Oxford Hills
LaGasse pleads not guilty to murder
SKOWHEGAN— A 31-year-old New Portland man pleaded not guilty to a charge he murdered his neighbor and his former employer in Somerset County Superior Court Friday.
Jeffrey LaGasse was indicted on the charge by a Somerset County grand jury last Friday.
The indictment states that LaGasse, "intentionally or knowingly caused the death of Brochu, or engaged in conduct that manifested a depraved indifference to the value of human life and which in fact caused the death of Brochu."
LaGasse was in state custody at the time of the indictment and had previously been interviewed by police about the death of Louise Brochu.
Brochu, 50, was found dead outside her business, which is off Route 27, near the Kingfield town line, New England Wood Flooring, in June 2007.
LaGasse is being held without bail pending a
hearing most likely to occur in January 2010, Maine Assistant Attorney
General Andrew Benson said Friday. That hearing is to ask Justice John Nivison
to extinguish LaGasse's right to bail.
LaGasse has been in custody since November 2007 on an unrelated probation
revocation pertaining to burglary and theft among other charges, and is
not expected to be released until mid January, Benson said.
LaGasse's state-appointed lawyer Jason Jabar, of Waterville, said he hasn't had a chance to review the
information on the case but knows his client adamantly denies
committing the crime.
LaGasse was taken back to the Maine State Prison in Warren after his arraignment Friday morning.
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Mortgage crisis
This is a total scam. Who forced lenders to make loans that they wouldn’t otherwise make to poor and minorities? The Federal Government! It was first done under the threat of ‘redlining’. When the banks objected that this was a poor business practice the bank regulators told the bank to give out the loans anyway and the government would guarantee the loan if it failed. The banks not wanting to have a large portfolio of these risky loans then bundled them and sold them as securities to investors Fannie & Freddie with the knowledge that the Government would back them. When the housing market collapsed Fannie & Freddie holding all these loans asked to be bailed out. So now Obama and his henchmen say the banks that made the loans are at fault? I can see it now, Obama’s re-election mantra will be those big bad banks conned all these poor minorities into taking a loan they couldn’t afford. Those big bad banks should be taught a lesson! This is nothing but fodder for his re-election!
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The thing is, while there are compelling arguments, you don't want to make things worse.
Example - Get rid of bad teachers. Yes, I want to get rid of bad teachers. But how do you measure bad teachers?
Grades? - A bad teacher will just fake it or make test ridiculously easy. Bad teachers may also try and find a way out of teaching to bad students, like saying they have a learning disability. It's hard to gauge performance when the people have to work to change a living, breathing person who may or may not cooperate.
See, it's not easy, and I can see why teachers fight this.
Another example - The schools of choice part. Again, not a bad idea, but it has the possibility of killing schools. Your going to shift resources from schools already having trouble to better schools. The problem is if your stuck at a crappy school, it's going to get MUCH MUCH worse.
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