land steady work, according to reports. But after short stints as a truck driver and a part time convenience store clerk, Verone was once again jobless, forced to live off savings and food stamps.

Without health insurance, Verone tolerated chronic back aches and a pain in his left foot that made him limp. But when he noticed a lump on his chest, he knew he had to do something.

"The pain was beyond the tolerance that I could accept," he told the Gaston Gazette. "I kind of hit a brick wall with everything."

Verone said he "exercised all the alternatives" before planning to rob the Gastonia bank, which he chose at random, for a dollar, according to reports. As the day approached, Verone paid his last month's rent, donated his furniture and moved into a Hampton Inn. And on the morning of June 9, before hailing a cab to the bank, he mailed a letter to the Gaston Gazette.

"When you receive this a bank robbery will have been committed by me. This robbery is being committed by me for one dollar," he wrote, wanting people to understand that the motive for his crime was medical, not monetary. "I am of sound mind but not so much sound body."

At 1 pm, Verone handed a bank teller a note demanding a single dollar and claiming to have a gun. The teller who received his perplexing request made a frantic 911 call, and was later taken to Gaston Memorial Hospital for high blood pressure, according to local reports. Verone is said to be sorry for causing her any pain.

Verone, in contrast, waited calmly on a sofa in the bank's lobby for police to arrive.

"I didn't have any fears," Verone told local reporters. "If you don't have your health you don't have anything."

Fixing Welfare

This was in the Waco Tribune Herald, Waco , TX Nov 18, 2010

Put me in charge . . .

Put me in charge of food stamps. I'd get rid of Lone Star cards; no cash for Ding Dongs or Ho Ho's, just money for 50-pound bags of rice and beans, blocks of cheese and all the powdered milk you can haul away. If you want steak and frozen pizza, then get a job.

Put me in charge of Medicaid. The first thing I'd do is to get women Norplant birth control implants or tubal ligations. Then, we'll test recipients for drugs, alcohol, and nicotine and document all tattoos and piercings. If you want to reproduce or use drugs, alcohol, smoke or get tats and piercings, then get a job.

Put me in charge of government housing. Ever live in a military barracks? You will maintain our property in a clean and good state of repair. Your "home" will be subject to inspections anytime and possessions will be inventoried. If you want a plasma TV or Xbox 360, then get a job and your own place.

In addition, you will either present a check stub from a job each week or you will report to a "government" job. It may be cleaning the roadways of trash, painting and repairing public housing, whatever we find for you. We will sell your 22 inch rims and low profile tires and your blasting stereo and speakers and put that money toward the “common good.”

Before you write that I've violated someone's rights, realize that all of the above is voluntary. If you want our money, accept our rules.. Before you say that this would be "demeaning" and ruin their "self esteem," consider that it wasn't that long ago that taking someone else's money for doing absolutely nothing was demeaning and lowered self esteem.

If we are expected to pay for other people's mistakes we should at least attempt to make them learn from their bad choices. The current system rewards them for continuing to make bad choices.

AND While you are on Gov’t subsistence, you no longer can VOTE! Yes that is correct. For you to vote would be a conflict of interest. You will voluntarily remove yourself from voting while you are receiving a Gov’t welfare check. If you want to vote, then get a job.

Now, if you have the guts - SHARE THIS LINK... God Bless the USA!

Craig Huey for congress on Nutritional freedom

Watch "Campaign Issue - Nutritional Freedom" on YouTube

This is great to see Craig Huey's stance on this issue. Whole food supplements certainly are a preventative option and much better than the American system of repairing sick people.

JULY 4th

Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?

Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.

Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.

Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army;

Another had two sons captured.

Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.

They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor.

What kind of men were they?

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists.

Eleven were merchants,

Nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated

But they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured..

Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.

Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.

Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall , Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward,Rutledge, and Middleton.

At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr ., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.

Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.

John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying; their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.

So, take a few minutes while enjoying your 4th of July holiday and silently thank these patriots. It's not much to ask for the price they paid. Remember: freedom is never free! I hope you will show your support by sending this to as many people as you can, please. It's time we get the word out that patriotism Is NOT a sin, and the Fourth of July has more to it than beer, picnics, and baseball games.

A government big enough to give you everything you want, is big enough to take away everything you have. - Thomas Jefferson

Celebrating America - Happy 4th of July - Tim Pawlenty

Why I hate Craigslist

I put a wanted ad in craigslist for an iPhone 3GS. This guy emails me and says he has one that has minor body damage. I ask for pictures as I usually do. After some conversation back and forth, he finally sends a picture. As you can see its some artwork hardly recognizable as a phone. These idiots, stammers, or whatever you want to call them, are the ones that make craigslist miserable.

