From: le@lekno.ws   
      
   This is not an obituary for more than a career,   
   but...   
      
   in years past I was active in trying to establish an   
   entity that would federate the chambers of commerce of   
   the towns in my county,which eventually resulted in a   
   "business council" that wasn't what I was hoping for.   
   In this endeavor I had some regular contact with Peter   
   Bardunias,the head of the small paid staff of the   
   Chamber of Commerce of the Mahopacs,which got rebranded   
   as the Greater Mahopac-Carmel Chamber of Commerce,while   
   my Lake Carmel-Kent Chamber of Commerce got rebranded   
   as "Carmel-Kent Chamber of Commerce" as part of the   
   turf wars we were trying to avoid (both laying claim   
   to the hamlet of Carmel,where the county government   
   is headquartered but which couldn't sustain its own   
   chamber).Pete got his title upgraded from Executive   
   Director to President,the elected President being   
   redesignated Chairman,though the Mahopac Chamber   
   eventually reversed the ED/President change years later.   
      
   Pete then left the area to become the president of   
   the Southern Saratoga Chamber of Commerce upstate,   
   before that apparently did get into a federated   
   entity,the Capital Area Chamber,with him as a   
   senior vice president.   
      
   Now comes front page news in the local papers in my   
   own area AND his new area of his arrest by the FBI.   
   An undercover agent alerted to a particular account   
   on some online entity having illicit contact with   
   minors set up an account posing as a 15-year-old girl   
   and sent that suspicious account a friend request   
   that was accepted.Dialogue that ensued between the   
   two accounts involved graphic descriptions of intent   
   to "strangle" and "torture" the putative girl "before   
   I kill you".The FBI managed to link the account under   
   investigation to Pete Bardunias,and a meeting was set   
   up,where he drove to the ostensible girl's high school   
   in another county,circled the site slowly,and left,   
   but was pulled over and confronted.He initially   
   denied but then admitted being the author of the   
   violent sexual threats,and a search warrant for his   
   house turned up a knife and restraints consistent   
   with the asserted intentions.   
      
   The Capital Area Chamber has fired and disowned him,   
   I have seen mugshots of him but no public comment   
   from his wife.   
      
   The charges against him have a mandatory   
   ten-year minimum prison term and a potential   
   maximum life term.   
      
   He struck me as a geeky type I would not have   
   suspected of violent intentions.   
   I certainly feel shaken by this.   
      
   -=-=-   
   The World Trade Center towers MUST rise again,   
   at least as tall as before...or terror has triumphed.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)