My wife just heard on the radio that Karen McCarron was found guilty on all counts: first-degree murder, obstruction of justice, and concealment of a homicide. It took the jury 11 nine hours to deliberate.

UPDATE: The Journal Star has an article up on it now. They say it was only nine hours of deliberation. 1470 WMBD also has the story — I believe this is where my wife first heard it. From WMBD:

McCarron could receive up to 100 years as a result of the conviction due to the crime being committed to a person under 12 years of age. A sentencing hearing will be scheduled.

Here’s WEEK’s coverage. And WHOI’s coverage.

Paul McCarron said his wife had seen a psychiatrist, but had stopped taking prescribed medication in the months prior to the May 13 death. He said she stopped taking it because it gave her suicidal thoughts.

—Peoria Journal Star, 1/8/2008

“She was always crying,” the friend says. The friend asked McCarron if she might be suffering from depression. McCarron replied that she was taking anti-depressants , the friend says.

–Peoria Journal Star, 5/18/2006

I’ve been noticing a trend. Often when there’s a senseless homicide or suicide, there’s a mention somewhere in the article that the person is or has been on some sort of anti-depressant medication. Often it says they’ve just stopped taking it, had their dosage changed, or changed brands. The McCarron case is no exception, as you can see from the news article quoted above.

That got me thinking — is it just my imagination that I keep seeing this, or have other people noticed this, too? So I started doing a little research. I found out that not only have other people noticed it, there have been clinical studies to prove it, and there are many people who are concerned about the drug’s role in violent crimes.

The anti-depressants under scrutiny are medically described as “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors,” or SSRIs for short. They’re marketed under brand names such as Prozac and Zoloft.

A website called SSRI Stories is a repository of news accounts of violent incidents where SSRIs played a part. Included are the Columbine shootings and Dr. McCarron’s case. In addition:

There are 34 cases of bizarre behavior, 28 school shootings/incidents, 46 road rage tragedies, 10 air rage incidents, 32 postpartum depression cases, over 500 murders (homicides), over 180 murder-suicides and other acts of violence including workplace violence on this site.

Just a few years ago, an article was published in the International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine by Dr. Peter Breggin called “Suicidality, violence and mania caused by selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs): A review and analysis.” The abstract explains the study’s findings:

Evidence from many sources confirms that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) commonly cause or exacerbate a wide range of abnormal mental and behavioral conditions. These adverse drug reactions include the following overlapping clinical phenomena: a stimulant profile that ranges from mild agitation to manic psychoses, agitated depression, obsessive preoccupations that are alien or uncharacteristic of the individual, and akathisia. Each of these reactions can worsen the individual’s mental condition and can result in suicidality, violence, and other forms of extreme abnormal behavior.

The two things that are particularly chilling in that abstract are the words “commonly cause” — in other words, these are not rare side effects, but common ones — and “obsessive preoccupations that are alien or uncharacteristic of the individual” — for instance, suicidal or homicidal thoughts and actions.

Do I think that the drugs made McCarron kill her autistic child? I don’t know; that’s up to the jury to decide, if the defense even uses that as an argument. My point is not to try McCarron in the court of public opinion here. I just want to bring attention to the serious, documented side-effects of anti-depressant drugs and wonder aloud, why are these drugs allowed to remain on the market?

The Chicago Tribune has released its predictions for 2008. Here’s what they’re predicting for the Cubs’ 100th anniversary of their last World Series win:

Hoping to end a 100-year championship drought, the Cubs will head into September with a six-game lead in the Central Division — before a downward spiral that will conjure up memories of 1969. Still, they will manage to stumble into the postseason with an extra-inning win in the final game in Milwaukee, as road-tripping Cubs fans tear up the Miller Park turf in a riotous celebration. The Cubs will then sweep San Diego in the first round and shock the New York Mets in six games to earn their first World Series appearance since 1945. But Detroit Tigers owner Michael Ilitch will bring a goat into his luxury box for Games 1 and 2 at Comerica Park. Ron Santo will strangle the goat, but it’s too late. The die is cast and the Cubs go down meekly in five games.