Many multi vitamins don't have nutrients claimed

Many multivitamins don't have nutrients claimed in label Out of 38 tested, 13 had too much or too little of the ingredients listed or were improperly labeled

By Linda Carroll

A new review of popular multivitamins found that one in three did not contain the amount of nutrients claimed in their labels or improperly listed ingredients.
After testing 38 multivitamins for a new report published online this week,researchers at ConsumerLab.com discovered that eight contained too little of specific nutrients, two contained more nutrient than claimed and three improperly listed ingredients. The good news: some of the best vitamins were also the cheapest.
"We found a wide range in the quality of multivitamins," said Dr. Tod Cooperman,president of the company. "Interestingly,the more expensive products didn't fare any better than those that are just a few cents a day."
While medications are closely overseen by the federal Food and Drug Administration, supplements like vitamins don’t get regular testing by any government agency. So there’s no way of knowing —outside of independent testing —whether a bottle of supplements contains what it’s supposed to.
The problems with quality control found by ConsumerLab don’t surprise Dan Hurley,a medical journalist and author of “Natural Causes,” a book on the supplement industry.
“That’s really pretty average for supplements. It’s a real crapshoot,” Hurley said. If a drug company had these kinds of lapses,it would be shut down,he said.
Although low levels of certain nutrients can be a problem,doses that exceed recommendations are especially worrisome. Several products evaluated by ConsumerLab,including some designed for children,had this issue.
ConsumerLab is a Westchester,N.Y., company that independently evaluates hundreds of health and nutrition products and periodically publishes reviews. For this test, ConsumerLab purchased a selection of multivitamins and sent them,without labels to a lab for testing. If a problem was found,the product was sent to a second lab for confirmation.
ConsumerLab focused on some of the more important ingredients, such as folic acid,calcium, vitamin A (retinol and beta-carotene),zinc,and iron. Cooperman and his colleagues also looked to see how quickly vitamin tablets broke down in liquid. If a pill doesn’t break down fast enough, the body won’t be able to absorb as much of the various nutrients.
Among the supplements that had too little of a particular nutrient were Trader Joe’s Vitamin Crusade (just 59 percent of the vitamin A advertised on the label),Melaleuca Vitality Multivitamin & Mineral (just 42 percent of the touted vitamin A) and All One Active Seniors (less than 2 percent of the beta-carotene,73 percent of the retinol and 49 percent of the vitamin A listed on the label).
Centrum Chewables had the opposite problem,with 173 percent of the vitamin A listed on the label. This is of particular concern because too much vitamin A can spell trouble.
“If you get too much vitamin A it can be toxic to your liver,” explained Dr. Michael Cirigliano,an associate professor of medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. “People don’t realize that everything they put in their mouths is bioactive. Whether it’s baby aspirin or food,it has an effect on the body. People think that if you can get it without a prescription it’s safe —that’s baloney.”
One product,Alpha Betic, took twice as long as it should have to break apart in solution,found ConsumerLab. The supplement also contained less vitamin A than it should have.
Particularly worrisome were high levels of certain nutrients in some of the children’s multivitamins. For example,Hero Nutritionals Yummi Bears, if given to children at the suggested dose,would exceed recommendations for Vitamin A in youngsters aged 1 to 3. Higher levels of the nutrient in kids have been linked to liver abnormalities,bone weakening,and problems with the nervous system, Cooperman noted.
ConsumerLab found almost no connection between price and quality. Many of the cheaper pills (prices ranging between $0.03 and $0.14 per day) passed all the tests,while some of the most expensive ones (priced as high as $1 per day) failed.
Among the supplements that passed testing were several very inexpensive options,such as Equate Mature Multivitamin,at $0.03/day,Kirkland Signature Mature Multivitamins and Minerals Adult 50+ at $0.03/day and Flintstones Plus Bone Building Support at $0.14/day.
ConsumerLab also tested several pet supplements, one of which,Pet-Tabs Complete Daily Vitamin Mineral Supplement for Dogs contained lead at unhealthy levels.
Ultimately the new report is a strong argument for more regulation of the supplement industry,both Cirigliano and Hurley said.
“People are using these products more and more,” Cirigliano explained. “There needs to be more regulation.”
© 2011 msnbc.com. Reprints