Update - The Marine Team won the competition this afternoon. Right now we are sitting at $37,199! They are still taking donations though so don't stop now. It's a great cause and it's tax deductible as well.

Original post - It's that time of year again. From October 26th through November 11th (Veteran's Day for those that aren't conscious) Project Valour IT raises money to provide voice-activated laptops and other helpful equipment to severely wounded troops. This has been going on for several years and I haven't had the chance to (or was just too darned lazy) to get involved but this year I caught it early enough to get in. So what is Valour IT and how did it get started?

Lisa Nowak, the diaper-clad diva who drove 1,000 miles from Houston, Texas to Orlando, Florida in February of 2007 in order to attack a rival for the affections of another astronaut pleaded guilty earlier today to reduced charges and ended up being sentenced to a year of probation.

Originally Nowak had been charged with Attempted Kidnapping and Burglary along with Misdemeanor Battery. Under those charges she could have faced up to life in prison.

Nowak was dismissed from the Astronaut Corps after she was arrested and has been on active duty at a Naval Base in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Back in September of last year a woman in Las Vegas, Nevada found what she thought was a body in a trash can sitting in a parking lot and called the police. After an autopsy the cause of death was uncertain but the coroner announced that it was suspicious and might have been asphyxiation. Originally the woman was a Jane Doe but after relatives started looking for her she was identified as Helena Haley (MySpace), originally of Whiteville, North Carolina.

During the investigation it was discovered that she had lived in San Bernardino, California and after taking her children to relatives in Whiteville she had moved to Las Vegas (where she was murdered). A letter was sent to Haley's aunt purportedly by Haley which had no stamp or return address and the handwriting was not familiar to the family. It also contained 29-Year-Old Khalfani Howard's fingerprints. Khalfani and Haley had lived together in San Bernardino. Haley's aunt and uncle also received a phone call at some point from a woman who identified herself as Haley but that they said did not sound like her.

Police interviewed Khalfani earlier this year in San Bernardino. He told police that Haley moved to Vegas on her own after taking her children back to North Carolina. Police also collected a DNA swab at the time.

Through good old fashioned police work they traced Haley and Howard's movements through Greyhound bus tickets and discovered that Howard left Las Vegas on September 10th, 2008, the day that Haley's body was discovered. A warrant for his arrest was issued last month and 29-Year-Old Khalfani I. Howard was arrested at his home by San Bernardino County Sheriff's Deputies late last week. He is being held without bail and will be extradited to Clark County Nevada where he will stand trial.

Khalfani's step-brother Aaron Leach was killed in a drive-by shooting in January of 2005.

Khalfani's Streetball Profile

Khalfani's ExploreTalent Modeling Profile

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