— Paul Sullivan, Cubs reporter

Hope everyone had a merry Christmas. I’m taking a vacation day today. So, here’s an open thread where you can share what Christmas presents you got from Santa, or whatever else you’d like to talk about. Happy new year!

• Christmas Broadcast: If you’d like to see what I’ve been working on this month, just watch WEEK-TV on Christmas Eve at 10:30 p.m. or Christmas Day at noon to see the annual Grace Family Christmas broadcast.
• JammSammich Reunion: As some of you know, I used to be the keyboard player in the local band JammSammich (1998-2002). The band is celebrating its tenth anniversary on Saturday, February 2, at Crusens on War Memorial Drive. All current and former band members have agreed to appear. It promises to be a good time — hope you can all make it. You’ll be happy to know that my gig clothes are long gone, so you won’t have to suffer seeing me in a shiny shirt, tight pants, and platform shoes. Not that I could fit into any of that anymore, anyway. Not that I could fit into any of that then, either. 😛
• Election Night Coverage: I’ll be joining Jonathan Ahl in the WCBU studios on Tuesday, February 5, as election results start rolling in to provide updates and commentary throughout the evening. Hopefully I won’t still be hoarse from the ‘Sammich gig.

If you don’t want to get a ticket, don’t park your car on a snow route tonight. I got this from the city this evening:

The Snow Parking Ban goes into effect with the accumulation of 2″ of snow.

If you live on a snow route, please find an alternate place to park your car tonight.

MORNING UPDATE (12/7): I received this update from the city this morning:

City crews worked overnight plowing and salting primary and secondary streets. Once completed, crews began plowing and salting residential streets and intersections.

Crews will continue working today, touching up routes where needed.

Citizens may call public works at 494-8850 to report problems.

Kansas blogger Danny Vice (The Weekly Vice) recently commented on my post about Megan Meier. I found it provocative and interesting enough to make it a separate post:

On Wednesday, October 21st, city officials wasted no time enacting an ordinance designed to address the public outcry for justice in the Megan Meier tragedy. The six member Board of Aldermen made Internet harassment a misdemeanor, punishable by up to a $500 fine and 90 days in jail.

Does this new law provide any justice for Megan? Does this law provide equitable relief for a future victim?

The Vice rejects the premise of this new law and believes it completely misses the mark. Classifying this case as a harassment issue completely fails to address the most serious aspects of the methods Lori Drew employed to lead this youth to her demise. The Vice disagrees that harassment was even a factor in this case until just a couple of days before Megan’s death.

Considering this case a harassment issue is incorrect because during the 5 weeks Lori Drew baited and groomed her victim, the attention was NOT unwanted attention. Megan participated in the conversations willingly because she was misled, lured, manipulated and exploited without her knowledge.

This law willfully sets a precedent that future child exploiters and predators might use to reclassify their cases as harassment cases. In effect, the law enacted to give Megan justice, may make her even more vulnerable. So long as the child victim doesn’t tell the predator to stop, even a harassment charge may not stick with the right circumstances and a good defender.

Every aspect of this case follows the same procedural requirement used to convict a Child Predator. A child was manipulated by an adult. A child was engaged in sexually explicit conversation (as acknowledged by Lori Drew herself). An adult imposed her will on a child by misleading her, using a profile designed to sexually or intimately attract the 13 year old Megan.

Lori then utilized the power she had gained over this child to cause significant distress and endangerment to that child. She even stipulated to many of these activities in the police report she filed shortly after Megan’s death.

City officials who continue to ignore this viable, documented admission and continue to address this issue as harassment are intentionally burying their heads in the sand, when the solution is staring them right in the face. Why?

There are several other child exploitation laws on the books. To date, none of them have even been considered by City, State and Federal officials in this case. The Vice is outraged that a motion was never even filed, so that the case could at least be argued before a judge or jury.

Danny Vice

Gatehouse Media has been slashing staff all over the place — mostly through attrition. The Journal Star recently lost its managing editor of 15 years. Now there’s this word from Springfield:

State Journal-Register’s publisher Sue Schmitt, editor Barry Locher and managing editor Robert Pope each announced their resignations this afternoon. Their last day will be Dec. 14.

In a memo e-mailed to newspaper staff, Schmitt said she, Locher and Pope made their decisions independently.

Wow! But that’s not all. As this breaking news story also reminds us:

The announcement comes about a month after the newspaper offered a voluntary severance program to nearly 150 employees. The newspaper has not set a target for how many employees they want to participate and no specific employees have been targeted.

No doubt others from within the organization will move up the ladder, with those who were on the lowest rungs not being replaced. Perhaps Gatehouse is experimenting to see how few employees it takes to run a paper.

In today’s paper, I read about the tragic death of Missouri teen Megan Meier (11/17/07 PJS, A11, not on JS website, but AP story is available here). Then I saw it was also in the Chicago Tribune. Then I saw it in the blogs. Then I saw this video (hat tip: Death by 1000 Papercuts):

And this report from CNN:

Megan Meier killer herself a year ago because a boy she met on MySpace dumped her and started saying nasty things about her to other people. It’s hard enough taking that kind of bullying from your peers as a teenager, but she also struggled with depression and ADD, which obviously made matters worse.

That would be tragic in and of itself. But it gets worse. It turns out the boy she met online wasn’t even a real person. He was made up by the parents of a girl who used to be Megan’s friend, and who lived just down the street.

The parents. They are adults. And they traumatized a 13-year-old girl.

They were trying to get back at Megan for not being friends with their daughter anymore, apparently. Can you imagine? I can’t. I won’t. It’s too painful for the mind even to contemplate.

The newspaper in the area — the St. Charles Journal — decided not to print the names of the couple who created the fake MySpace identity and used it to torment a 13-year-old girl. But the blogs did. You can find them on the blogs pretty easily if you want to know. I’m wondering how long it will be before that couple goes into the witness protection program, because they’re going to be the target of much outrage. One of the blogs claimed that the couple’s house was under heavy surveillance by local police to make sure there isn’t any violence done to them.

There are so many questions raised by this sad incident: What’s wrong with these adults that they would do something so stupid and cruel to a teenager? Should there be a criminal charge for cyberbullying? What does this say about the safety of adolescents using social networking sites like MySpace? Should the newspaper have published the names of the couple involved in cyberbullying? What, if anything, can be done to keep something like this from happening again?

From a Peoria County press release:

Recycling For Illinois is partnering with Peoria County Recycling and Sam’s Club of Peoria to accept any working, non-working or unwanted electronic waste (e-scrap) and major appliances on Saturday, November 17 from 9am to noon in the Sam’s Club parking lot, 4100 Willow Knolls Drive. Residents and businesses may bring: computers and computer-related items; entertainment components such as radios, stereos, VCRs and DVD players; cellular phones; televisions; and small and major household appliances. Some items will be accepted with a disposal fee because they contain toxic materials. Those items that will be charged a fee are: $5 for computer monitors; $5 for major appliances; $15 for televisions smaller than 19″; and $20-$25 for TVs larger than 20″ including consoles. This collection and all recycling efforts help divert waste from your local landfill.

Electronic items and appliances can also be delivered directly to Recycling for Illinois’ warehouse located at 401 NE Rock Island in Peoria (except day of event). Store hours are 10am to 6pm Monday-Friday and 10 am to 2pm on Saturday. Patrons can visit their showroom to purchase used or reconditioned items for a fraction of regular retail cost. For more information on this environmentally beneficial event, please call Recycling For Illinois at (309) 682-3209.